FRANKIE SUMMERS BLOG #28 – SUMMERFEST 5

Summerfest 5

Frankie Summers reporting once again, CPW Galaxy. This time we come to you for the first time ever from Leicester. I’m aiming this entry more at first time readers who came along to this show with little knowledge of CPW, so I’ll introduce myself first. I’m Frankie, CPW’s Head of Media. I was the guy in the red and white tights in the 6 man tag match, early on in the show. I’m mainly known for being CPW’s ring announcer at the Coventry shows, but I wrestle on occasion and I enjoy doing both. I also write blogs about every show that we host and have only missed one in the past year due to illness. The blog is to give new fans an insight to what is going on in CPW and to break down who our people are, what they do and how things have come about. It’s a satisfying and productive way for me to spend my spare time and I hope you enjoy it.

Our venue for this show was the Leicester Sports centre run by a fine gent we know as Kully, and his staff. He’s been a wrestling fan for years and was very intrigued at the idea of hosting a pro wrestling show in his venue. This show had a twist, we do what we aim to do every year for this show but host it for free. It had a few differences of course. No Dan Evans with his elaborate entrance this year, new location, held indoors and of course we had stalls with things to buy and a licensed bar with a great selection of drinks available at this great venue. The location was tall and rather spacious.

We were all kind of overwhelmed going in because we didn’t realise how big it was. We got a nice balcony for the sound booth and the ring was a long way away from our entrance. Where we had the ring if we had a standing crowd could easily hold something even bigger than the crowd we had for the first Superstars show. We didn’t know what to expect, hosting a free show in a new venue in an area full of strangers, and thank goodness we had a bunch of our regulars come to watch the show from the CPW Galaxy. I want to personally thank all of you who spent your hard-earned cash to get on the minibus to come over and join us and get who we are known to the crowd. Some responses didn’t go as planned thanks to the actions of 2 regulars in particular, but this kind of thing can’t be helped, especially when watching a show filled with people you don’t know, be you a casual fan who watches wrestling on TV/online or someone who goes to local indie shows in your area or even ones who go to holiday camps or the national travelling wrestling shows. The British Wrestling scene is a big and expansive place and it’s hard to keep tabs on it all, but it’s easy to get favourites, be it talents, promotions or on-screen personalities. It’s why we are always on the lookout for new talent and people we think you, the Galaxy may like. I was competing in a match so cannot give much match detail for some of the matches but I’ll go as best as I can. For those new to this blog, thank you for dropping in to read it. I usually go into more detail but this breaks it down for those who haven’t seen it. This will be more focused on the experience we all had rather than the matches themselves. I’m still overjoyed we managed to pull in a full house.

Caitlyn James was our Mistress of Ceremonies for this show because I had a match to do. We started with a different theme song this time, not Sweet Caroline which got our new fans into it. Caitlyn gave a rundown of the card and we opened up with a tag team match as the successful team from Summerfest 4, Dingo and Kevin Isaac of the G6 as they took on the team of former rivals Tommbie and current Nextgen Heavyweight Champion Fifi. All 4 men were worn down from the battles they were in the night before, but that wasn’t going to stop them. After a short and intense and hard-hitting battle, Fifi planted Dingo with the Fifi Factor and got the pin to win the match for his team. The crowd got quite into this and took a shine to Fifi and in turn Tommbie as well, even if he is rather intimidating. It got the crowd in a good mood to see the good guys win off the bat.
The fans in Leicester who are new to CPW, of course, don’t know what a pain the G6 are to the rest of us. This is for those who don’t know, in short, they’re a bunch of wrestlers who have gone rogue for various reasons. They are lead by Dominic Dewinter, that’s the guy in the suit who appeared at various times during the show. He is our COO but has stepped back a bit from the role to manage the G6. He is still running things but has his heart and mind elsewhere.

The team consists of Kevin Isaac, an experienced technical wrestler who took some time out of the game and came back to start anew with CPW. After being thrown out of the Elimination rumble in a matter of seconds back in March, Kevin became embittered when some of the fans started laughing at him. This culminated in the formation of the group and a match with Will Starr for his CPW Heavyweight championship. Kevin, through nefarious means, ended up winning the belt thanks to an overruling from Dewinter, making the match 4 on 1. Will couldn’t overcome these impossible odds after a tough match. Kevin lost the belt after being pinned in record time at History 5 but has come back with a vengeance after some time away.

