Hello, and welcome to a special post, where I recap WrestleZone from January – June 2016. So much has happened in these few months, including title changes, returns and Aberdeen Anarchy. Let’s take a more detailed look at these key events throughout the first half of the year, month by month.
January saw WrestleZone return to the Summerhill Hotel for the return of Summerhill Showdown, which replaced the show at the Cloverleaf Hotel due to it being knocked down. The show was a huge success, with Aspen Faith, Shawn Johnson and Crusher Craib all scoring huge wins in singles action, with the Sterling Brothers also scoring a win in tag team action. The main points of the night came from the two title matches of the evening. The first one saw The Rejected duo of Chris Archer and Mikkey Vago defend their Tag Team titles against Kaden Garrick and Mr P, who lost the gold back at November’s Christmas Chaos (Comes Early!). The match was evenly fought, until Kaden and P set Archer up for a Doomsday Device. Mikkey entered the ring with the trademark chain wrapped around his wrist. It looked like he was away to smack either one of his opponents in the face, but in a shocking turn of events it was referee Dennis Law that had the steel meet his face. The Rejected got themselves intentionally disqualified to keep their gold, for now anyway. More on that later. In the evening’s main event, Scotty Swift put his Undisputed title on the line against Sterling Oil member Damien, who earned his shot at the Christmas Chaos event. Again, another evenly fought contest until Scotty accidentally collided with referee Mikey Innes in the corner. This allowed Damien’s manager Richard R. Russell to head backstage and gather the other Sterling Oil members. William, Alan and Shawn all emerged from the back and laid a beatdown on the Red Haired Warrior. Suddenly Johnny Lions emerged from the back, with Sterling Oil still awaiting his decision to join them or not. All was revealed inside the ring, as Lions removed his jacket to reveal just what the fans didn’t want to see, a Sterling Oil t-shirt. He started celebrating with his new partners, until laying out both William and Alan with a Lion Cutter each. He took off his t-shirt and tossed it to the ground, before countering Damien’s superkick attempt into a Lion Cutter of his own. Johnny then dragged Scotty on top of Damien, allowing him to retain his title yet again. An eventful night took place that evening at the Summerhill Hotel.
As we came into February, management soon announced the next two shows for Montrose and Newtonhill. The Montrose show saw Crusher Craib take down the returning Lou King Sharp, while William Sterling demolished Cysto. The Rejected then defended their tag gold against Kaden Garrick and Mr P, this time in a No Disqualifications match. It was a brutal contest with several weapons used by both teams, but it was Kaden and P that managed to regain their titles after Chris Archer accidentally knocked out his own partner. On the second half of the show, Alan Sterling defeated Blue Thunder while Aspen Faith managed to defeat His Majesty, Lord Mr Malice. The main event saw a huge tag team match as Sterling Oil members Damien and Shawn Johnson took on the dream team of Scotty Swift and Johnny Lions, which stemmed from the events of Summerhill Showdown. The match was eventually ruined when the Sterling Brothers decieded to do a run in, awarding the match to Swift and Lions by DQ. The next show was WrestleZone’s return to Newtonhill, which saw Damien pick up a win over Blue Thunder, Shawn Johnson score the victory against Cysto while Aspen Faith got the win against the debuting Nathan Reynolds, who was a substitute for Johnny Lions. William and Alan Sterling then kicked off the second half of the show with a victory over Mr P, which was scheduled to be a singles bout between P and Alan, before Crusher Craib defeated Mikkey Vago. Scotty Swift then retained his gold with a victory over Chris Archer, just a week after Archer lost the tag titles.
There was no settling down in March, as WrestleZone arrived at Peterhead’s Palace Hotel just a week after the Newtonhill event, with the Regal Rumble just around the corner. Alan Sterling interfered in his brother’s match with Kaden Garrick, which was followed up by the return of Sir Andrew Wilde. Wilde managed to decimate Cysto, despite his stupid antics, before declaring his participation in this year’s Regal Rumble after being in the final 3 last year. After interfering in his brother’s match earlier in the night, Alan was defeated by Kaden’s tag team partner Mr P. After the match however, Alan got a bit frustrated and took out members of staff in a fit of rage as William and Kaden brawled to the back. WrestleZone management had consequences for this though, and suspended Sterling from the Rumble and the show in Fraserburgh. Elsewhere on the card, Shawn Johnson, another Sterling Oil member, managed to defeat Aspen Faith and Blue Thunder to earn the number 20 spot in the Rumble while Thunder got the number 1 spot. Johnny Lions then defeated Lord Mr Malice while Scotty Swift and Crusher Craib defeated The Rejected.
The Regal Rumble then came round the corner, and what a show it was. First off, we had the announcements that Grado, Bull Dempsey and The Hurricane were all coming to Aberdeen Anarchy (Grado of course had to pull out due to family reasons). Inside the ring, Kaden Garrick and Mr P managed to retain their Tag Team titles over Sterling Oil members William Sterling and Shawn Johnson by disqualification following a low blow by William to Kaden. Aspen Faith then scored a win over Lewis Girvan in a rematch from Summerhill Showdown due to interference from Sammii Jayne, and then Johnny Lions defeated Damien before being superkicked twice after the match. Scotty Swift, Crusher Craib and the returning Solar then got a win in a 6 man tag match over Lord Mr Malice, Lou King Sharp and Sir Andrew Wilde, and then we had the Regal Rumble match. There were a lot of important events that took place during this match, such as the debut of WrestleZone training academy graduate Jimbo Bannon, Aspen Faith slipping off the ring apron and the battle between Shawn Johnson and Crusher Craib, who were the final two. Shawn tried to nail the Creator of Carnage with a conchairto, until a hooded figure ran in from the crowd and struck Shawn with the chair. As referees were scrambling to get him out, the hood came down to reveal Shawn’s former partner Bryan Tucker. The Northern Hotel exploded as they saw Bryan get a measure of revenge over the man who ended perhaps the most illustrious team in WrestleZone history. Crusher then managed to boot Johnson off the apron to win his third Regal Rumble match, leading to a staredown between him and Scotty.
