Rev Pro’s short-lived TV show wrapped up with the other semi-final in the tag team contender’s tournament… while Chris Ridgeway finally got his hands on Zack Sabre Jr.
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.
Arrows Of Hungary (Dover & Icarus) vs. HxC (Dan Head & James Castle)
Both these teams were eliminated in the contender’s tournament… and this was the third time they’d met, with the teams trading a win apiece in the prior six weeks. Commentary mentions that James Castle was “personally responsible for the London Riots of 2011” which… I’m staying the hell away from.
Dan Head’s brought a crowbar with him, which was taken away at the bell… Head and Icarus start us off, with Head getting caught with a low dropkick early on. Dover tags in on Icarus’ head, but Head tags out to Castle… who had issues with shoulder tackles on the big man. A kick to the gut looked more effective, but Dover took Castle up top before Head got pulled into the ring for a double back suplex.
Dover’s eyes are raked to stop that, while Icarus tagged in and got sent flying into the corner with a kick to the head. Castle keeps his focus on Dover with a dive into the aisle, following up with a double-team suplex onto the ramp, before a spinebuster back inside from Head laid out Icarus.
Castle’s back to stretch Icarus’ mouth, before Icarus forced an opening… there’s no Dover, so the HxC double-teaming continues, ending with a lariat from Castle for a near-fall. Dover’s slowly making his way back to the corner as Icarus gets clubbered on… he fought back with chops, before a double-team Cross Rhodes almost put Icarus away.
Icarus finally fought free and made the hot tag to Dover, who ran wild with clotheslines to Castle… a no-bump fallaway slam dumps Castle, while Head’s bounced with a German suplex. Dover’s power’s shown off some more as he slammed HxC at the same time.
Castle manages to avoid being charged into the corner, taking down Dover with a knee strike ahead of a top rope headbutt from Head for a near-fall… the Arrows fight back with the charge into a gamengiri in the corner, before an Exploder took head into the corner. Castle tags in but gets POUNCED to the outside… where Icarus joined him and Head with a Meltdown senton to the floor.
Quick tags between HxC don’t catch out the Arrows at first, but Head’s able to knock Dover into Icarus before we get the Ultimate Warrior/Rick Rude finish on a suplex, with Castle playing Bobby Heenan as Dan Head scored the pin on Dover. A solid win for HxC, who Rev Pro were trying to establish – but the team would only last a few months in the company. ***¼
They recap the series so far and the events that led us to our next match…
Chris Ridgeway vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Sabre had beaten Ridgeway only a few days earlier on a Live at the Cockpit show…
They don’t waste time here as Sabre and Ridgeway exchange palm strikes from the off, before kicks from Ridgeway dumped Sabre to the mat. Wash, rinse and repeat as Sabre couldn’t find an answer, before he took up Ridgeway’s offer of a free shot. Chris absorbs them, before Sabre caught a kick and pulled Ridgeway down into a leglock.
Duelling leglocks give way to a triangle armbar from Sabre, but Ridgeway bridges it into a pinning predicament to pick up a two-count. Sabre returns with a calf slicer, then a heel hook before the ropes forced a break. Back on his feet, Ridgeway’s back with palm strikes and a Dragon screw, before a series of kicks pinned Sabre into the ropes.
Ridgeway blocks an overhead kick to the arm, turning it into a German suplex before we’re back to the duelling leglocks… Sabre loses his grip as he ended up needing the ropes. Zack’s able to get back in with a manjigatame, taking Ridgeway to the mat… and into the ropes for the forced break.
Sabre leaps back in with a guillotine to Ridgeway, who escaped and returned with a Kirifuda clutch… the tempo’s raised as Sabre escaped the Dragon sleeper, then kicked out of a small package before he got slapped down. The pair trade strikes as Ridgeway again looked to pull ahead, but Sabre ducks some head kicks before he hit one of his own. That KO’s Ridgeway, but before that could be called Zack dives in for an armbar, prompting the instant stoppage. A definitive win, but this was a cracker of a TV match. ***½
Post-match, Sabre mocks Ridgeway and issued an open challenge of sorts…
Tag Team Contenders Tournament – Semi-Final: Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) vs. Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH)
The winner of this gets a shot at the British tag team champions – Zack Sabre Jr. and Minoru Suzuki – at a then to-be-determined date. Hopefully by then, the ring announcer would have gotten Aussie Open’s name right. I also remember hearing the Roppongi 3K theme in my nightmares, such was the frequency it was played on these tapings…
YOH and Fletcher start us off, playing to the crowd before the feeling-out process saw the pair go to ground… while leapfrogs and roll throughs eventually baited YOH into the path of a dropkick to the knee. SHO comes in to help, scoring a low dropkick of his own, before Fletcher just charged SHO across the ring as he became Mark Davis’ problem.
