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Tag: Will Ospreay

  • The Week In British Wrestling: Scurll vs Ospreay, part 2; Grado loses title

    We’ve got some of the best grapplers in the world doing great things on a weekly basis! Here’s 5 things you need to know about British wrestling this week:

    1) Scurll & Ospreay do it again…

    On January 16th, at the York Hall in Bethnal Green, Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll put on a masterclass of modern wrestling at Revolution Pro-Wrestling’s High Stakes event. Just 8 days later, at PROGRESS’s Chat Sh*t, Get Banged, across London at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, they did it again. The two matches, although they were both around 30 minutes long, could not have been more different. The first was all about showing how to link a series of moves into a flawless contest, the second – also virtually flawless – was about emotion and feeling and two men who hate one another.

    Ospreay is being talked about in hushed tones, and watching him you do get the feeling that every time might be the last time, that before your ticket for his next appearance can be validated, he’ll be off to Orlando or Japan. Scurll had a glimpse of glory, runner-up in the first TNA Bootcamp, and you sometimes could be forgiven for thinking his time has passed. This past week – and a year of solid work as The Villain before that – shows that to be nonsense, and both men would enhance the roster of any company in the world. For now, though, they’re ours. Enjoy it while it lasts.

    2) PROGRESS banged it…

    As well as the superb main event detailed above, Chat Sh*t, Get Banged, named after a tweet from Leicester City (PROGRESS owner Jim Smallman’s team) footballer Jamie Vardy, delivered everything it promised. Mark Haskins – bearing the marks of a pounding by Kenny Omega in Swindon the night before – beat Zack Gibson to become the number one contender, and will face new PROGRESS champion Marty Scurll in Manchester on February 14th. Opening the card, The Origin beat FSU to retain the tag-team titles, and their next challengers will likely come from whoever wins the feud between the London Riots and the Sumerian Death Squad. They kicked off a three-match series on Sunday with a Michael Dante versus Rob Lynch encounter that was every bit as hard-hitting as a New Japan NEVER title match.

    Coming dangerously near to stealing a show with so much talent having so many great matches, however, were the women, who turned a four-way into an intense twenty minute encounter, with even the most skeptical about the distaff athletes converted and delivering a standing ovation by the end. Dastardly Sloan ranger Jinny triumphed, and will face Leva Bates at the next ENDVR show in March, but there are so many threads still dangling between the four – Pollyanna, Dahlia Black, and Toni Storm made up the quartet – that this will run for the whole year. And that year will be a year in which PROGRESS promotes at least 22 shows, each one more anticipated than the last. It’s a great time to be a fan of British wrestling.

    3) ICW turned a different corner…

    The build-up to Square Go, Insane Championship Wrestling’s version of the Royal Rumble, was all about the feud between ICW Heavyweight champion Grado and his challenger, Chris Renfrew. Renfrew, the leader of the New Age Kliq, framed his challenge as defending the honour of ICW, although few outside NAK loyalists went along with that. But, after the dust had settled on Sunday’s show, it was Renfrew who came away with the title, leaving Grado – who debuted a new look, with new music – wondering where to go next.

    Renfrew’s first challenge could come from his fellow NAKer, Wolfgang, who walked out of the Square Go match with a heavyweight title shot, after besting 29 other men to win a 12-month window to cash in his opportunity. The rules of Square Go allow for 5 wrestlers to bring weapons to the ring, and the lucky recipients were Noam Dar (steel chair), Timm Wylie (lead pipe), Red Lighting (kendo stick), Jack Jester (sex toy), and Sebastian, who brought his GZR tag-team partner Tom Irvin as his weapon. Also in the match were Dave Mastiff, Jimmy Havoc, Doug Williams, ICW owner Mark Dallas, and all the ICW regulars. Next up for ICW is their spring tour, visiting England, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, and it’s all building towards November’s massive Fear & Loathing IX.

