RPW Summer Sizzler 2015 review

I've seen and reviewed enough RPW shows now to feel comfortable saying that Alex Shane's influence on booker Andy Quildan is clear for all to see. Shane has stated in more than one interview over the years that his approach to booking a wrestling show is to offer something that will appeal to everyone in the audience. This show, like most RPW offerings, very firmly had that philosophy in mind. The show featured former WWE stars, current New Japan stars, big lads, a cruiserweight match, a strong style match, a comedy match, and a distinctly Attitude Era main event. Whatever your tastes in wrestling there was probably something at Summer Sizzler 2015 that would satisfy you.

The show kicked off with Josh Bodom versus Tommy End. The lack of Quildan in the ring to introduce the wrestlers makes me think this was a dark match. When you've got a lad like End in a match you're not intending to release you've got yourself a packed show. Sadly there was no bicycle knee kick, a move End makes look incredible, on offer here. Bodom got the upset win following a move not dissimilar to the package piledriver.

Quildan hit the ring after that, presumably signalling the official start of the show. His first act was to announce that Mark Haskins would not be at the show due to "personal problems." He was replaced in his tag team title defence by Jake McCluskey. This wasn't the first time McCluskey had made his way onto an RPW card as a last minutes replacement. Sooner or later his reliability will be rewarded and he'll net himself a more prominent role.

Just a couple of revolutionary lads.

The match, putting McCluskey and defending champ Joel Redman against Revolutionist members Sha Samuels and James Castle, wasn't especially good. McCluskey spammed moonsaults in the early going (because he's dubbed himself 'Mr Moonsault' at some point in the last year or two), which the crowd appreciated at first but soon tired of. Because, honestly, moonsaults haven't been impressive since the eighties, Jake. I did enjoy Jake and Joel hitting a 3D though. It was an unexpected addition.

The finish saw McCluskey go for a discus clothesline on Castle, only for Castle to duck it and kick him in the privates. Yep, a nut shot was enough to put McCluskey down for the three. Redman took exception to this and gave McCluskey a shove. McCluskey made it clear he'd been cheated but Redman was having none of that and walked off in a huff. Perhaps a match or two with Redman are heading Jake 'Reliability' McCluskey's way.

The third match of the night saw Big Damo beat New Japan's Tomohiro Ishii, a far bigger surprise than the opener had been. 'The Stone Pitbull' spent the opening stretch getting worked over by Damo, something I thought (wrongly, as it turned out) was designed to set him up for a comeback leading to a victory. It's not that the comebacks didn't come, they did, it's just that they weren't enough to put Damo away. Damo survived a dead lift German suplex, a superplex and numerous lariats, among other things, before slumping a worn Ishii in the corner and leaping off a corner to hit a Van Terminator-style drop kick. He followed up with a running senton to get what has to be the biggest win of his career.

The traditional announcement of the next major show followed that. This year's Uprising will take place on October 2 (a Friday) and will be a co-promotion with New Japan. The first match announced is Jushin Liger and Hiroshi Tanahashi against Gedo and Kazuchika Okada. I'm doubtful about Uprising being a full scale co-promotion but that match (and one that will be mentioned below) is very welcome. The more New Japan talent on RPW events, the better.

Speaking of which, the pre-intermission spot was taken by Shinsuke Nakamura versus Roderick Strong (substituting for Ricochet). Not for the first time I found myself questioning the placement of a New Japan performer on an RPW card. Along with Styles Nakamura was one of the two biggest names on the show. The bigger of the two would probably vary depending on who you asked. Judging by the number of shirts and the queue for his autograph at intermission I think Nak was a bigger draw for this crowd. This match would probably have been better received as the opener of the second half. But complaining about Rev Pro running orders is always going to be an act in futility.

Shinsuke Nakamura versus Roderick Strong.

Placing aside Nakamura versus Strong was excellent. The first five minutes saw Strong berated for wearing "Shitty, shitty, shitty little boots!", a chant carried over from his recent appearance for the other London-based wrestling group, Progress Wrestling. This included him storming up the entrance ramp and having Quildan tell the crowd that if the subject of his boots wasn't dropped he'd leave. Naturally that didn't work. Roddy would get in and out of the ring a few more times, at one point teasing that he'd take his boots off, before finally starting the match. Nakamura, for his part, seemed to find Roddy's shenanigans amusing. At point while Strong was bickering with a member of the group 'The King of Strong Style' walked into the centre of the ring and bowed, effortlessly making himself the centre of attention and popping the audience.

I thought this match was great and the best effort all night. While I enjoy Ricochet's work I don't think he was as natural opponent for Nakamura as Strong. This was a far better blending of styles than the striker versus flyer effort we would have had with 'ochet. Nakamura survived a handful of backbreakers, the Stronghold and the Sick kick before he polished Roddy off with two Boma Yes. This match alone is worth buying the event for.

After the match Nakamura was confronted by Big Damo, something which immediately examined Ishii's loss earlier in the evening. Damo told Nakamura that he wanted to knock his teeth down his throat. Nak responded with his weird face-on-belly taunt then took a microphone and agreed to a match, ending with a resounding "YeaaOh!" He then brushed past the big lad and sauntered to the back. Quildan confirmed the match for Uprising (funny how quickly he got that signed with New Japan, isn't it?) before throwing to a "brief" half hour intermission.

