SWA: The Gathering
Sept 30, 2007 10:19:35 GMT -5
Post by Stu on Sept 30, 2007 10:19:35 GMT -5
Went to the Scottish Wrestling Alliance event The Gathering last night (so called because the wrestlers there were from the following british promotions: SWA, ICW, WILD, BCW, PBW, W3L), my first british wrestling show, so I didn't know a lot of who was there very well, but I still had a good time. Memory's a little hazy on some of the matches, so details will vary.
The event was at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall indoor sports arena, basically on a basketball court turned into a ring area.
The show opened with a routine by some dancers in short tartan skirts, so good so far.
Then we got a woman coming out to lead the crowd in a rendition of the song "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond". Fair enough, though I thought it went on a bit long. Anyway, we got the female commisioner of SWA, Draven coming out to announce the matches and act as general ring announcer throughout
Alban Assault Battle Royal for shot at NWA Scottish Championship
SWA versus BCW versus WILD versus PBW-W3L
Yes, there is an NWA Scottish Championship. I'm as surprised as you are. 4 teams of 4 started of with one man from each teaming the ring first, with another man from each being allowed in at regular intervals. Pinfall and Submissions count as well as Over the top rope elimination. Being a Battle Royale in a relatively smaller ring, it was a bit random and messy, but there was some fun moments, like a King Kong Bundy-type called Invincible showing up, and everyone there immediately dropping what they were doing to just gang up on him. Winner of the match was predictably scottish fan-favourite Jack Jester, after surviving the other two remaining guys teaming against him by lowbridging him as they tried to clothesline him out the ring.
Old-School British Rules Match
Majick (CM Punk Lookalike) vs. Spinner McKenzie (A scottish Finlay-type in gray camo and a wifebeater)
British rules operate under 6 rounds, with 2 falls to a finish, or whoever has one fall by the end of the time limit. The format was used a lot to get McKenzie booed, as he did heel stalling a lot, resulting in a couple of rounds ending jsut as the action started. He got the first fall though, before majick evened it out in the following round. Spinner hurts his leg and it's used for some more stalling, and to sucker Majick a few times, before Spinner gets the win by rolling through a crossbody from Majick into the pin. Respectfull handshake at the end between the two.
"The Highlander from Hell" Drew McDonald vs. "The Paisley Wrecking Machine" Adam Shame
The worst match on the card. Drew McDonald was a star of the 70s and 80s british wrestling show on World of Sport and Adam Shame is apparently a big star of the SWA, but this was a pretty slow "slobberknocker" match with Shame being on the defensive for most of it, despite getting the win in the end. Maybe because Shame was coming back from an injury, or McDonald was just past it.
SWA Scottish Championship Match
Jack Jester vs. Johnny Moss (c)
Johnny Moss is an english heel, so there was big crowd support for the Glasgow native Jester. He played this up a lot, bringing out the scottish flag, and stealing the belt before the match to hand to the crowd. More pacy match than the other singles so far, with Jester being plucky underdog hitting some highspots like the Cactus Jack elbow of the apron to the floor and outsmarting Moss in the end with a rollup to win the gold. Appropriate celebration as we go into the interval.
The second half of the show was undoubtedly the better one, with a lot of action and faster paced stuff. More american style.
6 Man Ladder Match for 5 Grand
Falcon vs. Lionheart vs. BT Gunn vs. "Laird of the Ring" Wolfgang vs. Darkside vs. Mikken "The Wiccan Warrior"
Probably the showstealer. Loads of high spots and one upsmanship going on throughout, and the first ladder match I've seen live.
Highlights:
-mushroom stomping a ladder round someone's neck
-guy holding a ladder gets germaned, and throws the ladder right into Falcon's face
-guy lying on ladder which is lying on two other guys takes a swanton
-FU off the ladder
-Swanton off the very top of the ladder down onto everyone standing outside the ring
-leap from the corner to the ladder and knocking someone off
No landing crotch first on the ropes spot, unfortunately. Wolfgang wins after a struggle on top of the ladder is resolved with a fireman's carry type drop off.
PBW Heavyweight Championship
Eric "The Fist" Canyon vs. James Wallace (c)
Also a pretty good match, despite a somewhat non-sensical ending. Wallace has a patriotic scottish thing going with his gimmick, and comes out wearing a laced shirt and kilt, while Canyon is this whiney glasgow heel with a bodyguard who keeps interfering throughout, and puts Wallace down with a brass knuckles shot, leading to a countout, which Canyon for some reason thinks still means he gets the title, and when he's told he doesn't he's distracted for Wallace to run him and the bodyguard off.
