Aberdeen Anarchy was today and I have thoughts!
Pre-show match was Murphy, Judas Grey, and Spindly James going at it. Interesting dynamic with Judas bullying Taylor and Murphy defending him. Seems like it'll be an inspirational holding-his-own thing but you actually watch him in action and he is a bit rubbish, isn't he? He doesn't have the physique and all his moves looked uncoordinated this match. He even ate the pin! So much for that. Good to see Judas around, even if he did take a pretty silly over-the-corner bump.
We opened with a Tri-Counties Title ladder match! Between Regal Rumble and today they vacated the title over the silly finish, and that put it up in the air (literally) for Umar and Riley. And wow, Richard R. Russell gives terrible advice. Riley was dominating and the rat man demanded he climb. So Russell climbed himself... and the ref climbed too to stop him cheating. Then after a Michinoku Driver on a ladder (sick spot), Riley had the title but Russell wanted him to do a move. This let Umar get back in. Umar won and post-match Riley apparently retired? He said he was tired of being disrespected so he quit. Russell seemed blindsided by this!
Tag team gauntlet next! This was interestingly structured. Influence beat two teams with Connor Molloy and Ronan King showing basically none of the struggles they had at previous shows... until one moment cost then and Rhys Dawkins took the opportunity to get a retention via the Roll-Up o'Doom! Yes, that is a heel-heel final two teams. Casino Brutale continued to be weirdly over. Post-match we finally got the breakup with Ronan elbowing Connor in the back of the head to a very mixed reaction. Interested to see where this goes.
My most anticipated match of the day was the Chip Shop Brawl and it delivered! Items from the humble British chipper were legal, so we got things like a tack spot with forks, salad tongs to the cock, and a pizza cutter (Captain Alan hurt himself before he could hurt anyone with it). There was a vinegar mist spot that took out Spindly James. The babyface members of the Crew brought out the requisite table-type spot, which was a board of chip shop cardboard boxes. And of course Alan went through it (taking a Tiger Driver 98 afterward). Afterward we got Captain Alan berating his crew, and FINALLY Kai and Travis turned on him and tore off their probably-AI-generated shirts with his face on. The good ending!
There was a fairly long break where they had to take apart and reassemble part of the ring.
Rhino's match next! Martyn stopped Mr. P from doing his own intro so he had a baby man fit. Rhino was absolutely white-hot over. He was also great at working the crowd while he wasn't in the ring, and also surprisingly giving to the locals. It dissolved into a crowd brawl, which is how Rhino likes it. He wasted at least three people's drinks. The natural finish was the one that happened - a GORE GORE GORE to Mr. P. He did a full stretcher job and no one felt bad for him. Prick.
I hope you like massive out-of-ring scraps, because here comes Ted O'Keefe! Or not, because Evan Young hit him with a chair pre-match. This was fairly short, with Young beating up his hurt opponent but refusing to finish it. Scotty Swift showed up from the crowd to distract Young meaning Ted could get his comeback. They teased Ted using the chair but he never did. Not a huge amount to say.
MAIN EVENT! Brad got a long entrance to Free Bird, and Japan-style streamers (about five of them). This was two lads hitting each other really hard and I'm happy for them. Damien tried to win with a count-out early but GM Reid said no to that. Ref bump (because of course) off an errant corner splash leading to Webb and Monstrum attacking and the faces cleaning up. False finish after false finish, then Damien hit Brad in the cock. Brad stopped the ref from calling for the bell and they milked whether the ref should end it in a DQ for a bit too long. Thankfully Brad won it after that! New champ! Big babyface celebration to finish it.