Will Ospreay, a proud RPW British cruiserweight champion.

Will Ospreay's two-out-of-three falls defence of the British cruiserweight championship against Matt Sydal opened up the second half. It took a while to pick up steam and once it did it was technically sound but something about the bulk of it didn't grab me. The root of the issue was probably my disinterest in Sydal as a character, although he played a New Day-esque super-positive heel here once it became clear the fans were behind Ospreay. That was a welcome change of pace.

Sydal got the first fall when he reversed Ospreay's handspring elbow attempt into a reverse hurricanrana and then leapt to the top rope for a Shooting Star press. Ospreay evened things up after he rolled through Sydal's pin off a Final Cut after a brisk sequence of high-flying counters and reversals. He took the false finish-stuffed third and deciding fall with a springboard cutter and a version of the Phoenix splash.

The third fall did draw me in. It provided more evidence that WWE missed out by not pushing Sydal and highlighted that Ospreay is one of the brightest talents in British wrestling. He'll definitely be one of the next guys to get a gig in Japan or on the US indies. The pair shared a handshake after the match, just to make it clear Sydal really is the super-cool guy he's gimmicked to be.

The semi-main event spot was given over to the comedy styling a of Colt Cabana. He was there to settle his feud with Gideon Grey and Rishi Ghosh. This had started when Gideon had made the (absurd) claim that Colt Cabana and Matt Classic were the same person. Cabana had agreed to a tag match with Grey and Ghosh to prove that this wasn't true. And prove it he did. After a bit of teasing Classic and Cabana appeared in the same place at the same time for the first time ever. Classic was met with chants for Grado, CM Punk and Super Dragon. The truth of his identity remains a mystery.

A woefully poor shot of Rishi Ghosh and Gideon Grey.

The match that followed was very much a Butlin's style comedy affair (not a bad thing). It's exactly what you want from a guy like Cabana and exactly the sort of thing the Grey and Ghosh characters are designed for (for the record they are an English lord and an Arabic prince respectively... Wrestling!). It's also worth pointing out that I was at the show with someone who's not a wrestling fan (Bea, she's great) and this was one of her favourite matches of the night. This type of comedy match was one of the things I was thinking of when I wrote about Alex Shane's approach offering something for everyone at the start of this review. I think it was the ridiculous characters and silliness of the action that Bea appreciated. Cabana got the win by making Grey tap out to the Billy Goat's Cutse while Classic held Ghosh in a sleeper.

The main event was Marty Scurll (the star of ITV's Take Me Out (no, I'll never get bored of this)) versus AJ Styles for Scurll's British heavyweight championship. They had a great main event style match that drew me in despite my lack of interest in Styles. I'm award I wrote this about Sydal too. Maybe I just have something against Christian wrestlers? Scurll put in a typically slick performance that showed why he's one of the most frequently booked men in British wrestling and why he'd had RPW's top prize for well over a year.

'The Phenomenal One' won the title following a Styles Clash. At first this was a surprise but thinking about it it shouldn't have been. With the title having been on Scurll since March 2014 it was time for a change and this allows RPW to present AJ Styles, a major name, as their champion come the New Japan co-promoted Uprising in October, which will make them look a bigger deal. Plus, there was no way Styles was going to lose clean to Scurll so switching the title allowed the sidestepping of a dissatisfying DQ finish.

This was the second best RPW show I've been to. There were two top notch matches in Nakamura v Strong and Styles v Scurll, enjoyable efforts from Bodom v End and Damo v Ishii, and a fun comedy match. It wasn't going to get any better. The best RPW remains Uprising 2013 for its stacked card and the opportunity it gave me to heckle Davey 'Nippy Weasel' Richards but I wouldn't be surprised if this year's show, boasting Nakamura, Tanahashi, Okada, Gedo and Styles, takes its crown. I look forward to finding out.

***

Results summary:

Josh Bodom defeated Tommy End
James Castle and Sha Samuels defeated Jake McCluskey and Joel Redman to win the RPW tag team championship
Big Damo defeated Tomohiro Ishii
Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Roderick Strong
Will Ospreay defeated Matt Sydal two falls to one to retain the RPW cruiserweight championship
Colt Cabana and Matt Classic defeated Gideon Grey and Rishi Ghosh
AJ Styles defeated Marty Scurll to win the RPW British heavyweight championship

Second Opinion: RPW Uprising 2014

I wasn’t the only person at last Saturday’s RPW Uprising show. Michael King was there too. Sitting next to me, as it happens. On Sunday I asked him if he fancied contributing some thoughts to my write-up (you can find that here). What he sent over ended up being over one thousand words long. Which, y’know, is easily a blog post in its own right so I decided to present it in full. It’s presented below, with anything in italics added by me. Because why not?

***

Lionel Richie’s All Night Long runs four minutes 19 seconds. Rich Swann’s entrance, based around the song, felt significantly longer. By the end of the match the crowd had cheered itself out, much to the detriment of what followed. It’s a shame this didn’t go on after the interval.

