The Furious Flashbacks: IPW:UK/AWW Live in Birmingham 2009

IPW:UK/AWW Live in Birmingham

 

20 February 2009

 

I used to go to AWW shows. I got on with the management and if I had sufficient motivation I could even have done something with them. Like commentary and so forth. My relationship with AWW extended to booking talent for them and after I was done, the promotion started to gain a grasp on the level of talent available in the UK. This show was co-promoted with IPW:UK, headed up by Dan Edler. The footage was recorded by the team that is currently referred to as Rev Pro, which means this is on Rev Pro’s website. If you have their streaming gimmick, you can watch this. Should you desire.

 

Hosts are Dave Bradshaw and Billi Bhatti (aka Billy Lightning) from Big Brother 8. If you Google him the first thing that comes up is “Billi Bhatti homophobic rant”. He’s a real charmer. Host in the ring is Andy Quildan. Billy heels it up by pointing out he’s from London and that Villa won’t make the Champion’s League. You can tell how old this is! In 2016 the idea that Villa might make the Champion’s League is entirely laughable.

 

Nick Aldis vs. Spud

Nick Aldis, the future Magnus, was still on TV as one of the Sky 1’s re-launch of Gladiators. “A humungo star” apparently. He’d already wrestled for TNA, earlier in this month in fact. Aldis calls the crowd “ruddy scrubbets” and wants to go home to Norfolk (it’s very generic cheap heat, albeit with a different lexicon). Spud is the AWW champion so it shows how important they are to the big scheme of things as they’re opening with the champ. Aldis is a small venue heel at this point in his career, doing the TV crowd taunting and such. He certainly looks like a star, albeit not when the actual wrestling starts. The commentary kills me here as they debate what the Birmingham area code is, not realising that the 619 is a phone code not a post code. That’s an example of how bad it is. They have a bad match because Spud is keen to work quickly and Aldis constantly slows it down with rest holds. Spud does the 619, which is a wankers move. I use it for profiling purposes. Aldis goes low and wins with Tormentum. I could have lived without this. At least Magnus can fuck off to Norfolk again now.

Final Rating: *3/4

 

Sabian vs. Big Vito

Good grief, what the fuck is this shit? Sabian is a flippity heel from CZW. It stuns me that he got booked on tours, seeing as there are dozens of European guys who could work the same spot. It’s not like CZW guys draw in the UK. Vito at least used to work for WWE. This is a month after he got released by the E. This is another sizeable mismatch in terms of ability and size. Perhaps predictably this match is a steaming pile of shit. Vito shows off his Day One training school move set. Sabian responds with the odd springboard and lots of chinlocks. The only reason I don’t skip the it entirely is the one bloke in the crowd yelling in a high pitched falsetto voice. Vito mucks about with his skirt a bit before winning with the Code of Silence. Whatever they were paying Vito for this tour it was too much.

Final Rating: ½*

 

IPW:UK Championship

Iestyn Rees (c) vs. MK McKinnan

McKinnan is a local lad. He’d go on to be a hit in Fight Club Pro. This is supposed to be an AWW guest match but Gilligan Gordon, manager of champions, decides to have Rees defend here. McKinnan has had about ten matches at this point in his career while Rees has been wrestling for a few years and is much larger. Rees is quite green himself and basically throws a few power moves around before winning in a squash.

Final Rating: ½*

 

Post Match: Al Snow turns up, to his WWE theme, and that’s the actual main event later on. Snow calls Rees a twat, a douche and a bell-end. Bi-lingual swearing.

