So by now you would of figured out that im a Aussie wrestling fan...and to that point lets have alook at one of my favourite organisations in the country, those vastly talented people from the west coast , Explosive Pro Wrestling....
The promotion founded in 2001 , EPW was originally known as Explosive Coastal Wrestling. The company hosts monthly shows in Bassendean's Cyril Jackson Recreation Centre or BODYSLAM CENTRAL if you like
Just In case you want to do some shopping.....
I first came across EPW only in 2010, i was you tubing for aussie wrestling and found among other things a pack of dastardly heels ( well they didnt think so) called The Blackest Hour ,
that was me hooked and I kept an eye on EPW ever since when possible, recently however , the gods of technology have smiled upon me and I discovered vimeo that the promotion has a absolute mother load of shows for purchase , so I did
Never happy with some shows of a promotion I dig, I got a few and fully intend to increase the amount when possible....now to the current state of play and the talent ive discovered since i became a EPW addict
Lets start shall we with arguably, the greatest Aussie tag team in recent history...and recent WWE signees, Shane Haste and Mikey Nicolls or The Mighty Dont Kneel or TMDK if you like , well technically they founded TMDK and there is always a presence in the promotion even if Shane and Mikey are in All Japan kicking all kinds of nippon freckle
In mid 2010, Nicholls and Haste passed a tryout held by Pro Wrestling Noah and World League Wrestling (WLW) in the United States, which allowed them to begin training at Noah's dojo. They made their debut for the Japanese promotion on 23 February 2011, and began working together under the team name "TMDK" a stable, also including Elliot Sexton, Jonah Rock, Marcius Pitt and Slex , Rock and Slex have also represented TMDK in Noah.
....Shane and Mikey were on a NJPW Wrestle Kingdom recently, and that says a lot about the regard they are held in in Japan...heres to them having a cracking set of matches with American Alphas and or Anderson & Gallows in WWE/NXT.
Tyler Jacobs Interview
Hughesy The Bloke from the local, is if nothing else , a very aussie gimmick, including flanny shirt and to top it off his almost a ranga, he could almost be called Bluey, definately got some skills and his matches are by and large pretty damn good...
Dan Moore "A Nice Guy" also a fairly brilliant gimmick, although cant say Im loving his "cardies" but thats probably just me, seen him in a couple of multi guy matches and he can go, a bit of flying, a bit of decent mat work, and as far as I can tell his the ultimate face...although knowing my luck his probably a friggin heel now.
Jarrad Slate "The Legion of One"..Im a Road Warrior mark from WAYYYY back, so this bloke attracted my attention almost immediatly...cant say Ive seen a lot of him, but what ive seen seems to be spot on.
Sam Fantastic "The + size party animal" first time I saw him, I thought thats a pretty good gimmick AND he can go as well, but apparently, alledgedly, his had a temperament turn over the recent chrissy holidays and is now a quasi heel
TWITCH..to say that this bloke is a total whack job is an understatement, which is what I like about him, his off the wall gimmick keeps yopu guessing exactly what the hell mood his gonna be in at any given moment...I recently saw him in a Hardcore Battle Royal and he more than helds his own against "The Solution"
"Shotgun" Tyler Jacobs....First saw him in the tag team "The Headhunters" with Devlin Reeves and iuf he wasnt going against McMassive , they would been my favourite tag team ANYWAY, I dig his gimmick and his ring work, and recently his been having a few cracks at the EPW big belt but Davis Storm and The Solution have benn frigging with him, so expect the Shotgun to get real knarky with the leader of the Solution
Allyson Cruz been around EPW since April 2015 and is , to be fair, quite the worker her recent match with "The Fairest of them all" was fairly impressive, like to see her have a go with Shazza McKenzie or Kelli Anne to see how she would go
"Gorgeous" Garry Young Saw him first going against Hugesy, helped out by Ms Fontaine, but his been around EPW for quite the while now and has name changed from Schmidt too Young in the process, he was trained by Lance Storm, so you know his got a solid base , havent seen him on any 2016 shows yet , dunno why.
Logan Grey..a High flyer who had a helluva rookie year by all accounts won the Rising Star tourney and the Invitational tourney as well, looked to be going into TDMK as thier "rookie" but that eviil bugger Davis Storm got to him and he joined "The Solution" as a full member, this led him to a match with Shane Haste at Goldrush 2016, and he got bounced around by the TMDK leader something chronic, cant see him being a heel for long, his too cool to watch.
Michelle K Hasluck..."The Fairest of them all" yeh sure , anyway, I believe I saw the Queen of EPW when Vice and her were on a PWA show at the Campbelltown Cube a couple of years ago, first time i saw her I thought, has to be a face .right?, nup, she is a sneaky conniving evil cheating heel and their her good points, apart from doing commentaryt in the past , Hasluck has recently has got into it with Allyson Cruz for her belt that isnt ....hell of a gimmick and truly despised by the EPW regulars, and thats a good thing.
"The Don" Michael Corleone...made his EPW debut in 2005 and has prtetty much been a tag team specialist , firstly forming a tag team with Lord Jonathon called The European Union, he also is the proud presenter of the Hardcore Open Invitational, he won the belt in 2012, but rarely defends it agin other roster members usually he "picks" people out of the assembled faithful and gives them a walloping and then he celebrates his awesomeness and invincibility, The Don formed a team with Hayden Zenith called Generation Zero and they gave McMassive a bit of a hard time finally taking the straps at GoldRush 2016
Speaking of which....
McMassive.."The moving man mountain" Mad Mike Massive and "The Shootfighter" Gavin Mc Gavin are quite possibly my favourite aussie tag team..Mad Mike began in 2008 and Gavin started in 2009 and they started being McMassive in 2013 , and have been at or near the top of the EPW tag scene since , the dicohtomy of the two fella's is the grabber I think, oh and the move set they possess is pretty damn good too, Gavin does the flying and grappling and then Mad Mike either teabags or steamrolls the poor buggers their wrestling, and 9 time out of ten they hit their opponents with McMassacre to take the 3 count
"The Messiah" Davis Storm...debuting in 2001, he trained with the near legendary Jag for a bit in South Australia, he also trained for a bit in the New Japan dojo with Shane Haste and Mikey Nicolls along with Bobby marshall....Davis has trained many wrestlers and is considered to be vastlt talented in this endeavour, Storm has also been voted the EPW Wrestler of the Year in 2010 and had two Fued of the year wins with Marcus Pitt and New Gen in 2011 and 2014 respectively...had a bit of an epihany in 2013 and turned heel (or did he) and formed The Solution due to the fact that EPW (his creation) had become full of selfish a-holes and he was gonna fix it...
BEWARE OF THE SOLUTION
The Mckenzie Brothers ..the boys are WA locals coming from Margaret River and near as I can tell, from what ive seen, for a while were the most over tag team in the promotion ...but then Byron turned on Bodhi mid match which has led to quite the fued between the boys...Bodhi beat Byron at RE-aWAKENING 14 and thenn whooped him again in Hair v Hair match at Goldrush 2016
The Dropkicks...have two individuals been more aptly named ever in Aussie wrestling?..I think not, Leo Pratt and his partner "The Big Rig " Scotty Ryan teamed up approx 2013 and have been a fairly popular (heel or otherwise) team ever since , they have been in the ring with all the EPW teams including TMDK and McMassive , yet to win the straps , Im fairly sure they'd be keen to win them...even if they are a pair of dropkicks.
EPW's Greatest Creation - THE STATE OF ORIGIN MATCH
what an OUTSTANDING concept, Im stunned no one had come up with it earlier , the first match was in 2014 and had a team from NSW consisting of Mick Moretti, Kingi and Mikey Broderick as one half of the main event, they were going up against AK47, Marcus Pitt and Kiel Steria, Team NSW took the win cause Steria done a swifty on his WA team mates ....then came the 2015 version, which in my humble opinion, is one of the best team based matches Ive ever seen...
Team WA consisted of, once again, AK47, and Marcus Pitt, this time however they had "The Smashing Machine" Chris Vice with them and they were going up against Damien Slater (drink the Slaterade I dare ya) and the near legendary Jag Hartley Jackson AND weirdly enough, Pitts TMDK team mate (or is he) Jonah Rock who flipped on Kingston and Pitt at the previous show, and their pet ref whose name escapes me...
a truly outstanding match, the six of them were all over Bodyslam Central in, like I said, one of the best matches Ive ever seen , and ive seen a shitload in 47 (very) odd years of watching wrestling, yeah I know BIG call, but I stand by it...a deadset cracker ...everyone should see it.
So there you go...a breif blogaroo about my recent discovery of EPW , hope you dug it and it motivates you to go hunt them down for some stuff
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