wrestling / Video Reviews

Euro Fury: WCPW Stacked

October 1, 2016 | Posted by Arnold Furious
Will Ospreay PROGRESS NJPW
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Euro Fury: WCPW Stacked  

WCPW Stacked

 

August 24 2016

 

What Culture, if you’ve been living under an internet rock, is a pop culture website that has specialist wrestling material all over the damn place. It’s also extremely popular, to the point where it’s widely recognised, especially among  WWE fans. It eschews more conventional wrestling website stuff, like the kind of reviews I’m typing out right now, and bases a lot of it’s content on lists. The list articles are where the money is. I know this because I wrote for What Culture. I did three pieces for them, each further eroding my style in an attempt to become a What Culture regular. Which would have been grand from a financial stand-point but the creative process is an extremely frustrating one. I’ve had to deal with editorial notes before, of ways to alter writing style for future work, but never had stuff knocked back with specific instructions of how to re-write it. So, it looks like I won’t get to write for a living and I’m ok with that, even if my back aches and my knees hurt.

 

What Culture’s wrestling endeavour is an off-shoot of the website, run by various contributors to the site and a few wrestling people. It’s hugely ambitious. Their opening show was intriguing and I was pleased to be there for the start of the promotion. I even helped to set up their lighting rig and video screens. From humble beginnings just a few months ago they’ve rapidly grown in size and this is probably going to be their smallest ‘big show’ ever, as everything from this point onward will feature big imported talent (such as Kurt Angle, Alberto Del Rio, Cody Rhodes and Minoru Suzuki). It’s a chance to hop onboard the UK’s version of WWE before they’re world famous. WCPW has already ruffled a few feathers by announcing shows across the UK toward the end of 2016 and with an intention of expanding fully national in 2017, I’m sure promoters up and down the country will be displeased. As were territorial promoters in the USA when Vince McMahon did the same thing. What Culture upload their shows to YouTube and make money from clicks and advertising. So there’s no fee to check out ‘Stacked’ below:

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn-5osc_yt-rK3RAdygbsn_06e2_cKLbB

 

We’re in Newcastle, UK. Hosts are Alex Shane and Dave Bradshaw. The same commentary team that work for NGW. You may recognise Shane from FWA. His commentary is a lot wackier here than in NGW and he is a lot less visible than during the FWA days. I have issues with both men’s style but at least they’re better than the original choices; a gaming guy and King Ross.

 

Joe Coffey vs. Moose

I can’t stand Moose. It’s nothing to do with his in-ring but rather the irritating crowd chant of “MOOSE” that happens constantly during his matches, at his provocation. One of the more pleasing aspects of WCPW, along with their wrestling magazine, which I’ve written for, is the art of Bob Dahlstrom on their graphics. He’s been working on History of Wrestling books for years and he’s a stand-up guy. WCPW crowds tend to be quite heated, although they’re perhaps not the most knowledgeable. ICW guys tend to get over, based on their tours and anyone that’s been on TV is fine. It’s telling what kind of wrestling shirts are in the crowd: nWo, BX, Pacitti Club, Newcastle United. Before you say anything about the latter; Newcastle United are a work. There’s no other explanation. Moose looks sluggish and there’s a chance he has a worse match with Coffey here than with Sha Samuels in Rev Pro, which is insane. Coffey is having none of it and hits a dive over the rail nearly wiping a fan out his wheelchair and he fucking loves it. Good lad. I’m glad there are still fans who don’t care about that shit. Moose’s failure to assist the match continues with him not getting up into the Giant Swing and looking green as hell. You could blame Coffey for a lack of strength but the same happens on a German suplex where Moose lands square on Coffey’s face. Maybe Joe is getting a bit ambitious but everything is awkward around the edges. Even Moose’s more impressive spots, like jumping off the top, are clumsy. Gamebreaker wins it for Moose, which might have something to do with his TNA contract and appeasing the larger American promotion.

