FRANKIE SUMMERS BLOG #4 – HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE
PART ONE
Saturday 7th July, The Highway Club in Tile Hill, Coventry. The biggest day on our calendar and holy hell what a happening this was. This is non uniform here, but before the show, both the good and bad guys of the roster decided to set aside our differences in order to all sit down and watch the England game, and the unity and the atmosphere and the magic that came from it all and seeing England win against a team we always struggle against was just incredible. The end result put us all in such a good mood and made us all so fired up for this show. It was a feeling like no other, and to get an audience that’s bigger than I’ve ever seen in CPW. We had a stacked card, an everyone riding on air after England’s Quarter Final victory, this was going to be an amazing show.
I must apologise for the lateness of this one, it has taken me a week to finish as there has been so much to type up. This is a long article and it’s been really tough to write up and keep concise. So please bare with it and try and get to the end. I hope you enjoy it either way.
The Meet and Greet was a big success, allowing all of our stars to come out and speak with the fans on a more personal level. Some were more casual than normal and others really lived up to their reputation. Bashby signed my paper and put a vulgar tongue out emoticon on it, for goodness sake. He also tried to charge me of all the cheek. I brought my mum along to the show because I didn’t want her to miss out on what would be an amazing show, also I wanted her to meet my friends and enemies at the show before hand. Everyone was quite respectful apart from, of course, Alex Conners. He of course had to have a go. Eli managed to settle him down but she left unphased, further cementing that we won’t be bullied by you.
Now onto the show.
We kicked off with an opener from a suited and booted gentleman who only refers to himself as The Tycoon. He stated that he was at History to find the very best talent we have in CPW and make them even better with the power he has. If it seems odd why someone completely new opened up the show, I can explain. He has made appearances at CPW before, in the audience, cheering mainly for The Beast and most other bad guys on the roster. Well then Mr Tycoon, you have many people to choose from as the show evidenced, not that it will do much I’m sure.
After that segment we got the real intro from Dominic and Caitlyn. We got the match run down that got the crowd from angry and annoyed to happy and hyped. Caitlyn announced all of the matches on the card and then came at us with the first match.
A massive heavy hitter in the 4 team Tag Team Gauntlet match between The Rainbow Boys (Fifi and Neon Defender), The Bank Job (Leyton Simms), Merseyside Murder Squad (Dan Evans and Seth Skyline) and the reigning champions Justin Joy and Craig West. I must apologise for this, I don’t know the names of the tandem finishers of these teams.
It opened up with Neon Defender and Fifi against the Bank Job. It started off quite evenly, but Bank Job took the advantage to begin with and worked on Neon with some of that tandem offence I talked about before. Some dirty tactics and some quite innovative assault, but Neon struck back hitting Leyton with the spear, getting the tag to Fifi, who bowled through both members, hit the stink face on Simms and took him out with a team finisher. Rainbow boys advance.
Next it was against the Murder Squad who instantly threw caution to the winds, before being thrown out. There was brawling outside and dirty tactics from the squad which got them the upper hand. They got an early pin attempt on Fifi who kicked out, but after removing him from the picture, they hit Neon with their finisher and got the pin.
Lastly it was the champs. West and Joy, maybe they could win back the day? They came in to an ambush from Evans and Skyline, which they got the first of, but managed to counter it, then some back and forth before West and Joy getting the upper hand after some high flying and high impact offence. It seemed like they had it in the bag when they picked up Evans for their finisher, hit him with it in the centre of the ring, went for the cover but the resilient Evans kicked out at 2. Justin Joy did not approve of this, barked at West, which broke into a shoving match which was broken up by Seth Skyline, who took out Joy. West was hit with the Murder Squad’s finisher which put him down for the 3 count. The Merseyside Murder Squad are your new CPW tag team champions.
However Justin Joy took exception to this, he got in the face of Craig West, shouting at him over the loss, before superkicking him in the face and launching him with his tornado slam finisher. The audience instantly turned on Joy, and one annoyed him to such a degree that he ended up spitting at one of the fans. This was an absolute shock. I would never have thought that Justin would turn bad, or turn on Craig West. Those two were an amazing pairing who worked so well together, put on amazing matches and were the first competitors I ever saw in CPW (Along with Anthony Mafia and Iron Serb).
From the off I knew they were a special team. 2 innovative all rounders with complimenting styles that mould seamlessly together who were worth those tag belts and so much more. But now it all ends like this. A team divided. I can understand how you felt Justin, but I don’t see how beating up your partner will help. I know these two fought before with West coming out on top but I think we’re going to see a much crazier and more power hungry version of Justin Joy from now on. It’s such a shame it’s happened this way.
