Into the Indies 06.01.10: King of Europe Cup (Part 2)

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Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column with the worst cliffhangers in history.

Two weeks ago, I began reviewing the massive of King of Europe Cup tournament from 2007 in an effort to get a survey of several entertaining grapplers who regularly compete on the other side of the pond. However, the event was so large that I couldn’t cover it all in one column, necessitating a carryover into this week. I provided some background on the event and its lesser known wrestlers in last week’s edition of the column, and, if you need any of that information to clarify what you’re reading about here, feel free to click on this link to go back in time fourteen short days.

With that out of the way, let’s just head straight in to the review of night two of the King of Europe Cup, taking place on April 29, 2007.

Match Numero Uno: Chris Hero (Combat Zone Wrestling) vs. Doug Williams (Premier Promotions) in a quarter-final match of the King of Europe Cup

The bout begins with a very intricate series of reversals on the mat between the two men, followed by a handshake and a lockup. Hero takes his man down and works the arm for a bit, though Williams is able to force a rope break and regain a vertical base. Hero’s next trick is a surprising rollup that he somehow managed to get into from a Greco-Roman knuckle lock, which is an odd counter that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. Williams responds with a version of the full nelson, but the King of Wrestling is out fairly quickly and goes to an armbar that he holds on to even after Hero attempts to flip him over with an armdrag. Eventually Hero reverses the hold, but the Brit picks the leg and looks for a surfboard variation, though Chris is able to make the ropes before it’s fully applied. Hero then starts busting out the flippy-doodles, doing a roundoff into a senton and then a dropkick in the corner before slingshotting himself back in to the squared circle. Williams comes back with a second rope cross body block and a back elbow off the ropes, but he can only get two. Things slow back down after that, with Williams going to a headscissors. Hero manages to roll so that both men wind up under the bottom rope, forcing a break but going straight in to the front chancre. He eventually lets go to hit a big kneelift, which gets two. Hero begins firing back with body blows, but Williams catches him with a snap suplex. Hero no-sells it, so the Brit goes to a guillotine, breaking the hold after he comes close to accidentally pinning himself with it. A swandive headbutt off of the ropes gets another two count for Williams, and Hero manages to mount a comeback after that one with some flying forearms and a chokeslam of all things. That move looks so goofy when the wrestlers involved are virtually the same size. Hero then attempts to come off of the second rope, but Williams sidesteps and schoolboys him for two. Seconds later, Williams surprises Hero with a small package out of nowhere to get the three count and move on to the semis. The announcers note that this is the second time in the tournament that a small package has given Doug the duke.

Match Thoughts: This wasn’t a bad match. In fact, there was some fun little mat wrestling throughout the bout. However, the announcers were really overselling it. They were not only going on during the bout itself about how it was an old school, British wrestling mat classic, but they would also go on to reference how great it was several more times throughout the body of the show. It was good, but it wasn’t that great. It was one of those mat wrestling encounters during which you can sit back, completely emotionally detached and say to yourself, “Yes, that right there is some good technical wrestling,” but it wasn’t anything that would cause somebody to actually get excited about what was going on in the ring or who would win. In short, it was technically satisfying but emotionally vacant. **3/4

Match Numero Dos: Nigel McGuinness (Ring of Honor) vs. PAC (International Pro Wrestling – United Kingdom) in a quarter-final match of the King of Europe Cup

PAC’s head is bandaged up as a result of the brutal beating that he took at the hands of both Trent Acid and himself in the prior evening’s match. It’s never mentioned specifically what his injuries are, but I have a hard time believing that he’s not actually hurt after some of the poorly thought out blows that he took to his head in that battle. Nigel gets on the mic before the bout begins and tells his younger opponent that, sometimes in this business, you have to look towards the future and not take stupid risks. As a result, McGuinness never directly states but strongly implies that the lil’ bugger should forfeit the match this evening. That’s ironic coming from the guy who had an opportunity to get a WWE deal but was supposedly rejected because they deemed him too damn beaten up to handle their road schedule.

