Indy Dreaming

[waters44]

It's 2005. I've just found Indy Wrestling in the form of Ring of Honor on TWC and I can't really believe what I'm seeing. I am absolutely loving it and hooked instantly. A few months later I am in WH Smith reading Powerslam and there is a photo review of the mad CZW Tournament of Death 4. Again my tiny mind is blown and I have to see more. I use my EMA money to buy some DVD-R rips of CZW shows off of Ebay and my passion for Indy / Deathmatch wrestling begins

I don't know why I like DM wrestling. It's shit. I know it's shit. But I absolutely love it. And now we have shows that can open with an amazing spot fest indy match and finish with a gory DM. So I thought I'd update you with what I have seen. 

Hopefully you guys dabble in the occasional Indy show, if you do please post here, otherwise this may quickly become the GCW thread!

This post covers shows from 1st July - 31st July. Please expect spoilers and some very NSFW imagery which I will upload shortly

Ring of Honor

Spoiler

ROH Supercard of Honor 2025 - 11.07.2025

I know, I know, I'm stretching a bit to call ROH an Indy now but here we are. I first watched ROH over twenty years ago, that's a scary thought. Anyway, let's live in the now - this show was fantastic. I'm glad I watched the Zero hour as otherwise I would have missed John Silver being awesome and MxM back from their Japan excursion in their gorgeous Ribera jackets. Hechicero and Michael Oku open the main show with a bang. I absolutely love Hechicero, he tied Oku up like a pretzel at one point with a brutal ankle lock and then finished him off with some sort of head scissors driver at 11 minutes. Hechicero took the win for CMLL, unfortunately the four remaining luchadores from CMLL on the main card all tasted defeat. Always great to see Blue Panther and him and Lee Moriarty worked quite well together. I imagine every Pure rules match finishes with a wrestler tapping out while holding the ropes after losing all rope breaks. Nick Wayne vs Titan was a superb match which was hampered by Mama Wayne and Kip Sabian getting involved. I went four stars but could have been higher without the distractions. The main talking point of course is Bandido vs Takeshita in a W44MSM. Just incredible from start to finish. I'd say these two are at the top of the list for wrestler of the year and I imagine this match will be in most peoples top 10. We had a bit of everything, strikes, blood, lucha, big spots, near falls and a roll up finish! I'll forget about the weird count out moment and award a full five banger.

Game Changer Wrestling

Spoiler

GCW Backyard Wrestling 7 - 04.07.2025

I could write a 10,000 word essay on this show but will keep it to a few lines here to save your sanity. The GCW Backyard Wrestling shows are always complete rubbish but they are insane and I love them dearly. This show had paddling pools, quad bikes, flamethrowers, an arm wrestling match on top of fireworks, numerous fire crackers, roof bumps, plenty of beer and even a kidnapping - do you need more? Well if you do you will also get JJ Allin being completely set on fire in what was one of the most scariest things i've seen in wrestling. Luckily a paddling pool was nearby or this guy would have been toast. North Korean Assassin stinks the place up in one of the earlier matches - I swear I could work a better match than him, he's rotten. KJ Orso dislocates his elbow in his match but still carries on and then does an elbow drop with the knackered elbow? Match of the night goes to Tarzan vs JJ Allin (who must be covered in burns) which was just a chaotic mess in the best way. Main event was a No Rope Barbed Wire between two backyarders who had one of the worst matches i've ever seen at this event last year. This was a slight improvement but I would not recommend it

GCW The Top Play - 05.07.2025

This show was GREAT~!!!!!!! We open with an exciting scramble match and a few average single matches follow. Joey Janela and Adam Priest have a decent showing which is then followed by this month's first W44MSM! Megan Bayne, Miyu Yamashita & Billie Starkz vs YDNP (Alec Price & Jordan Oliver) & Marcus Mathers is a legit MOTYC and I give it a full five banger. Everyone shone, especially Bayne and Yamashita, with the latter in particular smashing her opponents with brutal strikes. The crowd were absolutely off the charts and even the commentary (which was hilarious all night to be fair) added to the excitement of the match. It was just awesome spot after awesome spot and I absolutely loved it. Check it out! Mance Warner and Man Like DeReiss work a good match which ends when Warner turns on DeReiss after distracting him with pictures of their friendship on the big screen. A bizarre ending but quite funny. A fun tag brawl with Effy and Manders taking on Charles Mason & SLADE follows. I would not want to mess with SLADE he looks terrifying. The second big highlight of the show is next up with Beastman taking on the new deathmatch scene darling Bear Bronson in a brutal and bloody deathmatch involving lighttubes, bear traps and a big ol animal bone. Two hosses beating eachother up, its all I need. The show is rounded off with another deathmatch for the GCW Ultraviolent Championship with Matt Tremont defending against UltraMantis Black. This had a lot of promise but the momentum died when Tremont hit a pane of glass and hurt his eye. He ran to the back for help with Mantis just stood in the ring not sure what to do. Luckily Tremont came back all bandaged up and still managed to finish a decent enough match. After the match Bear Bronson came out to establish himself as a contender for a future shot at the championship, I will take a bit of that!

