Running between 1995 and 1998, the television series Father Ted was a British sitcom about three Irish priests who lived together in a remote part of Ireland. Just on that premise, it’s not exactly the first television show you’d expect to be involved in a cross-over with wrestling.
February 27 2016, saw the Irish promotion Over The Top Wrestling run a show at the Tivoli Theatre in Dublin that did just that. Featuring cameos from three characters from the show, Father Paul Stone, Father Damian Lennon and Eoin McLove, OTT didn’t let the celebrities take over the show – we had wrestling too. Naturally, there was a lot of Irish talent on show, but as far as recognisable European names went, “Ah Ted” also featured the likes of Will Ospreay, Pete Dunne and “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman.
As fate would have it, Frank Kelly, who played one of the show’s stars Father Jack Hackett, would sadly pass away the very next day following a heart attack.
Our show gets underway with The Specials’ song “Ghost Town”, calling back to it’s use on an episode of Father Ted. Our over-excited ring announcer unrobes to reveal a t-shirt reading “I Shot JR”. Much like the ATTACK! Press Start shows, I have a feeling this card may be lost on a few people if they never saw (or indeed, didn’t like) Father Ted….
They immediately introduced the three comedians who’d play a part during the show: Patrick McDonnell (Eoin Love), Michael Redmond (Father Stone) and Joe Rooney (Father Lennon), to good reactions. There’s a raffle for €150, tickets to a future show, and since we’re in Ireland: booze! Now we get to our opening contest, and what a shame, the “one fall” gimmick is actively being encouraged over in Ireland…
“Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman vs. Jordan Devlin
Both men get “Ghost Town” as their ring entrance, and Devlin – from Bray, Co. Wicklow (same place as Finn Balor) – is clearly the babyface here. Boar launches into Devlin with a shoulder tackle in the corner to get us going, but runs straight into a back kick, before ending an athletic opening sequence by being taken down with a dropkick. Boar tries to go outside for cover, but is met with a corkscrew plancha from Devlin.
Devlin returns into the ring with a high cross body for a near-fall, then a standing moonsault before attempting the Boar’s own package piledriver… and that doesn’t go well for the Irishman. Boar gets a “where’s your teeth?” chant (which is a new one, I must say), before dropping Devlin to the mat with a flapjack from a Fireman’s carry position. The heat continues towards Boar with a “poor man’s Rhino” chant, before Devlin fires out of a rear chinlock, only to try for a sunset flip and get royally squashed.
Boar remains on top of Devlin, smashing an elbow into his forehead, before decking him with another headbutt. Devlin gets whipped into the corner, then leapfrogs the Boar… only to be taken down with a German suplex. Boar misses a cannonball in the corner, and that allows Devlin to nail a springboard cutter from the outside for a near-fall.
Devlin again tries for the package piledriver, but he’s backdropped out of it, and Boar sends him flying across the ring with an Exploder suplex. The cannonball lands at the second attempt, and now it’s the Boar’s turn to try his Trapper Keeper (package piledriver). Devlin flips out of it though, hits a roundhouse kick, and out of nowhere lands the package piledriver for the win. Decent opener, but that finishing sprint was way too short. **¾
Oh God, the technical issues mean that they’re actually using “Ghost Town” for everyone’s music, aren’t they? I guess that means only one set of rights fees to pay…
Logan Bryce vs. The Fabulous Nicky
Bryce is accompanied by his manager, William J Humperdink, who calls out the choice of music. Bryce seems to have a rugby player gimmick going here, with a rugby ball in hand and a taped-up head, and he’s not exactly loved here. They finally find the entrance music CD, and now Nicky gets the first proper entrance theme of the night, accompanied by Martina.
Their gimmick seems to be that they like partying, think Mojo Rawley meets Sandman in terms of partying and alcohol consumption. Immediately, I get the feeling that this is going to be an act I’m going to loathe, because I don’t “get it”. Ah well… For what it’s worth, Martina’s actually the most over person in this match, which may be a problem, if you remember how Sunny was back in her heyday.
