A pair of fantastic matches headed up this week’s hour of NGW TV – with some good action at either end of the scale: big lads, and nippy Gen-X stuff!
This week’s show started with our customary shot of Stevie Aaron geeing up the crowd as we’re told that we’ve got Martin Kirby vs. Robbie X for a shot in a Gen-X ladder match… and of course, that Dave Mastiff vs. Joe Coffey match in the Davey Boy Smith Memorial Cup. But first – Martin Kirby, without his WCPW music, which will confuse those watching on the WhatCulture channel! For some reason, the sound here is really muffled, almost like we’re listening to the building audio on a telephone line – of course, the commentary team is perfectly audible.
Martin Kirby vs. Robbie X
The storyline here is that the Gen X champion Matt Myers has to defend his title “later in the season” in a four-way ladder match in order to get a title shot that Nathan Cruz had promised him. This is a qualifier for that ladder match, and we still have the weird sound.
They threw in during the match that Doug Williams – who won a “Destiny Rumble” way back in February – gets his NGW title shot against Nathan Cruz in a few weeks time. This match has a ten minute time limit, so we started with a rapid sequence of armdrags as neither man was able to get an advantage in the opening minute. They exchanged knuckle-locks to try and force a pin, before Robbie landed a diving single leg kick for a near-fall over Kirby.
Kirby made a comeback with a tiltawhirl backbreaker, before a series of chops and an eye poke took us to the half-way point in this match. A running backbreaker gets a near-fall for Kirby, whose offence seemed to turn him heel for some reason, before Kirby went for the Zoidberg Elbow… of course, missing it. Robbie X used that to inspire a comeback, landing a dropkick out of a sunset flip reversal, before a ripcord rolling elbow and a bridging German suplex got a near-fall as we went into an awfully-timed commercial break. Seriously? A break with 3 minutes left in the match?!
We return from commercial to see a replay of last week’s segment where new executive producer Mark Labbett ejected Richie West from the arena. Then we return to our wrestling match as Robbie takes a leaping neckbreaker from Kirby after having to abort a leap off the top. Kirby followed up with a Sable Bomb attempt, but that was turned into a roll-up as Robbie hit the X-Express (springboard Ace crusher) and a standing shooting star press for the win. A pretty good match in spite of the time limit. ***½
During this match, it became clear that “around the country” is NGW code for WCPW. Interesting…
We’ve got a sit-down interview with “Manager of Champions” Gilligan Gordon. He recaps the debut of “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman a year ago, and the big takeaway is that Boar’s furry singlet should be worn more often. Oh, and that Gordon’s bringing Dave Mastiff to the party. That’s followed by the same sit-down promo we had with Joe Coffey from last week, featuring a lot of footage from WCPW. Sorry, I mean “around the country”. Yeah, it’s not a good sign, repeating content in successive weeks…
After a commercial break, it’s yet another sit-down promo, this time with Nathan Cruz. It’s a long one, where he talks about how he watched Doug Williams back in 2002 against Eddie Guerrero, and how in a few weeks time, he’ll be defending against Doug.
Dave Mastiff vs. Joe Coffey
Apparently this is an “open invitational” in the Davey Boy Smith Memorial Cup, rather than a qualifier or anything… they mention Joe Coffey’s recent win over Kurt Angle “on the biggest wrestling show in the UK in decades”, but they don’t mention the promotion, which is one of my usual bugbears with this group. I get that you’re aimed at new fans, but NGW doesn’t run all that regularly or indeed everywhere – it doesn’t hurt to namecheck other promotions!
This was typical “big lads wrestling”, with Coffey going a little airborne with dropkicks early on as Gilligan Gordon threatened to interject himself in the opening minutes. After a distraction, Mastiff took the upper hand, flinging Coffey hard into the turnbuckles, before the Scotsman reversed a suplex for a near-fall. Coffey rolls away from a sit-out splash, but has no answer at the second attempt as the Earthquake-style splash got a near-fall.
They go to a break as Mastiff worked a wristlock on a grounded Coffey, and we return to another sit-down promo. Guys, can you not punctuate matches with these?? It’s Matt Myers this time building up Doug Williams, with a LOT of FWA footage thrown in. Myers talks up Doug Williams vs. Steve Corino, which is a match we’re going to watch for our future “let’s review FWA TV” series in the new year… and then Doug vs. Jerry Lynn.
After the commercial and promo, we’re back as Coffey’s fighting out of that wristlock, before both guys missed as Coffey’s missed enziguiri was replied by a back senton that got nothing. Coffey lands a missile dropkick and then a Stinger splash in the corner. A second one followed, before a third was avoided… so Coffey goes for – and gets – a springboard crossbody off the top rope.
Mastiff connected with a back senton for a two-count, then tried for a deadlift German, only for Coffey to get an enziguiri and a German himself. Joe set-up for a Black Coffey discus lariat, but it’s countered with a simple slap from Mastiff, who replied by trapping Coffey in the ropes and yanking him into the top strand. One corner cannonball senton later, and the man definitely not being called the Bastard here took the win. A fun big-lads-wrestling match – and one worth watching! ***¾
Alex Shane announced at the end of the show that Team Insane Fight Club will be defending their NGW tag titles next week. That’s followed by a sit-down promo (yes, another one) with heel Joe Hendry recapping what happened he was in NGW, where Stixx and Colossus wiped out Lionheart… to the point where Kid Fite will be teaming with Hendry under the Freebird rule against some hand-picked opponents next week.
This was a really good episode of NGW. Two great matches, and if you fast-forward through the promos, it’s a show that flies by. I’m not sold on the overuse of those promos (especially in the middle of matches!), nor do I get what went wrong with the audio this week. It’s like they used different equipment or a different building.
Great stuff – hopefully it’s more of the same next week!