Australian Wrestling thread

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I watched the last MCW show on Vimeo tonight. I never go back and watch old shows so, much as I like Fite credits if I'd gone that way, the 72-hour rental option on vimeo for 6 bucks is much better for me. Yeah, the show is 3 weeks old, but if that's how you have to watch it, 6 bucks is very reasonable.

I don't think MCW is necessarily the "cool" show in Melbourne any more. In fact I think it's the one that mired in political bullshit and has lost a shit ton of talent cos MCW didn't want it's wrestlers working elsewhere in Melbourne (which is just so short sighted and dumb. You want them to get work, you want them to get experience, and I doubt the same people going to Thornbury are the same ones going out to Melton or Ferntree Gully) - thus I think it's going to be relying heavily on it's local Thornbury audience and it's family audience, cos DMDU and Renegades are definitely becoming the cool promotions.

But with all that said, **** me if MCW don't still put on awesome shows. They're never as good on screen as they are live, but there were a couple of really fun matches on this show. It's absolutely worth $6 if you're curious to watch some Melbourne wrestling.

(Slex vs one of the Parea has been announced for next month, with Slex to leave MCW if he loses. Now, I don't expect Slex to be losing to a tag team specialist, but **** me that stipulation makes you nervous given what's happened to MCW post-pandemic, and given that Rocky is very much an old school cheater heel who could cost Slex the match.)

By way of gossip, I heard that Collingwood wasn't Renegades first choice, but they had a building, MCW warned off the building, and Renegades went "**** you" and found something much closer to Thornbury than the original location was.
 
I'm on a weird section of my road trip, where I was heading from the Atherton Tablelands to Darwin, but I've kind of had to stop to see what a couple of these low pressure systems in the tropics on either side of the country are going to do.

I'm fortunate that there's plenty to do during the day... I guess I'm also fortunate that the 4G is surprisingly good out here, cos there's nothing to do at night.

Which is what's got me watching a bit more Aussie wrestling. I got to see quite a few PWA guys on the FWA show I went to Sydney, and the PWAxMCW feud was a pretty good jumping on point for PWA. (You can also watch their old shows as part of normal Fite+)

So after watching MCW vs PWA a couple of weeks ago and the recent MCW show last night (featuring Moretti), tonight I've been back to the PWA January show and in the next couple of days I'll watch last night's PWA show. (Their announcement of Robbie Eagles vs Royce Chambers at last nights show also piqued my interest - it's just a shame they only announced it about 10 days out, cos I might've tried to get to Sydney to watch it live.)

Before watching the January PWA show I went back and watched the Aussie Open vs Velocities match from last year before watching he re-match. I've been fortunate enough to see Aussie Open a couple of times at DMDU, and they're awesome. The Velocities are such a strange one though - every match I've seen of theirs in PWA has friggen ruled... matches I've seen of theirs in FWA and MCW (including against top teams like the Brat Pack and the Natural Classics) though? It's like if they aren't the focus of the match they're quite prone to half-assing it.

It'll be interesting to see their debut in DMDU next month. I think DMDU has become the type of fangroup that will absolutely shit all of you if they sense you half assing anything, regardless of who you are.


You know my biggest takeaway? We're really lucky here that our scene in Melbourne, Sydney (including Newcastle), Adelaide and Perth ****ing rules, and more people should be attending and watching these shows. WWE is shit. AEW is good most of the time, but they're never touring here. NJPW has become difficult for me because they keep pushing the biggest of real-life assholes. Britwres died quicker than it revived.

But our scene here is awesome, and as I make my way around the country I can't wait to try and prioritise attending EPW in Perth and RCW in Adelaide. As I made my way around the country I'm sort of half-looking to see if there's anywhere I want to move that's not Melbourne. But I'm not sure I want to permanently move away from this scene at the moment! I think I'm probably more likely to meet strangers and make friends at a Melbourne wrestling show than I am in a new city.
 
