Sunday is meant to be a day of rest. For those with certain religious beliefs, it’s a day of worship and reflection. 

For others, it’s a day to spend an afternoon in a dingy nightclub with a can of Red Stripe in hand while watching people smack the shit out of each other in a wrestling ring. This Sunday, I chose the latter and headed to the Steel City for RevPro: Live in Sheffield at Network.

Following the previous night’s British J Cup and with one eye on the upcoming outing at the Doncaster Dome for Global Wars, this show served to build upon existing narratives, push forward some intriguing prospects for Global Wars and to continue cultivating a fanbase within Sheffield, RevPro’s most northern territory as the company strives to cement themselves as a legitimate touring brand. 

The opening contest saw reigning Undisputed British Heavyweight Champion Luke Jacobs square off against Jay Joshua. Jacobs is currently in a holding pattern as he heads for a collision with Tomohiro Ishii at Global Wars, so while it would’ve been nice to treat the fans to a title defence, having Jacobs trade bombs with another bruiser was a decent consolation prize. 

Jay Joshua, I like the cut of your jib, mate. A compact powerhouse with athleticism and swagger thrown into the mix, Joshua is a promising figure for the future.

Although only 4 matches into his RevPro career, the Welshman has over 200 matches under his belt in a 7 year career and has only taken on the best of RevPro with prior bouts against RKJ, Leon Slater and JJ Gale. The confirmation that he belongs at this level from those matches and the subsequent confidence that has brough was evident as Joshua met Jacobs head on. 

Both men displayed their range of “I’m harder than you” offence, before Jacobs chose to escalate things on the way to victory. Luke Jacobs possesses one of the nastiest piledrivers in wrestling and he drilled Joshua with it. It’s the type of piledriver that makes concerned parents stop their kids from watching wrestling at a young age.

Eventually landing a combo of lariats to hand Joshua his quickest loss in a RevPro ring (11.04), which he should as champion, Jacobs now sets his sights on Ishii in October. Taking on 1 Called Manders and Jay Joshua as preparation means that the champion is fully engaged in WAR mode. 

Robbie X and Robbie Eagles started off in a far more good natured manner than Jacobs and Joshua in their match. With the tease of Robbie X being the “X” to join TMDK being dispelled by the reintroduction of Ryohei Oiwa to New Japan earlier in the day, X and Eagles traded a couple of jokes as the crowd worked through the “these two have the same name” Rolodex of chants. 

Since getting back into wrestling and specifically reintegrating into independent wrestling, nobody has impressed me more than Robbie X. He has become a complete pro wrestler in the sense that he could be slotted into any role at any level of the card without a problem and there were flashes of that range throughout this match. 

You need someone to lighten the mood after a serious clash? Call Robbie X and he’ll get the crowd going as he did here. You need someone to keep up move for move and bar for bar with the well-known import?

Call Robbie X and watch him live up to his nickname of the “King of the Cruiserweights”. You need someone for the crowd to rally behind, as the Sheffield faithful did as Eagles targeted Robbie’s left knee, which had become compromised? CALL ROBBIE X. 

And just maybe, you need someone to be slightly less clean-cut than normal or maybe that’s what Robbie X needed personally, as he hooked the tights on the winning pinfall.

Being the man for all seasons as he is has its benefits. There isn’t a promotion in Europe that doesn’t want Robbie X on their roster.

However, when you’re the man that can do everything for everyone, you risk becoming too comfortable, you risk becoming viewed as part of the furniture. The reliable man on the roster that everyone appreciates yet doesn’t truly respect as a major player.

Robbie X lost again? Yeah, but it was a cracking match, so who cares? Robbie X cares. He wants to be something more than Mr Reliable. He wants to be King again. He wants to be respected again. 

There is no time like the present to make a statement. After the match, it was revealed that Robbie will face Zack Sabre Jr. at Global Wars – ZSJ potentially as IWGP Heavyweight Champion – in a hands-on interview for a spot in TMDK. Count. Me. In. 

It was during the Robbie Derby that I noticed a big Kevin Nash looking motherfucker making his way around the venue. This rather imposing gentleman decided to plant himself directly behind me. At this point, I had no idea who this person was but it was quite unnerving. It was a relief when he charged the ring and demanded the microphone.

