Fun notes to start:
– Left at 2:30, drive took 2 hours. Not bad.
– Got some Chinese duck and stuff before the show, which was a treat I must say.
– Massive queue before doors opener. Met a nice Scottish fellow named David; he was at the (PWG) Paris show the night before.
– Are tickets were deemed ‘floor’, and they were anywhere EXCEPT the front row. So I was second row, and had a FUCKING AWESOME view.
– My seats were also opposite the hard cam, so I’ll be visible on the DVD a lot (green shirt)
– Went up to get some merch early, they were doing 4 for £40 (80$) on DVDs. I got Giant Size Annual 4, Roger Dorn Night and the last 2 copies of the DDT4 weekend :-).
– They played some shitty music before the show started. Well, the music wasn’t that bad but the amps they were playing from were awful.
– The venue overall was really great. Everyone could see. Everyone was into it. Thank God there no stupid people trying to get themselves over, because I really hate that.
On with the show!
1. Joey Ryan vs Spud: LOTS of comedy to start. Ryan worked tweener; I was one of the only people booing him. Formula match. Got pretty good at the end, a few really good nearfalls. Joey wins with a superkick. Fun opener. **.
2. Zebra Kid vs Austin Aries: Nigel McGuinness was supposed to face Aries, but he got injured :-(. It was awesome seeing Aries live. First time seeing Zebra, and he was pretty solid. Lots of stiff kicks and such. Pretty fast paced match, with Aries hitting some of his signature offence to massive pops. Surprisingly, Zebra won, with a top rope elbow. I was sad we didn’t see the 450. Aries sold great throughout this. I patted him on the arm after and said well done. He was spongy, to say the least. Good match. ***.
3. The Kartel vs Hated Heroes (Mayaan & Summers): Meh match. Mayaan comes out and says Jack Evans couldn’t be here ( :-( ) so his partner replacing him, is the most death-defying high flier in the world today. I really needed a piss at this moment, and thought his partner was PAC (I love PAC), so I was in a bad situation. To my relief though, his partner was Andy Summers. I missed like, 2 minutes early on cos I went to have that piss. Uneventful match. One of the Kartel dudes hurt his leg early on (like opening minute) and didn’t come in AT ALL after that. The other Kartel guy one if for his team with a small package, I think. *1/2.
4. PWG World Championship match: Bryan Danielson (c) vs Martin Stone: Like Aries, it was awesome seeing Dragon live. My Dad and David are both big fans of his. This was my first time seeing Stone, and I was quite impressed. His selling was top notch. In one of my favorite parts of the night, Dragon did a dive (right by us, we had the best section for dives all night), and seconds after I walked over and patted him on the head, and he flinched! I’m not sure if it was real or Dragon was working us, but I think he legit hurt his neck here taking a (big) shoulder tackle. Stone worked the neck a bit. Some pretty good nearfalls, one memorable one was Stone decapitating Dragon with a lariat. Dragon hit a running kick to the face, his trapped armed STOMPS TO THE FACE OF DEATH~!, then he applied the Cattle Mutilation and got the tap out victory. People around me, and me included thought the match could have gone a bit longer. Still a good match though. ***.
INTERMISSION. I remained in my seat for most of this, looking after people’s stuff. Went over to the merch stands where Dragon and Aries were selling T Shits and signed pictures. ‘Slave to the Grind’ (Skid Row) came on the speakers, and I marked out a bit.
5. IPW:UK World Championship match: Andy Boy Simmons (c) vs James Tighe: These guys had a tough time following intermission. At the beginning of the match, for the first time in the evening no one cared about what was happening. I went for another piss. When I got back my Dad told me it was getting good, so that kinda warmed me up a bit. The stuff got better as the fans got hotter. Some brutal forearm exchanges in the finishing sequence, it’s awesome to see those live, so close to you. Simmons wins with some sort of slam. Pretty good match. ***.
6. Human Tornado vs PAC: I stood for most of this. This was where the show got really good. Both guys were mega over. I was really looking forward to this. A bit of comedy to start, with Tornado saying “2 PAC is dead for God sake!â€Â. PAC did this moonsault into senton thing early and I marked out. Tornado chopped the fuck out of him. Tornado worked over PAC, as expected. PAC made a comeback, sending Tornado to the outside. In the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen, PAC went up top, and did his 360 CORKSCREW MOONSAULT dive RIGHT in front of me! Back in and we have an awesome finishing sequence. Tornado kept trying a Tornado DDT but PAC kept countering. Eventually he hit OFF THE TOP, which was awesome, then he hit Dat N**** Dead for the 3. Awesome match. ***3/4.
7. PWG World tag team Championship match: Kevin Steen and El Generico (c) vs Super Dragon and Davey Richards: FUCKING INCREDIBLE match. This was probably one of the best 30 minutes (maybe more) of my life. The fans were ELECTRIC for this. We were all over Davey and Dragon. I said “You’re fucking shit!†to Davey at least 20 times, and “you’re fat, Dragon†to SD at least 10 times. Great times. Generico and Steen were SUPER OVER. Singing Generico’s theme song live was fantastic. A ton of ‘Ole!’s and “MR WRESTLING!†chants throughout. What really made this awesome was the heel/face dynamic. It was so strong. This wasn’t just some Briscoe-esque exhibition, it was an epic fight for the tag titles. We were SO into the babyface team. I remember jumping clean out of my seat when Generico crawled through Davey’s legs and made the hot tag to Steen.
Let’s get with some recapping. It started SLOW with Generico and Davey on the mat. Davey tagged in SD, and it got AWESOME. He came in like a pissed off motherfucker and beat the CRAP outta Generico. Then, they went to the outside and all 4 guys started brawling. I sprinted half way across the hall to get a look in. I saw Davey grabbing Steen’s balls like a meter away from me, hilarious. SD destroyed Generico on a table, which didn’t want to break. Back in LONG workover period on Generico. Everyone wanted to see him make a come back. Hot tag to Steen, and the finishing sequence was THE BEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN. There was so much stuff happening, too much to recap here. While they hit tons of stuff, they didn’t go overkill because there wasn’t that many nearfalls/pin attempts themselves. Tons of sick bumps. Generico struggled, but hit his Tornado DDT on the floor (to SD) and everyone marked the fuck out. Later on, SD and Davey killed Steen with a sunset bomb, Psycho Driver and standing SSP, but Generico made the save! SD got pissed and brought El to the outside, and PSYCHO DRIVERED HIM ON THE FLOOR! Like everything else in the night, it was right in front of me :D. Generico didn’t move for about 15 minutes after. Davey hit a top rope SSP (straight after the Psycho driver on El) on Steen, and got the 3! New tag champs!
There was like, 5 dives in the match. SD did a tope con hilo (ala Homicide) and hit a fan SQUARE IN THE FACE with his foot. I couldn’t stop laughing for a minute. Anyways, you’re probably heard me ramble on enough about this already :P, I’ll conclude by saying this match was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, and is a pretty genuine MOTYC. ****1/2.
*Post match Steen got on the mic. He said he wanted a rematch tomorrow night (with a different partner cos Generico’s facing Dragon for the PWG world title), and if he didn’t win it we won’t see him in PWG for a long time :-(. He was on fire that night, I hope he wins that match. He said PWG are already negotiating for a return here, which made me mega happy.
Overall: This was a great night. The undercard was fun (nothing to go out of your way for), but the 2 last matches were spectacular. My seats were incredible, and I was lucky to be so near to all the dives and such. Overall this show is definitely worth a purchase, if only for the main event. I’d give it 8/10 for an overall score. Great night.
