Review: SWA Battlezone

Saturday 18 October 2014

Our second visit to the Motherwell Concert Hall.  I had bought VIP tickets for this event but after a few recent issues, I was in two minds whether to sell them or go. In the end, I decided I would go....and I am glad I did because it was a great show.

As part of the VIP package, we had a pre-show match featuring Grado and Courtney against Joe Hendry and Debbie Sharpe.  I was actually surprised by this, as pre-show matches are usually an opportunity for trainees to make an impression, but here we had arguably one of the most recognisable faces in Grado and one of the fastest rising stars in the independent scene in Joe Hendry.  The match itself would not have been out of place on the main card with Grado hamming it up as usual and Hendry playing the heel to perfection.  Hendry and Sharpe dominated much of the match, using their underhanded tactics in order to double-team Grado however the fan favourites were victorious after Hendry found himself on the wrong end of moves from both Courtney and Grado in the corner, with Grado getting the pinfall.

Now onto the main show.... Mikey Whiplash was originally scheduled to face John "The Bomb" Graham in a TLC match however with Graham unable to compete, a change to the card had been announced - Whiplash would face Jack Gallagher in a 2 out of 3 falls match.  Having seen these two face each other at Pride, I knew this was going to be an amazing match...and they did not disappoint.  These guys put on an amazing display from the start which literally had the crowd gasping.  There was also some fun when Whiplash spotted Cobra Carr's daughter in the crowd holding up her "Whippy Sucks" sign. At one point Gallagher ended up sitting in the front row holding up the sign, before hiding the sign in the back of his trunks and holding it up once back in the ring.  This only made Whiplash more determined to beat Gallagher and it was Whiplash who scored the first fall.  Without any hesitation he tried for the second fall several times unsuccessfully.  Gallagher fought back, pulling off some incredible moves and took the second fall before locking in a submission and Whiplash tapped out.  An amazing start to the night and my Match of the Night by a mile!  I really hope to see video footage of this soon.

The next match was Robbie Solar v John Gresham who had their work cut out for them following such an incredible opening match, however they definitely did not disappoint.  Although evenly matched in height, speed and agility, Gresham appeared to have a strength advantage over Solar.  This was the first time I had seen Gresham and I hope I have an opportunity to witness him in action again soon.  This was a fast paced match with Gresham using his combination of power and agility to punish the smaller built Solar, leaving him covered in welts and handprints.  Solar, however, is a pocket rocket himself and kept coming back at Gresham,  hitting him with a dropkick to the back before rolling him up to score the pinfall.

Next up was Rampage Brown who had issued an open challenge which was answered by "Flyin" Ryan Griffin, who is either extremely brave or totally crazy.  Brown did not hold back, using his size and strength advantage from the beginning.  After taking a boot to the face and being slammed face first into the turnbuckles, Griffin looked to be done before he had even started but despite taking a serious amount of punishment, he did manage to fight his way back into the match, almost scoring the win after a cracking crossbody from the turnbuckle knocked the big man to the canvas.  The victory was not to be however and Rampage quickly rallied, delivering another boot to the face of Griffin, following it with a devastating piledriver before covering him for the three count.

After a short interval, the action continued with SWA Zero One Heavyweight Champion Joe Coffey defending his title against Doug Williams.  This was a belter and could easily have gone either way with both men showing amazing strength and agility.  There were near falls for both men but this match would not end based on the abilities of these two amazing athletes.  As they fought, the referee got caught and was knocked out.  Coffey swung Williams around the ring before turning him over into a Boston Crab and while Williams tapped out, the referee was unable to acknowledge it.  Coffey released the hold and attempted to rouse the referee when Jackie Polo appeared, grabbing the title belt and threatening to hit Coffey with it.  Then Mark Coffey appeared and grabbed the belt from Polo, apparently to make the save, before turning and nailing his brother with it to the shock of the crowd!  With the referee recovering, Polo and Mark Coffey stood at ringside as Williams then covered Coffey for the three count to become the new Heavyweight champion.  Polo and Mark Coffey re-entered the ring to help the new champ celebrate before taking off backstage as a very angry Joe Coffey recovered.

