Hello my name is Iwan Mackenzie and I promise you right now that this will be better than Shrek the Third. Hello once again to another edition of Talking Mack, the article where I tell you which wrestling shows I’ve been to over the course of the month and tell you some of the best matches I’ve seen over that month and any funny antidotes over the month, let’s go!
WEEK ONE – RevPro at the Cockpit
So last time you joined me I was in Lesicter at the end of August for Resurgence, well late that night as I was playing catch up on Takeover, a friend of mine Abi messaged me and said that I can have her ticket for the sold out C0ckpit show; we met up the next day at Green Park after a fairly quick journey back to London from Leiscter, went for a Nandos with Liam afterwards and then met Tobi at Bethnal Green to take our Luchasaurus/Jungle Boy picture after we missed out on Friday. Headed to the Cockpit and was in eventually after what felt like an eternity. Now readers I dont want this article to start of negativly but this show was very disapointing and a major comedown from the night before, plus with this suposed to be a mystery show, the suprises for the most part were a letdown; there was really only two things that was cool that I will speak about. We first of all got a rematch from previous months as Aussie Open took on the #CCK combination of Chris Brookes and Jonathan Gresham, this was a great 15-minute plus tag match but you’d expect from two of the best teams working today.
The other cool moment was the surprise main event of Mike Bailey vs SANADA! It was cool to see #1 contender for the IWGP Heavywieght Championship SANADA in a 200 seat venue; very good main event too.It was also the last time that I saw Josh Bodom wrestle live but less about him the better…
WEEK TWO – Breed in Sheffield
So as some of you might know, Breed was suspossed to be running a show in a Cave on the Sunday after this show but it got postponed due to someone ringing into the council which led to a second piece of licencing that neither Breed or the Cave knew about. It was a shit situation all round and unfortunatley a lot of wrestlers and fans alike were left out of pocket.I was set to buy my ticket for the show that evening but I got a heads up from a mate about it, thankfully I was able to change my Megabus ticket to come back on Sunday instead so I still decided to still go up for the Saturday show.
Said mate Chris Lawson was putting me up for the night in Huddersfield so I got a combination of train/bus there and got in about 14:00, decided to head to McDonalds for some lunch but the service was slower than a slug and tortoise race, thankfully I got my food with ten minutes to go until my train to Sheffield, me and Chris met up and more or less ran to the platform for the train.We eventually got into Sheffield at 15:55 and walked to the venue which was only a ten minute walk from the station; they had an afternoon show called PMA which we thankfully got in time for the opening match which ended up being a handicap match of Gene Munny against Club Tropicana’s Aidan teaming up with Captain Cuddles who was a Children’s Teddy Bear; this match included Gene Munny taking various moves from the Teddy and referee Chris Sharpe helping guide the action, this was a brilliant comedy match that needs to be seen to be BEARlived!..I’ll see myself out…
We then got a tag match of Jay Joshua and Gia Adams facing off against Tate Mayfairs who we took the piss out of because of his choice of attire as they resembled a Weatherspoons carpet and his tag team partner for the afternoon was the Women of Steel champion Ivy who was roasted by a burn by Chris, that went like this:
We then had Luke Jacobs brutalise the young Henry Faust in short order although Henry did have flushes of hope in this bout and finally TK Cooper successfully defended his Breed Pro Championship against T-Bone in a match which was re-started twice both under no count-out and no disqualification rules in a fun and wild main event. Afterwards a group of us headed to a local pub to grab some drinks and food as well as review the show on the Graps and Claps podcast which can be listened to here:
https://grapsandclapsaudio.podbean.com/e/graps-and-claps-audio-breed-part-1m4a/
After this and a quick t-shirt change, we headed back to the venue where I finally used the infamously bad toilets that the venue has and I can report that they were infact Shit. The show kicked off though with a TK Cooper promo talking about his next challenge when Big Guns Joe interrupted which led to Joe’s scheduled match against Gene Munny. In what most of us presumed was going to be a pure comedy match was actually a real good match instead with Big Guns Joe picking up the shocking win and being added into the main event later on that evening as a part of the Breeding Ground tournament. Gene Munny also cut the promo of his career and summed up the feeling that every British fan had at that very moment.
