Took in the Rev Pro Wrestling Show (And a Bit of Annoyance at WWE)

As part of the Wrestlemania week festivities, I took in the Revolution Pro Wrestling show. They’re a British company with major names like Ricochet, Will Ospreay, Marty Scurll and Zack Sabre Jr. so I had to take in a card with that kind of talent included. This was part of the WrestleCon weekend events so the show was only about fifteen minutes from my hotel.

Before we get to the show though, there were two rather annoying wrestling related issues earlier in the day. At 1pm, Charlotte was doing a free signing at a Cricket Wireless store roughly ten minutes away from my hotel. Of course I went and when I got there a bit after 1, the line was wrapped around the building, down the alley behind the building and around part of another building. The fact that the line was so long isn’t an issue as people are going to flock for something that’s free. Cricket had also put up a sign saying “all guests after this point are not guaranteed to meet Charlotte”. I was standing right at the sign.

After about an hour in line, the sign was moved about 50 people forward. One of the workers came by and I asked if things were moving really slowly. It turned out that they were, because several people had upwards of ten items for Charlotte to sign. In other words, because a bunch of people just HAD to get her to sign things so they could throw them on Ebay, we were stuck standing in line even longer. Naturally this caused the line to go so slowly that it was cut off at 2:55 before I could get in. To be fair, it was a free event so I didn’t lose anything but time (and patience).

No worries though as Bayley was having a signing at the Orlando Eye, which was about fifteen minutes from Cricket. This was a bit better as I had already bought a ticket ($35, but you got a free trip on the Eye, which I had no interest in due to not being comfortable with heights) so I figured it would go better.

And of course not as the signing went until 4 and at 3:50, the Orlando Eye people cut it off because Bayley had another event to go to immediately thereafter. I got a refund, but these events tell me two things:

1. Maybe WWE shouldn’t schedule the same people for multiple events back to back. They have a ridiculous roster and I find it hard to believe they can’t stagger these out a bit better, just for something like this.

2. LEARN TO CALL THE THINGS OFF EARLIER WHEN IT’S CLEAR YOU’RE NOT GETTING EVERYONE IN! When you have over 100 people left, do you really need to wait until there are 10 minutes left to realize that not everyone can get in? Also, how long can it possibly take when there are signs everywhere saying no autographs? I know people want to talk to Bayley but it needed to be a few words, obligatory hug, photo, out. That should be 40 seconds at most but for some reason we get this instead.

So anyway, I get over to Rev Pro at 4:10 (thankfully it’s less than a mile from the Eye) and luckily it hadn’t started yet (indy shows almost never do). The show wound up starting at 4:25 with a bunch of empty seats on the floor, though they were mostly filled in by the third or fourth match.

1. Sami Calihan vs. Jay White

I’ve liked White since his first match with Jay Briscoe so I was looking forward to seeing him live. This wasn’t the best match in the world though as they didn’t have a lot of chemistry. They fought outside for two minutes early on before the referee FINALLY started counting, which got a rather jeering reaction from the crowd. The best spot was Calihan trying a powerbomb but getting blocked over and over. Instead of trying again, he pulls White up and punched the heck out of him before getting the powerbomb. White won with a Boston crab in about 12 minutes. D+.

2. Martin Stone vs. Jeff Cobb

Stone is also known as Danny Burch from NXT and Cobb is Lucha Underground’s Matanza. This was technical ability vs. power/athleticism and that’s what you got for about ten and a half minutes. Stone is just a guy in trunks but he looks very polished and kept shrugging off all of Cobb’s power stuff. Martin got in a hanging DDT for the pin. C+.

3. Lord Gideon Grey vs. Swoggle

This is a storyline heavy match as Grey seemed to be a comedy/lower level guy who was just starting to turn the corner until Colt Cabana brought Swoggle to the company and somehow ruined his life. Grey walked to the ring like a zombie, even bumping into the barricade because he kept staring straight ahead. Then he wrestled a mostly normal match which saw Swoggle do a series of German suplexes and Lesnar’s bounce back and forth. Grey hit a sitout powerslam for the pin in about 2:00 with a bunch of standard comedy spots. This was fine.

4. Marty Scurll vs. King Ricochet

Scurll’s ROH TV Title was acknowledged but not on the line. Scurll was easily the most over guy on the show so far and he knew it, despite being billed as the Villain. You could tell these two knew each other really well and that’s always going to help. There was some comedy as Ricochet did a bunch of flips into a nip-up.

Scurll, who isn’t the most athletic guy in the world, said very loudly “THAT WAS SWEET! I WANT TO TRY!” He then did a front flip into a nip-up for a huge reaction but Ricochet didn’t buy into the idea of a handshake. This gave us the YES/NO treatment for a big reaction. They both did their own versions of a People’s Elbow with Ricochet doing a moonsault and Scurll doing an Austin style stomp and a double middle finger. Ricochet also did Tye Dillinger’s cartwheel into a dropkick, followed by TEN.

