TV Review // NXT UK #1 // Pete Dunne vs. Noam Dar

It feels like we've been waiting a long long time for NXT UK to finally begin. The rumours, the non-starts, the Takeover classics, Pete Dunne battering Enzo Amore on RAW, the three sets of tapings with no episodes aired...it had been almost two years since WWE UK first began to take shape. But on 17th October 2018, WWE finally aired the first episode of NXT UK on the WWE Network, with footage coming from the 28th July taping at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in Cambridge, England. 

The premiere episode brought us a United Kingdom Championship main event as Pete Dunne put the title on the line against 205 Live regular Noam Dar, whilst Moustache Mountain's Tyler Bate & Trent Seven, Toni Storm, Mark Andrews, Dave Mastiff and Joe Coffey all appeared. But was it any good? Lets take a look. 

A big ol' pompous opening that felt very Triple H, as it discussed building an empire and showed some of WWE's history with the UK. 

The first match of the show saw ICW's Joe Coffey get the better of PROGRESS' Mark Andrews in a battle of UK Championship Tournament semi finalists. The pair had a rock solid bout, that played to their strengths, with Coffey able to display his power and Andrews pulling out a lot of very pretty fast paced offence, with a healthy dollop of the underdog babyface fire that made him a top name on the BritWres scene. Mark Coffey's distractions at ringside worked well to develop the dynamic between the brothers, whilst also building to the spot of the match nicely when Andrews nailed a moonsault onto both men at the same time. Cambridge was super hot for Mandrews from the very beginning and I think that had a massive impact on my enjoyment of this one, as it bought a new dimension to the dynamic and meant that every fight back from the smaller man felt that little bit more important. I'm still unsure whether WWE realises how much of a diamond they have in Mark Andrews. On that note, Coffey would pick the win moments after the moonsault spot, nailing an overhead belly to belly suplex and the Aw'ra Best for the Bells lariat to earn the first ever victory on NXT UK. 

Stat - The only other match between the pair had the same result when they battled at Discovery Wrestling in Edinburgh, Scotland back in November 2015.

After the match, the Coffey Brothers began to lay into Andrews, with "Flash" Morgan Webster heading out for the save. A nice early bit of storyline and what could a fun feud between these two teams. All good so far. 

Moustache Mountain were seen wheeling their suitcases through Cambridge, looking like a pair of b i g s t r o n g b o i s. 

Eddie Dennis made his debut in a video package, discussing his history with Pete Dunne and Mark Andrews, with some classic pictures of all three flashing on screen, before Dennis revealed he had some stories to tell. This has a lot of potential and was one of the elements of this episode that made me most excited to see what was to come from the brand.

Former NXT Tag Team Champions Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) came out to say a few words. I don't really know what else I can say here, because nothing really happened, with the segment seemingly acting as a way to simply shoe-horn Bate & Seven onto the first episode without having them compete. I mean, there was nothing wrong with the pair interacting, they're both entertaining to watch and managed to hold the crowd with their banterous chat, but there also wasn't anything resembling substance. There was no feud to push or surprise interruption, this was just a thing that happened for a bit. Even the discussion of the NXT Tag Team titles ended up abruptly, because at this point there's not enough teams to have a division, which is an odd thing to have to point out on your first episode. The rest of the promo was a bit circle-jerky, discussing the achievement of NXT UK and how the fans had been a big part in it happening. I'm hoping NXT UK doesn't continue this habit of repeatedly patting it's own back, because it will get old fast. 

Dave Mastiff is in action next, so we get a little look at what Mastiff is all about, which is basically bodying lads. 

A recap of how Noam Dar earned his WWE United Kingdom title shot last June, with his four-way victory over Travis Banks, Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews.

Dave Mastiff picked up his first victory on WWE TV in a quick, one-sided match with the debuting Sid Scala (IPW:UK). Mastiff looked very impressive here, showing off not only his range of power moves, but also his innate charisma as he laughed at any offence that Scala managed to get in on him. The 16 year veteran owned the space, showing off his range of agility with a wicked closing sequence of moves that included a front dropkick, release german suplex and a 315 lb cannonball. Scala is someone who could offer a lot to NXT UK in the future and his bumping performance here should have put him in good stead to do just that.

Match stat - This was Dave Mastiff's first televised victory since defeating Grado to win the vacant World of Sport Wrestling Championship on New Year's Eve 2016.

Blue Peter presenter Radzi Chinyanganya (strangely uncredited) interviewed Nina Samuels backstage as Samuels said she wanted to make a name for herself at the expense of Toni Storm. For me, the promo felt a little forced, with Samuels coming across as nervous throughout, whilst it also taught me very little about Samuels or her character, with a general "insert name" here feel. This could have been anyone. 

Considering Toni Storm's only previous WWE losses have come against NXT Women's Champions Kairi Sane and Shayna Baszler, it was no surprise to see her pick up a clean victory over the debuting Nina Samuels (Pro Wrestling EVE) here. This match didn't click for me, with Samuels looking awkward when on both attack and defence, whilst she also struggled to stand out as anything other than a generic heel foil. Obviously the match was designed to showcase Storm, but considering the amount of offence Samuels got in, I felt like I learnt next to nothing about her from this performance, with the character coming across your basic wrestling villain. This wasn't helped by some sloppy offence, including a poor tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. That isn't to say that the match didn't have it's bright spots, because some lovely stiff forearms from Storm as part of her comeback and an early tease of the running double knee smash that would later help Storm on route to her victory. The finish felt a little familiar with a similar set-up to how Dave Mastiff went over Sid Scala a few minutes earlier, as Storm hit a German suplex into the corner to set up the knee smash, with the addition of a Storm Zero adding a little differentiation. 

Stat - These two had previously faced off at WrestleForce in Southampton in 2015, British Empire Wrestling in Tooting and Westside Xtreme Wrestling in Tufnell Park both in Greater London in 2017, with this match leaving Storm with a 3-1 record. 

Next week - Tyler Bate vs. Wolfgang in a 2017 United Kingdom Championship tournament semi-final rematch.

The main event saw Pete Dunne successfully retain the United Kingdom Championship in a very good match with Noam Dar. A strong example of the meshing of a classic British technical outing and WWE style main event, this clash gave plenty of hope that NXT UK will be able to find its own distinct style, whilst still appealing to a wider audience. The match managed to be both all-action and storyline-based with the early part of the match showing this off perfectly as whilst numerous threads for later in the match were being woven we also got a great spot as Dunne's trademark backflip out of the corner was thwarted by a chop block, before Dunne also used his signature X-Plex and then a sitout powerbomb for a near fall. Dar worked as the matches aggressor, targeting Dunne's knee in anticipation for the Champagne SuperKneeBar, but the crowd split about 70/30 in favour of Dunne, which created a cool football match type atmosphere on the screen. A series of delicious back and forth strikes, followed up by a superb submission exchange seemed to have the Cambridge Corn Exchange rocking and would be my pick for the best wrestling in the match, although the gorgeous Bitter End reversal into the CSKB by Dar was also a major contender. I'd have loved to see these two go another ten minutes, because their work was so crisp and precise and it felt like they'd only scraped the surface of their creativity together. The finish had been hinted at all match with Dunne attempting the finger snap on Dar multiple times and Dar repeatedly flashing his pinkies up with cocky swagger, so therefore it was only fitting that Dunne would eventually bend Dar's pinky back and stomp it right into the mat. The spot looked horrible but in the absolute best way and set up for the Bitter End to seal the victory.  For me, this was the best that Dar has looked in his time with WWE, given the opportunity to work a type of match that suits his style with an opponent capable of helping him to raise his game when needed. 

I was half expecting a big attack angle to close the show and lead into next week, but instead the commentary posed the question of who could possibly take the belt off Pete Dunne. This was a pretty cute way to end the first episode, especially because, as of now, it's rather difficult to pick someone from the pack as the person who could do it. Building the show around a dominant champion is an interesting move to kick off the brand with, but one that should provide plenty of scope for storytelling, as well as a number of top class matches. With the thought that it can surely only be a matter of time before Dunne finds himself on an even bigger stage, I can't wait to see who will the one chosen to step up from the pack and take over his role as the face of the brand.

Stat - Pete Dunne continues to be undefeated in singles action on WWE TV since losing the final of the 2017 United Kingdom Championship tournament. With the run now at 16 matches, Noam Dar joins a list that includes Roderick Strong, Ricochet and Adam Cole, Dunne's overall singles records stands at an impressive 19-1.

A strong debut episode for NXT UK, booked ended by a good opener and a very good main event. The middle of the episode could have been tighter, with the women's match and the Moustache Mountain appearance not really working for me. There's certainly lots of space for improvement, which will come as the wrestlers become more acclimatised to regularly working with WWE and WWE becomes more aware of the performers it has on it's books and what they are capable of both in the ring and within the various storylines and feuds that we'll hopefully see develop. It's clear that this isn't the finish product, just like the early episodes of NXT only showed glimpses of what that show would become and Iooking forward to seeing how the show finds it feet and who from the roster of talented performers steps forward and takes this considerable opportunity by the horns.