As a part of the Breeding Ground Tournament we had a lot of local and upcoming talent along with more recognisable names that made this tournament stand out; in first round action we had Adam Bolt def. Simon Miller, Will Kroos def. Darius Lockheart, Henry Faust get a shock win over MK McKinnan and a short but fiery match and we had Alec Mikeals def. Mark Sanders in a match that was notable for Mikeals valet being hilarious at ringside as the gimmick of a party girl who was waiting for a night out.
After our interval where I used the previously noted toilets, we got something that wasn’t shit as we got the UK debut of Canada’s own Daniel Makabe as he took on Team WhiteWolf member Carlos Romo; the crowd were noticeably more quiet during this as we were all concentrating on the match as these two had an excellent technical wrestling contest, it was fanciating to watch and in particular there was an awesome sequences where the arm was involved the whole time; in the end Makabe picked up the win with a package Cattle Mutational and got a standing ovation. If you can take twenty minutes out of your day to watch this match then watch it, its an excellent match from start to finish. First time I’d ever seen Makabe and I became a big fan instantly of his style and look and having known and seen Romo for ages, this is the best match he’s ever had in a singles capacity and hopefully the match that breaks him out as a singles star on the UK scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbPadSQrnDs&t=596s
After that we got Ivy sneakily retain her Women of Steel title after getting herself DQ’d against Ivy only to be told that Raven will face her again for the title at a future show, nothing to massively write home about in this match but we all told Ivy to shut up before Ivy headed towards us lot with her bat only for Raven Creed to defend us, knew there was a reason why I was a big fan of her. After that Luke Jacobs defeated Jay Joshua in just over seven minutes to win an ultra stiff match with a ton of strikes and kicks, if you love the All Japan style of the 90s the this is for you.
In our main event we had Big Guns Joe win the Breeding Ground Invitational after lastly pinning Will Kroos with a schoolboy to a humongous pop that led to me and my mates doing a lap of the ring in celebration, this was the win that we the fans wanted and needed, in just one night Big Guns Joe became the cult hero that British Wrestling had been crying out for and all gave us the happiness that had seemingly been taken away from us with the borbadment of shit news over the week.The match went like this, Kroos was the big dominant monster that elminated Henry, Adam and Alec in short order with Joe being the only one that could match him which included a massive bodyslam for a near fall, afterwards we all ran round the ring another three times shouting “JOE! BIG GUNS JOE!”, I even banged my knee pretty hard.
Its night like this which reminds you of why you became a fan of professional wrestling in the first place, you’re surrounded by awesome friends, some old and new and a great range of pro wrestling ranging from emotional to awesome. All in all, perfect day.
Week Three – SOUL, NPS, EVE and Ally Pally
So my wrestling weekend started off with Pro Wrestling SOUL’s first ever all-female show on the Friday; headed there straight after work and grabbed some food once there, there was a pre-show meet and greet that included a signed poster and a professional picture with all 8 competitors of the tournament for only a tenner! I purchased it and got a really cool photo looking at it. This whole show was a tournament to decide who would go onto face off at the December show for the SOUL Womens Championship. Dani Luna was the first one through after defeating Talia Martins and Bobbi Tyler respectively; her opponent ended up being Kanji who defeated Millie McKenzie and then had an absolute barn burner with Charli Evans in the main event. The two will face each other for the championship on December 29th .
The next day was set to be a big one as I had a double header of shows to attend, the first one being the 2019 edition of PROGRESS’ Natural Progression Series, a tournament focusing on showcasing the brightest young and lesser known talents of the UK scene, this tournament line up featured an eclectic line up of talent with maybe the most standing out being Gene Munny. Gene pretty much had the been the sole promoter of the show as he believed in it that much and wanted people to come, when he was announced a friend of mine Chris East (of Love the Graps) put a load of us in a group chat and asked us if we’d be interested in buying these T-Shirts that read “I Brought my ticket to see Gene Munny”, we all agreed and we all ended up at the show wearing these t-shirts and grabbing a picture with him at the interval.
