Main photo by The Dude Abides Photography
Here’s five things you need to know about British wrestling this week:
1) ATTACK! don’t do B shows
Although Club One Hundred, held at the Frog & Fiddle in Cheltenham, didn’t contain the full ATTACK! Pro-Wrestling roster, and was restricted to the eponymous number of tickets, it was far from a second-rate show.
Seasoned ATTACK! fans, traveling from their heartlands of Bristol and Cardiff, are already numbering it among their favourite ever ATTACK! shows, and tickets for their return to the Gold Cup town will surely be hard to come by.
The show was main-evented by a tag team tussle between #CCK (Chris Brookes & the Dirty Wolf Kid Lykos) and one half of the ATTACK! tag team champions Nixon Newell & her partner for the night, Tyler Bate, which Newell & Bate won, although that won’t quiet #CCK’s demands for a shot at Bayside High (Newell & Mark Andrews).
Also featured on the show were two unfamiliar faces as Brendan White took on Eddie Dennis & Mike Bird in a show-opening three-way, and fellow Dragon Pro-Wrestling star Matt Horgan took on Wild Boar.
The Anti-Fun Police also made their presence known when new recruit Los Federales Santos Sr. beat Travis Banks, although Chief Deputy Dunne lost out to ATTACK! 24/7 champion Jim Construction in a four-way, which also included Danny Jones and another guest star, VII-Pro regular Drew Parker.
ATTACK!’s shows are super fun and available on their On Demand service, where this show will soon be uploaded. All roads now lead to Cardiff’s Walkabout on August 21st, for (Thank God It’s Not) Winterslam.
2) NGW turned eight with a bang
Just a week after El Ligero forced Joseph Conners to disband his Righteous Army in Southside, another faction led by charismatic northerners was torn apart at the climax of New Generation Wrestling’s Eight Year Anniversary at Hull City Hall last Saturday.
The Control, a group led by Rampage Brown & Zack Gibson, and also including Caz Crash & Sam Wilder, have been causing havoc for NGW’s good guys for some time, and things came to a head last Saturday in an eight-man elimination match.
If The Control won they gained, erm, control of the NGW title, but if they lost they would have to disband. When it all came down, and despite shenanigans by Control-friendly official Richie West, The Control lost after Gibson turned on Brown.
Gibson & Brown had been at odds all night, with West trying to play peacemaker, and it looks like these two will have quite the battle over who gets to face NGW undisputed heavyweight champion Nathan Cruz, whose team also included Matt Myers & Britain’s Biggest Tag Team.
The latter are also embroiled in a heated feud with NGW tag team champions Insane Fight Club, ICW regulars Joe Hendry & Lionheart, and that spilled over both into the main event and IFC’s title defense against Team Sports.
Also on the show, Britain’s busiest wrestler El Ligero beat Dara Diablo in a Last Man Standing match, and Bubblegum lost his NGW GEN:X Championship to Matt Myers, which threw him into a rage which he took out on JD Boom, stealing Boom’s spot in a match against Robbie X, which the now former champion won.
All this will turn up on NGW’s TV show, British Wrestling Weekly, available across the UK on local cable channels. NGW return on August 6th with a low-key Proving Ground event, before their next big outing, Regeneration X, in September.
3) A WWE legend got the Lo-Down from Ryan Smile
Ryan Smile is one of British wrestling’s best kept secrets, an accomplished competitor with rare charisma both as a babyface or his favoured heel, that keeps a room captivated, often turning to real hatred when he’s on his game.
On Sunday, for his hometown Kamikaze Pro-Wrestling promotion at the Cadbury Club in Birmingham, Smile took on D-Lo Brown on a show named for the former WWE star, Lo-Down.
Smile triumphed to add another notch to his belt in a year which has already seen victories over Will Ospreay, Chris Dickinson, and Carlito.
The show was main-evented by the first title defense for new Kamikaze-Pro champion Clint Margera, in a Last Man Standing match against the man he beat for the title, Robbie X.
In the end, the champ kept his title by pinning the challenger, as did Relentless Division champion Tyler Bate when he downed Mark Haskins in a terrific match.
