Kris Travis Tag Team Invitational - Night One

The weekend of March 4th and 5th hosted the first ever ATTACK! Pro Wrestling Kris Travis Tag Team Invitational (KTTTI) from Cathays Community Centre in Cardiff, South Wales. The aim for the weekend was to raise as much money for Cavendish Cancer Care as was humanly possible over the two days, as well as having an absolute blast with the amazing wrestling which we had witnessed.

The brackets for the tournament looked like this:
#CCK vs Bowl-A-Rama
The Anti-Fun Police vs The Models
Bird & Boar vs CJ Banks & Sam Bailey
FSU vs Project Lucha

I had only ever been to Cathays once before and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The room is an old, abandoned bingo hall. We all know what happens with old bingo hall's though, right? They're transformed into wrestling Mecca's! Just take the old ECW Arena for example. There's no reason why Cathays can't become known as the ATTACK! Arena in my opinion.

The weekend started for me at Bristol Parkway Train Station, catching the 1409hrs train to Cardiff Central where I arrived at about 1445hrs. I tried to navigate my way to the B&B where I was staying but realised I'm the worst person at A) Following directions, and B) Reading maps. TAXI! The journey, as with all taxi rides, seemingly took the long route but I wasn't overly bothered. I was just glad to be there and wanted to get settled into my room, which was directly opposite The Principality Stadium (The Millennium Stadium as it's still commonly known).

I booked a taxi, which was a hell of a lot of trouble initially, to get me to Cathays Community Centre for around 1830hrs. I like to arrive nice and early to feel the build up both outside and inside of the venue. I've always been like it with any sort of event that I've attended whether it be wrestling, football or cricket. The doors opened just after 1900hrs and we all flocked in and I managed to get a seat in the second row.

The show kicked off at about 1930hrs with our usual ATTACK! host, Jim Lea. Jim was absent the previous week in Bristol but it was awesome to have him back. For me, he's one of the best ring announcers in the UK right now and does a great job warming the crowd up and can really build up a match with his skills. Jim explained the rules to those who'd never attended an ATTACK! show before and then introduced us to the officials, Shay Purser (BOO!) and Chris Roberts along with the eight tag teams who'd be competing.

KTTTI Quarter Final - #CCK vs Bowl-A-Rama
The opening contest for the 2017 KTTTI was contested between the current ATTACK! Pro Wrestling Tag Team Champions and the former two time champs. This was an absolutely incredible way to kick off this years event and was one of my favourite matches of the weekend. Both teams are like well oiled machines, much like every other team in this tournament in all fairness. Brookes and Lykos impress me more and more each time I see them with their incredible chemistry. Finding tag teams with great chemistry isn't easy to come by these days, but you won't find many better than #CCK!

The match started wickedly with #CCK taking out Bowl-A-Rama while the Tag Champs were soaking up the adulation of the audience during their entrance. Almost immediately they hit their Gory Bomb/flipping bulldog manoeuvre which Splits was just about able to kick out of. This led to a long spell of domination from the former champions as Splits struggled to recover. The domination lasted until Splits managed to reverse Lykos' third attempt at a Brainbuster into one of his own. Poor old Lykos. I do hope he hits a Brainbuster one day. It's almost like watching Ric Flair climbing to the top rope!

One of the main talking points was when Splits suffered a horrible injury. He attempted a suicide dive between the top and middle ropes but seem to misjudge his dive and went nose first into the middle rope. With a blood soaked mask, Splits fought on valiantly and eventually hit that suicide dive. Although, when he took a few shots to the face, it did make me cringe. My immediate thought was a broken nose and having suffered it a couple of times myself, I know how difficult it can be when you need it to breathe. Especially during sport.

Splits was able to bravely fight on and helped his team to a huge win in this opening contest. Lloyd Katt nailed Mondai Lykos with a rolling senton, which Splits followed up with a Swanton Bomb. "Fat Katt" then sealed the win with a middle rope Moonsault to cover Lykos for the three count to advance into Sunday's semi final.

KTTTI Quarter Final - The Anti-Fun Police vs The Models
ATTACK! Pro Wrestling Champion Chief Deputy Dunne made his way to the ring first and announced that Los Federales Santos Sr. had retired from the Anti-Fun Police to sun it up in Orlando, Florida and insisted that Santos didn't like fun! I don't know about you, but sunning it up in Florida sounds like a lot of fun to me! Los Federales Santos Sr. had recruited a new member to the Anti-Fun Police before his departure; His son, Los Federales Santo Jr. who made his way out to the ring.

The Models soon made their entrance. Danny Hope and Joey Hayes were making their ATTACK! Pro Wrestling debut's in this one and, well, had a lot of fun in the process. To be fair, it did seem as though Los Federales Santos Jr. was having way too much fun. You might want to have a word about that Chief Deputy Dunne!

Sadly for the Anti-Fun Police, any amount of fun had by Los Federales Santos Jr. wasn't enough for them to advance in the tournament here. Hope and Hayes scored the win after a 3-D (I'm guessing that's what they're calling it, anyway) on Santos Jr. to advance into the semi finals.

Non Tournament Match - Drewy Funk vs Elijah Dahl (Contested under "Relaxed Rules)
This one has been brewing for a couple of months, ever since the third edition of Club 100 when Elijah viciously assaulted EC-Drew and this match perfectly exhibited that both men were willing to go to any lengths necessary to inflict pain on each other.

This one, believe it or not, started with some great wrestling in the ring. However, that lasted all of five minutes and once they went outside the ring, there was no going back. Singapore caine's and chairs were used  as these two bitter adversaries fought all over this old bingo hall in Cardiff, looking for any small mistake the other would make to gain what would be a massive advantage.

