Review: SWA Zero 1 Scotland - The Next Chapter - Cumbernauld

Friday 6 June 2014

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.

 

Check out SWA on Facebook and their website for details of their upcoming events.

Review: Source Wrestling School Showcase 2

Sunday 11 May 2014

A last minute decision saw Rob and I racing to Glasgow to see this event.  The ring announcer Stevie Wizard was already doing his thing when we arrived, but we made it in time for the first match ... only just... a tag team gauntlet to decide the number one contenders for the SWA Tag Team belts, currently held by The Forgotten.  I was still unpacking my camera as the first team were making their way to the ring!  The first match up was my favourite SWE heel, 'All Night' Ian Ambrose partnered by Martyn Stallyon against Robbie Solar and Celtic Arrow.  This match went back and forth before Solar scored the pin, eliminating Ambrose and Stallyon.  Immediately the next team  appeared, Christopher Saynt and David Conrad with Saynt giving me a "two fingered salute" when he saw me....I really don't think he likes me!  These guys work well together and it was not long before they took advantage and using a front neckbreaker double team move, they took the victory.  Next team into the ring were Manlon and Daihlan Hendry.  With Saynt already in the ring, Manlon demanded to face "The Big Guy" with Saynt responding that Conrad "eats meals bigger than you", before stepping out and letting Manlon have what he wanted.  Conrad dominated and despite a good try from Hendry, it was Saynt and Conrad's neckbreaker that would seal the win again.  The final team of DCT and Adam Carrell then took to the ring.  There appeared to be some tension between these two, with DCT tagging himself into the ring as soon as Carrell had taken the upper hand, then immediately losing the momentum to Saynt and Conrad.  This culminated in Carrell attempting to kick DCT in the head, only for DCT to drop and Saynt took the kick instead, with DCT quickly moving to score the pin and the No 1 contenders slot.  Not sure how this team will work out in the future, but they were fun to watch.

Joe Hendry then made an appearance and told the fans that his life had completely changed in the last 16 months, culminating in him winning the Laird of the Ring title at Clan Wars.  With the crowd cheering for him, he then announced that later that night he would be defending the title against Lewis Girvan.  After initially complementing Girvan on his ability at such a young age and saying how much he respected him, which the crowd appreciated, Hendry then announced that Girvan would never take the title from him as Girvan was just not good enough and that in fact no-one was as good as Joe Hendry .... and with that attitude, the crowd sentiment turned and the chants of Joe Hendry Local Hero became Joe Hendry Local Zero!  Heel turn complete!

The next match saw Jam O'Malley take to the ring to announce the arrival of Glen Dunbar, who faced the newest Source graduate, Cobra Carr.  Cocky as ever, Dunbar assumed this would be an easy match, however Carr put up a good fight.  Carr had plenty of support in the crowd and gave them plenty to cheer for but unfortunately Dunbar did take the win after rolling up Carr and putting his feet up on the ropes for extra leverage.  He then followed up his win by laughing in the face of Carr and giving him a slap for good measure.  Carr wasn't having any of it and smacked Dunbar, knocking him to the canvas, much to the delight of the crowd.

The final match of the first half saw young Ryan Griffin face Mikey Whiplash. Whippy was not happy to see a young girl at ringside holding a "Whippy Sucks" sign.  Appearing to take the upper hand early on, Whiplash appeared surprised when Griffin strung some moves together, with Whiplash going over the top rope and almost taking out the large mirror on the wall!  Despite this, Whiplash managed to get Griffin in a sleeper hold and when the ref dropped Griffin's arm for the third time, it was all over.  This is the second time I have seen Griffin (the first was the pre-show match at Clan Wars) and I think he has a good future ahead of him....also its nice to see a wrestler with good aerial moves who is not wearing a mask!

