Hello my name is Iwan Mackenzie and the ResGal must be cheap to hire.
I’m back with another review this time with the International Wrestling League (IWL) being back at the ResGal and with their first champ being crowned.
So quick little IWL history as they’ve had an up and down time the last 12 months. Their first show was in January 2018 which was doable for those going to the RevPro York Hall show which me and the rest of my group did, the group being me, Andy, Nick, Big Dave, Liam and Adam. It was in a little basketball court in Silvertown with the bounciest floor in human existence, good show overall though with Botchamania’s Maffew being their randomly.
The second show did draw a very low attendance which was even lower in the second half of the show due to Maverick Mayhew’s family leaving as he had another booking; It was a good show though with the members of WhiteWolf having a great match. At this point, we all had the though that IWL may not have another show which was a shame as they had the talent they just needed the crowd. They announced though that they were heading to the ResGal and announced a load of great talents but there was quite a few drop outs and replacements which lead to me coining the quote “More pull-outs than an orgy”. We still went though and made noise as we wanted to support IWL and the young talents they have.
Since November though, IWL have really been hitting their stride both creatively and being able to pull in a crowd as it grows every show, there of course has been some great wrestling as well that a lot of can be checked out via their YouTube channel.
Going into this show, we would get our first IWL champ being crowned as fierce rivals David Francisco and Connor Mills face off, Chris Brookes makes his IWL debut and Jayde returns in a grudge match against Mauro Chaves amongst other stuff.
Due to having a day off, I decided to head up to London early and meet Andy from work, we grabbed a Nandos (I had a chicken wrap, peri-salted chips, coleslaw, halloumi fries and a soft drink if you’re interested and if not I’m sorry for wasting your time), jumped on the tube to Bethnal Green from Oxford Circus via Victoria and got their just after doors were supposed to open but we’re operating on BritWres time folks! Met up with Big Dave, Donna and Louis in the queue and got inside pretty swiftly once doors were open, took our usual space and brought some magazines, a calendar and a power bank from Louis, just decided to start reading the magazine as we had a lot of time to pass but I did say hello to a friend of mine Clair who’s Connor Mills sister and was there to support him in his big match. Nick and Liam eventually turned up and after that the show was ready to begin.
The tremendously entertaining Super Tasty Bacon Jr is our host for tonight and announces that he is the temporary General Manager as the regular GM isn’t able to be there which we all cheer because he got rid of Charli Evans which makes him a dickhead in our books.
In our first match of the night we see Laura Di Matteo accompanied by her tag partner Mauro Chaves takes on her trainer and mentor Darrell Allen who came out to Madonna’s Isla Bonita which got the crowd in a party mood straight away.
Good technical exchange between the two for the opening stages of the match with it very much wrestled like an old school British match; Laura did take it to striking though including hitting a big dropkick but Allen gave her a receipt in the form of a bigger dropkick and a beauty. Laura does take control but Allen uses his size to power out and mount a comeback and did does look like Allen has it won but Mauro makes his way out to ringside to distract the ref allowing Laura to hit Allen right in the Ding Dings and roll him up for the win. Really good match to kick us off with a good level of chemistry between the two.
Next up is a triple threat match as Buffalo Soldier (stepping in for an injured Sadie Gibbs) taking on The OJMO and the debuting Chris Brookes (who entered the toilet at first before entering the ring). Because the match was a No DQ match, Brookes said that he’s going to set OJMO on Fire and then the catchphrase Now We Play with Fire.
Brookes tried to get OJMO on his side by offering him to form a new version of CCK but that didn’t work so he offered Buffalo membership with Schadenfreude but that didn’t work, we told him to ask the ref and he did but it was a rouse and he sneak attacked both men. Brookes keeps the momentum on his side for the first portion of this match but OJMO and Buffalo take back momentum and eliminate him from the equation leading to a stand off and sequence between the two hearkening back to their great match at IWL in November.
