Hello all, my name is Iwan Mackenzie and you may recognise me from most UK shows. I’m very tall, have a peculiar haircut and I chant a lot.
I’m here today with this past Saturday’s Pro Wrestling: EVE show. This was my first EVE show since December having had to miss the last one due to work; to say I was excited was an understatement. For the last two years now, EVE has been one of my favorite promotions to visit due to the hot crowd, fantastic work rate of the wrestlers and the interesting and compelling story-lines. This of course was the sequel to the Global Women Strike which featured Toni Storm vs Meiko Satomura in a MOTY from 2018 and was the best EVE ResGal show of 2018, so this sequel had a lot to live up to.
Going into the show, we only knew one match and that was current EVE champ Nina Samuels defending against former EVE champ Emi Sakura in the main event, apart from that all we knew were certain talents but this was more or less, a mystery card.
We kicked off in usual fashion with owner Emily Read running through the rules of EVE before leading into the first match of the night, which was The Princess Diana of EVE, Jetta vs The Hardcore Daredevil, Kay Lee Ray, in a semi-final in the #1 Contender Tournament. (I’m guessing the quarter-finals took place in Brazil). A very entertaining opener with Jetta’s comedic stylings getting the crowd going. Jetta tried several tactics to beat KLR by trying to use Viper, Nina Samuels and Charlie Morgan’s technique to beat her, with no avail. This was more than a comedy match though and was a very good contest all around. KLR picked up the win to advance to the final later. After the match Emily asked KLR who she has a preference of facing out of Sakura or Samuels, to which KLR answered that she has an issue with both. That’s when Charlie Morgan came down and said that she hopes KLR wins the title and she wants to be the first person to challenge her because she’s never beaten KLR. KLR said that Charlie is the last thing on her mind right now and that Charlie is playing her because if KLR wins then Charlie can challenge for the EVE title again. This will be a cracking feud on the road to WrestleQueendom 2.
Our 2nd match was the debuting Mercedes Martinez who was facing EVE favorite, Laura Di Matteo in the other semi-final match. Awesome match between the two of them, Laura isn’t always the usual choice to face imports but she showed why she should. It was a gutsy underdog, babyface performance against Martinez, who the crowd took a liking to recently, despite her delivering punishment aplenty. Martinez won with a Surfboard Dragon Sleeper and will go on to face KLR in the final. Emily asked her for her preference between Sakura/Samuels, to which she said that she doesn’t give a damn and she’s in EVE to collect another title.
In our 3rd contest, travelling journey-woman, YUU faced former EVE International Champion,Viper. In my opinion, the best match YUU has had since coming to the UK. She was able to take control over the larger Viper and was even able to Judo Throw her down to the crowd. Viper was on top form as usual and continued to show why she’s one of the best wrestlers in the world today.
Our final match before interval featured Erin Angel, who comes out to the absolute banger that is S Club 7’s “Bring it on Back to you” which the crowd sang along with but Erin was attacked by the recently formed heel team of Charli Evans and Millie McKenzie, who the crowd booed out the building its fair to say. Jetta came out to run them off whilst matchmaker, Rhia O’Reilly and Dann Read came out to carry Erin to the back.
During all this chaos, some very familiar music came on and Jinny made an unexpected return to EVE having lost a loser leaves EVE match to Shotzi Blackheart in December. She berated Rhia for allowing the ref’s decision to stand as she showed, via video, evidence that her foot was on the rope during the three count. Jinny also stated that she was a better than Rhia ans said when Rhia’s back to action she’ll show her, in the ring why she’s better. Rhia reinstated Jinny into EVE and put her in a match there and then with the debuting Mary Apache, who is from a Legendary Lucha Libre family in Mexico. I was personally unaware of who she is. Unfortunately this was my least favorite match of the night, I didn’t really feel like the two clicked as opponents and Apache is probably my least favorite legend import that EVE has brought in.