The penultimate match of the night saw Sammii Jayne face Viper with Fiona Fraser as the special guest referee.  This was more of a handicap match as it became apparent early on that Fraser had a problem with Viper, with any decision made being in favour of Sammii Jayne.  With several near falls from both girls, Viper finally had Sammii Jayne well and truly beaten and went for the pinfall once again.  This time when Fraser reached two, she stopped and refused to finish the count.    As Viper and Fraser faced off, Sammii Jayne took the advantage, rolling Viper up for Fraser to make a fast 3 count and declare Sammii Jayne the winner.  On a side note, during this match Sammii Jayne's hair weave came out...and I think she really suits the natural shorter look.

After another short interval, it was time for the 40 man Battlezone match to determine the No 1 contender to the SWA Zero One Heavyweight title.  Starting with two men in the ring, they would be joined every 60 seconds by another competitor.  First out was Mark Coffey, who then watched the entrance for his first opponent Grado, who instead made his entrance through the crowd dressed in a Motherwell FC mascot outfit.  As Christopher Saynt entered, Grado was eliminated. Entrant number 5 was Jackie Polo and he immediately teamed with Coffey in order to eliminate those in the ring and any newcomers, sitting on chairs they brought into the ring,,,,until entrant number 10 Joe Coffey appeared.  Mark slipped under the ropes and ran backstage, quickly followed by Joe, who had just eliminated Jackie Polo, leaving the ring empty for the arrival of entrant 11, Mr News.  Next out was Glen Dunbar, followed by his tag partner Alex Cavanaugh.  They double-teamed Mr News until the arrival of Randy Valentine.  These four pretty much fought each other the entire time they were in the match and continued it even after they were eliminated just after the arrival of entrant 20 Adam Carrell.  The Coffey Brothers made a brief reappearance in the ring, arriving through the crowd before disappearing out the other side again.  Entrant 24 was big Damo who immediately began to clean house and also managed to stand on the chest of Dickie Divers before dropping a senton on him.

Shortly after  Rampage Brown entered at No 40, only John Gresham (39) Lewis Girvan (37), Jack Gallagher (34), Mikey Whiplash (31) and Damo (24) remained.  While Gallagher and Whiplash continued their earlier battle, Gresham and Girvan were soon eliminated, followed by Damo at the hands of Rampage Brown.  With both Brown and Whiplash's attention on him, the odds were not in Gallagher's favour but he somehow pulled off the impossible by first eliminating Whiplash then Brown to win the Battlezone match and become the number one contender.  The crowd began to chant asking "where's the Coffeys" as they had never officially been eliminated and it was expected that they would reappear, however this did not happen and Gallagher was officially announced as the winner.


After the show there was a meet and greet with some of the wrestlers for VIP ticket holders but Rob and I had already met all of them in the past, so we rolled up our sleeves and assisted with packing up the ring instead!

There was an "Aftermath" show in Paisley on Friday 24th but we were unable to attend due to previous plans.  Information on all future SWA events can be found on their Facebook page.

Review: SWE Hell For Lycra XI

Saturday 30 August 2014

Hell for Lycra...it was last year’s event that introduced us to SWE and we almost didn’t go back.  Thankfully, their Hart & Soul event in October was amazing and we have been regular visitors to Dundee ever since.

So we arrived at 2pm and joined the queue for the autograph session with Road Warrior Animal and Dennis Stamp.  After paying £20 for the “Animal Package”, which included an autographed promo picture and a professional photo which would also be signed, we were excited but unfortunately Animal seemed bored.  He picked up his studded shoulder pads, dumped them on Rob for the photo and that was it – no chat.  Talk about disappointed (well I always liked Hawk better anyway!)  After the signing we went off for something to eat before returning to the Bonar Hall for the show that evening.

Ring announcing duties for the evening were split between Chris Duke and Amy Anderson.  Chris has taken some flak in the recent past but this is a guy who really knows how to get a crowd going from the outset.  He employed his "Mexican wave style" cheer by selecting people sitting either side of the entrance and having one start a cheer and have the crowd work it round the room until reaching the other - works really well for getting everyone warmed up!

The first match of the night featured Steven Magners and Chaz Phoenix in a steel cage match.  Based on their actions toward each other during their long running feud, I was expecting all kinds of brutality but from the outset, both men only seemed interested in climbing out of the cage.  This ended with both men atop the cage, Phoenix pulled a length of material fashioned into a noose from his pocket, put it around the neck of Magners and proceeded to hang him as Phoenix dropped to ringside to win the match.  I am not entirely sure how to feel about the way this match ended.  The wrestling fan part of me thinks based on their previous encounters and the infamous "poly bag incident" it was a natural progression, however the mum in me thinks there were too many young kids in the audience for this and that after the match, when they announced a short break to remove the cage, they could easily have included a "do not try this at home/school" message. 

While the cage was being removed, the recent match between Martyn Stallyon and Damian O'Connor was shown on the big screen and there was an opportunity for those who were unable to make the earlier autograph session to meet Animal and Dennis Stamp.

The action restarted with a “World of Sport” legends match.  Originally billed as a tag match with Marty Jones and Jay the Jackal v Johnny Saint and Felix Fortune, this match now featured two of my Reckless Intent buddies.  Team Jones featured Jay the Jackal partnered with Rawlins and Team Saint had Felix Fortune paired with Mikey.  I do not wish to appear biased in any way, but Rawlins and Mikey were the standouts in this match.  In my opinion, Fortune's inexperience is usually covered by his opponents but there was no way to cover his miss on the attempted dropkick on Rawlins.  There was a lovely springboard flip from Mikey and he also delivered a rather devastating kick to the face of Rawlins.  The match ended a bit chaotically with Fortune hitting Marty Jones before being rolled up for the pin - win for Team Jones.  Both teams then seemed to face off in the ring with Fortune and Jones looking like they wanted a piece of each other.

Next was a 4 on 4 tag match with the Trident and Scott Renwick facing the team of Mr News, Claymore, LJT and Scotty Riccio.  I don't normally like matches like this as there are just too many people involved and its hard to keep track of what's going on but this one actually worked.  There was a nice wee bit when the heels were making their entrance and one by one, Mr News, LJT and Scotty Riccio launched from the ring to knock them down like skittles.  LJT took a serious amount of punishment from his opponents once the match got started, however it was Riccio who took the final punishment, being slammed by MDK before being on the receiving end of the 450 splash from Steven "Air" Myles before MDK pinned him for the three count.

A close contender for match of the night was the face off between Joe Hendry and Doug Williams.  Hendry was accompanied to the ring by Marty Jones however Jones kinda disappeared at some point - to be honest I didn't notice him leave as I was so enthralled by the match.  I think this might have been because Hendry is usually heel at SWE however in this match the crowd seemed to be evenly split and he didn't play up the heel image, making the heel legend surplus to requirements.  Anyway this match was just pure class - these guys don't dazzle with high flying stunts, they just wrestle.  Hendry took the advantage at the start but Williams soon fought back and seemed to be in complete control and about to take victory when Hendry got him in a cross armbreaker to take the win by submission.   In a very sportsmanlike manner, Hendry then held out his hand to Williams and both men shook hands to cheers from the crowd.

During the interval, a large pole and flag were attached to the ring, which had us wondering what was going on.  There had been no mention of a flag match.  What had originally been advertised as a scramble match for the Future Division championship had been changed.  The six competitors, reigning champ Christopher Saynt and challengers Viper, Sammii Jayne, Nikki Storm, Glen Dunbar and LJT entered the ring and a strange sort of chaos ensued.  With everyone battling in and around the ring, Storm was the first to attempt to grab the flag but was stopped by Viper and Sammii Jayne.  Then it seemed like each challenger had a turn of going for the flag before being thrown out of the ring by another challenger, who would then make their attempt.  Finally it was LJT going for the flag when Saynt grabbed his belt, jumped up on the ring apron and decked LJT with the belt before grabbing the flag to take the win.  Now I didn't mention the role of the flag...they used a "YES" flag which Saynt then spat on.  Now I do not wish to make my opinion on the referendum public - as far as I am concerned this subject is a matter for each person to decide for themselves and no-one should try to force their opinions on another.  By using this flag, SWE were making a political statement which could easily have caused conflict amongst its audience.  Wrestling is no place for politics and this stunt did nothing more than anger the "Yes" camp.   Maybe a nice "SWE" flag could be produced for any future matches of this type?

Now for the match that had been hyped since it's announcement Damian O'Connor v Road Warrior Animal.  Well talk about a huge disappointment!  Big Damo comes out to the ring and as we are waiting in anticipation of the appearance of Animal, Scott Renwick and the Trident appear instead and proceed to attack Damo.  With Damo making short work of the Trident, Renwick enters with a chair and starts to ram it in the midsection of the big man.  Renwick then starts shouting orders at the Trident and Damo is tied up in the ropes as Renwick continues his assault with the chair into the midsection of the "Beast".  Finally Animal appears, still wearing the clothes from the afternoon signing session, and accompanied by John "The Bomb" Graham to make the save.  There wasn't even a hint of an illusion that there was ever going to be a match between these guys.  WTF - this was one of the big selling points of the entire show - I had driven around for months with a poster advertising this match stuck in my car window - I felt cheated!  Maybe if he had come out in the full ring gear, shucking off the pads at ringside I might have been able to buy into it but it just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Another match which had a lot of hype behind it was Bravehart v Euan G Mackie.  With a lot of animosity between these two men, this was never going to be pretty.  Factor in referee Edith Summer, who was on the receiving end of Bravehart's fist the week before at Hellbound, and that Bravehart had Jam O'Malley and Mutt at ringside, and it was never going to be fair either.  Bravehart wasted no time, beating on Mackie before locking in the sharpshooter however the referee refused to acknowledge Mackie tapping out!  An incensed Bravehart dropped Mackie and turned his attention to Summer (who if I remember right had just decked O'Malley).  As Bravehart went in for another punch, Edith ducked, Bravehart swung round and got a faceful of green mist from Mackie, who then scored the win with a fast count from Summer.  As Summer and Mackie made their escape from the ring, Bravehart vented his anger at O'Malley who was on his knees pleading for forgiveness.

Finally the main event and most definitely Match of the Night - SWE Heavyweight Champion Ian Ambrose faced the No 1 contender Martyn Stallyon for the title.  This match featured Dennis Stamp as special guest referee and while it was a nice touch for him to be included as part of the show, there were a few occasions where he was a bit slow to get down to make a count and wasn't as tough as a referee needs to be in a match between these two guys.  This match was brilliant.  There was a scary moment when Stallyon went got tangled in the ropes and smacked his head hard on the floor but he shook it of and got on with the match.  This match could not be contained by the ring....nor the barriers around it.  These guys went over the barriers, through the crowd and continued on the stage area before finally returning to the
ring.  Debbie Sharpe made her appearance, looking stunning in a tight black lacy dress and a pair of killer heels which gave me a nosebleed just looking at them, and strutted around the ringside area with the championship belt.  With it looking very much like Stallyon becoming the new champion, he told Debbie to leave.  Instead, she distracted Dennis Stamp as Stallyon springboarded off the top rope, straight into the title belt Ambrose was holding, allowing Ambrose to score the three count to retain the title, who then left with Debbie.  What is going on between Ambrose and Sharpe?  This story is definitely not over!!

There was one other negative thing but this had nothing to do with SWE.  One of the crowd members had to be ejected after getting into physical altercations with two wrestlers at ringside, Euan Mackie and Debbie Sharpe.  She had also been making some rather nasty comments about people while in the queue outside of the venue earlier and had been warned to shut her nasty mouth.  Hopefully we will not have to deal with her again.  There were actually some people who thought that the person involved was me.  I can assure you it was not.  I am a loudmouth - I get verbal but I do not get physical.  Even when invited to enter the ring during a spat, such as the one I had with Bravehart at Hellbound, I will not cross that line.

Overall, Hell For Lycra 11 was a better show than Hell For Lycra 10, but there were elements that really disappointed me too.  There were some really good matches and the announcement of next year's event being held in Dundee's Caird Hall went a good way toward outweighing the negatives.  Although the show ended on a high with a fantastic match between Ambrose and Stallyon, I have to admit that the whole Animal v Damo fiasco really bummed me out.

SWE have their next Uprising event back in the Ardler Complex on 25 October and have announced Brian Kendrick, Paul London and Leah Von Dutch to appear.  Tickets are priced at £10 for adults and £7 for kids (an increase of £3 per ticket since their event in July) and are available via their Facebook event page