IPW:UK Extreme Measures 2012.

So, I went down to Sittingbourne yesterday for IPW:UK's Extreme Measures show. Took someone along who had never been to a wrestling show before, so had to explain how a few things worked and what to look out for, but it was interesting to see how into it they got and what a big smile they had on their face for most of the night. Another person converted I think.

Anyway, the show itself. This annual IPW event features the Extreme Measures tournament. Eight men start in a series of singles matches. Winners then advance to a fatal four way elimination no DQ match at the end. The winner of that then gets a future "Iron Fist Match" title match (Iron man match that you can also win direct by KO) at a future event.

First cab off the rank saw "Extreme" Dean Allmark take on the "House of Pain" Styxx. Styxx is a very reliable big man and has been for a number of years now. Allmark has impressed me in his last couple of outings for IPW with his kick based offence and willingness to take chances. Dead got the early advantage before Styxx used his size to turn the match around and beat him into a greasespot. Eventually Dean made a comeback and the match brawled to the outside, where Allmark did a spectacular dive that sent both he and Styxx into the second row of the audience (having wrestlers land on you is a regular occurrence at IPW shows) As Styxx got back up, Dean told what was left of the front row to move. They did and he ran the left of the ring, sprung onto a chair, and used that as a launching board to fly at Styxx. Sadly for him, the big man was waiting for it. Powering himself forward, he caught Allmark in mid air, and used his momentum to spin them both around in mid air and deliver a SICKENING black hole slam right onto the UNPADDED wooden floor. As one the crowd winced at that one, Styxx rolled back into the ring. Dean (amazingly enough!) beat the 10 count, but he was done for, and Styxx finished him off quickly with a piledriver to advance to the finals.

Second match saw the former IPW champion, Big Dave Mastiff take on T-Bone. Lots of heat between these two as T-Bone has been in the little group with current champ Sha Samuels and the Rockstar Spud that robbed Dave of his title and have cheated to keep him away from the belt since. T-Bone jumped the start to attack Dave, and looked good doing it. He's not been wrestling long, but he's come along way. Dave turned it around though and showed why he might be the best heavyweight wrestler in the UK at the moment. For someone the shape of a whisky barrel, he has ungodly speed, and when he sets someone in the corner and hits his somersault cannonball, its a thing of destructive beauty. T-Bone showed some impressive power at times to fallaway slam Dave, and get him up for a Tombstone, but in the end big Dave got the win, and got to advance.

Third match was to determine the Number 1 contenders for the tag team titles. Project Ego (Martin Kirby and Chris Travis) put their shot up against The Hooligans (Zack Knight and his brother, the former Zebra Kid, Roy Knight). Project Ego are one of my favourite tag teams around at the moment. They play the comedy coward heels extremely well, and its great to sit back and watch old school tag team comedy with them. Roy Knight was known for being brutally stiff as Zebra Kid, and he's carried that with his brother into the hooligans team, but injected a great deal of comedy into it as well. There are distinct elements of Bushwhackers and Rick Steiner in the routine now. In fact, The Dog Faced Gremlin is a good comparison in that he was goofy and funny, but could rip your head off. The match was probably the best of the night, with Ego firstly arguing over who was team captain, both getting killed by the Hooligans for a few minutes, and then both trying to tell the other they didn't now want to be captain! Once it settled down though, there was terrific hard hitting wrestling from both teams though, as Ego are great wrestlers behind the comedy. Once again, IPW showed the WWE why its wrong to ignore your tag division when tag wrestling can be this good. Sheer gold.

Next match up was the third tournament match, but also a grudge match, between the current Tag Team and Crusierweight Champion, Marty Scurl, and the man in physical possession of the cruiser belt, the Rock Star Spud. This feud goes back a number of months since Spud first incurred IPW's wrath for refusing to defend the cruiser title. He was warned, and then stripped of the belt. Meanwhile, Marty appeared on a UK dating TV show called "take me out". Spud had already appeared on another similar show called "Snog, Marry, Avoid" and mocked Marty for his showing. The war of words got physical when Marty announced his intention to enter the IPW tournament to crown a new cruiser champ, and they had exchanged verbal and physical blows since in attacks on each other. At the Revolution show in April, Marty was in the cruiserweight final and Spud was ordered to bring the title belt to the show. He didn't - claiming he'd forgotten it - so when Scurll won the title, he was denied the belt, and was attacked by Spud again. So this was going to be good.