In any event, PAC declines his opponent’s offer to forfeit, and we’re off to the races. Nigel takes the youngster down early and kicks him in between the shoulderblades before going to a Fujiwara armbar. A rope break saves, and PAC’s bandages have already come unraveled from his head. The flippy guy hits two ranas in short order and then a Tiger Mask flip kick in the corner. Nigel cartwheels out of a drop toe hold, and that brings us to a stalemate. McGuinness begins working a top wristlock at this point before going back to a version of the Fujiwara armbar. PAC lands on his feet off of a back body drop attempt and hits an enzuguiri and a dropkick before connecting with a standing corkscrew moonsault for two. The Dragon Gate regular can’t capitalize due to his injuries, though, and Nigel is right back on him with an Irish whip. The two wrestlers fight over a hiptoss until McGuinness gets a version of the move which sends PAC over the top rope and to the floor. Nigel goes after his man on the outside, but PAC gives him the slip, sneaks back into the ring, and comes out with a pescado. McGuinness is thrown out in to the crowd and PAC pulls the guardrail close to the apron, then firing off a NO HANDS TOPE CON HILO over the top and down on to the former ROH Pure Wrestling Champion. Of the two men, it’s Nigel who returns to the ring first, and the referee gives up on counting PAC out to check him on the floor. The Man that Gravity Forgot comes back to the squared circle but immediately gets kicked into the face by Nigel and hit with a big lariat. To everybody’s surprise, he manages to kick out at two.

A running back elbow in the corner also rocks PAC’s world, but he avoids the jawbreaker lariat and scores a rollup for two. Undeterred, Nigel gives the bugger another lariat, but it only leads to another two count. McGuinness sets up for the Tower of London, but it’s blocked and PAC gets a bodyscissors rana from the middle rope for a nearfall of his own. Lariat number three connects. Kickout number three is made by PAC. There’s the Tower of London, and there’s the three count for Nigel McGuinness.

Match Thoughts: This was probably the best PAC singles match that I’ve ever seen. It helped that the bout came with a built-in storyline. Everybody who was watching this knew that PAC had some decent injuries to his head and that Nigel is the guy who clocks people really hard in the head with his arm numerous times throughout a match. Though it was never made as explicit as it could have been by the wrestlers and the announcers, it was definitely the undercurrent to the bout. It came off very well for the most part, though I have to say that three lariats plus a Tower of London to put PAC away was a bit of overkill. I wouldn’t have minded him kicking out of one lariat followed immediately by Nigel going for lariat number two and then the Tower with no intervening pinfall attempt, but, as it was, it was a bit too much. That, however, is the only minor complaint that I have about an otherwise fun match. ***

Match Numero Tres: Davey Richards (Pro Wrestling Guerrilla) vs. Go Shiozaki (Pro Wrestling NOAH) in a quarter-final match of the King of Europe Cup

We’ve got a lesson in British slang right off the bat, as the announcers talk about Davey Richards’ diet of “fruit and veg” and, in reference to him playing heel, say that he’s got a “right look on his face.”

Mat wrestling and forearm trading start things out for the wrestlers, and Shiozaki gets the first real advantage of the match by dropkicking Richards in the knee and going after the joint with a leglock. Davey is right next to the ropes, so he is out quickly, but Go stays on him by dropping his ass cross the bad limb and applying another submission hold when the American rolls back in to center ring. The PWG wrestler is able to get out of this one by going to Go’s eyes, and Shiozaki responds with a superkick that connects while Davey is propped up in the corner. Another dropkick to the knee is next, and that’s followed by a dragon crew and the figure four leglock. Davey very quickly makes the ropes, which is odd because I’m so used to seeing that hold resulting in an extended struggle. Shiozaki misses a charge in the corner and hits his shoulder on the ringpost, setting up a Richards enzguiri and then a tope suicida as Go rolls to the outside. Richards goes for the cheap heat by yelling, “USA, baby!” and rolls his man back to the ring for a snap suplex. It gets two, and we head in to the headscissors. The fans CLAP, causing Shiozaki to get the ropes . . . though the clapping does not prevent him from getting caught in a belly-to-back suplex and then with a clothesline. Go tries to mount a comeback with a sunset flip, but, in a very nice, basic counter, Richards steps to the side and tries to apply a cross arm breaker. Shiozaki forces a rope break before the hold can be fully applied, so Richards chops the snot out of him. Go responds in kind and goes with the Kobashi-esque flurry before hitting a jumping forearm strike and a second rope knee drop. Richards is out of the subsequent pin attempt at two, but he’s caught by a fisherman’s buster and a DDT. A second fisherman’s buster also connects, but Davey kicks out at two. There’s another “should have been a finish” spot in this tournament.

For the third time in the match, Richards finds his knee dropkicked. Go follows it up with a half Boston crab, and HERE is the epic submission hold struggle that I expected from the figure four earlier on. The American Wolf barely drags himself to the ropes and also uses the strands to block a German suplex. After a few Irish whip reversals, Richards hits a springboard missile dropkick and a backdrop suplex, but Go no sells it. He doesn’t no sell the second one, though he does kick out of it at two. Richards heads up to the top rope and attempts a shooting star press, but he hits Go’s knees on the way down. Shizoaki connects with TWO big German suplexes, and, instead of being pinned, Davey kicks out and sinks in his Kimura. I’ll call German number two another “should have been a finish” spot. Go does use the ropes to get out of the kimura, and then he hits a lariat and a version of the Orange Crush. It still only gets a two count. Davey is placed on the top rope by his adversary and superkicked in the face . . . but Richards hits Shiozaki low to knock him off the ropes. Davey brings his man out of the corner with a tornado DDT and goes back to the kimura. This time, somewhat surprisingly, Go Shiozaki taps out to take Davey to the semi-finals.

Match Thoughts: People who read my review of the first half of the show know that what I complained about more than anything else was wrestlers doing too much and continuing matches after it was apparent that they had peaked. That’s the same complaint that I’m going to make here. Granted, it didn’t overstay its welcome as much as Fleisch/Saito or Acid/PAC from the prior evening, but there were several points at which the wrestlers did a sequence of moves that I thought would be a PERFECT finish – only for somebody to kick out of the ensuing pinfall and to have the match continue. Every time it happened, I got less interested in the match, and I also wasn’t a fan of the fact that the actual finish came out of virtually nowhere and didn’t feel like it fit with the rest of the bout, even if it did continue the story of Richards kicking people in the junk to win that has been developing over the course of the tournament. *1/2

Match Numero Cuatro: Ryo Saito (Dragon Gate) vs. Matt Sydal (Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South) in a quarter-final match of the King of Europe Cup

Very quick, very intricate reversals on the mat dominate the early seconds of the match, and it’s Saito who gets the better of things in the initial sequence. Then the two men begin running the ropes and exchanging armdrags before they simultaneously miss dropkicks. Saito’s attempt at a handshake leads to a kick to the gut, but Sydal isn’t going down and responds by kicking his opponent in the exact same spot. The wrestlers chop each other for a bit, and Ryo opens us up the big offense with an overhead belly-to-belly and a chinlock. Sydal is out due to the ropes, but Saito is up to the top and comes down with a double stomp to Matt’s well-defined abs. Sydal tries to turn the momentum in his favor with a rana, but Saito manages to cut him off in mid-move and turn it into a sidewalk slam before going into his fisherman’s buster-sitout spinebuster combination. Sydal does start a comeback with a spinning heel kick when Ryo charges him, and then he does an INSANE dive, which essentially looked like a cartwheel over the top rope featuring Sydal flipping end over end as he flew through the air. Back on the inside, Sydal immediately comes off of the second rope with his version of the Alabama jam before applying a chinlock. We have ourselves a rope break and then a sequence of three corner attacks by Sydal. He tries for a springboard something-or-other, but Saito responds with a dropkick and looks for a wheelbarrow suplex. Sydal slips out of it and hits a standing moonsault, but he’s caught jumping up into the air, where Ryo plucks him out with a big German. Saito attempts a dragon suplex as well, but Sydal is able to block it and catch him with an enzuguiri. Saito doesn’t care and does hit his dragon suplex, followed by a lariat and another dragon suplex. It only gets us a two count, as Mr. Bourne kicks out. Saito next attempts a dragon SUPERPLEX, but Sydal knocks him off and hits the SSP. That’s all she wrote, folks.

Match Thoughts: I am loving Matt Sydal in this tournament. He seems to be the one guy more than any other who understands that, on a show where everybody is going balls out and playing the “who can top who” game, there needs to be at least one or two matches that are still well-put together and technically competent but aren’t there to make an attempt at being blow-away contests. He made sure his match in round one filled that role, and he did the exact same thing in round two. The bout was fast-paced and contained some physically impressive offense, and it never once felt like it overstayed its welcome. **1/4

Match Numero Cinco: Davey Richards (Pro Wrestling Guerrilla) vs. Nigel McGuinness (Ring of Honor) in a quarter-final match of the King of Europe Cup

Before Nigel can even get into the ring, Richards flattens him with a HUGE dive and whips in into the guardrails. Davey takes his man to the inside and works some holds, only to have Nigel respond with his Virginia Necktie and a lariat. Really, the lariat is connecting this early in the match? Various chops and a running back elbow from the Brit hit, but Richards cuts off the Tower of London and comes off the ropes with a missile dropkick. Nigel’s response? A lariat. The Tower of London is attempted again but connects this time, though Richards kicks out at two. McGuinness at this point places his man crotch-first on the top rope and attempts to hit him with a second rope clothesline in that position, but Davey grabs his man’s outstretched limb and turns the move into a Fujiwara armbar. Nigel tries to roll through but basically puts himself into the kimura in the process. Nigel misses the jawbreaker lariat when he gets out of the hold, and Davey hits him with a kick to the face. Unfortunately for the Washingtonian, the kick sent Nigel right back in to the ropes and allowed him a second attempt at the jawbreaker. It hits this time, and Richards is down for a three count.

Match Thoughts: This was fun enough, though it didn’t seem to get nearly as much time as the other matches in the tournament thusfar and as a result didn’t come off as being anywhere near as special. What really struck me was that Nigel was SO reliant on the lariat at this point in his career that he couldn’t even get through a match this brief without teasing or hitting it on three or four different occasions. That doesn’t really bode well for him going into the finals. **

Match Numero Sies: Doug Williams (Premier Promotions) vs. Matt Sydal (Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South) in a quarter-final match of the King of Europe Cup

In a start to the match that is very similar to the last one, Williams goes on the attack immediately, before the bell even rings and before he removes his t-shirt. Doug connects with his top rope knee almost immediately, but Sydal kicks out at two and hits a rana as well as a dropkick that sends Williams to the floor. Sydal misses a dive as Doug rolls back in to the ring, but the little guy manages to land on his feet. Williams tries for more of a misdirection play, but Sydal outsmarts him and hits a baseball slide dropkick to the back. On the inside, Sydal runs into a kneelift and gets choked across the ropes before the Brit applies an abdominal stretch. Sydal starts to come back with the hog log, but he’s cut off by a clothesline and a delayed vertical suplex. The two men begin exchanging strikes, which is a battle that Williams wins before sending Sydal airborne (get it?) with a back body drop. Sydal is briefly placed into the camel clutch and then a headscissors. It is a leaping DDT off of the top rope which starts to swing the pendulum back in the favor of the man from IWA Mid-South. He follows it up with an enzuguiri and the Stratusfaction bulldog, then hitting a springboard corkscrew back splash for two. Now the wrestlers begin exchanging rapid-fire nearfalls, which ends when the Brit hits a backbreaker and goes to the top rope. However, before he can do anything, Sydal walks over and LEAPS STRAIGHT UP to pull Williams off of the top with a rana. He tries to follow with the shooting star press, but Doug blocks it and catches his man in the small package – the same move he has used to win his two other tournament matches – to score the three count.

Match Thoughts: This was another relatively short match, though I liked it a bit better than the McGuinness/Richards encounter for a couple of reasons. The first is that there was a bit more variety, as, instead of doing the same things that they have been doing throughout the tournament, the wrestlers mixed it up a bit and busted out maneuvers that we had not previously seen. The second is the finish, which actually intertwined two simple yet effective stories from throughout the event. Sydal had been winning all of his matches with the shooting star press, and Williams had been winning all of his matches with the small package. In the finish of this bout, those two techniques confronted one another head on, and, unfortunately for the St. Louisans, it was the inside cradle that triumphed in a fine nod to good, old fashioned wrestling outdoing modern flippy stuff. **1/2

Match Numero Sies: Doug Williams (Premier Promotions) vs. Nigel McGuinness (Ring of Honor) in the finals of the King of Europe Cup

It’s an extended armbar by Nigel McGuinness to kick us off, including a bit in which Williams attempts to bodyslam him but Nigel rolls through and holds on to the armbar anyway. Doug responds with an arm wringer of his own, but McGuinness reverses it thanks to a forward roll and a step through. Williams heads to the floor for a breather off of a rope break. Back on the inside, the Anarchist takes Nigel down with a single leg and goes into a toe hold, but the ROH rep manages to flip over and pull his man into a headlock. That becomes a Williams headscissors, and the fans actually begin to chant “Boring.” That’s surprising given the Brits’ fine history of mat wrestling over the years.

When the two wrestlers return to a vertical base, Williams lands a pair of European uppercuts and sends Nigel into the turnbuckles before the wrestlers head out to the floor. McGuinness connects with what I guess would call an “ole uppercut” along the guardrails, and the two men begin brawling out among the audience members. Haven’t we seen enough of that already in this tournament? Williams is placed on a table by his opponent and hit over the head by a small folding table. Doug still manages to reverse an Irish whip, though, and as a result he shoots Nigel into a conveniently placed ladder. McGuinness responds by choking his opponent with the edge of a chair. The men start to head back to the ring at this point, but, before he leaves the crowd, Williams takes an opportunity to wrap his man’s arm around a section of the guardrail for a bit in a version of a hammerlock. McGuinness is also slammed on the floor, which sets up the Anarchist going to the top rope . . . and he hits a flying knee down to Nigel down on the arena floor!

Our tournament finalists get back in between the ropes at this point, where Williams plants the opposition with a fisherman’s buster en route to slapping on an abdominal stretch. A gutwrench suplex is Doug’s next bit of offense, and that’s a move I think is criminally underused in pro wrestling. Williams sets up for the Chaos Theory but it is blocked, so he settles for the Virginia Necktie. Even though Doug has had 90% of the offense for the last five minutes, that sets up a double KO spot for some reason. Nigel gets up first and gets in a little bit of offense, but Williams cuts him off again with an elbow and a kneelift. The Anarchist goes to the top rope for god knows what, but McGuinness pops up and cuts his man off with a Tower of London for a nearfall. The lariat connects after that for two, and here’s another attempt at the Tower of London. Williams fights it off, so Nigel sets up for a superplex instead . . . and Doug fights that off as well so that he can hit his top rope knee drop. What’s next? Forearm trading! Unfortunately the referee gets bumped during this particular sequence, first by an “accidental” blow from Doug Williams and then by a rebound lariat from McGuinness that was actually accidental. With the official down, Nigel hits a short-arm lariat for a visionary pinfall.

A new referee is out just in time to see Nigel connect with another Tower of London, again for a two count. With referee two checking on referee one, Doug hits his low blow and gets McGuinness in the small package . . . but Nigel kicks out! Two knees from Doug send Nigel in to the ropes . . . REBOUND LARIAT! The second referee goes to count the three count . . . but he’s attacked by the first referee? The first ref only counts to two, so Nigel decks him and the second ref comes in. Doug hits his Chaos Theory for two and then, in a fine little twist, Nigel responds with a small package of his own to get the duke and win the tournament.

In a shot after the bell, we see that the original referee had his nose busted wide open by one of the blows that he took at some point during the match.

Match Thoughts: This wasn’t a bad match on the whole, but my lasting impression of it was that it couldn’t decide exactly what type of match it wanted to be. The first few minutes were pure mat wrestling . . . and then it turned into a brawl around ringside . . . and the it turned into a hard-hitting puro style match . . . and then, in the most bizarre turn of all, it became almost a sports entertainment style bout thanks to referees being bumped around and then attacking one another for no apparent reason. Maybe what they were looking for was a match that combined all of the various styles of wrestling that appeared throughout the course of the tournament, but that’s not really how it came together. Instead, it just felt like a mish-mash of random stuff that didn’t have a cohesive story backing it. Williams and McGuinness are both polished enough in their deliver of wrestling moves that it wasn’t total junk, but I’m at the point where, as a fan, I need a little bit more than good looking moves to entice me. **3/4

Overall

There were a couple of matches in the first round of the tournament that I absolutely could not stand, but, by and large, I thought that night one was a great base for a professional wrestling tournament. Unfortunately, when night two rolled around, there were still some entertaining matches but things just didn’t kick into high gear to turn that great base in to a legendary event. With all due respect to the people who put the show together and the wrestlers who worked hard on the two evenings, there are significantly better two and three night tournaments available on DVD that are also easier to find and more economically priced. Unless you’re a big fan of a specific wrestler or wrestlers who were competing in the King of Europe Cup, this one is fairly mediocre and should be passed on.

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See you all next week!