Thoughts on travelling to other towns for shows

Travelling to other cities for wrestling - the actual cost

So, today I've put the finishing touches to the plans for the March pints piledrivers and replacement bus services trip, where I'm going to visit progress at the home of their new project "freedoms road". This involves a journey from Newcastle to London, one or two nights stay over (a good tester for if I end up trying to do the super strong style 16 later in the year) and the tickets to the two nights shows. 

Sounds expensive. Relatively though it's worked out fairly cheap - digs were just shy of £50, tickets were £15 covering both shows (would have been £18 if i'd have booked both shows separately) and Newcastle to London return cost £6.50 thanks to megabus. 

So here's how to do it on a budget. 

1) if something of interest is coming up, book it early as possible, but make sure you check out local transport infrastructure first. If the train goes to Coventry but the event is taking place on the outskirts, check out bus services from the train station/digs to the venue and back after the finish time. ring a couple of local cab companies as well to get an idea of what the cost will be to get yourself back safely if buses fail. 

2) trivago, booking.com, travelstay.co.uk, hostel world, hotels.com, laterooms.co.uk - cheap digs are usually readily available, sometimes there are special offers on there too which knock a lot off the price. Read the reviews though. 

3) Have a natter with folk on Facebook who are intending to go also, see if you can share travel etc. I've seen it work on some promotions pages. 

4) the main travel bit - check from all available local terminals. For London shows for instance, check virgin trains, grand central rail (goes from Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool etc), airlines, national express and megabus. There's also a site where you can chainbook/split ticket your main journey. Google "raileasy trainsplit" for that. Booking travel early is a great money saver - 12 hours can be the difference between £14 and £50. 

5) check if there's anything else on in the area or anywhere connected. Hell, if you're on the road you might as well take something else in on your way home - the Nottingham house of pain show had me hooked in with the words "lethal lottery"   - I might have mentioned before, but I loved WCW back in the day. An errant finger slip on Google maps shifted the screen across to Lincoln. The train fare between the two is cheaper than it is between Newcastle and Darlington. A quick search/scroll through wrestling events the same weekend brought up a show in Lincoln for Fight factory wrestling with a very reasonable VIP package, including getting to meet Nick Aldis (Magnus) and a viewing of the royal rumble at a bar next door. (The owner/management of fight factory wrestling is absolutely fantastic to deal with by the way) anyhow the upshot of this point is, you might as well make a weekend of it.  Mid February, there's a Tidal championship wrestling event in Leeds - I was 50/50 on booking up for, but there's also a show from UKW in Batley the night before, a late train home after TCW, and making a weekend of it is what finally tipped me into going. 

6) have fun - give yourself a couple of hours wherever you are going to and explore it. Whether it's a pub crawl or a tourism based wander, see more of the country, find out what else is going on there. 

Hopefully these tips will be useful to some of you. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to comment - feedback is always appreciated. 

British wrestling on TV - where next

Wrestling on TV.

We are currently in one of the best times to be a wrestling fan in the uk, that can't be disputed - shows and promotions bringing to the table a multitude of different presentations when it comes to the thing we all love to watch - from the comedic to the hardcore, and all points in between.

TV and internet starting to merge as it has over the last few years thanks to new technology and how we watch, has lead to British wrestling getting a much wider audience than it has at many points in history. Look at ITV's resurrection of the world of sport brand which looks like it's going to go ahead soon, 5 star wrestling rocking up out of nowhere on spike TV (In the uk), and of course WWE holding their UK tournament - and that's just the mainstream channels - local digital TV in most areas either carries British wrestling weekly (NGW) or WAW. This is in addition to the multiple on demand and live streaming services for too many promotions to list.

Warning: The preamble sets the scene for something that could be described as a conspiracy theory, a complete speculation of a connection between things now and past, and I hope this stays entertaining writing it is to me. I have only used examples of nationally televised (via over the air tv) in this, along with the associated and affiliated media (that's why WCPW get a mention - see the affiliation to NGW), however I have not included online only promotions in this.

We all know the story of the national expansion of the WWF/WWE in the USA.

What we're seeing at the moment looks like a retelling of that story on a global scale. Either that or the big bang happening all over again, just with promotions as opposed to particles.

Certainly on the UK side of things, it would appear that most televised wrestling that is not WWE affiliated is currently produced by Trident Vision Media or the group that owns/hires them - Alex Shane's presence on the programming seems to be an indication of this (it would, it's his company) - world of sport on ITV flashed their logo, British wrestling weekly, the former wrestletalk tv from challenge - WAW remains outside of this group, it's television production handled by star elite. I'll come back to WAW later though.

On the Trident Vision Media website, the first visible thing is a sales pitch by the original showstealer himself (I was around for the FWA programming, I can't get my head around Nathan Cruz carrying the gimmick, but that's a story for another time) regarding the handling of "new media" with a lot of the example content consisting of wrestling related media, the site is well worth a look to be honest - there's an amusing video about video production on there mentioning an inanimate object and it's unintentional cameo in one of the biggest interviews he ever produced.

