The SWN road trip seasons has begun and thanks to overwhelming demand, you want me to try and remember stuff and review each show. For all my raw reaction and post-show feelings you’ll have to wait for the podcast to come out but for now let’s get the brain working…

W3L returned to the town hall after the success of last years Summer Spectacular and the place was rammed, like, super rammed. Extra seats were being put out, spaces being filled with humans. Coupled with the late opening, which I found out was due to traffic and, the possibility of an equipment malfunction (more on that later), we got in about half an hour later than planned.

The ongoing growth of W3L in Elgin, now coming twice a year, there is no obvious reason why they couldn’t open up the balconies at the sides for their next visit to the venue. If you know the venue, the back balcony wouldn’t offer any view as you would only see the entrance way, but that’s the thoughts that keep me up at night when it isn’t my one year old…

Should talk about about the actual show now right?

There’s upcoming spoilers for future Wrestling Showdown episodes and Top Of The Bill W3L Network releases so, stop reading if you don’t want to know what happened mmmkay.

We kicked off with Taylor Bryden coming out to talk about his main event match with Lou King Sharp, he added some subtext for those that may’ve never seen a W3L show but kept it on point to keep the storylines flowing. He talked about Mike Musso staying out of Sharp’s business if Luke Aldridge stayed out of Bryden’s.

Nice, simple, and didn’t outstay its welcome with seeds planted.

The Tormentor Open Challenge – Krieger defeated The Tormentor by pinfall.

The Tormentor was out next, he gave ring announcer Bryan Douglas a tiny piece of paper that somehow contained a novel of instructions that eventually told us that The Tormentor challenged anyone in the back to face him.

Enter Krieger.

As far as a Tormentor match goes, he got way more offence. Considering his last match at the town hall was a spear from Nathan Reynolds and a three count it wouldn’t have been difficult.

Tormentor got battered, not only by Krieger’s big fists but at ringside by inflatable baseball bats. The bats were a welcomed change to the hammers, with the claw end becoming a hazard thanks to the zealous nature of children. I’m still not a fan of them but they’re interactive and there is a bit of satisfaction seeing the bad guy getting pelted with plastic I’ll admit.

As expected Krieger picked up the win, leaving The Tormentor on the losing end once more.

It’s a Tormentor match so my bar is always low, but this was a relatively solid match. I’m repeating the same thing as always, The Tormentor needs a new mask, the bike balaclava over an actual mask looks worse every time I see it.

Always happy to see Krieger, I wouldn’t be against some main event scudmaster sexy against Taylor Bryden in the future.

Meyhem Brooks defeated Hugo Harris by submission.

Hugo Harris strutted out with his best bathroom mirror and stretch bands, he took to showing the crowd the mirror and recoiling in horror which was a great bit of patter. The boy has a good look and is clearly very confident in his ability.

He was up against the hometown lad Meyhem Brooks, after his near heroics at the Bishopmill Hall, he got a great reaction. Harris tried to take as many shortcuts as possible, tearing off turnbuckles and using the distraction to whip Brooks with his bands. All seemed to be going to plan, until Meyhem got wise and got a hold of the weapon.

After a kick out from Harris after an Olympic Slam (I think), Grapzilla was quick to slap on a rear naked choke to get the submission win.

It was a bit rough and ready but the pretty boy versus machine was a nice combo. Harris has bags of potential, I would be interested to see him maybe expand to more promotions and try and get his name out. He would be a perfect fit for the likes of Iron Girders I’d reckon, get him to the LKS Dojo!

Before the interval took place, it was announced that W3L would return to Elgin for the season premier of Wrestling Showdown on October 22nd, with Joe E Legend and Jonny Storm scheduled to appear. Plus, Meyhem Brooks will get a rematch against W3L Breakout Champion Craig Stephens for the title.

This is the one, season premier, hometown triumph, finally seeing Jonny Storm in action, big Joe E shouting his move names, I’m going to have to get to this show!