GCW Boss of All Bosses - 11.07.2025

Let's start with the main talking points - So. Much. Blood! This show had two of the bloodiest matches I've ever seen. First up was an I Quit Match between Sam Stackhouse and KJ Orso which was a real nasty affair. Relentless violence which culminates with Stackhouse being gaffer taped to the ring ropes. While he is incapacitated Orso hits him in the chest with a gusset plate which looks really painful. Then he sticks one in Stackhouse's head before belting him in the head with a chair. This spot happens occasionally (it actually happened later again on this show!) and usually the gusset plate just goes flying off and not too damage is done. However here the chair shot lands in a way that drags the gusset plate down the scalp of Stackhouse and blood is just pouring out of his head like a tap. A minute or so later there is a pool of claret in the ring and thick congealed blood covering his face. His wife comes out to check on him, which Orso uses to his advantage by threatening her, leading Stackhouse to scream "I Quit". Orso celebrates his win by foot stomping Stackhouse's wife while he's still tied up in ropes so presumably the fued continues. The second war was between Matt Tremont and John Wayne Murdoch for the Ultraviolent Championship. It doesn't take long for both of these guys to be covered in blood due to a variety of weapons and bumps. But it really escalates when Tremont gets a gusset plate smashed into his head. JWM hits the plate with a chair causing it to fall out. Tremont then hulks up, and as he tenses up a geyser of blood shoots out the top of his head. It's mad. And the crazy thing is this is the third time its happened in the last month or so, its a new gimmick that honestly I could do without! The blood loss doesn't affect him however and he still picks up the win. Other highlights include Shotzi Blackheart doing a DDT on Matt Cardona off of the bar infront of bemused staff and Brodie Lee Jr doing one of the best DDT's on Joey Janela you'll see all year

GCW / JCW Showcase Showdown: The Violence Is Right - 17.07.2025

The commentator opens up the show by stating he's "bricked up" to see some violence tonight. Same! This show is the beginning of the GCW vs JCW war which will continue through the summer (Juggalo Championship Wrestling, not Jersey Championship Wrestling which GCW also has ties with). As this is a juggalo show we see a clown hypnotising his opponent by juggling, and then he wins the match by exploding a balloon covered in Ugandan poison mist in his face. Dr Redacted and Bam Sullivan have a decent deathmatch. At one point Dr Redacted is covered in blood but uses some blue mist on his opponent which lead to a really cool looking red vs blue visual. The main event sees a chaotic match for the JCW title with constant run ins and drama. A GCW and JCW ref even go at it at one point! GCW owner Brett Lauderdale comes down, puts a ref shirt on and counts the three to crown Matt Tremont as the new JCW champion! 1-0 to GCW . They announced Pondo will get his rematch in August in an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch, let's hope they do a better job than AEW

 

GCW Bash At The Ballpark - 19.07.2025

A pretty tame GCW outing presumable due to the venue, which was a really cool looking Maimonides Park baseball stadium. The opener scramble match was good fun with Man Like DeReiss hitting clotheslines while running a home run. Ninja Mack and Joey Janela had a good match with Mack chasing Janela with moonsaults all the way to the dugouts. Matt Tremont came to the ring for his match in a golf cart while flipping the bird which was awesome. Tommy Dreamer had a bit of a stinker with Mance Warner. The semi main had a really good Amazing Red outing vs Marcus Mathers and then we had an average main event with Effy defending the title against Charles Mason. Effy needs a decent fued or this reign is going to slip I think. For Effy's sake I hope Atticus Cogar can be this years Mance Warner.

