Live Review: PCW/ROH SuperShow of Honor II - Show 1

After the success of last year's SuperShow of Honor collab between Preston City Wrestling and Ring of Honor, anticipation was high for the second incarnation of the weekend event. Opening on Friday 27th November 2015 at the Evoque Nightclub with Jay Lethal defending the ROH World Championship against Noam Dar in the main event, reDRagon challenging for Team Singles' PCW Tag Team Championship in a Street Fight, Delirious & Dalton Castle facing Joey Hayes and PCW Money in the Bank holder Martin Kirby and five other matches featuring the likes of Doug Williams, Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Cedric Alexander and Silas Young. But could the 2015 edition open in style? Let's find out. 

With El Ligero added to the originally advertised Bubblegum vs. Adam Cole bout, and forced to defend his PCW Cruiserweight Championship by General Manager Joanna Rose, the trio combined to produce a pacy opener. Both Bubblegum and Ligero worked some sweet sequences with Cole, whilst the other man was downed on the outside, but we also got some quality moments including all three men including Ligero managing to turn a variant of the Road Warriors' Doomsday Device into a reverse rana on Bubblegum (RIP Bubblegum's fingers). Throw into the mix the narrative elements of Bubblegum's elimination and consequent Pedigree to Ligero, eventually leading to Adam Cole capturing the Cruiserweight title with his vertical suplex lift dropped into a neckbreaker on the knee signature move, and you've got the makings of a pleasing opening bout that set the tone for what was to come.

Doug Williams is in incredible shape for 43, pretty sure he's found the fountain of youth knocking around. That's enough fawning over the former ROH Pure Champion for one day, let's get onto the match, as the Anarchist faced ROH's Silas Young, in one of the real sleeper bouts of the weekend for me. The two men seemed to connect quickly inside the ring and whilst the crowd was a little slow to buy into it, as the two men progressed with a series of technical reversals and near falls, Evoque was very much hooked by both Williams and Young's work by the end of the contest. Despite the quality of the action, I felt this bout could have lost three or four minutes and still been just as good, if not better for doing so. The finish, however was a fitting close to the match, with The Anarchist escaping Young's Misery manoeuvre, before hitting Chaos Theory for the victory.

Perhaps not the prettiest of matches across the weekend, but Sha Samuels vs. Kenny King was effective in it's execution, had a lively crowd. The bout unfolded nicely with King attempting to evade Samuels, and especially the East End Butcher's sleeper hold, using his quickness and athleticism. There were a few moments that weren't as strong as they could have been, like a dodgy looking clothesline, but for the most part the wrestling was fine and slotted into the tale well. The short encounter suited the two men's styles and made perfect sense, even if the finish, with The Pretty Boy Pitbull having both arms raised and dropped three times whilst in the sleeper, was a bit of a strange one.

Fuck me, this next match was entertaining. Joey Hayes and Martin Kirby would really come of age as an act over the weekend for me, and this was the start of that. Dalton Castle quickly got over on his PCW début and alongside partner Delirious provided a great mixture of comedy and quality wrestling, that worked well with the style of the PCW regulars. A spot where Kirby had a Camel Clutch locked onto Delirious and Hayes just kept running the ropes (instead of, for example, hitting a low drop kick) with the PCW Money in the Bank holder screaming at his partner, was absurdly funny and sums up the relationship between the two characters well. An action section between Kirby and Castle stands out as the strongest wrestling of the contest, with the pair flowing through a series of counters with ease. It was a surprise to see the PCW pair work together to get the victory, hitting an elevated DDT onto Delirious, but worked well to advance their storyline heading into the three other shows across the weekend. It wouldn't be the last we'd see of Hayes and Kirby on Show 1 either...

Following a quick interval it was back into the action

A surprising choice to open the second half was Dave Mastiff defending the PCW Heavyweight Championship against current ROH World Television Champion Roderick Strong, but the bout still managed to deliver. The action took a while to find a groove, but with the crowd more than content to rip on Strong for his boots, which possess the unique qualities of being both little and shitty, things remained entertaining. When the action did get going however, it was very physical in it's execution and easy to watch. Strong hitting a superplex on the Bastard was a spectacular sight, especially with Evoque's low ceiling. Mastiff continued to be presented as a strong champion, getting the clean victory over Strong, with a wonderful reversal of Mr. ROH's sick kick, sending his challenger into the turnbuckle and picking up the victory with a Cannonball. I'd have loved to have seen what these two could have done with another five or ten minutes and a main event slot.

With F.W.B. member Iestyn Rees (replacing El Ligero) on Team PCW (alongside Dave Rayne and Interracial Love duo Ashton Smith & Charlie Garrett) and the newly heel Lionheart being a surprise addition to Team ROH (alongside War Machine's Raymond Rowe & Hanson and Cedric Alexander (who despite usually working as a villain for ROH, used a much more fan-friendly character most of the weekend), this match had a rather unique dynamic, that took a while to bear fruit and get the crowd truly involved in the action. Once that narrative thread of Rees and Lionheart's respective affiliations and issues with their own partners did kick in, things became much more entertaining and the crowd was quick to pick their sides. With Dave Rayne getting destroyed by the opposing team as the finish, this bout certainly gave the fans something different, with the unique dynamic just about paying off.

A Little Backgrond - PCW Tag Team Champions Team Single (T-Bone and Rampage Brown) and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) have been going at it since May 2014, with the two teams trading victories a number of times. Team Single won the initial bout (Supershow 4 - Show 1, 30th May 2014), before reDRagon picked up the victory in a Four-Way that also included The Briscoes and The Decade (Supershow of Honor - Show 1, 28th November 2014) and then won a No Disqualification contest (SuperShow of Honor - Show 4, 30th November 2014). It was time for one more match between the two, this time under Street Fight rules, with the PCW Tag Team Championship once again on the line.


Was this ever going to be anything other than brutal and shit load of fun? No, no it wasn't. Whilst the silly weapons (rubber animals and wrapping paper) were questionable, there was enough physicality that it honestly didn't matter that much. The steel chair battle was a great moment, with the pay-off of Brown hitting O'Reilly in the stomach making a lot of sense for the character and getting a great reaction from the PCW faithful. Even the Christmas paper got a good spot, with O'Reilly wrapping T-Bone up on a steel chair at ringside to deliver a running kick, even if Evoque didn't jump on the obvious "Wrap him up, Kyle, wrap him" chant. Both teams got some ridiculous near falls, with reDRagon being denied after hitting Chasing the Dragon onto a chair and Brown coming close with a piledriver, with the crowd getting hotter as things went on. F.W.B. members, Team Single were able to pick out the victory in the end with T-Bone claiming the bragging rights with a silly vertical suplex dropped into a Tombstone Piledriver, to continue their 909 day reign a top the tag division and close one of the strongest contest of the evening. 


But it all seemed to be over, with Joey Hayes attempting to cash in Martin Kirby's Money in the Bank briefcase for the titles (with a little help from reDRagon's post match title shots to the head). The reaction for this was HUGE, and the duo getting the pinfall with their elevated DDT combo, got one of the biggest pops across the weekend...it was however not to be, as Joanna Rose reversed the decision, because it was Hayes who cashed in the briefcase and not Kirby. Joanna got some nice heat for her involvement with the crowd now clamouring for someone to take the belts of off T-Bone and Brown. An interesting piece of booking, here's hoping that this get's a pay off down the line.

After a stellar undercard, the main event was going to have be something special to provide a satisfying conclusion to the first evening. Luckily we had ROH World Champion, Jay Lethal defend his championship against Noam Dar in a world-class encounter. With Preston backing their regular and former Cruiserweight Champion against the débuting Lethal, the two had a fantastic soundscape to work with and completely ran with it throughout. The early portion of the bout featured some smashing technical wrestling, with the two trading holds and 22 year old, Dar more than holding his own with the more-experienced World Champion.


Where the match really excelled was it's storytelling, with the contest kicking into the next gear as soon as Dar hit a dropkick to Lethal's knee with the "Greatest First Generation Wrestler"'s leg held in a figure four around the ringpost by SOME GUY from the front row. Lethal's selling was spot on, and showed off especially during a sequence of Superkicks where Lethal would grab hold of his knee after each kick, and meant that everytime Dar managed to lock in his Champagne Super Knee Bar submission, that crowd erupted and willed the former Black Machismo to tap out. With the bout rising to a dramatic climax, it was however Lethal who came away with the title, following his second Lethal Injection attempt being successful. Whilst all logical signs pointed to Lethal retaining, it's a credit to both men that the near falls and submissions were so well received. An excellent way to close the first night of action.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 6.85 (Good-Very Good)

The highest rating I've given a PCW show since I began using the ATPW Scale back in July, this was entertaining event, pretty much from top to the bottom. Not a bad match on the card, with an excitable and involved crowd who were both appreciative of the action and full of creativity when it came to chanting. The main event stands out as the strongest contest of the evening, with Jay Lethal and Noam Dar capping off the evening well and the Tag Team Championship Street Fight also standing out from the pack, whilst also being completely different from the bout it preceded. 


Would PCW and ROH be able to keep up the quality heading into Show 2, with Lethal once again main eventing, this time defending his title against Doug Williams, as well as Noam Dar facing Cedric Alexander, Dave Mastiff defending the PCW Heavyweight Championship against Silas Young and five more matches involving the likes of reDRagon, Adam Cole, Dalton Castle, Martin Kirby, Roderick Strong all in action. Full review of Show 2 (as well as the rest of the weekend coming soon)

PCW Final Fight Review

Promotion: Preston City Wrestling

Location: Preston, Lancashire, England.

Venue: Rumes Nightclub

After a long journey all the way from Aberystwyth, I arrived in sunny Preston ahead of a stacked card of professional wrestling from Preston City Wrestling. With a number of international stars on the card, as well as some of the biggest names on the British wrestling scene, could PCW Final Fight live up to the hype?

VIP Meet and Greet

All the advertised international talents were involved in this, with the exception of PWG's Brian Cage, who apparently missed his flight and wouldn't be involved on the show. Ultimo Dragon was late arriving, and early leaving, with his translator staying to flog some of his merchandise, which was a bit of a shame, especially as it meant most people had to start queuing again for Dragon. Everyone else however was very easy to talk to, even when the line was being pushed along by various PCW staff. After a signed photo from each talent, as well as Davey Richards and Michael Elgin signing copies of ROH All Star Extravaganza and Manhatten Mayhem, as well as a chat about LuFisto's hatred for WWE wrestler The Miz, it was a very enjoyable experience and great to get to meet talent that I've been watching for years. It was a shame, however, that only one photographer was on hand to take photos, and with him looking so busy with other people, I decided not to bother him and went without any pictures.

Tag Team Match

El Ligero & Martin Kirby

Versus

Dean Allmark & Ultimo Dragon

We were straight out of the gates with our opening contest, as El Ligero and Martin Kirby were first out for their bout with Dean Allmark and the well-travelled veteran Ultimo Dragon, who is most often seen wrestling for Michonoku Pro Wrestling these days. With the crowd nicely split between the two teams, there was some nice action on display here, with the bout keep a quick pace throughout, which really got the crowd warmed up nicely. The build up to a flurry of action from Dragon was exciting and the best action that Dragon offered in the bout, with on occasion there seeming to be a miscommunication between Dragon and his opponents, which did end up hurting the bout in the closing stages. Allmark and Dragon went on to pick up the victory, with Dragon getting the pin on Kirby, in what felt like a slightly flat finish. Overall, I was a little disappointed by this bout, as despite some good exchanges involving Allmark, Ligero and Kirby, the highly anticipated confrontation between Ligero and Dragon ended up falling short of expectations.

Winners: DEAN ALLMARK & ULTIMO DRAGON

PCW Crusierweight Championship Match

LuFisto

Versus

April Davids ©

Before the match started LuFisto was out to talk trash about her opponent for the night and listing a number of her own achievements, as well as introducing her manager, a doll called Pegaboo. Cruiserweight Champion April Davids came out to confront LuFisto, with the words “You're full of shite, you are”, to a nice pop for the crowd and the bout was under way.

I found this to be an enjoyable bout, with both women bringing a hard hitting style and intensity, that mainstream women's wrestling lacks. LuFisto did a great job of working the crowd and managed to get some quite considerable heat, which is commendable considering the pop she got when entering the club. This wasn't a pretty contest, far from it, with both LuFisto and Davids bringing everything they had in an all out brawl of a bout. Even usually technical moves like German Suplexes were given an extra edge, being delivered with a viciousness that would eventually lead to Davids picking up the victory. If you were expecting a catch as catch can classic, you would have come away disappointed. A handshake between the two made sure that there were no hard feelings between the two, but it'd be great to see the two go at it again under No Disqualification rules.