What followed was probably the most brutal and violent brawl I've seen at an IPW show. It was a full 12 minutes before they even reached the ring, as they just beat the shit out of each other all around the ring first. Chairs were scattered on all four sides of the ring right back to the last row. At least four or five chairs were completely destroyed, others were thrown around, both Marty and Spud were sent bodily flying into rows of chairs, tables, walls, doors, the lot. My friend was someone wide eyed as we were forced to run out of the way of a flying Spud. It was utterly manic and the crowd loved it. Eventually they made it into the ring, then back out again, and then back into the ring properly. It was less of a technical bout than both of them can do, but it was a perfect fight for the feud, and fantastic to watch. Eventually, Marty got the win out of nowhere with a flash roll-up pin. Spud was incensed, and attacked him again and they brawled until a flurry of wrestlers ran down and pulled them apart. It was booked perfectly because although Marty now has his cruiser belt, there is a tonne of mileage left in that feud, and I can't wait to see their next match. So Marty is the third guy in the finals.

Final match of the first half saw the homegrown (and TNA) talent of "The Star Attraction" Mark Haskins take on Japanese Dragon-Gate star Akira Tozawa. Mark has come such a long way in the last couple of years, and is a fantastic talent, and it showed that he was picked to work with the amazing Tozawa. In contrast to the last match, this was a fantastic technical match which showed off much more of a Japanese style (Mark has learnt a lot from his time in Japan). It was back and forth action all the way with strong strikes, some great flying, and some tremendous suplexes thrown in. Mark nearly had the match won on several occasions with his version of the Go to Sleep, but eventually Tozawa managed to secure him in his trapped arm German Suplex, and get the win.

The second half of the show began with an International Challenge Match pitting former All England Champion Terry Frazier against former WWE Tag Team Champ Rene Dupree. Dupree looked good until he took his robe off. He's still in good shape (though not quite as cut as he was in his WWE days) but he now sports a series of tattoos that are ill judged at best. Firstly he has flames going up his lower arms, then he has a figure 8 in sticks of wood on his left pec muscle, and finally he has a large cross with rays of light on his back, and (it seemed at least) the letters F.A.G in the middle of it (!). To be fair to him, he played to the crowd and worked them well enough, but I was really quite unimpressed with what he did during the match. On offence, he looked OK, but he pretty much refused to sell any of Terry's offence. When Terry punched or kicked him, he just pretty much no sold it, and he didn't seem to react much to anything else he did. So when Terry hit the RKO variant for the win, it really didn't look like it should have been enough to beat Dupree with. There's a difference between losing a match and really putting someone over, and for me, Dupree did the former and not the latter.

Next up was the match for the IPW:UK Championship, with Sha Samuels defending the belt against another home grown TNA talent and former TNA Tag Champion, Magnus. Magnus got the sort of reception Dupree was probably hoping for in that the IPW crowd like that he still comes back and does UK shows while under contract with TNA. A very good match from both of these two. Magnus really looks every inch the star now, but Sha plays the dangerous borderline psycho very well and their styles gelled nicely. Sha had the early going before Magnus started to overwhelm him and it looked like Magnus had the belt won until T-bone ran down to interfere and cost Sha the match, but protect his title.

Final match was the tournament final. Really good stuff this as Scurl and Tozawa first of all went at it to leave the big men in Dave and Styxx to brawl, but then worked together with some fantastic double teams on Styxx to weaken him down. Like Haskins, Marty has learnt so much during his time in Japan. he's so fluid now, and he might be the best cruiserweight in the UK at the moment. Mastiff came back into the action and took both Marty and Tozawa down, then went to work on Styxx. He made him submit with a beautiful Rings of Saturn. Styxx didn't take that awfully well and grabbed his chain from ringside. Nailing Dave in the head with it, he allowed Tozawa to sneak in with a quick pin.

So now we had Marty Scurl versus Akira Tozawa, the final we all wanted to see, and a match I'd pay money to see any day of the week. What we got only lasted about 7 minutes, but it was spectacular fast moving stuff and a treat to watch. Marty got the final pin to secure his chance to win all the IPW gold. After the match, Sha, Spud, and T-Bone attacked Marty until Magnus made the save.

So now, can Marty win all the titles at the August show?


