SLAM Wrestling Live in Cannock Review // 18th February 2018

When I heard my Mom had booked tickets to SLAM Wrestling at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Cannock for my nephew Freddie's birthday present I have to say I was already a little apprehensive about joining them. The previous show I went to at the theatre had been at best okay, but had also involved a bafflingly large table being pulled out during a women's table match, which then was accidentally dropped onto a child. SLAM employ a campy "Shall I hit him type" style, prevalent at British holiday camps, but without much technicality or psychology. This is fine for some, but really isn't my cup of tea. However, considering Freddie's brother Joe and my nephew's Nathaniel and Tobias were also going, at the very least I had to attend to keep some of the children under control (especially after a visit to the nearby McDonald's before the show). I thought at the very least, I'd have fun watching the children interact with the various characters and maybe get a little chuckle out of some of the action as well. We had a 30-man Royal Rumble and a Fatal Four-Way SLAM Wrestling Heavyweight Championship match featuring Johnny Diaz (who I think I remember working a few Fight Club: Pro dark matches as Johnny T), Eddie Woods, "The Submission Technician" James Terry and "Smethwick's Only Son" and champion Corey Johnson on hand, but how did it all go down in Cannock? Lets take a look. 

Production & Venue 

The venue was pretty well packed out, pushed as sold out by the ring announcer, although there was a number of empty seats on the stage and in the raked seating too, but still a solid 300 for a Sunday afternoon at the Prince of Wales. The production at first looked impressive, with a nice little entrance way and a pair of dry ice machines, leading to one of those ramps that goes straight into the ring, like WCW or TNA had for a bit. Unfortunately one of the dry ice machines broke pretty early and spat a watery substance (wet dry ice?) onto the crowd around it, whilst the other seemed to go off at random half-way through. There was also a weird piece of hype audio that played before the start of each half, ripping audio clips of Michael Buffer and the guy that does the voice overs for TNA PPVs. It confused the hell out of me and seemed unnecessary, especially when the ring announcer then spent a good ten minutes explaining to the crowd how to boo and cheer. Before the main event we also had to sing happy birthday to four ladies, not once but twice. Some of their birthdays weren't for over a fortnight. If anyone's name is spelled incorrectly, blame it on my complete lack of knowledge of a lot of these guys and a ring announcer who was often difficult to understand. 

30 Man Royal Rumble 

Ruddy hell, where to begin with this one? Lets begin at the end, because it was the most interesting, yet also stupid parts of the match. Lets break it down, shall we? Firstly, the 30th entrant Axl Carter didn't appear and then about a minute later he did appear to no music (I can only imagine he was on the loo and missed his entrance), then once he got to the ramp, some music hit and out came two lads with red steel chairs with the words OBK printed on them, in a style almost exactly similar to the font CCK uses. They battered Carter and proceeded to twat everyone left in the ring with the chairs and some of the biggest Kendo sticks I've ever seen, as well as a baking tray (Seriously, these lads must be really into Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos). In the end, despite guys appearing to come back in the ring, the OBK tandem chucked everyone over the top as their music played liked they were the bloody Gangstas and "won" the Royal Rumble. WHAT? No. 1. They weren't in the match. 2. That's not how it works. 3. WTF? Why would you choose to end a family show in a venue you run twice a year like this? Why would you think any of this was a good idea? The crowd seemed bored for most of the Rumble, but it felt like a lot of people switched off when an already complicated match for non-regular wrestling watchers descended into whatever the hell this was. It wasn't even the most stupid part. That came when one of the lads tried to attack a referee on the floor with the kendo stick, only for the ref to no sell three or four shots and take the stick off him. This was after at least eight wrestlers had sold the shots like car crashes in the ring. 

