1PW Steel City Ice Rage: Total Meltdown - 11 юли 2009

[nWoHulkster]

Едно от най-важните UK indy шоута за тази година. One Pro Wrestling направиха wrestler vs. boxer angle и това им докара малко mainstream pub и много стабилна посещаемост. Боксьорът, който използваха не е случаен човек, а един от топ британските боксьори - Ryan Rhodes (39-4-0). Oсвен Rhodes, после в angle-а беше намесен и Joe Egan, който едно време е бил спаринг партньор на Mike Tyson или нещо от сорта.

Firstly, the attendence for both thе Q and A and the evening show was яuite impressive and better than I had originally anticipated. I would say somewhere between 300 and 400 people at the Q and A whilst maybe 1500 or so at the evenings event. So lets break it down shall we.

Bret Hart Q and A session: It was left to Stevie Aaron just before showtime to announce that due to a 'massive demand' that the Q and A session would be shortened this afternoon to accomodate as many people as possible getting to meet The Hitman and taking advantage of the additional £20 option for professional photos. An Autograph was also availible for £10. Now, in my opinion this made the £15 entry fee a rip off! Whilst I appreciate that there are and were on the day, many people who wanted to meet Bret I didn't feel that I was getting a sufficient return on my money with regards the quality of the Q and A session, which lasted at best 45 mins. Further to this I would've met Bret myself if it wasn't for the price being quoted and the size of the queue. As a money spinning exercise though I am sure it was no doubt a success.

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We sat in the General Admission Bleachers section which we found to be quite bereft of any atmosphere despite giving a decent view of the action.

Jerry Lynn beat El Generico - We thought that this was an unusual choice for opener and it took the fans in the 'family stands' some time to get into it. However, a connection was eventually established through some slick exchanges and both men hitting acrobatic dives to the outside and their individual and collective work ethic shone through. Overall, I enjoyed the match and wasn't left disappointed.

Sterling James Keenan beat Doug Williams - To be honest as I write a lot escapes me about this match up. The match did tell it's story well and establashied the clear face and heel divide with the crowd who were mostly behind Doug.

Colt Cabana beat Johnny Saint - A slow paced, World of Sport effort. Match seemed ok but wasn't greatly received in the bleacher section. At one point an attempt to start a 'This is Woeful' chant failed and I think that whilst the match wasn't to everyone's taste, it didn't deserve such a chant. Colt seemed genuinely moved and touched to have wrestled one of his heroes and it was great to have him back in a 1PW ring!

Project Ego beat Kevin Thorne and Dragon Aisu - Match of the Night by a long fucking shot! We were initailly confused by the choice of partner as we assumed Aisu had turned face at 3AS yet here he was working as a heel in his old Damned Nation gear! However it was good to have him back and any confusion was quickly forgotten as this exploded from the get go! At this point we left the bleachers and mooched to ringside for a better view and the atmosphere here was red hot for this match. All 4 men took some stiff shots and gave their all, most notably Martin Kirby who took a nasty looking Powerbomb through a piece of wood/table and sold it like a king, although if he was genuinely hurt I wouldn't be surprised! Despite an abandoned fire spot from Thorne involving a can of WD40 and 4 temperamental lighters, the spots came thick and fast and the crowd ate it up! Travis' match winning Corkscrew moonsault was an impressive way to end the match and a big thumbs up to all involved!!!

After the interval Bret Hart came out and a cut a short but heartfelt and humble speech thanking everybody for their continued support which received a standing ovation from a grateful crowd.

Dave Moralez, Kid Fite and Liam Thompson beat Lionheart and Brit Rage - Firstly, Adam Curtis' Empire (ACE) is a great acronym for a stable although the weakest link of it is certainly Charles Boddington. What is the point of him being around? He has brought nothing at all to the storyline and is often a mere afterthought. Curtis revels in the role of mouthpiece for the group and attracts major heat each and every time. On the whole we enjoyed the match, some nice spots and despite losing Lionheart wasn't pinned so he remains in a strong position as the feud continues.

Nigel McGuinness beat Johnny Moss - We didn't think this was anywhere near as good as their outing at To The Extreme. Nothing particularly stands out as far as memorable moments are concerned and was a bit of a disappointment if I'm being honest.