Winner and still PCW Cruiserweight Champion: APRIL DAVIDS

Davey Richards

vs.

Robbie Dynamite

This was originally scheduled to be Davey Richards taking on Dave Mastiff, but with Mastiff suffering an injured hand, Robbie Dynamite, most regularly seen at All Star Wrestling, was drafted in to make his PCW debut. Admittedly, this one was very different from what many had expected from a Richards vs. Mastiff contest, but was still an enjoyable encounter. Richards spent a lot of the match in control, with the crowd lapping it up, as Richards lead the crowd through a series of his signatures moves and holds. At times the two struggled to click with the dynamic never really becoming clear, but there some nice sequences and the fans adoration for Richards meant that it didn't really matter. The finish was certainly the strongest section of the match, with Dynamite spending a long time in the Ankle Lock before eventually tapping out to give Richards the submission victory. It makes sense to give Richards the W here, with his match against Dave Mastiff now re-scheduled for October 31st's Fright Night.

Winner: DAVEY RICHARDS

Catwalk Contest

Danny Hope

vs.

Mad Man Manson

One word describes this skit, FUN! It's difficult to really critique a Catwalk Contest, with Hope and Manson performing a series of ridiculous dances, and the crowd going crazy for it. If you weren't lucky enough to be in the club, then you'll probably thinking of numerous WWE skits with similar names involving the likes of The Great Khali and The Miz, but the major difference here was that Hope and Manson were both over with the crowd. The judges of the contest were from the Sci Fi Studios youtube series, and I thought their parts sort of dragged out a little bit, and when Manson and Hope united to take out those guys with stereo Superkicks and a 3D, I was just happy that the Sci Fi guys were no longer part of the show. I'm not sure if that was how I was supposed to feel, which is never good, luckily Hope and Manson were comedy gold throughout, if they aren't paired

Winner: NO CONTEST

During the intermission, apparently the ring broke! I'm not quite sure what happened, maybe it was Hope and Manson foxtrotting a little to hard, but they spent a good time putting the ring back together. Both Manson and T-Bone were out to fix the ring, alongside the PCW crew. Whilst some fans might have been disappointed and not being able to get their photo op with Manson and Hope during intermission, there can't have been many who would have put that over the rest of the show continuing. A quick cheer for the crew, specifically, Mad Man Manson and the show was back on the road.

This had been advertised as simply Lionheart's Championship Address, although pretty much everyone in attendance wasn't expecting it to go without incident, this is pro wrestling after all and with Doug Williams and Noam Dar both sending out interesting tweets in the lead up to the show, it was almost certain that we'd some form of shenanigans here.

True to form several seconds into Lionheart's “Championship Address” speech, amidst chants of “You Screwed Doug”, Noam Dar made his presence known coming out stake his claim to the PCW Championship, saying that if it wasn't for Dar's injury Lionheart wouldn't have been able to cash in on Doug Williams at Too Good To Be Two. Williams was quick to come out to reply to Dar, reminding him that he was still not medically cleared to wrestle, before announcing he wanted his rematch with Lionheart for the title tonight. After some back and forth with PCW Owner Steve Fludder, Lionheart vs. Doug Williams was booked, with Dar being forced to go to the back. I thought this segment was really strong and made the PCW Championship feel like something that was worth fighting for, due to the passion that each guy brought to their promo.

PCW Championship Match

Lionheart

vs.

Doug Williams

The Williams/Lionheart title match was a lot more story based than it was on the actual wrestling, therefore it wasn't your typical Doug Williams encounter. It was easy to get into because of the England/Scotland divide in the crowd, but until the closing stages it felt a bit like Williams and Lionheart were going through the motions at times. Once, the finish began to come into sight though things did begin to heat up, with some good storyline advancement seeing Noam Dar stopping Williams from hitting Lionheart with the title belt, and causing the eventual distraction that allowed Lionheart to pick up a victory with Frog Splash. It was a decent bout, but felt more like a building block for things to come, which made it difficult to really get my teeth into.

