Long-term investment trumps everything else in professional wrestling for me. There are multiple ways to draw someone in and get them to invest in you as a wrestler or your promotion. There’s no concrete code that everyone has to follow.

However you get there, whether through cracking matches, an intricate weaving storyline, being an entertainer, overcoming barriers in the pursuit of glory, stamping on my happiness or as a rookie building from the ground up, I don’t care. Just make me care.

True Grit Wrestling make me care and it has been a very, very long time since I’ve felt like I did at the end of the True Grit Games.

However, before we get to the end, we have to go back to the start. We don’t do dessert before mains around here, pal.

On a night where the Left Bank was decked out in Regime banners, the only thing that could blemish the most beautiful venue in British Wrestling, Nathan Black and Kid Lykos II kicked off proceedings with an ol’ fashioned goody vs. baddy match-up.

As well as bringing a clear good versus bad dynamic, the match also dipped into another section of the Wrestling 101 Venn Diagram, with Lykos II trying to use his speed to get the upper hand against the power of Black – look at the God Damn SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZE OF HIM.

While he remains a Category A Bellend, picking on kids and telling the “average looking women” in the crowd to add him on Snapchat (Snapchat at your big age is weird, lad), Nathan Black is thoroughly entertaining which is something the Work The Left Side crew picked up on in their review of the show.

There is a danger, if he doesn’t keep his foot on the neck of well-supported good guys, that the True Grit crowd could start to warm to Black.

Thankfully here, Black pulled out the suitable level of shenanigans against Lykos II to quell the laughter and return the crowd to their regularly scheduled programming of booing him out the building.

Though he is a bad guy that is comfortable with “showing arse”, to build up to that stage we have to endure some success for Black and we’re at the start of that cycle. For all of the posturing and posing, Black is a well-built fella and he was able to showcase his power here, dominating Lykos II in between spurts of athleticism and high-flying.

In terms of “moves”, this might have been the most expressive we’ve seen Black all year in True Grit, but he ended the contest going back to his reliable skullduggery, spinning Lykos’s mask round to blind the little wolf and rolling him up for the pinfall.

Hopefully, we get to see the challenges increase for Black in terms of facing opponents of similar size and experience, before facing some consequences for his actions. It’d be great to see more of Lykos II (and his mate) in True Grit, too.

Someone else that I want to see more often is Melissa Fierce. For months now, the hype around her has continued to snowball, fed by basically everyone that has been able to watch her live.

I would like to confirm that the hype around Melissa Fierce is very real. She looks, carries herself and performs like a star.

She has that Megaslam polish to her act and that is not meant with any hint of irony or judgement. Working on the camps or town hall circuit, in front of bigger crowds than most independent wrestlers ever get to see as well as having to adapt to audiences where some people are there to just keep the kids occupied for a few hours is only a positive.

You can spot wrestlers who’ve experienced those situations a mile away and Fierce is one of them. As she gets out in front of the more traditional BritWres audiences around the country, that hype will only continue to grow.

Matching her with Lana Austin, as True Grit did here in a #1 contenders match for a shot at the True Grit Women’s Championship, would be a good move for any promotion. You can stick these two on anywhere in the UK and it would go down incredibly well.

Lana, even though she does have her fans, can get under the skin of any crowd and get them to play along while Fierce radiates an energy that immediately gets you onside with her.

The fact that they can both whack the crap out of each other is an added bonus. There were a couple of kicks in this one that echoed round the Left Bank and Lana’s got one of the best headbutts in British wrestling.

As previously mentioned, Lana DOES have her fans and it was a mid-match video message from her biggest fan (or friend) Hollie Barlow wishing her the best that distracted Lana for long enough to allow Fierce to score the roll-up win.

A distraction win for the goody would usually be bizarre but it felt like comeuppance for Lana who’d spent the match looking for shortcuts and furthered the ongoing, multi-promotion spanning LALLIE story so it hit the spot for me.

Having just watched Melissa Fierce, someone who looks destined to be signed by one of the major TV companies, it was poignant that the next match was Gung-Ho Muttley vs. “Supersonic” Sammy Blue.

In a world where independent wrestlers can be signed away without a moment’s notice or have their diaries filled by other companies, it’s crucial that promotions continuously try to prepare their next level of stars to eventually take their place. Blue and Muttley represent the next generation of True Grit alongside the likes of Billy O’Keefe and Riley Nova.

In a match that was brought to you by the Jobbin’ with Nicki YouTube channel, Muttley and Blue showed off the talents that could make them mainstays in True Grit in the coming years.

Sporting his “Sportstar” persona, complete with a Win/Loss chalkboard, Muttley was in full on arrogant arsehole mode which clashed perfectly with Sammy’s underdog spirit. Sammy has already got well in with the True Grit crowd following some spirited losses and further cemented that here.