His tag team partner Dingo was a ring hand who moved here from Australia. He had been coming to open sessions with Kevin without the academy class knowing. He had been teaching him some moves. He learned that with his background in Rugby and Aussie rules Football his speciality is short sharp bursts of speed which helped established his finisher, the spear. As seen by others before, but no one in CPW has done it in such a devastating fashion, to where it nearly breaks who it hits in half.
Next is Ryan Lance, ‘The Shooter’ as I call him. This is for 2 reasons; the first is his lightning-fast kicks. The other is his big mouth. He had an impressive start during the Superstars programme being awarded a shot at Leyton Simms and his New Blood championship. He was unsuccessful, but even then the seeds were planted as he has become Mr Bad Attitude. He joined the G6 to be with people of similar mindsets

Next is James Cross, the man who main evented both Superstars shows. Despite being with the G6, he has a small group of fans we call the Cross-Section *cough*. He’s known for his short temper and resentment of authority. He has had many wars in his rookie year in CPW already, including with Will Starr, Leyton Simms and Fifi. He joined because he was tired of coming up on the losing end and thought this may help him.

Next, we have a veteran of CPW, Kieran Young. He is a former CPW champion and even CPW management have said that if it weren’t for him being marred by injuries and making a few bad decisions, he could have been one of the all-time greats in CPW. In his mind he is, but feels that he has been given a raw deal and that’s why he has joined the G6, to put him back to the top of Mt. Relevancy.

Lastly, we have the most tragic entry in my opinion, as a lot of us saw this young man as a friend and ally. I, of course, refer to George. George is the fastest triple crown winner in CPW history, winning the new defunct Nextgen Academy title from Bashby in his debut, then beating Alex Conners after a great trilogy series for the Nextgen Heavyweight Championship and finishing up by beating me for the CPW Godiva Championship back in May, which he has held up to the time of this show. He’s gone from the shy boy who came into CPW last year, to an attitude-filled young man who begrudgingly can back it up at every turn. He said that despite how well he did, there were other CPW stars that he fought alongside that got more love and commendation, so seemingly it’s down to jealousy.

So, in short, these are the band of villains who want to take over CPW and that myself and the other good guys on the roster are trying to stop. We have people who have aligned with them unofficially, like Jay J Roberts, Mr Ace, Jordan Blaze and others, but those are the core members. Rarely, they are all together however, so they are willing to recruit new people. They even managed to sway former WWE Star Rene Dupree to their cause, but luckily Will Starr beat him at History 6. In short, they are a massive problem that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere other than up the rankings.
Moving on however we have our next match and it was a six-man tag team match as the Iron Serb teamed with Leicester’s team of Dread and Lyon, the 666 Pack as they took on myself and Team Madness, the team of CPW New Blood champion Leyton Simms and Dr Gage. This has history, Serb hired 666 Pack as a pair of heavies to compete against Madness to put them out once and for all, but he had issues with all 3 of us, including with me. It’s been a petty rivalry between us, with lots of name-calling, finger-pointing and insults. Now was the time for action, as it came to a boil. I must thank the Leicester crowd for getting behind us as you did.

I opened against Iron Serb as he got in my face, saying I had no place in the ring, so I told him to give me the charge. He charged at me and I held out my hand and yelled STOP! I then drew his attention to the roof before slapping him. He told me to do it again so I did. He went to punch me and I stopped him again before pointing at the ceiling again. He didn’t fall for it so I stomped on his feet before tagging in Dr Gage and Leyton. Serb tagged in 666 Pack, Leyton got on Gage’s Shoulders and drew attention to the fact that Dread looks a bit like Mick Hucknall from the band Simply Red. I pointed out he had Dave Grohl with him too, referring to Lyon, Gage insisted he’s Rob Zombie, however. After taking a tumble Leyton took a bad landing which damaged his arm to the point he couldn’t compete. Fifi came down to save the day as Caitlyn got Leyton to the back; he had to be transported to the hospital which happened very quickly. Dr Gage held his own meantime as I willed him back into the match. Dread strangled him with his dreadlocks, but Gage got the reversal and choked him out with them, much to the joy of the crowd. He tried to fight back but got cut off, eventually taking a bulldog from Lyon, onto the knee of Dread which I thought would put him away. After a miscommunication Dr Gage slipped out and tagged in Fifi who took out 666 Pack and Serb throwing them outside before getting Caitlyn to move the steps so he could roll over the top with a plancha, taking down all 3 men. Serb was thrown back in and Fifi tagged me in, I took out Serb with a Clothesline, hyped up the crowd, hit the leg drop and got the pin for 3, Team Madness and Frankie Summers win. It felt good to finally put the Serb in his place myself, the crowd seemed to like it, but most importantly it felt good to get back out there and wrestling in front of the fans again. Some have asked when I’ll be wrestling again and I’m glad some of the regulars made it see me do my thing, even if it wasn’t my usual performance. Still, a win is a win and I’ll take it. I tried to celebrate by using the bubble sword that had been thrown in the ring, 2 blows and the bubble popped, then I tried to raise it in the air and the wand and the thing broke. It was hilarious and embarrassing at the same time, but cheap props falling apart is par for the course where Team Madness is concerned.

