edited: This Friday (April 26th) sees me making the rare trip outside of Manchester to take in one of the UK’s newest Wrestling promotions in Bridge Pro Wrestling, as following their successful debut show last October the Stourbridge based company returns to the Amblecote British Legion for their second show ‘Brand New Level’ and has since been announced that the show is a sell out. The show features an exciting seven match card being topped off by a ‘Battle of the West Midlands’ for its Main Event, where Birmingham’s favourite son in Man Like DeReiss taking on Coventry’s favourite sister in Millie McKenzie, as we see the ‘Mega Midlands Powers’ collide one-on-one!
I will admit in advance that my knowledge on the Midlands scene isn’t too great so I apologise in advance with my look through the card, but despite my lack of knowledge the card itself is one that has me looking forward to it.
One added bonus to the show is that we get to see a bout from the Kamikaze Pro Dojo, when the “Speed Demon” Edgar Adam faces his fellow ZEROES 2 HEROES team member “The Skywalker” Nate Reilly in a special Showcase match. I find it great to see wrestling promotions working together as you rarely see crossovers happen, with the only one that springs to mind is PPW of Sheffield and Liverpool’s Atomic Wrestling in recent times.
In the first of two tag matches on the card at Brand New Level, we’ll see ‘Nyte Sky’ comprising the combo of ‘the Inspirational’ Violet Nyte and TJ Sky, while their opponents have been riding all over the place in the ‘Wheely Good Wrestlers’ Harry Cruise and ‘the Pocket Rocket Party’ Lila Kyle. The match itself sees two interesting subplots, as while we see a rivalry renewed between both Sky and Cruise who are no strangers from each other, their respective tag partners in Kyle and Nyte have never faced one another in the squared circle before and we could be seeing the start of a new rivalry perhaps.
We’ll also see Chantal Jordan and Alexxis Falcon meet in a Bridge Pro ring, as both are currently two top stars from within the Brit Wrestling scene and this match could be one of the standouts. Bridge Pro posted an interesting stat on their Facebook page which peaked my inner stat nerd, that in the last four years the two rivals have met six times, and over those six matches both have three wins a piece over their opponent. So come Friday night at Brand New Level, one of these women will be holding the advantage for the immediate future.
After the controversy stemming from the fatal four way when Luke Douglas was awarded a pinfall victory over Steve Valentino, only for Bridge Pro management to later deem it a no contest with Valentino getting a shoulder up before the three. The fallout of that decision led to both ‘the Inquisitor’ Alex Connors & ‘21st Century Hero’ Luke Douglas finding a common ground by claiming that the ruling of a non contest was part of a ‘Grand Conspiracy’ from Bridge Pro Management. While both Connors & Douglas have bemoaned the company over the result, they have also targeted Valentino and saw ‘the People’s Captain’ addressing these threats and have his tag partner in CJ Rawlings coming out and having his back. So this Friday at Brand New Level will see Alex Connors & Luke Douglas team up to take on the ‘Dead Sea Souls’ in a tag team bout.
One match I am really looking forward to watching is when Student faces Teacher, when the “21st Century Liability” Natalie Sykes takes on her former trainer in Liam Slater. Slater has been an influential person within British wrestling, as he is another in a long line of top British technical wrestlers that this country has produced. His opponent at Brand New Level in Natalie Sykes has seen her making a name for herself wrestling around the UK circuit, with the Yorkshire based Sykes chalking up against Amira, Gia Adams, Lana Austin and also Allie Katch in her young career to date. But no doubt come Friday night she’ll want to add the prize name of her former trainer to her list.
Having seen a four-way match on the card last time out, it seems only right that on this show called Brand New Level that they go up a level so to speak, as we see a five man scramble take place. It sees the globetrotting star formerly of NXT UK & TNA alumni in Amir Jordan being the biggest threat in the contest, as Jordan wants to see first hand just what talent there is around in Bridge Pro. The four looking to impress in that matchup is Stourbridge’s own Zac Walker along with Memes, Samuel Hughes and the 6”6 Kemper all looking to show that there is real talent around the new Promotion.
And in your Main Event of the evening, it sees two of my favourites squaring off when ‘Suplex’ Millie McKenzie goes one on one with ‘The Lyrical Dragon’ Man Like DeReiss, as they bring their ‘friendly rivalry’ to the confines of the Amblecote British Legion. With both Millie and DeReiss being top International stars and Midlander’s too, it’s always great when top stars appear on new promotions, as it helps to grow them. It will also be interesting to see who comes out on top when the final bell rings, as they stole the show the last time I saw them meet at Modern Nomads back in December. As if they can get anywhere close to that match then I will be happier than the proverbial pig.
Overall, It’s shaping up to be a really good card, so roll on Friday and I’ll see you guys ringside!