The Furious Flashbacks – 1PW Know Your Enemy 2007 Night 1

Posted by Arnold Furious on 02.02.2012

A middling show that looked better on paper.

The Furious Flashbacks – 1PW Know Your Enemy 2007 Night 1

A middling show that looked better on paper.

Given the failings of 1PW toward the end of 2006 it might have come as a surprise that in June 2007 they were still very much alive and putting on big budget shows. However there’s no doubt that this show is toned down compared to their more dramatic 2006 shows. On this card they’ve made the best use of talent available. Those wrestlers who’d gotten over and starred in earlier shows and storylines like Abyss, SJK and Ulf Herman remained. Plus the guest stars were varied and made the card look interesting rather than recycled. Delirious, El Generico, Scorpio, Ippei Ota and Takeshi Rikio all on this line-up. The British talent that had become the backbone of 1PW was available too. Doug Williams, Iceman, Jonny Storm, Darkside and Darren Burridge all featuring in marquee matches. Was 1PW actually learning from its mistakes?

30th June 2007. From Doncaster. Hosts are Adam Curtis & Dale Mills. The same guys who tanked on Fight Club IV. To their credit they’re better here. More prepared, certainly but still under reacting to big spots and not getting involved in the story enough. I guess they’d be fine given a run of shows to improve. But yeah; more emotion, for fuck’s sake. Its like getting commentary on paint drying.

PWG title – El Generico (c) v Jonny Storm

Storm gets jeered so switches heel. Familiarity breeds contempt. Generico brings the generic lucha of armdragging. Jonny counters one flip into an Ace Crusher though and starts working at the neck. Storm uses somewhat questionable tactics and spends more time playing to the crowd than doing damage. While he’s doing so Generico hits him with a dive and there was a scary moment where Generico’s trajectory saw him heading noggin first into the ground. Generico repays the evil head droppery by dumping Storm square on his neck with the Michinoku Driver. The chemistry has been lacking and that’s causing issues. Like Generico having to pause before Storm hits a rope move because Jonny gets his timing wrong. Generico tries to compensate by being stiff and you have to love the Yakuza Kick in the corner. Storm evades the Brainbustaaaaaaah into a reverse super rana but Generico gets a crucifix from the laid back pin to win. Urgh, I fucking hate that finish. **1/4. Occasionally hit the higher gear but not frequently enough to thrill.

Darren Burridge v Delirious

Burridge tries to meet crazy with crazy and Delirious stops off to remark to the referee that such behaviour is unnecessary. I think. Then cautions the crowd for swearing. I love Delirious’ gimmick and how he makes it fit in to everything he does. Even the most basic of wrestling moves contains the personality that makes him a star. Every single wrestler with a gimmick, of any kind, could learn from this. Burridge has difficulty keeping up with the countering, which is almost certainly a size issue rather than any technical fault. Delirious complains of a nipple tug and a nose grab; grounds for a DQ. Delirious tries for a series of single legs & armdrags, which Burridge escapes with country dancing? Yes, that just happened. Burridge goes right into the Benny Hill chase and they go to a hide and seek sequence (yeah, I just typed that) and Burridge surprises Delirious with the ELBOW SUICIDAAAAAA! Having increased the intensity Burridge finds himself in a world of hurt with crazy Delirious bringing his most dangerous assaults. Example? Burridge attempts a tip up in the corner so Delirious just throws him off to the floor. DAAAAAMN. This triggers them beating the shit out of each other. Its 50-50 until the Panic Attack. SHADOWS OVER HELL! That doesn’t get it done so they trade on chops TO THE NECK. Burridge brings the Artful Dodger into a German suplex. Delirious pops back up but Burridge confuses him with more British style and rolls into another German suplex for the win. ***1/2. A fine combination of comedy and strongstyle. Eventually Delirious losing out because he couldn’t fathom the British style of wrestling, which is an interesting Achilles’ heel for a crazy man who speaks in tongues.

