GPW: Battle At The Ballroom" Hindley, Wigan, Sept 27th

[Mr. Noble]

At the end of our sold out special 10th Year Anniversary Show, GPW: X the 480 strong audience chanted "10 More Years! 10 More Years!" Well, those 10 More Years start on September 27th with GPW: "Battle At The Ballroom".

 

 

DATE: Friday September 27th 2013

 

VENUE: The Rose Club, Atherton Rd, Hindley, Wigan WN2 3EU

 

TIME: Doors open 7PM, show starts 7.30PM

 

TICKETS: Single entry

[Mr. Noble]

Facebook friends and Twitter followers found out last night two more matches for Battle At The Ballroom, they are:

 

 

CC8 Qualifier:

Ligero v. Daniels

 

With the help of his stablemates in The Cause, it was Daniels who scored an upset at GPW: X by eliminating Ligero from the Torneo Ciernetico, putting himself on the map in the process.

 

That elimination has given us this tasty looking qualifying match for a place in November's Crazy Cruiser-8 tournament. In this first time ever one on one, who will join Kris Travis in the prestigious CC8 line up!? Ligero has been ever present in tournaments of the past, could Daniels cause a second upset to stop Ligero qualifying? One thing is for sure, you know his stablemates won't be far behind....!

 

 

 

8-Man Mega Match:

CJ Banks, Maguire, Barnes, Drill v. Cyanide ©, Sexy Kev, Science Fiction

 

The huge 8 Man Mega Match returns September 27th and features a mix of main event talent, GPW veterans and some of the best up and coming talent in the UK.

 

Reigning Heavyweight Champion, Cyanide brings together the returning Voodoo and Prof. Mike Holmes as Science Fiction along with one of the stand out stars in the Past, Present & Future Battle Royal at X, Sexy Kev! They take on a team assembled by former No.1 Contender to the Heavyweight Title, CJ Banks as he recruits the dangerous Nick Maguire, skinhead, Drill and a man who impressed many at X by lasting to the final 3 in the Past, Present & Future Battle Royal, "Bad Lad" Micky Barnes.

 

With so many individuals wanting to prove a point in this one, you cannot afford to miss it!!

 

 

More matches to come, including one hell of a main event!!

[Mr. Noble]

And the final updates for September 27th are:

 

 

Joey Hayes Confronts Martin Kirby!

 

In what promises to be an explosive meeting, Joey Hayes will demand answers from the man who turned his back on him, and every single one of the GPW fans, former Heavyweight Champion, Martin Kirby. There have been problems between the two for months and months, but it was Kirby who escalated things beyond repair at GPW: X when he attacked and launched an unsuspecting Hayes into the outside of the turnbuckle. The two come face to face for the first time since X, stand back and watch the fireworks!

 

 

Main Event Six Man Tag:

Bin Man, DDL, Nate Travis v. Dave Rayne & The Blackpool Blonds

 

In one of the biggest ever Six Man Tags of the last 10 years, Dom Travis' brother Nate debuts to join the fight against The Cause!

 

Following the bitter Cibernetico defeat at X, team GPW recruit a new member and reform to fight another battle! Former Heavyweight Champion and Triple Crown winner, "Dangerous" Damon Leigh joins former British Champion, Ste "Bin" Man as the two hugely popular fan favorites welcome Nate Travis, the brother of former two-time GPW Tag Team Champ, the late Dom Travis! There will be a lot of interest in seeing Nate debut and carry on the Travis legacy, the powerhouse stands 6ft 3, weighs 18st and just like his brother - he hits hard! But will the pressure of debuting in the Main Event lead to another GPW defeat?

 

Opponents, Cause members, Rayne, Drake and Rage are a proven well-oiled unit, will they have their hands raised in a second consecutive main event? Don't miss out on what will be one of the biggest nights in the wrestling calendar!

 

 

Tickets selling fast, get on them!

[hitman89762000]

Rjm is gonna kick the crap out of bailey and deservedly so.

 

Made up for nate im sure he'll be boss

[chrisisfear]

This is the first GPW show I'll be missing in 2 years, gutted I won't be there. The card looks belting regardless.

[GPW Kristian Zane]

Results

Crazy Cruiser 8 Qualifier: El Ligero def Sean Daniels

 

Heavyweight Champion Cyanide, Voodoo, Mike Holmes and Sexy Kev def CJ Banks, Nick Maguire, Drill and "Bad Lad" Mickey Barnes

 

Joey Hayes called out Martin Kirby. Kirby tried to hit Joey but Joey blocked it and struck Kirby. Content, Joey left the ring only to be attacked by Noah. Noah and Kirby assaulted Joey with Kirby saying Joey was "jealous" of him and then Kirby and Noah left together.