Beyond a few things I'll talk about in a moment, the match was painfully dull. Twenty minutes of wrestlers coming in and doing very little of note, before joining in punching and kicking someone in the corner or getting punched and kicked in the corner. One of my notes was "nothing happens" and that's because NOTHING HAPPENED. Very few of the guys came in and made anything resembling an impact and the main positive was that the entrances were around every thirty second, so at least we got to count down from five quite often, which as a wrestling fan is one of my favourite things to do (counting down from ten being higher on the list). That being said, for some daft reason, all the wrestling came out to the exact same entrance music. It was mildly amusing that the track was paused and then played from the same point for the next entrant, making it feel like the world's maddest game of musical statues, but I don't think this was the feel they were going for, because no one stood still when the music stopped. There was some kind of Rumble reference in the song, but even still I didn't need to hear the repetitive hook time and time again throughout the 30 minute match.

Lets close on some positives, because despite the fact I hated my life for almost the entire 35 minutes of this bout, there were a handful of decent moments. A lot of this had to do with the brawl between Johnny Diaz and Eddie Woods. Woods had eliminated Diaz from the four-way earlier in the night, with Diaz aiding Woods exit later on, so when Woods hit the ring and eliminated Diaz and then chucked himself over the top rope there was, at least, an element of good storytelling. It would've been cooler if Woods had done the classic Cactus clothesline spot, but you can't have everything in this world, James. Throughout the match the two would continue to brawl, disapearring behind the various doors in the theatre (having worked in this theatre myself, this was actually some rather clever use of that space). Each time Woods and Diaz would reemerge it would perk up the crowd, who at least had something interesting and intense to watch, whilst twelve or thirteen guys threw half-arsed punches in the ring. I also thought Athena Furie bought a little something to the bout as the first female entrant, coming in with more energy than the guy and even if her missile dropkick was perhaps the worst I'd seen, she was at least trying to do something entertaining.

SLAM Heavyweight Championship // Elimination Match //  "Smethwick's Only Son" Corey Johnson (C) def. "The Submission Technician" James Terry and Eddie Woods and Johnny Diaz 

You thought the finish of the Rumble was over-booked and/or confusing? There couldn't possibly be another daft finish on the same show, could there? Could there? COULD THERE? Yes, dear reader, there could. Get your head around this one, kids. We're down to Corey Johnson, the champion, and James Terry, who is apparently returning from a lengthy injury lay off, with Johnson's fellow Tag Team Champion Nate Lewis at ringside. Terry has a clear pin, but Lewis has the ref distracted, no problem so far, then the ref is pulled to the floor and Lewis puts the striped shirt on, which now means he's the referee, this is the start of the slippery slope. Slow pin falls ensued, with Lewis refusing to count the three, at least twice, before another referee arrived and argues with Nate, the original referee gets back in the ring and they send him packing. It's needlessly complicated for the audience, but if this was it and we headed to a finish it wouldn't have been too bad. But there was more. Lewis came back in the same boiler suit that Johnson was wearing, replaced Johnson in the ring, after throwing powder in the referees eyes and ended up taking the pinfall. Holy overbooking, Batman. Terry ended up looking like a fool for celebrating with the belt, because he'd clearly pinned a man with hair instead of the bald champion, whilst both Johnson and Lewis had both clearly been pinned, despite their being two of them. The match was restarted and Johnson won somehow, at this point, I think my head was too busy being in my hands to notice what the actual finish was. 

The rest of the match was mostly sloppy action, including an awful superplex that eliminated Diaz. This wasn't helped by numerous pinfalls and submissions (despite being the submission technician I think Terry only put one hold on all match) being broken up. Lads, its an elimination match. Both in and out of kayfabe this makes you look really dumb. I know these matches are rare, but it shouldn't take that much of an adjustment. Out of it all, I thought Woods seemed to have the most potential in the mix and this was compounded in the Rumble with his brawl with Diaz. He hit a nice somersault plancha at one point, that was impressive for a big chap. Honestly, though this coming straight before the Rumble and the two awful finishes back to back completely killed the show for me, but after the match it was revealed there would be a Lumberjack rematch between Johnson and Terry at the 30th August show in the same venue, after an angle where Terry threatened to break Lewis' leg. I'm tempted to return just to see how much over-booking they can fit into a Lumberjack match!  

