RPW Summer Sizzler 2014 Review

Revolution Pro Wrestling gives us two rematches & an appearance by The Bullet Club!

RPW Summer Sizzler 2014

London, England 6/15/14

1.) RPW Undisputed British Tag Team Titles – The Kartel (Terry Frazier & Sha Samuels) vs. England’s Calling (Joel Redman & Martin Stone): **3/4

So just to catch everyone up to speed, Terry Frazier & Sha Samuels reformed their tag team, The Kartel, at High Stakes 2014. The next day, they went on to defeat The Inner City Machine Guns (Ricochet & Rich Swann), who themselves had just won the RPW Undisputed British Tag Team Titles at High Stakes 2014 from The Swords of Essex, to win said titles. They then joined up with Marty Scurll, helping him win the RPW Heavyweight Title, and forming The Revolutionists. They would soon be joined by Josh Bodom, who won the RPW British Cruiserweight Title from Prince Devitt about a month prior to this show.

The show kicks off with The Kartel defending their titles against Joel Redman & Martin Stone, who are collectively known as England’s Calling. Both of these men had both spend time in NXT (Redman was the more successful of the two, having a reign as one-half of the NXT Tag Team Champions alongside Adrian Neville), before being released from the WWE a few months prior to this show. These two team brawled right from the opening bell. They brawled out of the ring and spent a lot of time fighting it out in the crowd. The two teams eventually got back in the ring and, in the end, Redman & Stone scored the upset win over The Kartel, capturing the RPW Undisputed British Tag Team Titles!!

2.) Bad Luck Fale vs. Dave Mastiff: **½

I got to see some of Dave Mastiff during the PCW/ROH joint shows. He’s pretty good for a guy his size. Here, he’s taking on Bad Luck Fale, the monster of The Bullet Club. The match itself was fine, but nothing special. Fale needs to have the right opponent that can carry him to a really good match, and this wasn’t one of those situations. Still, there were some cool moments here & there. Fale would hit The Grenade on Mastiff for the victory.

3.) RPW Undisputed British Heavyweight Title – Marty Scurll vs. Kevin Steen: ***½

Scurll comes out with one of his shoulders heavily taped up. Apparently he had suffered a separated shoulder and had been out of action for a month or two. He’s defending his RPW Undisputed British Heavyweight Title against Kevin Steen from Ring of Honor. This was a pretty good match. It was much better than Scurll’s title win against Colt Cabana at High Stakes 2014. Both guys played their roles very well, and there was a lot of nice action throughout this one. Credit to Scurll for doing this match despite the injury. It looked like that Steen was closing in on the win, and the title, but when the referee got knocked down, Scurll took advantage, hitting a low blow and rolling up Steen for the win, retaining his title in the process. With Steen on his way to WWE, the outcome was never really in doubt. Still, this was a very good match.

4.) Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Zack Sabre Jr.: ****

Now THIS was the match that I was most looking forward to when I saw the card for this show. Zack Sabre Jr. blew everyone away in PWG during the 2014 Battle of Los Angeles, and Nakamura is definitely my favorite New Japan wrestler. It’s also a rare NJPW vs. NOAH match. This was a great match! I loved every second of it. These two are just so good, and it was incredibly fun to watch these two go at it. It was Zack Sabre Jr.’s technical wizardry against Nakamura’s strikes. Very good psychology in this match as well. After some really solid back & forth action, Nakamura hits the Boma Ye on Zack Sabre Jr. for the victory. Again, this was a really fun match to watch, and it’s a match you’re only going to see in RPW.

5.) 2 Unlimited (Jay & Patrick Sammon) vs. Jake McCluskey & Will Ospreay: ****

Apparently, Will Ospreay’s Swords of Essex partner, Paul Robinson, was unable to make the show, so Jake McCluskey stepped in to take his place. 2 Unlimited is a team of brothers (they may be from Ireland but I’m not sure). I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out, but it ended up being a really great match! There was a lot of high-octane action throughout this one. All four guys delivered some really cool offense, and it made the match really exciting. 2 Unlimited would the victory in this one, which makes sense, since they were facing a makeshift team.

6.) ROH World Champion Adam Cole vs. Prince Devitt: ****

So now we have our (original) Main Event, which was also another match that I was really looking forward to. Cole comes into this match as the ROH World Champion, about a week before his big title defense against Michael Elgin at the Best In The World PPV. Devitt, much like Steen, is on his way to WWE, so this is the only chance we’ll get to see these two lock up.

Devitt has an AMAZING entrance where he comes out dressed as Bane from The Dark Knight Rises. It was really cool to watch.

The match itself was really great, as you would expect. Both of these guys are so good, and it definitely showed here. We saw a little bit of everything in this one as well. There was, of course, great action in the ring, but they did some brawling on the outside. I enjoyed this match a lot. Eventually, it took two Bloody Sunday’s for Devitt to put away Cole for the win.

After the match, Devitt takes the mic, and tries to do a farewell speech, but before he could say much, he’s attacked by The Revolutionists. They beat up Devitt for a bit until Bad Luck Fale (an original Bullet Club member along with Devitt) comes down to aide his friend. Things eventually settle down, and Devitt says that he wants to do one more thing, and that’s bring The Bullet Club to RPW. He challenges The Revolutionists to a tag team match right now, and it looks like we have a Bonus Main Event!

7.) The Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Prince Devitt) vs. The Revolutionists (Josh Bodom & Sha Samuels): **¼

Devitt & Fale were on fire to start this one, but they were constantly hampered by interference from the members of The Revolutionists who weren’t in this match (Marty Scurll & Terry Frazier). Eventually, Kevin Steen comes out to even the odds! He takes out Frazier and then hits Scurll with the Package Piledriver! This leads to Devitt & Fale gaining the advantage & getting the victory. The match itself was pretty short, but it was more of an elongated angle that allows us to see The Bullet Club appear in RPW. A nice way to end the show on a good note.

After the match, Devitt, Fale & Steen posed in the ring, with Fale lifting Devitt on his shoulders one last time to a standing ovation to close the show.

Overall: 8.25/10

This was another great show from RPW. While the first two matches were fine/ok, they did have their moments (such as the title change in the opening match). We then had a really good RPW Undisputed British Heavyweight Title Match between Marty Scurll & Kevin Steen. The show then hit a really nice stride with three really great matches, that all just hit the **** barrier. While the “surprise” Main Event was more of an angle, it was really cool to see the show end with Prince Devitt, Bad Luck Fale & Kevin Steen celebrating in the ring. Even though this show didn't have that one amazing match like we saw at High Stakes 2014, it had, as I just explained, so really good matches and moments. Once again, another really entertaining show from Revolution Pro Wrestling.