Saturday 26 July
After missing the Uprising shows in May and June, I could not miss this one - the final Uprising to be held in the Ardler Complex. Although we had recently been to see SWE in Cupar, a lot of the friends we have made in Dundee could not make it, so we were also looking forward to catching up with them!
This was actually one of two shows SWE were putting on that night. Their "Battle Stations" show in Perth had started an hour earlier in order for some of the wrestlers to be able to appear at both shows. Good idea or not??? I will give my opinion later.....
The show started with a Ghostbusters themed vignette on the video screen, followed by Ravishing Randy Valentine taking to the ring to say goodbye to what has become the home of SWE Uprising. After recounting some of the special moments that took place in the Ardler and thanking the fans for their continued support, he took his seat at the announce table with The Grue and it was time for Ring Announcer Amy Anderson to take over microphone duties!
First match of the night was fan favourite Mr News facing Trident member MDK. Now I have to admit that I don't like the Trident as a gimmick and never have so I really hope that the fact that the members now have identities and are appearing in singles competition is the beginning of the end. The match started off with News working on the leg of MDK but the big guy soon had the upper hand. This was less a wrestling match and more a brawl as MDK used brute force to subdue News. Despite taking some serious punishment, Mr News refused to stay down, and fought his way back into the match but his attempted pin on MDK was shrugged off and News almost landed on the referee. MDK then weakened News in a bear hug before catching News' attempt at a crossbody from the turnbuckles and slamming him to the mat for the three count. MDK finished the victor but Mr News remains the fan favourite.
Next up was the girls, Nikki Storm v Viper. I thought Rob's eyes were gonna pop out of his head when Nikki made her entrance in her new red ring gear....and even more so when it slid up during her match to reveal her bra! This match was brilliant. Storm and Viper are two of the best female wrestlers I have seen. Storm played up her heel status to the max, screaming that every attempted pin was a three count and standing on the hair of Viper while arguing with the ref. Viper had the crowd behind her and there were huge cheers when she kicked out of the pin after taking Storm's swinging neckbreaker. After her earlier attempt failed, Viper managed to get a surfboard style submission hold on Storm which was too much for the feisty lass to withstand and Viper took the win by submission. These girls served up an amazing match which can be viewed
here.
We then had a Future Division Championship match between current champion Christopher Saynt and Felix Fortune. I still don't like the new name given to McMinn - Felix is a cat food brand - however he is improving his in-ring abilities, although he was totally outshone by Saynt in this match. As much as it pains me to say it, Christopher Saynt is a really good wrestler and he can make an amateur look better than he really is and I think that Fortune really did "luck out" with this match. It started off with Saynt running his mouth, talking about how people had been sharing their favourite memories from the Ardler and how his hadn't happened yet because he couldn't wait till the Ardler Complex burned to the ground. He then turned his attention to Fortune, asking him if he really thought he could be the next champion and what made him think he could ever be as good as Saynt. Fortune responded by saying he had done enough talking in his career as a ring announcer and promptly socked Saynt, before dropkicking him out of the ring and taking the upper hand, before getting back into the ring where he made a pin attempt. Then Saynt came back at him with punches to the head and chokes on the ropes. It continued in the same manner until, with Fortune appearing to be gaining the upper hand, Saynt picked up his belt and left ringside, leaving Fortune to win by count out but with Saynt retaining the title.
Then it was time for the first half main event. This match pitted the #1 contender for the heavyweight title, Martyn Stallyon against "The Beast from Belfast" Damian O'Connor. What can I say about this match....it was bloody incredible. SWE made a huge mistake here as this really should have been THE main event, but with wrestlers travelling from their show in Perth to appear at Uprising, I understand why they did it. Obviously this was my Match of the Night - and quite probably match of the year! Stallyon came out and started taking selfies with crowd members before the arrival of "The Beast". With both men in the ring, the crowd started off with a chant of "Damo's gonna kill you" and for a while it looked like this could be true - Damo stood on Stallyon in the ring, cannonballed into him against the barriers and slammed him off a wall or two - but Stallyon would not go down. In fact, he went up.... up the stairs and dived onto Damo from the balcony! The action returned to the ring where, eventually Stallyon got the pin on big Damo and took the win in this utter belter of a match...but don't take my word for it, you can watch the entire match for yourself by clicking
here - go on do it - it's amazing!!
