Wrestling should be fun. Whatever fun means to you, you should get some sense of enjoyment out of it.

This summer, for the first time in a long time, wrestling hasn’t been fun for me. That has largely been my own doing. I’ve had a fantastic summer socially – stag dos, weddings, friends welcoming babies into the world – but it’s been an incredibly busy one.

That’s come at the same time that I’ve been doing the job of three people at work. That’s not an exaggeration, we’ve got two people on long-term sick and I’ve had to take over their full remits on top of my own.

What’s that got to do with wrestling? Well, rather hypocritically, I decided at the start of the summer to try and keep up with multiple promotions, tournaments and weekly TV.

That’s made watching wrestling feel more like a second job than a hobby. You can literally have too much of a good thing and I’ve been in desperate need of someone or something to jolt a bit of fun back into my wrestling life.

I can always count on True Grit to do that and New Grit Rising was a lot of fun.

Held at a new venue in Leeds, New Grit Rising was a chance for some new faces who have been training at the True Grit Academy to make their mark in the company.

While it wasn’t a traditional, full-hog True Grit show (there were no title matches on the card), it wouldn’t be correct to call this a trainee/Academy show. This was more like a spotlight show, to shine a light on some up and coming talent.

True Grit run at nice venues. The Left Bank is the most beautiful wrestling venue in the country and they do a great job at making you forget that you’re sat in an assembly hall over at Millthorpe School.

The Attic isn’t beautiful and it’s quite unapologetic in what it is. It’s grungy, it’s tight and that’s really cool. The ring was low. smaller than usual and there was barely a gap between the apron and the front row of seats, giving everything a proper fight club feel.

A perfect setting for these up and coming wrestlers to have to prove themselves. They do Veltins on tap, in actual Veltins pint glasses as well, so that’s a major bonus.

With this being a showcase, with some unfamiliar names on the card, the scouting goggles were on. Let’s get into it, shall we?

New Grit Rising opened with Oscar Vice taking on Gavin Sheldrake. Oscar has lots of nicknames and both lads here were in good nick.

There’s always a risk, when two “unknowns” are making their debuts at a company, that the crowd are going to be quiet and unsure of who to get behind. Credit to both Oscar and Gavin who made it perfectly clear just by their ringwalks as to who was the good guy and who was the villain.

Vice has been training under both Chris Ridgeway and Brady Phillips. If that information hadn’t been disclosed in the True Grit newsletter, you could’ve had a good stab at guessing given his swagger and penchant for leathering his opponent.

Again, credit to both lads, as neither held back when it came to the striking exchanges. Dudes hitting dudes is my jam.

Eager to please, Gavin was probably a bit too ambitious with some of his moves, but managed to score the pinfall with the Angels Wings.

In terms of next time out for both, I’d like to see Vice try and go blow-for-blow with Joe Wade while it’d be good to see if Sheldrake’s heroic fire could stand up to the new, super aggressive version of Riley Nova.

Did you know Lucy Couture is the best? Apparently, Lucy Couture is the best. You’d never know if I hadn’t told you. It’s not like she mentions it every thirty seconds.

A part of my job is working with kids who are struggling to attend school and Lucy reminds me of all of the mean girl secondary school students that I deal with. The ones where EVERYTHING that goes wrong is someone else’s fault, they’re infallible and think that the entire world revolves around them.

That’s Lucy Couture. She’s a bitch and it works really well, especially in this smaller setting where you could hear and see everything she was trying to get across. It also worked because she was up against Melissa Fierce who radiates stardust. She walks out and everyone immediately wants to cheer for her.

I wouldn’t mind going travelling with Lucy Couture. Not in a weird way. It’s just that if there’s a shortcut, she’ll take it, no questions asked. You’d get loads done.

Whether it was hiding behind the referee, faking injuries or grabbing handfuls of Fierce’s hair, nothing was off the table.

Not even a bagful of shenanigans was enough for Couture though, with Fierce eventually wrapping up the victory, as she continues her road towards a crack at the True Grit Women’s Championship.

Lucy Couture would definitely be a welcome addition to a division in need of a revamp. She has a touch of Alexxis Falcon about her, so it’d be entertaining to see them try and out-bitch each other, but they might end up being pals. Nobody wants that.

The match for Lucy is with Hollie Barlow. Going by the poster for the next show, we might be getting that. Great minds?