The second half started with a bit of confusion as what appeared to be the fire alarm went off.  This actually turned out to be a school bell and signalled the arrival of Mr Byers, who handed out punishment exercises to some of the kids who were booing him, then proceeded to call out SWA Zero 1 champion Joe Coffey, who was sitting ringside enjoying the evening.  Coffey began by appearing to make excuses of illness to avoid the match as he made his way to the rear of the crowd, then picked up his title belt from the table at the back and returned to accept the challenge.  The match was pretty much over before it began, with Coffey spinning Byers around the ring several times then hitting him with a running body splash, taking a selfie while he did so, before taking the pin, then issuing Byers with one of his own punishment exercises.

Next up was Private Bobby Roberts against The Beast of Belfast, Damian O'Connor.  Roberts matched up to Big Damo in height and build....and also in strength and agility.  Roberts tried running shoulder blocks from all 4 sides of the ring with neither man going down and the noise when these two giants collided was something else.  When Roberts did finally go down, Damo then stood on him!  This impressive match went back and forward but finally Damo took the win by pinfall and then shook the hand of Roberts, who definitely showed that he is one to watch in the future.

The penultimate match was a ladies tag match with the team of Viper and Sammii Jayne facing Courtney and Debbie Sharpe.  With the exception of Courtney, I have seen these girls several times and was therefore really interested in seeing what Courtney could do - I did see her at Clan Wars but she was eliminated very early on!  The main focus of this match appeared to be the dynamic between Viper and Sammii Jayne, with both girls keen to prove they were the better half of the team.  With Debbie Sharpe isolated in their corner, they kept tagging themselves into the match, with their "tags" getting harder and harder each time!  Their animosity grew when Courtney attempted to pin Sammii Jayne only for Viper to try to make the save, with Courtney quickly moving out of the way and Viper landing on her own partner instead.  With Courtney and Debbie appearing to have control of the match, Sammii Jayne hit them both with an amazing front dropkick and instead of going for the pin, confronted Viper over the earlier move.  This gave Courtney and Sharpe the chance to take control again and, with Sammii Jayne in the corner, Sharpe moved out of the way to allow Viper to once again hit her tag partner, this time with a corner splash.  Courtney and Sharpe then moved in on Viper to score the pinfall.  An irate Sammii Jayne confronted Viper again at which point Viper had enough and knocked Sammii Jayne down with a hard clothesline.  A pretty good match, but I would like to see Courtney in a singles match to fully appreciate what she can do.

Finally it was main event time, and my match of the night, as Joe Hendry faced Lewis Girvan.  I have only seen Girvan twice before but I have to admit to being really impressed by this young talent.  This match was action packed from start to finish, with neither man holding back in their efforts to gain the advantage.  There were some really sweet moves, including an amazing suplex by Joe Hendry on Lewis Girvan which seemed to go on forever.  With both men appearing exhausted after several near pins each, the end finally came when Girvan pushed Hendry into the corner in which the referee was standing - Hendry stopped short of hitting the ref and as Girvan followed him into the corner, moved aside.  Girvan also stopped short of hitting the ref but Hendry got the lowblow in from behind and then covered him for the 3 count and retained his title.  The crowd were not happy with the result but the match was an absolute cracker.  Hendry then approached Joe Coffey and told him that one belt was not enough and that he was coming after Coffey's title.

After the show, I got a chance to see Mikey Whiplash and tell him that he was responsible for the Loudmouth's existence...it was him mooing at me during a PWE show that started it all...and got a photo which Joe Hendry photobombed!!  

I thought the entire show was great.  There wasn't a single match I didn't enjoy and I was really impressed by the new talent the Source Wrestling School has.  When matched against more experienced guys, they did not fall short and I look forward to seeing them in action again soon.

Check out Source Wrestling School on Facebook

There is an event in Livingston on 31 May pitting Reckless Intent against Source which is going to be a belter and you can find details here

SWA Zero 1 Clan Wars 10 Year Anniversary Show Review

Saturday 5 April 2014

This was our first SWA show, and although we had seen some of the roster at other shows, there were a few new faces for us.  We had platinum VIP tickets (one of Rob's birthday presents) which got us early entry, front row seats and a bonus pre-show match.

