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LIVE REPORT: IRISH WHIP WRESTLING FIFTH ANNIVERSARY TOUR WITH TRACY SMOTHERS, KID KASH & MORE

Irish Whip 5^th Anniversary Tour:

Newry 26/10/07

By Michael Campbell

ack in July, I had the pleasure of attending an Irish Whip Wrestling show in Waterford, Global Impact (DVD review coming soon!) A stacked card, it was a triumph, which greatly benefited from the visiting CIMA and Dragon Kid from Dragon Gate, in addition to former WWE Star, Kid Kash, and from Pro Wrestling NOAH, Ippei Ota, and former GHC Takeshi Rikio. At the time, my review stated :

So it was with excitement that I headed to Newry for part of the promotion’s successful 5^th Anniversary tour, a tour that included, El Generico, Tracy Smothers, Kid Kash, and a couple of Dragon Gate performers. The venue, Newry Town Hall, is a great location for such events, however, it did have the bizarre addition of having seats being placed on the stage of the hall, which made me feel as if those seated there would erupt into song at any moment. Still, a nice location, and the crowd, which I’m guessing was about 150, looked pretty much to capacity.

-The show kicked off with Mad Man Manson coming to the ring, and getting himself into a triple threat match for later tonight with LA Warren, and Rugged Dylan Jones. Good opening segment.

Contrary to the last time I saw him, Bam is now playing a comedy heel here. And he is extremely effective at it. He still has the stoner/grungey look, which looks better as a bad guy anyways, and recalls the Christian character of 2000, which can only be a good thing. Scott is a wrestler I’m accustomed to, having seen his work numerous times in Ulster Championship Wrestling, however I’ve never enjoyed watching him.

The match cantered around Sean Scott’s height and strength advantage, and they did a good job in convincing the crowd that Scott is the stronger. Throughout this short match, Bam interacted a great deal with the kids in the crowd, telling the referee that one in particular hit him, and using him as a distraction. The majority of the action saw Scott being worn down with Chokes, and a variety of heel tactics, coming back with his power moves. The finish came when Katraz hooked the tights following a sunset flip, for the thee count. Decent match, established both guys roles, and emphasized Katraz’s chicken-shit heel routine, heading into his title shot later. The played to both guys strengths here.

I was very surprised to see this title match occur so early, but by the end of it, it completely made sense. Vic came to the ring with Tracy Smothers, and The Ballymun Bruiser, as a heel unit, that somehow, instantly clicked for me. They cut a promo, which was basically Tracy running down the Newry crowd, and Mandrake (from Newry himself), and making his usual comical threats. It was very entertaining, and the predominantly family orientated crowd loved it.

Mandrake got a great reception coming to the ring, and the match started out hot. There was a huge amount of heel interference throughout this highly entertaining encounter. Viper, as usual showed great ability, while Mandrake looked very impressive in front of his home-town fans. If I have one criticism of his ring-style, it’s that sometimes he perhaps looks a little soft, a little reluctant to go full force. But he definitely showed a great deal of potential, and it helped that both of these guys seemed willing to try some innovative spots. The finish came when The Bruiser ran in with the confederate flag, and tried to hit Mandrake, who dodged it, clobbering the floundering fool, but was caught with it by the referee, who assumed that he was using it against his opponent, hence he was disqualified. Afterwards, Kid Kash hit the ring, to a good response, and they set up a tag match for the main event.

Good match. The interference was enjoyable, and pretty well balanced with what these two were doing in the ring, and this is the sort of crowd that you know would eat up the tag team main event.

She Nay Nay vs. Jennidee

First time seeing these two ladies, though She Nay Nay has worked in OVW from what I’ve heard. She came out first, and immediately assumed the heel role, getting mouthy at the crowd. She was very into this, and the fans were all over her. She has a really good look, but also seemed very confident in doing her thing, which is always good.

There’s was lots of stalling to start this. Jennidee showed great fire during her entrance, but not so much during the opening of the bout, which sort of lost the crowd. I can’t understand why they started with the baby face applying a series of long headlocks. It would have made much more sense to work with Jennidee getting some offence in, to get the fans on her side. Otherwise, this was okay, but basic action, too slow-paced for many of the young fans. If the beginning had been a little more dynamic, I’m sure they would have been much more interested. There wasn’t anything bad about it however, it just was a little too simplistic. But for my money, it’s important to try and expose younger fans to clean, non-exploitative women’s wrestling as much as possible, so that was a plus. I was later informed by Jennidee that they were both feeling each other out, and overcoming obvious differences, having not worked together a great deal. Both ladies have a great deal of potential.

I was looking forward to this one, having seen Katraz’s great work earlier in the show, and being familiar with Vinny from past shows. Vinny, for my money, is the standout grappler on the Irish Whip roster. This started out at a high-tempo, with the usual action you would expect from two cruiserweights. The fans were really into it, riding Katraz the whole way. Early on, Red Vinny attempted a 619, which his opponent dodged, leading to a period where he had his leg worked over. Really nice stuff here, plus the inclusion of the 619 attempt ensured that the younger members of the crowd were all on the edge of their seats, awaiting the next attempt. They mixed Bam’s stalling, and cocky antics up with the back-and-forth sequences, which was great fun, while making Bam look like such a mug. Numerous times saw him jaw with the crowd, rather than go for a pin, which totally played into his character.

Late on, the referee appeared to mess up a three-count, which lead to some audience confusion. It was unclear whether the kickout was late… but I don’t think so. Either way, it didn’t detract from what was overall, an entertaining match, that saw Vinny retain his title, though one that ran shorter than I had predicted. I also missed the finish, as the guy sat directly in front of me continually tilted his head to the side at crucial moments, which was almost as well-rehearsed as a Randy Orton headlock.

This was a triple threat match, but it played out as a handicap match the entire way, as Warren and Jones paired up, and didn’t do the dissension that usually occurs in these scenarios. Refreshing change I guess. My friend told me he wouldn’t be surprised to see Manson end up in the WWE, which is a testament to how great he is at portraying his wacky character. Even though he’s always completely ridiculous, he’s also always entirely believable!

The heels double-teamed Manson from the get-go, which immediately had the crowd fired up, behind their mentally askew hero. They also engaged in some comical dancing, which is the sort of thing that only works in wrestling when someone involved can pull it off as well as Manson did here.

A little later in the match, Warren and Jones teased that they couldn’t get along, but they didn’t follow through, but Manson picked up the win anyhow. This was good fun the whole way. LA Warren looked particularly impressive.

If you’ve seen Tracy Smothers wrestle before, over the past few years, You’ll know what to expect from this, which isn’t a bad thing. Hugely entertaining spectacle, with much audience interaction. The crowd were really hot as this one began, especially as many of them were seeing live wrestling for the first time. In that respect, they really lapped up Kid Kash.

Tracy worked the crowd for absolutely ages on the microphone, calling Newry “the armpit of the world”, and telling fans they were ugly, and only had “two teeth in their heads”. Funny stuff. He did his usual routine of offering Kid Kash some, err…cash to turn on Mandrake. He actually was generous this time out, offering him both Pounds and Euros. Kash refused, telling us that he had Irish ancestry, but doing so with tongue firmly in cheek. Crowd went with it, and the match began.

Lots of stalling in this one, and very little wrestling. But it was entertainment throughout, especially when Smothers issued threats such as giving his opponents the “wrestling lesson of their lives”. Mandrake of course, was able to pick up the win, and get his revenge from earlier, gaining a nice hometown pop for his troubles. He looked really convincing here, dominating the match. Kid Kash did surprisingly little in the actual match, which led me to believe he may have had an injury of some sort. Kash put him over on the mic afterwards, and the crowd sang “Nah Nah Nag, hey, hey, good bye!” to the heels, albeit somewhat disjointedly. Good way to end the show.

Afterwards, they announced they would be back in March, with Eugene (Nick Dinsmore), which should be really good fun.

Overall, this was an enjoyable show. The match of the evening was Vinny vs. Katraz, although the main event was so entertaining and silly, that it almost eclipsed it. While in general, it was nowhere near the standard of Global Impact (how could they match the standard of CIMA/Viper, and the guest appearances of guys like Doug Williams, and a frickin’ former GHC Champion?) there was little chance it could be. As part of a busy tour, these guys clearly absolutely had their work cut out, and were probably exhausted. Indeed, I was disappointed that the roster was so thin for this show, as opposed to , for example, the Waterford show earlier in the week. But that’s understandable given the insane schedule that these guys have been running for the past week or two. Plus, the important thing is, the show went down a storm with the youngish crowd in Newry, and almost certainly guarantees that the promotion will be treated to another successful gate upon their return. Another noteworthy point, is that IWW seem to have taken care of the poor security situation that slightly marred the Waterford event (an issue I hear is to do with the venue itself). There were no kids running around the ring and touching wrestlers as they tried to work, on this occasion. Despite that, once again, the guys were extremely open to the crowd, with autographs, and pictures being done at various times. Kash in particular, is fantastic in dealing with people. I look forward to the return, and hope to see more action of the calibre of what Red Vinny, Mandrake, and Vic Viper produced on this night.

Note: After the show, I spoke with Tracy Smothers, whose comments will appear shortly.

If you have any questions, or comments about the “Cynical View” column, feel free to email me at bazilalfonso@hotmail.com.  Thanks for reading!