Indy Dreaming

[waters44]

This post covers shows that took place between 1st August and 16th August. Please expect spoilers and some NSFW images when I get round to uploading them

Game Changer Wrestling

Spoiler

GCW ID Showcase - 01.08.2025
I appreciate the effort as presumably they’re all expecting WWE to be watching, but it was quite an odd show. I can’t imagine WWE scouts are going to be interested in wrestlers doing high angle German suplexes, stiff kicks or inverted DVDs. Maybe they are! Timothy Thatcher and Aaron Rourke had a decent twenty minute Master vs Student match which made Rourke look wayyyyy better than he is, so job done. Zayda Steel wins the Women’s ID belt in an average match that was plagued by interference by The Vanity Project. Finally the Men’s ID belt was won by Cappuccino Jones who is very talented and has a good look. One scary moment where Jones did a dive to the outside on to opponent Jack Cartwheel who fell back and hit his head on the steps. He continued and took a dodgy looking move from Jones called “The Decaffinator” - I can’t imagine WWE will let him use this if he makes it there, if your opponent over rotates (which Jack did a bit) could end in catastrophe. That gave Jones the win and a great looking X-PAC awarded him the belt

GCW Hit 'Em Up 2025 - 01.08.2025
YDNP are part of a very entertaining six man opener that was almost too fast in places and my head was spinning a bit by the end. After the match VNDL48 come down and attack the tag champs but out to save the day is…. The Hardy Boyz! Insane reaction from the crowd as one of the most famous tag teams in wrestling history announce they are set to debut (as a team) in GCW soon. Manders and Steve Maclin have a great hard hitting brawl and manage to stop halfway through for a quick beer. Effy defends the title against Crowbar but all hell breaks loose. Pondo and a group of juggalos come flying out through the crowd to rush the ring in a really cool visual. They manage to overwhelm Effy and steal the GCW belt! I guess we can class that as 1-1 in the GCW / JCW war. Main event is a tag team DM with Bear Bronson & SLADE vs Dr Redacted and Dr Danger - four of my favourites at the moment! And look at all the toys they have to play with! SLADE gets hit by a cannonball from Dr Redacted through glass and gets cut just under his eye - its fine margins in this game! Glass is flying and SLADE doesn't have his wrists taped up which seems mad to me. The bare backed brutes pick up Dr Redacted and smash him through yet more glass for the win. I would be more than happy to see SLADE and Bear smash through the tag division but for now Bear has his eyes on the DM championship

GCW Josh Barnett's Bloodsport XIV - 02.08.2025
Masha Slamovich starts on Nattie during the opening presentation and Nattie looks genuinely pissed! Bring on the main event! Highlight was Manders vs Erik of War Raiders fame. Erik absolutely mullers Manders with a big knee for the win. The rest of the card was just ok, I enjoyed the main event but honestly it wouldnt have been out of place on any normal wrestling show. 

GCW Emo Fight 2025 - 02.08.2025
The show opens with a performance from local band Bad Luck NYC who were pretty good to be fair. They finish up and champ Effy starts DJing but everything starts going wrong as the volumes not working. Eventually someone at the back manages to press the right button and Punk's old AFI theme starts which cheers Effy up. The action finally begins as we are 55 minutes in to the show! Drew Parker dressed as Wednesday Adams beats some jobber in a "Studded belt strap match" - proper emo stuff. Zachary Wentz beats Bryan Keith in a decent match with a spinning cutter that looked really cool. 35 minutes of wrestling on a 2 and a half hour show!

GCW / JCW The 2 Day War Night 1 - 14.08.2025
Here we go then, the GCW / JCW war is here. And it’s a little underwhelming. There was a very bloody DM between Tarzan Duran and Dr Yankem, who ended up with a big nail through his tongue at one point that did not look fun. The main saw YDNP beat The Brothers of Funstruction for the JCW tag titles in a match that involved tickling armpits, popcorn, rubber chickens and massive clown sleeves. It was all about the special guests on this show though, we saw Great Sasuke, 2 Cold Scorpio, James Storm and even the APA turned up at one point! There was a big scoreboard on the screen and in the venue which was a cool touch. The night finishes 4-3 to GCW

GCW / JCW The 2 Day War Night 2 - 15.08.2025
The war continues and up first for JCW is Nic Nemeth! He's here to face Atticus Cogar and in what was a decent enough match (probably the best of the weekend) which had a big upset as Cogar gets the win. The Outbreak face PCO and Nate Webb with Webb being the only human in the match, and it shows as this was a lifeless affair. We're robbed of our original No Rope Barbed Wire Explosion DM between Pondo and Matt Tremont as Pondo is suspended after the fire spot that went wrong a few weeks ago. So instead we have a normal (?) barbed wire DM between Tremont and JCW's 2 Tuff Tony. Its an overbooked messed with some of the worst blatant blading you'll see, constant run ins (Violent J, Shaggy 2 Dope and even Vampiro at one point) and get this.... a rope break! I cracked up at that. 2 Tuff Tony wins after lots of shenanigans to take the JCW belt back home. 4-3 to JCW on the night which is a draw over the weekend.... I guess the feud continues!

Juggalo Championship Wrestling

Spoiler

JCW Powder Keg - 01.08.2025
Drake Younger is back (yay?) and had a good match with Joey Janela that involved a package piledriver through a barbed wire door off the apron for guess what… yep… a 2 count! Drake eventually wins with a vertebreaker on to two chairs. Things then get very stupid in the main event. John Wayne Murdoch gets superplexed through a burning plank of wood and is just engulfed in flames. Mass panic ensues because obviously there are no fire extinguishers anywhere! The other wrestlers desperately try to put the flames out with their hands and even the ring apron. Tragedy meets comedy when the ref tries to take his shirt off to help battle the flames but grabs his undershirt, pulls it over his head and gets caught up in his own clothes. JWM is rushed to the back and the commentator says "I think he may be out of the match", to which his partner replies "I'd fucking say he is!". The match is thrown out as the ring continues to burn. Mad Man Pondo grabs the microphone to put over JWM's toughness but the crowd responds with a 2 Tuff Tony chant which annoys and bemuses Pondo equally. We find out later on that this spot had not been agreed in advance and Mad Man Pondo and Mickie Knuckles are suspended. This means the highly anticipated No Rope Barbed Wire Explosion DM between Matt Tremont and Pondo in a few weeks is OFF! Boooooooo!

Jersey Championship Wrestling

Spoiler

JCW High Noon - 03.08.2025
A great hard hitting match between team mates Manders and Thomas Shire for the WXW belt. Manders even bought the Nagata chops out at one point, and by the end of the match Shire's chest looked like minced beef. The match could have been even better but I think Shire struggled to keep up in places. Beastman vs Bam Sullivan is up next and came with a warning at! It was a cinematic match in Beastman's woods which didn't really land with me, but I really admire them for taking a big swing. Matt Tremont and Gary Jay hit each other with toe curlingly stiff headbuts and a gusset plate to an already badly cut forehead. Eeek. We see a jumping hooked piledriver on to chairs and then a DVD which gives Tremont the win. Jet Speed and YDNP face eachother in the main event as part of a six man tag which involves lots of great high flying action. Decent show

Major League Wrestling

Spoiler

MLW Blood & Thunder 2025 - 09.08.2025
A very meh show from MLW. Nothing horrendous but nothing above a 3. The opening scramble was quite fun with 5"4 Ariel Dominguez getting thrown around by 6"8 Mads Krule Krugger. Paul London (looking a bit different since I last saw him), Neon, Shotzi Blackheart and Mistico had ok showings but nobody on this show really got out of third gear. I like how they've re-introduced the Opera Cup to pro wrestling which apparently dates back to the mid 1800s. Stu Hart won it in 1948 and kept it locked away until 2019 when grandson Teddy Hart donated it to MLW. Looking at this years brackets there's a chance we get a Mistico vs Volador Jr final which will do me nicely. I do enjoy how these MLW shows border on a soap at times with the storylines and characters. The title match didn't happen - Dijak came out, waited for champ Riddle, but Krugger came out instead with the MLW version of the MITB breifcase and a beaten up Riddle. The match is abandoned and Dijak and Krugger just brawl around the building which ends up with Krugger being launched off of the roof. Tough day at the office.

Westside Xtreme Wrestling

Spoiler

WXW Shortcut To The Top 2025 - 16.08.2025
Manders defends his WXW Championship against Ahura in a cracking match to open the show. The match started with a good ol fashioned wild west duel which was good fun. At one point they link left arms and smash eachother with rights in a really stiff exchange. Ahura goes for a tope to the outside but is caught by Manders who then lariats the poor guy into the third row which looked insane. They both get back to the ring where Ahura counters a lariat with an arm breaker to try and weaken Mander's lariat power. It doesn't work though as Manders breaks free and lariats Ahura's head off TWICE to retain. We also have a very entertaining six man tag that includes Mike D Vecchio and Aigle Blanc who are leaving WXW for pastures new. They have a great match and an even better send off from the crowd afterwards. The eponymous Shortcut to the Top match ends the show and is WXW's version of the Royal Rumble. It’s a pretty by the numbers match with a few nice surprises (Gringo Loco!) which is ultimately won by Peter Tihanyi, who will challenge Manders for the belt as part of the September Grand Prix shows

ICW No Holds Barred

Spoiler

ICW No Holds Barred Volume 81 - 02.08.2025
The show opens with a decent match between AKIRA and Eric Ryan. The ring is littered with broken terracotta so even the tamest of bumps must be so painful. I love AKIRA and its been great seeing how much he's improving. He even managed to recover a botched sliced bread when he slipped on the chains, really impressive to adapt when others would just stop dead. Dr Redacted beat Tommy Trainwreck which included a spot where the Doc waterboarded Tommy with help from the local barman. Bear Bronson beats Krule in a fantastic main event. The monster Krule takes two gusset plates to the chest and didn't even flinch. Bronson picked up a pane of glass which did make Krule back off - this was a great callback all the way back to Volume 19 where Krule got injured with a pane of glass. Both men battle hard with all sorts of plunder and Bear's wife even got involved when Krule started pouring petrol everywhere. Bronson picks Krule up and slams him through some chairs for the win

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

WXW - Manders vs Ahura - WXW Championship - WXW Shortcut to the Top - 16.08.2025

 

 

Edited September 29, 2025 by waters44

[JLM]

EVE 140: Global Women Strike 4

Absolute Chaos match: Lucy Sky vs Alexxis Falcon vs Violet Nyte vs Little Marz vs Zoe Lucas vs Skye Smitson

Haven't seen Little Marz before. From Australia but has been working for WXW and previously for ICE RIBBON in Japan. She is indeed little and has an infectious enthusiasm. Alexxis Falcon I've only seen in a no contest brawl with Nightshade at the first show I attended. I laughed at her being billed as "the best thing to come out of Hull since Dean Windass". Violet Nyte impressed me in her Eve debut last month, Skye Smitson is a staple on these shows and I've yet to see her have an off night, Zoe Lucas is half of the thoroughly entertaining Pretty Psycho double act with Amira Blair. Lastly, Lucy Sky is the project right now as she's being heated up for her match against Willow Nightingale next month, so was the clear favourite.

This was a fun enough scramble match. Iffy start to this due to the number of bodies making it a it disjointed and Little Marz catching her feet on the ropes on a suicide dive and just barely avoiding disaster. Got better as it went on, with Smitson and Nyte continuing their fight from last month and taking out anyone who tried to break it up. Business really picked up when Amira Blair, who was not in the match, was hot tagged in despite this not being a tag match. She was wearing a Dobby the house elf mask for some reason and it undeniably made her cleaning house very funny to watch. After that it was the usual multiperson sprint closing stretch; everyone taking out everyone else with big moves until eventually Lucy Sky got her inevitable win with her trusty frog splash.

Fun and breezy opener that the live crowd really enjoyed due to Blair's bizzare Dobby schtick. 

Session Moth Martina promo!

So happy to see this as my main criticism of the EVE shows I've watched is the lack of promo time people get on the live shows. Was unfortunate that travel issues last month put this story on hold as she was supposed to face Skye Smitson in a match to try and light a fire under her. I'm guessing she was going to lose that match, leading to the promo tonight.

Really good heartfelt promo from her here, detailing the shit year she's had outside of the ring, her lacklustre win/loss record over the past five or six years. She said it's hard to keep flying over, putting on a face and being the drinking, dancing party girl only to keep losing.

EVE promoter Dann Read out next to give her a big pep talk. This was slightly too long but the content was all good stuff, particularly referencing the online comments about Martina that I've actually seen plenty of myself. People complaining she's been doing the same schtick for too long and they're sick of the whole act. 

I really like this idea of the character growing up a bit and having to get her mojo back after the happy party girl persona has shown some cracks. Similar to Orange Cassidy I wouldn't want her to drop the gimmick, but adding a bit more depth and a more serious dimension to the character is a good move.

What took this over the top though, was Millie McKenzie coming out and telling Martina she isn't allowed to give up when she's been forced to stop. This was absolutely heart-breaking. As @Lorne Malvo mentioned, Millie has had to stop wrestling due to a liver condition and may never be able to do it again. She could barely get through a couple of sentences before she started crying here, which then set Martina off and I was nearly blubbing myself. 

Martina says she'll keep fighting for Millie and they hug. Did not expect such an emotional segment on the show, bloody hell. 

