SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
REVOLUTION PRO – “BRITISH J CUP 2017”
JULY 8, 2017
LONDON, ENGLAND AT WALTHAMSTOW ASSEMBLEY HALL
REPORT BY MATT D., PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT
(1) Marty Scurll vs. Tiger Mask. This match started off with some technical wrestling until Marty started his heel maneuvers such as taking Tiger Mask to the outside giving him a superkick then trying to get the referee Chris Roberts to count Tiger Mask out, trying to win by count out. The crowd seemed quieter for this show at the start but seeing a Japanese legend like Tiger Mask and an obvious fan favourite in London Marty Scurll in the opener woke people up a bit and got the chants and Cheers rolling. Marty won this match with what he is calling on Twitter the “Mousetrap”, basically a chicken winged, roll up variation to head to the main event of the evening, the finals of the first ever British J Cup.
WINNER: Scurll
[Note: The crowd seemed to love this match and having a legend like Tiger Mask is always going to get an audience going but they seemed confused at the time what the finisher was but he used it later and sent a tweet out about the new move]
(2) Josh Bodom vs. Jushin Thunder Liger. This was a quick match with what I assume most of the audience believing Bodom would win. After a quick shotae (that’s probably spelt wrong, basically a big palm strike) followed by a Liger bomb and a brainbuster for the win. Bodom harassed the ref (Chris Roberts), the owner of Revolution Pro Wrestling (Andy Quildan) and in house security after the match saying it was just a two count. When Josh Bodom shoved the security as he walked pasted, the security guard either played alone very well or legitimately was not happy with being pushed and wanted to do something to Bodom but Josh left as Referee Roberts told him to leave. JTL (Jushin Thunder Liger) moves on to the finals of the tournament with Marty Scurll and two others.
[Note: This one got a huge pop when the seemingly fan favourite Liger got the unexpected pin on the heel of the night Josh Bodom and the aftermath was brilliant, especially the bit with the building security. Really enjoyable match.]
(3) Kushida vs. Kyle O’Reilly. This was the first time seeing both wrestlers live but Kushida obviously comes in with lots of attention on him as he is the winner of the Best Of The Super Juniors 2017 (which he beat Ospreay to win) and the Ring of Honor TV Champion (which he beat Scurll to win) also O’Reilly has been a big name on the Indies for a while and a big name in ROH too. These two had a very hard hitting match with kicks & submissions being the majority of the story. The ending sequence started when both men climbed to the top rope while Kushida had O’Reilly in a double wrist lock, O’Reilly pulled out a suplex from the top to escape the wrist lock but Kushida held on. After a few rolls and attempted reversals Kushida hits his finisher ‘Back to the Future’ for the win. Kushida moves on to the finals with Scurll and JTL.
WINNER: Kushida.
[Note: This was one of the longer sinles matches on the card and the crowd really got behind both guys and everybody seemed to be happy with the finish.]
(4) Will Ospreay vs. Taguchi. This was fun, if you watch NJPW you know what most of Taguchi matches are usually the fun part of the evening and this was no different. One spot in this match was Ospreay tried to stop Taguchi by grabbing his tights, this led to Taguchi’ s tights coming down and revealing a bear arse, Taguchi continued to wrestle with his behind on show with people laughing and cheering ‘Funky Weapon’. After a bit of comedy in this match Ospreay got a lot of flips in and picked up the speed and landed a few big moves, including the Oz Cutter, Ospreay’s finisher. Ospreay is the last finalist to join Scurll, JTL & Kushida.
WINNER: Ospreay.
[Side Note: This was more of a comedy match but lightened the mood after the battle before and these two were a good choice to have a comedy match that didn’t go too far but the right person won.]
–Intermission– (about 15-20 minutes)
World of sport Legend Marty Jones came out and cut a promo about British wrestling, the great show we’ve all been watching and about the first ever British J Cup being awarded later that night
(5) The Tempura Boyz vs. The Young Contenders. This was a match where Rev Pro put out a tag team that are coming up in the ranks and they got to face a team with a lot more experience and muscle mass. The Young Contenders team looked like the equivalent of the NJPW young lions. These two small contenders continued to fight back against The Tempura Boyz but to no avail, the Tempura Boyz pick up the win in the first match back from the intermission. You can find one of the Young Contenders on Twitter as Kurtis Chapman (@kurtismo) but I missed the name of the other young wrestler.
WINNERS: The Tempura Boyz.