 

GCW Japan 2025 at Shinjuku Face - 28.07.2025

GCW's Japanese tour starts and the first show is a little unremarkable. We’re told its Dark Sheik's 26th birthday and she opens the card in a pretty good tag title match with Effy against champs YDNP. Brett Lauderdale starts yawning on comms at one point so either the jetlag was hitting or he wasn't impressed with the midcard. The one match worth mentioning is Manders vs Kazusada Higuchi. This was one of the most hard hitting matches i've seen in a while and was legit uncomfortable to watch at times. If you like that sort of thing you will absolutely love this match

GCW Japan 2025 at Tokyo Square - 29.07.2025

A massive improvement on last nights show! MVP of night 1 Manders is back in a match with former BJW Champ Hideyoshi Kamitani in a decent match. Manders was stuck in the corner, Kamitani launched into him and the whole ring moved! Just two beefcakes going at it, lovely stuff. The violence then goes up a notch as Atticus Cogar and Drew Parker battle in a hardcore match where at one point Drew Parker ends up with a dart through his cheek. There's a splash onto lightubes before Parker gets a skewer board kicked into his face and is finally finished off with Cogar's bulldog move. Next up Kobayashi challenges Effy for the GCW championship in a mad match! Before we know it Kobayashi has a fork sticking out of his forehead and the cuttlery craziness continues when Effy is DDTd on to a fork board. For some reason Kobayashi derobes down to his little pants which instigates a cry of "This is some sick shit!" from Brett on comms. Effy takes the big man down and has to tuck Kobayashi's ultraviolent bollocks back into his pants when covering him for the pin. Kobayashi kicks out at 2, gets to his feet but takes a lightube to the bare arse. There's no coming back from that and Effy gets the win after a Zack Ryder. Really fun match! The main event pits Matt Tremont against Masashi Takeda in a lighttubes deathmatch for the Ultraviolent title. Rather than exchanging strikes these two spend the match exchanging lighttubes. Lots of blood, broken glass and spooky dust. Matt Tremont gets the win after a DVD through a box of lighttubes. Takeda must have had a bad cut as the referee starts taping him up as soon as the match finished

GCW Japan 2025 at Korakuen Hall - 30.07.2025

The three day Japanese tour culminates at Korakuen Hall with a pretty good card. Unfortunately GCW may never work Korakuen Hall again after Invisible Stan did a balcony dive which are banned. We even got an instant replay. Manders took on Jun Akiyama in a highly anticipated battle that didn't disappoint. Lots of back and forth, good strikes and Akiyama gets the win after not one, not two, but three exploder suplexes on the hoss cowboy. The match meant a lot to Manders who was visibly emotional at the end bless him. Main event was Effy defending the championship against Matt Tremont in a good lumber match. The highlight was Tremont stapling money on to Effy’s head while screaming “2,000 FUCKIN’ YEN”! Tremont took a lot of punishment here including staples, thumbtacks and a gusset plate to the head. He tried to fight back but succumbed to a Zack Ryder in to some chairs and Effy’s title reign continues

Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling

Spoiler

MLP Resurrection - 05.07.2025

The show starts with an awesome opening package, it did a great job hyping the promotion and matches up (if not a bit hyperbolic “an event decades in the making!”). The whole venue and set up looked brilliant too, very impressed. There was a Bullet Club civil war between The Good Brothers and War Dogs on the mid card. The match was pretty average and I’m not sure Doc Gallows should be pinning Drilla Maloney clean in 2025 but what do I know. Gisele Shaw beat Shotzi Blackheart to retain the women’s belt in what was a great match until they completely fucked the ending. Cardona shows up and stinks the place up to screw Shotzi. He takes her out, she gets pinned, the ref counts to three but Shotzi kicks out at 2! Mass confusion. Shaw is announced the winner but the ref shakes her arm to say no it was 2. Shotzi then dives on Cardona (which presumably the ref forgot was planned to happen), eats a knee from Shaw and gets pinned. Shaw shouted at the ref to make the count but she was still hesitant to count for some reason. Just a complete disaster that ruined the match. Best match on the card was Josh Alexander vs Austin Ace in a very entertaining and well laid out pro wrestling match. Lovely spots and exciting athletic competition between two great wrestlers. The final bout of the card is a House of Pain match between PCO and Dan Maff. Dan Maff! I don’t think I’ve seen him since Low Ki knocked him out in ROH! Where’s he been?! This House of Pain match was sponsored by a mortgage company as well which is quite funny. I don’t know how PCO survives these matches, he throws himself around like he’s 18 and takes so much damage. He really does live the Frankenstein gimmick, you can see why he’s so over. The match was very entertaining to be fair, we had cinder blocks, ladders, moonsaults and even a Burning Hammer through a table for a two count! The chaos finally ends when PCO does a senton bomb off the top of a massive ladder on to Dan Maff who’s on a couple of tables. Mental. Crowd absolutely loved it and so did I. 

