Held on May 1st, Rev Pro Wrestling’s “Live at the Cockpit 8” played host to their WWE Cruiserweight Classic qualifier, between Noam Dar and Josh Bodom. With the Classic starting tomorrow, it’s time to see how their man got into the tournament, along with the rest of a card that featured Zack Sabre Jr. defend his British Heavyweight Title against Big Damo.
#TLDR: The latest of Rev Pro’s “Live at the Cockpit” series featured impressive in-ring performances from top to bottom, as we saw Noam Dar qualify for the WWE Cruiserweight Classic, whilst Zack Sabre Jr. defended his title in an (ultimately brief) outing against Big Damo. Meanwhile the promotion’s attempt to create a women’s division started off with a good match that was inexcusably undermined by the commentary “efforts” from Andy Boy Simmonz, whose general colour commentary threatened to drag down the whole show.
The Full Review: The Cockpit Theatre in London is home to RPW’s secondary shows – a bit like PROGRESS’ ENDVR series – and generally is extremely light on fly-ins, opting instead to focus on home-grown talent.
In fairness, calling this a “secondary” show is harsh, given the names on the card: Marty Scurll, Eddie Dennis, Sha Samuels, and even a rare women’s match in Rev Pro, featuring Addy Starr and Rhia O’Reilly (the second match between these two on this site this week alone!)
We’ve got Oliver Bennett and Andy Boy Simmonz on commentary for this show, and without going into this with prejudice, all I’ll say is – I’ve not heard good things about the commentary for at least one part of this card. On the plus side, the name captions are centralised here, so they’re not obscured by the Revolution Pro watermarking…
Dan Magee vs. Rob Lias
Both men are from Rev Pro’s “contender’s division”, which is their equivalent of the training school. They’re going down the New Japan Young Lions route here, with both men in plain black boots, kneepads and trunks.
The darked-haired Lias started with a wristlock and arm wringer, before Magee reversed the hold. A shoulder block sends Lias to the mat, before the pair exchanged a number of pinfall attempts, rolling around the ring with a sunset flip, ending in a near-fall for Magee.
Magee trips Lias and slingshots him into the corner, but Magee misses a charge in the corner and gets taken down with a springboard bulldog for a near-fall. Lias knees Magee in the midsection several times, before holding onto the ropes to avoid a dropkick, then delivers one of his own for a near-fall. On commentary, both men were put over as having a strong footballing background, so I’m guessing Simmonz is expecting penalty kicks as a finisher? Or maybe an Eric Cantona dropkick?
Speaking of kicks, Magee lands a step-up enziguiri then a slingblade for a near-fall on Lias. Rebounding off the ropes, Lias hits a knee to the face, but gets caught in a rear choke from Magee, dragging him to the mat, but Lias rolls back for a pinfall attempt, getting a two-count. Magee remonstrated with the referee for something, and that led to him taking a backcracker, then the Last Chancery submission for the submission. A fun opener involving two up and comers in this promotion. ***
Marty Scurll vs. Trent Seven
I think I said this in my first Rev Pro review, but it’s so weird seeing a guy who headlines for other promotions so low down the card here. On commentary, they play up how Marty Scurll is the number one contender to the Rev Pro British championship, but he’s seemingly refusing to take it whilst his tag team partner (Zack Sabre Jr.) holds the belt.
Trent Seven’s making his Rev Pro debut here, and he’s been impressive in his other appearances – he even continues his gimmick of shaking everyone’s hand as he does a lap around the ring, before slowly log-rolling into the ring.
Scurll lights up Seven with an uppercut in the corner, then tosses him outside for a superkick on the apron, before dumping him on there with a back suplex. The intimate setting of the Cockpit gives the guys little space to work with, but Seven takes a slam onto the floor, before he fires back, chopping Scurll by the ring post… and yes, it leads to a miss where Scurll ducks out of the way and Seven shops the post instead.
Scurll again sent Seven into the ring, but again Seven quickly popped out with a tope, sending the Villain into the front row. Back inside, Scurll drops Seven with an arm whip, then nails a kick to the back of the head for a near-fall, before an old school back rake sends Seven into the corner. A knee stomp keeps Seven grounded, before he’s taken back to the corner for some more chops, which eventually don’t faze Seven, who replied with plenty of his own.