As we headed into April, the hype was getting bigger as we were just two months away from Aberdeen Anarchy. We kicked off with a show in Fraserburgh, which saw William Sterling score a win over his former tag team partner Blue Thunder, Chris Archer get a victory over Cysto 2 and Crusher Craib defeat Lord Mr Malice en route to his title opportunity. Mikkey Vago then defeated Johnny Lions following a distraction from Damien, while Kaden Garrick scored the win over Damien due to interference from Lions. The main event saw Scotty Swift and Aspen Faith battle to a double count out, allowing Scotty to retain his Undisputed title. As a result, a rematch was set between the two for the following week in Westhill. The Westhill show kicked off with Lewis Girvan getting the win against Damien, while Kaden Garrick and Mr P lost to William Sterling and his brother Alan, who was making his return from suspension, by DQ, meaning they retained their tag titles. Blue Thunder then defeated Lord Mr Malice, which sparked the start of their rivalry. Johnny Lions then teamed up with Dickie Divers, who was making his first appearance since 2013, as they defeated The Rejected, only to be beaten down by Sterling Oil. Kaden Garrick and Mr P made the save as these two teams were continuing their gang warfare. Crusher Craib then scored a win over Shawn Johnson due to a distraction from Bryan Tucker yet again, before Scotty Swift rounded off the show with an Undisputed title retain over Aspen Faith, following Lewis Girvan entering the fray and carrying Sammii Jayne away when she tried to cause a distraction.
The stars of WrestleZone returned to the Stonehaven Town Hall in May for their last live event before their big supershow in June, Aberdeen Anarchy. Kaden Garrick and Mr P battled to a double disqualification with the Sterling Brothers, which allowed them to retain their tag titles, which was followed by Damien defeating Johnny Lions to gain the advantage for Sterling Oil during this gang warfare period. Crusher Craib then scored a win against The Rejected in a Handicap Match before getting beaten up following the match until being saved by his Aberdeen Anarchy opponent Scotty Swift. Crusher didn’t take too kindly to Scotty getting involved with his business, and made sure he knew about it. Sir Andrew Wilde then returned to the WrestleZone as he defeated Blue Thunder, following a distraction from Lord Mr Malice and Jeeves Winchester. Aspen Faith and his bae Sammii Jayne then defeated Lewis Girvan and Debbie Sharpe in a huge Christmas Chaos (Comes Early!) rematch, before Scotty Swift scored a victory over Shawn Johnson in the main event thanks to a distraction from Bryan Tucker being sat in the crowd. The show ended with a staredown between Swift and Crusher Craib, as the title bout was on the horizon. But before that, WrestleZone made their way to Union Square just two weeks before Aberdeen Anarchy for a special live show. The likes of Crusher Craib, Scotty Swift, Kaden Garrick, Johnny Lions and Sterling Oil all managed to secure victories throughout the day as the road to Aberdeen Anarchy was just about over.
June 4th. The day of Aberdeen Anarchy. Carlito, Tatanka, The Hurricane and Bull Dempsey all made their way to the Granite City for the huge supershow. Blue Thunder managed to defeat Lord Mr Malice during the VIP pre-show, before we headed onto the main show. Sterling Oil scored a huge victory against the trio of Kaden Garrick, Mr P and Johnny Lions in a Ladder Match to earn guaranteed title opportunities at Battle of the Nations in August. Lewis Girvan and the debuting Viper managed to score a win over Aspen Faith and Sammii Jayne with STV’s Sean Batty handling ring announcing duties, before Bingo Ballance defeated Stevie Xavier in a rematch from the very first Aberdeen Anarchy. Tatanka then entered the Beach Ballroom to a thunderous ovation as he went on to defeat Big Damo. Bryan Tucker competed for the first time since November as he managed to overcome his former partner Shawn Johnson, but was attacked afterwards with a steel chair. The Aberdeen Anarchy undefeated streak of Lou King Sharp and The Rejected (dubbed the Greatest Streak in Professional Sports) came to an end at the hands of Carlito, the Hurricane and Bull Dempsey. Then came the main event, which saw Scotty Swift defend his Undisputed title against Crusher Craib in one of the biggest matches in WrestleZone history. Eventually it was Scotty that came out on top to retain, before it was later revealed that Crusher had suffered a broken hip socket that would require surgery.
WrestleZone have remained quiet since the big show, apart from announcing matches for their show in Ellon that took place last weekend. The show saw both Mikkey Vago and Chris Archer pick up wins over Blue Thunder and Cysto respectively, before Kaden Garrick scored a much needed win over Alan Sterling ahead of their title contest at Battle of the Nations. Sir Andrew Wilde then came to Ellon as he defeated Aspen Faith and Johnny Lions in a Triple Threat match, before Mr P defeated Lord Mr Malice. The evening’s main event was originally meant to be a 2 on 3 Handicap Match with Scotty Swift and Bryan Tucker facing William Sterling, Shawn Johnson and Damien. The match was changed to a regular tag match after Bryan Tucker was attacked backstage and William being banned from the building as a consequence. Scotty’s new partner was revealed to be Johnny Lions in his second match of the night. Damien scored the victory for his team with the pin over Swift, as the two look to do battle for the Undisputed title at Battle of the Nations.
It’s been quite an eventful year for WrestleZone so far, and only good things can await as we head into the second half. Let’s see what WrestleZone have waiting for us.
– Adam Morrison
SCOTTISH WRESTLING NETWORK | SWN 