The match was good. Think a PPV/Network Special opener, or post Cena-promo Uso tag match on RAW. Lots of reversals, combos and dives to the outside, all pulled off with exceptional timing and little to no regard for psychology. Aries is as crisp in person as he is on TV. 2 Unlimited bad-guyed it up despite their adorable denim waist coats and propensity to move their mouths as if to taunt the crowd, but not actually say anything. Maybe they have very silly voices (They’re Irish so they probably do). Aries took the mic after the match to tell the crowd to keep the energy up. He obviously knew what was happening before we did.

Britain's premiere hoss. That'd be a good moniker for him, actually.

The next match featured Dave Mastiff against Karl Anderson. You’d think Anderson, being used to wrestling to the sound of a dripping tap in the Tokyo Dome men’s room (and only getting a pop for re-entering the ring) would have adapted better to the lack of atmosphere, but it seemed to put him off. Mastiff lives his gimmick and generally held up his end of the match. On reflection this match was pretty decent. A good ol’ meat bash (Oh!) with some big spots and a decent finishing sequence, but it felt a little flat whilst it was going on. We have Swann and Richie to thank for that.

To take us into the break we saw the best wrestler in the world face Adrian Neville’s old tag partner. To be fair Joel Redman is a much better singles wrestler than viewers of NXT would believe, but he was the wrong opponent, in the wrong slot. A big part of these RPW shows is being part of the reaction these big ticket foreign stars receive. Seeing Hiroshi Tanahashi burst through the curtain twelve months ago (in the main event) was surreal, and the reaction appropriately massive. Okada got some weak chants and a single streamer. The crowd wasn’t ready for him.

The match itself was decent, despite a complete lack of chemistry between the two men. Redman seemed a little unsure of his role and Okada’s deadpan arrogance didn’t work with the smaller crowd in the same way as Tanahashi’s stiff  arm air-guitar or Nakamura’s nuanced epileptic routine. I can’t stress enough how insane it was that this went on pre-interval. Okada, at 26 years old, is the biggest star in the world’s number two promotion, and will most likely be on top for at least another decade. Anyway, enough of that. Okada won.

The show resumed with the Revolutionists facing Too Cool. I should preface this by saying that I spent a long time where my only access to WWE was VHS tapes and Sunday Night Heat, which at the time seemed to consist of lovingly framed shots of Trish Stratus; Mick Foley going to theme parks; and Too Cool main events. This probably goes some way in explaining why I enjoyed this so much (Amazingly other people enjoyed their tedious routine too. I think I was the only one who didn’t see the appeal in a former light heavyweight champ, a grossly overweight Samoan, and Jerry Lawler’s estranged son). I wanted to be angry for Okada, but seeing these three men go through their old routine moved me in a way I wasn’t prepared for. This was so, so, so stupid and I loved it.

That said, Sha Samuels is great and deserves better than this. (I couldn’t agree with this more)

The championship match was set up with a video package. I didn’t hear a word but most of it still came across. Stone was angry because he is less well thought of than Mojo Rawley. Scurll is crazy now because he has a beard and an umbrella and that’s why he is the best Martin. These two had by far the best match of the evening, with plenty of outside brawling, near falls, heelish shenanigans and Scurll’s Vince McMahon impersonation. Scurll seems a little restless with his gimmick and it’s easy to see why. He is so far ahead of those round him in terms of presentation, pacing, crowd interaction and work rate that he probably changes things up so frequently to keep himself entertained. I can’t get into Stone. As a wrestler he’s fine, but his ring gear, promo delivery and lack of personality give him the feel of a fill-in main eventer.

Michael isn't one for national pride.

The post-match angle involving the (wonderfully panto) Knight family was a fun bit of wrestling nonsense. It went on far too long, but so did everything on the show. Dave has said all that needs to be said about the pacing, so instead I’ll complain about the constant references to the UK made on the show. This was the first RPW offering in a while to not feature anyone in Union Jack trunks (the UK wrestler equivalent of black wrestlers wearing animal print), but we still had it incorporated into the set (see right for one of Michael’s least favourite aspects of the show), and the Knight family patriarch (who based on the relative appearances of his sons and daughter (Paige), is a dismal producer of XX chromosomes) referring to the invaders as The UK Hooligans.

No-one in the building was confused about where we were, neither will anyone be when watching a DVD. The ostensible main event featured a man called Martin fighting another man called Martin. Wrestlers used scarfs and umbrellas as foreign objects. Not one reference was made to college football. All the UK references make the production look as indy as anything.

Ospreay vs Sydal went on last. There were flips. I question the decision to put an amiable face v face crusierweight match on after a number a genuine star attractions and a hard fought, angle heavy, championship match. But hey I also like my brief intervals to last less than 40 minutes (He wasn’t interested in a picture with Austin Aries and former TNA megastar Rosita).

A strange show, bafflingly less than the sum of its parts. Too Cool were oddly perfect, but with so many indy free agents now snapped up by NXT and the NJPW roster tapped, I wonder whether RPW can channel some of it’s momentum into building the size and profile of its home grown roster. Scurll versus Gangrel at Summer Sizzler?

