Promotion:
Preston City Wrestling
Location:
Preston, Lancashire, England.
Venue: Rumes
Nightclub
After a long
journey all the way from Aberystwyth, I arrived in sunny Preston
ahead of a stacked card of professional wrestling from Preston City
Wrestling. With a number of international stars on the card, as well
as some of the biggest names on the British wrestling scene, could
PCW Final Fight live up to the hype?
VIP Meet and Greet
All the advertised
international talents were involved in this, with the exception of
PWG's Brian Cage, who apparently missed his flight and wouldn't be
involved on the show. Ultimo Dragon was late arriving, and early
leaving, with his translator staying to flog some of his merchandise,
which was a bit of a shame, especially as it meant most people had to
start queuing again for Dragon. Everyone else however was very easy
to talk to, even when the line was being pushed along by various PCW
staff. After a signed photo from each talent, as well as Davey
Richards and Michael Elgin signing copies of ROH All Star
Extravaganza and Manhatten Mayhem, as well as a chat about LuFisto's
hatred for WWE wrestler The Miz, it was a very enjoyable experience
and great to get to meet talent that I've been watching for years. It
was a shame, however, that only one photographer was on hand to take
photos, and with him looking so busy with other people, I decided not
to bother him and went without any pictures.
Tag Team Match
El Ligero & Martin
Kirby
Versus
Dean Allmark &
Ultimo Dragon
We were straight
out of the gates with our opening contest, as El Ligero and Martin
Kirby were first out for their bout with Dean Allmark and the
well-travelled veteran Ultimo Dragon, who is most often seen
wrestling for Michonoku Pro Wrestling these days. With the crowd
nicely split between the two teams, there was some nice action on
display here, with the bout keep a quick pace throughout, which
really got the crowd warmed up nicely. The build up to a flurry of
action from Dragon was exciting and the best action that Dragon
offered in the bout, with on occasion there seeming to be a
miscommunication between Dragon and his opponents, which did end up
hurting the bout in the closing stages. Allmark and Dragon went on to
pick up the victory, with Dragon getting the pin on Kirby, in what
felt like a slightly flat finish. Overall, I was a little
disappointed by this bout, as despite some good exchanges involving
Allmark, Ligero and Kirby, the highly anticipated confrontation
between Ligero and Dragon ended up falling short of expectations.
Winners: DEAN ALLMARK & ULTIMO
DRAGON
PCW Crusierweight
Championship Match
LuFisto
Versus
April Davids ©
Before
the match started LuFisto was out to talk trash about her opponent
for the night and listing a number of her own achievements, as well
as introducing her manager, a doll called Pegaboo. Cruiserweight
Champion April Davids came out to confront LuFisto, with the words
“You're full of shite, you are”, to a nice pop for the crowd and
the bout was under way.
I found
this to be an enjoyable bout, with both women bringing a hard hitting
style and intensity, that mainstream women's wrestling lacks. LuFisto
did a great job of working the crowd and managed to get some quite
considerable heat, which is commendable considering the pop she got
when entering the club. This wasn't a pretty contest, far from it,
with both LuFisto and Davids bringing everything they had in an all
out brawl of a bout. Even usually technical moves like German
Suplexes were given an extra edge, being delivered with a viciousness
that would eventually lead to Davids picking up the victory. If you
were expecting a catch as catch can classic, you would have come away
disappointed. A handshake between the two made sure that there were
no hard feelings between the two, but it'd be great to see the two go
at it again under No Disqualification rules.
Winner and still PCW
Cruiserweight Champion: APRIL DAVIDS
Davey Richards
vs.
Robbie Dynamite
This
was originally scheduled to be Davey Richards taking on Dave Mastiff,
but with Mastiff suffering an injured hand, Robbie Dynamite, most
regularly seen at All Star Wrestling, was drafted in to make his PCW
debut. Admittedly, this one was very different from what many had
expected from a Richards vs. Mastiff contest, but was still an
enjoyable encounter. Richards spent a lot of the match in control,
with the crowd lapping it up, as Richards lead the crowd through a
series of his signatures moves and holds. At times the two struggled
to click with the dynamic never really becoming clear, but there some
nice sequences and the fans adoration for Richards meant that it
didn't really matter. The finish was certainly the strongest section
of the match, with Dynamite spending a long time in the Ankle Lock
before eventually tapping out to give Richards the submission
victory. It makes sense to give Richards the W here, with his match
against Dave Mastiff now re-scheduled for October 31st's Fright
Night.
