A quick turnaround saw WCPW’s Sunday show in Edinburgh appear as Monday night’s Loaded – with a stacked two-hour show ahead of February’s iPPV.
The line-up was more fitting of an iPPV-special rather than the promotion’s weekly TV, and we’ve got Matt Striker on commentary with Alex Shane. Erm… I knew he was coming in for the World Cup shows, but what the hell? You swapped out the wrong commentator, guys!
In a slight tweak, they’ve put up a banner for WhatCulture Extra directly opposite the hard camera. Subtle. Unfortunately, it was one of those banners with too much text, so for the TV audience, it was a case of you either try and read the banner or watch the matches.
BT Gunn vs. Gabriel Kidd
Matt Striker bullshits us from the start by claiming that the “Gabriel Kidd phenomenon has reached the States”. Well, if you thought he had any credibility…
Prince Ameen accompanied Kidd to the ring, but then left as the bell rang. They start with a game of “can you top this” as they kick the turnbuckles… which really doesn’t come across to the TV crowd. Gunn takes Kidd into the corner, before he misses with some chops as Gunn powders to the outside.
They finally return for another tie-up – and the same results – but this time Gunn succeeds with a kick to the face, before Kidd rebounds with a big boot. Kidd’s taken onto the apron before Gunn kicks him down to the floor- next to where the ramp would have been – and Gunn joins him as he throws Kidd’s head into the commentary table. A missile dropkick gets Gunn just a one-count, and he stays on top of Kidd with more chops in the corner.
Kidd turns things around with a short-arm lariat, staying on top with a clothesline, before a Yakuza kick in the corner gets Kidd a near-fall. They go back and forth with superkicks and pump kicks, before Gunn blasts Kidd with a German suplex for a near-fall. A back suplex into a flapjack gets Kid a two-count, and Gabe comes back with a Finlay roll and a moonsault… but Gunn moves away and kicks Kidd into the middle turnbuckle.
From there, Gunn hits a high-angle brainbuster, but that’s only good enough for a near-fall. Kidd fakes a punch and DDT’s Gunn as the Scotsman ducked, before taking Gunn into the ropes for some lariats, before a short-arm clothesline is ducked and turned into a crossface, which forces Kidd to tap out. That was decent for an opener, but the downtime at the start played more to the live crowd than a TV audience… **¾
The crowd eventually warmed to Kidd, but unlike his earlier appearances in Nottingham, Manchester and Liverpool, Gabe’s underdog popularity hasn’t quite translated into Scotland.
After the match, Gunn went back to the ring and dropkick’d Kidd before he re-applied the crossface as Prince Ameen made the save… to chants of “BT Gunn”.
We’ve got a backstage segment with Drew Galloway cutting a promo on Joe Hendry (or “Joe Henry”, as he again calls him here). Galloway recognises Hendry as having the passion to lead a company, but Drew calls himself the “national hero” as opposed to the “local hero” that Joe is.
Bea Priestley vs. Little Miss Roxxy
Priestley is by herself this week, and she’s still got Nixon Newell’s women’s title belt. This is a rematch from last week, hopefully without the unsavoury stuff at the end.
Roxxy dives into Priestley with a shotgun dropkick at the bell, before following with a crossbody off the apron as Bea went to the outside. Back inside, we get some mounted punches from Roxxy, but Bea slips under and hits the Cheeky Nando’s kick – to zero fanfare from anyone in the crowd or on commentary.
Roxxy goes to the floor, where she takes a PK on the apron from Bea, before she’s whipped into the ringpost hard. This crowd is really not into this match, making little reaction for Bea’s elbows or the Japanese stranglehold. Roxxy fights back, but she runs into a kick as Bea gets a near-fall, and we’re back to the stranglehold.
Out of nowhere, Roxxy gets an Octopus hold, but Bea shrugs it off… and now’s the time Matt “I researched this product, honest!” Striker asks what the Pacitti Club is (after spotting Bea’s t-shirt). Alex Shane no-sells because James R. Kennedy has apparently turned up, yet he’s not visible on camera yet. Nobody tells the camera crew to film him for a while, and then finally we see his shiny jacket in the aisle.
