Hello my name is Iwan Mackenzie and can I just say on a personal note that I’ve been waiting for a promotion to call a show Electric Boogaloo for years now, so thank you SOUL.
I’m back with another review, this time take me down to the Tennis Dreamlands of Wimbledon for Pro Wrestling SOUL’s sequel show. The first show back in January was a great show and a great debut for the promotion overall due to their depth of variety in their card and characters, that show was the same day as a PROGRESS show so it pulled a very good crowd size but this show would have an even better turn out.Going into this show we knew that OTT standout Scotty Davis faces off against brilliant technical wrestler Jordan Breaks in one of my personal 2019 dream matches, Roy Johnson brings the Wasteman Challenge and something involving the Kafka Kup.
After working during the morning/afternoon at work, grabbed some dinner and headed down to Bromley South station with brother Leighton in tow to grab the 17:17 train to Victoria and meet up with Andy and Nick at the McDonalds before grabbing the tube and getting to Wimbledon around 7pm. Quick drinks run to the local Morrison’s and then get into queue and meeting up with mates Ben, Joe and Bentley before heading inside. I should mention at this junction that Andy had set up a group chat with all the fans we knew who were going and we asked Soul if we could all sit together and all credit to them, they saved us a whole section! The noise will be prominent tonight.
Now, something to mention is that the venue is the Merton Abbey Arts Space which is a library! In all my years of going to professional wrestling, this is certainly the most unique venue I’ve ever been to, well that and the carpark in Mitcham that BEW ran five years ago where I saw a young Toni Storm for the first time. But anyways lets get onto the first match:
In our first match, we see The OJMO face ‘The Turkish Assassin’ Ender Kara who who is residing in Wolverhampton but originally is from Stockholm, gets about a it don’t he? Really great cruiserweight style match to kick things off, a lot of high paced action in this one but it was all kept within the ring which is even more impressive I think. They traded a lot of tie ups with Kara slapping OJ quite viciously once out of the break but OJ was able to control his man with a lightning quick exchanges with some deep armdrags and a lovely hurricanrana, the match didn’t really swing in either competitors direction for too long although it did look like OJ had the match run as he went for his patented running knee strike but Kara ducked out of the way and hit a insane handspring back enzguri to take control and only get a nearfall. Ultimately though this was the move that brought him down as he went for it again later on in the match but OJ caught it and a locked in his finisher of the Half Crab to pick up the submission win. Really good way to open the show as it got the crowd hyped up and set the tone for the rest of the evening, although Kara was the heel of the match, we did give him some respect after the match by chanting his name, I’d very easily like to see him back at Soul soon.
We then get the unfortunate news that Chris Ridgeway wasn’t going to be there due to issues out of both parties control, a piece of news that Ben had shared with me in the queue on the way in. I was disapointed considering Ridgeway is one of my favourite wrestlers and him vs scheduled opponent Ashmore would have been sick, but I just hope he’s all ok, good thing was that I had my NIC shirt in the bag with me so I could just change into that out of my Ridgeway shirt.
We then get Ashmore to the ring who says he isn’t best pleased with this but says Ridgeway couln’t handle the heat of the kitchen and says he was in the kitchen cooking soul food which resulted in one of the worst jokes I’ve ever heard, a fact that I backed up with the chant of “Bad Jokes, No Fans”, he then claimed that he was in the back for 20 minutes writing that, if that took him 20 minutes then may I suggest he starts watching Jimmy Carr to actually get some good material. He then goes onto to ask MC Slick who he’ll be facing instead and we get the tones of The 1975’s “Love Me” as seen on NXT UK’s Pretty Deadly (Sam Stoker and Lewis Howley) make their Soul debut and it looks like we’re getting Stoker and Ashmore one on one, I mean as far as replacements go, it was a good one as it different from Ridgeway plus I really like Stoker and seeing him in more promotions is always a plus for me.
We ask Stoker for a joke and he just replies back with Ashmore’s hairline, great comeback and a great way to get the crowd behind him. Anyways back to the actual match and it was really good and a close contender for MOTN for me, these two have always had top notch chemistry with one another, I remember them having a great match back in Swanley years ago on the same card as Chris Brookes vs Chris Hero. A ton of innovative offence on display from both throughout of this match that it would be hard to give a blow by blow account of each move, all I know that is I really dug it. The finish came when Stoker was able to blindside Ashmore with a tirl-whirl then follow it up immediately with a headlock driver to pick up the win in a match that I hope gets released to YouTube as people should check it out, Ashmore having another great match, hopefully 2019 is his breakout year.
