We’re finally there! Season 3 of NGW’s TV show climaxed with the much-awaited Team Warfare match for control of the company.
There’s the obligatory out-of-date shout-out for Fighting Spirit Magazine… because I guess they couldn’t get Alex Shane to say “season three finale”? As with most shows, they open with ring announcer Stevie Aaron leading the crowd in an “NGW” chant, except it’s not really distinct.
After last week’s attack on El Ligero and Liam Slater, we now have two empty spots as – as things stand – the main event is Nathan Cruz, Matt Myers and two mystery men vs. Zack Gibson and the Control’s Rampage Brown, Caz Crash and Sam Wilder.
They replay the events of last week where Liam Slater saved El Ligero from Joseph Conners, and the debut of an unnamed man (“Screwface” AJ Anderson) in Legion of Doom shoulder pads. He spat mist in Slater’s face, and laid out Ligero with a ripcord big boot, before using a chain to try and split Ligero in half.
Our first sit-down interview has Richie West gloating about Ligero and Slater being taken out. Nathan Cruz sells it in another interview, and then we’ve footage of Matt Myers’ last-second Gen-X title win over Bubblegum. Myers gets an interview, like a Yorkshire Sami Zayn, and sells how happy he is at being on the team, but he’s worried at not getting a title match if the NGW team loses.
Cruz gives a later promo and blows off Myers’ title shot request, and then we flash back to five weeks ago, and that Zack Gibson vs. Pete Dunne match in the Davey Boy Smith Memorial Cup. Gibson’s taken up the offer of joining Team Control so he can get a shot at the NGW title, since he’s fed up of NGW denying him. Refusing title shots all ‘round, sounds like NGW’s led by some pretty crappy management!
Back to ringside, and we’ve got more cheerleading, then a commercial break (“because this… is wrestling”), and we’re back to 12 weeks ago, where Zack Gibson gets superplexed into a pile, and that triple-threat match between Zack Gibson, Nathan Cruz and Rampage Brown. Yes, it’s that triple-threat that somehow ended in a double count-out. Not sure why they’re reminding us of this bad booking, but there you go. Cruz takes exception to Gibson calling himself number one, and this segment is really dragging. Perhaps if they hadn’t done this for most of the season, having the opening 16 minutes of video packages would have felt special.
Anyway, with the show at 16:39 on my YouTube clock, we’re finally close to the action!
Team Warfare – Winning Team Gets Control of NGW; if Team NGW Wins, Nathan Cruz Retains the NGW title, if Team Control Wins, Rampage Brown Wins the NGW title
There’s a lengthy header for you. Nathan Cruz is out first with his title belts, whilst Team Control’s first man out is Zack Gibson.
I’ve tried to not mention specific inanities on commentary, but “if there’s a bigger rivalry in British wrestling than Cruz vs. Gibson, then I don’t know what it is…” from Alex Shane is a cake-taker. Again, with fairness to NGW, this is partly because of how some British companies carve out their own storylines, but when your “hottest rivalry” features two guys who team together in another company, then you might want another rivalry.
Cruz and Gibson tie up, then shove each other off, as we have a neutral opening. Gibson grabs an armbar as Cruz went for a waistlock, and they went back and forth, but Cruz scored the first pinfall attempt via a leg-sweep, getting him a near-fall. Gibson tried for the Shankly Gates, but Cruz fought out, and it led to a stand-off as we headed to a commercial.
Back from the break, Cruz blocks a slingshot into the corner and countered with a crossbody block, as the countdown leads us to the arrival of Rampage Brown. Apparently this is a standard elimination tag-match, and not a tornado match as we’d seen with War Games of old… Gibson refuses to tag out, instead opting to fight himself, and he takes a leaping knee from Cruz, before elbowing out of the Show Stolen.
Cruz gets the knees up in the corner, but gets dumped off the top rope onto the floor by Brown, who tags in, and drops to the floor as he pounds away on Cruz. A spinning Falcon Arrow gets Rampage a near-fall, and the next countdown brings out Matt Myers. Who brings out his Gen-X title cup with him…
Cruz immediately tags in Myers as a stagehand grabs the cup, and Myers drops Gibson with a back elbow off the middle rope. A springboard moonsault off the middle rope gets Myers a near-fall, before a pair of tags gets us back to Rampage and Cruz. Well, briefly, as Cruz tags Myers back in, and Myers quickly goes to a modified rear chinlock. The NGW team quickly cycle in tags, and another countdown leads us to Team Control getting a third man in the form of Caz Crash.
Crash distracts Myers as he comes down, and Rampage tosses Myers to the outside for some good old-fashioned heel work, then tosses Myers back in for a Rampage knee-drop that gets him a near-fall. Crash tags in and stomps away at Myers, and they’re now exchanging tags so often that it really is just a random cycling of guys at this point. Another countdown gives us the first mystery man for NGW, and it’s… Stixx!
