ICW deserves a thread on its own (have I missed it)

[Mark Connolly]

[forehead7]

Jimmy Havoc returned last night and gestured at the world title.

Been dieing to see him wrestle in ICW

I was at the Liverpool show last Friday and after NAK beat the "Tasslemaniacs", he turned up with a chair and cleared out the NAK. Good. Fucking. Stuff.

Fear and Loathing will be absolutely cracking.

[Ira Gaines]

ICW Legal Tender

The Road to Fear and Loathing Tour rolls into London with a stacked card.

Sha Samuels w/ James R. Kennedy vs. Joe Hendry

Great moment in this match as the fans call Samuels "Fat Cantona" and as a tribute to the man, Samuels does a running fly kick. The match seems more playful than it actually it is at times, as there's actually quite a lot of hatred in this one, despite the midmatch mic work and the singing from Joe Hendry. Even with that though, the match falls a bit short of where these two guys are capable of landing. **

The NAK vs. GZRS and Noam Dar

Mark Dallas decided to add Noam Dar to this match basically to make life a bit more difficult for the NAK. For giggles. The NAK team is Stevie Boy and Chris Renfrew. This match is a better effort at least. The heel beatdown bit was a bit short and they made a c**t of the interference meaning that the NAK had to hang about looking like tadgers for far too long, but on the whole, this was a decent effort. **3/4

Doug Williams vs. Grado

It's easy to overlook just how big a match this is. On a lot of UK indy shows, this would be your main event. On this one, it's the third match on the card, and not even main eventing the first half. This was, as you would expect, a very good outing. Some fun counters and comic stuff in the first half, with the latter not being overdone. When the match gets going, it kicks off in fine fashion with both men coming across brilliantly. A longer final stretch and this would have broken into the 4* barrier, but the ending seemed a bit sudden to me, and it drags it down just a touch. ***3/4

BT Gunn vs. Mikey Whiplash

The last time these two guys wrestled at the KOKO, they tore each other apart. This match features something I absolutely hate. A ref bump where the ref ends up staying down for minutes. Also have to question the logic of the referee calling the tap out when it was the ropes used to get the submission. There's some good to have in this match, but it's disjointed, annoying and needlessly overdone for what it is. *3/4

James Davis vs. Big Damo

This was essentially an extended squash for Damo, but they did it really well, and Davis didn't actually come across that badly. Damo's biggest threat against him was kicking out at one from a Clothesline though, which tells you what you need to know. Certainly really good for a squash. One of the better ones I've seen. **1/2

Joe Coffey vs. Jack Jester

This was a really good heated battle between the two guys. A bit tedious to start with Jester doing all sorts of stalling, but when things kicked off, they just went at it. Coffey looked great coming back from a pretty brutal chair beating from Jester, and also wrestling the match "injured". Jester comes across as a nasty p***k and also a c**t of the highest order, without losing too much of what he had before. Really good. ***1/2

The Sumerian Death Squad vs. Jody Fleisch and Jonny Storm

Fucking hell. I can't remember the last time I seen a match from either Storm or Fleisch. It was a good while ago anyways. An absolutely cracking sprint tag match. It doesn't last very long so I can only go so high, but this was great fun to watch. ***3/4

Drew Galloway © vs. Marty Scurll - ICW Heavyweight Championship

An absolutely brilliant main event as always from Drew Galloway, but it's not as if the guy in there with him is some sort of slouch. They basically went at it big time here and there was some brilliant striking exchanges and some great moments of brutality. The fans completely bought into Marty Scurll as a legit challenger for the belt as well which helped the match big time. Cracking main event. ****1/4

Jimmy Havoc made his return post-match, kicked the shit out of everyone and signalled his intentions for the belt.

OVERALL

Outside of one absolutely massive disappointment, this isn't a bad show at all. Some pretty good matches, some entertaining stuff, and then a cracking main event to cap the show off.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Randy Giles

[Marshmallo]

I take it Sha won the opener?

[Ira Gaines]

Aye, he did, channeling Ric Flair with a barrage of cheating.

[DA Baracus]

I think you need to look at that part of your post again...

[Ira Gaines]

Oh aye

[Marshmallo]

Square Go tickets sorted this morning

It'll be my first one, I'm expecting it to sell out quickly

[Marshmallo]

Not cause I'm going, the two are unrelated tbh.

[diamond_for_life]

Last years Square go was my very first event. Loved it and fell in love with ICW instantly. Fear and Loathing then The Square go in January tickets bought for the later today

[Ira Gaines]

Everyone loves a rumble, right?

[DA Baracus]

New tour announced for early next year. ICW will be running their first shows in Northern Ireland, ROI and Wales.

As always the shows have cracking names. Clearly whoever is coming up with them is a huge Simpsons fans as proven by a couple of these ones and many past shows (It's All Coming Up Milhouse being a prime example).

Edited November 4, 2015 by DA Baracus

[Snakebite]

That's the British Isles now conquered.

You can't help but feel chuffed for Mark Dallas. Just a genuinely decent c**t who is living a dream.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Snakebite

[Ira Gaines]

That Dublin show name

[Marshmallo]

No Drew on the posters. Hmm. Am I reading too much into that?

[diamond_for_life]

No Drew on the posters. Hmm. Am I reading too much into that?

There's a video on the facebook page showing Red turning up to complain about this. Looks like its setting up his return

[Ira Gaines]

First off, the new episode of Have I Got Chairshots for You is better than the first, but still needs some work. Right...

ICW Where the Buffalo Roam

The Liverpool leg of the Road to Fear and Loathing.

