NXT TakeOver: New Orleans Preview

On 7th April, NXT is set to take over the Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LO, as part of the WWE's Wrestlemania weekend, however, in a confusing reversal of situations, the pre-Mania TakeOver is more like NXT's SummerSlam than it is their WrestleMania, their WrestleMania, of course, being the annual Brooklyn show, which takes place the day before Summerslam. Anyway, we here at ATPW sure do love our previews, so here's one for this show, think of it like a pre-show but with no Peter Rosenberg so much better. Talking of pre-shows, why not tune in for the KickOff at Midnight (if you're in America, please check your local listings) with an all-star panel including NFL All-Pro Punter Pat McAfee (whatever that means) giving us all the chat and discussion required for an hour before the actual show at 1am (once again, check your listings, US). Till then, why not enjoy this preview with the sounds of our themes for this show courtesy of New Orleans own, Cane Hill...

NXT North American Championship Ladder Match:     EC3 vs Adam Cole Velveteen Dream vs Ricochet vs Lars Sullivan vs Killian Dain

I would imagine there's a strong chance this match opens the show as its a match with little build, little in the way of emotional attachment but with six men and a whole load of ladders set to be in the ring, has the potential to set the stage with some good and crazy action. This match, and indeed, title, have been mostly made to accommodate the expanding ranks of the NXT Men's Single's division making it so that everyone going after one title is getting ridiculous. What about the United Kingdom Championship I hear you ask, surely that title could have been expanded in its focus in order to accommodate such a position? Well, the answer is fuck off, we don't need your kind of logic around here. Also, with UK Champion Pete Dunne in the Tag Title match later, it's not like they could have a non-full time talent working double duty. Still, what works well here is that there is no way to predict which of these six men will be taking the title with a strong mix of indie darlings like the debuting EC3 & Ricochet through to Velveteen Dream & Lars Sullivan, two men who've cut their teeth here in NXT and really made themselves cornerstones of their division. 

What to expect from this one is an interesting thought as beyond Ricochet, we don't really have many flippy boys in this so traditional WWE ladder match booking would suggest he'll do the really cool spot that everyone talks about but not win it, Dain & Sullivan still feel like even after this week's NXT, they still have some unresolved issues so likelihood is, the feuding between those two might distract them from climbing that ladder which leaves Cole who might not even be in the match as he might be helping O'Reilly defend the tag-team titles, Dream who is just wonderful in every way & EC3, a man who by the end of the night, everyone will realise he is what Bobby Roode pretended to be, if they don't know, now they'll know. This is my long-winded way of saying I don't know, spoiler alert though, it's probably going to be at least a little bit good.

NXT Tag Team Championship & Dusty Classic Cup: Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) (c) vs Strong x Bitter & Authors of Pain

You may notice that Adam Cole is in the photo above as well. This is because over the past month/s, NXT has been running the third Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic, an eight-team tournament for the prestigious title, previously won by Finn Balor & Samoa Joe and Authors of Pain, but also a shot at the Tag-Team Championships. On the one side of the finals, we had the previous winners Authors of Pain who smashed through TM-61 and Street Profits to get here and on the other side, Pete Dunne and Roderick Strong, a make-shift team formed after Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) were forced to bow out when Tyler aggravated an angle injury while at Brighton's Riptide Wrestling, who fought past Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan and SAnitY to make it here. With poor Bobby Fish out on injury, Kyle O'Reilly and Cole decided to crash the final and cause a double disqualification, no winners, no challengers, smart eh? so O'Reilly was given three choices: wrestle alone, Cole does double-duty or Cole drops out of the Ladder Match.

Unsurprisingly, it seems he's chosen to work double duty, so one of the major factors of this match in play is card order as Cole or Cole & O'Reilly are at a significant disadvantage depending on which match goes on last of the two, though if this is the first of the two, it puts all three teams on a roughly equal-footing as Undisputed Era have beaten Authors of Pain before (twice if you count War Games), Authors of Pain have won tag gold, dusty cups and tag three-way dances before and the team we here like to call Strong x Bitter have tag-team success written through their DNA with former PROGRESS, Ring of Honor & PWG reigns between them, a UK title still in their team's grasp and the knowledge that the first Dusty Classic was won by a makeshift team like them. If it's not clear, as a Midlands boy myself, I'm calling a win for Strong x Bitter and rooting for them but mostly, I'm just looking forward to watching some good, solid tag action. Expect lots of big strikes, big moves and at one point, if we're lucky, Pete Dunne will punch Adam Cole out of the air. Won't that be a treat?

NXT Women's Championship: Ember Moon (c) vs Shayna Baszler

If you're getting a sense of deja vu, yes, we did only recently see this match at the last TakeOver and also once more in between, as well as frequent attacks on each other. The dispute between these revolves around Baszler thinking Moon isn't fit to lead as she couldn't defeat Asuka, she couldn't hit the Eclipse on Baszler who kept her grounded having to use a roll-up to get victory and when Baszler was given another match, she won but via disqualification after an angry Kairi Sane returned and attacked her, only for Baszler to make reasonably easy work of Sane. Much like last time, expect this match to come down to a David-Goliath type match-up with Moon once again seeking that Eclipse top-rope stunner while Baszler will want to lock in and preferably never let go of the Kirifuda Clutch. As to whom shall walk out of that arena with the title, it's hard to call, it feels like Ember is only ever one Eclipse away from retaining but especially with her friend Ronda Rousey making her pro-wres debut the next night, it seems like maybe Baszler is being set up to take the title and run with it for a while, especially as there's still some unsolved animosity between Baszler, Sane and Dakota Kai to sort out if Moon were to make the move Main Roster-wards...

Unsanctioned Match: Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa

This has been a long time coming, almost a year in fact. Let me take you back to Chicago as after they'd just lost their last shot at the NXT Tag Team Titles, Ciampa would turn viciously on Gargano, knowing that he was going to be out for a while on injury time, he wanted to make a statement before he did, one that for a long time, broke Gargano, forcing him to try and exorcise the monkey on his back that is Ciampa because that's what you do to monkey. Eventually Gargano started winning again, earning a shot at the NXT title but even then, wasn't quite enough and just as he was at his lowest, having lost his shot, there was Ciampa again because exorcising doesn't work on back monkeys, especially when they get involved in your Title vs Career rematch and force you to lose your job. It's at this point, the waters get muddied as Ciampa spent a few weeks struggling to get a word in edgeways as he simultaneously continued to be the best heel in NXT and also it's greatest hero for standing up to the awful sturmundrang of the NXT audience till he got tired of their caterwauling and Gargano's hounding of him and agreed to a match, unsanctioned of course because let's not forget, Gargano is fired but if he wins, he gets his job back, loses, he's gone forever.

There's almost too much history behind this match to cover but regardless, this is going to be one of the most emotional matches of the weekend, just as much, maybe more important to the wrestling scene as a whole than Kenny Omega vs Cody as every single second has the entire heart of NXT hanging in the balance, this is for something more important than the actual title, this is a match for the philosophical centre of the developmental brand, is this a place of good or evil? Also, most importantly, can this top Gargano v Almas because that shit was tight? As it's unsanctioned, expect this one to be more of a brawl than a technical classic. Ultimately, this seems like it's Gargano's match to win as he needs his job and assuming they get enough time for this, it's unlikely Ciampa looks any weaker in loss, especially coming back from a lengthy spell on the injured list but never count out the Sicilian psychopath as he might well pull it out of the bag, setting up his own chance at going after that big slice of NXT gold (and who amongst us doesn't see money in Black v Ciampa?) while Gargano, surely the bright post-mania lights of RAW or Smackdown could be a' callin'.

