Linus

I don't know what this is but i want it.

This whole show (with the exception of the unfortunate injury to Laura di Matteo) was SUPER FUN! Almost a SOTY contender!

I was at the Fight Club: PRO/Schadenfreude weekender and the money there is in the build to WALTER vs Meiko Satomura, but I'm sad that that might not happen now. WALTER vs Tanaka was great, though.

I never thought I'd say this but props to Nick Gage for being calm and professional when Arquette shot on him in a panic. He put him down and pinned him and let him walk away. Maybe chokey DOES change a man?

I know it’s been less than 24 hours but I AM AN IMPATIENT MAN. Is there a reason why last night’s CMLL show isn’t on their YouTube yet?

I read that as “Funko Pop” and got momentarily excited

Tape a bunch of them together.

I know, right? And the Universal title has only been defended in this solar system!

My AOTS: Yurucamp (with nods to Sora Yori Mo Tooi Basho & Koi wa Ameagari no You ni) Best Girl: Shirase Best Boy: Kondo Best OP: Yurucamp Best Anime I Didn’t Watch: Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san

It was a tough dynamic to get behind: two notional heels who are extremely popular (Dunne has half-turned face, Gallagher's heel turn on 205 Live possibly not treated as canon here) with no real peril in the match. Also, it had just followed Banks & Ospreay being AMAZING so, yeah, a little bit down.

His only problem is that he's not appearing for any of the "buzz" promotions. ICW is way down on what it was, reputation-wise, a few years ago and he's hitched his wagon to the 5*Wrestling train. I wouldn't say the only way to get noticed is to wrestle for PROGRESS, RevPro, Fight Club: PRO etc, but it certainly helps!

Thank you, that's very kind! I may pop up somewhere else with a slightly-tweaked (to keep me interested) version - if I do I'll let you know.

The column ended at the back end of October. I'd done 2 years by then and was getting a bit burned out. And then some stuff happened and that forced my hand!

I am a terrible human being in 2018 ALREADY.

So this is the future. A year in which PROGRESS will run the (possibly, maybe not for that day) 9000 seat Wembley Arena, and move their annual 3-day tournament from a 700-seat to a 2000-seat venue. A year in which UK women's wrestling continues to grow, with new promotion, new divisions & titles in established promotions, and Pro-Wrestling EVE running York Hall with Aja Kong vs Viper. A year in which Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, and Trent Seven will (maybe) move to Orlando, leaving a gap at the top of the cards to be filled by any one of a dozen hungry young tigers. A year in which (finally!) the US will get to see what Nixon Newell can do, and that alone might make me start watching NXT again. And a year in which tons more will happen that I can't even begin to guess at, such is indy wrestling in the 21st century. Good times.

Which ones? I'm a regular at Fight Club: PRO and ATTACK!, but almost the whole scene is massively friendly.

Fight Club: PRO have finalised the field for Friday's Infinity tournament: Omari, Dan Moloney, Jordan Devlin, Kay Lee Ray, Mark Davis, Kyle Fletcher, Millie McKenzie & last year's winner Travis Banks. Four singles matches lead into a four-way final, a reverse of how they usually do it. Banks beat Trent Secen last year and then went into beat Pete Dunne for the title in the culmination of a year-long storyline. This year the rise of Omari and the stuttering progress of Dan Moloney are the stories, and the champion is Chris Brookes.

My lot in life seems to be to come into this thread and tell you of ridiculous dream matches that the UK scene throws up every other day. Why ruin that? Pro-Wrestling EVE announced AJA KONG vs VIPER for May 5th next year... (Oh, and Emi Sakura vs Meiko Satomura was a little bit good)

Remember I said that Yano vs Gibson got me to buy a ticket for RevPro next month? If you could buy two for the same show...

So I'm going to Pro-Wrestling EVE's 4 shows in 2 days deal on November 11-12, which means that RevPro's annual NJPW two-dayer on 9-10 was a no-goer. They announced Nagata, I was fine. They announced Suzuki, I was still okay. Lee vs Ishii? Grrr, but still no. Today they announced Toru Yano. And put him against the BEST UK comedy foil, Zack Gibson. 5 shows in 3 days, is it?

So I just watched Pete Dunne, Trent Seven & Tyler Bate wrestle Meiko Satomura, Cassandra Miyagi and Dash Chisako, in a match largely built around Dunne & Satomura clashing, in a disused factory in Wolverhampton. Wrestling is insane.

It's not until next week.

I'll be there - I forego my aversion to leisure centres for this one show every year. And with Scarlet & Graves in, it's a must-see!

Oh, you sweet summer child... it's RevPro: Josh Bodom wins

He's also been announced for the Japanese qualifier for the Pro-Wrestling World Cup that What Culture are running. In Manchester. Seems New Japan are working with WCPW, too.