IPW:UK "Spotlight 2013" - Saturday March 23rd

[Daniel Edler]

 

TICKETS ON SALE NOW FROM: http://www.ipwuk.com/events/

 

- IPW:UK present our first featured event of 2013 in our home venue of The White Oak Leisure Centre, in Swanley, Kent - "SPOTLIGHT"!

 

Designed to shine a spotlight firmly on the main stars of IPW:UK and put them to the test against one another. Everybody will be under scrutiny for future big match-ups for #1 contendership or even straight to title shots, depending on how impressively they perform!

 

- In a massive British National Championship First Round match, see 'Dangerous' Danny Garnell take on Joel Masters. Masters is still undefeated in IPW:UK, and Garnell has been on a monster winning streak in the past 24 months, so something has to give!

 

PLUS - just announced: The Lion Kid is cashing in his 2012 Royale Reward! Tagging up with new partner The Dark Panther as "The Wild Cats" they will go two-on two against current IPW:UK Tag Team Champions Project Ego (Martin Kirby and Kris Travis) with the titles on the line!

 

And more from the likes of The Firm (Samuels/Ryker & The London Riots), The Bhangra Knights, Zack Sabre Jr and many more!

 

Tickets go on sale this coming Monday, February 18th - keep your eyes peeled for a special ONLINE ONLY discount, for this event only!!

 

 

[gadge]

This looks like quite a tidy little card, shame I can't make it, as I'm definitely coming to Sevenoaks the following weekend for Battle Royale and would like to get a string of IPW shows together like the old days.

[gadge]

Looks like I am now heading to this tonight after all, even though Project Ego's tag title defence vs The Wild Cats is now off until next week at Battle Royale due to the weather in Egoland.

[gadge]

So, I went to this last night in the end. There was a somewhat disappointing turnout, which could possibly be blamed on the weather and could possibly equally be blamed on lack of promotion, though the show itself was alright for the most part.

 

We kicked things off with a 9 man Rumble, with the #30 spot in next week's prime time (!) Battle Royale match at stake. Jonathan Windsor was out first, and mostly carried the match, with IPW:UK Future tag team The Whizz Kids both being entrants number 2 and 3 and surviving to the end with him. While Windsor then managed to eliminate Joel Martinengo, he was in turn eliminated by Lance Lawrence who claimed the victory in 10:50.

 

With both Whizz Kids still at ringside celebrating the Lawrence victory, the London Riots came out. The Riots, who have got themselves nicely established here and in promotions like Progress Wrestling in particular, are a great act, carrying themselves well on the mic and in the ring, and a tag team match naturally ensued. The Whizz Kids held their end up for the most part, before falling to the ever-dominant Riots in 10:25.

 

Singles action followed, with Zack Sabre Jr determined to kick the moustache off 'Mr IPW' Ashley Reed. It's not hard to see why, as Reed's moustache/grin combo really makes you want to see him get his face kicked, that's for sure. I personally enjoyed Reed working a more organic match with Sabre Jr here, as last year I was thoroughly fed up of the Reed vs Paul Robinson feud reprised from the IPW:UK of the past that reappeared everywhere. Reed worked the leg of Zack extensively working towards a figure four, but in the end succumbed to the Sabre Jr armbar in a surprisingly long 21:48.

 

That was intermission, and time for a jog to warm up in the freezing cold leisure centre hall in Swanley. Brrr.

 

The second half started with the Iestyn Rees Skinny Boy Challenge. Paul Robinson answered the challenge and put up as good a fight as he could, but Rees was destroying him with a series of powerbombs when Joel Masters came out to save him and caused a DQ win for Rees at 5:44. The story here is that the muscular Masters wants to face Rees, but is a rookie and has yet to win a match, so Rees is using that as an excuse to duck him.

 

This led straight into Masters' first round match with Danny Garnell in the British National Championship, which Masters looked like he might be winning when Rees came back out, and the distraction allowed Garnell to hit a low blow and roll Masters up for the pin at just 4:37. I have to be honest, the whole Rees/Robinson into Masters/Garnell segment didn't do much for me at all.

 

Finally, the Bhangra Knights duo of RJ Singh and 'Dazzling' Darrell Allen, who are easily the most popular act in IPW:UK based on this show and the last Swanley show I attended last year, took on IPW:UK Champion Sha Samuels and his New Firm tag team partner Paul Ryker. This was a decent, all-action main event. Ryker is green but probably has something, and working with Sha and the London Riots as part of the greater New Firm faction will definitely bring that along. The only thing I didn't like about this was the end: the Knights hit the Bhangra Buster on Ryker, but he rolled out to the floor and almost immediately no-sold it, and as he wiped out Darrell Allen on the floor, Sha hit RJ Singh with the IPW:UK title belt, and Ryker capitalised with a top rope splash for the pin at 14:19.

 

Sha's cheap victories have been dragging down his title reign over in Rev Pro, so to see the show end on a similar downer here in IPW:UK as well was a bit of a bummer. That said, a match was made in the aftermath for next week's Battle Royale show in Sevenoaks, with the Sha/Ryker/London Riots unit facing Paul Robinson and the Bhangra Knights trio of Singh, Allen and Ateeque Baig.

 

It must be said that next week's Battle Royale show looks pretty strong now, with that 8-man tag, the IPW:UK Tag Team Title contest of Project Ego vs Lion Kid and Dark Panther that was scheduled here but delayed due to the bad weather, Zack Sabre Jr vs Ricochet in what should be an excellent match and the Battle Royale itself, which in the old days of IPW:UK always set up a series of interesting storylines. Looking forward to it.