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solarsonicsoda · 11 months ago

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Rebbie's Wrestling Show Reviews - RevPro: Live in Southampton 28 (11/2/2024)

For the first time since I started this whole blog, I went to a live wrestling show! So I thought, why not give a brief review. This was one of RevPro’s weekly shows, and the go-home before High Stakes in Crystal Palace (which I am also attending!!!), so for those unfamiliar with these bigger indies, it's essentially their version of a tv taping. These shows and their big shows are all available on RevPro OnDemand. The company is known for a strong relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling, being where they send trainees on excursion and in the past frequently seeing major NJPW stars hold the British Heavyweight Title.

Pre-Show

These shows are a breeze for me to reach down at The 1865 in Southampton, and always feature a pretty lairy crowd. It's a music venue, with the stage featuring some chairs with a few more on most sides of the ring. Wrestlers enter through a small walkway in the far corner of the building with a projected screen on the stage. It's an intimate and ever so slightly awkward venue, but I absolutely love it, and it's so easy to attend. Without further ado, let's get into the show, as the ever wonderful Francesca introduced the action.

Robbie X def. Joshua James by pinfall in 11:54

This was a really hot match to start things off. Robbie X is really popular with this RevPro crowd, and he earns it by always putting on a show. He’s facing Mustafa Ali in Crystal Palace, which is sure to be a highlight. On this night though, he was up against Joshua James, one of the Contenders. These are essentially the RevPro own guys. Something I love about RevPro crowds is how much they get behind the Contenders. They’re one of our own! Both men got a great reaction, and this was an awesome big vs small match. Josh James had a great power game on display, and Robbie is an awesome seller, so this went really well. It was never slow, just all action, and maybe my favourite match of the night in the end. Robbie is able to get the win when he hits the Handspring Cutter out of a James pounce, which was a counter of a previous handspring cutter attempt. That was pretty fun! The night is off to a great start!

3.5 STARS OUT OF 5

I feel it pertinent to mention it here as James sported the memorial armband and t-shirt, but this is the first show I’ve seen since Mad Kurt sadly passed away late last year. Mad Kurt was on the first few shows I saw in The 1865, and made an immediate impression. I’d known him from Twitter and had no idea what to expect from his wrestling, and I was charmed by his mixture of silly comedy and serious wrestling acumen. I was heartbroken by the news, and I’m so sorry to all those who knew him for their loss. There were multiple tributes to him throughout, and he is extremely missed. Mad Kurt Forever. If you want to support his family monetarily for the various costs in this trying time, you can do so via the GoFundMe here.

“Flash” Morgan Webster def. Will Kaven via pinfall in 10:12

The Modfather, one half of the British Tag Team Champions with Mark Andrews/Dani Luna, takes on Will Kaven of… PORTSMOUTH?! For those unaware, Portsmouth is the next city over from Southampton, so Kaven always gets a strong reaction from us Southampton fans… Portsmouth is actually more local to me originally than Southampton but shhh don't tell anyone!! This is another good match, a pair of guys who can mix high flying with a more grounded game, and we see all sides of that in this one. Webster is highly popular, and Kaven is highly unpopular, and it makes for a fun match. I think the crowd may have been a smidge tired here, but they still had plenty of energy! Webster gets the win with the Shadows Over Malice swanton bomb.

3 STARS OUT OF 5

Anthony Ogogo def. David Francisco by TKO in 14:52

Speaking of loving the Contenders, here’s David Francisco! We love David in RevPro, and the big man from Portugal was just as popular on this night. There was even a great chant I don't think I’d heard before of “Francisco” replacing “You are gold” in Spandau Ballet’s Gold. That’s inspired! His opponent was AEW’s Anthony Ogogo, the former Olympic bronze medallist boxer. For some reason, he still has The Factory’s logo on his jacket despite the group disbanding almost a year ago. This one was all about Ogogo, and he worked well as a heel, jibing back and forth with the crowd who had lots of banter for the “Pound Shop David Haye” as they chanted. He had a pretty good match with Francisco, who was predictably over like rover, and had a few nearfalls that could have been an upset. In the end though, despite showing resilient including a subtle rope break that fooled Ogogo, Francisco was knocked out, with the Union Jack being draped on him by the olympian. Fun if unremarkable match.

3 STARS OUT OF 5

Post-match, Ogogo got on the mic, bragging about his big American house, fighting with the crowd (including a passing fan and his middle finger), and most importantly, deriding Ricky Knight Jr. for being “cocky”. However, RKJ was actually here, and he met Ogogo in the ring! They had a war of words, with RKJ again challenging Ogogo for High Stakes. He promises to take all the vision in Ogogo’s damaged eye. Both men invoke the names of each other's families, and it’s when Ogogo says RKJ’s newborn daughter takes after him in being “butters, mate” as he put it that we get a big brawl. The backstage area clears out to seperate them, with great difficulty, but they are eventually split, with Ogogo seemingly going out the wrong door. I say this because during the next match, he quietly trots from there to the entrance way and heads to the back.

Luke Jacobs def. Yuto Nakashima by pinfall in 12:17

Beef! This is a clash of two big men, and the crowd were excited. We have here the first wrestler on the card that I’ve never seen in any capacity, that being Yuto Nakashima! One half of Young Blood passed me a few times pre-show and he is a big guy! Off the bat, love his vibe! A lot of personality and aura from him, as he enters with a big chain and wild hair. Jacobs also heads to the ring and looks in great shape! These two started a little slow in my opinion, but they ramped up and this one got pretty good by the end! Big strikes, and the highlights were some gnarly headbutts as these two had a colossal tussle. This also saw one of my favourite spots they do at these RevPro shows, as they cleared the chairs in front of me for Yuto to throw Jacobs clattering through them. Jacobs is able to secure the win in the end though, hitting Yuto with a great lariat. I was even further sold on Yuto with his post match sell, as he stumbled wildly all the way to the back, falling into the crowd and ring multiple times. He was also prone to a dance any chance he got the whole show long, and I love him for that.

3.5 STARS OUT OF 5

Intermission

This brought an end to the first half of the show, bringing a short intermission. Ogogo made conversation near the bar and took a few photos with fans, and Sha Samuels & Morgan Webster joined the merch table, taking photos and selling their wares. I was able to meet them both, and bought a shirt and print from Webster, despite some hassle with my card! I forgot to get a photo though, so I’ll have to see them again at another show! Both were lovely and shortly after that, our second half began.

Oskar Leube vs. JJ Gale ended in a no contest in 9:57

We came back with the other half of Young Blood taking on the other half of the High Stakes match between Luke Jacobs and JJ Gale. This match was really fun! This was my first time seeing Leube, and I was extremely impressed with his work. The man walked past me a couple times during the show and he is TALL. He uses that size well in the ring but is really smooth with everything he does. JJ Gale was a great opponent for him too, using his quickness to build a pretty cool match. Sadly, this one ended pretty quickly with a no contest, as Mark Trew & Kieron Lacey attacked both men, even wielding chairs. Yuto returns to help his partner, but he’s overwhelmed by the tag team. In the end, it’s Luke Jacobs who clears the way, wanting Gale at his best for the big show the following week. They end up brawling anyway though, as Young Blood stand off with Trew & Lacey.

3 STARS OUT OF 5

Mark Trew & Kieron Lacey def. Harry Milligan & Michael Oku (w/ Amira) by pinfall in 13:42

Trew & Lacey are already in the ring as the following match gets announced, with their opponents meeting them for their match. There’s a big “Mad Kurt” chant to start this one, which was touching. This was a decently fun match, with the champion and his younger ally contesting with the nefarious Trew & Lacey. Trew losing his beanie also elicits a big reaction from this crowd. This one is moving along decently enough, until Trew & Lacey bring Amira into the path of Oku’s shooting star press over the top rope to the outside. Amira’s down, and a distraught Oku carries her to the back for attention… Bit of an odd move to choose for that spot if you ask me, but who am I to judge? But Trew & Lacey capitalised off this numbers advantage to get the win over Milligan. Post-match, Young Blood take their chance to strike as Trew & Lacey continue to beat up Milligan. This brings out Oku, who’s keeping an eye on Young Blood. Leube gets on the mic and demands a tag team match at High Stakes! Exciting stuff.

3 STARS OUT OF 5

Cameron Khai def. Richard Holliday by pinfall in 12:59

We were breathing rarefied air next, when Richard Holliday from Connecticut, America came to the ring. He grabbed the mic from Francesca and began to introduce himself. He says he’s familiar with our game as a UK crowd, and said if we want to get ourselves over, we have to make a chant for him. He isn’t pleased with the crowd’s chants of “Dick”, saying he thought we were more original than that, as he finds one fan willing to sing his praises in song form. Sadly, I can’t for the life of me recall what the song is called, so you’ll just have to imagine the tune. It’s here that Holliday’s foe comes out: Cameron Khai! Khai is a really talented young wrestler who I’ve seen a couple times now, and he has had some absolutely great matches. One to watch for the future as he develops further! This is a decent match, but I think it’s pretty heavily overrun by fan chants. They were certainly entertaining though! Chants of “Dick Vacation” anger Holliday, as well as “You’ve got one fan, and he’s shit!” chants. There’s a fun moment as Holliday does some corner strikes, each punctuated by a call of “You’re not shit” directed at his loyal fan. What a heel! Not all of the chants were great though, you can imagine some of the humour derived from Richard’s first name. The chants really did distract from the in-ring action though, which I can’t imagine was desired. The finish comes when Khai is able to roll up Holliday with a small package pin for the win. Holliday sulks in the ring post-match, refusing to leave, which is a thread we’ll come back to shortly.

3 STARS OUT OF 5

Seeing Holliday for the first time, I was pretty impressed with his charisma. You can definitely see the comparisons to his former tag partner MJF in his promo skills. He was solid in the ring too, definitely doing his part for the match. Sadly, his promo riling up got out of hand. Excited to see what more he can do though!

Spike Trivet def. Sha Samuels by pinfall in 14:17

Richard Holliday is still in the ring as Francesca announces our main event, which comes with a small video package and everything! How fancy! It’s Sha Samuels intervention that ousts Holliday, with the East End Butcher clearing him from the ring with his entrance. Holliday lingers outside, seeming unhappy with this from Samuels. Trivet is out next, being understandably booed for being Spike Trivet. This grudge match, built from Trivet’s general attitude and attacking Samuels at Uprising, is a decent match! A fun spot is Samuels going to use his scarf, which the referee takes away, but Samuels using this chance to use his braces on Trivet. He gets as good as he gives! There’s some back and forth decent stuff, until Holliday returns to the ring side area. Samuels takes exception to this, as does the referee, which allows Trivet the chance to grab a weapon from the earlier discovered toolbox, and get the win over Samuels.

3 STARS OUT OF 5

Post match, Holliday and Trivet argue over beating up Samuels, before they decide to both do it. This brings out Cameron Khai and Flash Morgan Webster to even the odds, with all 5 men brawling all over the place! Right in front of me, Webster and Trivet went flying into the merch section! I couldn’t follow it all! It was a pretty fun ending after a few matches with a little less pizazz. Samuels ends the show on the mic cursing out his enemies.

Post-Show

With our show over, I went over to the merch table once again, this time getting a signed print from JJ Gale, where I had to get his PayPal for payment as I had no cash, as well as meeting Young Blood. The pair of them were lovely, and I actually remembered to get a selfie with them! I also bought a signed print of Yuto, as they only took cash and I only had £5. They better come back to Southampton so I can get a signed print with Oskar!

Final Thoughts

Overall, this was a pretty fun show. I’ve certainly seen bigger barnburners on these Southampton live shows, but this was good fun ahead of High Stakes. There wasn’t too much build to the big show, but look, I had fun. What more do you want from me? I think this show gets a high 3 STARS OUT OF 5 from me!

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romiswired · 3 months ago

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Michael Oku (c) vs. Will Ospreay (RevPro High Stakes: Ospreay vs. Oku)

Everything in life is a double-edged sword.

This last year I have been facing several dilemmas. One is mainly my perception of Will Ospreay as a professional wrestler in comparison with some of my favorites today and some of those who Ospreay wields as inspirations for his style. It's something I have found myself repeating in my head as 2024 puts him in the spotlight.

It's no secret that Ospreay is one wrestler that I don't enjoy as much as other people do, and I don't consider him the best wrestler in the world for these things that I will point out in this review. I feel forced to clarify this because I have seen many people blatantly hate Ospreay's matches without any real argument.

This is not it, and it will never be like the posts you'll see on Twitter from "realuser105" saying Will is killing the business. With that being said, I shall start this review by talking about one of the things Ospreay is doing in the wrestling scene right now.

When you discuss wrestlers that have been influential to generations and generations many names come to mind, such as Chigusa Nagayo, Jaguar Yokota, Bret Hart, Mitsuharu Misawa, Manami Toyota, Hayabusa, AJ Styles, and Naomichi Marufuji.

The thing with all these wrestlers is that some can't be denied. People always get on your nerves when you say that you don't think Kurt Angle is *that* good but forget to note you're still acknowledging the guy for what he has been able to do.

I think the same happens with Ospreay. I can't deny that his last run as a professional wrestler has inevitably shaken the foundation of the sport, making people realize what wrestling could be in the hands of an athletic beast like him.

Even as a heavyweight, Ospreay is the perfect pro-wrestler and people love to see him because he's perfect. The thing is wrestling has taught us that sometimes perfect does not mean good, and Ospreay to me is ironically, the perfect example for that sentence.

A friend of mine criticized Ospreay and talked about his refusal of any sign of vulnerability. She emphasized Ospreay's ridiculous no-selling that has been wrongly called "Fighting Spirit" in a Lio Rush-esque form that I never thought would go this far.

And for everything worth, that simple idea of vulnerability is what makes me angry watching these bouts, because when you analyze them there's nothing really wrong with how Ospreay does his work on the surface.

But when you start picking up pieces of his matches and analyze them separately you'll find that the amount of things Ospreay does all amount to nothing in the match. It's not just an insane quantity of moves and strikes, but also his selling that never, ever, gets to a point where you can say he's really damaged.

More so if the guy just stands up after a top-rope hurricanrana like nothing ever happened. These are common critiques of Ospreay's style and all have their value because they always offer something new to the discussion. Even if he tries to sell you his style as reckless and tough, it's easy to note there's not a real feeling of danger nor urgency whenever you watch one of his matches.

Here's the deal though: with everything I just wrote about Ospreay, criticizing every aspect of what constitutes his philosophy and understanding of the sport known as pro wrestling, the most heartbreaking conclusion I can give to this 400-so words rant about the state of professional wrestling is that...he's not the worst wrestler in his generation, and that's something to think about.

I have seen a fair share of Michael Oku's work these last few years. I have never found a wrestler that left me so indifferent as Oku. There's nothing of value in Oku's way of doing pro wrestling, and there's less value in the British scene advocating for this style of wrestling (heavily influenced by Ospreay) because they just want to be in the eye of the storm all the time.

Because yes, this is a match from RevPro in 2024, and from what I have seen it's almost like the company never moved on from the super-indy style found in the 2010s because their production is exactly like it was 10 years ago. But if I were to discuss that aspect of this match, I shall start naming companies that look like shit and I shouldn't be doing it.

But into the match, it's awesome and awful at the same time how a wrestler like Ospreay becomes way worse when sharing a ring with a wrestler like Oku. It's ironic considering Oku's style draws from Ospreay's, like, you have to be compromised to be this bad on purpose. I'm not even gonna discuss the outrageous use of no-selling in this one because, surprise, this is a rematch of their infamous bout in 2022 which also had people saying it was the best match they have ever seen in their entire life and it was also the same.

What I do wanna discuss is how the entire "lore" of this match just gets wiped out because this is the last time British fans are going to see Ospreay in RevPro and of course, he gets the flashy entrance and the support from the crowd who *should* hate him with their guts but can't because in their perception Ospreay is the good guy because he wrestles like a god.

Oku on the other hand is found in this weird limbo of not being good enough to be a credible face or a good heel, because he doesn't have the mental bandwidth to read the room and understand that MAYBE he should start being more aggressive and less flashy with his offense. I don't blame him, Ospreay also does this, but he's imprisoned by the perspective of the crowd.

It's almost like being this cool to them doesn't allow him to be less cool and make the other guy shine. It's like a sword he has and wields with pride but ends up cutting him and making him bleed. What makes me really mad about this whole ordeal is the commentary. I have never heard a pair of commentators so incredibly annoying as these two.

One plays the good guy and the other plays the bad guy. Both are equally awful. While one can't stop awkwardly dickriding Ospreay, the other can't stop doing it with Oku and even hypes up a Quebrada Moonsault by stating "Have you ever seen something like this before?" and yes, I have, and I'm sure I've seen it in the same show.

There's an air of superiority coming from RevPro in this because they proudly state they're unique and one of the best promotions in the world when in reality they're as small as a cockroach and have nothing to make them standout from the rest of the promotions.

They want to feel included in this match, because this has to be about British wrestling, and it is. But just like British wrestling coming out from Speaking Out, this match stands out just because there are a lot of skeletons hidden in the closet and a lot of things that simply don't add up. This, even if you don't think it will harm the atmosphere of the match does it in a way that I can't stand whatever's happening on my screen without some British guy screaming and hyping a move I've seen 4 times in 5 minutes.

The last minutes of this match are torture. Not because they're bad but because they never end. You know, when you come to a match like this and you see the names on it you say "Oh, alright, it's going to be one of these" and you practically prepare for the demise. You expect what you're going to see, and you know it's going to be awful but somehow makes the match less unbearable.

Then, the match DOESN'T end and you start getting mad because you feel like you're wasting your time watching a finishing stretch that just like the rest of the whole thing amounts to nothing more than cheap pops and Oku screaming to your face "Look at me, I'm kicking out of the Stormbreaker, cheer for me!" and you start questioning whether Oku is the good guy, the bad guy, or inherently awful at pro wrestling, therefore, it doesn't make a difference.

This match doesn't make a difference. It attempts to be perfect, yet its imperfections are all over the place. More so if you have people advocating for your style and claiming "This is the best wrestling match you'll ever see in your life", cooperating with this complicity and this acceptance of mediocrity. This match is not good, and it represents the state of wrestling in 2024. When you think there's nothing worse than Will Ospreay, Michael Oku appears.

#will ospreay #michael oku #revpro #revolution pro wrestling #revolution pro #wrestling #pro wrestling

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