Nathan Black might be comfortable “showing arse” as a baddie but Gung-Ho Muttley is literally coming for that crown, as Sammy got the win by kegging Muttley to reveal his undercrackers and getting the roll-up. This is the part where you do the DJ Khaled “Another One” out loud. Sorted? Cool.

It’s going to be interesting to see how Muttley’s win/loss record goes over the next 12 months – an endless losing streak could dovetail fantastically well with someone like a Nathan Black – while Sammy can start to build towards the Pride championship.

Speaking of championships, the True Grit Tag Team Championships were on the line in the next match, with The Regime defending against Misery Business. Well, the ACTUAL tag team champions Brad Matthews and Franco Fate were defending the belts, with Sash banned from ringside by co-GM Bobby Cash.

Cash and Ref Sandy had to reiterate this to Sash who did try to join Fate and Matthews down to the ring, with Bobby adding that The Regime would be stripped of the belts if Sash didn’t piss off to the back.

After the unease between the pair that plagued the first half of their 2025, it’s fantastic to see everyone’s favourite Goth Boys back on the same page and kicking the fuck out of people – it’s especially good to see them kicking the fuck out of The Regime,

To give them their due, Matthews and Fate are both very capable of kicking the fuck out of people too, so this match was full of heavy hits, thudding kicks and dudes being dudes.

Both teams came close to securing the tag belts with multiple “that’s it” pins being broken up by their opponents and ALAN Kay kicking out of an assisted piledriver that looked like a game-ender to a roar from the crowd. That led to Joey Slade running down to the ring and straight into a lovely Joe Wade knee. Play silly games you win silly prizes, young Joey.

Slade wasn’t the only person to get involved here. As Misery Business closed on the titles after kneeing the heads off the Regime and Ref Sandy about to slap down the 1-2-3, a masked man pulled her from the ring. With Slade already at ringside and Sash banned, this had to be Brady Phillips or Riley Nova coming to the aid of their Regime brethren, right?

No. It wasn’t someone from The Regime. Actually, it was difficult to recognise who it was as the interloper pulled down their hood and mask.

It was difficult to recognise them because the last time Anderson Daniels of Meat Wagon was in the Left Bank he was at *least* 15kg heavier, after shredding down over the summer, looking more badass than ever.

Meat Wagon are back, Big Rigs Forever. Both Daniels and Troy Ryan have been firing shots at True Grit over the past couple of months on social media after losing the tag belts to NashBoat and seemingly being frozen out by management.

There had been some discussions within the TGW support that Meat Wagon could potentially be the heroes we need to come back and get rid of The Regime once and for all.

They might be anti-management and by proxy, anti-Regime, but they certainly aren’t heroes. There was no fanfare or heroic return, Daniels came to spoil the party and fuck shit up for the promotion and he didn’t care if his actions cost Misery Business.

After a pull apart brawl, Bobby Cash announced that at the November show, it will be The Regime vs. Misery Business vs. Meat Wagon in the annual Jacob’s Ladder match for the tag titles. I’m all about that.

Following the interval, HT Drake squared off with B.A. Rose.

A question for Mr Drake. Do you have a water fetish or something, mate? If you do, I’m not judging, but the Left Bank is not the place for it. Stop spraying us all with water, you shouldn’t waste water!

Having spent the majority of 2025 hounding Priscilla, the tables had turned on Drake as he threw down with B.A. Rose, as the perma-scowling scoundrel had to give up the strength and size advantages here.

Knowing that, Drake tried to use his superior mat grappling to get the better of Rose, who played along until he’d had enough and just punched HT straight in the face. That’s something every single person in the True Grit crowd would like to replicate.

With the formalities well and truly over with, both lads tried to out macho each other in a beefy contest. We don’t get to see nearly enough B.A. Rose in True Grit, more B.A. please, but he’s great as a “consequence” opponent for the cavalcade of arseholes in the company.

With Drake unable to overpower Rose, he went to the top rope. While he’s a great roadblock for the baddies, Rose isn’t 100% a good guy either. Instead of taking Drake’s high-flying offence, he gave Ref Lee a nudge into the ropes, knocking Drake off balance before planting him on his head with a double underhook piledriver for the win.

Before the main event, we had the pleasure of seeing Adam Bolt defend the Pride Championship against Che Monet. Well, we were meant to.

Adam Bolt is a fantastic dickhead but the worst thing he has ever done in True Grit is cut his music short as he did here. Not screwing over Jason Joshua, Tony Wright or Priscilla. Not having Jackie T interfere in his matches or cheat his way to the top. No, HE CUT OFF I MAKE IT LOOK GOOD. BOOOOOOOOOOO.