Anyhow, bringing it back to the main thrust of where I'm going with this, on top of producing a fair amount of British wrestling content, AAA in Mexico also employ TVM for their English language production. This could (in theory - obviously contracts and other agreements might or might not allow for this, I dunno - I'm just a car park attendant over thinking everything) provide a connection between uk promotions using TVM and talent being used by AAA - who might know other performers who have previously had global exposure and an established name looking for a booking.

Let's boil this down to a sound bite since that's what people seem to like these days:

A media production company whose owner has a passion for wrestling is producing wrestling in multiple international markets and has established links to talent (from the FWA days) and potential links to newer talent, the availability of which can influence the content of any of the shows they produce. Sound vaguely familiar?

Upcoming is a WCPW organised world cup of wrestling - I have no idea if Alex Shane and co are going out on location for the preliminary events, but I would expect they might being that the production quality of WCPW events has consistency of production quality expectations to live up to thanks to the audience it's built up.

Is this a scouting exercise? I guess that's a question that won't be answered until we find out if anyone who happens to outshine PJ Black or Anjelico in the African leg of the preliminary tournaments gets used again.

Is it an exercise in the expansion of the TVM's portfolio? TVM specialise in wrestling media production and whichever promotions host the WCPW world cup of wrestling are essentially getting a sample product. How many continue to use TVM after this could be an important factor in the future of British wrestling. If WCPW are going to hosting these shows themselves, are they going to continue running in these areas (or territories). If so, TVM have a built in base, assuming the shows draw. World of Sport on ITV being potentially brought back means the British viewer has a familiar brand at a familiar timeslot in a particularly important market.

So, what parallels am I drawing here? WWE is playing the part of itself obviously - it's affiliates and companies that may be feeding their weekly uk shows with British talent will be looked after, and hopefully won't get either absorbed or have the shared talent priced out of appearing at bookings.

The promotions that use TVM, are (whether it's intentional or not) pretty much positioned to become an NWA of sorts a group of territories interlinked by talent and good relations without intruding on each other booking wise, free from the WWE's corporate vision of wrestling.

Then there's WAW - in this unfolding saga, they are the AWA. This is not a slight, it's not saying it's likely to fold. It's TV is entertaining, and thanks to mustard TV catch up is a staple of my weekly viewing. It's live events have a decent following too. The reason I'm comparing them to the AWA, is to do with the difference in presentation. The fact that lot of the Knight family are at the forefront of the output (I could have said WCCW rather than the AWA for this point, but I don't really want to align the multiple tragedies of the Von Erich family to the Knight family. So I'm going Gagne on the nepotism angle)   some of whom in my eyes might not have been ready for TV when they appeared, but then again I'm not a booker, I watch CCTV for a living. The WAW academy is giving new talent a platform to grow and shine under a mixture of a very old school environment and an audience conditioned to something less nuanced, which is an interesting approach. The WAW structures it's matches differently to most other uk promotions. There's a public warning system, no 5 count at the ropes, and a standing 8 count in after a potential TKO. Referees won't count a pinfall if they have started counting towards a TKO or if whatever led to the pinfall was an act that led to a public warning. It might not sound like much, but there are times that imported talent have appeared to have fallen foul of these rules (either as a really good booking device or as a shoot that the referees calling decisions that have confused them). It's TV is filmed at epic studios in the heart of their territory (Norwich, Norfolk) and has a different kind of sheen on it. Star Elite are doing a fantastic job producing the TV, and live up to the statement on their page relating to WAW, by giving it a unique identity. It does seem a bit strange that a production company in Madrid who's body of work apart from WAW is pretty much as detached from wrestling as it could be. Something of interest about WAWs tv is found in the credits at the end of each show. The name Len Davies. It might not mean much to many, but this was one of the main guys behind RQW and Spectrum multimedia. RQW appeared on the wrestling channel/fight network back when it was on sky, and unfortunately was ahead of its time. I would go into this further, but the RQW Wikipedia page pretty much goes into anything I could drill into further for information - apart from one thing: the company that produced RQW (spectrum multimedia) were based at an address which appears to currently house TVM. Len Davies had a foot in the door of the wrestling business and associated multimedia previously, and is a pretty damn good choice to be a part of the company. At the moment however  it's not getting the exposure it could, and that is going to need to change if it's not going to be marginalised TV audience wise once ITV brings back world of sport and the WWE starts a UK show on a regular basis.

After all of that, the next chapter is yet to be written, and the world cup of wrestling is going to be one of many factors that could determine the future of British wrestling. Whatever the outcome, it's going to be a fantastic ride for wrestling fans, and to shamelessly stealing a famous quote: the only thing that's for sure about British wrestling is that nothing's for sure

Pints, piledrivers and replacement bus services - the journey so far part 1

So, the first bit of pints piledrivers and replacement bus services has been an interesting one, and it has been an absolute corker.

Venues have included a ballroom, an o2 academy (well 2 if you consider the loaded tapings I went to and didn't blog about because spoilers) a nightclub and a town hall. Each of these gave a different dynamic and feel to the show.

