A Fans Perspective: 3 days of British Wrestling - Part 1 of 3

By Oliver Newman

Part 1 of 3

A Fans Perspective: 3 days of British Wrestling

After 3 shows in 4 days, I felt it was time to try and get the British Wrestlers the respect and exposure they deserved. I was at Anti Watershed Wrestling on Thursday 25th January, Leicester Pro Wrestling on Friday 26th and Leicester Pro Wrestling on Sunday 28th. Here is my write up of the shows:

Day 1: Anti Watershed Wrestling: 25th January 2007. The Irish Club, Digbeth, Birmingham, England.

LATZ addressed BBS and AWW management: A few audio difficulties made this hard to hear but LATZ basically called out BBS!

BRITISH BORN STEELE v LATZ: BBS of course obliges and with that a good opening match takes place. BBS is one of rising stars on the British independents (having a very good match v El Ligero back in TBW in October), LATZ I have not seen before, but he also looked very capable on this night.

After around 10 minutes of back and forth action, BBS defeated Latz with the exact move that got him the victory in the last show, a sunset powerbomb from the top turnbuckle.

RONIN v STAR MAN MARK CLARKE: This was basically a hard hitting short match, Clarke was basically steamrolled by the bigger man Ronin, having little to no offence.

Ronin looked impressive on this first outing for AWW. That wasn't enough for Ronin though as he attacked the defenceless Clarke after the bell with his version of the splash, adding insult to injury!

NICK KNIGHT unable to appear - DESIRABLE DANNY D addresses the situation: The scheduled match between Nick Knight and Geraden was forced to be cancelled as Nick Knight did not want to "leave the luxury surroundings of his home city, Worcester to come to the gutter known as Digbeth".

Desirable Danny D announced that he was still intent on putting Geraden in his place and had another opponent for him. This was announced as Mad Man Manson.

MAD MAN MANSON v GERADEN: Madman Manson is just that, absolutely mad!

Personally he is becoming a favourite Wrestler of mine, he can wrestle and damn he is entertaining!! Crazy match, where the Ref was being Wrestled and all sorts of comedic antics! Geraden must have wished he stayed at home!! Good comedy match, Geraden tried to compete with Manson but Manson's craziness was just too much. Manson wins with his sit-down slam.

METAL MILITIA (AXEL ADAMS and PURE XTASY) v TOMMY GUNN and WEASEL: The Militia start the match off by attacking Gunn and Weasel from behind!

Metal Militia looked impressive, by singling out Weasel for the most of the match, while Gunn was chomping at the bit to get in the ring. Finally Weasel made the tag, Gunn came in all guns blazing, but was shot down after a short rally and hit with a Doomsday Device by the Militia for the 1,2,3!

LORD GRAHAM THOMAS v A.J. KID IRISH - When you heard resounding chants of 'Graham' around the club you knew something special was about to happen.

Match had a old school v new school feel, with Graham using old school moves like a wristlock, while AJ was trying to use his quickness and agility to out manoeuvre his opponent.

Graham tried every trick in the book, but could not get the better of the young up and comer. Graham finally managed to outwit AJ when he pushed powder in his and the ref’s eyes, but just as victory looked a formality........................... The man called GBH, returns!!

GBH entered the ring and completely wiped out Lord Graham Thomas. GBH then raised the arm of AJ but then nailed home his second shocker of the night by taking him out too! GBH gave AJ a severe beating and put the exclamation point with two devastating chokeslams.

CARNAGE v 'THE SLAPHEAD SUPERMAN' KEEGO WARD - The match I personally paid £5 ticket price to see! Keego Ward's AWW debut, and seconds later the fans are covered by sprayed water, way to ad ear yourself to the crowd Keego! Carnage entered the ring to much fanfare, as he has been a fan favourite after revered performances in 2006 for AWW.

This was the first 'pure' Wrestling match on the card, with both men trading holds and reversals during the early going.

Keego began to grow frustrated at his inability to put away Carnage, and started using unhanded tactics. Carnage was not phased by this though, as he has been known to use such unhanded tactics himself! Keego couldn't outwit Carnage and his AWW debut ended in defeat after Carnage hit the devastating 'Carnagebolt' for the 1,2,3.

HARDCORE RULES: JOHNNY LEE v DAN RYDER - Well that was my £5 well spent time to go home! Well not quite, there was still a main event to go. How to become stars in one night? Give the fans everything you have for the sake of their entertainment! I'm not sure how I can do this match justice, but wow it was incredible!

The match started out much like the previous match with both men battling for the pinfall, with short and quick pinfall attempts, during this exchange Ryder gets tied up in the ropes, oh it is a Hardcore match!

From this moment the match turned into a full out war! Lee attacked Ryder with everything from a Cookie Sheet to a Steel Chair taking the action around the ringside area. Ryder took a vicious beating (at one point) being swung headfirst into the ringpost! The thud from that echoed around the building! Ryder somehow came back into the contest and had Lee on the backfoot, until he tried a piledriver, this was reversed into a back body drop on the floor!

The match continues get bloodier and more gruesome, Ryder tries in vain to make yet another comeback, but that Ringpost shot earlier in the match has him punch drunk. Lee sees this and takes Ryder to the entrance stage, from here he sets up a piledriver (At least that is what the fans think!). Lee jumps with Dan in the Canadian Destroyer off the Entrance ramp through a Table! This has to be seen to be believed! The match gracefully ends, with the fans chanting 'Holy Shit' as the pinfall takes place.

Final Thoughts:

My first taste of Anti Watershed Wrestling and wow what a great experience! I paid my £5 to see Carnage v Keego Ward, but for that £5 I got see Madman Manson entertain like only he can, up and comer BBS and two relative unknowns (Dan Ryder v Johnny Lee) take my Match of The Year for 2007 thus far! I'll be back Feb 15th, my question is will you?

Thank you all for reading I hope your experience was most enjoyable, feel free to leave comments here, I'm on myspace: www.myspace.com/brummieol where you can message me or you can email me at a_fans_perspective@hotmail.co.uk.

Oliver Newman
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