On October 7th 2016 I attended my very first WhatCulture Pro Wrestling (WCPW) event, in Newcastle, England.
As much as I love professional wrestling, the amount of times I’ve seen any live wrestling outside of WWE is actually very limited, so I’m often left in the dark as to who’s hot on the indie scene.
Admittedly my ticket was bought based on the fact that Olympic gold medalist and wrestling hero Kurt Angle would be headlining the show, along with (recently) ex WWE superstar Cody Rhodes, that sold me straight away. As the weeks drew closer to the event, I realised that this was actually a WCPW pay per view event, which would be broadcast live online, so it was a pretty big deal. The commentary team would be Jim Cornette and the legendary WWE announcer, Jim ‘JR’ Ross, which is a fantastic attraction to any wrestling show in itself.
I couldn’t believe my luck when Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart was also confirmed for the show, it was already a star-studded line up, and this addition only added to the anticipation of the event.
As I was queuing up outside the student union, it was a sight to behold, there were lots of WCPW based t-shirts of which I didn’t fully understand the reference of, but in a few hours time, I would.
After my group and I participated in a number of friendly wrestling debates with fellow fans (mostly involving The Miz, Kevin Owens & CM Punk), it was time to enter the student union.
Walking in felt a lot different to a WWE live show; it was more intimate and enclosed. The room was filled with excitement as I overheard conversations of people stoked to be able to see Kurt Angle and Bret Hart in the same night, others were contemplating the result of the WCPW World Championship match, of which I had no prior knowledge.
The pre show had started, and although I had no idea of who any of the people were in the ring, I enjoyed seeing the interactions with the crowd of the different characters.
Once the main show started, we saw a video package to begin with; it felt legitimate and real, which of course it was.
The actual show itself gave me a taste of some of indie wrestling’s talent such as Minoru Suzuki against Joe Coffey, which was your typical bad guy foreigner against the good guy from the homeland (or in this case, Scotland).
The next match provided the introduction of Alberto Del Rio, or Alberto El Patron, as he’s known by on the indie scene. I really enjoyed this match, which also featured Travis Banks and El Ligero (who I’d actually heard of), in a triple threat match.
It turns out this was actually for the WCPW Internet Championship, one I thought in my WWE biased mind was exclusive to Zack Ryder, but then again maybe they had the idea first? Who knows.
This fast paced back and forth match between all 3 competitors really entertained, and the crowd were fully into this on, which was won by El Ligero. It was great to see Alberto enjoying himself, he had fun interacted with the live crowd, and fully appreciated the support and enthusiasm shown towards him.
The Bret Hart segment was just as you’d expect it to be. As soon as his music hit, the fans went absolutely nuts, and for me myself I felt excited, in disbelief and just in pure awe of the fact that such an iconic name in professional wrestling history was now a matter of metres away. The angle saw Bret put over the fans in the UK, before being interrupted by a group of guys wearing some sort of imitated D-Generation X t-shirt, of which I’d seen some of the fans wearing before the show, and available on the merchandise stand.
The group threatened to attack ‘The Hitman’ before being saved by a group of superstars (of which a few of them I’d seen earlier in the show). My thought at this point was of them, and what an incredible feeling they must have right now to be standing in the ring side by side with Bret Hart. That was not only a special moment for us fans, but all the performers involved, and you could tell as they all looked so proud and honoured.
Speaking of honours, it’s always a pleasure to watch Cody Rhodes perform. Regardless of the location, company and gimmick, but in his first UK appearance since leaving WWE, he was there live in Newcastle taking on (and defeating) Doug Williams.
I’ve seen Cody perform as ‘dashing’, ‘undashing’, ‘moustaching’ and as Stardust (at Wrestlemania 31), but this felt different, it didn’t feel like a usual Rhodes performance. Like Alberto El Patron, Cody looked so thrilled and humbled at the same time to be performing for us, and you could tell he was thriving wrestling under his own identity again.
Doug Williams (who was another one I’d heard of already), provided much entertainment and again, interaction with the live audience to play up to his heel role against the heavily pro Rhodes crowd.
There was a touching moment after the match where Cody dropped to his knees and kissed the mat as a tribute to his late father, Dusty Rhodes.
