Kip Sabian gets his shot at the Rev Pro Undisputed British Cruiserweight title on the penultimate episode of World of Pro Wrestling.
A quick note before we jump into this – the matches for this show were taped in September 2018. There are names on these shows which came up during Speaking Out – mentions of those names will be kept to a minimum.
We’re back inside York Hall with Kevin Kelly and Andy Simmonz on commentary… they’re at ringside running down this week’s card, before the obligatory recap of the rules takes us into the opener.
Tag Team Contenders Tournament – Semi-Final: The Hunter Brothers (Jim Hunter & Lee Hunter) vs. Jody Fleisch & Jonny Storm
The Hunters beat the Arrows of Hungary… and my God, I’d forgotten the Hunters’ old theme music. The inspiration to Robbie X’s current track?
Kevin Kelly has trouble with the Hunters – as did I back in the day. The trick I always used was Lee left space between his boots and his knee pads. Lee starts by taking a leapfrog and dropkick from Fleisch, before he returned the favour en route to a pair of missed dropkicks. Both men tag out, with Jim Hunter having his ankle picked ahead of a wristlock that Jim escaped with the help of the ropes.
Jim took a springboard armdrag seconds later, but a dropkick keeps him level before Lee tagged in to hit a senton atomico. We’ve one seconds later from Jim… but it’s a slingshot roll-up as he gets some two-counts, only to get caught with an enziguiri and a facebuster. Jody tags in and catches Jim with a handspring back elbow, then a second facebuster as tags allowed Lee a way in with a moonsault into both of his opponents.
Lee goes corner-to-corner with clotheslines before a flying DDT off the middle rope almost got the win. Jody breaks up the pin, but gets tossed outside and met with a flip senton from Jim Hunter… back in the ring, Lee takes a springboard ‘rana before more headscissors left him laying.
A roll-up nearly nicked the win for Lee, before a clash of heads took both men down… both men tag out, as we’re back to Jim and Jody, with the latter landing a leaping ‘rana off the top for a near-fall. Jody heads back up for a shooting star press, but Jim rolls away and eventually came back with a tiltawhirl into a reverse suplex.
Lee’s blind tag allows him to catch Jody with a flying shoulder tackle for a near-fall, before Jim came back in to dropkick Fleisch out of a Giant Swing for another near-fall. Fleisch escapes a double suplex and tags out, with the Hunters quickly on the defensive… Lee takes an armdrag off the top, while Fleisch’s standing shooting star press took him outside. The Hunters stayed in trouble on the floor as Fleisch’s springboard moonsault wiped them out, before an assisted top rope moonsault from Fleisch led to yet another near-fall.
From there, Jim’s missile double dropkick clears the decks ahead of a gift-wrapped back cracker to Fleisch… while an elevated ‘rana and a big splash off the top ended up getting the Hunters an unlikely ticket to the tournament finals… which wouldn’t be on these tapings. Things got a little movez-y in the middle, but this was a good showing from the Hunters over the veteran duo. ***¼
Carlos Romo vs. Great O-Kharn
I have a feeling this may be a bad night for Carlos… especially since Lord Gideon Grey’s arrival was a pretty big tip-off of his opponent.
Romo gets distracted by Gideon early on, allowing O-Kharn to hit him with a Mongolian chop from behind as stomps proceeded to keep the Spaniard down. O-Kharn takes Romo into the corner and has a seat, before Romo tried to fight back with chops and forearms.
O-Kharn runs into a superkick before Romo went for a moonsault… with O-Kharn just nope-ing away from it. A clothesline spins Romo down to the mat from there, before the over-the-back face claw submission turned into the Eliminator claw slam for the win. Splat. **½
Colt Cabana vs. James Mason
James Mason was so old school, he doesn’t even have an entrance video…
Opening with a handshake, Mason’s taken into the corner to start, before a wristlock was easily broken on the mat. A double wristlock from Mason’s escaped as the opening stretches were somewhat tentative…
Mason’s trapped on the mat with a toe hold, but he manages to roll free… back-and-forth pinning attempts yield a couple of two-counts, before Mason came in with a cravat that was also escaped. A crucifix from Mason sparks some more see-sawing pins, before he was nonchalantly caught with a wristlock.
A headlock takedown puts Mason back in front as the World of Sport tomfoolery continued. We get back to it with a full nelson from Mason, which was escaped before see-saw sunset flip pins and double pin teases broke out… ending with a Superman body press. Tonally, this really didn’t fit with the rest of the show, and was more of a throwback to the “old-but-kinda-recent” days of British wrestling. Shame the crowd were starting to be burnt out by this point… **¾
Post-match, Sha Samuels hits the ring and beats down Cabana… only for Dan Magee to return and lay out Sha with a Slingblade.
Rev Pro Undisputed British Cruiserweight Championship: Kip Sabian vs. David Starr (c)
I’m old enough to remember that Kip would later have a shot at the heavyweight title… which he couldn’t take before he went to AEW. And yeah, some of this has aged like milk.
We’ve got less than six minutes in this show when the bell goes, as we start with a lock-up taking things to the mat, while a headlock takedown was quickly escaped by Sabian. Sabian’s forced to roll out of a wristlock as some back-and-forth ends with Sabian running the ropes ahead of a springboard ‘rana.
A dropkick takes things outside, but the champion makes it back into the ring where a Thesz press takes down Sabian. Kip’s tripped up after that, before Kip faked out a punch and landed an enziguiri. Some spitting fires up Kip, whose kicks take things into the ropes for a running gamengiri in the corner, before a torture rack was escaped… with the champion powdering with the belt and taking the count-out loss. This never got going, and I’m never getting those twelve minutes back. Twelve because I was there live for this. ¼*
Sabian heads to the back as the show closed on that rather flat note…