Ciaran James @TheCiaranJames
I return this week after last weekend was spent watching two wrestling shows in as many days. On Saturday 21/7 I attended “Heir 2 The Throne 4” presented by Pro Wrestling Chaos. The event was good, with highlights coming from Mark Haskins, Beano, Kip Sabian, Charlie Sterling and Eddie Dennis, who all performed out of their skin. Mark Haskins in his 3rd appearance for Chaos in 2018 took top honours, the man is phenomenal, Haskins is truly one of the best this country has to offer. The event was capped of by Eddies Dennis returning to a Chaos ring after 6 months injured, he defeated Alex Steele in a “Loser Leaves Chaos Match”. This was just the return Eddie wanted and needed, the audience are behind him 100% and he is arguably the biggest star of the Chaos roster.
On Sunday 22/7 I attended Kamikaze Pro “Truth or Consequences” this featured a great mixture of established talent and the next wave of academy graduates. Bram & main roster debutant Luke Douglas, this was a wild brawl with Douglas really setting an example of his huge potential. Robbie X also put in another shift, this man is the most underrated worker on the UK Indy scene, he can work a variation of styles and and face off with anyone in the squared circle. The main event featuring Trial By Violence (Saxon Huxley & Gabriel Kidd) vs The Hunter Brothers was easily one of the best tag team contests I have seen this year, all four men were exceptional, especially Kidd and Huxley.
I’ve been attempting to catch up with the G1 this week, Jay White has really caught my eye after I was indifferent to him at the Wrestle Kingdom show. Another notables nods go to Kota Ibushi, Minoru Suzuki and Naito, their performances plus everyone else has been fantastic, NJPW certainly set the standard for tournaments.
The speculation surrounding Matt Riddle’s rumoured signing with WWE has also caught my eye this. As much as I shudder at the thought of Riddle joining WWE/NXT his potential in the company is huge, used correctly there is the possibility of him being one of the top guys in the company. Riddle has the connection with the audience, the background in UFC and has been like a duck to water where wrestling is concerned. The fact he has started cancelling indy dates only further adds to the speculation, many presume he will make his on screen debut at NXT TakeOver Brookly in August.
This weekend was capped off by the return to ITV of World of Sport Wrestling, I watch this and cringe. As good as some of the talent is, the product is why British Wrestling originally died a sad death. There are many more companies in the UK that deserve a TV Spot, Progress, ICW, Rev Pro and a others could benefit hugely, non wrestling fans see this and then they laugh. Pointless.
TWF @twf87
The G1 continued apace this week, with big shows moving west as the tour goes all the way to Kagoshima before returning to Tokyo for the finals at the Nippon Budokan. A full review of the shows will be coming later this week, so again I want to highlight some live wrestling I saw this week.
This week I went to see another joshi promotion at Shinkiba 1st Ring, one of the best venues in Tokyo for wrestling. This time it was a show put on by legendary All Japan Women’s standout Chigusa Nagayo, who runs her own company called Marvelous. Nagayo actually appeared at both the Stardom and Sendai Girls’ shows I attended last week as part of some cross-promotional storylines.
The Marvelous show was a lot of fun, and the whole show was infused with a light-hearted quality that was a nice change from the very serious G1. Even Marvelous’ standout performers like Takumi Iroha and Mio Momono really seemed to be enjoying themselves in the ring. Marvelous, like many of the joshi promotions, has a relatively small roster, so there was a chance to see wrestlers like Dash Chisako from Sendai Girls, and Sumire Natsu, who regularly appears for Stardom. My favourite match from the undercard was a tag team match between W-Fix members Kaoru and Yabushita Megumi against Sakura Hirota and Cherry. Sakura Hirota is rapidly becoming one of my favourite wrestlers, as she is extremely good at her comedy wrestling gimmick. The highlight was probably when she attempted to do a version of the Undertaker’s Old School move, but changed hands with her opponent midway so that they ended up walking in opposite directions, then fell off the top rope.
The main event saw Takumi and Mio take on Rin Kadokawa and US wrestler Nyla Rose. Nyla and Mio are normally a tag team, and their interactions in this match were great. Mio is about 4’11” and Nyla is at least twice her size, so at one point she literally flattened Mio. Takumi Iroha, the newly crowned Regina Di Wave champion, was extremely impressive throwing stiff kicks and German suplexes. Mio picked up the win for her team by pinning Rin, and then post match Nyla and Takumi had some banter about their upcoming Warriors Wrestling Women’s Championship match on August 5th. The show was fast-paced and did a good job of advancing story lines for upcoming shows in August. Marvelous is hosting its first ever show at Korakuen Hall in August 8th, and is another example of the thriving women’s wrestling scene in Japan. They have their own streaming service at freshlive.tv/marvelous, and charge approximately £5 a month.
Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
As most of my week has been spent following the Riptide qualifiers from show to show in preparation for the Pride weekend shows, it is worth noting that the brackets for the Brighton Championship Tournament have been drawn and have thrown up some interesting looking contests. Spike Trivet still waits on information about his wildcard opponent, Candyfloss and Cara Noir take their feud into the first round, Chris Ridgeway is up against Mille McKenzie and David Starr faces off against Charlie Morgan in some of the more notable or interesting matches in the first round. The match that has me – and many others – most excited is the Jonah Rock versus Walter contest. The two men met at wXw Inner Circle earlier in the year, so this isn’t a first time contest, but it was a fun, hard hitting match, and this should be more of the same.
It would be remiss to write something this Sunday without talking in turn about the three deaths that have shocked and upset the wrestling world.
Nikolai Volkoff was by no means my favourite wrestler, but having grown up watching VHS copies of Wrestlemania IV and VI, he was a guy that I just link to my childhood wrestling fandom more than anything. Going back to 1984 as I have in my books, he was less of a caricature and more of a threat, moving from territory to territory until landing in the WWF for the long term. His team with the Iron Sheik was a perfect way of transitioning him away from singles where he had somewhat peaked, and they would historically be the first people to win a title at a Wrestlemania. By all accounts, he was also a genuinely lovely man. A real character that epitomised the territorial era.
Brickhouse Brown, I’ll be honest, is a wrestler I never knew too much about until this year. However, he was someone who had some relatively recent popularity in the shoot interview market; a guy who was happy to tell how it was and shine a light on being a black wrestler on the territorial circuit. In 1984, he was working with Mid-South, pushed hard as a potential replacement for JYD. An exciting wrestler who lacked that spark to make him something special, he had been unwell for a while and is at least now at peace.
The most tragic of the three is the untimely death of Brian Christopher. Born into the wrong era if he wanted to make the most of his abilities – he was a born 80s Memphis heel who came around at a time when size trumped all – Christopher still managed to make something of himself through his association with Scott Taylor and Rikishi. At a time when spots at the top table could be transient, the Too Cool guys found themselves a gimmick that made them one of the most over acts in the company. A life born into wrestling is seemingly one that is often difficult, between the excess and the expectation. It is truly sad, and the thoughts of the Pro Wrestling Journal staff go out to all of the families and friends of the three men.
