Last night I attended my second or third RevPro event. This was at a local venue, Portsmouth Guildhall.
In all honesty I was quite tired as I had just finished my first day at new work. But I had been looking forward to this event for two main reasons; Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate!
Ever since I saw the poster in North End (Portsmouth), I had been looking forward to seeing these guys.
The matches included:
El Phantasmo VS Tyler Bate Kyle Fletcher VS Mike Bailey
David Starr VS Kurtis Chapman Mark Davis VS Pete Dunne
Charli Evans VS Veda Scott
Trent Seven VS Zack Sabre Jr.
I wasn't aware of the matches prior to them starting on the night. However at the venue I was sat next to a group of 'youths' that were very excited about the event and were discussing the match ups. So I did get a bit of an insight pre bout. It was interesting to hear them know many of the wrestlers and their previous matches, clearly they followed RevPro as much as they followed mainstreams WWE.
On arrival at the venue I had a kerfuffle with the ticket after not being able to find my email reference. Fortunately the lovely lady on the Box Office sorted me out with a ticket after confirming my details.
We kicked off with Tyler Bate's match. This dude is in amazing shape. If I could body swap, it'd be a close call between Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Tyler Bate. Seriously what a body!
The match was decent, I kinda felt like they played it a bit safe with moves, but very cool to see Tyler.
A big also here. I'm sure it was in this match that we saw Referee Roberts perform an assisted headstand from the middle robe! Only in the Indies would you see that!
I don't think I have ever seen Kyle or Mike before. Not knowing their characters it took me a while to get into this one, but the second half of the match was really fun and nicely put together.
David Starr was great, his attempted heel work, including wearing a Southampton (rival city) football shirt. Problem was he was so good. What should have been and what started as a hostile crowd, warmed to him as a performer. In fact I was kinda disappointed he didn't beat Kurtis for the British Cruiserweight Championship.
Pete Dunne was amazing! He feels very much like an Eddie Guerrero in moral qualities. He does bad things and we cheer. Break those fingers, bite his hand, hahaha. He smiled at being called HHH's love child and gave a thumbs down at being called Regal's love child.
His moves connected the best on the night and this, for me, was the best match between two wrestlers, who as we know (wink wink) are working together to put on this performance.
Unfortunately the women's match was kinda done over by being placed after the Pete Dunne match. Most people didn't care about this match and it was clearly the worst one for crowd interaction. I did hear a few people saying Charli Evans is really good and she deserved better than this placement and this particular match. I didn't know, but she seemed good with the limited chance she had. Veda on the other hand... errrmmm... yer. She was not great. Punches and kicks looked weak (when they even connected). Mainstream fans think Eva Marie, but less hot.
Its a shame because women's wrestling seems to be making big strides. That just wasn't shown last night.
The main event for the British Heavyweight Championship was between Champion Zack Saber Jr and contender Trent Seven. This was a funny one for me because last time I saw ZSJ he was a face (this was about 2 years ago). However he came our heeling it up by throwing the title on the floor twice. This was a good match with a decent showing from both wrestlers. Annoyingly the finish was a tap out that seemed to come unexpectedly. It just felt like a bit of a crummy ending to the show.
I enjoyed the event, it was great to see Tyler and Pete before they become massive stars (they are already signed to WWE). I particularly enjoyed Pete Dunne and David Starr's performances and I hope to see Charli Evans again, just in a better spot.
I recommend looking out for events in your local area, there can be some awesome things going on that you miss out on because they don't always have massive marketing budgets. So check your local venues, if your in or near Portsmouth like me, that includes Portsmouth Guildhall.
**Images from revolutionprowrestling.com **