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Euro Fury: RPW Uprising 2016
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Rev Pro Uprising
August 12 2016
We’re in York Hall, Bethnal Green for yet another major Rev Pro show. The York Hall shows have been clustered together this year. This is a show I briefly thought about attending but the card didn’t do it for me so I stayed away. That and it dropped into the middle of the G1 when I was stupidly busy and work was awful. So yeah, I wasn’t in London, but the show must go on. Hosts are Andy Quilden and Andy Boy Simmonz, which is not a good combination of hosts. Although Quilden’s presence forces Simmonz to be less of an ass, which benefits the show immensely.
Josh Bodom vs. Jay White
Jay is on excursion from NJPW and has already made a splash stateside with ROH. Being in the New Japan dojo is as good as being in the Performance Center over in Florida. You’re learning all the time and getting experience matches against world famous talent. Jay is out to prove he’s a top tier guy and Bodom, as Rev Pro’s incumbent gatekeeper, is out to stop him. It’s a tidy match between two good wrestlers. Who knows what calibre of match they’ll be having a few years from now. Bodom has built his body up and is now looking to be a tough guy, following his Ishii match. He’s still finding his feet as a wrestler and doesn’t have that defined career path that White has. It’s a tough call as to who has the more intriguing future. Jay is better at the moment and shows this in a trading duel. His selling and presence is better. They segue into the big spots from there and it’s somewhat of a surprise that Bodom pops off his finishers and White just keeps kicking out. Jay does an amazing Matrix counter to an Enzuigiri and finishes with the Liontamer. Good showing from both lads. Bodom is improving and obviously White is on a constant learning curve himself. I can imagine them coming back and blowing this match away even a year from now.
Final Rating: ***1/2
Sha Samuels vs. Big Damo
This is probably Damo’s last York Hall show as he’s off to Florida NeXT month. They set it up by having Sha jump Damo during a little farewell speech at the last York Hall show, Summer Sizzler. Damo’s reaction is impressive. He will be missed on the UK scene. Sha is probably not the best of matches for him to leave on. Samuels is a regular for Rev Pro and appears constantly on their big shows, even though he’s not exactly the best of workers. I know there are people on Twitter that will give me shit for this but Sha’s act doesn’t do anything for me. He seems like a nice bloke but you don’t get snowflakes for being nice. The match is only good when Damo is in charge, beating up the fat Eric Cantona look-a-like. Even that’s not very good. Damo works really soft and I assume he doesn’t want to get hurt before moving to America. Sha chokes Damo out with a scarf and that’s the match. This was extremely poor. As in; not good enough to be on the show poor.
Final Rating: ¾*
The British Young Bloods (Bruce & Jake McCluskey) vs. Ryan Smile & PJ Black
I’ve been putting over the Rev Pro tag scene lately but this is not what I had in mind as a bonus match (I’m way into Joel Redman and Charlie Garrett as the champs). The Darewolf was an unannounced surprise and Smile should do well in Rev Pro, as long as he’s not a total dick. Speaking of total dicks; Smile decides to dab in this match and in general acts like a total dick. He also blows a spot by falling off Bruce’s slippery spine. The British Young Bloods alternate between nonsense and heat. They had a really good match with the incumbent tag champs but there’s no evidence of that here. Black is the International superstar but he ambles through this match, hitting sporadic spots and having no interest in doing anything with Smile. The British Young Bloods are the better team, being an actual team, and they put Smile away. What is Quilden’s obsession with trying to get Jake McCluskey over? He’s much better than he was but that’s not saying much. This was ok but nothing more. I worry for the talented Smile who was not allowed to shine here.
Final Rating: **
Marty Scurll vs. Chris Hero
This is arguably the main event and the match with the most hype. Scurll gets a huge babyface pop for just walking out here, which is bizarre considering his history in UK wrestling of late. The fans are eager to give him credit for the litany of great matches he’s been in. 2016 is probably Scurll’s best year in the business and we’re only just over halfway through it. One of the matches that is responsible for that perception is the one against Hero in PROGRESS. That might be the UK Match of the Year. The only issue I had with that match was Hero is a lot bigger and he used a lot of strikes and didn’t knock Scurll out. Here they try and take a different tactic with Hero dominating with his size and Marty finding sneakier ways to get back into the match. Again, I have a slight issue with Scurll getting the level of offence that he does although at least his set up work is logical, specifically working over Hero’s wrist to slow the bigger man down and give him something to think about. Hero does one spot that I particularly love where he goes for a rolling elbow, stops when Scurll covers up, and does the “just kidding” gimmick. Throwing it back in Marty’s face, literally, with an elbow moments later. Marty’s response is to steal Cesaro’s spots to fuck with Hero. Scurll is at his best in this match when he’s schooling Hero on the counters, showcasing his strengths as a British wrestler although the crowd get more into Scurll when he’s no selling. When they hit the stretch the match gets really great, even if I don’t buy into Scurll’s miracle kick-outs. They finish with a piledriver off the top where Hero utterly murders Marty. He bounces. It’s not one of these soft piledrivers where the guy’s head is nowhere near the canvas. This was another fantastic match, although I wasn’t feeling it to the same level as the PROGRESS match up.