Winner and Still PCW Champion: LIONHEART

PCW Tag Team Championship Match

Team Single

(T-Bone & Rampage Brown)

Versus

Michael Elgin & Davey Richards

With Davey Richards stepping for Elgin's original partner Brian Cage, this bout was about to steal the show. For me, this match stole the show with a great mixture of technical wrestling, comedy, crowd interaction and shenanigans that kept the crowd hooked from bell to bell. Numerous spots were thrown into the mix, with Elgin's usual delayed vertical suplex being attempted by every man (except Richards who gave up and went for a submission instead) as well as an impressive sequence that saw Richards manage to lock both T-Bone and Brown in the ankle lock. The finish saw fellow Team Single member Bubblegum enter the fray, during a series of near falls, and manage to clatter Elgin with the PCW Tag Title belt, allowing for a roll up victory for Team Single. A classic finish that generate a solid amount of heat that would build into the next contest. This match get's Match of the Night from me.

Winners and Still PCW Tag Team Champions: TEAM SINGLE

Bubblegum

with Team Single

vs.

The Pope

With Bubblegum having a few words to say about his opponent prior to the start of the bout, garnering some great heat from the PCW faithful, it was clear who the fan favourite was in this one, former WWE and TNA wrestler Elijah Burke or D'Angelo Dinero, going simply by The Pope this time round. In all honesty this bout was more style than substance, but that didn't stop it from being a lot of fun to watch, with old school distraction tactics from Team Single building up nicely to Michael Elgin and Davey Richards coming out to make the save for Pope, leading to Pope picking up the victory with the Elijah Express. The crowd made this bout for me, it was an entertaining bout but didn't really have that spark that could've made it anything specicial.

Winner: THE POPE

It was then time for the raffle! Everyone loves a raffle! With Cruiserweight Champion April Davids on hand to help out Ring Announcer Joanna Rose, those with tickets waited to see if they had won a prize, those without decided to top up their glasses at the bar. But this wasn't any raffle, with Davids makings the draw for second prize, Dave Rayne made a surprise appearance attacking Davids with a broom. Rayne went on to challenge Davids to a “Fans Bring the Household Objects” match on October 31^st at Fright Night with the Cruiserweight Championship on the line. I thought this was clever way to liven up a tired idea of a raffle and those that weren't at the bar loved every second. It would've been nice to LuFisto come back out to make the save, although it was right to keep the focus on the PCW regulars here.

Kris Travis

vs.

Joey Hayes

This probably wouldn't have been most people's first choice as a main event, but Travis and Hayes pulled it off very well. There was a lot for everyone to enjoy in this one, but a brawl around the club, that I'm sure will look fantastic on the Blu Ray and looked great if you happened to be over that side of the club, but from where I was sitting you couldn't really see anything, which isn't what you expect when paying for a front row ticket. The rest of the bout chucked a bucket load of main event cliches into the mix, with the referee getting knocked down and some back and forth with Travis' Money in the Bank briefcase, which built up nicely to the referee waking up to stop Travis hitting Hayes with the briefcase, allowing Hayes to hit a low blow, followed by a Roll Up for great false finish. It was Hayes' Crossface that would eventually get the submission victory, rounding off a strong contest between two top talents that deserved to be main event, setting up nicely to a Ladder match between the two on October 31^st.

Winner: JOEY HAYES

Overall, I thought Final Fight was an entertaining evening of wrestling, with a good mixture of British and Imported talent that allowed newer viewers of PCW, like myself, an easy way into the current storylines that the promotion is running. I enjoyed the more adult atmosphere the promotion has, which allows them to play around with the face and heel dynamic a lot and not insult the intelligence of it's audience. Whilst the wrestling wasn't always fantastic, the storyline based action and crowd involvement made this show easy to enjoy. I'll hopefully be able to catch another PCW show sometime next year.

Quick Results

Tag Team Match

Ultimo Dragon & Dean Allmark defeated El Ligero & Martin Kirby via Pinfall

Cruiserweight Championship Match

April Davids (C) defeated LuFisto via Pinfall

Davey Richards defeated Robbie Dynamite via Submission

Catwalk Contest

Mad Man Manson vs. Danny Hope went to a No Contest

PCW Championship Match

Lionheart defeated Doug Williams via Pinfall

PCW Tag Team Championship Match

Team Single defeated Michael Elgin & Davey Richards via Pinfall

The Pope defeated Bubblegum via Pinfall

Joey Hayes defeated Kris Travis via Pinfall