Logan spits at Martina, and she charges at him, flips out of a tiltawhirl slam, and the bell rings just in time for Nicky to land a Rough Ryder on Logan. Fortunately that’s not our match…
Bryce goes to the outside for a breather as Nicky dry-humps the mat. Back inside, Bryce punches at Nicky’s midsection, but Nicky leaps over the charge of Bryce in the corner then slaps his arse. And dropkicks him to the outside again. Nicky fakes out a dive, and distracts Bryce and Humperdink outside for long enough for Martina to hit a low-tope of her own. How’s that not a DQ?
In the ring again, Nicky rakes Bryce’s back, before being told in as many words to “fuck off”. Bryce sends Nicky into the middle turnbuckle, then drops him with a backdrop suplex for a near-fall. A rear-chinlock keeps Nicky grounded briefly, but he fights free, only to be taken down by a jab to the face.
The chants from the Dublin crowd keep coming, as they sing “He’s got Sellotape on his head” to Bryce, before he lands an overhead belly-to-belly suplex for a near-fall. Which we miss because the camera pans to Martina who’s opening a can of beer with the fans. A three point stance and a charge from Bryce is met with a big boot, but Bryce fires back as Nicky’s on the top rope. Nicky shoves off Bryce, and then counters with a kiss and a flying clothesline after Bryce tried to be persistent.
A series of clotheslines keeps Bryce grounded, as does a dropkick, before Nicky lands a hiptoss/neckbreaker out of the corner. Oh God, I just got it, with those “woo”s and the finishing move, he’s the Irish Zack Ryder. Another Rough Ryder attempt is blocked and turned into a powerbomb, but Nicky kicks out at two.
Nicky finally hits the Rough Ryder, but William Humperdink gets involved, and promptly receives a Bionic elbow. This somehow sets up a Bronco Buster from Martina to Humperdink, and in the midst of this, Bryce hits a clothesline on Nicky for the win. Eh, I could have lived without this – I can see why the whole Martina gimmick works, but I just don’t get it. **¾
Post-match, William Humperdink runs his mouth and says that Logan can beat anybody. In rolls a guy with a jacket that says “Jake O’Brien” on his back (I presume that’s his name),a and we have an impromptu match!
Logan Bryce vs. Jake O’Brien
Well, I say match… O’Brien slides into the ring and rolls up Bryce for the instant three-count. There’s nothing to rate here, but he dances with Nicky and Martina briefly before heading to the back. It was an easy payday, for OTT’s Mikey Whipwreck, I guess.
The Gymnasties come out next – they’re the trio of Justin Shape, Be Cool and Sammy D. I guess the joke here is that they’re not in shape? Justin Shape is unhappy at the trio being the whipping boys around here, but he’s been given something to motivate Be Cool and Sammy D – if they win three matches in a row, they get a tag title show. This is the Bo Dallas we can all relate to!
The Gymnasties (Justin Shape, Be Cool & Sammy D) vs. The Body Bros (Adam Flex, Bryan Abs & Kyle Corr)
With all apologies for mis-spelled names, since the promotion didn’t even name-check them! Flex looks like Vince McMahon’s ideal wrestler, with the height, definition and the size… and the sparkly gold trunks too.
The Gymnasties beat down their opponents, before “Flex” lifted up another in a chokeslam and dumped him out of the ring. Back inside, all three of the Body Bros took dropkicks, leaving Flex in the ring to drop Justin Shape with a swinging side slam. Be Cool came in to try an RKO, but missed horribly, before trying some punches to the midsection. A DDT worked, but Cool ended up taking a brainbuster from Corr.
Cool came flying off the top rope with a double dropkick to Abs and Corr, then went flying to the outside with a tope con hilo into the front row. Sammy D followed it up with a senton off the top rope to the pile, and Justin Shape completed the set… by hitting a split-legged moonsault from the apron to the outside.