They also announced two further shows. The August show featuring the Iron Fist match, but then also a double weekender show on October 13th and 14th which features the last EVER European matches of none other that JERRY LYNN!!

Oooooo, now the weekender sounds tempting...

When they put out the full details, I'll let you know.

Cheers

That sounds sick, glad you had a good time. Post the dates for the weekend thing I'll see if it's doable too!

The weekender is October 13th and 14th. Not got details on timings for the show yet, but I'd expect a 5.30pm Saturday evening, 5.30pm Sunday evening, and maybe a Sunday afternoon show/meet and greet.

I'd be up for coming down for that. We're off to Scotland later in the month but I reckon I could squeeze it in. Will wait for details but it's an interesting idea!

Ooh, what part of Scotland you going to?

I suppose we could put up with you.

Cheers Near Fort William. Sharing a chalet with two of our friends.

Oh excellent, it's wonderful up that way. The scenery is stunning. Try to get down to Oban if you can, or even across to the Isle of Mull.

I'll try I've been once before to that area, years ago though, as it was after I finished my exams at college!

I will come on down if I can, although what with my holidays coming up I may be a bit pressed for money. I will however, endeavour to make it!

Lol, I think the most northern I've ever been has been Blackpool. Not just in the UK either, I mean the most northern "ever"

You really should go up to Scotland. It's stunning up there.

Scotland is a beautiful country!

Yeah, so I hear.

There's loads of places I'd like to go on short trips, but I'm thinking I might try and do the more adventurous things while I'm younger and will be able to handle it better

Scotland sounds tempting for a break for a week, but then so does Russia or Thailand or Turkey again. I dunno. It's all a way down the line yet. I guess it depends how cheaply I can get up there. I'd imagine you can get a flight for relatively cheap then hire a car for a few days.

You can indeed, but you can also train it very cheaply. Book in advance, name the trains, and you can get London - Edinburgh for £59 each way First Class. Standard for about £29.

Wow, that's pretty cheap. Worth a look for sure.

I know it's not very exotic but yesterday I went to Thorpe Park with a friend of mine. We went on a ride called the Flying Fish rollercoaster and it was pretty much a little kids rollercoaster but we went on it seeing as there was literally no queue, you could just walk on. The ride controller, a lad of about my age, was having a laugh with it "when I say flying, you say fish" kind of thing. Then he made us all do a mexican wave down the seats line. I turned to Layla and said "this guy loves his job" and as soon as I said it he shouted "yep I love my job!" which was pretty funny. We went on all the good rides, since the queues were so small we queued up to go on the front. Had 2 for 1 tickets too so it cost me £25 to get in and park there.

I haven't been to Thorpe Park in about 20 years. In fact, the last time I went, most of it still was a park, and they still had the farm at the back. The biggest ride there at the time was some sort of log flume thing.

Alton Towers might is similar. The last time I went there was the first year they had Nemesis in operation, so God knows when that was.

I did once convince one of my bosses that Chessington World of Adventures was the ideal place for a team-building event..... never knew that woman could swear like that until I made her go on the Vampire.

Hahahaha, I went to Chessington many many moons ago, when I was still a child. BT used to rent out places like Alton Towers for the day privately for BT employees, but usually only the ones who got 30 or 40 years' service in, so the people getting invited were all 50+. You try convincing a 50 year old bitter BT engineer to go to Alton Towers for the day, hahahaha. What a waste of company money. I've never managed to convince anyone to let us go for a team building exercise (I did suggest it once)

Yeah I think they probably have some new rides since then. We went on the log flume thing and got soaked. It was freezing. Alton Towers is good, I like going there. I've been there about 4 times I think. I like Oblivion, that is a pretty sketchy ride. When I went with some friends a few years ago we bought those fast-track tickets for Oblivion and they kept forgetting to take our ticket so we went on it about 4 times in a row literally walking past the same people in the queue, they were getting a bit pissed off by it, hahahaha!

I did Alton Towers a year or two ago for a friends birthday. If they hadn't been a really good friend I wouldn't have gone as my vertigo really makes it a bit silly! I did manage the one next to Oblivion, that goes upside down, which I can't remember the name of as well as Rita twice. I went on the revolving room (Hex?) and also the shooting ghost train (which plays Cradle of Filth while you are waiting), the rapides and the log flume. But that was enough for me. I drew the line at the 'dangle' ones! I had a good day but I wouldn't rush back.