RPW Summer Sizzler 2014 review

June 15 2014 was Father’s Day. It was also the day Revolution Pro Wrestling returned to Bethnal Green to put on their Summer Sizzler show. Embarrassing name aside it looked like a good show going in. Shinsuke Nakamura was announced to wrestle in the main event. ROH boys Adam Cole and Kevin Steen were brought in, along with the world’s premier free agent Prince Devitt (yep, I’d rank him above KENTA). Plus there was the usual assortment of leading British talent.

The opening match was a tag team championship match. The titles are officially dubbed the Undisputed British tag team titles, and I suspect the existence of other British wrestling promotions makes that name a lie. The defending champions were The Kartel, Sha Samuels and Terry Frazier, members of larger heel faction The Revolutionists. Samuels and Frazier have teamed, on and off, for around a decade.

Samuels wrestles with suspenders clipped to his trunks, has the London Underground logo with EAST written on the blue bar prominently displayed on his gear and enters wearing a scarf. Basically he does a stereotypical football hooligan routine and gets into playing the heel. He’s a fun character and a good addition to the show. I probably wrote something similar to this when writing about Uprising last year.

Terry Frazier is… less good. He looks like a low budget version of Rhett Titus, with a hint of Trent Acid mixed in. That’s not a good start but it could be easily overcome if he showed aptitude for putting on good matches. He doesn’t. Instead he resorts to cheap heat tactics such as leaping crowds to shout in people’s faces and spitting. The former can be effective but it’s not really suitable in an opening match. It sets a bad tone for the show. And even within the parameters of the fictional world of wrestling it’s still a pretty aggressive thing to do and fans would be well within their rights to deck Frazier: he’s the one starting it after all. He should probably bear that in mind, because the guys he chose to do it to (sitting right in front of me and Michael) outnumbered him and were bigger.

The spitting’s just disgusting and completely uncalled for. Basically I wasn’t impressed with Terry Frazier. As he debuted in 2001 I think it’s reasonable to expect him to have figured out better ways of riling crowds by now. Apparently he hasn’t.

The challengers for the tag straps were Joel Redman and ‘The Guvnor’ Martin Stone, wrestling under the collective name of England’s Calling. If you’re an NXT viewer you may know them better as Oliver Grey and Danny Burch. They were released from their WWE developmental contracts back in April and were quickly announced for this event. Both men had been amongst the biggest names in British wrestling when they signed with WWE. People loved seeing them back.



England's Calling with their new titles.

The match started out as a lengthy brawl at ringside. The faces threw the heels onto chairs, into guardrails, into steel shutters, and did piledrivers on the wooden floor (along with Frazier’s cheap heat nonsense). Things settled down when they got back into the ring. Samuels took control for his team by using his suspenders to gain an unfair advantage over Stone. That led to a hot tag to Redman a few minutes later. He battered both foes before hitting an assisted DDT on Frazier for the win and the titles. The performance of Stone and Redman showed that WWE could have done worse than pair them up as a team in NXT. Booked like they were here (unlikely in WWE I know) they could have torn the house down with The Ascension.

Match number two saw Henry VIII lookalike Dave Mastiff take on New Japan megastar… Bad Luck Fale. Yes, RPW had gone to the trouble of flying in Fale, a slow out of shape and generally limited wrestler who works in Kevin Nash-esque gear (hey, I love me some Nash but his gear is designed to hide his skinny legs, specifically those fragile quads of his). It would become clear why Fale was there later on, but that makes this match no less ropey.

Mastiff made things just about tolerable with his hilarious facial expressions (a constant throughout the match). He’s a good guy to have on a show: he can work a good big man match and doesn’t take himself too seriously. Fale got the surprising, and unpopular, victory when he channelled Umaga and blasted ‘Big Bad’ with a Samoan Spike. The audience wanted to see Mastiff go over.

Going from the ridiculous to the even more ridiculous a video was shown announcing that RPW’s York Hall return in October would feature a reunion of Too Cool and Rikishi. Because that’s what London needs in 2014, apparently. The news was announced by Big Keesh himself. He didn’t say that he was doing the reunion for The Rock, but I suspect that he is. For the record Michael was into Rikishi’s announcement in a big way.

Kevin Steen... and the backs of some people's heads.

As only six matches had been announced the first half ended with match number three. It featured RPW Undisputed British champion (yep, undisputed) ‘Party’ Marty Scurll defending his title against Kevin Steen. ‘Mr Wrestling’ got the loud, positive reaction you’d expect. He’s a popular guy and I think people were pleased to have the chance to see him wrestle before he moves to WWE. I know I was.

Marty Scurll had the first noteworthy entrance of the evening. He entered to remixed music (I’ve no idea how new it is but I’m sure it’s new enough for me to comment on it) wearing a fur jacket that was possibly inspired by Forever Hooligans, although in truth it was more Del Boy than Rocky Romero. Sadly he was not announced as the star of ITV’s Take Me Out. Perhaps that’s considered played out? He was sporting some wonderfully heelish leopard print trunks with VILLAIN emblazoned on the back. That was something Steen picked up on during the match, saying he didn’t feel he could trust Scurll because of it. That got a laugh.