Gene was one of my highlights of the show as he had a spectacular entrance and put on a great match with Scotty Davis. Scotty would win that match before progressing onto the Semi-Finals where he defeated Cara Noir in the Match of the Night. Cara himself was a stand out of the tournament as he garnered a massive reaction upon his entrance on route to him taking out Dan Moloney in a great match in the first round. In non tournament action you had the farewell match of Santana and Ortiz in PROGRESS as they teamed up with Eddie Kingston to face Chris Brookes, Jonathan Gresham and Jordynne Grace (subbing for Lucky Kid who had travel issues) in a crazy wild street fight to end the LAX vs CCK rivalry, Eddie cut a very heartfelt promo afterwards which put a nice cherry on top of a really enjoyable match.
Scotty’s opponent in the final would be Danny Duggan who had defeated Malik (Another one of my stand outs of the show) and then The OJMO in the semi-final thanks to interference from his new stable mates in DnR, its fair to say that this was all treated with a mixed reaction, some loved it but other like myself massively disliked it, as a non-regular PROGRESS attendee, this was something that I felt got in the way of what could just be an awesome wrestling show, it did work for the heel and face dynamic going into the final as Scotty Davis picked up the win and became the 2019 winner of NPS.
I couldn’t celebrate Scotty’s victory for too long though as me and my mates Paul, Joe and Martin jumped in Paul’s car and headed down to Bethnal Green to watch EVE’s “Wrestling with an Agenda” which was a really good show top to bottom with only the Championship stuff with Rhia O’Reilly and Roxxy being an issue for me as I personally didn’t enjoy the nature of it, felt very Triple H 2000-era but not in a good way, but in the good stuff from the shows; Holidead defeated Jetta, Charli Evans and Trish Adora in a fast paced opener, Jinny suffered a loss to Mercedes Martinez in a banger of a match which me and Martin agreed was one of Jinny’s best ever matches.
Laura Di Matteo and Jayla Dark picked up a win over Rhia O’Reilly’s henchwomen Livvi Grace and Nightshade in a no holds barred style of match, I enjoyed this a lot more than I anticipated that I would. Angel Hayze made an impressive debut losing to Sammii Jayne, Angel here looked like a young Kay Lee Ray; Millie McKenzie punched her ticket to the SHE-1 after defeating Chikara star Solo Darling a great showcase for Solo who comes off as mixture of Mike Quakenbush and Kris Wolf I thought, post match Charli Evans came out and demanded a singles match as she had been denied her scheduled bout earlier, even putting her SHE-1 spot on the line which led to Mercedes Martinez answering the call and putting Charli away in another awesome match for both her and Evans to earn her way into the SHE-1.
That was my big double header, a really long day out and thankfully the show I had next day was…PROGRESS’ biggest show of the year in Alexandra Palace, yay me….So the next day, I took myself up to Wood Green and after special guest starring on Graps and Claps again:
https://grapsandclapsaudio.podbean.com/e/graps-and-claps-audio-progress-nps-and-evem4a/
Me and my Dylan headed up via bus up the hill to Ally Pally where we wanted to get in early to do the special meet and greet that PROGRESS had put on for free with two of my favourite wrestlers of the last few years, Matt Riddle and Keith Lee.
Now despite not seeing both since May 2018, they instantly recognised me, that was awesome that they remembered my face and name, in particular Riddle saw me in the queue and said “I know this Bro” I headed up to him and gave him a massive hug just because I missed him that much; Keith Lee on the other hand picked me up off my feet with ease for the picture I got with him, was lovely to see them both again.
But lets talk about the actual show itself because fair to say that a lot of fans were not that excited about the show due to the lack of build and with a lot of WWE names brought in to help sell tickets but I’m happy to say that I loved this show from top to bottom, one of the most enjoyable PROGRESS shows in years I personally thought with not a lot dragging it down for me personally.
