Pro Wrestling EVE

News Round-up

EVE has put out a blitz of announcements ahead of “International Women’s Day” where EVE will be holding two shows over the weekend on 6th March and 8th March. There is a slew of international talent descending onto London to take part in festivities.

EVE 143: SHE-1 2026

9th January 2026
Big Penny Social, London, UK

Review by Peter Edge

The first show of 2026 for EVE would see its focus centred on the She-1 tournament, the longest running annual women’s tournament in European Pro Wrestling, something that Sikisa would remind us frequently.

This year the stakes would be high with the winner getting to main event Wrestle Queendom at the O2 Indigo on March 8th. Speaking of Queendom, over 70% of tickets have sold, as of January 25th.

Before the Elite Eight would get underway, the matter of who was the eighth wrestler had to be decided. After the shenanigans of last month when Nina Samuels’ assistant Abi Cartwright signed a contract to enter Nina into the She-1 in Abi’s name and not Nina’s, Abi’s qualification match against ???, or question mark, question mark, question mark as Abi called it had to be completed.

© EVE

Abi had promised to give her title shot to Nina should she win the qualifier, but that promise came to nothing as Debbie Keitel, an EVE alum who had spent 2025 in Japan as part of the Pro Wrestling Diana roster, made a guest appearance while back in Europe for the holiday season. Debbie beat Abi in seconds with her modified Angel Wings finisher to solidify the final spit in the Elite Eight.

From there, we went straight to Debbie’s quarter final with her opponent being Anita Vaughan, her former tag team partner in late 2024 as part of The Gals (see, because they are Irish.) A decent match, Anita and Debbie almost went the full ten minutes of the time limit. From my vantage point, it appeared Ref Lauren needed to remind the pair that time was coming close with 30 seconds left on the clock, leading to a hurried finish to the match.

The next two quarter finals saw Skye Smitson beat Emi Sakura in what was the best match of the tournament in my opinion, then Session Moth Martina beat Alexis Falcon, pinning her with a backslide. This lead to the main storyline of the show commencing, when, in the post match, Alexis took out Martina with three Falcon’s Furys (a Sister Abigail/DDT hybrid.)

However the bigger news story was to be in the final match of the Elite Eight round: Molly Spartan vs Safire Reed had big match vibes on the entrances alone and had a quick start when Safire hit a flying knee but something was very wrong. Safire went and did the tranquillo pose. Something she doesn’t do. Something very unlike her, who brings intensity every time she wrestles. She never lays on her side after hitting a big move but there was a reason she wasn’t on her feet.

Something was wrong. Safire wasn’t getting up. After saying something to Ref Oscar, the dreaded X sign was given and the bell rang. The Big Penny went silent as the paramedic and others went to the ring to tend to Saf. A stretcher and a neck brace was present but after a few minutes, she got back to her feet. Safire was in obvious pain, clutching at her neck but the Saf fans in the building (including me) would have taken that considering the gravity of the situation 90 seconds earlier and how scary it was.

This became the perfect time to go to an interval, an interval that was 5 minutes longer than usual. Dann Read, the promoter, went on the mic to explain the situation, telling the fans that Safire was doing as good as could be in this situation and asking “give everyone space after what had just happened” with Safire being checked over by the paramedic at the show in the backstage area.

The scenes in that final quarter-final was certainly in contrast to the burlesque act that went before the match.I don’t normally review the burlesque that is a tradition of EVE shows mainly because I don’t have the expertise to rate burlesque but the first act of the two on this night was something else. It was an experience.

Introduced as Cheryl Coal (get it?) Lena Lenman in a Newcastle shirt, came out and basically did a stand up gig for 5 minutes. In kayfabe, the Cheryl Coal character went on a Greggs pilgrimage to find the best steak bake in Britain, during which “Cheryl” found an advert on Gumtree advertising for burlesque (I guess in EVE canon, the company hire people from Gumtree?)

In contrast to Amazi, the second burlesque act that did her thing in-between the semi finals with her act involving elite hula hoop work which was very polished, Cheryl/Lena’s wasn’t, which is laudatory in my opinion and – unlike all the other burlesque acts I have seen in my time as an EVE attendee – I saw a lot more that I was expecting from my position standing in the corner, especially in the bikini line area. Lena’s performance was to burlesque what Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal is to football. I imagine the purists would have hated it? Actually, someone I know from the EVE faithful, said that he didn’t enjoy it because “proper burlesque” but in a time where we live in “Set-Piece Britain”, Lena’s performance was something that we needed. It created a buzz in the building like no other performer before. In the interval after the scary situation with Safire, Lena’s performance was a very easy way for everyone to change the subject from what they had just seen.

The first semi-final saw Anita Vaughan beat Skye Smitson after the turnbuckle pad was ripped off in a O’Connor roll spot and Skye was driven into the exposed turnbuckle. The scene afterwards where Skye showed obvious frustration at another key loss in the singles division was interesting enough to put in the “wait and see” column.

The second final four match saw Session Moth Martina, selling a neck injury from the post-match angle from the Falcon match and Molly Spartan, who advanced after the Safire injury, pack a lot into the 5:48 including a brawl at the bar area. Martina would take the win after another successful backslide which now makes Moth the most expertised user of the backslide since Kerry Von Erich. Post-match, Molly cornered Moth and shouted at her “you better fucking win this now” before leaving.

A quick word on Molly Spartan: the word aura gets bounded about by young people that don’t know how to describe the “it factor” that someone has, but Molly Spartan has aura. There’s something paranormal about the energy field that surrounds Molly during her entrance and in her in-ring. There is something big-time about Molly in her matches that you don’t see elsewhere in the UK. She had only ventured south of Watford once since the pandemic before her appearance at Let’s Slam Santa and some bookings with other UK promotions. If Molly gets more bookings in EVE after the She-1, which has been her introduction to many fans south of the border, I’d be very happy for sure.

When Molly left the ringside area, I looked at my phone with the thought that all the promoted matches were done with the knowledge that the She-1 final was to be at February’s Multiverse Rumble and it was 10pm. Eve shows usually end at the 10:45-11 range. Yes, things had happened in the Safire-Molly match that meant around 10 minutes were missing from what should have happened but that still equates to the show going to 10:15ish. All the questions in my head were answered by the playing of Anita’s music. This wasn’t a stare-down to plug the next show and the She-1 final. Anita got on the mic and challenged Martina to push the final to there and then, which Martina accepted.

Anita hit her big moves, the face buster and sit-out powerbomb but Martina kicked out, which pumped up the crowd, who feared the worst when the match started. After 6 minutes and a Martina comeback, which started with a backslide for a good false finish, and a flourish of big moves, Martina hit the Spinning fisherman’s buster (called the Jagerbomb) to win the match and the tournament.

Some complaints have been written online about the final moments of the She-1 event. Primarily these were social media posts from people saying that they had bought tickets for Multiverse Rumble, with the final of the She-1 being the reason to make that purchase. These posts do have a point, but being in the building on this night, it was hard to say it was an awful decision. It was a booking of someone in Martina, with the focus on making someone that was logical and actually perfect.

The Martina story in canon and in real life is a by the numbers, feel-good wrestling story. In real life, Karen Glennon has had the worst 12 months imaginable. Her dad passed away and she currently is caring for her mother back home in her native country of Ireland and these hardships have come out in the story in the last year. On a losing streak through 2025 with elements of depression playing into the character of Session Moth Martina, every positive landmark that Martina had hit in 2025 got her even more over than the month before and the pop for the 1-2-3 was the loudest on the Martina journey so far.

© EVE

As a night-long storyline, Martina suffering an attack from a rival in Alexxis and then having to negotiate an impromptu hurdle from someone who was trying to prey on her storyline insecurities and clearing it emphatically is simple and perfect babyface booking.

One of the other major complaints was the show ending really early. As a rule, Dann Read likes to format the shows til 22:45 local time to compensate for wrestlers being wrestlers and going long but with the Safire injury taking a 10-15 minute chunk of the show but none of the matches on this show went north of 10 minutes. The Safire injury now doesn’t look to be as serious as first feared, with Safire posting on Twitter that she was ok. She later attended Smackdown as a potential extra that didn’t make the cut (there’s a joke about her going to a WWE show justifying the talk of a potential concussion that I won’t make)

The quarter finals had a 10 minute time limit, the semis having 20 mins and the final being a 30 minute time limit, however on this night none of the matches in any of the rounds went longer than 10 minutes. It turns out there was a IRL reason for that, especially in Martina’s case.

Martina went through the night with an abscess on the tooth which was extremely painful to the point that on any other night, Martina’s participation would have been doubtful but this was Martina’s night and she wasn’t going to miss this one for anything in the world. She looked exhausted in the end, even with an average match length of 5 minutes over a course of three matches. An abscess on the tooth will do that to someone.

SHE-1 2026 a weird show. While I’m not a “a good match can only be good if it’s more than 10 minutes” wanker, a show being without even one match that long is very jarring in 2026. In a company where #planschange could almost be a motto considering some of the mad happenings that have happened during event weeks across their history, plans had to change with injuries and illness (is an abscess of a tooth illness or injury?), but by the end, an objective was reached. A contender for the EVE Championship was determined and she is as strong as a babyface that you have in wrestling in 2026.

© Chris Gannon

EVE #144: “Multiverse Rumble”

6th February 2026
Big Penny Social, London, UK

Review By Peter Edge

While technically not the go-home show for “Wrestle Queendom”, “Multiverse Rumble” would be a big show in building the blocks for the March 8 show at the O2 Indigo (by the time you read this, it might very well be sold out to capacity).

The EVE Championship match between champion Rhio and Nightshade went on first, with the idea being that the former champ wanted to get her hands on her nemesis early. The match had the right amount of spite matching the disdain the pair have for each other in this feud, with very little action in the ring compared to the outside.

The turning point in the match would be a curb stomp from Rhio to Nightshade which, from my vantage point watching on TV, didn’t connect with the intent desired. This made the resulting “injury angle” of Nightshade having a potential concussion in storyline not hit as expected even with the real life paramedic (as per requirement at a British wrestling event) at the scene, something that — after the scary scene the previous months with Safire Reed’s injury at the She-1 — felt weird to see in a kayfabe context.

The final stanza of the match saw Rhio dominate her way to victory with a crossface, forcing Nightshade to pass out and a Rhio title retention via referee stoppage.

This now sets up the “Wrestle Queendom” main event to be Rhio defending the belt against She-1 winner Session Moth Martina. An angle was set up for the match – Rhio attacked Martina during her entrance for the trios match with Sesh, Skye Smitson and Safire Reed against Molly Spartan, Alexxis Falcon and Anita Vaughan. Rhio hit Martina with a Package Piledriver, continuing the neck problems that Sesh has been suffering from in storyline, reducing the match to a 3 vs. 2 handicap match. This was good but was also more a showcase for the heels (in their eventual victory), which will shape the months of EVE post the Indigo spectacular.

© Chris Gannon

Amira Blair beat Lil Marz in a showcase for the Northern Irish wrestler for her WQ match against Harley Cameron, a match so chaotic (laudatory) on paper that American wrestling content creators have talked about how chaotic this match will be. What was also noticeable was that Cassius, an alum from the EVE school and a fixture from the ResGal days of EVE, was seconding Amira and not her Pretty Psycho partner in crime, Zoe Lucas. Something to put in the wait and see column? Amira also in her post match promo called Harley the c-word.

Nina Samuels would beat Violet Nyte with an assist from an Abi Cartwright shaped woman in a ski mask. Abi’s attempts to get back into Nina Samuels’ good books after one mishap too often would continue, by Abi arranging Nina to have a match with Willow Nightingale. Something that felt like a positive thing for Abi to do for Nina did elicit “You f**ked up” and “Willow is going to kill you” chants from the EVE faithful.

The match of the night (and so far the EVE MOTY, and also the MOTY on UK shores as of me typing this) came in the EVE Tag Title Match between Lallie and Cory Zero and JGU, named brilliantly as “French Art”, and it’s something reminiscent of a Pierre-Augustine Renoir classic.

JGU was fantastic as a bullying heel with the best imaginary stairlift taunt in history. Cory was on point throughout the night, and the titles felt like they were in peril for Lallie on frequent occasions, with the connection that the team have with the EVE patrons ensuing great heat throughout. The only quibble I have is that French Art went to town with their “NXT Shocked Face” throughout the match, but I’ll excuse Cory and JGU as the words French Originality is as much an oxymoron as the words French Resistance (was that too below the belt?).

But it’s a cracking match and by the time you read this (probably, maybe) the match will be on the EVE: Riot Grrrls of Wrestling YouTube channel, so watch it.

Post match, Lallie set an open challenge for their belts at “Wrestle Queendom” and then the lights went out, which could only mean one thing: announcement time.

Charli Evans turned up on the big screen and accepted the challenge and said she was bringing someone with her. It wouldn’t be the first “lights out for an announcement” as we saw EVE producer voice a vignette introducing Syuri as the latest person to be at “Wrestle Queendom” earlier on the night. March 8th is going to be great.

© Chris Gannon

The main event is a yearly EVE tradition and the event’s namesake. To put it simply, a multiverse portal is opened (it has to be said that the fact that a wrestling promoter, Dann Read, having a key to a multiverse portal is criminally underreported by wrestling media, but I guess we need 20 minutes of audio on Big Data+Panel on WOR) and people who appeared earlier in the show may be in different variants. Put simply, it’s a fancy dress Royal Rumble.*

*(Editor’s Note: Cosplay Rumble. Hell yeah.)

There were plenty of MVPs in the match. Lallie as Freddie Mercury and The Queen were fun. Molly Spartan’s Bowser was a great laugh, especially the rendition of Peaches that made up her entrance. The final stanza involving Amira as Claudia Winkleman was the appropriate chaos, Aleah James as Britney Spears (I fell in love that Friday), Alexxis Falcon as Mr. Bean was perfect, and the DX/Will Ospreay/John Cena stuff that has gone viral on social media were a blast.

But kudos needs to go to Will Ospreay who was on commentary. When Dann explained the Multiverse Rumble concept on the mic and brought up that in this iteration that the concept of time doesn’t exist so intervals would be random, Will dryly said, “that means we didn’t format this properly.”

When “Elevated” hit the P.A. Will just said “I’m not cleared,” but Session Moth Martina, who in this multiverse didn’t have a neck injury (does that mean the lack of selling in WWE is just the company jumping through multiple universes?), came out in Will’s robe doing spots in the ring in said robe, and real Will sounded like he was having a shoot panic attack at the thought of his robe in jeopardy of being ruined. Then DX (Safire Reed and Anita Vaughan, with Anita as Triple H for the second consecutive Rumble) turned up and the DX vs Ospreay spots prompted Will to yell “GO ME!” as Mothspreay kicked out of the Pedigree, hitting both DX members with Hidden Blades only to be eliminated by Mr. Bean.

You all might have seen John Cena’s entrance and elimination of DX on social media, making the most of the “you can’t see me” meme (major dap to the cameraman on that moment) but Amira as Claudia WInkleman, the host of the UK Traitors show, would choke out John Cena (who also tapped out) before eliminating the star of Peacemaker.

At the end it was the No.1 and No.2 entrants that were also the final two, with Nina Samuels’ Ivory and Mr. Bean at the end and with a final sequence that had more heat than both the Rumbles in Saudi Arabia and Mr. Bean chants that could be heard from the Co-Op down the road from the Big Penny Social. Mr. Bean was the Ironman tossing Ivory over the top rope to take the honours in a Rumble that was better than anything served up the week before.

Yes, the match had so much “Royal Rumbling” that the 1991 Royal Rumble went “come on!” but who cares. The whole thing was a blast and had a feel good moment at the end, with a sociopath winning a wrestling match.

Is this the point where I talk about Mr. Bean being a sociopath?

© PROGRESS

PROGRESS

Bitesize Round-up

This year’s “Strong Style 16” tournament has had a shake up thanks to the introduction of the women’s tournament. PROGRESS announced a series of first round tournament matches around the world for both the men’s and women’s tournament. In PROGRESS itself, Jay Joshua, Simon Miller, Skye Smitson, and LA Taylor knocked out Kid Lykos II, Josh Holly, Anita Vaughan and Session Moth Martina to advance. Safire Reed had to pull out due to injury, allowing LA Taylor to beat Session Moth Martina instead. In wXw, Elijah Blum defeated Bobby Gunns to advance on 10th January, and Stephanie Maze will face Maddy Morgan on 21st February. In Squash A Jobber (SAJ) Kanji knocked out Irene in the first round on 31st January, and Mirko Mori takes on Spike Trivet on 14th March in Milan. Billie Starkz will face Gisele Shaw in Canada on 26th April for a spot in the second round, as well as the Destiny Women’s Title. Finally, Tucker and Charles Crowley will face off at Rixe and BZW’s joint show in Dreux, France on 14th March.

At “Chapter 191: For The Love Of Progress 4” during the “For The Love of Wrestling” convention in Manchester on 20th February, Shotzi Blackheart will face Lana Austin for a spot in the second round. The second round up to the finals of the “Strong Style 16” tournament will take place on 3rd and 4th May at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London.

Fightful reported that former PROGRESS Women’s Champion Rayne Leverkusen has signed with WWE following two successful tryouts with the American company last summer. Sources in both Japan and the UK have also indicated to us that another recent former champion in the promotion is also expected to head to WWE in the near future. Rayne lost the title to Alexxis Falcon at “Chapter 189: In Darkest Night”. Alexxis went on to retain against Rhio at “Chapter 190: In Brightest Day”.

Drilla Maloney returned to PROGRESS at the “Unboxing” mystery vortex show on 28th December. Maloney, who first appeared for the promotion back in 2013, defeated former PROGRESS Men’s World Champion Spike Trivet. This was also Trivet’s first match back since he made his own return to the company in November.

Saxon Huxley won the PROGRESS Atlas Title on 1st January from Will Kroos at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. Huxley went on to defend the title against Axel Tischer at “Chapter 189: In Darkest Night”. Huxley then lost the title to Gene Munny at “Chapter 190: In Brightest Day” on 15th February.

© RevPro

RevPro

Bitesize Round-up

By Peter Edge

The four weeks after Christmas would see Revolution Pro hit their “Live In” towns with shows at Southampton’s The 1865, London’s Porchester Hall, Sheffield’s Network and Coventry’s HMV Empire. The theme of January was the start of the “Road to Wembley”.

RevPro’s “14th Anniversary Show” during AEW “All In Weekend” on 29th August at the OVO Arena in Wembley has a new match added to it. The Young Guns will defend their Undisputed British Tag Team Title against FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood). It is their first major show in London since the “13th Anniversary Show” on the same weekend in 2025. All other major shows have taken place outside of the capital. 

Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship

The main focus of the last month has been Jay Joshua and the beginning of his title reign as Undisputed British Heavyweight Champion with defences against Sha Samuels in Southampton, in a rematch from the Uprising main event in Cardiff, and against Michael Oku at the first Live in London show of the year.

The Samuels defense was slightly short of the quality of their Cardiff match but the emphatic win, while short of the emotion of the title win in his home country, saw Jay look strong in the start of his defense, something that can’t be said in the Oku match.

WIth JJ in the half-crab, Michael Oku’s music rang out. Dave Bradshaw and Andy Quildan went nuts saying that Oku had done it and become a three-time Undisputed Champion. They were the only ones that reacted.

Watching the footage on RevPro Live, none of the fans cheered. Now, in the world of RevPro, technical difficulties are as common as a doors opening way past it’s scheduled time but no-one was buying that this was the end, and ref Oscar Harding thankfully isn’t as dumb as Dave and Andy (at least in RevPro canon), and pointed out that there was no bell.

A camera switch later, and someone at the music desk was shown unmasking, specifically Connor Mills, the man who lost to Oku at Uprising in Cardiff in December. Jay Joshua took advantage of the distraction to hit a headbutt and Gotch Piledriver, which wasn’t the end after an Oku kick out. After a minute of frantic action and offence from both men, a pop-up headbutt from Jay and a screwdriver ended the bout. From a production standpoint no-one looked good and Jay looked weak. The commentators exclaiming a title change despite no bell being sounded came across as dumb for doing so.

The next two shows saw Michael Oku act paranoid but also out for revenge. In Sheffield, after Mills and Joshua defeated the CPF duo of Joe Lando and Maverick Mayhew, Oku came out to attack Mills but ended up superkicking the other CPF-er Danny Black, which resulted in a pull-apart brawl. Coventry saw Mayhew and Oku face each other in a belting match, with Oku getting the win via his half-crab but refusing to let go, asking the ref if he was sure if Mayhew submitted. Black came out to break the hold and in the scuffle, Skye Smitson also came from the back to take out Amira Blair (the manager and partner of Oku) with a chair shot (Skye and Amira are also feuding), and the connection from the chair was loud, with Oku unable to stop the assault because Danny was holding him back.

On commentary, Dave and Andy tried to give the benefit to Danny, in that perhaps he didn’t know what happened with the Skye/Amira incident, but that chair shot was so loud you could have heard it from the Pool Meadow bus station the other side of Coventry City Centre, so I claim chinny racon on that one. Could this be a potential CPF/Smitson alliance in RevPro?

Later on in Coventry, Mills and Joshua beat the Rising Tide pair of Leon Cage and Shane Hook, but post-match Michael Oku’s theme hit. This turned out to be a distraction for TK Cooper to attack Jay Joshua. So, the main lesson from this month’s RevPro is if you want to commit a bad act, like maybe robbing a bank, just play Michael Oku’s theme and it’ll distract everyone.

At “Live In London 104” on 1st February at Porchester Hall, London, Jay Joshua defended the Undisputed British Heavyweight Title against TK Cooper.

Undisputed British Tag Team Championships

The tag team title picture saw Young Guns paired against Lykos Gym, with the Lykos Gym team winning a non-title match in London, and then dropping the loss back in the title match being in Sheffield. The Sheffield bout was a traditional good match from Young Guns with them picking up the win via their Allen soccer kick/Jacobs piledriver combo (I’ve seen prettier piledrivers than Jacobs.)

The post-match scenes saw Kid Lykos berate Lykos II to the point that Lykos walked out. Liam Slater was trying to keep the peace but being so bad at it, Gianni Infantino might award him the 2026 FIFA Peace Prize. Liam did at least manage to negotiate a rubber match for the titles for Live in London on the first day of February, with the stipulation that if were to Lykos Gym lose the title match, they would never compete for the British Tag Titles again. Considering they are more Progress-coded than RevPro-coded, may not be that big of a punishment. On 1st February, The Young Guns (Ethan Allen & Luke Jacobs) defended their Undisputed British Tag Team Title against Lykos Gym (Kid Lykos & Kid Lykos II).

Undisputed British Cruiserweight Championship

Joe Lando defended his Cruiserweight Title on two occasions in January.

In London, he defeated his CPF teammate Danny Black in a very good match after weeks of Danny being a moody brat over his partner being the champion. (In canon, Danny is being an unlikable so-and-so.)

In Coventry, Lando defeated Will Kaven in what was Kaven’s best match in RevPro to date.

Women’s Division

The women’s scene has been busy with multiple storylines weaving through the shows since Christmas, but with minimal interaction from the main heel group, Cut Throat Collective. Mercedez Blaze has been the sole contributor from the CTC since Uprising, but that was a losing effort to Melissa Fierce in what was a very sloppy match.

The two main feuds in the women’s division saw Amira and Sky Smitson have numerous interactions. Amira beat Skye in Southampton, then the aforementioned post-match angle after Oku vs Mayhew in Coventry being the latest.

Kanji and Alexxis Falcon wrestled in London and Sheffield with Alexxis winning in the capital by nefarious means and winning again in the North via DQ, after Alexxis spat in the face of Kanji, causing Kanji to snap and push the referee and have to be restrained.

All this has been taking place in the absence of Undisputed British Women’s Champion Alex Windsor, after her winning the title from Mercedes Mone at 10:40pm local time on a Wednesday night in the Co-op Arena in Manchester (during an AEW TV Taping.) We will next see Windsor in action at Live in London on February 1st, teaming with Nina Samuels in a “can they co-exist” special against Safire Reed and Anita Vaughan. This will be a No-DQ match which takes all the fun out of the “can they co-exist” flavour of this match (if you can have fun with this overblown trope.)

The fact that I learnt about this match from the recap show posted in the days after Coventry and as of writing (22nd January) no graphic has yet to come up on social media to announce the match says something.

Next Steps

When it came to the show in Coventry, the first match to be announced on Twitter, despite an announcement of Lando vs Kaven and a massive tease of Oku vs Mayhew would be on the Wednesday night, just less than 100 hours before the show.

It wasn’t a coincidence that the last two shows with main events announced weeks beforehand had the best attendance numbers of the nine shows so far. Number ten looked more sparse than before, with front row tickets still on sale on the Thursday before the show, compared to being sold out more than a week in advance of the November and September shows.On TV, it looked like those tickets weren’t sold and it looks like the “line going down” trend isn’t a Coventry exclusive trend either.

Season ticket sales for the front row have moved somewhat, with 21 remaining, compared to from 40 earlier (of the 44 available). Maybe people will say that the move from the 229 to Porchester Hall has hurt sales, but if RevPro fans can queue for 50 minutes outside the building before doors open, the 50 minute walking gap between the two arenas shouldn’t be a problem.

Maybe the biggest red flag is the lack of relevancy of RevPro on Twitter and other sites is glaring. With RevPro bigging up the “Road to Wembley”, a popular motto in football circles to make the FA Cup more important, the lack of momentum starting 2026 is there to see and right now RevPro are struggling to get out of the third round of their metaphorical FA Cup run.

RevPro’s next major show is “High Stakes 2026” in Wolverhampton. Given Mercedes Mone’s other European appearances around the same time, such as 14th March in BZW, it seems likely that she will make an appearance on this show. 

UK & Ireland

Over The Top (OTT) Wrestling News

Daragh Lynch won the Irish Heavyweight Title from Matthew Bullett Smyth on 15th February in Mountmelick, Laois. Despite a series of other title defences over the past couple of months on the OTT Live Tour, Big Damo, Myla Grace, Trent Seven, Calum Black and Makaveli (Matthew Bullett Smyth & Damien Corvin) have all retained their World Title, Women’s Title, European Title, No Limits Title and Tag Team Title respectively. OTT’s next major show is on 8th March at The Europa in Belfast. Brian Kendrick will be making an appearance.

Over The Top Wrestling will host a joint-show with German Wrestling Federation (GWF) on 4th October in Berlin titled “Double Impact 2026”.

Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW) News

ICW held the “14th Annual Square Go!” event at The Asylum in Glasgow on 8th February which was won by Mark Coffey in just over 60 minutes. Also on the show, Rhio defended her World Heavyweight Title against Colton Davis, Arcade Violence (Brody Turnbull & Jake Lawless) retained their Tag Team Title against former wXw Tag Team Champions Greedy Souls (Brendan White & Danny Jones).

The next ICW show “So’s Yer Maw III: And Yer Da As Well” takes place on 29th March at The Garage in Glasgow. Arcade Violence will defend against former Tag Team Champions KOE (Adam King & Marcus King), and Rhio is advertised for the show.

Women’s World Champion Angel Hayze, who retained against Kanji on 8th February, will be going on tour with Marigold in Japan. Marigold is run by Rossy Ogawa, STARDOM’s former owner and booker, which he is quite terrible at. Seriously, see my Marigold column, or don’t. The booking is putrid.

© wXw

wXw

Bitesize Round-up

wXw have now confirmed the lineup for this year’s “16 Carat Gold” tournament in Oberhausen from the 7th to 9th March. The participants are Peter Tihanyi, Titus Alexander, Erick Stevens, YAMATO, Arez (a.k.a. El Clon), Chihiro Hashimoto, BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito, Bobby Gunns, Ahura, Ricky Sosa, Axel Tischer, Dennis ‘Cash’ Dullnig, Thomas Shire, Zoltan and Dieter Schwartz. Zoltan qualified for the tournament by defeating BK Westbrook at “Back to the Roots” in Oberhausen on 24th January. The Hungarian wrestler is a product of the wXw Academy and the youngest ever “16 Carat Gold” tournament participant. Dieter Schwartz won his spot by winning a mini tournament on 8th February in Leipzig. The tournament will be streamed on wXw’s YouTube and IWTV.

Elijah Blum won the wXw World Title from Peter Tihanyi in a Pure Rules match at “Back to the Roots” in Oberhausen on Jan 24th, submitting Tihanyi with an anaconda vice. Blum is due to defend the title against 1 Called Manders during “16 Carat Gold Weekend” on 7th March.

There will also be a lunchtime show on 7th March dubbed “International Wrestling Summit” which will feature matches from partner promotions such as West Coast Pro, RevPro and all women’s group Fury. Johnnie Robbie versus Miko Alana (West Coast) and Cory Zero versus Mila Smidt (Fury) have both been announced.

wXw’s next major show before the “16 Carat Gold” tournament is at Markthall in Hamburg titled “Dead End 2026”. NOAH’s GHC Tag Team Champions Los Tranquilos de Japon (BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito) will take on The Grind (Laurance Roman & Nick Schreier) to try and win the wXw World Tag Team Title. Elsewhere, rising star Ricky Sosa defends the wXw European Title against Brandon Banz, and Bobby Gunns, Dieter Schwartz, Peter Tihanyi and Zoltan compete in a preview of the “16 Carat Gold” tournament. Dani Luna returns to wXw on the same show against Jane Nero.

The annual Pro-Wrestling Grand Prix will take place from 25th September to 27th September in Oberhausen.

New Japan young lion Katsuya Murashima will be on excursion in wXw, making his debut on 5th March.

wXw has uploaded Ahura vs. Elijah Blum from the König Der Catcher Final on 28th September for free on their YouTube. It is considered one of the best matches of the year in Europe. It is quite a unique match underpinned by their hatred for each other, which really makes it stick out in your mind when you’re reminiscing on matches from the year. I completely understand why it ended up so high on many Match of the Year lists.

On 16th February, Ian Hamilton and Mike Kilby held episode #67 of their “Auf Die Fresse” podcast, which included an interview with wXw’s Managing Director Felix Kohlenberg. Kohlenberg also appeared on “Troubles with Wrestling” for another in-depth interview. There is no shortage of English content to help you follow wXw, and there’s no time like the “16 Carat Gold” tournament to jump in!

© APC Catch

Mainland Europe

APC Catch News

APC held their “Anniversary XXII” show on 10th January in Nanterre, France. The show was capped off with Andrade El Idolo defeating Mecca and Ricky Sosa in a three-way. Kuro, who earlier retained the APC Title against Michael Oku, attacked both losers after the match. Erin Ordo captured the European Title. The show is available in full, for free, on YouTube (linked above). On 31st January, Kuro then went on to defeat JGU, who became the inaugural Women’s Champion at the anniversary show. Erin Ordo captured the European Title in an ‘Apocalypse’ match.

APC held “Battlestar” on 15th February in Nanterre, France. The main event was a battle of the two rising stars of the European scene, as Kuro retained his APC Title against Ricky Sosa. That match is worth a watch. The crowd are going crazy during some of the sequences. It reminded me a lot of NXT Black & Gold, and mostly the good stuff, not when it jumped the shark. Kuro and Sosa come off as stars of the scene and it’s hard to come away from that match not being excited about their careers. 404 (AD Leonis & Cory Zero) became the new Tag Team #1 contender, while Lauriana is the next challenger for JGC’s Women’s Title.

As reported on in Issue 12, the French wrestling scene has been undergoing its own “Speaking Out” movement. Joseph Fenech Jr. had announced a hiatus from wrestling due to an allegation levied against him, and APC referee Alex Schneider also ceased working at APC. On 12th February, APC released a statement regarding fan backlash due to their booking of TNA star Moose on a show scheduled for 22nd March. APC stated that it did not know of the domestic abuse allegations.

Banger Zone Wrestling (BZW) News

BZW held “Enter The Zone” on 24th January in Faches-Thumesnail, France, near Lille in the north of the country. The show was notable for the appearance of Tetsuya Naito, who took on Connor Mills in a singles match. In the main event, Jacob Vadocq defended the BZW Title against Jordan Oliver. After the match, Trent Seven returned to BZW and attacked Jacob. He previously lost a “Loser Leaves Town” match to Joseph Fenech Jr. in July 2025.

BZW’s next big show is on 14th March, held in conjunction with fellow French promotion Rixe. Connor Milles, Georges Balzac and Minoru Suzuki will face off in a three-way, while Mercedes Mone has been announced.

BZW will also hold a show with Pursuit Pro Wrestling in Sheffield, United Kingdom. The BZW Tag Team Champions MAO & Yoshihiko have been announced for the show. Yoshihiko had been on a recent tear in DDT having challenged Kazuki Hirata for the KO-D Openweight Title on 28th September in one of the best matches of the year in DDT. The Pursuit Pro show is “pay what price you want” and is fully sold out at the PPW Facility.

KHAO News

KHAO will be running an eight-man tournament with the winner becoming the inaugural KHAO Champion. The first round will begin on 1st March at “Volume 1” celebrating their one year anniversary as a new promotion. On 28th March, a multi-man elimination match will be held where the winner will qualify for the tournament. Kuro is already scheduled to compete in the first round on 1st March against El Maestro, as well as Ricky Sosa against Leedz Lewis.

© German Wrestling Federation

German Wrestling Federation (GWF) News

AEW wrestler Andrade became the new GWF World Champion on 7th February as he defeated Rambo at “Global Warning 2026”. A title defence was booked the day after on 8th February, so GWF decided to stream the main event as fans were curious to see if Andrade would immediately drop the title the day after. Andrade ended up retaining in a four-way against Metehan, Rambo and Toni Harting. The shows are free on GWF’s YouTube.

After winning the Berlin Title from Carlito on 11th July at “Strike First, Strike Hard 2026”, Ahura then failed on his first defence to Kouga (f.k.a. Owadasan, on an excursion from NOAH) on 7th February at “Global Warning 2026”. Kouga went on to defend the day after against La Estrella. Kouga was one of the most over wrestlers on the NOAH roster before his excursion, which seemed poorly timed as he was gaining immense momentum as OZAWA’s partner-in-crime. However, this means he should be molten hot on his return to Japan.

GWF will hold the “World Cup” over two days on 9th and 10th May. It’s a single elimination tournament with wrestlers representing different nations, with the final contested in a four-way elimination match. Axel Tischer was the winner of the 2025 edition of the tournament.

Squash A Jobber Wrestling (SAJ) News

Los Tranquilos de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI) recruited two new members to their unit. RYUSEI, the twin brother of Masatora Yasuda, 26, debuted at “Evil Eye” on 31st January. It is quite rare for a Japanese rookie to debut overseas, but such is the way of Naito. Additionally, Spanish independent wrestler Angel Reyes has joined the unit and is touring in NOAH with the group. The show is not yet updated on their Linktree, but is available on their Vimeo service.

On the same show, Naito teamed with Crimi and Mike Bird against Adriano and BBB (Mirko Mori & Nico Inverardi). Sebastia De Witt remains the SAJ Openweight Champion following a double pin against El G. The two will run it back in a three-way involving Lupo on the next show “Grandeur Warped” on 14th March. New Japan young lion Katsuya Murashima will also be on the show.

SAJ announced a joint-show with Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling on 26th April in Milan. Hyper Misao and Miyu Yamashita have already been announced for the show.

SLAM! Wrestling News

NOAH wrestler Kouga (f.k.a. Owadasan) was on “Wrestling Slam III” on 17th January in SLAM’s usual stomping grounds of Seinäjoki, Finland. It is funny to me thinking of Kouga getting lost in a remote Finnish forest after being one of the most over wrestlers in one of the most popular companies in Japan. Japanese rookie excursions are objectively hilarious, just like Keigo Nakamura on an excursion from DDT in the middle of nowhere in Mexico, with his matches rarely making tape. Anyway, Kouga laid down on the mat for the three count as a Nordic wrestling pioneer in Starbuck beat him. In the main event, Canadian Dylan Broda retained the SLAM Wrestling Title against Estonian’s premier wrestling star Artur Arder in a “Three Stages of Hell” match. Englishwoman Kiara defended her Women’s Title against Danish stars Aliss Ink and Madison Marley in a three-way. The shows are uploaded to TrillerTV on quite a long delay and not all shows are uploaded. For this show, SLAM Fans could buy an ‘environmental ticket’ which donated €3 to the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation. This was to help protect the conservation area within South Ostrobothnia, the region where the show will be held.

SLAM will be returning to Stockholm for a show, “Stockholm Slam! II” on 7th March. Polish wrestler Diana Strong, who made headlines a few months ago following her match against Mercedes Mone, will be making an appearance.