REVIEW: Wrestle Carnival - First Anniversary
Credit: Wrestle Carnival
Wrestle Carnival: The First Anniversary
The Portland Centre, Nottingham, England
Sunday, August 7, 2022
Reviewer: David South (@DavidSouth1980)
For one year now, Wrestle Carnival have been quietly putting on shows featuring the best of the UK independent scene and mixing in some quality imported talent.
Hopefully, the message is getting out there though, as this was easily the best attended of the Portland Centre shows I’ve been too and it’s likely that any new fans, pulled in by the opportunity to see NOAH talent in person, will have been impressed by what they’ve seen.
Big Guns Joe vs Spike Trivet vs Gene Munny - Big Top Contract Match
Credit: Wrestle Carnival
The show kicks off with a triple threat match with a guaranteed shot at the Wrestle Carnival title, currently in the possession of Charles Crowley, for the winner.
Trivet is not in the mood to wait around and takes early control, knocking Joe to the floor and concentrating his assault on Munny, ripping off the bandage protecting his injured shoulder.
Both deliberately and accidentally, Joe is kept from entering the match properly and his frustration starts to boil over. Finally given the opportunity, Joe clotheslines both competitors and knocks them to the floor, before continuing his attack with running shoulder barges, whipping around the corner posts for extra velocity.
He hits a fisherman’s suplex on Gene, back in the ring, but just can’t connect his fingers to get the win. Joe would then put Spike in a leg submission move, but with him on the brink of tapping, Gene would bounce of the ropes and hit Joe with an “Ainsley” Lariat and pin him.
“Munny in the Bank” was then be presented with a briefcase containing his prize.
Judas Grey vs Robb Stow
On the previous Wrestle Carnival show, Judas Grey impressed against his trainer, Joe Hendry, in what was only his second match. This was his third match and against another of Hendry’s students, the debuting Robb Stow.
If the pair are training together then it’s probably an interesting session as they appeared to have an instant dislike for each other. Their technical start came to an end when Grey hit one of the hardest enzulgiri to Stow’s head that I’ve ever seen.
Stow though was notably bigger and stronger than Grey and began throwing him around the ring. He claimed near falls with backbreakers, a powerslam and a big spinebuster, but wasn’t able to get the elusive three count. And it would cost him, as against the run of play,
Grey hit an inverse Cross Rhodes type move and took the win. There’s a very big upside for both these guys if they can reach their potentials.
Lykos Gym ( Kid Lykos and Kid Lykos II) vs Pure Beef (Will Kroos and Brady Phillips)
Credit: Wrestle Carnival
With Kroos’ regular partner, Blake, not available he selected Brady Phillips to join “Pure Beef” for this match against those horrible wolves. The crowd wasted no time in telling Lykos Gym that they weren’t going to survive this encounter and, perhaps because of that, they tried to get a jump start on their bigger opponents.
Kroos and Phillips had too much power though and Lykos II was hammered and stretched for quite a while. Some cheating and other double teaming eventually allowed Lykos Gym to get the upperhand and they punished Brady with the brutal elastic stretch snap (which sounds like a submission move but is actually stretching a length of elastic and allowing it to smack back into Brady’s face).
Brady’s eventual tag back to Kroos was the beginning of the end, as he cleaned house. He even overcame Lykos Gym’s final attempt a cheating, when they lowblowed him and hit him with a baking tray. A powerbomb/backstabber combination was enough for the Beefy boys to claim the win.
Joseph Conners vs Joe Hendry - Number One Contender’s Match
Credit: Wrestle Carnival
Joe Hendry’s custom entrances are a highlight of any show he’s on and this one, a reworking of The Union Underground’s old Raw theme “Across the Nation” was an instant hit.
The two veterans, and former tag partners, began with a respectful technical period, eventually Hendry would take control of Conners’ wrist and the match. The first near fall was for Conners though, hitting a spike DDT following a quick combination, though Hendry would also go close with a Codebreaker.
