By Haydn Gleed, Prowrestling.net Staffer (@haydngleed)
WOS Wrestling
Aired August 18, 2018 on ITV
Filmed in May 2018 at the Epic Studios in Norwich, England
The show opened with last week’s action including the storyline injury to Gabriel Kidd, the WOS Championship match and the long term Grado storyline. They showed a preview of this week show which will include a Will Ospreay and Martin Kirby match, a defense by Kay Lee Ray of the WOS Women’s Championship, and a No. 1 contenders three-way match…
In the arena, SoCal Val welcomed the viewers while sitting along side Alex Shane and Stu Bennett on the broadcast team. Alex asked Stu if there was any consequences to the action by Rampage and crew last week, and Bennett said yeah there was consequences, he picked up a winners cheque…
Introductions for the WOS Women’s title match took place…
1. Kay Lee Ray vs. Bea Priestley for the WOS Women’s Championship. During the introductions there was a horrible, horrible edit of Kay Lee Ray standing looking at the crowd towards the top of the ramp, they then cut to the next shot of her walking around the ring. Ugh! Priestley attacked Kay Lee before the bell rang. Eventually she managed to get her coat off, but Priestley continued on the attack despite a number of hope spots from the champion. There were a number of further bad edits during the early stages of the match. Priestley went to the top rope but Ray caught her. Bea however fought back and hit a double stomp from the top rope as the champions legs were caught in the ropes.
The match spilled to the outside where Ray again tried to fight back but was eventually whipped into the ringside barriers. Bea threw her into the ring where Ray recovered and hit a suicide dive. She rolled the challenger back in the ring and hit a gory bomb. As she pinned Bea, Viper’s music played and she came charging down to the ring. Kay Lee dove through the ropes but was caught and thrown into the ring post. Viper jawed and attacked both Ray and Priestley when some new music hit. Ayesha made her WOS debut. All four women brawled with security trying to hold them all back.
Stu Bennett stood up with a microphone and said needless to say this match is cancelled. He said he won’t tolerate this behavior so next week we will have the first over the top battle royal with the winner becoming the WOS Women’s Champion. He told them to get out of his sight, he has a show to run…
Kay Lee Ray and Bea Priestley fought to a no-contest.
Gleed’s Take: First of all, WOS Wrestling is run by a TV production company with decades of experience. How ITV can be happy putting a product on air with such bad editing is beyond me. I know everything is recorded ahead of time so there’s not much they can do about it now, but if they get a second season, this is something they really have to tighten up as it takes viewers out of the moment. The action in the ring was solid and a nice match was developing before Viper and Ayesha’s interference. An over the top battle royal involving four women? I have to admit I’m intrigued but not necessarily excited.
They showed footage from earlier in the day. Grado was in Stu Bennett office and talking about his victory last week against Sha Samuels. Bennett said he gave him explicit instructions to go out there and show him something that WOS can be proud of but instead within five minutes he turned back into a blubbering buffoon. Grado took exception to this and said he won the match so he deserves one more chance. Stu laughed this off and said it’s always one more chance. He said it’s his lucky day and if he can find someone stupid enough to team with him he will enter them into the tag team tournament…
Gleed’s Take: Another week and another stand off between Stu Bennett and Grado. They are telling a long term story so I like that aspect of it but it’s starting to feel a little repetitive at this point.
The announcers setup the next match between the “Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay and Martin Kirby….
2. Will Ospreay vs. Martin Kirby. The entrances took place and the crowd played along well with the babyface and heel dynamic of the two guys, although they did the thumbs down motion for Kirby which looks so over produced. SoCal Val described Kirby as “Mr Bad Attitude”. Kirby attacked Ospreay who had his back turned when the bell rang. Ospreay came back with some high paced offence before he did his handspring into the ropes, back somersault and pose. Kirby climbed back in the ring and managed to ground Ospreay with a backbreaker (which they replayed). They then showed Kirby applying a chinlock with Ospreay on the mat and then cut to a shot of Ospreay almost back to his feet.
Gleed’s Take: I’m sorry to keep pointing out the production problems, but I watched this show with my girlfriend and even she was moaning about how bad the editing looked and she was mostly playing on her phone during the show, so that’s how obvious and bad they were.
Later in the match there was some very impressive back and forth action including a 619 style move but over the top rope instead of through the top and middle rope and a flying springboard from the top rope where Ospreay looked like he nearly hit the roof it was that impressive. Kirby was on the offensive using a combination of his own innovative offense and a more grounded style. Will Ospreay came back with a Spansih Fly, but neither men could get the sustained advantage. Kirby did the stupid Zoidberg crab walk on the middle ropes but thankfully Ospreay cut it off with a huracanrana, which sent Kirby to the outside. He then hit a hand spring, a backflip into a dive over the rope. Suddenly Martin Kirby was in the ring after yet another bad and unrealistic edit and Ospreay hit a shooting star press for a close near fall. Ospreay hit his finisher and this one was over….
Will Ospreay defeated Martin Kirby via pinfall.
Gleed’s Take: This was a tremendous match and I would say by far the best match on WOS Wrestling so far during it’s latest run. If you are of an old school mindset then this wasn’t the match for you but for the casual audience, for the 5pm family audience at home, and for fans of athletic competition this was the match for you. Definitely worth a watch if you get the chance. It was great that Martin Kirby could show what he can do. It wasn’t a case of him keeping up with Ospreay, he was showing his full ability here with his pace, his own innovative moveset (minus the terrible crab walk), and his ground and pound ability. A really good match despite the editing, which I’ve moaned about enough.