The o2 academy shows in Newcastle had one row of seating which kind of looked out of place in a sea of standing people. One thing about the Newcastle o2 is that the crowd there were red hot. it's has become apparent that sometimes seating the audience can take a little bit of the steam out of them, but that can be pulled back in hen the in ring action is as good as it is.  (See the 3CW revival  event)

What I think is happening here is that the enthusiasm is there but can be less apparent as out of politeness people up front can seem a little reluctant to stand up in case someone behind them can't see or is otherwise inconvenienced. Though that didn't seem to be the case over at the loaded tapings at the university this month as people up front were up and down whenever something big was kicking off. I'm guessing that is something they were looking for as the aesthetic of people rising to their feet is going to look great on video. Though at the progress show, seated folks stayed seated until told to move by the wrestlers who were kicking 12 bells out of each other, and heading in that general direction and it took nothing away. For the record, during the main event of that one, i did opt to stand, but I moved to the back of the standing section to do so, and offered direction to my seat to someone who looked uncomfortable/knackered from standing for the rest of the show. They declined, presumably because, like me, ZSJ vs Pete Dunne was something that they didn't want to sit down for.

People are willing to travel for a good show - it's not just me. At the progress show, there were folk that had travelled not only from London, and Manchester, but from Glasgow - when there was an ICW show running there. There was an absolute show running in Newcastle while I was there, and I know I wasn't the only one coming down on that day. The 3CW show had folk from Sunderland, Newcastle and Teesside kicking about at it. As well as folk that had navigated the bizarre public transport system up here in order to get to Hartlepool headlands from Houghton le spring and Easington. Kudos to the fans for getting out there to watch and supporting local wrestling.

One aspect of each of these shows I have to mention is lighting control. Music venues, night clubs and social clubs tend to have built in lighting rigs which add focus to and atmosphere to the event. Other venues that don't have this can really see an effect the level of an audiences reaction. This could be down to self consciousness (the "if I'm in full light and everyone can see me I'm probably not going to go as mental" mentality) and the fact that there's not as much directed focus on the ring or entrance way. It can drag you right out of the suspension of disbelief and back into reality really quickly if you've got crew milling about and various other usually unnoticeable things catching the corner of your eye. It can also be a bit distracting if the show doesn't draw as much as normal - I'm sure the wrestlers get this distraction as well. I have to mention the Tidal show at this point as much as I hate to in this context - the solid blazing light from the chandeliers at the dolphin centre made it difficult to ignore the bank of empty seats across the other side of the ring (even though the show was brilliant).

A couple of guys have really impressed me this so far in the way they've adapted and continue to adapt dependent on where they are working are Joseph Conners, Gabriel Kidd, Alex Gracie and the New Nation.

Conners I had initially seen on the NGW tv show with a particular twist to his in ring character that piqued my interest. Seeing him live at WCPW was like watching a completely different performer and again at Tidal where it seemed like he was having a bit more fun with it. At 3CW he was brought in defending the WCPW title, and as such was kind of married to that particular facet of his gimmick (god I hate using that word in this context).

Watching his match at Tidal against Kidd, and then the following night watching the two of them have a match in completely different circumstances on WCPW loaded the following night is one of the reasons I brought up the name of Gabriel Kidd as a stand out. WCPW pairing him up with Prince Ameen as his "Virgil" has given him a platform to shine with his technical skills while his acts of defiance against Ameen's ownership of him have given him even more of a reason for people to get behind him. I can see him being a breakout star this year. His match with Zack Sabre and his ability to hang with him was an absolute joy to watch - if you're reading this before the end of January 2017 then you've got that one to look forward to on an upcoming edition of WCPW Loaded, and no, I'm not spoiling the result.

Alex Gracie is someone who has come right out of his shell in the promotions I've followed - from seeing him as part of the Prospect heel faction where he was portrayed as henchman No.2 for James R Kennedy, his personality has started to come out a lot more. The 3CW match where he was tagging with the defiant Gabriel Kidd seemed to be the turning point for this, more than likely because he was the only representative of Prospect at the show. From trying to get the hired Kidd involved with the daft entry way dabbing to the eventual reaction to the "accidental" kick, he started to come into his own. Shortly after that, the Tidal show where he was working against Liam Slater, he shone even in defeat. They say the nuances and little things a wrestler does can make a performance truly his own, and in a match where a simple mistake led to a roll up pin, his confusion over how it happened and trying to work it out was so well played out, that it came showed another glimpse of his personality. Since then, the neglect of Prospect by Kennedy in WCPW has seen more heelish acts coming through to where it almost seems like the team doesn't need him, because henchman No.2 has become Alex Gracie. The wearing 2 pairs of trunks, and pulling one down to reveal his own face on the backside of the other before stinkfacing the opponent (there are two things I feel the need to point out here - the fact that I'm not ashamed of employing the word "stinkface" as a verb, and the line from a show broadcast on the wrestling channel back in the day comes to mind "what kind of a man wants to sit on his own face" - that might have also been employed in wwecw when Matt Stryker used to wear trunks with his face on the back), the silliness when he was put into an intergender match (again, this was at the WCPW show that I'm not spoiling, so no further details) and just his demeanour in general. I genuinely look forward to seeing him on shows these days.

