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Incredible show for atmosphere as well as action. Packed house (obviously).

I'd forgotton how good Hade Vansen and Zebra Kid are, the latter being one of the most stiff competitors of all time with little regard for his opponent. Love it.

It was quite the achievement for FWA to secure the services of Rikishi as their representative. Sorry Flash sad.gif In all fairness to him though, despite the fact he was about 4 stone heavier than when he last wrestled and almost unrecognisable, he can still go with the best of 'em thumbs-up.gif

The main event was so overbooked with run ins, ref bumps and swerves but it, along with the vast majority of the evening was booked to perfection quite honestly. I was neutral (ish) but up until the end it wasn't clear cut who would win this thing but the right promotion did and now we can put the shitty FWA behind us once and for all.

The only wrong thing tonight was Robbie Brookside who although undoubtedly a gifted technician, is quite clearly the most boring pro wrestler of all time. You're no Regal mate.

In summation, probably the best British show of all time.

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Im thinking he was playing up to the boring chants by being more boring, the same as Simmonz was doing. I liked the match though, and I'm sure it'll look better without that bastard LT Summers in my way.

I have very little voice left after the awesomeness of the show. Shame the FWA lost, but at least Zebra and Flash ruled all, and Spud got killed. As did Max Voltage. And despite cheering on FWA, Atkins attacking Ayass was pretty damn cool.

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My thoughts having not read anyone else’s so as not to influence my opinions. Apols if I repeat the bleeding obvious…

**
Good has triumphed over evil…or something. IPW will live on, and that’s for the better I feel. Because although I was something of a latecomer to FWA, it can’t be denied that anything served up post winter-2004 with the name FWA on it was far inferior to anything that went before (bar the odd decent Morecambe moment). The death of FWA allows things to move on, and puts IPW:UK in ascendancy when it comes to this sort of thing. Mission accomplished (based on the Alex Shane interview that I’d listened to on the way to the show that somewhat give the game away).

Anyone who judges this show on whether each individual match was this, that, or the other is missing the point. This was one of those shows where the overall show was the focus beyond any of the specifics. And it really did deliver, even to the extent that I’m not in my usual pissed off state after a show that went four hours plus. So here’s some brief, and maybe random, thoughts:

*Huge line outside the side-door entrance beforehand, something I’d somewhat predicted earlier in this thread. The dwardlings of me posse (I blame that Kirby, his bad attitude rubbing off on UKHG, Catfish Jake, and The Golden Spike) meant we essentially blocked a public highway as we discussed, of all things, horrific injuries on the sporting field (David Busst and that hockey guy who had his throat slit being prominent). It was almost with utter shock to see the doors open on time, thrusting us into the mode of “shit, where the fuck do we sit”. Our first efforts ending in disaster, we did eventually end up in our usual second row seats, dead centre (and with no-one in front of us for most of the show, meaning we had virtual ringside for non-ringside prices. Good un).

*The crowd were really good for this show, the whole night in fact. The heat was hot from the first match, with Dave Moralez given a heroes welcome against Johnny Phere. A good, hard-hitting contest, which really set the night off well. Why the hell it wasn’t deemed to be an official part of the show I can only imagine. Big Dave looked like a cross between Adrian Adonis and Iron Mike Sharpe in his new ring garb.

*I liked the dynamic of Atkins and Ayass as duelling ring announcers. Being hyper-critical about things, the Ayass turn on FWA was fairly non-sensical, particularly after his white-hot brawl with Atkins. I can understand him turning on Lambert, but maybe not turning on FWA. Maybe aligning himself with IPW was the ultimate FU to the man he hates most of all.

*Sam Slam against Iceman was the hall-wide brawl that it really needed to be. I can only imagine what passing shoppers thought when they had two 20 stone blokes flying out of the doors in-front of them. Slam has got a boat-load of potential, and he could do well working opposite Ice again. I hadn’t even really taken in the significance of it being a title match until the winner was announced. At least he has a proper belt now.

*The six man was built up really well. Phoenix in particular played off the inclusion of Zebra Kid into the match really well, trying his best to hide that he was bricking it heading into the start. The IPW guys were also really good on subtly heeling on the FWA fans (actually, that was something pretty good the whole night). Zebra looked really good to say he hasn’t competed regularly in some time, and his section with Robinson was…well…man, that was Steiners against jobbers in 89 awesome. He absolutely murdered Robinson, hitting him with some of the most impactful stuff you’ve seen in ages. I’d like to see Zebra in the ring more, and I didn’t think I would ever say that.

*Vansen and Spud were never going to replicate the utterly brilliant FWA match they had in early 05...this wasn’t the night for that. Nevertheless, they still put together an absorbing big man v little man contest that did everything it needed to. Hade working regularly in another country can only be a good thing for him, and here’s hoping he becomes a regular for another UK promotion again (I’d love it for it to be IPW, though I reckon it’s more likely to be RQW).

