This was our first SWA show, and although we had seen some of the roster at other shows, there were a few new faces for us. We had platinum VIP tickets (one of Rob's birthday presents) which got us early entry, front row seats and a bonus pre-show match.
Now before I start on the matches, I want to mention someone I think is pretty bloody awesome at what he does....ring announcer for the evening, Chris Duke. I have seen Chris in action at some other promotions but something went on last year during the NWO tour and suddenly Chris was persona non grata. Now I don't know exactly what went on and, to be totally honest, I don't actually care. I do think there was more than one person to blame and to dump it all on one guy is wrong. The point is Chris is a bloody awesome MC. He really knows how to pump up the crowd and get them involved in the show. Here, he picked a little kid called Brendon at one side of the crowd and got him to start a cheer which was to work its way around the crowd until it reached "the blue-haired person" at the other side! That wee kid loved it and he was asked a few times to start a cheer round the crowd through the night. I hope to see Chris doing what he does so well more often!
On to the matches.... first the pre-show bonus match between Ryan Griffin and David Conrad. Both of these guys were new faces for me. It was obvious from the start that Conrad was the heel, partly due to the fact he was accompanied to the ring by Christopher Saynt. The crowd was pretty quiet to start with so I had to try to live up to my name by starting a chant for Griffin. While some of the crowd joined in clapping, it appeared that I was alone in chanting. I did however attract the attention of Christopher Saynt during my "Let's Go Griffin/Conrad Sucks" chant, who came over to tell me to shut up and then said "oh you're that blue-haired thing off facebook" - I was delighted!! While Griffin took a lot of punishment at the hands of Conrad and Saynt, he finally managed to turn the tables and take the win.
After a short break to allow the general admission ticket holders to take their seats the main show started with a display by the Cosmic Flame Cheerleading Squad, followed by the entrance of the man himsel', Grado! Only Grado could have his own cheer squad...I kept expecting him to grab a set of pom poms, but he didn't. He was soon followed by his tag-team partners, DCT, Celtic Arrow and Tornado (The Masked Avengers). They were facing the team of Dickie Divers, Eric Canyon, Adam Carrel and Christopher Saynt in a Clan Wars Elimination match. With the exception of Grado and Christopher Saynt, these were new faces for me and I was looking forward to seeing them, however I was unfortunately blocked for the early part of the match by the Masked Avengers standing on the ring apron directly in front of me! With the crowd clearly on the side of Team Grado, the heels took the upper hand, eliminating DCT. There were a couple of cracking moments when Tornado splashed Adam Carrel from the shoulders of Celtic Arrow, who was on the top turnbuckle, leading to Carrel being eliminated, and then when he flew over the top rope onto Dickie Divers, Eric Canyon and Christopher Saynt outside of the ring, quickly followed by Tornado tossing Celtic Arrow over the ropes into the heels once again! Unfortunately this was not to last and soon Dickie Divers eliminated Celtic Arrow, then Tornado managed to get the pin on Dickie Divers but was quickly eliminated himself by Eric Canyon, leaving Grado facing both Canyon and Saynt. Despite the odds, Grado got the pin on Canyon and then put away Saynt to be sole survivor.
The next match was between Rampage Brown and Mark Coffey. After quickly starting a chant of "Let's Go Coffey" a group on the other side of the room started an answering chant of "We Hate Tea", which really seemed to confuse Brown. This was a brutal match from the start. Mark Coffey took the upper hand early in the match but was soon slammed into the ringpost with such force that the top turnbuckle and rope actually sprang off and while the match continued in the centre of the ring, staff worked frantically to fix the turnbuckle and rope. Despite fighting his way back into the match, Coffey was unable to get the pin and Rampage left the ring to a chorus of boos!
Next up was a match for the Tag Team titles. First to the ring were reigning champions, The Forgotten, Glen Dunbar and Alex Cavanaugh, who were accompanied by Jam O'Malley... and it was weird to see Jam looking relatively normal - no clown face paint and pink tutu! Their opponents were the team of Britain's Most Wanted, Damian O'Connor and Scott Renwick...and it was weird to see them smiling and NOT being heels! Jam O'Malley was the deciding factor in this match as the champs took quite a beating, with Alex Cavanaugh being stood on by Big Damo early on in the match and when Scott Renwick was about to pin Cavanaugh, Jam jumped up and grabbed the ref while Glen Dunbar sneaked in from behind and nailed Renwick with the belt, allowing the Forgotten to take the win and retain their belts.