Flex was helped to toss up Shape for a powerbomb, but the rest of the Gymnasties made the save, before the Gymnasties hit a really awkward 3D on Corr. Shape then pulled off an assisted Fly Swatter on Corr, and that was it as the Gymnasties got their first win. Again, pure comedy, and some of those spots at the end looked really dangerous. I’m sure they wouldn’t let untrained guys on these shows, but some of this looks like guys trying to run with spots before they can walk (if you pardon the pun!). **
William J Humperdink is out again with another of his charges, Paul Tracey, whose gimmick is that of someone from the upper classes. He’s got Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as his ring music, and that’s making me want “Ghost Town” to be played again. Humperdink gets “no-one cares” chants for his heel manager schtick, and Tracey’s upset at losing to Pete Dunne last time out.
The lights go out, and we see Gerry Humperdink on the video screen – and he’s accepting a “winner take all” challenge for their ScrapperMania 2 show. Gerry’s man? Mr Anderson. For some reason this video wasn’t dubbed into the release, so we had to watch the video screen through the crowd.
It clearly wasn’t a technical limitation, before we go straight away to a video package, and Martina’s having a kickabout with her guys in the park. The promo was virtually non-existent, with Martina puffing away on a cigarette in the background, but it’s building up to the next match
Over The Top Tag Team Title Match: The Lads From De Flats (Martin & Workie) vs. The Kings Of The North (Bonesaw & Damian Corvin) (c)
Well, these guys have their gimmick down pat – in Britain, there’s a derogatory word to describe this gimmick: “chav”. Put that into Google, and you can guess where we’re headed. Two otherwise indistinguishable guys wrestling in Adidas tracksuits with baseball caps, looking a million miles away from what even the least athletic professional wrestling looks like. Judging from the OTT website, Workie will be wrestling in a t-shirt.
At least their opponents are easier to tell apart: the bearded Bonesaw and the tattoo’d Corvin. Unless the Lads from the Flats decide to shave and tattoo their opponents, we’re in safe territory here. They’re both from Northern Ireland, so you can guess that they’re heels here.
Martin flips the bird to Corvin, and we’re underway. Martin loses his hat in the first leapfrog spot, but immediately picks it back up, before flipping the bird to Corvin again. And gets kicked again. A dropkick sends Corvin down, and both men eventually tag out. Workie immediately gets taken to the corner by Bonesaw, but takes him down with a couple of shoulder charges. Workie does the old Road Dogg punching spot, and all four guys end up in the ring, with the Kings of the North dispatched to the outside.
The Lads from de Flats’ attempts at dives went horribly wrong, as they were cut-off with knees in mid air, and the champions went back on the offence. A kneedrop/back senton combo from Corvin and Bonesaw respectively gets a near-fall, and the heels being on offence of course means that the crowd are chanting for Martina.
Corvin warms up for a superkick, but instead misses a big boot and gets taken down with an enziguiri from Martin. Workie gets the tag in again and he unloads on Bonesaw, sending him to the outside with a springboard dropkick a la Jericho. A legdrop over a bent-over Bonesaw gets another two-count for Workie, and we get a ref bump as Workie hits a flying hip attack into the corner.
Logically, that made little sense. Bonesaw stopped himself from going into the referee, so either way, Workie’s hip attack would have taken out the ref regardless of whether Bonesaw had moved away. Bonesaw’s response? To pick up both men in a Samoan drop that looked like he lost them mid-move.
Corvin went under the ring for a chair, and it was quickly put to use on Workie as the referee was down. Martin tried to stop it, but he too took some chairshots as the champions laid waste to their challengers. A pair of handcuffs were pulled out, and we ended up Martin being cuffed to the top rope… and sure enough, that’s the cue for Martina to make her appearance.
Dual low blows to the champions, then a tiltawhirl headscissors on Corvin put the champs on the back foot. Martina followed up with a springboard bulldog out of the corner on Bonesaw before disappearing… and that’s the cue for… Eoin McLove?! The happy-go-lucky singer from Father Ted made his cue and grabbed a chair, seemingly aiming for the still-cuffed Martin, but he took a low blow from Martina. Except it didn’t work. Because as everyone who’s seen his character in Father Ted knows, “he has no willy”.
McLove then threatens Martina with the chair, but she’s saved by Father Damo, who just so happens to have a key to the handcuffs. Damo pulls out a bag of powder, and that wakes up the challengers, who go flying with some topes. Martin rolls back into the ring and straight into a front suplex, but that has no effect, so he drops Corvin with an (Irish?) Destroyer.
The referee’s still down, so let’s complete the hattrick here: Father Stone wades in as referee, and he makes the slowest, most boring count of the evening. Hey, it fits his character. After Corvin kicks out at two, Stone exits the ring, sticking to the script like a professional. As he left, Martin was in deep trouble, as he took a double team codebreaker, which was then turned into a double team lungblower, but Workie staggered back into the ring before the three-count was made.
Workie dropped Bonesaw with a TKO, but walked into a brainbuster from Corvin, who was dropped with a death valley driver from Martin. The Lads then picked up Bonesaw for a moonsault-assisted reverse DDT, but Bonesaw rolled up Martin out of the pinfall from that for a near-fall. Whilst arguing with the referee, Bonesaw turned around into a pop-up powerbomb from Workie, with Martin adding a senton bomb off the top, before Corvin ran in and rolled him up with feet on the ropes for the cheap win.
There’s two ways you can look at this. As a wrestling match, it was damn near trash. Workie and Martin pretty much look like the walking definition of “indy wrestler”. A much harsher review could possibly label them “backyarders”, particularly when it came to giving and taking dangerous bumps.
Then you had the spectacle of it. It was wise, in my mind, to throw in all of the Father Ted stuff in one match, and for fans of the show, the comedy worked well, particularly Eoin McLove not selling the low blow. Fortunately, that didn’t distract too much from the match, nor did the involvement of Martina (I’ll save her for my “bit at the end”), but this definitely seemed to be an affair that would have been much better live than on tape. **¼
We get a video package of various OTT highlights, featuring a referee doing a tope, Rhino, crowd bumps, Too Cool and Martina doing a stalling suplex. The song was one of those that you remember, but can’t place the name… thanks to Shazam, I found out it was “Whyyawannabringmedown” by a band called Aranda. As used on the 2009 “The Bash” PPV from WWE.
Back from intermission, the ring announcer’s starting off an “OTT” chant, starting in something called the Ward Section. And then we have the ring announcer doing the one fall singalong. How is this still a thing in 2016?!
Fair Go Match: Rocky Mac vs. Paddy Ward
The Wards are another family in OTT – headed by Luther Ward, who had a brief spell in NXT in 2013. As in, he did two weekends worth of Florida house shows.
Anyway, Rocky Mac is portrayed as a bare-knuckle fighter, complete with a smoking entrance. The Ward Section are OTT’s take on the Cesaro section, complete with a huge banner proclaiming them to be “My Lovely Ward Section / Pride of Calla Brú”. Okay then!
Without any backstory, it seems that Rocky Mac is part of the Ward group, and Paddy isn’t. Paddy’s got a “Bowsie Club” tanktop, and I’ll give you no Euros for guessing what it’s a spoof of. He’s got what looks like an oar with him, and I just realised, I don’t have a clue what a Fair Go match is. I’m guessing it’s going to be a streetfight, and sure enough, we start with a jumpstart from Ward, before Mac goes all Stone Cold with a Thesz press and the elbow drop. Rocky Mac even goes for the Stunner, but Ward shoves it away and rolls out of the ring.
Rocky follows after him, and they end up briefly fighting among the crowd, most of whom have at least one can of beer in their hand. Ward avoids being lawn-darted into the ringpost, instead shoving off Mac into the steel, before being tossed into a dividing wall by ringside. Back in the ring, Ward kicks at Mac in the corner then takes a back elbow, before Ward lands a backcracker to the arm.
Ward kept working over the left arm, stomping on it, before an attempted wheelbarrow takedown ended up being turned into a German suplex by Mac for a near-fall. A jumping enziguiri took Mac back down for a near-fall, and it’s painfully evident that this crowd is either burnt out by this point, or they don’t give a stuff about this match. Given the alcohol consumed, I’m hoping it’s just burn out, otherwise that says a LOT.
