The Preston City Wrestling Thread

[Setalight]

That's pretty good, their match with The Kingdom wasn't bad?

 

Really looking forward to Friday, who do you think Joe will face? Noam Dar maybe? 

[neil180]

Yeah was a good match. The 6 man on the Saturday night with Maria and April too was hilarious.

 

Looking at the card so far:

 

Team single open challenge

Travis v Samuels

Dar v Galloway

6 way match with 2 entrants to be announced

Rayne v Rees

Kirby and Hayes v Redragon

Mastiff v Bubblegum

 

Doesn't leave many names out to be honest. Either lionheart or ospreay maybe?

[neil180]

On the other hand it may be:

 

Samoa Joe v Joanna Rose for the #boom title?

 

Ha ha

[Setalight]

Yeah will be interesting to see, like you say most the names have matches already apart from Samoa Joe.

Looking to be a really good card though.

[Jon-Carr_92]

The 6 man had a hint of debuts or returns. So maybe one of each? Who is there who hasn't done PCW for a while who could fit the bill? Likewise with debutants?

[gadge]

I've just seen the Halloween shows go on sale at 8pm (1 minute's time!)

[neil180]

Front row superticket for October show booked! Can't wait

 

Anyone else going?

[gadge]

Front row for the evening, standing for the day show. £120 superticket a waste for me, not a big meet n greet fan.

[Setalight]

Not sure I'm going to make the October show, 6pm is pushing it for me to get there.  

[Setalight]

Front row for the evening, standing for the day show. £120 superticket a waste for me, not a big meet n greet fan.

 

What standing at PCW like?  I've only ever seated...are there enough places to get a decent view.

Edited August 2, 2015 by Setalight

[gadge]

Yes, especially if you are early enough to get to the dance floor edge. I don't stand often, my back doesn't like it.

[Setalight]

Yes, especially if you are early enough to get to the dance floor edge. I don't stand often, my back doesn't like it.

Thanks, I'm buying seated for Sept but by the time they announce the October show special guests I think there might only be standing left.

[GPW Kristian Zane]

Yes, especially if you are early enough to get to the dance floor edge. I don't stand often, my back doesn't like it.

My rule for standing is, whenever you can't see something in the ring, watch one of the video screens. 

[Big Benny HG]

It seems I haven’t said much on here about PCW in a while. I’m fairly certain you haven’t missed my overblown long-ass reviews... so here comes an overblown long-ass catch-up instead!!

 

I may not have posted much PCW-wise, but that isn’t to say I’ve lost interest in the group. Far from it. In fact, they are still the most fun and enjoyable shows I attend anywhere in the country and are the ones I look forward to the most. It’s a non-stop party atmosphere with a fun-loving mentality amongst the audience, who really get into all the matches and respond hugely to everyone. There’s another UK promotion I attend that brilliantly describes their own live experience as a cross between a rock gig and the away-end at a football match, but the latter half of that description is one that applies even more so to PCW. The constant shouting, chanting, singing, teasing, heckling etc. is fantastic, and the best part is it’s a crowd that enjoys being playing along as part of the show, not one that reacts to what they are seeing as a show, if that makes sense.

 

PCW has absolutely caught fire since I last wrote any thoughts on the promotion too. While not too long ago they would be doing the big 800-900 near sell outs for the big import-laden weekenders and the usual around 500ish for the other shows, it seems that they’ll now be doing the 800-900+ for all the monthly events. Best of all, it seems that they are drawing those numbers on the strength of the PCW brand name itself and the regular cast of characters, rather than specific imports as once could have been said to be the case. Indeed, these days the majority of tickets are flying out as soon as they go on sale with nothing announced. In June, I was particularly impressed that they drew the 900 sell-out based not on the appearance of AJ Styles, but on AJ Styles vs. Lionheart. Big difference. In other words, they didn’t draw on it based on people just wanting to see that single particular import; they drew it based on people wanting to see a specific match that had been built up. Granted, that was a unique scenario all-round...