Bea and Roxxy trade forearms, before Roxxy ducks a corner clothesline and hits some of her own. Another clothesline is ducked as Bea lands a back suplex, and from there Bea lands a running boot into the corner for a near-fall. Roxxy again elbows Bea into the corner as she catches a rope-hung lungblower for a near-fall, before Bea blocks a tornado DDT and hits an arm whip. Priestley kicks at Roxxy’s arm again, then hits a half-nelson bomb for the win. Much better than last week, but this crowd not reacting isn’t helping when it comes to atmosphere. **½
James R. Kennedy entered the ring after the match – after last week’s show he apparently had a video on YouTube where he offered Roxxy some mentorship. It’d have been nice had that been on the main show, eh? The camera is way too tight on Kennedy as he reiterates his offer to join Prospect, but he leaves to give Roxxy some time to decide.
We’ve got a new backstage interviewer! Katherine Morley is with BT Gunn, and she asks him whether he took things too far… Gunn blows her off immediately and says that he answers to nobody. A pink-suited Martin Kirby wanders in and it looks like that’s their next feud… Kirby then has to deal with James R. Kennedy (since our interviewer’s quickly buggered off). Kennedy wants Kirby to “make things right” after last week’s musical chairs farce, so Kirby “puts things right with Prospect and Primate”… by booking Prospect against Primate and Rampage later tonight.
Joe Coffey comes out, and I’m guessing that there was meant to have been a plug for the True Legacy PPV here since Alex Shane mentions that Jim Ross is doing commentary with Matt Striker for that show. Coffey’s music goes very tinny as he gets the microphone, and he’s telling us that he’s going back to being a singles competitor since he’s not tagging with his brother anymore. Coffey says he has his eye on tonight’s main event, and he wants to challenge for the WCPW title on the iPPV.
Well, the top matches are already swamped by imports who don’t usually do the weekly show, so what harm is there in doing another True Legacy and having the title match in the midcard?
Moose’s tinny music comes over the PA system for his entrance, and yes, it means we’re going to get Moose chants for the next few weeks. Moose takes the microphone and refers to “the worldwide feud” with Galloway in TNA, where Moose lost his Grand Championship, and this quickly turns into a number one contender’s match. Okay?!
Joe Coffey vs. Moose
So we have a rematch from the “Stacked” special back in August, and the crowd actually wakes up here, since Coffey is Scottish…
We start with a headlock from Coffey, and Moose struggles to push free from it. When he does, they trade shoulder tackles, before a tie-up sees both men go into the corner as Coffey connects with a series of chops. Moose gets knocked down with another shoulder tackle, before Coffey hits a big suplex for a near-fall, before he peppers Moose with some uppercuts.
Moose hits back with a big dropkick to cut-off Coffey’s offence, but Coffey tries to stem the tide, only for his baseball slide dropkick to the outside to get caught and turned into a swing into the guard rails. Of course, we get “count ahead of the ref and yell Moose!” from the crowd, as Moose returns to chop away at Coffey, who then returns the favour. Way too many chops for comfort follow here, before Coffey ducks a lariat and lands a stalling German suplex.
There’s no pinning attempt, as Coffey launches himself into Moose in the corner, then lands a springboard crossbody for a near-fall, before Moose hit back with a choke bomb and a back senton… then a springboard moonsault (?!) for a near-fall! Moose continues with his Go To Hell choke bomb off the top rope as Coffey went to the top turnbuckle, getting another near-fall out of that, but the “Iron Man” rolls through and turns Moose over with a Boston crab.
Moose makes the bottom rope to force a break, and we’re back to the chops again before Coffey’s bicycle kick ends up as a set-up for some Moose jabs… which he counters with a Glasgow kiss (headbutt). Another pump kick from Moose rocks Coffey, who then goes up top as they trade dropkicks, before the Black Coffey is met in kind with a clothesline from Moose at the same time. More pump kicks from Moose give way to a spear for just a one-count as Coffey instantly pops up!
