The kind folks up North at Combat League Wrestling have mass released their 2024 and 2025 events onto the YouTube. As I have ended up spectacularly behind from their previous House seasons I’ve decided to kick off this series of reviews from the first event after the House concept was dropped.

Combat League Wrestling put out a statement after their 2025 House Champion event to notify fans that due to the limitations of the House Rules that the season would be reverted to a simple case of all for one with wins and losses taken into account for future title opportunities.

It also opened the field for new faces to head up to Thurso to enter the Combat League against all manner of weird and wonderful characters hidden away in the most northern wrestling promotion in the UK.

Colton Davis defeated Cypher by pinfall.

The thing about Combat League Wrestling is that it is so out of circulation from the more connected wrestling world it allows wrestlers to reveal a different side to them. Case in point, the long car journey allowed the usually dour faced ‘Sky High’ Colton Davis to let loose to The Vengaboys and get the crowd pumped up with chicken chants and hand clapping the likes he likely hasn’t experienced in a number of years.

Davis wanted to have a bit of fun but Cypher stomped on the foot of the giant to level the playing field momentarily. Colton soon fired back with the fight being taken around ringside, Cypher tried to use his keyboard to mash the face of Colton Davis but Colton got a hold of it and pressed a button… which set off the sound system for some Bob Sinclar.

A brief dance break was stopped by an attack from Cypher, targeting the knee of Davis to keep the big man grounded. A swell of support helped Colton get back up but he was soon sent flying back to the mat thanks to a well placed dropkick to the kneecap.

An overconfident Cypher ran into connectivity issues when Davis weathered the attacks to hit a bit of snake eyes and a big boot to the skull. A second was dodged with Cypher managing to tangle the legs of Davis into a Figure Four that was soon countered to reverse the pressure.

Cypher connected with a swinging inverted DDT but it was only good for a two count, a second attempt was blocked with a sidewalk slam with the stunned Cypher walking into a running flying boot to stay offline for three.

A nice opener. There was a couple wee stumbles from Cypher but there’s legs to the idea with the keyboard interruption being a fun little addition so I’m looking forward to seeing that evolve in the coming reviews. Davis looked to be thrilled to be the good guy with strong comebacks garnering big reactions from the crowd.

Fraser Girvan defeated Brodie Adler by count out.

Fraser decided that he wasn’t for it, walking out before the lights went down and Fraser Girwoman entered with their wig falling off mid-entrance.

After spending time to adjust themselves, Fraser turned around into the path of a dropkick to send the wig flying for a second time as he was battered about by Brodie Adler, a standing Uranage left him rolling to the outside for a breather which allowed for Brodie to be suckered in to be hung over the second rope and on the back foot.

Girvan slowed down the pace, picking apart Brodie. Adler continued to stay in the action, forcing Fraser into the corner with a shoulder barge, some splashes, with a second rope crossbody getting a near fall.

An Annailator was dodged with Fraser responding with a flying headbutt for two. Just as Brodie slammed Fraser to the mat with a Black Hole Slam, the lights went red to mark the arrival of The Harbinger. Arkham ran out to jump the big scary dude with Brodie attempting to assist which lead to Fraser picking up the count out win while the trio fought to the back and Girvan was sparked out in the middle of the ring.

It was a bit of a slugfest, even to the point of getting bowling shoe at times. The Harbinger entrance was great and with his sheer size it made him an automatic threat.

The Girwoman bit got a laugh, Fraser isn’t afraid of being the fool and left an impression with his “victory”. Brodie continues to be a strong presence up North.

CLW Championship – Glen Dunbar defeated Luke Matthews by pinfall to retain the CLW Championship.

A scattering of inflatable samurai swords were spotted as Luke Matthews made his entrance, and his pre-match display was met with appreciation.

Dunbar sauntered out with the CLW Championship in hand, basking in the jeers that increased in volume with his attempts to take shortcuts.

Matthews showcased all manner of kicking based offence with the action spilling to the outside and out of view. From the glimpses of body parts passing the vantage of the hard cam, it looked like Dunbar was feeling the wrath of the front row with the chops flying.

Luke brought Dunbar crashing back into the ring with a back body drop from the elevated stage but a timely countered pop up knee to the face allowed Glen to target the left leg to ground Matthews.

Glen Dunbar continued the pressure, clawing at Luke Matthews with ferocity, giving him little downtime to recover. Matthews escaped being tied up in the ropes to a loud chant from the crowd to finish his opponent.

A second rope shotgun dropkick lead to a two count, and a belly to belly had the crowd determined that there was a three. Matthews missed a kick as Dunbar planted him with a package brainbuster for a long near fall.

The momentum continued to swing back and forth, but despite throwing everything at each other neither could quite land that killer blow.

Some quick thinking from Dunbar hung up Matthews on the top rope throat first, with a running flatliner finally putting the game challenger away.

This was a heated title match. The audience was wholly invested in hating Glen Dunbar and willing Luke Matthews on. I’ve only ever seen Luke as this serious bad guy but this more crowd pleasing side was a welcomed change, as we got more fire shown and a better opportunity to see what Matthews has in his arsenal.

Also, inflatable samurai swords is license to print money for him.

Struan defeated Mr E by pinfall.

Before the match even began, Struan degraded the Thurso crowd with his disparaging remarks, eventually interrupted by the groovy Mr E.

Despite his protests, Struan would finally enter the ring to do battle but found himself in a frustrating loop of Mr E shenanigans.

It took some less-than-positive comments about the footwear of Mr E for the masked man to snap into a more serious demeanour. Struan ramped up the aggression but a trip on the ropes gave an opportunity for Mr E to get back into the fight with a barrage of pin attempts for multiple near falls.

From outta somewhere Mr E brought out a pair of Hulk hands to turn the tide before they were eventually confiscated by referee Jenny. Struan raked the eyes to take back control.

Mr E fought back by using his backside to cause damage, but Struan stopped the attack by throwing Jenny into the path which allowed enough of a distraction to plant Mr E with a double arm DDT.

It was a bit of a long one, but we got some glimmers of the upside potential of Struan has. He showed plenty of confidence and character with his in-ring work being pretty smooth. I’m looking forward to keeping track of that development as the reviews go on.

CLW Championship Number One Contendership – Fatal Four Way – Lad Chapman defeated Connor Rose, RJ Cash, and Arkham by pinfall to become number one contender for the CLW Championship.

The Harbinger returned to attack Arkham during his entrance, shoving him back through the curtain to leave the match as a three way.

Chapman and Rose formed an early alliance against RJ Cash. Once Cash made his exit from the ring for a breather the alliance was quickly suspended with Rose and Chapman trading off as RJ watched on.

Cash bided his time, goading his opponents to the ropes for a double stunner onto the top rope to allow the chance to hit two Fisherman’s Suplexes for near falls.

A Tower of Doom left the three men laid out as The Harbinger burst through the curtain, followed by Brodie Adler and Arkham swinging weapons.

Lad Chapman watched on as The Harbinger slammed Arkham’s face off the stage over and over, carrying his limp body away with Adler in pursuit.

As we returned to our regularly scheduled programming, Chapman looked to have the match wrapped up with a bicycle kick to Connor Rose that was broken up by RJ Cash at the last second.

Rose launched his opponents with a couple Fallaway Slams to set them up nicely for a cannonball into the corner but his insistence to stack his opponents up allowed them time to recover. A Gutwrench Powerbomb to Chapman almost had it but Cash was quick to dive in to break the fall.

Chapman eventually managed to keep RJ Cash down with the cutter so he could connect with a second to Connor Rose, following a pumphandle slam counter, to collect the win and become number one contender.

As the celebrations went on, Rose hoisted an unsuspecting Chapman up and crashed him to the canvas with a powerbomb before bringing out a chair to smash it over Lad’s back until Luke Matthews and a returning RJ Cash rushed out.

A juicy cliffhanger to entice the audience to return. The match was solid, with The Harbinger thread continuing on from the first half which was a nice callback. There was a heavy theme of all three being on the same level, all vying to be the guy to put down Glen Dunbar for the belt with Lad being the guy who just managed to get that extra second to get the fall.

Some matches could’ve been a little more streamlined as I felt there were times where a match was hitting the peak then was rattled down to zero to start building up again which can lead to diminishing returns. Like it was a filler chapter in a book that is teasing a big reveal. However, in saying that, for a five match card the crowd got a lot of variety for their money.

Luke Matthews shone in this one, the fans gravitated to his plight to take the title from the dastardly Glen Dunbar, as did Colton Davis who got to show something a little different to those that may be more familiar with his work in ICW for example.

I’m definitely interested to see where Struan and Cypher go, and certainly more of The Harbinger.

The full event is available on YouTube now: