REVIEW: Ignite Pro Wrestling - Point Break

Ignite Pro Wrestling: Point Break
96 Shenley Road, Borehamwood
Sunday, September 4, 2022
Reviewer: Iwan Mackenzie (@iwanmack)

So my journey started around 12:00 on Sunday. Me and Leighton travelled into Blackfriars to meet up with Liam and Dave as we travelled into Borehamwood from there.

Our first port of call was The Alfred Arms which is a mix of old lads pub, sports bar and cocktail lounge. We went in here hoping to try out their Sunday roast but the Chef wasn’t in and when he did arrive he was only cooking hot dogs and chips, on the plus side, drinks were cheap.

So with Alfred Arms not being an option for food, we decided to visit our regular haunt, German Doner Kebab (GDK ALL FUCKING DAY!), where I had the Boss Box with Doner Wrap, Curry Frites, Spring Rolls and a bottle of Coke.

Got inside the venue after doors with most of the crowd either still turning up and or just sitting in the foyer area, we grabbed our seats which were right at the back and they were some of the most comfortable I’ve ever sat on, major credit to 96 Shenley Road for these seats.

Show did start slightly late but this didn’t affect their timings. Sunset Skip was our MC as ever and he did a fantastic job, his announcing was top notch and had more segways than Amazon. He got a little lad to help him as his assistant in the opening of this show as Skip couldn’t hold the belt at the same time.

Skip announces that Forest Haze has vacated the Championship as he is still injured and will be back soon to get back to competition, he then announced that the winner of the triple threat match will be facing Joe Lando in one of the main events.

We then get two happy birthdays and the show is ready to begin! Also Nick Cooper was our referee, looking like the third Blues Brother.

Corey McRae vs Tommy Kyle vs Nino Bryant - Number One Contenders Match

Corey cut a pre-match promo, calling the crowd weirdos for watching people get sweaty on a sunday afternoon and that he doesn't need support, then says that Forest Haze is weak for his shoulder being broken, tells the story of him and Forest coming up together and said he was glad that Forest is injured.

This promo started off weird but found it’s way and did establish him as the main heel not only for the match but for the show.

Tommy wasn’t as hated as he normally is, he was getting booed but didn’t actually play into it that much, I could see him being a good babyface for Ignite soon; Nino was our clear babyface here.

This match started off a little slow I found, plus they more or less went straight away to the triple threat cliches of one guy being isolated on the outside (although this did work when Corey did it and just had Tommy and Nino beat each other up).

Eventually this match did find it’s feet and it became a real strong match; lots of good action between all three, Nino and Tommy worked so well together and I did like that Corey was more focused on the Suplexes and Strikes, which brought something different to proceedings.

The finish came when Nino hit Tommy with a Tornado DDT before Corey got in and knocked him out, then stole the cover on Tommy to get the win and face Joe Lando later on, as Tommy Kyle’s losing streak continues.

Kira Chimera vs Ronnie Knocks

Ronnie was replacing Laura Di Matteo here who was in Cardiff; I thought this was a pretty good match, wasn’t too long and that actually benefited it.

Ronnie looked good here, I was impressed with her offence and selling of Kira’s offence through this match which made Kira look like a killer.

As always let me give some love to Kira, she's really underrated and i’m glad with this match that it looks like Ignite is giving her a chance.

One more thing to mention was somebody tried to heckle Kira with a French word which Kira responded and said she wouldn’t speak in English anymore which actually raised more heckles for her, including Sewell who was cracking us up with his lines.

Anyways, it was Kira winning this following the Stunner and the Ripcord Knee Strike to get the win over Ronnie who I would like to see again.

The Lads (Alex Ecco & Ben Jones) vs Westside Heat (Smashing Mike & James Toner)

Smashing Mike is a regular here by this point and it was cool to see him team up with Toner, as Westside Heat have been one of the best teams on the scene in 2022.

This was also my first time seeing The Lads but I’ve heard plenty of good things about them, they were accompanied by Floyd the Inflatable Flamingo, felt sorry for him, he seemed blown up…

It was clear that this was more of a comedy match, with Smashing Mike in particular showcasing a lot of personality; a lot of sequences that were fun and established the tone of the match, there was a double dive by the Lads to the outside and then an Irish Whip on the outside with Ecco gingerly walking down the stairs and poking Mike in the eyes, followed up by a big dive by Toner.

There was some really good action in this match, in particular somebody who I’d like to highlight, Ben Jones who I thought looked really smooth in there, his highspots come off well and did think he stood out.

Elsewhere, Alex Ecco stood out with how much personality he showcased through the match, together as a combination, I enjoyed The Lads on this show.

Whilst this was a very fun and entertaining match, I found it really did sag towards the end. The crowd seemed to go quiet towards a lot that they were watching, some of the double team moves were very contrived and it lost me a bit as well, which was a shame because the large majority of this match was very good.

We had The Lads win this match with The Lovely Drop to win their Ignite debut.

Mark Trew vs Murdoch Miller Jr. - Battlebowl Qualifier Match

So the Breakout Division (formerly Powered4 TV sponsored before that business stopped trading) has had qualifying matches each show to set up for the Battlebowl Match come their first anniversary show in November.

So far we’ve had Nino Bryant, Smashing Mike and Zander Bryant advance through to the final and the winner of this would be getting the last spot, this was also Mark Trew’s second chance in the qualifiers after losing to Smashing Mike previously.

Coming back from break, this was a good idea to have this match. I do think the crowd took a bit of warming too but they got into this match for sure.

Straight away, Mark went for Murdoch not looking to waste any time, including a lovely Misawa Elbow Suicida (or Samoa Joe) to take Murdoch on the outside.

Murdoch’s heat segments were interesting and kept up the flow of the match and he did take some good barbs at Mark as well, including a dig at WrestleForce.

All this riled up Mark even more and he fought back so well plus some of his offence looked great in this match and thought Murdoch did a great job of basing for him.

Ever since the Dan Moloney match in purpose, it seems like Mark has had this fire lit underneath him and I love to see it. We had Mark get the win here with a Swanton Bomb to make it a full house for Battlebowl in November.

Corey McRae vs Joe Lando - Ignite Championship Match

Corey was out here for his second match of the show against one of the crowd’s most beloved wrestlers in Joe Lando, who has recently come back from his tour of America (I have watched the Nick Wayne match, I would recommend taking a look at that). These two also have previous history in Ignite having faced off in the first ever match back in October.

This was the best “wrestling” match of the night and I do think this along with the main event helped elevate the show to the next level that it was getting to and this gave it a boost.

I just thought this match was great, these two work so well with one another and I’m shocked more promotions haven’t thought of using this combination before.

Nothing went wrong in this match, the flashy stuff looked well flashy and it still felt like there was desire on the sides of both wrestlers to win the championship which is important.

The crowd was properly into this as well, they really did bite on the nearfalls. A couple of spots I’d like to mention include Corey’s Gutwrench Suplex from the second rope, into a second Gutwrench Suplex and then a Twisting Powerbomb which looked great, and Lando nailing this Springboard Canadian Destroyer which looked awesome.

In the end, we had Corey nail the Black Mass Kick followed up by the Death Star Piledriver to get the win here and become the new Ignite Champion, I think they did a good job building Corey through two matches on this show and him as champion is interesting as well.

CJ Carter vs Taylor James - Street Fight, if CJ Carter loses he leaves Ignite

So quick recap of this story as it’s been brewing for a while now; back in October, Taylor attacked Nino Bryant after their match, which led to CJ Carter making the save, In March, Taylor and his tag partner Jack Toreno, as The Rebellion, beat both CJ and Nino after getting a chair involved behind the ref’s back. After the match, Rebellion threatened to Con-Chair-To to Nino but CJ sacrificed himself to take the beating.

Back in May, CJ almost had Taylor beat but Toreno got involved again and once again the chair was used. Taylor tried to blow off his feud with CJ then but CJ said it wasn’t over and challenged him to a Street Fight for this show with the caveat that if he lost he’d leave Ignite.

What made this Special was back at APEX Wrestling “Glory” on July 31st, CJ Carter announced this would be his last match, which led to a small group of us making sure we were at this show.

Nice touch straight away, with both guys in the traditional Street Fight jeans required for this match. These two went straight for it as soon as they got into the ring and that’s a massive positive.

These two had constant movement throughout and nothing slowed down so they could set up the next spot, which is my main issue with weapons based matches.

We had CJ use a Kendo Stick on Taylor and when the crowd chanted “one more time”, he pelted this off Taylor’s back that the stick broke, CJ went for a dive and Taylor attacked him with a baking tray.

Taylor retrieved a key element in their feud, the chair, so he could use it for offence and do moves onto it. Unfortunately this did come back to bite him in the arse as CJ was able to Powerbomb him onto two folded up chairs at one point in a huge spot.

Taylor did retrieve some plywood later on (substitute for a table), Nick the ref got taken out by mistake, CJ Picked him up but unfortunately Nick was in the wrong place at the wrong time and inversely got taken out by a Spear by Taylor James, Nick took a great bump.

CJ hit a massive move and went to get the cover but Nick was still out, Toreno ran out and attacked Carter, him and Taylor went to give him the Con-Chair-To but Nino Bryant ran out to sacrifice himself this time round, but we outsmarted Rebellion as they ended up hitting each other before Nino took them out and then took out Toreno and ran him off with a second Kendo Stick. I did shoutout “that’s gotta be Kane!” which did make Leighton die of laughter.

The ending of this match came when CJ set up a second piece of plywood and drove Taylor through it with a Death Valley Driver to finally get the win over his rival and save his career at Ignite.

Post-match CJ said that this was his last match inside a ring and said he was stepping back for his health and to be there for his family, said he will still be in Ignite greeting people at the door and making match announcements when needed, thanked the entire crowd for their support.

The locker room emptied out to raise him on his shoulders, CJ hugged members of the Crowd including our little group as he said “you boys, without you the shows wouldn't be the same” (Won’t lie kinda choked me up a little) and rode off into the sunset.

Overall as an entire presentation from entrances, the match and post-match, this was just perfection, this was CJ’s last stand against his hated rival, a rival that had pushed him to his edge that he would risk his career just to defeat him.

What CJ did in this match knowing what pain he was going through is remarkable and made me genuinely react, Taylor James needs respect as well, he was awesome here as the baddie and I don’t think there could be many more people in this position than him. Also Credit to Nick Cooper, Jack Toreno and Nino Bryant for their roles in this match.

This is genuinely one of the best live matches I’ve seen this year and that may be surprising to some when I say that you normally expect the best matches from the ‘main promotions’ like RevPro, EVE, PROGRESS etc, but I was emotionally invested here from start to finish. It was a fitting way to send CJ Carter off as a wrestler and is the REAL best last match of a wrestler in 2022…

This show rocked! There was nothing that wasn’t borderline average, every match brought something to the table and those last two matches were just absolute chef’s kiss.

Come the end of the year, I’ll be remembering this show as a very fond trip for this year’s live wrestling. Bring on November 20th!

Thanks for reading, follow me @IwanMack on Instagram.

REVIEW: Ignite Pro Wrestling - Point Break

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