Yet more pump kicks follow, and this time Moose kicks out of the Black Coffey at one – to little reaction – but another Black Coffey ends up being enough. They had their moments, but my God they went to the well with chops far too much. Personal preference and all that, but I prefer variety in strikes… ***½
As Joe Coffey celebrates in the ring, Shane builds up to “the Battle in the Capital”, from which we are “moments away”. Yeah, I think this may have been edited out of order once again? Anyway, BT Gunn comes out with a chair, and he waffles Coffey with it over the back of the head before a DDT and a crossface finishes off the Iron Man. Martin Kirby comes out to stop things… Gunn won’t let go, so he’s suspended “until further notice”. Like that matters!
After Coffey’s helped to the back, Shane and Striker talk over what we just saw… and then we get a throwback to the early days of Loaded, as we fade away too early to a transition, cutting off the end of Shane’s line.
We’re now backstage with Coffey, and he’s again attacked by Gunn and that steel chair. The helpers vanish as the beatdown continues, where Gunn targets the knee and taunts COffey by telling him that he “can’ do anything about it” since Gunn’s suspended.
We’re outside now to an “earlier-in-the-day” promo as Joe Hendry builds up his main event by standing nearby Arthur’s Seat (a mountain in Edinburgh). Hendry’s agonising over how he’s not won the big one yet, but he promises that today will be his night.
Another backstage promo now and we’re back with Katherine Morley who’s with Liam Slater and Johnny Moss. She references “an extremely cryptic message” they’ve just given the live crowd, which we don’t get to see. Whomever’s writing these questions needs to improve, as they don’t make Morley look good at all… it turns out that they’d issued an open challenge: for a ladder match at the True Destiny iPPV, with all teams welcome.
Drake’s music and entrance video plays… with no crowd noise whatsoever. It’s not an over-dub, there’s literally no reaction as he comes out with a referee’s shirt on under his leather jacket. He’s the special guest referee for the upcoming match involving Prospect, and Alex Shane’s doing the late WCW “it’s not on my format” schtick once more.
Prospect (Alex Grace & Lucas Archer) vs. Rampage & Primate
This is the start of the #Prospect2Orlando push, with the gimmick that Prospect get £100 towards their flights to Orlando for every win. According to Expedia, they’ll need to win 25 matches to be able to afford their flights!
Stevie Aaron announces Rampage and Primate as a team, but only Rampage comes out… and he’s immediately jumped by Prospect. A double clothesline wipes out Archer and Gracie, before Rampage dumps Archer with a Samoan drop. Gracie’s set for a uranage, but out comes Primate, and he immediately spears Rampage, before dispatching Prospect from the ring. So much for stable-mates!
Rampage and Primate fight outside, to the point where Rampage gets a chair that Drake pulls away from him. Drake accidentally hits Primate as he aimed for Rampage, and those two keep brawling around the ring as this is just a mess. Part of the crowd barrier decoration is used to choke Primate, who’s then trapped in the ring skirt.
Drake is less effective than Chris Roberts as a referee, and rather than counting or doing anything, he just stands and watches as those team-mates fight. Some of the camera cable is used to choke Rampage. Alex Gracie yells at Primate for not sticking to the plan, just before Primate’s kicked off the apron and through the commentary table as Shane and Striker seem to think their audio has been lost. If only.
Drake chokes away at Rampage in the ring as Prospect try to pick up Primate… Rampage attacks Drake (for no DQ, which makes the whole “stick to the plan” thing a farce). Archer comes back into the ring and tages a uranage, before Rampage gives Gracie a piledriver, but Drake goes up top and misses a missile dropkick. Primate’s next for a piledriver, but he escapes as Rampage joins him… they fight to the back, as Drake finally starts counting… and Prospect win by count-out. This was a waste of everyone’s time – pure storyline, with some dross underneath it. It didn’t even make logical sense from the “Prospect have a plan with a heel ref” story. Trash all around. -****
Speaking of… Prospect get carried to the back as Martin Kirby comes out. Lucas Archer suddenly gets some life back into him as he leaps the crowd barrier to avoid being caught in on camera… and Kirby has a referee!
Drake’s taken his referee shirt off, and he’s getting a dressing down from Kirby. Apparently Drake beat up a referee for his shirt, and “HP Drake” is going to have a fight. Kirby orders him out of the ring, but Drake hangs around… then gets kicked in the knee as he tried to attack the GM. We have a match!
