REVIEW: Purpose Wrestling - Fix Up Look Sharp
Credit: Purpose Wrestling
Purpose Wrestling: Fix Up Look Sharp
Merton Arts Space, London
Friday, February 11, 2022
Reviewer: Dave Sewell (@davesewell04)
It was back to Merton Arts Space in Wimbledon for Purpose Wrestling’s latest show. Taking my son along, I set up about 4:15pm, after dropping the oldest off at work. I parked at my work, which is handily quite near the tube station.
We reached Wimbledon around six-ish and had the normal pre-show McDonald’s and Starbucks before making our way to the venue to meet our friends and settle into our seats.
The show started by a ring announcer who is well know to Grapple Theory, Jessy, who was booked as a surprise for Amira Blair who was having her first match at Purpose.
Man Like Dereiss vs Billy Haze
Credit: Purpose Wrestling
The Lyrical Dragon was making his second Purpose appearance, after facing OJMO at the first show, up against Billy (no mates) Haze.
Billy must have had a good day as he wasn’t half as angry as he normally is. Dereiss came out with his normal rap, which always goes down well with the crowd.
Dereiss started off strong, outmuscling Billy quite easily - including a blistering chop which prompted the classic song “His chest is on fire” - to which Dereiss replied, “You know what’s on fire? My merch!”.
Anyway, Billy had his time to take control following an eye rake and towards the end almost got his first Purpose win with a top rope shotgun drop kick followed by a frog splash.
It wasn’t to be though and when Dereiss hit a sit down powerbomb, pump kick and 450 splash to pick up a popular win.
There was due to be a six-man tag match taking place, that was until OJMO cracked Solomon Lamb in the back with a chair, followed by one to the leg while said leg was trapped in the chair.
David Francisco and James Toner came out to chase him off with the match now set for later one in the show.
Brendan White vs Connor Mills
Credit: Purpose Wrestling
This bout started off with Brendan throwing Connor around a bit, but Mills is too good to be beaten up for long and launches a fiery comeback.
There’s a real heart in mouth moment when Connor massively overshot a suicide dive but thankfully got up pretty quickly, much to everyone’s relief.
The match continued with Connor gaining the advantage on the outside with some brutal MMA-style kicks. I did actually think Brendan had this one late on when he hit a German Suplex, standing moonsault/crossface combo.
Mills managed to stretch his leg back enough to reach the ropes and landed a 450 to the back and hit White with the Burning Hammer for the win.
NIC (Oisin Delaney and Charlie Carter) vs North West Strong (Luke Jacobs and Chris Ridgeway)
Credit: Purpose Wrestling
Let me start off by saying if it weren’t for his tattoos I wouldn’t have recognised the newly head-shaven Chris Ridgeway.
This match was brutal for poor Oisin Delaney, who bore the brunt of the pain that NWS were dishing out. It was the North West hard-hitters who started well in control, Riddy landed numerous thunderous roundhouse kicks to the spine of Delaney.
Carter made a blind tag to give Delaney some much needed respite when he could hardly stand any longer, his back was a mess.
This led to a spell of NIC pressure but it was not too much for Riddy and Jacobs to overcome. Highlights included both NIC members taking deafening chops from Jacobs and kicks from Riddy.
But the heel faction had an ace up their sleeves as Destination Everywhere pal OJMO ended up on the apron to distract the ref, meanwhile both members of the NIC were tapping out in the ring without the ref noticing.
NWS then hit their huge finisher of Delaney but OJMO once again interfered, pulling the referee out after the two-count.
While he’s distracted, Connor Mills reappears to hit Jacobs in the head and drags Delaney over him for the pin and an undeserved win.
I can’t recommend this match highly enough and you really should watch it when it, hopefully, drops on YouTube.
Hyan vs Ava
Credit: Purpose Wrestling
This match was originally meant to see returning American star Hyan take on Skye Smitson but Skye unfortunately had to pull out of the contest (get well soon Skye).
Her replacement, Ava came out to a much less heated response than at some of her appearances for EVE on the other side of the capital - and we didn’t even get a pre-match speech from her.
However, some similarities did come up from her time at EVE. At one point she had Hyan in an abdominal stretch and reached for the ropes to get more pressure on it. However, like at the last EVE show, the ref spotted her and she was given a telling off.
Ava did cheat for the win, making the pin with her feet on the ropes, which was surprising as Hyan had looked a step ahead of her the entire contest. This was a perfectly good match.
Amira Blair, Jay Joshua and James Toner vs David Francisco, Safire Reed and Dan Moloney
Credit: Purpose Wrestling
As previously mentioned, Amira Blair was making her Purpose in-ring debut and got a huge ovation - having been in a social media feud with Francisco until she was booked.
Mad Kurt, who was a late replacement for Nino Bryant (get well soon Nino), has little brother Harry in tow for this one - or so we thought. Dan Moloney marched out and held Harry back before beating up Kurt and his brother for good measure.
Later on they came back with Drilla’s trunks, it sounds weird but watch the video back and it will make sense.
The match began with Amira and Francisco, the rivalry we’d all been waiting to see, before both tagged out to let Jay Joshua and Drilla respectively take over.
The highlight for me was watching Safire Reed wrestling absolute rings around Joshua and Toner. She hit a flatliner and submission on Amira for the win, much to the disappointment of the crowd.
Before the main event there was an announcement for the next show, Into The Light, which will see three stacked matches take place: David Francisco vs Man Like Dereiss, Doug Williams vs Connor Mills and Nino Bryant vs OJMO.
Jordon Breaks vs Nico Angelo
Credit: Purpose Wrestling
It was main event time and another pretty good match which you really need to watch in order to do it justice. Being that this show took place in a library it was fitting that a book was used to good effect.
The finish came when Nico went for a shooting star press which Breaks caught and applied a Kimura on for the submission win.
Another great Purpose show, the promotion really seems to have hit it’s groove and be making its own little community in South West London.
Another big bonus was spotting Lizzy Evo and Rhio in attendance to watch the show.