A big boot cuts off Seven, as Scurll goes for the chicken wing, to no avail. Seven nails a lariat for a near-fall, before he scales the top rope and misses with a body splash. Scurll lands a knee to the face, then a superkick and a twisting Pedigree-like move for a near-fall. Another chicken wing attempt is again avoided, before Seven fires out of the finger snap… only to take the “Just Kidding” superkick.
Dualling clotheslines rock both men, but Scurll quickly gets dropped with a release suplex. From their knees, Scurll and Seven trade slaps, then forearms, and finally rebounding clotheslines and boots. An uppercut rocks Seven, who still has enough presence of mind to avoid a second “Just Kidding” superkick and nail a forearm of his own, before landing a Dragon suplex and a spinning piledriver for the nearest of near-falls.
Seven looks to end things by going to the top, but Scurll cuts him off and lands the Tower of London (cutter off the top rope), then a piledriver… but Seven kicks out at one! An enraged Scurll goes for the chicken wing, mounting Seven, but he works free and locks in a Texas Cloverleaf out of nowhere. Scurll works free and the pair exchange near-falls, before Seven’s attempt at a clothesline is blocked and turned into the finger snap… and finally the chicken wing as the Mustache Mountain is forced to tap. A fine, fine match between two guys who always seem to deliver. ***½
Addy Starr vs. Rhia O’Reilly
Well, about two weeks after this, these two women pulled off a weapon’s match for the Empress Pro promotion, featuring… Lego bricks! This time though, it’s a straight wrestling match, so lets how things are without the weapons stipulation.
They put over the Pro Wrestling EVE promotion on commentary, before noting that this is a non-title match… right as Addy launches into the corner with a clothesline, before O’Reilly schoolboys her for a near-fall. O’Reilly misses a double knee strike, before Starr lands a stomp, but eventually falls to a two-count from an O’Reilly exploder.
A Finlay roll takes down Starr, with a following up back senton getting the champion two-count, with a curb stomp getting a similar result. O’Reilly props Starr on the top rope, but Starr headbutts free, before landing a tornado DDT. Starr grabs a clothesline from O’Reilly and takes her down with a suplex for a near-fall.
Starr took down O’Reilly with a snapmare and landed a penalty kick to the back, then a diving axehandle blow for just a one-count. A butterflied guillotine trapped O’Reilly in the middle of the ring, before turning it into a butterfly suplex that sends O’Reilly into the ropes. Out on the apron, O’Reilly and Starr exchanges forearms, before O’Reilly shoves Starr onto the apron hard.
O’Reilly re-enters the ring and lands a draping DDT off the middle rope for a near-fall, then moves to a head-scissor/arm stretch combo in a bid to submit Starr in the centre of the ring. Starr’s head gets driven into the mat repeatedly from the headscissor position, before O’Reilly lands a headlock driver near the corner.
Starr charges into the corner but O’Reilly gets the feet up, only to get caught as Starr lands the double stomp through O’Reilly who’d been draped across the middle turnbuckle. Speaking of that middle turnbuckle, an Exploder sees Starr become overly acquainted with that after O’Reilly caught her. A Tiger suplex sends Starr back towards the corner for a near-fall, but Starr comes back with a Code Red for a near-fall.
After Starr missed a low dropkick to a seated O’Reilly, the champion popped back up and landed the Rhiadjustment (double arm DDT) and that was it. Pretty good match from these two, in front of an appreciative crowd. ***¼
So, before watching this, I’d been warned that Andy Boy Simmonz commentary was poor for this one, and it was obvious that he was phoning it in at best here. Having reached for his book of stereotypes, we heard such gems as “(they’re) fighting like cats”, “these girls are vicious” and (just before the “humping” facebuster) “now I get it, the appeal of women’s wrestling, with moves like that”. Quite.
His best gem was saved for the end though, as Addy Starr was given the applause from the crowd: “good effort love, go home and get on the fish fingers, okay”. Seriously, in 2016? There’s a difference between playing a heel commentator, and just being straight up offensive. I’m not saying that had Simmonz not played the hackneyed, reluctant commentator for the women’s match, this would have been okay, but I’m amazed that this was allowed to make air. Shame on you, RPW.
