REVIEW: GOOD Wrestling - No Ring 2

GOOD Wrestling: No Ring 2
The Black Heart, London
Sunday, April 24
Reviewer: Iwan Mackenzie (@iwanmack)

MY DAY started off with a train up to Charing Cross with my brother Leighton in tow, we grabbed a drink from the McDonald’s before jumping on the Tube to Camden Town and arriving at the venue, The Black Heart, a well known Camden hotspot.

We got there around 13:25 and saw a lot of friends and fans sitting at the bar as a form of queuing. We caught up with my mate Clive beforehand, who I hadn’t seen in a while. Doors opened a little later than usual but thats BritWres for you, The room for the show is the upstairs part of the Ppub, with a new and improved crash mat set up this time

The crowd in attendance, from a headcount, was about 50 people which is a shame when you consider the original show in February 2020 drew around 100 more than that. But, unfortunately in the last two years social distancing has become a thing with people still not being comfortable in small packed rooms.

BritWres has gone down in popularity due to pretty obvious reasons and also prices for entertainment and general going out has gone up massively, all of those playing into this.

Will say though for the crowd in attendance, the atmosphere was still great and everyone was invested in what happened throughout the day and I can say that this is one of the most interactive shows I've been to in some time.

We had Chris East cut a pre-show speech encouraging everyone to have fun and be aware of people around them. He also announced that Callum Newman and Hustle Malone were off the show with injuries and that Corey McRae was now on the card.

Then we had our host for the afternoon, Adam East, come out. He works well as the host for the promotion as it is his baby and you couldn’t have GOOD without him.

Adam went around to mock the PROGRESS Owner’s ‘Mark Pictures’ and took one with the entire audience, including us lot. Now, I left my seat for a bit and when I returned the leg collapsed and I ended up falling on my fucking arse - to massive laughs from the crowd and a chant of “He fell on His arse, Iwan Mackenzie, he fell on his arse!”, from my mates. I felt like a proper tit, but all you can do is laugh and move on.

Kelly Sixx vs Dark Fruits Daddy vs Darcy Stone vs El Callum (Corey McRae)

We had a pre-match promo from Kelly Sixx, saying that because of his extra lockdown pounds he’s now been able to collect some heavyweight titles around the country and will be the heavyweight champion now GOOD doesn't have a champion.

He then proceeded to grab this ridiculously massive cardboard belt (almost as big as the RevPro Heavyweight Title) and says he’ll defend it right now, as Dark Fruits Daddy (aka David Grant) and Darcy Stone make their way out as well as Callum Newman’s Mexican Cousin “El Callum”, who had their doubters as he looked suspiciously like Corey McRae…

Sixx gives DFD a can of, you guessed it, Strongbow Dark Fruits and Darcy a couple of bottles of Pinot Grigio so he can start of with El Callum. The pair have a nice sequence before DFD makes his presence known and Darcy returns, having drank both bottles of wine, yet she was still fairly competent.

This was a lot of fun and did help set the tone for the afternoon to come. El Callum was stripped of his mask eventually, revealing it was actually Corey McRae all along. We had a tug-of-war over the cardboard, which eventually led to McRae double stomping off the stage to destroy it.

Sixx was distraught at this and took out all his competition but eventually his emotions got the better of him as Darcy Stone was able to pin him for the win and in Adam’s words “definitely not become the GOOD Heavyweight Champion”.

Gideon Grey vs Joshua James

We had the classic tune of Baba O'Riley, by The Who, play only to reveal it was Gideon Grey who then received massive boos - his Legion shirt didn't help.

He cut a pre-match promo saying that at a house party around Pete Townsend’s in the 70s he met a lesser known World of Sport wrestler called John Kearnley (I thought it may have been Ted Mental). He said that Kearnley taught him all kinds of holds and that he wanted to showcase them against an opponent. He also said that Brendan White and Micheal Oku weren’t available - insulting both beforehand - so his opponent for this demonstration would be Joshua James.

The bell rang and Gideon discussed what the ‘safe word’ will be, incase the pain gets too much for James. Gideon applies a number of holds to him and narrates what the move is and why it's effective.