Scorpio v Iceman v Doug Williams v Takeshi Rikio

Interesting mix of guys. Rikio is a former sumo wrestler and the man who beat Kenta Kobashi for the GHC title after his epic 2 year reign. Scorpio has been teaming with Doug in NOAH and they won the tag titles there. Iceman has nothing like that on his resume. Scorpio whiffs on a dropkick and Iceman falls over to the floor. Oh dear. Rikio and Iceman trade on forearms and that sucks because Iceman pulls all his shots and then falls over on a Rikio charge. Like most multiple person matches there are spells with one guy just lying down doing nothing. And often two guys. Which is horribly frustrating to watch and totally screws with any selling or psychology they try to get going. It doesn’t help that everyone in the match seems insistent on working soft. Sometimes needlessly so. Rikio standing on Doug breaks that and fat boy Iceman tries the same spot, except worse. Doug starts struggling with his knee and everyone takes advantage of that creating a realistic selling opportunity for Doug to sit out for a while. Scorpio, former tag partner, Pillmanises the knee at ringside. Man, what a jerk! Its weird how Scorpio continuously does things out of character. Like he’s got multiple personality syndrome. Rikio’s freakish strength rather takes over with only two opponents to worry about. I love how he just ignores Iceman’s shots. The three-way dynamic actually improves the quality despite Doug being the best worker. They try a few team-up’s but Iceman is too much of a prick to work with. Speaking of which; he cannonballs Rikio and Scorpio has to save. Scorp then wastes a ridiculous amount of time hitting a moonsault, which sees Doug, with taped knee, return. BOMB SCARE with the bad knee! Rikio sees him as a weak link but Scorpio dropkicks him with Williams on his back and Doug gets the crucifix to progress to the main event. Man, Scorpio is dumb. **3/4. Way too long and rarely as entertaining as it initially promised. Scorpio’s weird psychology combined with Iceman’s being Iceman and Doug’s injury angle really took the heat out of the match.

Darkside w/Stixx v El Ligero

DS lists his 1PW achievements and points out El Ligero is missing. I dig Stixx playing Tomko to Darkside’s Christian here. If something works, steal it! Anyway, Darkside wants to be announced as the winner and even requests Keith Myatt come in and raise his arm. DS calls him bald, old and chickenshit but Keith, as head of Black Shirt Security, isn’t allowed to fight. Myatt points out that while Ligero isn’t here 1PW has found an opponent.

Darkside w/Stixx v Ippei Ota

DS messes with Ota too calling him “Mr Miyagi”, which leads to a Japanese beatdown on the Scotsman. Ota is inexperienced and on the bland side, which leads to DS and his one man entourage taking over on the floor. Ota’s running and bumping look weird, which is another inexperience issue. He’s not yet ironed out the rookie flaws in his game. DS, while talented, isn’t exactly the man to carry a match against a wayward Japanese worker. It doesn’t help that he’s not a good heel from an in-ring perspective. He has a babyface moveset and a heel mouth. As the heel he has to control the pacing and he’s not evil enough or aggressive enough to do that. Ota just works around it with his limited moveset. It doesn’t help that Stixx is at ringside fucking up. He falls over when trying to ram Ota into the post. To DS’s credit Ota has gotten over as a face without doing much. They head up top and make a horrible mess of the finish, which is EXTREMELY hard; Darkside’s SUPER BURNING HAMMER. *. The inexperience of Ota hurt the match as well as Darkside’s failings as a heel. Should have jerked the curtain. Finish was excessive. On the upside Darkside is great on the stick and good in the ring, which makes him one of the companies leading lights, considering he’s not a star in any other major companies (unless you include Scotland or 3CW).

1PW tag title Gauntlet Match

I don’t get why they didn’t just have Team Shag job the belts before Cabana signed for the WWE. They even had them defend the belts against Doug Williams & Nigel McGuinness back in April. Or just have Damned Nation’s ‘win’ at Will Not Die count. It ain’t rocket science. Its not like any of the teams in this are any good.

The Chavs v Mad Man Manson/The Invisible Man

The Chavs aren’t particularly convincing, gimmick wise. The dress is close but not stupid enough. No bling. And they’re drinking water? When have you ever seen a chav drink water? Manson’s usual insanity is met by confusion and when he tags out his personality changes. The first tag sees him transformed into a matador. He might as well be wrestling himself. They try to incorporate referee Joel Allen into a spot but it doesn’t work. I suddenly wish that Kikutaro was Manson’s partner. Remember what I said about Delirious changing his entire repertoire to suit his gimmick? Manson does that too, for the most part. However the Chavs don’t. Which is what makes Manson memorable and the Chavs entirely forgettable. I don’t even know their names. Nor do I care as I’ve never been given a reason to. Manson even manages to hot tag to himself, which has to be a first. It doesn’t make any sense but the man is clearly bonkers. Eventually the Chavs use the numbers game and double team their way to victory. ¾*. Manson’s antics aside this was a waste of time. He would literally of been better off wrestling himself.

