British Kingdom Pro-Wrestling: Kingdom Rising (Swindon) Review, Plus Gloucester Comic Con

 Guests met and discussed in this review (with the franchise(s) I most associate them with personally) :-

• Colin Baker (The 6th Doctor from "Doctor Who") 

• Nick Moran (Scabior from "Harry Potter")

• Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb from "Star Wars")

• Brian Kendrick (Wrestler)

• Saime Sahin (Wrestler)

• Tiger Ali (Wrestler)

• Eddie Ryan (Wrestler)

• Charles Crowley (Wrestler)

• Mega Pegasus (Wrestler)

• Chris Ridgeway (Wrestler)

• Jakk Sellstrom (Wrestler)

• Nico Angelo (Wrestler)

• Lee Hunter (Wrestler)

• Mochizuki Jr. (Wrestler)

• RJ Singh (Wrestler)

• JD Knight (Wrestler) 

• Kota Minoura (Wrestler)

• Prince Phoenix (Wrestler)

• Tristan Lee (Wrestler)        

 

Two quick notes before we get started...

 

1) If this is your first time on "Shangel's Reviews", check the tabs at the top of the website for a comprehensive list of all Comic Cons I’ve attended and reviewed, as well as the guests met at that event. There’s also a list of all the “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” episodes I’ve reviewed in thorough detail so far. Will I ever finish them? If I can find the time.

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With that being said, let’s dive in…

 

 

Firstly, a thank you. After 5 years away from the blog I made a glorious return a few weeks ago. Back in its heyday, this blog was consistently hitting 5,000 to 100,000 reads per post. When I decided I wanted to return I was nervous because I wasn't sure if anyone would still care. The first two reviews I've written since the comeback have both reached roughly 10,000 reads in their first week since release, which is fantastic! It is truly humbling to know that people are still interested in what I have to say....but enough about me! Onto the post!

 

 

"Gloucester Comic Con" took place at GL1 Leisure Centre on Saturday the 11th of May. Both Gloucester Comic Con and GL1 hold special places in my heart. Long-time readers will know that I was the head of crew for the very first Gloucester Comic Con way back in 2016 when it was organised by a con company called "Geeks". The first one was also held in GL1 before it subsequently moved to Kingsholm Stadium and then the Oxstalls Campus at the University of Gloucestershire. I was actually head of crew for all of those events. Tragically, Mark Longman, the owner of Geeks passed away right at the start of Covid, which left a gap in the market. A couple of companies have tried to run Gloucester since and Creed Conventions - now owned by Showmasters to my knowledge - are the latest of the bunch. Unlike the glory days of Geeks, Creed seemed less focused on guests, which is a shame as guests used to sell very well in Gloucester back in the day. If Creed return I hope they decide to add more guests to the line-up.

 

 

This particular Gloucester Comic Con focused more on free prop photos and merchandise stalls, while also bringing Mike Quinn and Nick Moran to the 'Shire and also bringing Colin Baker back for his triumphant return - his 3rd Gloucester Comic Con I believe!

 

There's not a huge amount I can say about the event as it was a fleeting visit for myself, my Wife (Susie), and our friend Dom. It was fun. It was busy (always a plus!). It seemed like everyone was having a good time. The prop photos were definitely a big hit.

 

(Wifey rocking the Wednesday prop photo)

 

 

 

After that it was time to drop Dom back home and get on the road to Swindon for Brit King Pro's "Kingdom Rising" event in Swindon....well, almost time. After dropping Dom off I filled the car up with petrol, ready for the 1-hour drive to Swindon. I put the petrol in the car. Turned the car back on to start the drive...and the car wouldn't start! Flat battery. Fuck. My. Life. One quick call to Dom and a jump-start later, it was time to hit the road. Turns out the connector was loose. All good now.

 

For those unaware, British Kingdom Pro-Wrestling has risen from the ashes of the acclaimed 4FW: both brain-childs of David Sharp, an unsung hero of the British independent wrestling scene. Wrestling has had a resurgence over the last couple of years thanks to the creation of AEW and the rise of the Bloodline and Cody Rhodes in WWE, but Dave was promoting British wrestling back in the days before it got hot again. 4FW was established in 2004 and seemed to go from strength-to-strength before disappearing and then returning under a new name: British Kingdom Pro-Wrestling.