 

Sam Bailey def RJM

 

 

British Title/Crazy Cruiser 8 Qualifying Strap Match: Zack "Diamond" Gibson

[Big Benny HG]

Some (very) late thoughts on ‘Battle at the Ballroom’.

 

The draw was down from what it has been, though this wasn’t too much of a worry – more like the crowd being back to ‘normal’ levels after some of the standing room only, super-no-vacancy mega attendances that some of the shows this year have had. Couple of possible reasons for this. Firstly, this one always figured to be a set-up show without any particular stand-out theme (like the big Tenth Anniversary in July) or individual drawing match (like the 30-man rumble in April), so those in the habit of picking and choosing which GPW shows to attend may have seen this one as more ‘skippable’ than others. Secondly, the show was going head-to-head with Wigan Warriors playing Huddersfield Giants in the Super League semi-final at the exact same time. Folks living elsewhere may not appreciate or even consider this, but the popularity and draw of rugby league in towns like Wigan cannot be understated – it’s simply massive.

 

In a strange one, it appeared that they were not filming this event for DVD release. Bizarrely, the commentators were still there doing their thing, but there were no handheld camera and no mounted/hard camera, and the only type of recording I noticed was the commentators resting a little mobile device on their desk at certain points.

 

As for the show itself, it wasn’t the strongest of GPW events but I thought it was a good set-up show for the upcoming months and I enjoyed it in that regard. There was obviously more of an emphasis on build and multiple angles rather than ‘payoff’, but the angles to advance storylines were all effective in moving situations forward and building interest. Perhaps they even managed to try to fit too much in the way of angles and twists into this single show as it felt like overload at times and some people would probably struggle to remember everything that went down. I’ve used the analogy before, but this was like a ‘Monday Night Raw’ to build the payoff at the ‘PPV’ at the end of the year. It was also particularly notable that they quite purposely put the spotlight on certain new characters and performers in an attempt to build recognition and value in them. As with most of the shows this year, the GPW vs. The Cause storyline was a central thread throughout the show.

 

El Ligero vs. Sean Daniels of The Cause was a fine opener (**1/4). Nothing special or fancy, just basic, solid, decent action to get things going. Nothing wrong with that. Ligero got the win with a top rope splash to qualify for the Crazy Cruiser 8 tournament in November. Afterwards, the rest of The Cause attacked Ligero and injured his arm before the GPW good guys made it out for the save.

 

The 8-man tag (Cyanide & Mike Holmes & Voodoo & Sexy Kev vs. CJ Banks, Drill, Bad Lad Barnes & Nick McGuire) was right up my street, as I figured it would be on paper. A bit of everything, this mixed strong characters, colourful gimmicks, fast-paced wrestling and wacky comedy for a result that was huge fun (***1/4). Babyfaces being heroic battlers and heels being shouty, cheating bad guys. I came to the conclusion that Barnes (who wrestles in a denim shirt and is supposed to be a gypsy bare-knuckle fighter) and Drill (who wrestles in drainpipe jeans and Doc Martens, and is supposed to be a facist skinhead thug) should be a tag team called Double Denim. Much of the match was designed to set-up Sexy Kev as a new babyface star, with him constantly being put in spots in the match where he would draw crowd support or stand out. It worked: he got over HUGE. There is already a vocal contingent that turn up specifically to see him, but it was infectious and people loved getting behind him. It looks like Sexy Kev will be to 2013 what BINMAN was to 2011 and Track n’ Field were to 2012 – wacky gimmick performers that catch on and explode with an initial burst of popularity. The end saw Voodoo go for his classic GPW comedy match staple, the bowl of POO, smear himself with the brown matter and hit Drill with faeces-assisted crossbody off the top. Hilariously, Drill’s partners wanted nothing to do with him after.

 

Martin Kirby, who finally turned on Joey Hayes last time, came out doing the Bo Dallas-style over-the-top fake babyface routine, proclaiming himself to be the ‘Hero of Hindley’ (actually, that’s a really great heel heat move for him in particular) and thinking everyone was cheering for him. Hayes wanted to find out what Kirby’s deal was. Kirby first tried to fake him out by saying Hayes really was the best wrestler in the country, but then tried a cheapshot. Hayes blocked and started laying into Kirby, but was attacked by recent GPW debutant Noah as he walked to the back. Kirby, it seemed, had control over Noah’s actions through a teddy bear that had Noah transfixed. That’s weird, but interesting, and is a ready-made angle for when Noah eventually breaks free and turns babyface on Kirby. So, this one ended with Kirby laying some smack on Hayes and Hayes left still looking to get even.