[Side Note: Good match and the Young Contenders showed good fire even though they came up short, not much more to say.]
(6) Takahashi & Bushi representing Los Ingobernables De Japon facing the reigning but not defending British tag team champions Travis Banks & Chris Brooks, CCK. This match followed a trend with the crowd I noticed and that was the NJPW stars got a bigger pop and all round better reaction from the fans, This soon changed with the LIJ members playing their normal heel characters with complete disrespect for the ref and rules. CCK played good baby faces here despite not getting the best reaction in the beginning and won the crowd over. Los Ingobernables translates to The ungovernable and here they showed that trait by knocking the ref down a few times, and eventually when Bushi sprayed most into Chris Brooks face referee Chris Roberts called for the bell and a DQ win for CCK.
WINNERS: Banks & Crooks via DQ.
[Side Note: This was a good match but people don’t like the DQ finish and I suppose that’s the heat LIJ are going for. The crowd enjoyed seeing these wrestlers who came across as stars in two of the Best in NJPW in LIJ and the Rev Pro tag champions.]
(7) Matt Riddle vs. ISHII. This was one hell of a hard hitting match, starting off with a chop for chop striking Battle with Matt Riddle a former UFC & MMA fighter and ISHII being NJPW’s Stone Pitbull. This is not the first time seeing these two so I knew it would be good and it did not disappoint, this match felt like it was near fall after near fall with both guys not taking it easy on each other and hitting the other guy with their biggest moves one after another with brainbusters and suplexs all over the Ring and from the top rope, the audience on their feet the whole match. With this Lesnar/Goldberg-like match with two extremely hard hitters in a battle of big moves the finish almost came out of nowhere with ISHII pinning Riddle.
WINNER: ISHII.
[Side Note: Both of these wrestlers got huge pops as they made their entrances, Matt Riddle is really over wherever he goes with bro chants and ISHII is seen as a huge NJPW star and I think most people seemed surprised with the finish when Riddle lost.]
(8) Fatal Four Way elimination match for the First ever annual British J Cup. This match started off with Scurll, JTL, Ospreay, and Kushida. The beginning story of the match was Ospreay and Kushida fought outside and Ospreay got the better of Kushida leaving him later out outside all the while inside the ring Liger and Marty face off. Marty got the better of Liger using heel tactics like the finger break spot and the fake test of strength (where the heel puts his hand in the air to signal test of strength but when the face puts his hand up to interlock the fingers the heel changes which hand he holds up) but then kicking JTL in the but instead. Marty ends up hitting Liger in the stomach with the umbrella and keeping him out with superkicks when ever JTL started getting up at the side of the ring. While Liger was taken out and Marty and Will in the ring, Marty throws the umbrella to Will and lays down selling something that didn’t happen then Kushida came back in the ring and was not happy with what happened to “the legend Jushin Thunder Liger” and assumed it was Ospreay so after this Marty and Kushida worked together to take out Will for as Marty put it “Disrespecting the legend Jushin Thunder Liger” even though earlier in the match Scurll while beating on Liger shouted “Legend my arse” (an Eglish term meaning not true). Eventually Will was the first to be eliminated and it was down to Kushida and Marty in the ring and Liger still recovering outside on the floor, whenever Liger stood up Marty would attack him again leaving him laying on the floor again. Marty would go on eliminate Kushida and Liger made a comeback with palm strikes, a Liger bomb and a brainbuster for the win, the crowd went crazy for this and everyone was on their feet. Marty Jones came out with the referee Chris Roberts holding the trophy to present the prize to the winner, Jushin Thunder Liger.
WINNER: Jushin Thunder Liger.
-After the match during Liger’s celebration, Josh Bodom came back to the ring and still not happy Liger beat him earlier in the night and snatched the trophy from Jushin Thunder Liger and attacked him but Marty Jones stood up to Bodom and dispute looking like he had issues moving well he got a few shot in to Josh’s face then waved him on to fight back but when Bodom kicked Jones and Marty fell into the ropes causing major heat from the fans and every wrestler came to the ring the help Liger and Jones and Matt Riddle ran off Bodom.
After this Andy Quildan owner of Revolution Pro Wrestling announced that at Summer Sizzler we will see Jushin Thunder Liger taking on Josh Bodom for a shot at Bodom’s British Cruiserweight Championship.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Overall a great night out and it is nights like this that make me love British independent wrestling. Of course this will be available to watch on demand on RPWOnDemand.com. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
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