ICW deserves a thread on its own (have I missed it)

[diamond_for_life]

Actually really looking forward to this tonight not a clue who the winner could be anyone any predictions? I am really starting to like the fite network Lou King Sharp impressed me last year at the square go too wouldn’t mind seeing them winning other than that can’t say I’m fussed about who wins. 

Also just found out today our seating tickets gets us early entry at 6pm and there is a bonus match. Absolute bonus ball that we are not stuck queuing too me. 
 

 

[cb_diamond]

2 minutes ago, diamond_for_life said:

Actually really looking forward to this tonight not a clue who the winner could be anyone any predictions? I am really starting to like the fite network Lou King Sharp impressed me last year at the square go too wouldn’t mind seeing them winning other than that can’t say I’m fussed about who wins. 

Also just found out today our seating tickets gets us early entry at 6pm and there is a bonus match. Absolute bonus ball that we are not stuck queuing too me. 
 

 

I mind a couple of years ago LKS went on a tear in the Square Go match and was in for an age, getting a good few eliminations in the process. He's a cracking wee worker. Also glad to see they have went back to one night only for Shugs this year and have got this weekender shite in the bin. It was an awful, awful idea.

Edited February 2, 2020 by cb_diamond

[diamond_for_life]

17 minutes ago, cb_diamond said:

I mind a couple of years ago LKS went on a tear in the Square Go match and was in for an age, getting a good few eliminations in the process. He's a cracking wee worker. Also glad to see they have went back to one night only for Shugs this year and have got this weekender shite in the bin. It was an awful, awful idea.

I was never a fan of weekends events as I simply couldn’t do both and one night always seemed far better than the other. 
 

You going tonight mate?

[cb_diamond]

28 minutes ago, diamond_for_life said:

I was never a fan of weekends events as I simply couldn’t do both and one night always seemed far better than the other. 
 

You going tonight mate?

I'm not tonight, not been going at all recently, although a one night Shugs will more than likely see me make the effort as it has fell slap bang on the middle of my holiday weeks from work!

[airdrieman]

5 hours ago, diamond_for_life said:

Actually really looking forward to this tonight not a clue who the winner could be anyone any predictions? I am really starting to like the fite network Lou King Sharp impressed me last year at the square go too wouldn’t mind seeing them winning other than that can’t say I’m fussed about who wins. 

Also just found out today our seating tickets gets us early entry at 6pm and there is a bonus match. Absolute bonus ball that we are not stuck queuing too me. 
 

 

Looking forward to it too. Can't beat a Rumble really and the under-card is good too. Not sure who'll win it either, though if I had to say I'd go for Andy WIld - which I'd be absolutely delighted with. No obvious winner. Leyton might have been a shout but he seems to be doing his thing with the Zero-G atm. I'm a bit annoyed the early entry match is the Woke Queens tag match as that had been one of the ones I'd been most looking forward to seeing  But it is what it is.

5 hours ago, cb_diamond said:

I mind a couple of years ago LKS went on a tear in the Square Go match and was in for an age, getting a good few eliminations in the process. He's a cracking wee worker. Also glad to see they have went back to one night only for Shugs this year and have got this weekender shite in the bin. It was an awful, awful idea.

LKS and the Fite Network are brilliant. Hope it's a big year for them. 

Didn't know that about Shug's but that's good news. I did the two nights for the first time this year and while I enjoyed it, it is a lot of effort. Should make the card a bit tighter too. 

[cb_diamond]

3 hours ago, airdrieman said:

Looking forward to it too. Can't beat a Rumble really and the under-card is good too. Not sure who'll win it either, though if I had to say I'd go for Andy WIld - which I'd be absolutely delighted with. No obvious winner. Leyton might have been a shout but he seems to be doing his thing with the Zero-G atm. I'm a bit annoyed the early entry match is the Woke Queens tag match as that had been one of the ones I'd been most looking forward to seeing  But it is what it is.

Should make the card a bit tighter too. 

This is absolutely the main thing for me, all of the two night cards have been good in places and absolute filler in others. Their talent pool isn't nearly deep enough for the best part of 20 matches currently.

[Ira Gaines]

Pretty sure they have it on one night to have it around the same time, which happens to be the same weekend as NXT UK on the Friday and Saturday. I'd imagine it'd return to a two nighter for Fear and Loathing, depending on if the same thing happens.

