Hello my name is Iwan Mackenzie and I’m sorry for my absence as of late but now I’m back!
I’m back with another review this time taking me to Rainham in Essex for Frontine’s third instalment in their NexGen series. Decided to go to this show after watching the first two NexGen shows on YouTube, both of them were great and this card was looking pretty damn stacked to say the least with several great matches on them including a dream match for me in the form of Malik vs Connor Mills.
My day started in Wolverhampton as I was there for Fight Club: Pro (review coming soon) the night before, me and the rest of the Noisybois went to the local Forbidden Planet because Louis had to pick some stuff up before getting breakfast at the McDonald’s. Unfortunately, we missed our first train back to London so we had to wait roughly around an hour for the next one because we could only get West Midlands trains back to London.
Thankfully we had a good friend of ours Paul driving us there and back to Frontline, we were supposed to meet at Orpington but he picked us up from Euston instead with my brother Leighton in tow. So me, Andy and Louis went with Leighton and Paul in the car whilst Nick met up with Big Dave to head there via train, after a fun filled journey featuring a lot of karaoke we got to the venue about half an hour before the doors even opened so seeing as it was a sunny day, we got a drink at the local newsagents and relaxed in the sun as Liam made his way to Rainham as well as Mauro Chaves. Went over to the venue as it was only over the road and grabbed a spot to the side where there was a table to sit on. The venue itself was very unique, it was a church hall but the way it was done up you would have never had known.
After a chat with Rex Armstrong, it was time to start as MC Slick Lombardo kicked it off saying that there was a big announcement as Frontline representative Kosta K comes out to address it. He says that the J1 League has become a mess with all the substitutes, pullouts, and people getting signed places, so he announces that the winner of all six matches tonight will go onto to be in a six-way elimination match at the One Year Anniversary Show in Stratford on June 14th with the winner being crowned the winner of the J1 League. I liked this a lot, its a good way to finish it all off in a spectacular way; its become a running joke amongst BritWres fans about the state of the J1 League, it was really ambitious to begin with and the wrestlers involved have done a great job with what they’ve been given but I’m glad that Frontline has addressed the situation and is wrapping it with a bow.
In our first match, we have Scotty Davis taking on Maverick Mayhew. Technical start from the both of them but still keeping a fast pace to the match, they exchange some great armdrags as well as headlock takedown/head scissor combos that showcased how great their chemistry is together and this is the first time they’ve ever wrestled. Maverick appears to take a (kayfabe) knock but Scotty picks him up and starts to use the Gator Rolls to work on Maverick’s head and neck area, he uses the Guillotine hold to apply more pressure but Maverick starts to mount a comeback with the crowd cheering him on even though Scotty is a favourite with the crowd. Maverick does get a fiery comeback onto Scotty and gets to show why he’s one of the best Babyfaces in BritWres right now but all this isn’t enough to keep Scotty down as Scotty fights back and hits a Fisherman’s Buster to pick up the win and head to Stratford.This was a great opener, both men in their first ever encounter with each other showed they have tremendous chemistry with one another, I’d love to see a rematch somewhere down the line; it was a good little story told with both men playing to their strengths, great stuff all round I say.
In our second match, Rocky Mac faces off against Jordan Breaks. Before the match, the video that nearly killed me on Twitter the other day was shown on the big screen, I’d highly recommend that you watch it, if you like the Triple H Tough Enough speech then this is the thing for you: https://twitter.com/FrontlinePuro/status/1131589913399484417
This was a load of fun, it was able to blend old school British technical wrestling along with really great comedy along the way; Rocky had the spirit of Triple H running through his veins the whole match and at one point even repeated the Triple H comeback sequence, tried to hit a pedigree but Jordan went all Stone Cold and hit a Stunner to a big pop. I gotta say that Jordan Breaks is getting better everytime I see him, he’s one of the best technical wrestlers in the country at the moment but he’s getting to show his striking abilities as well as his personality as well. In the end, Jordan picks up the win with a crazy pinfall to head to Stratford in a bit of a shock to be honest, I would have thought that Rocky would have picked up the win due his story progression in Frontline. Sorry that I couldn’t give you as much analysis as I normally do, he fluidity of the holds and the rate that they were done at was just mesmerising and my words couldn’t do it justice, this is deffo one to check out when it hits online, also Rocky Mac is a national treasure.
In our final match before interval, we have Senza Volto take on Cara Noir. Funny moment before the match as Rhonda who normally applies the cream to the wrestlers faces, is told to go away by Cara Noir seeing as he had his face paint one. They start this match slow but its not long before Volto brings out his spectacular lucha styling as Cara rolls out the ring to avoid anymore of this, Cara gets back in and just clobbers him with a slap and is able to take control from here on out as he is able to ground Volto. Cara does make a mistake though when he tries to chop Volto but Volto fires back with some thunderous chops and the momentum starts to swing back in Volto’s favour. Cara is still on form though as he his able to put him in a rear naked choke but Volto does get out of it; Volto is eventually able to pick up the win with a Shooting Star Pressm he’s heading to Str…Alright I’ll stop using that line now as you know what happens when they win. This was another great match, Volto is someone who always impresses when I get to see him and readers of this blog will know how much I love Cara Noir, another great performance by him in a row of great performances.
