Community Pro Wrestling returned to Peterhead for the third time. This was my second CPW show, and I had already learned that I should expect chaos.

I have recorded a road trip podcast, which was supposed to come out next week but the schedule had to be shuffled so here I am panic writing a review to go out in conjunction with the podcast that’s due to come out today. It’s over a week after the fact, two children’s birthday parties, and going to Aberdeen to watch Bluey’s Big Play (no spoilers, in fact we were *this close* to doing a podcast on it…). I’m wandering away from my original point here, aye it’s been over a week so let’s get the cogs turning and talk about Community Pro Wrestling in Peterhead!

VIP Bonus Match – Bryan Mojo defeated The Renegade Wrex by pinfall.

For the VIP portion of the evening, it was originally announced to be Bryan Mojo facing The Big Strong Man. Instead we got The Renegade Wrex in action who provided a different, but still strong, dynamic with Bryan Mojo having to overcome a massive roadblock.

This was a lot of big tree chopping with Mojo fighting from below as The Renegade Wrex smashed him in response. The crowd took a little bit to warm up, with about 20-25 people taking advantage of the VIP ticket-ing.

After continuing to fight back, Mojo managed to catch Wrex with a small package for the win.

It was a quick match, nothing too extravagant, as Mojo and Wrex told a simple story of David versus Goliath. Mojo looked really sympathetic, continuing to come back when Wrex toyed with him with big clubbing blows, and Wrex continued to be a solid big bad bastard.

Big Ross Hauser defeated Meyhem Brooks by pinfall.

Following the VIP portion complete, there was a small break so that everyone else could pile into the function room, which filled up and the sound picked up with it. Brooks strutted out, he’s found that balance between Connor McGregor swagger and parody. Big Ross charged out with his CPW Tag Team Championship around his waist. Ross started the match with his sunglasses on which Brooks pointed out incredulously.

After a brief exchange of shoulder blocks, Meyhem went about breaking down Hauser, aiming kicks to the leg out of his leg and swinging his knee against the ring post. Hauser tried to swat his opponent away with big forearms but Brooks continued to target the left leg to take out the power offense of Big Ross.

Ross tried to launch Brooks with a chokeslam but Meyhem threw his legs up to lock in a triangle choke to bring Hauser to the ground. The crowd rallied the support as Big Ross got to his feet, picking up Brooks to slam him down with powerbomb to break the hold.

Hauser shook his leg to get some feeling back into it before hitting a big chokeslam to finish the job that sent Brooks flying in the air with a bit of rotation, landing hard high on his back.

There were some miscommunications that halted the flow at times, but it was a fun opening match overall. Brooks has found that middle ground to use his MMA background to mesh with his character. Despite those little stumbles they had decent chemistry. I remember last time I pushed for Brooks to get a tag team partner like a Lee MacRae to take on Termination Z and this did nothing to change that agenda.

Ellie Armstrong defeated Nicole Jasmin by submission.

This was another match that was card subject to change, this was initially announced as a triple threat to include Cassie Cook. Instead we got a rematch from last year when Jasmin picked up the win on that occasion.

Jasmin tried to pick up the pace in the early going, dodging a clothesline to bounce back with a flying elbow smash. The Handspring Elbow didn’t quite have the impact with Nicole snapping Armstrong over to follow up with a splash.

Ellie countered an attempted shoulder to the gut by getting her knee up, replying with a second rope elbow to the back of Jasmin. In turn Nicole avoided a second rope twisting elbow by getting up the knees, replying with a DDT.

Just as Jasmin started to get a bit of momentum going, Armstrong quickly locked in a crossface for the tap out to make their Peterhead record 1-1.

The pace was a bit messy. A back and forth encounter but some of the moves were in slow motion at times with some hesitation. It wasn’t bad but it definitely could be better. I’d heard some good things about Cassie Cook so was disappointed we didn’t get the advertised match but there could be any manner of reasons for the change. Just one of those things.

Ravie Davie defeated Thorin by pinfall.

