For the 3rd time in nine months OTT held a show in the 2,200 seat National Stadium and for the second time sold it out. As you can probably guess from the name of the show the Being The Elite cast of The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll and Cody were all featured acts on the show and without a doubt they were a factor in the Stadium selling out. For long term OTT fans though the main event of Jordan Devlin finally getting his shot at the No Limits Heavyweight title was more important. The show would also feature Dalton Castle and the Boys, Rey Fenix, Flip Gordon and British Strong Style.
Over the Top Wrestling
Being the Elite
December 9, 2017
National Stadium
Dublin, Ireland
Watch: OTT on Demand
Bobby George Jr. def. Paul Tracey
This match was a case of win or bust for Bobby as OTT owner William J Humperdink decreed at November’s Tivoli show that unless Bobby could defeat ‘The Lord of the Manor’ he would be fired from OTT. While the crowd love Bobby and absolutely love singing along to Chase the Sun during his entrance, Tony Idle being hospitalized following a beating from Tracey the previous month and being unable to attend was a major loss to the overall presentation of Bobby George Jr. For the opener of a mega show the crowd felt a bit flat at times but this was somewhat understandable as the action in the ring was decidedly mediocre. Bobby scored the popular win with a schoolboy after kicking out Tracey’s rainmaker lariat. **1/4
Kings of the North def. The Rapture
How do you make a team who’s signature pose is to put up the red hand of Ulster the biggest, most beloved face team in all of Ireland? Simple, you introduce a group led by the most hated man in all of British & Irish wrestling: Zack Gibson. Since their formation in the summer The Rapture have run through every Irish tag team in OTT, well every Irish tag team except one. The OTT faithful for months have been dying to cheer the Kings and finally at November’s Tivoli show they got that chance when Corvin, Bonesaw and Dunkan answered The Raptures challenge for some fresh Irish competition.
This one started as an all out brawl with both teams fighting firstly in the ring before things quickly spilled outside and throughout the entire arena. Once things settled down The Rapture trio were able to isolate Dunkan for a sustained period, taking a lot of damage before he could make the tag to Corvin. From here on things broke down and the match was all action with the Kings subjecting Sterling to a triple team wheelbarrow DDT, lung blower, German suplex combination while the Rapture delivered a spike piledriver followed by a Sterling spiral tap to Dunkan for a great nearfall. Sha Samuels even pulled out a top rope moonsault to the outside but this night was not to be The Raptures night. In a moment that left me rubbing my eyes in disbelief, Zack Gibson hoisted Dunkan onto his shoulders and with Charlie coming off the top rope looking to land a killer blow doomsday device, Dunkan somehow reversed Charlie into a one man Spanish Fly for the winning pinfall. An amazing moment that I could watch over an over. ****1/4
Along with Jordan Devlin the Kings have been the standout performers in OTT in 2017 and their reign as tag team champions has been fantastic. They have elevated those titles so that when they do finally lose the titles the team that beats them will have instant credibility.
No Holds Barred OTT Gender Neutral Championship Match
Kay Lee Ray & Martina def. Angel Cruzers
So initially this match was to be a Martina against KLR singles match for the OTT Women’s title before it was changed to Martina & Kay Lee Ray vs The Angel Cruzers. Finally earlier in the show B-Cool claimed he won the Gender Neutral Title in a tournament in Rio de Janiero so William J Humperdink decided he had to defend it in the tag match and whomever scored the winning pinfall would be declared the OTT Gender Neutral champion.
I should also add that this was also a hardcore match so we had kendo sticks, a can-do stick (a stick full of beer cans), baking trays, a christmas tree and even an evil elf whom Angel Cruz introduced to attack Martina and KLR only for the elf to attack Angel. This resulted in Team Prick trapping the elf in a suitcase and carrying him back stage. Like the previous match the action spread throughout the whole arena with this highlighted by Kay Lee Ray doing a crazy balcony dive onto whomever was below her.
The closing moments of the match involved many falls by all the competitors onto thumbtacks that Team Prick had introduced to the ring. KLR giving B-Cool the Gorey Bomb onto the tacks before she herself fell victim to an Angel superkick while she had a mouth full of tacks left Martina on her own. Then after Martina had pushed Angel off the top rope through a table on the outside, B-Cool fell victim to the Wombstone onto the tacks as Martina became a duel OTT champion. ***3/4
This result is fine by me all except for one major detail, Martina is the current OTT Women’s Champion and instead of defending and elevating that championship she is in comedy matches and brawls with members of the male roster. Ireland, the UK and the whole of Europe has some majorly talented female wrestlers right now and I feel OTT are missing a beat by not getting behind the Women’s division and promoting their title as one of the most prestigious in all of Europe. There is a place for a character like Martina and she is great in matches like the one on this show but if that is to be her role then OTT need to get behind another women to lead the Womens division and defend their title at every show.
British Strong Style (Dunne & Seven) def. Curtis Murray, Michael May & Scotty Davis
It was announced at the beginning of the show that Tyler Bate could not be at the show so this match became a 3 on 2 handicap match. When I realised that BSS would not have somebody step in to replace Tyler and keep this as a six man tag I shook my head and concluded that the match would be bad. How wrong was I? I loved this match so much and for me it showed everything that is great about British Strong Style and how hard they work compared to the stars in the match following this one. It would have been easy for Trent and Pete to “take the night off” and cruise through this match but instead they worked their asses of and made all three of their opponents look like stars.
What I did not like was that this was the third straight match to have an extended crowd brawl and while it is not ideal to do it twice in one night it is forgivable but to have it occur three matches consecutively is ridiculous. That one complaint aside this match was fantastic. BSS worked over Michael May for an extended period and it says it all about the quality of Pete and Trent’s work that they were effective as the heels despite being a man down. Once May was able to make a tag the match went up two gears. The highlight of the match for me was after Scotty Davis and Michael May were laid out following a Pete tombstone and Trent piledriver, Curtis Murray fell victim to a Bitter End from Dunne for a nearfall that every one of the 2,200 in attendance bought as the end. The Bitter End on Murray proved the killer blow second time around following a top rope piledriver from Seven. A fantastic closing stretch to this one with the WWE contracted stars continuing to help build the future of not only Irish wrestling but also all of wrestling. ***3/4
Bullet Club (Scurll & Young Bucks) def. Dalton Castle and the Boys
I HATED THIS! This was every The Elite six man tag match you have ever seen with added karaoke from Scurll. The Bucks may have been responsible for drawing a large proportion of the crowd but I personally would be happy to never see them in OTT again. Dalton and the Boys were never going to impress in this one as it was all about The Elite. DUD
Cody def. Flip Gordon & Rey Fenix
This was one of the oddest triple threat line ups you are ever likely to see. Fenix and Gordon provided the flips and Cody provided the Cody. To be fair the fans were eating up everything Cody was doing and plenty of people kissed the ring no matter how unhygienic that is. Flip impresses me every time I see him perform and everyone knows how great Fenix is. This match most followed the WWE method of two men in the ring and one laying out on the floor waiting for his next spot. There was a ref bump during which Fenix got a visible pin on Cody following a rolling cutter. While Foxy was still down Cody, the devious heel hit Flip with the ROH title and low blowed Fenix. To the surprise of absolutely nobody Cody got the pin with a Cross Rhodes on Flip. **3/4
Following this match the Young Bucks and Marty Scurll returned to the ring and there was an absolutely embarrassing promo where Cody said that they had narrowed down their perspective location for their All-In show down to three places, one of which was Dublin. Shockingly many many people in attendance actually seemed to believe this along with the empty promises to bring Daniel Bryan and CM Punk with them. Pathetic pandering and disappointing gullibility from some OTT fans.
OTT No Limits Championship
Jordan Devlin def. Mark Haskins
The most anticipated No Limit Championship match in recent history did not disappoint. Since May, OTT have built Jordan flawlessly and it all culminated perfectly at the biggest OTT show ever. Meanwhile, since his return in February against Mark Andrews, Mark Haskins has been on a tear in OTT and been almost unstoppable capturing the NLW title from Ryan Smile in a elimination triple threat match that also include Marty Scurll back at WrestleRama in August. This was very much the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object in a battle to prove who is the king of OTT.
This match was worked at an unbelievable pace with Haskins in particular laying in some stiff looking kicks on his challenger. It needs to be noted that when this match went on it was already well past 11pm with most having been at the stadium for 5+ hours and yet everyone was invested in this match. After the fast start Haskins began to work over Devlin’s arm presumably setting up for his bridging armbar all the while continuing to kick and knee and chop the crap out of Devlin. Both men were able to block or reverse the others signature spots with Haskins avoiding the uranage moonsault combo of Jordan while Devlin escaped the roll through death valley driver of Haskins.
Haskins showed some urgency and frustration following a death valley driver with three rapid fire superkicks with pins after each one getting a two count. Devlin scored with a package piledriver out of nowhere and Haskins became the first man in OTT to kick out after Devlin’s normally deadly finish. Haskins rolled through another piledriver attempt to lock in the sharpshooter but Devlin made it to the ropes. A death valley driver on the apron and then a death valley bomb in the ring led to Haskins looking for the sharpshooter one final time to end the fairytale for Devlin. However, Jordan somehow blocked a Haskins boot to his stomach and in one fluid motion rolled backwards while holding on Haskins’ boot and while getting to his feet positioned Haskins for the package piledriver once more and we had a new NLW Champion. This was an emotional end to Devlin’s quest to finally be recognised as the top dog in not only OTT but all of Ireland. I hope we get a rematch somewhere down the line between these two because this was great. ****1/4
Final Thoughts:
While I didn’t love everything on Being the Elite, there is more than enough good to make the less enjoyable moments (the Bucks match) worth sitting through. This night was all about Irish talent finally arriving and being taken seriously, proving they are a force to be reckoned with and finally rising to the top and proving that talent cannot and will not be denied.