Drake vs. Martin Kirby
The bell rings as Drake’s on his knees. Sable Bomb. Cough. Pin. Kirby wins. (Not Rating).
Well, that was a thing, eh?
Apparently there’s something happening backstage… it’s Primate and Rampage fighting near some stairs, but they’re gentlemanly enough to let the other walk down them properly before they continue brawling. Primate throws Rampage outside, and joins him before he’s choked out as James R. Kennedy tells Primate that on the iPPV, they’re facing in an I Quit match.
We get a video package from the second episode of Loaded where we had Jay Lethal vs. El Ligero… complete with the original Simon Miller commentary. That commentary was so much better than some of the dreck we have to put up with now!
After the VT, Matt Striker tells us there’s a “medical professional attending to Mr Coffey”. That’s nice, but what about Rampage, or does nobody give a crap about him? Hashtag editing segments into a different order! Up next is an ROH title match?! You’d think that would have been plugged ahead of time, say, on last week’s Loaded?
ROH World Championship: El Ligero vs. Jay Lethal vs. Adam Cole (c)
Ligero was sporting some cool new Pacman-inspired gear, and he was thrown to the outside immediately… before returning to get a near-fall as he catches Cole mid-taunt. Bay-bay!
Cole fights off Ligero and Lethal, before he ducks as the pair of then knock each other out with forearms… which gives Adam another chance to hit his pose. Then take a double superkick, as Ligero follows in with a ‘rana to Lethal… which somehow is enough for Striker and Shane to run down their lucha commentary work for Lucha Underground and AAA. You’d think they’d learn by now, eh?
Ligero takes Lethal into the corner, but a springboard dropkick knocks the masked man to the outside, before Cole rushes in with a dropkick to stop Lethal from diving. Cole whips Lethal into the turnbuckles hard, before a cavalcade of superkicks knocked all three men down. Lethal takes shots at Cole and Ligero, before running forearms in the corner give way to Ligero striking Cole, before Lethal places Ligero in a tree of woe on Cole for a baseball slide dropkick.
The Lethal Combination on Cole is followed up by a Macho Man elbow for a near-fall as Ligero breaks up the cover. We get teases of figure fours as we ape another legendary wrestler, and Ligero gets his figure four on Cole before Lethal does a Flair Flop into a crossface for a three-way submission spot that Cole breaks up by eye raking Ligero.
Cole drops Ligero with an enziguiri and a dropkick for a near-fall, before Lethal breaks up the count from a second knee strike… which gets one fan to shout “Moose”. Told you that’d come back.
An overhand slap from Lethal knocks Cole on the top rope, before a handspring is caught as the pair trade waistlocks until Ligero inadvertently helps Cole piledriver Lethal, then knocks the champion down for a near-fall. Ligero aborts the Mexican wave and ends up taking a “Just Kidding” superkick from Cole, before a Panama Sunrise gets Cole another near-fall.
Cole heads over to the commentary table to grab the ROH title belt, and this leads to Alex Shane suggesting that Cole could be trying to get himself disqualified. In a triple-threat match. Let that sink in… Referee Steve Lynskey threatens to DQ him, and the tug of war for the belt leads to Lethal clashing heads with the referee, before he takes a belt shot as he went for the Lethal Injection.
Ligero frees the belt and smashes Cole with it, before a Mexican Wave hits just as the referee gets up… but it’s only good for a slow two-count. Lethal and Ligero trade shots with increasing frequency, before another Lethal Injection attempt is caught and turned into a roll-up. Some superkicks from Jay rock Ligero as the Lethal Injection is successful… but Cole jumps on Lethal and rolls him up for the pin to retain the title. If you ignore the nonsense with teased DQs and the ref bump in the middle, this was pretty good stuff. ***¾
As Lethal and Ligero shook hands, Drake came out to attack both men, before Drake’s nearly snapped in half from a Lethal Injection. Ligero then turfs out Drake, and it’s as you were for the bottom of the barrel guy in WCPW.
Matt Striker gives us an update on Joe Coffey – and it’s that Coffey’ll be out “for an undetermined period of time” with the knee injury that BT Gunn exacerbated.
