REVIEW: Pro Wrestling EVE - Global Women Strike 3

Pro Wrestling EVE: Global Women Strike 3
The 229, London
Saturday, April 23, 2022
Reviewer: Iwan Mackenzie & Dave Lovell (@Iwanmack & @itsDaveJaVu)

Iwan: I had my dinner at home before heading over to the venue, got to London Bridge around 18:45, and got on the Jubilee Line which was surprisingly quiet considering the Fury/White event at Wembley was on at the same time. Got to Baker Street and stocked up on drinks at the Co-Op in the station before walking down to the Green Man to meet Dave and Chris - Adam, Dave and Paul would meet us in her afterwards.

It was particularly busy here due to them showing sport, and with Tottenham vs Brentford having finished before I got there and with it being a Saturday night, the Bar was very busy, with only three members of staff on meaning I was waiting 15 minutes to be served. The Green Man truly is a terrible pub, avoid it if you're in the Great Portland Street Area.

Dave: Their steak sandwich was particularly sublime. Toilets were as bad as I remember them.

Iwan: We got in the venue just before 8pm, already having our seats reserved so no worry there. As far as attendance goes, pretty much every seat was filled but the main bar area was very quiet through the show which is normally full for these shows. The show also started around 20-25 minutes late.

Dave: I got in a few minutes before bell time, and waited... of course, EVE running fashionably late. However, Dann was there to address a couple of changes; Lizzy Evo was out injured and Max the Impaler was still travelling. While the business end of the card seemed unaffected, the first half seemed in disarray.

Rhio vs Ivy

Iwan: Ivy wasn’t sure why she was facing her supposed ‘best friend’ in Rhio, but Dann said that Rhio requested this match. A large portion of the opening of this was Ivy making remarks and trying to be friends, all very funny stuff.

This was a fun opener, both women are comfortable working with one another and it generally did the job. We had Rhio win this with the Purple Haze off the ropes.

Dave: For what could be perceived as a "match for the sake of a match" this was a solid, entertaining opener between two wrestlers I particularly enjoy watching. Rhio wins this in about nine minutes, it was a fine opener.

Iwan: We had Lolo Brow come in to host the show afterwards, she was running late herself. She was very entertaining in her role all night and kept it lively, only issue is that we’d already had a late start and now we’re effectively getting a second start and at this point, I just wanted the show to get going.

Session Moth Martina vs The Ava

Dave: Another match that didn't entirely outstay its welcome, at about nine minutes as well. Probably my least favourite match of the night, not that I thought it was bad, I just found myself not particularly engaged - chalk that down to the card being forced to change, I suppose.

Iwan: Ava had a pre-match promo calling herself a ‘globe trotting star’ - despite the fact she only went to Belfast - and said that she was going to clean up Martina.

Martina also remarked that she looked different from the pictures, still thinking that it was Max the Impaler. This was a bit dull in my opinion, I find both women have a very set formula and unfortunately never go away from it too often.

The problem is, when you see these two very regularly you do notice it more and more and it becomes a bit tiresome quickly. I do think Ava is improving a lot though, and I will say with Martina that even though the Session Moth character is still over with the audience, I personally think she should try and change it up at some point. We had Martina win this with a Springboard Seshbreaker.

Emersyn Jayne vs Skye Smitson

Iwan: Fellow Grapple Theory reviewer Dave Sewell had produced a sign which read “Smitson sucks”, which Skye destroyed upon entrance and bonked Dave over the head with, which he deserved.

Pre-Match promo by Smitson bringing up Emersyn and what she did in the past with her tag partner Rhia O’Reilly. She then directed her view towards Debbie Dahmer, who was in the audience, and had a go at her. As Debbie headed to the ring she asked the audience if she should go in to confront Smitson.

Dahmer did not receive a reaction to this question, nor did she when Smitson attacked her once she came in. From my perspective, Dahmer’s return to EVE has been a bad idea. Her run in EVE came before the newer fans brought in for the first WrestleQueendom arrived and now coming back here hasn’t shown her in the best light over the last few months, with most of her matches not really getting much of a reaction. I don’t feel the crowd really have any investment in her as a character.

