We swing by for a look at the main event of New Wave’s third anniversary show from this past weekend…
It doesn’t feel like three years have passed since New Wave emerged – and while the first show under that moniker didn’t happen until September 2022, it has been three years since the former Dragon Pro got its new name. In that time, a lot of names have passed through the New Wave doors and are starting to make their marks – Leon Cage perhaps being the most prominent to those from further afield.
Anyways, this past Friday saw New Wave hold their 3 Year Anniversary show, held at the Cardiff Theatre Cafe in (guess) Cardiff, with a big name in the main event… so let’s get to it.
Danny Jones vs. 1 Called Manders
We’re not even two weeks on from Manders’ winning 16 Carat Gold – and Jones’ run to the final of AMBITION on the same weekend…
The opening lock-ups saw neither man yield at first, trading shoulder tackles until Jones managed to bulldoze through the Iowan. Things quickly escalate to chops, which reverbed around the former church really well before Manders dragged Jones to the outside to give the front row a closer look (and listen) to those chops.
Jones takes a swig of Madri and sprays it in Manders’ face at ringside, before Jones accidentally chopped the ring post. That Trent’ing opened things up for Manders to strike back with chops of his own, before he stopped to wipe his eyes on a fan’s hoodie before… having some Bud Light chopped out of his mouth. Jones spits some more Bud at Manders before things headed back inside with Manders getting hurled into the buckles… only to return the favour as Manders finally got a breather.
We’re back to strikes as Manders tried to make inroads, landing a back elbow off the ropes as another exchange of chops ended with a short-range lariat by the ropes. Jones rolled away from a springboard elbow drop as Manders was again sent back to square one.
Manders gets put on the back foot as he’s taken corner-to-corner, eventually met with an Exploder out of the corner for a near-fall, before Manders found a way in with a charge into the corner and a Stampede out of it. This time, Jones is forced to kick out at two, prompting Manders to take things up top for an avalanche slam… only for Jones to fight free as we return to the back-and-forth strikes.
Switching things up, Jones catches out Manders with a Falcon arrow before Manders put the brakes on a piledriver, breaking free with a back body drop ahead of a quickfire elbow drop. A lariat off the ropes lays out Jones seconds later, but it’s not enough… so Manders goes for it again, only to get beaten to the punch by Jones.
Jones gets to his feet first, but Manders sits bolt upright before a cover could be attempted… and we’re back to the pair teeing off on each other with forearms. A slap from Jones stunned Manders for long enough for him to eat a piledriver… but Manders got a foot to the rope to save the match at the last second. Jones doesn’t give Manders any quarter after that, sending him onto the apron… but a teased apron piledriver’s stopped by the teeth of Manders, who bit his way free before clobbering Jones to the floor with a lariat.
Rolling back in, Jones finds a second wind as he unloaded with a flurry of palm strikes… only to eat another lariat as Manders came close to the win. Manders tees up once more time, and while Jones ducked the line, he’s clobbered with a lariat to the back of the head, before one more lariat was countered into a Dragon suplex. From there, a short range knee strike and a piledriver finally landed, with Danny Jones snatching the hard-fought win.
Result: Danny Jones pinned 1 Called Manders in 19:39 (***½)
This was the main event of a long, 11-match card, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that the crowd would have been asleep – but Manders and Jones took the route of beating the crowd into life (not literally!) as they left their mark on each other.
- New Wave’s VODs can be found as a part of Defend On Demand.