Hendry would clinch the victory, with a judo style chokeslam after Conners had attempted a rollup pin. From there, the pair dedicated their match to Jennie Bunny, who worked for WCPW/DEFIANT and Cultaholic and who recently passed away and for whom, Hendry was wearing the WCPW Internet title, which he left in centre of the ring as a tribute.
Lizzy Evo vs Emersyn Jayne vs Charlie Morgan vs Jetta (C) - Four Way Elimination Match, Queen of the Carnival Title Match
Credit: Wrestle Carnival
As she often does, Lizzy immediately makes friends both inside and outside the ring. The other three teamed up to knock her to the outside and start the match without her.
This match was fought under elimination rules and the opening spell saw quite a few near falls. It also saw Morgan level all three opponents with a flip off the top rope.
The first elimination though would be Emersyn Jayne, who attempted a moonsault of her own, but which came up empty and then Evo hit a running knee strike for the pinfall.
Morgan would then be eliminated, with Evo pushing her into Jetta and then rolling her up for a three. The interim champion would then again prove that “nobody does it Jetta” when she hit a codebreaker and a Lariat on Evo to retain.
After the match, Evo returned to the ring with a chair and wrapped it around Morgan’s leg. She then told Jetta that she would break Morgan’s ankle unless she acquiesced to a one on one title match in the future, which Jetta reluctantly agreed too.
Man Like Dereiss vs Charles Crowley (C) - Wrestle Carnival Championship Match
Credit: Wrestle Carnival
Crowley began his attack during the introductions, as Dereiss had his back turned. After fighting around the room, Crowley threw Dereiss through my (hastily evacuated) section of seating and returned to the ring demanding a count out victory.
Birmingham’s finest just managed to make it back to the ring in time, but Crowley continued his assault with a long sleeper hold that Dereiss eventually managed to escape.
This fired Dereiss up and he achieved a near fall with a cutter and popup powerbomb combination. Then came the key moment in the match, Dereiss attempted a superkick but Crowley pulled the referee into its path and she was knocked out.
Dereiss would knock Crowley down and hit a 450 splash for a comfortable three count, a 10 count even, alas from the crowd, rather than the referee who was still out of it.
Crowley would recover and hit a low blow and a spinning slam, just as the referee was recovering but Dereiss miraculously kicked out at two.
Sensing that he was in trouble, Crowley would then fetch a chair, but referee Lauren took it from him – as she was distracted though he would hit Dereiss with the title belt, then a Canadian Destroyer and finally put his prone foe in a submission move at which point the referee had no choice but to call the match in his favour.
Crowley’s celebrations were cut short as both Joe Hendry and Gene Munny came back to ringside to let the champion know they had him in their sights.
Chris Ridgeway vs HAYATA - NOAH GCH Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
Credit: Wrestle Carnival
Stablemates in NOAH’s Stinger group, the streamers rained down prior to this match, with belt collector Ridgeway looking to add one more to his impressive collection.
The lightning fast start ended with the challenger getting the upper hand. He began a targeted assault on Hayata’s knee, pulling down his kneepads and grinding his knuckle into the side, whilst holding him in a single leg crab.
Hayata was always able to get to the ropes though, for a brief respite in the attack. Hayata’s first meaningful offence came after an enzulgiri, he dove over the top rope on Ridgeway on the floor and then hit ‘403 Impact’ (a cross armed spinning DDT) for the first near fall.
He attempted the enzulgiri again, but this time Ridgeway had it scouted, ducked underneath and started on the knee again. He transitioned back to the knee after each series of moves, most impressively trapping Hayata after he landed a moonsault.
Ridgeway also got a near fall from a powerbomb and penalty kick combination, but regardless of what he did, he couldn’t get Hayata to submit, or hold him down for the precious three count.
And it would prove costly, as Hayata would hit his brutal ‘Headache’ finish (a Frankensteiner whilst Ridgeway was on his knees) and cover him to retain his title.
The pair embraced and the appreciative crowd stood to applaud both men.
In (another) week when running independent shows has come in for criticism, Wrestle Carnival have put on another professional looking, varied and entertaining afternoon and finally the word appears to be getting out about it.
I hope Gary Ward knows that the work he’s put into this is very much appreciated.