I'm kinda hoping they're testing the water next month for possibly having Fear and Loathing in Newcastle though. O2 Newcastle is an exciting venue and a one night big show down there should be a great time. The Square Go doon there was outstanding.

 

[diamond_for_life]

Well I take it back . Some folk might be happy but with that tonight I’m done again. 
 

Won’t post anything till tomorrow to let folk catch on up on results and what not but it’s the same old pish for me. 

[cb_diamond]

5 minutes ago, diamond_for_life said:

Well I take it back . Some folk might be happy but with that tonight I’m done again. 
 

Won’t post anything till tomorrow to let folk catch on up on results and what not but it’s the same old pish for me. 

The results of the last match and the square go are

[Ira Gaines]

There's one result in particular that has me utterly gobsmacked. Everything else I can understand even if I was hoping for something different.

[diamond_for_life]

10 minutes ago, cb_diamond said:

The results of the last match and the square go are

Aye mate will rant more tomorrow. Blame myself for getting hyped but it honestly couldn’t have been any flatter by the end. The place couldn’t care any less if you wanted them too. 

[diamond_for_life]

My take on last night

Spoiler

So the early match was the women’s tag match. I had no idea who the WokeQueens were but I enjoyed the match with KLR being the obvious stand out. This left me quite optimistic for the rest of the night. 

 

First match up and seemingly to the dismay of the crowd ICW turn Buzzard heal again with him talking about how he is winner, we are all losers and how he played everyone as fools. He then loses the title to a low blow. Don’t understand the point in this myself but I really like Liam Thomson and I’m not really invested in Leyton so was nice to see Liam win. 

 

Then onto the women’s title match and I’m probably going to seem harsh but I just wasn’t impressed at all. They just simply looked off the pace and you can clearly see the difference in quality after watching previous women’s title matches over the years. 

 

Delighted for fite network. That’s the result I wanted. Had absolutely no idea what was happening for most of it as the screens didn’t work till the end but delighted. Then out comes Kenny Williams and Mark Coffey who I guess are now a thing. What a waste of Coffey an absolute star to me who never gets the chance to shine. 

 

The world title match was a decent match and I love watching Stevie Boy and how far he has come. Sadly I just don’t take to Supernova 11 don’t know why as he is obviously talented just not for me. Knew he was winning from the moment Davie interfered and although not a bad match at all just not one for me. 

 

The square go f**k me what an absolute wreck of an event. We have the fans chanting we are the people to that absolutely ridiculous gimmick. Then we get a trio I’m assuming from N.Ireland wearing the red hand of ulster on their gear with one of them actually having a red glove on one hand. Call me a snowflake or whatever but I’ve absolutely no fucking time for that in wrestling the atmosphere was not nice where we were. Then cue another jump in from a team covering their faces. Was the power forwards last year and it was the young team this year. Not original at all. Cue Dallas yet again apologising to someone for making an arse of things. Joe Hendry last year and Kid Fite yesterday. He seems like the most powerless owner in storylines I’ve ever seen. Then the choice of winner f**k me the place was dead after it absolute dead. No one could care any less if they tried. A few fun spots in it but that was probably my worst Square Go event and my first one Dickie Divers won ffs. 

 

Trent was a nice surprise for me and it was really good seeing him back in an ICW ring. Other than that though nothing surprised me and there is some rite wastes in it. Could have easily taken 10-12 of them out and not batted an eyelid. 

 

The only 2 pluses for me was despite reading about how much a p***k he was (don’t know the first thing about him so apologies if I’m badly wrong here) Callaghan was good I enjoyed watching him and BT Gunn. Also the return of DCT (would not have recognised him) and the return of Jackie Polo. The spot with them was cracking. A complete contrast of the characters they were the last time they met in an ICW ring. This was my favourite part of the night tbh.

just flicked through it again on demand and the reaction to the square go is shocking. Tells you all you need to know

[Ira Gaines]

The reaction to much of it was pretty shite. There was stuff the fans tried to get into but were kind of muttering away, and there was genuinely good moments, but ultimately, it seemed to fall flat.

