RevPro v NJPW Global Wars UK 2016: Night 1

JUSHIN “THUNDER” LIGER vs. MARTY SCURLL- 7.25/10

Scurll is wearing some sort of ugly knock-off Liger mask because he is ever the villain. Liger got a huge pop, as he does everywhere he goes. Scurll has got to be one of the best heels in wrestling right now. The York Hall crowd genrally loves him, but by the end of the match the split was about 90-10 in favor of Liger.

TOMOAKI HONMA vs. SHA SAMUELS- 5.75/10

PETE DUNNE vs. YUJI NAGATA- 6/10

Pretty good match, although on or two spots didn’t look so good and I would have preferred not to have that pointless attempted biting spot.

CHRIS HERO vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII- 8.75/10

This was the big slugfest you’d expect it to be and the psychology was spot on… except for Ishii deciding that he was going to be immune to piledrivers except on the finish.

WILL OSPREAY vs. BUSHI- 7.75/10

GREAT for the time it got. A little spotty, but it was a nice change of pace after the previous match.

DAVID STARR & MUSTACHE MOUNTAIN (Tyler Bate & Trent Steven) vs. LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, & Sanada)- 6.75/10

It got pretty good once they stopped with the stupid schtik and started wrestling.

RPW BRITISH HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH:
Zack Sabre Jr.(c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata- 7.5/10

Zack worked on the arm for a while, but that entire story was abandoned once it was time for Shibata to do his stupid spot where he sits there and no-sells your kicks without a care in the world. Shibata made his comeback by doing kicks, then we got an anemic finishing stretch, ending with Shibata winning the belt, which seems to completely kill the big angle they’ve had going with Scurll as the #1 contender saying he is a babyface now and that he won’t cash in on his old friend and tag team partner Zack, with everyone waiting for him to eventually stab Zack in the back.

A very good show from RevPro (and New Japan), but without the Hero vs. Ishii match it would have been quite the disappointment. Despite his great performances in PWG, Evolve, and the Cruiserweight Classic this year, Zack really hasn’t been able to deliver championship caliber matches in RevPro as the British Heavyweight Champion, and the fans now seem to be turning on him quite a bit.