*Whether it was the beer or not, I was surprised to find myself hankering for McDonalds at the interval. Maybe Edler actually does get a cut of their takings…maybe he’s ever the franchisee? There’s got to be some reason he’s never done the half-time buffet that I’m always harping on about that would obviously be a success. Lets hope there’s provisions at the KOE IPW:UK shows because man can’t survive on hot-dogs and crisps alone.

*Nurse Blockbusta was funny. First time I’ve seen Dirk Feelgood in a long time. Not quite the comedy machine I remember to be honest. The Jason Allbetter thing was coming from a mile off, but it was okay. This wasn’t the night for a 20 minute JC segment (the show was long enough as it was, and this wasn’t really the setting for long comedy stuff), so this probably just about worked.

*Brookside against Simmonz probably couldn’t have been anything other than it was. In intentionally trying to be a dull stall-fest it worked perfectly. JT got in some funny stuff outside.

*Tighe against Williams was nothing bad, and perhaps was a welcome change from the brawling aspect of the night. But we’d seen the exact match a couple of shows ago, Tighe hasn’t ever really been over in IPW, and no-one truly wants to hate on Doug. Would have worked much better in another setting, but nothing really wrong with it.

*Flash Barker surprised me, in many respects. I hadn’t picked him for the guy, even when I read a thread recently about him making a return to the ring. If anything, going into the show I thought it might be Zebra. With him occupied, I then thought it was going to be one of Jonny or Jodie. So it was a total surprise to me. It was also a total surprise to see a guy who looked like he’d aged ten years, and gained about ten stone (alright, that’s an exaggeration). Pointing these things out didn’t exactly endear us to Mrs Barker, who was sat right in front of us. But bloody hell, if that guy hasn’t wrestled in three years you totally wouldn’t know it. He put in a hell of a performance, with Stone totally on song as well. The TNA-style Jeff Jarrett 18-run ins worked perfectly here, and easily one or two of the false finishes almost had me. Some kids reckon they’d seen someone under the ring earlier, which would have been ridiculously awesome if that happened, so I thought that might happen. A great match and a great way to put IPW:UK over. Stone was more or less in tears at the end, and it was a great moment for Flash to be put over the way he was (and I smoothed things over with his wife after, genuinely commenting that her man truly put in a great performance). Maybe it would have been nice for all the FWA guys to come out to pass the torch or something…I don’t know. But it was great to see IPW:UK on top, ensuring a monthly trip to Orpington for evermore.

So the FWA is gone. As Alex Shane himself admits, it’s truly been gone for a long time. Pioneers? Yeah, both in good terms and bad terms. Could IPW have come along without the FWA? Probably not. Will the FWA be missed? Well, what’s been to miss for the past two years? Not a lot if you live anywhere other than the Lancashire coast. I do hope the end of the FWA doesn’t mean the end of shows in Broxbourne, because that’s a venue that needs to house wrestling. And I do hope some of the guys affiliated to FWA are now seen in other promotions (Lambert himself would be pretty awesome in IPW or something).

But IPW has pretty much been the show to see for the past two years, and on this night they truly proved why. Lets hope they have just as big a crowd for Battle Royale next month. It’s a busy month for shows, and they may suffer from that. But anyone attending Final Frontiers, even the FWA fans, can’t fail to be impressed with what they saw. Through their tears…

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That was a fantastic show. With the exception of the lame Feelgood/Thunder/BlockBusta segment, and a few logic issues, there was nothing bad anywhere. I'd say it was the 2nd best IPW show I've ever seen, and one of the best British shows I've seen recently.

I wouldn't say any of the matches were classics, but the crowd involvement and reactions were tremendous.

Phere vs. Moralez - very good kick off.
Slam vs. Iceman - good stuff
6 man - nice to see Zebra again. Even Max Voltage being on this show couldn't take away from its awesomeness.
Hade vs. Spud - very enjoyable
Brookside vs. Simmonz - crap, but no doubt it was supposed to be. Both were bad guys, so how else can the crowd react.
Tighe vs. Williams - good stuff, but could have been better given the participants
Stone vs. Barker - awesome from start to finish. I was in FWA section for 2 reasons, one IPW was sold out, and didn't fnacy neutral, and I thought I'd have more fun in FWA section, and sure did. I attended many FWA shows, but just as "shows I could get to", same as any other promotions, but have some great memories from their shows, but I've actually seen more IPW matches in 2 and a half years, than FWA in 4 and a half years. Anyways, so I knew FWA wouldn't win, but it was great fun cheering them along, and kind of hoping they would, just as it wasn't obvious they would, but they didn't. But there were so many amazing moments in that match where you thought maybe they would. Not too keen on the legit respect at the end mind.

Overall, fantasitc, made RQW last night look like amateur hour with a nice stage.

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