King of Europe tournament finals 4-29 Liverpool, England

[bad_meetz_evil]

I attended night two of the ‘King of Europe Cup 2007’ tournament at the Liverpool Olympia, Liverpool, England, and thought I'd send you a report. Tonight’s event featured the quarter finals, semi-finals and final match of the King of Europe tournament, as well as an elimination six man tag team match.



The attendance appeared to be up on the previous night, so I’d estimate it was in the 800-900 range. I neglected to mention in yesterday’s report that there was a very nice entrance set and ramp used, as well as two video screens showing the live action. Both shows were taped for DVD and also for future broadcast on the TWC Fight channel in the U.K.



1) In the first quarter-final match, Doug Williams defeated Chris Hero in 20 minutes, in a decent opener. Both guys wrestled as babyfaces, and the match started quite slowly, so it wasn’t very heated early on. They started off doing some mat wrestling, but eventually increased the pace and it developed into a good match. Williams won with a small package. Hero took the mic and praised Williams afterwards, but Williams blew him off.



2) In the second quarter-final match, Nigel McGuiness defeated Pac to advance. Pac came out with his head bandaged, apparently hurt. McGuiness gave Pac the option of forfeiting the match, as he warned him that he might severely injure him, but Pac declined and the match was on. Similar to the first match, both guys were babyfaces here. This was a good match, with lots of high impact moves. At one point Pac did a great tope through the ropes, on to McGuiness on the outside. McGuiness began to dominate the contest, and after 3 lariats resulted in near falls, McGuiness eventually gave Pac a sick-looking diamond cutter from the top rope for the pinfall. Afterwards, a bunch of referees and McGuiness showed concern for Pac’s well-being, but he was okay enough to walk to the back under his own power.



3) In the third quarter-final match, Davey Richards defeated Go Shiozaki in an entertaining match. Richards was a heel here, despite him receiving a lot of cheers. Shiozaki delivered a lot of stiff kicks and chops to Richards early in the match, and at one point clotheslined Richards over the guardrail and into the first row at ringside. Back in the ring, Richards did a corkscrew splash from the top rope for a near fall, before pinning Shiozaki after a top rope Tornado DDT, that he managed to turn into an armbar submission hold for the victory. The finish of this match looked excellent.



4) In the fourth and final quarter-final match, Matt Sydal defeated Ryo Saito. This was an entertaining, high flying contest. Sydal won this match after around 15 minutes of action following a Shooting Star Press. Intermission followed.



5) In the first semi-final match, Nigel McGuiness defeated Davey Richards in an excellent match. Richards attacked McGuiness straight away to start the match, diving through the ropes and on to McGuiness on the outside. They brawled through the crowd briefly, with McGuiness placing Richards on a merchandise table (empty this time, unlike last night), and nailing him with a couple of chair shots. Back in the ring, after a Richards springboard elbow got a near fall, McGuiness eventually won after a lariat clothesline. This match was only 10 minutes in length, but it was all action.



6) In the second semi-final match, Doug Williams defeated Matt Sydal in a quick-paced match. Similar to how Richards started his match with McGuiness, Williams attacked Sydal immediately upon his entering the ring. These two worked very smoothly together and they put together an entertaining match. Finish came when Sydal missed a shooting star press, and then moonsaulted on to Williams’ raised knees. Williams then cradled him for the pinfall.



7) In a complete change of pace, it was time for an unadvertised bonus match. In a six man elimination match, the team of Martin Stone & El Generico & Atsushi Aoki (Pro Wrestling Noah undercard rookie, I believe) defeated Trent Acid & Claudio Castagnoli & Ares in around 30 minutes. This was a wild brawl, with all six wrestlers taking the action into the crowd. At one point, Stone & Generico & Aoki combined to simultaneous suplex the heels on to the wooden floor. First elimination saw Aoki make Trent Acid submit to an armbar at the 15 minute stage. Second elimination saw Castagnoli & Ares combine to eliminate Atsushi Aoki with a double team backbreaker. Third elimination saw Castagnoli pin El Generico after a screwed up Tornado DDT attempt, at the 25 minute mark. Fourth elimination saw Martin Stone pin Ares after a clothesline. The final elimination came when Stone pinned Castagnoli after a DDT. This was a good match, if a little long.



Before the main event, they brought out long-time British wrestling promoter Brian Dixon, paying tribute to him. He’s from the Liverpool area, and has been running his All-Star Wrestling promotion for the last 30 years. He’s been credited by many for keeping British wrestling alive after it was cancelled by ITV back in 1988. He was there to present the King of Europe trophy to the winner of the tournament final.



8) In the main event, Nigel McGuiness defeated Doug Williams in the King of Europe tournament final. This was a very good match. They started off brawling in the crowd. Williams was the major heel here and crowd was totally into McGuiness. Williams got a nearfall after a top rope kneedrop. They traded a lot of stiff punches. The finish was very WWE-esque, but it worked well. McGuiness accidentally took out referee Steve Lynskey with a clothesline. A second referee ran in and was about to count a McGuiness pinfall when first referee Lynskey stopped him, insisting he was ref. Lynskey then turned heel by knocking down the second ref. McGuiness squared up to Lynskey, before headbutting him. McGuiness then pinned Williams after another big lariat, with the second referee reviving to count the pinfall. On paper it sounds a bit overbooked, but it added drama to the match and worked really well. I also think this was partly because nothing like this had been booked in any of the other match finishes over the course of both nights, so maybe that’s why it worked so well.



After the match, all the wrestlers on the card came out and climbed into the ring. Brian Dixon delivered a speech, praising the wrestlers for their efforts over the weekend. He then presented Nigel McGuiness with the inaugural King of Europe trophy. McGuiness delivered a short acceptance speech, paying tribute to the rest of the wrestlers on the card, the fans in attendance and also promoter Alex Shane, who was the organiser behind the whole two day event.



In conclusion, these were two very good wrestling shows. It was a well booked tournament, and every wrestler worked very hard. Hopefully this will become an annual tournament. I believe this crew of wrestlers are now headed to Germany for a three day event at the Musikpalette in Essen, Germany, May 4th to 6th next weekend.



Hope this was of interest.



Thanks,

Stephen Lyon,

St Helens, England, U.K.

[future star]

yess, nigel was my pick to win, him ve williams was most likely fantastic

[Garden State Saint]

Nigel is a great wrestler and it's about time he wins a big tournament. Always "in it to win it".