Great Bear Promotions - Battle Kingdom

Great Bear Promotions – Battle Kingdom

Great Bear Promotions are a new promotion from the UK and run out of the Cheshire area . Battle Kingdom was their debut show and was held on the 25th of March 2012, the show however unfortunately only drew a crowd of 25, i felt really sorry for Great Bear Promotions getting such a low turn out as they seem like a promotion who are doing things right promoting young up and coming local talent. Hopefully in future shows they start to draw a larger crowd as they certainly deserve to.

I would like to thank the management at Great Bear Promotions for providing me this DVD, cheers guys !

now onto the review

Match 1 – Pitbull vs Axel Rage [**]

The opening contest of the night, saw one half of the Blackpool Blondes, Axel Rage taking on the short but intense and intimidating Pitbull, who supposedly hails from the Team Taz dojo in New York. This match up was relatively sort lasting for about 4 minutes, but what the guys managed to fit in, into the sort period of time made for a decent affair. Pitbull started the action off with a beautiful northern lights type suplex but lost moment and Axel Rage took control for much of the match up. Axel Rage not one to be out done delivered a nice sequence of a suplex and then following straight after with a northern lights suplex into a pinning attempt. Pitbull was able to pick up the win has he locked an armbar in from out of no where and was able to make Axel Rage verbally tap. A decent match up that kept both guys looking strong going forward, Pitbull looks a good talent and i hope Great Bear give him a decent push, maybe making them their own version of Taz, as he was in ECW, as from first looks it appears Pitbull's style is very much Taz oriented.

Match 2 – Eddy Dennis vs Evan Sarven [1/2*]

I'll get straight to the point, this match sucked and was awful, it went about 12 minutes, which was 12 minutes to long. The half a star rating is really just for the effort and workrate of Eddy Dennis. Dennis playing the heel in this match tried his best to get the crowd involved but to be honest he was always going to have a hard job with there just being 25 fans in attendance but to his credit though, through his comedy heelish antics he was able to get a bit of a reaction. As for the match itself Evan Sarven was shocking, whether he is green or was having an off night he looked terrible in this match up, everything he done looked lethargic and awkward and on a couple of stages he was in position for spots far to early and was just stood there with his arms held out waiting to execute a move. Dennis saved this match up from a being a total DUD and credit to him for that, but the less said about this match the better.

Match 3 – Chris Brookes vs Jonathan Gresham [****]

Holy Shit what a great match up this was and something i was not expecting. In probably the biggest match of his career the tall and young looking Chris Brookes took on American and CZW star Jonathan Gresham. This was the first time i had ever seen both guys compete before and to be honest i thought Jonathan Gresham was just a spotty highflier from the states but man was i wrong and if he ever reads this i apologies for thinking that, not that he probably will. This match blew me away and i wasn't expecting the action that was about to occur before my eyes. The match up started with Gresham and Brookes going at it in the technical wrestling stakes and going hold for hold, along with some beautiful counters and transitions which were a joy to behold. It was really smooth and just looked fantastic which had the 25 strong crowd applauding throughout numerous stages as both guys jockeyed to gain the upper hand and show their technical wrestling prowess. This went on for a good 5 minutes or so with the match up taking a turn, a real stiff turn as both guys beat the shit out of one another with some real stiff chops and forearms coming from Gresham and some tasty looking kicks and forearms from Brookes. The two took it in turns to batter one another, again with the crowd applauding every strike these two unloaded on one another. The pace in the action heated up once more and Gresham hit a fantastic combination of a Jawbreaker and then a RKO. As the pace quickened the two again competed with one another move for move and strike for strike. A fantastic sequence then occurred with both guys trading pin attempts i counted about 10, the finish saw Gresham able to pick up the win when he was able to make Brookes submit when he locked him in an Octopus stretch type submission hold. Post match Gresham and Brookes shock hands and hugged in the middle of the ring. Wow what a match up, it lasted 13 minutes and was non stop action throughout, i certainly wasn't expecting what i saw there, such a great match up. My initial thoughts of Jonathan Gresham being a spotty highflyer were totally dispelled in this match up, the guys a machine a fantastic wrestler. I would love to see him in a singles match up against say a Jack Gallagher or maybe a Zack Sabre Jr somewhere down the line. As for Chris Brookes this was a breakout match for the youngster and he never in my opinion looked out of depth with his vaster experienced foe and kept up with him move for move and strike for strike throughout this great contest, Brookes is certainly one to look out for in the future and keep an eye out for as i shall be doing and id love to see these two go at it again whether it is for Great Bear Promotions or another promotion in the UK, a rematch could be even better. On a side note if this match up was played out in a packed crowd with a great atmosphere i have no doubt the rating and the match up itself would be even better, its such a shame that only 25 people got to see this match live, but hey, good job Great Bear Promotions released it on DVD.

Match 4 – Behnam Ali vs Jack Gallagher [***]

As with most shows Jack Gallagher appears on, his matches instantly stand out to me as being potential crackers when i have a look at the match listings, and this match was no exception, as he was taking on 4FW student and regular Behnam Ali (who at this moment is currently on his second tour of Japan, competing for Michinoku Pro and training at their dojo for the next 3 months), who i have heard great things about and is meant to have had a great match with Dick Togo for 4FW (based in the UK) on his retirement tour. Right from the get go you could tell these two guys are something special as everything they did was so smooth and just looked fantastic, the mat wrestling was a joy to behold with some great counters and each guy being evenly matched trying to get the better of one another. Gallagher was able to pick up the win in this match when he made Behnam Ali tap to a figure four leglock. This was a good match up between these two however, what was annoying and frustrating was that these guys were only given 9 minutes once introductions etc were out of the way and for me that just isn't long enough, these two guys for me on this card were two of the premier talents and 9 minutes was far to short i have no doubt in my mind that if these guys were given longer they would have torn the house down. Instead they were given only a short period of time, don't get me wrong what they did in those 9 minutes was really good but it just felt as though it was the beginning of a match up that still had a lot of mileage to go so to speak before the finish.

Match 5 – Damon Leigh vs Corey Edwardson [*]

In an extremely sort match up Damon Leigh took on the much samller Corey Edwardson in what was basically an extended squash match up which went roughly 5 minutes. Corey Edwardson got very little offense in and Damon Leigh dominated proceedings for the majority of the match up, beating up on his much smaller opponent and wearing him down with some high impact power moves. Damon Leigh picked up the win when he finished Corey Edwardson off when he hit him with like a package piledriver like move to pick up the 3 count.

Match 6 – Pete Dunne vs Sam Bailey [**3/4]

The main event of the night saw Sam Bailey take on Pete Dunn in a match up that lasted a good 20 minutes, which was a highly competitive back and forth encounter, however something for me just didn't click, don't get me wrong the match was decent and on another viewing could probably hit the *** mark, but like i say something just didn't seem to click and the match lost my attention at one point. I think a major flaw in the match up was that it went a bit to long for my liking as both guys were at parts throughout the match unable to get the audience sucked into the match, despite Sam Bailey's best efforts, and the atmosphere for most of the match was poor, this however was not the wrestlers faults. Another thing which i felt held the match back was the small crowd by this time seemed a little burnt out (at the end of the day there was only 25 of them and for them to vocal throughout the night was going to be a major ask). Top marks to Pete Dunne and Sam Bailey as they went out there and tried their best to deliver a good main event but at times it appeared as though they were fighting a loosing battle. If this match like a few of these matches tonight appeared on a card with a larger audience and a better atmosphere then it could have been even better.

Overall show thoughts – This show is a hard one to rate to be honest, I myself prefer shows with a good crowd and a bit of atmosphere, which this never had due to a low turn out, this might not bother some people and thus to them i would recommend this DVD too, as they probably would enjoy it more than what i did. That's not to say the show was bad and if you take into account that this was a debut show and if you don't take into account the small crowd the show drew then from an in ring prospective the show should be classed as a success. Brookes vs Gresham was match of the night and a cracker really great match up, Ali vs Gallagher was good as well and was second in the match of the night stakes for me. There certainly are issues for Great Bear Promotions to address especially the timing of some matches, but hey its their first show and they are on a learning curve, when as something someone has tried first time hell even a 2nd, 3rd or even a 10th time perfect ?

Great Bear Promotions are a promotion i really like they are giving young talent a chance and placing great faith in them (their next card further highlighted this with the talent booked) and they are certainly a promotion i shall be following in the future, and hope they succeed and eventually draw bigger crowds because they deserve it, like i say some of these matches if they happened in front of a bigger crowd would have been even better as the talent and effort was certainly there.In recommending this show and taking everything into account, i do slightly recommend it to you guys it's a debut show you carn't expect fireworks (Brookes vs Gresham delivers big time and is a UK MOTYC) and is certainly one of the better debut shows that i have seen.

Again i would like to thank the guys at Great Bear Promotions for providing me with this DVD, i really appreciate it guys !

To find Great Bear Promotions on the internet and to buy this DVD –

Internet: http://great-bear-promotions.co.uk/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/GBPWrestling

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GreatBearPromotions

To get in touch and contact me:

E-mail: jamiepwponderings@gmail.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/

amieIndyPW