 

Sam Bailey vs. Ricky J McKenzie was supposed to be a grudge match but never really clicked for me (**1/4). McKenzie looked awesome in his April rumble return, but the fans never really got into this. A distraction from Cause leader member Dave Rayne allowed his stablemate Bailey to use a baseball bat on McKenzie for the win, but that was awkward since they took too long to set it up, the referee turned round too early and then had to turn round again so that the offence could take place behind his back. An unexpected highlight was a kid rushing from somewhere in the crowd up to the barrier with the purpose of telling Sam Bailey he was a “stinky black man”.

 

Much better was Zack Gibson vs. Danny Hope in a Strap Match, another GPW vs. Cause bout. Touch all 4 corners in succession to win. This was for Gibson’s GPW British Championship and also served as a qualifier for the Crazy Cruiser 8 tournament. Interesting that Hope, now a babyface since he stood up to The Cause, is starting to introduce the ever-popular ‘tassels’ to his act for the first time in GPW. He was still accompanied by Melanie Price, which meant I saw the finish coming a mile off and called it almost spot-for-spot exactly. That’s not to say it wasn’t executed wonderfully. They started with a big brawl all over the room, with Price being chased to the back. Back inside, they were really laying in the strap shots, leaving big red marks on their back. Plenty of ‘OOOOs’ and ‘AAAAHHHHs’ for those, and the crowd was well into the action and 100% behind Hope. The end was a version of the finish that ALL STRAP MATCHES IN HISTORY must obey by law, as Hope touched 3 corners, not realising that Gibson was right behind him touching them immediately after. Just as Hope was about to touch the fourth and final corner, the returning Mel Price turned on him by smacking him in the head with her Loaded Handbag of Doom, which allowed Gibson to get there first for the win. This was all good (***1/4), and natural heel Mel Price being part of The Cause makes perfect sense.

 

The Island Brothers vs. Track n’ Field was a decent, entertaining bout (**1/2). Track n’ Field were represented on this occasion by Ian Field and Jim Nastic, with Mike Track acting as cheerleader from ringside. Nastic is another that GPW are seemingly trying to showcase and elevate, and he certainly does seem to have potential. Rio and Tabu are actually a great tag act and a team that could potentially make waves nationwide, with Mr Simon R Valour in the classic heel manager role perfect for them. After a match more competitive than you might expect (remember Rio & Tabu quite easily squashed a 5-strong version of Track n’ Field in a handicap match earlier this same year), the Islanders got the win with a Dominator. Afterwards, in yet another angle, Dylan ‘YSOAB’ Roberts ran in and beat up Track n’ Field, before asking for real competition and issuing an open challenge for his Crazy Cruiser 8 qualifying match next month. I’m repeating myself, but the transformation of Roberts from so-so babyface to awesome convincing heel has been a revelation. Oh, and on the way out, HitmanNumbers got in the face of Roberts’ manager Alan Alan Alan Tasker and earned himself a good slapping from Dylan. YESSS.

 

The main event was supposed to be Damon Leigh & BINMAN & Nate Travis vs. Dave Rayne & James Drake & Axl Rage of The Cause, with the late Dom Travis’ younger brother Nate making his debut. Travis was taken out by The Cause with a spike piledriver before match even started, though, meaning it became a 2 vs. 3 handicap match. To say it was the main event, there wasn’t much to this one. The action was solid, but Rayne and the Blackpool Blondes made very easy work of it and won fairly quickly with a triple-tream lung-blower (**1/4). It has to be said, however, that GPW is one of the very few promotions that could run something more akin to an angle than a traditional match in the main event slot and have it accepted by their core fan base. The Cause continued to demonstrate their dominance after by continuing to beat down the GPW babyfaces, until Heavyweight Champion Cyanide came out. Initially, The Cause looked to welcome Cyanide into their fold as one of their own (they are a stable comprised entirely of FutureShock personalities, and Cyanide is the current FutureShock Champion after all) but Cyanide instead single-handedly destroyed each and every one of them, making it clear that his allegiance is with GPW and that he was stepping up to join the fight just when it looks like GPW were done for. YAY CYANIDE!!!

 

And that was that. The show actually finished the earliest a GPW event has ended in as long as I can remember, meaning a leisurely stroll replaced the usual mad sprint up the hill to catch my only train home. As mentioned above, this was an enjoyable show that was loaded (possibly to the point of excess) with angles, storyline developments and build-up, all of which should make the last two shows of 2013 mean so much more. The next show is ‘Friday Night Thriller 7’ on Saturday 25 October (I kid… it’s a Friday) and already has Crazy Cruiser 8 qualifiers announced as being Dylan Roberts’ open challenge (Jim Nastic or Sexy Kev would be my guesses) and a Last Chance Battle Royal (which should be great). I’ll be there…