Time to pick out another promotion’s VOD catalog, as we take a look at the best of Rev Pro’s recent past to help while away your lockdowns!
Much like with wXw, our coverage of Rev Pro’s back catalogue isn’t entirely comprehensive – starting in the summer of 2016… so here’s the first of our picks of stuff-we’ve-watched over the years for you to feast on while Rev Pro have their two-week free trial over on rpwondemand.com
Angle vs. Sabre Jr. – a match so big, they named the show after it! The opener here between Noam Dar and Marty Scurll was a good way to get going. Mike Bailey vs. Will Ospreay leaps off the page too, despite this being in both of their “finding themselves” stage… add Chris Hero vs. Josh Bodom in a match that had a weird finish, while the headline match is more of a TV match than you’d expect, but still damn good.
Live at the Cockpit 8 – a time capsule match between Noam Dar and Josh Bodom for qualification to the WWE Cruiserweight Classic lives here. Imagine THAT alternate universe. Big Damo vs. ZSJ in the main event is a short-ish main event, but one that’s well and truly gone under the radars.
Summer Sizzler 2016 – drop in for Josh Bodom vs. Tomohiro Ishii, stay for Pete Dunne vs. Will Ospreay, and don’t tune out for Mike Bailey vs. Marty Scurll. Oh, and make you you watch the main event: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Katsuyori Shibata. It’s as good as the pairing suggests!
Live at the Cockpit 9 – the Hunter Brothers vs. Joel Redman and the future Charlie Sterling surprises… Big Damo vs. Marty Scurll keeps Marty’s bid at a second reign with the Rev Pro title going strong… while Matt Cross and Pete Dunne knock it out of the park in the main event.
Uprising 2016 – Marty Scurll vs. Chris Hero being a cracker? Don’t pretend you’re surprised… Pete Dunne and Ricochet keep it going… while Jeff Cobb vs. Zack Sabre Jr. marked the advent of a more dick-ish Sabre in Rev Pro. Vader vs. Will Ospreay is more a spectacle than anything else, and a “what might have been” in terms of future storylines.
Live at the Cockpit 10 – Trent Seven vs. Mark Haskins… Pete Dunne vs. Noam Dar… the LDRS vs. British Young Bloods (Jake McClusky vs. Kieran Bruce). Three matches that perhaps sum up Rev Pro at the time, but all real good work.
Live at the Cockpit 11 – Big Damo vs. Jeff Cobb keeps the run of great Damo matches going. Something that’ll be a pleasant surprise to those who only know him as Killian Dain… Josh Bodom vs. Ryan Smile keeps Josh Bodom’s name in this piece, while Jay White’s on-off run in Rev Pro continued with a good match against Marty Scurll. This Cockpit show closed out with a barn burner between Trent Seven and ZSJ too…
Global Wars UK 2016 Night One – Tomohiro Ishii. Chris Hero. WATCH IT. Oh, and the latest go around in Shibata vs. Sabre…
Global Wars UK 2016 Night Two – Yuji Nagata vs. Trent Seven was a pleasant surprise… while Will Ospreay wrestling in the “Dark Liger” body suit against Jushin Thunder Liger was a proverbial Kodak moment. The LDRS vs. LIJ is worth your time, but don’t turn off the stream before Hero vs. Shibata…
Live at the Cockpit 12 – 2017 got off to a hot start with a trios main event at the Cockpit: Will Ospreay, Shane Strickland and Ryan Smile vs. Marty Scurll, Pete Dunne and Travis Banks…
High Stakes 2017 – ZSJ vs. Marty Scurll is a Marmite match… but Matt Riddle vs. Katsuyori Shibata is much definitely less so.
Live at the Cockpit 13 – I’d completely forgotten Timothy Thatcher vs. Gideon Grey was a match, but it was, and it was damn good. Travis Banks vs. Ryan Smile keeps it going, while we’ve an early sighting of Oliver Carter as Josh Bodom defended his interim cruiserweight title. Stick around for ZSJ vs. Mike Bailey too, as the Cockpits continued their hot streak.
Live in Portsmouth 7 – Pete Dunne vs. the current Pentagon Jr. is about the only thing that leaps off this show…
Live at the Cockpit 14 – David Starr vs. Bubblegum gets added to the list, as does Ryan Smile vs. Pete Dunne, and Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher. Look past the blurry cameras. CCK vs. Sterling & Redman crowns the rise of CCK in Rev Pro as well…
Live in Orlando – a ‘Mania weekend show, and we’ve got a varied roster too. Ricochet vs. Marty Scurll knocked it out of the park, as did David Starr vs. Josh Bodom. Shane Strickland and Ryan Smile tagged up to take on Brian Cage and Michael Elgin in a match that some could pick issue with without even watching… while ZSJ vs. Pentagon Jr. capped off a cracker of a card.