The New Nation are picking up steam since splitting away from Rampage - Primate is a massively versatile performer, and Henry is a complete package - despite the fact that thanks to the progress crowd I can't unthink "evil Sami Zayn". The series of matches against the sons of Ulaid were fantastic, Primate being portrayed as a full on ultraviolent missing link in WCPW and dominating MEW, the infamous match with Scrappy-Doo *ahem* sorry, Paul Robinson at NORTH, as well as the absolute corker at Progress chapter 40 against the London Riots (due to have round 2 happen at Tidal's wipe out event at Church nightclub in Leeds in the coming weeks and hopefully chapter 3 back at NORTH in February) all being full on brilliant performances, these guys have shown they can be in their element both as a tag team or in singles matches.

2017 is looking promising, and around March/April, I'll do another one of these "journey so far type articles".

Hope you have enjoyed reading so far, and as always, feedback is always appreciated.

In the meantime, check out my friend's blog over at http://thegirlyguidetowrestling.blogspot.co.uk/

slight update to what's going on

alright folks,

Just a quick update to what's happening:

The main bulk of the posts here are going to be the Pints, Piledrivers and Replacement bus services (P, PD, RBS) from my ongoing mission to get around as many UK indie shows as humanly possible this year.

Every now and again there'll be a comparison type blog between them - probably quarterly. that means that there's one due at some point this month (three is probably enough of a starting point). that'll be named and up shortly

The end of january sees me start to put a bit more work into things as ive got a weekend of 3 shows in 3 nights - newcastle (well, north tyneside) nottingham and lincoln. Incidentally, im really looking forward to Lincoln, i've gotten a really good impression of the promotion already.

I have been to more shows, its just that they were tapings for episodicseries, and its a pain in the arse blogging them before they've aired / gone live because you're never sure how they are going to be edited together, and if you dont see the backstage bits, some of the in ring matches/promos don't make that much sense as there's no context. it can detract from the live experience but it can add to it also. its a bit unfair to the promotion to blog it as live until its aired. though this might end up as another strand)

The vault thing will happen soon as well, i'll probablly kick this off during spells without as many shows i van get to, and when no summary blog is due.

anyhow, enjoy, ad feedback is always welcome
Cheers,
Damo 

(P, PD, BRS) 3CW encore - Hartlepool borough hall November 12 2016

3cw encore Hartlepool.

Transport from Newcastle city centre options were a 2 hour bus ride from Newcastle or heworth, or a 1hr one from Sunderland (autocorrect tried to change Sunderland to both "underhand" and "syndrome" read into that what you will.) plus a metro, or a train. I got the train, and it was crammed. Luckily I've been playing a fit the obnoxiously shaped blocks into the frame game on the old dog and bone recently, so the game of human tetris to get the guard in and out of his cupboard at every stop on the way was a bit easier than normal.

It looks like a decent card here, and the calling spots title semi final match between Kirby and Slater looks awesome. Of course being the Joseph Conners mark I am, I'm looking forward to seeing him go against James Scott. Dragon Aisu is a name I recognise from (I think it was) RQW on the wrestling channel from back in the day and he's on tonight which should be fun. Pre-show beer at the bunker round the corner from the train station - erdinger dunkelbier on tap. Score!

Off to the venue - another 15 min bus out of Hartlepool town centre to the venue. Glad I had that pint earlier because there's no sign of a bar anywhere around the venue. Or much else. Fair enough though, there's a bar in there. From the outside it kind of looks like one of those council office/leisure centre type things. I was expecting a library or pool to be through a door to my left on first appearances. alas, no spring breakout "grapple island" ring setup tomfoolery here. The hall itself is fairly large, with a balcony and a fair bit of space between the back row of chairs and the wall/gateway to Narnia behind the curtains. Size and lighting wise, this place is really suited to this kind of event. the best parts of domain at the Northumbria university and the Longbenton innesfree in one. Definitely a family show this one, and children in the audience were taking almost as much advantage of the spare floor space before the show and in the interval as the wrestlers themselves would during it. Cue the "man I wish I had half their energy" thoughts. Great to see people's excitement for 3CWs return

The ring canvas and aprons are grey/silver - reminiscent of the 2000 WCW ring except with white rope ropes as opposed to the red / blue / black steel cables. I'm not sure if this was meant to bring about nostalgia, but it did for me, and as the promotion's first show back it added a nice touch. No guardrail here, and a request from our MC not to get in the wrestlers faces because "they might fight back, or worse" - Rory Coyle's knocking out young Lewis has obviously scarred Sweet Stevie deep.

Announcement before the event that Drake has dropped out with the flu. Apparently prospect will have a replacement - I've got a feeling it's going to be primate or the third fella from prospect, but anything can happen. James R Kennedy would later give a more accurate depiction of what kept Drake away

Whatculture were filming some/all of this apparently. That might explain the fact that the screens on stage and the may they were setup resembled WCPW/NGW. I'm hoping the full event ends up online at some point rather than just the wcpw title match, because the show as a whole was top quality.

