The Burning Truth

EPW American Wrestling

This review is going to be different from the previous pieces we have written. This will be about the inaugural championship of the King of the Kingdom in Whitchurch Civic Center. This event will have a lot of well-established also some new and upcoming wrestlers ready to fight in a colossal event. At the Burning Truth, we are about to venture out into a new opportunity for us. We are about to start our first commentary of a show. We ask for your support and guidance in this endeavour. The company supporting the King of the Kingdom event is EPW. The Civic Centre at Whitchurch was packed out, for what is something new to British Wrestling.

The show started at 7:30 pm, we had a familiar face as our ring announcer, Christopher Drew. He joined us to do a 3-man commentary team. Minutes after setting up. There was a feeling of tension coming from the crowd.

Match 1

CJ Connors Vs Luke Basham

The first match CJ Connors Vs Luke Basham was the opening match of the evening in what can only be described as a show-stealer. The match started with the contenders trying to one-up each other in the corner with some showmanship, but once the battle of egos had settled we had Luke Basham in control of some nice chain matt wrestling after a few exchanges. Basham then continued his offense with some vicious elbow drops and a pinfall attempt but only gets a 2 count.

After the opening exchanges, we get CJ Connors on top of the match keeping the pace down to a methodical and calculated rate that suited the big man. Pounding on Basham in the corner which some stiff rights he comes at him with a big-time bottom turnbuckle dropkick.

We move on in the match and the pace starts to quicken, Basham is on the comeback reversing a back body drop into a sunset flip.

Leading up to the close of the match you’ve got Basham who reverses a TKO attempt into the calf crusher. Connors manages to break free but moments later he is on the receiving end of a blue thunder powerbomb and a 2 count. Basham then goes on to duck underneath a lariat attempt by Connors and hits a springboard RKO for another close 2 count. Basham sensing the end is near attempts a spear but is caught with a tombstone piledriver for a 2 count. Connors now going for broke tries a double underhook maneuver but is hit with a German suplex and Cross Rhodes combo.

After kicking out again from a successful TKO attempt, Basham makes a quick recovery after avoiding being hit by a 2nd rope moonsault and hits the spear out of nowhere for the 1,2,3 which brings us to the end of the first match.

Winner - Luke Basham

Match 2

6-Man Tag Team Match

Charles Kelsey, Eddie Cobain & Steven Keane Vs “The Blue Arrow” Damo Scorpio, Ricky Rowley & Liam Perrin

During introductions for this match, we notice that one competitor had provided a list of nicknames to the ring announcer that seemed to go on for a very long duration of time.

This is a match showcasing some of the talents that we can expect to compete for the King of the Kingdom title in the future, The Match featured Charles Kelsey leading an early onslaught but being stopped in his tracks by the heroes who use a series of quick tags to hit the much larger Kelsey, however, Kelsey avoided the early barrage of offense and soon took control of the match for his side. Targeting the ribs of the Rowley after a series of tags and controlled offense.

Kelsey also hits a well-performed delayed vertical suplex on Rowley again punishing the ribs of Rowley. As the match goes on the Heroes start to mount a comeback when Keane goes up to the promised land trying to high a high-risk maneuver only to be caught in mid-air by Rowley with one of the most impressive AA Spinebuster, to then slowly get to Damo Scorpio for the hot tag, who then starts to clean the ring of the Villains.

The end of the match arrived, when a very lucky Cobain comes in and catches Damo Scorpio with a Sister Abigail for the finish.

Winners - Charles Kelsey, Eddie Cobain & Steven Keane

Match 3

“The Man-Mountain” Goliath Vs “The Bevvy Weight” Drill

In what could be a foreshadowing event for later on in the night we had the first major battle of the heavyweights. In what was a stiff battle, the match followed a tried but tested formula, we had Drill working the match trying to take the bigger man Goliath off his feet.

Drill very determinedly managed to catch Goliath off his game with his unique and unorthodox Style of wrestling, however, each time Drill was about to take the Big-Man off his feet, Goliath quickly reminded everyone why they call him The Man-Mountain, by hitting Drill down to the canvas.

