Now usually, I would use this intro space to write some sarcastic comment about something such as Theresa May’s failure as the Prime Minister. However, given the events that happened earlier on in this month with regards to Adrian “Lionheart” McCallum, I think it’s in the best interest to just get on with the article out of respect to him. Come back on August 1st for the usual intros to resume.
Honourable mentions go out to Alexander Darwin MacAllan, BT Gunn, Daihlan Hendry, Davey Blaze, Dickie Divers, Jack Morris, Jayla Dark, John Trettan, Johnny Lions, Jokey, Kay Lee Ray, Krieger, Leyton Buzzard, Lucha DS, Nathan North, Shaun Walker, and Viper.
10. Jonathan Richards
The first of six (!) list debutants this month is Jonathan Richards, a man who kicked off his June with arguably his biggest match to date when he challenged former ally Dickie Divers for both the Reckless Intent Heavyweight Championship and the Reckless Intent UK Championship in a No DQ Match. Although he would come away from that bout with a loss thanks to the interference of a returning Sara Marie-Taylor, The Fabulous One proved that now is not the time for him to hang up his boots quite yet. A victory over Divinity’s Rob Mills at the Blackburn Gala Day ended the month for Richards on a positive note. With the Reckless Rumble coming up at the start of October, perhaps this is the year of Jonathan Richards.
9. Ken Kaiden
Ken Kaiden is someone who impresses me every time I watch a match of his. He’s such a talented performer, and someone who’s perhaps underutilised in the Scottish wrestling scene. The SWE regular made a return to Source Wrestling at the start of the month to defeat Mark J. Wilson, and would follow that up with a successful defence of his SWE Future Division Championship over “Tenacious” Johnny Lions a few weeks later at SWE’s Summer Showcase event in Dundee. Kaiden’s month came to an end this past Saturday at the monthly SWE Uprising event at Dundee’s Coldside Parish Church, where he teamed with American independent star Holidead in a winning effort over Prince Asad and Rayhne in the evening’s main event. There was no stopping Ken Kaiden throughout June.
8. Sammii Jayne
After being out on the injured shelf since March, Sammii Jayne made her return to action last Sunday night at Fierce Females’ Exorcise Your Rite event, where she defeated her arch-rival from down south Little Miss Roxxy. The Main Event Empress would follow that up with a huge victory at Source Wrestling’s Fusion show on Saturday night in Mount Vernon as she pinned the current Source Champion Alexander Darwin MacAllan in non-title action. Although the title wasn’t on the line here, The Clyde River Killer has offered to defend his prized possession against The Queen of Catch next time around. Will Sammii be the one to end ADM’s reign of terror over the Source Wrestling roster?
7. Andy Wild
The leader of The Wild Boys is having quite the 2019 so far, as shown when he defeated the equally-as-great BT Gunn at a Premier British Wrestling event in Dumbarton to kick off the month. Two losses in the middle of the month to Krieger and Joe Hendry at Big Massive Wrestling and Insane Championship Wrestling respectively derailed the steam train that is Andy Wild, but he soon bounced back with a victory over the physically imposing TJ Rage at British Championship Wrestling’s show in East Kilbride this past Friday night. The Dad Bod God is clearly a force to be reckoned with this year and now that’s in joint third place alongside BT Gunn, Jackie Polo, and Joe Coffey, he could be in the running to become the wrestler of the year, something I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see.
6. Kieran Kelly
In terms of Scotland’s rising talent, Kieran Kelly is certainly one to be keeping an eye on right now. He and I-Gen partner Craig Anthony made their first successful defence of the PBW Tag Team Championships at the start of the month over former champs Lou King Sharp and Krieger, which Kieran followed up with a victory over Daihlan Hendry the following day at a Source Wrestling event. Another huge win came for Kelly in the form of a victory over British wrestling legend Jonny Storm at ICW I Ain’t Yer Pal, Dickface!, which is unquestionably one of the biggest wins in Kieran’s young career so far. He ended the month on a high as he defeated PBW Academy standout Owen Jakks at the company’s recent event in Ruchazie
5. Emily Hayden
Emily Hayden becomes the first of The Sensational Scenebirds trio to make her way on to the list with her impressive performances throughout June – it was quite a busy month for The Best, The Beautiful, The Only. Her first match of the month came when she faced Sammie Jo in a losing effort during a Reckless Intent Wrestling show in Linlithgow, followed by a loss to her wrestling mum Jayla Dark at the W3L Summer Spectacular show the next day with Jayla’s W3L Women’s Championship up for grabs in the contest. The following day at a W3L show in Galashiels show Hayden get herself intentionally disqualified in a bout with Anastasia, just like how she lost to Jayla Dark. Emily promised to bring hell to W3L management after she lost the Women’s Championship, and it looks like she’s following through on that promise. A second loss to Sammie Jo in as many weeks came at the recent Fierce Females show in the first ever I Do Match, meaning Hayden has now been fired from the FF roster. However, in the days that followed, the hashtag #JusticeForEmily was trending number one worldwide on Twitter – looks like general manager Leah Owens may need to get Emily back on the roster. Hayden’s month ended with a victory over Gia Adams at an Upbrawl Championship Wrestling event, meaning she now has a guaranteed future opportunity at the UCW Women’s Championship somewhere down the line, and then a loss to Angel Hayze down at Shield Pro Wrestling with Hayze’s Almost Pro Women’s Championship up for grabs. Quite the hectic month for one Emily Hayden.