Scotty Davis cashed in his NPS championship shot as he along with Jordan Devlin inserted themselves into the tag team championship match of Aussie Open vs Grizzled Young Veterans before going on to win the championships in a fast paced exciting opener. Pete Dunne’s open challenge was answered by Cara Noir, who’s entrance looked spectacular in the setting of Ally Pally coupled with PROGRESS’s production values; Pete Dunne picked up the win in a predictable outcome but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that this was an excellent match from start to finish, the two had natural chemistry and some really convincing near falls, Cara Noir is a megastar.
Moustache Mountain reunited for one night defeating the aforementioned Matt Riddle and Keith Lee aka Limitless Bros in a match that very much was like when a band releases a Greatest Hits, est part of the match was the beginning as Riddle recreated his famous 6 second win over Trent Seven a couple of years ago before following it up with a spear and jackhammer only to get a nearfall in a dig to Goldberg, the crowd decided to beckon Riddle with “BROBERG” chants. Meiko Satomura finally made her PROGRESS debut on route to defeating Jordynne Grace to win the Women’s championship in the best match of Grace’s title reign.
Another new champion was crowned as Paul Robinson won the first ever PROGRESS Rumble match lastly eliminating Twitter favourite Danny Duggan to become the first ever Proteus Champion, entrants in the rumble ranged from Eddie Kingston to Dani Luna to Gene Munny to Chris Roberts; this was a really well booked rumble match and was really entertaining for the majority of it. In the main event we got another chapter in the WALTER vs David Starr story that ended when Eddie Dennis returned to PROGRESS with his title shot that he won in Wembley the year prior being cashed in with old buddy Mark Andrews turning heel and helping him win the title pinning Starr before cutting a heel promo after to end the show, I personally loved this angle and it got me interested in seeing what happens next.
WEEK FOUR – GOOD and Kamikaze
After quite a big weekend the past weekend, most people were resting up for bigger things at the end of the month but I decided instead to take a visit to two of my favourite undergraps promotions with GOOD being first on the docket on the Saturday night as me Joe, Cass, Cal and Donna all headed to Wolverton early doors to grab some food before heading to the pub where GOOD is held to grab a drink and play on the N64 that they have including such games as Disney Racing and Goldeneye, the latter included me playing as Sean Bean’s character and predictably I ended up dying all the time.
Onto the show though which was now a mystery show as they had a lot of pullouts only the day prior to the show so they threw all the scheduled matches out in the window, leading to as series of envelopes with mystery stipulations; the show opened up with Grand Prize (their world championship) Beano to apologise for him not being able to compete due to injury, he did receive his envelope at his own request however and it read “Face who ever comes out next” this lead to Chris Brookes sneakily coming out and rolling him up before the bell rang and Brookes became the new Grand Prize holder in a record three seconds; Brookes cut a great delusional heel promo afterwards which was basically him not caring that he just became champion.
The insanity ramped up with the next match as Millie McKenzie faced off against Lee Hunter, thats sounds standard right? well the reason why this was out of the box was because they were dressed up as each other and mimmicked each others move sets and even accents, Millie’s Lee impression in particular killed me with laughter. This was a brilliant comedy match from start to finish.
After that we had Warren Banks defeat Brendan White to become the new #1 contender in a blistering match that was like if two tanks went at each other but these two are also super athletic and they threaded a great story through his bout; they’ve both had great years but I’m hoping that 2020 is their breakout years. Following that we got Kurtis Chapman recieve a fairy-tale as he faced Mike Bailey who was dressed up as Shrek in a payoff to a joke that Bailey himself had created. Even though this match had a lot of antics and silly chants, it was actually a really awesome bout that showcased Chapman in a great way, Chapman has improved a lot over the last 12-18 months and he showed it here, I do love that Bailey’s current UK tour has been him helping put over the great young talent of British Wrestling.
