IPW Sittingbourne Spectacular 2011, Sun 15th May 2011

[gadge]

Mark Haskins beat Juventud Guerrera in 19:34, with a new finish, a devastating knee to the face. I thought this was terrific...

I don't see how that could've been anything but tremendous.

 

It was a tremendous move, finish and match in my opinion, and yes it was like a half nelson / go 2 sleep.

[Snitsky's back acne]

Can Juvi still 'go' then?

 

Saw him about 8 years ago in Cleethorpes for the FWA if I remember rightly.

[Southside crew]

Can Juvi still 'go' then?

 

Saw him about 8 years ago in Cleethorpes for the FWA if I remember rightly.

 

Yes Juvi can still go - was a brilliant match !

[mackie]

Very good show tonight with highlights being the Suzuki vs Scurll match and Haskins vs Juvi. Also a great bit of booking for the Aoki Redman match

[cobystag]

Suzuki vs Scurll was AMAZING, and nothing short of the Spectacular match that was billed for the show.

 

Now I've got to think where to place this in the matches the two nights before as it was that good it would've fit in quite easily, and if it would have happened in Wolves, the place would have gone crazy.

[BREMENMURRAY]

A great evening of Professional Wrestling to round off a weekend of great matches in West Brom and Woverhampton as well as Sittingbourne

[Barramya Inc]

For those interested, some pics from last night are online:

 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1...mp;l=6efded54e9

 

Cheers

 

Sarah

[Big Rob]

Likewise, some of the photos I took are now online here

 

Some examples:

 

 

 

[spurs 4 life]

I thought Marty had died after that last tombstone.

 

Really really fun match live.

[Old David]

Another IPW Sittingbourne spectacular has come and gone, and it is time once more for the random thoughts and observations of an old timer and a dedicated IPW fan.

I must emphasise that what follows is very much my own personal view, many of you who also attended may disagree strongly with much of what I say.

If you do then please post your own point of view on here and let

[aosist]

The emptiness of the car park certainly gave me pause-for-thought as well. I'd wager that attendance may have been a little better if the NOAH shows were reversed. Going from Broxbourne, to Wolves, then doubling back to Sittingbourne was quite the ordeal. I can see why some would balk at the idea and figure watching Aoki, Morishima & Suzuki twice was enough.

 

Here's a review I posted elsewhere.

 

I thought it was a good little show, and a nice way to end the weekend. The crowd atmosphere was a step down from NOAH, but you can't blame them for that. Personally I found there was a lack of variety on the show. Lots of singles matches. Lots of technical displays. Lots of working-the-arm. Individually, every match was good, but as a whole I found it a tad repetitive.

 

- Bobby Fish vs Terry Fraser was a perfectly acceptable opener, aided by Terry

[Philo_Vance]

Ok, I don't often post proper reviews and I'm not really going to now, given that the above posters have done a good job already (Old David in particular, as always). Here's a few of my additional thoughts though.

 

Firstly, me, Rich0, and the friend we came with arrived extra early for this, knowing how long the queue for the Sittingbourne shows can be, and I was surprised too at how deserted it was only half an hour before the doors were due to open.

 

Frazier/Fish was pretty good. I don't have a problem with the pantomime foreign heel playing up to the crowd, and Bobby Fish seemed to realise that that approach would get the family audience in sittingbourne going without alienating the 'smart' fans who know his work from elsewhere. I also quite enjoyed Terry's '1, 2, 3, OI OI' kick being followed by Fish with '1, 2, FUCK IT', as much as I generally think that salty language is inappropriate in a venue like sittingbourne, it made me laugh. Spud/Tbone's involvement at the end was nonsensical, but fairly amusing. In and of itself it was silly, but it's clearly leading to something, as we'd see later on.

 

Garnell/Mason was a point of interest for me as I'd repeatedly heard about what a great technical wrestler Garnell is, but had never seen him work that style in IPW. I was hoping, then for something in the vein of the Mason/Redman or Mason/Cabana matches we'd previously seen in the same venue. Some pretty good back and forth stuff here but nothing close to those other two matches, and a silly finish. I also had the misfortune to be surrounded by idiots, one of whom actually exclaimed quite genuinely 'that referee's crap, I can't believe he didn't see that'. I'd love to think she was being ironic. More on my section of the crowd later.

 

Scurll/Suzuki was absolutely excellent. Quite a slow build compared to what I'd expected, but the pace continually picked up as it went on and they both pulled out some really original fast offence. I had a friend in tow who'd never been to a live show before and this was undoubtedly the match that had her really excited.

 

Haskins/Juvi was a pleasant surprise, I'd almost expected Juvi to go through the motions, but as it turned out they both worked very hard- as we've come to expect from Haskins.

