Vietnam Pro Wrestling

[Merzbow]

Yeah as shit as she was she stood out so much on the TJPW roster, instant superstar looks and luckily that company isn't as workrate heavy as like Stardom.

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, Merzbow said:

Yeah as shit as she was she stood out so much on the TJPW roster, instant superstar looks and luckily that company isn't as workrate heavy as like Stardom.

Eh, Stardom would make her into a worker. Worked for Yuzupon, can work for anyone.

[Keith Houchen]

2 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

Looked her up to see what the fuss was about. Blimey.

@simonworden get me a ticket for the next show yeah?

KanIfuckYou more like amirite lads?

[lanky316]

18 hours ago, The King Of Swing said:

She actually got into wrestling through modeling, if I remember correctly. Spent a lot of time in the US before wrestling and speaks pretty good English. 

Remember when she debuted for TJPW and there's no suger coating it, she was awful. Improved tremendously over the years.

One of the biggest problems, as often happens in wrestling, is that even allowing for being very green, she was saddled with a really shit gimmick. Farm girl from Ohio (she even came out to Old MacDonald for crying out loud) saying "don't touch my hair" all the time made the rookie look even worse. Thankfully after a while that was switched up to play more into her model background as "the casual beauty" and she's clearly worked hard to improve in the ring alongside that.

[air_raid]

If only someone hand the budget to fund VPW vs Soft Ground as an international invasion feud. TNA's "World Cup" would have nothing on Vietnam vs Uganda.

[simonworden]

I'm back again with another show report from the far east as VPW presented "The Rumble" last night. I didn't write down my thoughts on the last show "Ultimate Collision" although that was a mostly decent showing. 

Once again, the show emanated from VAIB Studios in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City and was presented to a sold out house or around 350 fans. This time we went for ringside tickets which had a minor mishap to begin with when my envelope only contained half the tickets and worse half the free beer vouchers! Thankfully between the helpful door staff, security and Rocky Huynh the promoter the drinks vouchers appeared within seconds. A level of service and competence I haven't seen at a wrestling show in a long time! The mix up's continued with my drunk brain not realizing our actual ticketed seats were different to the confirmation email and an acquaintance of our group originally believing he had the same seats. Once again, this was sorted out efficiently and politely with our group getting to stay in the wonderful ringside seats we had.  

Match 1: Xumin Long Vs Chino Guinto 

Chino Guinto is a Filipino wrestler working in Manilla while Xumin Long is a local lad with a luchador/ high flying gimmick. Chino was definitely a more grounded wrestler and his style certainly fit for a solid opening match. Starting off slow feeling each other out both competitors struggled to get the upper hand until Chino started using some heel tactics and dropping to the outside. Eventually this allowed for a number of springboards and dives to the outside by Xumin Long picking up the pace before a couple of false finishes leading to Xumin getting the win. 

The match didn't blow everyone away but it was really well timed to take a crowd into the show. I always enjoy seeing the regional imports as it gives me an almost territory days feeling. They're new, they're from outside and we get to learn about them fresh without having watched thousands of clips/ matches online meaning we don't quite know what we're getting. 

Match 2: Benji Vs Rensho

This was a VPW contract match for Benji who if he won would become a permanent part of the VPW roster. Rensho is one half of the much loved Venom Shank tag team while Benji is a Hungarian born wrestler now residing in Pattaya Thailand. He had a match last show against Jimmy AG which was a fast paced affair. The match started quite brutally with Rensho's tag team partner and brother assaulting Benji with a kendo stick from behind leading to a green misting. Unfortunately for the Shank brothers Benji was able to recover, outsmart them and within about 2 minutes get the rollup pin for the win meaning he'll be around in VPW more often. 

Benji looks good and does some impressive moves but I'd like to see him given a bit more in-ring time as his last match went about 8 minutes and this was shorter. 