SLAM Inter-Counties Championship // Aaron James def. Ricky Riot and Jimmy Dean and Luke Kedgeley // Pinfall

Another Fatal Four-way, but this time not an elimination match saw Aaron James able to retain his title with a pin over one of the other guys. I put "one of the other guys", because beyond Ricky Riot, the other three lads in this match seemed to have come out of the same factory. Very similar gear, very similar mannerisms, very similar everything. These guys were very similar. This meant most of the match was confusing to follow, whilst the crowd seemed unsure who they were supposed to be getting behind. Riot was the only guy with anything resembling a character, coming out in a funky shirt Christmas?), but I'm still not sure exactly what his character was and whilst he was clearly positioned as the matches main villain, he had the most exciting offence out of the four and therefore got a decent amount of support from the audience. The action was mostly disjointed, but there were a couple of highflying spots, such as a double suicide dive to star, a nice somersault plancha and a mid-rope moonsault, but I couldn't for the life of me tell you who hit them. 

"Big" Tim Burns & Bobby Vegas def. Liam Roberts & Lloyd Atari // Pinfall 

The opening match of the evening saw "Big" Tim Burns & Bobby Vegas, collectively known as XXXXL (maybe one less or one more X) go over Liam Roberts & Lloyd Atari when Burns picked up the win with his version of the World's Strongest Slam. It seemed a weird decision to have the heels go over in the opener, but considering some of the booking later on, it doesn't seem all that strange now. This felt like it was going to be a basic tag match with the younger and fast Roberts & Atari against the massive Burns and pal and for the most part that's what we got, with a handful of baffling moments. The general story played out that the babyfaces couldn't handle Burns, but had no real problems with Vegas, which is cool and made sense for how the characters were presented. What didn't make much sense was Roberts/Atari a comeback once Vegas was tagged and then locking on a head lock. Followed up by more low level submissions once Atari/Roberts was tagged. This killed the crowd, who were obviously awaiting a hot tag, that didn't come. The highlight was a pair of diving crossbodies to the floor from Roberts & Atari towards the tail end of the bout, which still ended up managing to be the second best on the show. 

Layton Cole def. "Simply Wonderful" Adam Idol // Pinfall 

The best match on the show, by quite some way as Layton Cole picked up a clean win over Adam Idol in what was announced as a grudge match. The match stuck to simple things, with two clearly defined roles, as Idol stalled from the beginning after telling the crowd they sucked in a promo. The bout mixed in a handful of big spots that helped to produce the feeling that this wasn't a regular match between the pair, including Idol reversing a piledriver attempt on the wooden ramp into a backbody drop and a diving leg drop from Cole that ended up being the moment of the show. In fact, the main problem the match had had nothing to do with either wrestler as it was the referees ridiculously slow count that threatened to rob the match of any drama that had been created from a number of otherwise good near falls. If the rest of the show had been of a similar quality then I would've come away having had a much better time. Believe it or not, without this match the show would be receiving a significantly lower rating...

ATPW Scale Rating // 1.84 out of 10

Written by James Marston // @IAmNotAlanDale 

LPW Halloween Bash 2017 [DVD] Review // 28th October 2017 // Henry Winter vs. The Golden Cobra vs. Mustafa Khan

Disclaimer: ATPW Editor James Marston asked Adam Bowler if he would like to take part in an interview to discuss some of the points raised by Marc Pearson in the following review, in an attempt to present as balanced a view as possible. This would've been a chance for Mr. Bowler to either dispute any criticism found below or to talk about the future changes he's planning to make to his product after reading Mr. Pearson's words. Mr. Bowler refused the offer. He mentioned something about Mr. Marston getting his "fifteen minutes of fame", before sending this on Christmas Day..."WHGO THE HELL DO U THINK U R NOW I DO NOT GIVE PERMISSION FOR THE REVIEW #". Whatevs. Here's the freaking review, kids. Buckle up, Teddy, because it's the Halloween Bash and I've a feeling we're in a for a bumpy ride.

Leeds Professional Wrestling are a funny one. Formed in Leeds in 2011 by Adam Bowler, they have been a laughing stock in the British wrestling scene pretty much ever since. Despite Britwres being on a serious high right now they don’t seem to be able to attract the audience share that other Yorkshire based promotions such as RISE and Tidal have captured. Legends of less than 50 paying customers seem to come up time and again along with fights with talent, missing title belts and rows with literally every other promoter in the country, from PCW’s Steven Fludder to Southside’s Ben Auld to his latest falling out with Ricky Knight, Adam manages to piss of fans, promoters and, well, just about everyone to be honest.