NXT Championship: Andrade Almas (c) vs Aleister Black

Cast your mind back to NXT TakeOver: Orlando last year, Tommy End, now going by the name Aleister Black made his official NXT debut (having competed against Neville at the United Kingdom Championship tournament) against Andrade 'Cien' Almas. It was a well-fought match but in the end, Black came out on top with reasonable ease. That was, however, a different Almas, that was Almas before he met Zelina Vega, that was Almas before his five-star classic with Johnny Gargano, that was the Almas that I usually dismissed by just calling him a 'lad'. He was floundering, now he's at the very top of the NXT pyramid of greatness and the man who calls himself 'The Idol' and '100' is a far more motivated and more dangerous man than he was this time last year, for proof of that, see how he dragged Black from car park to the ring, destroying and nearly drowning him along the way. Though in the other corner, somewhere between good and evil, sits Aleister Black, a man with only two losses to this particular name in NXT and one of those he wasn't even in or around the ring for, he's someone who's been on a tear and seemed like he's been destined for the NXT title since he stepped into Full Sail but no one should expect Almas and definitely not Vega to go down without one heck of a fight.

Pardon the innuendo but expect this one to go long and stiff as even with their differing backgrounds, both men are known as much for their technical expertise as the swift, hard-hitting nature of their strikes. They are both also known to bust out a moonsault or two every so often so that'll be fun. As much as Gargano-Ciampa is the biggest story going into the show, I'd still expect this one to go on last as it's the main title, it really should and I don't see any world in which if Gargano and Ciampa haven't tore the entire house down, that these two don't tear down the rest. As to who's walking out with that lovely golden belt, as much as I'd love to see Almas hold on to it forever, I think that Black is walking out with his first WWE prize slung over his shoulder and you know what, if the crowd chant 'you deserve it' at him, yeah, he bloody well does.

Any Other Predictions...

So with Pete Dunne in the Tag match, it's unlikely there'll be a separate UK Championship match, as a result, I'm going to assume the card is just these five matches and I'm fine with that as I can't see any of them not being at least good. This being a TakeOver, this is really the bit where I mostly speculate about what 'hottest free agent' will be in the crowd, this time around, I will keep saying that it could be Christopher (Donovan) Dijak but really it could be anyone. I mean, as part of the deal with PROGRESS and EVOLVE, Keith Lee, WALTER, Zack Gibson and others will be participating in Axxess so who knows? If it turns out to be Jason Kincaid, I don't really know anything about him so you'll have to come up with your own thoughts. Of course, the big question we all have is will Triple H appear and do a big crowd warm-up 'we are NXT' speech? I hope so, who doesn't pop for those every, damn, time?

Article By Jozef Raczka (@NotJoeRaczka)

The Non-Fan Review // Ospreay vs. Ricochet from BOSJ XXIII (Day 6)

He who chases two rabbits catches neither.
- Japanese proverb

And that’s the major problem with this wrestling match: THE COMBATANTS ARE WAY TOO SODDING FAST! Seriously, this match is like the Flash made a baby with the Road Runner and that baby was christened by Usain Bolt with Billy Whizz and Cheetara from Thundercats as godparents. And then that baby was turned into a wrestling match. Allow me to elaborate:

Let’s go back to May of 2016; unlike me at that time, you were probably not furiously learning the best man's speech to my brother's wedding (it all rhymed, it needed extra rehearsal!), so you’re probably in better shape than I am to go to New Japan Pro Wrestling Best of the Super Junior XXIII (what a snappy title).

This Japanese show is such a subdued affair compared to the American extravaganzas we’re used to seeing: the arena is small but exceptionally well lit. Far from holding up signs about liking boobies or offering fish sandwiches, this crowd is extraordinarily controlled, sitting and clapping politely along with the music. But most gregarious of all: THERE IS NO COMMENTARY. I mean it: no odd observances from old chaps in cowboys hats, just silence.

Sorry, but this IS professional wrestling, isn’t it? Not a competitive sewing circle?

At this point, with zero fanfare, out walks our first hero: dressed like Adam Ant taking part in an am dram production of “The Mikado”, he’s a blonde chap with a union flag around his shoulders. Keeping the British end up - I approve. Chewing gum, shaking hands with the polite audience and doing little jigs, our hero poses like Darkwing Duck in front of the ropes, then does an impressive flip into the ring. The announcer in the ring gives him a hero’s introduction: “WIRU OSSUPURAE!” That’s Will Ospreay, a strangely-spelt raptor from Essex. Not much fake tan or “OH SHAAAAT AAAAAP YA FILFY CAAAAAAH” about this lad though.

But now the music gets more guitar-y and in dances our other fighter. His outfit of red y-fronts, Wonder Woman boots and a leather waistcoat is complemented nicely by his Matthew Corbett beard and big, shiny belt (I think it’s a prize of some description). Stopping constantly on his way to the ring to clench his fist and point at random people like a male Eurovision singer, he finally leaps into the ring and starts breakdancing. The announcer can hardly contain his excitement: “RIKOSHAE!” Ricochet is an American. But we aren’t holding it against him, he can’t help it.

* * *

A single wooden “tonk” sound means we’re off. After prowling around each other like lions for several seconds, the two finally get stuck in and grapple: Ricochet gets Will in a wrist lock. This is a VERY GOOD MOVE: the first thing I learned in my self-defence course from Sensei Gary was how easy it is to break an attacker’s wrist; but Will is no amateur, he does elaborate rolls and twirls on the floor to take the pressure off, like a disco caterpillar. But then Will bounces up, trips his foe over and gets him in an ankle lock, triumphantly saying “WHOO!” like a hyperactive Thomas the Tank Engine.

Ricochet flips out of this predicament but Will isn’t finished: he tries bending the colonial over his shoulders like that one scene in Men in Black II. (Am I the only one who remembers that film? Thought so. You’re missing nothing.) But beardy-weirdy isn’t standing for that! He rolls out of it and stares Will down, while making his nipples dance for the crowd. Alas, Will sadly can’t do this trick.

(It’s also one of the few I haven’t mastered either, though I can wiggle my ears and move each eyebrow independently. I can be booked for birthdays and weddings.)

But enough of party tricks: Will gets Ricochet in a headlock, only for the latter to pull the former’s hair and make him shriek “REF!”

Hang on - so kicking each other in the bollocks, hitting each other with furniture AND tearing off each other’s clothing is totally fine in wrestling, but PULLING HAIR IS AGAINST THE RULES???? Meh, the ref isn’t bothered either way so I’ll follow suit and watch the two combatants fight.

Sorry, did I say “fight”? I meant “bounce off the ropes constantly and flip over and under each other for a good 45 seconds like Power Rangers on ecstasy”.

I’m honestly not sure what I’m watching right now.

Somehow, Will crawls over Ricochet like a centipede - you have to see this to believe it - and flips him, but the American bounces back. Then, for some reason unknown to man, both combatants choose that moment to cartwheel into the ropes, backflip and land in the middle of the ring like Spider-Man. All in perfect synchronisation.

Is this how the Japanese like their wrestling, with sprinkles of Super Sentai-style aerobics? Because from my western point of view, it’s just going to tire them out quicker!
In fact, they really ARE tired after that little display: they square off to each other like kids in a schoolyard, then just stand still for a good 24 seconds.

Until Ricochet kicks Will in the goolies and slaps his face, to the ref’s disapproval. Finally, 5 minutes and 41 seconds in it’s more like a wrestling match rather than a West End musical!
Ricochet gives Will a pimp-slap, causing the Brit to emit “OOH YOU BASTARD.” Will is my spirit animal.

More twirling kicks and landing dramatically between the pair and Will gains the upper hand, pinning his adversary: ONE, TWO - nope, not over yet.