Written by James Marston 

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) 

FCP DTTI Hangover (Live) Review

On 19th May, Fight Club: Pro found itself a new home at Starworks Warehouse in Wolverhampton and hosted the aftermath of their epic Dream Tag Team Invitational Easter weekender. The show featured a Six Man Scramble with Angelico, Jimmy Havoc, Jordan Devlin, Eddie Dennis, Dan Moloney and Clint Margera, the DTTI winners #CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos) facing off with the debuting Scarlet & Graves (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) and The Hunter Brothers (Lee & Jim) and Travis Banks defending the FCP Championship against Trent Seven, as well as appearances from Kay Lee Ray, Joe Coffey, "The Regulator" Wolfgang, Kris Wolf and "Session Moth" Martina...but was it any good? Let's take a look, shall we? 

Pre-Show
Omari def. Dallaway, Johnny T & Fletcher 

These multi-man trainee "dark" matches had become a bit of a tradition towards the end of FCP's run at Fixxion, so it was nice to see them return for the Starworks show. These usually short and pacy matches work quite nicely at whetting the appetite for some a more substantial graps feast to come, like a nice soup with a crusty cob or whatever your starter of choice is...prawn cocktail, whatever. The first half of the bout was 1i1o type stuff, with a number of big strikes that left Omari with a bright red chest, then into the obligatory dive sequence, before a double german suplex spot was aided with an Omari enziguiri. For me, the best action on offer came when Kyle Fletcher and Omari went at it, putting together hard-hitting slick strike sequence as well cool spot with The Big O slingshotting to the inside and straight into a Fletcher superkick. Overall, the timing could have been better at points, but nothing that had a major effect and with this technically being a trainee dark match those kind of things are to be expected as the four being to iron out their creases. As with any starter this was a nice lead in for what was to come, without ever threatening to fully satisfy the hunger.   

Wolfgang def. Coffey 

The opener of the show proper was an interesting choice, as Wolfgang and Joe Coffey met in their most Southern match to date. Originally, Coffey and Wolfgang were scheduled to take part in a six man match, but Wolfie cut a quick promo and we had an all Scottish affair to kick things off in Wolverhampton. Now, I've thought about how to review this match more than probably any other match on the card, because in the moment, I just didn't get it. Not that I felt I'd seen a bad match, but one that just hadn't grabbed me in the way I perhaps expected it to do. Being the conscientious reviewer that I am and knowing that I'd enjoyed both guys on previous occasions, I thought I'd ask some of my wrassle pals what they thought and almost every single one of them seemed to have a higher opinion of the bout than I did.  I wouldn't say anyone raved about it, but they enjoyed the big lads battle, Marc Pearson noted the psychology in particular, but I still wasn't buying into it. 

I'm not sure why I did...not enjoy isn't the right phrase, because there was some lovely stuff and a few spots that I'll always pop for (Coffey's triple jump crossbody)...so perhaps the best term is fully appreciate. I'm not sure why I didn't fully appreciate this match. I've purposefully not gone back and watched it since, because I wanted to give my feelings on it from being there in the space and how it affected me. Perhaps it was the new venue, which is much more spacious than Fixxion and it took some getting used to the new atmosphere. Perhaps it was the ring breaking early on, when it looked like one of the board came at the very least loose on a bodyslam, which threw me a little off. Perhaps it was coming off a four man into a singles match that I expected to be a six man did something to me. I'm not sure. Looking back on my notes, it reads like a decent opener with some big spots like Coffey's running jump over the barricade and mid-rope moonsault from Wolfgang, before Wolfie picked up his first FCP after blocking a superplex and nailing The Howling. I'm looking forward to rewatching this and hopefully reappraising in the future, as well as getting to see how both fit into Starworks plans going forward. 

KLR def. Wolf

Kay Lee Ray's first FCP singles win against the debuting Kris Wolf from Stardom was a fun bout whilst it lasted but I came away a little disappointed. There was absolutely nothing wrong with this bout and I had a ball of a time watching it, but there just wasn't enough of it. After a technical start, the two had some jokes revolving around the height differential (KLR is 5' 8'' and Wolf just 4' 10'') including a surprise appearance from Viper to even the odds, we had KLR replying to Wolf biting her arm, by biting Wolf's tail and the two looking to use the new FCP set-up as much as possible. Kay Lee jumped off the barricade with a forearm and then Wolf used the new entrance way as a set off monkey bars, initially thrusting out for a kick and then transitioning into hurricanrana onto the floor. Creative stuff on the outside with the exploration of the new venue being a bit of theme for the whole show. 