 

I attended my first 4FW show all the way back in 2013 as a young, grizzled 23-year-old that had just overcome attempted suicide and was still battling pretty bad depression after a load of crazy, tragic life events in a short space of time. I've always been predispositioned towards mental health issues (the beautiful cocktail of anxiety, depression, and OCD still exists inside me; I just have a much better handle on it these days and have gone on to train in therapy and mental health first-aiding in order to pass it forwards and help other people).

This event in particular felt like a homecoming for me. I first heard about Brit King Pro at the start of the year and myself and my Wife sat ringside for their show in Gloucester back in February. It was a great event. Based off of the back of that we decided to get ringside tickets for May's event in Swindon for a few reasons: 1) Former WWE wrestler Brian Kendrick was on the card, 2) I believe Mochizuki Jr. is heading back to Japan soon and I didn't get a photo with him at February's show in Gloucester, and 3) I knew it was going to be a blast!

 

The card was 6 matches deep and I believe that two of the matches had to be reshuffled last-minute due to the Brit King Pro Heavyweight Champion, Chris Bronson, suffering an injury. Saime Sahin vs. Tiger Ali was bumped up to the main event under the guise of a "No.1 Contender's, No Disqualification Match", Mega Pegasus was taken out of the 6-man elimination match to face JD Knight, and he was replaced by RJ Singh. On paper the card looked brilliant. We sat in the centre of the 2nd row and were ready to start.

Match 1: The "Spectacular Trickster" Charles Crowley vs. The "English Lion" Eddie Ryan

 

I'm a big Eddie Ryan fan. I'm actually shocked he's never been snatched up by NJPW, AEW, WWE, etc. during his career as he's a fantastic wrestler. I first saw Eddie wrestle a loooooong time ago in Gloucester at a 4FW show. 2013 to be precise. This was the match :-

Look how young everyone was! Of course, Zack Sabre Jr. has gone on to be a massive star in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. I'd never seen or heard of Charles Crowley before, but he was honestly fantastic. It was wrestling-meets-carnival-meets-magician as Charles came to the ring with a horned hat and a stuffed monkey. It was a decent wrestling match with Eddie ultimately coming out on top. The character performance from Charles was particularly delightful and he's someone I'm expecting great things from moving forwards. Eddie was, as always, a technically perfect in-ring wrestler that is easy to root for as a babyface.

 

Match 2: Brit King Pro Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: Mochizuki Jr. (Champion) vs. Nico Angelo vs. Lee Hunter vs. Chris Ridgeway vs. RJ Singh vs. Jakk Sellstrom

This was a fast-paced, wild brawl from start to finish. I was already familiar with Lee Hunter due to his involvement with 4FW back in the day. I'd also already seen Mochizuki Jr., Jakk Sellstrom, and Nico Angelo at Brit King Pro's February show in Gloucester. Both RJ Singh and Chris Ridgeway were new to me. In February, both Nico and Mochizuki Jr. instantly stood out to me as two fantastic in-ring workers that should have long successful careers. Jakk's character work was also phenomenal. The entrance is eerie and something to behold. RJ grabbed the microphone before the match started to berate the crowd and state that he didn't sign up to face five other competitors. RJ's charisma and promo abilities seem to be both natural and impressive...he was also the first to be eliminated. Followed by Jakk Sellstrom, Lee Hunter, and Chris Ridgeway. The final passage of the match between Mochizuki Jr. and Nico was awesome. It was hard-hitting, high octane, strong-style. By the end of the match, Mochizuki had retained his title, but had a bloody nose to show for his troubles. Great bout!

Match 3: JD Knight vs. Mega Pegasus

JD Knight has been around the UK indies for what must be pushing 20 years. He's the consummate professional who has clearly spent a lot of time perfecting his craft. Comparitively, Mega Pegasus was new to me, even though I know he's been around quite a while now. It was a solid match that was particularly memorable for sections of Mega Pegasus' boots scraping off throughout the match, which resulted in Dave Sharp sweeping the ring after the match to a crowd chat on "Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!"....one thing to note: the crowd was hot for most of the night. I always get a kick out of children and young teenagers experiencing wrestling live too because their white-hot hatred of the heels is something to behold. Some of them had no voices left by the end of the night! The rage was palpable.

 

(JD licking his lips like Mega Pegasus is a piece of meat!)

 

Match 4: Brian Kendrick vs. Kota Minoura

Someone in the crowd shouted "Spanky" at Brian, which got a pop from Brian. Ahhh, the glory days. Brian wrestled for WWE numerous times between 2002 and 2020. He's also worked as a producer there, wrestled for TNA, NJPW, ROH, and more. There's little Brian doesn't know about wrestling at this point. I first saw Brian wrestle live in 2014 for Matt Jarrett's "Superclash 2" event that also featured AJ Styles. Brian faced British legend Jonny Storm at that particular event in a memorable bout. Like a few other people on the card, Minoura was new to me. He has a gimmick of a gold rose in his mouth as he's making his way to the ring, which is given to someone in the audience. There was a group of 3 females ringside just in front of myself and Susie who must have travelled from somewhere in Europle to see Minoura as one of the females already had a few golden roses from Minoura already and was visibly shaking when he presented her with this one and stopped for a selfie with her. The match was solid. Great, old-school wrestling with Brian ultimately coming out on top.

It was now time for the interval. Myself and Susie grabbed some drinks, grabbed some snacks, and took the opportunity to meet Nico Angelo and Mochizuki Jr., who were the only 2 people at their gimmick tables at intermission. I was surprised nobody else was there. I bought an 8x10 autographed picture from Mochizuki Jr. for £5 and also purchased a t-shirt from Nico. I also took the opportunity to grab selfies with both of them too!

Two matches left before the show was over!

Match 5: Prince Phoenix vs. Tristan Lee

Both Prince and Tristan were new to me, so I had no idea what to expect. Another reason this event was nostalgic for me was because I'd watched Prince's brother, Owen Phoenix, wrestle for 4FW a decade earlier. I've no idea what happened to Owen, but from what I can find his last match was in 2015, so I can only assume he retired, which is a shame as he was very talented....which runs in the family as Prince was fantastic as well. A natural heel. The boos and interaction with the crowd seemed to be higher for Prince than for any other heel that night. Tristan was also a very easy-to-root-for babyface with an impressive moveset. Much like I said for numerous other people on this show, I'm expecting great things from both of these guys in the future. Solid match.

Match 6: No.1 Contender's Match For The Brit King Pro Heavyweight Championship (No Disqualification) - Saime Sahin vs. Tiger Ali (W/ RJ Singh)

 

Basically a wet-dream match for old school 4FW fans. Saime and Tiger have arguably been the biggest pillars in the history of companies owned by David Sharp over the last 20 years (arguments could also be made for people like Eddie Ryan and The Saint too). 11 years earlier - almost to the day - I first saw Saime and Tiger wrestle live. Tiger faced now-WWE Superstar Pete Dunne in one of the best matches I've ever seen live to this day. Tiger was going by Benham Ali then and had long dark hair. Saime had long, crazy hair and what I remember most about Saime 11 years ago is that he was incredibly agile.

Here we are all these years later and now it's time for Saime vs. Tiger live. Honestly, it's a travesty that Tiger and Saime have never been snatched up by more companies over the years. They're both truly masterful artists of their craft and they deserve to be spotlighted on bigger stages after so many years of high-quality work. The match itself was tremendous. Best match of the night. RJ Singh was thoroughly entertaining, just like he was during his match earlier in the night. Tiger smashed a cookie sheet over Saime's head repeatedly...that had to hurt! Saime repaid the favour in kind. There were bins, chairs. They brawled in the ring, out the ring, up in the theatre seats with the fans. Ultimately, after a sweaty and hard fought match, Saime was victorious and will be facing Chris Bronson for the Brit King Pro Heavyweight Championship on the 7th of September in Swindon. That match should be fantastic. Tickets for that event can be purchased here.

The show - including the interval - lasted around two and a half hours, which is great value for money. The ringside tickets also include a meet-and-greet with the wrestlers after the show as well. A poster is provided by Brit King Pro to get signed. Non-ringside ticket holders can purchase a meet-and-greet ticket as well if desired. Of course, I used this opportunity to meet basically everyone and have a chat with some of the guys.

By this point it was 10:00pm. It had been a long, but brilliant day. Gloucester Comic Con, drive to Swindon, Brit King Pro show, drive back home. We got back at 11:00pm and crashed out pretty soon afterwards. For my local friends and readers (Gloucester), the next Brit King Pro event in Gloucester is Saturday the 29th of June. Tickets for that event can be purchased here. Myself and Susie will be there yet again. We should also be at the next Swindon show on September 7th as previously mentioned. Brit King Pro also do events in Andover, Oxford, Cardiff, Bristol, Redditch, Pontypridd, Portishead, Thatcham, Tidworth, and Emerson Green, so get on over to the website and take a look. The events are definitely worth the money.