A little while ago, June 2022 in fact, the good folk at Combat League Wrestling allowed me access to footage of their first two events of the 2022 season of shows. I sat down, watched them, then wrote some things about them. It was a fun time.

Recently Combat League released all the events from the 2022 and 2023 seasons, as raw hard cam footage, by way of a gift to Combat League fans to revisit their events as the 2024 season approaches.

For those that don’t know, Combat League operates as a four house competition, most points at the end wins the season etc etc. there’s points for wins by pinfall/submission along with an additional point for a knockout. There’s some other additional rules that I’ll mention if they crop up during the event itself.

I’ve picked up from Round 3: The Trade Off to continue the 2022 season after already watching ‘Wargames Rumble’ and ‘House Champion’.

How was it? Dunno yet I’m writing this part while the YouTube loads up on the telly.

Let’s go!

There was a near 20 minute segment to start with the updated teams getting a few minutes to collect their flags and introduce the new team line ups following the trades on the social media. The captains all had a thing to say, House Stag’s Vite riled up the crowd, House Wolf’s Glen Dunbar had a little face to face with new teammate Lad Chapman, House Wildcat’s RJ Cash wanted Eric Arkham suspended but House Raven interrupted.

Arkham told Lucha DS that after a discussion with Combat League management, DS was no longer house captain of House Raven but in fact Arkham himself was.

A masked man arrived to attack Lucha DS, it was revealed to be Logan Smith who was now traded to House Raven.

A really long segment, it really didn’t need to have House Stag or House Wolf to be involved at that point.

The crowd reacted accordingly for most of the key points, but it felt really drawn out.

Lucha DS (House Stag) defeated Logan Smith (House Raven) by pinfall.

Logan Smith entered to John Cena’s ‘Bad Bad Man’ so it’s an automatic five stars on the Strachan Scale at that moment.

DS showed little ill effect of the pipe attack in the opening segment, with him able to still do his entrance back flip off the second rope.

The match started with a few counters, DS with a 619 to sweep Smith’s legs off the second rope, Smith hit a 619 of his own onto Lucha for a nearfall.

Referee Struan ended up eating a misplaced Lucha DS superkick which allowed Smith to low blow DS. Logan grabbed the pipe but DS produced a nightstick from his boot and clobbered Smith in the ribs with it.

A GTS and a standing Implosion Senton from DS wasn’t enough due the referee taking an age to recover. Smith pushed the referee into the ropes to stop a Swanton Bomb attempt, but missed a Moonsault. DS finally hit a 619 and a Swanton Bomb for the win.

The match itself started pretty bland. There was some nice stuff here and there with flip counters, but nothing to excite me. The latter half was shenanigan heavy with the nightstick etc.

Lucha not showing effects from an attack before the match with a lead pipe wasn’t great, Smith did some back offence but it wasn’t really the focus of the match or part of the story. The nightstick reveal was a pleasant surprise.

The crowd were heavy invested, so there’s that.

Damian Ryan (House Stag) defeated Lad Chapman (House Wolf) by pinfall.

Lad Chapman got on the microphone to run down the crowd, his teammates, and finally his opponent Damian Ryan. After all that, at the 42 minute mark we started the second match on the show.

A little back and forth kicked off with Ryan showing a lot of promise, there was a little bit where Ryan belly to back suplexed Chapman and kipped up into a cross leg position that was nice.

It was soon the Lad Chapman show as he dominated Ryan for a good portion of the match with knees to the stomach, and overall bullying his less experienced opponent, cutting off attempts to rally back.

Ryan got out of an inverted Dragon Sleeper, and a front face lock Dragon Sleeper, kicked out of a Blockbuster, then got a nearfall with a Fisherman’s Suplex.

Chapman hit an cKo outta nowhere but broke his own count. During his pomp and strutting about, Ryan recovered and rolled up Chapman for the win.

Lad went on the attack after the bell but his House Wolf teammates intervened only to find themselves jumped by Ryan.

There were flashes of good moments but the match felt long. Ryan’s offence looked slow, Chapman could only do so much with his abundance of charisma to patch up the cracks.

Again, much like the first match, even though it wasn’t a match I enjoyed it still got a mega reaction with Ryan getting the crowd support despite doing little to encourage it.

House Championship – Connor Rose (House Wolf) defeated Lucas Craig (House Wildcat) by two falls to one to retain the House Championship.