Interval time now as we head to the Newsagents across the road once again as well as grab some fresh air as its getting a little bit hot for my liking. After a brief fifteen minutes or so, its time to go again as the second half kicks off with Slick entering to Busted’s “Year 3000” of all things!
In our first match in the second half, we see Paul Robinson coming out to address the J1 League and his match for the night along with making the crowd hate him like the true great heel that he is. His opponent for the night Nico Angelo is out due to a busted lip at the previous nights FCP show, so Robinson challenges any of the young lions to a match leading to Kam Lucia (aka Buffalo Solider) takes on Robinson now; a super short match ends with Robinson hitting the curb stomp to pick up the win but he says that he ain’t satisfied with that and challenges another young lion this time Callum Newman who just so happens to be in his gear.So we now have Robinson taking on Callum; Callum gets the upper hand off the bat dude to his fast paced styling and height advantage over Robinson but Robinson has tactics by the bucket-load and is able to neutralise Callum by taking out his leg from underneath him, he goes to town on it leading to Callum not being able to even run off of a Irish whip, Callum does battle back is able to adjust his style to fit around the pain that his leg is going through and several times it looks like he may pick up a shock win but Robinson hits a two hit combo of the diving spear and curb stomp to pick up the win and head to you know where.This wasn’t the high flying spectacle that you would have thought these two could have but it was a really good story told and the selling of Callum was damn near perfect, so yeah good stuff this was.
In our penultimate match of the night, we see Ash Draven face off against Darrell Allen. A couple of production botches in this match right from the start as Allen’s music/titan-tron wasn’t ready so me and my mates nearly sung Madonna “La Bonita” seeing as that’s Allen’s theme in a few places, the other botch comes when Draven attacks Allen and the bell rings, the ref pulls Draven off and says to wait for the bell leading to the whole crowd saying that it had already rung but the ref calls for it again anyway.
Draven controls the majority of this match by wearing down Allen with rest holds and submissions mostly although Allen does get moments to shine by hitting the Razzle Dazzle and the Dazzler Death Drop to name a few moves and it does look like he may be able to pick up the win but Draven gets out the way of a running attack into the corner by Allen who has the ref behind him, leading to Draven hitting a low blow on Allen and hitting the Hammerlock DDT to pick up the win.This was probably the weakest match on the card but that’s not a really saying much as this was a very good match on a card of great matches, good work by both men here.
Before our main event, its time for a contract signing between Rob Sharpe and The OJMO ahead of their match for Sharpe’s European Openweight Title on the 1 Year Anniversary Show. Rob out first then followed by OJMO who comes out and takes the piss out of Sharpe and dosen’t get in the ring straight away, this was great from OJMO who is the heel of the feud but I can’t boo him really he’s too damn likeable. Sharpe sounded more like a strict dad here, didn’t really do him any favours against the charismatic OJMO, a kid even insulted him by calling him a “Pussy” which sends the whole crowd into a melt down, the best reaction was that of Maverick Mayhew who fell of his chair he was that shocked. OJMO signs the contract and so does Sharpe but Sharpe announces that the contract had some fine print to it which OJMO didn’t read which states that OJMO’s stablemates the NIC are barred from ringside for the match, this enrages OJMO who attacks Sharpe along with clocking Kosta K who was there for the contract signing, Sharpe gets a forearm shot in and puts OJMO through the table with a powerbomb to end the segment looking tall, OJMO is taken out by the young lions but pops his head out of the curtain and says that he hates us all, lovey fella. This was different from what you normally see at shows but it was a good showcase for OJMO’s mic skills and built hype for the title match.
In our main event we see Malik take on Connor Mills to earn the final spot in the six-way elimination match. Despite the two being well known for striking, the opening stages of this match was very technical with some really nice holds and transitions between the both; its not long though before the two do what they do best and start striking each other with hard kicks and even harder slaps. They go hell for leather at one point hitting each other with big moves before they both just fall over due to the pure brutatility of it, they earn the first Frontline chant of the night showing how great the match is; things get taken to the next gear when Malik hits a JOHN WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Dropkick to the corner and then puts Mills on his shoulders and starts to climb the ropes, he then hits Mills with a massive German suplex from the second rope which only gets him a two! never seen a spot like that before; Malik goes for it again but Mills has learnt from it and hits a springboard powerbomb out of t instead, we then get the Mills-Shot and a 450 splash but Malik still kicks out! Connor goes for it again but Malik rolls out the way and hits the Chutknee to pick up the win and be the last man to enter the J1 League Finals.I absolutley loved this match to pieces, it was a dream match that absolutely lived up to the dream; these two need to be in more places, especially Malik who may well be the most underrated wrestler in the whole of the UK right now and people know how much I love Connor Mills.
This is well worth your time to watch, once its released online. Post show, I spoke to a few of the wrestlers, got a Donna kebab wrap and got home at a pretty reasonable hour, all in all a really nice day.
So my overall thoughts: This was low-key one of the best shows of the year thus far, everyone delivered in big ways on this card, the first half of the show was pretty much flawless and the main event of Malik vs Connor Mills was fantastic, its made me more excited for the Frontline show in Stratford.
If you want to follow Frontline on Social Media then its @FrontlinePuro
If you want to follow me on Social Media then its @IwanMack
Thanks for Reading
Iwan Mackenzie
