I have been very much a casual fan of Insane Championship Wrestling for over a year or so. I have watched both Insane Fight Club’s, subscribed and actively watch the content on ICW’s YouTube and kept up to date with all that is going on without watching a show just yet. This changed when I just had to go and watch the biggest show in ICW’s history, Fear and Loathing VIII from a packed SECC, the biggest UK crowd for a professional wrestling event since Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks way back in 1981. So I put my money where my mouth is, bought the ticket and took the ride.
We open with Billy ‘Effin’ Kirkwood (who was superb all night) and Andrew ‘Frigging’ Grange (lovely foil to Kirkwood) doing the classic ECW-style cold open running down the card in front of 4,000 people. Considering that was eight years ago, they were running in a small community centre in rural Scotland – that is damned impressive and shows the rise to power ICW has undergone in the last few years. ICW owner Mark Dallas and Chris Toal come out to thank the crowd and announce that ICW Fear and Loathing IX will be in the SSE Hydro, which holds 13,000 people. This is also the arena that the WWE run their house shows from in Scotland. That is massive, fair play to the ICW brass for dreaming big, and being smart (tickets were available that week, giving them a year to fill that place). There was then a fun open with suspended GM Red Lightning and commissioner for the night, Mick Foley before we go into tonight’s opening contest…
Davey Boy (w/ The Wee Man) vs Stevie Boy © – ICW Zero-G Championship
The battle of The now-broken Bucky Boys.
Davey Boy is out for revenge and his first single championship up against the cousin who turned against him to join the New Age Kliq, Stevie Boy. Davey Boy comes out with The Wee Man, who is a phenomenal man on the microphone with an adult audience. He did curb some of his routine with current events, but it was a heartfelt, funny promo really building up the match.
It was a heated open, real power versus speed contest – a great opening match up on a pay per view. Playing off the classic ‘tag team break up’ storyline troupe, they were dodging eachothers big moves before Stevie Boy hit a pair of superkicks and his take on the Destroyer ‘The Devils Halo’ only for Davey Boy to kick out. Davey Boy rallies, hits his own Devils Halo on Stevie Boy (the move that Stevie used to turn on his cousin) to get the win and the Zero-G championship. A great little opening contest, a heated feud with heat shown. These two are an integral part of the bright future in ICW.
Joe Hendry, Noam Dar and Kenny Williams vs Liam Thomson, Lionheart & Doug Williams
Before we get into the contest, let me talk about two entrances in this six man tag.
Kenny Williams; has a great ‘Back To The Future’ themed entrance video and then comes out in a Back To The Future III themed outfit. Love it, I imagine him and Kushida would have a lot to talk about. He also wrestles in what looks like the new Nike self-lace up high tops. They’re expensive man, are you mental?
Joe Hendry….oh Joe Hendry; my favourite wrestler in ICW, and the most entertaining wrestler in the UK today (as talked about here) comes out to a new parody, this time of Miley Cyrus’ classic ‘Wrecking Ball’ entitled ‘I come out in a Hendry Ball’. This is then proceeded by him coming out in a zorb, doing a bounce flip down the ramp in the zorb and walking to the ring. What a man. I really hope he does that in the Olympics.
The last match on the card, it was a simple way to get five of their best stars without a match, and a bonified British wrestling legend on the card. It was a great mix of youth, experience, style, storylines, comedy and good wrestling.
A fun fast paced match full of mayhem that really sums up everything about ICW. Lionheart goes and beats up a fan, for reasons that are explained later. The 55 worked out Kenny Williams before Noam Dar came in for the hot tag. A unique five way submission was broken up by a diving knee drop from Doug Williams, which left everyone down. Here comes Jimmy Havoc. Why? BECA– USE HE’S JIMMY HAVOC, THAT’S WHY. The crowd was deafening chanting for Havoc, who laid out all of The 55 with Rainmaker lariats, then revealing an ICW shirt underneath his jacket and leaving. Coming out of all the mayhem, Kenny Williams hits his ‘Quiffbuster’ DDT for the victory. Carmel, the former fiancé of Liam Thompson and ICW’s resident ‘Pipebomb Princess’ comes out and proceeds to batter Liam with a chair and challenge him to a match at the Square Go. BBC Scotland’s Scot Squad then come out to arrest Lionheart for his indiscretions earlier on in the match. Absolute nonsense and mayhem, thoroughly enjoyable.
