wrestling / Video Reviews

Euro Fury: OTT Invasion Supershow

October 5, 2016 | Posted by Arnold Furious
Marty Scurll
8.5
The 411 Rating
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Euro Fury: OTT Invasion Supershow  

OTT Invasion Supershow

 

August 6 2016

 

This is my second full OTT show and Over The Top Wrestling is one of the loudest crowds in the business and one of the best atmospheres. They even have commentary now. Good times. Stacked card on this show. Lots of young talent. Let’s see how it turns out.

 

Charlie Garrett vs. Travis Banks

Garrett is a high-flying babyface in the UK but in Ireland he’s a hated English wanker. Travis works heel in most UK promotions but he’s greeted with chants of “one of us” despite being from New Zealand. Charlie seems to struggle with his vision, wearing glasses to the ring, and occasionally falling over for comic effect. While Garrett is aiming to get his character over, Travis is keen to showcase what an exceptional wrestler he is. Garrett does great heel work, flipping the crowd off in mid-sell and hurting his own hand trying to chop Travis. It’s completely different to his Rev Pro persona. He’s not hated by the crowd as they chuckle along with his jokes but they’re thrilled to boo the man. Meanwhile Travis just goes about his business, dismantling Garrett systematically. The more I see of Travis, the better he looks because he’s so consistent. Garrett heels it up at the finish by throwing a towel in the referee’s face to allow a kick to the groin. That’s the finish; a big old hoof to the gentleman’s area.

Final Rating: ***1/4

 

Post Match: Paul Tracey gives Garrett a spot in the Social Elite (a group which so far is Tracey and Jordan Devlin). Tracey has also hired Workie, from the Lads from the Flats, to do some work around the manor. Workie has got five kids so he needs the work. I sense a long-running storyline where poor downtrodden Workie eventually bites the hand the feeds.

 

OTT Tag Team Championship

The Gymnasties (c) vs. Tyler Bate & Angel Cruz

This was under “Lethal Lottery” rules so two random opponents are drawn to challenge hence the weird combination of Tyler and Cruz. Angel is a joke act and the Gymnasties are largely comedic too. Basically Tyler has to win this match by himself. The Gymnasties are known for their squats but Tyler has the biggest thighs in wrestling. He shows the Irish lads a few tasty stretches to get them more limber. B Cool tries to wrestle wearing shades, which somewhat limits his vision. The match has an enormous amount of squats drawing a “squat forever” chant. Tyler freaks the crowd out by lifting both Gymnasties and squatting with them both on his shoulders. What a ridiculous man Tyler is! Powerful thighs, like a racehorse. He overpowers the Gymnasties, largely by just using his legs. Angel Cruz gets the hot tag, and starts running away, followed by the Gymnasties while the crowd hum the Benny Hill theme. I fucking love wrestling. Angel ends up eating a superkick for the Gymnasties to retain. They should consider themselves fortunate they weren’t wrestling Moustache Mountain. Tyler almost won this by himself. Also Tyler Bate is brilliant at presence and style. He’s going to be a big, bright shining star in BritWres.

Final Rating: **1/4

 

Post Match: The Body Bros run in to intimidate Angel Cruz for being a crap reality star. Adam Maxted, star of Love Island who has 102,000 Twitter followers, beats him up while the crowd chant “steroids” at him. He looks roided to the gills. If his roided up presence draws any extra fans to BritWres then it’s a bonus, I guess.

 

Jigsaw vs. Sean Guinness

I usually watch Sean wrestle in Zero1 so it’s a bit weird seeing him back in Ireland. Jigsaw has been hanging around the UK scene of late and he’s most welcome to carry on. This is the first match I’ve seen in OTT where the crowd isn’t into the action. That in itself is strange but Guinness has a very deliberate style and won’t play to the crowd. It’s maybe due to his work in Japan but he’s not over in his home country. Due to Guinness going all serious it limits Jigsaw’s playfulness, which is a pity as he’s a funny guy. Guinness eventually draws the crowd in through sheer aggression and it’s a solid match. Poor Jigs gets beaten with a double stomp off the top. Both guys are decent pros and the match was fine.

Final Rating: ***

 

The Kings of the North (Corvin & Bonesaw) vs. War Machine

KOTN are big powerful heel wrestlers but they’re suddenly up against another team of big lads in War Machine, who are even bigger. KOTN refuse the respectful handshake so War Machine beat the shit out of them. War Machine have done decent work in Europe, showing how strong they are as a team. KOTN run some formula by isolating Hanson. That doesn’t work and thankfully doesn’t last long. Every time I see Ray Rowe my appreciation for his work grows a little more. He is a freak of nature because he’s fast, powerful and his timing is immaculate. He fucks up a spot in this match when he fails to catch Corvin but that’s a blip on a top performance. I can’t help but think Rowe is a shoe-in for WWE whenever he wants to go there. Presumably he’ll want to get in a big Indies singles run first and I have no doubt he’ll be successful at that. The match has one major flaw and that’s the duration with KOTN never looking on a par with War Machine, unlike the London Riots who stepped their game up in Progress. KOTN are not able to hit that higher level so quite often one of them is left standing around looking confused. When the match does click it’s four big lads battering each other and it’s lovely. It’s just a little too flawed to hit that higher plane of wrestling excellence. War Machine have the kind of offense that makes an entire crowd erupt and leap off their seats. Then Bonesaw wins with a roll up and a handful of tights. In a way that’s the only possible win for KOTN, a fluke, because War Machine destroyed them.

