FWA – British Breakout Tour (Acton)
by Ben Corrigion aka UK Hat Guy

On the 24th of April yours truly made the long trek via the modern day wonder that is London transport across London into the bad streets of Acton for the London leg of the FWA’s British Breakout tour. This being the only leg of the tour which featured both XPW European Champion Jonny Storm & FWA Heavyweight Champion Doug Williams on the same card we were guaranteed at least one good match, alas we got 6 excellent matches and 1 of the funniest matches I’m ever likely to see.

Unfortunately the attendance failed to live up to the hype of the show though as only around 110-120 people entered by the time the first bell rung, which was a relief seeing as I had only, counted 50 when the doors opened at 7pm.

Match #1 – James Tighe vs. Jack Xavier vs. Raj Ghosh
In a re-match from British Uprising, the 3 managed to come up with yet more innovative three-way grapple spots linking between each one near flawlessly. Most of the match saw Tighe and Ghosh teaming together to beat Xavier but Xavier managing to find ways to use the others momentum to turn into offence, which worked really well.

In the end Xavier picked up the win after Tighe tried to pick up the win in the same way as he had done at Uprising Sunset flipping Xavier who was holding onto Raj in the corner but Xavier held on to Tighe this time and caught him in position for the Kryptonite Crunch he swung the legs of Tighe round knocking Ghosh out of the ring and after a bit of a mix up with Tighe losing grip of Xavier. Xavier hit the Xavie8tor for the win.

Match #2 – Mark Slone vs. Nikita
Nikita proved in this match that its not only Paul Travel that she can put on good performances with and is defiantly one of the most improved wrestlers of 2002. Quite mat based with Slone dominating with Nikita on quite a few occasions managing to out wrestle the Specialist leading to chants of “Not so special” from the crowd.

To say the least I was shocked by the fact that Nikita actually picked up what has do go down as shock victory rolling up Slone with a victory Roll for the errrrm… Victory.

After that match we were then treated to an extra special segment as Smarking Out’s own Sanjay Bagga. The promoter of this evenings show came to the ring dressed in what I’ve been told is a real leather jacket, (although I have my doubts) and acting the hard man was promptly cut off by the Family of Paul Travel, Brandon Thomas and Ian Disciple.

After Bagga received an ear bashing from Paul Travel and implying the Alex Shane and Ulf Hermann would beat the Family for the Tag Team belts later on tonight was blind sided by Brandon Thomas who set Bagga up for a sacrifice unfortunately though much to the dismay of the crowd just as Travel was set to waffle Bagga and his (leather) jacket with a steel chair the Showswearers made there way out to the ring to save the Damsel in distress.

Match #3 – XPW European Championship – Jonny Storm vs. Juvi Guerrero
Sponsored by smarkingout.com

Awesome match and both men where on top of their game tonight, Jonny Storm is back where he belongs to be in the FWA as a heel and boy does he do it well. Match probably took about 5 minutes to actually start as the fans got on Jonny’s back as he was announced as the XPW European champion yet he was supposed to be awarded it at the XPW which was cancelled last week which led to some great heat throughout, we even got treated to an International edition of the Juice bar who asked Jonny where his belt was.

Match finally got started and it was typical heel Jonny slowing the pace down to when he was on the offence and Juvi trying to speed it up when ever he could. Lots of cool sequences here with Jonny teasing many of his face moves like the double jump senton to the outside but faking out the fans and the action when it speeded up was lightening quick and pulled off faultlessly.

Next came a short interval which gave me a chance to purchase the most expensive can of coke I’ve ever drunk and a burger which was expensive but lovely! Also met up SmarkingOut’s own Matt Alexander aswell and chatted to him.

Match #4 – Zebra Kid vs. Simmons w/Duke of Danger & Buttercup
At the beginning of the night we were told that Flash Barker was ill and would not be able to face Zebra Kid tonight which was a shame as that was the match I was looking forward to the most out of the whole card!

First time in ages that I’ve felt the urge to boo Simmons but you just can’t not cheer for Zebra. Not a long match but consisted of Zebra working over the smaller Simmons with stiff offence and Danger and Buttercup on the outside providing interference whilst berating young Simmons for not being able to beat Zebra…

Then the inevitable occurred! Andy Coyne got dumped to the outside of the ring and Birchill the young rookie monster came sprinting to the ring and whilst it seemed that he would just be killing Simmons after leaving Zebra alone, a brutal Emerald Fusion to Simmons was followed up with 2 Standing SSP’s which are amazing for a man of his size, Zebra then thinking he was in the clear got dropped on his head for his troubles thanks to Birchill aswell as having Danger lie Simmons on top of Zebra for the upset victory.

Match #5 – FWA Tag Team Titles – The Family (Paul Travel & Brandon Thomas) vs. The Showswearers (Ulf Hermann & Alex Shane)
This was an arena wide brawl as everyone had been expecting, it started off in the ring however as Hermann & Shane brutalised Paul Travel with some ultra stiff clotheslines in the corner, you could feel them from where we were upon connection!

The match eventually broke down with the liberal use of weapons, Alex Shane and Travel battled up to the stage where Travel managed to hit a Hurricanrana and take Alex Shane over, however Shanes legs managed to knock the “F” out of the FWA letter blocks on the stage and the funniest quip of the night occurred with the Get the F out slogan coming into play.

All 4 battled back to the ringside area where Thomas gave Shane a Side Russian leg sweep into the wall and Hermann made sure Travel’s baby making utensils wouldn’t be utilised for a while with the aid of a broom and a beer tray.

Ian Disciple made his way out to the ring though, clearly in different coloured trousers and hair style and also bigger then Travel right in front of the refs view and took out Alex Shane allowing Travel to slide back into the ring and gain the win.

Main Event – FWA Heavyweight Title – 2 out of 3 falls
Doug Williams vs. Chris Hamrick
Sponsored by: Smarkingout.com

The second half of the double main event sponsored by this great website was the highlight of the show. Hamrick has been a godsend to this tour, and to think that we could have had Chris Chetti.

Hamrick started off with all the old heel tricks faking being hit and claiming Doug was using dirty tactics, which even led to Doug being given the yellow card for his trouble. Hamrick broke open every comical line he could think of, and after being given 2 Atomic drops both inverted and the normal kind he then crotched himself on the ring post and in the highest voice he could manage appealed to the ref to DQ Doug.

The match continued however and Doug won the first fall with the Revolution DDT.

Hamrick stepped it up a gear trying to recoup the fall and went for dive though the ropes Doug Side stepped though and Hamrick landed with a THUD on the opposite side of the ring to where we were but we could still hear the OUMPH of the landing.

Hamrick took his own time to recover and josh with the referee, Andy Coyne telling him to get in the ring and refusing and telling him to give him some more time coz it was a hell of a bump.

A little while later Doug managed to roll up Hamrick with the Chaos Theory for the 2nd and decisive pin fall.

Overall one of the funniest shows I have ever seen and one of the best for actual wrestling aswell. I cant wait for Frontiers of Honor now in just 3 weeks time.

For more information on the FWA check out their website at http://www.frontierwrestling.com