Seeing Steen live made me realise how good he is at interacting with the crowd. He listened to what the crowd were reacting to and chanting for and incorporated it into what he was doing. For example, he started a bit involving the ropes after he’d used them to break a couple of holds and Scurll had accused him of using them too much. This led to the crowd booing as Scurll kicked the ropes and cheering when Steen kissed them. It was something different and showed a skill at getting the fans to care about his matches in ways that don’t involve wrestling moves (when else have you ever seen people react for how ring ropes are treated?). It’s possible this is something he’s done before, but it’s clearly not something he can or would do regularly, and aspects of it grew naturally from the match. It’s a great skill for a wrestler to have and few are better at it than Steen.

This was an addition to the more usual Steenish antics of stealing Marty’s coat and running onto the entrance ramp wearing it. When that got woos, I think because people assumed Steen was stylin’ and profilin’, he tugged the thing off and gave it an elbow drop. Back in the ring he posed with Marty’s belt as the champ bailed from the ring for a breather at ringside. He was fun basically, and you need fun on a wrestling show as much as a really good match or two.

That said this match also ticked the really good match box. Steen did his apron bomb, pop up power bomb, and survived a surprisingly over rear choke. Marty escaped from the package piledriver twice and managed to kick out of a fisherman suplex from the second rope. The bout ended with cheating: Marty distracted the referee by grabbing his belt then gave ‘Mr Wrestling’ a low blow and rolled him up with a small package.

Scurll ran backstage afterwards, leaving Steen to soak in a standing ovation. That was designed to send us off into the interval happy as much as anything else.



The man. The Myth. The legend. Andy Quildan.

The subject of the interval is probably a good time to bring up Andy Quildan. He’s gotten himself over with me and Michael (and possibly other people too) by being not only an uninspiring ring announcer and general hype man but also for his (probably deliberate) poor time keeping. He said the interval would be a “brief” fifteen minutes. It was just under half an hour. At one point during the show he was heckled by some kids and responded by jokingly saying, into the mic no less, “I’m a liar.” Nobody seemed to understand what that meant. His finest gaff of the night was easily his announcing during the main event where he introduced Adam Cole’s opponent Prince Devitt with the words “And him opponent.” At this point Quildan is part of the reason I like RPW.

The second half kicked off with what had been previously been announced as the main event: Zack Sabre Jr versus Shinsuke Nakamura. Junior wore his GHC junior tag title to the ring and had NOAH written on his boots. He’s clearly proud to be working for a badly faltering Japanese promotion. In fairness he probably makes more money from wrestling there than for wrestling for RPW, so he probably should be proud.

Nakamura’s entrance involved him posing with a geisha in the entranceway, doing his sexy steps and biting his fingers. Unfortunately Quildan announced him as he was walking to the ring which meant he didn’t get the chance to do his bend over backwards rope pose as his name was shouted. Other than that it was as close to a New Japan entrance as could realistically be achieved in what is essentially a village hall in east London.

The entrances are an aspect of the show that Quildan deserves credit for making particular effort with. He’s clearly realised that entrances have become a more significant part of wrestling shows, thanks mostly to New Japan, although the efforts of WWE at WrestleMania and Prince Devitt (more on his entrance below) have helped to. Putting work into giving us something memorable in that area (or at least designating the job to someone else) was a good call and a nice touch.

Nak v Zack.

Nak versus Zack was my match of the night, mainly for getting to see ‘The King of Strong Style’ in person. It started, as you’d expect, with kicks. By the end of the bout Sabre Jr was giving as good as he got (or trying to) on the kick front but when they started he didn’t seem to be going for it. Nakamura laughed his offence off, pretty much no-selling it in fact, and showed him how it’s done.

They went on a jaunt to the outside of the ring where Nakamura dropped Sabre across the guardrail with a suplex and then kicked him in the head. He tossed him into the crowd and kicked him there too. Basically there was a lot of kicking. Back in the ring Sabre Jr hit a particularly impressive dragon suplex and then upped his game on the kick front. Nak scored with a Boma Ye but Zack did the young boy one count kick out. Nak dropped him with another Boma Ye off the second rope and then immediately followed up with a third for the three count.

That was followed by a tag match. It was meant to be The Swords of Essex taking on 2 Unlimited but Swords member Paul Robinson no-showed the event and was replaced by Jake McCluskey. I don’t know what the original match would have been like but this was good, if a little sloppy and awkward in places.

The four guys packed in plenty of flying spots and a good number of double team moves. Will Ospreay (of The Swords) was particularly impressive. He’s someone that deserves a bigger role in companies like RPW. 2 Unlimited did a lot of slick double team wrestling. Meanwhile McCluskey displayed a nice line in roaring elbows. On the subject of McCluskey he should probably invest in some better-fitting trunks: he was nearly falling out of the ones he was wearing. 2 Unlimited won after one (I apologise for not knowing which) sat on the top rope and the other did a 450 from his shoulders, the sitting one following up with springboard phoenix splash.

That match was followed by the announcement that Kazuchika Okada will be joining Too Cool at the company’s October show. I hope he and Gedo join in on the dancing. I think I’m going to be disappointed.

