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Euro Fury: PCW/GFW Global Conflict

September 4, 2016 | Posted by Arnold Furious
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Euro Fury: PCW/GFW Global Conflict  

PCW Global Conflict

 

March 5 2016

 

This was a joint production of Preston City Wrestling and Jeff Jarrett’s promotion/gold distributer Global Force Wrestling. It’s a mixture of imports and local lads. Preston City is not what I would call a ‘good’ promotion but they’ve been doing OK business with co-promoting, especially with Ring of Honor. PCW’s opening video is almost exclusively ex-WWE guys or people who don’t work here anymore. That’s strike one.

 

We’re in Blackpool at Club Domain. It’s an ugly, high angle hard-cam set up. Sha Samuels opens the show because he’s the champion around here. This only happens so the casual fans (here for the Masterlock Challenge) recognise him as a defined heel when he comes out later.

 

Kenny Williams vs. Lionheart

Kenny really likes Back to the Future, comes out to Huey Lewis’ the Power of Love and is dressed like Marty’s son in Back to the Future II, complete with hoverboard. His main promotion is ICW in Scotland but he’s starting to get deserved exposure elsewhere. Lionheart has been knocking around the UK for ages. I’ve never liked his name but he’s a passable worker. This match is smooth and well worked with Lionheart countering most of Kenny’s more ambitious moves with wrestling. They go from there to Japanese style strike duels, which are OK but culminate in Kenny hitting a fucking tragic excuse for a rebound lariat. That spot needs to go from everyone’s arsenal because it sucks. This alternates between being a good match and being holiday camp crap. Lionheart pushes the ref into the ropes and wins with the Rock Bottom. This was certainly a match.

Final Rating: **

 

Dave Rayne vs. Joe Hendry

Joe Hendry’s entrance is “In The Air Tonight”. “Can you feel Joe Hendry in the air tonight?” The man is a genius. Unfortunately he waits until the drums kick in to actually enter the arena. Hendry plays heel by refusing to wrestle and deciding to put on a concert, when everyone gets shuts their filthy Lancashire mouths. His hour long concert is cut short by the arrival of Dave Rayne. Dave has been around for 15 years and has peaked with PCW. These two talk for ages pre-match and even have a singing contest. There is room in wrestling for lots of different shit but there’s a reason that most companies don’t do things like this. Rayne isn’t very good and does a lot of slow motion strikes and WWE tribute show bullshit. It’s not like he even looks good because he’s lacking gym time. Hendry puts him away with minimal fuss. There was more bullshit before the match than in it. Hendry is a good talent but this match was nothing.

Final Rating: ¾*

 

GFW NEXGEN Championship

Sonjay Dutt (c) vs. Bubblegum

Sonjay won the GFW junior/X division strap late in 2015 and has been defending it globally because Global Force don’t run that many shows. Hell, GFW have run more shows on this UK tour than they did in the entire rest of the year pre-March. Dutt is a total pro and Bubblegum is solid although he blows a back elbow. They settle into a fair few in-ring chats during chinlocks, which is unfortunate but they have some good pre-planned sequences lined up. Including a Dutt dropkick through the ropes where he clips the top of Bubblegum’s head. Bubblegum’s comebacks are a little sloppy but Sonjay is like the junior Ric Flair and is great at getting over the local guys but ultimately beating them. Sonjay is clinical when Bubblegum isn’t botching and he finishes with the tornado DDT and a frogsplash. Sonjay is such a competent professional wrestler. God bless him.

Final Rating: ***

 

Chris Dickinson vs. Johnny Moss

Two large bald muscular gentlemen. One from BritWres (Mr Moss), the other from New York (Dickinson). This wouldn’t feel out of place in EVOLVE, where Dickinson has worked. The pacing is a little pedestrian but I can’t say I blame either man due to the surroundings. They do better work on the mat and in exchanging big suplexes than anything else. Even during the big spots the pacing is sluggish. The trading of suplexes is fun, even if they are all super safe bumps. Both guys are freaky strong but a Tombstone counters bit goes wrong twice and they persist with it. The match should be way better than it is but Dickinson does supreme work in jumping onto the top rope to hurl Moss to the mat for the win. Regardless of quality, and occasional botches, this was a manly match so I still enjoyed it. I just can’t give it big snowflakes.

Final Rating: **3/4

 

Jeff Jarrett vs. Noam Dar

Jeff’s wife is with him. Presumably because she wanted a trip to England. Jarrett is naturally over because he used to be in WWE/TNA. Jeff’s wearing his Bullet Club gear and manages to turn heel between walking through the curtain and hitting the ring. Karen Jarrett goes for the Memphis manager’s heat but comes up short of Saraya for jumping into the crowd and molesting someone. It’s extremely close and her wiping her privates on Dar’s ring jacket and spitting on referee Joel Allen is just nasty. It’s also typical avoiding working hard crap that Jarrett did with Jurn Simmons in Germany. It’s awful. Jarrett’s work here is absolute shit and Karen is an albatross. Dar takes it really easy, knowing he’s in there with a borderline legend and wants to learn this kind of match. Jarrett is glacially slow and all his spots look awful. It might be time that he gives it up. Dar has this won with the Champagne Super Kneebar but Dutt runs in for the save with Karen on distraction duties. Jarrett then literally just pins Dar without doing anything. This was a steaming red hot turd from the pre-match to the finish. Blame is totally on Jeff and his wife. Jarrett should probably retire at this point. I’ve said that about people who’ve come good again but none of them looked this bad.

Final Rating: DUD

 

Post Match: Heel shenanigans continue as Dutt challenges Dar to a fight right now and they go to have a match but Sonjay bails after two seconds. Karen throws her shoe at Dar. Apparently that stinks too. Poor Karen has questionable personal hygiene.

 

Masterlock Challenge

Yes, they’re really putting a Masterlock Challenge on this show. Presumably because Masters is only just back from a three month absence with a knee injury. Iestyn Rees answers the challenge. It’s like looking in a mirror. Rees stomps Masters knee to set up a future match, which would be fine if Masters wasn’t a bloody fly-in! He did the Masterlock Challenge on all of these tour shows but it seems like a bit of a waste.

 

Team Single (Rampage Brown & T-Bone) vs. Jack Barren & Jack Garvey

Team Single, the tag team champions, offer an open challenge. The challengers are trainees, who worked on the ring crew. This is a squash. It should be over in a few minutes and the longer it goes the less I believe in it. Rampage, who is a lovely man outside the ring, almost kills the poor kids by slamming one on the other while he’s on all fours. Both of them are pancake flat. The kids are allowed offence, which is just wrong. The kids being there makes the match so much sloppier than it needs to be. Eventually the Jack’s count lights. This was very drawn out for what it was.

Final Rating: ½*

 

PCW Championship

Sha Samuels (c) vs. Dave Mastiff

Big Dave comes in as a powerhouse babyface suplex machine. Imagine Shigehiro Irie only with a big beard and less smiling. Instead of having a match they brawl around the building and tease ridiculous spots like throwing each other off the balcony. The crowd really don’t care about any of it. A couple of masked men run in to help Sha and he wins. This is greeted by absolute silence.

Final Rating: DUD

 

Post Match: Team Single run in for the save and they try and get an impromptu four on four match going but the bait and switch is that the match will be on another show. That makes me feel so much better about that main event.

3.0
The final score: review Bad
The 411
This DVD was a freebie. That’s about what it’s worth.
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article topics :

Euro Fury, GFW, PCW, Arnold Furious