Fight Club: PRO Wrestlehouse 2020, The Hangar, Wolverhampton – review
At the turn of the year, Tipton’s Chris Brookes announced that he would be moving to Japan for a year so that he could wrestle full-time for Tokyo’s Dramatic Dream Team promotion.
WrestleHouse 2020 was the first stop on what is a mini-farewell tour for one of the most popular pro-wrestlers in Britain.
With this departure being arranged at such short notice, Fight Club: PRO scrambled to give him the platform to say goodbye.
Despite Brookes and his rule-breaking faction having left for exile after losing to the promotion at Project Mayhem last September, they booked a returning match against their tag team champions Moustache Mountain and world champion Dan Moloney.
It was in many ways a throwback to the trios matches that headlined Fight Club: PRO shows throughout 2017, with a frenetic mixture of comedy, power moves and high-flying making for a feel-good experience.
Much of the comedy came from the debut of Kid Lykos II, with the diminutive Joe Nelson not only wearing the lupine mask but adopting many of the retired pro-wrestlers trademark spots.
Brookes would lead his team to victory, pinning Dudley’s Tyler Bate.
Then the promotion’s co-owner Trent Seven led the crowd and performers in setting aside the storylines of the past two years to pay tribute to someone who had been an integral part of Fight Club: PRO since its first show.
After he had finished praising Brookes, he and the other pro-wrestlers left the ring for Brookes to speak openly about how Fight Club: PRO had been the promotion that not only helped develop him as a performer but also got him onto major shows in London, Japan and elsewhere.
But even at this moment of high emotion, he couldn’t resist one final cheeky line, ending his remarks by jokingly insulting the fans in attendance and telling them to buy his T-shirts. Which as the queue at the merchandise table afterwards demonstrated, many of them did.
His was not the only departure, with Zac Gibson telling the crowd that he and James Drake would no longer be working independent shows as they focused on their WWE commitments.
They would win an enjoyably hard-hitting tag-team match against the Young Guns. Their fellow WWE superstar, Jordan Devlin, would be received more positively by the crowd, with them applauding his recent capture of that promotion’s Crusierweight title.
While the ever-likeable Chuck Mambo would garner some sympathy against Devlin, few were disappointed when the Irishman secured the victory.
There was some hellos mixed in with the goodbyes, with two local performers making their debuts.
Fight Club: PRO trainee Jack Ball lost the opener to Lee Hunter whilst Birmingham’s Dereiss won a four-way match also involving Omari, OJMO and Conor Mills.
Dereiss came across like a superstar, with the fans singing along as he rapped while walking to the ring and loudly cheering his shock victory.
Fight Club: PRO returns to The Hangar on March 13. For more information visit fightclubpro.bigcartel.com
