Revolution Pro Wrestling
Friday, April 6
The Sugar Mill
New Orleans

For the second year running England’s Revolution Pro Wrestling will be hosting a show with WrestleCon over WrestleMania weekend. Last year they put on a very strong show filled with indie names. This year the card looks even stronger and also slightly more authentic to the feel of a UK RPW show with the additional mixing in of NJPW talent, a relationship that is intrinsic to the identity of the promotion.

RPW British Heavyweight Title Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Zack Sabre Jr. has lined himself up one hell of a weekend. Unlike many of the current batch of indie stars he’s restricted his bookings to just the four to help keep his body fresh, and I think that’s going to mean he delivers four tremendous contests. He’ll be going up against Matt Riddle, Munenori Sawa, WALTER and here in what will almost certainly be the main event against Tomohiro Ishii. We could be due for an all time ranking couple of days from the Technical Wizard, and if this rematch from last year’s awesome G1 match ends up being the crown jewel I would be far from shocked. It’ll be a fascinating battle to see if Ishii’s sheer bullheadedness can overcome Zack’s technical prowess and submission traps and I for one am thoroughly looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

Martin Stone vs. David Starr

This is one of my sleeper matches of the weekend as these are two great underrated workers whose styles compliment each other. It’s going to be hard hitting and if given time both men are really good in-ring story tellers. It’s also a match that could go either way, since both guys show up a similar amount in RPW and neither needs to be kept strong for a particular program at the moment. Keep an eye on this one.

Hiroshi Tanahashi and Juice Robinson vs. Aussie Open

Mark Davis of Aussie Open is one of the best wrestlers in the world and the sooner people are made aware of that the better, so I’m delighted to see him get this high profile spot opposite the eternal ace Hiroshi Tanahashi. I’m also super invested in the Tanahashi and Robinson mentor-student team after their super-compelling match against each other, I hope they play off some of the drama that occurred there. All-in-all this is really a match to keep your eye on, and it could go either way. If I had to make a prediction though, I expect a High Fly Flow to end the day.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Jeff Cobb

If this preview was written towards the end of 2017 I’d be a hell of a lot less positive, but Suzuki has been so good in 2018 that my expectations for this are really high. I’m very intrigued to see how Suzuki combats Cobb’s power, and if it ends up looking anything like Suzuki’s Goto match from Wrestle Kingdom then I’ll be all about it. Suzuki is the current RPW Tag Champion with his stablemate ZSJ, alongside of course the current IWGP Intercontinental Champion, so I’d be very surprised to see him lose here.

Kota Ibushi, Shane Strickland & Flip Gordon vs. Will Ospreay, Rocky Romero & Chuckie T.

CHAOS goes up against the flippy-boi union. This is a weird match. Ospreay has spent a lot of his time in RPw aligned with Strickland, and he’s teamed up with Trent’s two partners. It’ll probably be good though, there’s too much talent here for it not to be. Both Ospreay and Chuck are underrated bases for high flying, which is what their opponents will be delivering in spades. Expect high pace, lots of dives and flips and probably some other assorted wacky stuff. I’m predicting Ibushi’s team picks up the win, perhaps after some interference from Brooks to cost Ospreay.

Adam Brooks vs. Brian Cage

This is my least anticipated match of the card. Both guys are fine, but neither get me too excited. I expect Brooks will pick up the win as he’s become somewhat of a RPW regular and is currently engaged in a feud with Ospreay so they’ll want to keep him strong.