Brookes gets back in and eliminates OJMO leading to Brookes vs Buffalo for a bit, Buffalo does have control for a little while but it all falls apart when he goes for a powerbomb off the apron but Brookes traps his head in the ringskirt and just stamps his face in. OJMO comes back in and takes it to Brookes, he goes for a top rope moonsault but Brookes catches him with a dropkick in mid air in IWL’s very own Ricochet/Cole moment, it was pure brutality and my moment of the match. Brookes takes control over OJMO but OJMO fights back but after a notable excursion from the match we hear Buffalo shout “You Bumbaclart!” and dives from the ResGal balcony with a big old crossbody.
From here on there, we get a load of cool triple sequences from all three man with my favourite being a wall run arm drag by Buffalo onto OJMO immediately followed by a SHOOOOOP! Slingshot Cutter by Brookes. The finish comes though when OJMO hits his springboard moonsault onto both then locks both in a half crab and they both tap out to end the best IWL match since Eddie Dennis vs Connor Mills back in November.
This seriously may be one of the best matches I’ve seen all year, just a non-stop adrenaline fulled triple threat that all men put a shift in for. If you want to check the match out for your yourself its already on IWL’s YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4ZukkvsssI
So following that insanity we have IWL’s Hatcore champion JJ Lynch (its a long story) face off against Josef Kafka who this time came out to Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush, lovely stuff.
These two had a difficult position following that triple threat but thankfully the two have terrific chemistry and great personalities that the crowd could get invested in. They kept the comedy quite minimal in this one and stuck to wrestling, it was a really good match overall with JJ at one point missing big with a Carlson Elbow off the top rope and Kafka taking advantage, Kafka hits a slingshot senton but only gets a two. Kafka eventually submits JJ with the Kafka Klutch to pick up the win, JJ was quite sad after the match and almost left his Hatcore Title in the ring but decided against it and left with it. JJ was like this after his match with Spike Trivet at the last show, I wonder where the storyline is going as JJ is normally quite a jovial fellow.
In our last match before the interval, its a grudge match as Jack Sexsmith entering to the Beatles classic “Helter Skelter” (which I changed the words to you a dickhead) face off against Maverick Mayhew. The grudge here comes from Sexsmith leaving Maverick during their tag match leading to a defeat to Bruno Brown and Darcy Stone, Sexsmith attacked Maverick after the match but Brown/Stone saved Maverick from further damage, leading to this match.
They get off to a hot start with Maverick taking the fight to Sexsmith quite ferociously and even taking him out with a big time Suicide dive onto Sexsmith parting the crowd in the big time. It only takes one moment though and Sexsmith takes advantage off Maverick, I should note that Sexsmith has really grown into his heel role, I had some doubts but he’s proven me wrong. We do take the piss out of Sexsmith a lot during this match by referring to him as Scumbag Jack, I even got a Baby Shark Scumbag Jack chant going as well.
Maverick does comeback though with some big time offence including a big spin kick and hitting a running Metiora but Sexsmith appears to be injured as the ref and Bacon Jr checks on him, Maverick checks on and asks at the back for a medic but its all a charade and Sexsmith rolls Maverick up for the win, what a scumbag BOOOOOOOO! In all seriously though, this was a really good story based match that has got more in it for another match.
Interval now and whilst my mates Dave and Liam got a in-ring picture as a part of their VIP package, I instead spoke to Jayde as we haven’t spoke to each other for a good long while now, we mostly spoke about the gym and I picked up her new t-shirt (it is really sick) and grabbed a picture with her as well.
Back from our break and we have a battle of Escaping the Midcard stars as Spike Trivet battles the debuting TK Cooper. Most of this match for me was mostly spent watching through a video camera as I was helping TK out by filming footage for next week’s ETM, so look out for footage from that. We start off in typical technical fashion with the both being very apt at it but Trivet starts to take it to striking with him hitting some chops but not really having an effect on TK, TK tries to play the don’t look game with Trivet but Trivet sucker punches TK so TK has to tell him that he’s forgotten then he points to us and says “Tell Them Noisybois” and we respond back with “He’s Samoan!” but Spike catches him again with a sucker punch and then goes to run off the ropes but TK ducks and weaves and hits a big time leg lariat. TK goes for a big move but Trivet cuts him off and starts to lay the boots in and proclaims “Don’t embarrass me in front of the Noisybois!” that caught me off guard and made me laugh hard.