Now, I’ve not seen Charlie Sterling for an incredibly long time, since the days of him being a handsome devil in trunks with short black hair and 90% abs so it was a shock to the system to find out who this burly Viking berserker of a man was.

Sterling raged about Andy Quildan ignoring his DMs and demanding to be back in RevPro before decimating Dynamite Lee Dawson who was working on ring crew. Sterling then offered the challenge to anyone with a bit of heart and soul to come out to face him. 

That challenge was accepted by the heart and soul of RevPro, JJ Gale, as he launched into a impromptu match with Sterling that was just missing the cartoon dust clouds as the pair brawled. 

As Gale gained the upper hand, Sterling made a sharp exit and handed Gale a countout win. JJ Gale is great, he’s primed to be a future star of RevPro, but this didn’t sit well with me. Charlie Sterling is a behemoth.

He shouldn’t be chickening out at the first sign of adversity especially to someone that can’t touch him from a physicality standpoint. It’ll be interesting to see where Sterling goes from here because the idea of Gale having to overcome a gargantuan obstacle like Sterling is proper pro wrestling at its finest. 

From someone who I hadn’t seen in a long time to someone who I was seeing for the first time in Mike D. Fucking hell, the bloke is a spectacle, isn’t he?

He’s chiselled, handsome, has a stunning dropkick and does this thing where he jumps from a standing position to the top rope. I think I want to be Mike D when I grow up. Belt him up everywhere and turn your promotion into the travelling Mike D Show. 

This match, contested under 2 out of 3 falls rules, was the third chapter of the Mike D/Ricky Knight Jr. rivalry. 

RKJ is a puzzling figure. A walking, talking and sometimes stage diving conundrum. As an overall package, he has everything – he looks good, he talks well, he wrestles excellently – yet something doesn’t feel right about RKJ.

It’s all a bit Uncanny Valley because he’s not quite whole. He looks like an unpleasant person. The type of fella you’d avoid bumping into in the pub. He often speaks disparagingly about his opponents as he did with Zozaya but then shows respect to them at the end of matches. There was also a tip of the hat to Mike D here. 

And RKJ does cool shit like in this match when he dived from the stage onto Mike, crashing through the big Belgian and a chair. He’s a pleasure to watch which makes everything else even more perplexing. You don’t hate him enough to want him to lose but he’s not likeable enough to rally behind. 

I’m not hardline about wrestling being clear cut between good versus evil, but if someone is dancing in the middle, in those shades of grey then I need there to be a direction for them to invest in. RKJ feels like a wanderer without a home right now. 

It could be that facing an old foe, with Michael Oku on the horizon at Global Wars, could be the spark that Knight needs. A sensational back-and-forth clash here, where Knight capitalised on key moments when it felt like Mike D drowned in his own sauce and let the spotlight get to his head, led to RKJ picking up a rarely seen 2-0 victory.

By itself, this match was worth the price of admission and is certainly worth the subscription fee to RevPro On Demand if you need to catch up. 

The match was a banger in more ways than one, as it apparently led to one of the boards underneath the canvas snapping, which led to an extended interval at halftime as the ring crew and RevPro staff re-constructed the ring.

There had been complaints about this particular ring the night before in Stevenage due to the ropes looking incredibly loose. While I can’t speak on that having not been there in-person or having caught up yet, the ring crew deserve a huge pat on the back for getting things sorted for the second half here. 

To battle test the newly repatched ring, Josh James and 1 Called Manders came out and proceeded to have the second “I’m a harder bastard than you” match of the show. A lot of my free time in the past week or so has been spent getting familiar with 1 Called Manders and I’m happy to announce that I’m officially a Manders Guy now. 

Cowboys are fucking awesome. Earlier it was mentioned that I want to be Mike D when I grow up, but *really* I want to be Rip off Yellowstone. Rip is a real fucking dude who doesn’t take any shit, never backs down from a fight and everyone wants to have a beer with. 

That’s 1 Called Manders. He’s a real dude, that wrestles like a real dude and having watched his interview on the This Is A Revolution Podcast, definitely comes across as a guy you’d want to have a beer with. He’s a wrestler you could show to your Dad. 

Josh James falls into that category as well. Having risen through the Contenders ranks, James is starting to find his niche in RevPro, as a barrel chested welcoming party to anyone wanting a piece of RevPro action. If you want to make it here, you have to go through Josh James first. 

