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The Yorkshire Wrestling Discussion Thread


Big Benny HG

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Just an update from Monkey Madness Wrestling in regards to our next show. It's Saturday October the third at Tang Hall WMC, York.

 

So far announced

 

Liam Lazarus versus Joseph Conners

 

Stixx versus El Ligero versus Martin Kirby.

 

Four more matches to announce on an evening of great entertainment. After the last show, we have great confidence that this event will be even more successful.

 

Doors open at 6pm, show starting 6:30pm. Adults £10, Children £5, family tickets for just £24.

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TIDAL tonight in Leeds, with 'Against All Odds':

 

4 corners, 4 chairs for TCW Title: Liam Lazarus © vs. El Ligero vs. Matt Myers vs. Dara Diablo

Hardcore Holly vs. Joseph Conners

Martin Kirby vs. Chris Ridgeway

Jack Gallagher vs. ‘Armbar Superstar’ Dan James

Xander Cooper vs. HT Drake

The Proven (Sam Wilder & Caz Crash) vs. The New Nation (Alexander Henry & Jason Prime)

Lana Austin vs. Violet O’Hara

JD Boom vs. Josh Alden

 

Looking forward to this - there's plenty on there that should be good. Main event has plenty of NGW story around it and should be an exciting spectacle. Kirby vs. Ridgeway was supposed to happen at GPW last week but, erm, didn't, so I'm interested to see that. 'The Grappler' vs. 'The Armbar Superstar' sounds loads of fun too. Xander Pooper is always good value too, so I'm pleased to see him in the mix.

 

And Hardcore Holly! In there with the extremely talented Joseph Conners.

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One of the New Nation smacked the bloke's pint out of his hand and he kicked off. Sebb Stryfe ran over to get in between and got shoved, so called for security. He kicked off again at the top of the stairs, leading to Danny Binks, Big T Justice and possibly others, just there watching, get involved too trying to help.

 

But yes - good show! New champion!

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Never in a million years did I see Dara winning, going to be interesting to see where Liam Lazarus goes now. Ligero is like no one else, two matches in one evening and still taking crazy bumps throughout. Drake and Ridgeway show promise, just need more matches. Xander did nothing special in my mind. Josh Alden looked very comfortable in the show.

Brilliant main event for the Christmas show.

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The card for Monkey Madness Wrestling's show on Saturday in York is...

 

Stixx versus Alex Gracie versus El Ligero

Joseph Conners versus Liam Lazarus

Violet O'Hara versus Ruby Summers

Sam Wilder versus JD Boom

The Burial versus The Silver Age versus Sebb Strife and The Greek Warrior, Ryden

And 'The Dapper Grappler' Josh Alden issues an open challenge.

 

Plus much much more

 

Adults £10, Children £5, Family £24

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At a time it looked as though TIDAL Championship Wrestling had just run their last ever Darlington show due to a string of poor attendances and an allegedly uncooperative venue (they have since agreed a new schedule of shows for 2016), things could not be more different in Leeds, where they look to be going from strength-to-strength and once again drew a packed, enthusiastic crowd on 27 September for ‘Against All Odds #2: Hardcore Edition’. The event as a whole was another impressive showing from the fairly-recent upstart group.

 

I didn’t make it to the March show, but the February, June, July and now September events here have all been very good indeed. It feels like a hot, exciting promotion on the rise. The all-standing, nightclub venue they use (Stylus, in the Leeds University Student Union building) gives the shows a raucous, underground, fun atmosphere, and that energy transmits into the in-ring product. Leeds and the surrounding West Yorkshire built-up urban area is the fourth-most populous in the entire UK, but for whatever reason has not really had a regular ‘home’ promotion that has achieved any sustained level of note or success. Yet another strong show here, and every indication that the November and December events left this year will be similar, it definitely seems Leeds does now finally have that.

 

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The big news coming out of the show was the crowning of Dara Diablo as the new TCW Champion, beating El Ligero, Matt Myers and incoming champion Liam Lazarus in the 4-way main event. It was an excellent, story-driven match. While it featured the building-wide brawling that is TIDAL’s signature, it also featured levels of character and storyline development far deeper than the promotion has attempted before. The cast on a TIDAL production is often a revolving door of interesting talent from around the country which is in itself an attraction, but especially here in Leeds there is now a central core roster of local regulars around which they are starting to build show-to-show feuds, angles, storylines and championship scenarios.

