Pro Wrestling EVE

“EVE 150: History Makers / Rule Breakers!”

5th June 2026
The Big Penny Social, London, UK

Review By Peter Edge

The 150th show in EVE history happened on June 6th and was presented as, dare I say it, a bigger deal than the “Anniversary” show a month previous.

All 3 of the titles that are sanctioned by EVE: Riot Grrrls of Wrestling were on the line, with the international title being a dream match between Kris Statlander, coming in as champ, facing Miyu Yamashita, as well as the tag titles seeing a rematch of one of the most celebrated matches of the year in EVE with Lallie defending against French Art, and rounding out the title matches – Session Moth Martina making her first defence of her world title against the No.1 contender from the Sweet Sixteen match from “Wrestle Queendom 8”, Alexxis Falcon.

The show would begin with the EVE World Title match and it was almost over in seconds.

Just as Session Moth was about to do her bit in her entrance where she conducts a singalong of the second verse of her theme (Cascada’s “Everytime We Touch”), Alexxis attacked from behind (great way to get heel heat by preventing us from singing that banger) and hit her Falcons Fury finisher for a near fall. It was a good match which played into their previous matches in the company in the last year and they crammed a lot into the 10 minutes they were in the ring, with Moth getting the win with her Jaegerbomb finisher.

NyteSkye beat EVE debutants Relentless All Stars in a decent match, with “All Star” Ruby Manitoba especially impressing in her hot tag, cleaning house after NyteSkye had “Relentless” Rhiannon Jade in peril. NyteSkye would come out on top with the Violet Nyte kick/Skye Smitson brainbuster combo that they have been showcasing as their finisher in the last few months.

Then came the other reason that “EVE 150: Rule Breakers / History Breakers!” was hyped up to the extent it was.

A countdown started to happen on EVE’s twitter account with the number descending every day to get to zero on Sunday, 10th June…and then nothing happened.

In kayfabe, Molly Spartan shut the countdown down on twitter and said for someone to meet her in the ring at “EVE 150”. (Quick aside here, if Molly dislikes countdowns so much, can she stop the ones that happen at the FIFA World Cup to signal the start of a game? I think I dislike that just as much as the television timeout – sorry, I mean, ‘hydration break’.)

In reality, the plan for the announcement was changed when circumstances out of EVE’s hands got in the way and Molly was needed to help change the path to the big moment.

The moment looked to be the return of Kay Lee Ray to EVE. The promotion of the moment was basically EVE’s social media saying it was KLR without saying it was the ‘KilLeR’. EVE even put a meet and greet with the mystery wrestler up for sale on their website,so when Molly’s theme hit the anticipation raised a level.

Molly herself has gone viral in the last month after Mick Foley wore a Molly Spartan flannel shirt at “Double or Nothing” (which was actually Molly’s personal property, before a shirt exchange at an ICW show years ago), so this potential Spartan/KLR match looked to be a blinder.

The lights went down after Spartan’s entrance and the word ‘Fyre’ came on screen with Abi added on top, and then Abi Cartwright came out in full Alba Fyre cosplay.

The crowd was actually very kind to this, except a few that I heard anecdotally were really pissed off about this. Guess they actually thought the M&G that they dropped 40 quid on was actually going to be for Abi.

The commentators, to be fair, played on this being an anti-climax to the point that it was all a ruse for it to be Kay Lee Ray. Right?

Abi and Molly actually wrestled for what felt like a couple of minutes (Cagematch tells me 0:50) And then the lights went out. All of Kay Lee Ray’s nicknames and phrases associated from her time in the UK indies before the second phase of her career, wrestling for WWE, were shown and then out she came, to a thunderous pop.

Kay Lee Ray looked emotional at the ovation she received from the EVE faithful (and probably the guy who realised he would be meeting KLR at the M&G after all). When we got to bell time, we saw shades of the KLR that people saw pre-pandemic and pre-WWE and I would tell anyone that would listen that WWE missed a lay-up with TAFKA Alba Fyre.

While there were shades of ring rust, as June 5th was only Kay’s fifth match of 2026, it built up to a really fun match (much higher than the 6.29 rating on Cagematch as of writing – feels like this going to be a theme with Molly), with both hitting big moves and Molly given moments to shine in her biggest match in EVE so far. This may have been Spartan’s most notable match of her career so soon after her moment of notoriety in late May, but it was Kay who got the win after hitting the Gory Bomb that was teased through the segment and then hit a gorgeous Swanton Bomb for the 1-2-3.

The first half would end with the tag title match between Lallie and French Art. The rematch from their February cracker saw a crowd split, with both teams being popular even with the face/heel dynamic at play (well, at least attempted in one half of the matchup).