Final Rating: ***3/4

 

Post Match: The Kings of the North go to trim War Machine’s beards, which gets them cut off by Justin Shape and the Beast, both victims of beard abuse. Katey Harvey was wielding the scissors so she gets a shoeing off the Session Moth. Charlie Garrett makes the save for Harvey’s hair. I like how OTT’s booking intertwines everyone on the roster. This results in Martina introducing Botchamania and turning the venue into a rave. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone do a Botchamania intro during a show before.

 

Pete Dunne vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

The crowd fucking despise Pete Dunne. I love it. He’s doing God’s work over in the Emerald Isle. The opening exchanges say it all, this is going to be a fucking fantastic wrestling match because both guys are exceptional grapplers and the crowd is desperate to see this. Sabre slows the match down by taking the arm and effortlessly coasting through the action by controlling it on the mat. The arm work is exemplary but so is Pete’s work in the match, which involves in-your-face brutality, striking and power. Pete doesn’t give a fuck about counts or referee’s decisions or any of that shit. He’s out there to brutalise Sabre and Zack soon finds out he’s in a real fight here not some rinky-dink exhibition and real fights are what brings the absolute best out of Sabre. People who just go along with his technical wizardry end up getting steamrollered. Sabre is effortless with his technical reversals and submissions but it’s wonderful to see Dunne match up to him and come fighting back in the most vicious way possible, either hitting jumping Tombstones, biting fingers, slapping Zack in the face or stamping on his head. I love Pete refusing to lie down for Sabre too, kicking out of the PK at one and constantly slipping out of submission attempts. Pete gets out of yet another armbar and hits the Drop Dead to win. Big win for Pete, big performance too. He’s been a star in OTT and he’s on the verge of breaking the very top tier of BritWres. He’s just so good.

Final Rating: ****1/4

 

Post Match: Dunne shows some respect by going out of his way to shake Sabre’s hand and the crowd respond with respect. Pete asks for a title shot at Luther Ward because he just beat Sabre. All in for that. It’ll be at the Fringe Festival and Dunne will come in as a tweener, gunning for all the gold.

 

Promo Time: Gerry Humperdink

He’s OTT’s owner. He books a few matches for the Fringe Festival including Tommy End vs. Mask Haskins, which I absolutely have to see. Also Pete Dunne vs. Luther Ward for the title. Also OTT will crown their first women’s champion and Melina Perez is in that match. Finally Chris Hero is on that show. That’s it, OTT just won at wrestling.

 

Marty Scurll & Jordan Devlin vs. The Uptown Funkers (Will Ospreay & Ryan Smile)

The Funkers get a conga line going, which is awesome and then they do a load of breakdancing for their own amusement. The camera cuts to Marty checking an imaginary watch and yawning. It’s incredible character work. The Uptown Funking, including getting fans into the ring, the ring announcer busting out his best Travolta/Saturday Night Fever poses and the ref dancing, is out of this world awesome. It might be the most entertaining five minutes in wrestling this year. It’s unreal. At one point, during the introductions, Will Ospreay is on the buckles leading the crowd in a “DELETE” chant while Smile makes ‘yer mum’ jokes at Devlin’s expense. My word, it’s a fun 7-8 minutes. Devlin works fully heel but Scurll is very much a tweener so he’s up for doing the odd wacky antic. Will and Marty can pretty much wrestle a **** match in their sleep at this point and the chaining is perfect. I’ve seen them work in singles and a combination of tags a lot in 2016 and it never gets old. In Ryan Smile young Will has found someone who likes to fuck around while being really good at wrestling and it makes for one of the most fun teams in the world. Smile gets picked off for heat and the OTT crowd happen on something for the Scurll two-counts. One, two, Woop Woop! It’s in his music! How has no one noticed? Ospreay gets a hot tag and starts dropping jaws with his outstanding skill. Devlin looks solid in the match but somewhat out of his depth in comparison. He can hang with Will but he can’t do anything even remotely as impressive as stuff Ospreay thinks of as normal. That said Jordan looks perfectly at home borrowing Scurll spots. Will can’t help himself and he continually steals the show. At one point backflipping to escape a lariat right into his corkscrew kick. It’s insane. No one can do this. “I hope this match never ends” says the commentator as almost every fan has their hands on their head. It’s such a great match. The heels murder poor Will with a package piledriver followed by another jumping piledriver. Two sickening head drops, one after another. The faces come firing back though and Devlin gets picked off with an Oscutter/frog splash combo for the loss. What a ridiculous and wondrous match this was. I fucking loved this match.

Final Rating: ****1/2

 

 

8.5
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
I’m told this is one of, if not the best OTT show. I enjoyed the first show I saw from this but this one is a home run. It’s available for around £5 on rental or £8 to buy. It’s well worth your time, I can assure you of a fun time with the main event and if you’re not all-in with the Pete Dunne love you probably will be after seeing this show.
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