Tag Archives: Warren Banks

Colosseum Wrestling – 16/07/2022 – 2.5⭐

Colosseum’s inaugural show! It opened up with the principles and rules of the new promotion, laying out there’ll be no weapons or closed fists, and a family show for everyone.

The whole night was great, I saw some wrestlers for the first time and I think there’s lots of potential for this company. Story beats were set up and the actual production of videos and promos was high.

Sadly, it was a very long show, and the venue was incredibly hot and eventually sweaty, but those are the only real negatives.

Shreddy Vs Iestyn Rees – 2⭐

The opening match was two beefy boys trying to over power each other, and it was great. It wasn’t the smoothest match but it didn’t need to be.

Rees took the majority of the offence, but the crowd was hot for ‘the daddy’ shreddy, who shouted my new favourite catchphrase of “ready, shreddy, go”.

After hitting big powering slams and shoulder blocks, Shreddy got the win with a big TKO. A fun match to start the night and get the crowd worked up.

Harley Hudson Vs L A Taylor – 2⭐

A proper David and Goliath set up, but this match was made to put Taylor over, and it worked. The story told was Taylor was too big for Hudson to move or hit any power moves on.

Hudson sold well, and had a nice combination of moves ending with a knee drop while Taylor hung on the middle rope. But when Hudson tried to drag Taylor in, she couldn’t budge her.

Taylor got some more offence and picked up the win. Setting up L A to be one of the main heels for the new promotion. I can also see Hudson going on a babyface run to overcome the odds.

Doug Williams & Joel Redman Vs Leyton Buzzard & Theo Doros – 3⭐

First time seeing Joel Redman, I love him. Great look and great moveset. It’s also always great to see Doug wrestle. The heels were the perfect match up to get beaten up here too.

There were lots of great technical moves and wrestling. The faces started with lots of offence and then Redman got worked over to build to Doug’s hot tag.

The match broke down with everyone in the ring. Williams took buzzard out and Redman hit a diving knee on Doros to get the win.

Jim Diehard Vs Simon Miller – 2.5⭐

Simon freaking miller, just loves professional wrestling. He came out with so much energy and I love it. Diehard, is a UNIT.

Throughout the match, Miller teased the body slam but wasn’t able to pull it off. Diehard was on the attack and Miller managed to counter and get some offence in, until someone with a fur coat came out with a mic. I didn’t recognise him or catch his name, but neither did a lot of the crowd.

Miller eventually hits the power slam but another distraction allows Diehard to hit a world’s strongest slam style move and pick up the win.

After there was a 2 on 1 beat down, which allowed Martin Kirby to come out for the save, receiving a good pop. The attack then went on maybe a minute too long for me, but a tag match was set up for the next show.

Regina Rosendahl Vs Ronnie Knocks Vs Kira Chimera – 2.5⭐

The layout to this match was great, and different from the standard triple threat style of having one on one for most of it.

The highlight of the match for me was when the three of them stood in the middle and just traded slaps and strikes with each other.

Then it got weird. Kira hit a stunner and spine buster on knocks, and went to pin her. Regina threw Kira off and pinned Knocks herself. Regina was announced winner, Kira’s music played.

The match then just continued, as it was an elimination, and this hurt the overall match. Chimera then hits a knee strike and gets the win. My annoyance with this isnt the music or announcement botches, but why did Regina steal the pin if it’s an elimination match. To me it doesn’t make much logical sense, but just to create heel heat.

Leslie beslington Promo

After the interval, someone in a white suit and shades came out to cut a promo, he said his name was Leslie Beslington (I think) and her was an investor.

He was okay on the mic, had some nice moments but too much pop culture Jake Paul heel heat. This could’ve been cut to 2 mins and get all the important story across.

Levi Muir Vs KM Lane Vs Nico Angela – 2.5⭐

Another triple threat elimination, and getting this out the way, another stolen pin to eliminate the first wrestler. To me it doesn’t make sense, but other than that this was a good match.

I love Levi’s look, and he absolutely killed Nico with an Irish whip into the corner. KM’s hair was also superb, but it wasn’t enough to survive as Nico hit a fireman’s carry/one wing angel move. Levi then threw Nico away to get the first elimination.

After Nico missed with a shooting star, Levi hit a huge suplex to gain a very near fall. One more move was able to put Nico away and Levi got the win, for Leslie to come back out and, give his endorsement I think.

The 87 Vs Kings of the North – 3.5⭐

For me, match of the night. Alexander Roth has so much charisma, almost Big E levels. This match had lots of time, and allowed all 4 men to showcase themselves.

Roth had some great looking superkicks, and the King of the North worked over the faces well, splitting the ring in half. Leading up to Johnson’s hot tag which ruled.

After Roth kicked out of a big cutter, it looked as if the King’s of the North were going to hit a finishing move, before Johnson intervened and Roth rolled up Bonesaw for the win.

Charlie Morgan Vs Aliss Ink – 3⭐

These girls beat the crap out of each other. The match started with a massive SUPERKICK from Morgan, busting Ink’s mouth open.