SWA Tag Team Championships
Britain's Most Wanted vs. Fight Club (c)
BMW were sort of London and Kendrick type duo (though one looked like a more mulletty Charlie Haas), while Fight Club were sort of pitbulls meet bashams with Glasgow Hardcase Personalities. Lots of action in this one and double team stuff. Fightclub had an interesting one where one holds the opponent in a bearhug and the other jumps off the ropes with a flying Backstabber to the guy. Fight Club get the win with a double team muscle buster, then when BMW go for the handshake, beat them down until Majick and his tag team partner (no idea) come out and fight them off, before challenging them to a forthcoming event.
NWA UK Heavyweight Championship
"The Anarchist" Doug Williams vs. "The Pryor" Conscience (c)
I expect Doug Williams will be more familiar to people as he's been in japan and america as well as the british scene. Conscience is sorta like Bam Bam Bigelow, dressed a bit like Abyss, with a Phenom gimmick. From Scotland. The Special Enforcer for this match is Glasgow Airport Attack Hero, John Smeaton, billed as "The one man anti-terrorist unit". Conscience takes the time to properly welcome Williams to Glasgow and tell the audience about the story of his and Williams' rivalry. Williams and his agent take their turn to put down everyone and complain that John Smeaton is getting all the attention that Williams deserves. As for the match itself, it was alright really, Williams was good at winding up the crowd and Conscience is pretty agile for his size. For an enforcer, Smeaton makes a good spectator. He mostly just scares off Williams' agent whenever he interferes, and when the ref is knocked out, he counts the pin when Conscience hits one of his finishers (a swing around Side Effect). After the match, Williams shakes hands with Conscience, but the agent is still being a dick, so Smeaton hits Conscience's move on him. A bunch of the other wrestlers come out to close the show in celebration.
There was a post-show party in a club in the middle of town that ticketholders could go to, so me and my pals went. We weren't there that long. I only really talked to Jack Jester, but he was cool and we had a small chat about british wrestling and he told me there was a lot of it going on, you just didn't hear about it a lot, and how he'd been involved in a pilot shot for the BBC a few months ago. So that was cool.
Overall, I had fun. It wasn't really polished or high budget, but you got your money's worth, and the Smeaton stuff was great.
The event was at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall indoor sports arena, basically on a basketball court turned into a ring area.
The show opened with a routine by some dancers in short tartan skirts, so good so far.
Then we got a woman coming out to lead the crowd in a rendition of the song "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond". Fair enough, though I thought it went on a bit long. Anyway, we got the female commisioner of SWA, Draven coming out to announce the matches and act as general ring announcer throughout
Alban Assault Battle Royal for shot at NWA Scottish Championship
SWA versus BCW versus WILD versus PBW-W3L
Yes, there is an NWA Scottish Championship. I'm as surprised as you are. 4 teams of 4 started of with one man from each teaming the ring first, with another man from each being allowed in at regular intervals. Pinfall and Submissions count as well as Over the top rope elimination. Being a Battle Royale in a relatively smaller ring, it was a bit random and messy, but there was some fun moments, like a King Kong Bundy-type called Invincible showing up, and everyone there immediately dropping what they were doing to just gang up on him. Winner of the match was predictably scottish fan-favourite Jack Jester, after surviving the other two remaining guys teaming against him by lowbridging him as they tried to clothesline him out the ring.
Old-School British Rules Match
Majick (CM Punk Lookalike) vs. Spinner McKenzie (A scottish Finlay-type in gray camo and a wifebeater)
British rules operate under 6 rounds, with 2 falls to a finish, or whoever has one fall by the end of the time limit. The format was used a lot to get McKenzie booed, as he did heel stalling a lot, resulting in a couple of rounds ending jsut as the action started. He got the first fall though, before majick evened it out in the following round. Spinner hurts his leg and it's used for some more stalling, and to sucker Majick a few times, before Spinner gets the win by rolling through a crossbody from Majick into the pin. Respectfull handshake at the end between the two.
"The Highlander from Hell" Drew McDonald vs. "The Paisley Wrecking Machine" Adam Shame
The worst match on the card. Drew McDonald was a star of the 70s and 80s british wrestling show on World of Sport and Adam Shame is apparently a big star of the SWA, but this was a pretty slow "slobberknocker" match with Shame being on the defensive for most of it, despite getting the win in the end. Maybe because Shame was coming back from an injury, or McDonald was just past it.
SWA Scottish Championship Match
Jack Jester vs. Johnny Moss (c)
Johnny Moss is an english heel, so there was big crowd support for the Glasgow native Jester. He played this up a lot, bringing out the scottish flag, and stealing the belt before the match to hand to the crowd. More pacy match than the other singles so far, with Jester being plucky underdog hitting some highspots like the Cactus Jack elbow of the apron to the floor and outsmarting Moss in the end with a rollup to win the gold. Appropriate celebration as we go into the interval.
The second half of the show was undoubtedly the better one, with a lot of action and faster paced stuff. More american style.
6 Man Ladder Match for 5 Grand
Falcon vs. Lionheart vs. BT Gunn vs. "Laird of the Ring" Wolfgang vs. Darkside vs. Mikken "The Wiccan Warrior"
Probably the showstealer. Loads of high spots and one upsmanship going on throughout, and the first ladder match I've seen live.
Highlights:
-mushroom stomping a ladder round someone's neck
-guy holding a ladder gets germaned, and throws the ladder right into Falcon's face
-guy lying on ladder which is lying on two other guys takes a swanton
-FU off the ladder
-Swanton off the very top of the ladder down onto everyone standing outside the ring
-leap from the corner to the ladder and knocking someone off
No landing crotch first on the ropes spot, unfortunately. Wolfgang wins after a struggle on top of the ladder is resolved with a fireman's carry type drop off.
PBW Heavyweight Championship
Eric "The Fist" Canyon vs. James Wallace (c)
Also a pretty good match, despite a somewhat non-sensical ending. Wallace has a patriotic scottish thing going with his gimmick, and comes out wearing a laced shirt and kilt, while Canyon is this whiney glasgow heel with a bodyguard who keeps interfering throughout, and puts Wallace down with a brass knuckles shot, leading to a countout, which Canyon for some reason thinks still means he gets the title, and when he's told he doesn't he's distracted for Wallace to run him and the bodyguard off.
SWA Tag Team Championships
Britain's Most Wanted vs. Fight Club (c)
BMW were sort of London and Kendrick type duo (though one looked like a more mulletty Charlie Haas), while Fight Club were sort of pitbulls meet bashams with Glasgow Hardcase Personalities. Lots of action in this one and double team stuff. Fightclub had an interesting one where one holds the opponent in a bearhug and the other jumps off the ropes with a flying Backstabber to the guy. Fight Club get the win with a double team muscle buster, then when BMW go for the handshake, beat them down until Majick and his tag team partner (no idea) come out and fight them off, before challenging them to a forthcoming event.
NWA UK Heavyweight Championship
"The Anarchist" Doug Williams vs. "The Pryor" Conscience (c)
I expect Doug Williams will be more familiar to people as he's been in japan and america as well as the british scene. Conscience is sorta like Bam Bam Bigelow, dressed a bit like Abyss, with a Phenom gimmick. From Scotland. The Special Enforcer for this match is Glasgow Airport Attack Hero, John Smeaton, billed as "The one man anti-terrorist unit". Conscience takes the time to properly welcome Williams to Glasgow and tell the audience about the story of his and Williams' rivalry. Williams and his agent take their turn to put down everyone and complain that John Smeaton is getting all the attention that Williams deserves. As for the match itself, it was alright really, Williams was good at winding up the crowd and Conscience is pretty agile for his size. For an enforcer, Smeaton makes a good spectator. He mostly just scares off Williams' agent whenever he interferes, and when the ref is knocked out, he counts the pin when Conscience hits one of his finishers (a swing around Side Effect). After the match, Williams shakes hands with Conscience, but the agent is still being a dick, so Smeaton hits Conscience's move on him. A bunch of the other wrestlers come out to close the show in celebration.
There was a post-show party in a club in the middle of town that ticketholders could go to, so me and my pals went. We weren't there that long. I only really talked to Jack Jester, but he was cool and we had a small chat about british wrestling and he told me there was a lot of it going on, you just didn't hear about it a lot, and how he'd been involved in a pilot shot for the BBC a few months ago. So that was cool.
Overall, I had fun. It wasn't really polished or high budget, but you got your money's worth, and the Smeaton stuff was great.