Once the action returned to the ring I was expecting business to pick up. We'd seen flashes throughout the match with some fast paced roped running stuff and a cool succession of near falls, but by this point I was chomping at the bit to see Wolf and KLR hit top gear and by the bouts conclusion I don't think we got anywhere close to seeing what the pair could have done together. A couple of near falls for each, KLR off a Gory bomb and a wheelbarrow suplex for Wolf and it seemed like the bout was heading towards it's crescendo and then Kay Lee slapped on a koji clutch and that was that. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, perhaps some more firey exchanges, perhaps a gear change, perhaps some cool submission escapes and just a general build up of aggression towards a conclusion, but I certainly wasn't expecting Wolf to tap so quickly. I'm hoping we get a rematch between the two, depending on how long Wolf spends in the country, because a second match building on the stellar work done here would take away my needy complaints. I want more, dammit.    

#CCK def. Scarlet & Graves and Hunter Brothers 

With Mark Andrews off the card, The Hunter Brothers joined #CCK's Chris Brookes and Kid Lykos and the debuting Rockstar Pro regular's Scarlet & Graves' Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz in a superb three way tag team match as the first half main event. I both hate and love #CCK, sometimes at the same time. I don't know when it happened but Brookes & Lykos have developed into one of the slickest tag team acts in the world. Ever little detail they've added over the past year or so, after branching out from Attack! into FCP, IPW:UK, Southside and elsewhere, Brookes spitting and chucking water at lads, Lykos never shutting up and never being able to hit a brainbuster and also those sicking fucking tag moves, those little details make them so easy to hate, but so entertaining to watch at the same time. When the best boys controlled, first Wentz and then Jim Hunter, they held the crowd in just the right place for the madness that was about to come our way. 

Christ, once the momentum swung towards the Tipton and Ohio connection, as Jim tagged in Xavier things became a balls to the wall sprint, with a shed load of highspots and more sicking fucking tag moves than you could shake a shitty stick at. Dives to the outside from all four of our heroes, big strikes, the Hunters swinging into dropkick, the sweet gory blockbuster that CCK do and that's not even the half of it, as Scarlet & Graves also won over a number of new fans with their high energy offence. My notes on this match got gradually less descriptive as the bout went on, to the point where my final bullet point was "Finish is a series of ridiculous things seemingly all happening simultaneously. It is fucking marvellous". If that's not a good enough description for you, go and watch the match and come back and tell me I didn't get it spot on.  

Devlin def. Angelico, Havoc, Dennis, Moloney and Margera 

OTT's Jordan Devlin picked up a big win on his FCP debut in an eclectic six man scramble, that showcased a real mixed bag of performers and went all over the building. With a variety of different styles, movesets and personas, this was never going to be boring, especially with the crowd so intent on trying to get the attention of Dan Moloney. The mach started with a series of strikes, before the six men worked a lovely sequence where Devlin and Moloney thwarted dive attempts from Angelico and Eddie Dennis, before Jimmy Havoc and Clint Margera got the better of the villain, hit stereo suicide dives and Dennis and Angelico went up and over to the floor. It was a structurally simple opening, but non the less it was effective, with the initial denial of the fan favourite flips meaning they meant a whole lot more when we got them, and more, shortly after. 

Then, of course, there was the crowd brawling. Boy was there some crowd brawling. Starworks is much larger than Fixxion so it seemed like everyone decided to make the most of the extra space. The enjoyment of this kind of stuff usually depends on where you happen to situated in the room and how much you can actually see and with most of the action happening towards the bar area at the far end of the room and me sitting front row towards the entrance way, I didn't manage to catch a whole lot of this. There certainly was some brawling, in different combinations. With six men in the match it would've been cool to have seen them split off into pairs and head into different sections of the crowd, so there was something different for each area to focus their attentions on, but unfortunately the bulk seemed to occur in the large space at the far end of the room. There was a great spot with Devlin reversing a Havoc piledriver into a backbody drop on the bar, which caused an odd series of hanging lightbulbs to swing about, as well as a sequence of back and forth forearms with the six sat opposite each other, however. 

