*RESULTS* 1PW Anniversary

1PW NEWS AND NOTES, PLUS FIRST ANNIVERSARY RESULTS INCLUDING ABYSS VS. STEVE CORINO IN A NO ROPES BARBED WIRE MATCH & MORE

- The Dome is sold out. It appears to look the same as normal in terms of layout for seating etc, so perhaps those extra 200 or so seats that 1PW said they sold in the build-up to tonight were somehow incorporated into the existing layout of The Dome.

- In an unadvertised match, El Ligero beat El Generico in the opening match - El Generico being the first of several surprises planned for the course of the evening (if you’re a regular reader to the site, you’ll already be aware of at least two of them).

- Mad Man Manson beat Jamie Brum in a short rematch from this afternoon’s Fight Club III card.

- As we reported last night here on the site, Anthony Kingdom James has returned to the company. They set up the angle we said they would last night involving Jay Phoenix and the pillow, and it led to a quick match, which Phoenix won. Afterwards, Kingdom beat him up and gave him a curbstomp into a birthday cake.

- A video aired showing Team Supreme allegedly taking out Samoa Joe. Joe wasn’t shown on video.

- A Tag Team Gauntlet Match was up next, with the winners being named #1 contenders for the Tag Team titles. Max Voltage & Dan Head vs Mark Sloan & Ollie Burns started the match out. Voltage & Head were eliminated, with The Chavs being the next team involved. They eliminated Sloan & Burns and the fourth team involved was Pain Inc. Pain Inc were next to go, with Damned Nation (Majik & Dragon Aisu) coming out as team #5 to face The Chavs. Majik and Dragon Aisu picked up the win, and are #1 contenders for the tag titles.

- On the video screen, a “news flash” appeared saying Christopher Daniels vs Dustin Rhodes was off the card. A replacement match was announced - Curry Man vs “Gold Dustin". That match was up next, with Dustin (wearing the full Goldust costume) picking up the win.

- Martin Stone beat Ulf Herman and Iceman in a Triple Threat European Deathmatch. The finish came after Iceman missed a cannonball and collided with a car bonnet. Stone then hit him with a coal bucket and picked up the win. Insane match.

- After the interval, the advertised Sterling James Keenan & Mystery Partner vs Spud & Samoa Joe match was changed. Darkside (who until tonight was advertised against a “TBA” wrestler) joined Spud and Joe to take on Keenan and Team Supreme in a 6-man tag. Keenan and Team Supreme picked up the win.

- Post-match it was announced that at next January’s No Turning Back show, Keenan would take on The Great Muta. As regular readers to the site will be aware, we reported a month ago that Muta would be at January’s show, only for 1PW to hit out at the news we broke by issuing a statement two days later to deny that any talks had taken place and that he wouldn’t be at January’s show.

- AJ Styles beat Pac. Said to be a very good match - very pacey and tons of good spots.

- Team SHAG (Darren Burridge & Colt Cabana) beat Jody Fleisch & Jonny Storm and Southern Comfort in a Triple Threat Ladder Match to become the new 1PW Tag Team Champions.

- An announcement was made saying it would take around thirty minutes to take the ropes down and set the barbed wire up for the ‘No Rope Barbed Wire’ main event.

- The Steve Corino-Abyss main event got underway at around 11.15pm after several warnings to parents about the match. Some seats were empty from people leaving early. The match went well over 30 minutes, with Abyss picking up the win. From the live reports I’ve got from The Dome, they never announced a title change over the house mic, so it seems the match was changed to a non-title match. Post-match, Abyss and Team Supreme attacked Corino until Ulf Herman and Sterling James Keenan made the save (which I guess makes Keenan a face now). Corino cut a promo with most of the babyfaces on the roster in the ring with him to end the show.

Thanks to everybody who joined us for our coverage of tonight’s show as well as Fight Club III earlier in the day here on the site. We’ll have news and fallout from today’s shows right here on the site over the next couple of days as well as reaction and likely we’ll do an audio hotline at some point. If you attended tonight’s show and want to send feedback, drop me a line at webmaster@wrestlemag.com!

News and Notes

From the people I’ve spoke to and had emails from who were at last night’s show, there’s a real mixed opinion on how the show went. We were going to do an audio hotline last night live from The Dome but due to time issues we weren’t able to go ahead with it. Management were said to be happy overall with how the show went, and although the bulk of those I spoke to seemed happy enough with the show, the issue of shows running late is again a big, big problem for 1PW, with people leaving early to catch the last trains out of Doncaster after a five hour show.

There’s also some confusion as to why the Steve Corino-Abyss main event was a non-title match. When we were covering the show last night, I had to double check the card that I’d put on the site earlier in the week, and also checked to make sure I’d read 1PW’s press releases correctly. Going into the show, the match was definitely being advertised as being for Corino’s title, and prior to the match when they aired a video on the screen in The Dome, the title belt was shown wrapped in barbed wire. Corino didn’t come out with the title belt, and on the house mic there was no announcement stating that the match was for the title or not. I’ve no idea as to why things unfolded that way, but to advertise your main event as such then change things last minute makes no sense to me. It gives Abyss a win over Corino without Corino dropping the title of course, but with Abyss not advertised on either of the next two 1PW shows (last night was scheduled to be the end of that feud anyway), I don’t get why they did the finish. Perhaps there’s some extra footage shot for the DVD or the website, who knows.

The other big issue from those I spoke to last night was the face turn of Sterling James Keenan, who 1PW have pushed as a heel for the past year only for him to get cheered by crowds. At the end of last night’s show, Keenan cut a promo saying that he tried everything he could to get over fans to boo him over the year (including destroying UK cruiserweight Spud several times and an angle involving him “attacking” a disabled fan at a show, which got cheered), but realised last night that it’s “about the fans". I suppose the turn was on the cards, but they could have drawn more from building up to it rather than a quick about turn. I’ve been harsh on him in the past for the way 1PW pushed him, but Keenan has been one of the highlights of 1PW’s year. Hopefully he won’t be 1PW’s Randy Orton now that he’s set to be pushed as a face based on his not getting over as a heel.

1PW made a great move by having Christopher Daniels work as Curry Man last night I thought. Daniels was over huge when it was announced, and I’d much prefer him to work that gimmick more often. Daniels faced Dustin Rhodes, who will be returning to 1PW for their ‘No Turning Back’ show in January. 1PW are going to continue having Rhodes work as ‘Goldustin’. Although I think it’s obvious that casual fans will be more likely to know Goldust than Dustin Rhodes, I’d be interested to find out what would happen if WWE were to show interest in the “new” persona being used in 1PW.

I haven’t heard of any major injuries. Those involved in the barbed wire main event and European Deathmatch were said to be hurt but no more than you’d expect. AJ Styles cut his arm open on a ringside barricade after catching Pac during a spot in their match, while Chris Hamrick hurt his back during the afternoon ‘Fight Club III’ show. Hamrick worked the evening show but didn’t get too involved in the ladder match. He recently stated in a 1PW shoot interview that he’d be retiring at the end of this year.

1PW this morning announced that Pac will be heading to California for next month’s Wrestling Society X TV tapings, as we reported was happening several weeks ago. The other deal announced this morning that we’ve made reference to over the past couple of weeks is a DVD deal with Big Vision Entertainment which will see 1PW DVDs available in stores in the United States. Two “Best of” DVDs will be released in February as 1PW are not allowed to put DVDs into stores in the States that feature wrestlers under contract to TNA, as per TNA’s contractual terms. That means some heavy editing, although if the direction for 1PW in 2007 is to focus on the British wrestlers, it could work in their favour.

On the subject of DVDs, 1PW promoter Steven Gauntley today commented on a possible UK DVD deal via a 1PW press release by stating that he had no comment on the “rumours". I’ve heard nothing about a UK deal at all, but if 1PW have gone to the trouble of issuing a statement not commenting on a deal, I guess that means a deal of some description is on the horizon.

The signing of The Great Muta for January’s ‘No Turning Back’ show was announced during last night’s show, as we reported it would be several weeks ago. Muta vs Sterling James Keenan is the only match announced for that show so far. Aside from the British based wrestlers, the show will also feature 1PW Champion Steve Corino, Colt Cabana, Dustin Rhodes (as Goldustin) and Teddy Hart. There’s also a few new names set to be announced in the next few weeks who will be making their 1PW debuts. As we’ve previously noted, the use of wrestlers under TNA contracted is to be reduced, and the announced names so far for November and January certainly back that up.

1PW return to The Doncaster Dome for their next show is, ‘Fight Club IV’, on November 26. It’s an early start of 5pm for the show, which will be headlined by a twenty man Royal Rumble style match to crown 1PW’s first ever Openweight champion.