ICW No Holds Barred

Spoiler

ICW No Holds Barred Volume 80 - 18.07.2025

If there was a violence scale of one end having PG era WWE and the other IWA DS Carnage Cup, ICW NHB would be holding hands with the Alabama craziness. It's not quite self inflicted box cutter wounds but we're getting close and at times it can be a tough watch. Just listen  to the stipulations on this show - Carpet Strip Slaughter, Terracotta Terror and Blunt Force Trauma Deathmatch! Bronson Bear is quickly becoming one of the most exciting wrestlers on the DM scene and here he is having a great match with Danny Demento, which included Bear absolutely launching a fan at Demento at one point. Highlight however was Bear being hit with an exploding bat (yep, exploding bats on the mid-card!). Bear fires up after the hit and it looks like he's breathing smoke, it was a great visual. SLADE and Otis Cogar have a very bloody DM, with SLADE taking gusset plates to both arms, resulting in the bare backed unit looking like he's got long sleeves on. There was a pretty stupid Dry Ice DM (!) which was presumably extremely painful despite it not looking painful at all. During a pinfall attempt Reed Bentley was lying on some of the dry ice and screaming like a baby. There is no need to ever bring this stipulation back. Main event was a Tokyo Towers DM with John Wayne Murdoch defending the title against the returning BJW DM Champ AKIRA. Lots of blood and broken glass as you can expect, but unfortunately the match was a no contest as Atticus Cogar appeared and attacked AKIRA

 

Jersey Championship Wrestling

Spoiler

JCW Born (Almost) On The Fourth Of July - 06.07.2025

I don't really know what JCW is. I always thought it was like the NXT of GCW, but there were a lot of GCW's bigger stars on this show so I don't know. Not complaining, the more wrestling I can consume the better! The undercard was ok and did include one of my new favourites Beastman in a "Weapon of Choice" match against Bam Sullivan. Bam's weapon of choice was some Incredible Hulk gloves wrapped in barbed wire! Beastman stuck with his trusty bone. Megan Bayne, Billie Starkz and Miyu Yamashita are yet again in a very good tag match, this time enemies though with Bayne teaming up with Lena Kross. There's a big Royal Rumble type match with one fall to a finish - by the end there were so many jobbers on the outside of the ring while the mains were wrestling inside that they started to block the entrance way. That's the trouble with one fall to a finish, the bodies have got to go somewhere! Luckily Matt Tremont has still got both eyes after his scary moment at last weeks GCW show and he manages to beat Mad Dog Connelly at his own game in a dog collar match during the main event. Tremont took quite a beating but there was a lack of drama and I think it could have gone a bit higher. Regardless I enjoyed the match 

Westside Xtreme Wrestling

Spoiler

WXW Broken Rules 2025: Frankfurt II - 19.07.2025

WXW is the only European promotion I try to keep up with purely because its on Triller! This show opened with a Body Bag match between Joseph Fenech Jr and Anil Marik. It was a match hindered by the stipulation of awkwardly trying to get your opponent inside a bag, but they did their best. JFJ picked up the win, and the body bag, and put his prey in the back of a van before driving off. By my count that is the second kidnapping in the Indy world this month. Really enjoyed the last two matches and give both 4 stars. First was Aigle Blanc & Michael Oku taking on Laurance Roman & Nick Schreier in a very good tag match that had some really cool sequences and Blanc & Oku flying all over the place. Main event was Ahura vs Elijah Blum in a very heated Dog Collar Submission match. Ahura is the Number One Contender to champ Manders and was one of the highlights of this years Carat Gold Cup, so I was really looking forward to this and the match didn't disappoint. Ahura managed to gain the upper hand by taking his chain off and giving out damage without being tied up to his opponent. However this led to his downfall as it gave Blum a look in when the ref forced Ahura to put the chain back on. The violence escalates when Ahura brings out a barbed wire chair which he uses to open up the back of Blum. Blum recovers, gets a bit of momentum and introduces his own weapon - a bag of thumbtacks, which he slowly sticks in the head of Ahura one by one. Ahura then tastes the barbed wire chair, lands on the tacks and gets wrapped up in Blum's chain assisted Anaconda Vice, leading to him passing out and giving Blum the referee stoppage win. Ahura moves on to Manders and Blum moves on to a WWE tryout

Waters44's Must See Matches since 1st July

Spoiler

GCW - Megan Bayne, Miyu Yamashita & Billie Starkz vs YDNP (Alec Price & Jordan Oliver) & Marcus Mathers - GCW The Top Play - 05.07.2025

GCW - Sam Stackhouse vs KJ Orso - I Quit Match - GCW Boss of All Bosses - 11.07.2025

ROH - Bandido vs Konosuke Takeshita - ROH Championship - ROH Supercard of Honor - 11.07.2025

 

Edited August 20, 2025 by waters44

[Ro_y Disco]

Lovely stuff!

I've been hearing great things about Bear Bronson's post-AEW DM stuff, so this is a good reminder to check that out. 