The second half started with Joe Hendry facing Claymore. With Joe hyping up his appearance on RAW, the "Local Hero" had taken a fabric pen to his trunks so they now said "Global Hero" and he really didn't seem very happy when I got the crowd singing "Joe Hendry, Total Zero"!! Hendry appeared to have this match firmly in his grasp from the outset, keeping Claymore grounded and using a series of holds, before hoisting the big man onto his shoulders. It was this move which allowed Claymore to use his weight advantage to escape and knock Hendry from the ring, only for a masked figure carrying a sledgehammer to appear. He attacked Claymore before unmasking to reveal himself as Trident member Darren Blair (formerly known as Powerbomb in my blogs). With Claymore bleeding from a head wound, he was declared the winner by disqualification, before being helped from the ring.
The final Ardler show would not be complete without an appearance by SWE Heavyweight Champion "The Scumbag" Ian Ambrose. Whilst not competing in the show, he thought he would "grace" us with his presence and after mentioning the match between Stallyon and Damo, brag about how he had beaten Damo for the belt and subsequent matches and that he would do the same to Stallyon at Hell For Lycra XI but he took to his heels quickly enough when Stallyon appeared in the ring!
Bravehart then took to the ring before Euan Mackie arrived, accompanied by Jam O'Malley. Bravehart said that he would not be facing Mackie that evening, however they would face each other at Hell For Lycra XI. Bravehart then announced that he had chosen another opponent to face Mackie and, unsurprisingly, it was none other than Jam O'Malley. With the Z List members laughing and saying that Bravehart had tried this trick on them before, O'Malley suddenly turned on Mackie. While Bravehart now laughed, the crowd were gutted and cries of "No Jam" and chants of "you sold out" rang around the hall. O'Malley used the element of surprise to take the upper hand in the match, however Mackie grabbed him by the short and curlies, stopping the bigger man in his tracks, before rolling him up and taking the pin to the delight of the crowd and the disappointment of Bravehart. A very unhappy O'Malley then went into the crowd to grab a chair and chased Mackie backstage.
The main event of the evening was Jay the Jackal v LJT. Now I mean no offence to either man but after the match up between Stallyon and Damo, this just didn't cut it as a main event match. I once again pointed out that The Jackal had a picture of a fox on his butt! After a cracking start with LJT knocking The Jackal from the ring and then diving on him from the ropes, The Jackal then held the advantage, keeping the high flier grounded with a series of holds but LJT just never gives up. Despite the underhand tactics from The Jackal, LJT came back at him with some submission holds of his own and more high flying moves, before finally scoring the pinfall.
So in my opinion, all in all it was a good show but it could have been great with just a couple of tweaks. All the matches were good, but I think a little reshuffle of the order was required. For me the second half seemed a bit of a let-down after the amazing match between Damo and Stallyon. I think I would have had Storm v Viper as the first half main event, made sure the guys appearing at Perth were on first there and up the road in time to appear early on the second half and had the Damo/Stallyon match finish the show.
The next SWE show, Hellbound is on Saturday 23 August at Kirkton Community Centre and features Colt Cabana and Grado. Doors open at 1.45pm.
Their annual showcase, Hell For Lycra is being held at the Bonar Hall the following week, 30 August. Hell For Lycra will feature WWE Legend Road Warrior Animal and tickets for the show also grant access to the afternoon autograph session at 2pm with the doors opening for the main show at 6.45pm.
For more information on their upcoming shows, how to get tickets and watch previews and videos of past events, check out SWE on
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