    4) Alpha Omega kicked off their 2016 season…

    While British wrestling has its areas of concentration, the north Lancashire coast is not exactly a hotbed of grappling action, despite the part the area played in the tradition and history of the sport in the UK. Preston City Wrestling operates 30 miles inland but the seaside is dominated by Alpha-Omega Wrestling, based in Morecambe, and presenting a series of well-attended, sensibly-booked shows that have kept fans in the area – and the adventurous traveller – entertained since they emerged in 2007 as the XWA. Initially owned by former FWA promoter (and on-screen personality) Greg Lambert, the promotion has passed through several hands but is still booked by Lambert, alongside current owner Charles Nelson Riley. The promotion tries to harken back to a time when wrestling was real, and while the success (or otherwise) might speak more about the people of the town than anything else, it’s a refreshing change in an era of kayfabe-breaking, social media-embracing meta wrestling, and more power to them.

    Saturday’s Outbreak event, at Alpha-Omega’s regular Morecambe Winter Gardens home, attracted a healthy crowd to see heavyweight champion Stixx down Joe Hendry, the latest contender to try and break an 8-year undefeated streak. Also on the show, The Referendum (the top heel stable, all Scots and playing on the 2014 Scottish divorce from the UK which never quite happened), represented by Liam Thomson & Bobby Roberts, won the tag-team titles, Craig Kollins beat Chris Silvio, and Lana Austin & Alexis Rose defeated Nikki Storm & Carmel Jacob. With a roster that also includes Chris Ridgeway, Cyanide, and many of the northern standouts, Alpha-Omega are one of the UK’s best kept secrets, and might just be worth a trip to the seaside…

    5) The shows keep coming…

    As well as spending much of the year promoting spot shows around their south west territory, 4 Front Wrestling promotes several big shows a year, and this weekend presented New Year’s Wrestleultion, at the MECA in Swindon. The show was supposed to have been main-evented by a 4FW Heavyweight title match between Tiger Ali and Doug Williams, but a series of events led to Williams putting his title shot on the line against local favourite Samie Sahin and losing, before helping Sahin beat Ali to win the title which sent the hall crazy. Also on the show, Kenny Omega beat Mark Haskins to win the vacant 4FW Cruiserweight title, and then immediately vacated it because he’s a heavyweight now, Drago beat Pentagon Jr in a Lucha Underground showcase match, and Japanese women’s star Hikaru Shida beat Shanna. The women were also in action down the road in High Wycombe (Nadia Sapphire actually worked both shows), where Empress Pro-Wrestling presented Never Say Never Again at the Arts4Every1 Centre. Three of the four women from the PROGRESS match were in action, with Jinny losing to Kira Fox, Toni Storm beaten by Courtney, and Pollyanna teaming with Katie Harvey to defeat Rhia O’Reilly & Addy Starr. Robbie Brookside’s daughter, Xia, also worked the show.

    With an eye on the next generation, IPW:UK staged Future 15 on Saturday, at the Community Centre in Selsdon. As well as a multi-man “scrum” match (won by ProJo head trainer Darrell Allen, and also featuring London Riot James Davis, Lord Jonathan Windsor, and the return of scene veteran Muscles Mansfield), women’s champion Tennessee Honey successfully defended her title against Elizabeth, tag-team champions DnD saw off Sammy Smooth & Maverick Mayhew, and Donovan Dijak collided with Rampage Jackson in a super heavyweight bout. Across the Thames Estuary, in Essex, Reloaded Championship Wrestling Alliance – a promotion part-owned by Will Ospreay – presented Fall Out at the Rainham Methodist Church. Ospreay worked the opener, defeating 2016 rookie of the year contender Malik, while his Swords of Essex tag-team partner Paul Robinson beat Ash Draven & Sean Wilson in a handicap match, by disqualification. Also on the show, which our spy highly recommended, were “Blackbelt” Tom Dawkins, and TNA Bootcamp nearlymen Chuck Cyrus and Priscilla.

  • The Week In British Wrestling: RevPro & ICW Tape TV; PROGRESS go large

    1) The Revolution will be televised!

    With access to traditional television shows thin on the ground for UK promotions, they’ve had to think outside the box for solutions. In last week’s column, I gave a rundown of the different options available if you want to watch British wrestling (apart from the always-preferable live option), and this week Revolution-Pro held another of their popular “TV” tapings at the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone, London. The Cockpit is more used to hosting fringe theatre but is a perfect venue for a television taping, harking back to the studio shows of old with its tight seating arrangement perfectly fitting around the squared circle in the centre. RevPro held three tapings at the Cockpit last year, for their YouTube TV show, and on Sunday they came back with a stacked card for a new run of shows for 2016.

    Despite ENDVR taking place at the same time just 3 miles across London (more of which later), the show still attracted a good crowd, and they were treated to a mini-tournament for the Undisputed British Cruiserweight title, with Pete Dunne overcoming “Flash” Morgan Webster in the final – el Ligero & Josh Bodom being eliminated in the semi-finals. Jimmy Havoc continued his feud with the Revolutionists, bringing a mystery partner to face the Undisputed British Tag-Team champions, Sha Samuels & James Castle, and it turned out to be T-Bone.

    Thanks to shenanigans, the champions kept their titles but Havoc has promised to bring back T-Bone and a third man to take on the tag champs and Bodom at High Stakes on January 16th. Main-eventing a card that also featured Big Damo, Mark Haskins, Marty Scurll, and Martin Kirby, was a bout between Will Ospreay and ACH, who made his return to RevPro after October’s Uprising. The two tore the house down and the match will be available to watch – for free – on RevPro’s YouTube channel very soon.

    2) PROGRESS take their big guns to Brixton.

    In last week’s column I trailed HUGE news from PROGRESS, and speculated what it could be. Well, speculate no more, because on January 1st they announced that September’s show – chapter 36 – will be held at the legendary Brixton Academy, in south London. It won’t be the company’s first trip south of the river – their ProJo wrestling school is situated round the corner from the Academy, and they’ve held trainee shows at the Bedford, in nearby Balham, before – but it will be the first time they’ve played a hall bigger than their usual 700 seats at the Electric Ballroom. The Academy will be set up for 2000 seats, and while that is dwarfed by ICW’s planned show at the Hydro in Glasgow, it will be the biggest crowd to see a British wrestling show in London for a good thirty years.

    PROGRESS have always resisted temptation to move to a bigger building before, simply stating that the Electric Ballroom treat them very well and they would be afraid to lose that special atmosphere created at the sold-out shows, so this is a step into the unknown for the company. However, they’re doing it in conjunction with LiveNation, the company that handled NXT’s UK tour, and the logistics shouldn’t be too high a hurdle. Whether they can sell almost 3 times the amount of tickets they usually do in London is another thing, but UK wrestling is VERY hot right now, and with a 9-month lead they have every chance. Progress indeed!

    3) A Sex Pest won a rap battle.

    It’s impossible to sum up an entire show, especially one featuring so many different characters as an ENDVR show, in one pithy line, but – yes – a sex pest did win a rap battle at ENDVR’s first show of the year on Sunday. Anyone who follows ENDVR (and the PROGRESS shows as of the last London chapter) will know that the sex pest is Jack Sexsmith, and the rap battle was a precursor to his showdown with “Body Guy” Roy Johnson on Sunday’s show at the Garage in Islington. You’ll be reassured to know that “Mr Cocko” made his customary appearance, and those of you who don’t know anything about Jack Sexsmith will no doubt be very confused by now.

    Also on the show, Pollyanna and Livvi won women’s matches, Damon Moser (a favourite for this year’s Natural Progression tournament) won a four-way over Pastor Bill Eaver, Earl Black Jr, and TK Cooper, and ProJo head trainer Darrell Allen beat Chuck Mambo in a “traditional British rules” match (which, unusually for such contests, didn’t suck). Some of the more established PROGRESS stars made an appearance (and a whole load of them were across London at the RevPro TV taping!), with Wild Boar teaming with PROGRESS-debutant Mike Bird (a mainstay of the south-west scene, and Mark Andrews’s trainer) taking a DQ win over Paul Robinson & trainee Shen Woo, and Eddie Dennis and Dave Mastiff colliding in a hard-hitting main event. The consequences of that fight will be felt long after the conclusion of Sunday’s show, with Dennis earning a tag-team title shot for himself and Mark Andrews, and Mastiff earning the ire of PROGRESS management with a sustained beating on a prone Dennis after the match.

    4) Big shows aren’t just channel changers on the USA Network.

    As well as PROGRESS planning their big outing to Brixton in September, several other promotions have already announced big shows of their own for 2016. New Generation Wrestling have already announced their mid-year spectacular, Ultimate Showdown, in Hull in late May, Southside have their annual Speed King tournament inked in for April, and – of course – everything that Insane Championship Wrestling does this year is leading up to their bigger-than-big-it’s-huge show at the 11,000-capacity Hydro in October.

    But even bigger than that show, in relative terms, is Pro-Wrestling Chaos’s April 8th show in Bristol, with The Young Bucks flown in as a special attraction. Why is that so big? Because Chaos, a Bristol-based promotion formed in 2013 for former grappler Dave Mercy, usually run a 200-seater hall and they’ve booked a 3000-seater for this show, which they’ve promised to stack. As gambles go it’s a pretty big one, but with the Bucks only doing one other UK show (in faraway Edinburgh) it’s a risk that could pay off.

    5) Friday Night’s Alright For Fight Club

    In order to bring fresh and exclusive footage to their ICW OnDemand service, the promotion held another Friday Night Fight Club taping at the Garage nightclub, in Glasgow, last weekend. Like RevPro’s taping, they stacked the card with all their usual regulars, plus semi-regular import Tommy End, for a show which saw a title change, an ICW Heavyweight title defence, and a huge 8-man main event, featuring Grado, Davey Blaze, Noam Dar, and Kenny Williams against the New Age Kliq. They have another taping scheduled for this coming Sunday – the only show anywhere in the UK, as far as I can work out – with everything leading up to their big Square Go! show on January 24th.

    Other than a few holiday camp shows (including one where the ATTACK! boys played to over 1000 people), the only other show over the last week was WrestleForce’s return to Rayleigh, in Essex, which featured their usual cast of characters.

  • The Week In British Wrestling: Will Ospreay vs. Mark Andrews do it again

    By Alan Boon for WrestlingObserver.com

    It may be late November, and the weather may have taken a turn for the cold and wet, but things are still heating up on the UK wrestling scene. Here are five things you need to know about British wrestling this week.

    1) Will Ospreay and Mark Andrews proved lightning can strike twice.

    When Will Ospreay and Mark Andrews stepped through the ropes at Pro-Wrestling Guerilla’s yearly BOLA extravaganza in August, few thought they’d be two of the standout stars on a card full of the biggest names in independent wrestling (and a sprinkling of lucha, to boot). Once they’d finished their first round bout, few were in doubt of that status. Ospreay, only in his fourth year as a pro, and Andrews, criminally underused in TNA after winning last year’s British Bootcamp competition, put themselves on the worldwide map but only cemented what British fans already knew.

    On Sunday, at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London, they met again, and put their summer contest firmly in the shade with a jaw-dropping display of head-dropping and acrobatics that had the sellout crowd on their feet and wowed. For Ospreay, it was just the latest in a series of 2015 contests that have seen him rocket up everyone’s top 20 lists, while for Andrews, it was a reminder that he’s back in the main event mix on this side of the Atlantic. We’re happy to see him again.

    2) You can’t halt the march of PROGRESS.

    As 750 people crammed into the Electric Ballroom for the final time in 2015, I’m sure the thoughts of more than a few PROGRESS “ultras” turned to the year-to-date, which saw the culmination of the Jimmy Havoc storyline, the first Super Strong Style 16 Tournament, and a string of sellout shows. By the end of the show – Chapter 23: What A Time To Be Alive! – those other shows and that other stuff, was distant history. Aside from the main event, the aforementioned masterpiece theatre for the PROGRESS title, the rest of the show (six matches, plus two pre-show bouts) reached highs in terms of hard-hitting – Rampage Brown and Austria’s Big Daddy Walter just about broke the ring in the opening bout – and lows in terms of pesky shenanigans – heel stable The Origin finagled their way to the tag-team titles AND a shot at the title at next week’s debut show in Manchester – and had just about everything in between.

    While the absence of Jimmy Havoc leaves a big hole in the shows, such was his influence in a two-year reign of terror, things look very promising for 2016, with monthly London shows and bi-monthly forays up North. That begins early with Chapter 24: Hit The North on Sunday (another sellout), this time in England’s third city. Ospreay defends his title against Zack Gibson, with Zack Sabre Jr. and Tomasso Ciampa joining the regular crew. News on that next week…

    3) Preston isn’t just the home of Wade Barrett; it’s also Ring of Honor’s British base.

    Back in the days of Big Daddy & Giant Haystacks, it used to be that the heavyweights sold tickets but the lighter weights brought the entertainment. That still holds true but the heavyweights have been replaced in recent years by former WWE and TNA imports, and the lighter weights by younger, local talent. Nowhere has that formula been more successful than at Preston City Wrestling, whose promoter Steven Fludder has brought a parade of “name” stars (often in conjunction with memorabilia fairs) to the North West for autograph signings, special appearances, and the odd match, and kept the fans wowed with some of the UK’s top talent.

    This past weekend, though, and for the second year in a row, PCW brought over a ton of ROH stars, including current ROH champion Jay Lethal, alongside Dalton Castle, Adam Cole, reDRagon, Cedric Alexander, and War Machine for the Supershow Of Honor. Although no local star was able to top Lethal, over 2000 fans attended the weekend shows to witness the ROH and UK talent trade wins across four shows. PCW heavyweight champion Dave Mastiff also fought off all-comers, but Adam Cole was able to steal away the Cruiserweight belt from el Ligero, promising to keep hold for a long time.

    4) Rebellious Scots won’t be crushed.

    Two weeks on from their MASSIVE Fear & Loathing supershow at Glasgow’s SECC, Insane Championship Wrestling picked up their storylines at the puntastic Fear & Lothian show, held at in the heart of Lothian at Edinburgh’s City nightclub. The success of ICW has been built on a foundation of love for WWF’s Attitude Era and classic ECW, and the swerve was in early as former general manager Red Lightning revealed he was, in fact, majority owner of the company and would do everything he could to rid ICW of its incredi-popular champion, Grado.

    Luckily for ICW’s fans, Red Lightning’s chosen man, Lionheart (fresh from being HATED at PCW’s Supershow Of Honor weekend), came up short, but New Age Kliq main man Chris Renfrew announced he would cash in his title shot at the company’s next big show, Square Go in Glasgow on January 24th. Noam Dar also earned a title shot at Square Go by winning a number one contenders’ match for Davey Blaze’s Zero-G championship – that’s if Blaze makes it through the next couple of TV tapings without Stevie Boy and the NAK taking him out.

    5) There’s so much going on!

    Elsewhere, the Scottish Wrestling Alliance held a big show at the Lagoon Centre, in Paisley, which saw Mark Coffey pin Drew Galloway to become the new SWA champion and appearances from Will Ospreay, Grado, Jack Gallagher, Kenny Williams, and Viper. Ahead of bringing in Pentagon Jr and Drago (and, erm, Tatanka) in January, 4 Front Wrestling opened their doors in Emerson Green in Bristol on Saturday night, and drew a healthy crowd for a show headlined by an eight-man elimination match, featuring the Hunter Brothers and Saul Adams.

    Earlier in the week, PROGRESS held the third of their PTNTL trainee shows at a new venue, Nambucca, in north London. The show featured ProJo trainees of all levels of development, and was main-evented by a six-man featuring the promotion’s most senior rookies which saw the team of Sweet Bearded Jesus – California hippy surfer Chuck Mambo, full-bearded Kyle Ashmore & Pastor William Eaver defeat Hong Kong’s Shen Woo, the bruiser Damon Moser & the outrageous Jack Sexsmith by pinfall. Also of note was Kamikaze-Pro’s latest show in the chocolate town of Bournville, Birmingham, starring Rhyno, Juventud Guerrera, Jody Fleisch, Jonny Storm, the Dunne Brothers, and Tyler Bate.

    Next weekend sees PROGRESS make their way to Manchester for the first time, Lucha Britannia run a rare Saturday, Pro-Wrestling CHAOS end their year in Bristol, and WAW & Bellatrix promoting a double-shot in Norwich, featuring the top UK women’s talent, as well as WWE star Paige’s father, mother, and brothers! Join me then for all the news that’s fit to print!

    (Special thanks to Ben Corrigan for contributing to this report!)