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Sunday June 24 2018 - Battlewar 55	Wrestling shows
2 years ago, I tried attending an independent wrestling promotion based in Montreal and I left with mixed feelings. I've decided to give it another go today with a different promoter: Battlewar. They've setup their ring on the 2nd floor of the Foufounes Electriques, which is a low-lit straight bar in Montreal. You can see a ring about ~8 meters by 8 meters wide. It's not that big, but it's sufficient to show most of the wrestling action. Seats accommodate about a hundred people whereas an extra hundred can stand up behind the seats. I came in a bit late, but I was lucky to have a chair anyway. Entrance fee is 15$, which really is peanuts. They hold their events once a month, as opposed to once a week for the earlier promotion I have tried. They started with a bonus early match where everyone is given a taste of the kind of talent they have. I don't remember the names of the wrestler, but this guy had the drunk-type gimmick, gulping beer and asking people money for more beer. He was hilarious and really into his character. The crowd cheered him and booed his opponent. Both wrestlers were definitely hardcore, acrobatic and skillful. They went on and exchange blows, suplexes and other high-flying maneuvers I wouldn't be able to name. They kept the momentum, received support from the public and kept them engaged. I can still visualize the finishing blow: a back-flip somersault from the 2nd rope, landing right onto his opponent for a pin. This intro match was used by the promoters to make sure everything was working fine: lighting, sound system, stability of the ring and all the usual checks. I did not bring my camera this time around, because I had my lesson with the previous promoter who forbid any kind of recording and photographs. Little did I know, the Battlewar promotions did not mention anything about taking pictures, they even have their own photographer and many people from the audience freely took our their cell phones to capture action shots. Hey, now I know. I'll bring in my big camera next time. This time around though, I was stuck with the low quality camera from my LG G4. I say low quality because this device was not really optimal or designed for low-lighting fast-paced action photos. Here's what I mean: The action has not even started and the camera on my phone already has trouble: you can't even discern the face of some of the wrestlers because of the irregular lighting. The slightest movement and mister Blur comes into play. I admit my position didn't help. The doors opened at 7 pm and the show starts at 8. The chairs are on a first come, first serve basis, so I was stuck on the 3rd row. However, being on the 3rd row isn't necessarily a bad thing. The bar has enough space to accommodate a ring, but the chairs are positioned too close to the ring. If a wrestler happens to be pushed off a ring, the people on the first and second row may have to stand up and move away to avoid an imminent collision. Yes, you're a spectator at your own risk. These guys are professional anyway and they know how to land to avoid jumping on your face, but judging from the reactions I've seen, it's still pretty scary if you don't have quick reflexes... as an innocent bystander. In the second match, I get to see Mathieu St-Jacques going against The Beast King, a massive beefy 260 lbs opponent. This video ought to shine some light on what he looks like. Test Of course, The Beast King does end up removing his coat before the match starts. Thankfully, this video turned out good for a cell phone camera. These guys were awesome. I had plenty of opportunities to catch a reverse bearhug from suplex, an inverted bearhug from a piledriver, but I wasn't fast enough on the trigger. The intensity of the match was excellent and these guys had great charisma. The ring really made them shine. You know what happened at the end? St. Jacques won and both wrestlers eventually gave a nice long warm hug. The third match that was presented was quite special. It's the first time I've ever seen anything like it: it's a tag team 2 vs 2 vs 2 vs 2 match. So, yes, there are four teams of two wrestlers, one in each corner, and only 2 wrestlers can be fighting in the ring, but you can get tagged out at anytime, even if you don't want to. How does that work? Well, if you get too close to a corner that is not your own, the opposing team in that corner can touch you to force you to tag out. The only winner is the team that manages to make a 3-pin count on ANY tag team. Pretty original concept in my opinion. Or maybe I'm a noob and this was a trend that I never noticed. The match featured Leon Saver and Oliver Strange (who were the tag team champions) vs. The Salty Bullies vs. Francis and Francis vs. The Ring Warriors. Salty Bullies were a funny team. Donning black masks, they were supporting bullying and asked the public to cheer and to make dog and cats sounds if they support bullying. They of course received a fair share of booing(s). Anyway, this kind of quadruple tag team match does makes for a lot of chaos in the ring, but that chaos was exactly what the doctor prescribed for the crowd. It was exactly what they wanted. These guys were able to perform tag team combos, chain maneuvers and acrobatics that kept the action going. People were excited and I was astonished at everything these guys were able to pull off. If I can only describe one move out of the hundreds moves I've seen: one of the wrestler was doing a rack with airplane spin, his tag team kicked the victim on the head, which made a momentum for some sort of throw down slam. One of the wrestler is about to pin, but another team comes in and executes their own combo to prevent the pin and knock off their opponents, but then the fourth team comes in and does another different combo.... I can't even describe correctly what is really going on. They sold me here and I told myself that I need to come back. They wrestling performance they delivered was quite impressive. Knowing how hard it is to pull out what they pull and being in the ring not too long ago, I can clearly see these guys have quite some professional training. And yeah, being there as a spectator, in person, really makes a difference than seeing on TV. What this promotion delivered was far superior than the WWE show I attended a few years back. Sure, in today's standards, people want to see a constant pace, so rest holds are less used. Still, I was able to see a boston crab and a sleeper. They haven't been completed eradicated yet. Thank goodness! Ok, today was St. Jean Baptiste day, a national holiday in the province of Quebec, so maybe they pulled up a special show for this occasion. Maybe I should not expect the same quality of show in the next events. We'll see. I left at half-time because it was getting pretty loud, in between the cheers, the echoing and pounding slams reverberated by the springs of the ring, the loud rock and heavy-metal music, I figured I should ingest these shows one step at a time.
Blog ID 195