Review: Purpose Wrestling - Everything I Love Is Going To Die

Purpose Wrestling: Everything I Love Is Going To Die
Merton Arts Space, Wimbledon
Friday, August 12, 2022
Reviewer: Iwan Mackenzie (@iwanmack)

So my day started off with a trip on the Elizabeth Line from Woolwich to Tottenham Court Road then onto Waterloo to meet my brother Leighton and to take the Train to Wimbledon.

We met everyone in the local ‘Spoons, The Wibbas Down Inn, it good to see everyone especially after a month of not seeing everyone, had a good catch up here and then headed over to the venue.

We got into the venue a few minutes late, seemed busier than usual which was surprising especially in this heat as it was boiling in the venue.

Chris Hatch was our MC as ever.

Nino Bryant vs Oli Peace w/ Bullit

This match stemmed from Oli going on a revenge tour of his ex-tag partners from last year. His intro said that he would win this match by himself, even though Bullit was accompanying him here, he wasn’t happy with Oli 's insults.

This match started off very fast with Nino flying about, Nino dived into Bullit to wipe him out, back in the ring hits the Tornado DDT on Oli Peace and within two minutes gets the win.

“Easy!” chants by the crowd as Bullit and Peace leave in disgrace; I’m thinking this will build into a tag match down the line but was disappointed with Nino being in such a short match especially after he’s been one of the standouts of the last year of Purpose.

Mark Davis vs Sebastian Matters

It was cool to see Davis make a rare non-RevPro appearance these days and also good to cheer for him properly as he’s a baddie in RevPro (that still doesn't stop those United Empire fans), against a man who was getting some praise from the Portsmouth school and elsewhere.

This was the usual entertaining Dunkzilla match and I got entertainment from it, but if this was supposed to be a showcase for Matters then it didn’t do a very good job.

He basically just took all the offence through the match and it didn’t really build any sympathy for him in the crowd, plus I didn’t feel he really stood out here at all, it really could have been any other wrestler in this position for me.

We had Dunkzilla win this after a Piledriver.

The NIC (Oisen Delaney & Charlie Carter) vs The 87 (Roy Johnson & Alexander Roth)

To be blunt, I wasn’t looking forward to this match and it’s not the 87’s fault as I’m a big fan of them but it’s because of The NIC.

They have really regressed as an act since shows have come back, with all their matches feeling very samey and not in a good way. Their match vs North West Strong match has been the standout.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a very good match, despite the good work that Johnson and especially Roth were bringing to the contest.

NIC really did drag it down and it’s starting to wear down the crowd, there was quite a few people not reacting to what they were doing and that’s not a good thing at all.

Lot of the work in this match was very sloppy and just did not work for me at all, we had The NIC win this match after hitting the Black Flag.

The O.J.M.O vs Rhio

This is really where the show picked up and went into the next Level, Oku was accompanied by NIC here and was announced as “the greatest cruiserweight champion ever”.

Hee was facing North West Strong’s Rhio, who brought her own backup in Chris Ridgeway and Luke Jacobs. Luke taunted Oku with the RevPro Cruiserweight Championship before the match.

Instantly the crowd was into this, there were a few OJMO fans scattered around but most of the crowd was fully behind Rhio and both of them were so over.

Oku out wrestles Rhio in the first part of the match and asks what she’s going to do because she’s just a women, so Rhio smacks him around the face with a thunderous slap, he deserved that.

Oku works down the leg of Rhio to soften her up for the Half Crab. Rhio was great here with her selling and every time she came back the crowd felt like she had won.

Rhio whipped Oku on the outside, and was on the cusp of the win at many points, as well as showing off her toughness after taking three Frog Splashes and still kicking out.

In the end, we had Oku get Rhio in the backslide and get his feet in the ropes to get the win, of course Oscar Harding didn’t see that. Standing ovation for Rhio afterwards from the crowd.

This was easily the best match of the first half, the crowd was so invested in both wrestlers, the presence of stable mates on the outside helped this as well. Top match and I think there is more to come in Destination: Everywhere vs North West Strong.

Maya Mathews w/Amira vs Kira Chimera

Originally set to be Alex Windsor here but she’s off with a knee injury (get well soon Alex), and Amira said that Amira Windsor had been done already so instead it was Alex Windsor’s apprentice Maya Mathews taking her place instead.

Amira accompanied Maya here and had all the energy of Captain Lou Albano from the 80s in her support of Maya.

This match started off really fast with Maya avoiding Kira’s bat attacks and warding her off, both of these wrestlers really worked well with one another and complemented each other styles.

I always say this when I’m reviewing her matches but Kira Chimera is very underrated and does deserve more praise and exposure, she never disappoints for me.

In relation to Maya, I’ve seen her a handful of times now and for somebody so young with such limited experience she is really good and does look better than some people who have been doing it for years, matches like this are key to her progression for her career.