Once back in the ring, the match produced its best action with some interesting combinations battling it out. Dennis cleaned house with forearms out of various situations, Margera and Moloney put together a good section together, Margera took an acid rainmaker as Havoc shouted "I'm sorry, I love you" for a nice pop and Dennis took out both the Callous Hearts with a Fallaway Slam/Samoan drop combination, a solid mixture of sleek sequences, back and forth wrestling, comedic near falls and multi-man spots. I would've liked to have seen a few more highspots making the most of the sheer numbers involved in the match, but that nitpicking didn't make this any less enjoyable. The finish saw each man consecutively taken out of contention with the aforementioned combination move from Dennis keeping Margera and Havoc down, before Moloney removed Dennis from the equation with a sitout fireman's carry facebuster, Angelico took out Moloney with a turnbuckle crucifix powerbomb, leading into a wicked Devlin package piledriver that gave the WWE UK competitor a surprising debut victory. 

Purser def. Martina in a Fans Bring the Alcohol Match 

I'm still trying to come to terms with the Fans Bring the Alcohol match and to be honest with you, I don't think that I ever will completely. Referee Shay Purser's first FCP show since turning 18 saw him facing off with notorious boozehound and potential sexual deviant Martina with the fans supplying the alcohol, because it would've been weird if they'd bought their own booze with them. Most of my notes on this bout were single words, written in all caps, for example..."CHRIST". There was drinking, there was singing, there was referee Joel Allen wearing a bin bag, there was a pissed up version of an international, there was bronco busters for anyone who wanted one and it all felt like some kind of glorious dream. The kind of dream that you awake from with a start, slightly confused and questioning everything you once knew to be true. This probably wasn't a match for all, I'm not even sure if it was for me, but it certainly was an experience I won't forget in a hurry. 
  
JOEL DRIED THE RING. WELL DONE JOEL!

Banks def. Seven to retain FCP Championship 

Trent Seven and Travis Banks had been to war with each other before in FCP. Back at Rise Against in March 2016 when a frustrated came out with the victory in only Banks' second match in the promotion, before nine months Trav picked up his first singles win in FCP in a thrilling conclusion to the Infinity tournament. This match took a slightly different angle, as whilst Trent had become the default heel back in December due to the sheer investment the Fixxion crowd had in Banks' losing streak story, there was no mistaking that Seven was the villain here as the challenger cheap shotted the champion out of a handshake and we were off to the races. These two lads are two of the hardest hitters currently residing on our island and holy balls on a typewriter did they hit each other hard here. Strong style kicks and forearms and chops, brawling out into the crowd and doing a wonderful version of the spot where Seven misses a chop using the trussing for the lighting rig, when Seven and Banks face off you know you're going to get something physical, the kind of wrestling that makes you wince in a weird pleasure you're not quite sure how to deal with. 

Once the early brawling was done with, the two found the kitchen sink and through that at each other as well (obviously metaphorically, just in case you were wondering). The two went back and forth hitting big high impact moves, including a series of german suplexes one after the other, a dragon suplex, a seven star lariat and a burning hammer from Seven, a springboard roundhouse kick, a ringpost crotching and double stomp from Banks. Each move looked great, hit with ferocity and intent and that's not even the half of it. The proceedings seemed to get sillier and the reactions got louder as the match went on with each near fall seeming more improbable than the last. Banks kicked out a piledriver, Seven kicked out of a ridiculous coast to coast and then the champ kicked out of an avalanche piledriver, because why the fuck not? The best (or worst, if you're a miserable old bellend) part is that that wasn't even the daftest part of the match. Oh no, as we learned that Travis is pretty much indestructible as he took his third piledriver of the match and bounced back to his feet and the crowd went apeshit, before taking another dragon suplex and no selling the fuck out of that bad boy as well. A roundhouse kick and Kiwi Crusher later and Banks was still our Fight Club: Pro Champion after a thrilling 20 minutes of international strong style professional wrestling. I could watch Travis Banks v Trent Seven every day for the rest of my life and twice on Sundays and never get bored. Each of their matches in FCP has had it's own flavour, using different stories and situations to drive them, but always include great striking, crisp and dynamic big moves, some wonderful facial expression and terrific, awe-inspiring near falls. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 6.88/10

A very good debut show at Starworks for Fight Club: Pro and whilst I'm not completely sold on the new venue just yet, I am still sold on the wrestling content. Was the show on the same level as the Dream Tag Team Invitational weekend? No, but it didn't particularly need to be. I think the show took a while to find it's stride, but once the first half main event had blown me away with #CCK, Scarlet & Graves & The Hunter Brothers, the show didn't look back with a wonderfully varied second half, that concluded with main event owning the match of the night spot as Travis Banks and Trent Seven did what they do best. I can't wait to see what FCP has in store for us as we had into the summer, especially when Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate are available and there's not a chance I'm missing a single show.

Photo Credit - The Ringside Perspective.