Next, we had a Ladies tag team match as the debuting Alfie Rogue teamed with her established partner and CPW star we’ve not seen in a while, Luna Rox, as they took on Leicester’s own Shauna Shay and our own CPW Women’s champion Lucia Lee.

Lucia was coming off a little shaken after losing to Kat von Kaige the night before after eating her springboard bulldog. Shauna we’ve not seen for a while but has been doing well for herself, and if you keep up with her social media, you can see she’s been getting herself even more in shape to make herself buff and tough enough to deal with any opponent put in front of her. Luna hasn’t had the best run in CPW but this has made her bitter and vengeful, so she’s brought along her good friend and tag team partner, Alfie Rogue. I don’t know much about her but I’ve heard good things and out of CPW, they’ve had great success, even winning some tag team championships along the way. They had an advantage coming into this right off the bat.

The match was short and fast with a mix of different exchanges between the 4 girls. Little was known of Alfie coming into this, but she put up a very solid performance in the short time she had, showing some dominance during her ring time. Luna and Alfie did a number on Lucia, double-teaming the young champion who weathered the storm and tagged in Shauna who took both opponents out and got the pin in front of her home town crowd to the roar of the crowd. I didn’t see much of the match but saw how it ended. Shauna and Lucia stuck around afterwards while Alfie and Luna headed off with their tails between their legs.

After this match, we had our interval. Usually, we have fan access, but this was a little different. Myself and a few others were asked by management to go down into the crowd to mingle with the fans and ask them how they were enjoying the show. This was big for a lot of us as the newer stars haven’t done anything like this. Sure we’ve done meet and greets where people form queues and get our autographs and talk a bit with their favourites, but this was a chance to get some proper one to one time with the fans. This was the most I’ve ever felt like an indie wrestler and not just a CPW Superstar. As it stands, we may be under the CPW brand, but in effect, we were travelling wrestlers who were making their debut in a new location and unfamiliar territory. We had a couple of advantages however as a few of the talents we had on the show were local and Shauna Shay is an established star in the Leicestershire territory, but most of the local fans didn’t know their Will Starr from their Tommbie going in. It was a free show and they didn’t know what to expect, but they’ve come out with some firm favourites it seems. They loved Fifi, Team Madness, Lucia Lee, even I got talking to some of the new fans who got asking questions, like if Leyton was OK, and if I’d met certain wrestlers from the touring scene.

We came back from the break with a Triple Threat match as the NBO Warrior Morris, Vicious Jordan Blaze and the Imperial Dragon all faced off. The planned match was a singles between Blaze and Morris, and Imperial Dragon was meant to face off with Morgan Black, but Morgan had to pull out of the show at the last minute which left a very frustrated Dragon in his changing area pacing back and forth just being generally angry. He eventually told management that he wanted a victim, so that’s how the match came about. Morris had a few people booing him oddly, but we suspect that the 2 people in Blaze’s fan club may have led them on. Blaze himself got a reasonably cold response from the crowd. Not even I know his motives, but it seems to me he will take on anyone and take any route to win, he’s not necessarily bad, but he’s not above breaking the rules when it suits him it seems. The Dragon was the big telling point here. I wondered how the crowd would respond and how he would respond to them. The first child to come near him, he immediately went BLEEGGHHH! right in their face, it’s not known if the child burst into tears or not but that usually does the trick.
The match was hard-hitting between these 3 big bruisers. Morris had to fight off both men for the first half of the matchup, and one of either of these men is bad enough. They are both big and imposing, they worked together against Morris with hard-hitting strikes and some team moves, but Morris kept fighting back. There was only dissension after Blaze went for a cover and Dragon pulled him off. They argued in the ring over who should pin him and they started throwing punches to the delight of the Galaxy. They didn’t care who won so long as at least one of them got hurt. Dragon ended up retreating which put Jordan on top, Morris rolled back in to fight back and went toe to toe with Blaze. Morris was overwhelmed, taking a discus line, a Black Hole Slam and a TKO to finish the match with Jordan Blaze getting a shocking and dominant win over the Golden Ticket holder. Blaze was unsuccessful against Will Starr the night before but got his retribution this time. It does make me wonder where this is going and if he may have a shot at gold down the line, perhaps against Niall Fairchild or Fifi if he can keep this momentum up.

Next, we had an exhibition that was a rematch from the main event of Superstars 1 and CPW Lineal Champ Will Starr took on G6 member James Cross. James wanted this match to show his old teacher exactly what he can do now, nearly a year on. Maybe as a way to show dominance, or to give him a middle finger, perhaps show he doesn’t need his guidance? Either way, this match was on and Dominic Dewinter was at the side of James Cross as normal. Will was undeterred coming in, he had a tough match with Jordan Blaze the night before, Will was ready for action and had enough in him to deal with a man who helped steal his CPW Championship away from him. This was not a pretty match, but why would it be? It was personal between these two men. It didn’t have Will rattled like when he faced IQ3, but this was about pride this time.