Following a brief interval, where I thought I spotted Chuck Mambo but it turned out be a normal bloke, we went into tag action. The a-for mentioned heel unit, Charli Evans and Millie McKenzie, now known as the Medusa Complex facing off against a returning team from the previous months, She Who Dares Wins Lethal Lottery. the team of Heidi Katrina and Session Moth Martina dubbed by the crowd as Strong Moths. A very entertaining tag team match between the four which started out comedic with Martina punishing her “child” Millie before becoming a heated contest, due in large part for the hate for Complex. Although there was some vocal support in my section. Medusa Complex picked up the win, pinning Katrina. After the match Martina announced that she’ll be teaming with fellow Odeo-Tai team mate Jamie Hayter at next months shows, which should prove a very funny dynamic.
She celebrated to her music afterwards before the screen started to cut out. She initially shook it off until it appeared again and spooky images came on screen,the lights turned red, music played and the titan-tron changed with the name: SU YUNG!
Su Yung made her surprise EVE debut to a monstrous pop from the crowd. Charlie Morgan came down to defend Martina before a match was set up right there and then between the two. What followed was my favorite match of the night, as the two went hell for leather on each other. Charlie hit her very rare Diving Spear through the ropes (which visually looked fantastic) to send the fight spilling into the crowd, where a little later on, Yung hit a Cannonball off the ring apron to a seated Charlie Morgan. They went for big move after big move once entering the ring. Yung screamed a scream so scary, it will haunt my nightmares for the foreseeable future. The finish came when Charlie, trying to taunt Kay Lee Ray, went for Kay Lee’s finisher, the Dirty Bomb, only for Yung to take Referee Tom out with boot, allowing Yung to spit red mist to the face of Charlie Morgan. She then hit her finisher to win the match. This is highly recommended viewing from me, check this match out.
We then followed up with the penultimate match of the night as it was the final of the #1 Contender tournament. Kay Lee Ray faced off against Mercedes Martinez. Brutality was the word to describe this contest. Martinez hit some of the loudest chops heard this side of WALTER, whilst Kay Lee Ray battled back with her signature Daredevil offence which eventually earned her the win to become #1 Contender to the EVE championship.
Martinez got a massive post match ovation from the crowd and chants of ‘Please Come Back’ which worked as Martinez returns to EVE in April. I loved both matches Martinez was involved in as she instantly became one of the best imports EVE have ever brought in, also just throwing it out there, but can we get Martinez vs Madison Eagles at some point?
We then had the signature EVE cabaret act which, I’m gonna be honest, I missed because I wanted to get some fresh air as it was getting a bit stuffy for my liking. I decided to stick at the backdoor for the main event as well which was mentioned at the top of the review.
Former EVE champion and #1 contender, Emi Sakura faced off against current champion, Nina Samuels, who is officially the most hated women on the EVE roster as she got such a spiteful reaction from the EVE faithful. Nina went to cut a heel promo before the match, which unfortunately was not heard due to the mic not working and it went on a bit long, to a point where Nina didn’t even repeat the promo. This was a good main event and did feature several good spots but it got very good leading to the finish, where Emi damaged her knee and Nina took advantage and kept beating on it and tied it in the ropes, to where eventually, Rhia O’Reilly (metaphorically) threw in the towel for Emi, therefore throwing the match out in a finish that I thought was interesting, different and kept both wrestlers strong.
Post show Dann announced that Command Bolshoi will return to EVE one month before her retirement next month during EVE’s weekender. After the show finished, I got to meet Heidi Katrina, Mercedes Martinez and Su Yung for the first time, all of them were very lovely to meet and this has made me a bigger fan of them. Plus I got to speak to Charlie Morgan and Nina Samuels again as well.
So you’re probably wondering, Iwan: was this a better sequel to the first Global Women Strike? The answer is no because it didn’t aim to be a better show than the first but rather aimed to be a different show to the first. In terms of sequels this was more Back to the Future 2 than Terminator 2. My personal highlights of the show were both of Mercedes Martinez’s matches, Viper vs YUU of course and Charlie Morgan vs Su Yung. The other exciting part were the seeds starting to be sown on the road to WrestleQueendom 2.
If you wanna check out EVE, then you can subscribe to there On-Demand service at: https://eveondemand.pivotshare.com/categories/pro-wrestling%3Aeve/9027/media
Or if you want to see them live in person, tickets for there next shows can be found at www.EVEWrestling.Com There next shows are on: March 8th March 9th April 13th June 30th
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You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @IwanMack Thank you for reading Iwan Mackenzie
