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DOUG WILLIAMS, CHRIS MASTERS, MARK ANDREWS AND MORE: 1/23 PRESTON CITY WRESTLING 'SHOOTING STAR' LIVE REPORT

By Ian Matthew Skilling on 2015-01-24 08:55:00
PCW “SHOOTING STAR” REPORT – THE KRIS TRAVIS FUNDRAISER SHOW

Preston City Wrestling kicked off 2015 with a bang tonight as the promotion returned to action for the first time since its weekend collaboration with Ring of Honor. Those shows were great - and are now available on demand worldwide for those who were wondering - but tonight brought the British wrestling community together again for an entirely different reason. Fans across the country last October were left reeling by the news that one of our most popular stars, Kris Travis, was battling stomach cancer and had undergone surgery. PCW embarked on a massive fundraising effort to help cover his medical costs, and tonight was the climax of that. Every wrestler that signed up for tonight’s event gave their time and worked for free so that all of the gate money could be donated to Kris, and the fans embraced it and came in their hundreds from all corners of the UK.

The first match saw Joey Hayes beat El Ligero, Dean Allmark, Josh Bodom, Ashton Smith and Noam Dar in a six pack challenge match. This was the kind of all-out crazy action match that typically starts a PCW show, lots of big dives to the outside and fast-paced moves with guys flying all over the ringside area. We had a moonsault off the bar at ringside, a couple of suicide dives driving guys into the railings and all kinds of craziness going on. Josh looked excellent in his PCW debut. The referee randomly slammed Joey Hayes at one point for being too cocky, which got a good laugh. I love watching Joey as a heel, he’s so good. Joey still picked up the win at the nine minute mark by forcing El Ligero to tap out to a cross face. The loss won’t hurt Ligero at all; people just can’t get enough of the guy.

We got a brief segment where Lionheart came out after the match to confront Hayes, who tried to beat him down and got overcome and laid out with a Rock Bottom. Nice little spot to hype their much anticipated match at Road To Glory next month. The second match featured Stixx against Joseph Connors. Both guys were making their first PCW appearances. Stixx got “Mr T” chants from the crowd over his hair, which was funny, but other than that the crowd was flat and it took a lot away from an otherwise decent match. The crowd were stood on their hands far too often tonight. Stixx and his valet at ringside brought some great old-school heel moments with the human shield spot, using her as a distraction on the apron and that sort of shtick. Connors won with a roll up in thirteen minutes, started off slow and broke out into tons of great near falls at the end.

Match three gave us tag team action as Doug Williams and Andy Wild beat Kid Fite and CJ Banks. The latter tried to run away during the match but got stopped and dragged back to the ring, and then lost anyway. Banks caught Williams in a cradle near the end for a near fall but he rolled through, popped up into a German suplex and bridged it for the three count. Decent enough match.

We went right to match four which was a battle royal. Um, a whole bunch of guys were in and everyone started getting tossed out and – well there’s not much more to say about battle royals is there? It came down to Viper, the only female in the match, and Dave Mastiff. They stared down, Mastiff tossed her pretty quickly and then Dave Rayne tried to sneak back in and win. Mastiff caught Rayne in his tracks and tossed him too, winning the match. It was mainly a comedy bit.

After the intermission we came right back to another crazy multi-man match, this time an eight man tag pitting Ryan Smile, Tyler Bate and The Hunter Brothers against Flash Morgan, Pete and Damien Dunne, and TNA British Boot Camp winner Mark Andrews. Much like the opening of the first half we had bodies flying everywhere in this one, lots of dives to the outside, stiff super kicks and quick suplexes and huracánranas and guys getting thrown around all over. Andrews got the pin with the Frankensteiner to win it for his team in around ten minutes, really good match.

Next we had the first of two title matches as Bubblegum defended the PCW Cruiserweight title against Marty Scurll, who attacked him with an umbrella before the match even started. Bubblegum, despite being one of the top heels on the roster, ended up getting the crowd behind him and came back to win with a low blow behind the referee’s back and retain the title. Another solid match. Bubblegum has to be one of the most entertaining personalities in British wrestling at the moment and the cruiserweight title really means something in PCW.

The other title match saw Team Single retain the tag championships against the UK Hooligans, who were making their PCW debut. The hooligans certainly lived up to their name and raised hell, the first ten minutes or so of this were all brawling on the outside. Wooden chairs being thrown in each other’s faces, dives off the ringside supports, guys getting thrown into the posts, slams on the floor and so on. It had the feel of a real fight, a chaotic brawl, and the referee just let it go. Well, until he eventually called a double count out several minutes later when they went back outside. Which made no sense whatsoever given the start of the match, but that’s wrestling for you! They set up the Hooligans for an eventual return and rematch anyway, I can’t wait to see that.

The main event saw Chris Masters beat Martin Kirby in around sixteen minutes with the masterlock. The match was decent but Masters really does nothing for me, when he’s playing to the crowd its fine because his heel banter and expressions are good but I rapidly lost interest in the action itself. After the match, Masters put Kirby in the hold again and refused to break it, and Kris Travis hit the ring with a chair to a HUGE pop. Travis laid out Masters, and then cut a promo thanking the fans and all the wrestlers who worked tonight. Kris says that he’ll be finished chemotherapy in six weeks and wants to get back into training for a comeback once he’s able to. The locker room piled out to the ring and lifted him on their shoulders to end the show. Really emotional finale, this is why I love pro wrestling folks. The outpouring of love and support was incredible. Early estimates from the promoter suggest the whole Kris Travis campaign has raised around £15,000 – it’s just amazing.

PCW returns March 13th and 14th with the 2015 Road To Glory tournament.

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