Craig came out the blocks like a whippet with a bum full of dynamite. He wrestled like how I would imagine Shaggy would (from Scooby Doo, not the guy that says “It wasn’t me”). He gave Rose a Northern Lights Suplex to surprisingly nab the first fall.

Rose slowed down the pace for the second fall before wrapping it up with an Airplane Spin into a Cradle DDT.

If you thought the second fall was slow, the third fall was glacial at points. Craig hit a Skull Crushing Finale but it only scored a two count. Connor slapped on a Rear Naked Choke for the submission win to score the deciding fall.

It wasn’t the most exciting match, I mean there wasn’t anything bad about it from an in ring stand point and from what I read on my review of ‘House Champion’, Lucas Craig was able to hold a solid reaction from the crowd for the first stretch this time. However, it’s face versus face from what I could gather so by the third fall it had started to get quieter for both sides with no heavy favourite.

I will add though, Lucas Craig’s arms seem to erratically move independently from his body. He was quite flappy and it was distracting.

Brodie Adler (House Raven) defeated Albion de Quincey (House Wildcat) by pinfall.

Arkham assisted in a distraction for a pre-match beat down for Albion de Quincey by Brodie Adler. From there Adler punished de Quincey.

The de Quincey quartet at ringside chanted for their boy throughout, with the occasional “Brodie Sucks” chant thrown in for good measure.

Albion knocked Adler down with a clothesline in the third attempt for a big roar.

Arkham tried to get involved but was knocked down and in the distraction Smith arrived with his lead pipe in hand but backed off from de Quincey. In all that melee, Adler grabbed Albion, bounced him off the ropes for a Black Hole Slam.

House Raven continued the attack after the bell.

What Albion de Quincey lacked in the wrestling side of things, he made up with having the crowd 100% behind him at all times, no wavering, they were on the Albion de Quincey train.

There wasn’t anything fancy about the match, another one with a bunch of shenanigans on the back end of things, but for the sheer support for Albion and the underdog fight back only to ultimately fall to the villains, it was one of the better matches on the show.

Fatal Four Way – Taylor Vite (House Stag) defeated Glen Dunbar (House Wolf), Eric Arkham (House Raven), and RJ Cash (House Wildcaf) by pinfall.

Taylor Vite’s entrance music kept getting interrupted by Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ which started the “Taylor Swift” chants quite early. The joke went a bit long but garnered the desired reaction.

The match finally started with RJ Cash refusing to wrestle Arkham, instead deciding to go sell merch which left the other three fighting it out. It didn’t take long for Cash to return with he and Arkham trading chops.

The bout broke down and it became difficult to keep track for a bit. Dunbar got a ten punch count going at ringside on Arkham to keep the crowd involved.

Arkham and Cash inexplicably teamed up for what was to tease a Tower of Doom but Taylor Vite broke it up.

Vite and Cash double teamed Dunbar until their inevitable break down when Vite attempted a pin.

We eventually got the Tower of Doom, which was a bit janky, but a lot of this match so…

Finally Taylor Vite hit Dunbar with a neckbreaker to mercifully end the match.

This lacked a flow or through line. A bunch of stuff and moves happened. The Cash and Arkham showdown was met with indifference. The crowd had more fun shouting “Taylor Swift” at times.

Once again I must point out the crowd were loud and were chanting “This Is Awesome” as the big moves were coming in thick and fast towards the conclusion. For me though, I wasn’t invested in any of them winning particularly.

The concept of Combat League Wrestling is unique, certainly to Scotland, there was a bit too much talking for me in this one. This show felt more like a performance piece with wrestling thrown in at times. Did it entertain the paying audience? Absolutely.

The ring announcer had way too much free reign on the microphone. During the House Championship match he missed the result of the first fall, and said that it was because he was in the loo. He also had this growling thing going on-ah, interjected with comments, unnecessary shouting and repeating, it was just odd. Too informal for my taste.

Of the three shows I’ve watched of the 2022 season this was a weaker one. The matches weren’t up to par, they got messy with distractions or interference. There also seems to be too much shades of grey in the teams, which might be a bit complicated to navigate and leads to 20 minute opening ceremonies to give the crowd the cliff notes on what’s happening.

It’s an ambitious thing Combat League Wrestling are doing, and even though this wasn’t a strong show for me I’ll still venture back for the Round 4: Fight For The Flag in the near future.