 

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This 4-way, which had the added stipulation of being a ‘Chairs’ match, was notable for the way it gradually stepped through the gears, increased the intensity and ended up something altogether different to what it started. In the beginning, it was almost 4 friends messing around. There was comedy, such as Ligero wearing his jeans (as has become a running joke for his appearance in streetfights and grudge matches), and then the match opening with a round of musical chairs. Diablo was then established as the villain of the piece and was subjected to triple-teaming and gang-ups from the others, but throughout all this there was gradually increasing tension, annoyance and aggression between Lazarus and Myers, which boiled over when Myers proclaimed to him that “Ever since you’ve been champion, you’ve turned into a prick”. That comes from the scenario where Liam’s 10-month TCW Championship reign had seen him morph from the fun-loving, always-dancing, Vengaboys-chanting, Yorkshire Tea-drinking wacky goof to someone who, while not yet completely shunning those characteristics, is much more serious, focused and aggressive, but also distrustful and almost paranoid, fuelled by incidents like friend Sean Only turning on him back in June. It’s been great to see, and Liam is a very capable performer at getting this over in his matches. The match broke down as all 4 battled around the room, including on the bar and around the merchandise area, culminating in Ligero diving from the upper level onto his opponents at ringside. This was where the chairs came into play as the rest of the match took on a more hardcore feel. Lazarus looked to have retained the title when he hit his twisting full-nelson face-plant move onto the chairs, but was distracted from making the winning fall by the appearance of Sean Only, taunting him from the stage. While confronting Only, Liam was absolutely walloped in the back with a chair by Myers, which had the effect of taking him out of the rest of the match. Myers himself was taken out just after, leaving Ligero and Diablo to battle it out alone for the title. These two have their own massive feud going on over in NGW and this played out like a big dramatic grudge match, with big stunts and nearfalls. After several hard-fought minutes, Dara hit a TKO on Ligero onto a chair and pinned him to win the belt. That got quite a big, shocked reaction.

 

So, the story is that Liam lost his focus and lost his title without being pinned. A backstage promo filmed for DVD/YouTube revealed his disappointed, disillusioned state of mind. Whether this is an early indication towards a full heel turn or just a move to a more serious, fiery, aggressive Liam will be interesting to see and likely the key storyline through the end of the year.

 

Sean Only himself came into the show as the ‘Open Champion’, but since he is currently injured they ran an angle where he was forced to relinquish his belt or be fired. Only had turned heel on Liam back in June and had displayed an effective, remorseless, sick persona since then. Here, however, he initially addressed the crowd in a humble, apologetic and genuine manner, entirely out-of-character as he explained about his injury and having to step away from the ring, drawing legitimate sympathy from the crowd.... only to then suddenly, when he had everyone sucked in, to completely turn it around into a brilliant, fiery rant against the promotion, the fans and the other wrestlers, warning everyone to watch their backs. This was fantastic, just like the similar Mark Henry fake retirement on raw a few years back. Sean was briefly ‘The Sniper’ years ago in 3CW without making an impression, and didn’t impress me much in the times I saw him around various Yorkshire promotions as a good guy over the last year, but this more recent new direction and heel character in TIDAL have been very good indeed. He’s more effective, convincing and interesting than ever before and I look forward to seeing him. He’s effectively their lead heel, and continues to be so even though his injury is actually keeping him out of the ring at present.

 

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Elsewhere on the card were a guest showing from former WWE superstar Hardcore Holly and the first ‘proper’ appearances of JD Boom and Lana Austin as a unit. They are a great pairing, wearing matching TEAM LOOM varsity jackets. There is much silliness and Boom in particular is completely ridiculous, but it’s more from the point of view of “Look at these utter idiots, they need a smack” rather than comedy that would get them over as goodies. I actually think Boom is better outside the ring in a manager-type roles than inside, and the improvements Lana has made to almost every aspect of her all-around performance over the last year are staggering. Especially here in TIDAL she now carries herself with poise, confidence and presence.

 

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Local TV station ‘MADE in Leeds’ had a small crew there, interviewing ringside fans and filming bits and pieces throughout the show. It was apparently for their ‘Book-It List’ show, which is a ‘what’s on’ kinda deal.

 

The next show in Leeds is the Second Anniversary Show on 22 November, featuring a tasty-looking 3-way main event of Liam Lazarus vs. Mark Haskins vs. Martin Kirby, as well as a crew of DEFEND/ATTACK! guys in various matches. After this comes their ‘Silent Nightmare 2’ Christmas special on 13 December, which they announced to a big reaction would be headlined by Rampage Brown vs. Tommy “Fucking” End in a “Strong Style Dream Match”.