That left only the main event, Adam Cole taking on Prince Devitt. Here Devitt made his entrance dressed as Bane. That’s the good take on Bane from The Dark Knight Rises as opposed to the rubbish take on Bane from Batman & Robin. Devitt could actually have gone with the original comic book look as that had a burly luchador vibe. He probably made the right choice though: the recent cinematic take is far more recognisable to non-comics fans.

Bane Devitt.

Two guys dressed as American cops confronted Devitt in the aisle and took a beating before he made his way down to the ring. That’s what I’m talking about when I say thought and work had clearly gone into some of the entrances on this show. Bane Devitt’s intro surpassed any you’ll see on the average RAW.

The match was very good. Being a Cole match there were awkward posing moments and super kicks. Being a Devitt match there were double stomps. Had I been watching online or on a DVD it’s possible I’d have preferred it to Nakamura v Sabre Jr. But I wasn’t so I didn’t. They brawled up to the entranceway at the beginning and did some sort of dive spot I couldn’t see properly before returning to ringside. Cole got placed on a chair and kneed in the head after a lengthy run-up. In the ring he scored a cracking near fall off a pair of super kicks and a Florida Key. His figure four earned woos and excited the fans but didn’t get him a victory (it’s unlikely to without Delirious booking). Ultimately Devitt came back with a superplex and a double stomp followed by Reverse Bloody Sunday for the win.

Lovely shot of Sha's suspenders there.

After the match the two men shook hands before the ROH champ left, giving Prince a moment alone in the ring to soak up audience adulation (playing on the rumours that he’s off to WWE and this would be his final RPW appearance). It didn’t last: The Revolutionists ran in and gave him a kicking. The predictable Bad Luck Fale wander-in came after about thirty seconds of Devitt taking a beating. The faces recovered long enough for Devitt to say that he’d come close to getting the Bullet Club (of which he and Fale were the founding members) involved in an RPW show in 2013 but it hadn’t happened. Regretting that missed opportunity he announced he wanted to make up for it then and there and challenged The Revolutionists to a tag match.

That was agreed to and kicked off immediately. Devitt was isolated from the opening bell and spent most of the match taking a beating and dealing with outside interference with Revolutionist members not officially involved in the match. When it became clear that the outside interference wasn’t going to stop Kevin Steen ran down to even the odds, allowing Bullet Club to get the victory with a Fale Samoan drop and a Devitt double stomp.

Send the fans home happy, yeah?

The show ended with some posing. First Fale hoisted Dev up on to his shoulders and then Devit strangled Sha Samuels with Sha’s own scarf as he did the Bullet Club gun sign to his head. They finished up with Steen joining them for some Kliq posturing. It was a strong end to a fun show.

Summer Sizzler did not reach the heights of Uprising 2013 but I don’t think it was ever going to. The line-up for Uprising was exceptional, boasting a higher calibre of fly-in overall (Fale brought things down for Sizzler) and a greater number of matches. But taken on its own merits, which is the fair thing to do, SS was a success. There was only one match that could truly be considered duff and that was more than made up for with Scurll v Steen, Nakamura v Sabre Jr, and both Devitt matches. If shows like this could be produced more frequently RPW could really go places.

RPW Uprising 2013 review

In 2002 the Frontier Wrestling Alliance promoted a show called British Uprising. It was a massive success, for a number of reasons. First and foremost British wrestling fans, with only WWE’s new and mishandled Brand Extension on offer, were on the hunt for something to replace the void left by ECW and the Attitude Era (and possibly, to a far lesser extent, WCW). The FWA came along at just the right time to capitalise on that. A second reason for success was the canny use of foreign stars. Balls Mahoney and Jerry Lynn may not seem like the biggest names in wrestling now, but they were good choices at the time. Far more noteworthy was a young AJ Styles, who then seemed like he was on course to become one of the biggest stars in all of wrestling, as opposed to the biggest star in a wildly floundering promotion ten years later.

A third reason for the show’s success was a non-FWA show (later lumped in with genuine FWA shows) that had aired on Bravo the month before. The show aired at a reasonable time of day and produced decent viewing figures, thanks in large part to the involvement of Eddie Guerrero. It proved there was an audience for a homegrown product in Britain. It just had to be packaged in a suitable way and feature one or two wrestlers people had heard of.

The FWA used the success of British Uprising to turn themselves into the face of British wrestling for the next couple of years. They ran shows throughout the country, including more at York Hall, always ensuring they presented a card that catered to all tastes and featured foreign stars to attract an audience. One of these shows was British Uprising 2, which featured the European debut of both CM Punk and Colt Cabana.

By British Uprising 3 the FWA was falling from glory. They’d overstretched themselves and lost a lot of momentum, mainly due to other promotions emulating their approach of smattering cards with foreign talent to attract and audience. The third British Uprising was a great effort but it was the last hurrah for the FWA. It soldiered on for a while long before closing down, later starting back up again, but nothing produced under the initials since BU3 has been a must-see event.

In the nine years since that show the British wrestling scene has continued to evolve. The internet has made it far easier to follow than it was even at the FWA’s peak, and fans in general have become more discerning about what they look for in a wrestling show. Balls Mahoney and his modern day equivalents no longer cut it. Fans these days want (and are fully entitled to expect) shows featuring talented, hardworking guys who want to put on the best matches possible. Nostalgia is out, quality wrestling is in.

All of which brings me to Uprising 2013. It was produced by Revolution Pro Wrestling as opposed to the Frontier Wrestling Alliance, but the intention was clearly to evoke memories of the FWA’s original run of events. Uprising 2013 was held at the same venue, in the same month, and used the same formula of bringing in foreign stars to attract an audience. The idea of a modern company wanting to encourage comparisons to the FWA is questionable considering Frontier’s fall from grace, but targeting the Uprising name in particular is smart. The British Uprising cards were considered the zenith of what the FWA achieved and are still held in high regard.

I and my That Wrestling Podcast co-host, Michael King, bought tickets to Uprising 2013 based on the names announced for the show. Topping the bill was Hiroshi Tanahashi. That alone was extraordinary: that the biggest and best name in Japanese wrestling had agreed to appear at a venue in the East End of London that can hold around one thousand people fascinated both of us. The Prince Devitt v Ricochet match was also something that swayed me (although Michael avoided reading the full announced card and so didn’t know the match would be happening: he was unaware of who Ricochet was anyway).

Our seats weren’t the best, probably a result of waiting until not too long before the show to buy them. They had my name printed on them though, so that was a bonus. You’re not getting that sort of treatment at WWE house shows.
 

The opening match was a Brits only affair. The Swords of Essex teamed with Project Ego to take on the London Riots, Fake El Ligero and former TNA Superstar Mark Haskins. Of the eight men involved I’d heard of three: Project Ego’s Kris Travis and Martin Kirby and Mark Haskins. I’d come across El Ligero before but was utterly nonplussed by the fake variant we were presented with. No context was given but I think it’s pretty safe to assume the idea is that he’s stolen Ligero’s identity and a Real v Fake match is being built to. If that’s the case then I approve.

The match was a very effective opener. People more familiar with the Rev Pro setup than Michael and I were solidly behind Project Ego and solidly against the Riots and their partners. In a way I found that confusing: surely London is the one place the London Riots should be greeted as babyfaces?

The number of guys involved ensured a fast pace with lots going on, which is ideal for a first match. The babyface union won when one of the Swords (I can only apologise for not knowing which) hit a shooting star press on Haskins. After the match the heels bickered over their loss on the entrance ramp.

Match two featured Michael Elgin taking on the highly regarded Noam Dar. That may strike you as a peculiar match up, and that’s because it was: Dar was a replacement for the originally announced Dave Mastiff. The bout wasn’t bad, Elgin made sure to include his stalling vertical suplex and deadlift middle rope suplex to ensure nobody felt cheated by his performance, but I was disappointed Mastiff wasn’t involved. I’m a big fan of his work and thought that a match between him and Elgin would be great.

Elgin’s knack of constructing blistering finishing sequences failed him a tad here. The finish was by no means bad but it wasn’t the several minute affair we get in his bigger matches in ROH. Perhaps that was because of Dar being a last minute replacement. ‘Unbreakable’ went over following a bicycle kick, an elbow to the back of the head, a spinning back fist, a buckle bomb and an Elgin bomb. That it took that series to put Dar down certainly kept him looking competitive in defeat. That’s the right way for an outside star to beat a regular.

That was followed by Sha Samuels taking on Doug Williams. Sha’s gimmick is tremendous. He has the London Underground logo on his trunks, wears a Dennis the Menace scarf to the ring, and is announced as hailing from nowhere more specific than “East London”. As with the London Riots that should have made him a face in my book, but the more experienced fans in the crowd seemed happy to boo him.
 

A (poor) picture of Sha Samuels

For a Williams match this involved a surprising amount of ringside brawling, including the first kick of the night that was so hard it caused the lighting rig set up around the ring to shift. Sha led proceedings when they tumbled out of the ring while Doug took control with traditional British wrestling back between the ropes. It was all very enjoyable even if it did last perhaps a couple of minutes too long. Sha went over with a low blow and a Mick Foley-esque stump-puller piledriver. It was the right result: Doug doesn’t need to win to be over with British fans.

The last match before the intermission was Ricochet versus Prince Devitt. It was the ideal spot for them: they produced such an incredible match that nobody would have been able to follow them immediately. The audience needed some time to cool off so that the rest of the show could be fully appreciated.
 

A charming shot of the back of Ricochet's head

The two constructed what was easily the match of the night. It was stuffed with high-flying and flashy spots. A particularly memorable moment spot was Ricochet’s springboard 450 splash to the floor, which saw him land on his feet and immediately pose. It was from there that Devitt started playing a heel, although the crowd was so appreciative of the talent of both men that he never really heard boos for long.

Eventually Devitt got the win, retaining his undisputed British cruiserweight championship after avoiding a 630 splash and hitting a top rope double stomp followed by Bloody Sunday. It was the match of the night and should ensure that the DVD is a hot seller.