Mac stays on top of Ward, sending him to the mat with the Divorce Court arm whip, before tying him in an armbar. After powering up, Mac throws Ward over his head and down to the mat, before firing back with some uppercuts once both guys got to their feet, finishing with a pop-up uppercut.
Mac gets a two-count from that, before landing a side Russian legsweep for another near-fall. Is he going to play Bret Hart next? Nope, he goes for some punches in the corner, but stops himself. Whilst Mac is fighting with his morals, Ward just punches him and goes for the Flatliner… but Mac blocks it and hits another Stunner for a near-fall.
After being picked up, Ward lands a superkick and slumps onto Mac for a two-count, then tunes up for another superkick, which is blocked as Mac spins him around and lands a Rock Bottom. That gets us a near-fall, and Ward takes off the remaining wrist tape, before taking a slam in the middle of the ring, and Ward goes for… the People’s Elbow? Well, before Mac can hit the ropes, Ward gets to his knees and slaps Mac, who just drops him with an ugly Rock Bottom, and that’s it.
The fact that the crowd were relatively dead for large chunks of this says it all. Watching afar, this looked like a generic indy match, and not a very good one at that. Stunners and Rock Bottoms were the order of the day for Rocky Mac, who I guess stuck true to the bare-knuckle fighter gimmick, at least in terms of only knowing the wrestling moves he saw the stars do in the late 90s. At least this wasn’t as wildly unsafe as some of the stuff in the prior match. **
After the match, Ward and Mac hug it out, and it looks like their tiff is over and Paddy’s back in the family. It would have been nice for the pre-match promo to let new fans know what the craic was! Mac cuts a promo on Charlie Garrett, having taken exception to Garrett singing the British national anthem last time out and it looks like we’ve got a challenge for ScrapperMania: Mac and Ward against Garrett and his plus one.
Over The Top No Limits Title: Will Ospreay vs. Ryan Smile vs. Pete Dunne (c)
Come on lads, save the show – at least when it comes to the in-ring stuff. Technically this is a main event involving three fly-ins – featuring two guys from the Midlands of England and Essex’s Will Ospreay (or “Will The Ospreay” as he was curiously announced as).
This looks like it’ll be a two-on-one against Dunne, and we have an over-the-top camera used for the first time as everyone circles each other. Dunne takes a dualling superkick from his two challengers, who then shake hands as they leap into an acrobatic opening sequence, ending with a square-off as Ospreay flipped out of a ‘rana. And that’s probably the best in-ring part of the show so far.
Dunne attacks Smile and Ospreay as they squared off, then went to work on Smile with an arm whip and a knee stomp, before a load of leapfrogs from Smile ends with a dropkick. Smile gets bitten by Dunne, and then takes a stiff punch as the champion drops Smile with a flipping spear, as his attentions then turn to Ospreay.
Ospreay works over Dunne with a corner splash and a kneedrop, but the champion quickly takes over with a release suplex, before flapjacking Smile and stacking up his two challengers for a dualling single-leg Boston crab. Ospreay frees himself and ties up Dunne in an arm crank, before Smile superkicks Ospreay. Smile one-ups everyone with a rear chin lock on Dunne and a Gory Stretch to Ospreay.
After releasing the hold, Dunne and Ospreay ended up outside, and you know what that means: tope con hilo!
With all three on the outside, Dunne went flying with a moonsault off the dividing wall, before walking into a diving kick from Ospreay across the corner of the ring. That led us into a flying body press from Ryan Smile, who’d disappeared to find somewhere to jump off of, before leaping off the top rope and DDT’ing Ospreay. Unfortunately for Smile, his springboard off the ropes straight after saw him land into the fist of Dunne, who followed up with a sit-out powerbomb for two-count.
A Phenomenal Forearm from Ospreay got him back into it, before he was superkicked by Smile into a pin on Dunne. Smile picked up Ospreay for a stalling brainbuster for a near-fall, and then the show’s tradition of dangerous-looking stuff continued, when Dunne caught Smile’s attempt to leap over his charge into the corner, and dumped Smile with a tombstone piledriver.
