1 hour and 50 minutes. I saw that when I started watching. And forgot about it when the action unfolded. For week in and week out, to quote The Persian Empire, UKW Friday Night Showdown is enjoying its angles and showcasing great wrestling.
Why Is UKW So Good This Week?
Well, let me speak on this. There are 3 main reasons why I say this about UKW, so let me expound on the theory I have just posited, forming a robust postulate of my perceptions.
I’ll chop it up and I might even shape it.
The Persian Empire Excell
I’m not talking about in the ring. Or behind the stick. They’re good here too, but there’s something else.
They are Wrestling Entertainment hated. The noise when they appear, the catcalls, the upset; they have it going on and it’s difficult to do, to keep it going week in, week out as they say.
How do they do it? As I’ve said before, there’s no fallback position, they call themselves the best, and that’s frequently impossible.
And that creates hubris (not UKW wrestler Paul), the pride before a fall; and the fans love that. They frequently overreach, this week was a good example – Johan Hunt, whose shoulder is needing a belt, took a shortcut by taking Billy O’Keefe’s UKW Tag Team belt. And he paraded about with it, that’s the best word to use to describe it.
Billy wanted it back, of course. And in the main event, Henri Winter’s return no less (more on that later) with JPR facing Big Duncan and Hunt and Henri facing off in a power game with Duncan, JPR showing great facials after celebrating a Shearer kick and Duncan rising like a tree troll behind him, it all went badly for Hunt.
He had been doing so well, a 619 to the back, a flipping neck crank, both lovely. But he fell for JPR’s RedRum DDT after O’Keefe forcibly took his belt back.
The Persian Empire remind me of the Stud Stable – I’ve said it before but it bears telling again.
Robert Fuller was always excited by his Stud Stable and felt their reversals keenly. Fans loved that and Mustafa Khan’s absolute faith in his faction works the same way.
Persian Empire = Pretty Excellent.
Winter Is Coming
Henri is back! And the way the match was booked made it seem special.
After last week’s JPR won the title but didn’t shenanigans, Henri went through the wringer due to his decision about the ref’s slow count. He was right. And his thinking about it was too – he reiterated it this week, the integrity of the UKW belt is paramount.
Khan didn’t like it one bit. And his promo was powerful, pointed, and pretty near perfect. He attacked Winter for his lack of in-ring activity, so much so that his mate Sid Phoenix got in his face!
And that made Khan angry and he accepted the match – really good wrestling logic here; Khan then lost his mic but didn’t need it, he just raised his voice whilst telling us what a has-been Henri was.
He’d have that view challenged later as Henri clashed rather well with Duncan and Hunt, but here, this was a great and very affecting promo which didn’t half sell the UKW main event.
Young Talent Stands Up
Mo Menttum. Not a great name, but a great debut. Fresh from the UKW Genesis training camp and presenting Joe Sedgwick, otherwise known as JoeyFlipFlop by some, with a problem.
Mo’s spilt-legged Moonsault prompted a ‘this is awesome chant and it was, what with a lovely spinning kick, a Sedgwick Stunner, and sweet DDT, plus Mo on the middle buckle and having his hamstrings, and other bits it looked like, kicked repeatedly. A Blue Thunder Bomb n apparent, according to Joe, One-Winged Angel scored the pin for him and secured the Match Of The Night.
And then Billy O’Keefe and Cerebral Ste ran it close. These two are fast and phenomenal, as soon as Ste went for his Handspring Kick and Billy caught the foot, we knew we were in for excellent avoidance.
And great moves. Like Ste’s sat back Boston Crab, Billy’s Hammerlock Clothesline, Ste’s Ripcord Suplex, and, oh, Hunt came out with the belt and Billy chased him out of the room, losing by count out. We know how that ended later…
Leonie Rose, Playground Heel Champ
Tonight she even kicked the rope in the direction of the person shouting at her, then when she didn’t like her proposed opponent, told us she was ‘not bothered’ and then shouted ‘right, I’m going!’
Remember what I wrote earlier about having no fallback position? That’s it right there. Stuff yourself up, suffer a reversal, have a playground shouty tantrum.
And Leonie Rose does it just about better than anyone in wrestling at the moment.
Long? Nah…
It went by in the blink of an eye. It keeps you interested. You can immerse yourself in it. And it pays you back in entertainment. Right now, UKW is up there with the wrestling best.
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