The intermission gave me a glimpse of a guy in an nWo T-shirt (there’s always one) and various wrestlers walking passed us on their way to the merch stand. Naturally Cabana was amongst them. If there’s one thing that guy knows (besides wrestling) it’s merch. It also featured the announcement that Ric Flair will be present for RPW’s return to York Hall in March.

The beginning of the second half is as good a time as any to mention the ring announcer for the evening. He was comically bad. Tasked with the thankless task of trying to keep the audience enthused during matches he made a hard job worse by being repetitive, over-hyping everything, mumbling (though only once or twice), and being repetitive. Had he played up to these things he’d have been a great character. Unfortunately it all stemmed from his general ineptitude. Nobody else seemed to care though, and we found it amusing, so no harm done.

The first match of the second half saw Zack Sabre Jr (who has some incredible techno entrance music) take on Davey Richards. This was a personal highlight for me as it gave me the chance to heckle Davey with cries such as “You’re a nippy little weasel!” and “Prestige!”, as well as numerous boos. I’d like to make it clear that I think Richards is a good wrestler but I’ve never been able to get passed him taking himself far too seriously (even by ROH standards) during his ROH world title reign. He, like John Cena, is someone I feel I have to heckle. It doesn’t reflect on them as people, just them as a wrestling persona.

The match was dead for the first half. The crowd seemed keen to back Sabre Jr which should have encouraged Davey to play heel. He teased it a couple of times, most notably when he refused to perform his Rick Rude style gyrations, but he never went all the way with it. Had he done so the crowd would have been drawn into the match and it would have been a more entertaining affair. I suspect part of the problem is that Richards is not especially adept at reading crowds. Or perhaps he was simply unwilling to play the bad guy because he’d been told it as to be face versus face.

Things picked up considerably in the last five minutes. The pace went from methodical to lightning quick as the two exchanged signature spots, near falls and submission holds. I was surprised when it finished with Richards tapping out to an arm bar. That’s not something you see often from ‘The American Wolf’.

The evening’s penultimate match was prefaced by a pre-match promo from über heel Andy Boy Simmonz (formerly the Duke of Danger’s butler Simmons). He mentioned that Davey Boy Smith’s daughter, Georgia, was in the crowd and “reminded” us that he’d beaten her brother back in the summer. He invited her into the ring so he could do the same to her.
 

The posture of a heel

Simmonz’ tirade was interrupted by Grado, a cross between Santino Marella and the Crankies (Google them). After dancing to the ring to Madonna’s Like A Prayer he got assaulted by Simmonz and Rampage Brown. Naturally his tag partner for the evening Colt Cabana dashed out (after a suitably suspenseful delay) to make the save, kicking off the evening’s dose of comedy. This included an assisted walk-walking spot from Grado and several minutes of backside slapping. Neither outdid Grado’s simple comment of “You’re a very good referee” to the ref.

It was a good match, although as with Williams v Samuels it may have gone on for a minute or three too long. Grado was kept isolated in order to set up a burning hot tag to Cabana. The faces seemed on track to winning until Simmonz hit Cabana with Cabana’s British heavyweight title belt which allowed Rampage to haul Cabana up for a piledriver and the three count. No that move’s not banned in Revolution Pro.
 

They may have lost but Grado still seems happy enough

After that we got a Bret Hart promo. It was about as good as you’d expect. Bret reminisced about “all the incredible matches” he’d had in Britain (without actually specifying any) and informed us that we’re amongst the best fans in the world. The standard stuff you get in these situations really. After repeating himself a few times Hart finally mentioned his match at Wembley with The British Bulldog (which I’d expected him to open with) and put over the locker room as the future of the business. No, he didn’t call them the present. That was telling. He finished by putting over IPW. No idea who they are: this was an RPW show.

‘The Hitman’ stayed down at ringside for the main event, which pit “the star of ITV’s Take Me Out” Marty Scurll against New Japan’s top worker Hiroshi Tanahashi. Paddy’s pal got a ton of heat as he swaggered out to the ring while Tanahashi and his air guitar were met with almost deafening cheers and a chant of “Best in the world!” That’s certainly an arguable moniker, but I don’t think there can ever be a clear “best” in wrestling.
 

Hiroshi Tanahashi, making an appearance in, of all places, Bethnal Green!

The match was a little slow to get going thanks to ‘Party’ Marty’s incessant heat seeking but once it was under way it was very good. There were one or two awkward moments stemming from miscommunications but that’s to be expected when two guys without a language in common face each other in a lengthy match. For the most part their exchanges were slick and engaging.

Tanahashi went over with the High Fly Flow at around the twenty minute mark. Following the match Bret Hart entered the ring to raise the victor’s hand only to be confronted by an angry Scurll. The heel got decked and slapped in the Sharpshooter, a move he’d applied to Tanahashi as a way of taunting Hart during the match. Hart raised Tanahashi’s hand again before leaving the New Japan ace to pose in the ring to end the show.

The show was a very enjoyable experience. There wasn’t a single duff match, every wrestler seeming pleased to be there and intent on giving the best performance possible. The crowd deserve credit too: they were hot all night and improved the show as a result. This, as with most indy shows I’ve been to, was far better than any WWE house show, and cost a fraction of the price. Based on Uprising I’d recommend a Revolution Pro show to anyone considering going to one.