Creatively, Will puts his rival in an interesting hold where he clings to his back and pulls one arm up; if Will had just tickled him under the arm at this point, the match would be over with 7 minutes. Sadly, Will lacks my imagination and just grinds his fist into his enemy’s side. But Ricochet wriggles out and does a flip while holding Will’s head, so the Essex boy rolls out of the ring with a hearty “FACKIN ELLLLLLLLLL”. (I might have made up that last quote.)
Ricochet somersaults out of the ring and into Will, even making contact with the fans. In the west, H&S would have a heart murmur at this idea; Japanese fans seem to love it though. They’re a hardy breed, these Super Junior fans.

Shoving Will back in, Ricochet dives in over the ropes and ends up head butting Will’s chest while so doing, leading the Essex wonder to scream “YOU MOTHERFUCKER”. Mouth of trucker, this one. I wonder how many Japanese fans were introduced to naughty language from this match alone? But Ricochet isn’t finished! He presses his booty on Will’s collarbone, making his little legs wiggle like a six-year-old’s. Cute.

A few more blows, triumphant nipple-wiggles and a hearty “come on, Will” from Ricochet finally galvanise the limey to get up and punch his foe in the dong, only to end up being having his back hurt against Ricochet’s knee like Bane did to Batman. But that’s not all: Ricochet immediately stamps on the air around Will’s head, which somehow hurts Will’s eye.

How frightfully odd.

More elbowing each other’s faces and flipping about like Zebedee until Will jumps off the ropes and punches Ricochet with a hearty “PIP PIP CHEERIO, MOTHERFUCKER!” #britbantz
The American rolls out of the ring but the Briton flips onto hm, again making contact with audience members; I notice this time there are people with yellow t-shirts acting as human shields for the audience.

Then Will gives the camera a big, sweaty kiss. I have no idea how to process it and I need to ask myself some very searching questions.

Will drags Ricochet back in and they both seem to have sore backs suddenly; trying to get each other in locks, they’re both looking a little peaky. After a couple more attempts at getting each other in a lock, and kicking each other’s faces like Hero Turtles, the referee stands over the air, rolling around in agony, and shrugs. I admire this “I don’t really give a toss” attitude.

They both stumble out the ring and take turns in kicking each other in the face; once they’re supine on the floor, barely moving, the ref again comes over and seems indifferent.
But NO! The referee is slowly counting: “ONE, TWO, THREE…” Is the match over if they’re out of the ring for a certain amount of time? Well, they’re rolling on the floor, seemingly hardly capable of movement. Yet magically when the ref says “NINETEEN” they both leap into the ring like gazelles. CONVENIENT…

More blows exchanged, though the pair are certainly tired. Getting the upper hand, Ricochet is face-first in the canvas with his bum sticking out. Will pulls a face that says “I SHALL FEAST ON HIS ARSE!” and tries to bear hug him, only to be kicked away. This is a strange one.
They’re so tired and it’s getting infectious. Bet they regret those OTT gymnastics now! They take turns in trying to pin each other and even simultaneously pin each other at one point - would that have been a draw?

But in the end, it’s Will who jumps off the corner and pulls down Ricochet’s head, dazing him enough for a ONE TWO THREE - and it’s finally over!

So from first impressions, Japanese wrestling is much more subdued. I’m not entirely convinced this is a good thing: it’s much faster than any other match I’ve seen to date but harder to follow.

Ah well, at least Essex finally has a trophy to call its own.

FINAL SCORE: 3/10

Watashi wa Essex-jin desu.

Next time for Nicholas // Kane vs. Raven vs. The Big Show for the Hardcore Championship (WWF WrestleMania X-7) 

Written by Nicholas Peat // @NPChilla 

The Non-Fan Review // Mysterio vs. Guerrero from Halloween Havoc '97

So far, I've seen Hulk Hogan fight an actual giant; I've seen blood in the ring; I've seen Vince McMahon shaved, the unstoppable Undertaker, the women of wrestling - even Santa Claus had a go. But those are all heavyweights (well, maybe not the women). Now it's time to see what the lighter wrestlers are up to. They're athletic, they're keen, they want to show what they can do. How different can it be?

First, a chap in purple lycra emerges from a graveyard. Fireworks go off around him. This is Rey Mysterio Jr. He reminds me of a cartoon superhero I saw years ago, called the Phantom. On the other side, Eddie Guerrero appears, wearing shiny metal trousers and a smirk. He ain't popular. The trousers alone may be responsible for that.

The two wrestlers seem to be fighting over... a mask? Well, whatever. Makes as much sense as fighting over a belt (which I think is also at stake). Rey gives a spare mask to a boy in the audience. Couldn't he just give one to Eddie and save all the hassle?

So far, this is wrestling as it always has been - flashy and over the top. A good start!

The match begins. We have a few moments of trash talking before Eddie throws a punch. Rey ducks, clobbers him back and then all hell breaks loose. Rey Mysterio Jr seems to think he's Spiderman, leaping over his opponent, throwing backflips off the ropes and even reversing a throw in midair. When he does end up on his back, he sends Eddie flying with a well-timed push from both legs.

I'd like to see Hulk Hogan try to pull off these moves. He'd probably break a hip - and not the other guy's.

More gymnastics ensue as the two collide against the ropes. I'm not sure who tried that charge but they both go spinning over the top of the ropes and Eddie lands hard. Rey goes one better - while his opponent is getting up, he bounces off the far ropes, flips over the top of the near ones and attempts to land on top of him.

It seems his purple spider sense isn't working for him, as he misses his mark and Eddie slings him down onto the floor. A kick to keep him down, and then Eddie runs him around the ring and into the steel steps. Ouch! When will they put some padding on those?? Eddie isn't done - he chucks Rey back into the ring, then mounts the rope and somersaults onto his opponent. Rey jerks in pain as his back takes the brunt.

Well, that's what you get for showing off, kids.

Eddie showboats to the booing crowd while Rey staggers to his feet. Eddie punches him, slaps him down again. Pulling Rey back up to his feet, Eddie slings him into the far ropes, clearly having never watched another wrestling match - predictably enough, Rey reverses the throw and it's Eddie that bounces off the ropes... and into a flying kick.

Rey is back, and the Ghost Who Walks has summoned the power of ten tigers (seriously, go watch that cartoon). He doesn't just bounce off once set of ropes - no, he bounces off TWO - and then he gets creative again. Eddie responds to his reverse-flip-starjump by snatching him out of the air and slamming him on the mat. Rey writhes in pain, again.

Eddie stands back for a moment, but it's clear that the other man isn't giving up. Eddie picks Rey up by his neck, lifts him up in the middle of the ring and drops him back down. As Rey sits up, Eddie shoves him back down and lies on top of him. One! Two! Thr- nope, he's moving again. The referee calls Eddie off. Eddie is displeased.

Time for another round of abuse. Once again, Rey is helped up by the head. He's slung into the ropes, then grabbed on the way back and thrown back down. Another pin! One! Two! Rey kicks out, and the hold is broken.

Eddie argues with the referee. Rey struggles to hold onto his mask as Eddie tugs at it, wanting to claim his prize regardless, and the referee merely shouts louder. But it seems to work. Eddie gives up and returns to wrestling with what seems little more than a lifesize ragdoll. And what better way to pick up your opponent than by giving him a wedgie?

Pinned under one arm, in a standing position, Rey seems helpless. Eddie can't resist tugging at that mask again. But it won't work - this mask is part of the whole suit! We really don't want to see Rey stripped of his entire outfit, do we?

