A little bit further down the pecking order than PWG, I went to see the first of Preston City Wrestling's three shows of the weekend. They get a bit of criticism from other UK fed workers (inside line!) for their over-reliance on international talent. Then again...international talent! In my mind this show found the perfect balance between the two. Going to run through the crowd, stay with me people.
4-Way: Dean Allmark v Danny Hope v Martin Kirby v Juvi Guerrera
Guerrera was pretty fun even though he's not in the same shape as when I last saw him on TV. Hope was the star, playing a different gimmick to when I last saw him: now he's a flamboyant throwback 80s style pretty boy who struts around a lot. Fun opener, Juvi botched once but it was pretty quick.
Mad Man Manson v Noam Dar
MMM goes to McGuinness's school; his thing is he looks like a shooter, down to bare feet, but he's actually really unpredictable and funny. Dar, who you might have seen in ICW, is really talented and has bulked up since I last saw him. Comedy match with some fun spots. Two solid openers.
PCW Tag Championships: reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) v Team Single (T-Bone & Rampage Jones)
reDRagon played heel to TS's brooding bruiser face work, this one built and built and got better and better and would have been a worthy main event to pretty much any show with all four guys going out and killing it. T-Bone & Jones are worth a look if they're in your town.
Kris Travis v Mark Andrews
Travis, who had a lot of female fans in the house, usually gets the plum job on indy shows with only one major star on. It's easy to see why: he looks great, has charisma, wrestles great and is over with all types of fan. Mark Andrews, a young smaller cruiser, was unknown to the house but both guys went all out to follow the stellar match before and if I'm honest, they possibly did.
Shane 'Hurricane' Helms v Dave Rayne
Y'all know Helms. He can't move as well but he's still really fun to watch. Dave Rayne's shtick is that he has a self-created title that only he has access to the rules for. Helms took the fall and Rayne consulted his book to find that masked wrestlers are forbidden to win. They restarted with Helms' Crimefighter Championship on the line, with Rayne winning. Helms then consulted his rulebook and found that non-crimefighters were allowed to win. A third fall for no title occurred, with Helms going over. He then posed for photos at £10 a pop and had a good sized line.
interval: saw the Superman from that Raw, in his cape.
Al Snow v Bubblegum
Snow did his Head shtick, was way over. Bubblegum plays heel and face all over the country to great effect and went heel in a funny 'who can out-cheat' match that eased us into the second half and...
Low-Ki v El Ligero.
MEIN GOTT THOSE CHOPS! Great bruising one-on-one with Low Ki going over but putting Ligero's toughness right over. Low Ki in a middle gear is still astounding to watch and Ligero always works hard for a good match (look up his PCW match v Dragon Gate's Akira Tozawa!).
4-Way: Chris Masters v Uhaa Nation v Cyanide v Dave Mastiff
MEIN GOTT Uhaa is OVER. Masters is over in Preston, he goes there a lot and works his ass off. Cyanide is inexperienced but was covered well here and got his good-looking stuff in. Mastiff is brilliant and brutish and should get a walk-on in Game of Thrones as some kind of Wildling murderer. Uhaa Fucking Nation though! The pop for his win was unreal, the guy looked like he couldn't believe what was happening, HE IS THE FUTURE. Good match.
Main event was announced by Jeremy Borash!
MVP & Joey Hayes v Kris Travis & Danny Hope
Had to bolt halfway through but MVP was fun, did a lot of heelish stuff, you can see that he's a star for a reason. Hayes plays a pretty boy face in GPW, here he's a dick heel. Good guy.
9/10 show, really fun, value for money at £15 ($22 at a guess) considering the array of talent and the production effort that had gone into it. Got to see some guys who thrilled me as a kid and some dudes who I love right now at the height of their relevancy. Awesome!
