FutureShock 20th Anniversary – Night 2 Review

After an incredible opening night as part of the FutureShock Wrestling 20th Anniversary weekend that saw the Manchester MMU Union host Night One, it saw an evening that featured both a NEW Adrenaline Champion and Tag Team Champions, with the shocking retirement of Rizman Khan after the big 4-WAY TLC match in the Main Event. Moving to Sunday evening for Night 2 at the Stockport Guildhall, it saw two more titles to be defended with the 3 Stages of FutureShock Match for the Women’s championship between the holder Leah Raven and the challenger Lana Austin; meanwhile, in the Main Event, it saw the champion Joe Blazr looking to defend against Chris Egan in a Title vs Career match, while also having a Hair VS Hair match between Sam Bailey and Briac Strong.

Before the opening bell, we saw FutureShock alumni in G-MAN making a welcome return to the promotion as he was in the country helping to promote the forthcoming tour of Japanese company PRO Wrestling NOAH in early September. G-Man ran through the card in his inimitable style, as he was trying to help warm the crowd up but they were already hot before the show got started.

DOCTOR PROCTOR VS C.P. (CONNOR PATRICK) REILLY

A packed Stockport Guildhall saw the opening contest featuring a rematch from back in February at CryWolf, where the FutureShock Tournament champion Connor Patrick Reilly got the better of the promotion’s resident Doctor thanks to some help from Nate Reese. Proctor wanted to avenge his loss earlier in the year, and what better way to do it than on the 20th Anniversary show for FutureShock Wrestling.

It saw the FSW Tournament champion sporting a new look with shorter hair, but still having the same arrogance and attitude that had seen his stock rise in the last year with the company. Proctor tried to take the early advantage but found himself up against a determined CP Reilly who had the upper hand on his opponent and didn’t allow the Doctor to have a sniff in the contest. However, Doctor Proctor came back into the match. but yet again it saw Reilly just being that bit better. With Reilly being in complete control, it would then see his ego getting the better of him as he demanded his Tournament trophy be brought over to him, to which he attempted to use it as a weapon. Only to then have the doctor ducking out of the way and having him have Reilly in a pinning predicament to score the surprise win and have Connor Patrick in disbelief and screaming after the loss.

FTM (FINELY TUNED MACHINES) VS FORBIDDEN PLANET

This match all came about from the two members of the ‘Scouse Republic of Liverpool’ in Jack Critchlow and Tom McColl attacking Aiton Steen outside the FutureShock Performance Centre Saturday morning and saw Steen forced out of participating in the TLC match for the tag team titles that night. It saw Critchy grabbing the mic and claiming that the two Liverpudlians were not just the best tag team in the company today, but that they should have been in that big 4-way Tag title match the night before instead of Forbidden Planet. We then saw a bandaged and banged-up Star Killer Dave Birch come out to the ring alone while F.T.M were like Cheshire cats seeing him come alone.

Those smiles were soon wiped off their faces when ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’ by Blink 182 played again, with Aiton Steen and Dave Birch rushing inside the ring and sending their opponents to the outside before flying through the ropes at them. Having put up a spirited performance in the match-up, it would be that of the Finely Tuned Machines that grabbed the win in the match through their ‘Countdown to Ecstasy’ which consists of both a double stomp off the top rope by Tom McColl, while Critchy hits an assisted cutter at the same time. Their recent string of good performances in tag team action has now been rewarded with a tag-title shot next month at Back to the FutureShock on September 1st, as the Scouse duo will be looking for gold.

HAIR vs HAIR Match – SAM BAILEY vs ’the Hunter’ BRIAC STRONG

This match has been eight months in the making, as this rivalry all stemmed from a ‘No Holds Barred’ match involving Briac Strong and Tony Wright at Nowhere to Run, in which ‘the hunter’ had handcuffed Wright’s hands behind his back, but Sam Bailey got involved in the match and saw him using a chair on Briac Strong before uncuffing Wright which would later see him pinning Strong. However, over the last few months, both have interfered in each others’ matches and saw this all culminating in a pull-a-part Brawl at the end of ‘End of the Line’ last month.

As soon as the bell rang the two came running at each other and saw them trading punches and brawling on the outside. Bailey had the early momentum, but the Hunter went up a gear as both men put on a heck of a match and went back and forth with the FutureShock coach being dominated a fair bit in the middle part of the match, with Sam hanging in there still. Bailey looked to try and turn the tide as he managed to somehow kick out of ‘the hunted’ for a two count, but Strong was not going to be denied this night and saw him softening up Bailey a bit more before nailing the hunted again to see the referee count the 1-2-3.

