My Weekend of (British) Wrestling 26 - Pro EVW: 'The System' Debut And Dominate

Saturday 22nd February 2014 - Pro EVW - Merchant's Academy, Withywood, Bristol

As the weeks and weeks went on, and this show got closer, I got more and more excited. I hadn't been to a Pro EVW show in about five months and the trip down to Bristol to see one was long overdue. There was an added excitement as I was told a few days before by talented MC/Ring Announcer and Manager (and my good friend), Hank McCoy that we were to perform commentary for the show. As I say, this excited me but also worried me a little - although I can write a couple of thousand words on here with ease, I'm always a little worried that I would freeze-up when having to talk for too long! But I would definitely give it a good shot...

Getting to the venue we would bump into some of the usual faces, and it was really nice to see everyone, as always. There were also some faces that I hadn't expected to see but were a welcome surprise anyway - Big Dog/Two Ton Tank was set to be on the show and this pleased me as it brought something different to a Pro EVW show. I was just glad that I wasn't doing the music/entrances for the show or there would be a potential beating in store for me if I were to mess his music up again!

The show got under way and we were instantly in for a treat with Chris Andrews facing one-third of 'The System' - the new faction in Pro EVW - Dom; formerly UK Dominator. Accompanying Dom to the ring was fellow System member, Tower. This is a fitting name as Tower is around six-foot-six or so.

As with every Chris Andrews match, this was a hard hitting, straight-up brawl; it was only ever going to be this as he faced the smaller, but dominant bully in Dom. At every opportunity, Dom would slow the pace down, gain the referee's attention and allow Tower to get involved to keep Andrews down; giving Dom the advantage at every turn. This, as good as, handicap match continued all the way to the finish when Dom would distract the ref long enough for Tower to deliver a huge Big Boot to Andrews to gift the win to Dom. This was a very sneaky win but was the first example that The System will do WHAT they want, WHEN they want.

The second match of the evening saw the technical master, 'The Professor' Gilligan Gordon taking on one-half of the highly popular Alpha Males, Charlie Garrett. In similar fashion to the first match of the evening, Gordon would slow the pace right down and dictate everything throughout. Eventually, he would get the win by gaining an advantage from the ropes.

The Tank

Things were not great so far for the fan favourites and it didn't look like getting any better as Pro EVW Heavyweight Champion, Justin 'The Hammer' Sysum would defend his title against, potentially, his biggest challenge yet - The Tank. The name is simple enough, but when you see this guy you will understand why he has this name - a huge, near 500-pound giant; and hugely tough-to-budge.

The Tank would dominate Justin throughout, punishing the lower back. This kind of strategy was only going to favour Tank and give Justin very little to work with if he was going to retain his championship. There were even chances for Justin to gain a count-out victory; this was something Justin refused to do - it seemed that he was willing to risk his championship reign for the sake of getting the three-count.

Against the odds, Justin did manage to get some shots into The Tank, picked him up for an impressive slam, before finishing his much larger opponent off with a modified splash from the top rope. Another impressive title defence for Justin.

During the interval, Hank (McCoy) and myself assessed our performance on commentary to that point and we (or more so, I) were surprised at how well we thought we had done! I was fully expecting to have little to say, but we both played off each other well and called the action, putting everyone over, all at the same time... fingers crossed that the audio comes out well as this would be a nice touch to the DVDs that Pro EVW produce. A step in the right direction.

After a short break, it was time for the arrival of the other half of The Alpha Males, the captain Iestyn Rees to take on another member of The System, Logan (flanked by Tower). This match really interested me as it would be Logan's debut on a show and he could not have asked for a better opponent than Iestyn. Despite being a first outing, Logan did really well before being helped out by his fellow System members to beat-down Iestyn and cause the disqualification.

The Alpha Males; Charlie Garrett (left) & 'The Captain' Iestyn Rees (right)

This would bring out Charlie Garrett to make the save, but the numbers were just too much as the three System members were helped out by Garrett's opponent from earlier in the night, Gilligan Gordon. The night was getting worse and worse for the faces, before Chris Andrews would rush to the ring and help the Alphas clean the ring of the new, dominant force of Pro EVW. After a few, short, to-the-point words from Garrett, we had our main event of the evening set - a six-man tag team match between The Alpha Males and Chris Andrews against System members Dom and Logan (with Tower) and their partner, Gilligan Gordon.

Another debut would be seen as 'Mystery' would come to the ring to face Sam 'The Man' Beech. Young, exciting, high-flying Mystery entered the ring with confidence and style and instantly gained the audience's support. Unfortunately, the mysteriously masked one wouldn't get much time in the ring as the more experienced Beech would completely dominate him, working on the lower back before locking in a back-ripping Camel Clutch for the win.

On a side note, it was really nice to see someone work a body part for a reason - to lock in a submission move that should and did get the win. Simple and makes complete sense!

The main event was a really nice culmination of what had gone on throughout the show. The Alphas and Andrews had been screwed out of wins and beaten down by The System members and Gilligan Gordon all night and this was the opportunity to get some revenge before the night was done. Unfortunately, for long periods of the match, The System would show more dominance by cutting the ring off and working on Charlie Garrett. Just when it looked like there was no hope, Garrett would manage to tag in Andrews who would gain the advantage for his team... and when it looked like things were firmly in the faces favour, The System would make it even easier by WALKING OUT on Gilligan Gordon... a Chokeslam, a TKO and a rib-crunching Spinal Tap later and The Alphas and Andrews would gain retribution for the night. Really exciting and pleasing main event to send everyone home happy!

'The Professor' Gilligan Gordon

And on their debut show, The System showed that they will do what they want and not let anybody, or anything get in their way. This is really nice to see something new and different in Pro EVW (not that the usual things on the show don't work, but it's really nice to see that the odds will be stacked against the faces in Pro EVW from now on).

Results

• Dom (w/ Tower) defeated Chris 'The Shark' Andrews
• 'The Professor' Gilligan Gordon defeated Charlie Garrett (Alpha Males)
• Pro EVW Heavyweight Championship: Justin 'The Hammer' Sysum (c) defeated The Tank
• Iestyn Rees (Alpha Males) defeated Logan (w/ Tower) by disqualification
• Sam 'The Man' Beech defeated Mystery
• The Alpha Males & Chris 'The Shark' Andrews defeated The System (Dom & Logan) & Gilligan Gordon (w/ Tower)

Overall, a really nice return to Pro EVW for me. It was nice to do something different, too (commentary), and I'm really confident to give it another try if needed. When I started to watch British wrestling shows, I always wanted to help out in some way but didn't know what my calling was... obviously, I do this blog and I really hope that it helps in some way (no matter how small!). The commentary gig, no matter how long or short it might be for, makes me happy that I can help out in other ways, too.

I really want to give a shout out to Logan (The System) as I've seen him in training with Pro EVW and I've heard of his commitment to the Pro EVW cause and credit is due. He's a young guy who really wants to put the work in and learn this craft and that's such a great thing to see. This brings me to a very cheap plug for my article on THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING in British wrestling: Importance of Training article with Iestyn, Dom and Gilligan.

If you haven't already, please give this a read, like and share and spread the message. I managed to thank Iestyn, Gilligan and Dom for their responses and input into that article in person at the show and I hope they know it was very much appreciated.

The next Pro EVW show will be next Saturday evening (March 1st) at the Capital Venue in Gloucester for the 1st anniversary of the Kamil Memorial show. Stars retuning on that show will include JD Knight and a debut for UK star Sha Samuels... well worth a look!

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