Tag Archives: Kanji

Rev Pro – X Anniversary Night 2 21/08/22 – 4.5⭐

By the end of the night, this felt like a real celebration of Rev Pro and British wrestling as a whole. New stars made, old stars return and a massive passing of the torch moment! This was the perfect way to end the weekend.

Destination Everywhere Vs Greedy Souls – 3⭐

Mills finally turned, it had to happen tonight and they finally did it. The match began strong, with Oku and Mills hitting multiple dives to the outside, including a great middle rope moonsault to the floor from Mills.

Greedy Souls got the upper hand and began working Oku hard, to the point where it had to be Mills just leaving him to get beat up. Oku then hit my least favourite move bouncing of the middle rope to hit a clothesline, I hate it even when he does it.

There was an awesome looking back breaker from greedy souls, just before Oku managed to get the hit tag for Mills, when he booted Oku in the face, tagged him back in, and snotted on his body. This allowed greedy souls to pick up the win, finally allowing advancing the team split storyline. Great way to start the show and get the crowd hot.

Chantal Jordan Vs Kanji (c) – Southside Womens Championship – 2.5⭐

Sadly, the crowd died down to near silence for this match. The placement of this match didn’t help, but by the end of it, these two managed to get everyone invested.

They had a slow build to start, and Jordan’s strikes sounded and looked awesome. Kanji hit a nice move, jumping over the corner to land on Jordan tangled in the turnbuckles. But it really picked up in the last couple minutes, with a great sequence of the two exchanging kicks.

Kanji was able to lock in the triangle choke to make Jordan tap out, retaining her belt. A match that maybe could’ve lost the first 5 mins to be more punchy.

Luke Jacobs (c) Vs Tony Deppen – Undisputed British Cruiserweight Championship – 3.5⭐

Jacobs wants to be the best cruiserweight champion, and he’s on his way with title defences like this. He put his title on the line before the match, and then slapped the hell out of Deppen. All while Deppen manages to get all the heat from the crowd whenever he wants.

One miss chop into the ring post allows Deppen to work the hand and arm throughout the match. The two had great back and forth, including another huge coast to coast from Jacobs.

After a couple near falls and submission reversals from both men, Jacobs reverses a pin attempt into the sleeper, tapping Deppen out and adding another retention to his reign. I can’t wait to see Jacobs wrestle again.

Gideon Grey Vs Eddie Dennis – 2⭐

This was very much more angle than match, and yes Eddie Dennis is back in Rev Pro. Gideon came out interrupting Francesca, asking for an open challenge. For Mad Kurt to accept, on the behalf of Eddie Dennis for the crowd to erupt.

The two had a fine match, with Grey hitting a low blow and cane shot to the head, for Dennis to kick out very late. Dennis obviously got the win after a keyboard to the head, courtesy of Mad Kurt, and Dennis hitting the next stop driver.

After Dennis, Kurt and Shota all came out to celebrate, and beat up Grey some more.

Mike Bailey Vs Leon Slater – 4.5⭐

Show Stealer! Star Maker! This match was awesome, and made Leon Slater look like a huge deal. Both these guys tore it down, with pace and timing.

There was an awesome sequence ringside where it was reversal after reversal, finishing with Slater leaping over the guard rail. They then went on to hit some great dives, including Speedball hitting a middle rope moonsault from in the ring to outside, which I still don’t know how that happened.

Bailey’s double knee moonsault will always look painful, especially when he hits it on the Apron. Meanwhile Slater a top rope dive onto bailey, which I have no idea what to call, just all the flips and rotations. Which was then reversed into a Bailey pin attempt for a near fall. However bailey picked up the win later on to a great match, with the crowd giving Slater a standing ovation.

Sunshine Machine (c) Vs The Velocities – Undisputed British Tag Team Championship – 4⭐

I think it’s safe to say, a couple months ago if Sunshine Machine had a title match at York Hall people would feel underwhelmed, but now they are proving they’re one of the best British Tag teams out there and have earned that spot at the top of the tag division.

The start of the match was a slow beat down of the velocities, with TK and Chuck cutting the ring in half. This was good but lasted a bit too long for me, as I was ready for the next stage of the match. Once Silva made the hot tag, the match rocked.

There was an awesome dueling shooting star press with both teams hitting one at the same time, a massive Canadian destroyer on the apron, but the stand out was TK Cooper. TK’s headbutts sounded brutal!