More heelish antics from Trivet but after one too many strikes, TK starts to relish these strikes and starts to fight back but Trivet cuts him off with a short arm boot to the face; TK is able to fight back though and hits a mafia kick onto Trivet from the apron into the ring, just as it looks like TK is going to hit a big finisher, Trivet pulls ref Lauren in front of him so he can recover and hit a Tornado DDT onto TK for a nearfall. A little later on it looks like TK is going to hit a tope rope Spanish fly but doesn’t have enough faith in it considering the room he’s working with, it is the ResGal so I can understand him, Trivet shoves TK off the top and hits a double foot stomp onto TK’s back and a roll-up but still comes up short, at this point chants of IWL rang out as this was pretty damn good.
Trivet taunts TK about starting ETM and making a t-shirt without him on it and starts to shove him but TK goes for a shot but Trivet plays possum then hits an eye poke, Trivet gets caught by TK though and hoisted into the ropes and hit with the Omulette De Fromage by TK for a nearfall, I love that move. TK picks Trivet up and goes for a shot again but Trivet goes for the eye poke again but TK catches him and bends the finger, TK hoists Trivet up to the second rope and goes for the Spanish Fly again but Trivet pushes TK off but TK flips out of it onto his feet, Trivet comes down and throws TK into the post and hits the Birthright for the win to continue his undefeated streak in IWL.
Afterwards he announces the first match for his UK Leaving Party next month and its Candyfloss vs Chris Ridgeway because he thinks its funny, that match will be something indeed. As for this match though, I though it was awesome, great chemistry displayed by both and a MOTN candidate for me after the triple threat match.
Next up is a grudge match as Mauro Chaves takes on the returning Jayde. The grudge comes from back in November where Mauro and Laura attacked Jayde and Charli Evans during their match, at the last show Mauro defeated Evans in a Loser Leaves IWL match and to get heat comes out to Charli’s music before transitioning to his music, nice touch. Super Tasty Bacon Jr (who is the GM for the night) tells Jayde that if she wins this match then she’ll grant her a wish because of Mauro interfering in her last match.
Jayde and Mauro surprisingly don’t go full throttle on each other to start with, more going for the advantage, Mauro tries to tell a joke but does fuck it up, a fact that even Jayde picks up on gets cheered for it, that saved the moment some what. Mauro goes for Jayde but Jayde strikes back (sounds like an album) and she lays them in deep showing some great babyface fire but Mauro cheap shots Jayde and takes control. There is a portion of the match that isn’t the smoothest and that can maybe be down to these two not working with each other a whole ton in the past but the character work did prevail through this; Jayde hits a couple of big time moves and looks to finish things but Laura Di Matteo gets onto the apron to try and do what Mauro did earlier but Jayde just runs up to her, slaps her and shouts “Bitch” that made me laugh, she then rolls up Mauro and picks up the win.
She announces that at a future IWL show that she and a mystery partner will face Mauro and Laura, we all chant for Charli Evans and she does say that her partner comes from Down Under… This match wasn’t the smoothest in the world but it did have some good moments and the character work was very strong throughout.
In our penultimate match of the night we have a WrestleGate Pro exhibition match as NIWA takes on Danny Jones in both men’s debut’s for IWL; thankfully Danny got a better reaction here then he did at the Kamikaze Pro show in February but the less said about that the better…
Strange choice for the penultimate match but both men were going to offer something different to the rest of the card and boy did they deliver with a real slice of strong style. This really was a real clash of styles with Danny’s Japanese training clashing wonderfully with NIWA’s Mexican training; they started off very technically and then it started to break down with forearms, chops and some viscous kicks from Jones onto NIWA’s back. A great sequence with a jackknife pin from Danny that he floats over to a lovely looking piledriver, this isn’t enough for Danny though as NIWA picks up the win following a PowerBreaker. Great match between the two and good evidence for bringing the two back on a more regular basis.
