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Watched it. My thoughts:
* JR's voice is like a warm hug.
* My first thought is that these guys could use vets in their corner. Just to represent the style they work and the story they are trying to tell.
* Tyler Bate is such a babyface. He looks so sweet and innocent out there. He'll grow into his frame a lot more, but it looks like he can't do much, but then he works and it wows you how strong and co-ordinated he is. Very easy to get behind.
* I like Pete Dunne a lot. I like how he presents himself. He's got the tan, the mouth-guard, the hair, he's stockier whilst still looking "good." He's so obvious the heel that is eventually going to be turned face by the fans as people begin to respect him more and more.
* Nigel McGuinness and JR are the best commentary team in wrestling.
* I liked the start of the match. Bate and Dunne obviously know each other, and there's chemistry on top of that.
* Then...I dunno. It became everything I hate about modern wrestling. It's the same match Al Snow talks about, and the same match that Rip Rogers rags on. I honestly think it should have ended after the forearm/Orange Crush spot. Because what happens then is that they just start doing moves and kicking out and looking sweaty and confused and everyone in that dumb-ass crowd puts their hands up to their face. They're just...moves.
* You can tell JR is trying at the end, but there's not much either him nor Nigel can really say. It becomes that hyperbolic "What a match!" "These guys are really laying it all out there!" because there really is no story once they start just doing moves and then hitting dives and twists for no reason.
* That crowd fucking sucked so bad. Dueling chants, "U-K! U-K! U-K!", "This is awesome!", "Fight forever!" But if you want to stop the crowd being filled with geeks who want to be the show instead of watching it, then I think you've got to stop basically your entire roster working like geeks.
* I'd give anything for there to just be one town or city in the US that is smart enough to say "You know what? We know it's not real. They know we know. We don't need to go out there and prove it to them by being a geek crowd like everyone else. Let's cheer the babyface and boo the heel; let's actually cheer for the wrestlers as opposed to the match, or ourselves."
Overall: I'd say it was a great match. By today's standards anyway. It started off different with the chain-wrestling, which you don't really see today. It gives a nod to their heritage and the history of wrestling in England. Then I lost interest for the second half when they started behaving, as Frankie Boyle once said, like "pretend dumb Americans." I hate giving star ratings, but if I did, I'd probably go with ***1/2, right on the verge of ****, but I give them out harsher than most people. I look at matches more so for what they are than how long they go or how many moves per minute there are, or how many false finishes they cram in. And I stop at ****, because that's how movies do it, and I think anything that gets promoted to a ***** with historical significance is something you can't really measure at the time. One thing I will say, is that even though I hated that crowd, they did get it over with those muppets, which is what I suppose it is all about. Well, it's a large part of it.
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