THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: twosheds316@aol.com
Website: www.twoshedsreview.com
This past March, new British promotion Herts & Essex Wrestling held their inaugural show, and a few weeks back, yours truly was able to get his hands on a copy of the DVD release of this show, entitled “Living on a Prayer”.
First up, it’s a battle of speed against power, as Ashe of the New Breed goes up against the powerful Charlie Rage, who is accompanied by his manager for the evening, Jane Childs. Miss Childs proves to be something of a distraction for Ashe, and this proves to be his downfall. After planting the lip-lock on Childs, Ashe is attacked from behind, and a few moments later, Rage takes him down with a sledgehammer suplex for the victory. Not a bad little opener here.
Next, a guy I’ve heard much about but never seen before, “Superstar” Tony Sefton, against another man unfamiliar to me, “Purely Delicious” Mike Rose. While Sefton shows some good moves, and looks like he has a bright future ahead of him, Rose clearly looked out of his depth here, which for me made for a disappointing match, and I was glad when the ten minute time limit expired.
Tag-team action follows, with Dave Rayne and Jack Storm taking on the U.K. Pitbulls, along with their manager for the evening, Dean Ayass. Certainly an improvement on the last match, Big Dave and the Bulk use their superior size and power to dominate their smaller opponents. Storm and Rayne fight back briefly, but it isn’t long before the big guys come back and end the bout with their trademark power bomb. Good stuff here.
Backstage, Jane Childs is about to leave when an official tells her that if her man Charlie doesn’t enter the rumble, he’ll lose half his wages. This doesn’t concern Miss Childs, as she leaves anyway.
Women’s action next, as Lisa Fury takes on Jetta. A nice little bout here, one I enjoyed a great deal, and a good example of how both girls are improving all the time. Jetta picked up the win after a sunset flip off the ropes.
Backstage, Dean Ayass and the Pitbulls issue an open challenge after their somewhat easy victory.
Back in the arena, it’s three-way dance time as Declan O’Connor, Ross Jordan and Devilman go up against each other. Devilman, of course, brings along She-Devil for company. Some fast paced action here, with all three men putting in a good showing. After some interference from the She-Devil, Devilman picked up the win after slamming O’Connor down to the mat. He then took out Jordan for good measure.
The battle of old WAW enemies next, as “Rowdy” Ricky Knight goes up against Bash. A hard hitting bout between two men who know each other very well. Of course, Knight uses underhanded tactics, and claims innocence as much as he can, and after clobbering Bash in the knee with Bash’s own baseball bat, he locks in a half Boston for the submission victory. Afterwards challenges are thrown back and forth, before a street fight is agreed for the next show.
Ending the show is the rumble match, where the winner gets a date with Jetta. Now I know why Sanjay Bagga entered the bout! By now you should all know that while I enjoy watching these kind of matches, I hate reporting on them, although the true highlight of the entire DVD was Bagga getting the crap kicked out of him. After what seemed like an age, Jack Storm emerged as victor, eliminating Ricky Knight to win the bout and the date.
In conclusion – despite a couple of low points, a good first show from a new promotion. Production wise, there were a couple of let-downs. As good as he was at relaying the information to the viewer, commentator Rob Landsdowne needs a co-hort, someone he can talk to, someone he can play off. Also, for the majority of the second half of the show, the commentary was very hard to hear, and things only returned to normal when the rumble match began.
Overall, I can’t really fault the guys for their efforts, and Living on a Prayer would certainly make a good addition to any fans collection.
With thanks to Sam Knee for supplying a copy of this DVD. To order this DVD, log onto www.wrestlestuff.com. For more information on HEW, log onto www.hew-wrestling.cjb.net.
