Review: Wrestling Resurgence: Resurgence Rumble

Wrestling Resurgence: Resurgence Rumble
The Y Theatre, Leicester
Saturday, August 6, 2022
Reviewer: Jamie Walker (@walker_this_way)

We all love a good rumble don’t we? And so with the ultimate prize, the Wrestling Resurgence title, on the line I made my way to Leicester for wrestling’s greatest creation - the free-for-all over the top rope battle royale.

After an exquisite birthday dinner of Taco Bell - that’s right I’m fancy as fuck - I made my way to the beautiful Y Theatre, which really is stunning and a perfect home for Resurgence, for a great night of graps.

Mad Kurt opened proceedings and announced he’d be ring announcing for tonight’s show. We all know how good Kurt is on the mic so it wasn’t a surprise that he absolutely smashed it.

Although he wasn’t so thrilled about announcing one of the participants in our first match…

Man Like Dereiss (c) vs Kid Lykos vs Hari Singh - Arthouse Championship Match

Dereiss so over with this crowd, he’s going to be a star and you need to check him out if you can. Nico Angelo, who along with Lykos II accompanied Lykos to the ring, took pleasure in messing with Kurt before the match started. Dereiss was also intent on staring down Kurt when the gave a lacklustre introduction to the champ.

Lykos and Hari started the contest, after Lykos had knocked dereiss out of the ring, where Nico attacked him. A sequence of drop kicks and tosses got the crowd nice and loud before a face off between.

Dereiss is star no way around it, he’s athletic, charismatic and have a move set to rival any of the top stars in the world. Lykos was happy to hang outside the ring until the opportune moment and then all three members of Lykos Gym attacked Hari.

Later Dereiss knocks all of them out himself and hits a huge powerbomb on Lykos for two. Later on there was a weird moment where Lykos and Dereiss teamed up on Hari but he fought out of it and nearly pins Lykos.

Lykos hits his signature brainbuster on Dereiss, who kicks out. The finish comes after a mix up between Hari and Dereiss, Lykos hits Hari with the belt and pins him to win title.

It was definitely a huge surprise to see Dereiss drop belt so early on in his reign. Dereiss argues with Hari after but they shake hands and Hari suggests they reunited as a team.

This was an excellent contest to open the show and the surprise ending would definitely set the mood for the rest of the show.

Chris Ridgeway vs Leon Slater

I think we were all excited when Leon Slater answered Riddy’s open challenge, there’s a reason he’s one of the hottest prospects in British Wrestling at the moment, he’s got everything it takes to be a top star.

Ridgeway, on the other hand, doesn’t need any more help being over. He looks insanely good coming out with all gold - so much so that Mad Kurt can’t even keep track of it all when he introduced him.

Riddy wastes no time taking him Leon to the mat, but Slater proves with every reversal that he won’t go down that easy. Ridgeway does a great job of working the leg, taking away Leon’s high flying offence.

Leon fights back even gets a couple of two counts, but as he goes to top rope Riddy pushes referee LK into the ropes to stop him.

Riddy was on topfrom then and looks to have closed it out but Leon won’t stay down. One big suplex later and it’s all over, Leon gave a great account of himself and gets a huge ovation - he’ll be a star, you just watch!

The Munnywood Blondes (Gene Munny and….Gene Munny?) vs Bowl-A-Rama (Splits McPins and LK Mezinger)

Once again the Munnyverse has been opened and this time Hollywood Gene Munny and his partner…umm…Hollywood Gene Munny have left their wrestling territories to come to Resurgence.

They take on the bowling mad duo of Splits and LK Mezinger in a match which, as usual, delivers on comedy to a tee.

There’s no words for how sexy the Munnywood Blondes are, I’m surprised bowlarama can even focus on the match, they’ve even got the grizzled voices nailed.

Gene (the real one) struggles to get Splits and LK’s bowling balls out the ring, as does the second one, but Bowl-A-Rama manage with ease.

Slaps and woos aplenty early on, and I thought Flair had retired. Inevitably, the wigs the two Munny’s are wearing fall off as the intensity of the match continues.

The Blondes resort to dirty tactics which turns the crowd on the side of Bowl-A-Rama. LK attacks them both and Gene 2 loses his wig - oh my gosh it’s Elijah! What a shock!

Despite their opponents being wigless, Bowl can’t get the pin. There’s a brilliant moment where the Blondes try to end the match but Elijah can’t remember the move. Gene takes a bowling ball to his own balls, it was more of a throw than a roll it must’ve hurt. Somehow they fight back with a double Ainsley Lariat for the pin.

As usual with a Munnyverse match this delivered both technically and in terms of pure laughs. This new storyline has given Munny plenty to work with and has got him flexing his funny bone to its fullest.

Kanji vs Lizzy Evo

Kurt winds up Lizzy before match starts which is brilliant, making jokes about her age. Don’t tell her I said this but she’s not old and she definitely can go.

Kanji and Kurt put on their beat Scouse accents to aggravate her even further and then the crowd get involved as well. Lizzy spends the start avoiding anything Kanji tries but eventually Kanji gets her hands on Lizzy and looks to be in control.

A Clotheslines off every rope follows but Lizzy won’t fall. The Scouse star then takes control herself by flinging Kanji into the corner with power. She can’t get the pinfall despite having her opponent prone in ring, but like Liverpool in the Champions League final last year, her failure to take chances costs her.

Kanji locks in the Triangle Choke which Lizzy rolls out of but Kanji topples her with a few punches and locks it in again and Lizzy taps.

There’s a surprise handshake after the match too which was nice. What a return for Kanji. She goes for a post-match promo but the lights go out and Ridgeway enters. They shake hands but then Riddy then attacks her, leaving her laying in the ring. Kanji calls him out afterwards and sets up an epic encouter down the line.

After the interval and the raffle it’s time for the main event…..the Resurgence Rumble…

Resurgence Rumble

Tommy Kyle enters at number one and Mad Kurt announces himself as number two with low blow to Tommy. Kurt takes control of the match, all while still announcing the next entries - even when Nico Angelo and Lykos II enter at three and four and team up on him.

Kurt tries and fails with a Brainbusters and then gets hit by one himself before being eliminated. He then rushes off, probably to catch the last train, and Lykos takes over the announcing.

Spike enters to a good ovation, as a face in Resurgence, and gets some banter from Lykos II about looking a bit sunburned after having just returned from holiday.

This is a looooong match so I’ll be noting the entry and eliminations for a while and just adding in any extra special moments. Here we go:

- Evie Madden enters
- Chocolate Thunder enters - as I write this Thunder has just announced his non-Hodgkins Lymphoma diagnosis, we wish he a speedy recovery and all the best with his treatment!
-Jim Diehard enters
- Tommy Kyle out (by Jim Diehard)
- Elijah enters, as himself this time, to Gene chants
- Nico eliminated (by Elijah) then saves Lykos II from the same fate, but it wouldn’t last…
- Lykos II eliminated (by Elijah)
- Evie Madden eliminated (by Jim Diehard)
- Mercedez Blaze enters and takes down Diehard with a low blow
- Chocolate Thunder is eliminated (by Mercedez Blaze)
- Gia Adams enters and knocks Diehard to the mat to a huge cheer
- Diehard eliminated (a group effort capped off by Elijah) - Diehard would then return and powerbomb Elijah before eliminating him.
- Elijah eliminated (by Jim Diehard)
- Ivy enters - she milks her entry a bit too much, bragging about how she’s gonna win the title and Gia and Mercedez team up to attack her, not Ivy’s finest hour.
- Clementine enters
- Gene Munny enters
- Man Like Dereiss enters, to one of the pops of the night
- Ivy eliminated (missed by who)
- Gia eliminated (missed by who)
- Clementine eliminated (missed by who)
- Commander Stephanie Sterling enters but their intro is short lived, they take everyone down and cuts their fabulous introduction promo before Mercedez ruins the fun.
- Commander eliminated (by Mercedez Blaze)
- Kira Chimera enters
- Gene Munny eliminated (by Mercedez Blaze)
- Taonga enters
- Cle-MAN-tine enters wearing a fake moustache to ‘He’s A Man’, then come the Cle-MAN-tine chants
- Tate Mayfairs enters
- Kira Chimera eliminated
- Taonga eliminated (by Mercedez Blaze)
- Mercedez eliminated (by Dereiss) - Mercedez was definitely the star of this rumble she looked incredible and got loads of eliminations.

That takes us to the final four; Spike, Mayfairs, Clem and Dereiss.

If you haven’t seen a Resurgence Rumble before then this is the stage where the rumble itself stops and the match becomes a four way eliminator to crown the champion.

Tate calls out Clem for having a fake moustache and rips it off to the shock of everyone in attendance but more shocks were still to come.

Spike saves Clem from Tate’s brass knuckles but then then turns on her and knocks her out with the knuckles as he and Tate stand over her for the pin.

Cle-MAN-tine Elimianted

Dereiss then takes out Mayfairs to make it a straight one on one battle between himself and Trivet.

Taye Mayfairs Eliminated

Tate comes back and and attacks Dereiss to put Spike on top. This battle rages on for a few minutes until Spike once again goes for the brass knuckles.

Hari Singh gets a huge pop as he comes out and rips the knuckles out of Spike’s hand - but then the ultimate SHOCK. Hari knocks Dereiss out with the knuckles, leaving him prone on the floor, the crowd is stunned.

Spike makes the pin and wins to become the NEW Wrestling Resurgence champion. It’s a shocking moment and expertly played out by all involved.

The trio stand tall over Dereiss to close the show as Spike celebrates, Resurgence has a new faction on its hands that could possible be one of the most dangerous in British wrestling.

Dereiss is helped to the back at the end as the crowd chant his name, this will definitely be an excellent story to play out over the next few shows.

Overall this was another really good Resurgence show, it had everything you’d want and expect from the Leicester-based promotion, theatrics, shocks, laughs-a-plenty and some excellent wrestling.

Their next show takes place in November and will be the last of the year, If you’ve not been to Resurgence before I highly recommend going.

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