BritWres Matches Of the Year: #25-21
Our regular reviewer Iwan Mackenzie has been counting down his favourite BritWres matches of the year. Yesterday we revealed 30-26, you can read that article here, and now it’s time for 25-21! Take it away Iwan…
Here we go, the next five on my best matches of 2021 list!
25. Brady Phillips, Will Kroos & Blake vs Nathan Cruz, Myles Kayman & Sean Kustom – WrestleCarnival “CarnivalMania” (14/11/21)
Credit: Wrestle Carnival
Unfortunately, this is the only time that these guys appear on my list as they’re not wrestlers I get to see often living down south, with my regular promotion being RevPro.
But I love seeing talent that I don’t normally see anywhere else, so when this match was announced, it had my attention immediately.
A fantastically paced match, that took it’s time and paid the audience off by the time the big spots and action happened.
Big shoutout’s need to go to pretty much all six guys for making this match as good as it was, but especially Will Kroos, Brady Phillips and Nathan Cruz who are guys that need to be booked a lot more across the wider BritWres scene.
24. Gisele Shaw vs Hyan: 2-Out-Of-3 Falls Match for the RevPro British Women’s Championship – RevPro “High Stakes 2021” (19/09/21)
Credit: Rev Pro
A match that I felt got left out of the conversation of the best matches of this York Hall show (more on those later).
When reviewing the show for Graps and Claps Audio, I wanted to make sure this match was given the appropriate credit and I’ll give it here as well.
Hyan’s short stay of the UK wasn’t always the most spectacular but she was someone who impressed me, as RevPro embroiled her in a feud with a familiar face in Gisele Shaw over the British Women’s Title.
These two had already scored a win over each other in Huntingdon and Southampton respectively, so after the challenge was laid out in Manchester, these two faced off in one of London’s most well-known venues in a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match.
The first fall went to Shaw as she went to town on Hyan’s arm, so the second fall was Hyan’s struggle to equalise the scores which she did, as the final portion of the match became a slug fest that everyone got invested in, before Shaw was able to secure that final fall to retain her championship.
A terrific match and a fitting way for Hyan to end her tour of the UK and on here birthday of all things.
23. Nico Angelo vs Billy Haze - Purpose Wrestling “Puppies are Forever” (10/12/21)
Credit: Purpose Wrestling
Another match between two friends to appear on this list, these two had lived with each other for a long time during the various lockdowns and clearly had worked on various spots and parts of a match that they could produce together for a very long time.
They finally got that chance to showcase their wrestling in a Library in South London.
An absolute cracker of a match that blew everyone away that night, Nico came in here with his signature high flying but also a lot of aggression that worked for him.
Billy’s crazy Lucha inspired submissions combined with some brutal moves around Nico’s head added to the match. Worth checking this one out folks.
22. Rhio vs Chakara: TCW Women’s Championship Match – TIDAL “Faster, Faster, Angry, Angry” (28/08/21)
Credit: Tidal Wrestling
The opener to TIDAL’s second show of the day in Batley featured two of the most underrated talents in the whole country in an absolute cracker of a match.
This match had my attention from the moment the bell rang. The story here was Rhio targeting Chakara’s shoulder using a lot of really good ground submissions and Chakara having to fight through the pain in order to even get a chance of holding the TCW Women’s Championship.
A fantastic match that was right down my alley with the style they were going for, credit needs to be given to both women. Chakara for playing a great heel against Gia Adams in the afternoon show of this double header and then such a great underdog babyface in this match, and Rhio who had wrestled Ivy in the afternoon and after this match, travelled to Liverpool to compete for TNT Extreme Wrestling!
21. Kieron Lacey vs Oli Peace: 2-Out-Of-3 Falls Match – WrestleForce “Halloween Special in Dagenham” (30/10/21)
Credit: Wrestle Force
WrestleForce is a touring family friendly promotion travelling all over the South of England, touring with a fairly regular roster and normally putting on five matches at a time, with an emphasis on goodies vs baddies.
A lot of promotions in this vein have traditionally been looked down upon by you’re more traditional ‘Indie’ style fanbase; but I do feel since their comeback this year WrestleForce have been really good at combining the traditional family friendly style of presentation with a more modern style of wrestling.
Nothing has emphasised this kore than this series of matches between Oli Peace and Kieron Lacey. Peace trained Lacey via the WrestleForce Academy, so they’ve always been really good sparring partners, and it lead to a match in Shoeburyness back in July that Peace won.
A rematch took place in Loughton (that I was live for, and was a very good match in its own right) that Peace also won, with Lacey only getting a victory over his mentor when him and regular partner Mark Trew beat Peace and K.M. Lane with the Tag Team Title’s on the line, , which all led to this special 2-out-of-3 Falls Match on the night before Halloween.
Now why all this explanation for this match, simple answer: It needs it. As this match with the backstory becomes all the better, these two told a really intelligent story here and it didn’t insult the audience as everyone got into it.
So when Lacey is able to finally beat his mentor in the third deciding fall, it means so much. My favourite spot of this whole match though, is something so simple yet effective; It’s when Peace is on the back foot and just rakes Lacey’s eyes out of frustration and then plays it off as a mistake.
Tomorrow we crack the top 20 matches. Check back for those…