The finish built up after Cooper was hit with a great shooting star DDT, which Mambo barely broke up throwing London into the pin. After more near falls, Sunshine Machine got the win after hitting a huge double team of the top rope. A fantastic match with a stand out performance from TK.

Will Ospreay (c) Vs Ricky Knight Jr – Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship – 4.5⭐

What A Match! There was a massive big fight feel and the crowd was deafening. These two went for about half an hour and it flew by. The second the bell rang the two charged at each other and just traded punches.

Spilling out the ring, the two chopped each other, Ospreay hit a huge sunset flip to the outside and powerbombed RKJ onto the ramp. The intensity didn’t let up, as RKJ then went head first into the turnbuckle, busting him open.

Suddenly there was a ref bump, for RKJ to hit a landslide tombstone. A second ref runs down and the match continues, Ospreay piledriving RKJ off the apron, to the outside, through a table! A second ref bump, which led to the only down side of this match for me.

Ospreay went to use the belt, RKJ reversed it, hit Ospreay but when the ref woke up Ricky jumped on the belt to hide it. Very sports entertainment and out of place sadly.

The ending saw RKJ kick out of a rainmaker, hidden blade, and reversed a one wing angel. For RKJ to hit Ospreay with a one wing angel, another landslide tombstone to became the NEW Undisputed British Heavyweight champion.

A fantastic main event for the end of a great weekend. The two shook hands and Ospreay gave a very passing if the torch promo thanking the fans, the locker room and Andy for keeping Rev Pro alive.

Progress – Super Strong Style 16 (Day 3) 05/06/2022 – 3⭐

This was my first Progress Wrestling show live, and I had a great time. There was a real party atmosphere, which was guided along by Simon Miller’s interactions in-between each match.

Team Damo Vs Team RSP – 2⭐

This was great, silly, sports entertainment. From the football being introduced to all the picks everything was well done. Crowley coming out first and waiting to be picked also added that extra comedy. This was my first time seeing Crowley and his entrance and look was awesome!

After Damo picked Jody Fleisch, Maggot and Callum Newman and Rickey Shane Page chose Dean Allmark, Charlie Dempsey and finally, forced to take Crowley, the teams had a photo op with the champions League music playing.

The match began with each team’s opposite styles facing off. Once Crowley got in, and beaten up, his team left him for dead for a while.

I’d never seen Dempsey before either and he was awesome, really quick and technical ability. After a few high spots from Newman, RSP was about to get the pin when Crowley tagged in and dropkicked him out of the ring, and stole the win. He was then chased off by his team.

Warren Banks Vs Johnny Progress – 2.5⭐

The mood then shifted as the first semi final for the Super Strong Style tournament and Progress World Championship began. The match stakes and star power of Johnny Progress really made this a big match feel.

The match began with a good feeling out process and nice slow build. They kept the fun party feel of the night with Johnny hiding under the ring, leading the crowd to chant “Johnny Missing”.

Sadly the finish fell a bit flat for me, and the two botch a top rope Spanish fly from Johnny to Banks which I think would’ve led into the finish. They got back up and did the spot in the opposite corner. Banks picked up the win shortly after but the momentum was halted.

Gene Munny Vs Chris Ridgeway – 3.5⭐

The second semi final was next, and these are two more guys I’ve not seen before. Gene’s gimmick, I won’t lie, didn’t get it at the start. But as the match progressed I got more and more behind him to win.

Ridgeway’s look is really cool, a proper badass technician. And his kicks are awesome. He worked over Genes padded and taped up knee for the match. Ridgeway then took off the boot and all support on Munny’s knee, putting on a figure four.

Gene had some good comeback moments and played a great baby-face in peril. He had some great near fall kick outs, but after a punt kick to the head, brainbuster then a knee bar locked in from Ridgeway, Gene passed out. And the final will be Chris Ridgeway Vs Warren Banks.

Kanji Vs Giselle Shaw (c) – 2 out of 3 falls Progress Women’s Championship – 3.5⭐

The promo before this match was awesome. Telling the story of Shaw targeting Kanji’s injured arm in their last match. This led into this match with multiple angles and story beats.

The first fall was almost immediate, with Shaw locking in an arm bar on the injured arm for Kanji to tap instantly.

The match then didn’t slow down from here, with Shaw taking most of the offence and Kanji having some nice comeback moments. After Giselle threw Kanji into the chairs (Kanji FLEW!), some massive strikes and a lovely top rope corkscrew followed by a very near fall, Kanji rolled Shaw up for the second fall.