After our interval we had more wackiness with Jayde against Veda Scott in a Lumberjack match with Tim Lee as the only Lumberjack due to the budget and then we had Tim Lee enter a Scrambo match alongside Chuck Mambo, Los Federales Santos Jr, Rufio, King Cupid and Hustle Malone; but lets talk about what happened in the main event as Charli Evans came out dressed like she was ready for a fight as she demanded a Deathmatch with Brookes for the GOOD Grand Prize and she got it, to add to Brookes’ not caring for the title, he wore the belt upside down.
These two layed it all out there with how much brutality they put each other through, this was a great performance by Charli Evans who I know has been campaigning to compete in a Deathmatch for months now; both bled and plenty of weapons were used but Charli was able to survive and win the championship from Brookes, this was a great moment and made me proud to be a Charli Evans fan.
Next Day it was time to once again head to Euston station but this time head to Coventry once again as it was time for Kamikaze’s Bank on It! 7 show that I nearly didn’t attend due to payment issues with tickets but got it sorted and decided to pop along mostly due to the ladder match gimmicks of this show but another reason was because of Sean Kustom defending his Kamikaze Pro championship against Mike Bailey.
I’m so pleased to report that this match was magical from start to finish, the crowd was really spilt despite Bailey taking the heel role; this was an awesome match from start to finish and it made Kustom look incredible, exactly what a champion of a promotion should be made to look like, this was my favourite match of Sean Kustom’s career and another highlight from the mystical being of MOTN Mike Bailey, expect to see this high up once my MOTY list gets released, later on this year.
In other talking points of the show, Robbie X got the win over Chris Brookes in a great clash of styles that I never expected to be as interesting as it was; Los Federales Santos Jr defeated Sugar Dunkerton in one of the best comedy matches I might have ever seen, this had much hilarity involving dancing, the Tequila song and invisible guns. But as I mentioned with this show it was about two ladder matches, one for the women and one for the men.
The Women’s ladder match was just fine I thought, it excelled in a few areas but what held it down was many of the competitors not working that style of match before with only a few in Lana Austin, Gisele Shaw and Millie McKenzie competing in them style of bouts, Chantal Jordan did have the main talking point of this match for me as she did a massive Swanton dive from the top of the ladder to the outside which despite everybody catching her, her head still smacked off the floor with a sickening sound that made me cringe. Really got me thinking about the effect that spots like that have on talents of a certain age and that wrestlers at that age should be reducing using them kinds of spots not only for the longevity of their career but mostly because of their long term health, something that Lana Austin agreed with when speaking with her afterwards, it was her birthday as well!
The men’s ladder match I felt worked better due to all of the men having worked that style before, they made this match much more of a brawl around the crowd as well, it wasn’t a blow away ladder match I thought personally but it was still very good and had a very worthy winner in Man Like Deriess who has the world at his feet right now.
WEEK FIVE – EVE and Battle Pro
As most people headed up to Wolverhampton for Fight Club: Pro’s Project Mayhem weekender, I decided to stick down South and headed East for a special Friday night show for EVE entitled “Friday Night Riot”; a show with very big international stars as you had wrestlers from America and Japan coming in for the show itself. The first of these stars came in the form of Priscialla Kelly who lost a really fun opener to Jetta in a match that was part Tekkers and part comedy for the duration, Priscilla fit so perfectly with the tone and feel of EVE, I think I speak on most fans behalf when we say that we’d love to see her back.
Following that we got the second Holidead appearance of the month as she took on Gisele Shaw for a spot in the SHE-1, this was a banger of a match, had a great big/small dynamic to it as well as a stylistic clash, Gisele picked up the win via her new spinning splash that I haven’t thought of a name of yet. Jinny was up next as she got the victory over a returning Kanji in another fantastic match on this card, Jinny continued her great run of form for the month in this bout as she pulled out several new moves in her arsenal.
Next up ended up being my Match of the Night as we Nina Samuels take the victory in a Triangle rules match against Sammii Jayne and Tsukasa Fujimoto which was excellent I though from start to finish. Each woman brought their own style and flavour to this bout which made for a great mix, I was especially impressed with Fujimoto who I’d never seen wrestle before but I thought she was excellent in this bout, why are Joshi’s all great?
