British wrestling is in an interesting position right now. A number of companies are set to perform in front of crowds of 1000+ this year for the first time since the “boom” period of the 2010s.

RevPro are running Wembley Arena. Pro Wrestling: EVE have sold out the Indigo at the 02. NGW have routinely exceeded the 1000 mark at Hull City Hall and will likely do so again this summer. While they aren’t viewed as cool and aren’t often praised for doing so, All Star and Megaslam draw better from an overall perspective than any other companies in the UK.

More promotions are able to extend their reach to new cities as well, travelling from their traditional homes to perform in front of healthy, hungry crowds.

That’s something that NORTH have started to do in Leeds and last week, at their EVERYTHING IS ALL CAPS event, they returned for the third time in front of the largest and certainly rowdiest crowd so far.

Leeds is a cracking city for wrestling. It’s got some great pubs and places to eat, sits on a train line that you can access from most places in the country and isn’t *that* expensive when it comes to cities. You can often get a Premier Inn for less than £50 on a Friday. That’ll do.

It’s also the heartbeat of a thriving Yorkshire wrestling scene with promotions available at nearly every level. There’s RISE for you deathmatch sickos. There’s Black Heart that act as both a budget friendly option for families as well as a developmental space for younger talent. Then you have True Grit that sit in the middle, as an all-encompassing quality option as the flagbearer for the city and region.

Where NORTH come in is as a promotion that is missing, not just in Leeds, but throughout the UK. NORTH Wrestling fills the void of being a night out on the piss promotion without ever sacrificing itself as a pro wrestling promotion.

It’s serious without ever taking itself too seriously. It tells stories without ever smacking you over the head with a subtlety hammer. It’s punk rock without having to go all Brewdog and telling you it is punk rock, dude. It’s strictly for grown ups without ever flashing its dick at you and making you feel dirty for looking.

That was definitely how I thought of NORTH prior to EVERYTHING IS ALL CAPS and if anything, I feel even more strongly about that after the fact.

That starts with announcer Tom Campbell. He could MC a packed to the rafters half-term Megaslam show full of sugar-rushing kids and disinterested families, a dingy nightclub of 150 “impress me” hardcore fans or a major event at Wembley Arena and would get the crowd onside without breaking a sweat.

Tom welcomed the fans in at Project House with the announcement that we’d be treated to a previously unannounced pre-show, pre-drinks match.

Whether “cool guy, lots of friends” Ian Skinner and his womp womp womp theme music should be classified as a treat is something I’ll leave up to you.

His opponent being Billy O’Keefe, on the other hand, was certainly a treat and if we’re being honest getting Ian Skinner vs. Billy O’Keefe as a surprise? Proper treat. This could’ve easily been a main card match and it would’ve gone down well with fans.

This was full of general goodie/baddie shenanigans with Skinner taking up his role as a big, massive dork with aplomb while O’Keefe, as an up and coming Leeds talent was only ever going to be the favourite here on his way to overcoming Skinner’s skullduggery to get the win.

After the match Ref Katie, who had been forced to put up with Skinner’s antics, give him a Stunner. That might upset people to see a wrestler being made to look like a fool for a ref, but it made tons of sense. That’s kind of the point of Ian Skinner (at least here), he is a fool and it gave the officiating crew a bit of credit in the bank for later in the show.

Ian Skinner knows who he is, which is what you want from a professional wrestler and that was on display in the best way possible in the official opening match as HMD took on the “Lyrical Dragon” Man Like Dereiss.

Freed From Desire on a Friday night? I didn’t realise we were in PopWorld yet, pass us a fucking Hooch.

Nobody in British Wrestling understands themselves better than Dereiss and it shows with his connection with crowds throughout the world. He might be playing a character but do I believe that he goes around his daily life in light-up glasses spitting bars in the aisles of Tesco or when he rocks up to a doctors appointment? Yeah, I kinda do.

HMD is another who totally gets who he is as a wrestler. This line from Tom Campbell on commentary during the previous NORTH show sums him up perfectly; “no style, no grace, he’ll just punch you in the face”.

HMD looks and wrestles like a lad from your local estate pub and I mean that in the most positive way possible. While Dereiss was out-witting him technically at the start of the match, HMD was able to swing the tide with some good ol’ fashioned punches to the face and by chucking Dereiss around the gaff.

I want everyone to make a healthy living off professional wrestling but Man Like Dereiss is probably the only guy I actively hope is named in a WWE/AEW press release about signing new talent because I don’t want him to have come into this a couple of years too late. Can you imagine how much of a star he would have been in 2015 PROGRESS?

MLD took out HMD with the sharpshooter to continue HMD’s losing streak story in NORTH, While he is a “bad dude” at the minute, if he keeps putting on these types of belting matches, I think crowds might swing and start cheering for HMD.

Someone we won’t be cheering for is Alexxis Falcon. We do not cheer for Alexxis Falcon in this house. She’s mean and horrible and she was fucking nasty to DeeDee and she’s too old for Disney as well!

Erm, yeah. Sorry about that but we don’t kick other people’s teddy bears, okay?

Remember earlier when I said that NORTH takes itself seriously without being too serious? This match was that. When Alexxis and Alfiee squared their teddies off against each other, somewhere else that could’ve been the entire point of the match, but instead Alexxis used Alfiee’s playfulness to quickly gain the upper hand and get things down to brass tacks.

In a fairly one-sided match, Falcon scored the win after her “Off With Her Head” move and kept attacking Alfiee after the bell before Natalie Sykes made the save.

Like the previous match, stories were furthered here as Sykes and Falcon have been locked in battle for months. NORTH aren’t bringing the circus to town for a night then moving on, they’re making Leeds a genuine part of their world.

This was further demonstrated by the match between Liam Slater and George Hunter. Slater, one of the most decorated wrestler in NORTH history, is attempting to “find himself” within the promotion so had set up a match between himself and newcomer Hunter in his role as a coach.

I’ll be honest. If I had no idea who or what NORTH was, this match would’ve still sold me a ticket. Liam Slater wrestling in Leeds is a major reason that I’m a fan of British wrestling and George Hunter is one of the most exciting prospects this scene has. That alone was worth the breakneck rush from work and not getting back to Boro ’til 1am.

Even with those lofty self-imposed expectations, this match didn’t disappoint.

The barycenter of the match was the idea that Slater was always one step ahead of Hunter. When Hunter zigged, Slater zagged. If Hunter could escape a hold, it felt like it was only because Slater was positioning him for something different entirely.

Slater countered the counters and when it looked like Hunter had found an opening to unleash one of his high-octane moves, Slater was already out of reach before the youngster could get his feet set.

And, of course that’s what happened. Not only has Liam Slater had a hand in the training of this precocious talent, so he has helped Hunter to craft this arsenal of attacks, but Hunter is also a bit of a viral sensation with his high-flying getting real buzz on social media.

For Liam Slater, a wrestler who prides himself on treating a wrestling match in the same way Pep Guardiola treats a football match, that’s like telling him exactly what you are going to do 5 seconds before you intend to do it. He was always going to have the upper hand.

Though it is Hunter with the penchant for innovative offence, it was Slater’s Gory Bomb Driver (if that’s even a thing) that resulted in the pinfall victory. This was good and this is a pairing that will only get better together as Hunter’s career advances. Don’t be surprised if a number of companies go back to this at various points of Hunter’s journey.

To complement the technical, tactical wrestling that had been on display, NORTH then sprinkled in a bit of the old ultraviolence with Scotty Rawk defending the Ultraviolent Championship against Franco Fate.

As a fan of True Grit, where Fate is a heavy of the villainous Regime, it felt really fucking weird to cheer him here. Like, my mouth was struggling to form the syllables for a chant of “Let’s Go Franco” level of fucking weird when the match first started.

But, you know what? I kinda dig it. As a six foot, tatted up, beardy shitkicking bruiser, it’s fun to cheer for Franco Fate.

It was helped by the fact that, when he wants to be, Scotty Rawk is easy to boo. He just doesn’t look like a nice dude. He looks like he’d serve you a pint of piss and tell you it was a new type of IPA.

I know that a lot of wrestling fans, including myself, like to expound upon the intricate poetry of wrestling and the layers upon layers of storytelling and lore between two combatants but I also like to be stood with a bevvy watching two fellas try and throw each other through a door on a Friday night. It just does something to a man and I must’ve looked a right clip jumping onto the train home muttering “DOOR, DOOR, DOOR” later on.

After a violent assortment of chairs, barbed wire, skateboards and doors, Scotty eventually picked up the win.

Next was your statement match for the evening. The one that made everyone ensure they were stocked with a fresh drink and had been to the loo or for a smoke before things kicked off.

Trent Seven vs. Rhio.

I hope you’re sat down when I inform you of some shocking news about this match. This ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ROCKED.

Oh, that wasn’t a shock at all, was it? Course it fucking rocked.

Rhio is quite simply one of the best wrestlers in Europe. Not arsed about categorising that by a certain style or genre of wrestling, age, gender, hair colour or skin colour. Rhio is one of the best wrestlers in Europe, period. No additional notes needed.

If a company put Rhio on the bill as the only announced talent, I’d be comfortable buying a ticket because I know that I’m going to get at least one match that I’ll enjoy. That’s what being an elite talent means to me.

I know that some fans have a complicated relationship with Trent Seven. We’ve all seen so many Trent Seven matches that it wouldn’t be unfair to say that you know what to expect. You know he’s going to chop the ring post. I get it.

I do like that about Trent, though. It’s familiar. He’s like an old blanket or hoody. Yeah, the colours have faded a bit and there’s a stain or two you just can’t get out, but it’s comfortable.

There are times when he can surprise you as well, like finding a rolled up fiver in that hoody pocket. When it was Rhio who chopped the ring post here, that got more of a reaction out of me than some of the power moves later in the match.

And when he kicks through the gears, he’s still Trent Fucking Seven and he’s still wicked.

This match played out to a intriguing crowd dynamic. In NORTH, Rhio is established as a baddie while Trent is usually a big fan favourite. Here, the crowd was more split, with duelling chants and reactions. When Rhio kicked Trent in the dick then levelled him with a piledriver to win, plenty cheered the result.

Rhio is positioned in a rivalry with Emersyn Jayne in NORTH (something that would be continued at this show) which is such a great fit because like Rhio, Emersyn Jayne is one of the best wrestlers in Europe.

Jayne was partnered by Ronan King against Cowboy Way in a tag team match that blended some lighthearted banter with the full-blooded aggression that you’d expect from a match involving Cowboy Way

There is something inherently unlikeable about Ronan King and I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I knew that I wanted to see Manders and Thomas Shire beat the shit out of him. As two good American gentlemen should, they duly obliged.

Emersyn Jayne wrestles with a level of spite that is missing in so many other wrestlers. If she’s the dominant force in a match, you’re are going to be on the receiving end of an absolute kicking. If she’s against people who’re bigger and badder than her, she’s going to go down in a blaze of glory, swinging digs and middle fingers until the bitter end like she did here before Cowboy Way managed to secure the win.

The main event saw Gene Munny defending the NORTH Wrestling Championship against Judas Grey.

Over the past couple of months, in a story beat that started at the last Leeds show, Nathan Black has been cosying up to the champion and the pair have come together as the Woof & Size Connection.

However, Black had told Munny that they should put the partnership on the back burner because Munny was too busy being champion right now, though in celebration of the tandem he was going to sing him to the ring in Leeds.

And sing him to the ring Nathan Black did. Oh boy. This wasn’t a bit of daft karaoke. This was a proper performance. This was Meatloaf reincarnated as Black serenaded the arrival of Munny, making his way to the ring Like a Dog out of Hell. Bravo sir.

The relationship between Black and Gene has been played beautifully so far. Aligning Black, who was initially brought in to be his usual villain self, with the underdog fan favourite champion has meant that the crowd can cheer for “The Comedian” because they were dying to anyway. Black is *almost* too entertaining for his own good.

Yet, no matter how genuine he seems, there’s been brief moments where Black’s newfound attitude has looked more like a mask than a genuine personality shift. Something is brewing and it has me on tenterhooks to see where things go.

Judas Grey has cultivated his own cult following in NORTH and had a title shot here after a run of impressive victories. There’s an easy comparison to draw between Judas and a wrestler of BritWres past because of Grey’s daredevil attitude and alternative attire but I’m not going to because that person is a cunt.

All I’ll say is well done Judas Grey for taking back fishnets and leather skirts for the good guys.

Gene Munny’s title run has really impressed me and this match was no different. The “Best in Show” is perfect for this crowd and for NORTH. Again, in this particular guise, Gene Munny is serious without being too serious. He is a bit daft without making a mockery of the title. He’s determined to show people that he belongs here, that he can carry a prestigious title on his wrestling merits alone.

Both fellas went back and forth, daring the other to up the physicality, before Ronan King tried to get involved (I TOLD YA HE WAS UNLIKEABLE). King almost swung things in Grey’s favour but he just didn’t quite have the SIIIIIZE to contend with Nathan Black, who cleaned up the mess to allow Munny to seal the win with a big Ainsley Lariat.

Post-match, everything seemed to point towards Black finally allowing the mask to slip and shattering the Woof & Size Connection in the same place that it had started, instead saw Trent Seven agree to put the tag titles on the line (alongside Clint Margera) against Munny and Black.

NORTH, YOU’VE GOT ME BY THE SHORT AND CURLIES. SEE YOU IN NEWCASTLE IN MARCH.

– James Woodgate

Image Credits: NORTH Wrestling