They started taking things a bit more seriously by the end with Scurll teasing a big spot on the floor and then throwing Ricochet back in to annoy the crowd (because he’s a villain you see). Eventually Ricochet tried a handspring elbow but got caught in the chickenwing for the tap out at just shy of seventeen minutes. Really fun stuff here and easily the best thing all night. B+.

Post match, Scurll said he loved working with Ricochet and dedicated the to a fellow wrestler who passed away one year ago to the day in a nice moment. This was repeated multiple times so this was pretty clearly a big deal to everyone.

Intermission, which was billed as 15 minutes but ran closer to 30. However, a lot of the roster was out in the lobby selling merchandise, meaning I got to meet a host of wrestlers, including:

Ricochet, Colt Cabana (who I didn’t recognize at first), Will Ospreay, Marty Scurll, Swoggle, Brian Cage (the biggest arms I’ve ever seen), Jay White, Martin Stone (very polite), Jeff Cobb, Fenix, Pentagon Dark and Shane Strickland (Killshot on Lucha Underground).

5. Interim British Cruiserweight Title: David Starr vs. Josh Bodom

Bodom was defending but didn’t have his belt for some reason. I’ve never heard of either guy and there wasn’t much to talk about here, though Starr had about fifteen nicknames that the announcer had to read off a card. It was clear that neither guy was the biggest name as the fans didn’t seem to know who they were. It was fine but nothing you haven’t seen before.

This was your standard cruiserweight style match with a bunch of flips, the third standing shooting star press of the night (more on that later), a bunch of strikes to the head (the indy staple), a great looking front flip from the top to the floor and a hanging piledriver (picture Orton’s hanging DDT but the guy jumps onto the back of your head to make it a piledriver) for the pin on Starr at 12:30. C-.

6. Will Ospreay vs. Ray Fenix

Ospreay is a high flying machine and one of the top stars in the promotion though his Cruiserweight Title wasn’t on the line. This was a much more standard high flying match and for some reason Fenix took his sweet time coming through the curtain and didn’t seem happy for a lot of the match, or after for that matter.

Ospreay flew around a lot even tricked Fenix by asking what something was out in the crowd to grab a headlock. They dove around a lot (and botched multiple things, though nothing too bad) with a Canadian Destroyer DDT as one of the cooler looking spots. Ospreay hit a big springboard cutter to win at just under thirteen minutes. This was a lot of fun but really botchy at times, which you have to expect. B-.

7. Michael Elgin/Brian Cage vs. Ray Smile/Shane Strickland.

This was power vs. speed, though Elgin and Cage got to show off a lot of athleticism. One very funny spot was Strickland doing a nipup, only to have Elgin come in and do a good looking Worm. Strickland said he was out, grabbed his jacket, walked up the ramp and through the curtain. He was back a few seconds later but it was rather funny. Other than Elgin grabbing a delayed vertical suplex and passing Smile off to Cage in mid-air to complete it, there wasn’t much here. Well not much original at least.

We did have our 5^th cutter of the night, as well as the fourth person saying SUCK IT with a crotch chop. Smile also got up a bit too many times, including kicking out of a superbomb into an F5, which the fans REALLY thought should have ended the match (they were right). Instead, Strickland got Cage up for a powerbomb with Smile adding a top rope double stomp. A not great frog splash put Cage away at about 13 minutes. The match was longer than it needed to be and got too repetitive with the big power spot from Elgin/Cage and then a head kick from Strickland/Smile. C-.

8. British Heavyweight Title: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Pentagon Dark

Pentagon is WAY over with Cero Mideo (Zero Fear) being the loudest chant of the night. The fans absolutely cannot stand Sabre, who is the British Champion, the Evolve Champion and the PWG World Champion (and came out wearing all three belts like a good heel should). This was all about trading arm holds with Pentagon surprising Sabre with some sweet stuff of his own. Sabre kept countering like the master that he is though and worked Pentagon’s arm half off.

Near the end Pentagon got his package piledriver onto the apron and unfortunately, Sabre was back on his feet in less than a minute. That REALLY hurt things as it should have been a pin (if there was any chance Sabre was losing here) but was just a big spot instead. Sabre got his crazy armbar to end things a few minutes later at just shy of 16:00. This was really solid stuff, save for the lack of selling. Sabre’s technical stuff is must see. B+.

As I was leaving, I got to shake hands with Sabre in the lobby for a nice way to wrap things up.

Overall the show was fun with two very good matches though not much to support them. I certainly can’t complain for a $25 general admission ticket, especially with the amount of huge British names I got to see, along with the names that I got to meet at intermission. Rev Pro is certainly not bad and I had a fun time at the show. Overall: B-.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the NXT: The Full Sail Years Volumes I and II, now in PAPERBACK. Check out the information here:

https://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2017/03/24/kbs-history-of-nxt-volumes-1-and-2-now-available-in-paperback/

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