25th May, 2019 – Lokremise, St. Gallen, Switzerland

Switzerland. It’s not traditionally a hotbed of talent but over the years the cantons have produced a handful of decent workers when you count Ares, Castagnoli & Roudin of Swiss Money Holding and more recently the excellent junior-heavyweight Oliver Carter. Today we present a show from Swiss Championship Wrestling, who have been based in the German-speaking part of Switzerland since 2007 and is operated by Pascal Signer, better known from his early wXw work as SigMasta Rappo. The main theme of this show is crowning the first winner of the Rene Lasartesse Memorial Cup – honouring the Swiss catch wrestler who died in late 2018.

PRE SHOW: Rene Lasartesse Memorial Cup Qualifying Battle Royal

As is custom with a lot of these sorts of shows, we’ll begin with a 10-man battle royal – the winner of which gains access to the tournament later on. Everyone is in the ring from the start so it’s very difficult to tell who is who and there’s some terrible gear on show here. A lot of these guys are trainees or haven’t wrestled on any high level so I’ll just list a few notables; Ben Ornstein is a former boxer and has trained a bit in the wXw Academy. Sunshine Timothy is a regular with Athletik Club Wrestling over in Baden-Württemberg and looks a little bit like Jonathan Gresham because of his bushy beard and the fact he actually has some decent looking wrestling gear compared to the vast majority of the ring. Marrow looks slightly interesting – he’s got a goth/undead gimmick but a lot of that gets lost when you wander out to the ring with everyone else. Deadsaw is a domestic talent who is basically a big guy in camo gear and I can’t really say much beyond that. Hans von Krupp is a German from Alex Wright’s nEw promotion and is also a big guy in camo gear.

Anyway, Deadsaw wins this match after eliminating von Krupp after a big boot on the apron.

MATCH ONE: SCW Heavyweight Title: Accorus (c) vs. Marshal T

Our ‘proper’ opener is for the Heavyweight belt as well as being a first round match in the Memorial Cup. Marshal T is first out and he is working heel with a policeman gimmick. Marshal T hasn’t really wrestled outside of Switzerland at all barring a wXw show back in 2002. The defending champion is Accorus – whom I am led to believe also works as Hellvetic Warrior & Jamie Gardner elsewhere. He’s a bit more travelled than Marshal T having had a minor run in wXw in 2005 as well as working in Austria, Italy and the holiday camps with ASW!  Accorus is a big tattooed bruiser with a weird black and blue mask and an unexpectedly elaborate entrance.

📸 – https://www.facebook.com/swisswrestling/

The match gets underway but Accorus is immediately attacked whilst the referee is distracted by some goons on the payroll of Marshal T – allowing the policeman to win the title easily. This is literally less than a minute long.

MATCH TWO: Deadsaw vs. Kurt Simmons

Deadsaw is back! He actually gets an entrance this time so you can get a bit more of an idea as to what he’s about. Just kidding, he’s still a guy in camo gear. Next out is “The Swiss Rockstar” Kurt Simmons – he’s been wrestling since 2012 and is fairly well travelled on the low level European scene having worked the most in Portugal, Hungary and Ireland. Simmons has probably the best presence out of anyone on the show so far and works hard to get the crowd going. The vast majority of the match is Deadsaw pummelling Simmons until the face gets enough steam behind him for the comeback – where he knocks Deadsaw out with a ripcord elbow for the 1-2-3 and a spot in the final. Meh.

MATCH THREE: Boris Pain vs. Michael Kovac 

This match was meant to be Boris Pain vs. Demolition Davies but thankfully we’re spared from that experience. In Davies’ spot is Michael Kovac who is somewhat of a cult figure in the Central European wrestling underbelly. He’s been wrestling since the early 1990s and has been pretty much everywhere in that part of the world whilst also having a hand in training all of the big Austrian names over the last decade or so including WALTER, Avalanche and Julian Nero. In contrast, Boris Pain is approximately 21 years old and has mainly worked in nEw.

In this match Pain is effectively a doll that Kovac manipulates for a few minutes before getting the win. I’m not sure if this would have been better with Davies or not. Regardless, Kovac advances.

MATCH FOUR: Hektor vs. Ryan Tauga

Time for the final first round bout of the Memorial Cup. Hektor is better known as T-K-O who is an occasional job guy on wXw – he’s perfectly capable. There’s not much about Ryan Tauga online but he works a pacific islander gimmick. This match ends with Hektor hitting Tauga with a sitout powerbomb for the win. This is by far the best of the opening round from a workrate standpoint with some competent back and forth all the way through. Hektor is head and shoulders above everyone else though.

MATCH FIVE: SCW Tag Team Title: Brotherhood of Disordered Souls (Boombastic & Marrow) vs. Alrik & Skarin vs. Team WAR (Dante Yankee & Abou Kasseem)

I said earlier that Marrow would have benefited from a proper entrance and it was proven correct here. His act along with Boombastic is super corny but it’s a lot clearer that they’re undead ghouls when they’re coming out to hardcore music with flames whilst spitting blood everywhere. Alrik & Skarin are a pair of viking lads – War Machine lite. Team WAR represent Wrestling Academy Rorbas near Zürich and are a pair of gangster trainees?

The standard here is very low. Alrik & Skarin are eliminated first and shortly after Boombastic hits Kasseem with a cutter for the win. The Brotherhood win the vacant tag belts. Poor.

Shortly after the match we get a promo from Marc Roudin, formerly of Swiss Money Holding – who is being inducted into the prestigious SCW Hall Of Fame alongside Hansjörg Luginbühl (a notable Swiss wrestling photographer), Amy Cooper (a leading female worker who wrestled against Britani Knight regularly in the early 2010s) and Tribune – another worker from Switzerland.

MATCH SIX: SCW Ladies Title: Jessy Jay vs. Steffi Sky

Our co-main event sees the vacant Ladies championship up for grabs between two products of the nEw system. Jessy Jay comes out in a leather jacket and a shirt reading ‘FUCK FANS’ so you can tell she’s a white meat babyface. Steffi Sky has been wrestling for half a year at this point and is a former kickboxer. Unfortunately this match is abysmal and is further evidence that a lot of the women’s wrestling on the continent (barring a few exceptions) is being held up by workers who simply aren’t good enough. This match goes over ten minutes and there’s nothing good to say about it. Jessy Jay wins the match and the vacant title.

MAIN EVENT: Hektor vs. Kurt Simmons vs. Marshal T vs. Michael Kovac

Stay Rock N’ Roll, says Kurt Simmons!

The main event sees the final of the Rene Lasartesse Memorial Cup. The match begins with a wild brawl – Hektor and Kovac fight on the outside in and amongst the crowd. Unfortunately with only a single roaming camera you can’t see much of whats going on between Marshal T & Simmons – a blessing in disguise? Marshal T is shown up in this match – his elbow strikes are terrible. Simmons is the first to be eliminated after Hektor hits him with a powerbomb – allowing Marshal T to take a flash pinfall. Hektor is pissed off but Marshal T manages to convince him to team up against Kovac. Hektor goes for a elbow strike against a restrained Kovac but Marshal T gets caught by it instead. Kovac then rolls up the dumbfounded Hektor to take him out of the equation. Kovac is left with Marshal T and he’s about to give him a pasting before the goons from earlier run out to attack him. Marshal T looks to have him beat before Kovac kicks out of quite possibly the slowest count of all time. Marshal T gesticulates with the referee and knocks him down – making the goons come in to the ring. One of the goons gets a superkick for his trouble – the other getting a volley square in the plums. Kovac hits Marshal T with a pumphandle drop and a splash for the win.

Kovac celebrates with the trophy and cracks open a can of beer. A true champion.

All in all, this show wasn’t very good and I wouldn’t recommend watching it. Too many wrestlers on this show were booked well beyond their limits and the reaction from the audience (or lack thereof) was befitting of the product.

You can watch this show, along with several other SCW shows on their YouTube channel.

✏️ @MikeKilby