OTT once again filled the National Boxing Stadium on the outskirts of Dublin City for a show built totally on the back of the Jordan Devlin and David Starr rivalry. The show would also feature a Ladder Match for the NLW Title and the OTT debut of New Japan’s Guerrillas of Destiny.

Over the Top Wrestling
Fifth Year Anniversary
October 26, 2019
National Stadium
Dublin, Ireland

Watch Online: OTT on Demand

Callum Black, Mike Bailey & Trent Seven def. Cara Noir, Omari & OJMO

This match totally exceeded my expectations. Initially it was to be Killer Kross teaming with Black and Speedball but travel issues meant he wouldn’t be here so Seven, who was scheduled to be elsewhere on the show, was subbed in at short notice. I expected this to be the Trent Seven show full of comedy and wackiness, I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

All six men got plenty of opportunities to shine. Noir, OJMO & Omari are all new to OTT having all just made their debuts on recent shows. All three are welcome additions and hopefully they will all be regulars on every OTT show going forward. My favourite part of this match though was seeing Calum Black step up in the biggest moment of his fledgling career and deliver a worthy performance. On a night of major change in the Irish wrestling landscape I don’t think it was an insignificant point that a young Irish wrestler picked up the win for his team in the opener with a Burning Hammer on OJMO. ***1/4

Terry Thatcher def. Eddie Kingston

Football fans all love when a long serving player at their favourite club finally earns a winners medal or gets a testimonial match at the end of their career. That’s exactly what this match was. This was Terry Thatcher’s testimonial after sticking around the Irish wrestling business when the possibility of multiple shows per year  in the National Stadium was a pipe dream. This was his moment on the big show and it was… fine. 

Maybe I am just tired of every Terry match following the same formula or maybe the formula worked well on Contenders shows and just doesn’t connect on the bigger shows. Terry having a bullseye painted on his chest was tragic and ended up ruining any visual that Kingston’s chops on his chest might have caused. Thatcher would get the clean win with his swinging neckbreaker and get the endorsement of Kingston to really amplify the testimonial feel of it all. **3/4

No Limits Championship Ladder Match
Scotty Davis def. LJ Cleary

This match could have been an absolute mess, instead these two young men showed a level of maturity and intelligence beyond that of many wrestlers. They built to one car crash spot off of the ladder at the close of the match and by that point it meant so much that on any other night it would be remembered as the highlight of the show. 

Both Scotty and LJ incorporated the ladder into the action seamlessly while never forgetting that the ultimate aim was to put the other guy down long enough to climb the ladder and retrieve the belt. Scotty tying LJ up in the ladder and unleashing a barrage of body shots was unique and a level of ruthlessness we had never seen from Scotty before. LJ would make one mistake in the match when he abandoned the opportunity to grab the belt and, in an homage to Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 10, he would deliver a splash off the upper rungs of the ladder to Davis on the mat below. Scotty would recover and again his new found nastiness would come to the fore as a Gator Roll from the top of the ladder would put LJ down and out allowing Davis to retrieve his title. ****

Women’s Championship
Katey Harvey def. Valkyrie

The feel good story of the night. I was only a couple of feet away from Katey when she suffered her double arm break injury in January. It’s a visual and sound I won’t ever forget. To see Katey back in any ring nevermind on the biggest show of the year only nine months later and winning the OTT Women’s title for a second time was really quite incredible. 

Valkyrie has come on leaps and bounds in recent months and it’s no coincidence that her improvement lines up with her stint in wXw and working more than ever. The Woke Queens act, alongside Debbie Keitel, has been a highlight of recent OTT shows. This match really wasn’t anything blow away as Valkyrie seemed trepidatious and uneasy when on top and Katey understandably showed signs of ring rust. A wicked Gory Bomb into the middle turnbuckle would see the Queen of Irish Wrestling regain her title atop the OTT Women’s division. **3/4

Orange Cassidy def. B. Cool

If you have ever seen an Orange Cassidy match before then you have seen this match. That’s not me belittling this in any way, this match got a reaction second only to the main event. Between the videos building up to the show, his prematch promo and his exasperation towards OC in the match B. Cool more than played his part in this. This is a match you could watch at any time and it will bring a smile to your face. ***

Guerrillas of Destiny def. Kings of the North

This match really annoyed me, not because it was bad but instead it was just there and it just didn’t matter. GoD coming to OTT for the first time really should have been an unforgettable moment instead they got a win over the dullest opponents possible in KOTN. The Kings have stalled as an act and are in dire need of freshening up. We have seen them as heel champions, babyface champions, heel challengers and babyface challengers and the routine never varies. Something has to give. 

The match itself was the usual KOTN stadium walk ‘n’ brawl inside two minutes. In the arena on the night I lost interest as soon as they left the ring and watching on VOD was no different. Once they returned to the ring Tama Tonga showed glimpses of his quickness and outlandish leaping ability. During the match winning Gun Stun on Corvin Tama appeared to float in the air before driving the Belfast native face first to the mat. A poor match that really under delivered considering the experience both teams have. **

#1 Contendership
More Than Hype (Kearney & Martin) def. Grizzled Young Veterans

This was to be More Than Hype’s crowning moment. After recovering from a losing streak, the MTH boys had earned another shot at the OTT Tag Team Champions and nothing could stand in their way… except Tyler Bate getting pulled from the show by WWE. But hey don’t worry, WWE sent Grizzled Young Vets in his place, that’s cool right. So instead of getting the biggest win of their young careers over two hugely popular OTT mainstays of the past couple of years for the OTT Tag Team Titles, they got to “defend” their number one contendership against Zack Gibson, who to to be fair is incredibly hated, and his mate that had never been to OTT before. Good for the scene indeed.

It was a pretty solid tag match with GYV working over Nathan for the early portion of the match. Being that they were late replacements the result was never in doubt and while there was some good nearfalls late on they lacked the drama necessary for a semi main slot on the biggest show of the year. MTH would get the win via a Nathan Martin half crab on Drake, which is their third consecutive win with that submission hold. A nice moment but sadly nothing compared to the enduring memory a title victory over Moustache Mountain would have been. ***1/4

OTT World Championship
David Starr def. Jordan Devlin

Lightning in a bottle.

A moment in time.

A picture that speaks for itself. 

From the moment Shaun Ryan’s incredible video began to play on the big screen to last moment off the night as David Starr, the new OTT World Champion, crowd surfed across the outstretched hands of his people, his fans, his followers: this was breathtaking. Everything, all of it, was absolutely pitch perfect. 

First of all Shaun Ryan deserves an enormous amount of praise for his part in making this match feel so important. His hype videos that this story has been built around have added an immeasurable amount to this feud. He is as much a part of this night as both David Starr and Jordan Devlin. 

The entrance of David Starr coming out to Miseria Cantare dressed as the Import Killer, just like Jordan Devlin did back at OTT Being the Elite in December 2017 on the night he won what was to become the OTT Title, set the tone for everything that was to follow. The security standing in the middle of the ring separating Starr and Devlin as they were introduced was another fantastic visual. 

The OTT fans were also as much a part of this story on the night as both wrestlers. The level of noise 2,000 people created is something I have never experienced. The energy in the room was drug-like; I just to feel that way again. The boos for Devlin during his entrance caught me off guard; nobody would dare ever say that would happen just three months ago. This is the same 2,000 people that six months previous willed Devlin on to defeat WALTER on St Patricks Day weekend and treated him as a national hero, the Patron Saint of Irish wrestling. Now he was getting “You sold out” chants. A staggering shift in allegiance that was woven perfectly into the story of the match as David Starr and his INDEPENDENT movement turning the fans against Jordan. 

The match was worked at an incredible pace. Their were innumerable callbacks to those that have followed the Devlin Starr story from the beginning but they were inserted into the match so expertly that if you have never seen these two wrestle before it still was a flawlessly told story within the match. This was a fight between two men representing two very different ideologies. 

This was Walmart versus the local grocer. 

This was McDonalds versus the local cafe. 

This was WWE versus Independent. 

But most of all this was a fight between two men who were once best friends but now they fucking hate each other. 

This was Devlin vs Starr. *****