Jonny Storm Rare & Unreleased - DVD Review

It seems quite apt that just a week after he won the new WAW British Lightweight title that I should take a look back at the career of “The Wonderkid” Jonny Storm in video form, with a look at Jonny Storm - Rare & Unreleased.

We start off in the UWA, and an outdoors match between Jonny & “The Anarchist” Doug Williams. It’s a much slimmer Williams on view here, as he shows some high-flying moves I’ve never seen from him before. However, despite putting on a good show, Storm gets pinned after a sit-down power bomb.

We then move on to TWA action, as Jonny takes on Jody Fleisch & the Zebra Kid in three-way action. Because this match was filmed using a fan cam, it’s difficult to follow the action at times, especially when the action spills outside the ring. There’s plenty of high-flying action, which is only to be expected with these three in the ring together. The action was so fast it was hard to follow at times. Jonny got the pin on Fleisch with his rewind hurricanrana.

We then head back to the UWA as Jonny takes on Phil Powers’ prize pupil, Paul Sloane. A short power v speed match, and one that doesn’t really show off Jonny’s skills as he picks up the win after interference from Mad Dog McPhie.

Moving on to Premier Promotions, it’s a best of three falls bout against Jace The Ace. This is a hard fought, very competitive, and very enjoyable bout. With the scores level at one fall apiece, Jace gets the third and winning fall, pinning Jonny after a top rope leg drop. Great stuff all round here.

Then it’s the first of Jonny’s singles matches against Jody Fleisch, as he defends his TWA Welterweight title against The Phoenix on an FWA show. A high-flying, fast paced, action filled bout here as is the norm whenever these two go against each other, sees Storm defend his title after pinning Fleisch after his rewind hurricanrana.

We stay in the FWA as Jonny challenges Doug Williams for the FWA British Heavyweight title - their second encounter in this collection. Fought over three falls, this is batter than their first bout on this tape, and shows how much they’d both improved since their UWA days. Having scored one fall each, the hard fought third fall saw both guys really unload on each other, before Doug pins Jonny with a roll-up.

Still with the FWA, Jonny takes on Jorge Castano in a flag match. This match is part weapons filled brawl, part high flyer, which sees both men beat the crap out of each other, before Jonny emerges victorious after grabbing the Union Jack.

We then return to the UWA for tag-team action as Jonny teams with Mad Dog McPhie against Paul Sloane and Phil Powers. After some of the previous bouts, this was something of a letdown. Sloane & Powers got the win here, after Powers drop-kicked Jonny off Sloane’s shoulders.

Still with the UWA, Jonny takes on Jason Cross. Jonny is in full heel mode here, threatening to leave the arena at the beginning, until Cross drags him back. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed when Big Papa T came down and attacked Cross, ruining what could have been a good match.

Jonny then takes on the man who ruined the last bout, Big Papa T. Not a good one here to be honest, as after Jonny pulls off a few good moves, the mysterious Frank appears, takes the mic, and the guy in the gimp mash goes walkies, giving Jonny the count-out victory.

Then it’s the third of Jonny’s encounters with Doug Williams, this time in TWA. Slightly different in style to their FWA encounter, this is another indication of how well Doug & Jonny match up. Tons of drama in this bout. Having been clobbered by the ring bell twice, Jonny brings the bell in the ring for a third time, and earned himself a public warning when he clobbered Williams with it. However, when the Anarchist tried to hit Jonny with the bell a third time, Jonny rolled him up, but because the bell was near him, the ref called for a disqualification, and Williams had scored an underhanded victory. Good stuff here.

Then it’s the third Jonny v Jody encounter, this time across the pond for New England Championship Wrestling. As good as this was, it wasn’t as good as their previous singles bout on this tape. Jody came out on top after the 720 DDT.

When then see a segment from an FWA show where the Wonderkid sings. Don’t give up the day job Jonny!

We then see Jonny take on Trent Acid at the GWF’s one and only show. A messy start and some poor camera work ruined the beginning of this match, but that was soon made up for with some great action, with Jonny and Acid complimenting each other well. Jonny picked up the win following a head scissors.

Jonny v Jody, part four, follows, again across the pond for the PWF. Better than their previous bout on the tape, and just enough change to make it different, with Jonny getting the pin after a rewind hurricanrana.

Finally, it’s back to TWA for a royal rumble match. Featuring the likes of Alex Shane, Scott Parker, Jody Fleisch, the Zebra Kid, and many more, Jonny outlasts them all, winning the rumble after eliminating Ricky Knight & Justin Starr in quick succession.

In conclusion - a great compilation, and a great advertisement for one of Britain’s top stars. However, the footage from the UWA shows was a bit of a letdown, and took away from this collection a little, because, unlike the other matches, they didn’t really show the full extent of Jonny’s wrestling ability. Take these matches out and it would be an even better body of work.