Half a minute goes by, and then Eddie grows bored. Time to do something else - like pick Rey up, hold him over his head, then slam him down onto his knee. Rey sprawls. Eddie pulls him back from the ropes, flips him over and sits on top of him. The referee counts, but Rey kicks out. Eddie sits back down on him. Rey kicks out. And a third time. And a fourth. The commentators have lost interest at this point as they start talking about other wrestlers.

It's now clear that, having been unable to do anything of note for several minutes and apparently half dead, Rey is going to make a comeback and win the match.

Eddie's fifth (sixth? I lost count) pin is a little more adventurous - he decides to push off with his feet and kick Rey in the chest. Maybe then he'll lie still? But Rey seems to know it's coming - he plants his feet in Eddie's chest and kicks him away. What happens next is hard to describe - Eddie pulls him up, Rey jumps onto the top rope, then he somersaults back down and takes Eddie with him. Both hit the mat, both winded.

The two men get back up, Rey immediately bouncing off the ropes and kicking Eddie in the face with both feet. Eddie rolls out of the ring. Rey doesn't even wait for Eddie to get back in - he's bouncing off the ropes, ready to carry out some more deft gymnastics and jump onto Eddie as he returns to the ring - but Eddie slips in too early, Rey lands on empty ropes, and Eddie kicks him out in return.

They never learn. Stop showing off!

Eddie follows him out. He picks Rey up, shoves him into the metal railings. Eddie throws him back into the ring. Rey crawls away as Eddie strides in for the kill, opting for a squatting hold with Rey's arms across his legs and his back arched in a rather uncomfortable angle. Rey screams, not for the first time. And Eddie's ripping at that mask again - dude, no! You'll ruin it!

Eddie squeezes with both arms, trying to pop Rey's head off, but the referee breaks them up. Eddie picks Rey up, wearing him like a backpack - this is apparently the "Gory Special", named after Eddie's father, Mr Gory. I'm not sure what the idea behind it is as it doesn't seem to be causing any harm - and then Rey suddenly flips off his back and throws Eddie over his head!

As Eddie gets up, the Ghost Who Walks aims a flying kick with both feet - and misses. Eddie's kick to the back of Rey's head doesn't miss.

Eddie follows up with a complicated move that doesn't seem to do anything, picking Rey up and dropping him again in a staggered descent while he drops to one knee. Rey looks finished anyway; Eddie rolls him onto his side and tries to pull his arm off, one knee planted in Rey's back and one leg tucked behind his other arm. This carries on for another remarkably long time.

Rey, unable to perform his trademark gymnastics, returns to his trademark screaming.

Eddie seems to grow bored and lets him go. Rey rolls away, but Eddie soon pulls him back to his feet. Another complex move takes place - Eddie throws Rey into the ropes, then drops to the floor as Rey runs over the top of him, then slams into him as he bounces off the opposite ropes. Another pin takes place, but Rey kicks out straight away - probably because those hideous trousers ended up right in his face. Those things could get a reaction out of a corpse.

The referee separates them. Eddie pulls Rey up by the mask, whacks his head into the corner of the ropes, then slaps him in the chops for good measure. Rey falls to his knees. Eddie lands another punch, but Rey blocks the next and lands one of his own. The two slap each other a few more times and then suddenly Eddie's in the corner and Rey is elbowing him repeatedly in the face. I'll say this for Phantom Rey - he goes down quickly but he comes back just as quickly.

Slap! Eddie is reeling. Rey grabs his arm and throws him towards the centre of the ring, but Eddie reverses it and Rey gets a kick in the keks for his trouble. Eddie then runs him towards the far corner and Rey tries to pull a somersault off at the worst possible time - he ends up hanging from the corner by his feet, arms twitching like a crazed spider. Eddie wastes no time kicking him in the chest while he's vulnerable.

The commentators seem to think that Rey is trapped and cannot get out of this position (by, for example, lifting his feet off the top rope). Eddie grins, a smirk so wide the top of his head is in danger of falling off. He walks to the far corner. If he had a moustache he could twirl, he would be twirling it like crazy right now. He runs to the corner, feet ready to deliver a fatal kick to Rey's helpless body.

Rey pulls his upper body away from the mat, and Eddie slides into the corner post. The only fatalities are the contents of his trousers. Hey, bloodstains could only improve them.

Eddie staggers painfully out of the ring. Rey unhooks himself (trapped, indeed!) and climbs onto the top rope, ready to leap - and he does! More like a flying fox than a tiger (or a purple spider, come to that). He collides with Eddie, and Eddie collides with the railings that keep the audience away. Both stagger upright, but Rey is first to recover and throws a backhanded punch to Eddie's face.

Eddie is thrown gracelessly back into the ring, and Rey follows. Rey picks him up and throws him into the ropes. Which, predictably enough, leads to a reversal! Eddie switches roles, sending Rey flying into the ropes instead, and grabbing him on the return. Rey goes up, Eddie throws him down, and then... double reversal! Rey flips in midair, lands on his feet and leaps crotch first into Eddie's face. He somersaults end over end, landing with Eddie underneath him. Pinned! The referee counts - 1! 2! And Eddie kicks free.

Rey turns to find Eddie running towards him. A mighty arm slams the purple spider phantom back onto the mat. While Rey gets his breath back, Eddie and the referee have a brief discussion. I have no idea what about, but one hopes it might be fashion tips. Those trousers are giving me a headache.

Rey seems dazed now. Eddie throws him into the ropes, bouncing him off and towards the far ones, but suddenly Rey is awake again. He jumps onto the ropes, using them as a springboard to somersault over Eddie's head and land behind him. This is followed by another complicated string of movements - Rey leaps for Eddie, Eddie dodges, Rey grabs the ropes, Eddie grabs his legs and spins him around, Rey grabs the ropes again, Eddie gets flipped over the ropes and out of the ring. This whole sequence takes about five seconds at most.

Rey goes for another unwise attempt to bounce off the far ropes and leap onto his opponent. This time it actually works - the two men go spinning into the railings, Eddie taking a bash to the head while the Amazing Spider-Phantom has a slightly softer landing. It takes a moment for both men to get back to their feet, and it's Rey half walking, half dragging Eddie back into the ring. Eddie gets to his feet while Rey climbs the ropes.

Sigh. More trick shots. This one is apparently called a corkscrew. Rey spins backwards into the other guy and they both go sprawling. But when Rey goes for a pin, Eddie comes back to his senses. The hold is broken. They both seem to take a moment to catch their breath. Sorry, guys, you'll both have to keep going a little longer!

Rey almost gently helps Eddie back up. Then he's picking the man up, and chucking him back down. I don't know whether he has the strength left for any more fancy moves. Or maybe he does - he climbs the ropes, then flips backward onto Eddie - who raises his legs at a pivotal moment and sends Rey sprawling. Eddie responds to these showy gymnastics by picking him up, sitting him on his shoulders and slamming him down onto the mat. There's another one of Eddie's weird pins, this time with his head between Rey's legs (any attempt to describe it further will only sound weird, so you'll just have to see for yourself). But Rey kicks out, and Eddie is shoved away.

We're coming to the end now, and it looks like Eddie and his terrible trousers are going home with a new mask after all. Eddie picks Rey up like a rag doll, then runs into the corner post with him. Rey cries out on impact. As Eddie walks to the far corner, ready for another charge, Rey can only stagger slowly and painfully to his feet. Eddie charges in, screaming, but Rey is more alert than he looks - he drops down and sends Eddie flying over him, head first into the post. Ouch.