The Chavs v Pain Inc

Joey Hayes is nowhere to be seen so Ruffneck goes it alone. I like Ruffneck. He knows his limitations and sticks to them. Many, many Indy wrestlers could learn from that. He has a great array of power moves. He dominates by himself until one of the Chavs grabs a chair and gets disqualified. ½*. Not sure what they were hoping to achieve with this. The Chavs beat Ruffneck down after the bell and the big man blades for good measure. Meanwhile security just stands there watching. Top notch work security! That area is secure! Unsettling amount of blood spraying from Ruffneck’s head. He’s eliminated courtesy of blood loss but has enough blood to declare he’ll be killing some Chavs tomorrow.

Mark Sloan/Wade Fitzgerald v James Tighe/Andy Boy Simmonz

Sloan & Fitz go by “BritRage”, which is a bit rubbish. The other team are called Iron Lions. Fitzgerald is way young. He looks around 15-16 legit. He also looks like mediocre Villa winger Mark Albrighton. Simmonz ignores his offence but keeps getting caught in flash roll ups. Not taking the young boy seriously. Tighe is the best technical wrestler in this whole shebang but Sloan has a lot of flashy technical stuff to counter that. It’s a nice match up. Tighe looked like being British wrestling’s next big thing around 2005 when he faced off against AJ Styles in the FWA but he’s been treading water since. He does take Wade seriously and isolates him with power before cutting the ring off. Wade fits right into Mark Sloan’s obsession with training midgets to wrestle in spotfests. Wade tries some martial arts only to leave himself completely open for a Simmonz roll up and the Iron Lions progress. *1/2. Tighe looked head and shoulders above everyone else.

1PW tag titles - Iron Lions v Spud/Luke Phoenix

The new team goes by the name “Dragonhearts”. Spud is a half pint but he’s over for his guts and heart. Phoenix has a decent physique for a skinny kid but looks green. Spud gets himself isolated, which is ideal as he’s so very tiny. Spud makes a comeback with a Step Kick and Phoenix gets the moderately hot tag. The heels bumble around like the Keystone Cops for a while before coming back with stereo powerslams. Spud seems to be nursing injured ribs. Simmonz levels Phoenix with the Japanese Girl’s Missile Dropkick for 2. More heel bumbling follows. Simmonz is particularly good at it. As a result the match breaks down and Phoenix is destroyed with double teams until Spud saves. He puts Simmonz down and finishes with the Tadpole Splash. **1/2. A decent way to finish another bad gauntlet.

POST MATCH Tighe gets into it with a ringside fan who looks strangely familiar. Either I’ve seen him at a bunch of shows or he’s a worker. Or both. Then Damned Nation run in and Aisu gets a live mic. Uh oh. “GIVE US OUR FUCKIN’ BELTS”. They’re wearing street clothes rather than wrestling gear enhancing the angle. They occupy the ring until Ulf Herman comes down to chase them off like Conan the Barbarian entering a fight pit.

Ulf, what is best in life? “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women”. YES!

1PW title – Ulf Herman (c) v Abyss v Sterling James Keenan v Doug Williams

Doug went through one 4-way just to get into this and already has a bad knee. He walks SJK through some mat basics. Ulf & SJK is a mess based on Ulf’s hard-nosed approach and Keenan’s inability to bump. Abyss’ miscue on SJK shows another lame bump from Keenan. Doug hits a plancha and everyone heads onto the infamous balcony over the Donny Dome’s toilets. Doug takes a bump down the staircase. OW! Someone takes a table spot at the merch stand but the camera misses it. Another glaring production error. If a massive spot is happening; get a fucking camera on it. It looks suspiciously like Ulf takes a chokeslam through another table. Again, the camera can’t see it. Seeing as we missed the crowd spots we get a cool in-ring spot instead with Doug hitting a sweet German suplex on Abyss. He responds with Shock Treatment. SJK picks Doug off with MK Ultra. Doug is gone and seeing as he’d already wrestled once its probably not a shock.

Abyss bails for a bin. Ulf takes it to the spine and Abyss takes out the ref too. So he’s disqualified. Crowd are not pleased but that’s the only way for TNA stars to take jobs on the Indies. He hits a Black Hole Slam on SJK before leaving. Ulf pins him and retains. **. Underwhelming main event. The crowd brawl took up roughly half the match.

The 411: I’m finding it hard to give this show a positive review. There’s nothing terrible but there’s nothing great about it. That said Burridge-Delirious is really good and there are signs that 1PW is beginning to develop its own identity rather than just being a collection of American stars; mainly from TNA. You could argue that 1PW’s product was starting to resemble a global supershow with matches you couldn’t see anywhere else in the world. Its just a pity so few of those matches are delivering.

Final Score:  5.5   [ Not So Good ]