Anita Vaughan vs Vipress

Good match this. Anita Vaughan definitely one of the most consistent performers I've seen on these shows. Great hard hitting style, big power offense. In the Safire Reed match last month and in this one, she also showed she's good as the larger heel bully. Against Statlander and Aminata she wasn't as physically dominant, but she is 5"9 and took full advantage of it here against a much smaller opponent. Vipress wrestles all over the place but I'd only seen her from limited guest spots on AEW where she didn't get to show that much. Really good scrappy performance from her here, making up for her lack of size by throwing herself at Vaughan with reckless abandon. She had the crowd fully behind her by the end and the crowd was into the big near falls. As much as Vipress put up an excellent underdog babyface fight, I was happy to see Vaughan win here as it'd be a bit rough for her to lose to three international guest performers in a row. 

Nina Samuels and Veny vs Dash Chisako and Safire Reed

Was surprised this wasn't higher up the card given the talent involved. A real shame Millie Mckenzie had to pull out, as this would have been even better with her included. That said, Safire Reed put in an excellent performance and got to continue her rivalry with Nina Samuels. Her timing is still sometimes a bit off and she's not the finished article yet, but at 21 she is already very very good and has consistently impressed me in these high profile matches with more experienced and bigger name opponents.  She's also  nearly as short as Dash Chisako, so it made for a great tiny sympathetic babyface team against the two glamorous villains. Speaking of which, Veny was the star of the show. The veery definition of a larger than life character. Oozing charisma and personality, and in this match she was  just so very villainous. A spectacular in-ring performer with beautiful execution on everything she does, particularly the wild rotation speed on her moonsault, but yeah, more importantly she was such a horrible bully. matching Nina Samuels' mean girl energy and then surpassing it. Easily the match of the show up to this point, great action, big high spots, loads of Sympathy for Safire during her prolonged ass whoopin' and plenty of heat for the big babyface comeback. I'd have given this five more minutes but other than that I have no complaints. 

Rhio vs Nightshade

This one started with them already fighting on the way to the ring. Really good heat for it as they spent five minutes throwing big bombs back and forth. Nightshade eventually started to get the upper hand, Rhio resorted to thumbs to the eyes before snapping completely and smashing her with a chair right in front of the referee. Excellent post match here, Rhio battering her with the chair repeatedly. She then positioned Nightshade so she was slumped over the back of the chair, then brought a second chair down across her upper back/neck. A sort of con-chair-to variation that looked devastating without being all that dangerous. Nightshade bleeding from the mouth, the people hating Rhio, properly cementing her heel turn ahead of her title shot against Nyla next month. Liked this a lot, it felt necessary as Rhio is extremely popular with the EVE crowd. As much as she got heat for attacking Nyla, they still instinctively want to cheer for her, so it was important to hammer home the turn on this show. 

Rayne Leverkusen vs B3cca 

Very happy to see B3cca on this card. I'm a huge fan of her Ke$ha-esque obnoxious pop star gimmick. She goes all in on it too; she has multiple albums on spotify, music videos, performs her own songs on the way to the ring. Particularly enjoy her backstage skits where she "accidentally" drops copies of her album in front of people and then claims them as fans and offers to sign it when they pick it up. Smart. She is also, of course, a perfect opponent for the Maiden of Metal Rayne Leverkusen. A battle for musical genre superiority in the great tradition of the West Texas Rednecks vs No Limit Soldiers. B3cca emphasises this pre-match in a promo where she says Taylor Swift is better than Metallica, Selena Gomez is better than Black Sabbath and B3cca is better than Iron Maiden.

This was excellent! Fantastic chemistry between these two, ideally matched in both persona and in-ring style. B3cca is a wonderfully annoying heel and, over the course of the match, Rayne went from mild mannered a smiley to thoroughly pissed off, getting the crowd all fired up along the way. Highlights included a big near fall off B3cca's lovely 450 splash, and a brilliant tit for tat sequence at the end, with both doing matrix dodges and cartwheels and the splits to get out of each other's moves. It was the sort of thing you often see at the beginning of indy matches to get some applause,, but here it was done almost out of spite, both desperately trying to outshine each other and have the last word in the exchange and the match. Every counter was followed up with a middle finger or a slap or a "fuck you!". The finish looked great too. with B3cca catching a kick, only for Rayne to then post up and hit a sort of elevated/hanging shining wizard. A shining wizard against a fully standing opponent, climbing up their body and delivering it at head height. Never seen it done like that before, not sure if that's Rayne's regular finish but it should be if it isn't. Cracking match. 

Best brlesque act of the show was the returning Amazi. As if delivering the best hoop routine I have ever seen last time wasn't enough, this time she did a mad dance and striptease routine with her head inside an enormous balloon, then she did stuff fully inside the balloon, before finishing by basically turning herself into a giant space hopper. Outstanding.

Hardcore match: Session Moth Martina vs Su Yung

I bloody love Su Yung. It saddens me that a lot of her finest batshit spooky bollocks work was in front of no fans in Impact during COVID times, and in front of terrible Impact crowds during non-COVID times.. Playing multiple characters, doing an angle where one of her personas attacked the other on the stage, some truly wonderful nonsense. Phenomenal look, really cool gimmick sand I love how she throws herself into it with the mad convulsions and zombie-like in-ring style. Also has a belter of a theme song: 

Even bigger pop for Martina than usual here thanks to the promo segment earlier in the show. She has also not beaten Su Yung before, so it's a bogey opponent on top of her broader crisis of confidence. 

Very nutty plunder match, Martina taking one hell of a beating as the crowd willed her on to get the big win and regain some confidence. Su Yung played the methodical, menacing heel, sadistically picking Martina apart with various weapons and generally treating her with disdain. Martina bled a gusher and also got hit with the red mist multiple times, so for most of the match this looked like a horror movie and really helped to sell how much trouble she was in. Great selling and facial expressions from her too, as Su Yung hit her with beer barrels, choked her with a chain, hit her with kendo sticks and superplexed her onto drawing pins. I'm not saying thumb tacks on a UK show and I was disappointed to hear Jetta do so. 

Some great hope spots for Martina, particularly suplexing Su Yung into the first few rows of chairs. Another brilliant spot where Su Yung sat a lifeless Martina on a chair, cracked open a beer, took a sip and then threw the can at Martina. She then ran the ropes, only for Martina to rise up and meet her with the deadly BEER MIST, the most powerful of all the mists. 

Really hot closing stretch as Martina was handcuffed to the ropes, prompting Millie Mckenzie to come back out and give her the pep talk she needed to break free and produce her final rally to take it home. Lovely little touch with Martina channelling Millie's suplexing powers and hitting Su Yung with multiple Germans. The comeback was also assisted by Martina's trusty beer can covered Kendo stick, highlighted by the classic Sandman White Russian leg sweep. With all the momentum behind her, she's able to spear Su Yung through a table and then hit a big Northern Lights Bomb for the feel good win. 
 

Similar to Nyla's title win, the crowd response and big celebration here felt very genuine. More in-ring promos and longer term stories like these please.

Tremendous. 

 

Another thoroughly enjoyable two hours of wrestling with a typically excellent crowd. Wonderful variety of matches and performers with the tag, B3cca/Leverkusen and the main event all meeting or exceeding expectations. 

Very sad I couldn't make it to this in person, but I will be there live for the next one: 

Elite Encounters:

Eve World Title:  Nyla Rose vs Rhio

Eve International Title: Kris Statlander vs X

Willow Nightingale vs Lucy Sky 

Very excited! 

Edited October 5, 2025 by JLM

[LaGoosh]

So I went to EVE on Friday. My first EVE show since Toni Storm left the indie scene so 2019 maybe? The shows used to be in a tiny railway arch and had a wonderful intimate DIY vibe. Felt like you were let in on a wrestling secret being there. Well now they're in the Big Penny Social, a soulless warehouse turned into a boring bar/food/event space and the crowds are big and the production is incredibly slick and professional. Good for them but Goddamn that old venue was special.

While queuing for a drink I'm pretty sure @BomberPat walked past me but I wasn't sure enough to walk up to a complete stranger and say "hey you look like a guy from a "post a picture of yourself" thread on a forum I go on, is it you?" In a way that didn't make me look like a deranged lunatic.

Disappointed to see dodgy pervert Paul Robinson hanging around in the production area all night. Never change, BritWres!

The show itself I thought was pretty ropey. The first two matches were bloody awful. No idea who was face or heel and no real character to the performances. Forgettable generic modern wrestling with the same spots.

There was a four way which was mostly fast paced spots. Kris Statlander looks smaller in real life but is an absolute specimen. She was noticeably better at everything than the other 3 competitors. 

Will Ospreay was there, apparently he's a producer. Looks pretty bloody hench in person. Years ago I somehow had a drink with his mum at a tiny show in a pub (before the van incident) and found her to be fairly unbearable. Thankfully no sign of my old drinking buddy there that night.

There was an 8 woman tag where one of them was doing a Shayna Baszler tribute. Same hair, gear and style - fucking weird! Match wasn't great. Shocked that Nina Samuels has not been signed up by any of the top companies. She's been fantastic for years and is miles ahead of the rest of the roster who were generally unimpressive.

Then it was time for the reason I was there...

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE 

Something I've always felt at BritWres shows is that a lot of the wrestlers seem like they're doing everything a bit ironically and tongue in cheek. There's not a lot of believability or conviction in their performances. This leads to fans "playing along" and cheering and booing when they should be but it feels like the fans are performing too. They are playing the part but they're not invested...

Well, it's impossible not to get invested in Willow Nightingale. What an absolute star. Head and shoulders above everything else on the show. It was the only match of the Night where the fans were fully 100% engaged and giving genuine in the moment reactions. Real heat, real cheers. Biting on every thing she did. Willow is not only one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen in the flesh but she radiates energy and star power. That intangible, she's got it. On top of that she's an incredible wrestler. She milks small moments for huge reactions. She's always reaching out to everyone in the audience from the front row to the back. Her body language is telling the crowd "I need you! Join me! We're going to win this together!" and they go with it. She must have studied people like Hogan, Funk, mid 2000s Cena etc. all the babyface masters, because you can see it in her work for sure. Constantly moving, alive, reacting and bringing every fan along with her.

She deserves to be the face of AEW, I think she could genuinely be the next John Cena.

I was fully satisfied afterwards (also fucking knackered) so left before the main event.

Here's a blurry me marking out for Willow:

Edited November 9, 2025 by LaGoosh

[JLM]

EVE 141: Elite Encounters

Managed to get down to London again for this one. Willow AND Statlander on the same card, I didn't have much choice. 

Lovely to see the place packed out again! Very exciting announcement via Ospreay hype video for Wrestle Queendom 8 at Indigo at the O2 in March. Definitely getting tickets for that. 

Sooo I have been very positive about the EVE shows so far and I enjoyed this one as well, but the failure to explain things on the live shows via either promos or video packages was at its most noticeable here. They're doing qualifying matches for the SHE-1 but it felt like a complete after thought, highlighted by last month's Martina/Su Yung main event retroactively being turned into a qualifier. The two qualifiers on this show were both thrown out with no fanfare or build up, and as @LaGoosh mentioned they just became completely throw away matches.

To get to them... 

Alexxis Falcon vs Melissa Fierce

So Alexxis Falcon DID get a promo, but it was after the match to set up a tag for the next show. I'm all for promoting the next show, but it is mad that this show didn't start with her declaring that she's going to win the She-1 and slagging off London. The ring announcer (Loose Willis again, always thoroughly entertaining) mentioned it was a SHE-1 qualifier but that was the only mention of it. Melissa Fierce is quite a likeable babyface and got the crowd behind her very effectively on the last show, but she's not a regular for the promotion so it would have helped for Alexxis to talk some trash before the match, explaining the stakes and establishing the dynamic. 

Safire Reed vs Dani Mo 

This one was even more annoying. I like Safire Reed a lot. I think she's an excellent underdog babyface, the EVE crowd sincerely roots for her when she's getting beaten down by bullies AND she is THE WINNER OF THE LAST SHE-1! So here she's against an imported  American opponent and they both wrestle a bland babyface vs babyface handshake match. I do not get this at all. I suspect Safire might not be comfortable with a live mic promo but I've seen her talk in pre-tapes and she did the job. This was the easiest pre-tape in the world. Even against the same opponent without a feud or rivalry, she could just say she's the EVE original, she's the defending champion and she isn't about to let an outsider in her first appearance for EVE keep her out of the tournament. Better still, book her against a larger heel, and the larger bit is redundant because everyone outsizes her. 

Not to sound like Bully Ray wanting everything spoon fed and spelled out in wrestling, but the build up to this big tournament definitely feels like  the promotion just assumes the hardcore fans follow the social media and watch the Youtube and already know what's going on.  I actually DO watch the Youtube though, and there was barely anything about it there either!

EVE International Title: Kris Statlander vs Anita Vaughan vs Yuu vs Alex Windsaaaah

Alex Windsor being added to this match as an unannounced surprise was very cool. I had fun with this one. It was a pure spotfest sprint, but also had added stakes for me as I did think there was an outside chance they'd use the 4-way format to get the belt off Stat without her being pinned. But yeah, I liked this. Yuu was a whirlwind of chaos, Statlander looked tremendous and a mad scramble sprint match like this is always welcome on a card in my book. Also Stat won so it gets eleven stars. All hail Queen Straplander:

 

The post-match send off for Yuu was lovely as well. She's retiring at the end of December, so it was very sweet to see the roster and the crowd give her the big goodbye.

 

Eight Woman Tag: Pretty Psycho, Nina Samuels and Abi Cartwright vs Lallie. Skye Smitson and Violet Nyte

I really enjoyed this. The ongoing Virgil-ing of Abi Cartwright by Nina is consistently hilarious, one of  my favourite ongoing side stories in EVE. Particularly enjoyed the ring announcement of "and... Abi Cartwright as well." at the end of the heel team's intro.  Agreed with @LaGoosh on Nina Samuels. I've expressed the same sentiment many a time; she is far too good to not be working for a big promotion. I love her. 

Pretty Psycho have quickly become one of my favourite EVE acts, Hollie Barlow also cracks me up. My favourite bit from her was being jump scared by the EVE pyro, which is always in the same place and goes off at the same time for every entrance and doesn't make a noise. I also like this little sujbplot of Skye Smitson and Violet Nyte doing the classic respect-earned-through-the-medium-of-mutual-ass-whoopin'. They have also quite handily fallen into the team name of Nyte Skye. I imagine Nyte Skye will be coming soon to NXT as well. 

Anyway, yeah, fun and silly comedy 8 woman tag full of characters I enjoy. Abi getting the pin was an unexpected and brilliant highlight of the evening. My casual fan friend's biggest pop of the night too; he's been team Abi since the first show we attended together. 

 

Willow Nightingale vs Lucy Sky

MONSTROUS reaction for WIllow, and no more than she deserves. I said before that the small setting allowed Aminata to show how charismatic she can be. Well multiply that by 100 for Willow. She can do it in massive arenas too of course, but man seeing her radiate star power, confidence and babyface magnetism in such an intimate setting was a magical experience. The biggest challenge for her was actually starting the match due to the outpouring of love from the crowd. Lucy Sky held her own very well too. I thought she was a great choice of opponent for Willow when it was announced and she stepped up brilliantly. Also ate a mean looking pounce.  

Cracking match and, again, it was simply a joy to see WIllow do her thing and show what a star she is. Oh and the deadlift she had to do to hit the Doctor Bomb at the end was outrageous. I thought it was going to look bad but she simply refused to let that happen. Only managed to get a very grainy photo of WIllow because she didn't stop moving for a second while she was out there:

Main Event: EVE World Title: Nyla Rose vs Rhio

To their credit, this match did have a pre-match hype video. It was a very good one too. Unfortunately there is still a way to go to get the EVE faithful to turn on Rhio. The Nyla Rose attack and the brilliant destruction of Nightshade on the last show were a good start, but it's still 50/50 at best. It didn't help that her comment in the video about Nyla Rose getting a world title shot handed to her was a very legitimate complaint! I hope they stick with it though, as a dominant heel title run for Rhio would be great for the likes of Safire Reed, and further down the line as a final test for Martina. 

This match had its moments and some wild high spots,. a fantastic looking top rope DVD through a table being a highlight. However, it was too long and the venue was too hot and I started to feel it. I think it would have been better to do this as a plunder match right from the start, get right into it and do 15 minutes of big bombs and mad spots. Rhio has already established the weapon usage, Nyla had a grievance and a solid reason to request a hardcore match. Instead it was quite a a long match that then turned into quite a long hardcore match. I like both wrestlers and they work well together, but neither of them needs to be going 27 minutes! World title matches don't have to be long. They can have a main event feel and feel suitably epic and exciting in many other ways. For these two in particular, throwing big hits for a shorter time would have been waaay more effective. The right result in the end, but much work still to be done to cement this heel turn. 

I had a good time at this show as I have at every EVE show. I was slightly more drunk at this one, which may have helped. Disappointed with the handling of the first two matches and the lack of significance given to the SHE-1 so far, but I enjoyed everything else on the card, I got to see Statlander live again, Abi's win was delightful and WIllow tore the house down. 

 

Very tempted to go back for the December show, which currently has:

Alexxis Falcon and Rhio vs Martina and Jamie Hayter

VENY vs Melissa Fierce

Rayne Leverkusen vs THE QUEEN Emi Sakura. 

VENY is spectacular, I bloody love Jamie Hayter but I think Emi Sakura might be the biggest draw for me. Rayne Leverkusen is excellent too, I think they could have a cracking match. 

We shall see if my budget allows. 

Edited November 14, 2025 by JLM

[Cod Eye]

Ive got a question for all you Indie fans.

We took the kids to MegaSlam wrestling when it came to Barnsley a few times(is that Kirby's promotion, or is he just booked as the headliner?), and out of all of us, the mrs is the one that got into it the most. I've watched wrestling for about 31 years now, but can count the number of indies Ive seen on one hand.

So my question is, can anyone recommend some quality promotions that run within, say 45 minutes of Barnsley? She's wanting to experience more "mature and adult" focused shows. I just hope this doesnt lead to me posting asking what promotions use a black ring with red and white ring ropes in the near future!

[The Dart]

Megaslam is run by Brad Flash, I believe.

[BomberPat]

On the EVE stuff - I was indeed there, as I usually am, generally lurking near tech.

I think the heat and the length of the show hurt it; I was flagging during the main event for sure. The crowd was too packed in for as much walk and brawl as they were going for.

I massively agree on a lot of the SHE-1 stuff; maybe it's better explained on the stream than at the live show, but considering they have had a lot of new fans between the change in venue and the AEW/Ospreay connection, they need to do a better job of explaining what SHE-1 even is. The first few tournaments had the likes of Meiko Satomura, Emi Sakura, Command Bolshoi and Jazz in them, and the worry is that this one feels like an afterthought and largely just relying on the regulars. I have heard straight from the horse's mouth that Martina vs Su Yung was always supposed to be a She-1 qualifier, but Dann missed that point in his promo setting it up.

[simonworden]

Speaking of EVE. Malaysian wrestler Nor "Phoenix" Diana (who wrestled for them a couple of years ago) drew quite a lot of attention this weekend as she defended and lost her Apac Wrestling Women's title to Mercedes Mone in the main event of HOG last night. 

She's drawn a lot of attention recently as the first Hijab wearing women's wrestler. It seems the American audiences have been surprisingly respectful as well which was a surprise and relief. 

 

Her trainer Shaukat was in a fairly inconsequential six way earlier and the rest of the card I watched was meh. 

According to reports, she could be heading to one of the big two in due course. Shaukat was also at the performance center earlier on in the week. 

It's been a big week in Malaysia for wrestling with a TJPW and DDT show run with local Malaysia Pro Wrestling  

Edited November 16, 2025 by simonworden

[simonworden]

Apologies to double post on this thread but new topic.

Tetsuya Naito wrestled in Singapore Pro Wrestling this past weekend defeating their main champion Da Butcherman (who is definitely worth looking up if you like big meaty men hitting each other). Post wrestling actually ran with my info https://www.postwrestling.com/2025/11/29/tetsuya-naito-wins-singapore-pro-wrestling-championship/

From what I've heard it looks like he might be making more than one appearance next year in Singapore if not around the region. I do wonder if he's moved somewhere for retirement but that's speculation. 

