1/16 Rev Pro in London – Styles teases Rumble, Lethal defends ROH Title

Revolution Pro presented a huge show in London on Saturday featuring A.J. Styles teasing a spot in the Royal Rumble, Styles vs. Zack Sabre, Jr., Marty Scurll vs. Will Ospreay, TNA’s Bram making a surprise appearance, and Jay Lethal defending the ROH Title.

Revolution Pro “High Stakes” Report
January 16, 2016
London, England at York Hall
Report by Dave Green, PWTorch correspondent

(1) “The Bruiserweight” Pete Dunne beat “Flash” Morgan Webster to retain the British Cruiserweight Championship. Nice opener between these two familiar foes, who U.S. readers will know best from their appearance in Team Attack in Chikara’s King of Trios. Webster managed to pull off a 450 Splash to Dunne’s back, but was too slow to cover. A back and forth match finished when Webster missed a top rope 630 Senton and Dunne capitalised with a Pumphandle Facebuster.

(2) Big Damo O’Connor beat “Speedball” Mike Bailey. Major size difference, but Bailey made up for it with an early flurry of kicks to make it known he was not intimidated by his larger adversary. Damo destroyed Bailey with many high-impact moves, but failed to put Speedball away. Bailey hit his Shooting Star Knees from the top, but Damo resisted and finally put away Bailey away with a reverse Brain Buster. Both men showed respect to each other after the match and I expect Bailey made a few new fans from his first appearance in the U.K.

(3) Colt Cabana beat Doug Williams. A technical match that had shades of World of Sport throughout. A friendly match finished with a sliding cradle from Cabana. After the match, Cabana made it known that he intends to reclaim the British Championship he once held. He was attacked by a man dressed as Matt Classic, who revealed himself to be Lord Gideon Grey, who made it clear he wasn’t finished with Cabana yet.

(4) “The Villain” Marty Scurll beat “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay. This match was to become #1 Contender to the British Championship and to become to the first wrestler made into an action figure for RPW’s newest franchise. This match was 28 minutes of perfection. An early contender for Match of the Year. Excellent chemistry between these two. Stiff strike exchanges, Ospreay’s aerial abilities hit to perfection, Scurll’s intense submission holds. Scurll at one point hit Ospreay’s own finishing sequence on Ospreay himself, hitting the Essex Destroyer for only two. Ospreay returned the favour by putting Scurll into the Chicken Wing. After nothing seemed to end the match, Scurll finally wore Ospreay down enough for a submission to the Chicken Wing. Surprisingly, Scurll offered his hand to Ospreay, who accepted, with no cheap shot to taint the moment. Awesome match. Seek it out.

(5) ROH World champion Jay Lethal beat Mark Haskins to retain the ROH World Title. This was announced as a championship match just before ring introductions were made. Two very similarly sized and styled combatants here, with Haskins using his Brazilian Jujitsu training to surprise Lethal with various submission attempts. Due to other matches and moments during the night, this match might be forgotten but it shouldn’t, as it was an excellent piece of work from both men. In heel fashion, Lethal ruined all the great, clean action by pushing the referee away and low-blowing Haskins, before hitting the Lethal Injection for the cheap win.

(6) The Lost Souls (Jimmy Havoc & Tyson T-Bone & Bram) beat The Revolutionists (Sha Samuels & James Castle & Josh Bodom) in a No DQ six-man tag match. This feud between Jimmy Havoc and The Revolutionists came to a head with this war. T-Bone recently joined Havoc’s team and the mystery partner was revealed to be Bram, which was a major surprise (though not a good surprise for me personally). Nevertheless, this was a wild brawl as expected that went ’round the whole building. Lost Souls finally got Bodom to themselves, each hitting their finishers, with Havoc finally getting a win over Bodom with an hellacious Acid Rainmaker.

(7) Zack Sabre, Jr beat A.J. Styles via submission to the British Heavyweight Championship. With all the news about AJ recently, the outcome might not have been in doubt for many, but this was still an excellent match. Sabre is just such an amazing technical wrestler, it boggles my mind how he comes up his manoeuvres. Great counters and strikes from both, with A.J. countering an armbar attempt with a Styles Clash variation, but only for a two count. Sabre tied up Styles’s arms in a double armbar, pulling back on his wrist, and managed to stretch on Styles’s leg as well, an inescapable submission resulting in Styles giving up and Zack Sabre, Jr. winning the title in glorious fashion.

After the match, A.J. gave a farewell speech saying he didn’t deserve the love he had received from the Rev Pro fans and then put Zack over. When stating he didn’t know what the future held, the crowd erupted with a Royal Rumble chant. A.J. seemed to say that he wasn’t signed to them (I might have misheard), but did say if there was a spot in the Rumble, and he was still recovering from the move Zack put him in, then he’d win the Rumble for us fans. A huge “Thank You, A.J.” chant sent him off. Zack then wondered about his future (which got an ironic “Royal Rumble” chant as well), but made it clear he was moving back to England and keeping the title as long as possible.

Nice end to a good show, with three or four matches that are well worth checking out, plus the moment of Zack’s win and A.J.’s farewell. The show will be available on demand from Monday.