Speaking of disappointments:

What the fuck was with the wrestler versus boxer match? After all the publicity and hype we didn't get to see the match that was advertised as the major attraction of the show. It was explained that Rhodes was unable to fight due to restrictions placed on him by the WBO and instead that Big Fat Joe Egan would take his place. It is now very apparent why he was added to the match at such a late stage as 'ringside enfocer.' Egan delivered such a garbled promo that it was difficult to establish whether he was supposed to be playing face or heel and got booed out of the building by a large section of the crowd. Darkside choked him out in minutes which prompted Egan to whine that 'strangling' was not allowed in 'fights.' He sounded like a big fat bitch! At this point Rhodes got in the ring and after some more argueing with Darkside, Rhodes delivered a shove with his fist that had Darkside rolling to the outside. This was shite! Let's make it clear, we didn't give a steaming fanny fart that a boxer was going to be 'showcased' at the event but we expected that the match being advertised would take place. This was a major letdown. What were 1PW thinking advertising this 'match' right up until bell time.

Abyss beat Martin Stone who beat Abyss....confused??? Yeah so was I! But at the same time it was a good match and one that exceeded my expectations. Before the participants had a chance to come out Rockstar Spud came down and challenged Abyss. The challenge was met and a face Abyss planted a heel Spud through the canvas with a Black Hole Slam which was a nice role reversal from pretty much every show in 1PW's first year in existence.

There were a couple of ref bumps and as in every Abyss World Title challenge he was ultimately disqualified after some interference from SJK and abuse to a referee. It was good to see some interation between Abyss and SJK after all this time and hopefully may lead to them getting it on at 4AS.

Overall, despite the sham that was the boxer versus wrestler 'contest' we quite enjoyed the show. Whilst it was by no means the best we've witnessed there have certainly been a lot worse. One major complaint though is the lack of storyline progression to the next event, presumably be 4AS, and any announcements of wrestlers or matches. As things stand maybe we will see SJK against Abyss in the near future and there is still the issue of an unanswered challenge between McGuinness and Stone. Due to the lack of announcements over the past months god knows when we will be seeing any of this but I trust that 1PW understands the need to establish a date if not one or two matches/performers for their next show. I think that by not announcing anything at this event they missed a good opportunity to get their next show advertised to a large audience and a potential new market.

I thought it was a great show. It was my first 1PW event and it was a long drive there but i would def go again. The first half was much stronger and there were a few let downs but overall i had a good night.

Attendance wise i would say there was a decent sized crowd there - probs 60 percent full with the only empty seats being in the tiered. But half the tiered seating was sectioned off but i dont know if they ever intended to use that half as it was quite far from the ring. The atmosphere was great down the front but a bit quiet in the tiered seating- i was lucky enough to have some quite vocal fans around me though.

Lynn v Generico was a great way to start the night. Good fast paced action, fair few spots, exactly what you'd expect really.

SJK v Doug Williams was a good match too. The heel/face part played well by both. I thought SJK was great on the mic and really looked like a star. For some reason he reminded me of Orton too.

Colt v Saint - not my type of match. Never enjoyed the whole world of sport type thing - not saying it wasn't a good match but just not something that appeals to me. Colt seemed to be having a great time though.

Project Ego v Thorn and Aisu - match of the night. so many holy shit moments here - a crazy brutal brawl which took its way all around the arena. Thorn was great in this match but project ego took most of the big bumps. At one point Thorn was teasing setting something on fire but it never happened. This match alone made it worth coming for me. I met Thorn in the interval and he barely knew where he was- this match took its toll on him - really makes you appreciate the effort they all put in.

Bret Hart gave a very short speech- cant of been longer than 5 mins talking about nothing much. Obviously he is a draw but for me this added very little to the show.

The six man tag match was good. Didn't have a clue what the promo beforehand was about but a well worked match. Lionheart was great and dave moralez is one big mean mofo.

nigel v johnny moss was really really boring. i expected more but this match was a snore fest.

boxer v wrestler match - the talking before this dragged on for ages, the mic was so poor i could barely hear what was saying, i didn't have a clue who was supposed to be heel/face. The match was awful - 3 mins of fucking about and a choke hold. then we got a cheap shot punch. this was by far the worst part of the night.

Abyss v Stone - a decent ish main event, like others have said tho bit of a poor ending. Crowd was dead - i think ppl were tired and the boxing fiasco killed the atmosphere. This would of gone down better earlier on the card with the no dq tag as main event i reckon. As for people getting behind Abyss - well tbh i dont see anything wrong with that. I didnt know MS before the match, he didnt do anything to particularly impress me so its not surprising im going to root for Abyss. I dont buy the whole i should get behind him soley because he's British. Doug Williams v SJK was a perfect example of how to work the heel/face US/UK angle.

I found it strange they didnt announce another show at the end of the night but hopefully there will be news soon - i would def attend. Next time i would like to get front row seats - the atmosphere looked great there. Loads of interaction between wrestlers and fans- at times it looked the heels were gonna punch some of the front row kids. At times beer was getting chucked at the heels - just looked like good fun there.