The match started to like their last one with James Cross attacking Will from behind to gain an early advantage. Will weathered the storm and fought back with his array of mat holds he uses to control his opponents, mainly working on the upper body, with armbars, headlocks and waist locks. James fought back with power and after 3 attempts hit his first German suplex, he hit a couple more but couldn’t put Will away. Will tried to take to the speed option and went for a cross-body block but James caught him and hit a fallaway slam and still couldn’t get the 3. His frustration gave Will and opening that allowed him to come back with a spinning uppercut, and a spinning wheel kick which made James retreat to a corner. Will charged in and hit the headlock takedown leap from the corner. He then jumped up to the top rope, hit the Super Starr Elbow and picked up the win. Another classic performance by Will, as he once again shows the world that you don’t need the flashiest moves in the world to take out your opponent; you just need to control the match and know how to control your opponent’s strengths against them.

Dominic took exception to this and jumped on the microphone in a rage, screaming that there was a conspiracy against the G6 and Dale the referee was in on it. Dominic got right in Dale’s face to tell him he should be doing his job and counting for the G6. Dale had had enough and slapped Dominic in the face, flooring him and causing his mouth to bleed. James went for Dale but Dominic called him off and charged off in a rage. I have the feeling things will only get more explosive from here, now that the officials are being involved too. To be honest it is good that other authority figures start fighting back else the G6 will run over CPW and we will have let it happen. Only time will tell what will happen but I don’t want to say this again, but it seems this could once again be CPW’s Darkest Hour.

So we wrapped up with a mammoth main event as George of the G6 defended his CPW Godiva championship against Eli Conners. George has held the belt since May after pinning me for it at Road to History but has only defended it once in singles since winning it in a crushing win over Bashby. The second defence was at History, in the team scramble match where George pinned myself and Bashby, one after the other eliminating our respective teams. Big old Eli Conners is a former CPW Tag team champion along with his brother Alex Conners, as the Hillbillies, a team known for their synergy and hard-hitting style as well as outside interference from their backwater family. They beat the team of AOS, that’s the team of CPW alumni The Beast and Baily ‘The Crow’ Rowley, they lost it a few months later to Craig West and Justin Joy but have been a dangerous force ever since. The two brothers had a falling out of nuclear proportions which resulted in the loser leaves town match with ended with Alex Conners being exiled from CPW. Now a beloved member of the CPW roster after that massive win and increased lucky streak since going solo, management thought it only fitting Eli got his shot at glory in front of his resident town.

The special clause here was that the match was no disqualification. This favours the G6 as they attack in numbers, but Eli could go back to his dirty fighting ways if need be and use them to punish George. It started with George employing more frustrating tactics, with evasion and taunting tactics to try and rattle Eli. However, his family and loved ones were in the crowd as he weathered the storm and fought back against George’s quick and vicious assault of strikes. Eli got the upper hand and tried to put George away with the GTS, his finisher. It failed and George fought out of it and called the boys in to help. This was now a 4 on 1 mugging as Kevin Isaac, Dingo, James Cross and George lay into big Eli, but then something unexpected happened, help in an unlikely form. CPW Women’s Champion Lucia Lee and Shauna Shay stormed the ring and started pummelling the G6 with the crowd screaming for more. Dominic was yelling at them to fight back, which they tried to do, but wasn’t successful. After the girls had chased them off it was fair again. Dominic was in a rage on the outside in disbelief as Eli tried 3 times in a row to hit the GTS but couldn’t hit it, eventually, Eli mowed down George and flattened him with the Big Splash to get the pin and the win and the CPW Godiva Championship. The crowd nearly tore the roof off and once again an underdog who won against all odds has captured the CPW Godiva Championship. Dr Gage and Fifi went down to the ring to greet the new champion and Shauna and Lucia jumped back in the ring, then Dr Gage and Fifi ran down to celebrate, and because I couldn’t resist, even I charged down there to celebrate with them too. Eli did beat the person who took it from me after all.

After the wrestlers had had their fun, we invited the children into the ring to celebrate with Eli and to get photos. It was a magic moment for all of us that puts a big smile on my face just remembering it. It’s wonderful how we resonated with the Leicester crowd so well and got them so into a show which for some people contained a lot of people they’d never even heard of and only saw on digital posters. Now the city of Leicester knows exactly who we are, and we would love to come back again sometime. It may be sooner than you think. I can’t wait to get back out in front of a new crowd. They took us quite well and all of us enjoyed our time there. On a personal note, I’d never felt like more of an indie star for having new people wanting to come up and talk to me from the crowd, and share my experiences with fans, and talk about our favourite stars on the touring scene.

This was a wonderful experience for us all and we can’t want to live it again. See again soon Leicester, for now,

Frankie Summers is signing off.