Anyways back onto the match, whilst there was good parts to this match, I do feel that it didn’t come together as a complete package, which is a bit of a disappointment considering the two names involved. It didn’t help that the atmosphere felt hampered here as well.

I will say that even though Emersyn is a great wrestler, her face character has been stale for a long while now and something does need to change for her, maybe a heel turn as she is a very entertaining bad guy. We had Emersyn win this with a Low Angle Powerbomb.

Dave: The in-ring was really decent but I'm not sure about what I think about Debbie Dahmer's involvement at ringside. Are we looking at a reunited BAE Club chasing for the Uprising's EVE Tag Team Titles in the future? Who knows, but it looked like we could be veering in that direction.

Iwan: We went to our Interval after this, which after three matches did feel very odd and the break seemed to go for ages, with no wrestlers out for a chat either which made it feel longer.

We had only the images of TK and Mambo as Hogan and Warrior at Resurgence to entertain us. At one point, they said we’d be back in four minutes, ten minutes later and we were back…

Millie McKenzie vs Nina Samuels

Dave: The two NXT UK campaigners delivered exactly what you'd expect from them; a little bit of silliness at times moulded into a solid back and forth wrestling match. It was Millie who picked up the win in around ten minutes.

Iwan: This was a fun match between two women who feel very much wasted within the Enfield prison. There was a fun running spot as they went all over the building in the style of Benny Hill and ended up on the stage where Millie outsmarted Nina, but Nina fought back by pulling her, hair first, off the top rope.

After much domination from Nina, Millie fought back and hit back the Spear for the win. Whilst these two work well together, at this point I did feel the show needed a boost to get going.

Shoko Nakajima vs Alex Windsor

Dave: Now, the match I was looking forward to most on paper, as Alex Windsor, riding a crest of a wave in 2022 as one of the best UK wrestlers going, squared off against reigning TJPW Princess of Princess Champion, Shoko Nakajima.

Sweet Jesus, this was an incredible match! Fast-paced, physical, athletic and able to get everyone in 229 cheering for one of the participants or the other.

Despite Shoko only being 4' 10", "The Big Kaiju" is a fantastic wrestler and was able to showcase that while at the same time, Alex was able to be the bigger, more dominant foil.

This went dangerously close to the wire but, as the 20 minute time limit loomed on the horizon, Shoko picked up the win with less than a minute remaining and the crowd gave this one a standing ovation.

I personally hope that; 1) Shoko can return to the UK soon, as she was a joy to watch live, and 2) that this opens the door for Alex to head over to Japan at some point.

My match of the night, and definitely in my top ten matches of 2022 so far!

Iwan: This was the shot in the arm the Show needed. This match, simply, put was incredible from start to finish and over the course of nearly 20 minutes stole the show and put on one of the best matche of the year.

Dave will have put it in better words than me but this match was strength against speed as Windsor, as the much bigger wrestler, was able to use her strength to wear down Nakajima and throw her around quite a bit. But Nakajima’s fight back was believable and engaging, very much in the style of a Rey Mysterio.

As the time limit counted down, it was Shoko’s Diving Senton Bomb off the ropes that had all the accuracy of a Tom Daley dive onto Windsor to pick up the win and earn a well deserved standing ovation.

Emi Sakura vs Charlie Morgan

Iwan: I did feel bad for these two having to follow an incredible match like Windsor vs Nakajima, but these two are that popular with the EVE crowd that they kept the momentum going and delivered a very different match from what had came before.

This was a story of Charlie having to earn Emi’s respect, as the Killer Queen of Wrestling was showing off arrogance in the face of the fellow former EVE Champion.

Lots of really good exchanges of holds and submissions, some nice strikes with real aggression behind him and a fantastic looking dive from Charlie to Emi that was pretty sweet.

In the end though, it was Emi winning this with the Double Underhook Spin Out Buster. I do have to say that I think this was the best match Charlie Morgan has had since her return last August, she looked fantastic here and truly felt like the Charlie Morgan of the EVE glory days of 2017-2018.

Between this and her excellent tag match at the last EVE show, I’m looking forward to seeing what she does next and what her SHE-1 campaign looks like.

Dave: This was, almost by design, a slower tempo match compared to the previous bout, but that was fine. Since her return to wrestling at Wrestle Queendom 4, back in August 2021, I feel that Charlie's journey in EVE has been a slow burner.