I'm on a weird section of my road trip, where I was heading from the Atherton Tablelands to Darwin, but I've kind of had to stop to see what a couple of these low pressure systems in the tropics on either side of the country are going to do.

I'm fortunate that there's plenty to do during the day... I guess I'm also fortunate that the 4G is surprisingly good out here, cos there's nothing to do at night.

Which is what's got me watching a bit more Aussie wrestling. I got to see quite a few PWA guys on the FWA show I went to Sydney, and the PWAxMCW feud was a pretty good jumping on point for PWA. (You can also watch their old shows as part of normal Fite+)

So after watching MCW vs PWA a couple of weeks ago and the recent MCW show last night (featuring Moretti), tonight I've been back to the PWA January show and in the next couple of days I'll watch last night's PWA show. (Their announcement of Robbie Eagles vs Royce Chambers at last nights show also piqued my interest - it's just a shame they only announced it about 10 days out, cos I might've tried to get to Sydney to watch it live.)

Before watching the January PWA show I went back and watched the Aussie Open vs Velocities match from last year before watching he re-match. I've been fortunate enough to see Aussie Open a couple of times at DMDU, and they're awesome. The Velocities are such a strange one though - every match I've seen of theirs in PWA has friggen ruled... matches I've seen of theirs in FWA and MCW (including against top teams like the Brat Pack and the Natural Classics) though? It's like if they aren't the focus of the match they're quite prone to half-assing it.

It'll be interesting to see their debut in DMDU next month. I think DMDU has become the type of fangroup that will absolutely sh*t all of you if they sense you half assing anything, regardless of who you are.


You know my biggest takeaway? We're really lucky here that our scene in Melbourne, Sydney (including Newcastle), Adelaide and Perth ******* rules, and more people should be attending and watching these shows. WWE is sh*t. AEW is good most of the time, but they're never touring here. NJPW has become difficult for me because they keep pushing the biggest of real-life assholes. Britwres died quicker than it revived.

But our scene here is awesome, and as I make my way around the country I can't wait to try and prioritise attending EPW in Perth and RCW in Adelaide. As I made my way around the country I'm sort of half-looking to see if there's anywhere I want to move that's not Melbourne. But I'm not sure I want to permanently move away from this scene at the moment! I think I'm probably more likely to meet strangers and make friends at a Melbourne wrestling show than I am in a new city.
Good on you for attending local wrestling Nobby. It’s guys like you that keep the dream alive for future Aussie wrestling heroes. Great to see Buddy Murphy in AEW too. The Aussie promotions should do the best they can to bring overseas talent in to further the local product. Back in the day I attended a local wrestling even that had Sabu vs Marty Janetty? as the main event, maybe at Box Hill Town Hall?? Even that was a draw card as we were all massive ECW fans.
 

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Good on you for attending local wrestling Nobby. It’s guys like you that keep the dream alive for future Aussie wrestling heroes. Great to see Buddy Murphy in AEW too. The Aussie promotions should do the best they can to bring overseas talent in to further the local product. Back in the day I attended a local wrestling even that had Sabu vs Marty Janetty? as the main event, maybe at Box Hill Town Hall?? Even that was a draw card as we were all massive ECW fans.

I can only speak for the Melbourne wrestling scene, but they have tried previously to bring over international talent pre-COVID.

The World Wrestling All-Stars heavily leaned into using “legends” to headline shows. Ken Shamrock did a few shows, so did Drew Galloway (before he returned to the WWE), as did Tommy Dreamer & Rhyno.

While MCW did partnerships with both NJPW (Okada headlined a show at Thornbury theatre) and Progress (Tyler Bate & Toni Storm did a Thornbury show).

I even remember going down to Seaford to see Sammy Guevara back in early 2020.
 
I paid the $14 or whatever it is after the exchange rate on PWA's show from last Friday night. I was a bit bummed that Robbie Eagles vs Royce Chambers was only announced about a week out - at another point of my life, if I had a steady home, a job, and wasn't road-tripping, I might've tried to get to Sydney just for that match. It's the only reason I spent the 14 bucks.

