PWE Elite Rumble Review

Friday 7 March 2014

This was the first time I have been to a PWE event on a Friday and I learned a big lesson...leave earlier!! Friday rush hour traffic on the M8 was a killer but we made it in time....just!

The show started with PWE owner Adrian "Lionheart" McCallum making an appearance in the ring wearing a neck brace after breaking two bones in his neck at the PCW show in Preston less than a week earlier.  As a result of his injury, he told the crowd he was unable to be the surprise entrant in the rumble match as planned and as a result, both Kenny Williams and Lou King Sharp, who had received the most votes for the open spot on the Facebook page, would be entrants.

Lionheart

First match of the night was "Bad Boy" Liam Thomson v Joey Hayes.  A back and forward match with lots of action and near pins from both men, Joey Hayes took the win, much to the disbelief of Liam Thomson.  I did manage to wind up Liam Thomson by telling him he was nothing without Carmel to back him up....and from the result, it looks like I was right!!

Next up was Kid Fite against Joe Coffey.  The crowd were definitely behind Coffey and he looked to be in control of the match until Charles Boddington started to interfere, closely followed by the appearance of Davey Blaze and TJ Rage.  With a 4 on 1 situation, it was inevitable that Kid Fite would take the win!

The next match was billed as an "Instant Classic" tag match with Project Ego (Kris Travis and Martin Kirby) up against Noam Dar and Andy Wild and they were right.  Easily match of the night, the action was non-stop.  With both teams having a share of the crowd chants, the atmosphere was amazing (although sitting in the middle of an entire row of "Ego-tists" and chanting for the other guys puts a strain on the voice to avoid being drowned out - I managed though!!!)  Andy Wild took a nasty hit which caused his eye to instantly start swelling up and by the end of the match he had a cracking shiner.  Project Ego took the win and Noam Dar challenged them to a rematch in May when he and Andy would be better prepared, having underestimated the boys in pink.  Kirby accepted and the rematch will take place at the next event on Saturday 17 May.

During the interval, fans were able to have their photo taken with all 4 participants of the tag match...

Rob with Project Ego, Noam Dar & Andy Wild
Photo by David J Wilson

and a deal with Kris Travis for my old NES was concluded LOL.

The second half started with the Elite Rumble match - a 15 man, over the top rope elimination match with two men starting in the ring being joined at 90 second intervals by another competitor. Entrant number 1 was Grado...and I admit that yes, I was dancing (if thats what you could call it) to his entrance music, much to the amusement of the people around me!  Entrant number 2 was Red Lightning who is always good for an insult or two.  They were soon joined by Kid Fite, who teamed with Red against Grado.  They were soon joined by Davey Blaze and TJ Rage, at which point Red Lighting decided to slip under the ropes and spent most of the remainder of the match crawling around the ring on his hands and knees while the other competitors eliminated each other. Davey Blaze was helped from the ring after receiving a blow which broke his nose (not before I had managed to wind him up and get an insult though).  Kid Fite's little band managed to keep the numbers firmly in their favour until the appearance of the New Age Kliq at which point it was almost impossible to keep up with what was going on in the ring.  Even the announcer was unable to keep up with the eliminations.  Finally it appeared we were down to just two, Kid Fite and Grado, however Red Lightning was still skulking outside and when Grado eliminated Kid Fite, he jumped back into the ring hoping to take out Grado who had been pummelled throughout the entire match, including taking a mallet shot from Jackie Polo.  It was not to be Red's day and Grado made the final elimination to win a title shot at PWE's 3rd Anniversary show on 19 July...and he got to name the show "GRADOMANIA". 

The final match of the night was for the PWE Heavyweight title between current champ Dave Mastiff and fan favourite Wolfgang.  This was a monster of a match - you could almost feel the floor shake when these two behemoths collided in the ring.  This was also the match in which I secured the most insults....I got more from Mastiff than the other heels combined....and the more he told me to shut up, the more I cheered for Wolfgang.  My favourite insult was that I had hit every branch of the ugly tree on the way down...my response was "It would have been a lot worse if you hadn't broken half of them when you went down before me!!"  Despite the chants and cheers from the crowd for Wolfgang, he was unable to take the win and Mastiff remains PWE Champ...for now!

All in all, an amazing night and already I am excited for the next PWE show, No Turning Back on 17 May.  Tickets are on sale now (I have my ringside seats booked already) and to get yours click here