FRANKIE SUMMERS BLOG #26 – HEATWAVE

Hello there once again CPW Galaxy, Frankie Summers back once again with the rundown of the events that happened on this in-between season edition of CPW Live. It was certainly an action-packed show this time with 8 matches filling out the card. We had rivalries coming to a head, both old and new, we had more G6 chicanery and shocks and surprises galore. All of this is to come later on in this feature. Keeping it brief this time, it’s one that is better watched than being told about.

We came to you live from the Henley Green Community Centre with Mr Richards and Alex Conners at the helm in the commentary booth and myself as master of ceremonies, I announced the whole show this time, armed with my antiseptic throat spray which semi helped. I was in and out during matches so my recollection is a bit patchy as I had to gargle between match announcements. Now there is a question a couple of people have asked me. What on earth happened to my hat? Well, in short, it’s been too hot to wear it. Even in early spring, it was too hot, so it’s going by the wayside for a bit. I’ll bring it back when the weather cools. I opened up the show with the card run down and our announcement that I will give in case you missed it. Superstars Season 3 only has 2 slots left if you want to come along and train to be a CPW Superstar. Come along and join the team, learn how it all works and how to wrestle the CPW way with Will and the team. It’s great for your fitness and your confidence skills too. If you’ve ever wanted to wrestle, even just to try it out, this is your shot at glory. Now let’s move on to the show.

We started in fine style as the infamous Kameron Solas took on the mysterious newcomer to CPW, the masked man known as Apollo Vela. This match was all that you would hope for. The mask wasn’t just for show, as it appears Apollo is a legit luchador. He’s a larger athlete but he is amazingly athletic. He’s fast and agile and can do all of the flippy high flying stuff that other smaller guys like Bashby and George can do. However, Kameron is no stranger to that style as well and his reckless in-ring moves are what has made him so beloved in the eyes of the fans. Little is known of Apollo apart from he is from Mexico, he is the cousin of Lucha! Lucha! and he doesn’t talk much. He kept his hood up most of the time in the locker room, occasionally offering a Hot Tamales candies out of a brown paper bag to those unsuspecting. I didn’t fall for it, but a couple of others did.

The match was pure Lucha Libre, lots of airborne technical moves that make full use of the ring, with lots of high-risk moves throughout. The kind of moves that I struggle to keep up with just watching, let alone competing against. The match was filled with locks and holds as well as aerial strikes. Vela is impressive to watch do these high flying moves at his size. Kameron tried to overcome it with his aerial assault but just came up short as Vela put him away. Sadly, that big win has eluded Kameron for so long. They shook hands in the middle of the ring afterwards as a show of respect. It’s nice to see two people in our ring who do that and not have them hit each other with cheap shots after the bell rings.

The next match was the first ladies match as Natalie Wild defended her CPW Women’s Lineal Championship against the returning Lucy Sky. Lucy has been away for a long time and was last seen tagging up with Will Starr against Natalie Wild and Isaac Quentin III before History V. She was liked by the fans and always put on a good showing, but since then, a year has gone by. Things have changed for her as well as us. She’s been on the road and taken on opponents all over the north-west. She is a much more intimidating presence now than ever. Natalie, of course, is the CPW Lineal Women’s champion. She’s not just champion, she’s the Queen of the Galaxy, she’s the Queen of the hearts of the fans. A year ago she was hated for siding with Dan Evans and being the thorn in the side of everyone in the women’s division. After the incident at Betrayal being left high and dry by her own stable, she went her own way and become the most beloved female on our roster.

Both ladies made their entrances and just after I left the ring, I heard an “OI! Hello?!” come from the ring. It was Lucy demanding the microphone. I happily gave it to her to not cause any more issues. Lucy went on a tirade at the fans and Natalie. She couldn’t fathom that the fans love Natalie after the things she did to her. People can change, Lucy and considering this display, you should know that better than anyone. It was another back and forth match with Lucy getting the advantage on several occasions, but Natalie managing to stay one step ahead each time. It ended when Natalie locked in the Koji Clutch on Lucy for the second time and she made her tap out. A great first defence of the CPW Lineal Women’s championship against a worthy adversary who I hope we will see back. I think that Lucy’s time to shine will come and our ladies need to be ready for her challenge. Natalie impressed as always, showing why she is our Queen.

For our next match, we had something a little different. Ryan Lance was supposed to be wrestling for this match, but due to sudden circumstances, he was not able to compete. What those were I don’t know. It’s a shame because his match was one the fans were looking forward to. Meantime I was joined by someone we saw way back in March. None other than ‘Sugar’ Jimmy Vice. He came in, saying that he hadn’t been given many opportunities in CPW and wanted to change it. Only thing is Jimmy, you have to show up to get any kind of chance anywhere. You have had one match in CPW, and that was against Anthony Mafia, where you lost. You got the fans to like you a lot at the time, but now you’ve come back embittered, just like Lucy Sky. He threw down an open challenge to anyone brave enough to face him, then after a few moments of silence, you hear “SORRY! YOU’RE DEAD!” over the stereo and an enraged Tommbie, hot off the beating he took at secret society and out to bust some heads, particularly Jimmy’s.

