Fight Club: PRO
Project Mayhem VI 2017 Night One Star works Warehouse Wolverhampton 22/11/17 Fight Club: PRO returned for its annual Project Mayhem show on September 22nd and 23rd which had a stacked line up with Dragon Gate and Pro Wrestling Revolver guys present along with some of the best BritWres regulars we've all know and love. This show featured an insane deathmatch as well British Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Trent Seven and Tyler Bate) taking on Team Dragon Gate (CIMA, Masaaki Mochizuki and Eita) on night one and Team Pro Wrestling Revolver (Sami Callihan, Jake and Dave Crist) on night two. So now the hype is out of the way, let's delve into the shows. This will be coming from a live and DVD perspective as myself and our fearless leader Darren were in attendance for both of these shows. Night One We open the show with #CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos) who come out to the ring to boos from the crowd that cunt Chris Brookes decides to pop the 'eight' balloon as it was Fight Club: PRO's eighth birthday. Brookes wears a shit-eating grin as he announces there will be no #CCK tonight due to Lykos' injury and he would not be putting the belt on the line tonight. Brookes says they will be over at the merch table taking all of your money from your savings account (which popped this reviewer on this night and the crowd, because it was true). Fight Club: PRO promoter Martin Zaki comes out and makes a match as Brookes will defend his Fight Club: PRO title against Shane Strickland, Sami Callihan and Flash Morgan Webster in a four-way which starts right now. Fight Club: PRO Title Four Way Match: Chris Brookes (Champion) vs Shane Strickland vs Flash Morgan Webster vs Sami Callihan This was a fun opener from a live perspective and watching it back on DVD was just as fun. It featured a tonne of action with lots of spots, dives and brawling. This wouldn't look out of place on any show and certainly didn't here. All four guys were over and the crowd was red hot for the action. The only drawback to it and the rest of this show was the poor lighting whenever the camera got up close to the action from ringside it was in total darkness as someone had placed the ring lights at an awkward angle. Even Trent Seven pointed this out at the beginning of the show. The action was thick and fast throughout but I don't think anyone in the building believed that the title would genuinely change hands here but the crowd still brought some of the near falls. The finish saw Brookes, sneaky like the piece of shit he is (sorry Chris), roll up Callihan holding a fistful of Callihan's jeans to get the three count. Winner: Chris Brookes (And still Fight Club: PRO Champion) Three Way Women's Match: Jessicka Havok vs Millie McKenzie vs Kay Lee Ray Originally this was supposed to be Millie vs Jessicka but Kay Lee Ray was added as a last-minute surprise and it was a great surprise on the night as KLR is still one of my favourite female grapplers out there. So live and in person, I was happy to see her added to this match, but then it kind of took away from Millie who I feel would have become even more over if she had beaten Havok here one-on-one but it served a purpose at least as we would find out afterwards. Well, what to say about the match overall? It was OK well fine in fact as all three woman went out to put on a show. It was a little bit short and the action was passable but nothing really stood out here. Millie is getting a push at the moment and is one of the Fight Club: PRO trainees training with Travis Banks. The result was kind of obvious as she won with a roll up. Afterwards, Havok blamed her loss on KLR and vowed to fucking kill her tomorrow night (remember that because it's important). Winner: Millie McKenzie Singles Match: Travis Banks vs Jordan Devlin Well, what do you say about Travis that hasn't already been said by me on these reviews? I still believe he's the complete package who has some of best matches in the UK but in this match, although it was good it wasn't one of Travis Banks' finer matches of the year. The guy has had some great outings this year but this one seemed to be missing something. Jordan is a great worker but he's still not there for me in big match scenarios just yet but it will come in time. I would say their match in PROGRESS back in February was better than this one. Jordan was again insanely over here...well, his massive head is and I like the fact he's using it in matches and his opponents are selling his headbutts especially as a deadly move. It's becoming his gimmick and he's running with it in Fight Club: PRO and I must applaud him for that. After several minutes of solid action, Travis picked up the win by making Jordan tap out to the Lion's Clutch. Winner: Travis Banks Four Team Four Way Match: Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) vs Scarlet & Graves (Desmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) vs Black Coffey (Omari & Joe Coffey) Vs OI4K (Jake & Dave Crist) Another spotty multi-man match followed the Banks/Devlin match but then it was the start of the second half proper so they can be forgiven for giving us another match similar to the opener. It's not like this crowd didn't need warming up as it was super hot all night. I really enjoyed this actually. All eight guys busted their asses in there and it was a lot of fun as well. I must mention how I got a kick out of Desmond taking a sip out of my Strongbow Dark Fruits and mentioning how tasty it was but I think he was lying. Anyway back to the action like the opener it featured lots of action and dives and suffered from the legal man syndrome (I promise I'll not say it again). Jake Crist and Desmond Xavier had a nice exchange after the dives but it'll be hard-pressed to be remembered fondly by anyone not me as so much happened in this match. The finish saw everyone do their finishers like in the opener then the Crist brothers were left with a dazed Kyle Fletcher. Jake scooped up Kyle into a tombstone position while Dave came off the top rope with a double foot stomp and OI4K went over clean. It made the most sense actually as OI4K were heading into the main event the following evening, so keeping them strong by having them go over made the most sense in the world to me anyway. Winners: OI4K (Jake & Dave Crist) Grudge Match: Shay Purser w/ Session Moth Martina Vs Dan Moloney This was one of the matches I was most looking forward to going into this show even after the Moloney v Martina match had so badly offended last month. This match was pure comedy but then anything involving these three normally is. Shay is a terrible in ring worker but I'm willing to give him a pass as he's bloody good at comedy and you don't need to be a five-star worker to have fun comedy matches. Early on Dan downed Martina with a brutal looking kick to leave her laying and would later on give her a powerbomb onto the ring apron which nasty as hell. Dan beat on Shay over and over again with this match looking very one-sided indeed but then Dan got cocky and shay found some of that intestinal fortitude. Shay battled back and dropped Moloney with a big suplex and slapped the shit out of Him. Moloney began to dominate Purser again until Martina interfered on his behalf. Dan pulled out some of Martina’s hair then Shay took advantage and drilled him with a swinging DDT. Shay dives out onto DAN then rolled him back in the ring and gave DAN a Canadian Destroyer. Martina removed her jacket and revealed a referees shirt while shay stunned DAN with a stunner for a three count. My only annoyance with this match was the finish. People tend to forget this ends Dan's long undefeated streak. Yeah sure he could claim the victory was null and void due to Martina counting the three count when she wasn't the official but he was still visibly pinned clean by Shay Purser and his undefeated streak didn't deserve to end like that. Winner: Shay Purser Trio’s Match: British Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) vs Team Dragon Gate (CIMA, Eita & Masaaki Mochizuki) This was the match that made me more than anything want to go to Wolverhampton to see the stars of dragon gate wrestle this countries best trio in BSS. Early on Pete worked an exciting exchange with puro icon CIMA. CIMA seemed motivated to bring what's left of his A-Game and put on a solid exchange with Pete. Up next was Mochizuki exchanging with Trent which wouldn't have looked out of place in a ring in Japan. Eita and Bate were next and the two younger members of their respective groups had a quick-paced exchange. Team Dragon Gate did Mochi spot of where he gets his teammates to hold up open Pete's legs spread eagle why Mochi stomps you in your nether regions (I marked out seeing that live). Pete worked over Eita by grabbing his hair and stomping on his feet, legs and hands like the bruiser weight likes to do. Trent was in next and he chopped away at Eita and then dropped him with a DDT. Tyler did a Swanton Bomb for a two count then followed it up with an Earthquake Splash for another two count. Pete was back in and he worked over Eita's arm and hand some more. Pete then kicked and slapped Eita and finally, the youngster made a comeback but got stopped by Pete who tagged in Trent. Trent did his Kobashi chops to Eita in the corner but Eita fired back up and made the hot tag. It brought both CIMA and Mochi in and the action began to break down with a number of dives. Mochi and Pete had a nice trade exchange of chops then Trent dropped mochi with a Saito suplex. CIMA nailed Trent with a lung blower then Tyler came in and gave CIMA a double foot stomp. Peter dropped Eita with an X-Plex then a tombstone for a near fall. All six men then traded strikes and Eita did his fucked up reverse Alabama Slam for a near fall. Eita and CIMA dropped Tyler with a double dropkick then CIMA got a near fall with a cradle bomb. All six men exchanged strikes but BSS cut off Team Dragon Gate with the short punch then Tyler drilled Mochizuki with the Tyler Driver '97, Trent dropped CIMA with the piledriver and Pete nailed Eita with the Bitter End but only got a two count. BSS did the crotch chop and went for the Pedigree spot but team Dragon Gate countered it with a Pedigree of there own. Mochizuki then leapt up to the middle rope and came off with a tidal kick for the win. Afterwards, both teams shook hands as the crowd gave them a standing ovation. This was an incredible in-ring encounter which more than delivered in this reviewers opinion and wouldn't have looked out of place on a KOBE world card. It lived up to the hype and is another great trios match BSS can say they've had this year. Winners: Team Dragon Gate (Masaaki Mochizuki, CIMA and Eita) MAIN EVENT Tag Team Tornado Deathmatch: Callous Hearts (Jimmy Havoc & Clint Margera) Vs Rickey Shane Page & Drew Parker So how do I start this match review? That's the question I've asked myself for weeks now with doing it any justice. Well, I can't so I just tell you how it went down. RSP and Drew came out first to a good reaction then the familiar tune of AFI's 'I Hope You