From then on it was huge strikes after huge strikes, both these girls were awesome. However, I feel the match was rushed or either cut short due to the show over running.

Just as I felt it was building to the 3rd act of the match, Ink hit a meteora on Morgan and got the 3 count out of nowhere. I personally think Morgan should’ve won and you could build too a Morgan Vs L A Taylor match for a title down the line.

Warren Banks Vs Sheikh El Sham – 3⭐

This match was all about establishing Sham as the big heel in the new promotion. From his music and presentation, to him dominating the match he felt like the star.

Nadia Sapphire came out as Shams manager, and yelled throughout the match (gaining good heat but was very close to go away heat).

It had a slow build, with Sham working Banks’ left leg, and putting in multiple rest holds to anger the crowd more. This led to some good back and forth between the two, and Sham had some very fun sells, shaking in pain.

The end came with a ref bump, and Banks getting a visual pin. Nadia then came in to hit a low blow, allowing Sham to do a very close copy of Roman Reigns “oooo ahhh” and hitting a spear to win. A good main event with clear direction for the future.

Sadly, after the match Banks got a microphone and said he had a serious shoulder injury and would be out for some time to get it healed up. Hopefully he gets a speedy recovery and is back in the ring soon.

Purpose Wrestling – March of the Dogs 08/07/22 – 2.5⭐

Back in the library! This was a fun show with multiple comedy moments, a title unveiling and one of my new favourite wrestlers in Bullit.

The 87 Vs East City Sovereigns – 2.5⭐

The opening match was a great way to get the crowd involved and set the pace for the night. The East City Sovereigns came out to a lot of boos and worked them from then on.

The two teams had a good tag match, sharing the offence nearly 50/50. ECS had some good heel comedy moments with the 87 looking the stronger and more dominant team. The highlight of the match for me was a huge jumping knee from Banks!

The finish came after some chasing and a distraction for ECS to hit water mist and a roll up for the win.

Rob Lias Vs David Francisco – 2⭐

Lias cut a promo before the match, giving it some heat, calling Francisco out for being selfish about his promotion.

The match was mainly David getting worked over and Rob taking the majority of the offence, sandwich with some power strikes Francisco gave out at the start and end of the match.

Francisco locked in a submission and Rob taped out, a good match that kept the crowd into the show.

The Super Chapman Bros. Vs The 0121 – 2.5⭐

After Deriss’ entrance rap, there was a good comedy bit where mad Kurt insisted on rapping better. To his credit, Mad Kurt wasn’t awful at it.

The match began and it was heavy on comedy spots, the 0121 took most the offence and no sold a lot of the Chapman’s soft strikes. At one point Deriss was chased off leaving Moloney to take them both on, and doing so. Deriss returned with water and a sandwich.

Towards the end Mad Kurt hit a flurry of attacks which was followed up by a huge Drilla from Dan Moloney to get the win. A fun match, but in my opinion one that went maybe 5 mins too long. Also, I love Dan Moloney, but think he works much better as a heel, but that’s just me.

Oli Peace & Bullit Vs Alexander & Taylor – 3⭐

This was my first time seeing everyone in this match, and it was my personal match of the night. I love Bullit! Alexander and Taylor I think were both great babyfaces in peril, and Peace was a fun Heel hiding behind his monster.

This for me put over Peace as a new heel force to be reckoned with, behind the muscle of Bullit. Alexander and Taylor both played their part great, with some nice comeback moments and fight backs.

But Bullit was too strong, and frequently threw one of the faces into the corner, asking for the other to be tagged in. Then when I couldn’t love him more, he hit a huge spine buster. Bullit got the win with a big powerbomb.

Ava White Vs Amira – 2.5⭐

Amira finally got booked, and she was great. In full Alex Windsor cosplay, she got the whole crowd behind her. For White to attack straight away and get a very very close pinfall (which I fully bought).

Ava White worked the majority of the match, working slowly and methodically. Amira had a good comeback moment, hitting some good moves on the outside and getting pumped up.

The end came very quickly though, White just pinned her all of a sudden. I think this could have been a great match if there was more of a 3rd act to it, especially after the hot start.

Destination Everywhere Vs Breaks & Bryant – 3⭐

The main event was great, and everyone came out better than going in, with the offence being shared pretty evenly throughout the match.

With multiple high spots throughout the match, one including a suicide dive into the recycling bin, it was mainly the final few minutes that had the main story beat.

Mills and Breaks will challenge for the first Purpose Championship next month, and Mills couldn’t pin Breaks. They wiped Nino out after a tombstone on the outside with Oku’s top rope dive.

When it was practically 2 on 1, Breaks was hit with move after move, and kept kicking out. Until he managed to roll Connor Mills up, Nino held Oku and the babyfaces won.

After the match, the handsome bastards tag team ran down to attack the faces, Connor unveiled the new belt and posed with it. The attack continued for the locker room to empty and save Breaks and Nino.

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.