By Jake Clarke @JakeCCK
HOPE Freakshow Leicester: There’s no crying in baseball
26/04/19, Club Republic, Leicester
Back again with the HOPE review as I attend HOPES “adult themed show” the Freakshow. This was my fourteenth show of the year. I was so hyped for this show and on paper it should have been HOPE’s best show of the year so far. Was it? No. We will get to why as we continue through this review. Let’s look at the ups and downs.
Chris Brookes defeats Los Federales Super Santos Jr in a hardcore match
The show kicked off with the calamari catch king coming out and declaring an open challenge as his scheduled opponent, MK McKinnan was unable to appear. Who answered this challenge? KANE. Nope. It was Santos who came out to Kane’s music. It was pretty funny. Brookes questioned the sadistic levels of Santos and Santos responded by bringing out a bunch of weapons, most of which didn’t actually get used. Brookes attacked Santos to kick the match off. Santos fought back however and proceeded to bring out some chairs. The action then spilled outside and resulted in Federales getting a ladder. Federales climbed the ladder then Brookes got back in the ring. Federales then was scared to get down and nearly got counted out (despite it being a hardcore match). Federales was back in the ring for the count of ten though and floored Brookes. He then got one lego piece and laid it down. Federales went for a splash but Brookes threw him off the top rope onto the lego piece for the three count. Although my description of this match was brief, this match was lengthy for an opener. It was still fine however just nothing particularly memorable to kick off the show plus the hardcore stipulation wasn’t really used to it’s fullest potential. Brookes and Federales embraced post-match.
Bobbi Tyler defeats Luna Rox
Bobbi’s theme song is wicked. Actually love it. This match had good heat behind it as it so easy to hate Luna and Bobbi has an incredibly likeable aura. The match was fine, quite back and forth with some very hard strike and power moves. The crowd were the best in this match, constant chanting for Bobbi. Bobbi won the match with a prawn hold. This was definitely the best match I have seen Luna have and Bobbi looked solid as per usual. Not much to say about this match once again as it wasn’t memorable but it was still relatively enjoyable.
Nothing to Prove (Elijah and L.K Mezinger) defeat Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis) to retain the HOPE tag team championships.
Aussie Open came out to a decent pop considering the size of the crowd. The match began with NTP attacking Aussie Open and quickly turned into a brawl and spilled to the outside. This included a picture you may have seen on either of the Aussie boys socials where they have the NTP lads in camel clutch positions with their middle fingers up. Naughty fellas. When the match took back to the ring, the NTP boys took control of Davis, continuously keeping him back from Fletcher. Davis would try to mount a comeback on multiple occasions but NTP was too much for him. Eventually Davis made the hot tag to Fletcher and they hits some nice tag moves onto LK, all for close 2 counts. LK and Elijah then hit Davis with the cannonball/coast to coast combo for a 2 count. Once Nothing to Prove realised they were going to struggle to put Aussie Open away, they attempted to bring the championships in to play but they were scouted by Aussie Open but this ultimately resulted in Davis getting rolled up by Elijah for the three count. Good match, might have been the best of the night in my opinion and the fact the match was this great should be a shock to absolutely nobody. What happened next though was absolutely brilliant.
Anti Fun Police ( Chief Deputy Dunne and Los Federales Super Santos Jr) defeat Nothing to Prove ( LK and Elijah to become new HOPE tag team champions
After the match, the Anti Fun Police came out and Dunne reminded everybody of how he won his briefcase back in October and he wanted to cash it in right now. The match began and Federales took out LK and Dunne hit Elijah with the springboard lungblower to become new tag team champions. I think this was the perfect time to execute the cash in and having the belts on Damo and Santos will lead to some fresh championship matches down the line.
In the interval then, I got a picture with Bobbi Tyler, Kyle Fletcher and Chris Brookes and then everybody in the crowd got in the ring for a photo. I guess that will kind of put in perspective to you readers how many people were actually there.
Chief Deputy Dunne defeats “SuperGene” Gene Munny to retain his half of the HOPE tag team championships.
Yes. This is as mad as it sounds. Dunne came out putting out a challenge to anyone in the back as his scheduled opponent, Kip Sabian, was unable to make it. Out comes Gene Munny. Dunne says to Gene, you are no Kip Sabian. Gene then goes to the back and comes back out calling himself “SuperGene”. Dunne then adds to the ridiculousness by putting his half of the HOPE tag team championships on the line in a singles match. Yes you read that correctly. What followed this was a really good match between two really good wrestlers. The match started fast and furiously with Dunne attempting his 999 on Munny and this was attempted many a time in the match. Gene would avoid this and go for his dreaded Ainsley Lariat which Dunne would also avoid on multiple occasions. This lead to a really great back and forth match which Dunne would eventually win with his springboard codebreaker. This crowd loved both these guys and it was fun to see a match between Dunne and Munny who are two of my personal favourites.
Kai Payne defeats Brad Slayer, Hustle Malone and Jack Cave
Kai cut a promo before this saying every swear sword under the sun and turned around to three chairs hitting him in the face. Cave then rid of Brad Slayer and we got a fun staredown between him and Hustle who if you didn’t know feuded through the second half of last year. There were some great exchanges in this match between the four guys and once again I must say how impressed I was by Jack Cave. He is genuinely improving and it is a pleasure to watch. Brad looked good in this match and he always does, he is severely underrated. Payne eventually won a fun little brawl with a Payne Killer to Cave to get the win and earn a title shot of his choosing in the future.
Cara Noir defeats El Phantasmo
I don’t know about this match man. I mean it was great, look at the participants who were in it but it just didn’t live up to the hype for me. ELP shone in this match though for his dickish maneuvers, it was the first time I had really seen ELP act in a heelish manner. It worked though as the crowd were solidly behind Cara. The match started with some fast exchanges, both wrestlers were exhibiting their slick wrestling skills. ELP then stopped Cara and went for his walk across the ropes thing he does but then he said he didn’t trust the ropes, I wouldn’t either. He went to the outside and started walking across a beam and he went to jump on Cara with an axe handle but Cara reversed it. They then took back into the ring and exchanged moves. Phantasmo thought he had Cara beat but Cara hit his flip up kick and a package piledriver for the 3. Great match, like I said just didn’t live up to the hype. Was a pleasure though to see Phantasmo as he is always great to have at a show and is worth the admission price alone.
Overall Thoughts: Ahhhhhhhh, was this a good show? Yes it was. Is there any matches you should go out of your way to see? No. It was a good night though and I was glad to see the wrestlers that were on the card. Usually I’d plug the next HOPE show but no one knows when it’s going to be. So I will plug the HOPE related shows. Sacrifice Pro who are HOPE’s sister company have a show on May twelve with a decent card. Will I be there? No but they’ve got all the HOPE regulars and a genuinely decent roster so go check them out at Cedars upper school in Leighton Buzzard. Then HOPE Futr are running two shows this month with a good crop of young talent so check them out.
Follow me @JakeCCK for show coverage and wrestling discussions on twitter.
Follow HOPE @HOPEwrestling on literally everything
