Recap. Recorded.
Road Trip Podcast. Recorded.
(w)Rite Up? In progress.

The week running up to this show started with weather warnings, so much snow, and in our household there was illness running rampant. So ticket buying was being left later and later. As Saturday arrived the snow had cleared, and only a really annoying hacking cough remained it was a venture to Aberdeen to have a looky at this new venue that WrestleZone were taking over for the evening. For the first time as far as I can remember… I bought a ticket at the door. Historic.

Entering the hall, it was a big one, think the Beach Leisure Centre. Just as chilly. The hall was tarped to have half the venue available. A smart move, it’s been a while since WrestleZone had ran a venue with that big of an area to cover. Yes they’ve been selling out consistently, but not of the scale of the function room they had in front of them. It’s better to look for additional seating then having to put seats away because they haven’t been filled.

As per usual, there was a heavy amount of VIP tickets bought. Now, normally when the general doors open a handful would join the masses, but on this occasion there looked to be a big walk up crowd that came in for general admission as Skeppare Kev was running about and shouting directions to find space for people to park their butts, a fine problem to have.

VIP Ticket Holder Match – William Sterling & Damien defeated Warriors Against Low Life Entities (Rhys Dawkins & Bryan Tucker) by pinfall.

The show started with some pure pantomime. After multiple Atomic Drops in stereo to the posteriars of Dawkins and Tucker, oor WALLEs managed to get the upper hand on William Sterling by keeping him grounded.

Dawkins tried a move from the second rope (the most dangerous rope) but landed legs akimbo around the raised leg of William Sterling (I have checked with Senior Referee Dennis Law who gave flexibility as there was no intent on the shin to nuts situation that unfolded). Damien got tagged in and ran wild.

William recovered and eventually hoisted Tucker up with Damien driving the knees into his back for an Oil Crash, a bit of a throwback for us nerds that have been to WrestleZone for a wee while now, which was good for the three count.

Sterling bowed to the crowd a couple times, signifying that his time as a wrestler is coming to an end? I’ve been saying that for about a year now so maybe it’s just me pushing a narrative that doesn’t exist.

I’ve really enjoyed the work of Rhys Dawkins recently, the ring work is really jumped up to match the well roundness of his character. Dawkins and Tucker may be a silly tag team but the personality that is exuded is evident. This was a match that wasn’t going to reinvent the wheel but it had a lot of entertaining laugh out loud moments, and just some good clean fun.

Mikkey Vago defeated Lou King Sharp by pinfall.

Coming into this one I turned to the person next to me asking if they knew Lou King Sharp had beat D-Von Dudley… then Lou immediately accosted MC Martyn Clunes to get on the microphone to loudly proclaim “I BEAT D-VON DUDLEY”, wonderful.

Vago entered and reminded Sharp that Vago was also on his team that defeated D-Von Dudley but that just seemed to incense ‘The Blood Tourist’ who started scratching, clawing, and scrapping with Vago who didn’t seem to be fully prepared for the ferocity of the assault, or for the wedgie that Sharp administered. Considering the last time Lou King Sharp was in WrestleZone he was the motherloving, skinny jean wearing, loudmouth. I mean, he’s still the loudmouth but we got the unhinged Lou King Sharp who was relentless.

Mikkey fought back with punches and headbutts, including a nice gut punch knee strike one-two. Sharp believed he could fly (complete with little flapping arms), unfortunately his loud warbling that echoed around the hall only alerted Vago to roll out the way not once, but twice. The second saw Sharp bounced up and turn around into a Stunner and was out for the count.

Sharp’s lifeless body was carried out by Ring Krew Kev while Vago celebrated his win.

Oh yes, another Lou King Sharp match where I praise how fantastic Sharp is. They guy just caters his wrestling to the audience so finely that it always gets a reaction. Absolutely tremendous. Vago continues to be one of the most consistent wrestlers in the promotion right now.

Triple Threat – Oliver Green defeated Zach Dynamite, and Tommy Raiden by pinfall.

Vago returned briefly to send out his son protégé Tommy Raiden, who now sports a checked shirt, a backwards cap, and drumsticks… it’s the start of some sort of Heavy Metal Hooligan influence.

As you would possibility anticipate, Green and Raiden tried to team up to take out Dynamite early but unfortunately Zach Dynamite turned into prime Samoa Joe and started slapping the taste out of his opponents mouths. Dynamite caught a crossbody attempt from Raiden but couldn’t escape a roundhouse kick after ‘The Lightning Bolt’ wriggled free. The more inexperienced two thirds had to rely on speed to get anything past ‘The Aberdonian Ace’.

Green and Dynamite fought to the apron, a couple clotheslines from Green did little to phase Aberdeen Zach who hoisted Green up and planted him with a nasty Death Valley Driver onto said apron. His rest didn’t last long with Raiden dropkicking a seated Dynamite off the apron to gain a moment of advantage.

Zach Dynamite hit the Killshot on Tommy Raiden but was quickly bundled out of the ring by Oliver Green who picked up the scraps with the cheeky pinfall.