Back to the action, Addy’s applause was interrupted by Jinny (named in RPW as Jinny Couture). That just sounds so weird having followed her in PROGRESS. Jinny takes off her jewelry and enters the ring, and slaps Starr, who fires back with punches. The fight continues with Jinny trapping Starr in the corner, and delivering a facebuster off the middle rope. And there’s a match for the next Cockpit show!
WWE Cruiserweight Classic Qualifier: Noam Dar vs. Josh Bodom
Dar was making his first appearance for RPW in over fifteen months here, and in his pre-match promo Dar notes that the day he found out he’d be involved in the tournament was also the same day that Kris Travis passed away – so he’s dedicated his match to Kris Travis. Usually in wrestling, that’s never a good sign… especially as Dar’s sporting a pink and black “TRA-VIS” t-shirt in honour.
Bodom’s out with his Revolutionists stablemates Sha Samuels and James Castle, but it’s Bodom who’s taken down first, with Dar working a wristlock, then a headlock, before hooking onto the ropes as Bodom was preparing for an armdrag.
Dar uses a fan to hold Bodom’s leg in place after he’d pulled him crotch first into the ring post, before hitting a dropkick onto the apron and into Bodom’s knee. That bit of audience participation was a new one!
Dar rushes in but takes a big boot from Bodom in the corner, as the Revolutionist looks to take the upper hand, kicking away at Dar in the corner, as they tried to sell that an injury could stop the match. Bodom worked on Dar’s left arm in the ropes, before landing a standing moonsault onto the arm for a near-fall. A Codebreaker onto the arm kept the Scotsman down, but Dar fought back with forearms to the head of Bodom, before Samuels tripped Dar to the outside, leading us to a two-on-one attack on the outside.
Bodom tried to hit a dive onto Dar, sailing over the top turnbuckles with a tope con hilo, but Dar avoided it, meaning that Bodom landed on his own stablemates. A series of Dar clotheslines kept Bodom at bay, but he was unable to lift up for the suplex, before getting a near-fall from a Fisherman’s suplex.
Dar gets shoved into the turnbuckle, before a roundhouse kick from Bodom gets a two-count, before Bodom lands the Bliss Buster (a draping facebuster off the middle rope), as Dar just about kicked out in time. As his opponent was remonstrating with the referee, Dar capitalised on a distracted Bodom with a roll-up for a near-fall, before a series of strikes was brought to a shuddering halt courtesy of a superkick from Bodom.
A big boot returned the favours for Dar, who rolled down into the Champagne Super-Knee-Bar, adding in some extra kicks, and Josh Bodom was left with no choice but to tap out, marking an end to a fun match without too much in the way of shenanigans. ***½
As he was celebrating his win, Dar was attacked by Castle and Samuels in the ring, but Bodom pulled off his partners from Dar… so he could join in himself. Marty Scurll comes out to join his colleagues, and addresses why he wasn’t in the Cruiserweight Classic qualifier. His answer was simple: “I don’t do try-outs”. Fair enough!
Scurll then leaps onto Dar with a chicken wing, and Dar is pretty much motionless. Several guys hit the ring to try and break it up, but they’re easily dispatched, until Zack Sabre Jr. makes an appearance. Zack stares down his tag team partner, and that’s apparently enough to break up the hold.
Zack orders Scurll to leave the ring with him, and he complies. So I guess by Rev Pro match, LDRS of the New School > Revolutionists?
Sha Samuels vs. Eddie Dennis
I’m guessing this is straight after intermission, since Samuels made an entrance rather than hanging around. This is Dennis’ third match in RPW, and he’s seemingly on an annual visit, having wrestled there once in 2014 and again in 2015… both times on the losing end. Since he’s up against one half of the Rev Pro tag team champions here, I think he’ll be 0-3 by the end of this.
Samuels attacks Dennis from behind at the bell, but Dennis replies with tiltawhirl headscissors off the ropes, and mounts a charge in the corner, connecting with a trio of uppercuts to Samuels. A swinging side slam follows as Dennis dumps Samuels for a near-fall, who them rolls out of the ring for a breather.