Maya was able to catch Kira off and grab a Roll-Up to get the win here as Amira got Maya’s Mum to celebrate with her, Kira got the “Ah!” Finger Point of Shame and flicked Liam’s hat off in frustration as we sang “Nah Nah Nah Nah, Hey Hey, Au Reviour!” to her as she left; Really enjoyed this match overall.

Dan Moloney vs Mark Trew

Trew was replacing Tristan Archer here who was out with injury (get well soon Tristan). Now I will say I’m not the biggest Archer fan in the world, so the replacement of Trew did intrigue me a lot more as I’d like to see what he’d be like against one of the top stars of BritWres.

They started off with some chain wrestling which looked really good and almost felt a bit old school in how methodical they were being and holding back on strikes.

Of course that went all out of the window eventually, with Moloney hitting some thunderous chops on Trew and also a pitch perfect Dropkick that was AJ Styles-esque.

Trew attempted a dive onto Moloney, faked him out, hit a Handspring to knock him off the ring and then when he did dive, Moloney caught him into a Suplex on the apron before then hitting a F5 on the apron.

Moloney controlled the middle portion of this match and Trew sold all the punishment very well, at one point though Trew seemed to have enough of Moloney’s kicks to his back and wanted to give some of his own, very reminiscent of the Shibata/Ishii spot from WrestleKindom 10.

At one point Moloney got cocky and that’s when Trew took his opportunity to roll him up and almost got the win.

From here, Trew flustered Moloney and took his chances, this included a Dive over the rope, similar to Mike Awesome’s old dive and Trew’s body literally folded in half as he went down and from my vantage point it looked like he had gone head first into the ground, the whole audience gasped and me, Chris and Adam looked round at each other in shock.

Thankfully Trew was back up, rolled Moloney in and hit an Inverted Vader Bomb for a close two. Finish came when Trew slingshotted into the ring, Moloney caught him into the Drilla Killa for the win and another standing ovation from the crowd.

This match was fucking outstanding and most importantly a breakout performance from Mark Trew who’s had a lot of potential for a long time now but as he was facing people at the same level as him, he’s not been able to showcase himself, but in here he did not look out of place against Moloney who needs to be given credit for what he did for Trew here, absolutely loved this match.

Thankfully Trew was alright, he was ok speaking to afterwards, helped take down the ring and wrestled this weekend at WrestleForce as well. Moloney gave him respect after the match and said that he want’s the winner of the main event saying the target is on their fucking head.

Jordon Breaks vs Connor Mills - Purpose Wrestling Championship Tournament Final

This match is the epitome of Purpose from this last year, it’s all been built around these two and only fitting that they decide who the first Purpose champion would be; Mills was announced as having made his AEW debut, which isn’t particularly true.

Destination: Everywhere looked to stay and cause trouble but Nino Bryant, David Francisco and North West Strong made their way out and chased off Oku and NIC so Mills and Breaks could be settled just between them.

Mills tried to run at Breaks at the start and misses, Breaks hits the Breaksdown and almost gets the win there.

They go brawling on the outside, where Mills gets control after hitting an X-Plex onto a chair, and then rolls Breaks into the ring and finally connects with the running boot, hitting Breaks neck and goes to work on it with some stiff forearms, really good work here from Mills and it would play into later on.

Mills and Breaks go to the outside again and culminates in Breaks hitting a Monkey Flip on Mills that flung Mills into the chairs, amazing spot.

Breaks went to work on the arm after flinging Mills into the post, so he could soften Mills up for the Breaks Special that he’s beaten Nico Angelo and David Francisco with.

The two eventually start trading moves and big spots between one another, this was just excellent and had me engaged, then the moment I really popped for, Breaks trapped Mills in the European Clutch, same move that he’s beaten Mills with before, but he had to let go of it as his neck was that bad he couldn’t bridge up, loved that.

What I also loved was Mills diving onto Breaks on the outside and he clutched his arm as he dived due to the work on it.

The finish came when Mills hit a 450 Splash but Breaks caught him the Breaks Special to force the tap out as the crowd raises to its feet as Jordon Breaks is crowned the first Purpose Champion, and we danced and we boogied to the theme, as a smattering of babyfaces celebrated with him with Confetti in celebration.

This was a truly excellent match, a year’s worth of story coming to a head to deliver an excellent tournament final and a fitting way to end the first year of Purpose.

So much pace to this match from start to finish and these two work so well with one another. This match will be very high in my live match of the year list come December time.

So Overall, from Rhio/OJMO onwards this show absolutely rocked and felt like a true celebration of what Purpose has intended to be as a BritWres promotion this last year.

Rhio/OJMO, Trew/Moloney and Breaks/Mills were excellent matches and everything else ranged from enjoyable to okay but I had a good time at this show, and atmosphere was good all night even with how hot it was.

Thanks for Reading. Follow Me on Instagram @IwanMack.

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