BRM Reviews RevPro Live at the Cockpit 15

[Big Red Machine]

RPW Live at the Cockpit 15 (4/9/2017)- Marleybone, Greater London, UK

ROB LIAS vs. EDDIE DENNIS- 4.5/10
Dennis out-wrestled Lias so Lias resorted to dirty tricks to beat him.

DAN MAGEE vs. LORD GIDEON GREY- 4.25/10
Lord Gideon is still depressed, even after having finally gotten his revenge on Hornswoggle last weekend in Orlando. Rob Lias came out to distract Magee, and while the distraction didn’t cost Magee the match, he still lost anyway.

JINNY PROMO- this was fine, but Jinny is usually much better.

JINNY vs. TONI STORM- 6.5/10
They had a good babyface vs heel match that went off the rails a bit when Jinny tied Toni’s arms up with a big plastic garbage bag and then rubbed lipstick all over her face. That’s the sort of thing that makes for a great angle, but shouldn’t be allowed during a match. This did lead to Toni firing up and making her comeback, but it still didn’t make sense for it to be allowed during the match. Jinny had to cheat to beat Toni and they built up to the finish very well. Hindsight being twenty-twenty, I think they could have had something with these two but they never really followed up on it, instead opting to fill out the rest of the year with random women’s matches rather than telling any sort of story in the division other than “Jinny is mean and also undefeated.”

WILL OSPREAY & BUBBLEGUM vs. JOSH BODOM & ZACK GIBSON- 8.25/10
Lots of awesome, athletic tag team action with everyone working the head. Bubbglegum got the surprising pin on Bodom, and Bodom kicking out at 3.1 made it feel even more like an upset by making it seem like it was something that shouldn’t have beaten Bodom, but did. Hopefully Ospreay wasn’t too hurt after this because his body looked like it took quite a beating here.

MARTIN STONE vs. LUKE PHOENIX- 6.5/10
Luke Phoenix was billed as “Luke ‘Dragon’ Phoenix.” DUDE. Your last name is already the name of a mythical creature. You don’t need to add the name of another one in the middle to make yourself sound cool. Phoenix worked the arm while Stone worked the head. Good head and a good little comeback, but Stone got the win after his dumb spot where he grabs his opponent’s nuts right in front of the referee and it isn’t a DQ, then the rope-hung DDT.

MARTIN STONE PROMO- bad. Why are you cutting a babyface promo if you just cheated to win a match! And don’t start talking to me about how much you respect this guy if you just grabbed his testicles! And why is the crowd eating up his bullsh*t? Why is it so hard for guys to just be heels and stay heels after the match ends?!

STONE & CCK SEGMENT- Stone calls out Sami Callihan for a match at Thursday’s Epic Encounter 2017. CCK came out and Brookes went totally heel on Stone, calling him “granddad” (which was a great line) and telling him that no one cares about his “sob stories” and “failed endeavors.” He said that CCK don’t have a match booked for Epic Encounter yet and they want one, so there is no room on the card for Stone and Callihan to have their match. What the hell is wrong with RevPro’s management that the freakin’ tag champs aren’t booked on a major show four days out?
Brookes continues to say mean things to Stone until Stone can take it no more and attacks… Travis Banks? Dude! Banks hasn’t said a single word to you? Why are you going at him instead of the guy saying the mean things?
Shockingly, Stone manages to fight off the tag champs despite having just wrestled a match while they are fresh and despite there being one of him and two of them. He then challenges CCK to take on the team of him and Sami Callihan at Epic Encounter. This would have been a good segment if Stone hadn’t been a total heel during his match just a few minutes ago.

SHA SAMUELS vs. RJ SINGH- 4/10
Samuels jumps Singh from behind to start things off. Singh was a fine babyface, but ultimately his purpose was to be a guy that James Castle could interfere against Samuels on behalf of. Samuels cut a promo after the match demanding a match against Castle.

RPW BRITISH TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: CCK(c) vs. Ryan Smile & Shane Strickland- 7.5/10
This was a lot more of a spotfest than what you would usually see from either CCK or Smile, but I was perfectly fine with that exactly because they’re not doing spotfests in every match. Smile in particular could just make his living doing that, but he usually doesn’t, so enjoyed the break from the usual babyface in peril story here in exchange for a more even match where both teams get the chance to go on offense for a while.

This was a decent little show from RevPro that, in hindsight, feels like a prototypical Cockpit show for 2017. The contenders have decent matches for the time their given but nothing standout, Jinny beating some other woman also delivering well for the time it got but not being standout, and Josh Bodom and CCK really being the ones to hold down the fort while some combination of Zack, Scurll, and Ospreay (and usually at least two out of the three) are off working on a different continent that weekend. It was an enjoyable watch, but nothing great.