Haven’t had enough Kurt Angle, have ya?
Well, here’s more anyway… actually a bit of a bonus musings as we kill two birds with one show – the now-defunct UK-based WhatCulture Pro Wrestling promotion, which later became DEFIANT Wrestling, which later became defunct, held a show in 2016 called Refuse To Lose, which featured some silliness, yes, but its main event – which you can watch online for free – is the legendary match between Olympic Gold Medal Hero KURT ANGLE and Local Hero JOE HENDRY.
Yes, that match exists… and you can watch it for free here.
But what about the rest of the show?
Well… that’s another story entirely…
So it’s worth mentioning that despite being a smallish promotion in the UK being run by a media company specializing in Youtube videos (WhatCulture still exists today, by the way), they were able to secure the services of JIM ROSS and JIM CORNETTE on commentary. The lack of local product knowledge between the two of them is bound to happen, which is why there’s also a Brit at the desk to fill in the blanks. Commentary is fine for the most part; Ross and Cornette are fine when they’re calling matches with guys they’re familiar with, while the Brit guy… well, he tried his best and I can’t fault him for that.
With that said, let’s get into this show.
Minoru “Murder Grandpa” Suzuki defeated Joe Coffey of future NXT fame in the opening match.
El Ligero defeated Alberto El Patrón and Travis Banks to win the inaugural WCPW Internet Championship.
Cody Rhodes defeated Doug Williams. This is early in Cody’s new post-WWE life where he’d undergo a reinvention of his entire persona and transform himself from undesirable Stardust survivor victim to undeniable WWE superstar and undisputed champion… oh, and he helped jumpstart another major wrestling promotion along the way, but we don’t talk about that here because none of that exists yet. Cody Rhodes in 2016 is still just under development and while he has the heel entourage (along with some bloke as his personal ring announcer that I’m sure was picked for the job to be as annoyingly awful as possible to further the heel gimmick), there’s too much of that WWE style in him. Not the good kind that can be quite compelling in the right situations, but the stale, generic kind that everyone else in the company was doing. That said, this was a perfectly acceptable match. Nothing special outside of maybe a former WWE guy taking on a former TNA guy, which seems apropos given the current relationship between the two companies.
Some dude named Rampage defeated Adam Blampied in a thing that happened. Blampied, better known for his Youtube lists and Fantasy Booking videos, would lose his job after this match because it was on the line… but you know how that usually goes. He would also undergo a name change to Plumpy somewhere along the way… or maybe he already did. I don’t know. I don’t care. Blampied… well, at least he got paid. But hey, if you want a good Youtuber-turned-wrestler case to balance this out… I hear Simon Miller’s doing pretty good for himself these days.
WCPW Women’s Champion Nixon Newell defeated Kimber Lee to retain the title in a thing that happened. I know nothing about Newell, but I’ve seen enough Kimber Lee over the years that she comes across as someone involved in some decent stuff over the years. The match was just kinda, sorta there; it exists, stuff happens, it wasn’t terrible, but that’s about all I could muster. Maybe they had better matches down the road, but this lacked something in the overall entertainment value… that’s not what I meant, you sick freak.
There’s some bit involving former TNA gal So Cal Val and some goof named Jack The Jobber… I skip most of it and head on to the next match.
WCPW World Champion Joseph Conners defeated Martin Kirby to retain the title due to outside interference from one of the Youtube people, who shoved Kirby off the top rope, which is followed by a bunch of glowsticks tossed into the ring. If there’s any context to this, I’m clearly missing it. However, Conners eventually got a low blow on Kirby, hits a DDT for the pinfall, and the crowd chants “bullshit.” As someone going into this show cold, the thought of your top champion’s reign being saved by some Youtube guy (who’s apparently the authority figure on here… yippee…) would indeed come across as bullshit. The match was fine for the most part; I like the Kirby fellow.
Some awful editing as the two Jims hype up the main event, only to be cut by the hype video, which does a good job of bringing us non-followers up to speed in regards to how we got to this point. As a bit of supplemental viewing, the behind the scenes details on how Joe Hendry was able to secure a match with Kurt Angle could be found on this CVV interview clip and it’s actually quite amazing.
We follow the story of hero worship with another quality Joe Hendry diss track, sung to the tune of “Born In The USA” and pretty much going over Angle’s many accomplishments before declaring he’s not as good as Joe Hendry. I actually like this song better than his current theme, but that only works with Kurt Angle and Joe Hendry is far from being a local hero these days.
Kurt Angle defeated Joe Hendry via submission in the main event and you know what? This was perfectly acceptable wrestling. I wasn’t expecting the greatest wrestling match ever (Kurt was getting up there in years and Hendry’s only been wrestling for three) and I didn’t get that. I got a more than serviceable yet still fairly enjoyable little match with a hungry young lion keeping up with the cagey veteran and eventually Angle got his win. After the match, Angle gave Hendry his flowers and thanked him for the match before the two embraced in a hug. See that, kids? Even in 2016, Kurt Angle believed in Joe Hendry.
Now if that doesn’t sell you, then I don’t know what will.
Refuse To Lose 2016 was one of WCPW’s earliest online PPV showings and I’d imagine things improve from here. The crowd was into everything if nothing else, but beyond the Angle/Hendry match and to a lesser extent, the Conners/Kirby match – both on Youtube for free – the rest of the show was just kinda, sorta there. An overabundance of Youtube silliness and generally average stuff is what lowers this show’s stock a bit, but the promotion would eventually get better and this early show shouldn’t be a barometer of quality over WCPW/Defiant’s overall place in wrestling lore. I might give these guys another shot down the line because I’m at least somewhat interested in what they have to offer.
dtm666 