FRANKIE SUMMERS BLOG #29 – BIG DRAMA SHOW

Big Drama Show

Ladies and Gentlemen, Frankie Summers reporting, and welcome to Season 7 of CPW! We came to you from our base at the Henley Green Community Centre for the Big Drama Show; a highly anticipated season opener with 3 debuts and a couple of big returns to action for some fantastic grappling action. I was really looking forward to this one because of a certain debut which I will bring up later. Caitlyn James and I were running the proceedings as we opened up with a rundown of the show and a rendition of Sweet Caroline, a song that seems to follow the CPW Galaxy everywhere to a haunting degree. I usually get out of the ring to walk around to interact with the fans but the barriers at ringside make it a bit more dangerous to dance about. We ran down the match card and current events and got the show underway.

We opened up the show in fine style as CPW Heavyweight Champion Niall Fairchild teamed up with Nextgen Champion Fifi to take on Apollo Vela and Lucha! Lucha! We’ve not seen Lucha! Lucha! in a long time, and seemingly the Galaxy weren’t sure of what to make of this loud, tequila chugging Luchador. Apollo was his stoic self and rocking another fantastic looking mask to wear over his new mask which has a real Chikara vibe to it. I’m hoping he won’t fully go down that root and end up turning up to wrestle in his pyjamas. I’m glad we have Fifi back on the scene as I know that the most I’ll get in-ring are a kiss and not a hairdo full of baby oil. Niall came out to the thunderous ovation we’ve become used to as he marched out to the ring to face this new opposition.

The match overall was a great blend of action, with power, high flying and comedy. Niall displaying his power and Lucha! Lucha! with seemingly a drunken master style as he took in some liquid courage as the match opened. It all seemed evenly matched, but Fairchild and Fifi grabbed the late advantage. He pulled Apollo up for the Final Destination but Apollo slipped out and put Fifi away with his finisher and got the 3 count. This was a shock that stunned the CPW. It is the way it used to go way back when however when if you put two top singles wrestlers in there with an actual tag team, more often than not, the singles guys would come up short due to a lack of experience. I know we haven’t seen the Lucha Cousins in action together before, but they made their start in the State of Guanajuato in Mexico many years ago and their past is pretty mysterious, so who knows what they did and who they beat?

After this, we were about to announce match 2 when we were interrupted by some very familiar music as we were joined by the King of the Jungle himself, Mr Richards. He came into the ring to announce his return to action and to call out Dominic Dewinter for his recent actions. Dominic came out with a bottle of cheap bubbly in his hand, appearing to have already been on it before coming out, perhaps a bit of liquid courage? This lead to the two arguing until Katie Smith came out to break it up. Katie announced Mr Richards is being brought back to the main roster, and he has a match at the next New Blood show as he will be taking on all of G6. Mr Richards said he would gladly do this, so long as Dominic is thrown in there too and the stakes are raised that the G6 disband if they lose.

Personally, Mr Richards, I think you’re mad taking on such odds so soon after getting the OK to step back in the ring, but I know you’ve been through wars in the past, and you proved multiman is no problem, when you successfully defended the CPW Championship at Get the Strap last year. I don’t know what the rules will be, but we will find out. I feel if it’s Scramble style 1 vs all with no DQ, that’s Mr Richards’ kind of match, but the numbers game plays into it, but when a big man starts swinging a sledgehammer at you, it doesn’t matter if there’s 6 or 60, you’re going to want to scramble. Dominic is the weak link and Mr Richards is gunning for him anyway. He may be alone in the ring, but the whole CPW Galaxy is behind him, as we want to see him clear the infection that is the G6.
Moving swiftly on was the women’s championship match as the Young Lioness Lucia Lee took on the scarlet bombshell that is Alfie Rogue. Alfie made a big impression with a losing effort at the show in Leicester, teaming up with her old friend and cohort Luna Rox to take Lucia and Shauna Shay. This performance caught the eye of CPW management which gave her the title shot she had here. Lucia has been tearing through all challengers, really showing how far she has come in her rookie year, becoming the poster child for the Superstars/New Blood division.

