It’s the week of Fear & Loathing XII and this past Sunday Insane Championship Wrestling live streamed their, now-annual, pre-Fear & Loathing event from The Garage, on Facebook. This show captures the spirit, the chants, the family atmosphere that ICW is famed for as the fans and the wrestlers can see the biggest show in the Scottish wrestling calendar on the horizon. It started with France ’98 in 2017, France ’99 in 2018 and now here we are with France 2000. This show would usually take place the night before but with Fear & Loathing being a two night affair it was pushed to the Sunday before for a bonus night of insanity.

The gorgeous Billy Kirkwood and handsome Jen Louise welcomed us to the last stop before Fear & Loathing before quickly sending it to Simon Cassidy to kick off France 2000.

Mark Dallas and Carmel opened the show to make announcement about the main event of night two following the release of Joe Coffey (though he went unnamed by Dallas) and an injury to Stevie Boy but before he could get any further Stevie Boy interrupted. An off mic conversation clearly saw Stevie wanting Coffey and didn’t care about a injury. Dallas pleaded his case that Stevie isn’t fit… enter Square Go! briefcase holder RUDO Lightning.

Lightning pondered that if Stevie isn’t fit that maybe… before attacking Stevie and targeting his injured knee. Lightning exited before returning with a referee and cashed in his briefcase.

ICW World Heavyweight Championship – Stevie Boy defeated RUDO Lightning by pinfall to retain the ICW World Heavyweight Championship.

Stevie landed a quick superkick then a knee to the back of RUDO’s head to retain the ICW World Heavyweight Championship.

After the match Stevie told Dallas to re-sign the match between him and Coffey so he can drive his knee through Joe’s skull before getting the word out to contact Joe Coffey and tell him that if he wants a fight then he is game.

Eight months holding that briefcase and RUDO Lightning lost in less than three minutes. By the sounds of it, on the Twitterverse, that looked to maybe be Lightning’s final in-ring performance. It’s a shame that his final ICW run looked to have been cut short with that shock conclusion as all signs pointed to him regaining the ICW World Heavyweight Championship with that briefcase. After Shug’s Hoose Party, and the return of Stevie Boy as champion, the briefcase seemed to take a backseat which many have sparked a change in direction. Lightning is a fantastic mind and has a lot left in the tank when it comes to wrestling, maybe not physically, but his influence will continue to be injected in whatever he puts his mind to.

A shocking start to France 2000, an unscheduled cash in to tie up the briefcase. I almost thought they would’ve had Lightning cash in at Fear & Loathing weekend, maybe with the same result, but this was certainly a crazy way to begin the night.

Kid Fite defeated Kez Evans by pinfall.

Simon Cassidy joined commentary for this one, it didn’t take long for this one to end up in the crowd. Fite booted Evans in the balls before brawling at the merch tables with Fito taking great glee in battering Evans about. The two eventually made their way back thanks to Fite throwing Evans over the barricade at ringside. Evans got the upper-hand after whipping Fite into the barricade before targeting the joints of Fite with a vicious Garvin Stomp to the ankles and wrists. Evans brushed Fite’s head with slaps which only made Fito angry and fired up. Kez tried something from the top rope but ate a Superplex which Fite rolled through and hoisted Evans up for a beautiful brainbuster but Evans somehow kicked out. Evans wriggled out of a Hammerlock DDT attempt and threw a hard lariat out to turn Fite inside out. Evans went for the Kez Dispenser but Fite got out of it and landed the Hammerlock DDT for the win.

A hard hitting, even contest in this first time ever match. It goes without saying that Kid Fite had a very good match, he generally brings out the best in his opponents. Evans looked vicious and, as his moniker suggests, dastardly. A really entertaining match that was highly enjoyable.

After the match, Kid Fite promised that he would teabag Paul Robinson at Fear & Loathing.

Jack Jester and Sha Samuels were backstage with Jen Louise hyping up their feud with The Kings of the North but were then jumped by Damien Corvin and Bonesaw and brawled in the back.

Mark Coffey defeated Josh ‘Turbo’ Terry by pinfall.