Joe Coffey vs. Lionheart

A really good match between these two guys. Clearly they held a bit back for it being the opener, but they gave more than enough to make me want to see a proper bout between them in the future. ***1/2

Lewis Girvan vs. Mark Coffey

Very decisive stuff in the end for Coffey. To begin with, Girvan was getting to show quite a good amount and so he doesn't come out of the match completely fucked, but I'd have liked to have seen him get more out of this one. Not sure where Girvan sits on the totem pole. He always seems like one they might push a bit but then he gets beaten pretty handily. **1/2

Big Damo vs. Mikey Whiplash - Special Guest Referee Jack Jester

This was never going to be a great showcase for the two men. We get to see a bit of a battle between them, but the amount of interaction with Jester meant it went down another path, which wasn't exactly bad. There's always been an interesting thing with Whiplash and Jester, so with Jester helping Whiplash, that made for an interesting dynamic as we headed for the end of the match. It's a good wee match for what it is. ***

The Tasslemaniacs vs. The NAK - Liverpool Street Fight

The Tasslemaniacs are the team of Zack Gibson, CJ Banks, Danny Hope and in a replacement, Davey Boy for Kenny Williams. The street fight in ICW comes with a reputation and all eight men lived up to it here. Absolutely wild brawl that delivers on all counts. The crowd brawling was some of the best that ICW have done in a while and the pace was crazy. Also, it just felt like a massive riot at times. A great flow and some great action make this a front runner for the best match on the show. ****1/4

Jackie Polo vs. Kenny Williams

This match definitely outstays it's welcome. I initially thought that they were going down the route of a short midcard match, but it then started building quite nicely towards a longer one. But it dies a death during Polo's control of the match. They were really playing up to the Williams underdog role at times, but they definitely lost the crowd a bit. They picked it up towards the end and got the crowd back into it, but I thought the damage was done. **1/4

Nikki Storm vs. Toni Storm

Not a terrible match but VERY short and Nikki Storm looked great. Toni Storm got almost nothing after the opening stages, which gets made up for a bit by the victory. **

The 55 vs. Grado and Rockstar Spud

Spud's career has gone full circle. He was a babyface everywhere, and then he turned heel and wound up in TNA, where his rivalry with EC3 is probably their one shining light of recent years, and now he's a babyface everywhere yet again. The match is going really well most of the way and the fans are waaaayyyy into it but I thought it fell pretty badly at the final stretch. Before that it was good tag team action with all four great characters coming across brilliantly. Especially Kid Fite in this match, who's new more aggressive character seems to improve all the time. ***

OVERALL

I'd say this is another fine show. The second half is nowhere near as good as the first, but still some decent stuff going on, and you also have that insane street fight to watch.

Norwich next!

[Ira Gaines]

ICW Appetite for Destruction

A run time for 1hr and 35mins for this one. That's brief! Brought on by a broken down bus and problems getting to the venue. But they got there, left out the intermission and just went all out.

Lewis Girvan vs. Mikey Whiplash

No entrances shown for this one, and it's bloody short thanks to the late start of the show. It's a fun match I suppose, but a match that short between two guys like this should never be boring, so that's a given. **

Big Damo vs. Wolfgang

A cracking heavyweight sprint where they get just enough time to basically create a bit of a battle. The pace is tremendous and the action is hard hitting. The Dropkick about 10 seconds into the match is a cracker. ***1/4

Lionheart vs. Jack Jester

So... if you see this on the card and think "that looks good", it doesn't actually happen, as Lionheart gives Jester the pin. N/A

The NAK ( BT Gunn, Chris Renfrew, Kay Lee Ray and Stevie Xavier ) vs. The UK Hooligans, Nikki Storm and Davey Boy

More multi-man tag team action from NAK. Always assured some fun from this combination. The UK Hooligans are Zak and Roy Knight, who used to be The Zebra Kid and Zak Zodiac respectively. This loses a wee touch of charm so soon after watching the Liverpool match, but it's a crazy match in it's own right. A bit shorter for obvious reasons, but they did incredibly well with the time that they had. Another fittingly crazy match. ****

Polo Promotions © vs. The 55 - ICW Tag Team Championships

Fun tag team action from these two. It's weird seeing Polo being so urgent as well, thanks to the time they had. They sold it as him being angrier than usual which is a fairly good smokescreen given the rivalry. **1/2

NOTE: This show is really suffering from the late start, but they aren't half putting on an effort.

Joe Coffey vs. Grado

So the story going into this is that people have been firing Grado up. Some of them deliberately ( Damo ) and some not so ( Renfrew ) and this is the first match since that. He'd been losing matches before this as well. Seems like a match we've seen from Grado before. Slipped into the formula of his a wee bit too much for my liking. Not to say it's a bad match, and it ends up building to a really good match with a rabid crowd. Plus, easy to buy into both guys winning the match because of recent events. ***1/2

Drew Galloway vs. Kenny Williams

Given that this was a non title match, I don't see why they didn't go with the main event being the eight man tag. Despite my complaint though, this was a damn fine main event. Galloway's power offense was all great. Especially the massive suplexes which just launched Williams around the ring. Also, everything that got Williams success seen him use his pace and speed. Some great action down the stretch and the match getting exactly the time it needed made it the best match of the night, and a highlight of the tour. ****1/4

OVERALL

I'm not sure that this show is essential. The two big matches are well worth watching, but the rest is pretty skippable.

[Marshmallo]

Lewis Girvan is the worst thing in ICW by a mile. He's got the worst look of any wrestler in history.

[Mark Connolly]

The UK Hooligans are Paige's brothers aren't they?