Eddie seems surprisingly intact, but is still unable to resist when Rey leaps backwards with the back of his fist in Eddie's face. Quite why Rey feels the need to fall over as well I don't know. Rey is up and raring to go again - an astonishing recovery - and he's going to try something stupid, signally to the referee and crowd with some arcane finger twiddling. As Eddie rises to his knees, the Amazing Spider-Phantom makes an agile leap onto the top ropes.

Rey leaps into Eddie's waiting arms. Rey hits the mat, Eddie apparently wondering what the hell just happened. Oh well. Eddie decides to do something stupid himself. (The commentary suggests this is going to be a "frog splash" or something like that - is Rey about to croak?) Eddie climbs the ropes, and LEAPS across half the ring. Rey simply rolls out of the way.

Eddie recovers fairly well, rolling on impact and soon back on his feet, but Rey is already charging for him. But his attack - apparently an attempt to suffocate Eddie with his underwear in a flying leap - goes awry AGAIN. Eddie pushes him up and over his head, and Rey lands astride that corner post by his delicates.

Before he has chance to recover, Eddie is climbing up behind him for a hug. Or maybe not. Rey throws his elbow back to dislodge the unwelcome advances of his opponent - no means no, Eddie - and a few punches eventually do dislodge him. Eddie changes his approach, sitting back to back with the Mysterious One and lifting him up, up, up... it's time for a throw! The two men tumble to the mat, but it's Rey on top when they land. One mighty leg hold and a three second count later, the bell rings - it's over!

Rey "The Phantom" Mysterio has, incredibly, managed to win the title. The referee hands him the customary belt. And then WHAM! Eddie's back, and he's MAD. He grabs Rey's mask again, still tugging as the two men spiral back into the middle of the ring, and Rey is flung out, still clutching his new belt. Eddie stands in the ring and gets booed; Rey, however, has what he came for and strides purposefully (but quickly) for the exit. I don't really blame him.

Summary: This is what happens when wrestlers see "The Matrix" - they start leaping about the place and pulling off somersaults. And, like most of these showy tricks, they usually go wrong. If you want to win a wrestling match, it seems the best tactic is to be boring.

It also looks like the winner of most of these bouts is the one with more fashion sense, though that usually isn't saying much.

----

I also had the opportunity to watch Nick's match, the 2016 NJPW bout between Will "Captain Britain" Ospreay (flashy and ridiculous) and Ricochet (tattooed bad boy in beard and not quite enough leather - he looked less naked when he took the leathers off and stood in his red undies).

Rey Mysterio Jr loves his gymnastics, while Steady Eddie seemed to prefer a more traditional wrestling style. Here we have two Reys at once - they leap over each other, spinning in cartwheels and somersaults, more an elaborate dance than a wrestling match. It's fast, it's flashy, it's a much more complex arrangement than Rey and Eddie, and I got the sense that the two men were performing together more than fighting each other.

It's a thrilling watch, but it's also bristling with humour. There's overacting aplenty. There's actual SWEARING (you'd never get language like Will's on WWE). There's even spitting! But the funniest moment for me was when both men struck each other with a roundhouse kick to the head at the same time - and both hit the mat at the same time straight after.

But maybe there's more going on between these two than we know. At the end, as they squared up and shook hands, I wasn't sure whether they were going to come to blows one last time or kiss...

Next up for Andrew // Jimmy Havoc & Clint Margera vs. Rickey Shane Page & Drew Parker in DEATHHOUSE from Fight Club: Pro Project Mayhem VI - Night One.

Release Date - 20th March 2018

Written by Andrew Williams // @ADW_Author

A Conversation with Discovery Wrestling Promoter Alan Smith (Recorded 8th August)

It's taken us a while to get this interview up, after illness and technical issues, but finally here's our interview with the co-promoter of Discovery Wrestling in Edinburgh, Alan Smith, originally recorded on the 8th August. I'm extremely happy with how this turned out and wish we could've got it to you sooner, hopefully you'll agree that it was worth the wait. Topics of discussion include getting into wrestling as a fan and a promoter, the birth of Discovery Wrestling, average show days, the concept of the Y Division and Chris Sabin's involvement, the next break out talent from Scotland and what's to come from the Edinburgh based promotion for the rest of 2017!

ATPW - When did you first get into pro wrestling as a fan and what was it that drew you to the art? 

Alan Smith - I was probably about six years old. That's probably going back to about 1988, would be the first time I can remember watching wrestling and I can remember watching it because my family had just had Sky TV put in and me and my brother were flicking through the TV channels for the first time and we ended up on a channel that had Hulk Hogan on it. Now I'd never watched wrestling before, but for some reason I knew who this person was. I can't explain it. We start watching it and it was Hulk Hogan giving an interview and it cut to an Ultimate Warrior segment and then my brother and myself were hooked from then on in. From age six onwards and I've never stopped watching it from when I was six, so probably going on about 28 years of non-stop watching wrestling. 

ATPW - I think it was those sorts of characters that tended to draw people in back then. It's interesting that you say you knew who Hulk Hogan was, before you saw Hulk Hogan. 

AS - It's one that I can't figure out, because it was so long ago, how I recognised him. I remember when I put on the TV channel, I referred to him as "There's that boxing guy", but I'm not sure if Rocky had been out yet, when he was Thunder Lips. I'm not sure if that was before, was that Rocky IV? Rocky III? Then it cut to Ultimate Warrior and I said "Woah, look at this guy! He's amazing!" Even though I hadn't seen any of the wrestling yet, I just came out with "This guy's amazing!" We just stuck with it from there. Growing up, I was more of a Hulk Hogan fan, my brother was more of an Ultimate Warrior fan. Yeah we just stuck with those characters, which is obviously what it was aimed at in those days, getting the kids to watch and it obviously worked! 

Source - Youtube.com

ATPW - When did you discover that there was a British or Scottish wrestling scene? 

AS - Probably about 15 years ago, 14 years ago. I'd started with the idea that I'd like to be a wrestler, going online and trying to find some wrestling schools. I tried, I live on the east coast of Scotland in Fife and the only school I could find was on the west coast, so it was a couple of hours to drive, it was eight hours of training and then a couple hours to drive home. I had a friend with me, but my friend quit after the first training session. He didn't like it, he didn't want to do it, because he was too sore the next day. I'd gone back the following week and realised that driving that way by yourself and whatnot, I wasn't really committed to it at that point, so I gave up, far too easily. I went back to it a couple of years later at another training school, which was closer to me and again I didn't really gel, it didn't feel right at that training school. Then it was probably another couple of years after that when I got involved in a promotion for a few years, before going my own way, doing what I'm doing now. 

ATPW - How did you form Discovery Wrestling? 

AS - Being part of the other promotion and getting to the point where I was heavily involved in helping run that promotion for a while and realised actually there's a lot of ideas that I have and there's a lot of things that I think should be done a certain way or using certain folk and rather than impose my will on a business, it was a case of "Why don't I do this for myself?". There was another chap in the same promotion and he had the same ideas and actually the whole idea of Discovery came together because I'd been through quite a tough time personally and Alex, who's my business partner, he had just lost his Dad, so we were both going through a bit of a tough period. We'd actually just meet up and of all things just sit and have a cup of tea. Just have a cup of tea and talk about wrestling and say "Wouldn't it be cool if things worked like this?" or "Wouldn't it be cool if things were done like this?" or "Wouldn't it be cool if you had this and you did this?" and just from those meet ups and helping each other through a tough time, Discovery was formed between us. Just the idea and how we'd want a promotion to look and work, that's how it was born.

ATPW - Does Discovery have a certain ethos or a mission statement? What could someone expect if they came to a Discovery show? 