Regular Reckless Intent and Discovery Wrestling referee Chris Quinn made his ICW debut to officiate this contest. Terry showed off his impressive aerial acrobatics during his entrance before rolling through a headlock from Coffey, that was incredibly smooth, into a headlock of his own. The two grappled back and forth, before Coffey powered Terry forward, throwing him into the corner which saw Terry land in a Tree of Woe position then rocked with a dropkick to the head which left Terry on the back foot. Coffey drove a forearm into the Terry’s back that made a snapping sound to the disgust of the crowd. Sounded like Mark Coffey had cracked Terry’s spine in half. Coffey continued the attack to the back with a chinlock whilst driving his knee into the back of Terry as he continued to bully his smaller opponent. Terry battled back with a tornado DDT following up with a standing corkscrew splash but it couldn’t keep Coffey down. Terry flipped his way out of a lariat, then a chokeslam before hitting a wheelbarrow stunner, an open scissors cutter as Billy Kirkwood called it. Coffey dodged a top rope something from Terry before hoisting him up for a spinning chokeslam and a volley kick for the three count.

A fantastic match between these two, I would’ve liked to have seem Power Forward pop up to remind folk that they are actually a thing designed to assist Mark Coffey, especially as they will be teaming with Mark on the night one VIP match for Fear & Loathing. Josh Terry is an incredibly athletic man that floated about like gravity was just a joke to him. Hopefully we’ll see more of Terry in Insane Championship Wrestling in the future. It would’ve been neat to see Mark enter with his NXT UK Tag Team Championship but on further thought, with Gallus all on different paths in ICW, it would’ve been strange to see he and Wolfgang have those titles but in totally different stories. Andy Wild and Liam Thomson versus Mark Coffey and Wolfgang for the titles sounds cracking though, maybe somewhere down the line.

As Simon was making the announcements for the next match the earlier brawl between The Kinky Party and The Kings of the North spilled out onto the entrance stage as they continued to brawl to ringside. Jester and Samuels got the upper-hand but posed a little to long to soak up the chants of ‘No Kinky, No Party’ which gave Corvin and Bonesaw ample time to recover and launch a further attack. Corvin tied Jester up into the corner with the tag rope and duct tape while Bonesaw pummeled Sha in the middle of the ring. Corvin brought in a chair and clobbered Sha on the back. Sha raised a defiant pinky finger before Corvin could crack him over the head with the chair as Noam Dar ran out with a chair of his own to make the save.

Noam Dar told ‘dafty number one’ and ‘dafty number two’ to go get Adam Maxted and face The Kinky Pinky Party on night one of Fear & Loathing. The bit ended with Jester telling Dar that there’s only one way for him to exit and that’s through the crowd as the trio (well duo, the crowd dropped Sha) crowd surfed to the bar.

Damien Corvin looked like a stone cold killer in this segment, Bonesaw was watching on like a proud Dad while Corvin punched, booted, smashed and battered both Jester and Samuels. Unleashing an malicious attack with that chair. Bonesaw would jump in to assist but Corvin was merciless.

Angel Hayze defeated Viper by pinfall.

Angel Hayze started off with a test of strength which… didn’t really go well for her with Viper easily overpowering the young lioness. The traded a wristlock before Hayze rolled Viper up for a pin that would countered and turned into a pin of her own with a great bridge. Hayze tried to whip Viper into the corner but the ‘Megaton Barbie’ wasn’t for moving and stood her ground. Four shoulder charges from Hayze only saw her take any damage whilst Viper stood in the middle of the ring, almost with a motherly sigh after watching their child walk into a door again, and again… and again. Hayze switched tact with kicks to the legs of Viper before knocking her down to a knee with a straight boot to the head. Unfortunately that just annoyed the former ICW Women’s World Champion, who slapped Hayze, dropped her for a bodyslam then dropped her weight onto Hayze with a senton before adding a standing crossbody onto the sitting up Hayze for a two count. Viper slowed down the pace, keeping Hayze to the mat. Hayze battled back with a Sling Blade, forearms and an absolute peach of a superkick right under the chin of Viper to knock her down but it wasn’t enough. Viper drove Hayze down with a Viper Driver. Viper took her sweet time to pin but as she went down, Hayze rolled her up for the shock pinfall victory.

Viper offered a handshake before headbutting Hayze. She got on the microphone and apologised, welcoming Hayze to ICW. WWE NXT UK Women’s Champion Kay Lee Ray entered, letting us know that she has a bit of clout now (whilst casually draping the NXT UK Women’s Championship over her shoulder) so is giving Angel Hayze a match at Fear & Loathing. Viper and Kay Lee Ray versus Angel Hayze and Xia Brookside.

Another brilliant match on this show, Hayze looked like a natural. You can clearly see the influence of Kid Fite and Sammii Jayne in her offense and her whole demeanor. The fact that she’s facing someone so high profile in Viper didn’t seem to phase Hayze at all, plus her match being live on Facebook to potentially thousands it didn’t even look to enter her mind. An incredible achievement from Hayze, who is just off the back of being the first female to compete in the Premier British Wrestling King of Cruisers match. Hayze, who is only about 18, is certainly chalking up historic moments and in rapid succession, she’s off to Fear & Loathing XII in a match with three current WWE NXT UK superstars, including the NXT UK Women’s Champion. Well deserved. Judging from the crowd reaction, a star is certainly born.

We headed backstage next as Coach Trip introduced his new client, his new union, with Jason Reed. Reed declared that Trip is going to take him to the top, and that he is better than a cowboy, better than an international sex hero because, and I quote, “we are the people”.

Reed is confident, assured in his abilities and there’s no doubt he will be a player in ICW if presented with an opportunity. The ‘we are the people’ stuff, and impact to that phrase, goes over my head a bit but if it creates the desired reaction then more power to them.

Leyton Buzzard, Kieran Kelly & Aaron Echo defeated More Than Hype (LJ Cleary, Nathan Martin & Darren Kearney) by pinfall.

The incredibly charismatic team of More Than Hype entered to a loud reaction. These three guys are just infectious as their passion is evident. My stream of this match couldn’t keep up with the action. Lots of tagging in and out in the early going with More Than Hype clearly more attune with using tag moves. An early attempt at the Hyperzord from MTH was stopped but Echo and Kelly, as they deconstructed the More Than Hype scaffold. The chemistry between Buzzard and Kelly was evident as they busted out some nice tandem offence, they went to the well once to many with the moonsault combo as Kearney kept his knees up for both attempts. Martin went on a rampage with his knees, an enziguri followed by a Falcon Arrow on Kelly could only garner a two count. MTH went back to the Hyperzord but Leyton Buzzard was lifted up by Kelly and hit a lovely cutter onto LJ Cleary as he was perched on the shoulders of Martin and Kearney. The rag-tag team started gaining momentum, Kelly with a shotgun dive onto MTH, Buzzard followed with a spread eagle swanton over the top rope, then Echo lumbered up, caught his legs on the top rope and tumbled out of the ring while flailing his arms out to grab someone, anyone. It wasn’t the most graceful dive from Aaron Echo. The match broke down with More Than Hype once again showing their outstanding tandem moves, Kieran Kelly found himself monkey flipped by LJ Cleary, caught in the waiting arms of Darren Kearney who then powerbombed Kelly onto Nathan Martin’s knees in the corner. Beautiful. Somehow Kelly survived.

It looked to be wrapped up following a lethal combination of a running Shooting Star Press followed by a 450 splash from Buzzard but the count was broken. MTH almost had it when they triple superkicked Buzzard then landed the Hyperzord destroyer but Kelly dived from the top rope and interrupted the count again. Bodies where flying everywhere but Kelly grabbed Kearney for a tornado DDT and scored the win.

What. A. Match. This was action, action and action with little time to blink or you would have missed something amazing. More Then Hype are in a league of their own when it comes to trios, they showed some phenomenal moves. This was possibly my favourite Aaron Echo match, he didn’t have to do any crowd work as he was in with five very charismatic performers. He just had to come in, throw one of the boys about then leave the ring. Bar his unfortunate dive, his work was simple and inoffensive.

