So, as has become normal with Reckless Intent shows, we arrived early so Rob could help with the prep work - this time he was going to be doing some ringside camera work. I, of course, sat in the car finishing off posters and awaiting the arrival of Colt Cabana!! I broke my rule of not entering the unit until showtime in order to take some photos of the show roster in the ring but this one by Andrew West is so much better than any of mine and he has given me permission to use it in my blog!
With Colt Cabana and Chris Renfrew making their Reckless Intent debuts, there was a lot of interest in this event. In order to accommodate more people, a standing area was created by opening the large shutter door and extending slightly outside of the unit, and by the time the show started, it was standing room only!
The show started with "The Superstar" Darren Lewis coming out to the ring accompanied by Joe Hendry. After demanding silence, he was greeted with a chorus of "slightly average" and then went on to complain about the management calling his character into question and bringing an American over to face him! Enter Colt Cabana to a massive pop from the crowd and he entertained from the start, picking up babies from ringside and dancing them on the apron. Once in the ring, he continued to entertain, first moonwalking across the ring, then making fun of referee Adam and the fact that he was wearing cowboy boots and finally spending ages smoothing and rolling up his jacket, before tossing it over his shoulder, while Lewis got more and more wound up waiting. There followed a lovely wee match with lots of genuine wrestling moves, interspersed with comedy moments and I can now see where Grado gets his inspiration! Of course Lewis would not fight fair, with Joe Hendry at ringside, who grabbed the leg of Cabana, breaking the momentum and giving Lewis the opportunity to take the advantage, before tossing Cabana out of the ring to be attacked by Hendry while Lewis distracted the referee. When the referee finally noticed, Joe Hendry was removed from ringside. The match then swung back and forth, with Cabana missing a corner splash, then Lewis going over the ropes and being catapulted back in. Finally with Cabana holding the advantage, he climbed the turnbuckle to finish Lewis when Hendry reappeared, throwing a cup of water into the face of Cabana, causing him to lose his balance and fall and allowing Lewis to roll him up for the three count.
After the match, Colt Cabana took the microphone and said how he would have liked to have come out and scored the win for the crowd and he was sorry not to have done so. He then said he has pretty much wrestled for every independent promotion in the world but there was something special about being in "a garage in a corner" packed with fans having fun and enjoying themselves, from in their 50's to 3 days old, before thanking the crowd for having him.
Next out to the ring was Bobby Roberts, who told the crowd of his anger at not being given a match against Dave Conrad and that no matter who was announced as his opponent, in his mind he would be facing Dave Conrad and therefore that individual would suffer the consequences. Out came General Manager John Long who announced that Roberts' opponent would be Venym. As usual, Venym came out running his mouth but, true to his word, Roberts tore into Venym like a man possessed. After pummelling Venym in the ring, Roberts continued his assault outside the ring, but on re-entering the ring, Venym managed to get the upper hand, attacking the knee of Roberts to try to keep him off-balance. Venym hooked the legs of Roberts and attempted to swing the big man but was unable to lift Roberts from the mat and appeared to injure his back after his third failed attempt. This gave Roberts the opportunity to regain the advantage, however suddenly Conrad's entrance music played and Roberts turned to face the entrance waiting for Conrad to appear. Venym capitalised on his distraction, hitting him with a lowblow and scoring the pin. An irate Bobby Roberts then took out his frustrations on referee Westy, knocking him to the mat before leaving the ring.
Once again Dave Conrad's entrance music rang out, only this time he did appear, followed by his opponent DCT. These two men seemed evenly matched in size and strength but DCT had the crowd firmly behind him and took the early advantage however Conrad fought back and soon had the upper hand. With the match continuing to swing back and forth, both men scored near falls but the difference between them was Conrad's preference for underhanded tactics. Conrad grabbed the bell and was about to whack DCT with it, but referee Westy grabbed the bell from him. With the ref returning the bell to the announce table, Conrad hit DCT with a low blow and was about to attempt to finish the match when Bobby Roberts returned to the ring and chaos ensued as Conrad and Roberts attempted to tear each other to pieces. It took SIX men to try to keep these two apart while the crowd chanted "Let them fight". After eventually managing to get Conrad out of the ring, General Manager John Long attempted to reprimand Roberts, slapping and shoving him but Roberts was not going to take this and once again vented his frustration and speared the General Manager to the delight of the crowd, before losing it completely and knocking down anyone who dared to get within arms length. Long then told Roberts to consider himself suspended. It was then announced that the match win had been awarded to Dave Conrad as a result of a disqualification.
The first half main event was a UK Title match between current champion Mikey and the man he beat for the belt Jackie Grady. There appears to be a rather intense rivalry between these two young guys and they both went all out to show who was the better man. The match started with them slapping each other before spilling out of the ring with Grady quickly taking the upper hand, slamming Mikey's head off the ringpost and apron. After returning to the ring and Grady scoring a near fall, Mikey took the advantage and when the action again spilled out of the ring, this time Mikey was in control and slammed Grady into the ringpost. Back in the ring, Mikey fulfilled the crowd's request to make Grady squeal like a girl. This match went back and forth and with both guys trying everything they could to win, we saw everything from chops and slaps, armdrags from the top rope, high flying moves from the turnbuckles, a package piledriver from Mikey and a very nice cravat neckbreaker from Grady. With Mikey appearing to have injured his knee, Grady looked to capitalise however a brave (or stupid) dropkick into the corner on Grady by Mikey, followed by a kick to the head, a shoulder block from the top rope and a scoop-slam/piledriver hybrid move sealed the deal and Mikey was able to pin Grady for the three count, retaining the belt. While celebrating on the turnbuckle, a masked figure appeared in the ring but this time it was Mikey who came up trumps, slamming him onto the canvas, however the mysterious man managed to escape the ring before Mikey was able to unmask him.
The second half started with Saint-George Bernard facing Chris Renfrew. Saint-George and I have had "exchanges" on Facebook and I have recently taken to commenting on anything and everything he posts with Blah blah blah! Having made up a quantity of Blah! Blah! Blah! flyers, these had been handed out to the crowd during the interval and he made his entrance to the ring faced with a sea of flyers - his face was priceless! On reaching the ring, he then announced that, as holder of the wooden spoon (which guarantees a title shot at any time) he was going onto bigger and better things and would not be wrestling Renfrew after all. Unfortunately for him, Chris Renfrew had other ideas and made his entrance. After a few slaps and chops in the ring, the action moved outside...literally outside....when Renfrew took the big-mouthed Englishman into the car park and gave him a little taste of a Glasgow street fight, smacking him off the brick wall then scooping him and slamming him down onto one of the barriers, before force-feeding him a jaffa cake and slamming him face first into another barrier! The match finally returned to the ring where Renfrew continued to beat on Saint-George until Darren Lewis came out to ringside and distracted Renfrew, allowing Saint-George to catch him off guard and score the win.
Next up was Darren Lewis' second match of the evening, this time he faced "The Butcher" Scott Renwick. It started off well for Renwick who quickly took the advantage and managed to smack Lewis silly all the way around the outside of the ring, however Lewis gained the upper hand back in the ring, keeping Renwick down as much as possible, standing on his chest while using the ropes for leverage. Renwick fought back, attempting to pedigree Lewis, who broke free and choke-slammed Renwick instead, before delivering a kick to the head that knocked Renwick unconscious and then proceeded to stand on his head. After the referee had made the 10 count and Lewis was declared the winner by knockout, several of the wrestlers came out to the ring to assist in removing Renwick from the ring and helping to carry him backstage.
The penultimate match of the evening had Joe Hendry facing Hardcore Champion Falcon. Hendry appeared to dominate most of this match - he hit Falcon with his signature suplex before attempting to remove Falcon's mask. He also threw him clear across the ring before attempting a pin. Falcon did appear to fight back and had a near fall himself, however it was Hendry's night and he took the victory. It was the next morning when questions were asked regarding the Hardcore title. It had not been announced as a non-title match and, as the Hardcore title is under 24/7 rules, it would appear that Joe Hendry could be the Hardcore Champion - Joe Hendry certainly seems to think so and, as much as it pains me, I have to agree. I have suggested that a rematch be scheduled for their Sunday Slam event on 24 August to decide this once and for all....maybe John Long will like my suggestion??
The main event pitted Lowblow against Rawlins for the Reckless Intent World Title. This was a match that Lowblow needed to win in order to secure his position on the roster. As Lowblow made his entrance, Rawlins came out from behind the curtain and attacked him with a steel chair - the baddest man in professional wrestling was living up to his name and this match was not going to be pretty! With Rawlins battling to keep his title and Lowblow battling to keep his job, both men have everything to lose and neither was going down easy. With Rawlins having taken an early advantage, Lowblow dug deep and pulled off a cracking suplex which he held as the crowd counted to 20, before dropping the champ on the canvas. The action again spilled outside of the ring, and I decided it might be a good idea to move as Rawlins hurled his opponent toward the unit door and knocked down the three lads doing security for the event! Back in the ring, Rawlins continued his underhanded tactics, distracting the referee while appearing to tie his bootlace, while his other foot was over the throat of Lowblow. This was followed by a series of submission moves but Lowblow refused to quit. Rawlins then took to the ropes, however Lowblow managed to move before Rawlins landed, giving him the opportunity to get back into the match and put Rawlins into a sharpshooter but Rawlins would not submit. The match continued to swing back and forth until both men were struggling to stand and Lowblow was finally able to put Rawlins down for the pinfall and become the new Reckless Intent World Champion.
After hugging his wife at ringside, an exhausted Lowblow got back into the ring. As he struggled to his feet and stood clutching his newly won belt, and with Rawlins still lying prone in the ring, out came Saint-George with his briefcase containing the wooden spoon. He shoved the briefcase into the hands of the referee, cashing in his title shot. As soon as the bell rang, he grabbed Lowblow, delivered a stunner on the new champion, covered him for the three count and became the new Reckless Intent World Champion.And so ended a cracking show - the best Reckless show I have seen and it definitely makes my top 3 of all time! My only regret is that I didn't get a photo with Colt Cabana when I had the chance before the show. My pick for Match of the Night was the UK Title match between Mikey and Jackie Grady - a true showcase of young talent which, for me, outshone the big names and more experienced men on the night. They should both be proud to say they put it all out there and I, for one, appreciated it.
For more information on upcoming Reckless Intent shows, check them out on Facebook. You will also find links to their website and YouTube channel and there will be footage from this event posted over the next few days!
Colt Cabana is appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival until 25 August. You can see him every night at 10pm Monday to Saturday at the Stand on the Square doing his show with Brendon Burns - more info at www.thestand.co.uk. On Sundays at 4pm he is recording his "The Art of Wrestling" podcast in front of a live audience at Studio 24 before appearing at the ICW shows later that night at the same venue. Tickets for podcast and ICW shows available from Ticketmaster. He is also appearing at SWE Hellbound in Dundee on Saturday 23 August.....and if I am lucky I might get a photo with him there!!