Drill tried several times to hit the lariat off the ropes however this was like running into the wall, so Drill then decided to go for a second rope shoulder tackle however he caught by Goliath and made to regret attempting for the high-risk maneuver.

As the match gets into the later stages, after much teasing and trying Drill finally takes down “The Man-Mountain” with a 2nd rope shoulder tackle, which forces him off his feet, however, this didn’t put an end to Goliath, as when Drill went for a running headbutt, Goliath managed to avoid the devastating maneuver, at which point gave Goliath more than enough time to recover and then hit a Delayed Chokeslam for the 1,2,3.

Winner - "The Man-Mountain" Goliath

Match 4

Big Bubba D Vs Davey Blane

At the start of this match. It was very clear who was the favourite and who was despised by the fans. As Big Bubba D entered the squared circle the crowd met him with hostility as he insulted them. As Davey entered, the crowd backed and supported him, as it showed that he would have a difficult task to achieve.

At the start of the match, it was clear who had the power advantage as Davey was thrown about with ease. Davey was having to rely on his intellect and speed, to try and gain the upper hand in this contest.

A few times Big Bubba D slammed Davey to the canvas in a devastating manner. At which point Big Bubba D was becoming overconfident. However, frustration would soon set in as Davey would show his heart and determination, by kicking out of every pin attempt.

As this match continued, regardless of who won the match. It was going to be very difficult for either competitor to carry on into the main event.

As the match was coming to an end. It was not looking good for Davey as he was taking a vicious onslaught at the hands of Big Bubba D. However, Davey managed to get a lucky break from Big Bubba D who got distracted out of frustration of not being able to get the victory. This finally led to Big Bubba D’s downfall as he made a mistake, which Davey took advantage of for the win by hitting a well-timed superkick, to get the pinfall and end the match.

Winner – Davey Blane

Match 5 - Main Event

King of the Kingdom Championship Match

Battle Royal

We now come to the Battle Royal where we were going to crown the first-ever King of the Kingdom champion, we start the match with 23 entrants but get a surprise 24th entrant in Ring Announcer Christopher Drew.

In the opening exchanges at the start of this match, we have Eddie Cobain and Gareth Holloway being the first 2 people eliminated from the match, the 1st being Eddie Cobain which meant that he would sadly be breaking the promise he made early on in the night, saying he will become the King of the Kingdom Champion, however as for Mr. Holloway, he decided that it would be much safer for himself to be in the locker room, instead of being involved in this match and so eliminated himself.

The match featured many worthy entrants, for this match and show no early signs of who was going to come out on top, however ring announcer Christopher Drew, spent most of the time gripped to the bottom rope to avoid elimination from the match, which brought plenty of laughter to the audience.

We also had chaos outside of the ring when Damo Scorpio and Luke Basham united together to eliminate Joe Black and CJ Connors but the later pairing came back in the match to eliminate the former pairing and cost them their chance at the King of the Kingdom, but the brawl went all the way back to the locker room and took several members of ringside staff to break the brawl up backstage.

We also had Ricky Rowley chasing Steve Keane around the ring who refused to get in the match and the chase wasn’t just limited to the ring, as it went to the back and through the crowd, but speaking of Crowds they weren’t left alone from the action as Josh Bradford left the action early by going under the ropes, which meant they weren’t eliminated to have a pint with the audience.

Charles Kelsey who had one of the best showings of the match, eliminating multiple entries on his way to the final 3 of the night and if it weren’t for the showboating at the end, he could have won the match, but instead found himself outside of the ring wondering where the elimination came from, which was by Goliath

Goliath laid waste to a number of entrants on his way to the final 2 with Drill, which made him very happy, as it would feel like a rematch but with Drill possibly in a weaker state from earlier in the night. With many teases and plenty of big battle elbows, it all came down to Drill to the wire with Drill who was hanging on by a thread, but just as Goliath was about to attempt to big boot his way to victory, Drill managed to avoid it and use the top rope to catch Goliath off guard and get back into the ring. At this point, Drill knew he had a very limited window of opportunity and leaped into the air with a mighty dropkick to send Goliath crashing to the outside to win and become the inaugural King of the Kingdom Champion

Winner and FIRST EVER King of the Kingdom Champion - "The Bevvy Weight" Drill