UKW British bash - Alexandra mills Batley
Frenzied attempt at getting ready an hour before I thought I needed to after loading my ticket email and realising it was 0910 and not 1020 my bus was due to depart - I switched out my SD card for the music to listen to in the gym and forgot to reset my alarm songs - hence no alarm - I was going to hit the jacuzzi in the gym for a bit - loosen me up before the journey. That obviously didn't happen. But I have my hip flask of jaegermeister, a bottle or two of beer and a tightly rolled change of clothes, time to hit the road...
Megabus - I don't know when the passengers got sensible on these things but the last couple of journeys have been boring as hell. I kind of miss the old days - From driving through floods and having obnoxiously loud conversations about where the emergency oars and lifejackets were, observing a failed chat up attempt lead to a live baptism, to being kept out of London to avoid running over Bruce Forsyth and his entourage as they did a live dance in the streets, which I can only assume was some kind of immortality ritual, because he's still here. How, how in the blue hell has that happened. Want my take on it? Here we go with the first random tangent of this post.
Brucie's dance routines can be traced back to ancient tribes of massive chinned homo-playyourcardsrighticus on now unpopulated islands in the south pacific, where tribal mass dance rituals took place, and gave them eternal life. This came with a caveat that people performing these rites would be less and less likely to conceive as couples. Around the age of 327, the tribal elders were so bored of living that they all would just walk off cliffs or into the sea. By the time the last of the women had taken the plunge, evolution had taken hold elsewhere and that particular phase in the ascent of man was brought to a close. Forsyth learned of the practice at a miss world competition he was at in his younger days during an undocumented *ahem* interview with one of the contestants, and he's been practising this ever since.
Anyhow, basically, the bus ride down to Leeds was uninteresting.
The accommodation was a strange thing - in that it wasn't a b&b like I thought it was going to b(e). I arrived at the address and then was walked down to where I was staying. A shared house with a spare room in it. Hey, it's crash space I've been in worse.
The train to Batley had me overhear one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard an adult say to another adult - "we've got some of them in Selby, you don't need to go to Los Angeles for that" the only feasible thing I can imagine that being about would have been clouds.
You know those awkward moments when a child stares at you. That train journey also produced one of those. But thanks to an inquisitively purchased green tea latte (who thought that was a good idea), and a little spark of longing for self amusement, a solution was found:
a) calmly take a swig from the green tea latte with the lid off the cup.
b) part way through the swig, pull the crazy eyes and stare off into space.
c) slowly pull cup away from face revealing a slack jaw and green foamed milk from the latte around your mouth. Optional extra, slowly reposition head to acquire eye contact while still staring off into the distance.
d) enjoy the reaction. don't forget to stumble slowly off the train past them if you're getting off first.
Pre show pint at the cellar bar next to the train station. Rudgates Jerusalem (4%) - it's a pale, but so be it. It's going down quite nicely for a light one. Everards tiger next (4.2%) nice copper colour on this one, a little more malt but not much.
This is an actual wrestling gym, a bespoke customised one. - it looks good, the light is static, but it is just right. Black walls help with that. An ECW style brick print stage piece stands around the Union flag curtain at the entrance way and a well constructed commentary booth. There are a few empty seats, but I would say that could be down to the location, Tidal being tomorrow in Leeds, or people maybe not knowing about it. I can't wait until this goes to VOD, because the product looks absolutely fantastic.
Out of the three rings they have, set up on site, the one being used is the full sized show ring - there is a smaller one similar to the one used at a lot of events in Newcastle, and another which was not as high off the ground (like chikara's old ring, around half height).
The ring announcer is sporting an almost steampunk look, sans top hat.
Pre-show match Scar & Felicia vs James Thwaite and Rogue
To steal a bit from the OSW review podcast, Felicia is wearing a gold and purple ensemble, what barrrr is she? Definitely a crunchie, and a happy one at that! Felicia introduces us to Scar and gets the crowd warmed up.
Nice heel work by Rogue and Thwaite until Thwaite hits the ropes accidentally knocking her off the apron, and she storms off leaving Jamie on his Lonesome. That doesn't end well for him as Scar gets the win for his team. Great warm up to the show, and nice to see some of the academy with so much potential.
Officer Rogers vs Andrew Jepson (The man mountain) kicks us off.
Officer Rogers is asserting his "law and order of the ring" self-appointment very well here, and is quickly disliked by the audience.