 

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Here at ‘Against All Odds’:

 

1. JD Boom (with Lana Austin) beat ‘The Dapper Grappler’ Josh Alden. This was Alden’s TIDAL debut, and actually the first time I’d seen him anywhere. His character actually seems to be very similar to that of Jack Gallagher and FutureShock Wrestling’s ‘Gentleman’ John McGregor. As you’d expect from a match involving Boom, there was much silliness and, while entertaining, the bout went way longer than it needed to. The finish came when Lana, who had been interfering throughout, got in the ring to distract referee Deagles allowing Boom hit Alden with his plastic-Lego-moustache-on-a-stick-thing.

 

2. Martin Kirby beat Chris Ridgeway. The finishing sequence was the STOP! enziguiri kick, followed by the Sable Bomb(!), then the Fame-asser. This was a very good, physical, action-based bout. Kirby could be a main eventer somewhere like here, and can also give you comedy and daftness, but when he’s not been called on for that he is so, so capable in giving you these exciting, smooth mid-card contests. Ridgeway was another TIDAL debutant here. This was the first time I’d seen him as a villain, and he’s got a natural cockiness and swagger that makes it work. He needs to drop all his Finn Balor mannerisms and moves IMMEDIATELY, however, especially when coming into a new promotion like here, or else he risks coming over as a tribute act as opposed to a star in his own right.

 

3. Violet O’Hara beat Lana Austin (with JD Boom). After getting into verbals with the audience all match, Boom accidentally tripped the wrong person when he wasn’t looking and Violet followed up with a Shining Wizard for the pin. The girls continued to brawl afterwards, causing the merch-table girls to jump in for the pull-apart. So, there’s presumably more to come between these two.

 

Sean Only came out and vacated the TCW Open Championship in the aforementioned angle. I thought this was great, and was a side of Only I had never seen before.

 

4. Hardcore Holly beat ‘The Righteous’ Joseph Conners with the Alabama Slam. The usual deal where you put the big name in the first half main event so he can immediately do photo gimmicks during the interval. Conners, who I see a lot of potential in, was a great natural fit as the opponent for Holly here and the pair had a decent, solid match with a receptive crowd.

 

5. ‘The Man For All Seasons’ Xander Cooper beat HT Drake with his feet on the ropes. Another decent match. Drake was much, much better than last time I saw him nearly a year ago against Mickey The Dragon in Darlington, though Xander Pooper was always going to be the type of opponent that would get Drake to slow down and to get the best out of him. Cooper went down well here in his debut, getting chants of “Shit Ric Flair”, “Shit Keith Lemon” and” Shit Noel Edmonds”.

 

6. The Proven (Sam Wilder & Caz Crash) defeated the New Nation (‘Primate’ Jason Prime & Alexander Henry). This was cracking; just right for this kind of environment and it got over great. Crash and Wilder were out first for a foul-mouthed promo (including liberal “fucks” and “cunts” being thrown around) to set them up as the big home Yorkshire favourites against, for the purposes of this match, I guess “Geordies” (well, one is, the other is Cumbrian, and it is in Cumbria that they regularly appear. I suppose Newcastle and Cumbria do get the same BBC region...). The Nation then made a sneak attack coming through the crowd to literally kick things off. From there, this was just a wild fight; a crazy brawl that you genuinely thought could get out of hand at any point. Heated, intense & edgy. They were running each other into walls, slamming each other on the floor and smashing plastic pint glasses on each other’s heads. The Nation was getting into fans’ faces, and one guy (apparently a wrestler with another local group) got thrown out when Prime smacked his drink to the floor and he started getting a bit too hands on (and even then he was chanting “YORKSHIRE! YORKSHIRE!” as security led him away). Despite The Proven getting the win, the post-match made it clear that nothing was settled.

 

7. ‘The Extraordinary’ Jack Gallagher beat ‘The Ugandan Warrior’ Nsereko via submission to the rolling half-crab. GRAPPLE’s Nsereko was a replacement for the advertised ‘Armbar Superstar’ Dan James, who apparently broke down, though if anyone from GRAPPLE was going to be brought in to face the former Jack Toxic then I would have made it their guy Toxic Jack, if only for my own bizarre personal amusement. Either that or see what the other Dan James in British wrestling was up to so they could hilariously claim to stick to the advertised bill! This was fine, and I did get enjoyment from the cartoon wackiness that was the hard-headed Ugandan (since in Pro Wrestling Land Ugandans are seemingly somehow related to Samoans, Fijians, Tongans and Hawaiians) going against the colourful character that the current incarnation of Gallagher has become.

 

8. Dara Diablo beat El Ligero & Matt Myers & champion Liam Lazarus in a ‘4 Corners, 4 Chairs’ match to win TCW Title, pinning Ligero. An excellent main event match.

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