The 8th of March was a major day for European Wrestling. Pro-Wrestling: EVE were holding their historic Wrestle Queendom event in front of over one thousand fans in the Indigo venue at the 02 while the final day of wXw’s 16 Carat Gold tournament, arguably the jewel in the crown of European wrestling,was taking place in Oberhausen.

Alongside those two were a host of companies running shows up and down the UK. If you wanted to watch wrestling, you were covered from all angles.

For me, there was only one ticket in town – True Grit’s annual Redemption show. A number of key storylines, some that had taken shape over the course of a year or more, were set to culminate at what is positioned as the promotion’s headline show of the year.

Investment in professional wrestling comes above everything else and that has never been more true, to me as a fan, than at Redemption.

True Grit usually host their shows on Friday or Saturday nights and moving to a Sunday afternoon was a risk, even outside of the change to the usual bell-time.

Not only were they competing for the attention of the “hardcore” travelling BritWres fans due to the other wrestling available across the country, they also found themselves competing for the attention of their local Leeds audience with both the Leeds Rhinos and Leeds United playing on the Sunday afternoon.

Given those potential obstacles, it was great to walk into the Left Bank and see a very healthy yet different crowd. With the change in days and times, the show had attracted even more families than normal as well as a bunch of new faces who may have found travelling back and forth to Leeds easier with things being earlier in the day.

It was then a cracking sight to see Redemption kick off with a true goodie vs. baddie match-up (both a True Grit staple and a BeersandBodyslams BINGO) with Sammy Blue taking on HT Drake.

We should all know the dance by now – in my opinion, wrestling shows should always open with either a clear-cut good guy against bad guy match to ease people in AND/OR something high-tempo to get them hyped up.

You never know if it is somebody’s first time seeing wrestling, never mind their first live show, so setting out the table early doors for what to expect can be extremely helpful.

In True Grit, you don’t get much more clear-cut than Drake (boo) and Sammy (yaay) and if there was any doubt about that, Drake made sure everyone was fully aware of which side of the line he operates on by completely disrespecting Sammy with his bully-boy offence in the early stages.

As he has done previously with Priscilla, Drake treated having to wrestle Sammy as a task that was completely beneath him, taking liberties with Blue and grinding him down.

This worked perfectly in getting the crowd to get right behind Sammy, who has quickly become a fan favourite in the promotion due to his snappy offence and endearing personality.

Drake wasn’t content to just show his contempt for Sammy, taking every opportunity to needle the crowd.

There was a fantastic spot in the final stages of the match where Drake sprayed Sammy with his water bottle and in the same motion dropped it to the mat and stamped on it, covering the front row on one side of the ring in water. Superb shithousery.

That led to Drake picking up the win with an implant DDT before he got on the mic to let everyone know that Drake is back for good in True Grit and that he’s going to “kill all gimmicks”. Because he’s a big horrible moody bugger (I added that last bit, don’t spit water at me Drake).

Next up, and on a lighter note than Drake and his water fetish, was the sponsored match between George Hunter and Jimmy Jackson. The match was brought to us by Paul’s Wrestling Art and highlighted the upcoming Breaking Boundaries show on April 26th at The Attic in Leeds which will be supporting The Brain Charity.

George Hunter is a special talent. That is a phrase I’m going to repeat countless times over the next couple of years and I really hope that it doesn’t become a cliché.

It’s very easy to get carried away with young talent, especially with someone like Hunter who is barely a year into his in-ring career and is so eye-catching, but he has the athletic ability to do anything he wants to in this business.

Learning from Liam Slater and Nathan Black at PPW is going to give him the mat and character foundations to truly build a career on.

His body control is sublime. When he is flying through the ropes, he holds himself straight and true, like a diver.

Although this match seemingly ended abruptly as Jimmy Jackson took a nasty hit to the back of the head, which bloodied him up, there was certainly enough chemistry and excitement here to warrant a rematch at some point. Hopefully we get to see more of Jackson in True Grit regardless.

If the first two matches had acted as a pair of amuse-bouches to awaken our wrestling palates, the next match was a main course as Wesley Nsereko and a mystery partner took on the Regime’s Sash and Joey Slade with the person taking the losing fall being forced to retire from wrestling.

Nsereko’s hunt for vengeance against True Grit owner James Carr and his Regime has been the focal point of the company for nearly a year and a half. It has seen the beloved Ugandan Warrior deal with treachery, betrayal and being cast out of the promotion before rallying the troops and rebelling against the Regime.

Two of those figures of treachery and betrayal are Sash and Joey Slade. Sash has constantly been a thorn in Nsereko’s side and it was one year ago that Joey Slade shocked the Left Bank by cracking Nsereko with a chair and siding with the Regime, an action which cost Nsereko his place on the True Grit roster.

The Regime have infected every aspect of the promotion and nobody knows that better, or wants to rectify it more so than Wesley.

When it was revealed by JC that, despite attempting to negotiate with the BBC to get one of Nsereko’s Gladiators pals in for the match, the contract hadn’t been signed in time so we would have to carry on with a handicap match it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone.

This is where investment comes in. As a general *wrestling fan*, this was an attack on my sensibilities. It felt like a bit of a cop out. If I was dipping into another promotion for the first time or as a semi-keen viewer, I would’ve rolled my eyes.

As a fan of True Grit, however, this made perfect sense. The Regime have done everything in their power to fuck over all of our favourites. They’ve ruined countless title matches, manipulated referees and younger talent and even lashed out at staff. Why would this be any different? Why would they give Nsereko a fair chance when they had the opportunity to get rid of him, once and for all?

Hopefully this doesn’t come across as a slight, but this match was incredibly MegaSlam in every positive way possible and the crowd ate it up. If this had been someone’s first time watching wrestling, they would’ve got it. It’s a story that has been told a hundred times in film and TV. Two bumbling henchmen against the hero.

It was silly in the right spots as Nsereko made Sash and Slade look like buffoons (because they are) and every pinfall had the crowd hook, line and sinker.

Joey Slade is very good at being a sausage. His feel for slapstick comedy, facials and crowd interaction are very good. He is the butt of the joke, the footstool for the Regime. But, deep down, we all know that he can be more than that.

If Joey himself doesn’t know that, he should watch this match back. While he didn’t listen to his Hellbound brethren and he certainly won’t listen to me, he can’t hide away from cold hard facts.

Watch how Sash treats you Joey. Watch how he scurries away and leaves you in the firing line at every opportunity. Watch how he sits in the corner, lets you take the Ugandan Drop and then tries to sneak in and claim the glory of pinning Nsereko, like a mad hyena. That’s what they think of you Joey Slade and you are better than the Regime.

It was that moment of hubris for Sash that led to his downfall. Rather than helping Joey, he tried to pounce and it left him at the mercy of Nsereko who dropped him with a Ugandan Headbutt and followed it up with a massive splash to claim the win, spelling an end to Sash’s wrestling career. So this is how the career of “Cash Money” Sash dies? With thunderous applause!

Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, hey-eyyy, GOODBYE SASH. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

To “go behind the curtain”, this looks to be a legitimate retirement rather than a closed-off storyline, with Sash finishing things up at other companies around the country. For as much fun as it was to see him being hoisted away by security and for how relieved I was that it wasn’t Nsereko who was on the wrong side of the result, I am genuinely gutted that “Cash Money” Sash is calling time on his in-ring career.

It has been a joy to get annoyed by him. There aren’t many wrestlers in this world who can *really* be bad guys anymore. Sash did that by existing. He didn’t have to – although he usually did – stoop too low to turn an audience against him. He just had to come out. Whether it was in person or online, he was wholeheartedly committed to spoiling people’s days.

Everyone has their vices. For some it’s sex, drugs and rock “n” roll. I quite enjoy watching Sash get beaten up.

Sash might be trash but British Wrestling is worse off without him.

It was shaping up to be a bad day to be a dickhead with Adam Bolt defending the Pride Championship against Tony Wright. This was Tony Wright’s crowning moment. Everything had built towards this moment. Every ounce of hurt, every conniving trick that Adam Bolt had played, every single loss that Wright had dealt with at the hands of Bolt had led up to this.

Tony Wright was going to leave Redemption as the True Grit Wrestling Pride Champion and there was literally no other option. That’s what I thought.

It was for that exact reason that I was surprised and slightly miffed that this wasn’t the main event. It felt like it should have been the main event. Tony Wright finally overcoming the odds and winning the belt should have been the main event because that was what was supposed to happen.

There was nothing about this match, with Jackie T locked in the shark cage, that pointed anywhere else other than Tony Wright becoming champion. Tony Wright did everything that the underdog crowd favourite with the deck stacked against him should do when they finally win.

He blocked the hairspray. He stopped Adam Bolt from using the title belt in a to and fro tug of war over the object that both men have obsessed over. When Adam broke Jackie out of the shark cage, Tony superkicked Jackie straight in his gob, allowing security to manhandle him back into the cage.

Tony Wright had a counter for every single one of Adam Bolt’s schemes because this was the day that Tony Wright became champion. It was the only logical outcome. Our hero was going to claim his fairy tale ending and become the Leading Man of True Grit.