Match 3: VPW Tag Team Championship - VTX (C) (Vung Tau Experience) Vs Saigon Night

VTX are a reuniting tag team after about 2 years apart. Damien Wolfe is a big chunky guy who is pretty athletic for his size while Phong Tran is a much skinner lad with more speed. Over the past couple of years Damien has been a heel wearing his heel uniform of dark ring gear and trench coat while Phong Tran developed a kind of cool rich kid K-Pop look but was supposed to be a good guy. After Tran lost a couple of months ago Damien who had also been knocked down the card approached him with an offer to restart their beach boy styled tag team. Vung Tau is a local beach town hence the gimmick.  Billy and Bobby from Saigon Night are both chunky fun loving lads who wear shirts, trousers and braces to the ring.

The match started with both teams playing face but this was thankfully not going to last long as VTX slowly introduced more heel antics into the match until they were outright heels. I was delighted to see this as Phong Tran just doesn't work as a good guy at this time (as much as he really wants to be). Although there were no stand out big spots in this match, it was one of the best examples of a heel team keeping one of the babyfaces away from his partner, cheating and dominating (while mugging off the crowd) I have seen in a long time. By the end it felt like the fans wanted to murder VTX if they won. Unfortunately after a couple of big babyface comebacks, they were able to steal the pin. Saigon Night were given a standing ovation for this match.

This was the match of the night and probably the best match in terms of storytelling that VPW have put on. All four played their roles perfectly with VTX getting more and more butthurt that they were not the favorites in this contest until they snapped while the Saigon Night having a lot to prove, being seen as 5 minute, fun babyfaces who couldn't go longer. The right duo won here as the next time they meet and hopefully finally take the tag belts, the roof is going to come off the place (a legit concern with these old Vietnamese warehouses). 

Intermission - Still no raffle which they need to sort out! I bought myself a Chino Guinto T-Shirt as it looked cool and had a quick chat with a few wrestlers including Benji who I called a lucky bastard for living in Pattaya (I like the beach ok!)  and spending his days training wrestlers and I made the effort to speak to Phong Tran to tell him I enjoyed him as a heel. I'm sure he doesn't care what an almost 40 year old British bloke thinks but I thought some encouragement might help.

Main Event: The Rumble (Entrants in order I remember names - Rocky Huynh, Sid Nguyen, Ares, Jimmy AG, Dokuga, D.Austin, The British Horror, Khoa Truong, Something Henry, Xumin Long, Kira, KPY, Billy, Bobby, Damien Wolfe, Phong Tran, Benji,, X-Pat, Saigon Heat Mascot, Hy Draco)

This was an entertaining Royal Rumble style match, not quite as exciting as last years which included Fugo Fugo and Phong Nam making surprise entrances as as well as the formers wild brawl with Rocky. 

Highlights included X-Pat the ring announcer entering, helping to eliminate Damien Wolfe and then being so excited he eliminated himself. A big tall dude from the local basketball team Saigon Heat accompanied the teams Wild Cat Wille-esque mascot to the ring and got in a big chop on Phuong Nam. 

In the end it came down to Ares and Hy Draco who Ares' current manager Phuong Nam turned on a few months ago. Ares already busted open from his own headbutt was eventually pushed off the apron to the floor for Hy Draco to win and receive the Sure Shot title show which I'm not sure if it's a MITB gimmick or just a title shot in waiting. I wasn't a fan of this win while both of these guys can put in a shift, Ares is the clear star with the bigger body and a much bigger following. Although a heel there were plenty of kids in the audience outright upset by the win, me being the biggest baby about it of them all!

Hy Draco as winner does set up a new match with Rocky if they don't switch the belt before he gets it. 

Overall another very enjoyable show. One thing I've been hoping to see is a little more promo time between the matches which did happen but even more would be great. The issue is the language barrier with a lot of the local talent having limited English and a large proportion of the fans not being Vietnamese but it would be nice to let some of them express themselves even more, especially when you have competent talkers like Phuong Nam on the roster.  One thing I did like this time was all the pre-show promos shot and put on Facebook were in Vietnamese with subtitles.

This show felt very much like the start of a new season to me. Old rivalries are done for the most part and new ones are beginning for the next 12 month cycle. With the venue selling out each time, it would be good for them to try somewhere bigger but VAIB offers a good location and excellent production facilities which would be costly/rare elsewhere. Anyway it's 5 minutes from home so I don't know why I'm complaining!