Now you would expect this to be over in a trice, but it wasn’t. While Tommbie came at Jimmy like a ball of fire, Jimmy seemed to take advantage of this, weathering the storm, knowing how angry and reckless Tommbie has become, only having revenge on his mind. Jimmy rolled with the punches and managed to take control on a few occasions, however, his confidence and arrogance became his undoing. He managed to hit the Sugar Bomb and get a 2 count and even managed to counter an attempt at the Occult Assault. However, after an attempt at the Slice and Dice, Tommbie escaped, hit the Occult Assault and picked up the win for 3, bouncing back spectacularly.

As I said on the show, I feel sorry for the Imperial Dragon when Tommbie gets his hands on him. It’s going to be brutal, bloody and most likely happening on a CPW Underground show. You’ll need to duck and cover as junk is going to start flying.

We closed off the first half with what you might consider a mismatch as The MMS’ own Dan Evans took on the Prince of Pineapples, Bashby. Giving away about 5 stone and 7 years of experience, Bashby was the definite underdog here. However, he’s never been one to turn down a challenge and it’s not like he’s not beaten way bigger opponents before, however, none like this. They came out and Dan asked for the Microphone from me. He went on to credit Bashby for all that he has done in his time in CPW, and how such a young competitor has dedicated himself to the sport for as long as he has, and that he is going to reach the dizzy heights of the industry one day. However, Dan said that Bashby will never be considered his equal.

This started the match and lead to some fast-paced grappling. Dan got the best of the exchange with his power, perhaps acting a bit cockily. Bashby was not deterred and tried it again. Bashby tried to get advantage a few times and kept firing back at Dan, but he always seemed to pull back the advantage, either through a small opening or a burst of power. It came to a head after Dan tried to put Bashby away after Bashby made a second Superkick attempt and missed. After a quick reversal, Bashby caught Dan again before levelling him with a 3rd try at the Superkick to get the win. This was an amazing feat and I congratulated a very tired and achy Bashby in the ring before calling for our interval. We were joined by Tommbie, Natalie Wild and Kameron Solas for this as the fans got their photos.

We opened the second half as the Lady Sarah Skylark, in her contractually granted rematch took on the Golden Girl of CPW, she calls herself the Descendant Angel, I called her the Young Lioness. Whatever you nickname her, she is your CPW Women’s champion, Lucia Lee. Sarah came out and declared herself the true champion and how she is the champion that he fans need, and how Lucia isn’t worthy of the belt and shouldn’t be the one representing the CPW Galaxy. Lucia tore through the curtain to an explosive cheer. She didn’t have much to say but was in there for the action.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this was Lucia’s best performance so far. She took it to Sarah through most of the match. Sarah did maintain control for a fair amount of time, but every time she seemed to get Lucia down, she broke out and kept firing back. It finished up after Lucia took Sarah down with a barrage of reverse thrust kicks and finished her off with the Top Rope Elbow. This smashed Sarah right in the heart to get her for 3. Lucia Lee retains and is still your CPW Women’s champion.

This match showed how far Lucia has come in her short tenure in CPW. In the space of 9 months, she has come into her own, and she’s become so confident out there in the ring. It’s great to see someone new find their groove and become a consummate ring practitioner. She will be holding that belt for a long long time with performances like that. Her next obstacle will be Kat von Kaige at Summerfest 4. For the Galaxy Lucia, smash the villainess!

Next was perhaps the most eagerly awaited match on the card for the night. A 15 minute epic as the man formerly known as Windsor (and Seth Skyline), Scott Oberman took on the Golden Ticket Holder for 2019, Morris. This was a match that has been 3 years in the making. When Scott came in, he was revealed as the true Windsor, the brought the young Morris along as his butler and servant and of course, he abused his power around him. Morris became popular through what he had to deal with, and in 2017 they faced off for the first time. Morris was a CPW Academy Wrestler at this point and Scott was already a seasoned veteran. Morris fought bravely but came up short, so that seemed to be the end of it, but after beating Isaac Quentin III for the Golden Ticket, now was the time to strike.

This match was an exhibition of what both men can do in that ring and how much they both had a point to prove and how much they both wanted to win. You sometimes forget what a great competitor Scott is in the ring. He’s not just Dan Evans’ tall friend with great hair who stands behind him looking angry. He’s a dangerous and versatile competitor. He’s strong, fast and agile, and a great all-rounder who can keep up with anyone of any style. Elsewhere he’s been involved in everything from Lucha to deathmatches. He doesn’t get enough credit and is much deeper than some kind of one-dimensional villain who yells at you when being called Windsor. Morris needs no introduction, riding high after his win at History, he felt it was high time that we resolve this feud once and for all.