 

Redman/Aoki was the first of two disappointments for me tonight. I have immeasurable respect for both of these wrestlers, which is probably why I feel disappointed in this, as something just didn't seem to gel quite right. The fifteen min time limit thing is well and good, but as soon as Andy made a big deal of it at the beginning, you knew that a)it would be a time limit draw or b) someone would tap at the last second. Maybe I'm alone but I don't feel that tricks like that to add tension are necessary with two guys this good, as it just removes any sense of a win being possible before the fifteen minute mark- it almost felt like they were just killing time till the final sequence. Not a bad match by any means, but it really didn't pull me in like I thought it would. Weight of expectation perhaps.

 

Main event. I was really, really looking forward to this too. In fact, having been in two minds about this show due to lack of funds, it was the announcement of Morishima that convinced me to come along. Imagine my disappointment, then when his involvement ran to only a few minutes. the manner of his elimination wasn't too bad, and made sense in terms of storyline, but I'd imagine that I wasn't the only person that was there mostly to see Mrishima, so it was a little deflating to see him go so soon. The upside, however, was not the rest of the match but what came after. Not necessarily a great deal of logic behind it, but watching Sha, Spud and T Bone in the ring at the end, i did think they look like a good heel stable, and since the thrillers kind of faded away, we've been lacking someone to really hate in ipw, so this could be the start of something good.

 

It may sound like I've mostly moaned about this show, when in actual fact they're mostly minor quibbles. A very good show as always from IPW.

 

Oh, and the crowd. It seems to be a running theme on here that people have noticed slightly racially tinged chants from the crowd, and on sunday I had the pleasure of sitting in front of someone who thought 'hit him till his eyes go normal' was appropriate and funny when there was a japanese wrestler in action. Not only this but all of his mates and half the people in my row found it hilarious. I know there's nothing the promoter can do about it, but listening to that sort of ignorant shit really ruins my enjoyment sometimes.

[BREMENMURRAY]

One factor that may have have limited the size of the crowd-no direct trains from Victoria.Nevertheless it was still worth the diversion via London Bridge but may have influenced some fans not to attend

[FishAndChips]

My match of the night was the Marty Scurll Vs Kotaro Suzuki those piledrivers were awesome

 

but my move of the night was - the Mark Haskins dive through the ropes to Juvuntud

[gadge]

Lots of things to comment on in Old David's completely tremendous review. I shall try to start at the beginning...

 

-The crowd size. It was definitely down, but half way into the opener I begun to question by how much. On our side of the ring there could have been an extra row squeezed in. If so I'd certainly say that pre-empting the need to put out extra chairs would be considered clever.

 

-I agree with thoughts on the opener. The new alignment between T-Bone and Spud would set-up the end of the show, though Spud's promo was disappointing and didn't keep the crowd engaged. Spud himself wasn't happy with it, according to his twitter afterwards.

 

-The first ten minutes of Garnell/Mason were terrific, both technically and in terms of storytelling, and the 180 in terms of storytelling at the end was befuddling. A simple thumb to the eye could have setup the blinded/rollup finish exactly as planned but without the powder. Here's hoping Mason comes back...

 

-Scurll/Suzuki and Haskins/Guerrera were great, the latter without hitting the craziness of the former in terms of moves, but with an almost WWE-like pacing. That will be where the experience of Guerrera showed, I guess. I think I liked both equally overall.

 

-Redman/Aoki was going great, but in the last five minutes Redman was almost senselessly buried. Tapping out with just a second to go was probably the worst finish imaginable, as Redman had to know how close he was. If it had been a struggle from sixty seconds out and he'd tapped with thirty to go, it would have worked, but he was in the move for just seconds, and didn't last the time. I'm going to say the "heel turn" is the last thing I want for Redman, as he's been there and done that in IPW:UK and is in that role elsewhere, and IPW:UK is usually a promotion that blazes a trail when it comes to storytelling. I am dying for him to be be a monster fan favourite somewhere, and thought IPW:UK was going to do it at a couple of points in the feud with Gilligan Gordon, but alas, it appears not to be.

 

-The main event was indeed disappointingly flat throughout. I'm sad that BIG BAD DAVE's epic title run ended in such unspectacular fashion, to such little reaction. The monster reaction for Lion Kid was a bright spot, but he and DAVE are a man down against Sha, Spud and T-Bone. It would appear to me that, following the unusual conclusion where Terry Frazier quit in victory vs Sha at No Escape, then Sha went on to win the title here, the storyline to come will be DAVE and Lion Kid trying to get Terry into battle vs Sha and his minions. It's unusual for IPW:UK to run storylines that you can read in advance that clearly, so maybe I'm wrong.

 

-So, what was the show lacking? As mentioned, a tag match would be a notable thing, here's hoping Zack Sabre Jr isn't booked elsewhere on July 10th and that the Leaders can defend the tag titles in a major match on that show. We have the promise of a Cruiserweight Title tournament, with the IPWUK twitter feed teasing some fresh faces for that, something perhaps needed to shake up the core roster. There are certainly guys elsewhere in the country that would be as good additions to the card as an extra fly-in. By July, perhaps a standalone show will bring a bigger crowd, though in some cases summer holidays and the like sometimes make that more difficult to do, with the type of roster IPW:UK offers that effect shouldn't be so severe.

 

Roll on July 10th, then...