WCPW Championship: Joe Hendry vs. Drew Galloway (c)
They start with a tie-up as Hendry takes Galloway into the corner, only for Drew to come back with a headlock and a shoulder tackle. Hendry returns in kind, before Drew replies to Hendry’s arm-waving theatrics with a straight punch.
A brief period of ground and pound ends when Hendry lands a knee strike to Galloway, who replied with a clothesline to the outside as they try and have Hendry play babyface in his hometown. Galloway chops away at Hendry outside the ring, before he’s snake eye’d onto the crowd barriers, but Hendry posts the champion as he tries to make a comeback. Hendry gets a near-fall then follows up with a stalling suplex, but Hendry gets knocked with an up-kick from Galloway as he tries to get back into things, stomping away on Hendry’s ankles to try and wear down the challenger. An overhead belly-to-belly suplex collects a near-fall, but Hendry fires back yet again with clotheslines and elbows before a neckbreaker knocks down Drew.
Hendry doesn’t go for a cover, and instead waits for Galloway to stagger back his way for a DDT to get another two-count. The back and forth continues as Drew blasts Hendry up on the top rope, and that looks to be a superplex attempt, but Hendry knocks Galloway into a tree of woe, only for Drew to pop up and throw Hendry down with a spider belly-to-belly suplex.
With both guys on their knees, they trade forearms before Drew’s flying forearm is caught as Hendry transitions into an ankle lock! Drew rolls away and kicks Hendry away, before a diving dropkick gets him just a one-count, as a sit-out powerbomb gets another near-fall. Galloway scoops up Hendry for a tombstone piledriver, but Joe rolls back into the ankle lock, only for another roll-through to send Hendry back into the corner.
Galloway hits back with a reverse STO before floating over into a Regal Stretch, but the counters continue as Hendry goes back to the ankle lock, eventually scissoring the leg as Galloway was forced to creep towards the bottom rope. Galloway comes back with a short piledriver for a two-count as he struggled to stay upright, before he accidentally dumped the referee with a bicycle kick.
Despite that, Joe Hendry went straight for the Freak of Nature fallaway slam, which leads us to a spot that is up there with “babyface gets distracted by music, loses” in terms of wrestlers looking dumb… he makes the cover with the referee down, and after a visual ten count, a second referee pops in and makes a count for a near-fall. After the kick-out, Galloway surprises Hendry with a rolling prawn hold… but the first referee awakens and counts Drew’s shoulders to the mat… and it’s a double pin! A really good main event with a hot crowd, but to me the match never seemed to click as the crowd wanted to cheer both guys. ***½
The crowd boo the result… but cheer when Joe Hendry’s announced as champion. The second referee then awards the match to Drew as Stevie Aaron flip-flops, and the show goes off the air with no firm result as we end with an advert for the True Destiny iPPV that has no title match on it. Hmm…
I don’t usually do “what worked” and all that on TV shows, but this was an episode of Loaded that presented a microcosm of WCPW. A lot of good wrestling, some absolutely insulting tripe, and a big match that was a complete secret unless you followed all of WCPW’s output across Twitter and YouTube.
Add in that this was a show that was recorded then edited to leave segments out of order (with “plans changing” almost as soon as they taped it), and this is – as a certain other commentator would say – Vintage WCPW!
Interestingly, only two matches from last Sunday’s Edinburgh show were not aired – which will likely resurface on the Reloaded shoulder programming. In true WCPW fashion, one of those unaired match included the team of Kid Fite and Lou King Sharp… a pairing that the promotion actually hyped up on YouTube before… not showing their debut on their main show. Yes, there are times where I have to remember to put the P in and not label this “WCW”…
With WCPW not having any further live events until February 12th’s iPPV, next week’s Loaded will be a recap show. Which we aren’t going to review, despite the promise of a new match featuring Prospect vs. El Ligero and Ivelisse (that match will likely pop up in a Random Review down the line)… Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Travis Banks (from Lights Out) and Joe Hendry vs. Kurt Angle (from Refuse To Lose) will be on the stream, whilst the replay show will also feature the Ospreay/Priestley vs. Ricochet/Blanchard match from Loaded a few weeks back.