Often when seeing Zach wrestle he is usually tasked with fighting taller opponents so would have to chop down, use underhanded tactics etc. but here he was using his broadness and experience to just bully Green and Raiden when he had a chance, throwing in a powerbomb or two for good measure. The match moved constantly with Oli and Tommy giving a good account of themselves. Zach Dynamite is ‘The Aberdonian Ace’ for a reason and makes it look easy.

Now that Tommy has Vago shadowing him it’s added an extra confidence to him, which I think is missing from Oliver Green at the moment. He’s in ring work has come on so much but the personality is the bit that needs to come up with it. He might need someone to add a bit of flash to build Green’s hype-o-meter, an example of who I can’t think of right now, someone that’s loud and can act as a cheerleader for Green waving the rally towel, doing the “OLI, OLI, OLI” chants, there’s legs in that thought somewhere…

WrestleZone Tag Team Championships – The Outfit (Ted O’Keefe & Murphy) defeated The Foundation of the Future (Bruiser Brad Evans & Ryan Riley) by pinfall to retain the WrestleZone Tag Team Championships.

Evans and Riley tried to cut the ring off in the early going to keep Ted O’Keefe in their control in the early going, coming in with a strategy to goad Murphy in to distract the referee to allow for some cheeky extra hands to be thrown. A sound move but as the match continued and The Outfit continued to fight on, the foundations started to crack in the game plan.

There was almost a panic in The Foundation of the Future that I haven’t seen before, whenever there was a possibility of only having one member of The Outfit to deal with they immediately went for the kill with a Peep Peep’s Special or an attempt and a big tandem move. A sense of urgency to regain the championships and finally get one over O’Keefe and Murphy.

But Ryan Riley ended up eating the pinfall to truly bounce the team to the back of the line following Evans being pinned at ‘Christmas Chaos’.

A great first half main event that really solidified The Outfit’s reign. I came in curious to see what may have happened if The Outfit lost the titles before Dino returned after the announcement of the Freebird Rule being put into place. Into 2024 I’m interested to see how they mix up the teams as required for title defences. I don’t think that’s something we’ve seen in WrestleZone for as long as I’ve been watching anyway (was Revolution a Freebird Rule team? I don’t think it was but if someone could remind me kthnxbye).

Zach Dynamite stormed out after the match with a microphone in hand, there seemed to be a genuine tension that we were about to see some dissension within The Foundation of the Future. Due to the venue having a high ceiling the sound got lost a bit so I couldn’t really make out what Zach was saying but I got the jist of “disrespect” etc.

William Sterling popped his head out, it was revealed that Sterling is actually part of WrestleZone management and he had a wrecked knee. For WrestleZone, who is pretty close guarded with anything, that seemed to be a big admission to make. Dynamite goaded Sterling into the ring after spitting at him. The trio beat down William with ease, grabbed a chair and set up to break the knee of Sterling but Damien ran out with a chair to make the save.

I went on a tangent in the podcast about how this goes. At ‘Christmas Chaos’ we got Dynamite invoking the name of Scotty Swift to goad Mr WrestleZone into a trap. Now we have William Sterling being jumped. Damien probably isn’t far behind with The Foundation skulking about. They are using/attacking the foundations of WrestleZone. I then went on to say that I wouldn’t be shocked if Bryan Tucker is on the hitlist. There’s a logic here I promise.

Bryan Tucker has been around since day one-ish in WrestleZone, a former Undisputed WrestleZone Champion, Regal Rumble winner, and multi-time Tag Team Champion. A cornerstone at points, an underdog certainly, sure he’s currently a wally but his history in WrestleZone is plentiful. An attack on Tucker would give reason for Bryan to release the terms of ‘Christmas Chaos 2022’ when he retired Scotty Swift, and allow Swift to return to battle The Foundation of the Future.

The reveal of William Sterling being part of the upper staff within WrestleZone, essentially one of the people that was part of the team that offered Dave Paterson the role of Management Representative, is a very rare peak behind the WrestleZone curtain.

I’ve been known to delve into the weeds and overthink scenarios so this is probably all one big coincidence and none of this will happen, BUT, if I follow the through line here, we could get the team that we should’ve got at ‘Regal Rumble 2022’, the dream team that was ruined by COVID. Umar Mohammed is out for revenge for the assault on Mr WrestleZone, Damien for William Sterling, and Bryan Tucker facilitates the return of Scotty Swift to get…

Umar Mohammed, Damien, & Scotty Swift versus The Foundation of the Future
‘Aberdeen Anarchy’

Print it. Ticket sold. Hype video with ‘My Way’ made. Ker-ching. Chedder. Bang bang Cowdoys.

So that won’t be happening probably, let’s move on…

Winner Receives Umar Mohammed’s Sherwani – Umar Mohammed defeated Captain Alan Sterling by pinfall to retain the Sherwani.

Following the assault of William Sterling, out next was his brother, Captain Alan Sterling, who didn’t even seem bothered about what happened. When I say not bothered, it wasn’t even acknowledged because… it’s ALL ABOUT ALAN.

Captain Alan wanted Umar’s showaddywaddy (his words, not mine), which Mohammed reluctantly agreed to put the jacket on the line so we got Dennis Law showing the four sides of the ring a sherwani as the prize. Wrestling.