Iestyn Rees defeated Andy Wild by pinfall.

We returned from the interval with ‘The Quintessential Athlete’ Iestyn Rees facing ‘The Stovie Superman’ Andy Wild. In the battle of the Dads, Rees yammered on the microphone for a bit to irritate Wild before finishing it off with saying that his son was better than Wild’s. Andy grabbed Rees and threw him over his head like a wet trackie. The height of Rees looked to be an issue as he didn’t get up high enough for the throw and landed right onto the top of his head, Rees wisely rolled out of the ring to assess the situation. Wild followed and brawled on the outside, with clubbing blows to the back and head of Rees while Iestyn looked a little glassy eyed from the opening exchange. Once back in the ring it looked like Rees woke up as he hit a big shoulder barge to knock down Wild before throwing out uppercuts in the corner. Both men slugged away with forearms and body slams, fighting back and forth. Rees hit a stunning dropkick to halt Wild’s momentum but Andy was soon revving up again. Rees hit a great standing spinebuster for a nearfall. Wild knocked down Rees and went for DA’ BOMB but Rees got his knees up and finished the match with an Alpha Wave spear.

Started hot but as the match went on it started to cool down with a finish out of nowhere. Didn’t really come up to much in the end. Outside of his opening promo then some waving during the match, Rees didn’t really translate that ‘Quintessential Athlete’ persona into his in-ring work. It wasn’t very exciting.

Again, with both of these guys wrestling at Fear & Loathing it would’ve been good to have some sort of story progression, either with Power Forward or Mark Coffey distracting Andy Wild or something with Scotty Davis and Iestyn Rees. It didn’t need to be much but something to build some hype towards their respective matches.

ICW Women’s World Champion Kasey entered next, with her manager The Wee Man who started running down the crowd in his unique brand of hilarious put downs, when you start by calling everyone chundering mutants it’s going to go well. The Wee Man turned his spewing to Aivil, going on about that they can’t seem to get rid of Aivil no matter how many times Kasey beats her. Aivil entered and got right into the face of Kasey. The Wee Man revealed that he pulled some strings and if Kasey retained at Fear & Loathing then Aivil would no longer be able to challenge for the ICW Women’s World Championship whilst Kasey was champion.

ICW Commissioner Carmel came out, she said that The Wee Man hadn’t actually spoken to management but agreed to the stipulation and added that if The Wee Man got physically involved in the match at Fear & Loathing then he will stripped of his manager licence and fired from ICW. After Carmel left, Kasey got on the mic and told Aivil that she’s only as good as she is because of her but Aivil might be better off sticking to behind the sewing machine making gear for ‘the better wrestlers’. Aivil replied with a forearm to the face of Kasey but turned around to the ICW Women’s World Championship being smashed into her face courtesy of The Wee Man.

Good heated exchange, sometimes I find The Wee Man can be a bit too cartoonish, like Iago to Kasey’s Jafar, but overall he reigned it back to keep it brief.

Bad Company (Wolfgang, Krobar & Stevie James) & The Nine9 (Dickie Divers & Jack Morris) defeated Liam Thomson, The Kings of Catch (Aspen Faith & Lewis Girvan) & The Fite Network (Lou King Sharp & Krieger) by pinfall.

