Supercard Review: WCPW Refuse to Lose - Martin Kirby v Joseph Conners

On 6th October 2016, WCPW presented their first Supercard event in Newcastle, Tyne & Wear. With Joseph Conners putting his World Championship on the line against Martin Kirby in the main event and a mixture of imported talent, like Kurt Angle, Minoru Suzuki and Kimber Lee, and British talent like Doug Williams, Joe Hendry and Joe Coffey, was it time for WCPW to cement it's place on the world stage, just 4 months into it's existence? Let's find out. 

Disclaimer - I've never watched an episode of Loaded or any previous WCPW adventure, so I really was going in dry here! I also watched the event a few days after it aired, so there won't be any complaining about how shitty the live stream was either (but apparently it really was the drizzling shits)...

Martin Kirby unsuccessfully challenging Joseph Conners was the main event of this show in everything but name as the pair put on a great showing for the first twenty minutes of the bout. They've wrestled a number of times outside of WCPW, in places like SWE, HOPE and RDW and that showed here with some incredibly smooth wrestling, with a clever narrative at it's heart. Kirby was painted as having the rub of the green on this occasion, getting the better of Conners at almost every opportunity, with Conners able to take advantage of the referees positioning to make sure he was able to stay in the match. Conners looked great when in control, bringing a more vicious and gritty side to the bout, but also sold well for Kirby on his comebacks, in fact both men's facial expression were marvelous throughout the contest. The contest built well into a number of near falls, including a variation of an Avalanche Fireman's Carry Slam from Kirby, whilst also keeping Kirby's Sable Bomb in the mind of the audience. 

I have to say that I was really getting into Kirby and Conners' war, they'd gone twenty minutes and seemed like the duo were about to change gear and head for home when Conners began to fire up on Kirby, then the ref got bumped and I groaned. Everything after the ref bump was so frustrating to watch, as whilst the initial moment of there not being a ref to count Kirby's victory after a Sable Bomb, was hurt by the fact that the supposed babyface Kirby, and then damaged even more so when Adam Pacitti stopped Kirby from hitting the Zoidberg Elbow and gave Conners the title win. I just didn't get why the WhatCulture personality had to be pushed to the level of causing the main event finish, effectively placing himself above the talent. Maybe it's because I don't really watch WhatCulture or that I'm completely new to WCPW but I couldn't get my head around it. It didn't make me want to see Pacitti get beat up or feel anything in particularly for anyone involved. In my personal opinion, on WCPW's first supercard, where new eyes like mine would be on the product, I would've made sure that my World title match was an absolute killer. Kirby and Conners showed they were capable, but had their legs cut from underneath them with the screwy finish. 

Okay, so I've already mentioned that I didn't enjoy the gratuitous WhatCulture personality interference in the World title bout, so I was going to absolutely hate a Street Fight involving Adam Blampied and Rampage [Brown], wasn't I? Well, to be honest I went into the bout wanting to absolute hate it, but it actually was kind of alright? It was set up quite nicely from the outset with Blampied trying to offer Rampage a suitcase of money to buy some meat, before a stream of interference left Rampage fighting from underneath. The former PROGRESS World Champion excelled in this role, with some nice selling, whilst a moment that saw him take out each member of Prospect (Alex Gracie, [H.T.] Drake & Lucas Archer) whilst Blampied cut a promo was handled well by all, even if it was a little bit corny. Adam Pacitti sending out numerous talents (including Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven & Tyler Bate) who mind bottlingly weren't actually on the card) to help combat Prospect and Big Damo was a little confusing, especially with Pacitti costing Kirby the title match later on, yet it did build to a satisfying finish as Rampage powerbombed Blampied through a table. Personally, I think they could have shaved five minutes of this and made it a more concise and exciting bout, but I still found this a much more entertaining watch than I was expecting.

