This past weekend Iron Girders Pro Wrestling hosted a fundraising event in aid of Glasgow Athletic FC. Now, fundraising and/or charity events don’t often fall into the cannon of pro wrestling but Iron Girders announced a bursting line up with title bouts and the little matter of someone getting their head shaved bald. The show was live streamed on Twitch, with the camera perched in the Gallowgate ready to capture all the action.

After the introductions from the charismatic Katt Wolfe, it was time for the action. The referee in charge of the action was one half of Casino Brutale “Horsepower” Michael Devine.

The disadvantage of watching replays on Twitch is the copyrighted music being muted for an extended period. It does knock hearing the fan ovations but even with no sound the smile that came across my face to see Tall ‘N’ Tiny and The Masked Assassin enter strutting around was a joy.

The Masked Assassin, & Tall ‘N’ Tiny (James Diaz & Kev.i.n) defeated Jordan Wolfe, Eddie Castle, & Shaun Faegan by pinfall.

Eddie Castle and Kev.i.n started off with Castle immediately rolling a tie up to force Kev onto his recently rehabilitated shoulder. After shaking it off Kev was back into the fray, putting Eddie off balance with shenanigans and a roll up, followed up with a straight right jab to the mush that angered Castle into tagging out to Shaun Faegan, who met face to chest with James Diaz.

The two big men jostled for an advantage with a big body slam putting Faegan down for Tall ‘N’ Tiny to get the momentum going with quick tags, so quick that even they lost track of who was the legal man but Devine was on hand to keep them right.

Castle halted a Hail Hailbow which allowed Faegan to jump him and get Jordan Wolff into the bout. Kev got the tag to Diaz but a wily Castle bided his timing and struck with a flying punch to the side of the skull to take the big man off his feet mid-charge.

The Masked Assassin was finally given the green light to enter, and ran through the trio with chops and crossbodies, hitting a deadly crane kick to Eddie Castle. Tall ‘N’ Tiny launched Wolff up for an assisted back suplex/powerbomb combination to call it a night for the villains.

A hot opening match with plenty of moving parts. It was great to see Kev.i.n back in the action with he and James Daiz working like a well oiled machine. Eddie Castle stood out in his flashes in the match, he added an extra bit of intensity with every movement, plus The Masked Assassin got a win. which was nice.

Tommy Lockhart defeated Blonde Valentine w/Nova Sykes by pinfall.

To one-up senior referee Archibald Williams, Devine successfully caught Tommy Lockhart’s hat with the first attempt if you keep score at home.

Valentine got the better of the collar and elbow, with Lockhart twisting and turning to send Blonde onto their backside for a tantrum. Blonde went for the tie up again but pulled the hair before Tommy could do any funny business to escape.

Blonde continued to show lots of aggression as Lockhart absorbed the big forearms while also trying to bamboozle his less experienced opponent. Valentine was relentless, hitting a leg sweep with a smooth float over pin for a near fall.

Lockhart fired up with clotheslines, to send Valentine scrambling into the corner but Tommy was hot on their tail. A running knee had Blonde drop to the mat prone for a second rope moonsault. Lockhart hoisted Valentine onto his shoulders into a Fireman’s Carry but Blonde raked the eyes to get out of that predicament. A standing moonsault missed which left Blonde staring into the path of a running knee from Tommy Lockhart to keep them down for the count.

A nice back and forth, this was the second time I’ve seen Blonde and he has plenty of fire, and looks to have a good grasp of his character. He had some really solid strikes and there’s a lot of potential there. Some tweaks here and there with the presentation and a developing moveset will come, but with experience and time in the ring I’m looking forward to see it all click together.

Tommy Lockhart continues to be a hell of a lot of fun to watch with the flair he provides, and builds upon, with every match. The confidence is evident, you can see he believes he is putting on a grand show which resonates with the audience but it doesn’t fall into arrogance because he still lets the crowd in to the performance which creates a nice balance.

Hair vs Hair – Robbie Cardwell defeated Chris Kingston w/Big Mick & Stone Malone by pinfall.

In another historic moment, Chris Kingston entered to Saturday Night’s (Alright For Fighting) on a Saturday… afternoon, close enough. Kingston took upbridge with Katt Wolfe calling him a weasel and went after her with clippers to send Robbie Cardwell rushing out to get the match started with the rest of the Moxie Crue scattering out to ringside.

As the weasel chants got louder, Cardwell threw hands and slammed Kingston’s forehead off the apron. The match returned to the ring as Kingston tried to get the upper hand but Robbie fought back to send Kingston back to the outside to regroup with the rest of the Crue.

