This past Saturday saw the continuation of the road to the 20th Anniversary weekend on August 10th/11th, as it saw some more meat being added to the bone ahead of what should be a great weekend in a few months time. That said, it saw questions going into this show, questions like who would fill the places for that TLC (Tables, Ladders & Chairs) match for the Tag Team Championships; Would Ethan Allen on his return home become men’s heavyweight champion, and could the Empress of Anarchy defeat another top name in Lizzy Evo in her next title defence of the Women’s championship.
MATCH 1: ‘Coach’ SAM BAILEY vs ‘the Ace of Hearts’ JENSON VESPER
Jenson Vesper had demanded that Futureshock Wrestling give him the best that the promotion has to offer, as he felt annoyed that Chris Ridgeway had chosen to avoid him at High Gear, so Futureshock management found the perfect opponent for him – in the Head Coach Sam Bailey. Sam, much like everyone else in attendance, stood in the corner begging Vesper to shut up, as he was very vocal to let everyone know that he was the ‘STAR’. Once the match got underway, it saw Bailey out wrestle his opponent with numerous holds and saw his opponent struggle to get a toehold even in the contest. That changed when Vesper gained the upper hand by stamping down on the foot of Sam, which saw the ‘Ace of hearts’ controlling the match up with some impact moves, but it would see the fan favourite in Sam Bailey recovering to hit the ‘package piledriver’ for the win and shut Vesper up.
After the match – it saw Bailey poke fun at his fallen opponent and saying maybe he should change his name from ‘Jason to Jenson’ as Jenson seemed a bit more of a weirder name than Jason, which had Jenson Vesper going mad and throwing a tantrum as he headed to the back. Bailey then addressed three points, firstly, he said he was glad to be back in the ring after ‘the Hunter’ Briac Strong had attacked him at the Performance Centre a few months ago, which led into his second point of challenging Strong to a ‘Hair vs Hair’ match at the Anniversary weekender. Bailey went on to say that he didn’t want to just beat him, but he wanted to humiliate the man who has been a thorn in his side for months now. Meanwhile his third and final point was asking anyone in the back that wanted to be involved in the TLC match that he would happily team up with them, and vie for a spot in that big four-way tag title bout.
MATCH 2: ‘Wildfire’ NATE REESE vs ‘The Rat King’ TEDDY REAY
It saw Nate Reese come to the ring like a ‘Wildfire’, that is if that wildfire involves shouting and being hot headed like he has been in recent months, with Reese struggling to get over his loss last December in the Futureshock Tournament where he has blamed the fans for his poor form. His opponent was the ‘Rat King’ Teddy Reay and saw Reay speaking recently to FutureShock that he is looking at winning titles, and where a win against Nate Reese would definitely help to strengthen those credentials.
Reay started off as the aggressor in the match, that was until Reese used veteran tricks behind the referees back, with a finger or thumb to gain the unfair advantage. It seemed like every time Reay was trying to force a comeback in the bout that he would take another finger to the eye from Reese, and saw his savvy opponent cooling his jets. Eventually, Reay would rally and get the better of him, where the Rat King put him in a submission hold to gain the tap out victory and keep his hopes on course for a potential title shot down the line.
We then had a minor delay as the ring crew sorted out a technical issue with the ring as it caused a couple of delays on both shows. One thing they did great though throughout these problems were not to pass them off, but informed the crowd of what was happening and even managed to try and include these problems into the next match, with Ashley Bradbury (no relation) saying that they needed to make sure the ring was reenforced, especially with the mass coming up next in the tag match.
MATCH 3: 20th Anniversary TLC Qualifying match: MEAT WAGON vs STEVEN CROSS/JACOB NORTH
Up next was the first qualifier in the 20th Anniversary TLC Tag title match in August, with the other qualifying match set for late in Part 2. This was a really good contest between two very different teams, as the Meat Wagon were their normal happy go lucky selves, while their opponents in the ‘Asset’ Steven Cross and Jacob North were all business. The wise cracks from Ryan and Daniels saw them almost thinking out loud on their opponents, with them drawn to the abs and no body fat on Cross, while in the case of North – they were drawn to his big thighs and had both members of the Meat Wagon salivating at going up against another beefy boy. Ryan and North had a ‘test of meat’ so to speak, as they both bounced off the ropes to see if they could move the other and saw a stalemate.