The final fall came after Shaw teased the arm bar again, after taking all the tape and padding off (a theme for the night apparently). Officials and crew rushed to ringside to try to stop her. The distraction and taunting allowed Kanji to put the triangle choke on and tap Giselle Shaw out.

A really great match to crown a new champion, and one of my favourite women’s matches I’ve seen live. I’m not sure why Shaw didn’t just lock in the arm bar with everyone ringside, but it did add some realism to the match.

Spike Trivet Promo

Spike then came out too a very hostile reaction. Chants and Boos echoed around the electric ballroom. He paid the crew to protect him (this was odd but fine) and called out Tom Dawkins.

Dawkins came out, and Spike offered him the proposal that he can still wrestle in Progress, after losing their “Loser leaves Progress – I Quit” Match, but without the Cara Noir gimmick.

Tom Dawkins replied “yeah fine”. This did exactly what it set out to, Spike is a HUGE heel, and it progressed the next story beat for these two.

Lykos Gym Vs Jack Evans & Aramis – 3⭐

I love Lykos Gym, great look, awesome music and very good funny heels. It was also nice seeing Jack Evans live, I always thought he was great in AEW.

This was a good place for this match after the serious promo before, it started with Lykos asking for a dance off. The music began, Evans started dancing and Lykos attacked both him and Aramis. A very fun start which got good heat from the crowd.

The match featured lots of fun high spots and great heel work from both Lykos’. A highlight being Evans jumping off the turnbuckle, onto a lykos who was on Aramis’ shoulders, and jumping off lykos to do a corkscrew on the second lykos on the floor.

Aramis then got both Lykos’ onto his shoulders, did an aeroplane spin into a bomb. Picking up the pin, a very fun high flying match.

Tate Mayfair Vs Anthony Ogogo – 2.5⭐

This match began with Mayfair interrupting Simon Miller, to say Ogogo has no showed. This led to Ogogo’s music to hit and the match followed the format of Mayfair being a coward heel occasionally getting some offence in.

Mayfair hit a huge coast to coast elbow drop on Ogogo who was in the tree of woe. He then continued to work Ogogos left arm, causing him to not hit some moves.

This match’s purpose felt like a way to showcase Ogogo’s moveset and boost his stat power, which it did very well and Mayfair was a near perfect opponent for this.

After Ogogo picked up the win, Mayfair kept talking smack, leading him to get beat up twice more, and the GB and Progress flags placed over him.

Luke Jacobs Vs Axel Tischer – Atlas Championship – 4⭐

This lived up to the Super Strong Style name. These boys slapped and chopped the life out of one another. Another theme from the night was front row chair spots, and we got two in this match. Jacobs threw Axel into two different blocks of chairs.

The two hit some huge power moves on each other and the crowd was hot for it all. They had great sequences together and lovely reversal spots, which led to multiple near falls (which I bought a few of them).

The finish came after Jacobs hit a massive lariat on Axel and got the 3 count. A show of respect after, and Luke Jacobs gets better and better each time I see him I feel.

Warren Banks Vs Chris Ridgeway – Progress World Championship – 4⭐

The final of Super Strong Style 16, and world championship match. There was a big match feel for this one, which elevated after Banks walked out second, stood on the stage and threw his ice pack off his shoulder.

Chris Ridgeway attacked Banks behind his back to start the main event and he kept the momentum for almost the whole match. We got some more chair spots, as the two worked their way to the main stage.

Ridgeway hit a thudding suplex onto Banks on the stage, and just kept working him over. Banks got some brief comeback moments but this felt like a dominating performance.

There was a lovely flurry of kicks from Ridgeway, then a massive slap to Banks face which echoed round the room. At this moment I, and I think most of the crowd, suspected Banks to have a huge comeback to be crowned the new champ.

At one point Ridgeway took his wrist tape off and used it to choke Banks, it was supposed to be out of the refs vision but I’m pretty sure he saw and just didn’t DQ. This was the beginning of the end, as Banks laid on the floor he took 3 huge punt kicks to the head, Chris Ridgeway rolled him over for the pin and got the win.

The crowd was stunned and almost silent for a few seconds, the whole match felt like it was building up to a big baby face comeback for a feel good moment to end the show. This was brilliantly done though and really got over how vicious Ridgeway is.

The post match saw Gene Munny come out on a crutch to embrace Banks, who was still laying in a streamer filled ring. Bringing the show to close on an emotional moment for those two.