The reset proved fruitful with Malone and Mick pulling Kingston out of harm’s way from a dive to the outside to give him an opening to jump on. After a beatdown Kingston sent Cardwell threw the fire escape and closed the door but a rampaging Robbie burst back through the entrance way to take out Malone and Mick, then drive his knee into the face of Kingston.

Kingston then tried to cheat by low blowing Cardwell while tangling with referee Devine but his follow up Famouser only got a two count. The battle went to the turnbuckle, Kingston crashed to the mat but got his knees up for the Swanton Bomb attempt. Kingston went for a crucifix pin but Robbie shifted his weight to reverse the pin into his favour for the three as the Gallowgate went wild, baying for the hair of Chris Kingston.

Tall ‘N’ Tiny, along with Ellie Armstrong, provided a barrier and got a front row seat as Robbie Cardwell and Michael Devine tied Chris Kingston to a chair and got to cutting. Kingston flailed around as Robbie stopped with half the job done, which was hilarious as Chris had succumbed to the situation but as Cardwell stopped mid-cut it seemed to annoy him even more.

There was some drama but unless they were going for the twist of the century the result was never in doubt. The match had a good pace with a hot start off the back of Kingston trying to go after Katt before the bell which was tied up with her getting to trim a little off the sides post-match.

The interval consisted of in-ring photos with Robbie and the captured (and a 90% bald) Chris Kingston scowling, the best bit was Branagan arriving for a photo during the interval to get a wee slap to the dome in. It showed how despised the Moxie Crue were in Iron Girders that even the cold-hearted Branagan was up for embarrassing the weasel.

Planet A (Ellie Armstrong & Martin MacAlistair) defeated Moxie’s Crue (Stone Malone & Big Mick) by pinfall.

We returned to the action with Stone Malone and Big Mick showing no ill effects from witnessing Chris Kingston’s humiliation to face Ellie Armstrong and Martin MacAlistair, Planet A.

Ellie Armstrong tried to reel Stone Malone in for a wee dance but Malone was the reeler(!), aiming a boot to the stomach and sending Ellie around with an Airplane Spin that had her all a dazed and confused, rolling up Mikey Devine for a three count. As the things settled down, Armstrong got the better of the brutes and brought in Martin MacAlistair to get the party started trading quick tags and fluid offense to rattle Big Mick.

An over eager attempt to slam Big Mick allowed Moxie’s Crue to throw their weight around, squishing MacAlistair with a tandem splash dubbed the “big hamburger” to have the former IGPW Champion at their mercy. Mick continued the assault, throwing Martin around like a wet trackie and passing a wobbly legged MacAlistair to Malone to continue the punishment.

It was one throw too many though, Martin held on to Mick and transitioned into an Eat Defeat to tag in Ellie Armstrong to do a bit of throwing of her own, muscling Stone Malone for a Ellie To Belly (or Bayleef to Belly, I can’t remember at this stage). Mick get a hold of the King of the Fling but Armstrong escaped to send Malone spearing into Big Mick.

As Stone gathered his thoughts MacAlistair was tagged in for a Planet A high-low combination to give them the big W.

The power of Martin MacAlistair in Iron Girders Pro Wrestling is a hell of a thing. Ellie has been a bit here and there in terms of where she lands in the eyes of the audience, sometimes good, sometimes a bit of a mean one, but Martin has been the positive charge since day one-ish so to see Planet A get a lot of love it was like bizarro world. The match had some silliness, and Moxie’s Crue had their time to look like a dominant force over MacAlistair, to create a really good match overall.

Tara Lenny interrupted the celebrations to mark her intention for the IGPW King of the Fling Championship and announced the match would take place then and there as the combatants marched out including the Vanity team of Judas Grey and Ronan King fresh off a flight cancellation that stopped them heading to Ireland to batter The Stars Aligned earlier in the day, Madame Director’s plan succeeding was Iron Girders Pro Wrestling’s gain, and a potential spanner in the works for the IGPW King of the Fling Champion.

IGPW King of the Fling Championship – Ellie Armstrong defeated Nova Sykes, Tara Lenny, Ronan King, Judas Grey, Martin MacAlistair, Nova Sykes, Howlette, and Hailee Swift to retain the IGPW King of the Fling Championship.

Planet A were immediate targets as the competitors jump in to beat them down. Tara Lenny got the first elimination, throwing Nova Sykes out then evading Ronan King and Judas Grey who sent Howlette over the top with a double clothesline. Lenny then wisely rolled under the bottom rope to avoid any further close calls.

Ellie powered a kicking and flailing Hailee Swift over the top to leave Planet A and Vanity standing across from each other who went at each other, as they collided to leave all four on the mat, Tara returned to pick her spot and threw everyone over the top… but didn’t make sure they were actually eliminated as one by one they stepped back through the ropes. Armstrong wasn’t as careless and sent Lenny out to be eliminated.

Vanity unleashed a ferocity of double team moves to Martin MacAlistair before dispatching his lifeless body out of the ring to leave Ellie Armstrong against the duo. A spirited fight back was cut off as Vanity once again started cooking but Armstrong managed to halt a corner dropkick to send Judas Grey to the apron and sidestepped a running big boot from Ronan King to send Grey crashing to the floor.

A feral King bit at the hand of Ellie to stop a pumphandle but as he rushed to ropes to clothesline Armstrong’s head off, the champion ducked and back body dropped Ronan out of the ring to retain.

Sometimes these King of the Fling matches can be a little by-the-numbers but there was a lot at play in this one. We got some little teases of maybe a Nova Sykes-Judas Grey clash, a heavy implication of Vanity against Planet A in the near future, and Tara Lenny won’t let one defeat stop her quest to be King of the Fling I’m sure.

A quick but well driven bout, I’m really looking forward to more of Tara Lenny. I haven’t seen a whole lot of her actual in-ring work as the last time it was one of the student showcases in a six person tag where there was a brief exchange with Astrid Day that looked decent, but if she wrestles anywhere near to the confidence and character level she already has then I’m very excited to see that develop.

Before the main event we got the traditional chaos of the raffle where Katt Wolfe tried to maintain some order but it started with Robbie Cardwell getting a carpet burn as he slid into the ring so it was going to be an uphill battle. Tickets were flying, the same person won multiple prizes, Mikey Devine was drafted in to speed up the process but he hotdogged and grandstanded his draws, there were all manner of ways to describe the colour pink (salmon, fuschia, a lighter shade of red, and magenta), and then a wee row over littering to finish it off. Katt Wolfe, what a trooper trying to wrangle a wrestling raffle.

Loophole Levi, after a confab with his IGPW Championship, “she” refused to be defended so Levi wanted a piece of the UEWA European Heavyweight Championship instead which BT quickly agreed to. To be fair to him the graphic said “title match” but not which title.

UEWA European Heavyweight Championship – Triple Threat – BT Gunn defeated Prince Levi, and Kez Evans by pinfall to retain the UEWA European Heavyweight Championship.

A self conscious Kez Evans took a look at his chiselled opponents and silently pulled his singlet straps up which was a funny touch. There was no friends or alliances as all three were happy to go after at each other regardless of existing “Dangerous” teams in the bid for championship glory.

Prince Levi’s little princes got a rattling, first with a catapult from Kez to send BT Gunn head first between the legs of Levi then a multitude of inverted Atomic Drops by Evans just to cause a groinal juggling. Gunn got one of his own so teamed with Levi to give Kez a taste (testis?) of his own medicine so that all three were walking funny. Levi chopped BT which caused an audible gasp from the Gallowgate which was punctuated by a heart stopping chop in return from Gunn as Levi froze in time and collapsed to the canvas.

With all manner of bodies moving around the action continued thick and fast. Kez clocked Gunn with a Polish Hammer after launching Prince Levi onto the apron. Levi returned with a springboard double bulldog but despite multiple pin attempts he couldn’t keep either man down.

The sequences flowed nicely into each other with all three gaining the advantage at points which caused a stalemate when Levi was hip-tossed to the ground with BT and Kez both going for a clothesline aimed for the other to send everyone down. Kez went and got the UEWA European Heavyweight Championship which Levi has Mikey Devine occupied but Gunn grabbed it, and in the tussle they both tossed it to Levi and both feigned injury, after a second of thought Levi dropped like a stone to join them. Which was hilarious considering triple threat matches are no disqualification anyway but it was a fun moment nonetheless.

Once again Levi got kicked in the crotch, and before he could count how many of his chaps were in the vicinity, Evans ran in with the Stinger Splash into the corner. As Kez went to finish the match with the double arm DDT, BT Gunn dived towards him with a spear to retain.

An incensed Prince Levi jumped BT after the match but Kez put a stop to it and planted him with a double arm DDT and The Dangerous Bros ended the night delivering a Wassup Headbutt to leave Prince Levi metaphorically, and maybe physically, emasculated.

A sudden end to a red hot triple threat match. I liked there were wasn’t that emphasis on the BT Gunn and Kez Evans team with the double team manoeuvres involving everyone in the match felt natural with all three trying to win. I’m not big on the spear finish from BT, I like the sudden roundhouse kick as an outta nowhere game ender but that’s a personal preference. An entertaining main event to a great afternoon of wrestling.

The show is still currently available to replay on Twitch here, and will appear on YouTube soon.

We host Iron Clash TV (available on the Iron Girders YouTube channel), check out some past matches from the promotion that is Girders Built.