Stixx makes a beeline for Gibson, and spears him despite not being the legal man. Gibson tags out to Crash, before Myers tags in Stixx, who runs wild on Rampage and Crash with crossbodies in the corners. Crash gets used as a human battering ram into Rampage, then gets dropped by a TKO by Stixx. Rampage takes a powerslam from Stixx, who then drops a load of elbows into the shoulders of Crash, then lands a top rope splash for a near-fall, as Sam Wilder completes the set for Team Control.
Stixx drops Wilder in the aisle with a forearm, but Wilder recovers to knock Stixx off the top rope, and the heels suddenly pop up on the apron. Wilder and Crash combine after a tag to land a neckdrop for a near-fall, as Alex Shane takes us to break by saying that he’s not seen Colossus Kennedy in the building today. I’ve not seen the show spoilers, but that’s real subtle…
Back from break, Stixx is getting cornered by the heels as they frequently cycle in with tags and beat down the former tag team champion. The final countdown leads us to the reveal of Colossus Kennedy as the final man for Team NGW, and that probably would have been more of a surprise had a seed not been sewn so late for it to be a bloody giveaway!
Colossus tags in immediately and takes down Crash and Wilder with a double clothesline, then with avalanche splashes, and finally a leaping shoulder block. Rampage comes in and the two big guys go at it, with Rampage kicking away a chokeslam. Colossus drops the Proven (Wilder and Crash) with a double chokeslam, before Stixx comes in and instead of going for a pin, he waits for Crash to get to his feet. In the meantime, Joe Hendry appears on the stage with the tag title belts, and that causes a distraction, because I guess Stixx has attention deficit disorder, I guess? That distraction sees Stixx chase after Hendry’s big red ball, I mean the title belts, and not even his tag team partner can snap his focus. The Proven drop to the floor to join in with staring at Joe Hendry, and the two teams fighting on the outside leads to Wilder, Crash, Stixx and Colossus somehow getting disqualified. Err? Who is booking this garbage and how do we stop them?
So, we end up with a tag team elimination match now, and all four remaining men flood the ring. Is this going to be a disqualification, based on the precedent we literally just saw?! Of course not! Rampage and Cruz drop each other with a double clothesline, whilst Myers leaps over Gibson, and blocks a lungblower, only to crash and burn with a moonsault. There’s a ref bump as Myers and Gibson go into the corner, but a Myers stunner immediately leads to a tag for Gibson. Rampage connects with a piledriver, but the referee recovers and refuses to count since he didn’t see a tag. How refreshing that useless refereeing actually works both ways!
Gibson and Brown shove each other in the corner out of frustration, and Brown finally tags himself in. For some reason, Gibson climbs the ropes, and drops Brown with the Ticket To Ride (called the Merseyside Drop here, but I’m trusting Zack more than those commentators!) as the easily-distracted Brown aborted a piledriver attempt so he could turn around and look at Gibson. Sigh.
Richie West enters the ring and points at the contract that Zack Gibson had signed… and Zack tears it up. West slaps Gibson, and gets caught in the Shankly Gates. Swerve! Gibson then walks out, and that’s ¾s of the Control Team cheaply eliminated. Nathan Cruz tags in and lays into Brown, then lands the Show Stolen… but Richie West dives in to stop the count. We get our second ref bump as Cruz was pancaked into Steve Lynskey as he watched on at Richie West being given a talking-to.
Rampage goes for a piledriver, but Cruz backdrops out of it. Myers lands a Stunner, then Cruz gets the Show Stolen, as “banned” referee Adam Jay slides in and counts the pin. Team NGW wins – Nathan Cruz and Matt Myers are the sole survivors, and end up being announced only guys even recognised as being part of the team!
This to me was a massive let-down. At the start of the show, we had the cliff-hanger of “who’s going to be NGW’s mystery men?”, and that was paid-off by having the former tag champs come out and get disqualified for a) being distracted and b) fighting guys IN THE MATCH on the floor. Then we had two ref bumps, just because. Oh, and don’t forget the season-long storyline of Zack Gibson joining the heel team, only to walk out on them. **½
That result means that the Control must disband, which was underscored when Nathan Cruz dumped Richie West with the Show Stolen. What does that mean going forward? Tune in for season four and we’ll find out. As the season finale of NGW, this contained parts of the entire season, all in one episode. We had one match, we had finishes that made little sense, we had our favourite inane commentary… in short: Massively overbooked, at times illogical, and really just a let-down. It’s not quite “who’s booking this… and how do we stop them?” levels of bad, but my word it came close.
This so wasn’t the season-ending/main event match that they’d built themselves up for.