Now let’s move on to the Women’s Championship Match between Shauna Shay, the challenger and the champion Natalie Wild. This match was essentially the end of a best of 3 as both women had a win over each other. This would settle the score. As I had guessed it started out with mat wrestling with Shauna getting he edge with Natalie having to use cheap tactics to get the upper hand, such as choking. Shauna did fight valiantly with some body tackles and take downs, and seemed to be in control of the match for a good part of it. Natalie however got the upper hand, locked in a submission and tried to make Shauna tap. It didn’t work however as Shauna made it to the ropes, and after fighting her way back up and launching some more offence, Natalie got the roll up and grabbed Shauna’s shorts and got her down for the 3 count. So Natalie retains and Shauna is left out in the cold again. It was a decent see-saw match between 2 very even competitors, and the crowd were definitely behind Shauna and rightly so. We all thought she had the chance to win and she was conned out of the belt once again. Who knows what will happen in time to come but I dare say after the finish that these two may just clash heads again once more.
Next we had the 3rd of 4 title matches as Isaac Quinten III defends his Next Gen championship against Will Starr in a British Wrestling rules match. Imagine I’m saying this like Brian Crabtree of World of Sport fame in the 70s. Eight three minute rounds. Two falls, two submissions or a knockout to decide the winner. But that was just the start.
Public warnings were in effect, a knockout means a count out victory too, which means the title can change hands. Clenched fists are more than just a telling off, it’s a mark towards a DQ, as is non continuation of moves after a takedown. It’s kind of hard to explain, you kind of have to know before going into it. Even Dale got his powder blue shirt and dickie-bow tie for the occasion. It was like Max Ward had come especially to the show for this match.
Going into it, it was dead even between these two. The undefeated Quinten with that belt and a lot of confidence going in. The booing did not stir him, neither did the task at hand. But then comes Will Starr, out like a ball of fire and intensity. Ready to get his hands on Isaac Quinten, and to reclaim that championship that was stolen from him, by any means necessary. It opened up quite surprisingly with mat grappling and chain wrestling, like the days of the rules it’s in honour of. The pace then picked up, we saw back body drops and submission attempts from both parties, and in Round 2, Will managed to catch Isaac off guard and get him down for the 3 after the back slide. Meaning that Isaac’s unpinned streak was now over. Round 3 was much the same, and ended with no decision, apart from Isaac at the end hitting Will with the cheap shot which flustered him.
They went into the next round, with once again more see saw grappling, which was even throughout. Isaac got the cheap shot in to take advantage, and took the chance to get his first pin on Will. Then during recovery time, Isaac grabbed the mic and began to taunt Will, saying “he bet that he really wanted to punch him right in the face, right there and then” or something to that effect. Will took the bait and in frustration decked Isaac in one punch, which got Will his first public warning. It played into his hands, but it was a mistake on Isaac’s part to rile Will up. Due to his build, Will can hit pretty hard and as fast to go with it, and Isaac felt this first hand, and he brought it on himself. Don’t taunt someone who is already out to ruin your day due to your doing. The 4th round began and they threw tradition away, this was war. Brawling, a fisherman’s suplex from Isaac that Will kicked out of and made his comeback, swinging the momentum with a Backspring Kick that cause Isaac at pinpoint. He kicked out, but Will started pounding away on the prone champ, to which Dale gave Will his second public warning. In the end it seemed that Will cared less about the championship and just wanted to hurt Isaac and this was the best chance he was going to get. Dale protested with Will and said he would disqualify him if the carried on. Will moved Dale aside and hit Quentin with the Super Starr Elbow from the top, to which the bell was rung and the end of the match was called. Will Starr stands disqualified after playing into the champs hands. This means Isaac Quinten III is still the champ and still undefeated. He didn’t even need Marcel to help him, not that he ever did, but this was a great and exciting contest and I feel that if these two clash again under more standard circumstances that Will definitely stands a chance, he’s proven that he could beat you Isaac, and he’s proven he can pin you for 3.
No title change as people wanted but a measure of revenge for Will to finally get his hands on Sir Fancypants.
Then was the interval and the fan access, and what happened next was fantastic. Shiro has another hobby, which is Roller Derby, where he is a ref, and the team that he refs for actually showed up to support him in his match. The response when he came out was unbelievable, those girls just about blew the roof off the Highway Club, which is always fantastic to hear. Mr Richards gets that kind of response, as does Danny O’Neil and Morris. It’s great for the atmosphere and shows just how much support our talent gets. Of course they can be just as loud with the heels too, which is always just as good, to let your emotions out depending on how you feel about a certain person you see in that ring, and that’s what’s great about CPW, we have so many compelling characters that work on everyone’s emotions in different ways, and the best responses come from surprising places. Plenty of that was shown on this night.