The one and only major talking point here was the moment that brought the match to an abrupt conclusion. Drew and Elijah were fighting at the back of this old bingo hall with four tables piled up (there were two sets of two). Elijah dragged drew onto the platformed roof where only a few months prior, Eddie Dennis chokeslammed Chief Deputy Dunne to the floor. Both men in this contest looked for an advantage but it was Elijah who scored it with a brutal kick to Drew, sending the Extremely Confused one off the ceiling and crashing through the aforementioned four tables.

Chris Roberts quickly called the match off as a "no-contest" but the brutality didn't end when Elijah looked to continue the attack. Security tried to prevent further harm to EC-Drew but a few of them got knocked down by Elijah for in their efforts. Danny Jones tried to help his friend but was held back multiple times and the violence only came to an end when 'Flash' Morgan Webster surprised the Cardiff crowd by ridding Elijah from the arena and save Drew Parker from further punishment.

Trust me when I say this, folks. This one is not over. In fact, it may have only just begun!

The interval was up next. As I've said before this is one of my favourite parts of the night. It always brings us time to get some merchandise, have a chat amongst ourselves and sometimes get to meet a few of the wrestlers. I managed to grab myself a #CCK shirt as well as meeting these guys for the first time. I'm massive fans of Mondai Lykos and Chris Brookes so this was certainly something to tick off of my "to do" list. I also picked myself up the newest 'Flash' Morgan Webster shirt and grabbed a picture with 'The Modfather' himself.

KTTTI Quarter Final - Bird & Boar vs CJ Banks & Sam Bailey
The second half of the show kicked off with our third quarter final contest between Mike Bird and Wild Boar taking on the debuting CJ Banks and Sam Bailey. Bird and Boar have been on an absolute tear as a team since joining forces last November and have quickly established themselves amongst the ATTACK! faithful as one of the best teams in the company.

I'd never seen Banks or Bailey live before but had seen them wrestling via On Demand services for other companies and I have to say, I've always been very impressed with both men. It's fair to say that CJ likes a beer or six. Very reminiscent of the great Steve Austin in that regard. Nonetheless, both Banks and Bailey are an extremely entertaining combination to watch and it was absolutely incredible to see both of them on this card.

This one was another really well put together match. There wasn't anything overly "flashy" as such about it, but it was thoroughly enjoyable to watch with the interactions between the fans and wrestlers. CJ trying to get lots of alcohol influenced chants started such as "Baileys" and "Sam-Buca" among others. The crowd also gave a great rendition of "Hey Bailey" (to the tune of "Hey Baby") to which Bird quipped in with "It's not that Bailey!" which drew a few chuckles from the watching audience.

The well oiled machine of Bird and Boar picked up the win in this one. CJ and Sam were in control when CJ went to the back to get more beer. Bailey was left on his own and the numbers game caught up to him as Bird and Boar gained the upper hand and hit Bailey with Mrs Patterson's Revenge (thanks to Craig Gilbert for pointing out the name of the gutbuster/frog splash combo to me over the weekend).

They may have won the match to advance to Sunday's semi final, but Banks and Bailey had won over the crowd. Something of almost equal importance in my opinion because gaining the respect of the fans can only lead to bigger and better things within a promotion for a debuting wrestler or team.

KTTTI Quarter Final - FSU vs Project Lucha
This was undoubtedly the match of the night and quite possibly one of the matches of the year for any promotion. The one thing I loved about this match is that the entire ATTACK! Pro Wrestling roster was out watching it from the back of this old abandoned bingo hall. Clearly, everyone wanted to make sure that they didn't miss this potential match of the year candidate and whoever was at Cathays Community Centre on Saturday 4th March 2017 got to witness something truly remarkable.

FSU were out first to a fantastic reaction, as they always are with the entire crowd on their feet, cheering and singing along to the tune of Andrew W.K.'s "Party Hard". If there's a better entrance song in the world of wrestling to get an audience on their feet, please introduce me to it? Project Lucha also received a wonderful ovation from the ATTACK! Pack with just as many people on their feet dancing to their entrance music.

This one started in typical FSU fashion really. Not that that's a bad thing because they're one of my favourite teams in the UK right now. As are Project Lucha for that matter. There were a few early agile exchanges between Mandrews and Ligero with the former being the first to gain the upper hand when he landed his standing moonsault. Eddie tagged in moments later and teased the same manoeuvre but instead opted to use a move more suited to his style of wrestling...a leg drop. I think the entire audience would have lost their minds if Eddie hit a standing moonsault!

There was one moment in this match where I was worried about the well being of Martin Kirby. Eddie hit his Fall Away Slam(Ligero)/Samoan Drop(Kirby) spot but as Ligero landed, his knee or shin appeared to catch Kirby in the face. Given what had happened with Splits McPins earlier in the night, I couldn't help but think that Kirby had suffered some sort of injury. There was a small amount of blood coming from his nose, but whether it was from this point in the match or not, I'm really not too sure.

This match was settled with Martin Kirby scoring with quite possibly the most important Sable Bomb of his career. As many of you will know, Kirby was the tag team partner of Kris Travis in the tag team of Project Ego. Advancing in this tournament would've meant the world to both Martin and Ligero. With Kirby scoring the pinfall on Eddie Dennis ensured that Project Lucha booked their place in Sunday's semi final to face Bird & Boar.

I arrived back at the B&B at about 1045hrs and recorded a quick video giving a brief rundown of Saturday nights events. A huge thank you to everyone who checked that out on both Facebook and YouTube and I'm forever grateful for the B&B having WiFi because my poor little data package wouldn't have coped with uploading that!

Thank you everyone for checking this review out. The write up for night two will be coming in the next few days!