Before we moved onto the next match, as Bobby Cash was giving a shout out to newly crowned Pride Champion Tony Wright and Pele who were in attendance, he was interrupted by Adam Bolt, Jackie T and Evan Bishop.

Bolt let Tony know that he didn’t have to worry about him anymore because after taking the Pride Championship to unprecedented levels over his 623 day reign, he had his sights set on a different prize.

Adam Bolt will be making a move into the heavyweight division and his first step would be partnering Brad Matthews in the main event in place of Riley Nova, against two former heavyweight champions in Nsereko and Brady Phillips.

At some point in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be taking a long-form look at Adam Bolt’s Pride title reign. For now, this is welcome news as it frees up the Pride division for new arcs and matches, while giving the heavyweight division a new contender.

Talking about the Pride division and new arcs, Mr Sammy Blue. I missed one show and you started being a doyle? What you fucking playing at? Dickhead.

The newly villainous Sammy teamed with “Box Office” Blackmore, a.k.a. Sammy 2, against the Cyberpunks team of Pop Punk Kid and Jay Vertigo. It’s good to see PPK has a new mate after losing the ability to tag with Jack Bandicoot last year.

This was a fantastic introduction to what to expect from Gen B – Sammy Blue and Sammy 2 – with loads of cheating, screaming and being general pains in the arse.

I’ve been on a bit of a Criminal Minds binge at the minute, so it’s difficult to ignore some of the telltale signs of a dominant/submissive criminal relationship between Gen B.

Sammy Blue is the dominant personality. He’s the leader. Very confident. He’s also a narcissist. Selfish, arrogant, vain. They don’t care about others but desperately need constant praise which can often be found from a source they exert significant control over.

In steps Sammy 2. Sammy 2 is the submissive. He’s been given a position of significance by Sammy Blue, somewhere where he can finally be heard and seen, so he’ll do anything to please Sammy Blue and keep himself in the “good books”.

Gen B do look similar, particularly when they’re on the move, and there are many avenues for hilarity and shenanigans with the pair.

A low blow from Sammy 2 on Vertigo led to the win. While Sammy Blue got into Tony Wright’s face at the end of the match, I wouldn’t be opposed to Gen B taking a crack at the tag division. Alongside the Cyberpunks, they could add fresh impetus to a division that looks quite sparse right now.

Prior to the interval, Billy O’Keefe took on David Graves, in a match that cemented the fact that this was not an academy show.

Welcome back, Dave. It’s been a while. The last time I saw David Graves wrestle was as part of Go Team Sports with Ace Matthews when Tidal were in the 02 Academy in Leeds. That’s a decade ago. Bloody hell. Nothing stops the march of time.

However, this is a different David now. This is a much more serious, shredded and accomplished David Graves taking on Billy O’Keefe, who looks destined to hold championship gold in True Grit.

There was a lot of respect shown between the pair in the opening stages as they matched each other from a technical standpoint, with two sequences ending in handshakes. When Billy had edged the third and reached out his hand, Graves smacked it away in frustration.

I know how you feel, mate. We’ve got a new apprentice at work who runs rings around me when it comes to IT and I’ve never felt older.

As the frustration grew on Graves’ end so did the physicality of the match, which only served to get the crowd more and more invested in the outcome.

The intimate nature of The Attic meant that neither man could rely on dives or crowd brawling to get a big reaction, which is testament to their talent that they could keep everyone onside throughout a contest that was held almost exclusively between the ropes.

Like a ticking clock, we went from chain wrestling and submissions round to strikes and slams, only to come back to the mat and at no point did that kill the enthusiasm of the crowd.

Billy was half a step ahead of Graves at nearly every turn, whether it was maintaining wrist control or making sure he had his feet positioned to quickly cut off the ring.

You see it in boxing and MMA all of the time, activity is key. When he managed to hoist Graves over his head and slam him into the mat from an attempted armbar, the veteran finally snapped.

First by trying to use his pocketwatch to smack O’Keefe and then by using the ropes for leverage on a cover, David Graves felt like he had to resort to underhanded tactics to put away his younger counterpart. Twice he was caught redhanded by Ref Sandy.

GOOD. Can we stop pretending that every referee is an incompetent, bumbling idiot?

