Welcome one and all to the first IPW Inside Take. This weekly series will be re-capping the brand new IPW:UK TV series that’s shown on The Fight Network over here in the UK on Friday nights.

Now without further ado, heres the first IPW Inside Take of 2019! Enjoy!

Photo/@IPWUK

The show began with a promo video of Sierra Loxton, the current IPW Womens Champion. It was basically a short hype video to introduce herself to the viewers, explain that her moniker is The Freaky Princess and she aspires to be a fighting champion. Which is great, as her next opponenet is one of her closest friends ….

IPW Womens Championship Match

CandyFloss vs Sierra Loxton (c)

Photo/@IPWUK

The announcer drops into the wrestler announcements that this is Sierra’s first title defense. No pressure there then huh?

CandyFloss and Loxton begin the match with a hug, as all good friends do, then a quick roll up attempt by Candy to snatch the title away from Sierra, which was met with boos from the pretty quiet crowd.

The entire match, CandyFloss worked the left arm of the champion, and she worked it really well. Lots of armbars, arm wringers and just constant attention to get the arm ready for her finisher, a Fujiwara armbar she calls the Candy Cane.

But Loxton had the power advantage. Fall-away slams and hard strikes kept CandyFloss on her toes, but Candy was in total control. It’s such a shame that the crowd weren’t interested as the women were putting on a good match with a great story.

The crowd aside, this really was a good match. The finish consisted of Loxton hitting a great G erman suplex and then a nasty running hip attack in the corner onto CandyFloss (which she calls the Butterfly Effect) for the victory.

Both women came out of this looking strong, CandyFloss in particular.

Winner – And Still IPW Womens Champion, Sierra Loxton

Junior Heavyweight Championship Tournament

‘The Anarchist’ James Castle vs Daisuke Harada

Photo/@IPWUK

We join the match already in progress. The announcer explains that Daisuke Harada is a member of the Pro Wrestling NOAH roster and that NOAH & IPW have a working relationship, hence Harada’s involvemnet here in this match.

Once again the crowd are quiet, something I can’t get my head around. British crowds are usually never quiet, so I’m hoping that it’s just a one off at this event, as even when Harada hit a Death Valley Driver to Castle on the ring apron, that crowd were as quiet as a church mouse.

This was very much a strong style match, as you could expect with a NOAH roster member here. Really vicious strong strikes from both men, including some very stiff kicks to Castle’s leg. Six to seven really hard strikes that even made the referee wince.

Around three quarters of the way through, the crowd become ALIVE and make some bloody noise! YES! Castle hits a double foot stomp off the top turnbuckle for a quick two, but TWO diving top rope elbows from Harada gets him back into the match, which eventaully finishes with a lift up GTS, discus elbow, and Katayama German suplex sequence from Harada to pick up the victory and become the first ever IPW Junior Heavyweight Champion!

Winner – And NEWWWWW IPW Junior Heavyweight Champion, Daisuke Harada

Sammy Smooth makes his way out with a microphone and calls out Jack Sexsmith in a strange turn of events. Jack comes out with Sammy’s ex tag team partner Lewis Howley and accepts Smooth’s challenge but it’ll be a 2-on-1 handicap match. Can’t get my head round the fact that Jack Sexsmith is a heel here….

Two On One Handicap Match

Sammy Smooth vs Jack Sexsmith & Lewis Howley

Former tag partners begin the match. If it wasn’t for different hair colour both Smooth and Howley look exactly the same….Anyway the match starts at a super quick pace, both men knowing each others moves leads to counters and reversals galore, bring this once mute crowd to their feet.

The announcer puts over strong that Howley really doesn’t seem “up” for this and that he’s very reluctant to take on his former tag partner. Sexsmith has seen enough and remonstrates with Lewis and demands more, going as far as slapping the taste out of his mouth.

That seems to have switched a lightbulb in Howley’s head and he now sees the light. He turns on Jack to help Sammy win the match with their tag team move called The Bad Apple.

An ok match with good storytelling that was really helped by the annoncer putting across the backstory. I’m impressed with him.

Winner – Sammy Smooth

IPW World Heavyweight Championship

Mike Bird vs Mark Haskins (c)

Photo/@IPWUK

Bird shoots out the blocks and takes down Haskins with a huge running big boot and follows it up with a nasty piledriver for a two. This puts Bird in the driving seat and dominates Mark for the early runnings of the match and it’s not until both men hit the deck after performing dual big boots that Haskins gets a way back.

Haskins takes Bird down with strikes and slaps on his bridging Fujiwara armbar, but Mike makes to the ropes. Undeterred, Mark hits two tope suicido’s, a Death Valley Driver from the middle turnbuckle and a sick tight bridging Sharpshooter to pick up the win in a quick but fun championship contest.

Winner – And STILLLLL IPW World Heavyweight Champion, Mark Haskins.

Blake’s Take

The presentation of the show looked good. Very slick.

The announcer is GREAT! A one man booth is difficult (ask Joey Styles) and I think the guy here – I didn’t catch his name – did a frickin great job.

CandyFloss looked like a star here, thanks mainly to Loxton. She shone her up real nice. The best I’ve ever seen CandyFloss.

Harada is a legit bad ass so the right call was made here. I’m just hoping that travel won’t be an issue going forward in defending the Junior title. Maybe some defences back in NOAH?

I wasn’t happy with what felt like a quickly thrown together match such as Smooth v Sexsmith/Howley. Felt very rushed. The whole match was saved by the storytelling in the ring and the announcer putting over the back story.

Mike Bird looked like a contender here, great booking. Not only Bird being booked strong but the match itself too. A tale of two halves and although it was a quick match, it was very enjoyable.

And that’s that folks! The first episode of IPW’s Fight Nation TV show is in the books. What did YOU think of it? Any thoughts, feelings, or questions about the show or my review can be left in the comment section or via my social media links, which are located below.

So until next week guys and gals….

ADIOS!

Mark Blake Facebook – MarkBlakeSmart

Mark Blake Twitter – @Smart_Mark_B