Adam Bolt doesn’t deal in logic. He doesn’t care about fairy tale endings and he always has one more trick up his sleeve. If Bolt had been stacking the deck against Tony Wright in their previous meetings, here he played his Joker when a masked man ran to the ring and smashed the Pride title over Tony’s head.

After Bolt got the pin, reclaiming his title, the masked man revealed himself as Evan Bishop.

In my time as a wrestling fan, I’ve seen countless bad guys win and there are a number of ways that I react to that. Sometimes it’s a reluctant nod of the head because the story hasn’t reached its crescendo yet, sometimes it’s by booing with a smile across my face because the match or angle was brilliant, sometimes it’s with genuine anger or annoyance.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever felt this way before. I wasn’t angry at yet more shenanigans from Adam Bolt. I wasn’t booing because that’s what I’m meant to do. I wasn’t thinking about where the story was going to go next.

No. I wasn’t doing any of that. I wasn’t really doing anything. I’ve never felt so flat at the outcome of a wrestling match, especially in-person. The only thing I can compare it to is when you’re at the football and your team concedes a late goal. A complete gut punch that renders you incapable of communicating any other emotion apart from pure disbelief.

That’s how I felt. When there’s an interval at the wrestling, I usually go for a quick piss, grab a pint and then check my notes from the first half to make sure they make sense.

I couldn’t do that. I had to go for some fresh air and a walk around. I was absolutely fucking stunned at not getting the result that I was so convinced was coming.

I want wrestling to make me feel. As I get older, those moments of feeling something really negative are becoming few and far between. The fact something can happen that still actually hurts is beautiful, in a brutal, horribly uncomfortable sort of way.

After coming to terms with that, refuelling on Left Bank lager and heading back to my spot, I was ecstatic to hear NashBoat’s music which signalled their tag team title match against Misery Business.

NashBoat were going to fix this by being their absolutely ridiculous selves and it’s always good to see the Misery Business boys kicking arse. This is what I needed and that’s what we got as NashBoat bumbled their ways into successful positions and Misery Business looked on in confusion in between kicks and lariats.

Away from the comedic side of things, the amount of work Wing Commander Nash is putting in at the gym was noticeable as he Airplane Spin’d Alan Kay and looked leaner and meaner than in recent months.

A moment of miscommunication between Nash and Ace Matthews led directly into Misery Business winning, wrapping things up quite quickly.

Post-match, Nash seemed to be blaming Ace for the loss. Ace is usually the one in NashBoat who “carries” the team from a wrestling standpoint and it’s Nash who gets carried away with things, but here it had been Ace who’d taken his eyes off the prize.

As Ace apologised and gestured along with the crowd for the pair to hug it out, I got my phone out to snap a picture. I like to take a few pictures to help break up the words in reviews and I like to do so at opportune times when it isn’t distracting me from the action.

There wasn’t a single fibre of my being that was expecting Wing Commander Nash to kick Ace Matthews in the dick and I certainly wasn’t expecting James Carr to walk out and reinstate Nash as a permanent member of the True Grit roster.

Nash followed JC’s instruction to “do what we talked about” and levelled Ace with a high-angle powerbomb, perhaps fittingly the most vicious piece of offence we’ve ever seen from Nash.

On the same day that the Regime lost Sash, they gained Nash. Nash is trash and a year after they had won the tag titles in jubilant scenes, here lies NashBoat in ruins. RIP.

In the same way that as a 30-year-old wrestling fan it is difficult to make me *really* feel negatively about a bad guy now, it’s difficult to *really* shock me and for a moment to leave me speechless. This did.

When you’ve watched wrestling for long enough, you can begin to recognise patterns or pick up on certain tells. You can see what’s coming and sometimes the most predictable thing can be the best.

This wasn’t that. This never looked to be on the cards. There was no clues, no inklings or indications. This was as pure of a WTF moment as I think you can get in modern wrestling.

NashBoat hadn’t been the expected soother for the emotional damage I’d received in the Pride Championship match and Wing Commander Nash had compounded it so praise the lord for Gung Ho Muttley.

Muttley’s ongoing losing streak has been a brilliant addition to the core True Grit offering. Currently at 0-5, the Sportstar challenged Sean Only to a MMMA fight. No, I haven’t fallen asleep on the keyboard. That stands for a Mixed Muttley Martial Arts fight.

This was the lighthearted silly bollocks we all needed after Bolt and Nash’s treachery – Gung-Ho Muttley doing his best Daniel LaRusso impressions.

Only watched on thoroughly unimpressed as Muttley performed crane kick poses, took self-imposed breaks in the corner with Caddie and celebrated minor successes like Olympic medals before putting Muttley to sleep and adding another loss to his chalkboard.

While Muttley is definitely a panto villain in this role rather than an out-and-out baddy, his berating and beating of Caddie following a loss gets some real boos. God, let Caddie beat him. That would be mega.