Final Rating: ****1/4
Pete Dunne vs. Ricochet
I would not want to be in this spot after the previous match and the crowd’s reactions therein. It’s so hard to follow a special match, especially when the wrestlers involved know it was great. Pete has been packing on the pounds and he looks even heavier here, perhaps even stodgy compared to his recent form. Dunne is still moving tidily though and keeps up with Ricochet’s array of flipz. I love the elbow strike to wipe Ricochet out of the air. The biggest complement I can pay is that Dunne looks legitimately on Ricochet’s level during the match up. When they go into trading on strikes the match really picks up and they win the crowd back, who struggled to get into it earlier. Unfortunately the wankers in the crowd have taken to yelling “Moose” during the counting ahead of the ref spot. I hate the counting spot. I hate the yelling of Moose during it. Dunne is eager to destroy Ricochet by countering into the most violent spots possible, like jumping Tombstones. Ricochet’s own counters are suitably wacky and include a reverse rana, which isn’t even a near fall for crying out loud. Ricochet ends up busting out the 630 Splash right off the back of it for the win though so I can live with it. A barrage of big spots to finish young Peter off. This grew into a terrific match after struggling to escape the shadow of Hero-Scurll at the start. Dunne gets a handshake and looks to be showing some sportsmanship but instead he kills Ricochet with the Drop Dead as he’s leaving. You don’t turn your back on the devil, Ricochet.
Final Rating: ***3/4
RPW British Heavyweight Championship
Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Jeff Cobb
Cobb is better known as Matanza Cueto in Lucha Underground. He is a Monster, with a capital M. He’s so technically sound and strong. Sabre tries a lot of cheeky escapes and Cobb just hangs on, like a bear trying to club a salmon over some rocks. Sabre discovers he can’t do any of his usual shit because Cobb just leans on him and Zack can’t move a man of his size. As Jeff starts to dominate Sabre’s title is in jeopardy. Simmonz makes a very good point (I know, I’m as shocked as you are) that Cobb is an Olympian and Sabre lost to Angle, another Olympian. Cobb does not have that It Factor or WWE would have signed him already. He just likes rolling around on the mat and making supposed technical masters look mediocre. The crowd get into Jeff as he continues to manhandle Sabre. There’s a definite shift as Sabre continues to fail to get anything going on the offence, barring the odd counter that Cobb promptly powers out of. Sabre takes a slightly dickish move of lifting the Angle anklelock, although I like that he learned the move by taking it. His follow up slaps and kicks are pretty dickish too but that’s what Sabre needs to do in order to beat Cobb. The crowd respond with jeers! There’s something heelish about kicking a guy when he’s down. Sabre continues with the PK’s until Cobb stays down and the crowd boo the champ. He didn’t work *that* heel in this match but it was heel enough that the crowd turned on him. That happens with successful champions though and he definitely gets a mixed response on being declared the winner.
Final Rating: ***1/2
Post Match: Marty Scurll charges out here and stands over Sabre, drawing a huge pop as people think he might be coming out to challenge. They’ve not been watching the Cockpit shows, clearly. The long term booking has switched from Sabre vs. Scurll to Sabre & Scurll vs. everyone. Which is actually pretty awesome because they’re really pals. LDRS! Andy Quilden shills the Orlando show and Cobb agrees to appear for Rev Pro at ‘Mania weekend.
Vader vs. Will Ospreay
Twitter Beef: The Main Event. It might be unusual booking but the crowd get rowdy as hell for Vader as he comes out and chant “fuck you, Vader”. In my anticipation of this match up I failed to remember that Vader is 61 years old and almost totally immobile. He still makes for a fine heel, even if he has trouble containing his grins when climbing into the ring. Ospreay, cheeky young scamp that he is, flips Vader the bird but then Vader goes and turns himself babyface by killing Chris Roberts. Ospreay’s first gambit is a flip off the ramp, done at speed, which kills several security guys. Ospreay is nuts. Vader’s response is to drag Ospreay up the ramp and chokeslam him through the announce table! Carnage in York Hall. Our hero Will being murdered by an American bully. Unfortunately they opt to run the clock down by giving Ospreay treatment. It’s not like Vader can work 15-20 minutes so I get the need for Ospreay to get in a ‘crawling back to the ring’ visual, which is cool. The crowd is on fire for this and Vader has to do very little to get his heat. He clubs away and Ospreay bumps around to ensure the size difference is amplified. When Ospreay is hitting his offence he’s really nice about it, just winging Vader and flying around the old man. Just when Ospreay has Vader beaten out comes Pete Dunne to back up the Rocky Mountain Mastodon. Ricochet runs in for the save and both he and Ospreay hit SSP’s on Vader. Will lands his ultra-safe, not wanting to take a shellacking. Ospreay kicks out of a chokeslam at one but a second chokeslam finishes him off. This was great for what it was. You won’t see a better match with a guy at his peak wrestling against a legend pushing pension age. It wasn’t a main event calibre match, as the crowd chanting “that was bullshit” will testify, but it was certainly over. I don’t get Vader winning unless that’s the only way he’d agree to it, which is likely. If we’re considering Vader to be a non-wrestler at this point, as he’s an old man, then this was like the LT-Bigelow of BritWres.
Final Rating: **1/2