 

The Leaders of the New School vs. The Thrillers (Mark Haskins & Joel Redman)

It’s weird seeing young Scurll and Sabre. Marty has really short hair and Sabre has a black fringe. The Thrillers are the tag champs but this is non-title. It’s equally weird seeing Haskins as a douche heel who loves to talk. It’s such a massive contrast to 2016. Redman looks exactly the same, which speaks volumes about him. All these guys came into the business around the same time so they’re familiar with each other. They’re all very solid but there’s no character beyond Haskins’ loud mouth Star Attraction. The crowd chant “Hobbit” at him. The actual wrestling is solid although it’s weird to see these kids, years before their prime, wrestling a basic match with no trademarks at all. The closest we get is the LDRS doing a double dropkick. Haskins gets his nose busted open on that and bleeds all over the place. Seeing Scurll take heat and do plucky babyface comebacks is almost as strange as the length of Zack Sabre Jr.’s fringe. All these guys put on a good showing and you can see the potential everyone has. Emo Sabre gets his leg worked over but the best action is Scurll vs. Haskins. Their chemistry is great already. There is top stuff down the stretch from both teams. Scurll steals a pin on the bloody Haskins for the win. Really good match, although it might have dragged on a little long. That said, I’d far rather watch these lads than anything else on this card, so I appreciate them absorbing the time.

Final Rating: ****

 

Doug Basham vs. Dave Moralez

Doug fucking Basham? Hahaha. The state of the imports in 2009. At least it isn’t Danny. Doug pretty much retired in 2009 because he was so bland that he couldn’t keep up with changing trends in wrestling. Big Dave is destined for bigger things as Dave Mastiff. He’s full-on babyface here with kids running up and hugging him. It’s frankly jarring. Wrestling in 2009 is just wrong. Basham is so boring that he stops wrestling and cuts a mid-match promo about slamming Dave. He can’t do it because he’s boring. Basham felt like such a hopeful talent in OVW and yet what happened to him? The business literally past him by. At this point he doesn’t care either and this match just grinds along forever. It’s so fucking long. Was Doug Basham this big star draw in 2009? I find this hard to believe but here he is, second top, working the local guy in a lengthy contest. Dave finally wins with a Ligerbomb. This was so long.

Final Rating: **

 

IPW:UK Championship

Iestyn Rees (c) vs. Al Snow

This is fairly typical of the BritWres dark days. The main event is the most muscular British man the promotion can find against the former WWE star. If you’ve seen Snow work in the UK you’ll know exactly what to expect here. He does a lot of posing and hanging around the crowd. Rees contributes to this by doing absolutely nothing. This is certainly Al’s idea as it allows them to do nothing for twenty minutes and still get paid. After an eternity stalling they run one sequence and Rees bails again. That’s literally fifteen minutes of this match. Rees even decides to work a fucking bearhug, for fuck’s sake. It’s like Al wanted a get a really shitty match on tape so he could show it to his trainees and be all “this is what a bad match looks like, don’t do any of this”. They work in a ref bump and Head so we can work WWE Style. Snow Plow gets the visual pin while Chris Roberts has a nap. A second incompetent referee joins us and gets bumped too. It’s another fucking clown show from Al Snow. What’s next a car with six more referees in it? All with massive shoes? Both guys attempt to pretend to be injured from a phantom chair shot, which basically means they’re both just lying there doing nothing, a common theme in this shit fest. Gilligan Gordon jumps in the ring, gets hit by Head and Rees wins with a roll up. Good grief. This is 25 minutes you’ll never get back. Snow is a capable trainer but his overseas matches are a shower of shit.

Final Rating: DUD

 

 

3.0

The final score: review Bad

The 411

If you’re scouring the Rev Pro archives for content this is the very first show on there. The tag match is a curio to see good workers at an inexperienced point in their careers. I was genuinely fascinated by Zack Sabre Jr.’s hair and Haskins promo. The rest of the show sums up what a dumpster fire UK wrestling was seven years ago. The only UK guys getting pushed are due to physique rather than in-ring ability, no knock on Rees who improved in time, and the card is bulging with worthless American imports. Especially Snow who has no business main eventing anything in 2009 and Basham who couldn’t be arsed. Watch the tag, skip everything else.