Issue 6 of the magazine is out this past week too https://mag.seawrestling.net/sea-wrestling-issue-6

If you want to treat yourself to something random for Xmas send me a DM and I'll do print copies at cost price for UKFF members. 

Edited December 2, 2025 by simonworden

[Merzbow]

Naito is absolutely fucked right now, isn't he? Knees worse than ever and can barely see, I'll never forgive New Japan for dropping the ball on him and not pushing when he was fit and easily the hottest guy in the company only to give him the top spot years later when he wasn't able to carry it fully.

If he can retire in Singapore and do the odd show props to him.

Edited December 2, 2025 by Merzbow

[Big Benny HG]

On 11/12/2025 at 11:20 AM, Cod Eye said:

can anyone recommend some quality promotions that run within, say 45 minutes of Barnsley? She's wanting to experience more "mature and adult" focused shows.

Late reply, but your best bets for that sort of thing will be:

- True Grit Wrestling; runs in big old church hipster arts space in Burley, Leeds (complete with coffee, brownie and craft beer bar, and rotating street food stalls) every 2 months with storyline-heavy shows, starring the cream of northern indie talent. Kids/families welcome, but mostly an adult crowd. They have secondary shows in York on the months they aren't in Leeds, but obviously a bit further from you (and is in a school hall, with a completely different vibe).

-RISE; that runs across the year in gig and nightclub venues in Sheffield and Leeds (and Middlesbrough). 18+ promotion, and usually host a couple of big deathmatch weekends a year too. Mix of some of the top UK indie names, as well as their own home guys that don't really feature many other places. Usually a rowdy, raucous atmosphere.

- NORTH Wrestling; usually based in a brewery in Newcastle, but have started doing a few shows a year in a converted warehouse gig space in Leeds too. Nearly entirely adult audience, a bit of a night-out style promotion. Again, stars most of the bigger UK indie names, plus north-east regulars.

-TIDAL Wrestling; runs at The Parish gig venue (upstairs of a big student pub) in Huddersfield with a mostly adult/student crowd. Shows can be hit and miss, but when they're good they're very good indeed.

- RevPro; probably the biggest and most high profile of all the UK indies, with the top names, and relationships with AEW, New Japan and CMLL. Based in London, but runs regular shows across the country, including 5 or 6 dates a year at Network nightclub in Sheffield, which draws a mostly adult, "smarter" crowd. Probably the best out of all of these for actual in-ring wrestling, but matches/shows can be long and not offer much more than straight-up wrestling. 

- PPW in Sheffield is probably the top training school in the north of the country at the moment, and has attracted most of the more promising/established names from other schools to migrate. It is a closed-doors training outfit first and foremost, but do run showcase events for the paying public out of their own specialised studio/facility. Current TNA X Division champion and WWE NXT star Leon Slater is from here.

The Barnsley/Wakefield area also has the likes of KaMa Promotions, Super Pro Wrestling, New British Promotions, DN Wrestling, Non-Stop Action Wrestling and TNT Explosive Wrestling, but they are what I'd call bottom-rung indies, running working men's clubs in front of mostly tiny crowds with wrestlers that don't really ever feature above that level.

UKW runs out of their own facility in Batley, running 2 live streaming "TV" shows every single Monday and Friday, with a main monthly Saturday "PPV" on top. Again, I suspect this isn't what you're after. They mostly use their own trainees and own home guys, so quality can vary greatly, and what they offer is often overkill in terms of number of matches, booking, gimmicks, titles etc, but you do get loads of stipulation matches and stuff, and a few diamonds in there that go on to bigger things. Doesn't really meet your criteria for 'mature/adult' focused, though.

Edited December 3, 2025 by Big Benny HG

[JLM]

Eve 142: Let's Slam Santa

Couldn't make it to this show, but I have got tickets for Wrestle Queendom in March! 

VENY vs Melissa Fierce

Happy to see both of these two back on the show. It's a shame this was so short, as I'd have liked them to spend more time letting VENY generate more heel heat. She got a babyface welcome because she's a returning international star and because she's excellent, but she's such a villain that it's quite easy for her to turn the crowd if given a chance. They did a bit of that here, but then went into the closing stretch quite rapidly. Another solid, fiery showing from Melissa Fierce though, getting the crowd behind her comeback and hitting a brilliant looking running flying 'rana off the ring steps. Fun opener but I'd have liked this to be higher up the card and a bit longer.

Eve tag team championship: Lallie vs Nina Samuels and Abi Cartwright

Ah I just loved this. I'd be happy with combinations of these teams and Pretty Psycho fighting for the tag titles on every show. Huge reception for Abi and everything she did. Favourite spot from her was tagging herself in when Nina went for a superplex, earning a sort of combined crowd gasp/pop at the audacity, then climbing up the turnbuckles on the same side as Nina so they couldn't do the double superplex. She was also brimming with confidence after her momentous victory on the last show, talking trash for the whole match and even landing a successful strike. Huge development.

Hollie Barlow is a supremely likeable babyface and I enjoy everything she does, including once again being jump scared by the Eve pyro. I got very invested in the closing stretch as I half believed they were going to have Abi do it again and win the tag titles. I'm glad they've held off on it for now though; they should milk this Abi babyface turn for all it's worth. I like how at the moment she is growing in confidence against her opponents but is still subservient to Nina, even urging the crowd to cheer Nina instead of her. They can keep going in that direction for a while yet, before she eventually does stand up to Nina herself.

Anyway, yes, love these teams and had a great time with this match. 

Post-match, Nina Samuels declares for the SHE-1, except she ordered Abi to submit the paperwork for her qualifier and Abi accidentally put her own name down because she is not a very good assistant. Absolute cinema. Next month, Abi in a SHE-1 qualifier against a mystery opponent! 

SHE-1 Qualifier - YOUR HIGHNESS, THE QUEEN Emi Sakura vs Rayne Leverkusen

Definitely my most anticipated match on the show. Did not know until this show that original Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr is Rayne Leverkusen's uncle. That makes the Maiden of Metal gimmick much cooler. Very enjoyable scrap between two chop enthusiasts, Emi winning that particular battle but Leverkusen producing flurries of her fast paced offense. Excellent signature shit-housery from The Queen towards the end, pretending to cry for an extended period and feigning total exhaustion trying to sucker Rayne in. She's the best. As much as I have become a fan of Rayne Leverkusen through these Eve shows, I was thrilled to see Emi get the win here because it means she's back for the She-1 next month! 

SHE-1 Qualifier - Skye Smitson vs Amira Blair

Wow. This one is difficult to recap or review. The issue going into this is that the match was billed as Skye Smitson vs A member of Pretty Psycho. They made their team entrance together but then neither of them left the ring. On the mic, in perfect harmony, declare "WE ARE ONE ENTITY, WE ARE ON BRAINCELL, WE WILL NOT CHOOSE".