Final Rating: **1/4

 

Video Control takes us backstage where Jack King (aka Jack the Jobber) hits on interviewer Jennifer Louise. I was fine with Jack getting his face smashed in by Damo but I don’t want to see backstage antics featuring him.

 

Eric Bischoff and Adam Blampied Square Off

Blampied (pronounced Blom-pee-ay) is one of the few What Culture guys who has no issues with being a star in a wrestling promotion. He’s athletic, he talks for a living and he has stage presence. Eric Bischoff is guest GM for the evening. Signing Bischoff makes no real sense, although they ran a paid Q&A with him on the side. Blampied based his style choices of Easy E and refers to himself as the “Eric Bischoff of the future”. It’s fun to see Blampied trying not to mark out and failing horribly. Bischoff, however, names his protégé as WC GM Adam Pacitti, prolonging the Adam vs. Adam feud. Blampied refers to Bischoff as his father figure, his spirit animal and his patronas. Bischoff suspends Prospect for the evening and refers to Blampied as “clutter” provoking sensational facial reactions from the evil Adam. He’s kicked out of the building tonight, leaving Damo to go solo in his title defence. Bischoff’s next decision is to announce Bret Hart is coming to WCPW (which gets booed, bizarrely). Blampied was great here. Announcing Bret would be fine if he’d not done numerous speaking tours already and there’s no chance of him wrestling. Just one more wrinkle; Bischoff adds Pete Dunne to the EC3-Ligs match for some reason. Bischoff was an interesting guy to book because he’s not done much Indie work at all but he didn’t do an awful lot during this in-ring segment and that’s him done for the night.

 

Pete Dunne vs. El Ligero vs. Ethan Carter III

TNA’s Ethan Carter is all muscle but then he’s a heavyweight and a full-time wrestler. EC3 is here to goof around, as is Ligero. Pete Dunne is having none of it. Dunne looks solid against both opponents, although he’s far more comfortable around Ligero. As always Dunne takes a reverse rana and lands on his head. It’s his only weakness! It’s interesting to see Dunne’s hand-biting come back to, ahem, bite him. Both Ligero and Carter get in hand-biting on Pete. The follow up sequence sees Dunne eat finishers off both opponents and Ligero gets the pin. I can’t help but think Dunne was merely inserted here to give Ligero someone to beat so the TNA guy didn’t have to job.

Final Rating: **3/4

 

Video Control takes us to a clip of Jeremy Vengeance, WCPW security, throwing Blampied out of the building.

 

Doug Williams vs. Drew Galloway

Doug has a Tory gimmick in WCPW and has the nickname “Mr Brexit”. I’ve never hated him more and the Geordies aren’t keen on the Tory bastard either. Doug’s perhaps not in the best shape of his career but he is “Indestructible” after flipping onto his head off the top rope and no selling it by working the next night. The crowd ride Doug for his Tory beliefs and chant “you shagged Thatcher” at him. Timothy Thatcher? Surely not. Unless “grapplefuck” has multiple meanings. It doesn’t bare thinking about. Doug does fine work in controlling the bigger Galloway. I don’t buy into Drew fighting from underneath but at least Doug has the skill set to control the match, even in his advanced years. Doug has developed a reputation for killing himself off the top rope so the crowd chant “please don’t die” when he goes up but it’s actually for a trademark Drew spot of powering up and throwing his opponent off the top. “I’ve never seen that before” chirps Dave Bradshaw, despite it being one of Drew’s trademark spots, which I’ve seen him do half a dozen times in the past year. “I’ve never seen that before” just exposes you as a shitty commentator who doesn’t watch much wrestling. Unless it’s a really fantastic unseen spot, of which there are so very few, don’t say it. Bradshaw basically exposed himself as not watching TNA, EVOLVE or last year’s BOLA. Why am I listening to someone so inexperienced? Drew hits the Futureshock for the win, not called by either commentator.