Other highlights included one friend being tussled by Rensho during his entrance, somehow we've given Venom Shank the idea we enjoy being choked and my other friend telling Sid Nguyen while he was lying on the floor that if he doesn't get back in the ring and win the rumble she'll be asking for a refund on his T-shirt to have him retort "stop manipulating me". I also had a couple of back and forths with VTX about them drinking boba instead of a real mans drink in beer, I am anticipating going home to my wife covered in tea and tapioca bubbles at some point in the future if this continues. 

Next show is Brawl Hallows Eve in October, nothing announced yet, although I'm hoping for a return of the lovely Yuki Kamifuku to defend her VPW Women's championship, the logical opponent at some point would be Viva Van but I'm not sure what her current status is with AEW. I didn't catch her name but the local MMA bran Lion Championship's women's champion has become involved in promoting VPW for some cross promotion. She's definitely got the athleticism, look and charisma to help kick start a more localized women's division but I'm not sure how many local ladies are keen to get into the ring in Vietnam unfortunately. 

 

[simonworden]

Keeping my ongoing UKFF located show blog going here with my report and thoughts from the latest VPW show from VAIB Studios in Ho Chi Minh City. As with last time we managed to obtain the hard to get ringside tickets for a front row seat next to the action. These are hard to come by as they are often block booked by big groups and the time will come we'll have to move back a few rows which will be a challenging demotion. 

This month's show was fittingly titled Brawl Hallows Eve and the event leaned heavily into this. In the crowed were lots of people dressed up with more than 1 Hogan and Savage. Top costumes in my opinion went to the young kids dressed in spot on Venom Shank attire as well as another pair of young Japanese boys in their Mario/ Luigi costumes, more on them later.

The show had less matches this time as there was a long in ring segment planned but still ran to about the same time thanks to the length of the big two title matches.

 

Match 1: VPW Contract Qualifier - The British Horror Vs Miles Karu

British Horror as mentioned previously is a British Wrestler whose day job is being a fairly popular DJ in SE Asia and has the aura of a sex crazed maniac, as typical in wrestling, he's a very nice personal guy outside of the ring. Miles Karu is I believe a Malaysian wrestler who mostly works in Singapore and Malaysia. I'd seen some matches while deep diving on Youtube and thought he looked skinny, greasy and uninspiring so I was pleasantly shocked to see he has done some gym work, got some cool gear and found an excellent conditioner. 

Prior to the match he had a special Joe Hendry-esque song talking about how British Horror is in a cult to the tune of "Makes you Beautiful" by One Direction. It might be a direct gimmick rip off and a bit too soon but knock off gear is common in this part of the world and nobody minds! 

The match was very hard hitting with a number of dives but mostly relied on a number of power moves that hit heavy with the action being 2 sided. British Horrors latest girlfriend created some interference at times to the annoyance of the fans. In a quick ending it looked like Karu tweaked his knee and ended up in British Horror's slam finisher for the 1,2,3 and has not got a VPW contract at this time. 

The match was shorter than expected and the two could've had another 5 minutes had it not been for the knee tweak but this was a good opener.

Segment: Khoa Truong Speaks

Khoa who defeated the aforementioned British Horror a few shows ago came out for an interview at this point. This is where the promotion demonstrated some of their new production effects with some very good custom Halloween video sequences as well as decent, easy to follow recap videos. I haven't seen these done on the independents before (partly as I haven't been to any indy shows outside Vietnam in years) so this impressed the hell out of me. 

Khoa came out in his Halloween outfit (creepy magician?) with his new beard that really should go in the bin. Due to mic issues as well as not the clearest of pronunciation it was difficult to make out his point but it was basically he wanted revenge on Kira, a lower card wrestler who shaved his head over a year ago. This brought out Kira and from behind Khoa came Kira's tag partner KPY for the double team until Sid Nguyen emerged from the back to make the save, do some ranting and promise to team up with Khoa. It looked like the babyface boys had the upper hand until the massive D.Austen ran out under the cover of darkness to decimate them and leave with his new buddies. 

Match 2: Xumin Long Vs Jimmy AG

This was fairly quick starting mid-card feud that begun a few months ago when Rikyo (sp?) took a nasty head bump and forgot who he was. This led to the transformation into Jimmy AG (Short for An Giang, his home province). The character is a parody of what I would describe as a Vietnamese chav. Less Adidas and more about slicked back hair, gold chains and cocky attitude.  Xumin Long also had some new shiny attire including a small tail. 

They turned up the dives and high flying moves to full in this one with the finish being Xumin long trying to remind his old partner of who he was, offering to begin their trademark pose which Jimmy went into only to betray Xumin with his version of the skull crushing finale into the pin. 

Match 3: Dokuga Vs Hy Draco

Things got more Haloweeny here with Hy Draco donning full Aladdin costume with a stuffed monkey and someone dressed as a genie as well as a special entrance music and video. Dokuga being part of the wonderful heel team of Venom Shank refused to partake in such tomfoolery. During Hy Draco's entrance Rensho the other half of Venom Shank came up from behind to use a kendo stick but was thwarted by the genie. This led to Hy Draco getting the upper had and scoring a very quick pin.

Match 4: Trick or Treat Street Fight - VPW Tag Team Championship: VTX (c) Vs The Classic Night

This was a hotly anticipated rematch from the last show where the two teams stole the show with VTX cementing themselves as obnoxious heels. The cosplay continued here with VTX dressing in Spongebob themed attire while The Classic Night went with Up themed attire. Bobby dressed in full boyscout attire and Billy dressing/ acting for the first few minutes as the old man including an accurate tennis ball walking stick. 

The match was a wide variety of comedy spots including using the walking stick, a flip flop war and pumpkins being placed on heads. Eventually things got more heated with harder hitting weapons including steel chairs, metal trays and one cool spot where VTX tried to kick Bobby while he had a big metal bowl on his head only for him to try and counter, snatch the bowl but find there were two together which Phong Tran then clonked him with. 

Eventually after a second chair shot, curb stomp and a top rope stop to the chair VTX retained leaving the crowed disappointed. Although entertaining, this match because of the comedy was less gripping as the last show but hopefully with VTX retaining does give them time to heat up a less gimmicky rematch in the future.

After the match heel manager Phuong Nam came out to berate The Classic Night for not being serious and always losing. He offered them a spot under his tutelage with a deadline of what I thought was the end of the show but after was probably next time round.

One other note was Damien Wolfe from VTX has wonderful banter with fans while out of the ring. No matter what you shout at him he always has a great quip back while lying in agony on the floor playing up the kind of spoilt little boy character VTX are beginning to represent so well.

EDIT: Oh at the start of the match they also picked up the young kid dressed as Mario to use as a battering ram. The kid looked neither shocked or delighted by this. 

Main Event: VPW Openweight Championship - Rocky Huynh (c) Vs Ares

This was a rematch from one year ago where Rocky beat Ares a few weeks after he won the title. Through online promos they built what would become the main story in the match that Ares was a hot head who loses his cool and makes mistakes. Rocky led into this exceptionally well by leading Ares into aggressive power moves and countering on most occasions until Ares managed to gain his composure and finish Rocky off with a violent onslaught to pin him and win the title.

However Ares and his manager Phuong Nam made the error of trying to rub salt in the wound by continuing to beat down Rocky until Hy Draco made the save. In an odd bit of booking Hy Draco was first decimated but then from the corner signaled he wanted to cash in his "Sure Shot" contract (Think MITB) for a title match right then.

Match 6: VPW Openweight Championship: Ares (c) Vs Hy Draco

With some false finishes to create tension, eventually Hy Draco used Ares' tiredness and aggression against him to score the pin after a top rope move and become the new VPW Openweight Champion. 

I guess it was meant to send the fans home happy and it did for the most part but being a big Ares' fan I was fairly disappointed in this win. Hy Draco to me is a hard worker and he does have a big following but Ares just looks like a big meaty wrestler and looks the part as the companies champion. Perhaps at some point he might get a longer title reign. 

 Overall another fun night of wrestling and beer filled fun. VPW has some excellent plus points they've learnt from other's mistakes such as always starting on time, never going late, not trying to fill the shows with expensive imports and always trying something new in terms of presentation be it the new video packages, a wrestler getting better/ newer gear which adds an element of must see to the shows. 

Edited October 27, 2024 by simonworden