Our ring announcer for tonight is the inimitable "Sweet" Stevie Aaron"

Opening with Liam Slater vs Martin Kirby.
Slater out first to a rousing ovation, in full vengabus mode - it's sometimes said that it's harder to get over people to love you than to hate you. Slater has making people love him down to a fine art. Whether it's as one half of "all business" with moss at wcpw, giving it double barrel to a hardcore 18+ crowd at NORTH, or smiling and partying in a more family friendly way here in 3CW, I've never seen a negative reaction from him yet.

The wcpw fan contingency that was in attendance (and very respectful of there being kids in the audience - well done guys) popped like crazy for Kirby. Sadly before seeing him in WCPW I pretty much only knew of Kirby as a part of project ego and never really got to see what he could do. Since seeing him at the tapings for loaded the day after his first win at "stacked" to say he's impressive is an understatement. He's great with the verbals, both to the crowd and his opposition. Tonight he's on top form.

From a booking perspective, while this could easily have been a brilliant in-ring spectacle anywhere on the card, the charisma that both of these guys have made it an absolutely perfect opener. A pairing that gives everyone in attendance something to instantly connect to and get excited about.

Some fantastic back and forth here, great technical wrestling, and some explosive offence.

Kirby went over after an extremely entertaining match. Nice handshake at the end - great show of sportsmanship

Rogues Gallery come out on the second playing of their theme music. it appears they are a new team, and are pretty much unheard of. Mercer and Kellit look like they're ready to go.

The opposition is billed as Dragon Aisu and a mystery partner. The first surprise here is that Dragon is now managed by James R Kennedy. The embodiment of obnoxiousness announces that Aisu's partner tonight is Chris Renfrew. Holy hell, that was unexpected! This was a fantastic hard hitting match, if a little chop heavy - but hey, who doesn't like chops? I'm guessing the next morning neither of the rogues gallery. Honestly, I could swear Dragon went backstage a pound heavier than when he came out on account of all the extra skin he's grafted onto his hands from Mercer's chest. Anyhow, I digress. Fantastic heel tactics by Renfrew and Aisu throughout, what looked like it was going to be a fairly one sided affair turned into quite the competitive battle as the Rogues took a kicking and kept on ticking. Ok not ticking exactly, they're not geiger counters - though there was definitely some form of radiation coming from their chests,  but holding their own and fighting back. They did end up coming up short eventually though. A baptism of fire and hopefully some form of after sun cream backstage for Mercer and Kellit.

The WCPW title is on the line in our next contest, with the "king in the north" (as the screen said even though it doesn't sound right grammatically) Jason Scott coming to the ring. He's challenging the righteous killer, Joseph Connors tonight for the title.

I make no bones about this, I'm without a doubt a member of the Conners Congregation. When Lewis at calling spots said that not one person at refuse to lose wasn't waving a pink glowstick for Martin Kirby, there was one who wasn't, and that person was me, proudly wearing the righteous killer T-shirt. That aside, the last time I saw Darkside he definitely left a good impression.

The in ring introductions are made, and the two lock up. In summary, Conners bumped like crazy for Scott, made him look a million dollars (I would have said pounds, but they're worth bugger all at the time of writing thanks to brexit - do you hear me Doug?). The action spilled out of the ring in this one fairly quickly, and a merchandise table made the ultimate sacrifice in the process. Conners was not giving up easily though, and wasn't going to leave without his treasured belt. After the referee was temporarily incapacitated, a blatant low blow and shot to the head with the belt left Scott out for the count, and the WCPW championship remained righteous.

Post match, an obviously unhappy Darkside vowed that the next time the two meet, he'll be taking the title and will *ahem* do Conners a great physical discourtesy all over the building

Intermission and photo opportunities with Scott, Sweet Stevie putting over the head shot to Scott offering him the opportunity to get checked out by the medical team before the photo opportunity session.

The second half of the show begins with Ace Matthews coming out to "you've got the touch" and a great video - lots of "thumbs up" signs to everyone in sight. He's not someone I've seen before, so I, along with a fair few others in the crowd, was buying into him being just a really positive guy. Then he opened his mouth. He got the town wrong initially, which turned some of the audience against him straight off, then he broke the cardinal rule of performing in any capacity when in Hartlepool. He mentioned the monkey hanging. "Some people call you disgusting, monkey hanging scumbags..." now this has pretty much everyone hating him on three levels. 1) shouting out to the wrong place, 2) the monkey hanging scumbags crack and 3) the ones that initially went along with him being the overly enthusiastic hero feel stupid for being drawn in. This is pure gold in the way of getting heat folks - and what's more, he's still giving the thumbs up and smiling as if he's won the people over. Great stuff. The party abruptly ends when his opponent steps through the curtain. Screwface is here to kill Ace, and kill him he does. The thumb got worked over big style. It looked like screwface was trying to fill a ln opposable digit  shaped void in his toolbox at one point, almost breaking it off Matthews' hand, before putting him away in less than two minutes. I start to wonder if that bloke I know from down here is still selling encyclopaedias - because the volume "St-Th" could have come in handy for Ace. Sympathy might be in there somewhere and he certainly wasn't getting any of that from the people of Hartlepool.