Live at the Cockpit 15 – Zack Gibson & Josh Bodom vs. Bubblegum & Will Ospreay marks the start of the fondly-remembered (by some) Gibson and Bodom tandem… while Strickland and Smile challenging CCK for the tag titles make this a good show for the tag team matches…
Epic Encounters 2017 – Martin Stone and Sami Callihan get the York Hall card off to a flyer against CCK… Marty Scurll vs. Hiromu Takahashi made for a grand outing… as was the cruiserweight title unifier between Josh Bodom and Will Ospreay. KUSHIDA vs. ZSJ keeps up Zack’s Marmite appearances at York Hall mind you, while the main event of Lio Rush & All Day Swerve (Shane Strickland & Ryan Smile) vs. The Elite (Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson & Kenny Omega) is a weird time capsule, and one that started a worrying trend of late finishes at York Hall.
Live at the Cockpit 16 – Josh Bodom vs. Donovan Dijak. That’s the match. Watch it. Meanwhile, Marty Scurll continues to hang around the main event title scene with a stormer against Kyle O’Reilly…
Live at the Cockpit 17 – marked for the debut of El Phantasmo (against David Starr), Donovan Dijak’s back to have a good ‘un with Eddie Dennis. CCK vs. Suzuki-gun’s ZSJ and Davey Boy Smith Jr. is also a weird “only in Rev Pro” match…
Live at the Cockpit 18 – David Starr vs. Josh Bodom was the first of David Starr’s flirtations with the cruiserweight title – back in the summer of 2017… Keith Lee vs. Matt Riddle somehow is in the midcard here. I miss how deep the indies were a few years back…
British J Cup 2017 – a one-night tournament, KUSHIDA vs. Kyle O’Reilly was the pick of the first round matches, while Jushin Thunder Liger’s final tournament win in the main event makes this a worthy rewatch…
Live at the Cockpit 19 – notable for the debut of Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher – against each other… El Phantasmo vs. Jay White is a funny one in hindsight, given where their careers went… while War Machine tore things down against CCK in the Cockpit…
Summer Sizzler 2017 – Jay White hangs around against Travis Banks in a show-stealer… until Chris Brookes had a rare shot at the Rev Pro title, earning his strikes against ZSJ… Marty Scurll vs. Rey Mysterio is another odd main event, but one that weirdly worked.
Live at the Cockpit 20 – Zack Gibson vs. Timothy Thatcher is a match that just clicked beautifully… ditto David Starr vs. Ryan Smile… Bubblegum and Flip Gordon main event in a match that ended with Dave Mastiff just obliterating them in a page that could have come out of the WWE playbook.
Live at the Cockpit 21 – Flash Morgan Webster returned to Rev Pro to take on Josh Bodom… while Aussie Open and CCK went to war for the Rev Pro tag titles…
Live in Portsmouth 9 – another casual crowd, but some decent matches – Josh Bodom defending the cruiserweight title against Bubblegum and David Starr leaps off the page, while Will Ospreay and ZSJ offered a preview of what was to come two and a half years later as the Rev Pro title headlined down south.
Live in Cardiff – Rev Pro’s debut in Wales (and, at time of writing, only show in Wales) was solid, but the only notable match saw Mike Bailey and Travis Banks kicking lumps out of each other…
Live in Leamington – another debut, and another big match for Travis, who took on Timothy Thatcher here… the Hunter Brothers vs. Moustache Mountain is another one for your time capsules as they built Trent and Tyler for a future tag title shot.
Monday Night Mayhem – a return to Portsmouth gives us a new show title, and another good match out of Josh Bodom as he defended against Mike Bailey, while we got that CCK vs. Moustache Mountain tag title match…
Live at the Cockpit 22 – come for the four-way madness in the main event – Legion of Lords vs. Kurtis Chapman & Josh Wall vs. Aussie Open vs. CCK.
Global Wars UK 2017 Night One – Tetsuya Naito vs. Marty Scurll is the first of our highly-rated matches… followed by Keith Lee vs. Tomohiro Ishii, and a New Japan main event of Sabre/Suzuki vs. Ospreay/Goto.
Global Wars UK 2017 Night Two – Matt Riddle vs. Minoru Suzuki is just as you’d expect… while Ospreay and ZSJ have another cracker for the Rev Pro title, with the same result…
Live at the Cockpit 23 – Aussie Open vs. Zack Gibson and Josh Bodom offered a look ahead to the wars the Aussies had with Bodom down the line…
Uprising 2017 – we wrap up the year with an upset win for Kurtis Chapman at York Hall… “the first women’s match at York Hall” (beating EVE’s WrestleQueendom by a few months)… and Matt Riddle vs. ZSJ for the title. Oh, and a trios match with Flip Gordon and CCK against Marty Scurll and the Young Bucks as we had a Marmite Bullet Club segment to close out.
So… there’s a LOT of Rev Pro to go through, from perhaps their glory years in terms of the depth of the indie scene. We’ll come back in a few weeks with picks from their recent years – some of which could be described as “lean” thanks to changing rosters…