The announcers setup the final quarterfinal match of the tag team tournament and we saw that both Grado and Stu Bennett were in the ring. Bennett said that Grado had all day to find a tag partner but lets see who you will face first of all. Robbie X and Crater came out with Crater pushing Robbie X out of the way in a way you could tell he was already annoying him. Crater did his “ghostfacer” motion in the ring (a reference for you SPN fans out there). Grado’s face was a picture.
Stu Bennett asked Grado if he managed to find anyone to join him. Grado said he’s been looking all day and hasn’t found anyone…….apart from this guy. With that, Davey Boy Smith Jr. came out to a great reaction…
3. Grado and Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Crater and Robbie X in a tag team tournament quarterfinal match. The match started in classic Grado comedy fashion. He insisted on starting the match against Robbie X, who he shook hands with, but Crater tagged himself into the match which didn’t please Robbie X. Grado walked up to Crater and went face to face, before shouting “Nope” and tagging in Smith. Funny.
Smith tried to shoulder charge Crater to the ground but couldn’t move him. Grado insisted on tagging in and tried a shoulder charge of his own but fell backwards deadweight. Crater forcibly tagged in his partner and the match settled down. In a hilarious moment, Stu Bennett described Grado as having the coordination of a drunk elephant. The finish of the match came Robbie X tried desperately to tag in Crater, but Crater turned his back on him. This allowed Grado to hit a Grado Cutter for the win.
Grado and Davey Boy Smith Jr. beat Crater and Robbie X to advance in the tag team tournament
After the match, Crater climbed back into the ring and motioned that he was going to attack Robbie X, but the babyfaces stood over Robbie X and protected him from Crater…
Gleed’s Take: If you enjoy Grado’s comedy then this was a lot of fun. There was an interesting dynamic between the clear heel 36 stone Crater and the babyface Robbie X. The story of Grado and his quest to regain the WOS Championship continues.
Backstage, Rachel Stringer had Rampage and his posse around her. She asked Rampage for his thoughts about the triangle match. Sha Samuels grabbed the microphone and handed it to Banks. Sha then grabbed the camera and said that she talks to much. He said Justin Sysum is getting weaker and weaker while Rampage is getting stronger. See ya soon, mugs…
4. Justin Sysum vs. Joe Hendry vs. Adam Maxted (w/Nathan Cruiz) in a “Triangle Match”. The announcers discussed whether or not any of the three men has what it takes to beat Rampage. Adam Maxted came out with Nathan Cruz and SoCal Val said we are now swapping over to handsome vision. Joe Hendry’s awesome entrance happened with the crowd swaying back and for with Justin Sysum being out last.
Gleed’s Take: They are also talking about Nathan Cruz and Adam Maxteed being “British wrestling’s biggest Bromance”. Oh, dear lord. Cue DJZ noises in my head.
Before the match started, Nathan Cruiz grabbed the microphone. He said Adam now I’ve seen these two “whoppers” that it’s in the best interest for their tag team that he takes his place because he doesn’t want Adam’s handsome face to be put in danger. Adam agreed and left the ring.
4a. Justin Sysum vs. Joe Hendry vs. Nathan Cruiz (w/Adam Maxted). Joe Hendry and Justin Sysum teamed up to take out Nathan Cruiz to the outside. They had an amateur wrestling style match to start off with while Maxted looked concerned for his “bromance” partner on the outside. The pace picked up in the ring before Cruiz came back in and hit a high knee on Hendry and threw him out of the ring.
Sysum quickly gained the advantage as the pace picked up and he hit a great dropkick mid-ring. Cruiz reversed a whip to the ropes but Sysum came back with a crossbody from the middle-rope. Maxted grabbed Sysum’s leg to slow him down (in full view of the referee) and allowed Cruiz to regain the advantage.
The finish of the match came when Justin Sysum ran down the ramp and hit an impressive spear through the middle rope on Cruiz. Sysum climbed to the top for the 450 splash, but Maxted distracted him. Cruiz went to hit Justin and nearly caught Maxted. As both men were looking at each other, Sysum hit a flying discuss spinning clothesline of some sort and won the match. Stu Bennett sounded impressed on commentary.
Justin Sysum defeated Nathan Cruiz and Joe Hendry.
They closed out the show by promoting the two semifinals of the tag tournament for next week. They then said one man alone can’t dent Crater and questioned how two men would fare. They closed out by promoting the four woman over the top battle royal.
Gleed’s Take: Decent if not spectacular triple threat match. It started off as you would expect with two men battling and then one man going to the outside, but down the stretch there was some pretty cool spots with all three men in the ring. The spear by Sysum was damn impressive and definitely not something I’ve seen before.
Overall this was a decent show with some good moments. The Grado and Bennett storyline continues at an okay pace, but it is getting repetitive. The “comedy” laced tag match was good if you enjoy that style of wrestling. The triple threat was fun and the women’s title match had started to become a good match before the shenanigans. The standout of the week was Ospreay/Kirby and I like to think that Kirby turned a lot of heads as well as Ospreay wowing the viewing audience that might not have been familiar with him before now. Dot Net Members will hear my audio review of this show shortly.
Any comments? Feel free to get in touch via email haydn.gleed@gmail.com or twitter @haydngleed
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