The show also featured a Kamikaze-Pro tag team championship match between The Bigger Picture (Damian Dunne & Marshall X) and Project: Lucha (Martin Kirby & El Ligero), along with appearances by Shane Strickland, Pete Dunne, and Xia Brookside.
Next up for Kamikaze is a show at the Aston University Students Union, featuring TNA’s Abyss and Jade, on August 5th.
4) Will Ospreay brought the funk to VII-Pro
Tucked away on the outskirts of Telford, VII Pro-Wrestling is very much a local promotion for local people, although that doesn’t stop the likes of your humble reporter traveling 85 miles to all of their shows this year!
Given their position and the size of the promotion, they could be forgiven for using trainees, rookies, and journeymen, but instead employ a solid roster of some of the best from the Midlands and Wales, augmented by the odd must-see addition to each show.
For Summer Blowout, held at Dawley Town Hall last Friday night, top babyface and VII-Pro champion Ryan Smile brought in a friend from his trips to Dublin’s Over The Top Wrestling, when he teamed with Will Ospreay to face down the threat of #CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos).
The combined efforts of Smile & Ospreay were enough to defeat the Calamari Catch King & the Dirty Wolf, but the heels laid a beating on the pair after the match.
While Ospreay chased them away, Pete Dunne, holder of the VIIth Heaven title shot briefcase, took advantage of a wounded Smile to cash in his shot and become the new VII-Pro champion.
Pete Dunne cashes in – photo by Turning Face Photography
A number one contender was crowned for Brookes’ British Lions championship when Drew Parker won a four-way over Dan Moloney, the impressive Chris Ridgeway, and Damian Dunne (who got into a contretemps before the match with a local radio personality) to earn a shot at the champion on a future show.
The show also featured wins for Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, and a surprise win for Alex Windsor over Nixon Newell in the women’s division. VII-Pro return on September 15th with Fight Forever.
5) The war between Ridgeway and Phere raged on in Alpha Omega (and other stuff)
The marquee feud in Alpha Omega Wrestling, who promote the Lancashire town of Morecambe, in 2016 has been the war between Chris Ridgeway and Johnny Phere, which shows no sign of abating after their latest encounter ended in a DQ after the involvement of Craig Kollins and the company’s main heel group, The Referendum.
That group, which grew out of the aftermath of the Scottish independence vote, were also involved in an AOW tag team championship triple threat match, with Lewis Kirvan & Bobby Roberts retaining their titles over Danny Hope & Joey Hayes and Solar & Cyanide.
The show also featured Lana Austin, Xander Cooper, and Sexy Kev (or UnSexy Kev as he is here). Alpha Omega are back at the Morecambe Winter Gardens on September 20th with a 20-man Golden Rumble.
IPW:UK ran one of their lower-key shows on Sunday, Future 19 at the White Oak Leisure Centre in Swanley.
Some of the main roster regulars were on the card, with Sammy Smooth successfully defending his IPW:UK All-England title against Kyle Ashmore, Scott Star opening the show with a win over Marc Lloyd, and the London Riots defeating The Ruckers in tag team action.
On a show which also featured two Cuban Heat 1000 Peso challenges, and wins for Fentos and Mike Broly, the main attraction was a contest between Chris Brookes and Chris Hero, which was won by the Knockout Artist, although the Calamari Catch King took him to the limit.
You can catch all IPW:UK shows on their On Demand service and they are back in Tonbridge on August 7th with Royale Rewards.
Chris Brookes & Chris Hero go at it
Hero was also in action for Discovery Wrestling at the Portobello Town Hall in Edinburgh on Saturday night, beating Joe Coffey in the main event after Coffey had beaten Dave Conrad in a match earlier in the night to win a chance to face the Knockout Artist.
The show featured a Scottish outing for Gene Munny’s Buffet Club (recently ripped off by Ryback) as Munny & Rob Cage were to take on Liam Thomson & Kid Fite. However, Fite was attacked and didn’t make it to the ring, with the Buffet Club winning a handicap match.
The show also featured Sammi Jayne and Aspen Faith, and Discovery Wrestling are back in Edinburgh on August 13th with Colt Cabana and War Machine as special guests.