Samuels dives into the crowd for cover, but Dennis pulls him back towards the ring… only for Sha to roll out of the other side of the ring, suckering him in to be choked by a scarf. Samuels drops an elbow onto Dennis as the crowd taunts him with chants of “Ooh ahh, fat Cantona” and “You’re just a shit Danny Dyer”, but Dennis grabs Samuels and sends him into the corner… before missing a charge and getting rolled-up for a near-fall.
The pair trade strikes back and forth, but Samuels rakes the eyes to get free, before being given an inverted atomic drop by the Welshman. A diving clothesline follows from Dennis, who then tosses Samuels with an Exploder, sending the “East End Butcher” out of the ring for cover. Dennis teases a dive, and lands a tope con hilo into the crowd.
Dennis looks for a crucifix powerbomb, but Samuels works out and nails a spinebuster for a near-fall. At the second attempt, Dennis lands a crucifix buckle bomb, before connecting with the Next Stop Driver (which they called the Severn Bridge here), and the referee counts the three… except he didn’t notice until afterwards that Samuels had gotten his foot on the rope. So, despite the bell sounding, the match is restarted, with Dennis going for a cover and getting another near-fall.
Dennis picks up Samuels for another Next Stop Driver, but Samuels rolls him up and gets both feet on the ropes, and there’s your cheap finish. Decent enough match, but I could have done without the screwy finish. ***¼
The British Young Bloods (Jake McCluskey & Kieran Bruce) vs. Charlie Garrett & Joel Redman
In the crowd, we quickly saw “Lord” Gideon Grey sitting with an iPad, looking like an old school teacher, as Redman worked over Bruce to begin with. An overheard suplex from Redman took down Bruce, before tagging in Garrett who kept working over the arm of Bruc, before nailing a knee drop for a one-count.
Redman was tagged back in quickly, and threw Bruce across the ring with an Exploder suplex, before Garrett came back in and ended up against the fresher Jake McCluskey. A dropkick got Garrett a near-fall, before bringing Redman back into it. McCluskey slaps his old tag team partner, and he gets decked with another slap, before they chase each other around the ring with Bruce dropping Redman on the outside.
Bruce and McCluskey double-team on Redman, trapping him in their corner with chops and elbows, before McCluskey and Bruce find themselves dropped by a suplex by Redman, who finally tags in Garrett. A back elbow decks Bruce, before a corkscrew splash out of the corner helps Garrett take down the Young Bloods.
A bodyslam gets Bruce a two-count, as the Young Bloods work their way back into things, with Garrett being kept grounded, before a moonsault from Bruce gets him a two-count. Another moonsault followed from McCluskey, leaping off of the back of Bruce, getting a two-count to Garrett, who eventually decks Bruce and flips over McCluskey, before landing a moonsault onto the duo and finally tagging in Redman.
Clotheslines from Redman start us off, as he moves to a German suplex, before turning a tornado DDT attempt from his former partner into a spinebuster. After slingshotting McCluskey into Bruce, Redman follows up with a bridging German suplex on McCluskey, who ended up giving his partner an overhead belly-to-belly in the process.
A diving shoulder block from Redman downs McCluskey, but he catches a superkick, only to run into a superkick from Garrett. Redman then follows up with the double team assisted slam for a near-fall, before a reverse ‘rana on McCluskey takes out Garrett.
McCluskey kicks Redman low after the latter avoided running into the referee, and Jake goes flying, only for his moonsault to hit Joel Redman’s knees. A spinning tombstone piledriver nearly got it for Redman, as Bruce broke up the pin, before Garrett hit a half nelson suplex and took out Bruce to the outside. That left us with Redman in the corner with a tombstone piledriver off the second rope, followed by a Spiral Tap from Garrett for the win. Good outing from these guys, even if it was somewhat jarring seeing someone over 6-feet tall flying around like a luchador. Redman may have been there and done that (well, maybe not quite) in WWE/NXT, but at this rate I can see Garrett appearing on the radar stateside before too long. ***½
Revolution Pro British Heavyweight Championship: Big Damo vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (c)
During Damo’s intro, there was a very weird camera cut, flashing in ZSJ for half a second before cutting back. That being said, I could do without the boxing-style, hype-laden intros – especially when they’re cringeworthy… Zack Sabre Jr.’s on a mission to take over the world. Really? Not the wrestling world… the whole world? He’s a pretty unassuming villain if that’s the case!