 

As a whole, while it was most memorable for that main event, ‘Showdown’ in June was brilliant overall as a show that perfectly encapsulated everything that makes PCW work. If ever I was try to define what modern PCW is all about, I would get someone to watch a DVD/BluRay of that event. There was action, comedy, brawls, characters, angles, crowd interaction and a hot audience. This show also marked nearly exactly 3 years since I first started coming to PCW, and it’s clear that all the things that made PCW so appealing to me that first time are all still very much the cornerstones of the promotion, only amplified.

 

PCW storylines have also been stronger than ever before. While they’ve always been great at presenting a regular cast of brilliantly colourful, immediately recognisable and distinguishable characters, I believe it’s fair to say they never really used to bother with the show-to-show build of rivalries, feuds and, well, storylines. With some noted exceptions, their method was always been more about the attraction of seeing the characters themselves, rather than gradually building up the attraction of specific matches that these characters may feature in. There’s been a notable shift in that over the last 12 months, notably with the Uhaa Nation vs. Chris Masters build, Dave Mastiff’s road to the title and the whole Joanna Rose/heel General Manager/Friends With Benefits situation. At times the last on that list has at times bordered on tiresome, repetitive and annoying overkill, but they’ve actually been very clever to keep it teetering along that threshold so much to use those fan emotions, reactions and opinions to really drive the story, making it all that much more satisfying when the good guys manage to overcome those odds and get wins that therefore come over as a massive deal. Examples would include the Rumble match in March, the 10-man stipulation tag at the April supershow, and most recently Mastiff’s title win over Chris Masters.

 

Speaking of that Mastiff vs. Masters bout, the free outdoor ‘Tribute To The Troops 2’ in July was very enjoyable and worthwhile too. I would happily describe it as a great event, without there necessarily being any great matches, if you know what I mean. Most of the bouts were kept very quick and fairly basic, but that was absolutely fine given the type of event it was and was perfect for the occasion. I tried to describe the show to a PCW regular who missed it by saying it wasn’t a ‘PCW event’ as you’d know it from the usual shows, more like ‘PCW putting on some matches’ for the people of Preston. As a spectacle it couldn’t be rivalled and was the perfect showcase of the PCW brand. They got their name out there with the public, earned positive reputation with city officials and will have captured some cracking footage that will help immeasurably in future promotional use. I couldn’t begin to estimate the attendance, given people were coming and going over the course of the afternoon, but there were definitely more people there than last year, and multiple thousands. A tremendous success by any standard.

 

 

 

*******************************************************

 

 

 

So, now that brings us up to date, what do we have coming up?

 

 

This Friday, 7 August, it’s ‘The Fourth Awakens’, the promotion’s 4th anniversary show (keeping up the pun-tastic tradition of ‘One But Not Forgotten’, ‘Too Good To Be Two’ and ‘I Want To Break Three’) with the following line-up:

 

 

PCW Heavyweight Championship: Dave Mastiff© vs. Bubblegum

 

Kris Travis’ Return: Kris Travis vs. Sha Samuels

 

Samoa Joe vs. ???

 

Drew Galloway vs. Noam Dar

 

reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) vs. Joey Hayes & Maaaartin Kirby

 

Dave Rayne vs. ‘The Unpronouncable’ Eastern Reece

 

6-way: El Ligero vs. Dean Allmark vs. Ashton Smith vs. Charlie Garrett vs. ??? vs. ???

 

PCW Tag Team Championship; Fan Voting Open Challenge: Team Single (T-Bone & Rampage Brown)© vs. The Brolievers (Josh & Ryan Bodom)

 

 

Cracking-looking show from every direction. A few ???s to fill which, in PCW tradition, will not be revealed until the night. Most interestingly they haven’t revealed what Samoa Joe, in likely his last UK ‘indie’ appearance (at least for a while), will be doing. I’ve put him down above as facing a ???, but it would be equally interesting to see him somehow added to the Mastiff vs. Bubblegum bout to make a 3-way main event. For the ???s it’s pure speculation. Chris Hero, Rockstar Spud and some TNA bird are in the country for Southside this same weekend, and there’s usually a big talent crossover with that promotion in terms of imports. They’ve teased that some of them might be debutants, but some might be people who haven’t appeared in PCW in a while. What’s Mark Andrews up to this Friday? Or Will Ospreay?

 

Some criticise the ??? mystery guest gimmick, especially when it turns out to be a somewhat big star, with the argument that you should reveal the names in advance and advertise it so that you can sell tickets to people who want to see them. That’s logical, but I don’t necessarily always subscribe to that way of thinking. If not overdone, and backed-up with a reputation of actually delivering, the whole mystery gimmick is actually a draw and a ticket-seller in and of itself. From past experiences of when PCW have run this gimmick (Tommaso Ciampa, Austin Aries, Uhaa Nation as imports, but also plenty of British names), people know it’s going to be someone worth watching. Plus, it sells DVDs to people who want to see it afterwards, makes PCW events come off as a ‘can’t miss, anything can happen’ attraction, makes headlines and attracts attention to the promotion, and adds even further to PCW’s reputation in terms of selling tickets for next time they announce a ??? as appearing.

 

Elsewhere, it’s so awesome to see Trav back in the ring and he should rightly get a massive reaction. Fireman Samuels is absolutely the perfect opponent for the occasion and I’m expecting this to be memorable. I’ve seen nothing of Drew Galloway’s TNA and EVOLVE runs (hahaha... “runs”), so haven’t seen him at all since he was on WWE TV (and not live since... hmmm... probably WZW in about 2005). Noam’s super-popular with this crowd, and I expect this to be good. reDRagon are firmly established with the PCW fanbase by now and understand the daftness that can come with it and how to ham-it-up for this audience. I’m expecting their match against Hayes & Kirby to deliver in terms of action and excitement, but at the same time I’m not expecting it to be 100% serious. Interesting that the Brolievers won the Facebook/YouTube fan vote. They are definitely a step-up from the shite we ended up with last time Team Single ran with this gimmick, but if internet backstage gossip is to be believed then Josh didn’t exactly make friends in PCW last time he was here. Ryan’s decent in FutureShock as part of their lead heel stable, but Josh has been terrific recently as a super-cocky-arrogant-show-off-heel in places like RevPro and TIDAL. It’s getting a bit beyond silly that Ligero, Ashton, Garrett & Deano are the ever-present 4 in the signature 4- or 6-way that PCW runs on every show (seriously, is there nothing else for them to do?? They’ve basically been having the same match for months!), but as a signature throwaway warm-up/opener these are usually great and I’m expecting nothing less here... and of course the ???s could turn everything on its head.

 

 

 

*******************************************************

 

 

 

From there, the calendar for the rest of the year looks like this:

 

 

‘Bank Holiday Bash’ is Saturday 29 August as a free public outdoor show in Blackpool, with Dave Mastiff vs. Magnus, American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) vs. Joey Hayes & Maaaaaaaartin Kirby, Kris Travis & Too Cool (Scotty 2 Hotty & Granmasta Sexay) vs. Team Single (Bubblegum, Rampage Brown & T-Bone) and Mickey James vs. Toni Storm announced, plus Mr. Kennedy on the show too. As someone who does have to travel over to the shows, I’m not sure if I personally am going to go to this or not, given I’m not expecting it to be that different in terms of style/presentation to the outdoor show I already saw in Preston last month, but as with that one it should be a great occasion and spectacle for anyone that does go. Of course, the beauty of it is that it’s FREE, so you just turn up if you fancy it. That 6-man tag sounds all kinds of daft fun, while the Wolves tag match could be great.

 

 

‘Heroes’ is Friday 25 September back at Evoque, with the Tommaso Ciampa vs. El Ligero rematch announced. Their match last year was one of the very best of the entire ROH weekender.

