8/12 Rev Pro in London – Detailed Report on Ospreay vs. Vader match, Sabre, Hero, Jay White, more in action

Revolution Pro Wrestling Report
August 12, 2016
London, U.K. at York Hall, Bethnal Green
Report by Dave Green, PWTorch U.K. correspondent

The event featured the highly-anticipated huge main event of Will Ospreay vs. the Man They Call Vader.

(1) Jay White beat Josh Bodom. A nice back and forth encounter, with the crowd warming to the relatively unknown New Japan young lion. White earned the respect and support of the crowd by taking everything Bodom could dish out, including a powerbomb/lungblower combo and the Bliss Buster. White eventually out-maneuvered Bodom and caught him in a Lion Tamer for the tap out victory.

(2) Sha Samuels beat Big Damo. This was a personal encounter after Samuels’s attack on Damo last month. These big men took the fight to each other in a big way. Damo struck with a massive cannonball senton against the outside guardrail, which moved the entire lighting rig in a scary moment. Other big moves included a top rope fisherman’s suplex from Damo to Sha, as well as some of Damo’s trademark power combos. Referee Chris Roberts was knocked down and Sha took advantage, wrapping his scarf around Damo’s neck and covering the foreign object with a sleeper, to which Damo eventually submitted.

(3) The British Youngbloods (Jake McCluskey & Kieren “The Bruce” Bruce) beat Ryan Smile & P.J. Black. This was a previously unannounced match, with the crowd giving the surprise team of Smile and Black a great reaction. Smile is a high flyer that has a lot of personality and can play both the face and heel role extremely well, who could easily make a lot of waves internationally.

The Youngbloods kept Smile in control for the most part, with the Darewolf coming in off a hot tag with some crisp manoeuvres. After McCluskey caught Black springing off the top rope with a super kick, the Youngbloods caught Smile with their finishing move after many attempts throughout the match, the move being a discus lariat/German suplex combo. Basic but solid tag match.

(4) Chris Hero beat Marty Scurll. Dubbed as Hero vs. Villain, this was the second time this pair had done battle on English soil, after their epic encounter for PROGRESS at Chapter 31. This was no less impressive an outing. Very back and forth with many impossible kick outs. I can’t describe too much that went as I could not do it justice.

Scurll’s signature finger snap resulted in Hero middle finger knuckle actually bending the other way. Scurll at a couple of points did Hero’s old partner Cesaro’s mannerisms setting up what was thought to be a Neutraliser, but what actually turned out to be a Gotch piledriver, but only for two. The end finally came when Hero delivered his own Gotch piledriver, but from the middle rope! Insane ending to a brutal match, another top notch York Hall performance from Scurll and Hero adding to his list of MOTY candidates.

(5) Ricochet beat Pete Dunne. This battle of Cruiserweight wrestlers was the perfect way to return to the action after the interval. Dunne became frustrated by the way he was being outwrestled so resorted to biting Ricochet’s fingers to gain control of the match. Dunne looked to hit his Drop Dead finisher, but Ricochet kept finding a way out. Dunne got his knees up to counter a shooting star press, but fell victim to a fireman’s carry driver. Ricochet followed up soon after with the 630 to get the win in an impressive showing from both. Both men shook hands, but Dunne cheap shotted Ricochet and hit Drop Dead, motioning that he was looking to regain the Cruiserweight title.

(6) Zack Sabre, Jr. beat Jeff Cobb to retain to British Heavyweight Championship. This is where the night began to unravel a tad. This started out as a very nice technical encounter before Cobb caught Sabre with three consecutive gut wrench suplexes. Cobb’s power moves continued to be Sabre’s undoing, until he avoided a charge and landed a bunch of kicks to the thigh and wrapped Cobb up in submission attempts. Cobb went for Tour of the Islands, which Zack countered nicely into a heel hook and ankle lock. Cobb came into the match as a relative unknown to some fans, but his impressive performance was gaining more and more fan support as the match went on. So much so that as Sabre began laying in kicks and slaps to keep Cobb down on the mat, he began getting booed! Sabre connected with a running penalty kick to get a three count, but Cobb kicked out very close to three which made the finish look surprisingly weak. The boos increased quite hugely, with Sabre somewhat playing up to it but not too much.

Marty Scurll appeared behind Sabre, with the crowd popping expecting him to finally turn on his friend (Scurll is technically the no.1 contender but refuses to fight his best friend for the title) but instead raised Zack’s hand, which elicited more boos! A strange reaction to who I thought was a strong favourite at Rev Pro. Post match, announcer and owner Andy Quildan requested Jeff Cobb to be a part of their involvement at WrestleMania weekend next year, which Cobb accepted.

(7) Vader vs. Will Ospreay. Well, it happened. Vader entered to a thunderous boo-vation, although he did have his fans in the audience, too. He wasn’t exactly looking in prime condition to say the least, as he had trouble just walking down the entrance ramp steps. Ospreay walked straight to the ring with no posing and walked straight up to Vader for a big stare-down.

Ospreay turned his back to Vader and flipped him off, which resulted in Vader assaulting Ospreay in the corner. Referee Chris Roberts tried to restore order so the match could officially start, but Vader threw him down. Ospreay was thrown to the outside and security tried to come down to restore order. This resulted in Ospreay running down the entrance ramp and wiping everyone out with a dive. Vader turned things around by bringing Ospreay to the top of the ramp and throwing him through the announcer’s table! After a few minutes, Ospreay got back to the ring and the match finally officially started.

When Vader was on offence, Ospreay pretty much threw himself around making Vader look extremely vicious. When Ospreay made his comeback, Vader took everything as best he could, but was often out of position, making moves such as the springboard flying forearm look weak. Vader was again out of position for an attempted OsCutter, which he countered and levelled Ospreay with a huge lariat. Ospreay kicked out and Vader once again accosted the referee in the corner. Ospreay took advantage and drop kicked Vader into Roberts.

As Ospreay went for a top rope move, Pete Dunne’s music hit. He entered through the crowd and hit Ospreay with Drop Dead, helping Vader up and shaking his hand. The assault continued and Ricochet made his way out to help Ospreay. He took Dunne out and Vader was levelled with a double superkick. Ricochet and Ospreay then hit Vader with consecutive shooting star presses. Ospreay covered for what would have been three, but Dunne pulled the referee out of the ring. Vader hit a choke slam, but Ospreay kicked out at one! Another even bigger choke slam put Ospreay down again and Vader covered for the win! Yes, that is not a typo – Vader defeated Will Ospreay.

Vader and Dunne left together, with Ospreay cutting a promo stating he felt he let everyone down and that Dunne should watch out, as if he wanted a rematch for the Cruiserweight title, he would get it.

Match quality on Vader’s part aside, this was an engaging main event. The crowd were loud throughout and were vitriolic in their reaction to Vader winning. A lot of smoke and mirrors were used to cover Vader’s weaknesses, with the pre-match entrances and shenanigans lasting a good 15 minutes before the match actually began, which itself was around ten minutes. Dunne costing Ospreay the match of his career is the big story going into their eventual re-match. Whatever your opinion of the match and the result, it is the talking point at the moment on social media, and getting people talking was the whole point really. The show will be up at RPWondemand.com on Sunday.