Founded by Global wrestling star Will Ospreay, Frontline wrestling are one of the newest wrestling promotions to hit the U.K. scene, looking to mesh the Puroresu style with modern U.K. wrestling. With a card featuring Japanese stars Kenoh and Tanizaki, alongside British staples such as Mark Haskins, Morgan Webster & Travis Banks, their first show certainly garnered a lot of hype amongst both U.K. wrestling and Puroresu fans. Let’s take a look and how the evening’s events shaped out.
Any old school AJPW fans will probably appreciate the red and blue Frontline ring, and the logo is very similar to the Toryumon logo. Ospreay comes out to open the show, and promises to put everything he has into making the promotion work. He introduces us to the Frontline Young Lions, who will be making their debuts at the next show. They will essentially be getting the New Japan treatment, only being allowed to use basic moves during matches, putting up the ring, catching wrestlers when they dive, etc. Ospreay says he wants to bring the Japanese style of wrestling and integrate it into the British scene, which he calls the best wrestling scene in the world. Whatever you think of this show or Ospreay, you have to admire him for making a name for himself on the International circuit and now using that success to give something back to the British scene.
M&M (Connor Mills & Maverick Mayhew) vs. The 198 (Morgan Webster & Wild Boar)
M&M, who come out to Eminem, are huge underdogs here against the unique combo of Webster and Boar, but it will be interesting to see how they fare. Before the match starts, medical staff come into the ring to check over the wrestlers and apply Vaseline to their faces. This is an interesting touch, and while it raises a few chuckles from the crowd, it kind of gives the matches a legitimate fight feel. We’ve also got time limits on all the matches tonight, and the commentary (provided tonight by Dave Bradshaw and Steve Lynskey) mentions that the rules will be enforced stringently. Typical feeling out process to start, until Wild Boar uses his tag partner as a weapon and throws Webster into Mills to take control for his team. They isolate Mills for a while, but he soon makes the hot tag to Mayhew, who uses his athleticism to take control and hit a corkscrew moonsault to both his opponents outside, giving the Young Lions their first catch of the night in the process. Mills gets tagged back in and the two perform the Hardy Boys poetry in motion spot. Webster brings things back for his team, hitting his own corkscrew moonsault inside the ring to M&M, and Boar soon follows things up with a cannonball to Mayhew. The 198 hits a powerbomb/backstabber combo and Webster follows up with the Mandatory happiness for the win. The result was never in doubt, but this was a great showing for M&M, and the fast-paced style made for a perfect opening match.
Bea Priestley vs. Toni Storm
The feeling out process doesn’t last long, with Toni giving Bea a couple of slaps and a kick to the midsection, before Bea responds with a Hurricanrana. A series of counters puts Toni on the apron, and a kick to the face and a dropkick soon lands her outside. Bea goes to follow up with a kick from the apron but gets her leg caught by Toni, and she’s swung into the apron corner. Control of the match doesn’t last long for Toni, as Bea hits a leg sweep and then follows up with a boot and then a back elbow to a prone Toni Storm on the ropes. Bea hits a very painful looking running kick to Toni’s elbow, and then proceeds to focus her attack there. She locks in a Kimura, but Toni powers out and counters with a suplex. We get a striking battle between the two, until Toni catches Bea’s leg and hits a leg hook german suplex, following it up soon after with a fisherman suplex for a two count. Toni goes up top but gets caught and ends up in a tree of woe. Bea looks for the foostomp, but Toni suplex’s her (while still in the tree of woe) and then hits a spinning brainbuster for a two count. Toni, who’s still selling the elbow like a boss, goes for the piledriver, but Bea escapes and hits a series of kicks for another close fall. Toni blocks a PK and hits a bridged german suplex (although the bridged part doesn’t go quite right), before the two end up trading big boot’s to the face, before Bea hits a bridged back suplex for another two count. Bea hits a cheeky Nando’s, powerbomb and top rope footstomp but it still isn’t enough to put Toni away. Bea goes for a very uncommitted curb stomp, but Toni avoids it, and a snap german and then a piledriver gives her the win. Toni Storm is one of the best on the planet right now, but as the announcers rightfully pointed out at the start of the match, Bea has improving leaps and bounds recently. This dragged a little near the end, but all in all it was great stuff.