Sabre starts off by dropkicking Damo into the corner, then lands a couple of uppercuts, but the Northern Irishman fights back and tosses him out of the ring with ease. Damo sweeps the leg as ZSJ is on the apron, and sends him flying onto his back.
Back inside, Damo lands another uppercut for a one-count, before Sabre connects with a series of kicks to send Damo to the mat. An early armbar attempt finally grounds Damo, but instead Sabre opts to just stomp on the arm. Sabre went for an armbreaker, but a follow-up off the ropes saw him flattened by a big cross body block from Damo for a near-fall.
Damo sent Sabre into the corner, before kicking the ropes into Sabre’s midsection, then hitting a suplex for a two-count. The giant Northern Irishman kept on top of the champion by whipping him into the turnbuckles repeatedly, but Sabre reversed one and followed up with a diving knee.
Damo caught Sabre on the top rope with a forearm, but found his superplex effort countered by a wrist lock, and then a diving knee after being sent to the mat. More running uppercuts from Sabre kept Damo at bay, as some kicks and a rolling elbow sent Damo out to the floor once more.
Sabre leapt into Damo for an armbar, but ended up being rammed into the turnbuckles, before Sabre’s springboard kick out of the corner got him a near-fall. Damo went for a tiltawhirl slam, but Sabre countered in mid-air, switching into an armbar, before Damo regained control and suplexed Sabre anyway.
A running diving dropkick into the corner sent Sabre to the mat again, as Damo went up for a Vader bomb, only to miss and take a penalty kick from Sabre for a one-count. A second penalty kick got a two-count, then Zack ran in for the armbar, and took Damo to the mat as well. Damo was able to hoist up the champion though, powering him down with a powerbomb to free the hold and get himself a near-fall too.
A second Vader bomb got Damo a near-fall, as Damo followed up with a powerbomb and an elbow drop for another two-count, as the champion’s reign looked to be coming to an end. With Sabre trapped in the corner, Damo climbed the ropes and looked to pull off the Coast to Coast dropkick, only for Marty Scurll to run in and smash him in the back of the head with an umbrella… but that had little effect, with Damo charging in on Sabre with a splash anyway.
Damo went for the Ulster Plantation finisher, but Sabre rolled through into a Victory roll for a near-fall, before Sabre got his knees up to avoid a back senton. In the middle of all that, Sabre caught the arm and locked in the armbar, and there’s your instant tap-out. A fine main event, albeit a fairly short one for a title match, but this has to have been your match of the night. ****¾
For a so-called “secondary” show, this was really good. There wasn’t a single bad match on the card, and everything seemed to build towards something. Which is more than I could say for their last supershow: the contenders’ match kept building up Rob Lias, Marty Scurll continued his push as a number one contender who didn’t want the title shot (and maintained his allegiance with Zack Sabre Jr. over his Revolutionists stable). Noam Dar got his place in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic, whilst the tag match built up new contenders as well. Oh, and we got the company’s first major women’s storyline…
That being said, I can’t help but feel that the company did some damage to its attempts at a women’s division by staying on autopilot.
In terms of the TV product, this was only the second show I’ve seen, but neither of them have seen the colour commentator – Andy Boy Simmonz – cover himself in glory. At best, his commentary is average. Spouting lines that looked out of place back in the Attitude era, Simmonz is the epitome of “generic heel announcer”. This act would probably work were he saddled with just an average, generic play-by-play guy, but sadly, Oliver Bennett does a really good job on play-by-play.
The big knock on Simmonz here was the “everyday sexism” displayed during the women’s match, be it the couched “oh, aren’t these ladies doing well?” sarcastic comments, capped off with his turd of a comment at the end of the match. I get that he’s a trainer for Rev Pro, but if this phoned in commentary is going to be his output, you really have to wonder whether swapping him out or even having a one-man booth wouldn’t be a better thing in the long term for the company and its’ image.
That aside, this was a fine show from Rev Pro, and if you can overlook the colour commentary, then I would strongly recommend this show as two hours of fine wrestling for anyone who can get their hands on it.