Gideon gets a bit too cocky though and this pisses James off who eventually clocks him with a Forearm to create separation before the two go back and forth with chops. James was the more dominant wrestler in this area, but unfortunately for him, it didn't get him the win as Gideon gets a Cheeky Roll-Up on James for the pin.

This was a very funny match with both participants being presented as the comedy/straight act you’d see from comedy duos. It was great to see these two get out of their comfort zone and do something completely different, from what I’d see in RevPro, where I normally see these two.

We went to the First of Two Ten Minute Intervals after this.

Mad Kurt vs Harry Chapman

Back from break and it was time for GOOD’s version of Bret vs Owen (as Clive noted) as the Chapman Brothers collided. Kurt was definitely more of the mean big brother here, taking advantage of his younger sibling’s less experience.

But Harry was able to outshine him and even cut a better dab than him. Kurt’s mean streak cost him as he hit his hand on the post in the venue and Harry went to work on it, even inviting fans to give Kurt a high five - even saying “yes you, Iwan Mackenzie”, as I proceeded to give Kurt a Dunkzilla level high five.

Knowing that he was losing, Kurt grassed up Harry for not being 18 at an 18+ show, so both Nick the referee and Alan Boon asked for ID - Harry just flipped them the bird Instead.

Alan threw Harry out of the door as Nick started the ten count, only for Harry to return back to the ring at eight. Alan came back in looking very confused, this had me in absolute stitches of laughter.

A lot of chops here from the brothers to one another, that was shades of Kenta Kobashi vs Kensuke Sasaki if they were both made of pillows. This was followed up with the two jabbing each other in the eyes and accidentally jabbing Nick in the eye too.

With Nick distracted Kurt took Harry to Dick Kick City and hit a Roll-Up for the win. This was a really funny match, and first time properly seeing Harry who showcased himself well and was very funny in his own right.

Man Like Dereiss vs Tim Lee

We had Tim Lee come out through the doors and say that he turned up to the show in his own gear and was the sole representative of The B.A.D - even though they beat him up at the last show after revealing Chantal Jordan as the Fourth Member.

He said that he wanted a match and also took a shot at PROGRESS Management. His opponent was Dereiss who must have been running on fumes at this point, as he has already been in Birmingham, Liverpool and Leicester that weekend.

His entrance was fantastic, he got everyone to stand up whilst he did his customary rap and it honestly felt so cool, he was the coolest guy in the room right there.

Before the match, Tim had an attempt at battle rapping and all of his insults were off the top of his head, which were all very funny as he wasn’t very proficient at it.

Meanwhile, we had a temporary ring set up as four retractable tape barriers were used with ropes - with the Fans being asked to give them a push back when they ran the ropes - which me and fellow writers Mark and Dave did when Dereiss came to us.

However, the ring soon came apart as Tim decided to put his B.A.D training to use, whilst continuing the insults towards Dereiss.

The two then engaged in a long chop battle with Tim remarking “please sir, may I have some more?”, which got a chuckle out of me.

The two went back and forth and this was really engaging to watch and had the whole square focusing on these two. Our finish came when Tim attempted the so called “Tim Star Press” off the stage which was a massive Elbow Drop that Dereiss moved away from, Tim went crashing down on the mats.

A second later I had Dereiss climbing on top of my legs, with me holding him in place, he then dove off with a Senton Bomb, followed up with a Daddy Splash for the pin and win.

This was the best match of the show and quite honestly, one of the best matches I have watched live this year. In around 16 minutes, they told such an engaging story with so many different levels and elements that come together so wonderfully and highlighted with both guys larger than life personalities.

Warren Banks vs Danny Black

We had Danny Black enter to the classic tune of Backstreet Boys; “Everybody”. We thought this would be a regular match but it was actually set for ‘Four Refs’ as there would be four referees calling the action - regular ref Nick, Rob Brazier of Head Drop fame as our ‘hipster ref’ (bringing back the character from Lucha Britannia), Jerry Bakewell (who was announced as the ‘star of Britain's Got Talent’) and Blue Kane, which was a very deep cut but I appreciate it (he also came out to a remix of Eiffel 65’s ‘Blue’).

Nick had to catch up our refs about the rules very quickly, as they checked over the wrestlers, with Warren having a bottle of white wine upon his person whilst Danny Black had a pair of scissors (I did make a Blackburn joke).

Nick then taught all of them how to count a pin or check for submission as Warren and Danny finally locked up, but all the ref they kept getting in their way. And every time Blue Kane was provoked he went to Chokeslam them, with the other refs having to calm him down.

Danny was able to work around his surroundings and used the refs to his advantage, as he used them as ropes so he could do his Springboards and Handsprings, even battling with Warren outside of the square for a part of the match.

Unfortunately, Blue Kane was provoked and this led to disaster for the fellow refs as Nick was Chokeslammed into Rob and Jerry, with Warren and Danny now having to team up to take down the Big Blue Machine.

Eventually, Warren locked both Blue Kane and Jerry Bakewell into an Octopus Stretch whilst Danny locked in a Double Fujiwara Armbar on Nick and Rob as all the refs submitted and Danny and Warren were declared the winners.

After the Epic Dereiss/Lee match, this was a battle but the match used its unique concept to its fullest potential and, in between the comedy, the wrestling between Danny and Warren was really good. Another cracker of a bout on this show. We then went to our second break of the show.

Chuck Mambo vs Gene Munny

Gene did his customary belly flop into the No Ring which, in his words, “Fucking Sucked”. Sunshine Machine’s music played with TK looking a bit weary, as he revealed that he has a Bomb Rigged to him. Gene tried to escape but all the doors were locked, according to him, Turns out that it was Evil Chuck Mambo who had rigged up TK to explode in the next 15 minutes, with the crowd nominating Gadge as the time keeper - a role he was born for.

Gene was fighting to save TK’s life, with Evil Mambo being a million miles away from the normally happy Mambo we see every week. These two battled back and forth throughout, with Munny attempting a Powebomb but hitting Mambo’s head on the ceiling which led to several laughs from the Crowd.

Mambo got TK involved in the action by tying him up to the post (a lot of fourth wall breaks here from TK which was getting a laugh from everyone) as Gene nearly collide with TK on several occasions.

Eventually a transformation happened with the moustache coming off and our normal Mambo returning, only for Evil Gene Munny to appear with the moustache and, amongst other things, had a cigarette in his mouth. He then said how much he liked certain members of the British Conservative Party.

There was a switch back at one point, with Mambo returning back to evil before it changed again to evil Gene. At one point even TK became evil, but Gene and Mambo kicked him in the crown jewels to prevent that.

There were a lot of cool spots throughout this match as they got chairs involved. At one point Mambo dived across them to give Gene the Tornado DDT and also giving him a Frog Splash off one of the chairs. He also remarked that the mat was as stiff as RevPro’s rings.

Eventually Mambo got the win here and took the moustache off Munny to reveal that it was the moustache’s fault all along as it was corrupting our heroes. Mambo gave it a Rock Bottom and he and Gene took turns in destroying it.

TK was still set to blow so he sacrificed himself as he ran in slow motion to the back set to Foo Fighters “my hero” as Mambo and Munny tried to stop him. They got to the back as we heard a BOOM!

Mad Kurt came out in smoke, as he was caught in the rubble, and that was how we ended the show! A truly bonkers main event to end a bonkers show, but Gene and Mambo pulled this off, with TK being hilarious as the extra factor to this match.

Overall, this show does sound very mental, even just reading what I’ve written. It was very high concept and completely ridiculous. I can understand that this may not be people’s way of viewing wrestling, which is more than fair but in my opinion.

I see a lot of serious wrestling on the regular, you need these kinds of shows to break it up and present something different. I loved this show, it was a more than worthy sequel to their 2020 effort and I can’t wait for their next one in Camden on June 4th, which is happening after Super Strong Style 16!

Thank you so much for reading this and my other articles as always, hope you've enjoyed it. You can follow me on Instagram @IwanMack.

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