AS - Ultimately, if we're involved in wrestling and putting events on, we're fans of wrestling as well, otherwise why are you involved if you don't have the passion for it? My whole thing was if this show that we're putting on, for example, was on the other side of Scotland, would I pay? Would I travel? Would I go and see it? So the shows that we put on are shows that I would be happy to pay to go and see. You know, I'm a 34 year old man and obviously I've been a fan all my life, but it's about putting on shows that keep adults interesting without having to go down the route of saying we're an over 18's promotion. It's about putting on great quality wrestling and matches, because I think ultimately, kids will love wrestling no matter what, because they're going out and they're going to see something exciting and the matches are so exciting. But what captures adults attention and what keeps them interested and keep coming back. So it's about, yes we are a family friendly promotion, but it's not dumbing the promotion way down and it's not all these wacky storylines and wacky characters, but it's also something that adults can appreciate with the quality of the wrestling. 

When we launched just over three years ago, we referred to ourselves as being Generation Y, because Generation X that's your baby boomers, but Generation Y is the next generation that came along. It's the people that have grown up with social networking, social media and mobile phones, so Generation Y is aged from probably about 14 upwards now. So really, we're a promotion that's geared towards your fourteen and overs. 

Credit - Discovery Wrestling

ATPW - Could you talk us through an average show day for Discovery? What would you be up to on the day of a show? 

AS - I kind of do everything. Show days are my most stressful days, usually. Just because there's so much to do. We're putting on these massive shows, but we are a very small team. So my day would probably involved, in the morning, picking up talent. If we've got international talent coming in, I'll personally do the airport run, meet them at the airport, make sure everything's fine and get them settled into Edinburgh. I'll be at the venue, I'll be making sure that everyone's happy at the venue, that our ring crew has arrived and the ring's getting set up. Then it's just all hands on deck. When it comes time for showtime, I'll be doing production, pushing all the buttons, starting all the entrance videos and the music, giving guys the cue to get out there and get it done. Alex, he usually deals with all of the front of house things, he's doing the customer service, making sure that everyone's getting in and getting the right seats. Making sure the crowd are happy in that way, because that's a massive thing for us. It's one thing to put together a really strong card, but the other side of it is the customer satisfaction and it has to be every aspect. We've all been there as fans and turned up to a big event and there's confusion over who goes where with tickets and it can sometime take away from your experience of going to an event. Everything important to us, from the doors opening and making sure everyone gets in on time, there are no delays, that people know where they're going and getting the right seats, that there are enough seats for them and then once that's all done then we know they're going to be in for a good night because we really pack the cards. My job really is backstage making sure that all the wrestlers know what they're doing, when they're going out, their match time limits and making sure that they don't have any questions, because its all told to them. They can just relax and go out and put on a good match. 

ATPW - I think what you were saying about the front of house, can really make all the difference for a fan going to a show and you don't have to ask "Where am I sitting?" and you're not waiting half an hour, an hour to get into the show...

AS - I mean, I still go to shows and I still go to other independent shows here and there and the thing you find is, you need to make sure you've got enough people to look after your crowd, because that's the last thing you want, at the end of the night you've put on this amazing show, the wrestling's been great and you go online and you look at the comments from people and it's people saying "Great show but I never got my seat" or "I never got that" or "The show finished late and I had to leave early to catch my bus". All those little things, they bother me. It might sound a bit corny, if I know that one fan's going away unhappy because of one element of the show, that'll bug me until the next show, when we can get it totally right. I'm a bit OCD like that, a bit of a perfectionist. From the moment that somebodies bought a ticket, who's paid to come and see a show that you're putting on, from the moment that they turn up at that front door, they need to be looked after. 

Credit - David James Wilson/Discovery Wrestling

ATPW - I wanted to talk a little about the Y Division Championship, because it's got an interesting history, but first can you explain the idea behind the division and where that came from? 

AS - Originally, we thought "We're going to start with a championship belt and we're going to add division to it". We were looking at other promotions and thinking "We'll have a heavyweight champion, we'll have this division, we'll have a Women's division, we'll have a tag team championship" and then as this got started we don't have a show every month, we don't put on two shows a month, we put on maybe seven or eight events in a year. So that limits what you can do with championships and titles. So we started the Y Division to start off because we're all about Generation Y, the big thing in the logo is the Y. So we thought we'll focus on the Y Division. The big thing was going to be focused on your Cruisers really, technical, fast-paced guys and we opened it right up, because it was getting a good reputation. I'm obviously biased, but the Y Division Championship belt is one of the most beautiful belts out there. So we thought the focus should be on this. Yeah, we called it the Y Division, but lets not break everyone up into divisions and not say "You're a heavyweight so you're only going to get Heavyweight Championship matches", "You're in this category so you're only going to get those" because we've got such a great mix of talent on our roster and it doesn't matter if someone's a heavyweight or someone would be considered a cruiser. They can still go in together and have an awesome match, it doesn't matter about their weight classes. So we focused on having a Y Division Championship and it's only now that we're starting to add championships to Discovery, but I don't think we'll ever have one that's focused on a weight class. From next month we'll have our Women's Championship, as well to add to the Y Division. 

ATPW - The first champion was Chris Sabin, what was the situation surrounding that? Because it got a little bit complicated

AS - It was certainly complicated. Chris Sabin was part of our first ever show, everybody knows what a great talent Chris Sabin is and he came in and did our first show, despite us being new. Lots of wrestlers will obviously be very hesitant if there's a brand new promotion saying "Hey look, we're just starting and we want you to be on our first show and we want you to come all the way over from America". Of course they can just say "We don't know who you are, you've got no reputation, I'm not going to do this", but we had a chat with him and he was cool, he came over and did our first show and was such a hit with the fans and he was great to deal with. So we decided we were going to keep bringing him back and wanted to build a roster around these types of guys. The decision was made and he won the Y Division Championship after a short tournament that we had. Unfortunately, shortly after he won the championship, it must have been about a month later, he suffered a very serious injury. It kept him out of wrestling completely for months, it could have been between nine months and a year that he was out. We thought, because we weren't sure how serious the injury was, "We'll keep the championship on him for now, we won't strip him of it and we'll give him the chance to come back and defend it". But it got to the point where we knew his lay off was going to be a bit more long term, so we thought "We'll crown and interim Y Division Champion" and then as soon as Sabin was fit to wrestle, we could bring him back and we could have a unification match, but unfortunately that didn't happen. He has been fit since, but our dates always seem to clash with Ring of Honor dates and he's always on those shows, but we were desperately trying to bring him back. But the decision was made November of last year, because Lewis Girvan had been the Interim Y Division Champion for a year, "it's been a year now, let's now make it official that Lewis is Y Division Champion". When dates match up, Chris Sabin is going to be back and he's going to be getting a title shot as soon as we're able to bring him back to Edinburgh. 

Source - Internet Wrestling Database

ATPW - So hopefully out of that difficult situation, you've got a potential "moment" when Sabin returns and challenges Lewis Girvan, that will mean something to long-term fans of the promotion. 

AS - Yeah. Anytime we put out there "We've got a special guest coming on this date" or "Who would you like to see?", the number of people who say "Chris Sabin, he's due his Y Division championship shot", it's great to see now that we're at the point, just about to celebrate our third anniversary, where people care about what we do, it's not just suggesting it for the sake of suggesting it, people actually care about what matches take place and who gets the title shots. It shows that we must be doing something right because lets face it people give a shit about what we do! 

ATPW - Yeah, the way that British wrestling is at the moment, people don't have to part with their money, unless it's something they care about!

AS - Plus there's so much choice in wrestling. The number of promotions in Scotland alone, for example, people are spoilt for choice. Every corner of Scotland has something, so they can choose. So if we've got to the point where people care about us and want to keep coming back, we're doing something right and this year was the first year where we had season passes for our Edinburgh events. There was such a great take up of that and we've already got our dates together for 2018 and people are already asking us when do season passes go on sale! It's great that we're building a proper loyal fanbase now. 

ATPW - It surprised me when promotions started doing season tickets, that it was something that hadn't really been used in wrestling before, despite existing elsewhere in similar fields. 

AS - I think, it might be a thing of depending on how organised promotions are with their dates in advance. Certainly for us in our first year, we were still trying out different venues and finding which ones worked for us or didn't work for us. So this year has been the first year where we've been able to. We're half way through 2017 so it was probably this time last year where I would've had all our 2017 dates sorted. But for the first couple of years, we were on a show by show basis, it wasn't organised that far ahead. I think that might be the same for a lot of promotions, so they probably couldn't put season passes on sale, while they were going "We've got a couple of shows planned, we might have one here we might have one there", but I think now, promotions have found the venues they like to use, they get their dates so far in advance and we're the same. I think that's probably why season passes have taken a while to come about. It's been amazing to see how well they've done at other promotions and that obviously influenced us in doing the same thing.  

Credit - David James Wilson/Discovery Wrestling

ATPW - You tend to use, at least one imported talent on each of your cards, what goes into who you pick to attempt to get involved in a Discovery show? 

AS - I think to start off with, it was a case of, everyone's got their idea of who is the one that people want to see. I think as we've found our groove, it's been more about who compliments what we do? Who embodies the events that we're trying to put on? Secondly, we work with a number of other UK promotions who lets us know "Hey, we're bringing in so and so, if you've got a show on this date, would you like them to be on your show as well?" So there's a good bit of work going on with other promotions when it comes to international talent. We know now, that we've really found the groove, what the Discovery audience wants. For example, a couple of months ago having Matt Riddle here and going one on one with Mikey Whiplash. Matt Riddle is that kind of talent. You're looking at talent that regularly run with perhaps, PWG or Ring of Honor. These kind of guys we know are the wrestlers that our fans want to see. Not only do we approach them, but we get approached very regularly now. That's the big difference from where we are and where we were when we first started out, when it was like "Are these guys any good? Will I take a booking there or not?". Three years later we've built up a good reputation, not just with the fans, but with the wrestlers themselves who know that when they're going to come to Discovery they're going to be treated really well. They're going to be in a good venue, they're going to be in front of great crowds and they want to be a part of it now. So we get approached by them fairly regularly saying "I'm going to be in Europe between this date and this date, do you have a show?". So that tends to be how we go about it now! 

ATPW - Have you got any particular favourites that you've bought in, whether that be their performances in the ring or how their personalities backstage? 

AS - We've been pretty fortunate that most, I guess all, of the people that we've had with us have been really good to work with and that's not the case with a lot of promotions, sometimes they'll bring in a guy and they're not that pleasant for whatever reason. But we've been blessed, I guess, with the guys that we've bought in. Matt Riddle was so laid back and was just "go with the flow". Then you've got guys like Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks, who we had here in April. Going out to have something to eat with Kenny Omega the night before the show and just talking video games, for example. Sometimes, it feels pretty surreal. It's been great to have these guys come in and enjoy their time in Edinburgh to the point where they keep coming back. Obviously, Chris Sabin been over her quite a lot. War Machine [Hanson & Raymond Rowe], they look the meanest guys on the planet, they look so tough, but they're so friendly and we loved having them in August last year. We're so desperate to get them back on a show for us as well, but the dates just never match up. They did a show in Glasgow recently and they got in touch with me to say "We've got a day off, can we come through to Edinburgh? We just want to do some sightseeing" so I said "Of course, yes". So just going out and sightseeing with War Machine in Edinburgh. You get on a good, friendly rapport with guys, so we've been really fortunate in that way. But in times of overall favourite, I'm not sure who I would put on the top of that. 

Source - Twitter/@PENTAELZEROM

ATPW - Is there anyone who you'd like to bring in, perhaps someone you've tried to get in the past but it hasn't worked out? 

AS - There's loads. There's a massive list for me! Where to start? Where should I start with this? We've got a fans page on Facebook and we're always saying "Who do you want to see?" and it's always the same names that keep coming up.

For a couple of years it was "Bring Kenny Omega" "We Want Kenny Omega" "We Want Kenny Omega" "We Want Kenny Omega" and it was like "We're trying to get Kenny Omega. Don't worry. We're trying" and then that came off in April, which was amazing. It was one of these that was totally out of the blue. We'd been planning for our September anniversary show and thinking "Who can we get?" and we're in contact with the Young Bucks a fair bit and trying to maybe see what could work in September. And then all of a sudden, they approached us and said "We want to do a UK tour in April. Would you do the Scottish leg for us", we were like "Yeah sure, no problem". They said "There's only one condition, we have to bring a third person", we said "Who's that?"..."Oh it's Kenny Omega" and we're like "Yeah, no problem that's totally fine". So we were delighted that we could bring those guys in. 

I'd love to see Penta el Zero M, guys like Jeff Cobb and Cody Rhodes. We've spoken with a lot of these guys in the past and it's all just about getting dates, because obviously they've got so many dates. Keith Lee, we're always looking at whose taken over online, whose the internet going a bit mad for right now and being like "OK lets bring them in and see what they can do here as well!". There's so many, the list is huge. My ultimate though, I would love to have the Motor City Machine Guns. We're desperate to have Chris Sabin back and he is probably bugged out with the amount of times I've asked him "Next time you come over, can you bring Alex Shelley as well?". I think for me at the moment, because we've had Chris Sabin here so often and we've had the Young Bucks here, if we could somehow bring the Motor City Machine Guns here into Discovery, I think that would be a huge coup for us. 

ATPW -  We've seen a couple of Discovery regulars head to television products like WWE's NXT, with Big Damo now working as Killian Dane, is there anyone on your regular roster at the moment that you think could be the next one to step up? 

AS - It's hard to look past Joe Coffey. The guys just doing everything right and you've got think it's just a matter of time. He's doing so well, not just in Discovery, but at so many promotions across the UK. He's been our top billing guy since we've start, between him and Lewis Girvan have been in the main events since the start. A lot of the international guys we've brought in, Coffey's had those matches and they've been insane. They've just been incredible matches. He's had two matches with Chris Hero, he's had a match with Jay Lethal which was for the Ring of Honor Heavyweight Championship, the first time the Ring of Honor heavyweight Championship had been defended in Scotland, so we had that match, we had him up against Tommaso Ciampa as well. So all these guys that you look at, Chris Hero is now Kassius Ohno in NXT, Tommaso Ciampa that was his last independent weekend. Coffey's wrestled all these guys who've now taken over NXT, you've just got to think it's only a matter of time. Where is the offer for Joe Coffey? Because he is that good. Every match he's had with us, since the start, has been first class and I'm sure that's the same wherever he goes. So I think Joe Coffey has to be the next guy to make that leap from us.

Then we've got so many others in Discovery. Lewis Girvan feels like he's been on the scene for years and years and years. He's only 22, but it seems like he's been around forever. There's no shortage of people that could potential make that jump. 

Credit - David James Wilson/Discovery Wrestling

ATPW - It's crazy now, that you can have so many shows running in the same country on the same night that have such a deep pools of talent to choose from! 

AS - There's talent that have maybe only done one or two shows for Discovery, that we've maybe only switched onto this year, like Chris Ridgeway. He's phenomenal and he's doing so well in so many promotions now. I just saw him tweeting a short time ago about how he's making his debut at this promotion and that promotion. Chris Ridgeway is another one that we rate very highly and think that he's got the tools to do something pretty special as well. 

ATPW - Chris Ridgeway is someone I've wanted to see again for a while...same with Lewis Girvan actually...