Prospect's music and video kick off the setup next match, as we're graced with the presence once again of Mr James R Kennedy, along with Alex Gracie and the replacement for Drake... Gabriel Kidd. It took a moment for the penny to drop, what had happened, but Kennedy soon brought everyone up to speed with what was going on.

*) Primate was on the loose in Hartlepool, and Lucas Archer along with Drake were out trying to bring him back to captivity

*) Prince Ameen had essentially pimped out his manservant, one Gabriel Kidd, to tag with Gracie tonight.

*) If Gabriel didn't win the match for them there would be dire consequences for him.

Right. Now we've got that straight and that Gracie and Kennedy are shoving Gabriel around, it's time to introduce their opponents. A nice video package on the history 3CW and the two Teesside lads that essentially finished up when 3CW went on hiatus around 3 years back. Chris Witton and Kid Richie. The pair come out with what sounds like the perfecto all stars remix of "pigbag". The audience are solidly behind these guys and are singing along with pigbag. Much to the shegrin of Prospect, so is Kidd. A theme that would continue through most of this match. Prospect kept trying to push Kidd around, and get him to break the rules. Kidd's having none of it though. The crowd, the Redcar Lads and Kidd took great pleasure in antagonising Prospect, and Kidd Laying out Gracie was the ultimate end of this one.

After the match, Witton, Richie and Gabriel celebrate, and the Redcar Lads depart. Kennedy and his dynasty attack Gabriel until the Redcar Lads come back out and clear house, but not before issuing the challenge for the fight before Christmas - Kidd & the Redcar Lads against Aisu, Gracie and Renfrew. It's accepted as Kennedy and his crew leave.

Prince Ameen's open challenge is coming up. It appears that the Prince has a big surprise for us. Turns out that he was the 3CW north east champion at the end of the last incarnation and he still has the belt.

It looks for a while as if nobody is coming out to answer the challenge. Just as the referee is about to raise the hand of the Prince of Gujarat, Si Swan answers. His scheduled opponent for tonight understands the importance of the opportunity and he's happy to sit this one out to give Swan this shot. Swan was the first 3CW champion at the inception of the company.

So, the return of another local legend, the return of a championship to the organisation and a fired up crowd - the stage is set, the players on their marks, only one thing is missing and that's the bell to start this one off. Make it so.

This one was an epic encounter, Ameen and Swan both dishing out a lot of punishment. It looked like Swan's back was giving him a bit of trouble towards the end of the match. Ameen tried to sneak a win via a belt to the head, but Si kicked out and eventually went on to win the battle, and the 3CW North East championship, bringing it back to Teesside.

A hell of a night, and a fantastic way to start off the new 3CW. Great work by all the guys here tonight, and it's a thing of beauty to see local promotions working together on something other than an invasion angle. Very refreshing.

Travelling back was made a lot easier by the fact that the last train out of Hartlepool was delayed by ten minutes - I could have hung around for the raffle!

Sadly I know i cannot make the next show due to my year long road trip taking me to Sheffield the following day for another show, but I highly recommend that others get themselves along to Thornaby Pavilion on December 10th for "the fight before Christmas" - that 6man tag promises to be worth the price of admission alone. more info on www.3cw.co.uk

Next up, 25th November, ticket availability permitting, is Tidal Championship Wrestling at the dolphin centre in Darlington.

(P, PD, BRS) Progress chapter 40 - angel intercepted Sheffield 02 11/12/16

Pints, piledrivers and bus replacement services part 3 - Progress chapter 40 - angel intercepted. Destination Sheffield 02.

December 11th, Progress chapter 40, angel intercepted. Sheffield 02

The train down - first class, but there are three problems. My charger and headphones are at home, so no pre listening to anything for me. Apart from the cheerful ladies either on a birthday or hen do. And the children that a family have so conveniently dumped on to the next table over.

Miniature humanoid "there's a button on the side of my chair, does that mean explosion?"

At this time on a Sunday morning, I wish it did. Well, as long as it didn't affect the train getting to Sheffield.

One thing I did bring is my hip flask, and a little ingenuity. Quick scout to another (non quiet) carriage, then moving my little ticket thing to an unreserved seat and boom. Little miss pyromaniac can blow her seat up all she likes.

The complimentary coffee comes around and bah gawd it's good. Half a cup and I've went from "what the hell am I doing up this early on a Sunday" to trying not to start chanting at the other occupants of the train. In order to calm myself down I acquire some earphones and queue up everything. "Machine Gun" by Portishead starts up and provides completely fictional tangent number 1 for my mind to wander down.

The complimentary food in first class doesn't have armbar and chicken wings on as a main course. This leads to umbrella based shenanigans and Marty Scurll going to the food bar and snapping every single KitKat before putting them back in the shelf.