The match itself couldn’t live up the the wealthy standards of the Multiverse Rumble match but ran close to being the MOTN for sure, but I can’t help but not get rid of my nagging feeling about French Art.

JGU and Cory Zero are really good professional wrestlers. Really good. That can’t be argued. But if I watched this match with someone new to the EVE product and I told them French Art were heels, I’d be laughed at and told I wasn’t watching wrestling properly. The French pair were playing “cool heels” so much that 1997 Kevin Nash would tell them to calm it. The heel/face dynamic can’t exist if one half refuses to be heels.

At least we got a heelish tendency, with French Art using the tag belts on Hollie Barlow to set up their victory even if it was negated by their babyface-esque chant of high-fiving and going “best of the best of the best” in the post-match festivities.

The second half of the show kicked off with a three-way match, which, considering one of the core messages of EVE is “fuck three-ways”, was a bit of a suprise. Melissa Fierce, Lucy Skye and Emersyn Jayne would compete in a match that centred round a steel chair, one that caused Jayne to get busted open hard way after she hit the chair in the wrong part in a drop toe hold spot. The finish saw a pitch perfect tornado DDT from Emersyn on Lucy on the ring apron, which spiked Lucy on the “hardest part of the ring”, and then Jayne pinning Fierce shortly after.

Jayne would have mic time, after which it was revealed that Emersyn Jayne would face Skye Blue at the July EVE show on the 3rd of the month and with both of them being insane people (laudatory) who are very happy to do nuts things in the ring, it should be a stupid match (positive).

If Brendan Sorsby is reading this, go the over on the 2.5 line on the amount of times the fans sat in the seating section in front of the hard cam, otherwise known as the splash zone, would have to get out of harm’s way during the match.

Rhio would beat Aliss Ink in a decent match that, like the tag title match, had a split crowd. Rhio – to her immense credit, is actually trying to be a heel and is really good at it. But the northerners in attendance ain’t booing Rhio and dare I say it, were being increasingly obnoxious about it. Or am I just using one bloke behind me being an utter prat during the match as too much of a litmus test here?

For the fifth time in a year, a Rhio match in EVE went to the final couple of minutes of the time limit, which would make the average person (or something a nerd like me who pays too much attention to these kind of stats) think that this is something by design; but in this instance, the sight of EVE promoter Dann Reed coming through the curtain (at a pace that you’d be forgiven for thinking he was an entrant in a Casino Gauntlet match) and making a beeline for the host, Sisika, making a very quick time call with a minute left later and Rhio going through her signature move and Package Piledriver finisher combo while looking at the big screen camera clock that is a feature of the EVE broadcast presentation, tells you that No.5 of the Rhio vs the clock story might not have been planned.

And then came the main event.

It’s very easy to say that having Will Ospreay as a head producer on your staff is going to mean a very easy relationship with AEW is going to happen, but in my last 16 months of going to shows, it’s very obvious that Dann Read is very good at building relationships with promoters from all around the world. You must have to be a massive dillhead to have a bad working relationship with EVE.

(Why is everyone looking at Rossy Ogawa right now?)

Even in the open borders world of wrestling that we’re seeing in 2026, seeing an independent wrestling company play as neutral site territory for a match between two wrestlers contracted to two separate companies is something that can’t be sniffed at.

And for the second time in 2026, Miyu Yamashita would face off against an AEW wrestler in the Big Penny Social and once again that dream match would be a 4 star plus match.

Kris Statlander vs Miyu was just shy of the Jamie vs. Miyu match in March in my EVE MOTY rankings – but then again Jamie/Miyu is going to be in my VOW Top Ten ballot when I submit my form in January next year. But for just shy of 20 minutes, Miyu and Kris hit each other hard, gave no inch, and in what was a great match left it all in the ring, with Will Ospreay spending the entirety of the match going nuts at ringside at the big moments and playing conductor, repeatedly banging the ring steps and ring apron on moments when both were down on the mat.

The finish even at the 20 minute mark came out of nowhere, with Miyu’s skull kick hitting Kris and getting the win for Miyu to win the international belt.

Hopefully it isn’t the last we see of Kris in EVE, as Stat had a great run with the belt with bangers against Nina Samuels and Charlie (TAFKA Dakota Kai) as well as her final defence of the belt, but the chances of seeing her definitely rose when it was announced during the “EVE 150” show that EVE would be making a very rare excursion out of London for the second annual “Elite Encounters” show, which will take place on the 8th of November at The Hangar in Wolverhampton.

As the post match celebrations were ongoing for the new champion, Kay Lee Ray’s banging new theme with a catchy drum n bass hook started playing and she came out to make a challenge for Miyu’s new title; but before we got a response, Rhio was out to point out in her own way that she needed to go to the back of the line.

Miyu, with excellent comic timing considering she was speaking in a secondary language, pointed out how tired she was and that the pair (Rhio and KLR) should settle their differences in a match with the winner facing Miyu down the line (that ‘end of line’ later coming out to be at “EVE x World” on “All In” weekend this August).

The 150th show in EVE’s history was a great showcase for how the company is on a hot streak right now. The return of Kay Lee Ray to independent wrestling got attention. It got its own article on the F4W website.

Guess Kay Lee Ray must do great SEO numbers?

But those who came to the show to watch the big moments that were expected couldn’t have been disappointed by what they saw, especially on a weekend where British independent companies are staking their fork in the ground for “All In” weekend – EVE with a “EVE x World” show that sold out its seating allocation quicker than it did last year and is on track to hit their full capacity number, and its home the Big Penny Social also seeing a show promoted in the building on Saturday afternoon, Evil Uno’s Mystery Wrestling, selling out themselves in quick time. The Walthamstow building looks set to own “All In” weekend on the indie side of things.

PROGRESS

News Round-up

By Trish Speirs

On May 26th, the following statement was posted on the Progress website:

The takeover by Damian Mackie and Nicola Glencross (who wrestle under the ringnames Big Damo and Nikki Cross, respectively) sees the pair also gain an ownership stake in Seattle-based promotion Defy Wrestling from previous owners Lee McAteer and Martyn Best. Best and McAteer have run and owned the promotion since 2022. The holding company for the promotion has also been changed, with Absent Mark Limited taking over from Progress Wrestling Limited in listings with company house. Mackie, 41, indicated in an interview with Cultaholic later in the week that he would control the promotion’s day to day operations for the present, whilst the recently WWE released Cross focuses on the continuation of her in-ring career.

The promise in the initial press release of expanding the promotion beyond key shows at London’s Electric Ballroom and the road to like shows at the O2 Ritz in Manchester was quickly put into action with the announcement of “The Odyssey Tour” in September which will see Progress run Edinburgh, Leeds, Bournemouth, and Birmingham across the first two weeks of September. Myla Grace, Donovan Dijak, Kay Lee Ray, Lio Rush, MxM Collection and Charles Crowley are talent announced so far, although most are only for selected dates on the tour.

Not everything so far has been well received, though, with the pricing of the tour opening at the £45 mark, £17 more than the cheapest ticket for this weekend’s show at the Camden Ballroom. The Progress website has also not been updated outside of ticket links since the day of the takeover, and the “All In” weekend show on August 31st entitled “Save The Date” currently has very little advertised for it, especially in comparison to the other major UK promotions running that weekend.

One thing that many fans would have anticipated for that show, the Super Strong Style 16 tournament winners challenging for the corresponding World Championships, will instead take place on this weekend’s “Scorchio” show from the Electric Ballroom in Camden. Charles Crowley will face heel champion Cara Noir for the Progress Men’s Title, whilst Rhio will look to regain the Progress Women’s belt from Alexxis Falcon and end the feud between them in her favour. Co-owner Nikki Cross re-debuts for the promotion against Session Moth Martina whilst Australian tag team The Velocities are set for a high paced match up with CPF and Spike Trivet will face Bullit in a blood debt match to round out the most boring program in Progress all year.

RevPro

Round Up

By Peter Edge

The big story of Revolution Pro Wrestling in the two months since the May “Live in London” has revolved around its Undisputed British Heavyweight Title and the main feud in the promotion between Connor Mills and Michael Oku.

When we last left the company here on Social Suplex, Oku beat Mills in an unsanctioned match and solidified his heel turn (and Mills’ face turn) by attacking him in the post-match activities.

The next big show on the Rev Pro calendar would be the “Revolution Rumble” which, since 2023, saw the winner of the Royal Rumble-style match face whomever held the British title when the “Anniversary” show came round for the belt, which was held by Jay Joshua by the time the “Rev Rumble” came to the Doncaster Dome.

Formerly one of the attempts from a promotion to make a building the “home of British Wrestling”, the Doncaster Dome was the arena that saw 1PW put on dream matches and go into bankruptcy as a result. Rev Pro have decided as part of their “North of Watford” expansion that the Donny Dome be the “big event” venue up north. But a “Global Wars” that on the same weekend as “Royal Quest III” and a “High Stakes” saw Mercedes Moné main event and face Kanji on Easter Sunday in front of a crowd of about 800. Rev Pro shelved their plans to open up the second tier of seating when the fans from its London base realised that traveling up to Doncaster (again, on Easter Sunday!) was going to be as fun as spending a day in Doncaster.

But for the justifiable reasons that Rev Pro couldn’t break the possible four figures for attendance for the two shows mentioned above, the fact that half of that thousand number were in the Dome for “Revolution Rumble” tells you a story of a company that hasn’t resonated with fans in the north like it has in the midlands with their good numbers for the big shows at The Hangar.

The main plotlines that came from this revolved around their titles.

The British Cruiserweight Title changed hands in the opener with Leyton Buzzard beating Joe Lando hitting a low blow, after playing possum playing up his severe knee injury that he suffered two years ago. Alexxis Falcon would retain her Undisputed Women’s Title with a victory over former champ Dani Luna, while Jay Joshua retained his RevPro Heavyweight Championship over JJ Gale.

The three matches above all ranged from the 3 stars to 3 ¾ star range with Joshua/Gale the best of the three, with the pair working hard and trying their damnedest to have a classic but not getting there thanks to timing issues and overall clunkiness in the match.

Match of the night belonged to Leon and Liam Slater challenging the tag champions, The Young Guns (Luke Jacobs and Ethan Allen). It was the only ‘regular’ match on the card that the fans felt truly invested in (to be fair, the Rev Pro production might have not have caught the noise made because it’s Rev Pro production). Young Guns showed why they are legitimately in the conversation for being in the top 5 tag teams in the world, and Leon put in a great performance showing his talents as the match went on. Even Liam was really good, especially at the end in which Leon went to hit his Swanton 450 and Liam timed his coming in to hold Luke down perfectly, resulting in a 1-2-3 and a tag title change to end the 427-day reign of The Young Guns.

While some people were surprised that The Young Guns took a loss on the ‘Road to Wembley (and the marquee match booked for the “Anniversary” show at Wembley Arena against FTR), the Yorkshire pair of the Slaters (who have no relation) winning the belts was a great moment in the Yorkshire town of Doncaster.

The main event of the “Revolution Rumble” saw a match that was very dull in the first half, with the only highlights being TK Cooper being the ironman and Trent Seven coming in at No. 6 (because 6-7), proving that pro wrestling as a whole really likes its retro pop culture references.

The match only picked up when Kanji and Rhio entered the match, with the Rhio/Kanji interaction furthering their feud. As a mass of bodies entered the match, it was the entrance of Michael Oku that spiced things up again. Oku is really great as a heel who is just a prick to people, showing attitude to the Bryants throughout his entire time in the ring on the night.

Oku and Connor Mills would also interact regularly, coming into conflict often but also fighting side-by-side against the Slater Dojo, because in Rev Pro canon – everyone hates Liam Slater.

The final 6 of the Slater Dojo, Joshua (who was in the Rumble as champ with the idea that if he won, he would pick his Wembley Arena opponent), Connor Mills and Oku saw all three of the Dojo all eliminated within a minute of each other, thanks to Liam Slater’s selfishness (a constant character trait in Liam’s on screen presentation).

Oku eliminated Joshua after hitting him with a steel chair and Mills got a shot from Oku as well, which busted Connor open.

A spirited final moments saw Oku and Mills on the apron and Mills hit a tiger suplex, which saw Michael take a very gnarly bump on the “hardest part of the ring” and get eliminated, winning Connor the match and one half of the main event of the “Anniversary” show at Wembley.

The post-match recap show that Revolution Pro put onto their YouTube saw Michael Oku approach Andy Quildan to request a title match against Jay Joshua as he eliminated Jay from the Rumble.

The next week, Rev Pro put a show on at Morecambe FC’s stadium, then called the Mazuma Mobile Stadium but since the show has happened the naming rights for the National League stadium has changed to the Halo Aerospace Stadium because football is losing its soul with every decision made by the sport’s higher brass (yes I’m looking at you, ‘Hydration Break’ sponsored by Powerade).

Unfortunately, this show in Morecambe was in the middle of a heatwave and the hottest day during the month of May since records began and with no shade, this would be the worst conditions human beings would be forced to endure at a football stadium since Tottenham Hotspur players were forced against their will to be coached by Igor Tudor.

© Rev Pro

More a holiday camp show than the usual “meat and potatoes” style of wrestling that has been the signature of Rev Pro, its main event was a Revolution Gauntlet match (a Casino Gauntlet match) in which Michael Oku pinned Jay Joshua after again hitting Jay with a steel chair – which set up their RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Title match at the packed “Live In London” show in early June.

In a show that saw plenty of stories furthered and furthered (plus a dream match involving Eddie Kingston), Aliss Ink made her debut in a non-title match against the RevPro Women’s Champion Alexxis Falcon – which was a fun match, showing Aliss Ink off as the really good talent that had been seen around the world and the finish made Aliss look really strong. It set up a future title match when Aliss hit a head kick for the finish. Falcon sold being knocked out well in the aftermath, something that is still being sold in Rev Pro canon up to the next “Live in London” and saw Alexxis not booked for the June Southampton show, which would make for great content considering she is a Hull City FC fan, what with the shenanigans that Southampton FC got up to in the promotion to the Premier League playoff tournament that Hull ended up winning.

After JJ Gale beat Thomas Shire, David Francisco attacked Gale on the stage because this feud must continue.

While booker Andy Quildan deserves criticism for his booking skills, especially the struggles he’s having to book what is now more-or-less a weekly show, the ability to find a match for a guest star making a one-off appearance is still there. One Called Manders was the perfect man to face Eddie Kingston, who was making his return to Rev Pro after six years away from the company he used to frequently haunt in his independent days.

The pair had (by modern standards) a sprint which wouldn’t have looked out of place as a midcard foreigners battle on an AJPW card during its prime years, with the pair hitting hard and feeding off the energy of a crowd which was the biggest in the London home of Rev Pro, Porchester Hall, since its move there in September. Eddie would take the win with his Uraken.

The RevPro British Title match between Oku and Joshua saw the pair get to the epic title match standard that you have seen with Oku over the years in Revolution Pro, even if the 31 minute time-length was excessive.

Oku bumped big and gave fans further evidence that he really doesn’t like his own neck with some of the bumps he took. There were the obligatory kick-outs to signature moves and Jay surviving the half-crab submission finisher that was applied to the leg that Oku focused on during his control segment, which included a ringpost figure four, which seemed like an obvious moment considering how much Michael Oku’s heel turn is mirroring Bret Hart’s turn in 1997.

Oku would win the match and the title, which felt obvious from the moment Connor won the Rumble after hitting a gnarly Made In Japan. The post match segment saw Oku gloat at his title win, singing, “Oku’s going to Wembley!” which drew out Mills for a confrontation to set up what is now their British Title match that will main event the Wembley Arena show.

Also set up for Wembley was one half of the British Cruiserweight Title match, with Nino Bryant taking the British J Cup by beating Samuel Saint-Daniels in his qualifying match and then outlasting Robbie X, Leon Cage and Will Kaven in the four-way final to take home the trophy for the second successive year (first person to do that), which means he is going to be the challenger in the British Cruiserweight Title Match at “Anniversary”.

Rev Pro have made the ‘Road to Wembley’ their theme of 2026 and it feels weird that the show at the 12,500 arena right next to the “home of English football” (is it cheap to joke that it should be the Azteca Stadium now?) is just next month, considering how long the promotion for it has been – and with the GPS dot getting closer to its destination, the show is finally taking shape.

As well as the men’s singles title matches being set in stone, with Oku vs Mills and Buzzard vs Nino, plus the “dream matches” of FTR vs Young Guns and the announced Zack Sabre Jr vs Jay Joshua match, the Women’s Title Match will have its challenger decided when Rev Pro puts on a two match show on July 25th with Shayna Baszler, Jessica Troy, Zeuxis and Zoey Serrano (TAFKA Zoey Stark) already announced.

UK & Ireland

By Trish Speirs

Kamikaze Pro Wrestling celebrate their “Thirteenth Anniversary” this weekend with a card which incorporates long-term stalwarts such as the Hunter Brothers and Chris Rideway alongside showcasing their current roster. Ridgeway will face Nino Bryant on July 24th at The Drop Inn in Digbeth, Birmingham, whilst Lee and Jim Hunter will face the other part of the Bryants trio.

The headline matches see Sunshine Machine defend the Kamikaze Tag Championships against the Young Guns, Relentless Champion Edgar Adams defend against Joe Lando, Chantal Jordan put up her Fighting Females belt against Myla Grace and Man Like DeReiss defending the Kamikaze Pro Championship against Jay Joshua.

Dereiss, 29, made national news in the UK back in April thanks to his burgeoning friendship with three Welsh nans that was formed on a plane ride to Las Vegas during “WrestleMania” week. The nans – named Lynne, Suzie, Roz and Christine – joined him once more this past weekend, as they assisted with DeReiss’ retention of the Slammasters Heavyweight Championship over Jay Joshua (again) in Cardiff, Wales, on July 19th. (Video link on Twitter.)

Also celebrating anniversaries will be North Wrestling, who will mark ten years on July 25th in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, as North Champion Gene Munny defends against Rhio. Also on the card: Daz Black will face TNA’s Ricky Sosa and Natalie Sykes & Molly Spartan will face Angel Hayze & Daisy Jenkins. Former TNA talent Rich Swann will feature at Fight Factory Pro Wrestling’s “19th Year Anniversary“ on September 4th in Dublin, Ireland.

One of the more adventurous series of shows this year will come from the National Wrestling League, who are mixing the idea of heavy import shows with regional conflict. Each wrestler will represent an area within the UK, with teams entitled Midlands Destroyers, London Executioners, Manchester Maniacs, Yorkshire Titans, North East Outlaws and the Glasgow Hitmen. Each team has its own crest and corresponding football shirt as they attempt to get fans to buy into the league concept. The group will run three matchdays across the course of the next few months, beginning with Newcastle on August 9th, before heading to the B.E.C. in Manchester on September 27th, and finishing up in Glasgow on October 10th. Guest spots including former Liverpool footballer Neil Ruddock, Kurt Angle and Papa Shango have been added to the cards, which have Luke Menzies (who wrestled under Ridge Holland in WWE) at the forefront. The top bout for the first matchweek in Newcastle sees Martin Kirby (North East Outlaws) face off against Joseph Connors (Midlands Destroyers). If that sounds like a match you would have witnessed back in Whatculture Pro Wrestling in the late 2010’s, then it should not surprise you that people who were involved in that promotion are also involved with this one.

A number of other independents have opted to run during “All In” week across London alongside more prominent names such as Progress, EVE and RevPro. Riot Cabaret will once again run the Clapham Grand for “ALL sINging ALL dancINg 2026” on August 28th, whilst Mystery Wrestling run The Big Penny Social in Walthamstow on August 29th. One promotion who had planned to run that weekend but now are unable to is Attack! Pro Wrestling, whose booked venue for August 31st is now undergoing restorations. A replacement venue was unable to be found.

Scottish promotion Insane Championship Wrestling will run the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh on August 15th, coinciding with the Edinburgh Festival taking place in the capital city. “The Insanity Show” will see Charles Crowley face Jack Ripley, whilst Aaron Echo & Kenny Williams will take on K.o.E.

Extreme promotion TNT Wrestling have announced the return of their September weekender at the Hanger 34 in Liverpool on the 27th and 28th of September. September 27th will have “IGNition: Project X” followed by “Effy’s Big Gay Brunch“ (featuring Allie Katch and a Rainbow Rumble), whilst the 28th has all women’s show “Sirens Fury: Total Carnage” followed by an evening show in conjunction with Combat Zone Wrestling entitled “Tournament Of Death UK”.

The “For The Love Of Wrestling V!!” convention had added the Dudley Brothers, The New Age Outlaws and Daria Rae to its lineup for February 6th and 7th, 2027 in Manchester. The lineup previously announced includes MJF, Demolition, Gail Kim, Mick Foley, Apollo Crews, MVP and Sting.

© wXw / BeautyInCombat

wXw

“Drive of Champions” in Oberhausen on June 6th saw wXw Unified Champion Elijah Blum retain against Laurance Roman in front of a crowd of 765 fans. wXw European Champion Zoltan also retained against Frenchman Kuro whilst Axel Tischer survived a four-way against Dieter Schwartz, Dennis Dullnig and New Japan excursionist Katsuya Murashima to retain the Shotgun belt. Tischer would rematch with Dennis Dullnig at “Broken Rules” in Frankfurt on July 11th in a ‘no ropes’ match where Tischer retained once more.

Jane Nero saw off Dani Luna in a dog collar match and Eddie Kingston returned to wXw with a victory, defeating former Unified Champion Peter Tihanyl in a singles matchup.

wXw’s next Oberhausen show will be “Shortcut To The Top” on August 15th, with the current top attraction being Bandido defending his Ring of Honor World Champion against Unified Champion 1 Called Manders. It will be Bandido’s first appearance for the promotion since the 16 Carat tournament in 2020. The company is promoting that this will be the first time in their history that the RoH World Title is being defended in wXw. Daniel Garcia will also wrestle on the show.

The promotion will be straight back to Turbinenhalle a month later, with the multi tournament “Pro-Wrestling Grand Prix” weekend from September 25th to September 27th. Last year’s tag tournament winners, The Greedy Souls, have now been confirmed for this year’s bracket. Also scheduled are Sinner & Saint, the Canadian team of Travis Williams and Judas Icarus who were recently released from TNA upon their own request. It will be their first time teaming together in the promotion.

Sendai Girls’ Manami and Danish upstart Madison Marley will compete in this year’s Femme Fatales tournament on the same weekend, whilst Myron Reed and Joey Janela have been announced for the hardcore show, entitled “Extreme Wrestling Party” on September 25th.

© APC Catch

APC Catch

“Triumph In Paris”

July 5th, 2026
Company Announced Attendance: 1,700
Palais Des Sports Maurice Thorez, Nanterre, France

Review By Trish Speirs

APC Catch proclaimed “Triumph In Paris” the biggest independent show in French history, as just over 1,700 fans turned up in Nanterre (on the outskirts of Paris) for a five and a half hour supershow that had excellent arena production, as well as a number of highly choreographed entrances.

The show was not without adversity, though, as the planned main event between APC Champion Kuro and Mecca was pulled early on in the show and the APC Title vacated. The decision to strip Kuro sparked speculation that the 27 year old had signed with WWE following a tryout with the American promotion in the spring, but the absence was quickly built into kayfabe, with the most likely explanation being travel issues considering Kuro wrestled for Westside Gunn’s Fourth Rope Wrestling promotion in New York City the night before.

The replacement main event saw original challenger Mecca compete for the vacant APC Title in a three way against Ricky Sosa and Nate Prince, who had been scheduled for a singles match against each other prior to the change. The switch-up did not stop it from feeling like a big main event, though, with both Sosa and Mecca having big entrances (to the point that the opening bell for the match was struck 20 minutes after the entrances had begun). Sosa, a recent TNA pickup, was incredibly over with the Nanterre crowd, and ended his introduction holding up a “These bitches love Sosa” sign from the crowd. Powerhouse Mecca, who incorporates his island heritage into his persona, had the longest entrance of the three, combining a white dress dance troupe with a chant entrance using the same tempo as WWE’s Oba Femi.

Mecca and Sosa have already wrestled each other in another three way this year, when they faced off with AEW’s Andrade at APC’s “Anniversary” show back in the spring, and it was these two who began the matchup after Sosa had wrapped a sudden kick around the head of Prince, sending him to the floor. It was the TNA man who was most impressive in the early going (and could be argued the entire match, really), as his high pace and impactful offense culminated in duel dives onto his opponents outside on separate sides of the ring.

The bigger Mecca tried to match Sosa in aerobatic exploits by attempting a moonsault from the ringpost onto his two opponents who were brawling at ringside; it didn’t go well, though, as he landed away from where the other two wrestlers expected, meaning they were only slightly able to break his fall rather than catching him. Mecca’s head would hit the floor in a really nasty looking bump, but he was cleared to continue after being assessed by multiple parties. It does have to be said that he did carry far less pace in the aftermath of the moonsault attempt than he did before it, so the spot clearly did affect him.

Prince and Sosa took over in the ring whilst Mecca recovered outside. The pair exchanged near falls between them before Mecca returned to the ring and disposed of both of them with a clunky looking Samoan drop/fallaway slam duel move. This was followed up by slamming Sosa on top of Prince for a nearfall, before his momentum was stopped by a missed frog splash.

The match threatened to go from indie main event to WWE tribute with the move choices as the pace picked up, complete with outside party interference with the referee before hitting its closing stages. Sosa chased the pin through a series of Blue Thunder Bombs before Mecca overcame with his power, as he disabled his opponent with a short armed lariat before a Fire Thunder Driver got him the pin and APC Championship. This one was sloppy at times but the crowd were into it throughout, and were more than happy to join in with Mecca’s celebrations after the final bell.

The semi main event saw APC Women’s Champion JGU take on AEW’s Kris Statlander in a non title bout. Plucky striker JGU was up against it from the offset, as she struggled to find an answer to Statlander’s combination of power and superior ground game. The crowd helped to carry her through it, with the majority voicing their support for the Frenchwoman over her more prominent opponent.

JGU showed good fire when she eventually launched into a comeback after taking one strike too many, launching into a series of high impact moves, ending with a Michinoku Driver for two. The pace change lifted the crowd, and they were fully into the near fall exchanges from there, and the crowd became rabid for Kris to submit once JGU caught Statlander with an adapted Dragon Clutch. It wasn’t to be, though, as Statlander still had enough to power out of the hold, before surviving a spear and hitting a tombstone of her own to get the win. Kris barely celebrated in the aftermath, instead focusing on handing JGU her APC Women’s Title and raising her arm. The champion cut a despondent figure leaving the ring.

The strongest in-ring match on the show saw APC European Champion Eric Ordo challenge Mustafa Ali for the TNA International Title. Ali is the perfect wrestler for a travelling title in a promotion, his ability to structure matches to highlight his local opponents is second to none, with the Chicago native having no issues whatsoever in playing the antagonist in these situations. It was a large reason why the crowd was at its best for the night during this match.

22 year old Ordo played his part as well, taking the opportunities given to him from Ali to shine, and even taking advantage of what looked like to be accidental blood above the eye to sell just how much he was putting into the match. His sustained run of crisp looking offense had the audience he could get the shock win, especially after hitting a very pretty top rope 450 splash. The experienced Ali would sneak out the win, though, catching Ordo in a backslide and then flipping his body over to ensure Ordo’s shoulders remained stranded on the mat.

Ali gave his opponent props in a post match promo, and the crowd responded to it, but something that always irks me slightly is APC’s continued willingness to beat their champions with foreign imports. Whilst this match was at least for Mutafa Ali’s TNA belt, this type of booking with those coming from overseas going over their most prominent local talent occurred twice on this show alone and has been pretty constant in recent years across the promotion.

Elsewhere on the card, TLB won a very long Nitro Invitational Gauntlet after pinning Cory Zero. The match also featured the return of Christianium the Surrealist, who had been away from APC for just over two years. TLB would pull double duty on this show after stepping up later in the night to team with Griff in the three way APC Tag Titles Elimination match. TLB replaced the injured Thiago Montero in the lineup against the Starboyz and champions Suplex Republik, and the replacement was made part of the match finish after Montero ended the match by throwing in the towel for his team, allowing for the champions to retain.

Jax Numedio also picked up the APC Evolution Championship from Marcus Jaw whilst LJ Cleary came through a four way against Josh T, Daz Black and AD Leonis. The promotion also announced on this show that they would be holding a joint weekend of shows with UK company Rev Pro on the 26th and 27th September in Paris.

Overall, APC’s “Triumph In Paris” was a show with excellent production which made the wrestlers feel bigger, had a crowd which raised up a number of the matches, whilst also falling into the independent supershow trap of running far, far too long. It was not close to the promotion’s strongest cards for in-ring delivery but there was enough there to make it memorable for the fans who were in attendance, as well as an easy enough watch for anyone viewing via streaming. It was another event which illustrated the ambition of the company that has risen to prominence over the past few years.

Mainland Europe

By Trish Speirs

It was yet another case of one step forward and five back when it comes to some European promotion’s attitudes to women’s wrestling and those performers after Austrian promotion Rings of Europe were forced to cancel the second night of a weekend set of shows on June 20th in Baden, Austria, after multiple incidents led to talent withdrawals.

The first incident came after young English wrestler Violet Nyte was forced to pull out of the weekend’s booking due to an ongoing illness. The 21 year old, who has worked regularly for UK premier women’s promotion Pro Wrestling EVE over the past twelve months, made the call the day before and quickly informed the promotion, who responded by posting the following on social media:

Promoter Mark Landauer followed up the statement with a twelve minute video where he continued to berate Nyte for the cancellation as well as attacking other women from the UK and Ireland who had previously worked for the promotion.

Violet Nyte responded to the pathetic behaviour with a post on her Instagram later in the weekend which was composed of the following:

Not done with misogynistic behaviour for the weekend, Polish wrestler Diana Strong was then subject to further abhorrent behaviour upon arriving at the show on June 19th. Strong detailed the course of events in an Instagram post of her own:

French wrestler Calypso, 26, recited her version of events on social media as well:

Cory Zero, a 23 year old wrestler from north France, recalled in her public post how the decision was then made by the roster to collectively pull out of the next night’s show on June 20th:

Promoter Landauer and Roman Tausch issued initial comments on Facebook, where they wrote:

This was followed up by a separate post that stated both Marc Landauer and Roman Tausch would be appearing on the promotion’s own podcast “Euro Wrestling Drive-Thru” later in the same week. This is the same podcast that hosted Marius al-Ani after he was dismissed from German promotion wXw after he used a song associated with the Nazi regime purposely in a Tiktok video. Rings of Europe have also received criticism in years previous for working with Tessa Blanchard (after she received racism allegations and prior to her TNA return) and with Marty Scurll. We will have more on this story in the coming months.

Dave Meltzer reported that WWE scout Jim Smallman was present at German promotion GWF on June 7th and had also visited Nordic Elite Wrestling in Denmark the day before. Ex-Progress owner Smallman has been a key reason for the uptick in the presence of top European talent at WWE tryouts since the start of the year.

Bandido successfully defended the Ring of Honor World Title against Joe Lando in Lille, France, for Banger Zone Wrestling on July 4th, where Connor Mills won the BZW Title from Trent Seven in a three-way which also included Jacob Vadocq.