Kip Sabian made his NGW debut this week as the fifth season of British Wrestling Weekly hurtled towards its finale.
We’re in Hull, with Dave Bradshaw and Alex Shane on commentary. Let’s get right to it, eh?
El Ligero vs. Kip Sabian
We’re under Gen-X League rules, with a ten minute time limit and the wacky turnbuckle touching. There’s an inset promo where Sabian calls Ligero “old”, which I’m sure will set off a red flag among a certain section of fans.
Sabian touched the turnbuckle to get us going, and we’re quick in as Ligero tries to log-roll across the ring to trip Kip, eventually succeeding with a shoulder tackle. Kip tries to repeat the same trick, but he just gets crashed with a standing moonsault as Ligero looked to take over.
A gamengiri from the apron and a missile dropkick swings things back around for Sabian, as he nearly gets the win with a nice Northern Lights suplex. The pace slows to a crawl as Sabian stood over Ligero, but it backfires as Ligero gets in a dropkick to corner Sabian… who’s outsmarted as Ligero flung himself back in from the apron with an Ace crusher for a near-fall. They head outside as Ligero crashes into Sabian with a cannonball as the show entered a break… and after a few weeks without this, we get a Gilligan Gordon bit to further break-up the match. This time he’s waffling about next week’s Ultimate Showdown match for the NGW title…
When we return to the match, we see Sabian wiping out Ligero with a Drive By-style knee on the apron, but a springboard dropkick back in misses as the pair trade running forearms back-and-forth. A pop-up knee levels Ligero, who quickly hits back with a Destroyer as both men were left laying on the mat. Sabian nearly wins with a crucifix bomb, before a Burning Hammer-like move generates another near-fall, but Kip misses a double stomp before Ligero hits a pop-up forearm.
The C4L from Ligero misses… and Sabian snatches the win with a roll-up with some clumsy feet on the ropes. A bit of a flat finish, but an otherwise impressive showing from Sabian in his NGW debut. ***
We get a video package previewing next week’s Ultimate Showdown, featuring clips of Cruz winning the NGW title, Matt Myers losing his first two NGW title shots before winning the Gen X title with one second remaining… to Myers winning another title shot, to him finally winning the big one. There’s stuff from last season too where Cruz lost his chance to get a rematch… and from this season where Zack Gibson cost Cruz in the Destiny Rumble as another title shot went begging.
A sit-down promo from Cruz fills in the blanks as we find out that NGW’s executive producer Mark Labbett’s given him and Rampage Brown title shots after they were both screwed at the Destiny Rumble by Zack Gibson. It’s a measured, understated promo, but one that had Cruz vow to leave with the title next week.
Another one-match episode of NGW then, and it was a decent showing… yeah, the constant replays and timers during the Gen-X matches can get grating, but looking beyond that it was a good match to establish Kip Sabian as a part of the NGW roster. Next week’s season finale should be a cracking match, with Myers, Rampage and Cruz all really good at their craft (even if somehow Myers hasn’t broken out onto a wider stage).