Review: Bodyslam Wrestling - Anarchy in the D.K.
Credit: @bodyslamwrestling
Bodyslam Pro Wrestling: Anarchy in the D.K.
Pumpehuset, Copenhagen, Denmark
November 19, 20201
Reviewer: Simon Rasmussen (@pacormur)
It is a typical Danish wrestling crowd, if slightly larger than usual, meaning that it consists of a mix of complete newcomers, wrestling fans who have brought a few of their friends and small pockets of die- hards.
As a result, words such as Impact and AJPW did not mean much to most of the crowd, but there was an atmosphere of fun and excitement throughout the evening.
Ender Kara vs Francesco Akira
Credit: @bodyslamwrestling
This was originally supposed to be a triple threat, but Hype Boy was injured during training. ‘The Turkish Assassin’ Ender Kara is a known heel on the Copenhagen scene.
However as ‘Fireball’ Francisco was new to the Danish crowd, they were initially unsure who to cheer, as the two engaged in cruiserweight action.
Kara starts garnering boos when he chokes Akira in the corner and the crowd cheers ‘Fireball’ as he fights out of an octopus hold. The two trade big beautiful moves until Akira catches Kara with a tiger driver and wins.
Great opener, Akira was surprisingly popular with the crowd considering that he was unknown to most of the fans. Ender Kara is one of the best cruiserweights in Scandinavia and the match got some of the loudest reactions of the night.
Gabriel Faust and ??? vs Toby Zane and Hunyadi Tamás
Faust probably has the best face and body paint in Danish wrestling and we still do not know who his partner will be.
Eternal underdog and crowd favourite ‘My Little Toby’ is cheered, but the audience is unsure how to feel about his partner, Hungarian soldier Hunyadi Tamás, but cheer as he smiles and salutes.
To the crowd’s confusion, Tamás’ music plays again. Swerve! Tamas the traitor clotheslines Toby from behind and the bell rings as the two villains beat down Zane.
The crowd are behind Toby, chanting “Toby are you o.k.” to the tune of Smooth Criminal. Toby manages to counter a double superplex into a cross-body but, his offence is stopped by Tamás.
After the bad guys hit Zane with a modified Doomsday Device, the lights go out and suddenly badass babyface, Emeritus is in the ring and cleaning house, allowing Toby to pick up the win. Toby soaks up the cheers as the chants let us know that “Toby is all o.k.”
The quietest moments of the night were while Toby got his butt kicked, making the crowd explosion when Emeritus appeared, seem all the louder.
Carlos Zamora vs Doug Williams
Credit: @bodyslamwrestling
The crowd are again unsure of whom to cheer. Carlos, who comes out wearing a Danish football shirt, has mainly been portrayed as a talented bad guy in BPW and Williams is largely unknown to the crowd but imposing.
The lack of clear alignments did not take away from the excitement of the crowd who were treated to some amazing British-style catch wrestling and a lot of beautifully executed moves.
Eventually, Zamora becomes too cocky (singing Sweet Caroline while slapping Williams’ belly after a backbreaker) and the crowd begins cheering Williams. Carlos misses a senton bomb allowing Doug to win with his Chaos Theory.
They express their respect for one another. Zamora refers to himself and Williams as anarchists, which seems odd to the fans who have mainly known Carlos as a reality tv star turned bad guy wrestler. However, the crowd applaud them both, in appreciation of a great technical match.
Session Moth Martina vs Aliss Ink
Credit: @bodyslamwrestling
The audience is happy to party along when Martina comes out to Darude’s Sandstorm. However, following Aliss’ great showing at the Scandigraps invitational, the crowd is firmly behind her, chanting “Aliss gonna’ kill you” to which Moth replies “I know!”
Indeed, Aliss’ MMA offence is highly effective against Martina who only occasionally gains the upper hand after taking sips of her beer. However, she goes to this well once too often and receives a devastating kick and gets pinned.
A fun little match, if too short for the crowd to fully get into it, but the abrupt finish did make Aliss’ kick seem very deadly. After the match, Martina announces that there will be a Bodyslam women’s championship and parties with the crowd on her way out.
Main event – 5 on 5 Mystery Survivor Match
Credit: @bodyslamwrestling
Two members of each team in this elimination match have not been announced before the event. We are told that the partners of the popular comedy heels, Easy Loverz will be announced last.
“Get High Bad Guy” Michael Fynne is joined by the massively popular Mokai-drinkers, RandersPagne. Fynne’s usual partner, Tank is injured so the faces are joined by goofy tag-team therapist Torben Liphlich and Emeritus.
Easy Lovers are beloved heels, so we need someone to hate, enter Sveriges Elite. How to be hated villains in Denmark: Step 1 - be Swedish. … that’s about it. Returning heels Steinbolt and Harley Rage are met by thunderous fury from the Danish crowd.
Liphlich is immediately eliminated, and the heels dominate 5 on 4. The teams trade eliminations, but the heels remain in control until Steinbolt is DQ’d for using a chair and the faces eliminate Harley Rage leaving two faces and Easy Loverz’ Bam Bam Quaade.
As they are about to win, the referee is pulled out and the Loverz set up a table and cover it in Lego blocks (I know wrestlers who will not rely on national stereotypes and they’re all cowards). Assisted by Session Moth Martina the faces manage to put Bam Bam through his own table.
Faces get the win and Martina joins RandersPagne in a Mokaï Bash. A fun main event to close out a great show.
Throughout the show the energy level of the audience ranged from very excited to completely bananas, with no moments of quiet.
I would like to have seen the women’s match be longer, but as Martina later revealed that her wrist had been sprained it is probably for the best that it was not.
Bodyslam presented a card full of great in-ring wrestling to a rabid Danish audience and delivered a big main event which left the crowd partying.