Whoever the fuck thought that amount of caffeine on a Sunday morning was a good idea needs a slap

One more cup of coffee later, a complimentary yogurt that could easily have contained enough seeds to keep a budgie going for a month, and it's changeover time. From the penthouse to the outhouse, as the Doncaster to Sheffield leg takes place on one of those trains they send to places they're not bothered about getting them back from. To top it off, this particular cattle car is overcrowded thanks to a proper train getting cancelled earlier. I would be pretty pissed off if I was standing to be honest.

First progress hoodie spotted at 1130, had a natter with the lads, dead friendly.

I'm saving the station tap for after the show, but for now, I'm at the Howard. A nice, reasonably priced pint of Jennings Red Breast, in a bar that's just opened. It's pretty good in here, no sky sports, the music isn't intrusive, and it looks like it serves good food. Ringwood "Thor's choice" is the other "not hobgoblin" beer on tap, and it's good. I'm not normally one for pales, but this one is spot on. Ringwood haven't disappointed me yet in the way of a good beer. Tulip glass, nice tight head, spot on

The queue

Someone brought biscuits - class act these lot. We got diverted from a ramp to the main street. The owner of generic furnishings incorporated, which happened to be hidden behind the queue after diversion, didn't like it. "Come on bruv, you're blocking my shop" doesn't carry much weight when security have just told best part of 750 people to stand there. Neither does the token gesture of moving a couple of packs of bed in a bag garish duvet covers. Surely the £30 chairs would be the only potential things to be borrowed in a queue. The urge to start a chant at the shop guy was resisted "shit couch no fans" and "Progress on fire, standing lamp is terrified" were both on the list of potential ones if the fella had kept going. He did at one point try to sell a lamp that vaguely resembled a testicle to someone further down the queue, which seemed slightly odd. I was wondering if he was a plant (that's not a plant it's a tin of pineapples).

Into the venue. They've got a good bottled beer on, and it costs the same as the shit tetleys. I got to shake hands with Scurll and ZSJ at the merch table, managing not to make enough of a dick of myself to end up losing an arm/finger (despite putting my pint down on a carefully selected empty part of the table - sorry Marty)

Good view of the ring from row 4 on the floor. I did promise that if the New Nation were on, i wasn't going to sit on the stage, even if it meant being in row 2 (I've successfully managed to not have "blood" spat at me for 5 months, buggered if that's gonna change)

They've done a good job with the layout here as pretty much everyone had a decent view of the ring. The venue itself (around 10 min from the train station) is pretty much run of the mill 02 academy inside - non-intrusive bar lighting, good focus well placed on the ring and stage respectively. The sound here is good as well - but I'd be worried if it wasn't - it's a music venue for Christ's sake!

The card is stacked and the place is packed, it's time to get the show on the road after the introduction from Jim Smallman.

Nice of him to mention Kris Travis during his opening bit.

After a bit of warm up banter with the Christmas jumper wearers in the crowd to get things going

New Nation v London Riots

Henry and Prime attack early, a surprising dive fest from the Riots which was a bit out of character for them. Other memorable moments included Davis removing his face guard and headbutting Prime, The audience giving an "evil Same Zayn" chant to Henry, and a trade of spears between James Davis and Primate. The Riots go over after a catapult into a spear

Natural Progressions Series tourney match
Bea Priestly vs Toni Storm

Bea comes out first, lower back taped.
Massive reaction for Toni, who everyone was happy to see in good health after word spread that she had been injured in a recent match and that her appearance may have been in question. Bea is incorporating little bits of Osprey offence into the match - the "cheeky nandos" kick came a little out of the blue. The trademark chewing gum dip took place during a camel clutch. Toni's offence did seem to focus on the lower back (well, if you're going to tape it, it's like painting a bullseye on it really).
Toni Storm over with a dead lift DDT/brain buster, back cracker and a top rope legdrop in a brilliant match (even if she did leave her eyelashes in the ring)

Atlas title open challenge

Rampage is out to what Jim calls "the best music in the f--king world"

All of a sudden we get that Roy Wood song (the first time I've heard it this year due to careful evasive techniques) and we are treated to a visit from... "Banta Clause" (Dave Mastiff)

El(f) Ligero's out with mastiff and Nathan Cruz looks mortified.
Nice bit of craic with the audience here, even having one of the Christmas jumper wearers sit on his knee at one point. Rampage is loving this, almost corpsing when a black "bah humbug" hat was put on Cruz's head.
Mastiff went for a chop with Rampage against the ring post. He missed, and it sounded like a church bell. Rampage takes advantage.
I can't believe I'm typing this, but even with a knackered hand, An off duty Santa just gave a vicious German suplex to Rampage.
This is full on "big lads wrestling". Back suplex to Mastiff by Rampage. The "ho ho ho" references seem to have evolved into a hacksaw Jim Duggan style "hooooooooo!" from the crowd.

Rampage over after evading a cannonball, and hitting a pile-driver. fantastic match, good split between hard hitting atlas division action and just the right amount of banter

Jimmy Havoc vs Marty Scurll - no disqualification match.

