by Rich
There’s a lot of excitement in the City of Toronto at the moment with the impending invasion of wrestling when Summer Slam Weekend, quickly becoming Summer Slam Week, arrives in August. Not only will there be an NxT Takeover, Raw, Smackdown and Summer Slam itself, many promotions, much like during Mania Week, are looking to capitalize on an influx of wrestling fans. Ring of Honor (and apparently New Japan, but most of the stars will be otherwise engaged with the G1 that weekend), Progress, WXW, and Canada’s own promotions Smash and Demand Lucha all announcing shows in the City.
More on that week to come in the future as I’ll be attending 7 shows in 7 nights that week. But as I ramble on, you are probably wondering who is this guy and why is he talking about wresting in Toronto 3 months from now. My name is Rich, brother of Wrestling Should Be Fun’s own JCH. Unlike James, you may have guessed I don’t live in London, I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Also unlike James, I haven’t been invested in wresting, mainstream or independent, for many years.
I actually only got back into wrestling last August following a 14 or so year hiatus. Last summer the WWE came to town for Raw and Smackdown and I decided to buy tickets. I had only been to one live wrestling event in my life prior to this, probably about 20 years ago, in Porthcawl, or “Porthcrawl” as headliner Robbie Brookside persisted to call it. Going to Raw and Smackdown got me watching wrestling again and I began to see what else is out there here in Toronto.
So this is where I will take this back full circle back to the beginning of this post. Toronto has a lot of excitement about what’s to come in August, but there is always a lot excitement about wrestling in this City, even without the draw of a WWE pay per view. Toronto has a large and passionate wrestling fan base. This may not be news to those of you who listen to any of the Post Wrestling content spearheaded by John Pollock and Wai Ting, also hailing from Downtown Toronto.
While there may not be the levels of interest that the is in the London scene, it definitely does not lack in quality of product, whether it be local promotions or international promotions coming to town for a show. I’ve attended 3 shows in the past 3 weeks and will quickly review each one (from what I remember, pictures and videos I took and things I texted James as that’s the extent of my notes)
Ring of Honor - War of the Worlds
The first show was the Ring of Honor, War of the Worlds tour for which is sat 2 rows behind the aforementioned John and Wai. This was a fun show from start to finish. Highlighted for me by a few great matchups including RoH and New Japan guys. While some of the promo work was not the best throughout the night, Bully Ray did head to the ring and cut a decent promo, he was accompanied by someone I don’t remember, but I do remember the joy of joining in the crowds chant of “that’s not D’Von”.
Where the promos may have lacked, the in ring made up for it. The Guerrillas of destiny & Hikuleo had a fun match against Alex Coughlin, Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors. Everyone got a chance for some good spots and to hit their finishers which always gets the crowd going. Bullet Club t-shirts a plenty in the crowd as well so they were definitely into this one.
Champion at the time Jeff Cobb then defended (and lost) his RoH TV Title in a four way with Shane Taylor, Brody King and Hirooki Goto. Jeff Cobb definitely a stand out for me, his speed is unbelievable and hit some impressive moves along the way. Like the 6 man tag, everyone got their moment in the spotlight, with Shane Taylor coming out on top much to the disbelief of the crowd to be crowned the new champion with King taking the pinfall.
My favourite match of the night was the main event (good booking RoH). Matt Taven defended his title against Canada’s own PCO. Taven played the heel role to perfection, didn’t take much as the Canadian crowd were always going to be fully behind one of their own in PCO. But I did enjoy the work Taven put in. Not sure how PCO does it, but he’s more than happy to put his body on the line.
There were two great spots including suicide dives. The first was when PCO tossed Taven out of the ring, sets up the suicide dive but dove out the opposite side of the ring to where Taven was set up. There was a collective WTF followed by laughter and cheers. May sound stupid as you read it, but it was really well done and played into the storytelling of the match that PCO was amped up and going full throttle from start to finish.
The next suicide dive spot that was just insane. Taven close-lined PCO over the top rope onto the apron. He then suited dives over the top of PCO, flipping over his head, to grab him for a power slam off the apron to the ground (there may be a technical name for it, apologies for not knowing it). No joke I felt the floor shake from where I was.
Taven ends up retaining as he got by with a little help from his friends the Kingdom. A classic case of one distracted the ref while the other passed Taven a knife of some sort to stab PCO in his good eye behind the refs back and then get the pin.
This was a great evening and the crowd had a good time and really got into it. All in all, when all was said and done, wrestling was fun!
Superkick'd - Key to the City
The next show was the Friday before Money in the Bank. Superkick’d, a local Toronto promotion put on their own version of MITB, branded the Key to the City. This was a night of great storytelling about the heel faction “The Cure”. The Cure currently consists of 4 members (others are join depending on the storyline for the month. Stratos Fear, Orlando Christopher, Jessie V (who will be in the KTTC match) and Jay Something (challenging for the title in the main event)
The story began with Stratos having a match with Christopher at ringside. Of course Christopher helps Stratos get the win in true heel fashion. After the match Stratos takes the mic and invites a member of the crowd to the ring. He wants to introduce this guy to the rest of the Cure so here comes Jessie and Jay. Stratos, Christopher and Jessie begins to kick the S out of this guy from the crowd. But Jay stops them and takes the mic to say “we are better than this, we don’t need to beat up some guy from the crowd” etc etc. He also says how he will win the title later on in the night and be better than when any of the rest of the Cure were champs because they never held the title very long.
