RevPro: 11 Year Anniversary Show
August 26, 2023
Copper Box Arena
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, England
Watch: RevPro On Demand
Pre-Show Women’s #1 Contenders Battle Royal
Dani Luna def. Maya Matthews, Mercedes Blaze, Rayne Leverkusen, Alexxis Falcon, Safire Reed,Skye Smitson, Chantal Jordan, Rhio & Skye Blue
Battle Royals are always hard to review, but this was pretty good. You can hide a lot in a match with this many people, but it was a good showing for all involved, especially considering a lot of these women aren’t that far along in their careers. Rayne Leverkusen was the standout for me, and they set up some programs coming out of the match. Dani Luna eliminated Safire Reed for the win. ***
Leon Slater def. Dan Moloney
RevPro is full of young wrestlers with a ton of potential, and there may be no one on the roster with more potential than Leon Slater. This was a great fiery babyface performance from Leon Slater, and the crowd was with him every step of the way. Dan Moloney has recovered from his slow start to BoSJ and was a perfect foil for Slater. After a callback spot to Ospreay elbowing him in the back of the head, Slater wins with a Swanton 450. ****
Undisputed British Cruiserweight Championship
Connor Mills © def. Robbie X vs. Wild Boar vs. Jordon Breaks vs. Sha Samuels vs. Callum Newman
This match was a lot of fun. Could you call it a spotfest? Sure, but spotfests are even more fun when you have people who work different styles. The winner of the Most Creative Pin Break Up Award tonight is Wild Boar, who broke up pins with a package piledriver and a senton. Everyone got their shine in this match, but Robbie X was the standout. The ending of the match was somewhat abrupt as Connor Mills stole the pin after a Sha Samuels moonsault, but that fits the character of Connor Mills. ***¾
JJ Gale def. Kosei Fujita
This was a bit of a step down from the first two matches. It was a bit of a sloppy start with a hurricanrana that fell apart and a dive from Gale that came up way short. This picked up in the back half and Gale executed the rest of his flying pretty smoothly, but it didn’t hit that next gear. I loved the finish, though. JJ Gale beats TMDK’s young boy with a Boston Crab to presumably set up a match with Zack Sabre Jr. ***½
El Phantasmo & Katsuyori Shibata def. Gabriel Kidd & David Finlay
This match was a smart booking with two obvious pairings, without giving away the full Shibata and Kidd match. The crowd wanted a Shibata and Kidd face-off, which was teased earlier in the match before Kidd left the ring. After an ELP tag to Shibata, Kidd had nowhere to go. They did just enough to leave the crowd satisfied, but still wanting a singles match. The match ends with an ELP pin on Kidd. ***¾
Zack Sabre Jr. def. Ricky Knight Jr.
This match was well worked, but for most of the match the crowd did not have the energy they had for the match before. Commentary elevated this for me, talking about how Sabre is a stubborn wrestler and was going to play into RKJ’s game, which could be his downfall. RKJ controlled more of this match than I thought he would, and it’s always fun to see ZSJ’s submission style when working underneath. Zack Sabre Jr wins with a series of sleeper holds. RKJ was able to fight out of several, but not the last one. ****
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Undisputed British Tag Team Championship
Subculture (Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster) © def. VeloCities (Paris De Silva & Jude London)
This was more of a conventional tag match than I expected. They smartly worked the match with Subculture isolating VeloCities in the corner, and the VeloCities had good hope spots, but the crowd seemed to have declared this the bathroom break match and they never got into it. The match comes to after Mark Andrews hits a Shooting Star Press on London. ***½
Tomohiro Ishii def. Luke Jacobs
My god, what a fight this was. Ishii is aging, but he can still turn it on and Luke Jacobs was more than game. Professional wrestling doesn’t have to be difficult. Sometimes it’s enough for two guys to just beat the hell out of each other. They ran the strong style playbook on this one: lariats, forearms, powerbombs, headbutts, German suplexes, the works. Luke’s selling was great, even down to his disbelief that Ishii kept getting up. This had a hard-hitting first half that took some time to get the crowd, but a scorching hot back half that had the crowd on their feet multiple times. Ishii wins with a Brainbuster. I had this picked to be the night’s second-best match, but this will be hard to top, and consider who is in the main event when I say that. ****½
Undisputed British Women’s Championship
Alex Windsor © def. Mickie James vs. Hyan
This match was fine, but it was hard to focus on when the crowd was chanting “Hardcore Country” for the entire match. It would stop for a high spot and then come right back. They worked hard here, but the finish was a little abrupt. Windsor wins with a roll-up on Hyan after Hyan had landed a missile dropkick on James. ***
Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship
Michael Oku © def. Trent Seven
This match started off well, building the story around Trent Seven working Oku’s neck, but after the ref bump (ref earned his paycheck on that one by the way), it ground to a halt. Oku and Amira Blair took some insane table bumps, but they took about ten minutes combined to set up. The crowd was into the finish, but this really suffered in the back half. Oku wins with the Single Leg Crab. Post-match, a video package and post-match beatdown set up Spike Trivet as Oku’s next challenger. ***¼
Will Ospreay def. Shingo Takagi
What do you want me to say? It’s Will Ospreay and Shingo Takagi. This match was great. The only knock that I have on it is that there were a couple of spots that were blown, which is abnormal for these two. Regardless, it was clear watching this that two of the absolute best in the world were in the ring. These men know each other so well, and there were plenty of callbacks to previous matches that rewarded those who have watched what came before, but there were some new wrinkles in there as well. Ospreay wins with ol’ reliable, the Hidden Blade into Stormbreaker combo. Post-match, Zack Sabre Jr. issued a challenge to Ospreay for Royal Quest III, and Chris Jericho made his RevPro debut by attacking Ospreay adding fuel to their match at AEW All In London. ****½
