WCPW Pro Wrestling World Cup English Qualifying Bracket

PRO WRESTLING WORLD CUP ENGLISH QUALIFYING FIRST-ROUND MATCH:
Will Ospreay vs. Martin Kirby - 6.75/10

A good all-action opener, that had a real sense of desperation added to it by the fact the suddenness of their movements and the fact that these guys knew they'd have to wrestle again tonight (although the Zoidberg Elbow severely detracted from that at a key moment).

PRO WRESTLING WORLD CUP ENGLISH QUALIFYING FIRST-ROUND MATCH:
Nick Aldis vs. Rampage - 5.75/10

They did some stuff, then we got a rather abrupt finish of "small package reversed into another small package." It felt pretty odd.

MATT RIDDLE & LIAM SLATER vs. PROSPECT (Lukas Archer & Alex Gracie) - 6.5/10

At one point Alex Gracie went under the ring and retrieved a pair of "Filipino Fighting Sticks," tossed one to Riddle, and after getting the referee's okay, they just started using them for a one big spot of what was essentially a non-hokey version of the swordfight spot (and best of all, they never actually hit each other with the sticks, so even someone like me can be content that the result of this match will not be tarnished by the referee ignoring something that should have been a disqualification). Gracie got a hold of Riddle's stick so Riddle did a nice bit of evasion to get in close on Gracie and then kicked him in the head, causing him to drop the sticks… and the referee took them out of the ring and we went back to having a normal wrestling match. That was odd.

The rest of the match was good. Riddle & Slater got the win, and are starting to feel like a real team.

PRO WRESTLING WORLD CUP ENGLISH QUALIFYING FIRST-ROUND MATCH:
Zack Sabre Jr. vs Marty Scurll - 7.5/10

Thirteen minute of excellent wresting between two guys who know each other almost as well as they know themselves. Not even Matt Striker could ruin this for me.

PRO WRESTLING WORLD CUP ENGLISH QUALIFYING FIRST-ROUND MATCH:
Zack Gibson vs. Jimmy Havoc - 5.75/10

This match had a kind of "Wrestler vs. Brawler" story, but that's because Gibson made it that way. Havoc had been perfectly content to just wrestle but Gibson, who had been controlling most of the wrestling, felt he had to rub that fact in, so Jimmy switched to a more brawling style. They wound up on the outside and Gibson saw an advantage and took it with a big bodyslam onto the floor, but then made the mistake of deciding to try to one-up Havoc at his own game and fought the rest of the match as a brawler, and eventually lost.

The match was pretty short (seven minutes or so), and they spent WAY too much time on the outside without the referee counting them out. Then the announcers had to go and make it worse with their "we want to see a winner here so it's good that the referee isn't counting them out" bullsh*t. The rules are the rules. It's like referees not calling penalties in hockey games for fear "the referees deciding the game" by giving one team a power play that they might score on, so they just let people break the rules willy-nilly and then pat themselves on the back even though the game was not played according to the rules because "the competitors decided the game and not the referees."

ADAM BLAMPIED MAKES TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS, - He says that because Joe Hendry had a handful of Gabriel Kidd's tights when he pinned him in last night's WCPW Internet Title #1 contendership match, he is adding Kidd to the title match at No Regrets. He also announces that he is going to give Kidd the chance to get his hands on Hendry tonight as well, when he teams with Bullet Club against The Prestige. He also announces that El Ligero was apparently due a one-on-one shot at the ROH World Title which he never got, so he'll get that shot right now. This was a perfectly good segment announcing some changes to the card and an upcoming card, and giving logical explanations for all of them.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH:
Christopher Daniels(c) vs. El Ligero - 6.5/10

They started out with a story of El Ligero getting a bit frustrated. Later, he accidentally elbowed the ref, causing a ref bump, which came back to bite him as there was no referee to count the pin when he got a clear visual pinfall no the ROH World Champion here in this title match. El Ligero then grabbed the ROH World Title belt and spent a good long time struggling over whether or not to actually use it on Daniels before eventually deciding not to, after which he was quickly defeated. After the match they teased the now even more frustrated El Ligero both running off with the ROH World Title belt and not shaking Daniels' hand, but he eventually gave Daniels his belt and his handshake and was a good sport.

During the tease, though, as El Ligero was holding the ROH World Title, the fans started to chant "YOU DESERVE IT!" at him, and it struck me that they are 100% right. He just got a clean pinfall on the ROH World Champion in an ROH World Title match, with no special rules or stipulations of any kind. So I checked to see how this was followed up on… and it wasn't. Not with Daniels, nor with Cody, and that seems like a big missed opportunity to me, because there were ample opportunities to do so- especially with Cody over the summer, and it could even have been done in a way to incorporate El Ligero's heel turn into the story of his chase for the title by simply having help in that match be one of the benefits that The Prestige could offer El Ligero, which would also play into the story WCPW was telling with Hendry and Cody, too (of which tonight's main event was supposed to be a part). Even from just an ROH point of view, I'd want the win back for my champion, and having a ready-made challenger would have been a nice thing for a Cody defense in the UK at one of the big ROH/RPW/NJPW/CMLL shows. Even doing it the month before at WCPW's own Pro Wrestling World Cup USA Qualifier would have fit in with the "Cody is a free agent, defending the belt in other promotions to annoy management" angle that ROH was doing at the time. It all feels like a big missed opportunity to take this loose end that was created and tie it up in a way that works perfectly for all parties involved.

DREW GALLOWAY vs. RICOCHET - 7.5/10

From the way Drew was hitting Ricochet in this match, I'm pretty sure that Ricochet not only owes Drew money, but that he has been running around bragging to everyone about how he has no intention of ever paying Drew back.

JOE HENDRY THROTTLES ADAM BLAMPIED BACKSTAGE - Terrible. This started with Blampied walking around and bragging to himself about how much people like him on social media. Then they expected me to feel bad for him when Hendry started to threaten him? HELL NO! I wanted Hendry to throw him through that wall! After watching this I felt like every single thing Hendry said about Blampied being a mark for himself was 100% true. After Hendry left, Blampied found some dude unconscious backstage and called for help.

PRO WRESTLING WORLD CUP ENGLISH QUALIFYING FINAL MATCH:
Will Ospreay vs. Rampage - 6.5/10

This was really good for the time it got. The story was that these two just smashed each other in the head a lot. The finish came after a ref bump when Ospreay's girlfriend Bea Priestley tried to hit Rampage with her WCPW Women's Title but Rampage stopped it and tried to powerbomb Bea, but this allowed Ospreay to grab the belt and hit Rampage in the back of the head with it in order to get the win.

PRO WRESTLING WORLD CUP ENGLISH QUALIFYING FINAL MATCH:
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jimmy Havoc - 6/10

THE PRESTIGE vs. GABRIEL KIDD & BULLET CLUB (Adam Cole & the Young Bucks) - 6.75/10

The referee let The Prestige stick some sort of foreign object in the babyfaces' mouth while applying a Camel Clutch. That should have been a DQ. Then the babyfaces did similar to the heels, also without a DQ. And why is Cole even a babyface now? He was being a total heel last night. Bullet Club were also being dicks to Gabriel Kidd for no reason, although Kidd came off like a total mark for wanting Bullet Club to Too Sweet him, no matter how many times they rejected him. How about if we tell a story about guys trying to win a wrestling match instead of a story about how Bullet Club are too cool for school?
Stuff happened, mostly for no reason other than to happen. At least the Prestige won.

Final Thoughts
A very disappointing show from WCPW. It looked great on paper, but most of the match weren't given the necessary time to deliver.