This match was one of her sternest tests to date; and with Emi Sakura, whose own career spans more than a quarter of a century. The phrase "sternest test to date" isn't hyperbolic in the slightest. On this night, the Killer Queen bested the Ace, as Emi picked up the victory in about 13 minutes.

As far as that "stern test" was concerned, Charlie passed with flying colours, even in defeat, and as an unabashed Emi Sakura fan for north of a decade now, it was so cool to see her live once again, and hope she can once again become a regular attraction on these higher-profile EVE shows at the 229.

Jetta (c) vs Kasey - EVE Championship Match

Dave: Now, this is a strange duck of a match to talk about. Kasey's been injured, which led to her being stripped of the International Championship, and she's not been back very long at all - it was clear she's still getting back into the swing of things.

So understandably, there were some awkward parts of this match, but it didn't veer into total disaster. However, as the show was running later than expected, I saw some fans having to leave to pick up the last trains and the like, which must be super frustrating for those fans.

Jetta was able to pick up the win in 14 minutes to retain the title, but I believe these two did as well as they could in spite of the circumstances.

I'd love to see these two revisit this down the line, I just believe that this main event title bout was fated to just be good, not great.

Iwan: We had Kasey out for a promo beforehand where she called out Max the Impaler, which will be a match down the line that should be interesting. She said that she’s still the International Champion because she never lost it and said that she’ll finally beat Jetta tonight for EVE’s top championship.

This match did start off very slow, which was worrying me as we finally had the momentum going and it needed to reach a climax for the main event. Thankfully, once the aggression was upped from Kasey the match became a really good one.

I was drawn in by the aggression from Kasey coupled with Jetta’s great selling, emphasised by Jetta’s Andrew W.K.-eque bloody nose.

Jetta’s comeback was well realised and did draw people in, which made the finish of Jetta winning with a Roll-Up earn a big reaction from the crowd. Kasey attacked her afterwards before Charlie and Alex ran out to run Kasey off and end the show with Jetta on top.

This was a very good main event but it didn’t live up the great heights that these two can and have done together plus coming after two hot matches didn’t help either.

Post Show:

Iwan: Met a majority of the talent on the show, got a group picture with Alex Windsor in our Alex Windsor shirts. We ended up getting out past midnight as Emi Sakura’s queue was pretty huge and in all fairness to her, she made time for everyone and thanked us last few for waiting so long.

Dave: To emphasise my point about international talent being a hook, the post-show meet and greet saw huge lines for both Shoko and Emi - so much so, I left the building way past midnight, nearly an hour after the show ended, because of said huge lines!

I bought an 8x10 from Shoko, and it was a meeting between a Big Kaiju and a self-confessed ‘massive bear’ - I'm 6' 3" tall, for the record! I also bought an 8x10 from Emi, who beat me in that time honoured ChocoPro tradition - a game of Janken - much to the joy of my so-called associates, the cads/bounders!

Overall Thoughts:

Dave: Overall, it was an enjoyable night. My favourite matches were Alex/Shoko, which was a brilliant athletic wrestling contest able to tap into the size differential of both wrestlers well; Emi/Charlie, which was a very entertaining bout with two of my favourite wrestlers today; and Millie/Nina, which was a very solid ten minute match between two of the best to compete for EVE in recent years.

The first two matches in that top three emphasise a point I've been making in regards to EVE - once international travel, especially from Japan, was able to be relaxed in the wake of the pandemic, a vital tool in EVE's arsenal, to be a landing point for some of the best female wrestlers from around the world, would be available to them, adding so much more variety and unique selling points to the promotion and its shows.

Iwan: Overall as a show, it was a show of two halves with the first half being very run of the mill with nothing that really lit the world alight. As soon as Windsor/Nakajima happened, the show did instantly pick up massively and that coupled with Morgan/Sakura was a great combo with a very good main event as well.

I will say that the timings of this show did affect my mood as well as it was getting later and later and it felt like barely anything had happened. But, overall it was a good night out with a match that I would consider high in my best live matches of the year.

Thanks for reading the review, you can follow us both on Instagram @IwanMack and @itsdavejavu

REVIEW: Pro Wrestling EVE - Global Women Strike 3

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