I find it hard to know what's 'good' to check out in the DM world, so this has given me some inspiration. I love a DM with a stip, so will be watching that ICW:NHB show.

[JLM]

EVE 138: Eve X The World

Live show report! 

Had to get to another Eve show after having such a lovely time last time I went. What better show to attend than a pre- Forbidden Door special? Packed house for this one, sweltering inside the venue, felt like 50% more people than the last one I attended. A lot of people in town for Forbidden Door, lots of t-shirts from the AEW Scotland shows too. Lot of folks doing a lot of travelling for wrasslin’ this week like me. It was a hardcore audience but not in that awful “trying to get themselves over” sort of way, but more that they knew who everyone was, knew their stories and gave everyone a superstar reaction.

I don’t know if it’s the excellent preamble the hosts always provide about how to behave, the general ethos of the promotion, the cross over with the very inclusive and progressive burlesque and cabaret scene, the fact that it’s a women’s promotion and has more women in the audience… Probably a bit of all of those and probably other reasons besides, but the overall vibe at these EVE shows is hands down the best I’ve ever experienced watching independent wrestling. It is loud, boisterous, red hot for the whole show but I have not noted a single instance of dickhead behaviour so far. It’s a joy to be a part of if honestly. 

Loose Willis on hosting/ring announcing duty this time. Great comedy, excellent energy and either very well researched or a legit pro wrestling nerd. 

Two burlesque acts on the card. Highlight was Donna Poderosa doing a cowgirl themed striptease, culminating in her exiting to a loud “Cowgirl shit!” chant. 

On to the main card:

#1 Contendership for the EVE Title: Rhio vs Lucy Sky

This one suffered a bit due to time constraints. It was a high stakes match but they only had ten minutes, so they tried to pack in lots of big moments but they didn’t quite land. Like they  did the duelling kick out at one spot but it didn’t register because they hadn’t been going at it for long enough or with enough intensity. These two clearly have great in ring chemistry, and given five more minutes and a chance to build up to the high octane stuff I could see them putting on a belter. As it was, this was a fun opener with some great action, but it didn’t hit the heights they were aiming for. 
 

Session Moth Martina and Skye Smitson vs JC Storm and Vanity 

JC Storm and Vanity are both from the American East Coast Indy scene, making their EVE debut on this show. I’m not sure if they’re unfamiliar as a tag team or just had an off night, but there were some very odd moments in this match, forgetting who was legal multiple times and just generally being off with the timing. On a more positive note, they did some entertaining comedic heel stuff, JC Storm has a good look and they had some nifty double team stuff once they got going. 
 

On the babyface side, well, I never tire of Martina’s schtick. It’s a great gimmick, she throws herself into wholeheartedly and is a very likeable babyface. Outside of the silliness she has good babyface fire generally too and does a great hot tag. Fun odd couple dynamic with Smitson here too. An entertaining enough tag match, if a little rough around the edges. Post match Skye Smitson challenged Martina to believe in herself and show more ambition. They’ll have a match on the next show to hash this out. I like adding that wrinkle to the Session Moth character; having a more serious baby face calling it out as a crutch or an excuse not to aim higher. Unexpected but interesting direction.

Queen Aminata vs Anita Vaughan

Ooh boy I was looking forward to this one. Definitely the main event as far as I was concerned. Anita Vaughan really impressed me in her match with Statlander last time I came to EVE. “All Violence” is the monicker and she certainly didn’t look out of place trading bombs with Statlander. I was confident she’d be up for throwing hands with Aminata too and she most definitely was, taking and dishing out the beastly strikes and high impact offense you expect from an Aminata match. 
 

I was very excited to see Aminata in a big showcase match like this in a a small venue and she was INCREDIBLE. She got an absolutely monstrous reaction and she responded with such a superstar performance. Radiating presence and charisma, taking refuge with fans in the front row when things got a bit messy, at one point popping huge for a “chocolate kisses” chant and doing this mad improvised dance around the ring in response to it. She was having the time of her life, and made my casual fan friend who had never seen her before an instant fan. He was raving about her for most of the train journey home, blown away by how devastating her offense is and how much star power she had. 
 

Much like the Stat match, Vaughan was a perfect foil. She went full heel in response to the Aminata love-in, so the match was a violent slugfest for the entire 18 minutes. Belter of a match and every bit as good as I hoped it would be. 

All hail the Queen:

 

5 Way Scramble match, Number one Contendership for the EVE International Championship: Nina Samuels vs Rayne Leverkusen vs Trish Adora vs Billie Starkz vs Bozilla 

So the great thing about this is that card simply said “Nina Samuels vs X”. What an X it turned out to be! The consecutive lights out entrances here were brilliant, with the steadily escalating surprise guest opponents, culminating in the almighty Bozilla. Huge reception for Billie Starkz, who had one of the high spots of the match with a big swanton to the floor to take out the field. Also had a funny moment where she tried to hide in the crowd to avoid being crushed by Bozilla. Rayne Leverkusen did well not to be outshone by the international guests, her performance  highlighted by her landing her “make it Rayne” chop flurries on multiple opponents back to back. 
 

