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Friday 14 September 2007

LDN The Showdown - DVD Review

Another new promotion gets it’s first exposure in The Two Sheds Review here. After co-promoting several shows with the Frontier Wrestling Alliance, king of the shill Sanjay Bagga struck out on his own with his own promotion, LDN Wrestling, and it’s the DVD release of their debut show, The Showdown, held in November 2004, that we’re taking a look at here.

The DVD begins with a segment shot before the main show. As Bagga is announced as LDN’s Director of Authority, he is interrupted by a massive guy by the name of Jag Singh Sidhu. Sidhu complains that Bagga booked him for the show but then backed out, and after intimidating the DOA, Sidhu gets an impromptu match with Stevie James. Despite dominating, Sidhu gets pinned, and then takes out his frustrations on James until Ben Shultz makes the save.

Then it’s on to the show proper, as Team Sexay, Jamie James and Chris Brotherway, take on Team Green, Anton Green and Jason Detroit. Definitely a mixed bag here. While Green looked good, James and Brotherway failed to impress, looking very sloppy at times. Team Sexay got the win after delivering a low blow to Detroit and taking him down with a modified backbreaker while the ref was tied up with Green.

LDN title tournament semi-final next, as Chris Wyld goes up against Tony Sefton, a man I’ve heard quite a lot about recently. This was certainly better than the opening bout, with both men, Sefton in particular, pulling out all the stops and impressing a great deal. Wyld progressed to the final after delivering a top rope leg drop and then pinning Sefton with his feet on the ropes. Good stuff all round here.

Then it was time for the second semi-final, as Ashe of the New Breed takes on Martin Stone, currently co-holder of the FWA tag-team championship. Two guys known for their tag-team credentials put on a hell of a singles bout here, with Stone reminding me of the great Flash Barker for some reason. Ashe picked up the win here with a death valley driver to advance to the final.

A segment from the interval next. As Ashe is posing for photographs with the fans, Stone attacks him from behind, trying to stop him from taking part in the final.

Back from the break, and masked star El Hombre De Vielo takes on last minute replacement Paul Robinson. A quick, fast-paced match here, and a good showing from both men, with the masked man making the mistake of pulling Robinson up when he had him beat, only for the youngster to come back and nail De Vielo with a high kick for what was apparently an upset victory.

We then move on to the battle royal, fought under rumble rules, with the winner getting an LDN title shot, and featuring most of the wrestlers already featured on the show. Amidst all the flying bodies, it was Martin Stone who impressed again. The last man to enter the bout and the last man standing after eliminating Stevie James.

Main event time followed, as Chris Wyld faced Ashe in the LDN tournament final. Another good bout, worthy of it’s main event status, saw both men impressing for a second time, with Ashe gaining the win despite the interference of Martin Stone, who came into the bout as the referee took a snooze. But a miscommunication between Wyld and Stone saw Ashe come back as he soon took Wyld out with the death valley driver.

Extras come in the form of a Jason Detroit promo, a trailer for the Ian Rotten Project documentary, and a skit with Team Sexay showing us that they do in their spare time.

In conclusion - take out the messy tag-team bout and you’ve got a good little debut DVD from Bagga’s crew here. This was by far the best I’ve seen from Ashe, having previously only seen him in tag action before. Martin Stone impressed the hell out of me, the first time I’ve really paid attention to the guy. Trust me on this one, this guy is a star in the making.

For more information on LDN and their upcoming shows, visit www.ldnwrestling.com. To order a copy of this DVD, log onto www.wrestlestuff.co.uk.

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