Review: Reckless Intent presents Super B.O.W.L - Night Two

Saturday 3 May 2014

After Friday's show, I was really looking forward to the second night and I was not disappointed.  When we arrived, Rob and I were greeted by the people we had met the previous evening, however I was really shocked and surprised when people I didn't know greeted me by name and mentioned the blog.  We had the same seats as the previous night and there was a slightly bigger crowd for the second show which I think is great - more people = more noise.

As ring announcer Jason McKinlay was about to announce the first match, the door opened and in ran Jimmy who jumped into the ring and out the other side, quickly followed by Tavish MacPherson who then chased him back round the ring and out the door! GM John Long came out and started yelling at Jason McKinlay asking why he let Tavish into the building and yelling that he had better not let it happen again before disappearing backstage again.

The first match of the night pitted Saint George against Scott Renwick in the first semi-final of the Battle of West Lothian (B.O.W.L) tournament. After the attack on Renwick the previous evening, there was speculation that he would not appear....and this was played on by having his entrance announced 3 times before he appeared.  Saint George went straight to work on the ribs of Renwick, however no matter how hard he tried and how close he got to the pin, Renwick just kept on kicking out.  Despite taking a huge amount of punishment, mainly to his ribs, Renwick finally rolled up Saint George for the 3 count and a place in the final, although he needed to be helped from the ring after Saint George continued to attack Renwick after the bell had rung until Mikey came out to make the save.

Next up was the second semi-final between "The Superstar" Darren Lewis and AJ Russell, who was accompanied to the ring by his brother JJ.  Lewis came out to a crowd chant of "slightly average" but once again I gave Lewis a chant of "Ric Flair wannabe" and this time I was rewarded when he got right in my face and yelled "whoooooooooo".  This match gave us a chance to see just what Lewis was capable of and I have to admit I was impressed.  Lewis is a great heel and pretty much dominated the match with a combination of power moves and underhanded tactics, while still engaging with the crowd, encouraging the jeers and chants against him.  While Lewis antagonised JJ outside the ring, AJ took advantage and came back at Lewis, however it was not to be and it was "The Superstar" who progressed to the final.  GM John Long entered the ring and called for Scott Renwick to return to ringside for the finalists to see the trophy they would be fighting for later in the show and while Lewis taunted Renwick about the attack the previous night with the chair, Renwick simply told Lewis that by the end of the night he would have dropped Lewis on his head!

The third match of the night was the Hardcore title match with Wee Jimmy defending against Syco and Mike Hawke.  Hawke came out first dressed in a black suit to music from the Blues Brothers.  It appeared that he was about to sing but this was interrupted by the arrival of Syco, who immediately attacked Hawke.  With two masked wrestlers in the ring out came Jimmy, also wearing a mask!  Jimmy cleverly stayed out of the ring, occasionally racing across from one side to the other when Syco made to go for him.  Syco put a table top into the ring, slamming Hawke onto it, before making up the table and ending up going through it himself when jumping off the top rope.  Hawke attempted to knock out Syco with a dustbin lid but this had no effect and he took a rebound shot to his own head.  A legdrop attempt on Syco also failed when Syco moved out the way and then hit Hawke with a legdrop of his own.  A second table top was set up against the far corner of the ring and Hawke went through this when attempting to spear Syco when the lights went out.  When the lights came on Syco had left the ring, leaving a prone Hawke to be pinned by Jimmy to retain the title.

First up after the interval was the Losers Battle Royal.  This was originally supposed to be to win a shot at the UK Title, however John Long appeared and announced that Drake Titan had been fired and that as the title was now vacant, the winner would be the new UK champion and that the 5 men eliminated from the tournament would be joined by a mystery 6th competitor.  I thought this was a good move as Drake Titan had put on such a poor show the previous night.  The first man out to the ring was Jackie Grady, who immediately hid under the ring as the other competitors, Syco, JJ Russell, Saint George, AJ Russell appeared.  Then the mystery competitor was revealed, none other than Mikey!  As is usual in these type of matches, its hard to keep up with everything going on and even with only 5 men in and 1 under the ring, there was plenty going on.  The Russell brothers started off working together and assisted Mikey in eliminating Syco but before long AJ had once again turned on his brother. Wee Jimmy made an brief appearance, assisting Mikey against Saint George and I thought that maybe the 24/7 Hardcore rules might be taken advantage of but Jimmy left with his title.  After George hit Mikey with a stunner, he turned his attention to the Russells, eliminating both of them at once only to have Mikey then execute the Go To Sleep before eliminating Saint George.  As Mikey's music played and he celebrated his win, Jackie Grady crawled out from his hiding place, sneaking in behind Mikey and knocking him over the top rope, making Grady the new Champion. 



 

After chasing Grady from the ring and out the door, Mikey returned to the ring to be told that his title match against Rawlins was to start immediately.  Despite having already competed in an extremely physical match, Mikey went at Rawlins from the start.  We were then treated to fifteen minutes of non-stop action, with both men almost scoring the pinfall, showing skills in both their technical and aerial moves.  At one point Rawlins got right into my face telling me to shut up so I invited him to kiss my ass!  The match ended in disappointment for the fans and Mikey when Rawlins scored the pinfall after executing a nasty looking piledriver from ropes, leaving Mikey prone in the ring and having announcer Jason McKinlay pour water over him to revive him before he and referee Westy helped him from the ring.

The main event, and my Match of the Night, was the final of the Battle of West Lothian tournament between Scott Renwick and Darren Lewis.  With Renwick nursing his injured ribs, Lewis had to be the on-paper favourite but the crowd were firmly behind Scotty!  When Lewis demanded silence before he would start the match, the crowd made plenty of noise.  As expected, Lewis went straight for the rib area of Renwick but Renwick just refused to be pinned for the 3 count, however as soon as Renwick appeared to be getting the upper hand, Lewis would once again attack the ribs. The match continued in this brutal vein until Renwick had Lewis pinned and John Long appeared and ordered the referee to stop the count, saying that he paid the wages and that Westy was not to allowed to count against Lewis.  Renwick solved this by decking Long and then continuing the match, finally executing The Angels Wings on Lewis to take the win and be crowned the first ever winner of the Battle of West Lothian Tournament to the delight of the crowd.



Scott Renwick - first ever winner of the
Battle of West Lothian Trophy

My overall impression of Reckless Intent Wrestling is really good.  As I said in my review of Friday's show, I didn't have high expectations but I was very pleasantly surprised.  In my opinion, Saturday night outdid Friday. These guys put on two great shows and, with the exception of the Drake Titan match on Friday, all the matches were action packed and fun to watch.  The wrestlers were great to cheer/jeer and the heels, especially Lewis, were really good at working the crowd.  I can honestly say I am really looking forward to seeing these guys in action again.

Their next show "Taking Over" is on 31 May in Livingston and they will be appearing at the Blackburn Gala Day on 14 June.  Further information is available on their website and Facebook and you can also check out some of the matches on their YouTube Channel