In our first half main event, the kids in the crowd got what they wanted to see with Ravie Davie live on TikTok making his entrance rapping away. Thorin entered alone, no Pack entourage. They went hell for leather in the opening exchanges with Davie and Thorin brawling.

Davie showed the disadvantage of the low ceiling venue by attempting an Old School which was precarious at best. Davie continued to keep Thorin on the back foot with shoulder barges, with Thorin heading to the outside in frustration but was met with a double axe handle. As it looked like Davie was cruising to a quick win, Thorin rolled out the way of a Lionsault, replying with a knee plant to the head to get some air.

Thorin tried what he could to get some momentum going but found himself flying in the air with an Aye of the Storm and prone for a Lionsault.

The Renegade Wrex arrived but ended up eating an enziguri from Thorin by mistake before Davie rolled him up for the pin. The Pack tried to exact some revenge but Wrex ended up eating a couple rKo’s for his troubles.

It looked like Thorin had bitten off more than he could chew as Davie ran through him in a sprint on the back half of the match. The Renegade Wrex cameo made The Pack look a bit silly, especially with him almost immediately being taken out.

Davie got the biggest reaction of the night with a lot of the younger members of the audience buzzing to see him do a bit of the wrestling. A good match which suited what the majority of the crowd wanted to see, Ravie Davie doing Ravie Davie things.

Bryan Mojo defeated The Big Strong Man by pinfall.

A match that was originally announced to be part of the VIP part of the evening, it was definitely the right choice to bump it up to the main card. The Big Strong Man had his throwing his opponent coast to coast like butter on toast schtick in full effect as only one guy in the crowd was on the Big Strong Bandwagon with the rest showering him with boos.

In a left-field moment of hilarity, The Big Strong Man laughed at someone in the audience for being ginger. Which was just fantastic.

You see, the joke is that The Big Strong Man is also a ginger.

The Big Strong Man started big and strong by doing what he said he would do, throwing Mojo around and planting a Big Strong Slam. Mojo relied on his agility again to find an opening, knocking The Big Strong Man loopy with an enziguri and a knocked him down with a flying elbow.

Mojo continued to flip, flop, and fly in wearing down The Big Strong Man but flew too close to the sun with a split legged moonsault which saw a Big Strong Dodge, with The Big Strong Man launching Bryan with a Big Strong Suplex.

After an initial evasion, The Big Strong Man had his Big Strong Spear attempt interrupted by a Claymore kick from Mojo for his second win of the evening.

Bryan Mojo continues to impress. He had two matches with different kind of opponents, in both he came in with the size disadvantage but learned from his first bout against The Renegade Wrex to step up his agility, using The Big Strong Man’s own overconfidence to turn the tide. The Big Strong Man is a law unto himself, it’s absurd but very entertaining.

As noted, it was absolutely the right call to move this to the main show to maximise the crowd reactions. One of the best matches of the night.

APW Scottish Championship – Triple Threat – The Wanderer defeated Manky Frankie, and Daro by pinfall to retain the APW Scottish Championship.

In another match change up, Daro versus SBX for the CPW Heavyweight Championship was announced for the event. The CPW Heavyweight Championship was in attendance, but no SBX. Instead it was The Wanderer defending the Attitude Pro Wrestling Scottish Championship in a triple threat. Frankie entered with a half drunk pint in hand, whilst requesting another one poured at the bar for a pre-match bevvy.

After getting to sing his song, The Wanderer demanded that Frankie did his bidding as the two tried to contain Daro, who was like a whippet, constantly in motion, like an excited wee dog. Daro fought back, side stepping attacks and causing his opponents to run into each other.

Daro missed a frog splash and in the roll through Frankie hoisted him up and landed a Manky Bomb but was bundled out by The Wanderer who stole the pin to retain.

There is something very unstable about Daro, he throws himself into anything with very little second thought or concern on the consequences. Often it looks good, sometimes it can be a bit of a car crash of bodies slamming into each other.

It was a non-stop match with plenty going on. For my first live experience, I liked what I saw from Frankie. I just need him to be more manky, ham it up, draw from some Nasty Boys, take his opponents to Pity City, spit into a hanky and rub it folks faces (there might be a post-pandemic resistance to do that to be fair) there’s the makings of something there.

The Wanderer provided the backbone of the match, with his sneaky antics to pick up the win gave plenty of reason for the crowd to give out about.

Cousin Zander, & The Vicious Lads (Rocky Ross & E-Town) defeated Thatcher Wright, King Nicholas Justice, & Ryan Richards by disqualification.

In our scheduled main event, Thatcher Wright arrived with King Nicholas Justice and Ryan Richards in tow. The poise and villainy was a stark contrast to The Vicious Lads stotting out with Cousin Zander, dancing and gyrating around. The VLs presented Zander with his very own snazzy sleeveless shirt to fit in with the aesthetic, so Cousin Zander could be a VL for the night.

In a party six man tag, Zander and the lads were on fire in the early going, double teaming Ryan Richards and hitting King Nick with a Wassup headbutt to stop the Justice bloodline early on. The Cabinet couldn’t quite handle the bamboozlement and shenanigans of their opponents.

Thorin ran out to attack Cousin Zander to cause the disqualification. Ravie Davie arrived in the scene to announce an eight man tag team Peterhead Street Fight.

Peterhead Street Fight – The Govan Team (Ravie Davie & Cousin Zander), & The Vicious Lads (Rocky Ross & E-Town) defeated Thatcher Wright, King Nicholas Justice, Ryan Richards, & Thorin by pinfall.

Upon the restart it was the expected function room brawl, with added spice of a trip out into the stadium stands, as everyone fought by the bar. Cousin Zander found himself being forced to drink from a beer tap, a move that I’m sure he was disappointed to be the victim of.

I felt bad for those that were at the entrance side of the ring, due to the L shape of the hall, I don’t know if they could see an awful lot. Whereas I was front row to the stinging chops and fighting by the fire door. The brawl continued to outside as the crowd followed Ravie Davie’s call for everyone to go outside to watch the pitch being invaded by the wrestlers. Ravie Davie dived on top of a group on the sidelines as the match slowly made it’s way back up the stands into the hall. Richards got the brunt of a gang battering from Zander and fans in the crowd.

The match got back to the ring for a cavalcade of big moves, Justice hit a GTS to Davie, Zander gave Justice a spinebuster, Thatcher hit a Rough Ryder to Zander, Rocky Ross arrived with an rKo, but he celebrated a bit too long and ran into a Ryan Richards spear, Richards got an E-Town Codebreaker, E-Town was knocked down with a Thorin enziguri, Ravie Davie then returned to give Thorin a Styles Clash.

After all the finishers, E-Town hit Thorin with a Glasgow Destroyer to put an exclamation point on a chaotic match.

This was wild. Wrestling on a football pitch, fighting on a bar, bodies everywhere, eyes darting about. I don’t think there’s a way to break this down other than it was mad.

Once the dust had settled there was still a case of drawing the raffle, which felt awkward in placement. I’ve very much used to a pre-main event raffle. I lost the raffle, so maybe I’m just bitter about that…

The crowd wasn’t as feral as it was previously, last time it was just sugar fuelled craziness but this was a bit more subdued. There’s always a risk for shows on the school summer holidays. It would either be packed or folk are away. The crowd enjoyed the show, but it just had less of a Govan atmosphere that Community Pro Wrestling nurtured.

The newer faces that I got to see for the first time like Bryan Mojo and Manky Frankie certainly showed plenty potential. There were plenty of good moments, some misplaced moments that looked awkward, but the free-for-all main event will leave a lasting impression. The match changes didn’t affect my overall enjoyment of the show, even though I wouldn’t have minded seeing SBX again, or seeing Cassie Cook.

Once again I liked the muck in aspect with Rocky Ross going around at the interval with the raffle, or wrestlers at the merch table. It provides kids to meet the wrestlers and those moments could lead to future wrestling superstars.

The podcast will be out shortly so let’s see how my initial pre-show and immediate post-show thoughts compare to this ramble 10 days later.