Highlight of the whole thing was definitely Bozilla though. I’d seen clips and pictures and heard the buzz, but seeing her make her entrance and then watching her dominate the field was something special here. So much star power, a genuinely astonishing physical presence and she’s still only 21 years old. Highlight from her was doing a gigantic avalanche fall away slam, launching her opponent miles across the ring, sounded like the ring might collapse when they both landed. 
 

This match was a riot from start to finish, with Samuels eventually nabbing the win in signature style, laying out for long stretches of the match to then come in and steal it at the end. Nina vs Statlander next month for the International Title. Can I justify another trip to London so soon is the question. 
 

Julia Hart and Skye Blue vs Safire Reed and Millie McKenzie

As much as I’m a fan of the overall presentation of the Triangle of Madness, the fact that they seem to have retired Julia Hart’s outstanding theme song is a tragedy. One of the best themes in AEW, I hope she brings it back in future, even if just for big singles matches. 
 

Great response for Julia and Skye Blue but, for the first time on the card, the EVE home team was the more over and popular act. Justifiably so, as Safire is a great fiery babyface and Millie McKenzie is just brilliant. Such a huge fan of hers. Great look, glorious suplexes but it’s the way she carries herself too. Very natural likability and bucket loads of physical charisma. As popular as the AEW guests were, Millie was the biggest star in the match. Also having two small opponents is too much of a gift for her. Feel like she could throw Skye Blue into the sun if she really wanted to. She suplexed both of them at the same time here and it looked effortless. When she hit Germans on them individually it didn’t even look like she needed their cooperation, straight deadlifting them almost out of their boots. 
 

This match was excellent! Action packed, impossible to call a winner, moved at a great pace and it was a genuine surprise when the announcer called that they were close to the time limit. I don’t know if I’ve seen Skye or Julia go 20 minutes before in any context and I’d never in a million years have guessed that this match would be a 20 minute time limit draw. However, it felt well earned, the time flew by and everyone in the building wanted five more minutes. Unfortunately we didn’t get an announcement or challenge for a rematch confirmed just yet, but they have to do this again on another show, mayyybe with a bit of plunder involved? Skye Blue loves that stuff and I would like to see McKenzie launch people through some tables. I thought this match would be good but it massively over delivered. Great stuff. 
 

EVE World Championship: Nyla Rose vs Nightshade

Another cool little surprise before the match. Lights out surprise entrance for special guest referee Aubrey Edwards! In a night full of huge reactions this was one of the biggest. 
 

Amazing response for Nyla Rose too. I think she remains under utilised by AEW. A naturally hilarious and likeable character, can play babyface but also makes for an effective monster heel. I’m not saying she should be dethroning Toni Storm but I think it’s a real shame she isn’t featured at all. Her mini feud with Athena in ROH was a great reminder of how much fun she can be and how useful a talent she is in the right role. It very much felt like this audience shared some of that sentiment, as there was so much love for her in this crowd. 
 

The match was good but didn’t quite hit the high gear I’d want a main event to reach in its closing stretch. Some good stuff early on with them doing the super heavyweight clash spots, unable to move or knock each other down. They both hit some very impressive power moves on one another too. It was mostly a satisfying heavyweight scrap, but yeah, it just didn’t quite heat up enough and have that epic main event feel. 
 

What *did* have a main event feel was the ending, Nyla ultimately landing a swanton bomb and becoming the NUUUU Eve champion! Everyone in the building seemed to be as stunned and thrilled by the result as me, as the place went BANANAS. Roster out to  celebrate, most of the crowd swarming around the ring, banging the mat and creating a frenzied reaction like you’d see at a PWG show. Really great feel good ending, and presumably Nyla will be available to defend the title if she continues to not be featured for AEW. 
 

Post match during the height of the celebrations, Rhio ran in outta nowhere and jumped Nyla, turning heel and setting the stage for their title match. That should be a good one. There was also a little hype video earlier in the show for lots of very juicy looking upcoming cards, the highlight of which was for Elite Encounters in November, featuring the EVE debut of Willow Nightingale! @LaGoosh

Final surprise of the night was during the final thanks/goodbye stuff, Will Osprey came out and thanked everyone for coming. No music or entrance, looked like he was trying to make a quick appearance and duck, but he was inevitably mobbed by the people and I imagine ended up taking selfies with almost every fan in the building. 
 

What a brilliant night. Loads of fun surprises, a rabid crowd, a couple of belting matches and a little taste of the Forbidden Door weekend excitement. EVE is great, if I were local I’d go to every show. 

Edited August 24, 2025 by JLM

[LaGoosh]

4 hours ago, JLM said:

featuring the EVE debut of Willow Nightingale! @LaGoosh

As soon as I read this I immediately asked my wife for permission to go. She said yes!

[Lorne Malvo]

I'd like to see Millie McKenzie in AEW some time. She's fantastic.

[waters44]

Kick Out Wrestling at Butlins. Apparently the main event is a 200 lighttube and razor board deathmatch 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

I hope that involved the babyface holding up each light tube individually and going "Shall I" each time before smashing it over the heels head. That's what I call wholesome family fun. 

[waters44]

Billy Bear did a run in with a 2x4 wrapped in barbed wire for the finish, loved it

Nah in all seriousness it’s really well done and I love how they get the crowd invested. It’s a perfect start for new wrestlers coming up in the business. There must have been at least 400 people in there, that’s a decent crowd for most US Indies! 

Being away for the week does mean I am behind with my viewing though so my next update will be a little short unfortunately! I have just watched JCW Powder Keg which gets very….. stupid. GCW / JCW Two Day War up next 

[JLM]

EVE 139 - Strong Women Style

Couldn't get to this one live sadly, but enjoyed my first couple of EVE shows so much that I joined the Youtube channel. Quite enjoyed Jetta's commentary on the show, making good use of her veteran status to do the sports-like, speaking from experience analysis. 

Lucy Skye vs Chantal Jordan

Jordan making a return to EVE after a 16 month absence. Hadn't seen her before but she looked good in this match, specialising in very satisfying kicks. Lucy Skye has impressed me every time I've seen her so far. Really solid powerhouse heel, devastating looking offense and a suitably mean demeanour. Fun opener this, classic big woman/little woman match with Jordan trying to achieve death by 1000 cuts and Skye attempting to squash her. Unfortunately for Jordan, she did ultimately get squashed with a massive frog splash. 

Post match it was confirmed that Lucy Skye will be Willow Nightingale's opponent in November. Seems like a perfect fit to me, will have to get to London to see that one live. 

EVE Tag Team Championship: Pretty Psycho (Amira Blair and Zoe Lucas) vs Lallie (Lana Austin and Hollie Barlow)

I became an instant fan of Blair and Lucas at my first show, both thoroughly entertaining characters who know how to wind up a crowd. They claim to be the real tag team champions, and have backed this up by making comically under-sized fake belts. Excellent.

Lallie are an odd couple pairing. Lana Austin the grumpy and gothy Britwres veteran, Hollie Barlow her insufferably happy and chirpy partner who is adamant that they are BEST FRIENDS. Barlow also came up with the team name, naturally. 

Short and sweet comedy tag match, highlighted by a great hot tag from Barlow, who was brimming with charisma and likeability for the duration. 

Anita Vaughan vs Safire Reed

Two of the standouts from the EVE home team wrestlers I've seen so far. AV looking very strong in defeat against both Statlander and Aminata, Safire Reed a brilliant fiery underdog who looked great getting the win against her nemesis Nina Samuels, then was part of the belting 20 minute time limit draw against Skye Blue and Julia Hart at the last show.

First time singles meeting in EVE for these two, and they are perfectly matched, with Vaughan the much larger and more violent heel against a babyface who refuses to die. Really good match, Vaughan playing the bully well and Safire drawing tonnes of sympathy before building to her heated comeback. The old classic exposed turnbuckle finish made sense here, as this felt more like the start of a feud and I'd be up for seeing them go at it again. Feel like a match between these two is something worthy of a bit more promotion, hopefully I'll get to see the rematch live! 

Violet Nyte vs Skye Smitson

This was meant to be Smitson vs Session Moth Martina, but Martina apparently couldn't get into the UK due to passport issues. A real shame, was looking forward to that one. Nyte making her EVE debut and I liked what I saw. She immediately established herself as the heel, then spent the whole match trying to destroy Smitson's knee with a variety of different moves and holds. I will never be mad about someone going to work on a body part for the whole match and she did it in style, throwing in some nice explosive strikes at times to cut off Smitson's comebacks. Smitson did a good job hobbling about for the whole match, eventually digging deep to pull out the win. For a replacement match they did a really good job, and Nyte immediately made a good impression.

