Pro Wrestling Chaos on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProWrestlingChaos/
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaos_wrestling
I decided to go to the wrestling, for the first time in a long time. Has it been over a decade since my last live event? Let me think. No, I went to that one in Swindon a couple of years ago. It was okay. Some of the wrestlers go to the same gym that I go to. They wear headphones and ignore everybody. Another story, not that there is a story there, as when headphones go on, people go away, the end. Anyway, this wrestling event, the one in Bristol, it was bigger, and better than the Swindon one. I’ll say a few words about it:
It started at 7pm. I got there at 6:30pm. Most people were already seated, but I had a good walk around before it all kicked off. The Action Indoor Sports Centre is a nice big building, dark, and it has some atmosphere to it, feels underground, dare I say it? Cool, like a 90’s movie, a cool movie, about cool people, doing cool things, underground. I don’t like movie cool, but I did like the building, contradictory contrarian that I am, oh well.
In the building, I sat alone, with a bottle of water for a substitute friend, and the event began. Oh, Pro Wrestling Chaos have a great ring announcer. Loud, enthusiastic, clear voice. Top job mate. To the matches: (and thanks to Tom Smith (@Tommy_Roxx) for the results from the show).
Match One:
Heir To The Throne Ladder Match – Winner Earns A Championship Match At Time Of Their Choosing – Flash Morgan Webster defeated ‘Evil’ Ian Williams, Gideon, KillBane, ‘Mr Massive’ Chuck Cyrus, Panda Cub, Eddie Ryan & Alex Steele to win the Heir To The Throne Ladder match although he was not an official competitor in the contest.
The ring-ropes were far too loose. The wrestlers had to be really careful with some of their spots. They need to sort that out. The match featured a scrawny heel, a bloke who looked like Edge and the kids at the back loved a solid worker muscle guy called ‘Mr Massive.’ The scrawny heel ‘Ian Williams’ was great. Heels should be weak, cowardly and they should cheat. Williams had good facials, and you just knew that everybody could beat him up. He was the Joker as the Joker should be, not tough, not cool, just scrawny, mouthy and eminently punchable. He was the guy you don’t want to win, mainly because you know that he massively sucks, and he reminds you of that bloke you know in the real world who also massively sucks, yet manipulates and squirms to get one over on you. The end of the match was confusing as a bloke from the back came in and grabbed the briefcase. He won the match, even though he wasn’t in the match, and as most of the fans didn’t know who the bloke was, it fell a bit flat. It was a decent match though, even with the loose ropes and flat finish.
Rating: 6/10 (No star ratings. I never like the Meltzer star thing. It’s wrestling, entertainment, it should be rated out of 10, like a movie)
Match Two:
Knights Of Chaos Tag Team Championship Tournament – The SX Express (Scotty Essex & Paul Robinson) defeated DND (Danny Duggan & Cieran Donnelly) by Pinfall to advance in the Knights Of Chaos Tag Team Championship tournament.
A match that the kids and Internet fans all loved, with annoying cheating heels and naughty (kids love naughty) babyfaces who spat and did top flippy moves. A great tag-team match, lots of fun. Thumbs up, and a reminder to me that tag-team wrestling live, done well, with strong heels and charismatic athletic faces is a lot of fun.
Rating: 8/10
Match Three:
Mountevans Rules – Jack Gallagher defeated Johnny Kidd by 2 Falls to 1.
You could call this the ‘Keep Traditional UK Wrestling Alive’ match. I don’t have any problem with that. I wouldn’t want an entire night of it, but then again I wouldn’t want an entire night of Young Bucks spot-fests either. I enjoyed this match. Slow it down, tell a story, can he get out of that hold? Good stuff, with a cagey veteran and super fit youngster. Enjoyable change of pace, and the crowd was far more receptive to it than you might think.
Rating: 7/10
Match Four:
Falls Count Anywhere – ‘The Mexican Sensation’ El Ligero defeated ‘Ginger Jesus’ Mike Bird by Pinfall.
This one was the ‘Brawl through the crowd’ match. It’s place on the card, just after the slow World of Sports match, was perfect. Calm the crowd down, then hit them with the craziness, ups and downs, just like a rollercoaster, that’s how you book wrestling shows, so it was great match placement here from the bookers. I got myself a t-shirt during this match (I picked the Wild Boar shirt, best design by far) mainly because the wrestlers were brawling far away from my seat, and I couldn’t see them. This was a problem, and the crowd died a bit until the high-spot flip (done right next to my seat) and the end sequence in the ring. That’s the problem with these matches. You take the match around the crowd and most people haven’t got a clue what is going on, so the collective crowd heat dies. They picked it up in the ring by the end though, getting the crowd back with high-spots, false-finishes and brutality. Ginger Jesus was a good hateful villain, and Ligero was a super over, in fantastic shape agile hero. Good match, hard working guys, dealing again with the loose ropes, and portraying brutality, safely.