4. Sammie Jo
“Sparkling” Sammie Jo comes on the list this month for obvious reasons which I mentioned in Emily Hayden’s entry. Jo’s month began down at Source Wrestling though, where she teamed with Anastasia in a loss to Scott McManus and MATT DALY in intergender action, followed by the first of two victories over Emily Hayden at Reckless Intent’s wrestling dinner for The Lord Provost. Her second victory over Hayden came the next week at Exorcise Your Rite from Fierce Females in the highly anticipated I Do Match, meaning Sammie will now on to challenge Debbie Keitel for the Internet Championship at the September 1st show (I believe it’s the next show she gets her title match). A victory over Scott McManus at Source’s second Fusion show, albeit with some assistance from “Vintage” Nathan North, ended the month for Sammie Jo, and judging by some of the things she has coming up later this year in Fierce Females, this won’t be the last we see of her on this list.
3. Lou King Sharp
Even though he’s off in China at the time of writing, Lou King Sharp still makes it on to this list because of his final few matches in Scotland being brilliant. His month began on a sour note with he and best pal Krieger unsuccessfully challenging Kieran Kelly and Craig Anthony for the PBW Tag Team Championships in Dumbarton. I’d like to say LKS bounced back from this loss, but that’s not really the case – within the space of a week, he lost to Pete Phoenix, Lucha DS, Prince Asad, and Paul Robinson at shows for Copenhagen Championship Wrestling, PBW, Big Massive Wrestling, and ICW respectively. The last of those bouts has received rave reviews online from fans in attendance, so I’m looking forward to watching that when it goes up on ICW On Demand. With that, The Blood Tourist jetted off to China to join Oriental Wrestling Entertainment for the time being alongside his ripped and jacked bigger brother Rob Sharpe. From what I read online, The Super Sharp Bros were victorious in their debut OWE match against the team of Buffa and Gaia Hox in Shanghai. An impressive start to his Chinese wrestling career!
2. Joe Hendry
I’m amazed that this is Joe Hendry’s first time cracking the top 10 in 2019, especially considering he was the wrestler of the year in 2019. With the month he had in June though, I had to put him in here. His first match of the month was a sensational victory over Gabriel Kidd on an episode of Defiant Wrestling’s YouTube show in a 30 minute Iron Man Match to send The Young Bull packing from Defiant. After conducting his second 24 hour livestream alongside Dave Conrad, Jabicus, Sophie, and Gromit (the best doggo alive), The Prestigious One picked up a victory over Andy Wild at ICW’s recent show, a match that was surely an epic bout. He captured the Defiant Internet Championship from arch-rival Martin Kirby at the company’s fourth annual Built to Destroy event to round off one hell of a month. Finally, Wrestlers of the Month is once again prestigious.
1. Lionheart
Before the unfortunate circumstances two weeks ago, you can’t look past the brilliant month Lionheart was having. He defeated The Purge’s Stevie James at a Wrestling Experience Scotland event in Maryhill, and then it was time for the match I was alluding to earlier. Lionheart retained the ICW World Heavyweight Championship over the ever impressive Alexander Dean, capturing Dean’s UEWA European Heavyweight Championship in the process, a match that would end up being his last. Having read comments from those in attendance that night, this sounds like an early contender for match of the year in Scotland. A truly incredible performance from both men involved.
Well, there we have it. Half way through 2019, which has proven to be an incredible year for Scottish wrestling thus far (and wrestling in general to be completely honest). Things haven’t changed that much further down on the league table but up in the top five or so, things are getting heated. Andy Wild has joined the 19 point clan while Kieran Kelly has shot into third place with his 22 points, just 5 points behind first place. But most notably, RUDO Lightning is no longer in first place, with Lionheart scoring 10 points to put him one point ahead with 28. July is set to be another huge month for wrestling in Scotland (Shug’s Hoose Party 6, Camp Discovery, Cruel Summer, etc.) – expect to see things continuing to heat up on the league table!
Point Standings as of July 1st 2019
1. Lionheart (28 points)
2. RUDO Lightning (27 points)
3. Kieran Kelly (22 points)
4. Andy Wild, BT Gunn, Jackie Polo, and Joe Coffey (19 points)
5. Lewis Girvan (18 points)
6. Aspen Faith (17 points)
7. Damien and Sammii Jayne (14 points)
8. Ashley Vega (13 points)
9. Joe Hendry and Zach Dynamite (9 points)
10. Aivil and Lou King Sharp (8 points)
10. Leyton Buzzard, Sammie Jo, and Viper (7 points)
12. Emily Hayden and Johnny Lions (6 points)
13. Angel Hayze, Dickie Divers, and Jack Morris (5 points)
14. Chris Renfrew and Kay Lee Ray (4 points)
15. Jack Jester and Michael Chase (3 points)
16. Jason Reed, Ken Kaiden, Lucha DS, Paxxo, and Ryan Riley (2 points)
17. Alexander Darwin MacAllan, Jonathan Richards, Krobar, and Stevie James (1 point)
Thanks to Wrestle Ropes and cagematch.net for match info.
Credit for the promo pics used goes to Cracked Hourglass Photography, David J. Wilson, Elaine Wilson, Tony Knox, and Warrior Fight Photography.
SCOTTISH WRESTLING NETWORK | SWN 