A pumphandle facebuster attempt followed, but Smile blocked it, only to be taken down (with Dunne) by a springboard kick from Ospreay. Some flying headscissors from Ospreay to Dunne followed, as Will nailed the corkscrew diving kick to Smile, and then a corkscrew tope con hilo over the turnbuckles to Dunne on the outside. The insanity continued with a 450 Splash to Smile as Dunne slid in to broke up the cover.
Dunne and Ospreay broke into a slapping battle, before Smile stepped in with some more chops and knees to the pair of them. Ospreay popped-up Smile for an uppercut from Dunne, with Dunne then taking a Spanish Fly that was broken up only by a Superfly Splash from Smile.
Smile tried for a springboard moonsault, but got caught early by Dunne who landed a powerbomb, then a bucklebomb. Ospreay raced in for a Cheeky Nando’s superkick to Dunne after Smile had been pulled out of the corner, before a reverse ‘rana set up Smile for an OsCutter. Both guys held off of pinning Dunne, and instead focussed on each other for a while, trading forearms and strikes before butting heads simultaneously.
Ospreay sprang himself into the ropes, looking for a handspring into a reverse rana, but he and Smiles ended up spilling into the other set of ropes. That slip opened things up for Pete Dunne, but his top rope clothesline resulted in Ospreay flipping and landing on his feet, before Ospreay landed a double Spanish Fly to Dunne and Smile.
Rather than go for a cover, Will dragged Smile to the corner and went up for the 630 Splash, only to roll into the path of a pumphandle facebuster from an opportunistic Dunne for the title-retaining title. That was a really good closing sequence, and a hell of a match from three guys who were head and shoulders above virtually everything else on this card. ****
The post-match promos saw Smile put over Pete Dunne, whilst Ospreay got the “please come back” chants, as he naughtily teased that he’d signed for someone… and that you’d have to pay “nine ninety nine” to see him. Everyone popped like he’d signed for NXT, but Ospreay quickly corrected them and said “it could be Yen, guys”, as the Dublin crowd chanted “you deserve it” at him. He ends the show by announcing his return for their April show… something which pleased Ryan Smile so much, he ran back to the ring and hugged Will to close out the show.
As a spectacle, I’ve heard nothing but good things about Over The Top wrestling. This Irish promotion is probably the closest thing the Emerald Isle has to a group like PROGRESS – with the fans really close to the ring, and an alcohol fuelled atmosphere. Sadly, the talent doesn’t seem to be there for it to hit the heights of other promotions… nor does the product truly translate onto tape.
From the advertising, the two focal points of OTT seem to be Luther Ward – who was not on this show – and Martina. As I’ve said all along, wrestling is subjective, and maybe it’s a cultural thing, but I do not get the whole “Session Moth” gimmick.
Maybe it’s a cult thing that I’m not part of, but the Martina gimmick grates on me as badly as the Grado gimmick did when that had its fifteen minutes of fame a couple of years ago. I get what the act is meant to be, but it’s one of those characters that has a very limited shelf life, and the more it’s exposed, the shorter that shelf life will be. That’s not a gripe, that’s just a fact that has been borne out through many flash in the pan acts throughout wrestling’s history.
On the whole, the production of this show was pretty good, with sharp camera work and only the stereotypical “indy lighting” woes affecting the video quality. OTT enjoys playing up to Irish stereotypes – good and bad – and a whole load of other wrestling tropes from way back when. Such as “one fall”. Still, at least they don’t do much in the way of count outs, so they can’t try the “count one ahead” gimmick that’s so annoying in 2016.
“Ah Ted” was a show promoted around the appearance of the Father Ted trio, and the promotion produced something memorable out of perhaps the unlikeliest of crossovers this year. Aside from the celebrity involvement and the main event, this isn’t really a show that I can recommend, unless you’re able to recreate the atmosphere of the Tivoli theatre in your own home (with or without booze)…