June 17, 2018 – Ringside Club, National Stadium, Dublin, Ireland

The OTT Contender brand has reached its Tenth show and thus decided to add some international flair to proceedings, with Japan’s Naoki Tanazaki, England’s Dan Magee and the United States’ Evil Uno all making their OTT debuts.

Aonghus and Don welcome us to the show and Aonghus announces that Michael May picked up a minor shoulder injury at the FFPW show on Friday and is off the card. His stablemate Curtis Murray will take his place against RevPro Contender Dan Magee.

MATCH 1: Jordan Devlin vs. Nathan Martin vs. Scotty Davis

In a bit of a shakeup, Jordan Devlin is opening tonight’s show due to some big event happening in the Royal Albert Hall. This match was eagerly anticipated as it pitted the reigning OTT Heavyweight Champion against two of the main standouts of the Contenders division; Nathan Martin representing More Than Hype and Scotty Davis representing Legit 100.

This was a quick sprint with Nathan and Scotty getting to work a few minutes alone while Jordan recovered outside the ring after an initial three way lock up.

It’s unbelievable to think that Nathan had his first Match just over a year ago. His confidence is definitely showing and he’s starting to add some impressive offence to his already strong fundamentals. Nathan gets a fair bit of fire during this and unleashes “Psycho Nathan” on Devlin and Davis to the delight of the crowd.

Not to take away from Davis in this match, he also had a great showing and showed a fair bit more intensity than in previous outings. Davis is still one of the main standouts of the Irish scene and as soon as he’s finished school (yes that’s not a typo) he’ll be everywhere.

Bit unfair to go from Exams to facing the OTT World Champ.

Jordan eventually picked up the win with the Package Piledriver on Nathan. Really good match overall and a great opener but with just enough to leave you wanting more between these three. Definitely a future OTT main event down the line.

After the match, Devlin addressed Mark Haskins and his comments made on Twitter in relation to the Golden Briefcase.

Devlin called out Haskins to face him one on one in the ring at the next Tivoli show in July.

MATCH 2: Raven Creed vs. Amy Allonsy


A return for both ladies here at Contenders with this match being set up in a pre-recorded backstage segment before the show.

Amy Allonsy hasn’t been on Contenders since Contenders 3 where she took the loss in a Tag Team match teaming with Session Moth Martina against Debbie Keitel and Harlow O’Hara.

 This doesn’t mean she hasn’t been applying her craft as she’s been a fixture of the Wrestling.ie touring brand and gaining valuable experience.

 Raven Creed is making her first OTT appearance since the Defiant all women’s show in April this year where she really impressed in front of the raucous Tivoli crowd.

The time away Allonsy had to improve on her fundamentals in the ring have definitely shown and while she’s not the finished product by any means, she’s on the right track. Raven is more of a finished product having a lot more experience and defined character.

Raven spent most of the match dominating Allonsy in the corners trying to get a reaction out of her. Allonsy got a bit of offense in which looked a lot crisper than before and she got the crowd behind her especially the younger kids. A few sat behind me were willing Amy to “punch her (Raven)” In the end however Amy’s efforts were not enough with Raven picking up the win in a convincing fashion.

MATCH 3: Rough Stuff vs. The Armstrongs



Our next match saw the continuation of the CCW Tag Team Title feud with the team of Rough Stuff taking on The Armstrongs.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the debuts of either teams at the last Contenders shows. Rough Stuff had a losing effort to Kings of the North and The Armstrongs were on the losing end to the Angel Cruzers. The Armstrongs were outclassed in comedy by the Cruzers and Rough Stuff paled in comparison to the Kings. This match would hopefully give both teams a chance to show exactly what they can do.

 The match had a bit of a build to it with some entertaining promos from Marion Armstrong on social media featuring him singing about beating Rough Stuff while playing the Ukulele.

This was a relatively short match with the Armstrongs getting more of a chance to show some character in here. Rough Stuff got in their power moves and looked dominant when they needed to. Butch Armstrong took a majority of the Punishment during this.

The finish came as Marion called on Butch to tune the Ukulele but Paul Scariff intercepted and ended up whacking Marion over the back with it which sounded horrible allowing Rough stuff to pick up the win.
I’m still not 100% sold on Rough Stuff just yet, I’m hoping that changes as OTT could do well with a bolstered Tag Team division. A solid match though between the two teams and I hope the Armstrongs get a return at some point. With the right build, they could be something special in OTT.

MATCH 4: Dan Magee vs. Curtis Murray

I was very excited for Dan Magee vs. Michael May as I thought the two would have a very good technical match, with Magee matching May’s rise while as a part of Revolution Pro Wrestling’s contender’s division in the UK. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned injury to May it was not to be but we got Legit 100’s Aviator as a substitute instead. One thing I have to mention is Curtis having the Legit 100 flag now as a cape on his ring jacket – nice touch!

This was a very technical match which is something we’re not too accustomed to seeing Curtis Murray in. There was a massive size difference between the two men with Magee towering over Curtis at points. Curtis had a very nasty spill onto the outside towards the end of the match with Murray clutching his lower back when he came back into the ring. Curtis managed to get the win here with a roll up on Magee.

This was a solid match from both men. It was my first time seeing Dan Magee and I can see why Michael May was chosen as his initial opponent, stylistically they’re very similar. First impressions though were quite good and I would like to see Magee return at some point in the future.

MATCH 5: Club Tropicana vs. Chantelle Mantelle/Session Moth Martina vs. More Than Hype (LJ Cleary & Darren Kearney)

The first half of the show was rounded out by the three way Tag Team match and what turned out to be a battle for the heart of the elusive Chantelle Mantelle.

Club Tropicana have been one of Contenders shows stand out acts with their comedy with the team of Aiden & Captain Sexsea being joined by Jose Idle as their personal ring announcer. The acts popularity led to a massive reaction in the Tivoli when the Captain made his appearance in the infamous OTT Royal Rumble at A Haven for Monsters (first and only entrant with the longest and shortest time in the match).

We also get the less regular More Than Hype pairing with LJ Cleary joining the usual suspect in Darren Kearney. LJ has already shown his comedy chops with Darren coming out of his shell more in recent shows. Darren came to the ring with a Canadian flag in homage to his stay in Lance Storm’s Wrestling Academy last year.

This is a Contenders Return for Session Moth Martina after grinding on Japan during the last Stardom tour. She’s out sporting a new attire (of course featuring leopard print) with the tall, mysterious Chantelle Mantelle both in matching leopard print.

The match centered around each man vying for Chantelle’s attention and affection while avoiding Session Moth at all costs.

At one point, Chantelle had all men in the ring including Jordan Devlin and OTT colour commentator Don Marnell in the ring pleading with her for her love. As soon as the attention seeking Session Moth came in all men fled. 

In the end, Darren Kearney caught on to Chantelle’s true identity and pulled down her face mask to reveal the familiar beard of B Cool, Chantelle then kissed Darren which led to Aiden from Tropicana rolling up Darren for the three. A second win for the Tropicana boys in recent shows.

This match was side achingly funny and if you’ve like OTT comedy matches before this will be right up your alley.

MATCH 6: Sean “Maxer” Guinness vs. Naoki Tanazaki

One of the headline matches of this card pitted the recently returned Sean “Maxer” Guinness against Dove Pro’s Naoki Tanazaki. Tanazaki is currently in the midst of a UK tour set up by UK Veteran Martin Kirby, having made his UK debut midweek representing Japan in the PROGRESS World Cup.
This started very chivalrous between both men until Tanazaki started to use some heel tactics such as raking Maxer’s eyes. Tanazaki’s facials during this match were incredible and a wonder to behold live.

Maxer is in a class of his own and the Irish fans are lucky to have him during his current excursion home before he heads back to Zero1 in the fall.

Maxer picked up the win by getting the better of Tanazaki in a pinning sequence. Excellent match between the two and definitely match of the night. After the match, Maxer challenged Tanazaki to a rematch before they toasted a drink to each other with Don Marnell.

MATCH 7: NLW Title: Terry Thatcher vs. Evil Uno.



The Main Event featured Terry Thatcher’s first defence of the NLW title against Evil Uno. This was the first time I’ve seen Uno live and he’s got an intimidating presence. He dwarfed Terry in height and size which made this bout a real David vs. Goliath contest.

Terry Thatcher; the 13 year veteran has completely reinvented himself from the man who appeared in OTT back in 2016. The “Temple Bar Bad Boy” has become the perennial underdog and his ability to take punishment and risk everything has made him a massive fan favourite amongst the OTT faithful.

Terry took a lot of punishment this match from Uno who dominated him early with Vicious chops. The men brawled to the outside but Terry ended up being tombstoned outside the ring on the hard wood floor.

Evil Uno continued to lay the punishment on Terry for most of this match until Terry managed to get his comeback and following a 450 Splash, Macho Man Elbow and De-Thatched Terry put away Uno to retain.

This was a good match overall with Thatcher doing the things he does best, gain sympathy from the crowd and sell like a Motherfucker.

 

Final Thoughts:

A good show overall for OTT Contenders with some welcome returns and impressive debuts. It perhaps wasn’t on par with the Return Hangover Show following Scrappermania but by no means was this a bad show. The Contenders brand still is a highlight each month with the more relaxed family friendly atmosphere creating something unique compared with the Tivoli.
 If you catch anything from this show, make sure it’s either the three-way opener or Guinness vs. Tanizaki.

✏️ @GaryOnGraps

You can check out this show when it drops on OTTonDemand.com shortly and check out a selection of OTT’s past shows as well as additional content from Revolution Pro, Pro Wrestling EVE and Riptide Wrestling.