The first 3 events last weekend all took place at the Evoque nightclub in Prestom, as PCW presented a weekender for this year’s SpringSlam event. Up first, on the Friday night, was multi-man action as myself, Martin Kirby, Bubblegum and the debuting Liam Lazarus tangled in a 4-way early on the card. First of all, I’ve gone on record in here several times to put Liam over as one to keep an eye on in the future, and debuting for one of the bigger promotions in the country here is a natural progression for him. On this night, he gave a damn fine showing of himself, endeared himself to the crowd and hopefully he’ll be back sooner rather than later. This is very nearly a 4-way that I wasn’t part of, as upon arriving at the building, I was told I’d actually be replacing an injured Noam Dar in the 7th match on the card against Matt Sydal, with Travis Banks taking my place in the advertised 4-Way. However, with 20 minutes before the show was scheduled to begin, Banks still hadn’t arrived at the building due to traffic, so I took it upon myself to get changed ‘just in case’. Turns out Banks turned up literally just as I was about to head to the ring, so he ended up working with Sydal instead. The 4-way itself was a load of fun, a good start to the weekend.
Credit: Dalton Castle
The next afternoon, on the traditional hangover show, I was matched up against Kirby, in our 119th match against each other. Something must have happened overnight though, as gone was the upbeat, fresh-faced fan favourite the PCW crowd were accustomed to, and in his place was a RIGHT DICKHEAD. With no explanation at all. Genuinely, this match might have been one of my favourite ever PCW matches, and the crowd seemed to concur, seeing how obvious it was that we were clearly having a great time in there and loving playing off each other. There were times during the bout where it must have been SO obvious to the crowd that my shoulders were going from laughter, and I did in fact have tears in my eyes at times. Joey Hayes, at ringside, hugely added to the proceedings. It’s no secret what good mates all 3 of us are, and it really showed here.
Future shenanigans occurred in the evening, as a first time encounter with ROH’s Dalton Castle provided something…..unique. That’s pretty much my aim on a lot of shows now, to provide something memorable by striving to be different to the other matches on the card. Castle was SUCH a big personality and carries himself like a star, and it’s really easy to bounce off that style of worker with my physical comedy and body language. As well as some truly ridiculous comedy moments (me walking around the ring like a peacock whilst he crab-walked around with faux horns for one), we also got to do some really nice stuff with each other down the pipe, and seemed to provide a lively and entertaining pre-main event spectacle. Both Joey Hayes and ROH Tag Champs War Machine had some lovely words after the match too, and it was great to be able to get some advice and feedback from WWE Hall Of Famer Ricky Steamboat over the weekend as well.
Credit: PROGRESS Wrestling
My Sunday was spent down in London at the 29th Chapter of Progress Wrestling, with a huge 8-man tag of all 4 Origin members taking on the combined efforts of FSU and The London Riots. As just discussed, this was viewed as a chance to do something different, rather than just a standard 8-man tag, which was achieved by wiping out a member of each team early on, forcing Rob Lynch and Mark Andrews to try and work together, even though only one of the teams could earn a future tag title shot (a championship which Cruz and I still possess way longer than anyone probably expected). With both Eddie Dennis and James Davis both returning throughout the match, this one was often chaotic and never stopped moving. It was never dull, and it seemed to tell all the right stories that were intended. This coupled with some big crowd reactions, and the explosion of cheers when The Origin lost (doesn’t happen often….) made the match very rewarding. Little known to the crowd was that this did genuinely nearly end up as 4-on-3, due to Zack Gibson having all sorts of transportation issues, with delayed and rescheduled trains meant both a card reshuffle and him arriving, in his wrestling boots, VERY close to our match.
Wrestling. Never a dull moment!
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Where You Can See El Ligero This Weekend
Apr 30th: Southside Wrestling ‘Day Of Reckoning 11’. Rushcliffe Leisure Centre, Nottingham.
Apr 30th: HOPE Wrestling ‘Evolution XXXIV: I Write Sins, Not Tragedies’. El Ligero vs Robert Sharpe. Grosvenor Rooms, Sutton-In-Ashfield.
Apr 30th: Southside Wrestling ‘Pandemonium’ Southside Heavyweight Championship: Joseph Connors (c) vs El Ligero. Rushcliffe Leisure Centre, Nottingham.
May 1st: Southside Wrestling ‘Notorious 6’. Five-Way Showcase: El Ligero vs Martin Kirby vs Tommy End vs Mark Haskins vs ???. The Priory Centre, St Neots.
*Our thanks to Nik Towers for the use of his artwork in the column header. You can see more of Nik’s artwork at the Wrestling Artwork NT Facebook page.
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