Briac smirked and got the chair all ready for Bailey to sit on, as the Hunter claimed the big
trophy of a win over the head coach. Before hair-cutting began in the middle of the ring, it saw Sam Bailey cutting a speech and thanking people who had donated to the cause, either via him or Briac who had both posted about the charity in the lead-up to this match taking place. At the time of writing, the total stands at £570 (plus £77.50 gift aid) and that isn’t including the special in-ring photos that took place during the interval, where fans could cut a bit of his hair off as an extra incentive.

‘THE 3-STAGES OF FUTURESHOCK’ for FUTURESHOCK WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP:
LEAH RAVEN vs LANA AUSTIN

Having watched one blood feud we then went into another one of sorts, as the champion Leah Raven defended her FutureShock Women’s belt against the former four-time champion Lana Austin in their fifth meeting in singles’ action, as the two faced off in a ‘Three stages of Futureshock’ match. Their history to date was a victory each by count-out before Austin won at last year’s 19th Anniversary show in a standard ‘two-out-of-three’ falls match at the Union with Raven squaring the overall series 2-2 by defeating the “Queen of Mean” in their last match at High Gear just a few months ago at the Guildhall.

FIRST FALL (Standard) – The usual fun-loving Leah Raven was left in the back with a more serious Raven coming to the ring with a purpose and swinging a baseball bat for company. Leah was dressed for combat too and saw Lana trying to gain the advantage with an attack behind the referee’s back before the bell, but the Champion came out on fire and saw her take it Lana Austin. However, Lana’s experience helped turn things around very quickly, as she scored the first pinfall by hitting a DDT off the ropes to see the former champion needing just one more fall to regain her former title.

SECOND FALL (Submission) Austin 1-0: With Austin holding the 1-0 lead, she immediately put Raven into a submission hold and saw her cranking back on a half-crab, applying more and more pressure to the legs and back of the champion. Leah battled her way out of the hold, but soon countered it and flipped Lana over before applying an arm breaker to her to draw the tap-out victory for 1-1.

THIRD and FINAL FALL (STREET FIGHT) Raven 1-1: With Raven levelling things up for 1-1 we then headed to the third and final fall, which saw a Street Fight and saw Austin being the first to look for weaponry but first pulling out a kendo stick and using it on the champion, as Lana began to try and wear Raven out. Leah fought back by using the same kendo stick herself, as turnabout was fair play, with the champion then scouring under the ring for weapons and pulling out – chairs, a toilet seat, plastic lids, stop signs, metal baking trays, a trash can, a door and even lego blocks being introduced to the match. It saw both Women beat the living hell out of each other and put on without a doubt, one of the contenders for match of the weekend and in the debate for match of the year too.

From Kendo Sticks to Stop Signs, Steel Chairs to metal baking trays – we saw both crashing into chairs and taking some whacks in the ring, with Lana Austin having the upper hand in the match as Leah Raven stopped herself from being power bombed through the door, as Raven couldn’t avoid being suplexed off the top rope through the furniture. Lana looked just moments away from becoming the first ever five-time Women’s champion – but then turned away from the match with a video appearing on the screen of Lana Austin winning the Women’s title against Hollie Barlow back in 2019, but it soon ended as it started. Lana continued the beatdown on the champion before she left the ring to search for more weapons on the outside, where Hollie Barlow suddenly appeared from under the ring and saw Austin looking like she had seen a ghost. It was Austin who betrayed her friend in that video that got shown on screen, to which Hollie had just beaten Alexxis Falcon for the title, before Lana Austin came down to congratulate her, only for seconds later to attack her and cash in her Legacy Trophy to steal the belt away within five minutes.

Having seen Barlow make a return of sorts yesterday against Lily Winter the night before, it saw Hollie looking to gain a small measure of revenge on her former friend, as she threw the surprised, and shocked challenger back in the ring for Raven To hit her Rebellion DDT off the ropes and onto the Lego blocks, but somehow Lana kicked out much to the sand left both shocked, as well as the FutureShock faithful. However, the champion hit Austin with a big DDT onto a road sign to finally put Austin away and have the “Reign of the Raven” continuing in the division, as Hollie Barlow and the champion hugged in the ring. After the match, the FutureShock Women’s champion took the mic and made a speech thanking the promotion for believing in her when some didn’t, plus we’ve seen Leah go from a shrinking violet to now being one of the best Women’s wrestlers on the circuit.