Nikki Storm vs Kay Lee Ray – ICW Women’s Championship
The culmination of a tournament to crown the first womens champion in this company, left us with the two best womens wrestlers in the UK today. However, here comes Mick Foley to make a tweak to this contest. He bans all outside interference and installs Viper into the match, making it a three way dance. We now have three of the best womens wrestlers in the UK today in a main event match-up on ICW’s biggest event of the year. Wrestling – you’re doing it right. Viper being the bigger woman in the contest dominated the early proceedings, before Kay Lee Ray and Nikki Storm took her down with a double spear. The match had a lovely workrate and had all three women in the ring 90% of the time, forgoing the lazy two in-one out three way dance. There was some awesome multi-woman moves, such as a Viper suplex-powerbomb off the ropes and a great Nikki Storm double DDT. The only criticism I would have is Viper being a little sloppy, punctuated by nearly killing KLR with a nasty middle rope emerald fusion. Viper then drops Nikki Storm with an electric chair drop onto Kay Lee Ray to pin both of them to win the title.
A real pick’em throughout, whilst it was the weakest match on the card that is not saying that this was bad, it was dramatic throughout and enjoyable. I would be intrigued to see any of these three with the same time, one-on-one – hopefully this can happen at their next event, The Square Go.
Joe Coffey vs Rhyno
The Iron Man versus The Man Beast. Two big blokes beating seven bells out of eachother and it was great. There wasn’t any real storyline reasons for this, but as a stand alone match it was fun to watch. Real stiff, high workrate and some good big man spots, such as Rhyno hitting Joe Coffey with a ring apron saito suplex and Joe Coffey hitting an unreal double jump crossbody that is unreal for a man of his size. It wasn’t long before things got extreme, with Rhyno hitting the gore through a table for a close two count. Joe Coffey then gored Rhyno himself, then hitting the discuss lariat for the win. Joe Coffey is the next big thing in British wrestling, and I think 2016 is going to be one hell of a year for ‘The Iron Man’.
Polo Promotions vs The 55 – ICW Tag Team Championship
The first ‘Damn you copyright’ issue of the evening as we have Polo Promotions awesome theme music silenced out. Gutting scenes. This is was great tag team match, a fun story lead face vs heel match keeping it nice and simple. The 55 did great heel work with distracting the referee and cutting off the ring, something so rare in modern tag team wrestling. You even had the classic referee throwing out the face manager spot, it was a lovely touch. Repeated interference from The 55’s Tim Wylie and James R Kennedy ended up backfiring which lead to Mark Coffey and Jackie Polo hitting their great double team german suplex finishing move ‘The Old Man of Hoy’ to get the win. A nice tag team match, thoroughly enjoyable.
We then have Jennifer Louise and Veronica Le Strange interviewing guest commissioner Mick Foley. A nice little gap between the matches, and to get slightly laddy for a minute – ICW have the two best looking backstage interviewers around. Just saying.
New Age Kliq (Wolfgang, Chris Renfrew & BT Gunn) vs Legion (Mikey Whiplash, Tommy End & Dante) – Six Man Tag Team Cage Match
Now this. THIS is the match I was waiting for. And oh my, it did not disappoint. In my casual watching of ICW this past year, I have been engrossed with the brutal blood feud between the New Age Kliq and Legion. They have battered each other in some of the most brutal beat downs I have ever seen and it comes to this, the second ICW cage match in their history, with the only way to win was all three of your team escaping the cage. The feud was detailed in a fantastic video package (another underused feature in modern wrestling) and then we have the two armies come on, Legion with a fantastically creepy entrance.
They then proceeded to beat the ever loving crap out of one another.
They battered each other off the cage over and over, and hit big spot after big spot. Wolfgang hitting a swanton off the cage and missing was unbelievable to see. This wasn’t all brutality however, there was some of the best storytelling I have seen in a few years. Following the missed swanton, they threw him out of the cage – giving N.A.K a one person advantage, but they were now one man down inside the cage. Dante is then pulled off the cage by Wolfgang to even if up for his team. The strategy being used in this match is superb, both teams actively want to get the win and declare their superiority over the other and give their team the advantage in the cage. Legion gained the advantaged and tried to escape together, buth Wolfgang against played spoiler and pulled Tommy End out of the cage, leaving Mikey Whiplash in the ring on his own with Chris Renfrew and BT Gunn. The N.A.K beat on Whiplash, culminating with a nasty double stomp from Gunn onto Whiplashes face. Ow.
Renfrew then escaped the cage, however DISCENSION! BT Gunn being the sociopath of the trio wants to destroy Whiplash instead, climbing back into the cage. Incredible drama in this. Whiplash and Gunn then fought up and down to the outside of the cage, before falling dramatically to two tables below placed by their respective teammates. One of the tables didn’t break either, adding to the brutality of the bump. A no contest? A draw? Surely not in this? Not at all. Whiplash pushed Dante and End away to get back into the cage and challenge Gunn to ‘kill him’ and get back into this cage and finish this. BT Gunn obliged, even punching his teammate Chris Renfew to get back in there and enter sudden death; this time, pinfall wins the war. As quick as a flash, BT Gunn hits the bloodline to get the win for The New Age Kliq.
This is easily one of my matches of the year. A brutal contest, filled with drama and story – with six men willing to half kill themselves for your entertainment. What a superb contest.
Jack Jester vs Damo
This stems from Drew Galloway’s stable ‘The Black Label’ of which Jester is a part of repeated efforts to deny Big Damo winning the ICW world title from Drew. Another fun, stiff big man match. A nice brawl, with some great spots (missed Van-Damo-Nator that has to been to be believed and an impressive Tombstone to Damo by Jester) before Damo hit a big Brogue Kick, several chair shots and then a senton onto a chair that was on a prone Jester for the pin. A nice little match, a decent contest.
MAIN EVENT! Drew Galloway vs Grado – ICW World Heavyweight Title
This is what the world was waiting for. One of the two only major world titles that are actually held by someone at the moment (seriously, think about it) is on the line in front of a rabid 4,000 strong. It definitely had the big fight feel, and the entrances showed that. Well, I assume Grado’s did (DAMN YOU COPYRIGHT) but it certainly looked big time. Drew Galloway then had his entrance sung live, and paid tribute to his gear that he won his first ICW championship over ten years ago.
There was another awesome video package detailing the story of this contest and it definitely added to the drama. The match was fantasic, a classic big cocky heel champions versus the loveable underdog story dripping in story and a crowd that was on fire for this match, having been loud all night. Grado has been working on his physique and it showed, hitting a pretty decent middle rope huracanrana. Yep, that happened. Ring apron R Gra Do’s and cannonball would not keep down Galloway, who also kicked out after a low blow and a wee boot. Nothing could seemingly keep down ICW’s phenom. Drew Galloway then hit his finish, the Futureshock DDT and a Death Valley driver onto a chair but then Galloway could not keep Grado down.
SHENANIGANS! The dastardly Drew Galloway knocked the referee out, and before Red Lightning could come down and get involved, Mick Foley comes down to stop it all and deliver Mr. Socko to him and Jack Jester. Grado hits the big boot into a chair on Drew Galloway. One, Two, Three! The dream comes true and the little wrestler that could Grado wins the ICW World Heavyweight Title. A real emotional moment for everyone as he held the title aloft.
This is another high point for ICW, lifting them as the biggest wrestling company in Europe, and one of the biggest in the world. Not bad for a company that only runs in the United Kingdom. Fear and Loathing was an A+ event, great matches and superb storytelling; something lost in wrestling today. TV deals, bigger venues and global success lie ahead for Insane Championship Wrestling. A real watershed moment. Buy the ticket, enjoy the ride – I will be for the Square Go.