A problem that Davis originally had trouble with, but chops wiped out the future House of Torturer. Perhaps Dunkzilla saw the future there? Kyle’s back in to take a two-count from a front kick from Davis, before Davis returned to slam and squash SHO with a back senton for a two-count.
Aussie Open continue to control the tempo, as SHO tried to fight back… eventually taking Fletcher down with a spear. That gave SHO time to tag out to YOH, who ran wild with dropkicks and a Dragon screw… before he poked Davis in the eye. A spinning back elbow has Fletcher down as YOH continued to pile on the pressure, with a leglock broken up only by Mark Davis powerbombing SHO onto the pile.
Davis turns things around, squashing SHO with a sit-out splash out of the corner before he pancaked YOH in the middle of the ring. The Alphamare Waterslide follows for a near-fall on YOH, before Fletcher returned to try and capitalise… he’s sent outside with a low bridge, while Davis ate a tijeras.
SHO’s back in to help his partner as things spilled outside for stereo dives… back inside, Fletcher’s set up for the Dominator/neckbreaker combo en route to the 3K… but Davis breaks it up before it even got going. SHO and YOH try to chop him down, landing a pair of leaping knees to take the big man outside.
Kyle’s on his own as another turnaround saw SHO take the Dental Plan on the floor… while an Aussie Arrow back inside forces YOH in to break up the pin. Except whoever was on sound didn’t notice and hit the Aussie Open theme anyway. Whoops! Time just stands still for a while as the music keeps playing, and it’s a good fifteen seconds before Davis decides to pick things up as the match resumes…
Superkicks lay out YOH, while SHO was able to take down Davis with a German suplex out of a missed charge into the corner. A Shock Arrow looks to await Kyle, but he sunset flips free before a flying facebuster out of the corner took out SHO. YOH’d blind tagged in and tried to steal a pin, only for Davis to come in and help with an assisted sit-out powerbomb to snatch the win. Until the production flub, this was shaping up to be real good – but the crowd were dead after the restart, as Aussie Open ended up booking their spot in the tournament final. ***½
The final thirty seconds of the show end with Kevin Kelly plugging Rev Pro’s website, Twitter and Facebook pages to plug future events… and that’s it for the show. Eight episodes was their lot, and that was the run. So… watching these back some four years later, obviously in a different world to what they were filmed in, World of Pro Wrestling was an extremely “meat and potatoes” show, which was very much in line with Rev Pro’s own identity.
As far as what worked – well, this was a stupidly busy week-or-so for Rev Pro, having run a show in Leamington on September 1st, a Cockpit show on the 2nd, the two York Hall TV tapings on the 5th and 6th, a Portsmouth show on the 7th, and then a two-nighter British J Cup show during Manchester’s Wrestling Media Con. Talk about going in at the deep end – juggling putting together storylines that made sense to the live audience within a dense TV taping, while also vaguely fitting in with the Rev Pro storylines without having any blurred lines between the live and taped timelines.
There’s also another footnote here – episode one of this show aired on October 19, 2018… just 48 hours after NXT UK’s debut episode aired. Granted, both shows were taped, but Rev Pro managed a six week turnaround from recording to airing, while NXT UK’s 11-week turnaround was easily to be seen as conveniently-delayed to try and gazump the other show.
Truth be told, NXT UK did much more perceptible damage to Rev Pro outside of messing around with the TV shows. World of Pro Wrestling was never going to be a long-term threat, given how the show barely made mention of Rev Pro until the end. Almost like the station wanted to run a promotion themselves (and if you were a listener to the A Squared Circle podcast back in the day, you’ll know that was very close to the truth!)
All in, World of Pro Wrestling was an interesting experiment for Rev Pro, but one that continued to underscore that “getting TV” was no longer the holy grail for British wrestling – but could play a small part as the media world continued to fragment.