Rogers could end up in trouble here - his attire is extremely close to actual police uniform. Is he going to arrest himself for impersonating an officer? There's a philosophical question for you. He starts by calling for a test of strength and starts to get an advantage. Jepson starts to reverse it and the officer grabs a headlock. The wrestling here is really slick and a pleasure to watch.
Two Shoulder blocks from Jepson, on the third one Rogers misses a front and reverse lariat, both ducked as Jepson is running the ropes before taking flight for it to knock him down.
,
A fair bit of rule breaking to get the advantage by the Officer. The temptation to start a police brutality chant was resisted.
A chokeslam attempt by Jepson was reversed into a German suplex by Rogers.
Jepson takes the straps down - business is about to pick up. Rogers reverses the move Jepsen was setting up for. While Jepson is down, Rogers loses focus, and has a pop at a kid reading a book in the audience. Once he's said his piece he turns round straight into a chokeslam from Jepson to end it.
Rogers has a right go at the child afterwards until a parent intervenes and he freaks out, making a hasty exit.
We have a Handicap match next Juvenile Delinquent Callum Moorhouse (with Lana) and Cayman Carlisle vs Alpha Predator Rex Savage.
Savage is overpowering the two smaller opponents early until a drop toe hold onto the middle buckle. Stuns him long enough to let Carlisle and Moorhouse in with some quick and fast paced offence.
Lots of double teaming, which would seem to be the best strategy against someone the size of Savage (it's getting harder not to type Rampage when im looking at this guy)
Lana slaps from outside while he's draped over the second rope. Moorhouse uses his full bodyweight to drop over Savage, and slides over him to the outside where he works the crowd after landing on his feet. Moorhouse and Carlisle continue double teaming, strikes and dives to get the best of every advantage Savage gets. They each take an arm and lock on a cross arm breaker. Savage lifts both simultaneously and slams them back down. Hard. Awesome strength right there. That does it for this one - top notch match.
Das Wildcard Tommy Dillon comes to draped in a German flag - I didn't know he was German! Nice throwback to Nikolai Volkoff here with the heel promo, wanting to sing the German national anthem (badly), but being boo'd into oblivion
LRB is the opponent here, and he's coming draped in the St George cross to a massive reaction.
Flag lifting by both to rile up the crowd. Obviously Dillon isn't pleased with the result. So, he decides to give us another rendition of Deutschlandleid, and he wants to be shown respect. That doesn't happen. So he extracts it physically from LRB.
Dillon with a flag choke, top notch old school heel work here from the German. nice to see the persistent working of the leg leading into a figure four. Dillon started singing the anthem at him while he had him in the hold! Awesome. The hold is reversed by LRB, but goes into the ropes for the break. I've got to say I'm massively impressed with the use of the ring space from these guys.
Dillon delivers a Luftwaffe elbow from the ropes - I don't know if that's what it's called, but I'm going with it in the spirit of the gimmick.
An iron claw! Dillon is awesome - he's definitely staying on my radar for the future. Reversing the claw led to LRB regaining an advantage.
Two cutters to Dillon but his arm is under the ropes when the cover is made.
Dillon cheats again to get the win and puts his feet on the ropes just to add insult to injury.
Eliza Roux vs Rosemary up next. Eliza has the FFW belt with her. It's not on the line, but Rosemary's TNA one is.
TNA theme plays for Rosemary (as opposed to "the nobodies" by Marilyn Manson - it's going on VOD, so I'm guessing that's why we're treated to the Dale Oliver one) who's dealing well with a quiet crowd very well, nice Zombie/Girl from the Ring (the movie) type entrance. Eliza looks well spooked.
Rosemary licks her hands and runs them down her face, Eliza backs off. Rosemary wipes her hands on the referee's shirt, and then they lock up.
Nice arm work from Eliza. Spun to the outside by Rosemary, who keeps on top of Roux with strikes both outside and inside the ring, and a face bite/roar (I couldn't quite see for the bottom rope.)
Eliza's fear of Rosemary plays into this one nicely, Rosemary stopping Eliza mid-run with a scream.
Rolling chancery from the outside in by rosemary - Roux makes it to the ropes.
Roux dodges a corner run, Rosemary's shoulder goes straight into the post.
Eliza goes back to the arm. Rosemary uses a strategic bite to get out of an armbar
Head scissors over the rope from Rosemary who falls to the floor. As we get back into the ring, Eliza goes back to the arm.