The match was short and fast, both girls came out all guns blazing with Alfie trying to take the early advantage, but Lucia came back with heavy strikes and her power moves, wrapping it up with the big elbow to get the pin and retain her title. Short and sweet and a fantastic win for Lucia as she shows once again that never backs down from anyone. Katie Smith came out and announced a special challenge for Lucia, and that would be her facing another wrestler who has been through the scene and got a WWE try-out for her efforts, and that is Hannah Taylor. Lucia grabbed the microphone and accepted the challenge, saying she will crush any Barbie Doll looking wrestler that she puts against her because she stands with the misfits and downtrodden of society and fights for them. Now that’s a mindset I can relate to, along with some friends we have both stood with. After some research, I can see Hannah looks a lot like another guest we’ve had in CPW, in Mariah May. Similar look and attire, but that’s only on appearance, I’ll have to watch some matches and I’m sure Lucia will do the same to prepare for her.

Next was the tag team number one contenders match as Iron Serb and Mr Ace teamed up to face the odd couple, the team of Imperial Dragon and Tommbie. Dragon has been begging Tommbie to side with him and let his inner dark side from long ago come out so he can tear through opponents remorselessly like in the days of The Fallen. Tommbie has declined numerous times because he’s fine with what he’s doing now; smashing his way through bad guys to the roar of the crowd. Mr Ace teamed up as a way to elevate the ‘young and upcoming’ former CPW New Blood Champion, the Iron Serb. Serb was not impressed with any of this, especially when Ace decided to nominate himself as leader of the team, calling themselves the Iron Aces, which sounds like a budget warplane strategy shooting game from the early 2000s, most likely purchased from a bargain store. Ace dodged outside to avoid confrontation and pulled Serb in for an impromptu selfie. This made the crowd restless, telling him to get back in the ring and fight.

It opened up with Mr Ace essentially saying “watch this” and going after Dragon. He avoided some of his heavy strikes similarly to how I did in my match with him, he must have been watching the On-Demand service videos. He cockily brushed off the attacks but Tommbie tagged himself in to sort him out. After throwing Ace around a bit and after a brief exercise in dominance and public embarrassment, Mr Ace cowardly ran over to Serb, who promptly called him an idiot, tagged in and grappled with Tommbie. Tommbie gained control but Dragon tagged himself in, to the horror of Tommbie, and the former Iron Dragons squared off. It was balanced but the fans weren’t sure if they should cheer considering all Dragon has done. Tommbie implored the crowd to at least give something to try and get Dragon more into it.

It worked and Dragon gained control, and Tommbie did the same as Dragon did earlier and tagged himself in when he seemed to be taking advantage as he wanted to polish off Serb himself. After a quick argument, Serb escaped and tagged in Ace, and this was the beginning of the end. After a barrage of tandem kicks and strikes, followed by an Occult Assault, the Dragon and Tommbie won the match and couldn’t even celebrate in a cooperative fashion, however, they are headed for a shot at glory later on as they will take on the Merseyside Merc Squad (They have been rebranded due to their last name making them too extreme). I think in terms of experience and power and ability, these look like the toughest tests so far for the MMS and the biggest threat for their titles. Not just because one is smaller and stocky and the other is tall and imposing. Dragon has more experience than Dan Evans which is a scary thought as nearly 20 years in the ring. In a game of power as well, I’d say Tommbie is likely stronger than Dan. Oberman can hit hard but we know how hard Dragon can hit, we’ve seen the evidence on the chests of his long list of opponents. This could be an interesting match so long as these two can get along.

This lead to the interval, which was mistakenly started a match early, it’s live entertainment, accidents can happen. We were going to restart, but Dominic Dewinter came out and said we won’t restart because George needed extra prep time. What the boss says goes so we carried on. We did our fan access lead by Fifi.

We moved onto a now extended second half as we opened with our next match as the People’s Captain Steve Valentino took on the G6’s George. George had been looking forward to this match, especially as it is the chance to take on a local legend. Steve is a wrestler that I have talked about non-stop since he was announced. He is a very talented and entertaining wrestler to watch, and I’ve seen him wrestle in various places against some high profile opponents. Funny story, in one match he did something that I’m sad he didn’t do at our show. That’s where he asks if he should turn his opponent into a pirate. You’re better off looking that one up. Steve tore out of the curtain and right into the crowd, rallying the jolly crew to side with his cause. George and Dominic were unimpressed with this display as they came out but the real fun was yet to come.

This match was fast-paced reversals, hold for hold technical moves, agility and flips, high-intensity strikes and crowd involvement galore, like both of these men had been fired out of cannons. The energy was incredible. They went hold for hold with each other and they always had an answer for whatever the other could pull off. Their chain of arm lock reversals was a thing of beauty. George tried everything he could to try and put Steve away, the whole time the crowd chanting “Captain Hook” at Steve, just showing how much he resonated with the fans so well. Steve managed to counter what I’m calling the Ripcordbreaker for now by grabbing George’s legs while in mid-air and powering him up. He tried to powerbomb him but George slipped over, then after one final exchange, Steve hit a short lariat and pinned George for 3. The crowd leapt of their seats in joy. I wanted to but I have to maintain professionalism. Captain Steve Valentino had slain the young upstart in a very impressive showing which was universally praised.