Adam Brooks & Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) vs. CCK (Chris Brookes, Kid Lykos & Travis Banks)
We’ll still getting the medical staff putting Vaseline on peoples faces, though Kid Lykes doesn’t have to wear it thanks to the mask. The announcers keep putting over the phrase “full contact sport”, and there’s a clear Japanese approach to proceedings so far. A fair bit of procrastinating during the early stages here, till Davis flapjacks Chris Brooks and proceeds to take out the whole of the CCK team. In a moment of foreshadowing, Adam Brooks tags himself in, but doesn’t fare well at all and gets triple dropkicked from all three members of CCK. CCK utilise quick tags to beat down Adan Brooks, before he gains back control after yanking Kid Lykos’s arm against the ropes. Adam makes the tag back to Davis, who then proceeds to utilise quick tags with his regular partner Fletcher. This seems to leave Adam feeling a little left out and ticked off. Kid hits a tornado DDT to Fletcher and gets the tag to Banks, who clears house with German suplexes all round! CCK then all hit top rope moves on Fletcher, ending with a frog splash from Banks, but Davis makes the save. Adam tags himself in again, but the three finally seem to start gelling and some triple teaming ends with a tornado DDT from Adam to Banks. Things start to break down into a free for all, ending with CCK all applying submissions to their opposition, but none of them get a tap out. Davis fights back for his team, taking out both Kid Lykos and Chris Brookes. Davis and Fletcher then deliver a suplex/spinbuster combo on banks, and Adam Brooked follows up with a top rope codebreaker, but only gets a two count. A frustrated Banks then goes to take off the turnbuckle pad, but Davis steps in and the two teammates start to argue, until Banks dropkicks Davis into Adam. Davis picks up Adam anyway, ready for the double team with Fletcher, but Adam pulls Banks out of harm’s way. Adam Brooks’s sudden but inevitable betrayal is then finalised with a low blow to Davis, leaving Fletcher at the mercy of CCK. The three members of CCK then take it in turns to hit big moves on Fletcher, ending with the Kiwi crusher from Banks for a three count. A fun six man tag, that did well to tell its story and set up a potential future rivalry. It was fairly obvious early on that Adam’s inability to function with his teammates was going to play some kind of role in the match, but it played out really well.
Frontline Heavyweight Title No. 1 contenders match
Mark Haskins vs. Naoki Tanizaki
One of the most intriguing matchups on paper, with ramifications for the next shows title match main event. Haskins catches Tanizaki out with the old fake handshake trick, which I guess you could put down to Tanizaki not knowing Haskins too well. Haskins dominates most of the match, weakening Tanizaki’s arm for an armlock. Tanizaki escapes the armlock, but soon finds himself having to escape a crossface as well. Tanaizaki eventually gets back into the match, tying Haskins leg up on the rope and hitting a diving knee to a prone Haskins. Those type of spots can come off fairly cheap looking, Haskins hadn’t been beaten up that bad and could have easily moved at any moment, but just stayed there waiting for Tanaizaki. They both try to hit piledrivers on each other, before Haskins ends up locking in his bridging armbar but Tanizaki rolls out of that (making it look fairly easy in the process). They trade strikes, before Haskins hits a pumphandle drop variation for the win. While not a bad match by any means, both men are capable of so much more, with some of the spots and selling being a little off here. Still, Haskins is great and certainly wouldn’t be a bad pick if Frontline choose to run with him as their first champion.
(Chief Deputy) Damien Dune & Kip Sabian vs. El Phantasmo & Kelly Sixx
Dune and Sabian are easily the two most gimmick-heavy wrestlers on the show, and unsurprisingly this match, for better or worse, ends up being the comic relief match. For those who aren’t familiar, Dune essentially polices fun, whilst Sabian is your Prima Dona type. There’s a lot of taunting, posing and even a dab early on, with Dune getting annoyed at his tag partner for taking part (because its too much like fun). Early on Dune tells Phantasmo to freeze before hitting an enziguri, and Phantasmo complies, standing with his head to one side, until he’s told to unfreeze and he falls over. Phantasmo also does a walk the ropes spot, where he goes back and forth across the ropes for entirely too long, until finally hitting a hurricanrana. After a few more comedy spots, things eventually get down to business, with fast paced action ruling the day. Things come to a head when Dune accidently disaster kicks his partner Sabian, and takes an aeroplane spin into a neckbreaker from Kelly Sixx. A high dive from Phantasmo to Sabian outside and a submission from Kelly Sixx to Dune later and the match is over. There’s a couple of ways to look at this match: on one hand you could say it feels very out of place with the more serious tone present elsewhere on the card, but on the other hand the comedy elements add some variety to the show. Either way though, this is the kind of thing that gives Jim Cornette nightmares. Things aren’t quite over yet though, and a trio called the Residence come out and beat down on Sixx (Phantasmo had gone to the back it seems.). No doubt about it, the match and post-match angle was a complete 180 to how the show had presented itself so far.
