Wrestling fans travelled from all over the country to witness top British grapplers taking extreme to another level on Sunday night.
HXC Wrestling’s One Night Stand at the MMU Student Union featured seven matches including some of the country’s best known wrestlers including Cyanide, Stixx and T-Bone.
The night’s main event saw the aforementioned trio fight each other in a triple threat, anything goes match. Having never seen the man mountain Cyanide wrestle before, his agility for a big man pleasantly surprised me – I definitely wasn’t expecting to see him pull out dropkicks and attempt a moonsault.
The match saw some good bumps, including Cyanide suplexing both his rivals who were on the ropes, but the ending with a simple chair shot by T-Bone on the big man to win was a bit disappointing.
My favourite match of the night (and by far the most hardcore) was the tables match between Clint Margera and Dave Rayne.
Both wrestlers innovated and did brutal things to one another. Margera set up five fluorescent tubes over two chairs, but was sent crashing through them himself by Rayne and ended up a bloody mess, and the crowd lapped the violence up.
Rayne sent himself through a table after Margera got out of the way, but as per the rules, your opponent has to send you through the table, so the match continued.
Another eye-watering moment involved two chairs being interlocked and the unfortunate Rayne was dropped on the metal directly on his back.
Margera picked up the win by slamming Rayne through a second table from off the turnbuckles.
Loco Mike Mason and Mad Man Manson also put on an entertaining match, with a few funny sides including Mason chasing the referee around the ring as part of his dog gimmick.
Mason pulled out a pack of tacks, and sprinkled them across the ring, but it was him who paid the price after Manson countered his move and sent his opponent backside first into the pins.
Manson also used a pack of Monster Munch to devastating effect, dropping his opponent on them, and to be fair Mason sold this to great effect, prompting the most random ‘Holy Sh*t’ chant you will ever see at a wrestling show. Getting a ‘Monster Munch’ chant going is also something of an achievement for both wrestlers.
Both wrestlers gave each other (and the ref) nipple twisters, before Mason picked up the victory by using his chain to take out Manson. Owner and wife Becky also played her part by choking Manson on the ropes.
Of the evening’s earlier normal matches, the opener between Sam Bailey and Zack Gibson was the best. Gibson played on being a Scouser to good effect to get the crowd hating him, but it was Bailey who picked up a solid victory.
The three way tag match between The Models, The Blackpool Blondes and Project Ego had potential but failed to really get the crowd going.
The match went on too long, and the posturing between the three teams went from funny to boring quite quickly after the fifth or sixth time the wrestlers ‘landed’ in compromising positions with each other. The Models, who issued an open challenge for the match, took the win.
Overall, One Dark Night was an enjoyable night with the right balance between in-ring ability, humour and, of course, sadistic violence, and praise must go to promoter Mike Hough for bringing together some of the country’s top talent for HXC’s first shows.
There were some problems though – the show was late starting and the PA system inside the MMU proved ineffective with announcers and wrestlers having to resort to shouting to be heard over the raucous crowd.
However, these minor problems can be sorted in time for the next HXC show in June – again at MMU’S Student Union.
Hardcore has arrived in Manchester. If this show is anything to go by, it won’t be leaving anytime soon.
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HXC’s follow up show is also at MMU’s Student Union on Sunday June 8. Tickets are availabe on www.ticketline.co.uk
Image courtesy of HXC Wrestling, with thanks
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