DEADLY DAMON LEIGH vs SIMON VALOUR

We were then joined by a FutureShock original in ‘Deadly’ Damon Leigh, as he spoke about the company enjoying 20 years old, before putting down the Stockport crowd and running his mouth about being the only original around. He then got cut off by the music of his former tag team partner Simon Valour of ‘Heavy Hitters’ back in the late 2000s, with Valour claiming that since he had retired, Damon Leigh had become ‘soft’ and rumours of him also being a CHICKEN” Following the Guildhall chanting Chicken towards him, he was happy to take on his former tag partner and had Valour say he was going to knock him out.

Leigh seemed to be stung by those words that came from the mouth of his former tag partner, as he looked far from soft and a chicken, with the Deadly one taking it to Valour. His opponent was carrying some ring rust which was to be expected, but he still had the wits about him to turn the tables and put Leigh in trouble. Valour kept looking for that knockout blow he had promised, but Damon Leigh was equally wise to this and avoided numerous attempts before finally getting hit by a forearm. Unfortunately for Valour, the foot of Leigh was under the bottom rope and that one thing would prove costly, with the Deadly one nailing a brainbuster for the win.

LUCY SKY vs H.C.C (HELEN CHARLOTTE CAMPBELL)

The battle of Wigan vs Oldham produced yet another hard-hitting contest on the card featuring two of the rising stars in Women’s wrestling, with Lucy Sky and HCC (Helen Charlotte Campbell) butting heads, as we saw little finesse and mostly power between arguably the strongest two in FutureShock today. Much like a morning, it saw a bright start from Sky, but after her opponent gained their bearings it saw the Oldham native taking over for a bit and saw Lucy in trouble.

Both of them had spells of dominance and saw this being brute strength, as HCC had the upper hand in the match and saw the Sky in trouble with the Guildhall crowd rallying behind her, with the usual pockets of Helen Charlotte Campbell fans in attendance. Towards the back end of the contest, we saw both women performing a multitude of back to back to back German suplexes with four or five in a row and this seemed to be where Lucy Sky came roaring back to score the pinfall victory.

CHRIS EGAN vs JOE BLAZR – TITLE vs CAREER MATCH

The Main Event saw an emotionally charged championship match with the steaks being higher than a butcher’s shop, as ‘The Man of the People’ Chris Egan put his career on the line against the reigning, and defending FutureShock Heavyweight champion in Joe Blazr where defeat for Egan would see his career come to an end. The fan-favourite came out to a huge ovation from the crowd, as the Guildhall crowd were fully behind the challenger in this encounter. It saw the fans in attendance beginning to sing ‘Walking in an Egan Wonderland’ which went on for a good solid 90 seconds.

Meanwhile, it saw the champions in Joe Blazr having a new swagger about him as he made his entrance, with Joe wearing a sash over his shoulder saying ‘FutureShock champion’ to which he has been the champion for nearly a year, and tried to give off a very confident aura about him even though his confetti blasters were firing for him, so was that an omen ahead of this title match. As you would expect from a title match, neither man gave an inch in the contest and saw both men throwing everything they had at each other, with it being a true see-saw encounter. The crowd was fully behind Chris Egan every step of the way, and it was so loud that trying to hear the person next to you proved extremely difficult in the confines of the Stockport Guildhall. Blazr would fight back and show his championship spirit, much to the chagrin of the fans in attendance, though there were still pockets of Joe supporters dotted around the room chanting for the champion.

Joe pulled out the big guns and saw him hitting his repertoire of moves in search of victory, to which he seemed to wear down his opponent and have him try to hit his finisher in the Blazr of Glory, as the crowd went quiet when Joe finally hit it but saw an explosion of noise when Egan kicked out at 2. Both men had taken it out of the other man in the ring after Blazr hit another big move on Egan before Connor Patrick Reilly came out and dragged the referee James Greenwood out of the ring to cash in his FutureShock Trophy to be in the match. Reilly had pushed Joe out of the ring as he hit a spear on Egan and that looked that, but the fan favourite kicked out at two and saw his career still alive! Reilly then kicked Joe from getting back into the ring and nailed a second spear to not only become the NEW FUTURESHOCK HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION, but he did the one thing that he had set out to do months ago, and that was to retire Chris Egan.

After the match, the locker room all came out to applaud Chris Egan and have Danny Proper come to the ring with a pint of beer for the now-retired Egan, where he made a speech about the guys and girls in the back and the support of the fans and the promotion.