Scurll out first, my god I'm glad I got the chance to hear Machine-gun by Portishead over this good a PA system it sounds glorious, and Scurll looks fired up brandishing his umbrella as havoc shuffles out holding his wrist? Is he injured again? No - the coat opens and fuck me havoc has an axe. The crew race to stop him from advancing with it. They get it away from him before one of them gets knocked down. Scurll sneaks a shot with the umbrella knocking havoc back through the curtain. The crew try to get him back into the ring. Havoc re-emerges and dives off the stage into a sea of crew, crowd and Scurll. Multiple scrambles to get the hell out of the way while they kicked each other all over the gaff, a staple gun, multiple chairs (found, in position and handed to havoc), drawing pins and of course a table all used to full effect in this one. Both guys pulled everything out of the bag here. Watch it. Seriously, watch it on demand progress.

Acid Rainmaker after a back suplex on to the drawing pins finishes this cavalcade of violence giving havoc the win.

Interval. The local venue security are having a ball at this one.

FSU vs origin

Origin represented by El(f) ligero and Nathan Cruz. Dave Mastiff is out with them, not dressed as Banter Clause, but sporting a double beer can hard hat. Cruz is blatantly pissed off at the other two for not taking it seriously

Mandrews and Eddie Dennis come to a great reaction. Eddie is a beast.

Some nice double teaming from FSU. A hilarious test of strength evolving into a chicken fight type situation. Honestly, I'm having trouble typing about this, it's insane. Then Cruz has to come and ruin it.

Duelling dives from FSU, and more great double team manoeuvres.

Cracking double submission from Origin - Cruz with an inverted cloverleaf and Ligero locking in the rings of Saturn - mandrews is getting stretched something rotten here. Dennis breaks it up

Ligero and Mastiff uncork a bag of celebrations and drop them  over the canvas. Cruz looks more and more pissed off, tagging in Ligero who gets pushed into Cruz.

FSU over after a roll up. It definitely looks like the origin has a split happening. I can't wait for Mastiff to squash Cruz.

Adam Cole vs Will Osprey up next
Nice reception for both guys, not sure why Osprey felt the need to eat the union flag (it's not a jack unless it's on a boat. Thank me later) though.
This looks like it's got its origins in a faction feud from Japan here - Cole from the bullet club and Osprey representing chaos apparently. I've not been following Japanese wrestling as closely, so I don't really know the importance of this.

Osprey has his shoulder taped up and Cole has a sizeable knot in the side of his forehead - they've been in the wars already by the looks of it.

A fair bit of mocking going on from Cole of Osprey. Early on it seems fairly one sided towards Cole. Osprey doesn't seem fully with it during this match - I'm starting to wonder if there's something a bit more wrong with him. Just as I type that, he starts with the Dragonball z flying about and bouncing all over the place. Has he found his mojo?
Cole regains the upper hand with a fireman's carry neckbreaker leading to some good back and forth strikes vs flips action.
Jumping destroyer piledriver by Cole, Osprey out at 2. Cheeky Nandos kick and an inverted 450 splash by Osprey and Cole is out at 2. This is riveting, if a bit weird pacing wise.
3 super kicks and it looks like Osprey is done, but a last adrenaline rush sees him kick out at 1!
Cole with another superkick, knee strike and fireman's carry neckbreaker to finish it.

As I said before, the pace of this one was really erratic, but it made it unmissable.

Progress championship on the line with Pete Dunne against Zack Sabre junior.

ZSJ out first, the odd errant streamer flying in for him. Those three letters are a guarantee of a top notch match in my opinion.

I'm really not sure about the intro music for  British Strong Style. Tyler bate, looking like a gangster you'd see hanging out in a prohibition era bar, is out with Dunne - Trent Seven is up in Scotland working for ICW tonight.

Pete seems to like the taste of plastic and leather, as his trademark mouth guard is chomping down on the strap of the progress title belt.

The bell rings, and right away Tyler is getting involved and is sent to the back

A technical masterclass here - pure and simple. I've said it earlier, just watch this match, it's unbelievable.
Even when it breaks down into a battle of strikes, its used as a lead in for more technical back and forth.

At one point ZSJ occupied a seat in the front row. The guy next to him demonstrated amazing beer retention techniques while the kicks came in from Dunne. Kudos to him.

I really cannot begin to do this match justice by typing out highlights, because the entire match is loaded with them. This is what the renaissance of British wrestling is, right here.

Dunne has to be thankful he was wearing the mouth guard at a couple points tonight, because he was almost decapitated by ZSJ's penalty kicks.

Dunne went over eventually with the "drop dead" pump handle flatliner.

If there's any reason to shell out for demand progress, this show is it. Absolutely fantastic.

Post show a quick natter with a couple of the guys I'd seen earlier and a few more fellas down at the tap in the station. Followed by a strange trip home thanks to various rail issues, but overall this journey was definitely worth the odd travel, the show knocked it out of the park I met some great people out there, as well as getting to buy a ZSJ T-shirt from the man himself. Absolutely loved it.
Hopefully I'll be visiting progress on this tour again, if I can win the "fastest finger first" game and get a ticket to a camden show.