Melissa Fierce vs Rhio

Melissa Fierce also making her EVE debut, though the commentators point out thar she is a mainstay of the North West indy scene. She looked great here, full of confidence and fire and believably going toe to toe with Rhio. Rhio as a full fledged heel was a lot of fun too. She was a real dick for the whole match, talking trash, standing on the hair, chucking Fierce onto the steps for the fun of it. But yeah, very impressive debut for Melissa Fierce, got the crowd behind her immediately and helped make this the best match of the night up to this point.

EVE International Title: Kris Statlander vs Nina Samuels

Really sad I couldn't be there live for this match. I love Statlander the most but I am a big fan of Nina Samuels too. Great main event feel to this one, with an excellent pre-match hype video and the big match spotlights and ring introductions. 

Quality main event this, with some nice technical wrestling transitioning into an outright slugfest. Stat having to overcome interference from Abi, Nina's faithful lackey and taking some hard hitting offense from Samuels herself. Excellent heel spot from Nina where she makes a big show of clearing out the first two rows so she can throw Stat into the chairs, then rolls her into the ring instead, flipping off the crowd and laughing at them for moving. What a dickhead, I loved that. 

Loads of heat for this match with the people very hot for Statlander's comeback. Her lifeline throughout the match is an injury to Nina's shoulder early on. This comes into play during the closing moments, as the shoulder lets Nina down multiple times and she eventually falls prey to that new submission finish Stat's been using. Does it have a name yet? Regardless, Stat wins! I was a bit worried it would be a one and done reign for her and I bit on a couple of the false finishes here, so obviously very happy with this result. This also means she's back for the November show to defend it again! It's so great to see her in these big 15-20 minute featured singles matches. She's definitely warming up to the EVE crowd too; she was having a lot more fun with them here than on the first appearance. 

Even without the rowdy live atmosphere I found this show to be an easy and very enjoyable watch. Solid matches from top to bottom and a Statlander main event, what's not to like really. 

Hype video for the October and November shows..

October has Global Women's Strike, headlined by Millie Mckenzie and DASH Chisako vs Nina Samuels and Veny, which will be an absolute belter. 

That show also has Su-Yung! Honestly wasn't sure if she was still wrestling. I love that gimmick very much. 
The show will also have the EVE debut of Vipress and the return of B3CCA, who has bravely revealed the tragic story of how she ended up with a 3 in her name.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DHl3jLpvbwn/?hl=en

Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about. 

Then in November it's Elite Encoúnters, featuring Rhio vs Nyla Rose for the EVE Championship, Lucy Skye vs Willow Nightingale AND Statlander going for her second defense against a TBC opponent. There is no way I'm missing that show. 

I say again: EVE is great. 
 

Edited September 6, 2025 by JLM

[LaGoosh]

Great write-up. I'm going to the November show and your write up got me buzzing for it. My return to EVE after a couple of years. My last EVE show was just before Toni Storm left the indies for WWE so quite awhile back. The current venue doesn't seem anywhere near as unique as their old one was but the shows definitely look more professional now.

[waters44]

How do you guys get to the EVE shows? I'm very tempted but it looks like its almost an hour on the tube from Paddington and I think with the 11pm finish I'd be panicking about missing the last train home. Is there a decent car park nearby? I could potentially drive in

I'm still really behind with my Indy watching but will get an update posted ASAP. 

Attention all sickos - CZW ran the 22nd Tournament of Death on Saturday. I am avoiding spoilers left and right and will try to watch it tonight / tomorrow. Last year Mickie Knuckles was in a car and the crowd tipped it over, I'm looking forward to more stupid stuff like that!

 

[Cannibal Man]

saw a few photos of that TOD over the weekend and the finals look like the end of Robocop where him and Clarence are twatting one another in the big dirty old water in a quarry

[Lorne Malvo]

Wasn't sure where else to put this but I've just seen on Instagram that Millie McKenzie is significantly cutting back on wrestling due to a rare liver condition. A massive shame to see someone so young and talented pretty much taken out of the game for medical reasons and hopefully she can rebound in future.

[LaGoosh]

For those of you who were indie wrestling followers back in the good old days, indie legend Super Dragon has a YouTube channel and has uploaded seemingly all his available non PWG matches on it. There's some absolute gems in here:

https://youtube.com/@superdragonmatches?si=EKGLcE8exFFaB6ZY

[Merzbow]

17 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

For those of you who were indie wrestling followers back in the good old days, indie legend Super Dragon has a YouTube channel and has uploaded seemingly all his available non PWG matches on it. There's some absolute gems in here:

https://youtube.com/@superdragonmatches?si=EKGLcE8exFFaB6ZY

Yeah I posted that in the YouTube thread, it's an absolute gold mine. Make sure to watch the CZW vs ROH clusterfuck brawl that's on there, one of the best crowds of the era going wild for it.