Already at this point, I felt the show had delivered some quality wrestling, entertainment and overall enjoyment, and I could have even left at that point fully satisfied, however, there was still a lot more entertainment and enjoyment to come.
Unfortunately that can’t be said for the next ‘contest’ which was a wrestler called Rampage, who looked like he could rip you in half just by looking in your direction, and then one of their YouTube guys, who I’ve always found to be very smarky and is pretty much the type of wrestling ‘fan’ I loathe. Instead of standing around loudly questioning this guys involvement, I instead decided to head to the bar, so what happened in this ‘match’ I have no idea, although I did witness the previously mentioned ‘smark’ get put through a table.
Fortunately the real action resumed next with WCPW Women’s Champion Nixon Newell defeating the very easy on the eye, Kimber Lee, who certainly made up for having to wait through the previous YouTuber ‘match’.
The two athletes put on an exciting contest and proved the future of women’s wrestling lies further outside just the depths of WWE and even NXT.
Another thought I was wondering throughout the show was I wonder if in a few years, we’ll see any of these performers here tonight on mainstream television working for one of the big companies? I always find that WWE fans will root for a person they’ve watched since their indie days, such as Balor, Bryan, Owens, Zayn. I think fans enjoy the fact that they were there from the beginning and now they’ve seen them fully transition and ‘make it’ so to speak.
The next announcement had the whole place roaring with excitement, the announcement that next month the WCPW shows would be headlined by none other than…’Broken’ Matt Hardy! Another coup for the indie fed.
I’ve already booked my tickets.
The World Championship Match between the champion Joseph Conners and the challenger Martin Kirby was fantastic to watch, it was such a thrilling contest from start to finish. At the beginning I was certain we were going to see fan favourite Kirby claim the gold against Conners (who incidentally I found out is from my hometown of Nottingham), but by the end I felt either man deserved to win it. Back and forth action, near falls, the crowd were heavily into this one and so was I.
This was an incredible advert for indie wrestling, and the hook to encourage me to attend more live events like this.
The ending gave me a glimpse into the storyline aspect of the show, which saw WCPW general manager Adam Pacitti run down and cost Kirby the match, shoving him off the rope as he set up his finish. Following this, Pacitti stood on the ring apron as fans threw dozens of Kirby’s signature pink glowsticks towards him, it really was a sight to behold and you could tell Pacitti was relishing in the moment.
What a match, and what an event so far, it had gone above and beyond all my expectations of the show.
Next came the main event, which pitted ‘Scottish Hero’ Joe Hendry against ‘American Hero’ Kurt Angle in what had been arguably the most anticipated match of the night.
Make no mistake, the novelty of seeing Kurt Angle wasn’t the best thing about this contest, the match itself was highly entertaining, with an obvious mutual respect between the two competitors. Despite all the excitement and nerves he was almost certainly feeling inside from stepping into the ring with Angle, Joe Hendry kept his composure and remained professional throughout. Hendry contributed to what was a thoroughly enjoyable match, with some great spots including him putting Kurt into the ‘Angle Lock’, which must have felt amazing for him on a personal level.
In the end it was Angle himself who was victorious with the ‘Angle Lock’, forcing Hendry to tap out, who should feel no shame in doing so after such an impressive showing.
After the match, Angle took hold of a microphone to a huge applause and put over WCPW, the fans, and especially his opponent Joe Hendry, who on hearing the encouraging words from the Olympic Gold Medalist, will no doubt be motivated for to succeed.
Upon leaving the Northumbria Students Union, there were hundreds of wrestling fans in glee of their nights entertainment, myself included. I had purchased tickets to this show on the basis of Kurt Angle & Cody Rhodes, but what I came away with was more knowledge, intrigue and desire to see more of the indie wrestling scene.
Seeing Bret Hart live, watching Kurt Angle wrestle for the first time, being a mere 2 metres away from ‘Good Old JR’, Cody Rhodes’ first post WWE UK appearance. These details were special, but what made the night was the overall entertainment of the show, a host of wrestlers out there performing, catering to fans old and new, young and old, providing an enjoyable night of professional wrestling.
What is your favourite indie wrestling promotion?
Who are the top indie wrestlers on the circuit right now?
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