AS - Lewis is doing some great things with, he's been our Y Division Champion for close to two years, but forming this tag team with Aspen Faith. Aspen Faith is another one whose just got something very special about him. They call themselves the Kings of Catch and they're both amazing technical wrestlers but they're personalities alongside it. They're another one where we've had both of these guys in Discovery for a long time, but every time we announce the matches it's "Put the Kings of the Catch" "The Kings of Catch" "The Kings of Catch". So I think now those as a tag team, we're going to see a lot of them, in a lot of places over the next year. 

ATPW - Discovery's next show is 16th September, Year 3, can you let us know what you've got in store for that show? 

AS - This is our third anniversary and we're back at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange, which is a big venue. We've been there a few times in the past, they've got a small hall and a big hall, the main exchange, so we're back in the main exchange, where we had the Elite with us in April. We're hoping that we can have people come along and celebrate our third anniversary in style. It's gonna be the night where we crown our first ever Women's champion, so we've had tournament running this year, where women have been qualifying for a four way elimination match. The four way elimination match has been a staple of Discovery, whenever you go to a Discovery show there's a four way elimination match and that gave birth to the Y Division, so to speak. So it's going to be the first women's four way elimination match in Discovery and we're going to use that to crown the Women's Champion. We've got four completely different four completely different personalities in there, we've got "Session Moth" Martina, Sammii Jayne, Lucy Cole and Nina Samuels. So it's a great mix of talent. We've also got Lisa Marie Varon, who was Victoria in WWE and Tara in TNA, she's going to crown our first ever Women's champion. I thought that would be a nice touch for someone whose won Women's Championships in both WWE and TNA to be there and give legitimacy to our Women's championship in Discovery.

Matt Riddle is coming back as well, he'll be in action. We have a massive triple threat tag team match, we've got Polo Promotions against the New Age Kliq against the Kings of the North. Joe Hendry's going to be in action, Lewis Girvan will be defending his Y Division championship. We've had another tournament running this year, which has been the Hotter than Hell Invitational. We're back by a tattoo company in Edinburgh called Hotter than Hell Tattoo, so they wanted to get properly involved, so we had the tournament set up. The final is later in the year, but the two semi finals we've got on our Third anniversary show, Aspen Faith is going against Chris Ridgeway and Rampage Brown is going against Mikey Whiplash. So straight away the card is so stacked already. It's going to be pretty exciting. Hopefully it will show people how far we've come in three shorts years. It's the third anniversary but we keep going forward and we keep planning ahead. 

(Announced after this interview - ROH star Dalton Castle will face Joe Hendry, the House of Saynt vs. Michael Chase and two partners of his choosing and Mae Young Classic competitor Ayesha Raymond vs. Debbie Sharp) 

Tickets available here - https://shop.discoverywrestling.com/

Credit - Graeme K Cunningham Photography/Discovery Wrestling

ATPW - If someone had never seen Discovery, what matches would you pick out to show them to win them over to your product?

There are a few. I would send them to watch...there were three Joe Coffey matches from 2016. Joe Coffey vs. Tommaso Ciampa, Joe Coffey vs. Chris Hero and Joe Coffey vs. Jay Lethal. Then November last year there was Lewis Girvan v Marty Scurll, which was a phenomenal match. It was the same night we had Coffey vs. Ciampa and it was just incredible show from start to finish. This year we had the Elite with us, we had a big six man tag, we had BT Gunn, Joe Coffey & Lewis Girvan against Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks, but also on the same card we had Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll facing off against each other for the first time in Scotland. The whole of that card was exciting, even matches like Liam Slater vs. Joe Hendry and things like that. We had a lucha special as well where we had Shane Strickland, Angelica and Ricochet and that whole card will always stand out to me as being a belter of a show. The main event was and people kind of questioned us at the time, it was Ricochet vs. Big Damo, but it was something to behold. People were like "You can't put Ricochet in with Big Damo, what's Ricochet going to be able to do with a guy the size of Damo" but if you get the chance to go online and watch it, you'll be amazed. There was proper mark out moments for me, like Ricochet back suplexed Damo and even hit a spin-out powerbomb and you're thinking "How is that even possible? What is going on right now?" The fans were going crazy for it, they were going absolutely nuts.  

ATPW - I think that's something we don't see as often as we should, bigger guys mixing it up with smaller guys, produces a different dynamic...

AS - All cards have to have a mix of everything. You have to have a very layered card where it's not just six of the same matches, you have to give people variety. I think part of that variety is mixing up the weights and going "Okay, Big Damo vs. Ricochet!" Mix it up a bit and you get matches like that, which nobody would expect. 

ATPW - What are your short term and long terms goal with Discovery and pro wrestling in general? 

AS - Short term is obviously getting through our third anniversary. Hoping that we get a good turnout for it and people come out and celebrate it. That's definitely short term. We know what we've got coming for the rest of 2017. We've got for November, Pete Dunne, Trent Seven and Tyler Bate are making their Discovery debuts. We've got a very special show in December (Interviewers Note - Announced as Discovery vs. Bullet Club with the Young Bucks, Cody and Marty Scurll). It's gonna be massive again and you'll see it all over social media. 

Then long term in 2018, we've got our shows locked down and it's just continuing to grow. We always start out saying "We'll do half a dozen shows a year" but we end up doing more shows than we plan for. A lot of the time, it's because talent say "Can we come and do a show?" like when The Elite get in touch with you and say "Can you put a date on for us in Scotland?", you say "Of course, we can!". Long term it's just continuing to grow, trying to continue to grow, you look at companies like PROGRESS who go "We've announced a show" and ten minutes later they've sold out that show. That's the kind of thing. You look at OTT and that's the same kind of thing as well. You look at these promotions and go "Wow, that's incredible, what an achievement to be able to do that". That's the kind of thing we want to achieve as well, to get people excited to where you can sell out a big show without really announcing anything. Just continuing to have a good quality product that you know people can depend on and they know they're always going to see something good as soon as you announce a show. 

We've got options again, certainly online. The way things have been going over the last couple of months we've got exciting prospects for streaming services. We currently have an on demand service, but we've had developments over other prospects, so hopefully we'll have some more exciting news on that soon as well. 

Source - Discovery Wrestling

ATPW - Do you still watch wrestling as fan? Is there anything you've been watching at the moment? 

AS - I must admit I don't watch as much as I'd like to, everyone knows that life's busy. I'm a fan of Ring of Honor, so I've been following a lot of what they've been doing, but apart from that and I'm probably in the minority here, I don't even have a subscription to the WWE Network, it kind of expired and I hadn't even realised that I hadn't been on the Network for months. You stay in touch with it, because so many of the people on my friends list are into wrestling, so you see them sharing videos and stories of what is going on. But I tend to just dip in and out of wrestling, in terms of watching it, because I'm so busy planning for what we're doing, that sometimes you forget that there's other wrestling going on! 

ATPW - Where can people find Discovery online, social media, tickets, etc? 

AS - Online, Facebook's your best bet, Facebook.com/DiscoveryWrestling. On Twitter, we are @DiscoWrestling, don't confuse us with Disco Inferno, especially after today! There's been so many people in the past who have said "You should bring Disco Inferno in for a show, because you're Disco Wrestling". I don't think so! If you want to watch what we do, there is some content on Youtube right now. We have our own on demand channel which is OD.DiscoveryWrestling.com, you can sign in, get a free two week trial and binge watch everything we've done over the last couple of years. Binge watch what we do, share it and tell people you enjoy. The ticket site is shop.DiscoveryWrestling.com

Interview conducted by James Marston (@IAmNotAlanDale)