Adam said that the match had to be cancelled. He wasn’t injured or anything he just wanted the night off, something which was signed off by co-GM Ivy, who announced that Jackie T was taking his place in the match. Bobby Cash countered that by adding that if Monet won the match, he would get his shot at Bolt in November at Jacob’s Ladder.

I’m going to assume that Bolt was carrying a niggling injury here and hopefully it isn’t anything serious.

With that stipulation added to the match and with Jackie T being almost exclusively a “sidepiece” talent so far as the Head of Security in True Grit, you’d have been forgiven for thinking this was a foregone conclusion with Monet dispatching the hired help with ease.

Erm…Jackie T has moves. Jackie T is actually alright at the wrestling when he’s not distracting Bolt’s opponents or pulling referees out of the ring. He’s a bit of a bruiser and his style meshed well with Che Monet’s hard-hitting offence. More Jackie T having actual wrestling matches in True Grit, please.

We’ll definitely be getting more Che Monet who overcame various Adam Bolt shenanigans to beat Jackie with his Headdy Krueger driver, securing a Pride Championship match in November.

Then, it was time for the main event. A 6-man, no disqualification, elimination match for the True Grit Heavyweight Championship.

The six men involved in this battle were not there by mistake or convenience. This match brought together six men who have been bound by betrayal, bloodlust, companionship and the pursuit of glory.

Kemper entered the match as the reigning, defending champion. His path to the title had lead him on a direct collision course with Brady Phillips, who he finally unseated as champion in the cage at the Left Bank Lock-Up in, and Phillip’s Regime companions Riley Nova and Sash.

It had been Vusyk who had led the charge to clear the Regime from the cage that night, after months of his own title ambitions being thwarted by interference from Riley Nova.

A new addition to the True Grit roster, Alton Thorne had been brought into the company following Joey Slade’s turn to the dark side, something that was exacerbated by the influence of Sash.

Riley Nova, long heralded as the “heir to the throne” by Brady Phillips, might have been Brady’s protege but he had previously shown that he was an opportunistic SOB, too.

How were these six men going to proceed when the bell rang? Let the True Grit Games begin.

The history and animosity between the six was apparent from the start with Brady and Kemper, Riley and Vusyk and Alton and Sash pairing off early in all-out warfare.

We don’t do move-by-move reviews round here at the best of times but we definitely don’t do them when there’s six fellas committing violence on each other. If you’re that interested, either catch the show on TrillerTV or support True Grit via https://www.patreon.com/TrueGritWrestling

However, there were some highlights and some of the early ones involved people beating up Sash. Beating up Sash is always going to be a winner.

In a match built on past deeds, there was a nod to the True Grit Rumble as Kemper chucked Sash to the outside in a callback to the giant earning his initial title shot before Alton Thorne turned chant into reality, making SASH ACTUAL TRASH by sticking a bin on his head and unloading on it with a kendo stick.

There was also a nod to the future, though we didn’t know it then, as the tiniest of cracks in the Regime began to show. Brady tried repeatedly to bodyslam onto Vusyk who kept rolling out of the way. Sick of being slammed, Sash berated Brady, who this time intentionally drove him into the canvas.

For such a well-oiled machine this minute breakdown, that was played for laughs, felt odd. We’ll circle back to this later.

The communication between Sash and Riley was in a much better place though, as they teamed up to eliminate Thorne, with Sash taking great delight in rubbing it in Alton’s face.

Some sort of hardcore bout between the pair would be a great pre-Christmas treat in November and there was a teaser of that as Alton whipped out the STINGING NETTLES and rubbed those into Sash’s face.

Sash was served further just desserts as he was taken out of the match by Kemper shortly after, leaving the four men who’ve defined the True Grit title picture in 2025 facing off.

Though Kemper and Vusyk have had each other’s back at various points this year, they haven’t got the connection that Brady and Riley do, with the student and the master working together to take charge of the action.

Where Kemper and Vusyk were acting as individuals, Phillips and Nova were acting as one. When Riley was cornered, Brady intervened. When Brady looked dead to rights and about to be put through a table, Riley dove in to protect his mentor before outfoxing the good guys and hitting a low blow on Kemper.

As Vusyk locked Riley in his Cross-Czech submission, Brady smashed the Czech hardman with a chair, before Brady sent him crashing through the table. Where individuals would falter, Riley seized the moment to pin Vusyk, meaning he didn’t have a second to gather his strength to kick out.

Even with the 2-on-1 advantage, Brady and Riley were now faced with the gigantic proposition of an angry, pissed off Kemper. Animals are at their most dangerous with their backs against the wall and behemoth heavyweights are no different.