In our main event, we see “Fantastic” David Francisco taking on “True Grit” Connor Mills in a No DQ match to crown the first ever IWL Champion.
Francisco is on a five match winning streak having defeated Roy Johnson, Adam Ralph, Maverick Mayhew, Eddie Dennis and Connor Mills as well, Mills challenged Francisco to a match at the last IWL show after Francisco attacked Mills’s trainer Eddie Dennis. Francisco’s winning streak has pretty much been central to IWL’s existence and the crowning of the first IWL champion made this match feel like a true main event that not many promotions do.
Francisco shows off his dominance even before the bell by shoving Lauren the ref around and laughing about it, leading to the chant of Average Wanker from our section, this was only the start of many Average chants for Francisco throughout the match. He cheap shots Mills with the belt itself just after the bell and then beats down Mills with boots and even throws him into the wall of the ResGal, he dumps him to the outside and hits his slide through dropkick and goads the audience into booing him, I give him the classic two finger salute, this gives Mills enough time to get back to his feet and fire back at Francisco with furious anger, Mills is on fire from this moment on wards and goes for his Moonsault press but Francisco superkicks him in midair in a move that would have been more impressive if we didn’t see the same thing earlier in the triple threat match.
Plenty of rest holds and controlling of the match from Francisco from here on out as he soaks in the plethora of different songs with the words changed to Average Dave that we can think of. Francisco pulls out a chair which is only the second weapon used in this No DQ match. He goes for a swing but Mills catches him off guard with a superkick right into the chair and hits the MillsShot to pick up a nearfall, Francisco cheats to get back on top, hits a MillsShot of his own and the Stomp which is the move that has picked up the wins for him over the last 14 months but Mills kicks out, Francisco looks shocked.
Francisco grabs the belt and looks possessive over it but Mills gets back up and knocks him down, Francisco grabs the belt on the ground but Mills stamps on his feet and stops him from using it and then he hits The Stomp onto Francisco onto the belt and then heads to the apron and hits a Springboard 450 Splash to get the win and in the process becoming the first ever IWL champion and ending Francisco’s 14 month winning streak.
Francisco keeps a hold of the belt looking possessive over it but then he tosses the belt to Mills in almost a show of respect from him and leaves Mills to celebrate his title win, one little thing I should mention is that me and Big Dave had brought confetti cannons to toast the winner but I couldn’t fire mine off so Liam had to do it for me and the impact of the cannons weren’t as impressive as I had hoped but the gesture was their at least.
This was a really good main event match, the pair have great chemistry anyway and thankfully this match was different from their July encounter as well, the ending sequence in particular was Fantastic and it told a story within itself. Although we call David Average, in all truth he is one of the most improved wrestlers on the UK scene over the last 12 months and his performances in IWL have been the best of his career in my opinion; as for Mills, I felt elated at his title win as its something I’ve wanted to see happen this year as he especially over the last 6 months has been one of the most consistent wrestlers in the UK by regularly having the MOTN on many shows, plus outside of the ring, me and him are very close and its always nice to see good people do great things.
By the way if you want to watch this match for yourself then IWL have uploaded it to their YouTube channel in lightning quick fashion I must add, it can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLSY-vSKWhU
Post show, I spoke to Mauro Chaves, OJMO, Maverick Mayhew and even grabbed a picture with the new champ himself Connor Mills.
So my overall thoughts on this show: It’s was a really enjoyable great show overall, it had q few great matches in the forms of the Brookes/OJMO/Buffalo triple threat, TK vs Spike, Jones vs NIWA and Mills vs Francisco, the show had a lot of variety though and you could find something on here for you. In the annals of IWL history this is their 2nd best show just behind their November show, a fact that me and Big Dave agreed about on the way back to the tube station.
Their next show is on April 25th and its called Spike Trivet’s UK Leaving Party, a show that may be a little less formal then the usual IWL show. I do feel that a UK Leaving Party may get delayed though…
If you want to follow IWL on Social Media then its @IntWresLeague
If you want to follow me on Social Media then its @IwanMack
Thank You for Reading
Iwan Mackenzie
