Broadcast 22nd March, 2020 – WAW House, Norwich, England

In terms of the wider British scene, Norfolk may as well be its own foreign market with very little crossover into the rest of the country barring Kip Sabian and Ricky Knight Jr. Harking back to the “good old days of British Wrestling” – the World Association of Wrestling is one of those eccentric promotions that will live forever – the metaphorical nuclear cockroach when it all goes tits up. Which brings us to this show! Just before the whole social distancing thing started being followed in the UK, WAW – much like WWE, AEW, DDT and… WrestleTalk? – decided to bring us a closed arena card from the very grand sounding WAW House.

MATCH ONE: Jaiden Docwra vs. Aaron O’Malley

Docwra is one of the many WAW trainees on this card and has only ever really worked for them barring the odd ASW appearance. O’Malley works almost exclusively in Australia with New Horizon Pro Wrestling although he had a brief run in the UK in 2018 with WAW and Wrestling League. Early on in the show we see some of the odd rules that WAW follow; firstly a O’Malley sunset flip pin attempt is ignored by the referee as the move originated from outside the ring and secondly Docwra picks up a ‘public warning’ for ignoring a rope break (no five count here!). “It’s like football, you get a yellow card, then a second and then on your third you’re gone.” Uh, no.

Fundamentally these lads are both okay but they seem limited by the very small ring in the poky WAW House. Docwra wins with a F-5 type manoeuvre.

MATCH TWO: Mitchell Starr vs. Keegan

A clash of champions is up next! Mitchell Starr (no relation to David or Addy) is a nine-year veteran from Leeds who has worked a handful of times in France and Norway of all places alongside his WAW commitments – where he is one half of the tag team champions. He works with a flamboyant gimmick which reminds me a lot of Mot van Kunder which is always a good thing. Keegan is anything but flamboyant – he’s a big bruiser and their British Heavyweight Champion. Not very much to say about this one in all honesty – Starr doesn’t really lean into his gimmick very much which seems somewhat of a mistake when neither men are particularly impressive in the ring. Starr wins with a neckbreaker. Yawn.

MATCH THREE: Leia Elise vs. Vanessa

This match is a guest presentation from Bellatrix (the all-female promotion within the Norwich wrestling universe) and is announced as being a number one contender’s bout for the Bellatrix European Championship. Leia Elise is a powerhouse from Norwich (paying tribute to Lotus Cars with her surname!) and has been working for over 7 years but once again has barely featured away from WAW/Bellatrix. Vanessa is another WAW trainee but has only been working for about 18 months. Elise is working heel and is quite impressive in this role. Both her and Vanessa seem to work well despite there being no crowd. Elise gets the win with a schoolboy pin. The best match so far – both girls are promising workers and would definitely fit in with a company like a GWF, Rev Pro or EVE.

Ricky Knight Jr. is out for an in-ring promo and he’s wearing a bizarre one-armed camouflage button shirt. What’s that about? He cuts a promo on coronavirus and issues a non-title open challenge.

MATCH FOUR: Ricky Knight Jr. vs. Zak Knight

Answering the challenge is RKJ’s uncle Zak Knight. In the WAW canon Zak is a first rate hall of famer so this gets built up massively by the commentary team (including his father Ricky Knight Sr.). RKJ is the real star here however and is for sure the man to be building the company around in the coming years – his run in Rev Pro can only be good for him. This is a bit of a long and drawn out match. The draconian ruleset that WAW works to doesn’t really suit RKJ because he relies so much on the high-flying spots therefore half of his pin attempts aren’t legal. Whilst it’s admirable that he continues to work for his family company, a talent such as him is crying out for more opportunities and matches with better workers than he has in WAW. Anyway, this long match ends with a weird double KO finish after RKJ clonks heads with Zak from the top rope.

MATCH FIVE: Saraya Knight, Karama & Trai-Cie vs. Fifi, TJ & Fiona

Bellatrix gets a second guest match with the Matriarch Saraya Knight showcasing several of her trained girls. Unfortunately there’s not much information online about these people bar Saraya – so we can assume they’ve not worked elsewhere. It’s worth noting that Fifi is the Academy champion. We run to elimination rules which makes this fairly dreadful match last even longer. Trai-Cie is eliminated first by Fifi. Fiona is next out after an admittedly quite impressive submission from Karama. Next out is TJ who succumbs to a Mexican Stretch from Saraya. Finally, Fifa submits to Saraya’s cradle lock. TJ & Fiona looked incredibly nervous in this match, Trai-Cie was pretty terrible but Karama was fairly charismatic and had some interesting offences. Moving on.

MATCH SIX: James Chilvers vs. Roy Knight

This is a bit of an oddity as WAW legend Roy Knight takes on shoot blind wrestler James Chilvers. Apparently he is featured in the Fighting With My Family film but I haven’t seen it unfortunately. This is predictably not brilliant but obviously there are a few limitations to consider – it was a short match at least. The match gets ruled a no contest when they’re both jumped by SAS and Sam Santari (from Finland!) – who are both quickly dealt with by Knight.

MATCH SEVEN: WAW U23 Championship: The Mummy vs. Dylan Slade (c)

You can’t have a wrestler like The Mummy and not take a screenshot. The Mummy is apparently less than 23 years old but is rotting – perhaps he should improve his skincare regimen. I love gimmicks like this where you don’t know who is under the mask – is it a trainee? is it Chuck Mambo? is it Will Ospreay? Well it’s unlikely to be the latter two but it’s nice to dream. There’s not really anything interesting to write about Dylan Slade unfortunately. The match that follows is mediocre at best – with Slade sadly retaining the belt with a GTS.

MAIN EVENT: WAW European Championship: PJ Knight vs. Brad Slayer

The youngest of the Knight dynasty is in the main event taking on Brad Slayer – who shockingly has actually worked outside of WAW! Slayer has worked a little bit in the provincial towns for Rev Pro as well as being a part of ITV’s WOS Wrestling. Having won the other major titles in WAW, Slayer stands to become a Grand Slam champion if he takes the gold in this match whereas this would be Knight’s first WAW major.

By WAW standards, this is a decent enough bout. Slayer has the air of being a good solid reliable hand whilst PJ Knight is another promising prospect, much like his cousin Ricky Jr. Slayer looks like he has the match won when he has PJ trapped in his ankle lock but he’s distracted by RKJ who emerges from the back of the room – allowing PJ to hit Slayer with a low blow and a piledriver for the 1-2-3.

PJ Knight joins his cousin Ricky Knight Jr. in the Art of Wrestling faction and with it is now the new European Champion. Death, Taxes and the Knights go over.

In conclusion – nothing here will be troubling any spreadsheets but it’s always interesting to peak behind the mustard curtain and see what’s going on.

WAW Hard Times is available to watch for FREE on YouTube.

 

✏️ @MikeKilby