Another cracking wee review written by the lovely Claire Allan. Agree wholeheartedly with everything she has written, especially Match of the Night!
Saturday 8th August, Citadel Leisure
Centre, Ayr
I have been waiting months for this show,
excited was a massive understatement for this!
I was bouncing off the walls all morning, nothing could contain me.
For shows, the banter starts from the queue
outside. Meeting up with Julie, Rob and
Janet is always a pleasure.
The difference for this show, I was 2nd row
instead of my normal front row but that won't stop me being noisy.
The silver and platinum ticket holders
always get the treat of a bonus match, usually this is stars that have performed
in front of crowds before but are not as well known as the ones on the main
roster. This time Adrian decided to use
some of students from GPWA, to give them some experience of performing in front
of die-hard fans. This was well
received.
BONUS MATCH
AUSTIN OSIRIS & KYLE KHAOS VS CS ROSE
& FLEX HUNTER
GUEST REFEREE RED LIGHTNING
I was really impressed with the technical
abilities of the students, apart from some mishaps with slips off the ropes. All credit to the coaches. Rose and Hunter definitely had the power over
their smaller opponents but once Osiris and Khaos got going and started using aerial
attacks, they held the fans attention.
After a well fought battle Osiris and Khaos secured the win. It was good to hear the fans getting behind
the youngsters and I hope it has done a lot for their confidence.
(Confession: I did get distracted by
someone entering the building, you may have had a hoodie on but I know those
legs anywhere!)
After this match, it was time to let the
general ticket holders in and OMG, they just kept coming and coming. It felt like an eternity!! Finally all the 729
fans were in the building and the main show got underway 45 minutes late.
As MC Simon Cassidy was about to get things
started, out comes Red Lightning. He
makes his feelings clear that he packed his ring attire as he was wanting a
match as well as refereeing the bonus match!
He also said he was miffed that he gets overlooked for these events and
wanted answers from Lionheart. Lionheart
honours Red's wish and comes to ringside.
He tells Red that he has learned a few truths since running these
shows but two things stand out in this business and they are 1) Sometimes you have
to do a deal with the devil and 2) The card is subject to change.......
RED LIGHTNING VS CHRIS RENFREW
The crowd erupted as Chris Renfrew made his
presence felt, the amount NAK fans in the crowd was immense. As soon as Renfrew stepped into the ring he
took it to Red Lightning. Both men have
good technical ability but they are also two brilliant brawlers. It was obvious from the start that this was
Renfrew's fight, not taking anything away from Red Lightning but Renfrew is an
animal! Renfrew pinned Red in the centre
of the ring. Hopefully he has learned
his lesson that you can always get what you wish for but it can be your worst
nightmare!
KID FITE, TJ RAGE & DAVEY BLAZE W/CHARLES
BODDINGTON VS LOU KING SHARP
TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH
TJ Rage, Davey Blaze and Charles Boddington
come to the ring, closely followed by the Tag Team Champ, Lou King Sharp. Boddington takes the mic and announces that
he felt sorry for Sharp, so he decided to give Kid Fite the night off. Lionheart comes to ringside and tells Lou
that he needs to screw the nut as he isn't going to continue to save his backside.
Lionheart then turns to Lou's opponents and says he thought they would pull a stunt
like this, Boddington starts to say that Lionheart cannot get involved with the
match but he is cut off by the boss who says he knows that he cannot get involved
but he does have someone backstage that has a score to settle with Blaze n Rage
and cannot wait to get in the ring.....lights go out and the video plays......IT
IS THE RETURN OF KRIS TRAVIS!. The crowd went ballistic!
Now a slight deviation from the wrestling....As
many people know Kris was diagnosed with stomach cancer in the middle of 2014, prior
to this he started missing events due to what he thought was a stomach ulcer. I sent him a Get Well Soon card but in
hindsight, I would have sent a different design! In September, he announced that it was
stomach cancer and that he already had part of his stomach removed and that he
was going to require chemotherapy. The
support he was given from colleagues within the wrestling profession and fans
was phenomenal. Shows were made in his
honour, friends and fans donated on his behalf, amazing. After his chemotherapy, Kris got back in the
gym and started raising money for Cavendish Cancer Care. He has been doing charity football matches (and
planning to do more?) and helping raise more money for them any which way he
can.
I make no secret that I have the utmost respect
for him and do care about him (even though he probably thinks I am a mad woman!). I have known Trav for about 3 years and always
get him the same way, very respectful to fans, willing to sign autographs and pose
for photographs. He's friendly and not only
is he good looking on the outside but has a beautiful heart on the inside, in my
experience this is a rarity. He is the perfect
role model for kids, an inspiration to adults and a true ambassador for what he
believes in.
Back to the wrestling.....
BLAZE & RAGE VS LOU KING SHARP & KRIS
TRAVIS
For me, this was Match of the Night. Not because it contained Kris Travis. It was truly awesome, Kris proved that even
after nearly a year out of the ring, he had not lost his ability and was still capable
of kicking butt! Blaze & Rage did
not make it easy for them. Kris then tagged
in Lou, who got a good few hits in but the tide turned, due to their power Lou struggled
against the bigger men, on one or two occasions he had the chance to tag Kris back
in but attempted to go for glory but to no avail. Kris eventually got back in the
ring and showed exactly how to do it! After
an amazing fight the Champ retained after the opponents were pinned.
1ST HALF MAIN EVENT
BIG DAMO VS SAMOA JOE
What a first half main event this was, two of
the biggest guys I have seen in a ring.
As normal, most of the fans were on the side of the 'Samoan Submission Machine'
but my group were firmly on the side of the 'Beast of Belfast' which made the
chanting fight very interesting, as my group are some of the loudest fans
about! The two men were equals in the
ring in both power and ability. In the
beginning, nothing could separate them. The
fight went on the outside and they got into a chopfest. Damo is a hard hitter but even I felt everyone
of Joe's as they echoed around the Citadel.
After more action in the ring, Joe got the win after making Big Damo submit,
showing why he is a Submission Machine!
DREW GALLOWAY VS IESTYN REES
This was definitely a match for the
ladies! Two very handsome men. As soon as both men were in the ring, you
could tell there is a bit of history between them especially after Iestyn blames
Drew for him losing the Elite Rumble. This
was my third time seeing Iestyn Rees and have been quite impressed, he has a
great ring presence and can hold the crowd’s attention. Drew Galloway has similar qualities but had
the backing from his hometown crowd. After some in ring action, Drew decides he
should take Iestyn on a grand tour of the Citadel, introducing him to fans, walls
and doors! Once back at the ring, Iestyn
turned the tables and threatened get his own back with a couple of painful
chops against the guard rail. Eventually
Drew managed to pin Iestyn, after a hard fought battle.
WOLFGANG & KENNY WILLIAMS VS THE
COFFEYS
This was another match I was interested in. In the last couple of shows, there has been
some cracks showing between the two brothers, would it finally break tonight? The fans were split equally, again the chant
wars began, even overheard a couple of girls arguing who was the better looking
Coffey brother! (and put my tuppence worth in).
Once the match began it was Mark vs Kenny, Mark had the upperhand in this
contest then tagged in Joe. At this point
the match was swinging back and forth, so much so Joe even took Kenny for a swing! Once Kenny & Wolfie took control of the match,
Joe did not stand a chance. There was fantastic chemistry on the team of Wolfie
& Kenny. Nearer the end of the
match, Joe managed to escape the clutches of his opponents but instead of
accepting his tag, Mark jumped from the apron which in turn was the main reason
for Joe being pinned and Wolfgang & Kenny being winners. Joe remained in the ring for a few moments, stunned
by what his brother had done. Mark came back
out and Joe demanded answers! Mark did not
explain himself but showed some cowardice by slapping his brother then running away. I think it is jealousy on Mark's part as it was
clear the crowd favoured Joe.
MAIN EVENT
NOAM DAR VS GRADO
This was the most anticipated match of the night,
the atmosphere was electric, the hall was buzzing. Keeping in mind, these two are the best of
friends away from the ring and have travelled the world together. The challenger came to the ring in his usual
style, you could see the focus in his eyes, he wants the title and I was
praying he would get it. Next out came the champion, accompanied by a young lady
singing his entrance music. Usually in a
Grado match there are some comedy moments but tonight it was different, he wanted
to retain the title just as much as Noam wanted the win. No-one could get the upperhand, the bad thing
about fighting your friend is they know your style like the back of their hand,
they know what moves you are going to do! It was a great match thus far!! Unfortunately, near the end poor Eddie (the ref)
took a hard knock and was out cold! Noam
managed to get the anklelock on which had Grado tapping but there was no official
to make the call. Noam went over to try to
revive Eddie, when he turned round he got caught by 'The Wee Boot' and was pinned. Again, nobody to make the call. Enter Iestyn Rees, who believes he should have
been in this match instead of Noam, starts to beat up both Noam and Grado. Drew Galloway makes the save. This causes Blaze & Rage with Boddington to
make their presence known and help Iestyn.
Samoa Joe then comes in and cleans house with the bad guys! He even manages to cause that 'baldy midget' Charles
Boddington some pain! The match ends in a
no contest. Drew, Joe, Noam and Grado then
have a little dance in the ring. Personally,
I would have preferred the match to continue until there was an outright winner
but the time was against this match.
All in all it was an excellent show, the best
Pro Wrestling Elite show so far. Adrian McCallum
deserves a lot of plaudits for putting on these shows on, they are definitely getting
better each time......you may need to start looking for a bigger venue soon!
Wishing Pro Wrestling Elite all the best for
the next show on 26th September at Ayr Town Hall, the roof will be raised! Unfortunately
I will not be there due to family commitments!
PS If you want to donate to Cavendish Cancer
Care, you can text TRAV01 followed by either £5 or £10 to 70070. Your donations will be much appreciated.
Until next time......