This was a match for the ages. CPW Management named it their match of the night and rightly so. The match had everything. Displays of power and strength, agility, quickness and durability were all shown. It wasn’t a simple one and done stomping, it was a match that kept everyone guessing throughout. It came to a head when Scott got frustrated and slid out of the ring looking for his Tag Team Title Belt. He approached me with a look in his eyes like I’d just slapped his Nandos off the table and snatched the belt from me and leapt back in the ring to hit Morris with it. Luckily this didn’t happen and Tango got the belt from him. Morris fired back, hit the Samoan Drop and Scott kicked out. We were all in shock. Morris pulled him up to try and finish him off but Scott managed to evade the movie and levelled Morris with the neck breaker and the battle was over. I think Morris hit his head on the mat when it happened because he was out of it when Tango and I tried to help him. Scott grabbed my microphone and credited Morris for his effort before giving him the respect fist and leaping out of the ring. Tango and I helped Morris up and out of the ring. That motor was still running and will continue to do so. I still get the feeling that this one isn’t the end of this rivalry. I don’t think Morris will rest until he gets his revenge, but that won’t be for a while I believe. Watch this space. The biggest shock was showing an ounce of respect for his opponent. Maybe he isn’t such a bad guy after all and he’s just really hard to please? He is rich so that stands to reason.

The next match was the 6 man tag team match as Big Eli Conners, Niall Fairchild and Will Starr took on the team of Mr Ace, Jordan Blaze and Dingo. 3 veterans against 3 relative newcomers. This is more us vs them tag team action as our heroes take on the scum that is the G6, who seem to be recruiting new members left, right and centre.

It should have been a walkover, but they had Dominic Dewinter with them in their corner. I had to separate the two teams during the announcements as they wanted at each other so badly. Big Eli took an awful beating during this match, but so did the 3 bad guys when our heroes got their hands on them. It ended after Eli got the tag out to Niall after a devastating clothesline to Dingo that busted his nose open. Bloodied and angry Dingo tried to keep with it, but Niall got in, worked on him a bit, hit the Rainmaker and got the 3. Some dominance asserted over the G6 once again as they seem to be weakening. But let’s see if that would hold up as we went into the next match.

The main event of the show was Leyton Simms defending his CPW New Blood championship against The G6’s James Cross. James came out with Dominic Dewinter, the still signed off Kevin Isaac and the bloodied Dingo (I have to give him credit for getting back out there after that), seemingly as an insurance policy to make sure that they walked out of Heatwave with that coveted New Blood title to add once again to their trophy cabinet, especially after the embarrassment they suffered at History. Leyton came out to the love we’ve become accustomed see him get every time he steps through that curtain. He wasn’t there to antagonise this time, he was there to fight and rightly so.
Before the match started, I had gone in the back with James’ ring jacket for him to get later. I was then confronted and dragged out by the Iron Serb who looked at me square in the face, pointed at himself and said: “Special guest commentator, announce me, Frankie!” At this point, before I could respond he grabbed me by my collar and dragged me out to ringside. So I announced him as the special guest commentator and he took his post alongside Alex and Mr Richards.

Both men came out thick and fast with heavy strikes. They wanted to lay into each other after all that has gone on between their respective sides. This was the highest stakes it had ever been on this kind of level. Leyton fought bravely throughout, but they tried to take advantage of the numbers game again. Leyton hinted at going for a Suicide Dive through the ropes on multiple occasions. James retreated from the ring whenever Leyton got the upper hand and after a few attempts, Leyton threw caution to the winds and leapt through, taking out all of the G6 in the process. The crowd went mad for this. This was good payback for earlier in the match, Dingo and Isaac beat up Leyton while Tango was distracted by Dominic. Back in the ring and after another exchange between the two, Leyton pulled the Jailbreaker out of nowhere and pinned James for the 3 count to pick up the win and retain the New Blood title.

The celebration was short-lived as the G6 stormed the ring and stomped all over Leyton angrily while Dominic barked orders. Bashby charged out from the back to help and got them off him but couldn’t fight the numbers game. Then, when all hope seemed lost, Will Starr marched out and took care of the rest. They helped Leyton out and I announced him once again as the winner and champion.

This brought the show to a close. It was explosive; action-packed, fast-paced and set the scene for what will happen in our biggest party of the summer, Summerfest! Summerfest 4 and 5 are happening this year in 2 different locations. At the Henley Green centre, you will have the Summerfest 4 show where CPW’s finest will battle it out for you, the CPW Galaxy and at the Leicester Sports Centre, the day after is Summerfest 5 with a free fun day with lots of activities for all to do. We look forward to this brave step forward into the mysterious world that is the East Midlands, and also to putting on 2 fantastic shows with thrills, spills, chills and possibly a few surprises in store. We hope you can make both but would love to see you at either one.

For now, this is Frankie Summers signing off, we will see you at Summerfest!