Wrestling Review: WCPW State of Emergency (2017)

For the first time ever, WhatCulture Pro Wrestling (WCPW) comes to you live from the USA as it presents State of Emergency. Featuring commentary from the unlikely duo of Matt Striker and Jim Cornette, as well as a special guest, and the main event sees WCPW World Champion Drew Galloway defend against Rampage. Rampage earned the title opportunity after winning a grueling best of seven series against Primate over the past months, and will be looking to dethrone the Gaelic champion before Galloway’s triumphant return to NXT. Ricochet and El Ligero also look to lock horn to see who is the King of the high flying independent scene, and a huge triple threat match between Bobby Fish, Mike Elgin and David Starr is set to be a barn burner. Also not to be missed are appearances from Prospect, Martin Kirby and the DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Weight Champion Joey Ryan.

+ Drew Galloway (c) vs Rampage (WCPW World Championship): this was most definitely the match of the night, only because it was two big boys slugging the holy hell out of each other. Galloway has been on fire as WCPW champ, and I would draw favourable comparisons to Sami Callihan’s run as AAW champion over the past year or so. A really solid few finishing minutes made for a very entertaining hoss fight
+ El Ligero vs King Ricochet: this was certainly not what I was expected from two of the perennial Lucha stars in modern independent wrestling. A bit too much comedy (a phrase you’ll read a lot in the following) did take away from the nature of the match-up, and made it really seem like neither competitor were taking it seriously — and if they don’t, why should we?
+ Mike Elgin vs Bobby Fish vs David Starr: again, more comedy was a very unwelcome addition to what could and should have been a real low-key match of the show contender. Once the match got going it was very solid, but the lead up to it just took away from the nature of the contest. Much like the Lucha match above; if the competitors are not doing all they can to win, why does it matter who wins?

– Joey Ryan (c) vs Primate (DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Weight Championship): Primate has an incredible air of intensity about him, which made pitting him against the sleazy, character-driven champion Joey Ryan somewhat of a mismatch. Ryan was too big to be thrown around by Primate, but not large enough to be a fair fight, so the whole thing was somewhat awkward. Some out-of-place comedy, and some love-it-or-hate-it swerves made for a bit of a very average affair
– B.T. Gunn vs Martin Kirby: Kirby is fun, and I enjoy the way he plays to the crowd, but even for the opener this was nothing special. Decidedly average is perhaps the best way to describe both competitors, as well as the match itself. Kirby playing with the crowd for the “1-2-sweeeeet” count chants was clever
– Joe Hendry vs Matt Striker: this was more of a storyline exhibition, and in that regard it was fine. But it took up way too much time with new ring announcers needed and all that (Striker was on commentary up to and following this match) that it might have been better to either open or close the show
– Prospect (Alex Gracie & Lucas Archer) vs Drake & James R. Kennedy: Kennedy’s horrible tuxedo skin-suit was the highlight of this comedy-heavy contest. The story of Prospect making it to Orlando in the first place really made everyone involved look a bit silly when their match was against one bad guy and his non-wrestler manager

Should you watch this event: Bad comedy was in some ways a running theme of the night, even when the situation should have called for something a bit more serious, and that made for overall a very poor show. The few positives listed above were still nothing great, and though it was a shorter show (only two hours), it felt like much longer. Don’t bother watching this one.