Insanely good
This week has been topsy-turvy as I was off sick for a couple of days - I had a scratchy throat last week that developed into a cough over the weekend, in fact I coughed so much my stomach muscles still hurt whenever I move and sleep is difficult. I also completely lost my voice. Overall it was not fun. Thankfully I am feeling better today and am back at work.
Over the weekend, Anthony and I went to our first Insane Championship Wrestling show - they’re a Scottish company, marketed as adult-only, security asked for ID from everyone before we entered the venue. Anthony and I have been fans of theirs for a while, enjoying most of the storytelling and wrestling. It’s like a different spin on Progress, both want to do wrestling that isn’t for kids, that spotlights the UK talent, that tells really good stories, but both companies are quite different in their execution though both utterly excellent to watch.
We were lucky enough to go with Kat, a friend from Progress, and it was really lovely to talk to her properly and discuss all things wrestling. The venue was a nightclub and actually, it was not packed out. ICW are currently doing their second British tour so they’re sort of starting again in lots of new cities. They’re a monster hit in Scotland and loved all over the world but they still have to start from scratch as they try out new cities. Anyway, we were right at the front, glad to have a guard rail to lean on as it was all standing. Annoyingly, there was a group of lads next to us, rather drunk and clearly hadn’t been to any non-WWE or TNA wrestling shows before because the stuff they were shouting was...well, embarrassing really. Very annoying for us too!
As for the matches, I particularly loved Joe Coffey - the Iron Man of ICW, often comes out painted up like a Marvel character and is awesomely strong and agile - vs Trent Seven, who does a bit of an old-fashioned strong-style gimmick - if you saw this year’s CHIKARA King of Trios, he was part of Team Fight Club Pro. It was proper slugfest, with Trent managing to make Joe bleed with his first chop, very unusual. It was really great to see Coffey live and he and Trent were awesomely matched.
I was also thrilled to see Chris Renfrew vs Joe Hendry. Chris Renfrew leads a stable called The New Age Kliq (NAK), he’s dark and violence with incredible skills on the mic and is one of the best storytellers in the business so I was really excited to see him live. Joe Hendry infamously creates parody songs for his entrance themes and for his opponents and is a lot of fun as well as being really good in the ring. So to have them facing each other was a real treat. Also the lads in the crowd at this point tried to banter with both Renfrew and Hendry - bad idea, really bad idea. ICW performers will talk back if you yell at them. Anthony still told villainious manager of The 55 stable James R Kennedy what he thought of him and Kennedy bantered back in his usual I'm-better-than-you way, Kat and I hid our faces though, embarrassed lol.
Kat and I were very excited as Legion were there - Tommy End, Michael Dante and Mikey Whiplash, all having singles matches and then appearing to beat down Chris Renfrew (they’ve got a big match coming up against the NAK) in a really spine-tingling promo. Legion have a great capacity for darkness and violence - Tommy and Dante are the Sumerian Death Squad and are billed as the hitmen of the Illuminati for example and have been seen to kill people in their promo videos - and Whiplash wears leather, fishnets and a ghoulish painted face and is open about enjoying BD in real life, as a sub. So Tommy and Dante beat him with kendo sticks and beat Renfrew too, teaching him about how to enjoy pain. It was a seriously unique and awesome moment to witness.
It was great to witness Billy Kirkwood, voice of ICW and incredibly funny (and very adult) comedian do his thing before the show and owner Mark Dallas made an appearance as well which was very cool. The main event was Heavyweight Champion Drew Galloway against long-time British legend of the sport Doug Williams, they brawled around the venue, they wrestled, it was very awesome and great to see Galloway wrestle in person, he’s been on a hot streak since leaving the WWE, really making things happen for himself and has been really impressive, proving that the WWE often just don’t know how to get the best out of their talent.
After the show, we popped outside to see if any of the wrestlers would make an appearance. Unlike other indie shows we go to, the wrestlers at ICW shows don’t sell their merch before the show or during intermission - ICW staff sell their merch for them - so there’s no chance to meet the talent unless they’re doing an after party (which they often do in Scotland). As it was, most of the talent were getting their suitcases out of the venue and onto the tour bus. But Trent Seven was having a smoke so we went over to chat to him - I’d told him on Twitter that I wanted a hug and I got one, two in fact, which was lovely and makes me grin to think about. So we talked to him and Dan Maloney about their matches and about how awesomely they’d done at King of Trios and yeah, it was lovely. Trent was clearly thrilled people wanted to talk to him and was a real sweetheart. I spotted several ICW wrestlers I would have loved to talk to but as they were hurrying in and out of the venue, I didn’t. They were clearly busy, and there’s a time and a place, you know?
Overall, it was a really great show. It would have been better if some of the other fans hadn’t been so annoying but that’s a risk at any kind of entertainment event. Dallas said they’d be back in Southampton and I really hope they are when they tour again, probably next year. It was such a pleasure to support them live after watching them online and really enjoying their product. It was also awesome to spend so much time with Kat and talk Progress and wrestling and so much else. I don’t get to see her much on Progress days; we talk mostly online, so that was a real bonus. Hope we get to do it again sometime. Well, there is a Progress show on Sunday, can't wait :)