Frontline Heavyweight Title No. 1 contenders match
Rob Lynch vs. Stixx
Time for a big lads fight, and they come out of the gates fast with shoulder blocks before things reach a stalemate. An armwrench from Stixx to Lynch on the apron, soon puts an end to the stalemate, and from there on its a case of Stixx targeting Lynch’s arm. Lynch fights back with an overhead suplex, but fails to hit the follow up german suplex as Stixx again targets the arm. The two men hit a pair of double closelines, and they both end up down. At this point Haskin’s enters and takes a chair ringside to watch the match. Back in the ring they trade strikes and Lynch hits the german suplex, and later a turnbuckle powerbomb, but Stixx comes right back with a spear. A TKO from Stixx follows before Lynch hits a spear of his own, and sends Stixx outside with a big boot. Stixx catches Lynch with a spinning slam outside and delivers a frog splash back inside the ring. Lynch escapes out of a half crab, before hitting several big lariats for the win. It’s often a difficult spot for heavyweights to follow Junior-style matches, but these two did admirably and it was a fun contest. Haskins enters the ring obviously. He offers Lynch a handshake and Lynch falls for it just as Tanizaki did earlier (really?!), getting a low blow for his troubles. Haskins attacks Lynch’s injured arm with a chair, and I guess the context for their main event at the next show is now set. With yet another angle, this is starting to feel more like your typical sports entertainment based wrestling show. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it’s just a little unexpected considering all the emphasis placed early on with making things feel legitimate.
Chris Ridgeway vs. Kenoh
Ridegeway is a brilliant talent, and it’s great to see him be given the opportunity here to show what he can do against someone like Kenoh. Some very fast paced counter wrestling starts things off, before Ridgeway hits a handstand heel kick to knock Kenoh outside. An apron punt kick follows, but Kenoh soon gets back into the match with some nasty kicks of his own. Ridegway slows things down, stretching out Kenoh’s arms and fingers, but again it’s not long before Kenoh comes back with those kicks, and hits a knee to the back of Ridgeway’s head for a 2 count. Ridgeway finds his fighting spirit, and the two men start trading hard kicks, much to the joy of the crowd. Following an ankle lock, Kenoh goes up top for the footstomp but misses. A roundhouse kick, german suplex, PK and armbar follow from Ridegeway but nothing keeps Kenoh down. They trade more kicks before Kenoh hits the dragon suplex and a PK of his own for a 2 count. Kenoh follows up with the diving footstomp and the match is his. This was a really great, hard hitting main event, even by Kenoh’s high standards. Kenoh is an elite talent, but you have to give credit to Ridgeway who made the most of the opportunity here. The two men shake hands afterwards; Kenoh gives a bow to the crowd and leaves as we fade to black.
This was a great first outing for Frontline, but when you look at the card, it would really have been a shock if it didn’t do well. The question now going forward is, what will the direction of the promotion be going forward? Clearly the promotion wears its Japanese influences on its sleeve, and the young lions, talk of stringent rules, time limits and the stuff with the medical staff, all seemed to point to Frontline looking to present a “wrestling as a sport” type of product. As the evening went on though, we saw more and more angles and sports entertainment influences sneaking in. Both types of product are equally valid, and variety is important too, but with Frontline seemingly appealing mostly to the Puroresu/U.K. crossover fanbase, the angles didn’t really feel like they were getting over all that well. The match quality however, was undeniably on point throughout most of the evening. If Frontline can continue to put together cards such as this one, it will certainly be a product worth following, no matter they choose to present themselves going forward.
