This past October, I attended my last WAW show as their chief reporter and webmaster. The show, October Outrage VII, was held at The Talk in Norwich, amidst the crisis in the Knight family surrounding the departure of Julia Hamer, aka Sweet Saraya. Just days before the show, Ricky Knight was hospitalised as a result of the stress caused by the situation.
At the time I found that I couldn’t bring myself to review the show because of my personal involvement in the situation, but going through some papers the other day, I found the notes I made during this show, and now slightly removed from the situation I find that I am now able to take a look back at this show.
The show began with WAW Commissioner Steven Howard-Platt coming to the ring to announce Ricky’s absence from the show. Howard-Platt’s announcement was interrupted by the Zebra Kid and his manager for the evening, Tommy Lee. Zebra proceeded to lay into his father verbally, before the young Zak Zodiac came to the ring. Zebra took the verbals up a notch by insulting his younger brother, making light of the somewhat personal situation that the Knight family found themselves in. Zodiac then challenged Zebra to a match later in the evening, which Zebra accepted, but he reminded everyone that the match would have to take place before the interval because he was on a tag, and had to be back home by a certain hour.
I was not happy with this opening segment at all. I was very critical of WWE for using the Matt Hardy/Lita/Edge real-life situation as part of a storyline, and given the situation that the Knight family were going through at the time, I felt a great deal of sympathy for young Zak, especially when Zebra said a few things which were certainly very personal.
The first bout of the evening saw The Kraft take on “The Dark Angel” Ashe, two of WAW’s brightest young stars. At the time Ashe was in the middle of a heel turn, having become disgruntled with WAW after his British title loss to Alex Shane, and Kraft was still waiting for his title shot against the Showstealer, Shane having pulled out of two proposed title matches in August because of illness and injury. This was a good match, a great example of how well WAW trains their young stars, which saw Kraft win with his Essex Driver finishing move, and Ashe storm off, still unhappy that he was no longer on top of the card.
Then came the battle of the brothers, as Zak Zodiac took on the Zebra Kid, who once again had his manager Tommy Lee in his corner. Lee seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever, and he wasn’t really needed as once again we had another good example of two of Britain’s best wrestlers knocking seven sorts of you know what out of each other. Zodiac just didn’t have enough to put Zebra away, and after a hard fought battle, Zebra pinned Zodiac after a tombstone piledriver and a top rope elbow. After the match, Steven Howard-Platt stepped back into the ring with a letter from none other than Ricky Knight. Despite being in hospital, Knight challenged Zebra to a builders cage match at the War at the Waveney II show. (This show was held last November.)
Then it was time for the U.K. Pitbulls, Big Dave and the Bulk, to defend the tag-team titles against the reformed team of Bash and Crash. This match left me scratching my head a little. This was Bash & Crash’s first match together in about four years, and from a storyline point of view they didn’t really do anything to deserve an immediate title shot. There certainly were other teams who deserved a title shot even more than these two. Before the match began, Bash & Crash said that the match wouldn’t go on if judges scored the bout. Reluctantly, Steven Howard-Platt agreed to their request. Sadly, this was the best moment of the bout. These two teams just didn’t seem to click, which resulted in a very poor match, and it also made no sense that the challengers won the titles after Bash clobbered Big Dave with one of the tag title belts. (The U.K. Pitbulls would go on to regain the titles at War at the Waveney II from Bash & Stevie Knight, who replaced a missing Crash.)
After the interval, it was time for the Academy tag, featuring some of the top talent to come out of the Academy in 2005. Lots of action here, with Rude Boy Roberts eventually emerging victorious in this gruelling elimination tag.
The absence of the Sweet Saraya meant that rising star Destiny had a change of opponent, taking on Academy trainee Melody. A short match here, with Melody showing some good moves, but being unable to tackle the brute force and power as Destiny pinned her after a big splash.
The main event featured “The Tattooed Warrior” Steve Quintain defending his Cruiserweight title against Jason Cross in a bout fought under the WAW championship match rules, over rounds and with three judges at ringside. What started out as a good natured sportsman-like contest between two top grapplers soon degenerated into a fight. The first fall came in round three, with Quintain pinning Cross with a crucifix. Cross equalised two rounds later with a half-Boston crab, but things turned ugly soon afterwards as the two men brawled on the outside. After Quintain rammed Cross’ head into one of the ring posts, opening him up, he was disqualified for his actions. WAW had a new Cruiserweight champion. (Quintain would go on to regain his title a month later at War at the Waveney II.)
In conclusion - I still have mixed feelings about this show. It just didn’t seem right without Ricky or Julia there to guide things along, it was as if the body of WAW was there for all to see, but the heart and soul were clearly missing. The fact that their family situation was used in one of the storylines also didn’t sit to well with me, and I was left to wonder how other members of the family felt about this.
However, I’m still looking forward to seeing the DVD release of this show. Maybe as I’m no longer involved in WAW my view may be more subjective
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