After gaining the upper hand and ripping a cane from Riley’s hands, Kemper was about to make the “heir to the throne” Nearly-Headless Nova, until Brady dived in to protect Riley, taking a barrage of kendo shots from Kemper.

For months, Brady Phillips has put himself first. Riley Nova has taken the bullets meant for Brady. Everything the pair have done has been about keeping the True Grit Heavyweight Championship wrapped around Brady Phillips’ waist. Riley has been a pawn rather than a protege to Brady, in some regards but this was the first time Brady has shown that he *actually* cares about Riley Nova.

That made what was to come even more shocking.

With Nova in one hand and Phillips in the other, Kemper chokslammed the pair into the ground, which signalled the arrival of the entire Regime who laid into the defending champion.

With Kemper at their mercy and Brady taking centre stage, True Grit owner James Carr crowed that we were about to be introduced to the “rightful champion…RILEY NOVA”.

Bemused, Brady turned round into a Nova superkick before the rest of the Regime attacked. After dropping him onto his head, Riley pinned his former mentor and directed the Regime to restrain Kemper. Delivering a title shot and a vicious elbow to the back of his head, the monster was felled as the new True Grit Champion rose.

The heir to the throne is now King.

Not content with betraying Brady Phillips, JC entered the ring alongside his Regime, stating that Brady had “made it all about himself”. This had never been about keeping the belt on Brady, it was about keeping the belt in the hands of the Regime.

As Ivy, Brady’s real-life partner, screamed for them to stop, the Regime trapped Brady’s neck in a chair and under the direction of JC, Nova crushed his throat with a stomp.

JC’s pack of hyenas then turned their attention to Kemper. The monster who had threatened their reign was defeated but not down. In any other story, this would be the fairytale ending, with the kingdom finally rid of the monster. This was going to be the start of a nightmare.

With the previous two champions out of commission, nobody could threaten the Regime again. True Grit needed a hero.

Or maybe, they needed four. To challenge a Regime, you need some rebels and as the lights went out, that’s exactly what we got.

Welcome back NashBoat, Wesley Nsereko and for the first time in nearly a year, Zizi to a fucking thunderous reception.

The self-titled Rebels hit the ring to clear out the Regime with the help of Kemper until JC was left all alone with Wesley Nsereko.

It all comes back to Wesley Nsereko and James Carr.

It was JC’s jealousy of Wes that made him betray his friend and side with Brady in the first place. It was JC’s fear of Wes that led to the formation of The Regime.

Wesley Nsereko is the heart and soul of True Grit Wrestling and that made James Carr sick. It was his delusion that HE, rather than Wes, was the linchpin of the company that drove him to this madness.

That’s what led him to brainwashing Joey Slade, whose turn helped drive Nsereko out of True Grit. It was that obsession which has seen the Regime interfere with Wesley’s career in Tidal and Nash Boat Pro Wrestling

Now, it was time to pay.

Though he tried to beg and manipulate Wesley to leave him alone, to remember their friendship, Nsereko was not going to fall for it again.

After screwing over Nsereko, after banning NashBoat, after installing Ivy as co-GM allowing Adam Bolt to weasel out of title defences and aiding Alexxis Falcon in becoming Women’s Champion, after abusing his own staff – James Carr finally got what was coming to him, with Wes smashing him with a Ugandan Headbutt and a top rope splash to the delight of the Left Bank.

Remember when I said that long-term investment trumps everything else in wrestling for me? This is what I was talking about. It has been a very, very long time since wrestling has made me feel like I did at the end of the True Grit Games and you can only get that feeling through long-term investment.

If you could bottle it up, you’d be a billionaire but it only comes when you’re wholly invested in something. It’s not something you can dip your toe in and get the same buzz.

True Grit might not be able to bottle that up but they’re able to take you on the ride to get there and after the True Grit Games, they’ve got people again because this isn’t the final destination. It’s just the beginning of the next leg of the journey.

The Rebels might be here to save the day and James Carr did get laid out, but the power in the company doesn’t reside with Nsereko, NashBoat and Zizi. The power still belongs to JC, the Regime and perhaps most importantly, Riley Nova.

There are more questions than answers. Can the Rebels overthrow The Regime? Will Riley Nova have what it takes to carry the weight of the True Grit Heavyweight Championship, with Kemper and Vusyk hot on his trail? Can Adam Bolt and The Regime keep hold of their respective titles in November?

And where does this all leave Ivy? While she’s been a thorn in Bobby Cash’s side as a meddlesome co-GM, what happens now that Brady has been booted from The Regime?

Well, there’s only one way to find out. Stay invested, kids.

Photo Credits: @Elliottt93