Winner: DAVEY RICHARDS
Catwalk Contest
Danny Hope
vs.
Mad Man Manson
One
word describes this skit, FUN! It's difficult to really critique a
Catwalk Contest, with Hope and Manson performing a series of
ridiculous dances, and the crowd going crazy for it. If you weren't
lucky enough to be in the club, then you'll probably thinking of
numerous WWE skits with similar names involving the likes of The
Great Khali and The Miz, but the major difference here was that Hope
and Manson were both over with the crowd. The judges of the contest
were from the Sci Fi Studios youtube series, and I thought their
parts sort of dragged out a little bit, and when Manson and Hope
united to take out those guys with stereo Superkicks and a 3D, I was
just happy that the Sci Fi guys were no longer part of the show. I'm
not sure if that was how I was supposed to feel, which is never good,
luckily Hope and Manson were comedy gold throughout, if they aren't
paired
Winner: NO CONTEST
During
the intermission, apparently the ring broke! I'm not quite sure what
happened, maybe it was Hope and Manson foxtrotting a little to hard,
but they spent a good time putting the ring back together. Both
Manson and T-Bone were out to fix the ring, alongside the PCW crew.
Whilst some fans might have been disappointed and not being able to
get their photo op with Manson and Hope during intermission, there
can't have been many who would have put that over the rest of the
show continuing. A quick cheer for the crew, specifically, Mad Man
Manson and the show was back on the road.
This
had been advertised as simply Lionheart's Championship Address,
although pretty much everyone in attendance wasn't expecting it to go
without incident, this is pro wrestling after all and with Doug
Williams and Noam Dar both sending out interesting tweets in the lead
up to the show, it was almost certain that we'd some form of
shenanigans here.
True to
form several seconds into Lionheart's “Championship Address”
speech, amidst chants of “You Screwed Doug”, Noam Dar made his
presence known coming out stake his claim to the PCW Championship,
saying that if it wasn't for Dar's injury Lionheart wouldn't have
been able to cash in on Doug Williams at Too Good To Be Two. Williams
was quick to come out to reply to Dar, reminding him that he was
still not medically cleared to wrestle, before announcing he wanted
his rematch with Lionheart for the title tonight. After some back and
forth with PCW Owner Steve Fludder, Lionheart vs. Doug Williams was
booked, with Dar being forced to go to the back. I thought this
segment was really strong and made the PCW Championship feel like
something that was worth fighting for, due to the passion that each
guy brought to their promo.
PCW Championship Match
Lionheart
vs.
Doug Williams
The
Williams/Lionheart title match was a lot more story based than it was
on the actual wrestling, therefore it wasn't your typical Doug
Williams encounter. It was easy to get into because of the
England/Scotland divide in the crowd, but until the closing stages it
felt a bit like Williams and Lionheart were going through the motions
at times. Once, the finish began to come into sight though things did
begin to heat up, with some good storyline advancement seeing Noam
Dar stopping Williams from hitting Lionheart with the title belt, and
causing the eventual distraction that allowed Lionheart to pick up a
victory with Frog Splash. It was a decent bout, but felt more like a
building block for things to come, which made it difficult to really
get my teeth into.
Winner and Still PCW
Champion: LIONHEART
PCW Tag Team
Championship Match
Team Single
(T-Bone & Rampage
Brown)
Versus
Michael Elgin &
Davey Richards
With
Davey Richards stepping for Elgin's original partner Brian Cage, this
bout was about to steal the show. For me, this match stole the show
with a great mixture of technical wrestling, comedy, crowd
interaction and shenanigans that kept the crowd hooked from bell to
bell. Numerous spots were thrown into the mix, with Elgin's usual
delayed vertical suplex being attempted by every man (except Richards
who gave up and went for a submission instead) as well as an
impressive sequence that saw Richards manage to lock both T-Bone and
Brown in the ankle lock. The finish saw fellow Team Single member
Bubblegum enter the fray, during a series of near falls, and manage
to clatter Elgin with the PCW Tag Title belt, allowing for a roll up
victory for Team Single. A classic finish that generate a solid
amount of heat that would build into the next contest. This match
get's Match of the Night from me.
Winners and Still PCW Tag
Team Champions: TEAM SINGLE
Bubblegum
with Team Single
vs.
The Pope
With Bubblegum
having a few words to say about his opponent prior to the start of
the bout, garnering some great heat from the PCW faithful, it was
clear who the fan favourite was in this one, former WWE and TNA
wrestler Elijah Burke or D'Angelo Dinero, going simply by The Pope
this time round. In all honesty this bout was more style than
substance, but that didn't stop it from being a lot of fun to watch,
with old school distraction tactics from Team Single building up
nicely to Michael Elgin and Davey Richards coming out to make the
save for Pope, leading to Pope picking up the victory with the Elijah
Express. The crowd made this bout for me, it was an entertaining bout
but didn't really have that spark that could've made it anything
specicial.
Winner: THE POPE
It was then time
for the raffle! Everyone loves a raffle! With Cruiserweight Champion
April Davids on hand to help out Ring Announcer Joanna Rose, those
with tickets waited to see if they had won a prize, those without
decided to top up their glasses at the bar. But this wasn't any
raffle, with Davids makings the draw for second prize, Dave Rayne
made a surprise appearance attacking Davids with a broom. Rayne went
on to challenge Davids to a “Fans Bring the Household Objects”
match on October 31st at Fright Night with the
Cruiserweight Championship on the line. I thought this was clever way
to liven up a tired idea of a raffle and those that weren't at the
bar loved every second. It would've been nice to LuFisto come back
out to make the save, although it was right to keep the focus on the
PCW regulars here.
Kris Travis
vs.
Joey Hayes
This
probably wouldn't have been most people's first choice as a main
event, but Travis and Hayes pulled it off very well. There was a lot
for everyone to enjoy in this one, but a brawl around the club, that
I'm sure will look fantastic on the Blu Ray and looked great if you
happened to be over that side of the club, but from where I was
sitting you couldn't really see anything, which isn't what you expect
when paying for a front row ticket. The rest of the bout chucked a
bucket load of main event cliches into the mix, with the referee
getting knocked down and some back and forth with Travis' Money in
the Bank briefcase, which built up nicely to the referee waking up to
stop Travis hitting Hayes with the briefcase, allowing Hayes to hit a
low blow, followed by a Roll Up for great false finish. It was Hayes' Crossface that would eventually get the submission victory, rounding off a strong
contest between two top talents that deserved to be main event,
setting up nicely to a Ladder match between the two on October 31st.
Winner: JOEY HAYES
Overall,
I thought Final Fight was an entertaining evening of wrestling, with
a good mixture of British and Imported talent that allowed newer
viewers of PCW, like myself, an easy way into the current storylines
that the promotion is running. I enjoyed the more adult atmosphere
the promotion has, which allows them to play around with the face and
heel dynamic a lot and not insult the intelligence of it's audience.
Whilst the wrestling wasn't always fantastic, the storyline based
action and crowd involvement made this show easy to enjoy. I'll
hopefully be able to catch another PCW show sometime next year.
Quick Results
Tag Team Match
Ultimo Dragon & Dean Allmark defeated El Ligero & Martin Kirby via Pinfall
Cruiserweight Championship Match
April Davids (C) defeated LuFisto via Pinfall
Davey Richards defeated Robbie Dynamite via Submission
Catwalk Contest
Mad Man Manson vs. Danny Hope went to a No Contest
PCW Championship Match
Lionheart defeated Doug Williams via Pinfall
PCW Tag Team Championship Match
Team Single defeated Michael Elgin & Davey Richards via Pinfall
The Pope defeated Bubblegum via Pinfall
Joey Hayes defeated Kris Travis via Pinfall
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