And it didn't let me down. Seriously, when it becomes free on Fite+ after 30 days, you need to see this match. Royce might've earned himself another Japanese opportunity after that, cos the match was insane. It's one of those matches that, in the 80s US territory scene would've been toured around the country - you could put that exact same match on anywhere in the world and it would slay. And that's despite 2 moments of mis-timing that just comes from not having worked together before.

I'm not sure whether I'll go on spending 14 bucks a month on PWA when their shows go free after 30 days, but damn they have some talent I really like. Robbie obviously, I've become a big fan of Ricky South, Jess Troy, Shazza, Lyrebird Luchi - but they also have some real crap over-reliance on gimmicks on their show. The first half of Friday's show, aside from the tag title match, was really all gimmicky bullshit characters like Big Fudge, Juan Direction and Billy Preston.
 
Looking forward to seeing DMDU Malice at the Palais in Geelong on Saturday night. Pretty stacked card too...

Six person scramble: Emman the Kid vs Broderick Valentine vs Chanel Phoenix vs Mike Kaos vs Kid Valiant vs Rochelle Rogue.
Will Walker vs Joel Bateman
Gore vs York
Big Deathmatch Energy vs Anti-Deathmatch Party
JXT vs Shazza McKenzie
Misspent Youth vs Scotty Roach & Xavier Black
Mad Dog McCrea vs Vixsin in a no-rope barbed wire match
Royce Chambers vs Edward Dusk for the DMDU title.
 
Looking forward to seeing DMDU Malice at the Palais in Geelong on Saturday night. Pretty stacked card too...

Six person scramble: Emman the Kid vs Broderick Valentine vs Chanel Phoenix vs Mike Kaos vs Kid Valiant vs Rochelle Rogue.
Will Walker vs Joel Bateman
Gore vs York
Big Deathmatch Energy vs Anti-Deathmatch Party
JXT vs Shazza McKenzie
Misspent Youth vs Scotty Roach & Xavier Black
Mad Dog McCrea vs Vixsin in a no-rope barbed wire match
Royce Chambers vs Edward Dusk for the DMDU title.

You're going in person? This show is going to be awesome. The 6-person, Walker vs Bateman, BDE vs ADMP, J-Stick vs Shazza and Chambers vs Dusk are all going to be great, the latter 4 of those 5 matches I mentioned all have great stories going into them too.
 
You're going in person? This show is going to be awesome. The 6-person, Walker vs Bateman, BDE vs ADMP, J-Stick vs Shazza and Chambers vs Dusk are all going to be great, the latter 4 of those 5 matches I mentioned all have great stories going into them too.

Will definitely be there in person. :)
 
Just got back home from seeing DMDU so thought I'd share my thoughts on the night, and try not to spoil any results in the process as apparently it'll be up on IWTV in a couple of weeks:

- First match of the night was the no-rope barbed wire death match between Mad Dog McCrea and Vixsin. The match was pretty much spoiled by the start when Vixsin irish-whipped Mad Dog into the barbed wire and all the wire on the one side of the ring collapsed and Mad Dog cannoned out of the ring, and a similar thing happened on the 2nd irish whip. From then on it was pretty obvious they were making things up on the fly. Was probably my 2nd least favourite match on the night which was a bit of a disappointment as it was one of the matches I was looking forward to going in.

- Second match was the non-title tag match between Misspent Youth and Scotty Roach and Xavier Black. Was a pretty standard tag match really. Although she is small in stature, Aysha certainly holds her own in these types of matches. Had to laugh at one stage when her partner told her to jump on his back, and then preceded to swanton-bomb their opponent which would've done as much damage to her as it would their opponent. Pretty sure that works into their gimmick though.

- The third match was the first of two matches on the night which were altered on the card. They had a match between two jobbers which went for a couple of minutes before Gore came out and destroyed both of them. He then got on the mike and accused York of ducking him, and that he'd take on whoever they got to replace him, so out came Chanel Phoenix instead. These two pretty much brawled all over the place, before Gore was annoyed at the decision and decked the ref. This was probably the worst of the matches on the night as nothing remarkable happened.