The main event saw Riley Nova defend the True Grit Men’s Championship against Brady Phillips and Kemper. All three men share a deep-rooted animosity for each other after months of crossing swords for the championship.

While Riley Nova is the target of the most raw, visceral hatred from both men, there was never going to be an alliance between Brady and Kemper. Before Riley stabbed Phillips in the back and took the championship, it was Brady being held up by the Regime and constantly derailing Kemper’s attempts to become champion.

There was bad blood on all sides and despite Riley taking the brunt of both men’s fury to start, old wounds were quickly reopened and all-out war commenced.

Prior to the show, I wrote a feature on Riley Nova and how he hadn’t truly cemented himself as THE MAN during his title reign and for the opening half of this match, it looked like he was out to prove me and the rest of the True Grit faithful wrong.

He might not have been an uber courageous hero in the face of danger, and he obviously shouldn’t have been, but he didn’t resort to many tricks to get himself out of harm’s way.

Instead, he bit down on the proverbial gumshield and came out swinging. He was intelligent rather than cowardly in picking off both men and knowing when to let them knock lumps out of each other.

But as we all know, a leopard can’t change his spots and when Brady looked on the verge of winning the match, Riley superkicked Ref Scott, allowing the Regime’s paid off official Ref Lee to take charge of proceedings.

Riley’s ruse looked to be paying dividends when both Brady and Kemper were scuppered by Lee’s slow counts. A Brady piledriver onto Nova elicited one of the slowest counts in wrestling history, one which was only matched by the one following Kemper’s huge lariat and F5 combo on Brady.

Apoplectic with rage, Kemper went to take his anger out on Lee but Riley got the roll-up and Ref Lee suddenly went into overdrive, slapping two before Kemper’s shoulders had fully touched the mat, but not fast enough to hit the three before Brady Phillips took matters into his own hand, spiking Lee straight onto his head. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

From here on out, the pace was cranked up to the maximum with massive power moves and vindictive aggression.

The shared history between the three was fully on display here. They have spent near enough every True Grit show of the past twelve months involved in some combination whether in singles, tags or multi-mans and that understanding equals excellent action. Everything is done to hurt, to render the other incapacitated or unconscious.

Kemper thrives in this chaos where he can pick one dude up, fling them around then grab hold of someone else. Riley Nova has a viciousness to his moves that others are never able to unlock and Brady Phillips is quite simply the most underrated wrestler in the UK.

You can build a promotion around Brady Phillips. You can hate Brady Phillips and as we’ve found out recently in True Grit, you can love Brady Phillips too.

It would’ve been crazy to think this time last year that seeing Brady Phillips handcuffed and taking a hell of a beating would be a bad thing, but the Left Bank roared it’s support for Phillips as his former protege tried to decapitate him with strikes. There had been glimpses of their old relationship earlier in the match but this was pure hatred come to the fore.

The crowd did the same in support of the giant Kemper, when neither a savage elbow or a title belt to the skull from Nova could keep the monster down.

However, the former Heir to the Throne was now the King of True Grit and he wasn’t going to stop there. If you can’t keep a monster down, if you can’t tame it, you execute it. Off with his head, said the young King and stuck a chair round the neck of Kemper before positioning himself for the stomp.

If it would’ve been crazy to think this time last year that seeing Brady Phillips handcuffed and taking a beating would be a bad thing, seeing him defend Kemper would’ve been beyond unthinkable, as he threw himself in front of the beast.

As Riley superkicked Brady, hands still cuffed behind his back, the former champion remained defiant. One wouldn’t take him down. Neither would two or three. It was four kicks straight to the head before Brady Phillips hit the canvas.

In the answer to one of the weirdest possible pub quiz questions, it takes the same time it takes to deliver four superkicks as it does for a monster to catch his breath.

The breath in Riley Nova’s lungs would soon leave his body as he was hoisted high into the air and brought crashing down to the canvas by a humongous Kemper chokeslam, and the True Grit Men’s Championship would leave his grasps seconds later as Kemper pinned him to become a two time champion.

This is by far the longest time I’ve spent on a single show review. It was a show that pulled me in so many different directions that it’s been hard to put things into words and it all justice. I’ve been ready to hit the publish button and scrapped the full thing twice and I hope I never lose that kind of desire to celebrate professional wrestling.

There is no emotional rollercoaster like professional wrestling and True Grit Redemption 2026 put me through the ringer. It’s days like that one which emphasise exactly why we need to protect, celebrate and promote this scene as best as possible.

Professional Wrestling. There’s nothing else like it.

– James Woodgate

Image Credits: True Grit Wrestling, @Elliottt93