Martin Ward sent this in:
Hi all, just back from the first night of AWR’s Irish Tour. It was held at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght, Dublin, infront of around 500 people.
Match 1.
Kid Kash vs Scotty The Hotty (Scotty 2 Hotty)
I expected more from two former WWE wrestlers, both relied on baiting the crowd for long periods, but the action in between was pretty solid.
Scotty wins via pinfall following ‘The Worm’.
Match 2.
Triple Threat Match
M Dogg 20 (ROH) vs Shawn Maxer vs Suicide Machine
Very good match-up, especially the double teaming by M Dogg and Suicide Machine on Maxer, and a well worked finishing sequence ending with Shawn Maxer getting the pin.
Renee Dupree addresses the crowd, X-Pack (X-Pac) interrupts him and challenges Renee for the AWR title, Renee accepts.
Match 3.
‘Lord Of The Manor’ Paul Tracy vs Joe E. Legend
Paul Tracy has an awesome gimmick, but that’s about all he has going for him. Legend carried this whole match and it was a quality bout, technical, powerful, with false finishes and high spots, Legend was the best performer of the night and picked up the victory via pinfall.
Match 4.
Flag Match UK vs Ireland
Dunkan Disorderly (UK) vs Joey Cabray (Ireland)
Worst match of the night, by far. Sloppy throughout, with constant breaks in sequence and missed spots.
Joey Cabray won it for Ireland after outside interference from both wrestler’s valets.
Match 5.
AWR Title Match
Renee Dupree vs X-Pack
Renee looks in good shape, but X-Pack has lost an incredible amount of mass since I last saw him.
Passable match, but seemed to be cut short after Renee took a roundhouse kick to the face, which busted him open and possibly broke his nose. Immediately after Renee took the kick he went for the belt and clocked X-Pack with it, leading to the DQ finish.
X-Pack wins via DQ, Renee Dupree retains AWR Title.
Match 6.
Extreme Rules
Rob Van Dam vs Sabu
You don’t see many matches like this at house shows. Chair shots galore, broken tables, blading by Sabu and battling into the crowd. From bell to bell it was a brawl with momentum switching back and forth. The entire crowd were on their feet for the duration as the two Original ECW alumni members showcased their offensive repetoires. Suicide dives were followed by springboard planchas, until RVD connected with a 5 Star Frog Splash, after Sabu had crashed through a table while attempted a top rope leg drop. Match of the night!
RVD wins via pinfall.
All of tonight’s matches were well recieved, and barring the flag match, all were well above average for a European house show. I highly recommend people in Ireland get out and see this tour as it travels around the country and likewise to fans in France as they are touring there soon.
Sidenotes:
We spoke to RVD and his wife Sonia outside the arena, they were really laid back and very approachable, even when their car wouldn’t start and they had to hitch a ride they were still chatting to fans and seemed to be really enjoying themselves.
There was a meet and greet with some of the wrestlers afterwards.
I chatted with M Dogg 20 for a bit, he thinks ROH is getting better but was sad to see Gabe leave the company.
Then it was over to Scotty 2 Hotty, we talked about ‘Mania XX, he said he hated going out after Brock vs Goldberg because they killed the crowd and that the event itself was poor.
Joe E. Legend was really cool and wanted to know how some of the spots in his match looked and if there was anything he could improve on, he also informed us that all his moves are named after Simpsons references.
I spoke to Kid Kash about a scorcher he had with Paul London a couple of years ago on Smackdown, I think it made his night.
Next was Sabu who didn’t speak to anybody and charged me 5 euro for a photo, but hey…… it’s Sabu, I would have paid 500 euro. I praised his match with Rey Mysterio at One Night Stand 2006 and he shook my hand.
X-Pac was next in line, I said to Kid Kash I couldn’t remember seeing a good X-Pac match, so neither me nor my friends spoke to X-Pac, but we all felt sorry for him.
Finally it was the Whole F’N Show. I got him and his wife to sign a picture in a magazine from there wedding day, they were both thrilled when they saw it, then I got him to sign a martial arts magazine called Combat with him on the cover, he swore he’d never heard of it and wanted to keep it but I wouldn’t give it up so he took the details of it and said he’d try to hunt it down. We spoke a bit about diferrent matches and he had vivid memories of each one I brought up.
Each wrestler I spoke too was very polite and appreciative of the fans and it was a great opportunity to interact with them in a way that isn’t possible at WWE house shows.
Highest recommendations to anybody considering going to see AWR in Europe.
Stay Classy
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