In the opening contest, Pro Wrestling NOAH's Minoru Suzuki made his WCPW debut in hard hitting affair with former ICW World Heavyweight Champion Joe Coffey in a match that was fought under "NOAH Rules". This match was mostly made up of hard strikes as the pair went back and forth, with the main narrative thread coming from Suzuki's second El Desperado's constant interfering on the outside. The crowd ate this up and even if the "Shit Kalisto" chant made me cringe a little bit, it was still some good heat for the heely action of Suzuki, something which is often difficult to achieve as a well known import and respected veteran. There was some nice mirror storytelling in the final stretch of the match, with Suzuki dodging Black Coffey (Discus Lariat) before Coffey hit the move for a near fall and then later Coffey would escape Suzuki's sleeper hold, only to end up back in the move for another near fall later on. The finish where Suzuki won the match with a Gotch Style Piledriver set things up strongly for a rematch as the move would regularly be outlawed under WCPW rules. There's a lot of potential in a rematch between these two as whilst this match was an enjoyable scrap, there pair seemed be holding back and never quite hit their top gear. 

Whilst Doug Williams' "Mr. Brexit" character is a jumble of ideas which boils down to another rehashed Anti-Import gimmick, his match with a debuting Cody Rhodes was a smooth encounter that gave just a glimpse at what the pair could do together. As crisp as the early wrestling was, as Rhodes and Williams appeared to exchange holds with ease, Rhodes impressed me most with his selling as he made a real effort to make Williams offence look as devastating as possible, including trying to shake some life into his arm after taking a gutwrench suplex. I feel like with an extra five minutes or so, the pair would torn the house down as whilst we saw both go to the sky, as Rhodes hit a slingshot crossbody to the floor and Williams hit a diving knee drop, that seemed to be only the tip of the ice berg for the two technicians. I would've liked have seen a few more narrative seeds planted to build to finish, but Rhodes getting the win with Cross Rhodes still left us with a delightful bout. 

6 time TNA World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle defeating "The Local Hero" Joe Hendry would close the show, because Angle is a big enough of a star to command a show closing position. The match was a compelling watch, helped by some brilliant commentary, as Angle and Hendry told an easy to follow story, that progressed throughout the match. The idea that The Local Hero was outwrestling Angle in the early stages, given legitimacy by talk of Hendry's background in the amateur sport, leading to Angle taking a rougher brawling style to steal control. Later, the Olympic Gold Medallist would constantly go for the Angle Slam or Ankle Lock, painting The Cyborg as a veteran on the back foot, desperately trying to hold onto his status. The only spot that didn't quite work in this was the Avalanche Angle Slam as there seemed to be some miscommunication on how the move would be hit, leading to a couple of awkward seconds as Angle tried to explain to his opponent. Luckily, the finish didn't have any problems as after the straps were down, the pair would trade Ankle Locks with Angle selling for Hendry marvelously, before Angle would get the eventual win after grapevining the leg. Was it a must-see classic? No. Did it raise the profile of Joe Hendry, whilst giving fans a rare chance to see a bonafide legend who can still go? Oh hell yeah.

Nixon Newell retained her Women's Championship over former CHIKARA Grand Champion Kimber Lee in what was the most disappointing contest of the evening. Part of that disappointment was to do with the brevity of the match, part of that was too do with the commentary teams apparent indifference for the bout as they talked about previous events instead and part of that was to do with a couple of moments of sloppiness, that unfortunately came at key points within the bout. Those moments of sloppiness coming at those key moments, such as the messy finish, meant that the good work that the two women had put together previously, including a nice German suplex section, was pushed to the back of most people's minds. Lee would attack Newell after the match, I'm hoping the pair get to go at it again in WCPW, as they can do much better than they displayed here.

Perhaps one of the most curious bouts of an evening filled with curious bouts was a Triple Threat encounter, as 2 time WWE World Champion Alberto El Patron (Alberto Del Rio), 2 PROGESS Tag Team Champion El Ligero and Travis Banks came together in an attempt to become the first ever Internet Champion. This easily could ended up being a bit of a mess, with the unfamiliarity of the three competitors, but the trio managed to flow quite nicely together, with opening partnership between Ligero & AEP crumbling quickly to set the stage for the rest of the match. I would have liked to have seen some better use of the three way set up, but that would have come with the match being given a little more time to grow, as when we did see the threesome begin to look at this, like Banks blocking AEP's build to the cross armbreaker on Ligero (which was poorly shot), they produced some interesting stuff. The best work of the match came between Banks and Ligero in the first half of the contest, as they traded big moves and did so smoothly, but AEP still held up his part of the bargain including hitting a tasty middle rope lungblower on Banks in a nice swerve when they looked to be doing a tower of doom spot. The finish didn't quite hit the right notes for me as Ligero pinned Banks with a magistrale cradle, but once again it does set-up a number of interesting possibilities heading out of the show.

Easily the most head-scratching part of the show was the opening segment of the show, that involved 5 time WWE World Champion Bret Hart getting some cheap pops and putting over talent like Kurt Angle and Cody Rhodes, before James R. Kennedy and Prospect (Alex Gracie, Drake & Lucas Archer) interrupted. From this point on it was one botch after the another, as first JRK's mic didn't work, leading to an awkward moment where Hart had to hand him his mic, and then Alex Shane on commentary called the company NGW (his promotion) instead of WCPW, which certainly won't help those rumours that Shane is heavily involved in the creative for the promotion. Even without the botches, this was a dull segment lacking in any real friction or drama, that concluded with Liam Slater, Gabriel Kidd and Johnny Moss making the save. Seeing Hart is always a treat, but I'm not sure this was the best use of the WWE Hall of Famer.

Best of the Rest 

• In a "What the fuck is happening" segment, Jack the Jobber bought out some flowers for ring announcer So Cal Val, before The Primate came out and then attacked his valet Suzy...I think...whatever it was it didn't make a whole lot of sense and shouldn't have been on the PPV.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.42/10 

Show in a Sentence - Decent, above average, but needed more PW and less WC. 

Match of the Night - Martin Kirby v Joseph Conners

Words - James Marston 

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Opinion: WCPW Loaded or How the Fanbase are now Running the Asylum (Jozef Raczka)

There's a fascinating phenomenon that becomes engaged the longer a fanbase is established; eventually the fanbase can begin to take control. We saw it happen with the reboot of Doctor Who as Russell T Davies and Stephen Moffatt are both open life-long fans of the programme, who've gone from writing fan fiction to controlling the actual product. It blurs a line, when the fans take over where does the line between legitimate product and unofficial fan production end? This brings us to  WhatCulture Pro-Wrestling (WCPW), an offshoot of Whatculture - the website formerly known as Obsessed with Film that changed it's name when it became obsessed with everything and realised they can make list articles about it. In 2014, they set up a YouTube channel, Whatculture WWE, delivering video versions of the lovely list-icles and eventually spinning it off into videos of 'How They Would Have Booked...' Or 'How They Should Book, wrestling news and even PPV predictions with their on-air talent developing something of a series of wrestling personae. Now two years later, their YouTube channel has more followers than TNA so they took the only natural next step: they've set up their own promotion in an attempt to become a serious force in UK wrestling and to prove they're not messing around, they've got El Ligero on their first taped show in one of what was probably three shows he worked that day.

Now various technical elements can be excused for being a bit rough at first. During backstage promos, clearly they haven't got much room on their green-screen because everyone is packed into a small cube and as a result, the blocking suffers. Often people seem to come in and have their back to the camera in order to fit in which results in the mic failing to pick them up (sadly resulting in us missing some of the beautiful singing voice of Joe Hendry). Their backstage interviewer constantly bobs around mugging to camera but also out of shot in a way that irritates because if there's a static camera, you learn the edges of the space and you stick to them, damnit. Also the lighting needs some adjustment as during these sequences, there are often shadows obscuring faces and the occasional block of loose pixels. It's slightly surprising as their on-channel green-screen work has always been impressively smooth and high quality but despite having given an extended bit of criticism here, it's only their first show. If it's the first of many, I'm sure they'll improve quickly.

Another issue that they will have to approach is the on-air talent. The wrestlers themselves are obviously all pros but some of the Whatculture personalities fail to translate their YouTube shtick into the in-ring action with 'King' Ross especially going overboard on the 'heel' antics on commentary. Ross and Simon Miller do a decent job of calling the action but for my money, there was too much 'colour' added with the two of them talking over people talking in the ring and during entrances. You know how annoying it is when Michael Cole drowns out the eeriness of Bray Wyatt by talking about how eery it is? Imagine that but with two of them talking incessantly over another classic Hendry singing entrance (luckily, WCPW have provided the commentary-free clip of that entrance on their channel). Equally there's a general tone of 'smark' to the product, which lends itself further to a feeling of fan-service but does occasionally also seem like at least someone on creative probably drops insider terminology on a daily basis and thinks using WWE wrestler's indie names is hilarious.

The Matches

Adam Pacitti introduces himself as the general manager and WCPW. He hits the right level of sincerity for the crowd who are clearly all fans of the channel (because why else would they pay to see it?) and doing some real palm eating. There seems to be a genuine excitement, especially for the announced appearance of Damien Sandow at next month's tapings. We transition into:

Match 1 - Triple Threat Elimination Mach - Alex Gracie (W/ Lucas Archer and James R Kennedy) v Gabriel Kidd v Joseph Conners

This opening bout featured some interesting storytelling as for the most part Kidd and Conners teamed up to keep Gracie out of the match and level the advantage of him having a stable.  Gabriel Kidd was particularly impressive, his red trunks helping this comparison, reminding me of a young Daniel Bryan with the commentary team doing their best to put him over as a newcomer playing with scene veterans and holding his own. Joseph Conners showing some truly hard-hitting offense including a fantastic springboard DDT onto Gracie while he had Kidd in a small package pin. Sadly, the match was broken up just as it was starting to get interesting as Kidd was pinned following a Righteous Kill DDT from Conners before Gracie would go for a roll-up, Conners kicks out at two, has a short comeback before Archer and Kennedy invade the ring and lowblow Conners leading to a disqualification. It seems a bold and maybe reckless move to make the first match of your new promotion have a screwy finish. Sure it could be used to build storyline with the efforts of Conners and Kidd to remove Gracie but once one of them is out of the way, Gracie's gang pounced. It's more about introducing what you do, it sets a precedent. It said, at least to this humble reviewer, that individual match quality isn't as important as overall product. This may pay off in the long run but left me feeling a tad deflated.

Joseph Conners wins via DQ (6.33)

Match 2 - Martin Kirby vs El Ligero

This was a fun, comedy match by the two performers with Kirby playing a fun jealous heel. Ligero got a much bigger reaction from the crowd so Kirby twice locked up with Ligero, transitioned to a headlock, bounce off the ropes, shoulder tackle and launched into extended celebrations that would make Bo Dallas say 'well that was excessive'. From here the match launched into a story of Ligero outwrestling Kirby at every point pulling off some lovely highflying offense including a particularly crisp hurricanrana so Kirby responds by trying to imitate Ligero. The highlight of this match comes when Kirby climbs the top rope looking to Triple H with a bottle of water only to spew it onto Ligero, he goes to repeat the indignation only for Ligero to leap up and uppercut the mouthful of water over the crowd. The match hits it's finish when Kirby lines up Ligero for a sable bomb, Ligero reverses, hits a tornado DDT for the pin. This might have been a better choice for the first match as it had everything you want from an opener: high energy, big spots, got the crowd excited and a big, clean finish. Sure it could have done with a bit of tweaking in some of the more awkward comedy spots, Kirby's attempts to replicate Ligero did lead to some clumsy dead air but for the most part, a good showing for both men.

El Ligero wins via pinfall (9.30)

Match 3 - Prince Ameen vs Joe Coffey

Ameen comes out and gives a promo that gets no reaction from a crowd who make Full Sail seem pleasant. Ameen gets in one clever line as he responds to a 'what' chant by pointing out they mean to chant 'WhatCulture'. Then out comes Joe Coffey. They have a match that shows off Coffey's resiliency, speed and strength and Ameen... He has one decent Spinebuster. The finish comes after Coffey sets Ameen up for a discus lariat but Ameen rolls out of the ring and gets counted out. This now makes two out of three matches ending in a screwy fashion. Once again, it might pay off in the long run but in the immediate, did nothing for Ameen who presents no effective or impressive offense.

Joe Coffey wins via countout (6.05)

Main Event - Joe Hendry vs Big Damo (Jack King as special Enforcer) for the position of Jack's champion and a shot at the WCPW WHC.

In the booth, Simon and Ross are joined by Whatculture's top heel, Adam Blampied. Hendry has one of his trademark singing entrances that is interrupted by Damo dragging him out from backstage. The two brawl for a while outside the ring till Hendry throws Damo inside. The two have good chemistry and a strong back and forth with some highlights including a massive running crossbody from Damo and a superb fallaway slam by Hendry. Sadly it comes after a ref bump causing Jack King to slide in and play ref as the ending is marred by a chair Damo pulls out, Hendry dropkicks the chair into Damo, Hendry and Jack tustle over the chair and Damo uses the distraction to hit The Ulster Plantation and get the pin. That makes three of four matches in their first show without clean finishes. The pre-match brawl outside the ring and the actual in match action itself is lovely and I liked the unity with Jack King, presenter of wrestling news show The Fast Count, hitting multiple fast counts when forced to step in for the referee who seems to be out for hours but it would have been preferential if they wanted Jack to be the referee, to just make him special referee and skip the ref bump shenanigans. It overbooks what could have been a promising, if surprisingly brief match.
D

Big Damo wins via Pinfall (6.37)

The show's ending segment is where everything begins to click. Pacitti returns to the ring to unveil the WCPW WHC belt, of course just as he's celebrating this moment, out comes Adam Blampied with his contender for the title, Rampage Brown. Blampied plays off the crowd better than any of the other non-wrestlers especially when someone in the crowd starts jibing him for being a 'cut-price Bischoff', he comes into his element. Rampage also is allowed to look like a monster knocking out two refs, looking like he murdered one of the 'stage crew' with a piledriver before tearing up the cardboard belt that was used as a championship on the YouTube channel. This move feels particularly well targeted as WhatCulture fans gave Blampied a Rollins-esque hero's entrance, by the end of the segment there were boos-a-plenty and even a chant of 'fuck off Rampage'. If they wanted to make people buy the team of Brown and Blampied as heels, it definitely worked.

I'm going to eschew the ATPW tradition of putting a grade at the bottom here because it feels unfair to even try and place this fledgling promotion on the scale for it's debut. It had enough promise to suggest they might keep going for a while and certainly, the in-ring camera crew deserve praise for some particularly well placed and edited action, especially by independent standards. It can be forgiven for its weaknesses because it was just its first episode and nothing's going to be perfect at first. 

What holds it together is a certain disbelief that it exists. A website expanding to feature a wrestling section is fine, that spinning off to a YouTube channel makes sense but them expanding into their own promotion is insane. These are people that love wrestling, that watched the WWE and became fans, that created a fan product that became legitimate and has now pulled in it's own fans who have in turn created fan product that could become legitimate. As a wrestling show, it wasn't the best but as a snapshot of a unique moment in time, it was fascinating. It presents a unique position of a certain 'Hey look ma, I made it' attitude that makes fans feel so close, they could almost take it and make it themselves. This isn't just them wrestling in their back garden with their friends in a trampoline, this is a proper company that in its next round of tapings has Sandow as well as Jay Lethal, Noam Dar and Will Ospreay. They've managed to create something real and that's a lot more than most fans can say. Give them time and space to grow, and maybe someday we'll be saying 'WCPW, that's where the big boys play'.

Photo Credit: WCPW & Bob Dahlstrom