Rating: 7.5/10
Match Five:
ROH World Heavyweight Championship – Jay Lethal defeated ‘White Lightning’ Mark Andrews by Pinfall to retain the ROH World Heavyweight Championship.
After the break came the stars. Lethal is doing the old school superstar, best wrestler in the world Ric Flair (NWA) gimmick, and doing a great job at it, mainly because he is actually bloody good, and very believable as the best wrestler in the world. Super confident, arrogant, but not a heel. I like the gimmick, and I was massively impressed with Lethal. The mannerisms, the athleticism, the way he moves in the ring, the cool moves that he snaps into to pop the crowd, it’s all done with a deliberate, and effortless competence that tells you he is the boss, he is ‘The Man’ and you are lucky to be in his presence for the evening. This was a star performance from Jay Lethal. Witnessing him live, seeing his poise and composure, the effortless way he pulled the fans into the story of his match, was pure wrestling Nirvana. After the match was over (he won with his awesome Lethal Injection finisher) he grabbed the house mic, put over his opponent, and left as he arrived, as a star.
Rating: 9/10 (Match of the night)
Match Six:
TNA World Heavyweight Championship – ‘The Chosen One’ Drew Galloway defeated ‘The Pride Of Wales’ Eddie Dennis by Pinfall to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
TNA Champion Drew Galloway couldn’t quite match Jay Lethal and Mark Andrews, but he gave it a good shot, heeling all over the crowd, busting his butt to get the local guy over, and leaving as a face. Drew is a huge guy, in great shape, and very athletic, but his opponent wasn’t in his kind of elite shape, and struggled to keep up. It was an okay match, Drew worked hard, but in comparison to the Lethal/Andrews masterclass, it was a noticeable slower, clumsier, shakier, inferior match, mainly because Dennis wasn’t quite as polished as Andrews, so this is no knock on Galloway. It was an okay match, and Galloway did all that he could to make Dennis look great, but did I ever believe that the local lad was great? No, I don’t think so. Eddie Dennis has the size, but he has quite a way to go yet. He’s not in elite shape, and he doesn’t have the intangibles to get himself over in one of the big three US companies, not yet anyway. He has the body frame though, and he’s a young guy, so give him a few years, and who knows? If I see him on the television/Internet one day then I’ll be bloody happy, because that means that he will have worked really, really hard, and any success that he gets will be hard won, and well deserved.
Rating: 5/10
(Last match): Main Event
King Of Chaos Championship – Tables Match – Wild Boar defeated Jackal (w/ Pariah Khan) to retain the King Of Chaos Championship.
Having the local guys on last, as the main event, after the international stars have already done their stuff, was either very brave, or very foolish. How many people would leave? It was getting late (past 10pm) and the kids were getting tired and the drunks were getting sleepy. A few left, but three quarters of the crowd stayed, and I stayed as well. I purchased a ‘Wild Boar’ T-shirt earlier in the evening, so I had to hang around and see if the man himself was any good, didn’t I? I stood up for this match, taking it all in at the back of the arena, getting a perfect view of the entire crowd, their reactions, and the match itself. I enjoyed myself. I’m glad that I stayed. The crowd was into it, and my new T-shirt icon was great. They had a false finish that nobody cared about, but apart from that it was cool. The Wild Boar won, a table got crunched, and it was a perfectly decent match.
Rating: 7/10
Overall, conclusions, comments, thoughts, randomness:
Pro Wrestling Chaos ‘Heir 2 The Throne’ was a good night of pro wrestling.
Stand-out moment was a flip from El Ligero, mainly because it happened right next to me.
Best match was Lethal/Andrews.
Best wrestler was Jay Lethal. He had the poise, competence, and aura of an old school NWA champion.
Best local guy was Paul Andrews. A little, gobby, funny, naughty, super athletic bloke who looked like he was having a lot of fun, and got everybody into his match.
Mark Andrews gets a lot of bookings in the states because he’s bloody good, and he deserves to get a lot of bookings.
Action Indoor Sports Arena is a great venue to watch live wrestling.
A night out at the wrestling is a lot of fun. I need to get out a little bit more.
Tag team wrestling with athletic faces and cheating heels is lots of fun.
Old school (World of Sport) UK wrestling is not dead.
Wrestling crowds in 2016 are made up of hipsters, Internet geeks, drunks, families, kids and girls. I expected the hipsters, geeks, beards, kids and drunks, but not the girls.
Thanks @chaos_wrestling I had a great night out. I had a lot of fun, and yes, I will be back.
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