This prompts Will Osprey to step in, and we get Amira Blair vs Zoe Lucas in a talent contest to see who qualifies for the qualifier. Zoe Lucas' talent is that she is literally just a girl. That was the act. It was quite good. Amira Blair then proceeded to bring the god damn house down with a belting rendition of "you raise me up" played via the medium of her nose. We had pyro, we had a sing along, we had backing dancers, floods of streamers. This was about 100 times better than it had any right to be because Pretty Psycho are both so utterly committed. They have Chelsea Green levels of willing-to-make-a-tit-of-themselves factor and it is just glorious to behold. From the moment Amira took the mic and added her own reverb by repeating the end of her sentences to the moment she got squashed by Skye Smitson in 5 seconds, she was a a superstar. 

Fortunately for Skye Smitson she is beloved enough by the Eve faithful for this to not turn her heel on the spot. 

SHE-1 Qualifier - Molly Spartan vs Violet Nyte

So there was a Molly Spartan promo uploaded before this show about how EVE has been excluding/ducking her for years and she feels quite pissed about that. I'm assuming the ring announcer accidentally introducing her as Violet Nyte was not intentional but it ended up working well in that context, as she ended up bellowing "I AM MOLLY FUCKING SPARTAN!" about as loud as the house mic and got a big pop for it. Haven't seen Spartan before but she was impressive here. Good presence about her and very satisfying powerhouse offense. Bit of a rough looking botch towards the end which soured the finish a bit, but other than that this was a solid, hard hitting affair.

Session Moth Martina and Jamie Hayter vs Alexxis Falcon and Rhio

Fantastic entrance from Martina and Hayter. Such a feel good atmosphere with Coach Millie Mckenzie on hype woman duties, matching ring gear and synchronised dance routines. Lovely to see Hayter going to great lengths to make Martina the star of the show too. Also lovely to see the GoFundMe for Millie Mckenzie raising lots of cash. I noticed Takeshita put 500 quid in there, as if I couldn't love him any more. 

Cracking main event this, and Rhio's best performance as a heel so far. A few muted cheers during her entrance, but after that she was the purest of villains both in her performance and the eyes of this crowd. Alexxis Falcon is also a very good bully, and they've done a great job of making Martina the most sympathetic babyface possible over the past few months. I enjoyed this being book ended with the two Rhio vs Hayter powerhouse stand off exchanges, then there were of course long spells where Martina was in a whole lotta peril. Rhio really reveling in denying the hot tag here, disrespecting Martina whenever she got the chance and broadly trying to be the biggest dickhead possible for the whole match. This felt like the match where the turn was properly solidified. The Nightshade return was also a cool moment and got a good response. 

I appreciated how everything about this match was in service of the ongoing EVE story too. Having Hayter come in to lose in service of heating up Rhio's heel run and the upcoming Martina SHE-1 attempt, then massively put over Martina in the post match promo was all great booking. Top main event to end a fun show, highlighted by this tag match, the incredible Amira Blair bit and the delightful Lallie/Samuels/Abi business.

MOST of my grievances abo ut the SHE-1 stuff were addressed. It felt more important on this show, the Abi/Nina bit, Falcon pinning Martina and some eclectic qualifying  matches made it feel more like the thing we're building towards. That said, I find it unforgivable that we never saw a bracket at any point. Maybe doing a live updated one over the course of the show was a big ask, but surely one to put on screen at the end was essential here as the tournament is the next show? 

Other than that though this was a good show and I am very sad I wasn't there live.

Lastly, two belting announcements for Wrestle Queendom in March: 

EVE International Championship - Kris Statlander vs TAFKA Dakota Kai - Feels like a big get for this show to be able announce her first major date post-WWE. Since she's so fresh of that run this almost feels like a WWE vs AEW inter-promotional match. Very cool, looking forward to it. 

Jamie Hayter vs Miyu Yamashita. What a delicious match up. These two are going to beat the piss out of each other and it will be a great time. 

[JLM]

EVE 143 - SHE-1 2026

OK so we have the stakes I had been looking for! I have complained enough about the rather slapdash nature of the qualifiers and buid for this tournament, but at least the finals here have a nice looking bracket a notable extra prize for the winner. The opening video announces that the winner of the tournament main events Wrestle Queendom in March for the EVE Championship. 

We also have on screen brackets at last! Some nice looking quarter final matches on this card:

Molly Spartan vs Safire Reed - Big bad monster outsider vs EVE original under-sized underdog. 

Emi Sakura vs Skye Smitson - THE QUEEN against another EVE original. 

Anita Vaughan vs (Winner of Abi Cartwright vs ???) - This due to the funny bit last month where Abi entered herself into the tournament instead of Nina Samuels by mistake. So she's in via admin error but she has to win an extra match first, what with her being in via admin error. 

Alexxis Falcon vs Session Moth Martina - EVE's current main character, Session Moth Martina on her journey of gaining self belief and getting serious. Perfect mean girl bully opponent in the first round for her. It won't be easy, but if this show ended with anything other than a Martina win I would be both stunned and deeply disappointed. 

Abi Cartwright vs ??? (Debbie Keitel)

Very happy to see Nina Samuels was on commentary for this. Funny promo from Abi before the match, particularly liked the line "I don't care who question mark question mark question mark is". She is going to win the tournament and then hand the title shot at Wrestle Queendom to Nina, because nobody else in the tournament deserves it. 

Unfortunately for Abi, QM3 turns out to be the highly caffeinated Debbie Keitel. She's been in Japan full time for quite a while now, so was a nice surprise to see her show up here. She's a really fun performer, good silly comedy with the coffee gimmick (Midnight Espresso is a brilliant finisher name!) but she can definitely go as well. Ten second squash. Poor Abi. A little bit of a shame this, as Abi's shocking pinfall victory and her accidentally entering the tournament both got great reactions, so a match where she had a go for a couple of minutes would have been nice. Happy for it to be an ongoing slow burn angle for now though.

Quarter Final: Anita Vaughan vs Debbie Keitel

The Gals explode. Former tag team partners. Vaughan has got a lot more serious, violent and mean since they were a team. Nina hoping on commentary that it's a scenario where "two bezzies fall out" made me chuckle. 

Ten minute time limits for these quarter finals so they didn't waste any time here. Debbie thinks they're still pals and goes for the handshake. Vaughan responds with a hug, but then immediately turns that into a fall away slam. The tone is set, Vaughan playing full heel and dominating with size and violence, Debbie's speed and agility earning her little flurries of offense but she is on the back foot from the start. Vaughan still using a hair pull to set up the finish despite already stealing an advantage at the start of the match was a nice way to cement her as a full heel for the evening and likely final boss for Martina. 

Quarter Final: Emi Sakura vs Skye Smitson

Emi Sakura the clear crowd favourite here and they played into it so well. She is a natural villain, but at this stage of her career and in this promotion she is too well loved and respected, so instead she plays a sort of cheeky/wily old veteran. She still cheats but in an endearing sort of way trying to keep up with these younger opponents who physically outmatch her. In this case Smitson's boxing and submission skills were the threat, but Emi managed to hang in there with her sneaky ways, trying to land quick flash pins, biting the arm to get out of a hold, whatever she could think of really. This was only about 7 minutes long but it was elevated massively by Emi's limitless charisma and brilliant timing, making the most out of everything like the 30 year pro she is. 

Quarter Final: Alexxis Falcon vs Session Moth Martina

Great reception for Martina here. This is definitely her show. Alexxis Falcon jumps her during her entrance, naturally, so we then get five minutes of Martina getting beaten down with very little answer back. Falcon gets over confident, takes a bit too long to set up for her finish, Martina counters with a back slide for the win outta nowhere! Spot on this. Five minutes of Falcon building sympathy with her excellent villainy before our hero pulls out the win. Martina's celebrations cut short as Falcon hits her finish THREE TIMES. It's a brutal move too, much like the Sister Abigail except it ends with a more head spiky/DDT landing. Perfect for this scenario and Martina took it brilliantly, particularly the third one where she did the Rob Van Dam near-vertical DDT bump that looks like death. 

Babyface hero tournament booking 101 there and that is not a criticism at all. 

Quarter Final: Safire Reed vs Molly Spartan

Safire started the match with a running flying kick of some kind. It looked sort of like she was going for a shining wizard or some kind of step up move, but Spartan went back as if it was going to be a John Woo dropkick. Whatever the case, Reed hit her head on landing and this had to be called off immediately. They confirmed before the end of the show that she was conscious and aware of where she was etc. and was receiving treatment. Gutted for her and hope she's OK. Shame about this match too as I think these two would be excellent together. 

Semi Final: Anita Vaughan vs Skye Smitson

Skye Smitson didn't make it to the ring for her first SHE-1 match last year because Anita Vaughan took her out backstage, so there is a score to settle here. Good heated scrap for about five minutes here, ending quite abruptly with Vaughan getting the cheap win using the classic exposed turnbuckle. I'm surprised they only went five minutes here, particularly with the previous match being called off, but again it was more heat on Vaughan heading into the final so it did its job.

Rhio promo!

Always happy to see an in-ring promo on these shows. She sounded good and the heel turn has definitely landed with the people now. Simple stuff: It doesn't who matter who wins here, she's still going to be the champion going into Wrestle Queendom in March and she'll still be the champion walking out. She runs EVE and she will eliminate people if she doesn't feel like they have the killer instinct, as she proved when she took out Nightshade. She is of course interrupted by Nightshade, who is a less good promo but keeps it short and sweet. Brief scrap, they fight next month for the title. 

Burlesque highlight was Amazi, returning with another jaw dropping hooping routine. Utterly spectacular.

Semi Final: Session Moth Martina vs Molly Spartan

Martina coming out still battered and bruised from the earlier assault. No dancing, no beers, only struggle. Martina's selling is what's really making this story work. She's popular and has a fun gimmick and I like the story direction a lot, but it's the way she makes you believe she's going through hell that brings it all together. Similar to her first match, she got battered here. Really enjoyed everything I've seen from Molly Spartan so far. Powerful, aggressive, constantly talking shit and she calls her low flying cross body the Pizza Crunch, in case there was any doubt about how Scottish she is. 

Perfect opponent for Martina here, splatting her left and right, throwing her into and onto and through most of the ring side seating. Great little hope spot from Martina when Spartan tried to hit her with a fan's pint, only for Martina to steal a sip and hit her with the beer mist. But yeah, Martina mostly got killed and refused to die, then once again pulled it out of the bag with the back slide. This did everything it was supposed to do and I hope we continue to see Molly Spartan on these shows. 

SHE-1 Final: Session Moth Martina vs Anita Vaughan

There was supposed to be a little break before the final, but Vaughan comes out immediately and goads Martina into fighting her right away, so we're straight into the final. I like Vaughan but her heel promo style veered a bit pantomime villain at times. Most of the content was there but the delivery was too promo-y. Her facial expressions/Ruby Soho-esque near fall reactions are a bit much as well. All stuff that I'm sure will improve though and, again, I'm all for this roster getting as much live mic promo time as possible to find their voices and flesh out their characters. In-ring I have far fewer complaints; she works to her size well, she has good physical presence and she knows how to be a bully. 

Same deal as the other matches, except now Martina has the self belief because she won the last two against the odds. The back slide doesn't work this time, but it isn't needed because she's able to rally properly and put together a big flurry of offense, ultimately landing a big Northern Lights bomb. 

Commentary calls it the Jaeger Bomb, but I thought her mad flippy spinny crucifix pin thing was the Jaeger Bomb: 

https://x.com/i/status/1160929499342675969

Whatever it's called, it was great to see her win the final emphatically after squeaking through the first two. This one did feel a bit abrupt to me though. I'm not sure exactly what happened with the timings/order of this show, but a lot of the match lengths felt a bit odd. I watched the Youtube recording after the match though, so not sure how much time was lost due to the Safire Reed injury and how much that threw the shout out of whack.

On the plus side, the finishing sequence was all very satisfying and Martina's run throughout the show (and everything else in this storyline so far) was booked perfectly. I am very excited to see her win the big one in March and I love that the show will be main evented by a big EVE story rather than one of the guests from other promotions. 

Fun show overall with a great feel good ending. A completely predictable run and result is fine with me when it's been properly set up and feels well earned. 

Wrestle Queendom:

EVE World Title: Session Moth Martina vs Rhio. There is a title match on the next show but it's surely going to be Rhio.
EVE International Title: Kris Statlander vs TAFKA Dakota Kai
Jamie Hayter vs Miyu Yamashita

Harley Cameron vs ???? 

DASH Chisako vs ????

Positively thrilled with the line up so far. Harley Cameron and Lallie vs Nina Samuels and Pretty Psycho would be glorious. I desperately hope that's what it is. 

Other wishful thinking matches I reeeeally want to see added: 

Queen Aminata vs Anita Vaughan 2. 
Willow Nightingale vs Molly Spartan.

Would love to see Thekla on the card as well. 

Some multi-woman tag or scramble type thing that somehow involves Bozilla and Megan Bayne and they fight each other. Just look at this shit:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DTK6-NAklaj/

Fuck yeah. 

As I say though, the top 3 matches plus Harley Cameron doing anything at all has already more than justified my ticket, so any further announcements are a bonus.  
 

Edited January 11 by JLM

[waters44]

Very very very VERY excited for this show in a few weeks!

 

The tournament will be great, it always is. But then the special attraction match is a lovely bonus and just look at that main event cage match! Bring it on

[HarmonicGenerator]

Vengador had better use ‘We Like To Party’ for their entrance music or I’ll be furious.