Next we had the Deathrow match as I welcomed at that time, CPW New Blood champion Leyton Simms to the ring as he informed the crowd he could not compete due to his injury sustained at Summerfest 5 and he would have to vacate this championship and a new one would be decided in this 6 man elimination match, where one by one participants would be eliminated until only one remained and the last one would be the new CPW New Blood Champion. We had Drake Wynter, Bashby, Dingo, Morris, Jay J Roberts and Jordan Blaze all competing, all with an equal chance to get the belt. It started with Morris and Dingo, soon joined by Drake Wynter, then Bashby, then Jordan Blaze and finally Jay J Roberts at the end. Dingo, Drake, Bashby and Jordan were eliminated in a quick fashion which just left Morris in the ring with the big man who polished off Morris with the choke bomb to become the new New Blood champion. The Bearded Prince of Wales as he likes to be known now is a very formidable foe and will be a stern challenge for anyone who wants to go for that belt. Watch this one on CPW On-Demand just to see how chock full this match was.

Next, we had the Women’s Division match as 2 debutants faced each other. Georgy Archer from Nottingham and Raging Claudia Bradstone from Portugal via Warwick. This was another short match with grappling and brawling and a pretty much dead even tussle going down the middle for most of the match. The pace was slow and the action was grounded until Claudia started to live up to her nickname, firing up and getting nasty, smacking Georgy around, but Georgy kept in it as best as she could until out of nowhere, Claudia pulled her down and hooked her up for the 3 count, the match was over in a flash and Claudia was to face Natalie Wild at CPW vs the World.

Next, we had a match with the returning Jake Casanova as he took on Exceptional Jimmy Vice. Jake came back in fine style as he got me to dance with him in fine style to a song I’ve not danced to in months and it showed. Jimmy took exception to this nonsense and slapped Jake’s hat off my head when he put it on there. This lead to an all-out brawl between the two. Two very similar styles and two very similar tastes in clothing. After being thrown around a bit by Jake, Jimmy came back with a cheap shot and fired back on Jake. Jake kept in it and pulled out some of his classics including the swing clothesline through the ropes. It looked like it was going Jakes way when Jimmy got the cheap shot and hit the Slice n Vice and picked up the win, making him the new No 1 contender for Niall Fairchild’s CPW title.

We wrapped up the show with a final confrontation between two old rivals with a feud that has been 18 months in the making as CPW Lineal Champion Will Starr took on the new freshly rebranded IQ3. Formerly known as Isaac Quentin III, he has decided that he does not want unworthy riff-raff even mentioning his name anymore because we aren’t worthy of such a thing. Words cannot do this match justice, please check CPW On Demand for the full match in all its glory.

This one, as to be expected was a match worthy of such a long rivalry. It’s a scene that we’ve seen before from these two but one we never tire of, it starts as a technical master class of wrestling and mat action with neither man giving an inch. Then after neither man got a clear advantage it started to get nasty with fists flying and high impact moves. Will seemed to be getting the advantage and finally gearing up to give ‘wrestling’s smartest man’ his second-ever pinfall defeat, but as is standard, the G6 came out to interfere in the match, making a nuisance of themselves and after the distraction, they cost Will the match and as IQ3 got back to his feet after the pin, he joined in on a beatdown of Will, just to prove another point. However, when hope seemed lost, Captain Steve Valentino exploded through the curtain and chased the G6 off. Steve stood with Will and raised his hand before of all the shocks, turning on Will and beating him up himself, which lead to Steve taking the mic and telling Will that he wants him in the ring and will end him when it happens.

This was a turn of events that is completely shocking as it just came out of nowhere. We had a strong ally to help us fight the G6, but now he’s gone rogue, a turncoat if you will, a Benedict Arnold of CPW. I can’t even figure out why, but Steve voiced his thoughts online not long after the match and challenged Will. However, if he does challenge, the Lineal Championship will not be on the line as Steve is not eligible to challenge. Still, this will be an anticipated match as we have 2 titans of the local scene clashing heads and fists in one of the biggest matches in CPW history on the most groundbreaking show we have done in a long time. That show will be CPW vs The World and we cannot wait to see you there. For now, this is

Frankie Summers signing off.