After the cracking Clan Wars show in Motherwell back in April, Rob and I were looking forward to seeing another SWA show and it was just pure luck that we were able to get to this one, despite the obstacles that seemed to rear up at us all through the day trying to stop us!!
Our MC/Ring Announcer for the evening was David Campbell Thomson, more commonly known as DCT and a fine job he did too.
First match of the night pitted young Lewis Girvan against Eric Canyon. I have only ever seen Eric Canyon in team action before so I was looking forward to seeing what he could do in singles competition. Canyon comes off as cocky with an "I love me, who do you love" attitude which had me asking for a sick bucket! Girvin took the advantage early in the match but Canyon used his size to gain the upper hand, even calling out his moves and blatant cheating, including using his wrist tape to choke Girvan. Girvin impresses me more every time I see him. Tall, lean and pale, he is the complete antithesis of the wrestler image of big, bulky and tanned but, bloody hell this boy can hold his own against those bigger guys and usually get the better of them too. This was proved once again when he took the win against Canyon.
Next up was Rob's favourite, Nikki Storm against Courtney. Storm really does heel well, turning her nose up at the crowd and really inciting them to boo her. Rob decided to disown me when I called her a poison dwarf. Storm asked Courtney what she did that was so special, so Courtney did the splits - Storm tried and failed, blaming her tight trousers for her inability to do so! The wrestling itself was not bad. Courtney was obviously fan favourite and underdog to the experienced Storm, but she gave as good as she got, with Storm retreating to the ringside area to escape more than once. There were several near falls, with Storm arguing with the ref about whether they were 3 counts or not. Storm finally rolled up Courtney, and with her feet up on the second rope for leverage, took the pin.
The next match was scheduled to be fan favourite, Grado against Christopher Saynt. Grado came out to his usual pop, while Saynt appeared, accompanied by Dave Conrad, to a chorus of boos and catcalls. The match started with the usual comedy routine, including Grado patting down ref Stevie Wizard before giving his bum a wee nip, then riding Saynt like a donkey, but just as things looked like getting serious, Conrad jumps into the ring and the two heels start beating on Grado....until the Beast from Belfast Damian O'Connor appears and suddenly we have a tag match on our hands. 
Dave Conrad squares up to big Damo in the centre of the ring...big mistake...within seconds he is on the canvas with Damo standing on his chest, before jumping off and dropping those massive shoulders on Conrad. Grado tags in and it's not long before Saynt and Conrad have the upper hand, double teaming Grado while Damo is held back by the referee. Finally Damo manages to get the tag and after doing his cannonball into the corner on both Conrad and Saynt, invites Grado to have a go too. Grado attempts an F5 on Conrad which fails, however a second attempt, this time on Saynt succeeds and with Damo holding Conrad outside of the ring, Grado gets the pin. Cue the celebrations...however Damo decided not to join Grado in his traditional celebration dance and invited Grado to join him in "The Slosh" instead (although I don't think Grado really knew how to do "The Slosh").
The final match of the first half was Mikey Whiplash against Ryoji Sai from SWA's sister promotion Zero 1 in Japan. This was an absolute treat to watch. This started off as a real lesson in technical mat based wrestling, with Whiplash focusing mainly on the left knee of Sai. Sai then took the upperhand, hitting Whiplash with a dropkick, then telling us "look at this, this is Samurai Brainbuster"! Whiplash once again went for the knee of Sai and nearly scored the pin after a cracking suplex then took to the ropes, where Sai got him in a Superplex before finally putting him down for the 3 count with a gutbuster. A win for Sai....and for the crowd who got to witness probably one of the best matches I have ever seen.
After the match, Whiplash gets the microphone and starts complaining that he should have been given a rematch against Joe Coffey for the title and he was going to sit in the ring and stage a dirty protest until he was given his title shot. Out comes John "The Bomb" Graham to tell him he doesn't deserve a title shot and he is now at the bottom of the ladder. Whiplash retorts that he was the one to put Graham into retirement and he can see that Graham wants nothing more than to get back into the ring and try to beat Whiplash one more time....setting up a match between the two at Battlezone in October and of course with all the talk of ladders, it has to be a TLC match - take my money now!!
After a short interval, the action resumed with another belter of a match between Jack Gallagher and another of the Japanese Zero 1 stars, Obata. After a slow start, this really got moving with both guys showing us just what they were capable of ... big forearms, standing dropkicks, you name it. After a good show of mat wrestling (although not as good as the previous match), they took it to the ropes, having a wee battle on the turnbuckles with Gallagher attempting a suplex before Obata pushed Gallagher off the ropes, following up with a cracking missile dropkick. It was Gallagher who was victorious however after connecting with a beauty of a dropkick himself, followed by a swanton which was just amazing to watch.
The next match had been scheduled to be a Laird of the Ring Title Match between champion Joe Hendry and challenger Mark Coffey, however the day before it was announced on the SWA Facebook page that Joe Hendry had not been medically cleared to compete and that Kenny Williams had been booked to face Mark Coffey instead. I was therefore a wee bit confused when Hendry appeared in his pink suit and announced that he was refusing to defend the Laird of the Ring title until he got a title shot against Joe Coffey for the heavyweight belt. Maybe they should have held off on the FB post?? Didn't stop the chants of "chicken" and "Joe Hendry Total Zero"!
Anyway Mark Coffey v Kenny Williams.... this turned out to be a really good match. With Coffey standing steady and Williams bouncing off the ropes and flying around, it was quite a display. Coffey took the upper hand using his strength, only for Williams to come back at him with some flying kicks. The match ended with Coffey rolling up Williams for the three count by using a handful of shorts for extra leverage! Williams was obviously unhappy with the way the match ended and while remonstrating with the referee, Coffey hits him from behind. Obviously unhappy about losing his title shot, he takes his frustration out on Williams and there you have it, Mark Coffey turns heel! 
The night's main event was the Scottish Heavyweight title match between Joe Coffey and Jackie Polo. This was also my Match of the Night, although it was a very close contest between this and the Whiplash/Sai match for the honour! Jackie Polo's entrance is a little piece of comedy gold in itself - prancing through the crowd with his neck brace and polo mallet, singing along to his entrance music and posing for every camera he spots (and boy does that man know how to find a camera lens). Joe Coffey appears with the belt round his waist and his face painted and the crowd just love him! The battle commences and its not long before there is more paint on Polo's singlet than on Coffey's face. After taking a bit of a beating from Coffey and leaving the ring to escape to chants of chicken, Polo brings in his polo mallet. 
Referee Stevie Wizard grabs the mallet off him and turns to put it out of the ring when Polo hits Coffey with a low blow and follows up with a couple of scoop slams. Polo then decides to do a little strut around the ring, giving Coffey a chance to recover and get him into that awesome move he does by swinging him around the ring before dumping him on his back and then flipping him over into a Boston Crab. This time Polo managed to get to the ropes and the hold was broken and Polo managed to pull Coffey's head off the top rope from the ring apron to catapult him back across the ring - you can see a wee video here - believe me its good! Polo has a wee turn of being top dog and it's actually starting to look like we might get a new champion but eventually Coffey's second attempt at the Boston Crab has Polo tapping out.
A damn good show and some amazing displays by some very talented guys and girls. We will definitely be looking for VIP packages for Battlezone.
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