The next match between Lewis Girvan and Kenny Williams was quite a high flyer! Both these guys have amazing potential and some cracking aerial moves. Lewis Girvan was the crowd favourite with Kenny Williams being the heel. Unfortunately for me, this just did not seem to work...Kenny is too clean and sweet looking to be heel....and I told him so when I saw him later that night! Despite this, the match was great with plenty of fast action and I would have been happy whoever took the win - this time it was Girvan...and I look forward to seeing a rematch between these two in the future.
Match 5 featured Robbie Solar and Jack Gallagher. Jack was a new face for me but obviously popular with the crowd, a few of whom had brought there own signs in support of "GingerMania". I have seen Solar once before and was not all that impressed back then. Unfortunately I am still of this opinion - although there is potential there, he still seems a little too green and there were a couple of botched moves. Apart from Jack's fan club, there was not a lot of feedback from the crowd and although there were a couple of not bad moves, this match was a bit of a letdown (I actually started chanting "This is boring") and I was relieved when Gallagher finally took the pin and ended it.
Next, Laird of the Ring Jackie Polo faced Joe Hendry for the title. Instead of his usual swaggering entrance with a microphone, singing along to his entrance music, Polo appeared wearing a neck brace! Considering what happened to Lionheart recently, and the fact that the man himself was in the crowd, I thought that it was in pretty bad taste - but that's Polo for you!! Once in the ring, he got hold of a mic and started to talk to the crowd, but was interrupted by the entrance of Joe Hendry, who got stuck straight in, ripping off the collar and throwing it into the crowd (where apparently someone scrawled Polo Sucks on it). Polo did fight back and it was a great match with some lovely moves by both guys. Finally Joe Hendry rolled up Polo for the 3 count and became the new Laird of the Ring! He was so delighted he just had to hug someone...and official photographer David Wilson was the lucky person!!The penultimate match was the first ever Women's Clan Wars Elimination Match between Team Viper (Viper, Sammii Jayne and Bete Noire) and Team Fraser (Fiona Fraser, Debbie Sharpe and Courtney) This was the first time I had seen both Fraser and Courtney wrestle and unfortunately their input was all too short. The entire match seemed to be over almost before it began. First eliminated was Bete Noire, with Sammii Jayne, Debbie Sharpe and Courtney quickly following within 2 minutes, leaving Viper and Fraser to face each other. Viper took a convincing win and when she held her hand out to shake with Fraser, she refused and stormed off like a spoiled kid.
After the interval to allow the steel cage to be assembled, it was time for the final match of the night, the SWA Heavyweight Title match between champion Mikey Whiplash and Joe Coffey, with special guest referee John "The Bomb" Graham. This match was incredible from start to finish. Both guys gave it everything they had. Within minutes, Whiplash was wearing Coffey's face paint on various parts of his body! These guys slammed each other into the canvas and the steel cage, both climbing the cage only to slam each other back down and generally brutalised each other as much as they were able. With neither man able to get a pinfall, it finally came down to who would escape the cage first. As Joe Coffey scaled the cage, Whiplash made his way towards the cage door and was halfway through the door when Coffey dropped from the cage to the floor to take the win! The crowd went wild...and so did Mikey Whiplash who got into the face of John Graham, blaming him for the loss. Graham nailed Whiplash, and he was still lying in the ring while Joe Coffey celebrated his win, with brother Mark coming out from backstage to raise his hand in victory.
After the final match, the VIP ticket holder were admitted to a side area where there was a meet and greet with Jack Gallagher, Joe Coffey, Joe Hendry, Lewis Girvan and Courtney. We also managed to catch Mark Coffey there and Rob got some more signatures in his book and photos for his album.
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| Rob with the two new champs, SWA Heavyweight Joe Coffey and Laird of the Ring Joe Hendry |
I really enjoyed my first visit to SWA and look forward to attending more of their shows in the future. For more information, check out their Facebook Page or website
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