Final Rating: **3/4

 

Video Control takes us outside where James R Kennedy is met by HT Drake and Lucas Archer, who are refused entry into the building. Archer being carried away by security makes him a bit of a joke. A few skits follow where they try and get into the building and are denied by near-magical security guards.

 

Marty Scurll vs. Will Ospreay

Woof, the main event is on a bit early! These two have had a series of matches in 2016 that have blown everything else in BritWres away. They had two blinders back in January to begin with, one in Rev Pro, one in PROGRESS, followed by another cracker in wXw in the Spring and an exhibition at Wrestlecon in Dallas during ‘Mania weekend. The worst possible scenario here is a **** match. Because they’ve worked together so many times already this year (and will again for ROH before the year is out) the familiarity stuff is on point. It’s as smooth as it is impressive. Scurll perhaps brings a little more pantomime and Evil stuff than in other promotions. He’s playing to the crowd. Especially with the back rakes. Alex Shane does the “have you ever seen that” bullshit for a slam into the ropes. Yes, I would hope so. It was a staple of World of Sport broadcasts. The spot is literally as old as Shane himself. It’s a pity they resort to such hackneyed nonsense as this because the majority of their commentary is entertaining and as fast-paced as the in-ring. Speaking of in-ring, Scurll and Ospreay absolutely kill it putting on the best match to take place in a WCPW ring to date. It’s loaded with counters and it’s just excellent. It doesn’t hit the giddy heights of the PROGRESS title match nor the number one contender’s bout in Rev Pro but it’s still fucking great. If you’ve gotten to this point in the year and you’ve still not seen Scurll-Ospreay then this one is available for free so you’ve got no excuse. They run the same finish as in a couple of other matches, with Ospreay getting caught coming off the ropes into the Chickenwing but here he slips out into a pin and hits the Oscutter for the win.

Final Rating: ****1/4

 

Martin Kirby & Travis Banks vs. Liam Slater & Gabriel Kidd

Kirby has gotten over huge in WCPW with his wacky antics. Slater was meant to be teaming with veteran Johnny Moss but he’s missing. They were a terrific team too. Prince Ameen comes out to explain Moss getting injured. The crowd chant “sex offender” at him. Moss is replaced by Ameen’s personal slave Gabe Kidd. Kidd looks ridiculously green because he’s babyfaced but he’s actually a solid worker. Slater, also known as Liam Lazarus, is a very gifted wrestler and Travis Banks is an exceptional young wrestler from New Zealand. It’s a chance for the youngsters to piggyback Kirby’s popularity and showcase their in-ring ability. Travis is so talented I can see him ending up in that WWE cruiser division, provided he gains a little personality. His in-ring is super. The WCPW crowd unappreciatively chant “who are ya?” at him. That’s not good. I’m of the opinion that crowds should be respectful of unknown wrestlers and give them a shot. Plus Banks has been building a reputation in the UK, he should be familiar to most BritWres fans. On the flipside, I’m really pleased Kirby has gotten more exposure and the adulation of the WCPW fanbase. I just wish the crowd would respond to the other hard-working guys. Liam Slater gets his nose busted open before Kirby wins with antics, including throwing Banks out of the ring in the process. This was the Kirby Show but all these guys are good.

Final Rating: ***

 

Last Women’s Standing

WCPW Women’s Championship

Bea Priestley vs. Nixon Newell

This is to crown the first WCPW Women’s Champion, which might mean more if they had more than two women on their roster. Bea is Will Ospreay’s girlfriend. She’s also the heel while Nixon is a mega-babyface wherever she goes. They’ve had two previous matches and they’re 1-1. Nixon tries for a tope at the start but clips the ropes and almost face-plants into the floor. The match reflects that opening spot with big ambition but middling execution. Even worse is the idiotic crowd doing the “Moose” chant on the counts and given the match type, there are a lot of them. It’s almost as bad as the “what” chant. The match has one sensational spot where Nixon hits a German suplex onto a set up chair and Bea is dead. Bea refuses to stay down for ten so Nixon curb stomps her on the chair and then punts her in the face. The match was bad until the three vicious Newell spots to finish the contest. Loved the finish. The booking was a bit weird as they had a six minute gimmick match for the first title. It’s all so rushed.

