This week I'm dipping into the video archives, for a review of the British Real Attitude Wrestling League's (BRAWL) "Collision at Coalville" DVD, a show filmed by WAR Productions last November.
The DVD begins with a video package from their previous show, Halloween Horror Show 2. Not a bad little segment here.The show begins with a promo from the number one contender for the BRAWL title, Superstar Mark Vicious. As he enters the ring, he seems somewhat put off by some of the heckles from the crowd, not a good sign. After a few moments of confusion, Vicious calls out BRAWL champion Spatch, and although things are somewhat strained at times, they do an okay job of setting up the night's main event, a no disqualification match for the title. Then, a mystery man enters the ring and kicks the crap out of Spatch, leaving him prone to a psuedo-pin from the Superstar.
BRAWL Cruiserweight Championship
PYRO v SCOTTY DANIELS v SPUD v THE ODITY v ROB HUNTER v JONNY PESCI
For an opening contest, this wasn't too bad, with Daniels pinning Pesci with a sit-down power bomb to win the title. However, towards the end, this bout became something of a cluser-f**k with all of the dives and whatnot over the top rope, making you feel like you were watching Ring of Honor's poor cousin for a few moments.
THE MURDERERS v THE U.K. PITBULLS
For me this match just didn't work. When one team is outweighed by just one member of the opposing team, you expect the smaller team to be the faces. But when the smaller team is called the Murderers, what else can they be?
This was a typical David v Goliath battle, with the Pitbulls unleashing a variety of moves on the smaller guys, with the Murderers trying to fight back with several Hardy Boy-like moves, before the big guys regained control and finishing off one of the smaller guys with the Pitbulls Power bomb.
DA RASCAL v SAMSON
Before the match begins Da Rascal cuts a promo which is barely audible, making it difficult to hear what he is actually saying.
This match really didn't capture my imagination. It wasn't helped by the poor camera work which left me looking at the wrestler's feet while a move was being executed. Samson won with a Dragon Sleeper-like move. I was thankful that this match didn't last that long.
AGENT N v CALEB
For this match we had a "Man In Black" going up against a "Man of the Cloth", and I was a little disappointed that the Agent didn't wrestler in his trousers and white shirt. If it was good enough for IRS and Mr. Hughes all those years ago, it should have been good enough for him.
Again, poor camera angles spoiled my enjoyment of this match. It was very difficult to watch, and while the wrestler's gimmicks do have some promise, they really didn't have much to back those gimmicks up. Caleb's religious shtick seems to have been borrowed from Christopher Daniels a little.
After clobbering the ref with a foreign object as the ref recovered from an injury, Caleb pinned Agent N with a reverse sit-down power bomb. Me thinks these two are an acquired taste.
BRAWL Tag-Team Championship
THE JUDGE & FLASH MAGIC (with The Falcon) v BAD ATTITUDE
As The Falcon claimed injury, he introduced the war-painted Flash Magic as his partner for this title defence.
This was probably the worst match of the show. Many of the moves seemed over rehearsed. I just couldn't get into this.
The challengers won the titles after pinning Magic. Afterwards, an angry Falcon & The Judge attacked Magic for his losing effort, before Magic fought back, sending both men running.
FLATLINER v MTX
The only match on the card where I know something of the wrestlers! Flatliner has been tearing up the UWA as their champion with his comedy gimmick in recent months. However, the clown wasn't on show in this outing.
Lots of power moves and outside brawling in this bout as the muscle men tore a strip off each other. While Flatliner dominated the opening half of the bout, MTX fought back, but missed a moonsault off the top rope, leaving the way for Flatliner to get the pin after a roll-over.
BRAWL Heavyweight Championship
SPATCH v "SUPERSTAR" MARK VICIOUS
After their earlier confrontation, the stage was set for the main event of the evening, another match ruined by poor camera angles.
This bout wasn't too bad, but was a bit difficult to follow at times. Towards the end, the referee took another pasting. Seconds later the strange black geezer who had attacked Spatch at the beginning of the show came into the ring and tried to attack Vicious, only for Spatch to dodge the attack. A poor-looking super kick from Spatch was followed up by a poor-looking top rope elbow drop to get the win.
In conclusion - so where do I begin? There are many things which spoiled my enjoyment of this DVD, the first time I had seen a BRAWL show in full.
The first was something I've mentioned a few times already, the poor camera angles. The slow work made following the action very difficult at times. Key moves were often missed, which meant it was difficult to follow the flow of the match.
I was also very, very surprised that a supposedly professional video production had absolutely no commentary on it. A lack of commentary is understandable on a fan-cam type of video, but not from a professional company! I found myself wanting to know more about the people I was watching, but no information was forthcoming from this video.
In the past I've been criticised for comparing the videos of small wrestling promotions to those of the mighty WWE. It's obvious that a company like BRAWL can't compete production-wise, but the poor camera angles and lack of commentary detract from the overall enjoyment of this release. This DVD is hardly a good advert for BRAWL as a company. Releases like this are meant to get me out of my seat, to either get me to a BRAWL show in person, or to make me want to buy another BRAWL video. In both cases, this DVD failed.
Match of the show - Flatliner v MTX. The best of a bad bunch as the old saying goes. Overall, a poor 4 out of 10.
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