I find what's happened to Leyton Buzzard a bit off. He was building momentum, won the Zero G and was a genuinely likeable and brilliant wrestler. He then turns heel and loses the belt and that momentum just disappears in an instant. Now... the match was REALLY good I thought. Not as good as their screamer at Gonzo but never expected it to be given their respective places on each card, and as said, Liam Thomson is great, so I'm not necessarily against him winning the belt.

I was RIGHT into the women's match for the first half of it. I thought we were just getting a bit of a spring where both women just kick f**k out of each other, and I was definitely enjoying it. But the pace was such that, when it did slow down, the momentum was gone and it lost me. A shorter match keeping the same pace and I'd have been a big big fan of this. Aivil has been good in these types of brawl.

The tag title match... hmm. Loads of crowd brawling, which I hate, but cracking moments sprinkled among it. The bin getting demolished over the head of Krobar was good, as was them brawling past the unsuspecting folk having their dinner. But the cut out in action meant that it was impossible to stay invested which is a shame. But the genuinely big reaction for the Fite Network was good, and I like the idea of them vs. Coffey and Kenny.

As a sidenote, the callback to Lou King Sharp bamming up Krobar for being an idiot was a glorious wee bit, when Krobar stupidly locked himself out of the match.

I loved the title match. Another one where I didn't like the result, but only because I thought Stevie should have had it longer. But he can get that momentum back as he's established enough, so I'm okay with that, and both guys managed to eventually get this audience to give a f**k which was no mean feat on this show.

Kez Evans getting the case is no issue for me in the same way as Noam winning wasn't an issue. If it goes sideways they'll just shift the case away like they did with Divers first time around. But something that annoys me with Kez Evans is the way he's been treated since he started. His momentum has continued from the very beginning and uninterrupted. I've said I like Kez Evans, and think he's a good talent, but he hasn't connected in nearly the same way as the guy who had every bit of momentum took in the opening match.

On a positive note, Bad Company vs. OI4K could have potential. We're clearly going to see a lot of Sami and the Crists, which means we're going to start seeing Sami in particular in full "big match" mode. Which definitely has me more interested in him. Kid Fite getting to close the Go on the way out was a good touch which is well earned for one of the absolute pillars of wrestling in this country.

Love Callihan's mic work and always have. It's corny as f**k but his delivery matches it and it works a charm. And him closing his vest back over after getting chopped was great. That Govan Team in the masks thing has been going on for ages. They're neds covering their faces attacking folk. It's not even remotely the same thing as Power Forward. I thought the match flowed well in front of the usual kinda dead sounding crowd. The problem with an ICW crowd is, you're either over or you're not. So it'll either be a great crowd or a dead one. No middle ground.

DCT and Jackie is a hell of a rivalry going forward.

There's definitely a decent show here. Two damn good title matches, a pretty decent one, and a video problem destroyed one, a good segment and a Square Go which definitely kept my interest for the substantial time it was on. But much like the rest of the post FNL stuff, it's falling kinda flat.

[cb_diamond]

Two days later and I still can't get over how shite the square go winner is. Could literally only be worse if Aaron Echo won it

[airdrieman]

Don't get the Leyton heel turn at all. Guy was the most over babyface in the company and had a ton of momentum (which had albeit slumped somewhat after last year's Shug's) then he randomly turns heel with no build up or for any real reason at all except the tired "screw the fans" shtick? Baffling stuff. The match was decent, and I'm not opposed to Liam winning the belt, but not sure where Leyton goes from here bar shuffling around the mid-card again for months with no rhyme or reason. He's better than that. 

Buzzing to see Jackie back. He's their best wrestler in between the ropes and at carrying a storyline IMO. Him and DCT should have a scorching rivalry. Like both their new looks. 

RE the women's title match - I really like both women who were in the match. And the match itself was technically fine. But I, and I think the majority of the crowd, struggled to get into it (though I really wanted to). I don't blame Isla or Aivil though. It's hard to build a compelling match and/or storyline when the company clearly doesn't give a f**k about its women's division. What was the story going into this? When was the last interesting or important thing that happened in the ICW women's division that did not involve Viper or KLR (both of whom should only ever be around now if or when they're going to put new talent over)? Take the pre-show match too. The Woke Queens have a great gimmick that is over everywhere they go. But there's no build up, vignettes, angles or anything from ICW to tell the fans who they are, what their gimmick is or what their goals in ICW are. Resulting in the majority of the crowd not having a clue who they are by all accounts. In fairness I think they are trying  to make their women's division more interesting with booking Angel Hayze, Isla Dawn, the Woke Queens and Molly Spartan, at the next Fight Club, but you need to give them actual storylines and give the crowd reasons to give a f**k or to be interested in seeing them. It's really not hard to do this stuff. 

I enjoyed the tag title match. Was the usual chaotic crowd-brawling sort of stuff but I am always a sucker for it and it fits ICW's aesthetic perfectly. Not sure SWG3 is the best venue for it though? That's twice (?) now the feed has cut off for a large section of the match at that venue and it's not really on. If/when they work that venue again they need to either cut that spot out or make sure that the feed is going to actually work. Tremendous callback to Krobar being referred to as a big idiot when he locked himself outside  Fite Network fully deserve the win. They're a great team with fantastic chemistry, good in the ring and are highly entertaining. They've worked hard for it so I hope they enjoy a long and decent reign. Them against Mark Coffey and Kenny Williams should be good but my only concern is that they won't be around often enough to have a proper feud. ICW have suffered from that in the past with NXT UK talent and it would be a waste considering how stacked the tag division is. 

The world title match was definitely the match of the night. Was shocked at the result, and gutted for Stevie Boy (I really thought he was going to have a much longer reign) but I am intrigued to see where Stevie goes from here and where Noam and his title reign goes. I like Noam, and again, I'm not opposed to him having the title, but as above my only concern would be that he's not going to be around often enough to have a proper title reign so to speak. I know that they've said he's 'back' but he'll still have NXT/UK commitments surely? That really fucked over Joe Coffey's Zero-G reign and I can't imagine ICW will have first dibs on him even if he is their champion. The match was good but the atmosphere still felt a bit flat for it. Not sure why as you'd expect a match with these two to be as over as anything in ICW. Davey's interference was definitely a miss too. 

I'm happy that Kez won the Square Go. I'm a big fan of his and the match should really be about building new stars which this year will do exactly that hopefully. The whole thing definitely felt flat though. Don't know if that was because of a few wasted spots (Craig Anthony, Thatcher Wright and Luca de Pazzi being a monumental waste of #30) and even guys as talented as Kings of the North and More than Hype taking up 6 spots but then being given nothing. That's almost half the Square Go with not a lot to show for themselves. The pacing of the whole match felt a bit off too.  As much as I liked Kez winning I wasn't a big fan of the fake injury finish either or BT's injury angle of him leaving the match and then returning only to get eliminated seconds later anyway. 

I did like the BT and Sami interactions at the start of the match though. Sami is growing on me. Him closing his vest after getting chopped was superb. His mic work is cliched but it works for whatever reason and he's a big grotty b*****d too which will work well in ICW. Looking forward Bad Company v OvE. That has the potential to be a brilliant feud. 

Trent returning was a nice touch. He was around when I first got into ICW so it was a great moment. Especially liked his interactions with Wolfgang. 

I wanted Andy Wild to win, and TBH I'm worried that they're never actually going to pull the trigger with him, but him v Alexander Dean should be a cracking feud. 

Davey Boy 

Interesting dissension between Aspen and Lewis. I think they still have a lot to give as a tag team but I wouldn't be opposed to a split and a rivalry either. 

Enjoyed Rickey Shane Page's appearance. Would like to see more of him in ICW. 

Lovely touch giving Kid Fite the runner-up spot. I'm gutted he's going away. Guaranteed entertainment whenever he's in the ring. Not to mention the amount of talent he's trained now appearing on shows too. He's some man and I hope he returns at some point. 

 

[Ira Gaines]

I think Kez's win might be a good thing? Just seems like folk are sick of him. When he won, it got zero reaction. But they've got a chance to turn it around, and he's excelled in that role but they've blown it by having him near Cena levels of unbeatable. 

[airdrieman]

 

[JamieStevenson]

Hope you all ordered your staunch merch. He's some boy.

 

[Ira Gaines]

Kez Evans yet again proving he's a fucking top heel. But the fans aren't buying in. His promo last night was properly fantastic. 

He puts me in mind of Red 

[Ira Gaines]

Black vs Anthony was a proper MOTYC