Jessie V’s involvement comes by way of the 4 way Key to the City match. Much like Money in the Bank, this is a ladder match and the winner gets to “unlock” a title shot at any time. However there a couple of differences. Firstly there is no brief case above the ring, just a tiny key on a giant chain. The other difference is that all 4 men are handcuffed to begin the match and the 4 keys to these handcuffs are on poles in each corner. This was a great match up. My favourite heel in Superkick’d, Mark Wheeler, persisted to try and climb the turnbuckles to reach the key to his handcuffs while he let the other 3 men fight it out.
Some really good ladder spots in this one including Brent “Money” Banks doing a springboard stunner off the ropes to Wheeler who was climbing the ladder. This is where it looked like it could be money in the bank for Brent, but Jessie V re-enters the ring, demolishes banks and goes on to climb the ladder for the win.
Onto the main event, the title match between defending champion San Andres vs Jay Something. Jay makes his entrance with Stratos and Christopher but he sends them both the back saying he doesn’t need them for this one. (You may see where this is going by now). Another really fun, high energy match. San Andres is great every time I’ve seen him and Jay delivered too. A few high flying moves inside the ring before heading out into the crowd so San Andres could be thrown into a brick wall.
They head back to the ring and out come the trash cans. Each man with trash can in hand trade blows. Eventually after about 6 trash can hits each, Jay gets the upper hand and goes on to get the victory and become the new Superkick’d champion.
Here comes the Cure for the celebration, including Jessie V with his newest piece of jewelery, the Key to the City necklace. You really must be able to see where this is going now. After hugs, high fives and all round jubilation, there it is, Christopher hits Jay in the back of the head. Jay hits the canvas and the beat down begins. They put Jay into a trash can and Jessie begins to look down at what’s around his neck. Is he going to cash in on his friend and fellow faction member? Surely now is the time, Jay is out for the count and inside a trash can. They’ve teased this division in the Cure all night... but no, Jessie does not unlock his chance to be champion! He simply poses with the necklace and title belt then leaves the ring. What a way to leave us wanting more.. All in all, when all was said and done, wrestling was fun!
Demand Lucha - Fighting Filthy
The third and final show of this three week stretch in May was Demand Lucha’s “Fighting Filthy” with UFC’s Filthy Tom Lawlor. This was another great show. It definitely has more of a comedy feel to it through out the night. The comedy began with the Space Pirates (not to be confused with WWE’s Japanese Experience the Sky Pirates) including JCH’s favourite from Mania Week, Space Monkey!
The pirates the baby faces in this one, against a couple of heels known as Special K. One member of Special K began the match playing on the “monkey see, monkey do” concept. Space Monkey copies everything this guy does to warm up. Smartly the member of Special K lies down so Space Monkey copies, Special K go for the pin but Monkey kicks out at 2. Lots of laughs from the crowd. The Pirates go on to become the new Canadian Royal Tag Champ (the title was preciously vacant).
Another highlight in this show was Freddie Mercurio, the Lucha version of Queens Freddie Mercury, tash, British accent, white tank top and all! His best move is when he has a guy in the corner, stamps his foot twice on the canvas then slaps the guy to the rhythm of we will rock you. The crowd were really into this one and Freddie, after some high flying moves goes on to retain his Commonwealth Open-weight Championship.
The final match of the night saw Filthy Tom Lawlor take on Ophidian. Lawlor is massive came to the ring dancing. A man known in UFC for his entrances, did not let the crowd down. Ophidian slithers his way to the ring then the match began with Ophidian snake charming Tom into a dance break. I was hoping this would lead to Truth and Carmella showing up as a way to get the 24/7 belt onto Lawlor.... that did not happen. Guessing WWE didn’t want a title change in front for 100 people in a bar in Toronto! The dance break ended with Ophidian low blowing Lawlor, but turned out Lawlor was wearing a cup which he then rubbed in Ophidians face.
Some great in ring action between these two. The high flying Ophidian worked well with the MMA style of Lawlor. After some good exchanges Ophidian slithers into the crowd just by where I was standing. Lawlor begins the chase but noticed some girl and guy making out so just stopped, pointed at them and shouted “what the f*ck are they doing, why aren’t they watching”. Bloody brilliant.
Lawlor catches up to Ophidian, puts him on his shoulders and spins round about 40 times. He then puts Ophidian onto a chair, drinks someone’s beer, chops Ophidian and repeats this about 10 times with different peoples beers each time. The chops were insane, less slapping sound, more of a thud each time.
After some in crowd spots they head back to the ring with a chair. Ophidian gets the upper hand and sets up the chair in the middle of the ring. He comes close about 3 or 4 times to a Hurricanrana into the chair but Lawlor blocks it each time. The final time Lawlor blocks hit but keeps Ophidian’s legs around his neck, adjusts him slightly and tombstones him into the seat part of the chair. Mental finish for the 3 count. Lawlor dances the night away to celebrate.
Highlight of the night for me was getting to meet and shake the hand of Space Monkey, who continues to just make monkey noises when I was chatting with him. All in all, when all was said and done, wresting was fun!
Hope you enjoyed this, feedback always appreciated, good or bad. I’ll check back in again soon with some more Toronto wrestling reviews.
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