Cross and North impressed as a tag team, as they did really well to isolate both members of the bigger Meat Wagon with their quick effective tags which saw Cross & North looking favourites to progress through. However, it saw Troy Ryan finally managing to tag his partner in and see Anderson Daniels come in to clean house with the beefy boys hitting their ‘Tenderiser’ double team finisher for the win, and see the Meat Wagon as the first team to qualify for the big four-way TLC match.
MATCH 4: SCOTT OBERMAN w/ Ethan Kelly vs ‘the Playboy Prince’ LANCE REVERA
Next on the card pitted two of the top young stars in FutureShock wrestling today as the ‘Real Thing’ Scott Oberman took on ‘the Playboy Prince’ Lance Revera, as Oberman’s protégé in Ethan Kelly was sent to the back by referee Mikey Wong, after he was caught holding onto the leg of the ‘Playboy Prince’. Despite losing the services of Kelly on the outside, it didn’t seem to affect Oberman at all and saw him gaining the upper hand in the contest, even rubbing salt into the wounds of his opponent by mimicking Revera’s mannerisms by shouting ‘Number 1’ and also copying his poses. Lance would mount a comeback and even hit his opponent with three dives to the outside, the third of which nearly saw a re-enactment of Dirty Dancing where Oberman almost caught his rival in the air.
This match ebbed and flowed with the Playboy Prince turning the tide in the match, while Oberman produced a stunning mid-air cutter out of nowhere, before following it up with a second one which drew a near fall. The conclusion to the match came after Oberman complained to the official that he had injured his knee and was in trouble, as the official stopped Revera from going near him as he continued to check on him. This of course was all a ruse with Kelly running down to the ring and interfering on behalf of Oberman, as Scott would continue to act hurt before nailing a spinning Tombstone Piledriver for the three count.
MATCH 5: ‘the leading man’ TONY WRIGHT vs ETHAN KELLY
It saw the next encounter coming almost immediately after the conclusion of the last match, with the music of Tony Wright hitting and seeing ‘the leading man’ coming straight to the ring ready for his scheduled contest with Ethan Kelly. After spending a good chunk of time delaying the start of the match for as long as possible, Kelly soon got in the ring and had the fists and boots put to him by his opponent. After an early beating from Wright – the Protege soon took charge and even basked in the glory of his work as he proceeded to narrate the beatdown on his rival, but that would prove to be a fatal mistake on Kelly’s part. As soon after it led to angry ‘Tony Wrestling’ firing back and hitting a combo of moves that saw him using the Fame Asser, a superkick and finishing things off with the Pedigree to claim the pinfall.
It saw the post match having Tony Wright asking for the microphone and wanting to be included in the TLC match on the 20th Anniversary show, with Sam Bailey then coming out and asking Wright if he would want to join forces and have them forming the Futureshock mega powers.
MAIN EVENT: JOE BLAZR vs ETHAN ALLEN – FUTURESHOCK HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE
To close out Part one, it saw the champion Joe Blazr facing the man who had been away from Futureshock for 1029 days due to a serious injury, as Ethan Allen made his return to the promotion and wanting to take the belt off the man he called a ‘fraud’ in Joe Blazr. Both men had been trading insults on social media in the lead up, with Referee James Greenwood struggling to contain the bad blood before the bell rang for the start of the match.
Once the bell rang, it saw a hard hitting contest with Allen out wrestling the champion and making a statement, as this looked to be the biggest threat during Blazr’s title reign to date and would need to sharpen up quickly if he wanted to retain his championship. For the first time in a long while at least, it saw the crowd being far more vocal and throwing their support behind an opponent for Joe, with Allen being the sentimental favourite in this match. One could say that not having the fans fully on his side threw Joe a bit, but the champion had bigger things to contend with, such as Allen dominating the match. Blazr showed his championship spirit by fighting back in the match – as well as both men having near falls and escaping from each other’s crossface submission attempts. The champion on this occasion would just escape with his title intact, as he hit a Blazr glory on his rival to gain the pinfall victory and see in the aftermath Allen rip the belt away from Joe, before handing it back to the champion to end the show.
NEXT: Part 2 to come soon