Umar was on top form, swinging Alan’s legs in the corner onto the second rope and hit a nice backcracker. After a lot of sizzle from ‘The Sensational’ Umar, Captain Alan put a halt to the match to ask Mohammed “are you done showing off to your friends?” which cracked me up. Alan gained control briefly but his continued referral to the showaddywaddy just angered Mohammed to power him up for a sensational comeback. Sterling donned the sherwani to scale the top rope but found himself being thrown into the middle of the ring by Umar.

Captain Alan lost his battle cap before a Thundergun Express double knee into the corner from Umar finally sunk him for the three count and retain his sherwani to cap off an entertaining match.

2024 might just be the year of Umar Mohammed in WrestleZone, there’s still some Mr WrestleZone stuff to sort out but I won’t get into that again just scroll up, but Umar brings some big energy when he’s doing the wrestling, the crowd are big into him, and I’d certainly love to see him pick up some gold this year in the North East. Imagine what sensational scenes we could see if that man had a title to show off?

What more can I say about Captain Alan Sterling? The joy that man provides is top notch, the pure commitment to the absurdity is what makes it work. There’s never a breaking point, you truly believe that Captain Alan believes he is a seaman and that everything is about him. He undercuts the silliness by being a bit of a git so you never actually cheer FOR Alan, but you happily laugh AT him being a buffoon.

Evan Young defeated Chris Archer by pinfall.

Archer tried to push around Evan in the early going but Young brushed off the attempts to throw some verbal barbs at his more experienced opponent. Archer physically overpowered Young which, much like the triple threat, is a dynamic you don’t often see. Archer muscled Evan up for a nice delayed vertical suplex.

Mr. 2004 went to the speed well, using the five rules of Dodgeball, a film that came out the year he was born… my knees just creaked at that fact… he dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged his way into gaining some momentum and rile up Archer further.

A quick jackknife pin by Young out of nowhere saw him start his 2024 with victory while Archer was beside himself, no wins since April 2023, his complaints were ignored.

This was fine, it was good to see Evan Young get back to it and he looked solid considering this is his first match since May 2023. The match may’ve missed a gear with the quick finish but not a bad match. I’m keen to see where this goes with Archer seemingly done with these young kids like Evan, recently losing to Oliver Green, constant tussles with Tommy Raiden who is now aligned with his former tag team partner Mikkey Vago, especially when you have the flip side of The Foundation of the Future attacking the foundations of WrestleZone. There’s a thread to pull.

Tornado Tag Team Match – Flippy N Drippy (Connor Molloy & Ronan King) defeated SKOL BROL (Caleb Valhalla & Lost Boy Aspen) by pinfall.

The drip be dripping when Ronan and Connor strutted out, King adorned in a cut off bright pink puffer jacket and Molloy in a short lilac leather jacket, gurning his way to the ring. The absolute smugness, the attitude, the matching pink camo ring gear, perfection. What a team.

Lost Boy Aspen and Caleb Valhalla marched out, titles in hand, and cheers following. King and Molloy refused to let the champions in the ring so Aspen requested that Mr Paterson made the match a tornado tag team match so they can actually do some of the fighting. Paterson embraced the chaos and accepted the terms.

My God, I could try and break down the match, but would fail miserably because the bodies were flying all over the place with all four throwing themselves into each other with little regard on the consequences.

The dynamic of the two teams were fascinating, Molloy and King had the fancy double team moves, whereas Aspen and Valhalla just ran in all guns blazing to cause a ruckus. I appreciated that you could hear Caleb occasionally shouting to check if Sorcerer Aspen was okay.

There were big spills from everyone, SKOL BROL attempted a Doomsday Device but King arrived to push Valhalla from the top rope to the outside which allowed Molloy to hit Aspen with a Poisonrana, ooft.

As the match continued the tag team chemistry between King and Molloy just got more in sync, a stereo kiss to the to the side of Aspen’s face was followed up by perfectly placed superkicks dubbed the Kiss of Death which had Aspen rocked.

Caleb thwarted a Curb Stomp attempt to Aspen by catching Ronan mid air with a spear, which was stunning.

It was a powerbomb/sliced bread combo from Flippy N Drippy to Caleb Valhalla that eventually got the win for the cocky duo.

A total non-stop main event featuring four of the best in WrestleZone. The thrills, the spills, if that’s your opening chapter to this story what’s next?

It’s not often Caleb has been pinned in a WrestleZone ring and I think that’s Aspen’s first defeated since before becoming Undisputed WrestleZone Champion in December 2022. A big scalp with Flippy N Drippy putting all the champions on notice, including the tag team champions, with a fantastic performance.

A chaotic but exciting start to the year for WrestleZone.

On a negative note, there was a lot of spitting. I say a lot, like, three times but that still feels like a lot on a show. It’s a cheap way to get a reaction that isn’t required, and just manky in general.

Otherwise a really fun show, the matches delivered great moments, and got my fantasy booking juices flowing before inevitably being wrong. One of these days I’ll be right!

For my pre and post show immediate thoughts (and a little montage) check our road trip podcast: