Towerlands Inferno show, Saturday August 22nd 2009

Stew's Review

Towerlands Inferno is over, and it was a good show. I don't think there was a truly *brilliant* match on the show (I'd say Zak Zodiak vs Judas from July and Bedwell vs Ashe from March off the top of my head as the two most memorable HEW matches of the year), but everything was at least good, with some stuff very good.

Opened with the return to HEW of "Rowdy" Ricky Knight, who is on the comeback trail after about 18 months on the shelf with various injuries, taking on "The Natural" Scott Fusion. The Rowdy Man can (and does) still play the crowd like a fiddle - and this match had some of the best sustained heat of the entire show. Ricky played it safe, dominating Fusion for much of the match - and doing it in such a way that when Scotty did make his comebacks, the crowd were totally into it. Fusion tried a Sunset Flip from the apron to the ring, but Knight sat down on Fusion's chest for the three.

"The Shooter" Steve Quintain defeated "Party Boy" Phil Bedwell via submission after a decent, though fairly unremarkable match. It's worth mentioning that Bedwell's clearly been working on his physique, because he looked chiselled out of granite.

The dynamic team of Zak Zodiak & Gabriel Antonik defeated London Inc in an all-action tag match. London Inc were impressive in that they improve with every performance - and they had good chemistry with the international team of Zodiak & Antonik. There were plenty of crowd pleasing dives, including Antonik pulling out a Space Flying Tiger Drop (no, really). There was outside interference by Ananya & Amazon and a load of near falls, ending with double pins from Zodiak/Antonic on London Inc.

Britani Knight became the first ever HEW Womens Champion with a 2/3 falls victory over her mother Sweet Saraya in a very good match. The two have developed a really good competitive edge in their matches - something that used to be missing when they did their face/face matches last year, and in fact, performance of the night almost certainly has to go to Britani for her increasingly impressive heel work - cheating, jawing with the crowd, reacting to heckles etc - all a joy to watch. Brett Meadows and Sam Knee were sent to the back at the start of the match, and stayed backstage during the first two falls (Saraya won the first, Britani the second), but then they came out after referee Dave Finch was knocked down during the decider - allowing Meadows to again hit an Essex Bomb on Saraya, allowing Britani to pick up the win and the belt. Post match, Zebra Kid came out and protested on Saraya's behalf - and a challenge was laid out for a mixed tag with Zebra/Saraya vs Meadows/Britani... only for the offer to be declined by Sam Knee... though I'm sure that'll happen on another show soon...

Judas vs Alex Young was relatively short. Judas beat the holy hell out of "The Underdog" until Zak Zodiak came out to distract the monster... leading to Judas following Zodiak away from ringside and out a door at the back of the hall, which resulted in Young winning the match via countout. It did occur to me as Alex was having his hand raised that he's (I think) 3-0 now in HEW... He may have to change his nickname to "The Favourite"

Martin Stone vs Danny Blaze was a rematch from March's "Living on a Prayer" show, where the two had a great match, and this was much the same. Stone is a no-bullshit asskicker, so him interacting with the "flamboyant" Blaze and his two 'Blazettes' is an intriguing contrast, and a good base for the two to work some interesting stuff. There were a load of really near falls in this one, including Blaze kicking out of a Lariat of DOOM that I felt sure was the finish. Now... I've been sitting here for five minutes trying to remember what the actual finish of the match was... Stone won, and I remember thinking it came out of nowhere, but I'm drawing a complete blank on the actual move.

WAW World/European Champion Zebra Kid defeated HEW Champion Brett "The Kraft" Meadows in the main event non-title champion vs champion match. Sam Knee and Britani Knight were both ringside with Meadows and interfered liberally. Both Zebra and Kraft pulled out plancha dives, and it was as hard hitting as you'd expect from these two. Meadows hardly put a foot wrong all match (well, maybe once), but the mistake was made by Sam Knee, who swung a guitar at Zebra's head, only to hit Brett when Zebra ducked out of the way. Once Knee was out of the ring, it was relatively simple for Zebra to drop a Zebra Crossing for the crowd pleasing finish.

A word on the venue - it's very nice. Far bigger than the usual Takeley venue, and there was a decent crowd in. Not sold out, but certainly more than Takeley's Silver Jubilee Hall holds - and assuming it was enough to break even on the venue, a promising marker to work from for future shows. I was talking to someone who says that the show drew more than the last wrestling show in Braintree, so that's also a positive. A better/bigger ring was used, there were lettered "HEW" turnbuckle pads, and as well as debuting the new (pink strapped) womens title, they also debuted the new black/red HEW Title belt. Certainly a fun show.

Next show is back in Takeley on September 26th.

Acknowledgment and thanks to Stew.