We then get our final match before our interval as Portuguese sensation Talia Martins faces Knucklelocks standout Mercedes Blaze coming off her great match against Candyfloss at the last Soul show. Both displayed a very natural chemistry with one another in this match and not surprising as they’ve wrestled each other a lot with promotions like WrestleForce and are training together as well; it was my first time properly seeing what Talia could do after only seeing her at Battle Pro in Caterham in a six-person tag team match but I’m pleased to report she looked very good in this match and she has made me a fan of her work, she hit a really nice looking PK kick and then an even nicer looking Shibata boots in the corner; Mercedes Blaze is such a natural in the ring for somebody who hasn’t been wrestling as long as many others on the British scene have but she gets better everytime I see her, she had some really cool moments in this match including her spider headscissors into the top turnbuckle, a great hurricanrana and a JOHN WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! dropkick which always is a winner in my book. In the end though, it was a simple move of a crucifix like pinfall earned Mercedes the win over Talia to end a very good match.
Our interval now which included a free in-ring picture with Mercedes Blaze and Talia Martins, the picture came free to those with front or second row tickets. As a joke, every time one of our mates would get them in the ring we would cheer them and chant their name, when I got in though I was booed like I was Ronda Rousey breaking Kayfabe. As well as an individual picture, we also got one massive group pic which looked really cool.
Back from our interval and it was time for Roy Johnson’s SOUL debut as he brings the Wasteman Challenge with him. He challenges anybody out back and finishes it off with his usual rap unfortunately though the music for his opponent cut the rap off and he still continued meaning we didn’t get the sting of it. His opponent is ‘Fantastic’ David Francisco who comes out to his usual chorus of Average chants from our section, that David absolutely loves, not. They trade a few barbs back and fourth, neither of them particularly hitting with the crowd, but before they start to wrestle, we get a windpipe version of Micheal Jackson’s Dirty Diana as Josef Kafka interrupts. Kafka complains about the Kafka Kup not being featured on the show so he decides to take over the show including guest commentary, bell ringing and changing the stipulation on the fly.
We start off with the usual tie up before moving into shoulder blocks where Francisco says he doesn’t want to shoulder block Roy as all he’ll do is just shimmy it off, instead Francisco answers with a dropkick that Roy shimmy’s off anyways. Roy goes for the pin but Kafka changes the rules to a ladder match but there’s no ladders in the building or anything to grab from the ceiling, Francisco is able to get the jump on Roy with a dropkick through the ropes to the outside, so Kafka (who is clearly biased towards Francisco) changes the match to a best of one pinfall match in a move that nearly killed my mate Nick. Roy once again got the upper hand and went to pin Francisco but instead Kafka changed the rules this time to a two-man rumble match so both men try to hoist one another over the top rope but when Johnson gets the upperhand again, Kafka changes it back to pinfalls (are you still with me here?). Roy gets the pinfall over Francisco but Kafka isn’t happy with it so he changes it to “Tables Galore” (Basically a tables match) where to win he has to put somebody through a table; so Roy gives Kafka some street respect before suckering him in with a massive headbutt to send Kafka of the apron through Kafka’s commentary table and the referee rules this as the match end so your winner is Roy Johnson!
Now from an in-ring standpoint this was probably my least favourite match of the night as I’ve seen both men have better matches in the past but for this match, the ring work wasn’t the story but rather Kafka’s crazy antics and constantly trying to make Francisco win. Me and my mates were laughing the entire time, so it exactly what it says on the tin like Ronseal.
Our penultimate match of the night up next and it’s a personal dream match for me as ‘Sussex Stretcher’ Jordan Breaks faces ‘Supreme Suplex Machine’ Scotty Davis fresh off his win from Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger the week before in Dublin. Now before I talk about this match, I want to tell a story about why this is a dream match for me; so at the start of 2019 I wrote down a bunch of dream matches/matches I want to see live list and when thinking of great technical wrestlers, my mind immediately jumped to these two young men who have technical experience beyond their years and I knew it would be a treat to watch. I told my mate Ben this idea in the pub before the last SOUL show and he agreed that he’d love to see it as well, so we were both really pleased when SOUL announced this match was happening.
So into this match we go and of course it starts off with some crisp looking exchanges between both men which is just fascinating to watch, Scotty grabs Jordan in a front headlock and takes Jordan down with his famous series of Gator Rolls in a move that gives Aonghus Og McAnally chills on commentary if this was in Ireland. What we get from here on now is just strikes which both men don’t normally resort to but they are both really bloody good at them, some great kicks from Scotty and European Uppercuts from Jordan; at one point both men do a double down and the crowd show their appreciation and chant “They’ve got Soul” which SOUL has shared on their Twitter afterwards, so we now have their chant for an awesome moment. The finish comes when Scotty grabs Jordan again and hits the Supremacy to pick up the win to end an awesome match, you’ll notice I haven’t written much because truth be told I was just into it man, I was sucked in to this awesome match between two men who have experience beyond their years. The dream match lived up to the dream.
So we go to our main event now as the NIC team of Charlie Carter and Oisen Delaney take on the unusual team of Connor Mills and Danny Duggan who came out to some slow rap song which really let me down like a soggy balloon as it didn’t really feel exciting and their the faces as well, I digress though…
Good technical work by all four men to start off but the NIC use dirty heel tactics to gain the upperhand and control Duggan in their corner, although a short while later Duggan tags in Mills who comes in like a house on fire hitting strikes and a great moonsault onto both NIC members in the ring. Mills goes for his moonsault to the outside as well but both NIC members catch him and throw him into the ringpost on the outside as Duggan stands at his corner not doing anything, that’s your freaking tag partner man! The NIC lay a beatdown onto Mills for the next portion of the match but Mills fights back and tags into Duggan for the hot tag (this is what happens when both members of the team are usually the hot tag for their other partner), Duggan gets some punches on both and at one point, side tracks Carter straight into Delaney and then hits Carter with a German Suplex whilst Carter holds onto Delaney effectively giving him a belly-to-belly suplex. Mills gets back to his feet and with help from Duggan goes for his top rope corkscrew moonsault to the outside and hits it but unfortunately only gets about a quarter of it as he overshoots it but he still gets back his feet with no serious knocks being picked up; back in the ring and Mills/Duggan hit a spinning roundhouse and Brainbuster combo to gain a nearfall over the NIC. The finish comes when one of the NIC distracts the ref and takes Mills out whilst the other member kicks Duggan right in the ding-dings son! and then they hit Duggan with the Black Flag to pick up the win in our main event.Post match, they sneak back in and lay the boots into Mills and Duggan but Pretty Deadly run in and send them packing, surely setting up a tag match at the next SOUL show.
A really good main event between four of the Southern UnderGraps most underrated talents, as people know already I’m a massive Mills and NIC fan but Duggan really has been impressing me massively with his performances at both SOUL shows now, he’s got a bright future in this current direction he’s taking.
Post show and me and the lads grabbed one massive group picture with the NIC, Slick Lombardo and even OJMO as we are a gang like the NIC, It was really funny to take. Also spoke to Pretty Deadly about stuff in general including how I’m going to dress like them at the next show their at (hopefully the next SOUL show), also was able to grab Jordan Breaks and Scotty Davis together for a picture as they are one of my dream matches and getting both together was really cool.
So my overall thoughts on this show: it was great! I come out of it with a massive smile on my face and a lot of good vibes about SOUL as a product in general, they’ve only had two shows so far yet both shows have been full of variety and not had a single duff match on the card as even the weakest matches are still interesting, their doing everything right and everything that me as a fan wants in a professional wrestling product. My highlights of the show were OJMO/Kara, Stoker/Ashmore and Davis/Breaks, all matches that I’d recommend watching when they hit SOUL’s YouTube channel. Their next show in Wimbledon is on May 19th and its called SOUL 3: See No Evil! May 19th, that date rings a bell…
If you want to follow Pro Wrestling SOUL on Social Media then they are @ProWresSoul
If you want to follow me on Social Media then I’m @IwanMack
Thank you for Reading
Iwan Mackenzie
