@salopianlama

ICW’s Road To Fear & Loathing Tour kicked off in the city of Dundee last Thursday. ICW tours always have awesome names for their shows and tonight’s is a cracker: part of me was kind of hoping for Lorraine Kelly to make an appearance. When the card was announced online, it made me more up for it than I already was: tonight’s card was one of the best I’ve seen for ICW. Luckily, I managed to get an early entry ticket for the show and got myself a prime view on the barrier and an exclusive tour tshirt, happy days!

The night began in usual style with Billy Kirkwood and The Wee Man being introduced as tonight’s commentary team, Billy entering to Flight Of The Valkyries and the crowd chanting “Aye Aye Aye” in unison. Kirkwood pulled out a few gags about Chyna, went down well as a few months ago she appeared in Dundee for a local promotion and did an autograph signing in Nandos….you read that right NANDOS!! Oh how times have changed.

The first match of the evening was a four way match for the ICW Zero G title with Stevie Boy defending against Kid Fite of the 55 and the returning pair of Noam Dar and Kenny Williams, who were reinstated at Spacebaws by ICW owner Mark Dallas. Kid Fite impressed me in this match, hitting several high impact moves and taking control of the match early on. The match was high pace and hard to keep an eye on all the action as all four men were pulling out all the stops: Noam Dar locked in the Champagne Super Knee Bar before Kenny Williams broke up the fall by coming off the turnbuckle. Stevie managed to retain the belt by hitting the Canadian Destroyer on Kid Fite.

After the bell, Lewis Girvan’s music hit and he interrupted Stevie’s celebrations while having the Zero G title draped over his shoulder and told him that Red Lightning had give him an offer that would change the face of the Zero G division, no doubt by the end of the tour we will find out what exactly the deal between Girvan and GM Red Lightning is.

NAK member Chris Renfrew came to the ring announcing that not only does he hate Dundee ( he had FUCK DUNDEE wrote on the inside of his arm) but he would not be facing Mikey Whiplash as his hand had not yet fully healed.

Whiplash emerged, face painted, and told Renfrew to man up and face him with no NAK or Legion member at ringside just one on one. Renfrew accepted and, the two who had never met anywhere before in a singles match, began brawling instantly with Whiplash diving multiple times over the top rope onto Renfrew against the guard rail. The fight went through the crowd and up into the bar, I couldn’t see what happened up there but a mate of mine who arrived late was greeted to his first ICW show with these two battering the shit out of each other at his feet!!

Whiplash focused on the previously injured hand, stomping on it and biting it. Renfrew hit a Stone Cold Stoner but Mikey kicked out, Mikey then locked in a cross face but Renfrew refused to tap. Whiplash managed to get the win and after the bell took a chair into the ring looking to inflict further damage to Renfrew but the rest of the New Age Kliq rushed the ring and Whiplash smartly exited through the crowd, surely before the tour is over the NAK and Legion will cross paths and it will be brutal!! The NAK were far from happy and threatened a sit down protest, but then summoned out Wolfgang’s opponent the Local Hero Joe Hendry…

A video played showing Wolfgang’s motorcycle and Joe Hendry talking to someone about modifying it and making it indoor friendly, the video ended and Hendry came out accompanied by Bobby Roberts to his version of Limp Bizkits Rolling, with Hendry on Wolfgang’s new look bike which was a pink girls bike with stabilisers. Hendry did a lap of the ringside on the bike which was hilarious seeing a wrestler on a kids bike, the NAK didn’t find the funny side though.

The rest of the Kliq members left ringside so Wolfgang could go it alone against the Local Hero, Joe put up a good fight against the much larger Wolfgang but Wolfgang got the win in controversial fashion. Not for the first time in recent months, Wolfgang pulled out some brass knuckle dusters and clocked Hendry in the jaw and knocked the Local Hero out to get the win.

Big Damo entered ready for his match against the phenomenon that is Grado, the place popped as soon as Madonna’s Like A Prayer hit as always. The match took some time to get going as both men were in each other’s faces, Damo telling Grado to take it serious. Damo was slapping Grado about, some of the slaps sounded like they could break your jaw!! Damo hit several sentons before Grado managed to connect with the roll and slice followed by the wee boot.

But then the Black Label, composed of Red Lightning, Drew Galloway, Jack Jester and 55 members James Kennedy and Kid Fite, stormed the ring and put an end to the match beating down both Grado and Big Damo. With both men down, GM Red Lightning declared he was going to have a match against the beaten Grado before getting a 3 count. He then called for a second match against Damo, the big man from Belfast kicked out but then the hounds struck and he succumbed to a pinfall taking Lightning’s streak to 5-0.

As the beatings continued Polo Promotions, Black Labels opponents later in the night, hit the ring to break up the mugging.

The match I was most looking forward to of the night was up next with The Iron Man Joe Coffey taking on the New Age Kliq’s silent assassin BT Gunn, I have admired these two immensely since I first attended an ICW show and they didn’t disappoint tonight. Plenty of knife edge chops exchanged, submissions, kicks and Coffey managed to get the big swing on BT. Stevie Boy appeared on the ring apron and tried to interfere but Davie Boy hit the ring and Stevie ran off. Davey hit Gunn with the spear allowing Coffey to get the victory.

Next was Debbie Sharp taking on Sammii Jayne who was accompanied to the ring as always by The Best In The Galaxy Nikki Storm. It was pretty hard to pay attention to the match in the ring as Nikki Storm was wandering around in front of me taking selfies and texting as the match was going on in the ring. Sammii Jayne picked up the pinfall victory but Nikki grabbed the mic and the limelight by declaring herself the winner even though she wasn’t in the match and also made the referee raise her arm in the middle of the ring, all while Sammii looked less than convinced.

Then came the main event as Polo Promotions defended the ICW Tag Team Titles against The Black Label, composed of Galloway and Jester. The champs came out accompanied by Coach Trip and DCT but GM Red Lightning came out and insisted on both being cable tied to the ring post to stop them interfering. It was during this that I had a little altercation with Red Lightning… Lightning was saying how he was a fair man to which I shouted “are you fuck!” , the GM must have misheard me as he left the ring shouting what did you call me and getting in my face with security in between us and he then spat his chewing gum in my face.

Think I should have not enjoyed this moment but I love the fan interaction of ICW shows and it added to my experience!!

Then out came the challengers Jack Jester and ICW World Heavyweight Champion Drew Galloway, the fan interacting continued but this went a little bit sour. The Black Label had a bit of a spat with a rather large guy in the crowd and at one point looked the fan was actually going to punch Jester and then ended with the fan leaving and the crowd chanting “Fat Guy!! Fat Guy!! Fat Guy!!” First time I had ever heard that at a wrestling show!

The bell finally rang and The Black Label soon got the upper hand, the champions hit back with classic scoop slams from Jackie Polo and lariats from Mark Coffey. But with the challengers in control and me thinking that we would see new champions, I felt a huge hand grip my shoulder and turned around to see Big Damo pushing past me and through the barrier followed by Grado who had both been embarrassed earlier in the night by The Black Label.

They then entered the ring and took out the Black Label, leaving the ring and allowing The Real Deal Mark Coffey to get the three count and retain the ICW Tag Team Championships. After the match the large fan who had earlier left was then invited into the ring to celebrate with Polo Promotions, with Mark Coffey being presented with a bottle of vino for being Triple G’s Man Of The Match.

Insane Championship Wrestling’s return to Dundee was a success and the card did not fail to meet expectations. Can’t wait until the rest of the tour is put up on to ICW On Demand as this show has left me wanting more! My match of the night was Joe Coffey Vs BT Gunn and my wrestler of the night was Joe Coffey who, as always, put on a great match and connected with the crowd.

All in all The Lorraine Kelly Experience was a great opener to the Road To Fear And Loathing Tour and, if this is anything to go by, the next 9 shows around the UK will only generate more fans of ICW.

DAZ CARDING

@salopianlama