Kriegy Boy and Lou K Ray, as Simon informed us that they would like to be introduced as, joined Aspen Faith and Lewis Girvan to form (what Lewis would later dub) The Manky Generation. The Nine9 entered next in Scream masks, well it is almost Halloween. The Purge entered but stopped short at the stage to bring out Wolfgang with Liam Thomson’s sink. As it looked like it would be five on four, Liam Thomson turned up (would that be The Sinky Generation now?) to even the odds and double legged Wolfgang to start the match. Lewis Girvan tagged in and got kicked low by Stevie James which saw all ten men in the ring and brawling. Once the dust had settled it was Wolfgang and Liam Thomson once again teeing off in the ring. Aspen Faith set up a table on the outside while Thomson hit Wolfy with a backcracker as the action continued on the outside. Krobar popped in to DDT Thomson and got a lovely second rope European Uppercut from Krieger in return. Divers stepped in with a big boot and leg drop, channeling his inner Hulk Hogan but was quickly dumped out by Faith, Stevie James hit a reverse hurricurana on Faith, Sick Kick from Lou King Sharp but Sharp turned around to a spinebuster from Jack Morris who was then knocked out of the ring with a superkick from Lewis Girvan. Girvan felt the force of the Route 66 lifting spear from Wolfgang and we were back to Thomson versus ‘The Regulator’. Bad Company jumped onto Thomson with Krobar and James laying Thomson onto that table while Wolfgang dived off the stage with a Swanton Bomb to come crashing down onto Liam Thomson.

The mass brawl started again as The Nine9 and The Fite Network went backstage, The Purge rolled out of the ring while The Kings of Catch were watching their tag team partners leave and turned around to a staple gun pressed against their respective foreheads and released. The staple gun antics continued on the outside as Thomson somehow gained a second wind, diving outside onto Wolfgang and rolling him back into the ring, scaling to the top rope. Wolfgang pulled out some brass knuckles from his knee pad and punched Thomson in the throat, in mid air, to collect the win.

Ridiculously chaotic. I found it a little too long winded in moments but at the same time it was fairly compact in the action, a juxtaposition of sorts. There was plenty of content to add to all the matches involved for Fear & Loathing. The stage dive through the table was incredible, the Kings of Insanity bit with the staple guns was explored and The Nine9 brawled with The Fite Network to the point where they disappeared to continue battering each other backstage. All good stuff.

Ravie Davie appeared on screen and introduced three neds that will be part of the Scheme Lumberjack Match and that there will be loads of them to make sure Grado doesn’t run away, he went on to say that he was the most dangerous ned of all.

Luca De’ Pazzi defeated Ian Skinner by submission.

The former Paxxo, Luca De’ Pazzi made his in-ring debut against ‘The Shooter’ Ian Skinner. Pazzi showed plenty confidence in the early going by grounding Skinner in a wristlock, smugly smirking the whole time. Skinner fought back and hit forearms but Pazzi threw him overhead and started aiming his attacks on the knee, first with a chop block then wrenching on the left leg. Pazzi started throwing out chops which looked to fire up Skinner who nipped up and responded with a chop of his own. More back and forth with Skinner knocking down Pazzi by driving his knees into the chest of his larger opponent. Pazzi tried to pin Skinner following a spinebuster but found himself in a triangle choke, but managed to escape. Quick pin attempts from Skinner couldn’t get the job done but a big boot from Pazzi and a Cloverleaf submission sealed the win for the Italian.

The Ian Skinner portions of offense looked great but Luca De’ Pazzi was painfully boring. His moves looked super soft with his leg drop especially having no attack. I get there is some arrogance involved with the character but he came across as lost or just not bothered, it’s all well and good being smug but there needs to be some intensity and attack in the moves. There needs to be some heavy tuning to get this right and maybe it needs to start with a manager to build up the heat to transfer to Pazzi. Perhaps the stronger crowd reaction will help the character evolve. Right now though, the character is not good enough in my opinion.

More Ian Skinner though, he is very talented and has is able to let the crowd get involved as he gets fired up. He gets a bit of the crazy eyes and matching that with him being a bit smaller, so a natural underdog, makes for a good combination. Fingers crossed he gets into that pre-show battle royal at Fear & Loathing, he would be a great addition to the match.

Leyton Buzzard joined commentary for the main event of the evening.

Save Pro Wrestling Rules – Kenny Williams defeated Noam Dar by pinfall.

Kenny Williams entered first, he got on the microphone and announced that the match would be under WWE rules, count outs and disqualifications in effect, no chair swinging like Noam was doing earlier. Noam Dar entered to a huge ovation.