- Next match was the six person scramble. This was the other match which was altered on the night. Both Emman the Kid and Broderick Valentine were no-shows, and with Chanel Phoenix taking on Gore in the preceding match, half of the original scheduled competitors were out of the match. In their place were Ryan Rapid, Charli Rose and some guy named Samson. This match was pretty entertaining. Had the standard flip clusterf**k to the outside which multi man matches tend to have, and at one stage Samson channelled his inner Brock Lesnar and suplexed nearly everyone in the match before hitting someone with an F-5. The crowd which were quiet early started getting warmed up in this match.

- The last match before the interval was JXT vs Shazza McKenzie. This probably wasn't as good as their first match, but it was pretty solid anyway which isn't surprising since the calibre of talent which was in the ring. The ending of the match will pretty much ensure the feud will go on a little bit longer too, which can only be a plus.

- After the interval, we had the match between Big Deathmatch Energy and Anti-Deathmatch Party. At the start of the match, ADP took out the 4th member of BDE on the entrance ramp while Callen Butcher and Big Dude Energy were in the ring, so it was essentially a handicap match. BDE were on top early before the numbers game caught up with them. The end of the match was pretty chaotic but worked well. All in all a pretty entertaining match.

- The penultimate match was the "Surf City Deathmatch" between Will Walker and Joel Bateman. Holy crap, this match was brutal! At one stage both Bateman and Walker were just standing in the middle of the ring smashing light tubes over each other's head for about 15 seconds. The crowd was at fever pitch in this match too and were firmly behind Will Walker after Bateman snubbed his handshake at the start of the match. Walker was wearing the proverbial crimson mask at the end of the match. This was probably my favourite match of the night.

- Rounding out the night was the main event between Royce Chambers and Edward Dusk. Holy crap, what a match. An absolute barnburner. Highlight of the night was an outrageous dive from Royce Chambers off the balcony onto Dusk and a bunch of wrestlers who were planted in the crowd below which rightfully invoked the loudest holy s**t chant of the evening. If the bookers of WSW were smart, they'd book a match between Chambers and Jon Gresham when WSW returns in July. That match would tear the house down.

Overall, after a very shaky start, the show steadily improved and the last two matches of the night were simply outstanding. Was a quality outing and a perfect way to introduce the company to a new audience. Will be interesting to see if they get a bigger crowd when they return to Geelong in May.
 


A fair bit of hype for only Matt Cardona, Jon Gresham & Taya Valkyrie announced.

Shows that rely on purely an international roster rather than promoting locals don't really catch my attention in Melbourne.
 
There is so many cool things happening in wrestling right now that I feel dizzy! I've been going to a lot of local shows this year and just enjoying the vibe of everyone getting back into the swing, being creative and just being excited to create something cool. It's ace.

Some great wrestlers to watch in the local scene at the moment, and I can't wait to check out the PWA Graduation show and see some of the talent coming through.

I managed to see Matt Hayter and Delta in action (in person) for the first time on the weekend - and holy heck, how impressive! The team at Riot City are doing a great job with training.
 

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Slex going to NOAH


Renegades of Wrestling have just announced that their debut show will feature JONAH vs...

Caveman Ugg.

A bit surprised by that. A decent worker of decent size who can bump well, so it makes sense from that perspective. At the end of the day though, Ugg is a gimmick, I'm a bit surprised they'd have him main event their first show.
 
I can’t believe I just discovered this thread. I’ve been going to Aus wrestling in Melbourne for a while, at least when my schedule permits.

I have no connection to any of the promotions or the people involved so am interested to learn about the apparent political issues that are obviously shaping the rosters of various promotions, and which obviously adds some context to some of the comings and goings and storylines that have played out. I did know MCW had been sold and that their former owner was assisting with DMDU on the production side of things, and I know he’s behind ROW.

For me, MCW is still head and shoulders above anything else in Victoria at the minute - or at least the companies I’ve been watching - which admittedly doesn’t include places outside the CBD area like PCW. And I’ve been to the odd BCW show when they’ve brought out guys I’ve been interested in seeing, but not since pre-pandemic. MCW’s in-ring product, the quality of the matches and their slick presentation is all ahead of the next best, for mine. I’m intrigued to see ROW at the Collingwood Town Hall too. No other venue I have been to comes close to the Thornbury Theatre so far, but the setup there looks promising.

I watched the DMDU show live this afternoon on IWTV and their production values are quite good. I’m also fully supportive of what they’re trying to achieve with the Code of Conduct, the showcasing of indigenous talent, etc. My concern with the product right now is that the in-ring stuff just isn’t that good. Which is not to say there aren’t good matches on their shows. But a lot of their talent is quite green or just not that adept at running the ropes, including a few who are positioned as top guys. I accept that I’m probably not the target audience either: I’ve really never been a fan of intergender wrestling as a representation of stylised man against woman violence and from a booking perspective I’ll never really understand the point of having deathmatches in the middle of a card for the sake of it. It kills the aura.

And maybe @nobbyiscool’s comments sheds some light on it, but to see a guy like Hendricks, who in my view is one of the best guys on the local scene, go from being such a red hot shithead heel with a broad range of perfect babyface foils in MCW to doing the same character in DMDU with 1/10th of the heat right now is a bit depressing. I’m sure he’ll be better suited to ROW and their audience but it would be really unfortunate if he’s no longer in MCW for political reasons. If that is the case, it’s unusual that there is talent like Chambers and Gore who still appear to be working for everybody - at least for now.

It will be interesting to see if MCW, ROW and DMDU can coexist in the one market too. Ticket sales for MCW Vendetta are tracking well and ROW will be close to a sellout. The Waterman/Brooks title match at the last MCW show was absolutely spectacular and a terrific piece of longer-term booking. I took a bloke that isn’t a wrestling fan who didn’t really know what he was coming to see, and by the end of it he was fully engrossed and in a state of disbelief at the quality of the match and the athletic capabilities of the people in it.

I did see they got about 3x-4x the audience of DMDU who ran the same night. I’m sure that was an unintended scheduling clash but it might be a portend of things to come in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Perhaps DMDU’s best bet is to keep focusing on the non-metro areas or the unconventional time slots.

More broadly, with things opening up, it will be interesting to see how much talent stays local. Brooks, Shazza and Jessica Troy are all taking bookings in the US. Slex is obviously going to Japan. Chambers surely won’t be long for the local scene either. That’s a lot of top-line talent that companies will have to cover for, either by using more interstate/international imports (especially from Japan) or quickly building local stars in their place. Easier said than done perhaps, and arguably a key reason why talent exclusivity arrangements might not benefit anybody in the long run.
 
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Can add Charli Evans to Aussie talent currently overseas, and Joel Bateman just recently returned from a whirlwind tour of the US.

Seems like the local wrestling scene is thriving, especially in and around Melbourne. Will be interesting to see how the companies can co-exist. They seem to be managing pretty well thus far - I think a couple of weeks ago there were 3-4 companies having shows on the same weekend, and at least half a dozen wrestlers were at least doing double duty over the weekend.
 
To add to the list of Aussie wrestlers overseas, I've noticed the Natural Classics (Stevie and Tome Filip) are currently in the US, and DMDU's Callen Butcher was just announced as a competitor in IWA:MS King of the Death Match tournament in August.
 
Can add Charli Evans to Aussie talent currently overseas, and Joel Bateman just recently returned from a whirlwind tour of the US.

Seems like the local wrestling scene is thriving, especially in and around Melbourne. Will be interesting to see how the companies can co-exist. They seem to be managing pretty well thus far - I think a couple of weeks ago there were 3-4 companies having shows on the same weekend, and at least half a dozen wrestlers were at least doing double duty over the weekend.
Charli Evans is actually home at the moment. :)

Adding to the list -

Shazza McKenzie, Jessica Troy, Kingsley, Cherry Stephens, Bel Pierce & Frankie B are all in the USA at the moment. (TBH - Not sure how many of them are working, outside of Shazza & Jess)
 
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I can’t believe I just discovered this thread. I’ve been going to Aus wrestling in Melbourne for a while, at least when my schedule permits.

I have no connection to any of the promotions or the people involved so am interested to learn about the apparent political issues that are obviously shaping the rosters of various promotions, and which obviously adds some context to some of the comings and goings and storylines that have played out. I did know MCW had been sold and that their former owner was assisting with DMDU on the production side of things, and I know he’s behind ROW.

Being upfront here, I am part of staff at Renegades but I won't be using this forum to promote the upcoming shows as I don't feel that's appropriate, nor would I be offended if people don't like something - at the end of the day, the best part of wrestling is that there is something for everyone, and (almost) everything/everyone has a place.

At my very core & heart, I am an Aussie wrestling fan and have been for over 20 years, so to be part of a place (this forum) where people are talking about something I love so much is very cool.
 
To add to the list of Aussie wrestlers overseas, I've noticed the Natural Classics (Stevie and Tome Filip) are currently in the US, and DMDU's Callen Butcher was just announced as a competitor in IWA:MS King of the Death Match tournament in August.

IWA:MS is still going? SurelyIan Rotten isn’t still in charge? I remember it was notorious back in the 00s when I was following wrestling.
 
Charli Evans is actually home at the moment. :)

Adding to the list -

Shazza McKenzie, Jessica Troy, Kingsley, Cherry Stephens, Bel Pierce & Frankie B are all in the USA at the moment. (TBH - Not sure how many of them are working, outside of Shazza & Jess)

To add to the list, Vixsin has been invited to Queen of the Death Match on the same weekend as King of the Deathmatch in August.
 
Just watching night 2 of Janela’s Spring Break, and **** me if Shazza McKenzie didn’t turn up in the cluster**** battle royal? She had some Twitter beef with Janela about 3 years over him not booking women, then she put him through a door today.

I’m not across Shazza or GCW’s schedule, but it seemed like a 1-on-1 between them might be on the cards.

(I think I might’ve also witnessed the Passion of the Effy tonight.)

The Natural Classics apparently had a banger today, though I haven’t checked Fite or IWTV for availability.

Brooksy tweeted yesterday that he has a match with Swerve ****ing Strickland in a few weeks.

Having started to follow the Aussie scene, I’ve started to wonder whether the dream WM weekend isn’t just following all the Aussie workers around. 1am start time for GCW today would’ve been friggen brutal though.
 
There is so many cool things happening in wrestling right now that I feel dizzy! I've been going to a lot of local shows this year and just enjoying the vibe of everyone getting back into the swing, being creative and just being excited to create something cool. It's ace.

Some great wrestlers to watch in the local scene at the moment, and I can't wait to check out the PWA Graduation show and see some of the talent coming through.

I managed to see Matt Hayter and Delta in action (in person) for the first time on the weekend - and holy heck, how impressive! The team at Riot City are doing a great job with training.

I recognise the name from the old WNA days, and from the MCW discord when u ran it. Welcome! I’m glad I won’t just be talking to myself in this thread now!

Do you travel much to shows? I don’t really know what you look like other than seeing you at a couple of MCW shows, but i saw someone that I thought could’ve been you at the FWA show before Christmas. I was keen to introduce myself, but I actually had **** all clue whether it was you or not! (I only really thought it might be cos I’d also seen this woman at DMDU shows.)

When I get back to Melbourne I might be in touch. I’d love to get involved in the scene, just as a volunteer when I get back. I struggled to get friends to DMDU after the DREAM tournament (in hindsight that was an awful first show to take people to), and I doubt I’ll get regulars to ROW either, so I figure that rather than go as a loner, volunteer to fo a job and meet people that way.


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