We started off with a big surprise as the usual colour commentator (Metrosexual Matt Taylor) couldn't be there so making his return to the announce table was former colour commentator (and one of my heroes, but don't tell him that) G-Man. The DVD will be worth it just to hear his banter with Mark Adams, trust me on that one.
We started the show with T-Bone defeating Josh Bodom in a really good match. A pleasant surprise as this one went at least 15 minutes, zero problem with that as it allowed the story to flow. Both men's offense looked crisp and fluid and T Bones interaction with the crowd was just brilliant, it's the part of his game that has improved the most this year. And WHAT A FINISH! You may know that I LOVE the dragon suplex, it's in my top 3 favourite wrestling moves, so imagine how much I popped for a SUPER DRAGON SUPLEX, Josh doing a full rotation in mid air and came down on his face!! BUT THAT WASN'T ENOUGH FOR T-BONE, he put Josh on the top turnbuckle and hit a draping DDT to pick up the 3.
Next up was Justin Price was out to perform some Christmas songs complete with his sister Melanie Price and her charges The Models. Now I've loved The Models since the first time I've seen them but in all their Futureshock matches that I've seen they have wrestled as heels. To see them come out as faces was very very odd. Especially as there was no rhyme or reason for it. Over at Infinite Promotions the reaction for them is utterly deafening. The Models do get cheered by a few fans at Futureshock but not in nearly the same numbers and the fact that they have a character with them like Justin Price who is surely designed to get MEGA HEAT from any member of the audience who, like me, cannot abide Justin Beiber, it just felt weird. Someone was always going to interrupt the concert and it was The Blackpool Blondes who had the honour. 2 of my favourite tag teams in the ring would normally make me a happy chappy, here though, the match just didn't really do it for me. James Drake scored the win with a roll up.
The third match of the evening saw the vacant Futureshock Woman's Title on the line as Scottish powerhouse Viper made her third Futureshock appearance on the year against former merchandise seller Danielle Hunter. The woman's title having been vacated on the last Futureshock show having not been defended for several months. On my predictions vid I said I expected a third or even a fourth person to be added to the match and naturally I couldn't have been more wrong as the match was a straight up one on one match.........for the most part! Danielle performed the splits as part of her entrance, something that I'm sure sent several naughty thoughts running through the minds of the male members of the audience! Considering this was her first ever match Danielle performed admirably, she didn't look at all nervous but I get the impression that something went wrong with her attire as she was constantly adjusting her pants which was a touch off putting. My favourite part of the match was a great little sequence where both girls applied strangle surfboard stretches, both ladies were able to counter the others hold into one of their own, I've never seen that before and it was truly joyous to watch. Viper had the match won with a vicious Viper Driver but Xander Cooper and Ryan Hendrix of The Ascension came out to distract the referee and that allowed Don Meacho to come out and hit Viper with a massive lariat enabling Ms Hunter to pick up a very unpopular win.
The last match before the intermission was a highly anticipated match between 2 of the best technical wrestlers our isles have to offer at the moment in Jack Gallagher and Noam Dar. Proving that I just shouldn't bother with predictions I said that I expected this match to be a deadly serious wrestling match, and while it did have some of the nicest, crispest technical wrestling that I've seen in a long time it also featured shenanigans a plenty. Both men looked like they were loving it and the crowd, which could so easily given up on a technical match, clung to every moment. Dar worked the leg to set up his "Champagne Super Knee Bar" finisher while Gallagher worked the arm to set up his cross armbreaker. Both men got their finisher of choice but neither were able to get the win with it, Jack resorting to a roll up to get the win. I didn't like the finish as I would have preferred a submission win but it made sense and was a truly brilliant match.
After a short intermission we got a three team match for the Futureshock tag team title pitting new champions Dave Rayne and The Nordic Warrior against The Wristlock Rovers and the team of Noah & Dan Evans. THIS was a match that I expected to be full of shenanigans. And despite my friend Andy's best efforts (Rayne made a classic "Your mum" joke to which Andy replied "you can have her she's dead" utterly killing the mood) there were plenty in the early goings with DDL confusing Warrior by explaining the offside rule to him, and the wonderful Noah singing "Silent Night" as he was on the offense. Things took a shocking turn of events when The Wristlock Rovers were pinned by Noah, at no point in the run up to the match was it announced as an elimination match so we thought there was new champions. The ring announcer said that The Rovers had been eliminated so the match continued. After that the match was a standard tag match with Dave Rayne as your tweener in peril until he could get the hot tag (and that feels weird to write that) to Nordic Warrior who cleaned house before the champions could hit a nice double back cracker to get the win.
Next up was my favourite match of the evening, which was a big surprise as I wasn't looking forward to it that much when it was announced. In it Sparx, Si Valour and Joe Vega defeated Ascension members Xander Cooper, Ryan Hendrix and Don Meacho in a wild and crazy match featuring Si Valour dressed as Santa Claus and giving out presents to the kids until Meacho came out and turning the jolly atmosphere into one closer to a UFC fight with some of the stiffest action I've ever seen. I must give high praise to Sparx here as he looked brilliant. Vega hit a great dive to the outside landing on friend and foe alike to a big roar from the crowd but an even bigger roar erupted when Viper came out wanting revenge from both Meacho AND Danielle Hunter who was out with her Ascension stablemates with her new gold proudly around her waist. A Viper Driver for the pair of them was just magical as the crowd roared its approval. Vega gained a popular victory after a perfect tornado DDT.
After failing to win another raffle, bringing my total raffle prizes for the year to ZERO, it was time for our main event as Andy Wild challenged new Futureshock champion Zach Gibson. I've seen Wild twice in the 2 years I've following British Wrestling and both times he looked better than the last. Here he was a revelation as an arrogant heel, flipping the bird to the fans and hitting his finishing move (a modified Pedigree) before the bell had rung. I say he flipped the bird to the fans he flipped a few fans then flipped it at me twice, must watch my vids! A Wild (Ha!) brawl round the building started the match. When the action returned to the ring it was fast paced and never ever dull, especially when you receive a text message, read it, then look up to find Gibson charging at you to do one of his trademark suicide dives, it was a close thing but I got out of the way, my chair wasn't so fortunate! The result of the match was never in doubt though and a diamond drill (lungblower off the top rope) and the Liver Driver (modified brainbuster) got the win for Gibson.
All in all this was one of my favourite shows of the year, 4 of the 6 matches were VERY good and there was really only the one match that I didn't like and to be honest I think that's more me nitpicking than anything else. It was certainly the best of the 3 Underground shows and a strong contender for show of the year.
I want to add one more thing before I finish and that there was a couple of drunk guys in the row in front of me who thought it would be hilarious to throw stuff into the ring, how on earth they were not throw out is beyond me and I cannot think of anything more disrespectful to do while a match is going on. People like this are very rare in my experience but they make wrestling fans look like hooligans when they do things like that.
As always if you've enjoyed my thoughts I review all kinds of wrestling over on my YouTube channel which can be found at www.youtube.com/themarcrpears0n
Thank you for reading
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