This was like your picky younger sibling at Toby Carvery – all meat, no veg. The crack of forearms, chops and bodies hitting the mat rang round the walls of Network like a tribute to the steel making history of the city. 

James was able to match Manders, rising to the challenge of the American, right until he wasn’t when he was levelled with a lariat. Please come back soon, Manders. 

Having already spoken about the RKJ conundrum, it feels fitting that his Copper Box adversary Zozaya was featured on this card because there is nothing confusing about the young Spaniard or the direction he is heading.

Zozaya is 100% good guy, no artificial flavourings or shades of grey. His rise from unknown to RevPro regular has been meteoric in 2024 and while plenty of that is to do with his exciting wrestling technique, it’s primarily been a testament to Zozaya’s ability to connect with an audience. 

You want him to win. You care when he’s getting the shit kicked out of him and you want to chant ZO-ZAY-A to will him into turning the tides.

The fact that he’s been able to foster this kind of relationship with the fans in mere months without any over-the-top storylines and with minimal mic time speaks volumes. He’s a special talent that seems destined to one day fill the shoes of Michael Oku as the promotion’s #1 golden boy.

That is a long way off though. While an already supremely talented professional wrestler, Zozaya hasn’t yet found the “switch” that good guys like Oku can flip to win consistently.

It’s a streak of unbreakable resilience interwoven with some good old fashioned violence that lies deep within the best wrestlers.  Will Ospreay found it. Michael Oku found it. It’s too early to expect Zozaya to find it straight away, he hasn’t had the experiences to know where to look for it. 

Barbaro Cavernario knew that and exploited it throughout their match as he “old manned” his lesser experienced counterpart. This was the second match of the show that made any financial outlay from the day completely worth it. While Luke Jacobs, Jay Joshua, Manders and Joshu James had been threatening to break each other, Zozaya and Barbaro seemed dead set on breaking their surroundings. 

Several dives to the outside broke the front row barrier and Zozaya, in another moment of comparison with RKJ, flew from the stage to wipe out Cavernario. 

However, the crucial moment came when Barbaro used his veteran instinct to land a low blow, as he obscured the referee’s vision before locking in a single leg crab to submit Zozaya. Best of 3, Andy? 

This show had been a great advert for the rest of RevPro’s 2024 calendar and its main event was a great advert for one event in particular – the First Annual Trios Grand Prix in Coventry. 

Has there ever been a pack of despicable dickheads more suited to each other than Will Kaven, Mark Trew and Kieron Lacey? They were fantastic here, with Trew and Lacey seeing the majority of the action as Kaven puppeteered from the corner. It’s a genuine crime if these three aren’t in the tournament together. 

While the match was focused around the continued Cameron Khai and Kaven tussle over the Cruiserweight title and the future of the division, with Kaven currently residing in Khai’s head rent free, it was impossible to not be in awe of Lio Rush. 

Everybody knows that Lio Rush is a tremendous athlete. That was evident from the nosebleeds at Wembley for All In but seeing him up close and personal in a small room does it smack you in the face. It was a privilege to watch someone so athletically gifted in such close quarters. In another life, Rush would be catching touchdown passes as a slot receiver in the NFL or pitching in the World Series. 

Having won the British J Cup the night before, we’re guaranteed more Lio Rush on UK shores, which is only to be celebrated. After Khai scored the pinfall on Kaven following a slingshot cutter, Rush cemented his short-term future within RevPro. 

At Global Wars, Rush will not be challenging Will Kaven, as he is allowing Khai to have first crack at the belt. Instead, he issued an open challenge for the Doncaster Dome, noting that he will take his title shot further down the line with the hope that he gets to meet Khai for the belt. 

With the likes of Titan and Mascara Dorada already in attendance that night, Lio Rush could add another memorable moment to a venue that is steeped in BrtiWres history. 

This latest edition of Live in Sheffield covered all bases for RevPro. The narrative between Cameron Khai and Will Kaven was furthered, new paths were opened up for Robbie X, Charlie Sterling and JJ Gale, crackers between Zozaya/Barbaro Cavernario and RKJ/Mike D will surely make a mark of growing the active fan base up North and three noteworthy matches were announced for Doncaster. 

Furthermore, the show reinforced something in me. Go to live wrestling. It’s the best. What else are you going to do on a Sunday?

Photo Credits: Revolution Pro Wrestling