We’re back on Friday (yeah, I know) for some more Wednesday Night Wrestling, as Mark Haskins vs. Marty Scurll is your main event for week two from FIGHT! Nation Wrestling.
We’re still in April’s tapings from Weymouth, and we open with a sit-down promo from Marty Scurll ahead of his title defence against Mark Haskins tonight. Scurll reminds us who he’s beaten – Will Ospreay, Doug Williams, Joel Redman and MVP – and then we segue to Haskins, who kinda buries Scurll for cheating to win.
This was the same sort of format we had in week one, but it works in getting the main event across. I just noticed, in the title video, the producer/editor and executive producer get name checks. That’s a little odd in wrestling… Please, WWE, don’t add Kevin Dunn to the Raw opener!
We start with a debut, as British veteran Doug Williams takes on newcomer Psycho Phillips.. . and they actively call-out the ring announcer and commentator this week. Improvement!
Psycho Phillips vs. Doug Williams
Or Psycho Philips, as the graphic calls him. I’ll trust his own Twitter account, so I’m going with “Phillips”… our referee here is Steve Lynskey, so it’s only a matter of time before El Ligero’s on this show, right?
Phillips takes Williams into the corner and breaks somewhat cleanly. Doug replies with a headlock takedown, before he easily frees himself from Phillips’ headscissors counter. Williams goes for a heel hold, then an wristlock, and finally an armbar as Phillips was kept on the mat.
Williams locks Phillips in a crossface briefly, before he’s taken into the corner where… Phillips actually breaks cleanly again. Phillips bends over Williams in a test of strength, but the veteran powers back and takes Phillips into the corner with a wristlock, before going back to the headlock takedown for another stand-off.
Phillips slaps his face to try and fire himself up, and it sort-of works as he grabs a headlock, and this takes us into a break. The continuity announcer lasted just the one week then, and we return to the pair of them exchanging shoulder blocks. Phillips comes back with a Thesz press, before Williams gets taken into the corner for some stomps and forearms.
Williams goes to the outside, but Psycho follows him out, and ends up pushing Williams into the ring post as he went for a headlock punch. Rolling Williams back in, Phillips elbows Doug in the trapezius, then grabs a chinlock, before sending Doug into the turnbuckle. That gets the newcomer a near-fall.
Williams kicks Phillips in the thigh after he’d telegraphed a kick in the corner, but Phillips retaliates with some pokes to the eye. A suplex attempt is reversed as Williams drops Psycho, but Phillips pops back up and tries for a chokeslam, only for Williams to slip behind and pull off an overhead belly to belly suplex.
Williams takes Phillips down again with a T-bone suplex out of the corner, then lands a knee lift before scoring a two-count from a roll-up. Phillips elbows out of a back suplex, then lands a uranage and a back senton for a near-fall of his own. Psycho goes for another chokeslam, but Doug reverses and goes for an O’Connor roll for another close call.
A left-hand from Psycho knocks Williams to the outside after the kickout, and Williams just about beat the referee’s ten count to make it back to the ring. A rolling elbow rocks Doug, before Williams backdrops out of a piledriver attempt. Williams goes up top, but Phillips catches him on the top rope, and called for a brainbuster, only for Williams to headbutt him to the mat, and then land the Bomb Scare kneedrop off the top for the win. Pretty decent work from both men, although aside from slapping himself a few times, I didn’t really get a flavour of the “psycho” character. ***
Next up is an in-ring interview with Mark Haskins ahead of tonight’s main event. Haskins puts over how tough it’ll be to win the title, then refers back to how he’s had a hard week after the passing of Kris Travis “two weeks ago”, and also having to suffer the loss of a childhood friend at around the same time.
Next week is a Lethal Lottery tournament, featuring Sammy Smooth, James Castle, Psycho Phillips, Sid Scala, plus Jakey and Brucey. They’ll be put into three random teams, and whichever team wins the round-robin stage will face each other for a shot at the British title.
FIGHT! Nation British Heavyweight Championship: Mark Haskins vs. Marty Scurll (c)
Scurll starts by clubbing Haskins in the back, before taking him into a corner for some stomps. The tables quickly turn, and Scurll powders to the outside, before looking aghast as Haskins kips up from a shoulder tackle.
Scurll misses a charge into the corner and takes an outside-in dropkick from Haskins for it, before they go to the outside where Haskins follows with a tope to send Scurll into the barriers. Haskins chops Scurll around ringside, but a headbutt from the champion leads to a brief period of offence… at least until he chopped the ringpost in error.
A kick to the head gets Scurll a two-count inside the ring, and they head out again, where Scurll drills Haskins with a superkick on the apron. Haskins beats the count to get back inside, only to be met with another kick to the head, and then get both of his knees stomped into the mat by the champion.
Scurll takes Haskins into the entrance way, where he’s slammed in the aisle, and he takes until the count of seven to get back to his feet, before he just about beats the ten count. Haskins kicks out at one as Scurll covered him, and we go to a break…
We return to see Scurll beckoning Haskins to his feet, and Scurll keeps trying to kick him back down, but Haskins makes a comeback with a dropkick that sends Scurll into the corner. A running clothesline rocks Scurll, and Haskins rolls him out of the corner into a Sharpshooter, but Scurll was too close to the ropes.
Haskins’ comeback gets cut-off as his arm’s dropped across the top rope, before Scurll snaps away his fingers… then lands the “Just Kidding” superkick to send Haskins to his knees. Scurll takes a bicycle kick, then a double knee-press for a near-fall as Haskins instantly rebounded back.
An arm-whip and a knee to the face again rocked the challenger, but Haskins again shifts the momentum as he counters a suplex into an armbar on the champion. Scurll dragged himself to the ropes for another break, and he countered with a chicken wing attempt… but Haskins freed himself, only to get crotched on the top rope by the champion.
Scurll drops Haskins with a Tower of London for a near-fall, and then calls for another chicken wing, but Haskins again frees himself and levels Scurll with a forearm, then a clothesline. Haskins drags himself back to his feet and sets up for a superkick, but Scurll drags the referee in front of him and the ref gets bumped! Regardless, Haskins takes down Scurll with a second superkick, but there’s no referee, so the visual pin means nothing.
Haskins goes over to the referee to revive him/put his missing teeth back in, but Scurll’s gone to the outside and re-emerges with an umbrella. Scurll jabs Haskins with the umbrella, and of course, the referee wakes up in time to count… as Haskins kicks out! With an umbrella still in hand, Scurll beckons Haskins back to his feet, and then tosses the umbrella to Haskins as he pulls an Eddie Guerrero.
They tease a disqualification as the audience screams in disbelief… as the referee gets rid of the umbrella, Haskins gets kicked low and rolled up… but he kicks out at two! Scurll grabs the umbrella as he looks to finish the job, but instead he picks up his title belt, and looks to use it on Haskins for a disqualification. We get a second ref bump after Scurll shoves him down in a tug-of-war for the belt, but Haskins ducks the resulting belt shot, and picks up Scurll for a sit-out death valley driver for the win! A fine main event, but it’s not like that surprised you with these two. ****
My only nit-pick with this was that as soon as Haskins gets announced as the champion, all of the arena sound was muted as the show wrapped up… so we saw literally none of Haskins’ celebration. Aside from that, another fun show from the FIGHT! Nation crew,