By Matt Dagnall

Josh Bodom defeated Angelico 

A rather short affair that probably should have been more intense for its length. Angelico kicked Bodom in every place possible, whole Bodom equaled Angelico with strikes and throws. Eventually Sha Samuels came out to distract the referee which allowed Bodom to get Angelico in position for the Bliss Buster which got him the pin.

This was fine, but really nothing special.

Team White Wolf defeated Besties in the World

Both teams received a moderate reaction and it was clear that the crowd was maybe unfamiliar to the teams. However, by the end of the match the crowd was certainly won over. A-Kid was worked over for the first portion of the match, while Carlos Romo grew frustrated on the apron. Eventually A-Kid made a comeback and tagged in Romo who made a comeback on the Besties.

After some back and forth action, Vega tagged in Matt Fitchet who was the highlight of the match, with his hot tag wowing the audience and the building came unglued. At this point, the match reached insanity and both teams got near falls. Eventually after a splash from the top rope, and a roll-up, Romo got the pin, only to be viciously beaten up by Bodom and Samuels after the match. This was very good.

Zoe Lucas defeated Bea Priestley to retain the Undisputed British Women’s Championship

This was meant to be Zoe Lucas defending against Sammii Jayne, the winner of Queen of the Ring 2019. However, due to injury, Priestley replaced Jayne. It felt like Lucas is coming into her element as champion, having somewhat of a presence in her entrance. She is playing up her relationship with the title, almost treating it like she’s in a relationship with it.

This was shaping up to be a decent match but ended abruptly after a finish in which the referee counted despite them being in the ropes.

CCK defeated Aussie Open

For me, and many others this was the biggest disappointment of the night. These teams had the best York Hall match of 2018 at Summer Sizzler but failed the recreate the magic here.

Five minutes into the match the teams hadn’t even touched, with CCK choosing whether Brookes or Gresham would start the match. It wasn’t remotely funny it was mind numbingly dull. They then left the ring for no reason and came back. It turned into a brawl outside the ring in which CCK took Davis out, and let loose with a staple gun on Fletcher. There was a lot of ‘nothing’ here and eventually, 22 minutes into the match they started actually fighting.

For a brief five minute spell they had a great sequence of near falls before the referee was distracted while Gresham got a visual pin on Fletcher. Then the referee came in and counted the same pin to three giving. CCK the win. Even this ending made no sense; essentially Fletcher was pinned by a roll-up for nearly 10 seconds.

The number one contenders to Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr. looked like idiots and the crowd who were expecting a 30 minute barnstormer were let down severely. 

El Phantasmo defeated MJF

The show needed to get back on track after the intermission and MJF was the man to do it. He came out and trashed the crowd, saying they were all losers, couldn’t satisfy their wives and that he was rich. He was booed out the building, with heat reminiscent of Zack Gibson before he had to leave RevPro. El Phantasmo came out and was a worthy opponent for him.

These two matched up very well, with similar builds and styles. They matched each other with counters early on with an extremely clear heel/face dynamic that allowed the crowd to be extremely invested. MJF tried to cheat around by holding the ropes for his submissions, but the referee kicked his hands away. Phantasmo hit his usual spots and was incredibly over here.

This reached the next level when both guys stepped it up a gear in ring. They traded Canadian destroyers but eventually ELP won with a huge splash. He motioned to the camera that there was going to be an upcoming ladder match with David Starr for the cruiserweight title, something Starr has referred to also on the Cockpit. This was excellent.

MK McKinnan defeated Kip Sabian

This match never stood a chance on the card. Initially this was MK versus the Great-O-Kharn but his absence was replaced by Chris Ridgeway. But Ridgeway’s travel issues meant he was replaced an hour before the show by Sabian. The crowd weren’t into this one bit due to the placement on the card and the lack of build or story.

Both guys kicked hard and hit a few big moves but MK submitted Sabian with a choke fairly easily. Being right after ELP Vs MJF and before the main event was going to be hard for anyone. MK continues to build great momentum and many, myself included think he’ll be the one to end The Great-O-Kharn’s undefeated streak.

Will Ospreay vs. PAC ended in a time limit draw

There is so much to say about this. The atmosphere was as good as York Hall gets, which is really saying something. Both men entered with their respective titles and received huge reactions as expected. Pac received a very split response, with him obviously trying to be the bad guy but receiving a fair amount of cheers too.

Early on, both men stared eachother down before finally locking up. Pac used his strength advantage to dominate Ospreay early on but Ospreay would flip out of anything Pac hit him with. The crowd was genuinely electric throughout all of this with duelling chants the whole match. Then they started to run the ropes, hitting dropkicks, hurricanranas and lariats on each other, with every move carrying weight.

Pac took it outside and threw Ospreay around a bit, and Ospreay just about got back into the ring before the count, but had been cut on the outside and was bleeding from what looked like the nose. It added to the match for sure, seeing Ospreay visibly scarred from the match at this early point. Ospreay hit a Sasuke special to the outside, and Pac moonsaulted onto Ospreay out the ring.

At this point in the match, the storytelling really came into the forefront, with Ospreay taking moves from his great York Hall opponents. He used Scurll’s finger break, Sydal’s shooting star press, Ricochet’s benadryller, and a Style’s clash too – Pac sucked up all the punishment, and came back with a huge superplex. With both guys down in the ring, CCK came down to attack Ospreay, but Brookes was about to use Pac’s title to hit Ospreay leading to Pac and Ospreay to team up on CCK, and even Aussie Open came down to get them out of there.

At this point, there was five minutes of time remaining and both guys were pulling out all the stops to pin the other, with suplexes, spanish flys and flips galore. With around a minute left, Pac gave Ospreay a low blow but for whatever reason, he wasn’t disqualified. He then went to hit the black arrow as the clock counted down but he chose to let the clock run down instead and it was a draw.

On one hand, it was an incredible dream match from two legendary British talents that was the best York Hall match since 2017 without a doubt. On the other hand, it was overbooked with CCK coming down, tarnished by the fact there was no winner, and undermined by the lack of logic in the finish. The crowd and Ospreay requested another five minutes but just like that, the show was over. Ospreay said this was not over. 

Final Thoughts

The main event did leave a sour taste in the mouth, and many in the crowd booed at the end. There was always the issue that this would end this way, after ZSJ vs. PAC had a non-finish due to both guys being champions. Clearly as Dragon Gate champion, Pac can’t lose, and Ospreay can’t either as the NEVER Openweight champion.

As for the rest of the card, it was very weak. The absence of David Starr, and anyone from New Japan was more than noticeable, with a lot of the matches just lacking star power and therefore being lost on the crowd. There is still a lack of focus on workrate clearly, with only three of the matches actually being ‘good’, and a handful actually being noticably bad.

However the main issue was the lack of stakes. For a show called High Stakes, there was only one match with any stakes (Women’s title), and the stakes weren’t high and that match only lasted eight minutes. The fact that all the other champions were absent, and all the other matches had no repercussions was awful. 

Hope this gives some insight into the show. It was an odd one and certainly not the start RevPro should have been looking for in 2019. PAC vs. Ospreay is definately worth the watch though.