Feeling out process to start the match with both men getting some early offense in but neither gaining a clear advantage. Dar kicked up the viciousness with knees to the stomach, driving an uppercut into the chest of Williams. Williams repaid in kind with a knee right into the side of Dar’s head. The match spilled to the outside with Kenny pounding on Dar before bringing him back into the ring. Dar created some space with a dropkick to the head of Williams before kicking Kenny’s feet from under him while ‘The Lucky Yin’ was on the apron before dropkicking him out of the ring. Williams was rolled back in to eat a Lionheart-esque pump kick in the corner. The back and forth continued, Williams hitting a second rope springboard back elbow then ramming Dar’s face into the corner turnbuckle. A top rope springboard back elbow could only garner a two count for Williams. Williams looked to be going for a Champagne Superkneebar but Dar kicked him away, dodging a crossbody and booting Williams right in the head.

The action picked up, Dar started to aim his attacks on the leg of Kenny Williams. Williams hit a rolling facebuster for a close two count. Dar locked in a submission, cranking on the shoulders of Williams but Kenny was too close to the ropes. They slugged away at each other with forearms but a rebounding Williams was able to throw out a Sling Blade to take down Dar but his follow up was countered into a Fisherman Suplex from Noam Dar.

Both men looked to be tiring, Dar was able to position Kenny into a kneebar but it was too close to the ropes. Williams and Dar battled on the apron but Williams was able to get back into the ring to sprinboard back elbow Dar to the floor. The attempted dropkick from Williams missed as Dar scooped him up and crotch dropped him onto the barricade. Back in the ring they continued to throw everything at each other, including the referee who got knocked down. Dar locked in the kneebar again and Kenny started tapping but with no referee it didn’t matter.

The Kings of the North appeared at the ramp to distract Noam but were soon getting battered by The Kinky Party but it allowed Kenny to low blow Noam and plant him with a headlock driver to get the three count.

It was a long match, lots of action but at times it tended to grind to a halt at times. It could’ve maybe had five minutes shaved off and it would’ve been more enjoyable. I found it hard to keep my attention on the match as it felt never ending. It was certainly a marathon.

Just as it looked like the show was over, Joe Coffey appeared and snatched the microphone from Simon Cassidy. Coffey started a big tirade, declaring himself a God and ‘identifying as ICW’s main event’. Security surrounded the ring as Stevie Boy turned up. Coffey and Stevie squared up as Dallas made the match for night two official, again, as Stevie and Coffey brawled in the ring while security tried to separate them. Joe Coffey eventually left ranting and raving through the crowd.

Joe Coffey came across as a right moaner, I think the point is that he has gone mad with his obsession to regain the ICW World Heavyweight Championship, like Gollum missing his precious, but it’s coming across, to me anyways, like he’s just whinging and whining like a big child, stomping off when it’s not going his way.

The crowd were quiet for a lot of this show, not the atmosphere you expect from an Insane Championship Wrestling crowd. There were chants, but not much else. Maybe some of the louder crowd were a bit skint and saving their energy for next weekend.

This show was of two halves, the first was great, shock start, great matches then after that it slowed down. Even the massive ten man was a big brawl, fun stuff in it but little substance. For the final stop before Fear & Loathing XII I would’ve liked to see more build up to the matches already announced. There would’ve been nothing to stop Kenny mentioning Jordan Devlin in his promo, or Leyton Buzzard to head to the ring and go face to face with Noam Dar for example. Lots of opportunities to add a wrinkle so some matches that were announced for little reason, like Iestyn Rees versus Scotty Davis, had some added seasoning, were missed.

I think the main event between Kenny and Noam may’ve been better live and in The Garage itself as it just felt never ending as a viewer sitting on my sofa, it doesn’t quite have the atmosphere to soak in along with the action.

So that’s the last stop, it’s now full steam ahead to Fear & Loathing XII weekend! Starting on Saturday at SWG3 in Glasgow then back there on Sunday for night two. Tickets are still available from Ticketmaster and Ticket Scotland.

The full show is still available on the Insane Championship Wrestling Facebook page which I’ve linked below: