THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: twosheds316@aol.com
Website: www.twoshedsreview.com
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Two reviews for the price of one here, as once again we take a trip to the east of England to take another look at Sam Knee’s Herts & Essex Wrestling promotion, taking a look at their most recent DVD releases, “Show 2” and “Show 3”.
“Show 2”, filmed by Wrestlestuff productions, begins with a wrestler I know very well, the Zebra Kid, as he takes on Dave Deardon. Deardon is a tall guy, built like the proverbial brick wall, and simply overpowers Zebra at the beginning of the match. It is only when Zebra uses his speed and high-flying tactics that he is able to sustain any form of offence, and not even the Zebra Crossing elbow drop puts him away. However, after referee Steve Lynskey got accidentally hit, Deardon clobbered Zebra with a chair and got the pin as the recovering Lynskey made the count.
Then, the U.K. Pitbulls, along with their manager, Dean Ayass, come to the ring to address the fans. Ayass announces that Ross Jordan has met with an unfortunate accident, and that the scheduled tag-team match is cancelled. This brings Paul Travell to the ring, complete with Mr. Pointy. Travell reveals that he’s found a partner to face the Pitbulls in none other than visiting American star Colt Cabana. Needless to say that Ayass and the Pitbulls weren’t exactly pleased with the situation. Backstage, the three of them discuss their plan.
Back to the action as “Superstar” Tony Sefton takes on “Flying” Phil Powers in a battle of youth against experience. Powers once again plays the whiny, cocky heel to perfection, kind of reminding me of the great Jim Breaks in his prime. A good match here, spoiled only by the fact that my copy of the DVD kept freezing for some reason, which saw Sefton getting the win after Powers missed a top rope leg drop. Afterwards, Powers grabbed the microphone and whined about the manner of his defeat.
On to the women’s division, as Sweet Saraya takes on Lamia. Once again Saraya adheres herself to the locals, immediately taking herself off their Christmas card lists. This is Sweet Saraya at her brutal best, taking Lamia to school and giving her a beating at the same time. Lamia managed to get in a few fleeting moments of offence, but in the end Saraya was just too much for her, finishing her off with a Samoan drop followed by a big splash off the top rope. Great stuff here.
Then it’s time for tag-team action, as Aviv Mayaan and Mike Rose take on Sammy Ray and Ricky Relentless. More freezing on the picture which meant that the first few minutes of the bout were impossible to watch. From what I did manage to see, it wasn’t that good. Rose looked very poor and unable to even run the ropes, while Ray’s over-selling was annoying to say the least. Mayaan got the pin for his team after taking Relentless down with a body block off the ropes.
Three way action next, with Charlie Rage, who has his manager Jane Childs along for company, takes on “Da Pukka One” Darren Burridge, with Eamon O’Neill the third man in this contest. Certainly an interesting match here with some great double-team moves, and some rather interesting moves as well, including a triple headlock, and the first time I’ve seen a nipple twister in a wrestling match. Rage got the victory here after taking Burridge down with a jackhammer suplex. Afterwards, despite their defeat, Burridge leads O’Neill in a rather amusing dance.
Back to tag-team action as Colt Cabana and Paul Travell take on the mammoth U.K. Pitbulls, along with their manager, Dean Ayass. An entertaining bout here with both units showing some good double-team moves, and the play of the Twisted Genius backfiring. After passing Mr. Pointy (Travell’s barbwire baseball bat) to Bulk, the big man was about to use it until Travell kicked him down below, then used the bat himself. Cabana then tagged in and with a super-kick assisted sunset flip got the pin on the Bulk to win the match for his team.
On to our main event, an HEW title match, fought under street fight rules, between “Rowdy” Ricky Knight and Bash, with Andy Simmons as the special guest referee. Before the match begins, Knight insults the locals and warns Simmons that he must be an impartial official. The two old rivals then proceed to knock seven sorts of you know what out of each other with anything they can get their hands on, and the fight even goes out to the car park. But in the end, Knight emerged victorious, thanks to the double-crossing referee Simmons. Having clobbered Bash with a ray, Simmons then made an extremely fast count as Knight was crowned the first ever HEW champion. But as the bad guys celebrated, Paul Travell and Mr. Pointy returned to the ring as Knight and Simmons headed for the hills.