O’Keefe used a modified crossface to finally put Graves away in an absolute showstealer that is comfortably the best live match I’ve seen this summer. With that win, O’Keefe will main event the next “New Grit” show in November.

Following the break, Matty Carter and Lew Recurso set out to make their own statements in True Grit.

I’m not a Bring Me the Horizon fan but wrestlers coming out to Bring Me the Horizon scratches an itch for me.

Both Recurso and Carter are highly thought of in the local Yorkshire scene and it’s easy to see why. They both understand what they want to be.

Lew came away with the win and it’ll be interesting to see where they both go next. Recurso is on the poster for True Grit’s next show (Nightmare, 12th September).

While it won’t be the match at that show, his heavy hitting style could be a great foil for Joey Slade, while I could see Matty Carter losing his cool in an entertaining way with Ace Matthews.

True Grit owner, leader of The Regime and all-round curmudgeon JC was out next with Nash (BOO) to criticise the Hot Tag Foundation and announce his intention to never work with any charities again. JC HATES CHARITY.

Then a big fella stood up from the front row and climbed into the ring. This big fella trains at the True Grit Academy. This big fella is called Big Dave and he likes charity. I like whatever Big Dave likes ’cause Big Dave looks like he’d eat me.

After some back and forth, Big Dave and JC agreed that in York, the Regime will take on Dave, Nsereko and Ace Matthews and Big Dave can use his in-ring debut to raise funds for the Hot Tag Foundation. Then things got physical and Big Dave pushed JC over. Well, given it was a smaller ring, he almost pushed him out of it.

Might not be the wisest decision in the long run, big lad, but it’s always funny to see James Carr get put on his backside.

It’s also always good to see Evan Bishop get smacked. That guy has got one of the most punchable, smackable, slappable, annoying faces in British wrestling and Ruby Brocco made sure to get as many punches, smacks and slaps in as she physically could.

Ruby Brocco was incredibly popular here. I wasn’t expecting that and neither was Evan, by the looks of things. He approached the match with his usual arrogance and was immediately on the back foot, with Brocco bringing a real physical presence that he wasn’t prepared for.

Though Bishop eventually shithoused his way to the win with his feet on the ropes, he got a much harder day at the office than he anticipated.

If she wasn’t retired, a match with Ivy would have been the ideal goal for Ruby. With her physicality, she could be a good opponent for someone like Lucy Sky or Lana Austin.

The main event had the vibes of a Teddy Long era SmackDown with Brady Phillips and Wesley Nsereko taking on Adam Bolt and Brad Matthews.

Though the crowd are now fully behind Brady Phillips since his return to the company, with all of their shared history over the title, could he and Nsereko coexist? Holla, holla.

I’m so glad that we can cheer for Brady in True Grit now. He’s one of my favourite wrestlers in the country. I’m very much a traditionalist in that I’ll cheer the heroes and boo the villains so having the opportunity to get behind Brady is great.

As an aside, Brady posted a photo on socials after the show confirming that he’s undergone a long-awaited surgery. Hope you have the best recovery possible, boss.

All four men had their moments, but the best interactions were between Phillips and Bolt and not just when it came to their strong as fuck ringcoat game.

Brady constantly mocked Adam’s announcement of moving up to the heavyweight division by following up each of his powerhouse moves with an “are you sure?”. That eventual singles match is going to rock.

This match was a bucketful of yay/boo in the best way possible and there isn’t a better yay/boo man in the country than Wesley Nsereko.

The former heavyweight champions combined with aplomb on a number of tag moves and counters, doling out bodyslams aplenty, even getting Ref Sandy in on the fun. When things got a little *too* fun, Jackie T would interfere and set things in motion again.

Getting to be up close to watch Brad Matthews was great. He got to display lots of his power rather than relying heavily on shenanigans and I hadn’t realised how much of a unit he is.

If these are the levels we can expect from an Adam Bolt heavyweight run, then count me in (as if I wasn’t already). He cut through the daftness with a tightrope flipping DDT thingy that was sublime.

He has a fair bit to learn about heavyweight wrestling though as Brady caught him out of a flip into the Phillips Screwdriver as Nsereko landed a Ugandan headbutt on Brad for the win.

LOTS OF FUN.

That was my main takeaway from the main event and the show as a whole. Fun.

After all, wrestling should be fun. Whatever fun means to you.

Image Credits: @Elliottt93, True Grit Wrestling