13th January, 2019 – Fight Factory Gym, Dublin, Ireland

A good crowd of 40 or so people made their way to North Dock in Dublin on a cold Sunday in January to start off 2019 on the right foot. Fight Factory Pro Wrestling put on a showcase of the next generation of talent that’s currently in training at the long-standing school. Before the show, FFPW coaches ran a “Fans do the Wrestles” training session allowing fans to get a taste of what pro wrestling is all about with a selection of drills. You might recognize a few familiar faces.

MATCH 1: Liam Royal vs. “The Flamboyant” Fabio

The show opened with Liam Royal taking the non working mic from Debbie Keitel (whom was the ring announcer for the show) and issuing an open challenge to any “skinny, scrawny cruiserweight” in the back. His challenge was answered by the ever impressive Fabio has come across with increased confidence since his debut on Episode 5. This was a really fun match with Royal leading the pace – you can really see why OTT have so much confidence in him. He’s in phenomenal shape and is able to pick up the younger, lighter Fabio with ease. Fabio had some impressive offense in this match – particularly impressive was his low height variation of a diamond cutter. His selling in this was also spot on. Royal eventually dominated his way to the win with a brutal looking sit-out powerbomb. A great little opener to get the fans warmed up and a great exhibition of two of Fight Factory’s brightest prospects.

MATCH 2: Dom Tuck (w/ Troy Mendous & Devon West) & Bella D vs. Darren Kearney & Amy Allonsy

Ah… the Midcard Mafia…

They were all over the first Next Gen show since debuting as a stable at Episode 6. I love how delusional they are when in essence – they’re the biggest dorks in Irish Wrestling (I say this in the nicest way possible). Bella D joins them for this match and was sporting Dom Tuck’s fetching cashmere cardigan. They faced what is arguably the wrestling equivalent of puppies and unicorns with the pairing of Darren Kearney & Amy Allonsy.

This mixed tag match was really the Dom Tuck Show with Tuck getting a lot of in-ring time here. He’s a great comedy foil and his selling is excellent. Bella D was in her second ever match here and got some nice sequences with Amy Allonsy. Bella D is in great shape and I was very impressed with her facial reactions. The match also featured a dab off between Tuck and Allonsy with Allonsy out dabbing Tuck in the end. The Midcard Mafia kept referee Tommy McNulty on his toes during this as they kept interjecting themselves and doing their best to give Dom Tuck the advantage. Darren and Amy overcame the numbers deficit and picked up the win after Darren nailed Tuck with a beautiful super kick and Amy followed up with a Scissors Kick to clinch it.

After the match, Dom got in Bella D’s face and pushed her which led the fiery Bella to take her gold glove off and thwack Tuck with a monstrous slap, which saw the Midcard Mafia leader being carried to the back by Devon West. Great stuff.

MATCH 3: ‘Sharkbait’ Adam Farrell vs. ‘The Master of East Wall’

‘Sharkbait’ Adam Farrell was one of the most entertaining prospects at the first Next Gen Show. He came armed with squeaky rubber sharks in his tights and proceeded to throw them at his opponents. It’s hard to fully describe his gimmick but you can’t help but love and root for the guy.

This show he came out with an additional shark hat but mercifully none of the sharks were involved in the match this time. His opponent was ‘The Master of East Wall’ who beared an uncanny resemblance to Owen Richards but had a long ‘pleather’ ring jacket and more of a beard. (Writers note: for the purpose of ease, I’m calling him MOE from here on in) This was a classic powerhouse vs. cruiserweight match with Sharkbait far more agile than MOE. In contrast, MOE got some very impressive power moves throwing Sharkbait around with ease. There was a nice little call to the Bret vs. Piper finish from Wrestlemania 8 with Sharkbait getting a near fall on MOE – however MOE underestimated his opponent and Sharkbait was able to grab the win with a roll up. Super fun match.

MATCH 4: Over the Top rope Battle Royale for the 2016 Clara Battle Royale plaque: Conor Daye (w/ Troy Mendous, Dom Tuck & Devon West) vs. CBL Over the Top rope Battle Royale for the 2016 Clara Battle Royale plaque

Oh great, more Midcard Mafia!

Conor Daye clings onto his win in the 2016 Clara Battle Royale so much so he felt robbed that he was never presented with anything to commemorate such an occasion at the time, so he had a badly put together plaque made for him and asked Katey Harvey to present it to him. Katey reluctantly agrees but while Daye is having his moment in the spotlight he’s interrupted by CBL. CBL has been great on these next Gen shows and was recently in a very good dark match against Mitch Baxter at the last Courage Wrestling show. He’s a country boy in the big smoke and is very proud to be from Longford.

CBL challenges Daye for the right to be called the 2016 Clara Battle Royale winner and we’ve got ourselves a Battle Royale! CBL took off his Longford GAA jersey to reveal his perfect tan but was jumped by Daye. CBL managed to throw Daye over the top rope early on but Referee Tommy says the match hasn’t started.

This was a really entertaining comedy match with some excellent crowd work from CBL and Daye. CBL pulled a ham sandwich from his trunks (wrapped in tin foil of course) early in the match and proceeded to eat it while locking up Daye. CBL had many attempts to win here with West and Mendous keeping Daye alive by catching and lifting him back onto the apron multiple times. Unfortunately for Daye, they got involved a few too many times and were booted out by the referee. However during all this Dom Tuck snuck from the crowd and helped Daye eliminate CBL by dragging him to the floor and allowing Daye to retain his 2016 Clara Battle Royale plaque.

MATCH 5: Club Rock Shandy (w/ Eoin Mason) vs. Justin Daniels & Big Rab

The Main Event of the show featured a different Club Rock Shandy than we are used to seeing. Accompanied by their manager Eoin Mason, they are louder, angrier and quite frankly a lot more mean compared to the Club Rock Shandy that fans have come to love. It’s refreshing to see Clong and Steers expand as characters as they really wouldn’t get this opportunity on an episode show or at Courage.

They were taking on the team of Big Rab and Justin Daniels who are teaming again after taking on More Than Hype at the previous Next Gen Show. I’ve spoke about Justin Daniels before and how much promise he has for a 14 year old. Big Rab is an intimidating figure at the age of 16 and my goodness is this kid talented!

This match was definitely worthy of the main event. Clong was initially terrified to go up against Rab even resorting to hiding behind members of the audience

. Steers considered himself the equal and was more than happy to try take Rab down. The match featured some excellent tag team wrestling from Club Rock Shandy who’ve really come into their own in the last year. Martin Steers who only made his debut at the end of 2017 seems so comfortable and confident in the ring. Clayton Long is one of the most animated wrestlers on the Irish scene. He’s nimble, fearless and got an impressive array of kicks.

One of the highlights of the match featured Rab and Daniels grabbing Steers and Clong on the outside and offering the crowd to chop Club Rock Shandy. What followed was a queue of wrestlers in attendance lining up to chop the hell out of the poor Rock Shandy boys. (Nathan Martin delivered the worst sounding chop for the record)

Club Rock Shandy eventually got some control in the match with Steers and Clong getting some quick tags and getting Big Rab onto his knees. Unfortunately for Rock Shandy, it wasn’t to last long. Big Rab and Justin Daniels had surprisingly good chemistry despite their lack of matches getting to deliver some impressive double tandem offense. Daniels has a level of confidence beyond his years and Rab is both strong and agile and delivered a picture perfect Samoan drop in this match that would make a Samoan blush. The young team were victorious after Eoin Mason got knocked to the floor after trying to interfere and Daniels landed a frog splash from the top to pick up the win.

Following the main event, Katey Harvey And LJ Cleary got into the ring to announce that Rab and Daniels would be features of the Fight Factory Episode shows going forward. After today it was easy to see why.

Overall Thoughts:

When heading to a gym show, you generally tailor your expectations as more often than not it’s the trainees getting their first matches and trying out gimmicks for the first time. Fight Factory have really bucked the trend here with the talent on show being incredibly advanced for wrestlers with less than 5 matches under their belts in some cases. The show delivered in spades. It’s mind blowing how talented the next generation coming through Fight Factory are. It’s safe to say that if the Irish scene lost More Than Hype, Valkyrie, Michael May overnight – there is a wealth of wrestlers ready to step up and prove that they are as good if not better and that they deserve a shot. Fight Factory Pro Wrestling’s motto is that: “Wrestlers Aren’t Born, They’re Manufactured”. It’s safe to say that Fight Factory are manufacturing some of the best talent in Europe right now and it’s incredibly exciting to watch them being built in front of you.

📝 @GaryonGraps