Hello my name is Iwan Mackenzie and forgive me because this is practically a hangover review after Riptide and EVE.
I’m back with instalment in my EVE review series once again taking me back to the ResGal. Previously in EVE: Kay Lee Ray defeated Nina Samuels to win the EVE championship, Charlie Morgan is set to challenge Emi Sakura to do what Kay Lee Ray can’t do and Session Moth Martina is still being haunted by the nightmare of Su Yung.
Going into this show we knew that Martina would have to face her fears when she takes on Su Yung, Mercedes Martinez is back to tale on Nightshade and the rest of the card is a bit of a mystery… Side Note: Charlie Morgan was originally set to face Emi Sakura on this show but had to pull out due to a fractured ankle sustained from her tour with Shimmer a couple of weeks back. I want to wish Charlie a speedy recovery, I need to see my favourite wrestler again.
After a sleep deprived day at work but a fairly easy one, I grabbed myself a Hawaiian Pizza for dinner and then met up with Andy and Nick at Bromley South station to head up to Victoria where we discussed the previous nights Riptide event. Got into Victoria, jumped on the tube(s) before eventually getting to Bethnal Green, went into Starbucks to grab myself a Vanilla Frap and I ended up bumping into Rhia O’Reilly of all people.
Got in the queue super early but thankfully we had enough people around us to keep us company. Now you may remember me telling you in my Riptide review that my German friend Tobi shocked me with his surprise return, we shared a emotional goodbye after Riptide and I thought that was the last time I’d see him for ages…but he showed up again in the EVE queue surprising us again, it was good to see him.
Finally got in the venue and after some punk heavy music, it was time to start after a quick run down of the rules by co-owner and ring announcer Emily Read, we were ready for the first match.
In our opening match, its a mystery four-way match as the debuting Gisele Shaw (who was lifted to the ring by two tall men, one of them being Big T Justice) facing Greggs Ambassador Little Miss Roxxy, a Millie McKenzie-less Charli Evans and a Jordynne Grace seeking Laura Di Matteo.
Quick few fun facts about this match, this is the first four way match since last April’s event with that one featuring Laura Di Matteo as well, so it only comes once a year.Anyways onto the actual match, this was a hell of a match to kick off the show, a proper just banger of a match, everybody played their part perfectly. It was cool because we don’t normally get these style of matches in EVE so it makes it more special plus women’s wrestlers in general never really get to do spot fest style matches a lot. Some great stuff here including Shaw making a big impact on her debut including hitting a springboard armdrag on Laura Di Matteo, a massive Skytwister Press onto everybody on the outside of the ring and a Spanish Fly onto Laura Di Matteo (again) that she calls the Canadian Cwtch. Roxxy continues to show why she’s a valued member of the roster and put on a great effort, Charli was great as the only heel of the match but got to show how viscous she is, and Di Matteo showed the fire that makes her such an EVE favourite. The finish comes when Charli goes for her elevated DDT finish on Di Matteo but Di Matteo reveres it into a move that kind of looked like Jeff Jarrett’s old finisher the Stroke, to pick up the win. Really fun match to watch.
Our next match is the returning Chakara facing off against Erin Angel who came out to “Bring it Back to You” by S Club 7 which is a banger and anyone who doesn’t think that is wrong. A pretty good match here that struggled to follow a really hot opener but they both made up for that with good character work. Erin as the babyface veteran clashed perfectly with an arrogant piece of scum heel that is Chakara, Chakara ended up controlling most of the match but it was actually Erin who picked up the win with a frog splash from the Bret Hart special middle rope. Not much to write home about really, it was good to see Erin have a singles match for the first time in ages and good to Chakara return to EVE as a much more improved complete wrestler.
Emily Read then introduces our new Pro Wrestling: EVE champion Kay Lee Ray, ah that sounds good to write. She comes out to thank the fans and say that after eight years of being in EVE she finally has the title round her waist and offers up a match with Emi Sakara so she can finally get that win over her but she is interrupted by the Ace of EVE Jamie Hayter who is coming out to new music which I thought was a load of shite but she is a heel so it makes sense for me to hate it. She comes out to gloat that she’ll beat Sakara handily in the main event and ponders about maybe going after Kay Lee Ray with her She-1 Title shot at Queendom but Nina Samuels interrupts as she gets heavily mocked by the crowd. Nina says that Kay Lee stole her moment from her but before she can say anything further Kay Lee cuts her off and says that she knows Nina is out here to cash in her title rematch so Kay Lee announces it for the Kris Wolf retirement show at the end of April and Rhia O’Reilly makes it official. Nice segment to break up the show and got the NXT UK stars on without them wrestling.
In our first half main event its Nightshade with no Baynz in sight facing the returning Mercedes Martinez. Now when this match was first announced, I was a little confused as you would have though they’d get one of the bigger EVE stars facing Martinez plus Nightshade seems to be locked down with tag teaming with Baynz but I did want to give this match a chance despite the fact of me not being a massive Nightshade fan.
This match really surprised me but in a good way as it was Nightshade’s best match to date, a lot less awkward and disjointed from her other bouts which was the reason that I wasn’t a massive fan in the first place, she looked confident in the ring and everything made sense, I hope she can continue this run of form into future EVE shows going forward, then I can change my opinion on her. Martienz was excellent as per usual here and did a great job at dishing out offence and selling offence as well, and despite her being a face she did have heelish like tendincies but in a Stone Cold tweener style which makes her a face I can get behind. Some really good stuff in the match with Martinez getting the upper hand early on with her being such a veteran of the game but Nightshade targeted the ribs heavily which were previously injured over the last two weeks including a great looking cannonball onto Martinez who was in the Tree of Woe at the time. The only thing that I didn’t enjoy about this match was the first time fans in the crowd who were on a stag do of sorts and heavily tanked up leading to some really annoying chants and heckles including “We Want Tables” which I responded back with “No one gives a shit about Tables” which I wouldn’t normally say but the match wasn’t going that way and the match is really good anyways I digress.