Final Rating: **

 

Primate vs. Grado

One of the other successful What Culture YouTube stars that’s crossed over into the wrestling world is Suzie Kennedy. She got teamed up with Primate at the start of WCPW and has done solid work as a heel manager. She’s nowhere near as good as Blampied but it’s a definite success story for WCPW. Speaking of which, Primate has been a success in general. He’s a monster heel capable of pure aggression and yet he’s not a big man at all. He just projects monstrousness. Although Grado is a joke wrestler and makes the front row chop Primate. Grado’s comedy doesn’t gel with Primate’s hardcore cruiserweight Goldberg gimmick at all. This is especially evident on the finish as Grado tries to snog Suzie but gets German suplexed and elbowed into unconsciousness. The angle on the elbows is all wrong and it doesn’t look good. Watch Daniel Bryan do it for tips.

Final Rating: *1/2

 

Video Control takes us backstage where Jack the Jobber tries to get Nixon Newell to wear one of his hats. Poor Jack is rejected again. He’s a jobber with the ladies, you see. Elsewhere Adam Blampied is sad, as are Prospect. None of them are allowed in the building. They’re missing the title defence of Blampied’s own personal monster: Big Damo.

 

WCPW Championship

Big Damo (c) vs. Joseph Connors vs. Joe Hendry vs. Rampage Brown

Damo screwed over Rampage to win the belt. The other two, the Joe’s, are tag team partners. I seem to remember telling Adam Pacitti that he can’t call this belt a “world” championship because it’s never been defended on a global stage. It’s more a Newcastle Championship at the moment. It doesn’t stop them announcing this as a world title match. Damo has limited UK dates remaining so needs to drop the strap before heading to Florida. Shane’s most ridiculous claim in this match is teaching Lou Thesz a headlock, which would make him a hundred years old. Is he a vampire? They do a lot of dodgy selling with two men battling while two others lie around. The stop-start nature of this doesn’t allow the match to get going. There are odd spots that work, such as Hendry popping off a fallaway slam on Damo, of all people, but in general the match doesn’t click. Hendry has been disregarding Connors’ ability for some time, despite them being partners, but he graciously saves Connors from abuse multiple times. He likes Joseph really. They bond over Joeisms. The commentators discuss the Van Damonator, which Bradshaw naturally hasn’t seen because he doesn’t watch wrestling. Damo and Rampage clumsily eliminate each other on the floor to allow Connors to win with Righteous Kill although Linskey fucks up the count because Joe didn’t kick out. Connors adds in a chair shot to officially turn on Hendry and wears him out like Steve Austin pounding on the Rock at WrestleMania X-7 before pinning for the belt. So we transition from one heel champion to another. Both title wins were great ‘moments’ but not great matches.

Final Rating: **1/2

 

 

6.5
The final score: review Average
The 411
Another fairly typical What Culture card. The booking generally makes sense and everything seems to flow logically from one point to another. WCPW could benefit from video packages for the viewers at home as the ‘TV’ tapings take place in the run-up to the big show and most of the crowd have seen them. The ‘big shows’, including a forthcoming iPPV, should really explain more as to why certain matches are taking place. WCPW are very capable of creating ‘moments’, which is a WWE kind of deal. Maybe you won’t remember much about the wrestling on Stacked (although Ospreay-Scurll existed to ensure you did) but the big Connors turn and title win will stay with you, along with Nixon Newell’s vicious finish on Bea Priestly and Grado getting elbowed into unconsciousness. WCPW make a point of hammering home their big storylines and making sure they’re memorable. Due to this they’ve had two of the most memorable title changes all year and I wouldn’t say either match was anything special.
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