Well, this was unexpected. WhatCulture surprised us on Thursday with the return of an old series… which turned out to be just a way to throw in a tag team tournament match that couldn’t make their usual Loaded show.
Back when the promotion started earlier this year, WCPW flirted with the idea of a sister show – much in the same vein as SmackDown Live has Talking Smack. However, their choice of shoulder programming for Loaded barely lasted, as “Reloaded” was uninstalled after just one episode of an Ikea-heavy “studio show”.
The idea’s been brought back as more of a clip show, but with the addition of some unaired matches, similar to how Main Event and Superstars work for Raw and SmackDown.
I’m hoping this revival of Reloaded is just a clip show with dark matches, since I am a staunch believer of keeping your storylines and suchlike on the main show. If announcements are made on sister shows, then it’s a blatant sign that it’s an afterthought. Let’s see…
Apparently “on this week’s Loaded”, Prospect were forced to hunt down the Primate. This led to a series of skits that ended with Drake playing tug-of-war with Primate- a skit that would have worked well on the main show as a distraction from the usual “boom-boom-boom” wrestling content. Speaking of… was this actually aired, or have they spoiled a part of this weekend’s show? That segued into a match that was a “pre-show match from our Loaded tapings” – a three-on-one squash affair, similar to what we had with Rampage prior to the iPPV (that match that aired on FITE TV for some, then was recycled on that utterly disposable episode of Loaded on the following week).
Rampage vs. The Unnamed Trio
This was taped in Newcastle, with Alex Shane and Dave Bradshaw taping new commentary for this to help keep things within the current storylines. Wrestler 1 takes a German suplex and folded inside out, then gets his arm placed on the ropes for a “tag”. The other two wrestlers run in and take a double-team back suplex from Primate, then a series of avalanches in the corners. Wrestler 2 took a gutwrench suplex and a spear, before number 1 was picked up again and dropped with a gorilla press slam, before Rampage trapped him with some headscissors and repeatedly elbowed him.
A total squash, with the lack of atmosphere explained by this being for “VIP fans” – so a pre-show match in front of an intentionally small crowd (Not Rating)
They go to more footage, this time of Drake looking for Primate. So they’re giving away an entire skit then, or was this edited out? Primate stumbles across a room where two guys are tied back-to-back in a chair… and then gets locked in with them. Drake’s a sadistic so-and-so, isn’t he? We get a replay of Ospreay vs. Kirby from last week’s Loaded, and the ensuing heel turn of Ospreay and his alignment with the heel GM in a story that has never ever been done before. That takes us to some post-show footage of the Swords of Essex going into the crowd to mouth off to a fan.
More replays of Joe Hendry offering a steel cage match against champion Joseph Conners, then Conners’ response. At this point I’m thankful that the right arrow key skips forward on YouTube…
Host Ben Potter then recaps the tag title tournament, showing the three matches we have had so far, including a match from Loaded between Moss & Slater and Moustache Mountain. Which I swear I saw live (and on YouTube) on the True Legacy special… come on lads, it’s your own product, it’s not that hard to fact check!
Now for our second new match, which was taped at the London show… so I guess that all-important tag team tournament wasn’t important enough to have all of its matches televised on a main show.
Prince Ameen & Gabriel Kidd vs. The Coffeys (Joe Coffey & Mark Coffey)
The Coffeys work over Ameen early on, who was forced to take wrestling advice from Kidd as he found himself trapped in a wristlock. Ameen takes a pair of chops, then a back elbow from Mark for a near-fall, before he rushes into the corner to tag in Kidd.
Kidd used a monkey flip to send Mark into the ropes, before a dropkick saw Mark return the favour as the Coffeys regained the advantage, keeping Kidd trapped in the corner. The match descended into a brief chopping battle between Kidd and the Coffeys, even after Kidd looked to snap his head back after being thrown into the turnbuckles. A slingshot from Joe sent Kidd back into the wrong corner, but a dropkick took Mark down as Kidd made the tag out to Ameen. An attempt at a Pedigree was countered with a roundhouse by Mark, who then tagged in Joe for a series of European uppercuts. Ameen was taken down by another dropkick for a near-fall, before an O’Connor roll forced Ameen to kick out at two.
From that kick-out, Kidd kicked Joe as he went into the ropes, then tagged himself back in, for another diving European uppercut. Kidd went for a Dragon sleeper, but Joe slipped out and took a blind tag from brother Mark – but not before hitting the Black Coffey discus lariat for the win. A decent debut, but I can’t help but feel that this was an entire afterthought. **¾
That’s all for Reloaded, as they hyped up this week’s Gabriel Kidd vs. Joseph Conners match ahead of the iPPV next weekend.
Without doing my best Vince Verhei impression, “it was a show”. It really did feel like a way to create 40 minutes of content just to shove in one match that they (had to?) cut from this week’s Loaded taping. Add in some uncertainty over what timelines we’re actually following (last week’s Loaded, next week’s Loaded, what does it matter between friends?), and some glaring research holes, and this really was just a show you could get away with skipping.
Whether this format continues… we’ll have to see. I do like the idea of extra matches being saved for these shows – as long as they’re not meant to be important, like wrestler’s debuts or indeed, any part of a title tournament… and if they are important, at least announce it ahead of time, rather than sneaking it onto your YouTube channel on a random afternoon!