Suffer' came over the PA system. It played and played and you could sense the crowd wondered what was going on then the curtain behind the merch table dropped (they had conveniently been moved during the six-man tag) and revealed a second ring (the old FIXXON ring) with ropes covered in barbed wire and a scaffolding tower along with panes of glass and other objects bound to inflict pain. I have never heard a pop as big as that one at an indy show. I, like many others, got up and left my seat and have never run as fast as my fat legs could move to get a decent spot and I got a pretty decent spot at the front of queue with Jack Sexsmith right next to me. I didn't notice him at the time as I was too taken up in the spectacle unfolding in front of my eyes. This was special moment and one I will never forget. Say what you will about deathmatch wrestling but this moment was special and the only way to live it was by being there. All four men brawl in the sea of humanity then they make there way over to the ring and Drew cuts open Clint by cutting him with barbed wire. Jimmy then brawls with Drew while Clint cuts open RSP with a cheese grater. Jimmy drinks a bottle of Stella then him and Clint set up the barbed wire covered guardrail and drop RSP onto it with a backdrop as Rickey bleeds heavily everywhere. Back in the ring Clint and Jimmy take turns working over Drew and cut him open with barbed wire. Clint bites at Drew's cut on his forehead. Clint tosses Rickey into some carpet nails which are propped up on the ropes while Jimmy continues to pummel Drew. RSP and Drew then do it Jimmy and Clint and stab them with the nails. RSP introduces a pane of glass into the ring and a stack of light tubes. Jimmy battles back and hits Rickey with a light tube and the places one over Drew's head and Jimmy headbutts it but the tube doesn't break. Clint then places a light tube in RSP's mouth and Jimmy tries to elbow smash it to break but the tube doesn't smash as intended. Clint and Jimmy spike Parker and Page with the broken light tubes. Back in ring Jimmy opens up Drew's cut some more with the broken tube. Jimmy grabs some thumbtacks while RSP nails Clint with a light tube, sending glass everywhere. I should know as I was in the splash zone. Referee Joel Allen immediately moved me and some other fans back and I heard him say there is going to be a lawsuit! Back in the ring Drew gets a wheelbarrow splash onto the tacks then battles back and sends Jimmy into a pane of glass set up in the corner. Clint grabs drew and gives him a DVD into the corner where the carpet nails are propped up then Clint sends RSP into another corner where a pane of glass is propped up. Rsp battles back and tries to nail Clint with some light tubes but he ducks and the cameraman takes a shot full on in the head, the shot on DVD looks incredible. Everyone plays it up as it wasn't meant to happen but in my mind, that was a planned spot. Drew nails Jimmy with a northern lights for a two count then Clint gives him a DVD onto the tacks. Clint throws glass into RSP's face then powerbomb and Pumphandle Slam's Parker for a near fall. Jimmy pulls out his axe which sends Drew climbing up the scaffolding. Jimmy goes up after him as Clint sets up some chairs and lays some barbed wire boards across the chairs. Drew thwarts Jimmy but doesn't see Clint climbing up behind him and clint grabs him and gives him a huge DVD off the top of the scaffolding and drives Drew straight to hell onto the boards. Clint clutches his knee while drew lay out cold on the boards. Rickey sets up a pane of glass on two chairs then gives Clint a Mount Splashmore\Razors Edge over the top rope to the outside and Clint lands on some light tubes on top of table and they all explode. Jimmy then gives RSP an Acid Rainmaker while holding some light tubes then finishes off Rickey with a Canadian Destroyer onto the chairs with the panes of glass set up on to pick up the win for himself and Clint. Afterwards, Fight Club: PRO prove they've been big fans of deathmatch and smart mark video for years by showing highlights of all the big bumps from the deathmatch. So what do I see that hasn't already been said yet about this match. Well, I can't add a lot more. If you were there and ain't a big deathmatch fan then you'll probably respect this for the spectacle it was. If weren't there and you're not a deathmatch fan then probably stay clear as me and you will probably disagree on what art is in pro wrestling. Winners: Callous Hearts (Jimmy Havoc & Clint Margera) Overall I loved this show live and in person and I'm sure BritWres Review head honcho Darren will agree as like me he was raving about this show afterwards in our hotel room at the Quality Inn. From a personal point of view, I can't decide on the match of the night its either going to BSS vs Team Dragon Gate or Death House as it's become known with fans of Fight Club: PRO. I'm going to say both matches deserve that honour as both are packed full of emotion and great storytelling. If you're reading this review and it's made you want to go and buy the show then head on over to Vimeo or Big Cartel and buy the show now it's well worth a watch. Even if you like or don't like deathmatch wrestling there is an awful lot here to like. Thanks again for reading my review and send your hate mail to @Billy_Jay83 I'm more than willing to debate with on all things graps and as always I'll end with I'll see you at the matches.
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December 2017
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