 

 

As always, 31 October is the annual Halloween fancy dress special ‘Fright Night 4’. It falls on a Saturday this year, and they’re running it like the Saturdays of their supershow weekends, what with an extra afternoon show (‘Scary Moves’), a Meet n’ Greet session between the 2 shows and an evening ‘Audience With..’ gimmick. The Fright Nights are always a bit daft, so this should be massively fun. It does sound as though they are making it a big deal this year, and they’re promising 8 guest stars, including a huge international name. They’re even referring to the main show as ‘Super Fright Night’ now (and remember, on the old list of 2015 PCW dates before the ROH return came together, this was actually originally listed as a supershow weekender). They’re doing the masked Grim Reaper gimmick again, so it seems at least one of the guest names won’t be revealed until the show itself (last year it turned out to be an unannounced Uhaa Nation appearance).

 

 

Rounding off the year is the ‘Supershow of Honor II’ ROH crossover weekend, with 4 individual shows spread over Friday 27 to Sunday 29 November. They’ve announced Adam Cole, Delirious, reDRagon, Cedric Alexander, Michael Elgin, Roderick ‘Shitty Boots’ Strong, Dalton Castle(~~) and Silas Young so far, but there are more to come as well as 5 other non-ROH guest stars too (like Booker T, Brodus Clay and Road Warrior Animal were last year)... Should be a belter. Exactly the same as last year, PROGRESS are running on the Sunday in London, but I haven’t made my mind up yet whether to get the super-early train down to that and miss Show 4, or do as I did last year and stay for Show 4 over PROGRESS and seek out some evening entertainment (though FutureShock aren’t running that day this year).

 

 

...and then going into 2016 there are no actual dates revealed yet, but they’ve announced a change from the usual Friday nights to Saturdays for the Evoque shows, with the only Friday dates being the first nights of the 3 annual weekenders. I’m all in favour of that, given that it means I’ll be taking less time off work to travel over to the shows, it opens the possibility of more afternoon shows (that won’t be ‘Hangover Shows’!!) every now and then. There’s also the potential that the Saturday PCW dates might line-up nicely with GPW’s regular Fridays in nearby Wigan, FutureShock’s regular Sunday’s in nearby Stockport and the Sundays that PROGRESS have announced for Manchester, creating some more super-tasty-looking (and probably heavy-drinking) weekenders.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Big Benny HG

[Big Benny HG]

Just realised I didn't say much about Lionheart.  Could he possibly end up with the Joey Samoey match this Friday?

 

On Lionheart here in general, standing out there amongst the masses at PCW events, you really do get the growing sense that this is an audience that is itching to start booing him again.  I think people genuinely felt bad for guy with what happened last year and legitimately wanted to support him through his brave comeback and then seeking his redemption/closure with AJ Styles, but think there is something about him that makes him naturally unlikeable to a lot of people.  Before his injury, he was one of the top attractions at PCW shows as the guy that was mercilessly and relentlessly booed as the most hated man in the promotion after, again, the crowd naturally started to turn on him (which PCW then accelerated in booking).  It was great.

 

It was for precisely these reasons I was convinced Lionheart was going to win the 2015 PCW Money In The Bank match last month, then cash-in his briefcase at an opportune moment on a top babyface sometime to take the belt back, thus again swelling the backlash against him.  It would also mirror nicely what he did back in 2013 when he used his guaranteed title shot at the end of the 60-minute Iron Man Match (Doug Williams vs. El Ligero), which really was the catalyst for the turn, and would bring us back round full circle to where we were before the injury.  Didn't happen, though, as Kirby took the match.

 

Glad it looks like PCW are finally going to go all the way with Kirby.  Yes, they've given him some of the big showcase matches against the imports, but you've never been given the impression they saw him as a top, headline, company figurehead champion type.  Maybe that's all going to change...

 

... and as for Money In The Bank in general, I hope all these UK promotions drop it as a concept soon.  It really has run it's course, it comes across as copycat and it is lazy creative.