So yeah this was a really good match, another great one from Martinez this year and Nightshade’s best match that I’ve ever seen, she has a lot more potential as a singles star rather than her team with Baynz which doesn’t have a lot of traction for me personally.
Interval now and I decided to get some air outside as it was quite hot in the venue, rung my mum and saw Tobi get interviewed for a documentary who was their to document EVE, a regular occurrence by now at most EVE show. Got back inside for the second half to start.
Second half starts off with a video package officially introducing Rebel Kinney to the EVE audience, this was very well produced and instantly got the character and style over, more promotions should be doing this.
Rebel announces she she’s facing Chardonnay tonight but after Rebel comes out we don’t get Chardonnay but rather Mercedes Blaze who is very different looking to Chardonnay if you have seen both of them before, Blaze says that Chardonnay has better thing to do than face Rebel so she’ll be facing her instead, this is the London School of Lucha Libre vs Knucklelocks!Rebel starts off this match hot and heavy with big strikes and power moves, she even headbutts Blaze not before bellowing the line of “Women always give the best Head” a line that caught me off guard but one that did make me a laugh a whole lot. Mercedes does catch Rebel in the ropes and from their on dominates Rebel by resting her down with headlocks, Rebel fights back and is able win the match after a Side Slam. Great debut from Rebel Kinney who continues to get better and better every time I see her, she has a bright future with EVE.
In our semi-main event, Session Moth Martina faces off against the returning Su Yung. Now for those who have read my Global Women Strike 2 Review (and if not then read it at this link: http://prowrestlingjournal.com/index.php/2019/02/12/pro-wrestling-eve-global-women-strike-2-review/ ) but Su Yung made her debut by interupting Martina dancing and as a result has teriffied Martina and invaded her nightmares, all seen in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07vw9ME5Imw
As a result, we had a very different Martina this time round, no confidence in her at all, no dancing and no funny intro at all, but Martina despite being terrified did take it to Yung as much as she could, first off all being able to avoid Yung’s red mist, a feat that Yung did herself later when avoiding the beer mist of Martina. Some tremendous character work by both wrestlers here that really was the highlight of the match for me, most wrestlers can be match machines but what people forget is the characters are what sucker us in the first place, in ring though this was great. Su Yung did her terrifying scream once again that was even louder than before which lead me to saying to Nick and Andy that “I Don’t Like It” like a child.
Despite a valiant effort by Martina, Yung was able to win with the Panic Switch to secure her second win in EVE, after the match she tied up Martina’s hands and took her away with her which means she now has Martina hostage and more interesting story-line potential has been opened up. As for the match though, this was my MOTN, just a great story told her with great wrestling as well; this is my favourite Martina match I’ve seen live, I do love comedy Martina but this is the Martina I want to see, the more serious version of her that we see in OTT, she looked great here; as for Su Yung, after only two matches, she has become one of favourite wrestlers, her character is cool and edgy, I’ve not seen somebody pull of a character that well in years.
We then get the usual Cabaret style act before the main event who was good but because that’s not really my kind of thing, I can’t really pass comment on it. But after that we get Laura Di Matteo come out and repeat her line from last month as she says “Jordynne Grace, where you at Bro?”, I hope they continue this to Queendom, Laura deserves to have a big singles match.In our main event we have the Ace of EVE Jamie Hayter face off against Big Queen fan Emi Sakara, with both wrestlers having their sights set on the EVE championship.
This was a really strong main event that was very much fought like a Stardom style main event with all the action being kept in the ring with strong style being the theme of the mach. Hayter has really come into her own after her She-1 run last year and thrived here against Sakara who was very game herself, pulling out a lot of big moves including a great looking moonsault as the crowd serenaded her with “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Hayter does look to have the match won at several points but in the end, she’s driven into the wall by Sakara who then rolls her up to pick up the unexpected win as she gestures for a title match. Some interesting questions as it looks like Emi may be featured in the title scene going into Queendom now which I don’t mind seeing how important Emi has been to EVE for years. Sorry I haven’t said much about this match, you should really just go and check it out as it was really good and capped off a solid night of EVE action.
Post show, I spoke to Martina about OTT, Chakara about merch, Mercedes Martinez about her match as well as grab a picture with her and Su Yung (who recognised me) about the match as well as her scream.
So Overall Thoughts: Despite a lot of talents not being involved on this show, some due to NXT UK being the week after, Charlie Morgan being injured and Jetta and Kasey not being there due to personal reasons as well, this was still a really solid show overall. It shows the stregth of the EVE roster that the show was great, some great stuff on here with the Four-Way, Martinez/Nightshade, Martina/Yung and Hayter/Sakara all being top quality stuff, the Rebel Kinney package was great as well. Those drunk fans were annoying but not enough to impact my enjoyment of the show as much as other crowds *Cough* Portsmouth and Milton Keynes *Cough*
All roads now lead to April 26th’s sold out Kris Wolf retirement show which will be a very sad day indeed but a celebration for all the good stuff that Kris Wolf has done for pro wrestling, if you want to watch it then it’s being live streamed on EVE on Demand.
If you want to follow EVE on Social Media then its @ProWrestlingEVE
If you want to follow me on Social Media then its @IwanMack
Thank You for Reading
Iwan Mackenzie
