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GPW: "Heroes & Villains 2" Dec 7th Rose Club, Wigan


Mr. Noble

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Was a great show, delivered on all fronts. First half was probably the best first half I've seen at GPW. Looking forward to what the new year and new Champion brings...

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Some thoughts from Friday's show. I've even thrown in some good old fashioned star ratings in an attempt to assist with the illustration. YAY.

 

First up, Zack Diamond beat Danny Hope by disqualification, meaning Hope retains the GPW British Championship. Diamond kicked out of Hope's running knee finisher and overcame the (undeniably welcome) presence of Hope's manager Melanie Price, so Danny got desperate and smashed Diamond in the head with the title belt in full view of the referee, drawing a blatant DQ. This feud has only just started to ignite, so I didn't mind the non-finish as much as some others might - there's plenty of mileage left in this one. The two worked well together and this was a good, smooth match with a red-hot closing stretch. ***1/4.

 

Next, BINMAN, LA Austin, Bobby Price, Mike Track & Ian Field beat CJ Banks, Jason Logan, Cameron Kraze, Jiggy Walker and Nick McGuire in a 10-man tag when BINMAN pinned Walker after a top-rope splash. This came as a real pleasant surprise and, being honest, was probably my favourite match of this entire show. Just fantastic, encapsulating everything I love about pro wrestling. Massive fun, tremendous characters and non-stop fast n’ furious action in front of a crowd which lapped it all up. The formula of established stars and rookies works perfectly, just as it did in FutureShock, bringing new personalities to the attention and recognition of fans, giving experience to recent 'graduates', hides limitations of rookies and allowing the more established stars to be the 'glue'. I would certainly be in favour of more matches like this on future GPW events. Austin has looked a bit iffy the past couple of months, but was bang-on here. Price and McGuire didn't get much ring-time, but didn't put a foot wrong when they did. The match also proved a perfect setting for Track n' Field, one of my favourite new gimmicks, who definitely have a place on the show, even if it is in a limited capacity like this. Kraze got to show more personality than he has in months, and Banks, BINMAN and Logan all looked like genuine stars. The match drew a well-deserved standing ovation, ***1/2.

 

The streetfight between 'Dangerous' Damon Leigh and Bubblegum wasn't an all-out, frantic brawl, rather a more story-driven match built around several huge key spots. It was much better for it. 'Gum spent the first few minutes dodging DDL, running all around the Rose Club in an attempt to get away from him, then pulling out a superb fake injury spot that fooled virtually everyone. One of the steel security barriers ended up in the ring propped up in a corner, leading to several great tease spots. See my earlier point about the story-driven nature of the bout - rather than just filling the bout with non-stop painful hardcore spots, they built up to just a few big ones to make them mean more. As such, when Bubblegum was eventually tossed right into the barrier, it got a massive reaction. DDL followed up with a splash mountain bomb for seemingly the decisive feud-ending pin. ***1/2

 

After the interval, the Blackpool Blondes came out to moan about their loss to Brannigan & Kodiak last month (...and what a match THAT was, with Kodiak an absolute revelation as a babyface). Brannigan and Kodiak then turned up, gave the Blondes another beating (including a Grizzly Bomb/B3rry Bomb/"Flippy Thing") to send them packing. They turned around into an intense staredown with impressive, destructive and unstoppable newcomers The Islanders and Mister Simon Valour, and just like that we have our new direction for the tag division to start 2013. A good segment. Also newsworthy was Dave Rayne, sat in the front row, having words for the Blondes on the way out, before possibly leaving with them.

 

El Ligero then beat El Oscuro in the Mask vs. Mask match. As I mentioned before the show, I was somewhat surprised that they are already at the Mask bout, given that this was their first official meeting, but it isn't as if they haven't been clashing all year in numerous angles and run-ins. Oscuro hit Ligero with the mist, but Ligero came back with mist of his own. An unspectacular, but solid, decent match, **3/4. Afterwards, Oscuro unmasked as "100% WELSH BEEF" Dylan Roberts, which is something that I actually predicted on this very forum on his first appearance:

 

I'll put it out there now, and I could be completely wrong: what with Oscuro's height, build and curly black hair coming out of the back of his mask, my money's on it eventually turning out to be a reinvention of "100% WELSH BEEF" Dylan Roberts under the hood, presumably revealed after a climatic mask vs. mask bout down the line.

 

So, yay, me. Doesn't change the fact it is a good move, and the crowd seemed genuinely and audibly shocked when the unmasking happened. Also, the feud can continue in new and interesting ways as we wait to find out why DR did what he did and where he goes from here.

 

Next up, after a several month raffle losing streak (yeah, I know), guess who won the prize draw for a free ticket to EVERY GPW SHOW IN 2013???? That's right. In your face, Hitmannumbers! In your face, WORLD!

 

Main event time. After waiting a year, Cyanide finally received his Heavyweight Title shot against champion Martin Kirby and Joey Hayes (who Kirby has been unable to defeat over the past 2 months) in a triple-threat match. I may have mentioned it before, but Cyanide has been having a growing and increasingly vocal support from the GPW audience over the course of 2012. He's so bad ass and so good, smashing everyone in his path, that he has been winning people over. All 3 looked great here and this was a splendid match. After much exciting back-and-forth action and several huge moments (including the 400lbs Cyanide missing with a TOP ROPE MOONSAULT), the 'Toxic Terror' took advantage of an heated argument between babyfaces Kirby and Hayes (who had shown nothing but sporting competitive respect to each other over the 3 months they have been matched up) to blast Kirby with a chokebomb and gain the Heavyweight Title. ***1/2

 

Afterwards, Cyanide's manager Alan Alan Alan Alan Alan Alan Alan Alan Alan Alan Alan Alan Tasker tried to claim the gold and the glory for himself and refused to hand the belt over to his charge, the new champion. So, he ended up eating a chokebomb of his own to a simply huuuge reaction.

 

There have been a couple of GPW shows in 2012 that haven't, in my opinion, matched up to their own lofty standards. Some have been a bit dodgy. That said, 'Only the Strong Survive' and 'Northern Soul' were excellent shows. This one, 'Heroes and Villains 2', however, was even better than them and was by far GPW's best show of the entire year. In fact, you probably have to go back to the last Crazy Cruiser 8 (which, incidentally, they announced would be returning in 2013, GPW's 10th anniversary year) for a show as good as this. All of those plots, seeds and threads came together well for a wonderful event that I thoroughly enjoyed. Bring on next year!

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