After our break we got a few shorter matches as Mercedez Blaze and Roxxy respetivley picked up big singles wins over Trish Adora and Skye Smitson; AEW star Emi Sakura once again returned to EVE to grace us with her awesome wrestling and Queen songs as she defeated Solo Darling in a spirited effort. Finally in our main event Rhia O’Reilly was able to get away with a win as she had Jayla Dark’s last match in the Resistance Gallery before EVE in a brutal Street Fight as Jayla drove herself and Rhia through a table from the top rope proclaiming that “I regret nothing!” which led to Rhia getting the arm over to get the pinfall.
Afterwards we got a proper send off for Jayla in the ResGal before her retirement the day after in Stratford as we had a great tribute video play as well as various roster members celebrating with her in the ring. Its a shame that I won’t get to see Jayla that much due to her retirement now, she was always a great person to chat to when I saw her but I wish her the best in retirement.
The next day I decided to once again head to the ResGal as this time it was time for Battle Pro to return with the sequel to their previous Eighteen plus event “After Hours 2” where we were getting a few debuts as well as some bizarre gimmick matches as well but I was very excited. I met up with my mates Rox and Sam early to head to Nandos before heading round and getting a spot just by the ring which was both beneficial and a regret at the same time. But lets get on with the matches as perennial underdog Fabio Romano got the upset win a scramble match when he pinned Mark Trew who was trapped in a figure four by Kurtis Chapman in a very entertaining scramble bout that also featured Buffalo Soldier, Roy Johnson and Sid Crass.
After that we got a few of the aforementioned Gimmick bouts as JJ Lynch beat Rex Armstrong in a Loser buys the Beers match; Josef Kafka defeated Solomon Lamb in a Tibetan Pinata match which needs to be seen to be believed but plenty of Bleach was used and that’s all I’m going to say on that; Rocky Mac defeated Oli Peace in a Last Man Standing match after a distraction from Rocky Mac’s mate God where Rocky dove off the balcony with a crossbody that kept Peace down for the ten, I can’t believe I just wrote that…
After that we had something was a little more straight forward but still crazy as Battle Pro Champion and Tag Team Champions Destination: Everywhere (The OJMO and The NIC who had beat down and shaved JJ Lynch and Rex Armstrong earlier in the night) defeated the debuting trio of Dani Luna and Elijah & LK Mezzinger of Experiment in Terror; this was a crazy trios match that didn’t have a single wasted movement at all, the highlight of the match was when OJMO and Luna hit simultaneous Frog Splashes then faced off afterwards. Destination won in the end via cheating to end a great match and a great debut for the three youngsters from Wales.
After our interval we came back with Darrell Allen and Jordon Breaks aka Knucklelockers were set to be in concert but RJ Singh and his new protegee Jordan Saeed intervened to set up a tag match that went short but that was perfect for what it needed to be, The KL still was able to sing afterwards as them, MC Slick Lombardo and official Chris Hatch gave us a rendition of Marvin Gaye’s “Stand by Me”.
After that we had another tag team bout as Danny Black teamed up with 17 year old El Nino who was stepping in for the injured Nico Angelo against the team of Billy Haze and Women’s champion Talia Martins which ended up being a barnburner with the highlight being a breakout performance by the young Nino who is in the talking for One to Watch in 2020 as he displayed some excellent aerial offence in this bout and thankfully he had Danny Black and Billy Haze helping him out to create such a great performance and Talia was great in her role of shit talking and getting more support for the babyfaces, Nino won with a crazy Dragon Rana on Haze.
In our main event we had The 2019 Winner Stays On Winner David Francisco defeat Connor Mills in a Deathmatch that was more like a Street Fight but none the less it was a near Twenty Five minute match that had blood, violence and brutality throughout and genuinely two really gutsy performances from both Mills and Francisco, if Battle Pro make this match available then check it out because its another side of these two that’s not been seen before.
And that concludes another month in wrestling for me, join me next time as I speak about my October.
Thank you for Reading
Iwan Mackenzie
@IwanMack