Triple Threat – Saqib Ali defeated Marc Munro, and Xander Davidson by pinfall.

Back from the break, Marc Munro made his way to the ring first. A name and face that I had seen ad nauseam with open challenges elsewhere, Saqib Ali entered next and my expectations automatically went up, then a final combatant of Xander Davidson.

Two new faces to watch, with the ever reliable Saqib Ali involved, should be fine right?

It was! A fairly standard triple threat, baddies team up against the good guy, miscommunication, fallout, good guy wins. A tale as old as time. Considering Ali only arrived 5 minutes, as revealed on the social media, before he went out due to traffic issues it’s testament to his quality and talent he has.

Munro and Davidson were solid in the ring and brought some pantomime villainy for Ali to overcome.

7 Deadly Sins Tournament – Semi Final – No Disqualification, Submission Match – Katia defeated Rubi Roberts by TKO to advance to the final.

In the penultimate match of the evening we got some 7 Deadly Sins Tournament action, two wrestlers that I was keen to finally see live. Submission matches are a hard sell to a young audience, a lot of holding and waiting without the excitement of shouting ONE! TWO! or even THREE! so the no disqualification element threw in some edge.

Katia didn’t quite break the language barrier when she attempted a pinfall, but that’s part of her terrifying charm. The rascally Russian brought in some cables to try and gain an advantage but Roberts had her scouted for the majority.

There was a lot of brawling, with Katia aiming her attacks to the arm of Rubi, and tried to put on an armbar in a few occasions. Roberts replied with a modified Regal Stretch, but it was the cables making their return as Katia choked out Roberts using them to soup up her sleeperhold/choke.

A bit of a surprise, I had noted Rubi as one of my favourites to win the tournament but it wasn’t to be.

The match had plenty good ideas, it maybe didn’t go as smoothly as anticipated, and the crowd needed a bit of warming up to the stipulation. I enjoyed seeing them both though.

W3L Heavyweight Championship – Taylor Bryden defeated Lou King Sharp by pinfall to retain the W3L Heavyweight Championship.

It was main event time in what can only be described as chaos. Bryden and Sharp wasted little time in bringing the action up close and personal. Sharp sent Bryden over the merchandise tables that cleared the remaining foam fingers and Rey Mysterio masks.

The action returned to the ring, Sharp hit a Shattered Dreams and tried to embarrass Bryden with a stinkface, then the spotlights cut out and the match was plunged into darkness. Like, unscheduled darkness. The phone lights lit up as Bryden and Sharp continued like nothing happened. Eventually t’big lights came on to save the batteries of the crowds mobile devices, before some sort of morse code started with the spotlights trying to come back to life.

Bryden fired up and interrupted a Frog Splash ascent from Sharp, hoisting him for a stunning Tier Zero to retain the title.

A blistering main event with the jeopardy only increased by the technical difficulties. Bryden’s last few performances in Elgin have been absolute top quality, Doug Williams, Gaia Hox, and now Lou King Sharp all main events and have been a pleasure to watch.

Sharp threatened referee Edith Summers after the match only for the lights to go out again (on purpose this time), Mike Musso appeared on screen to tell Sharp that he was in big trouble (mister), before appearing behind Sharp as the lights came back on. Cracking Sharp’s own Singapore Cane over his own head, breaking it in two.

Musso wanted to finish their feud there and then, Sharp undressed aggressively on the entrance stage… wow what a sentence to write… before finally exiting, looks like we’ll have to wait 3 months to see them clash again.

A fantastic close to the show, Bryden is a tremendous wrestler and Lou King Sharp might just be the best all round performer in Scotland right now.

Given the mishaps that caused the late start, W3L provided a quality night of wrestling. If you were to judge it by reactions and I would say on the most part the crowd were loud and happy to be a part of the show. There were dips at times but the wrestlers brought them back by the conclusion of their matches.

If you get a chance, check out the main event especially, it was brilliant.

Roll on October 22nd!