Back home now, still buzzing. Love the graps, love Kota Ibushi, wrestling da best
Opener was 6 man trainee tag, went pretty smoothly and at a smooth pace, with some spots I'd never seen before. Never stopped, so crowd were supportive and into it the whole way.
Jody Fleish vs Tiger Ali was decent, a lot of quiet spots as it's a small venue, so lots of Jody trying to rile the crowd up. Totally fine.
6 man clusterfuck: Lion Kid tried to swear but couldn't, Johnny Storm was Johnny Storm, always nice as a reformed 1PW fan to see Greg Burridge, Gideon Grey went for a balcony dive because "I WANT TO BE A GIF!", but got talked down from the ledge, Lance Whizzkid, the butt of every BritWres Twitter joke, and James Castle hit some slappy knees. Wonderful dumb match if you enjoy dumb stuff.
No DQ Eve title - Rhia O'Reilly vs Sammi Jayne went as hard as they could. Dives, chairshots, thumbtacks and two table bumps, plus Rhia dragging Ibushi down to use him as a weapon. Really good.
And then Ibushi. The expectations I had for Ibushi and Ihashi vs Cara Noir and Jimmy Havoc were pretty much: the Resistance Gallery has a balcony, he'll do a jump off it, everyone will be happy. My expectations were exceeded. Ihashi got his stomach licked, Ibushi took a headdroppy Rainmaker, then Jimmy decided he'd watched DDT, it needed to go to the streets. Already being by the door, I rushed out with everyone else following behind. Once the wrestlers made it out, Jimmy hit a fingerpoke after a giant run up, then got in what turned out to be his own car, to run Ibushi and Ihashi down. Instead, Cara Noir made a nice smash in Jimmy's windscreen. Jimmy got out, and got double chokeslammed on the bonnet for his troubles. Then, as the promoter lost his shit, Ibushi got the fireworks out, firing them into the air, then onto his own chest. I don't think anyone other than Ibushi, and maybe some of the crowd, got hit with fireworks. Ibushi did a moonsault off the car and then after Ibushi got the wrong door the first time, they head back inside the venue. After a clog of people trying to get back in the venue, I finally made it back in, pretty much to my original spot, to see, as if fate had decided it, Ibushi turning round on the balcony. Another moonsault, then a Ihashi frog splash, and the wonderful experience was over. Kota, you are a beautiful insane boy, never ever change.
Then Penta El 0 M vs Will Ospreay happened, and it was exactly what I hoped for. Really good match, that felt like it still could have gone up another gear when it ended, hopefully we get to see it again.
The show was over, I bought a sparkly Pentagon shirt, and I went home loving the graps more than ever.
Love Ibushi, hate bastards