After escaping, a spear by rosemary gets a two. Roux locks a double arm breaker in on rosemary when Moorhouse, Carlisle and Lana interfere to cost eliza the title via DQ
Lana took the mist to the face. An authority figure comes out, calls Moorhouse, Carlisle and Lana a disgrace and asks his friends from Lincoln to remove them.
Tommy Rider, the Ragency and a few others from Fight Factory in the audience stand up and throw the delinquent and his entourage out of the fire door.
Short Interval notes
Rosemary is really sweet
The delinquent entourage had to jump the fence to get back into the premises.
I'm noticing something here - there are a lot of great athletes in Newcastle, but I'm seeing more psychology and thought going into match structure elsewhere. If anyone is looking to travel to different schools, this place, house of pain and Fight Factory are definitely worth a visit. It's not a knock on the scene back home, and it may just be because I've been watching wrestling for so long that I'm not necessarily into the prevalent style, but going in cold with little to no knowledge of anything leading into the shows, I've been invested in a lot more characters quicker than anywhere else
Part two:
Josh and Joel Redgrave out for the tag tournament semi finals. Elis and Jay Jay Barker are the other contenders. I know they're the faces here, but I really hate Limp Bizkit to the point of suspicion of anyone who makes me listen to them.
Lots of fast action in this one.
Headbutt exchange with the Redgrave lad mocking Jay Jay's "king of the headbutts" moniker. Soon finding out exactly where it came from. The Barkers get the advantage.
A misfire on a leapfrog by one of the Barkers results in him taking a Redgrave inverted atomic drop.
The teamwork, and use the ring space here is phenomenal to see from guys this young.
The Barkers go over and into the finals of the tournament after an awesome sequence ending in a forearm strike to the back of the head of a Redgrave which looked like it knocked him clean out.
There's a Marshall amp in the ring. They snuck that one in, quietly.
Edward Crowley and Allie the axewoman are out. There's a guitar. It's an electric, so I can't see it getting broken over anyone - I know that shouldn't be an expectation, but I made the mistake looking at the dirt sheets earlier and there's a lot of talk about Jarrett wanting to involve himself in the uk scene. After a failed attempt at a riff, the guitar is being tuned by the ref who looks suspiciously like the vocalist from Chameleons (ask your parents - then listen to the "script of the bridge" album) if you squint and close one eye.
That guitar isn't working for Crowley. Anything can happen with live entertainment folks
His opponent for tonight, Hades makes his way to the ring.
Hades is sporting a hood like Terry Gordy era executioner hood for his entrance. in body at least. Looking at him, I keep thinking in watching a more agile Warlord (body wise at least - dude is in good shape)
Hades asserts his power against Crowley for the best part of this one, finishing it by making Crowley pass out to a gogoplata/hell's gate submission.
Academy championship open challenge - the jester Jay-Row Sporting a blue, band white outfit and jester hat.
Billy O'keefe answers... and so does Joe Nelson.
O'Keefe is on the short end of some nice double teaming by Nelson and Jay-Row. The focus is definitely on incapacitating him at this point.
The alliance breaks down when Nelson goes for a cover and Jay-Row breaks it up. Jester reminds him that it's his title they are fighting for.
Jester retains, another fantastically structured match.
Our main event is up next.
Dutch (fight factory champion) vs Lewy"Ripper" Paradise (UKW champion)
Lewy is a tanned "body guy".
I'm sitting with the fight factory contingent, the Agency isn't here to watch his back, so I'm into this one with an open mind. Who the hell am I Kidding, I'm behind Dutch. Lots of nice heel work by Dutch here, though the fight factory lot were out-chanting the UKW fans.
Duelling Lincoln/Yorkshire chants - Lewis seems a bit thrown off by how much support Dutch has. Looks like the response Paradise wants to give would result in a fine...
Champion vs champion with neither title on the line - this one is all about pride.
Very nice heel work by Dutch, "he's got the hair" had the ref confused/fooled, I couldn't tell which. Dutch being bald and all that. Careful positioning to obscure the ref's view of the face grabs/fish-hooking, and distraction with his belt, having the ref confiscate it and while handing it to the ring announcer grabbing a chair to sandwich between the top two turnbuckles was a nice touch - even though the whip reversal by Paradise sent his Dutch into it head first.
Hades came out to chokeslam paradise, and Dutch went over. Hades is the number one contender - that's that one explained then. Dutch and Hades shake hands to close out the show.
All in all, in ring this show was spot on it was a bonus and a half them having fight factory involved, especially since I'd enjoyed them so much at the engine shed in Lincoln, and the main event was Fantastic. I'm looking forward to coming back on my travels in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment