Defiant Unstoppable Live Experience

Hi guys,

Sometimes there's nothing I love more than a bit of live wrestling and I don't always get the chance to go and watch it live either because of timing issues or costs. However, I was lucky enough last Saturday to go to watch Defiant Wrestling's PPV Unstoppable as well as a taping of their weekly show Loaded (which airs on YouTube).

I didn't really know what to expect when I dragged my mum along (she loves it really) to the Manchester Academy in the cold to watch some of my favourite wrestlers, but I was happily surprised at how amazing it was! This post's going to look at my experience and, because by the time this is published the shows will have been aired, there will be spoilers in this post just to warn you if you wan't to go and watch them, but I'll try to avoid writing who won each match but rather the highlights.

I've never been to an, I guess you could say, independent show which hasn't been run by either WWE or NJPW so I didn't know what happens. But, we got into the venue at about 5pm and, after getting to our seats, I saw David Starr and Joe Hendry at the merch table (which really is my weakness). After being a chicken and getting some semi nice encouragement from my mum, I finally got the confidence to go over and say hi, get a selfie and buy some merch. I shouldn't have been worried because both David Starr and Joe Hendry were so nice and I felt bad for them because I was probably a bumbling idiot. So, after meeting two of my idols in wrestling (and Justin Sysum who I met before the show and you'll see why soon), the show started with a taping for the YouTube show where we saw some great matches with women's champ Kanji, Visage, the Models and the rookies Dynamo Duo.



After a small break, we went live for the PPV Unstoppable which had so many amazing matches from the start to the end. We started with an amazing tag match between Rory Coyle/ Gabriel Kidd and Joe Hendry/ Primate which was a great way to start the show. I was so conflicted because I obviously love Joe Hendry and Primate, but even if the crowd weren't so supportive (mainly because of Joe's amazing new entrance music which you have to listen too), I was also cheering for Gabriel Kidd who really is an amazing athlete and is definitely not a jobber! It was quick paced, extremely athletic and, because of the history between Coyle and Primate, it was really personal at some points which meant that there was some amazing storytelling. Following this with Nathan Cruz v Omari was also a great shout because we kept the quick paced momentum going with the Professional proving why he's a wrestling superstar but also Omari proving his worth against the more experience Cruz with his agility and strength, which probably came with his height and really long legs. I haven't seen much of Omari before but, from this match, I can see he's got such a bright future!

This was then followed by a brutal match between Bad Bones and Justin Sysum where blood was spilt and agility was literally second to none. Then, after the heartbreaking news that Jimmy Havoc had to pull out due to injury, No Fun Dunne then came out declaring the hardcore title to be his, just to be interrupted by GM Ameen who made him put the title on the line against fellow anti-fun police member Deputy Drake. Let's just say we had tables and chairs and my mum couldn't watch for a lot of the match! Before we got to the main 3 title matches of the night, we had the only women's match on the PPV with Bea Priestley v Lana Austin in a no DQ, falls count anywhere match and that was one chaotic match! My firm favourite for this match was Bea Priestly and, as soon as Lana Austin came out and tried to avoid getting into the ring, Priestly went full with chairs galore (from in the ring to the crowd area), action outside the ring and basically a full-on brawl between the two. It got a massive pop from the crowd throughout and it was great to see two strong women in a match like this throwing caution to the win!



We then ended the night with 3 amazing and completely different championship matches. With El Phantasmo being injured through drunken shenanigans (or so he says), the Defiant Internet title match was now between Martin Kirby and the guy who unexpectedly pinned him which was Benji! I definitely think that Kirby took Benji too lightly at the start, because he really gave his all to this match and there were so many moments where it actually looked as if Kirby was going to lose the title like when Martin tried to hit his amazing new move, but nearly lost again through a roll up counter. Then we had probably my match of the night, the tag team championship match between Aussie Open and Chris Brookes/ Lucky Kid aka CCBlaaah! It's so obvious that these guys have had so much history because the match, even with Lucky Kid instead of Lykos, was pure tag team beauty with the most amazing chemistry from the story telling to the moves themselves. The match went on for the full 30 minute time limit and each team had the advantage for half of the match which meant that the crowd were on the edge's of their seats for each pinfall because either team could've won! My mum's only just getting into wrestling and she loved this match which cemented that tag team wrestling is her favourite. For me, I've always loved it and its matches like these and teams like these that keep tag team wrestling alive - they make it hard to choose who you want to win!

We then ended the match with the championship match between Rampage Brown and your wrestler's favourite wrestler David Starr! It was the typical heavyweight v cruiserweight but Starr has proved before that he can go up against the biggest of guys with his match against Ishii (please see my post about my thoughts on the divisions https://wrestling-chatter.blogspot.com/2019/01/heavyweight-v-jr-heavyweight.html) . He also proved it in that match because, from the start, he used his smaller frame to his advantage by avoiding some of Rampage's offence but then also his strength with those ear ringing chops that echoed through the venue. No matter what the result was, even though it made my mum vert sad, both guys proved why they are two of the very best in the world and it ended an amazing card for my first Defiant show!

So, I hope you enjoyed delving into my Defiant Wrestling experience! I also got to speak to Joe Hendry and Justin Sysum at the show so keep an eye out for those interviews as well as one from Gabriel Kidd who was also on the show! So, if any of you watched the show, what did you think and let me know in the comments or on social media (@Wrestling_Chat on Twitter and Wrestling Chatter on FB and WrestlingChatter96 on IG) all your thoughts!

Until next time,

Bye!