On to “Show 3”, this time filmed by Figure Four Films. We begin with promoter Sam Knee coming to the ring and announcing that HEW Champion Ricky Knight is absent from the show because he is in hospital, and that The Kraft will be replacing him in the main event tag-team match.
We then begin the show with tag-team action, as Saul Adams and Ricky Relentless take on The Planet Rockers, Zak Zodiac and Matt Mercury. An entertaining opener with Mercury get double-teamed, and the Planet Rockers gaining the victory after the older switcheroo – as Relentless sent Adams to get a chair, and as he was being restrained by referee Steve Lynskey, Zodiac switched with Mercury and scored the winning pinfall with a roll-up.
An advert for SAS Wrestling DVDs follows. Watch this space for an upcoming review of their 3rd Show Anniversary Supershow DVD!
On to three-way women’s action between Skye, Lamia, and visiting American Simply Luscious. A bit of a mixed bag here. Luscious was clearly the best wrestler in this bout, but Lamia and Sky were left rather wanting at times, almost uncertain about what they were meant to do. The end came as Lamia pinned Skye followed a Suplex, just after Luscious had chased ref Lynskey around the ring.
Another advert for another Figure Four production next, The Best of Burchill in Premier Promotions. A damn good DVD. Get yourself a copy! No pirates in that one though!
Back to the action, with Dave Deardon, along with his manager She-Devil, taking on the Hardcore Goat. Just don’t ask me who came up with that name, okay? It’s basically a squash match here as Deardon displays an array of power moves on the stick-thin Goat, who continually kicks out of pin attempts, gets in a couple of moves, but is taken out with a couple of power bombs. Deardon looked okay here, but his bout with the Zebra Kid on “Show 2” was far better.
More shills from Figure Four, this time for Colt Cabana’s Shoot Interview. I haven’t seen this one yet, but it looks very interesting.
On to tag-team action, with the U.K. Pitbulls, accompanied by their manager Dean Ayass, taking on Jack Storm and Red Hellion, with the stipulation that if the Pitbulls lose, they and their manager must leave HEW. The Pitbulls use Hellion as a human punching bag, with brief appearances from Storm, but sadly the picture kept freezing, so it was difficult to follow some of the action, but I could just make out the big guys taking Hellion out with their trademark double power bomb.
Time to sell some more stuff, this time in the form of some 4FW DVDs. I wonder if Sam got paid for all of these adverts?
It’s a battle of the FWA Academy graduates next, with Aviv Mayaan going up against James Tighe. What looked like a good match on paper proved to be just as good in the ring, with both men putting on a great showing, pulling off some great moves, and Mayaan getting the victory after a 720 DDT. I’m really looking forward to seeing these two against each other again.
Yet more adverts, this time for the Chris Hero Shoot Interview. I’ve never been a fan of Hero for some reason. Don’t know why.
Time for the main event, tag-team action with the Kraft and Andy Simmons taking on Bash & Paul Travell, with a special stipulation – the winners will face each other in a number one contenders match, and then the winner of that match will face Ricky Knight in a last man standing match for the HEW title. I really can’t speak too highly about this match. A great bout that goes to show just how much Kraft and Simmons have improved as a team, and how good Bash and Travell are all round. Some great action in a match worthy of it’s main event spot, with Travell getting the win after a big splash off the top rope. Afterwards, Bash and Travell almost came to blows when they realised they would be facing each other for a title shot on the next show.
In conclusion – a couple of good release from HEW here, although not every bout was to my liking, but then again, you can’t have everything. Sam Knee seems to be heading in the right direction as far as HEW goes, and I’m sure we’ll hear a lot more from his company in the future. Production wise, I’ve already mentioned the freezing problems on a couple of the matches, so no need to harp on about them. The actual filming was good, but sadly, no commentary!
With thanks to Sam Knee for supplying copies of these DVDs. For more information on HEW, visit www.hew-wrestling.cjb.net.