Which I’m sure makes you wonder why I’m reviewing this show. I should state for the record here that I’m not a friend of Adam’s, having been blocked by him precisely 4 times so far, nor do I work for LPW. Adam asked me to do a DVD review of one of his shows, and an interview for this fair site, so I figured that seen as I’ve never actually seen one of his shows I’d give it a shot.

But, being Mr Bowler, there was a snag. It took 2 MONTHS for the DVD in question to arrive. Now for a company who draws such low figures one would think that some free publicity would be top priority, but that friends would be logical thinking. Something Adam doesn’t seem capable of!

“IT'S A NEW clean professional slate for LPW. New everything Rebranding”

His words not mine folks!

First impression doesn’t amount to much as my name is spelt incorrectly on the envelope! Then when I take the DVD out of the envelope the DVD box doesn’t have a front cover so looks bargain basement as it can get, not the best start for the new “professional” LPW! I asked Adam about this and he informed me that his talent had “kicked off for no reason” about being on the cover. More people Adam has angered I’m sure. Not the first time this has happened, check out the awesome cover of LPW Nemesis 2015!!!

Onto the show then...

IT’S THE 28^th of October 2017 and we are live at the Stanningly Rugby Club in Leeds with roughly 30 people on hand to see not one, not two but THREE new champions crowned, Adam obviously not a believer in the less is more theory. I’m later told that we NEED a new LPW Champion and Cruiserweight champion after Adams falling out with the Knights means that he is not allowed to use their talent!

The show starts with SOME GUY coming to the ring, I say some guy because there’s no graphic on the screen to say who it is! My backyard wrestling promotion in 2009 had on screen graphics but Adam either can’t make them or can’t be bothered to add them, as a first-time viewer it would be very helpful to know who each man is though. Whoever he is he comes out to utter indifference, I mean complete silence. He cuts a promo about Ross Pointon, who then comes to the ring, the guy (Francis Darwin as I later find out) rips on Pointon who is apparently an MMA fighter until Pointon shoves Darwin, to silence. Pointon then cuts a promo, to silence, which finishes with silence. Its like the crowd (I use that word very lightly as there can’t be more than 30 people there including the bored looking bar staff) have never been to a wrestling show before so don’t know how to react!

Onto the matches…

Gareth Angel vs. Danny Steel vs. Caz Crash for the new LPW Cruiserweight Cup

Clearly, I’m missing something here because at the previous show, LPW High Voltage, PJ Knight won a tournament to become the first Cruiserweight Cup winner, yet here tonight we are getting a 3 way to crown a new champion! What happened to PJ Knight? We are never told!

I thought this was a 4 way as there was a guy already in the ring, turns out he’s the ref! For some reason the ring announcer announces each man then their music plays, then Crash and Steel come out to the same music which is odd, they could be a tag team but with no match graphic or information from the commentators we have no idea! Match is actually decent with Angel as the heel, Steel as the face and Crash as the tweener. It’s the type of match that I bet in front of a decent crowd would be good but its painful how little noise there is until late into the match when Steel gets some clapping going. Crash hits an RKO to get the win in around 11 minutes. I would have put this on first then had the Pointon/Darwin confrontation but that’s just me.

Brooklyn vs. Felicia – Women’s Championship Qualifying Match

So, the British Championship match and the Cruiserweight Cup are just stand alone matches but the women’s championship gets its own mini tournament, because of reasons. 

Commentators don’t say why, there’s nothing I can find online to explain it, it just is. Judging by her attitude Brooklyn has recently turned heel. Seemingly indifferent to the match at hand. Felicia is a cat apparently, different if nothing else. She’s got a lovely Northern Lights suplex and a sweet swinging neck breaker finisher which only gets 2, to silence. Brooklyn wins with what she calls the Brooklyn Bridge, it’s a weird cross arm submission that looks like it has no pressure on it at all and the crowd groan. The ring announcer then asks for a round of applause for Brooklyn, when the crowd boo she says, “aw, no need to be like that”, who the hell is this woman? She’s the absolute drizzling shits!