Now before I start on the matches, I want to mention someone I think is pretty bloody awesome at what he does....ring announcer for the evening, Chris Duke.  I have seen Chris in action at some other promotions but something went on last year during the NWO tour and suddenly Chris was persona non grata.  Now I don't know exactly what went on and, to be totally honest, I don't actually care.  I do think there was more than one person to blame and to dump it all on one guy is wrong.  The point is Chris is a bloody awesome MC.  He really knows how to pump up the crowd and get them involved in the show.  Here, he picked a little kid called Brendon at one side of the crowd and got him to start a cheer which was to work its way around the crowd until it reached "the blue-haired person" at the other side!  That wee kid loved it and he was asked a few times to start a cheer round the crowd through the night.  I hope to see Chris doing what he does so well more often!

On to the matches.... first the pre-show bonus match between Ryan Griffin and David Conrad.  Both of these guys were new faces for me.  It was obvious from the start that Conrad was the heel, partly due to the fact he was accompanied to the ring by Christopher Saynt.  The crowd was pretty quiet to start with so I had to try to live up to my name by starting a chant for Griffin.  While some of the crowd joined in clapping, it appeared that I was alone in chanting.  I did however attract the attention of Christopher Saynt during my "Let's Go Griffin/Conrad Sucks" chant, who came over to tell me to shut up and then said "oh you're that blue-haired thing off facebook" - I was delighted!!  While Griffin took a lot of punishment at the hands of Conrad and Saynt, he finally managed to turn the tables and take the win.

After a short break to allow the general admission ticket holders to take their seats the main show started with a display by the Cosmic Flame Cheerleading Squad, followed by the entrance of the man himsel', Grado!  Only Grado could have his own cheer squad...I kept expecting him to grab a set of pom poms, but he didn't.  He was soon followed by his tag-team partners, DCT,  Celtic Arrow and Tornado (The Masked Avengers).  They were facing the team of Dickie Divers, Eric Canyon, Adam Carrel and Christopher Saynt in a Clan Wars Elimination match.  With the exception of Grado and Christopher Saynt, these were new faces for me and I was looking forward to seeing them, however I was unfortunately blocked for the early part of the match by the Masked Avengers standing on the ring apron directly in front of me!  With the crowd clearly on the side of Team Grado, the heels took the upper hand, eliminating DCT.  There were a couple of cracking moments when Tornado splashed Adam Carrel from the shoulders of Celtic Arrow, who was on the top turnbuckle, leading to Carrel being eliminated, and then when he flew over the top rope onto Dickie Divers, Eric Canyon and Christopher Saynt outside of the ring, quickly followed by Tornado tossing Celtic Arrow over the ropes into the heels once again!  Unfortunately this was not to last and soon Dickie Divers eliminated Celtic Arrow, then Tornado managed to get the pin on Dickie Divers but was quickly eliminated himself by Eric Canyon, leaving Grado facing both Canyon and Saynt.  Despite the odds, Grado got the pin on Canyon and then put away Saynt to be sole survivor.

The next match was between Rampage Brown and Mark Coffey.  After quickly starting a chant of "Let's Go Coffey" a group on the other side of the room started an answering chant of "We Hate Tea", which really seemed to confuse Brown.  This was a brutal match from the start.  Mark Coffey took the upper hand early in the match but was soon slammed into the ringpost with such force that the top turnbuckle and rope actually sprang off and while the match continued in the centre of the ring, staff worked frantically to fix the turnbuckle and rope.  Despite fighting his way back into the match, Coffey was unable to get the pin and Rampage left the ring to a chorus of boos!

Next up was a match for the Tag Team titles.  First to the ring were reigning champions, The Forgotten, Glen Dunbar and Alex Cavanaugh, who were accompanied by Jam O'Malley... and it was weird to see Jam looking relatively normal - no clown face paint and pink tutu!  Their opponents were the team of Britain's Most Wanted, Damian O'Connor and Scott Renwick...and it was weird to see them smiling and NOT being heels!  Jam O'Malley was the deciding factor in this match as the champs took quite a beating, with Alex Cavanaugh being stood on by Big Damo early on in the match and when Scott Renwick was about to pin Cavanaugh, Jam jumped up and grabbed the ref while Glen Dunbar sneaked in from behind and nailed Renwick with the belt, allowing the Forgotten to take the win and retain their belts.

The next match between Lewis Girvan and Kenny Williams was quite a high flyer!  Both these guys have amazing potential and some cracking aerial moves.  Lewis Girvan was the crowd favourite with Kenny Williams being the heel.  Unfortunately for me, this just did not seem to work...Kenny is too clean and sweet looking to be heel....and I told him so when I saw him later that night!  Despite this, the match was great with plenty of fast action and I would have been happy whoever took the win - this time it was Girvan...and I look forward to seeing a rematch between these two in the future.

Match 5 featured Robbie Solar and Jack Gallagher.  Jack was a new face for me but obviously popular with the crowd, a few of whom had brought there own signs in support of "GingerMania".  I have seen Solar once before and was not all that impressed back then.  Unfortunately I am still of this opinion - although there is potential there, he still seems a little too green and there were a couple of botched moves.  Apart from Jack's fan club, there was not a lot of feedback from the crowd and although there were a couple of not bad moves, this match was a bit of a letdown (I actually started chanting "This is boring") and I was relieved when Gallagher finally took the pin and ended it.

Next, Laird of the Ring Jackie Polo faced Joe Hendry for the title.  Instead of his usual swaggering entrance with a microphone, singing along to his entrance music, Polo appeared wearing a neck brace!  Considering what happened to Lionheart recently, and the fact that the man himself was in the crowd, I thought that it was in pretty bad taste - but that's Polo for you!!  Once in the ring, he got hold of a mic and started to talk to the crowd, but was interrupted by the entrance of Joe Hendry, who got stuck straight in, ripping off the collar and throwing it into the crowd (where apparently someone scrawled Polo Sucks on it).  Polo did fight back and it was a great match with some lovely moves by both guys.  Finally Joe Hendry rolled up Polo for the 3 count and became the new Laird of the Ring!  He was so delighted he just had to hug someone...and official photographer David Wilson was the lucky person!!



The penultimate match was the first ever Women's Clan Wars Elimination Match between Team Viper (Viper, Sammii Jayne and Bete Noire) and Team Fraser (Fiona Fraser, Debbie Sharpe and Courtney)  This was the first time I had seen both Fraser and Courtney wrestle and unfortunately their input was all too short.  The entire match seemed to be over almost before it began.  First eliminated was Bete Noire, with Sammii Jayne, Debbie Sharpe and Courtney quickly following within 2 minutes, leaving Viper and Fraser to face each other.  Viper took a convincing win and when she held her hand out to shake with Fraser, she refused and stormed off like a spoiled kid.

After the interval to allow the steel cage to be assembled, it was time for the final match of the night, the SWA Heavyweight Title match between champion Mikey Whiplash and Joe Coffey, with special guest referee John "The Bomb" Graham.  This match was incredible from start to finish.  Both guys gave it everything they had.  Within minutes, Whiplash was wearing Coffey's face paint on various parts of his body!  These guys slammed each other into the canvas and the steel cage, both climbing the cage only to slam each other back down and generally brutalised each other as much as they were able.  With neither man able to get a pinfall, it finally came down to who would escape the cage first.  As Joe Coffey scaled the cage, Whiplash made his way towards the cage door and was halfway through the door when Coffey dropped from the cage to the floor to take the win!  The crowd went wild...and so did Mikey Whiplash who got into the face of John Graham, blaming him for the loss.  Graham nailed Whiplash, and he was still lying in the ring while Joe Coffey celebrated his win, with brother Mark coming out from backstage to raise his hand in victory.

After the final match, the VIP ticket holder were admitted to a side area where there was a meet and greet with Jack Gallagher, Joe Coffey, Joe Hendry, Lewis Girvan and Courtney.  We also managed to catch Mark Coffey there and Rob got some more signatures in his book and photos for his album.

Rob with the two new champs, SWA Heavyweight Joe Coffey and Laird of the Ring Joe Hendry

I really enjoyed my first visit to SWA and look forward to attending more of their shows in the future.  For more information, check out their Facebook Page or website