Does anyone remember Pro Wrestling Octane?

[air_raid]

Really random curiosity... one of my favourite subjects is when cards are changed from what was announced/planned and I was just wondering who else remembered this one, where cards were planned in full but ended up cancelled in their entirety for the old "home promotions pull talent" that used to regularly curse BritWres during the "supershow" era.

Pro Wrestling Octane was Mark Sloan's next project after he'd done a successful co-venture with Dragon Gate, it was going to be a weekender in 2009 (IIRC) with a fuckton of guys booked from all over. The cards were announced in full, kind of, before the talents actually were, via cryptic titles such as "Dramatic Styles Clash" etc. When the cards had to be cancelled for various reasons Mark confirmed the cards that were planned, but all I remember was that "Epic rematch" was going to be Bryan Danielson vs Paul London (recently released by WWE), I think the styles clash one was going to be Morishima vs Kota Ibushi, there was a high-flying one which I think was going to be Pac vs Ibushi. When the cards were announced it crushed me even worse that they weren't happening.

What I'd love to know, more than anything - did anyone actually keep a note or can recall what the full cards for both nights were?

[cobystag]

 

 

From the horses mouth.

[cobystag]

  Sorry for the double post but the post above doesn't accurately portray my disappointment that these shows were cancelled. 


This was actually before Mark first brought over Dragon Gate in November 2009. These shows would have taken place in May 2009.


In June 2008, Mark and A-Merchandise had brought over Pro Wrestling NOAH for a show in the Coventry Skydome. Mitsuharu Misawa. Kenta Kobashi. Jun Akiyama. Naomichi Marufuji. All of them had appeared in England before but they had the European debut of KENTA.


NOAH in England felt like a massive deal. And the show was incredible. It still holds up on tape. Especially the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title match between KENTA/Taiji Ishimori vs Bryan Danielson/Eddie Edwards.


And a notable highlight was the Dark UK 6 Man tag team. Which, 2020 eyes are not looking too kindly on. However it was a great match and really helped break out Zack Sabre Jr, Mark Haskins and Dave Mastiff.


There was a smaller NOAH vs UK show in Faringdon the next day where Haskins, the local lad, got to shine in the main event with Misawa, Kotaro Suzuki and Bison Smith. Mastiff got to face GHC Heavyweight Champion Takeshi Morishima. And Zack faced GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion Yoshinobu Kanemaru. 


November they did another Faringdon show which was supposed to have the European debut of Kota Ibushi. In, I think, a round robin against Zack and Claudio Castagnoli. However Ibushi got injured. So they did a one night four man tournament. I mainly remember Zack vs Claudio being great.


So when Octane got announced. Two nights at Broxbourne Civic Hall. KENTA. Danielson. Morishima. The European debuts of Ibushi and Katsuhiko Nakajima. The recently WWE released and Indy revered Paul London.

Hell. Yes.

Plus Johnny Saint was getting some unexpected love from his return to the ring and CHIKARA appearances. And the best of UK talent like Doug, PAC, Zack, Haskins, Mastiff, etc.

I managed to bag front row tickets to each show.

Then they announced KENTA vs Nakajima which had been a massive match for NOAH in mid 2008 and early 2009. This was the most exciting match you could get out of any two NOAH guys at that time.

And they teased KENTA vs Danielson which was a massive match for ROH in 2006/7 and they had an electric pairing off in Coventry the previous year.

This seemed like an all timer of a weekend.

But then NOAH extended their tour - Global Tag League which would be the last tour Misawa performed on.... - so it meant KENTA, Nakajima, Morishima and Ibushi were no longer available.

Losing 4 wrestlers may not seem a lot. But they, arguably, were the biggest draws. And rather than sacrifice the quality of the show, Sloan decided to cancel.

IPW:UK (before the RevPro split, but this IPW:UK was more Andy than the other one) salvaged Danielson, Matt Cross and PAC. Danielson vs PAC being the original Epic Encounter (Paul London got injured right before the weekend).

And then Sloan got busy with Dragon Gate UK and a NOAH return in 2011. Now he's busy with the Wrestling Store. So we never got a Pro Wrestling Octane show.

But look at that line up. Future WWE Champions. NOAH Champions. NJPW Champions.

14 years later and it still hurts.

[The Dart]

20 minutes ago, cobystag said:

Two nights at Broxbourne Civic Hall. 

 

Reasonably sure it was York Hall.

[air_raid]

@cobystagShould have known if anyone had the skinny you would, there was a good stretch where I would hardly go to a show on these shores and not see you. Or Benny and gadge, before I knew who they were.

[Carbomb]

I remember Octane - the thing that intrigued me the most about it was their points system. Wasn't your typical league - think it was more a win-loss quotient, i.e. a wrestler who hit -3 (or three losses in a row) lost their place on the roster (at least, I think that's what it was).

[mim731]

15 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

I remember Octane - the thing that intrigued me the most about it was their points system. Wasn't your typical league - think it was more a win-loss quotient, i.e. a wrestler who hit -3 (or three losses in a row) lost their place on the roster (at least, I think that's what it was).

Didn't the DGUK shows have a similar thing in place? I'm sure I remember there being some stakes attached to some of the matches in a similar format. 

[Carbomb]

11 minutes ago, mim731 said:

Didn't the DGUK shows have a similar thing in place? I'm sure I remember there being some stakes attached to some of the matches in a similar format. 

Y'know, now that you mention it, that might've been the case. But I wouldn't swear to it.

[air_raid]

14 minutes ago, mim731 said:

Didn't the DGUK shows have a similar thing in place? I'm sure I remember there being some stakes attached to some of the matches in a similar format. 

Yes, they did. They made a big deal about IIRC Marty Scurrl being in danger of getting to -3 which meant he'd be out, and they just about got Shingo Takagi and Akira Tozawa (IIRC) to +5 and warranting a "shot at the title" which they hadn't created yet, at the point the shows stopped.

[cobystag]

Sorry @The Dart you probably are right about York Hall. I can't find any press releases online about the show.

 

I just remember I'd never done either Broxbourne Civic Hall or York Hall but knew their significance to BritWres. I didn't end up doing Broxbourne until a year later for the second Dragon Gate UK tour in September 2010. And York Hall finally in June 2013 for RevPro's first show there and Jushin Thunder Liger!!!

 

And yes Dragon Gate UK did do the points ranking. Which is something EVOLVE said they were going to focus on in the very beginning. 

 

At their last shows in July 2014, Shingo had already reached the number needed in February 2013 but wasn't on that tour. Tozawa made it so that match seemed a lock for the next tour and a DG UK Title. Both never materialised. 

 

Scurll did indeed lose a match against Mark Haskins which saw him exiled from DG UK. Maybe for the best....