Alfie Rogue vs. Athena Furie – Women’s Championship Qualifying Match

Alfie Rogue looks like she would rather be ANYWHERE but here, actually looking bored and nervous at the same time. She has no facials in the match and zero crowd interaction! Ooo Furie has a Roman helmet with her and different coloured eyes, that’s different. She shouts a lot but its an intensity that has been lacking so far on the show, and it means she gets the “crowd” to cheer for Rogue. Match is back and forth with Furie working the arm of Rogue. Rogue gets the win when Furie misses a swanton bomb enabling Rogue to hit a spear for the 3. Rogue vs. Brooklyn in the finals. Personally, I would have preferred Furie vs. Felicia but that’s just me. Ok match.

At this point I pause the show and I ask Adam a few questions regarding his booking ideas, and he asks me to work for LPW and try and convince Steven Fludder, Ben Auld and “that promotion you work for” (no idea) to help Adam with his shows, I point blankly refuse as there is nothing that Adam could offer me that would make me want to work for him and I can just imagine what these promoters (and the one who I apparently work for) would say! I guess this is why I was asked for the DVD review and interview!

Andrew Jepson vs. Rex Savage – Number One Contender Match

Bugger me, Savage gets a reaction when he comes out, he interacts with the crowd and everything, meaning there’s more noise in the first moments of the match than the rest of the show so far! Both men are big so it’s a hard hitting, slow paced power match. But as said, the noise that Savage brings from the “crowd” means it not that bad, its not great but its certainly ok. Jepson controls with suplexes, he cuts off Savage anytime he gets anything going, BUT, when he’s on offence the silence descends on the “crowd”, it reinforces my belief that is not a wrestling crowd. They perk up though when Savage starts his comeback, hits a spear on the outside then, in the ring, counters a butterfly suplex and hits a running powerslam for the win. Best match of the show so far.

I just have to show you guys this as it made me smile, there was a raffle at the show and I’m seriously jealous of that main prize, a bottle of win! Made better by Adam repeating this throughout the post of the UKFF, a website that Adam seems to have a major obsession with. 

IF he put half the effort he does into arguing with people on the UKFF into promoting his shows I’m positive that he would draw more people. His December 2017 show drew precisely 6 people, one of which was from the UKFF, and he didn’t pay to get in!

Jayrow vs. Francis Darwin – LPW British Championship – Ross Pointon is Guest Enforcer

This match is to crown the first ever LPW British Champion. No, we don’t know what the difference between the LPW Championship and the LPW British Championship, I asked Adam and he responded that “it’s like the Intercontinal (sic) and the heavyweight title if that makes sense“, it would Adam if you’re company was large enough to sustain 2 titles, but you already have a main title and a Cruiserweight Cup, so adding a third title waters down the other 2!

As stated I don’t understand why the Women’s title gets a tournament and this new championship doesn’t! A few minutes in, Ross Pointon leg sweeps Darwin, for no reason, wasn’t provoked or anything like that, just did it! Anyway, Darwin is seriously intense, using suplexes, strikes and submissions (that’s a great catch phrase isn’t it) until Pointon puts one of Jayrows feet on the ropes! So Pointon is acting like a heel but is a face? That’s so very confusing! BUT ITS NOTHING to the WOEFUL finish of this match. Darwin gets in Pointon’s face about his actions, but before they can come to blows Rex Savage and SOME GUY in a mask come out to stop them, they hold onto Darwin, so he can’t get to Pointon, but by holding onto him it means the ref counts him out giving the win and the new championship to Jayrow! The first few minutes of in ring here were good but holy shit that’s probably the worst finish to a match I’ve seen this year, and I saw Martina beat Damian Dunne after shooting him in the head, WITH A TOY GUN! This was so much worse and made both men look like utter losers. Pointon acts like a heel manager on the outside yet we, the fans, are meant to cheer him. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE, BECAUSE AFTER THE MATCH, JAYROW ACTS LIKE A HEEL, REFUSING TO HIGH FIVE THE GUYS IN THE FRONT ROW, I'M SO CONFUSED NOW, WAS DARWIN A FACE?

I asked Mr. Bowler about this match and why it was booked in this way, his response was “I don’t need to explain stuff for a review it’s about 1 show”

In the same conversation Adam started telling about the main event of this show, saying he didn’t know what he was thinking booking one of the participants, we’ll have to see if we can guess which one!

Alfie Rogue Vs Brooklyn – LPW Women’s Championship Final

The terrible MC gets the ref to hold up the belt saying, “it’s a nice belt” to which one of the commentators says, “it’s from Topman”, that made me smile WAY more than it should but after the garbage of the last match I needed something to cheer me up. Brooklyn looks just as uninterested in this one as her first match, Rogue manages to look even less interested if that’s possible! Only highlight of this match is a nice falcon arrow by Rogue, the rest of it is stiff and disjointed. Brooklyn wins when Athena Fury comes out and distracts Rogue allowing Brooklyn to get a roll up, not holding the tights or anything like that, just a plain bog standard roll up. Two screwy finishes in a row, maybe Mr Bowler is a fan of Vince Russo who know, I’ve lost the will to live or ever watch wrestling ever again by this point!

But hey, don’t take my word for it on this one, this whole match (all 4 minutes of it) is on YouTube if you want to see for yourselves what it, the venue, the lack of people (quoted as 50 by Mr Bowler, you be the judge) and the WOEFUL MC are like! 

Henry Winter vs. The Golden Cobra vs. Mustafa Khan – LPW Championship Match

Adding to an already confusing card is two men who were advertised for the show not being here. This match was advertised as being Paradise vs. Henry Winter vs. Hades vs. The Golden Cobra. As with so many things tonight no mention of this is given on commentary. No mention how these men have got title shots OR why previous champion Bash is no longer the champion either! Oh, and there is 7 minutes left of the DVD for this match so I’m not expecting it to be all that long!

Match is nothing special at all, just mild brawling with some stuff on the outside, the “crowd” pop for a chokeslam by Khan, Winter's manager attacks Cobra enabling Winter to hit a backbreaker for the win in just 5 minutes to utter indifference. TBH I’m struggling to guess which wrestler Mr Bowler referred to as all three were God awful!

And that folks was LPW Halloween Bash 2017

The Good – The commentators were mainly background noise for me, not providing us with much info about WHY the matches were happening or WHY 2 champions had been stripped of their title, but they had some good banter and were not that bad. The PA system was decent, with all the music sounding good and whoever was in charge of said music doing a decent job. Savage vs. Jepson was MOTN, hard hitting back and forth action with Savage trying his absolute hardest to keep the noise level from the “Crowd” as high as possible. The opener had a few good moments!

The BAD – The DVD lacking a cover made it look so cheap. The MC was the worst I’ve heard in 6 years of watching British Wrestling, I don’t know where Adam found her, but I hope for his sake he never uses her again and she was cheap. Who the hell is Ross Pointon and why should I care about him? His fee was a truly massive waste of money yet when I asked Adam about it replied with “lets just say we’ve got something planned”, that suggests that this angle thing is going to go somewhere yet a quick check on LPW’s December 2017 show suggest that not only was Pointon not there but that another MMA fighter (Ian “The Machine” Freeman, whoever he is) no showed the event! Every other match on this show was piss poor, going through the UKFF Adam says time and again that we should go to his shows to see great matches, but I just don’t see them here, screwy finishes that make no sense performed in front of indifferent people mean they are hard to watch, this 90-minute DVD took me 4 sessions to watch!

Adam has stated that not one show in his 6 years of promoting has made any money, his backers, whomever they may be, must have seriously deep pockets to allow him to keep running shows! On the evidence I’ve seen here I’d strongly advise him to stop running and save it to people who know what they are doing, as Adam clearly doesn’t have a clue!

Oh, and I’m waiting for his answers to the questions I posed to him for the interview, that he asked for, in October 2017!

Review by Marc Pearson (@MarcRPearson101)