Image: @RevProUK. Report submitted by reader Paul Martinovic.
In collaboration with NJPW, the first of Revolution Pro Wrestling’s two Global Wars UK shows took place last night. York Hall in London hosted a show-stealing match as Tomohiro Ishii faced off with Keith Lee, then Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay teamed against Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. in the main event.
– Ryan Smile defeated Josh Bodom and BUSHI to win the Undisputed British Cruiserweight Championship
This was a really fun opener. There were some big high spots, including Smile doing a crazy tope con hilo over the turnbuckle and Bodom doing a moonsault to the floor.
BUSHI hit the mist on Bodom, which allowed Smile to get the pin and win the title after an RKO/frog splash combo.
– Toru Yano & Gedo defeated Lord Gideon Grey & No Fun Dunne (Damian Dunne)
As expected, this was an entertaining comedy match. It began with the heels opening Yano’s powder-gimmicked DVD. There was lots of nonsense from there, with Yano getting the pin on Dunne with a low blow and a roll-up.
Click Here: Kangaroos Rugby League Jersey
– Matt Riddle defeated El Desperado
Riddle is adored in the UK. The match was very good. Riddle hit some big chops and strikes early, then Desperado came back and worked on his knee. Riddle sold that really well, staging a comeback and finishing the match with a tombstone and the Bromission.
– Tetsuya Naito defeated Marty Scurll
The crowd was incredibly torn here, though Scurll played the clear heel and worked over Naito’s arm. Both guys were very protected. Scurll was about to lock in the chicken wing when BUSHI distracted him. There was also a great near fall towards the end where Scurll hit Naito with his umbrella and tried to pin Naito with his feet on the ropes.
A ref bump led to Scurll being distracted and Naito hitting the Destino for the win. This was fun because both are so over and charismatic, but they were both wrestling well within themselves.
– Yuji Nagata defeated Zack Gibson
As he usually does, Gibson got booed out of the building. Nagata looked a bit slower than in the past but was still great. The match was slow paced, with the story of it being Gibson disrespecting Nagata. Nagata ended up beating him with a backdrop suplex, though the finish seemed to come a bit out of nowhere.
– CCK (Travis Banks & Chris Brookes) defeated Rocky Romero & YOSHI-HASHI
This was a fun tag match with some great and innovative tag moves from CCK. Romero didn’t get much of a reaction when he came out, but the crowd got really into him. They didn’t seem to care about YOSHI-HASHI, though.
For the finish, Banks pinned Romero with the Kiwi Buzzsaw.
– Tomohiro Ishii defeated Keith Lee
This was the best match I’ve seen live — better than Ishii’s previous RevPro matches against Riddle and Chris Hero. It was expertly laid out, had insane heat, massive strikes, and some remarkable feats of athleticism.
They started off with Lee no-selling Ishii’s offense, which played well since the York Hall crowd is used to seeing Ishii dominate. Lee then laid in some absolutely heinous chops. The story of the match was all about Ishii trying to find an opening and wearing Lee down, while Lee got increasingly smug.
After teasing a suplex on Lee for a long time, the place came unglued when Ishii finally got him up and held him in place. The pace picked up from there, with more strikes, kick outs at one, and fighting spirit. Lee missed a second rope moonsault, then Ishii chopped him down with lariats and hit the brainbuster to win.
– Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay defeated Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr.
While they had a really difficult job trying to follow Ishii vs. Lee, they put on a really fun main event. The clash of styles worked surprisingly well, and for a Suzuki match it had almost no interference.
Suzuki’s facial expressions are amazing live. He and Sabre did lots of great heel tag team work. At one point, Sabre had two submissions on Goto and Ospreay before Suzuki followed it up with a double kneebar on them both.
Suzuki distracted the ref a lot, and there were some great striking battles between him and Goto and Sabre and Ospreay. Finally, Goto got the upper hand on Suzuki on the outside, which allowed Ospreay to hit the OsCutter on Sabre for the win.