Revolution Pro Wrestling’s 14 Year Anniversary show was a celebration of the past, present and future of British wrestling.

In the same venue that has hosted the likes of Led Zeppelin, Prince, ABBA, David Bowie, Beyonce and Oasis, Europe’s premier promotion welcomed a record-breaking crowd to the iconic arena the day before AEW: All In across the road in Wembley Stadium.

RevPro announced that they’d broken their previous attendance record (4072) prior to doors opening and during the broadcast Andy Quildan and Dave Bradshaw on commentary went from referencing “close to 4500” to “nearly 5000” over the course of the night.

Whether they eclipsed the 4750 strong crowd that PROGRESS put into the same building in 2018 is up for debate. There has been no confirmed final figure and you would imagine if they had beaten that, that RevPro would have mentioned it by now. However, anything close to that number has to be considered a major success and it certainly felt like there were between 4500-5000 people there on the night.

Before we get into the matches, it has to be said that from a presentation side of things, everyone was on point. Every single person on the card had top-end ring gear, RevPro has never felt as big-time and this was by far and away Francesca Oliver’s best evening as a ring announcer. Everything felt like a big deal from the pre-show to the main event.

How do you make a pre-show match feel like a big deal? Get Jon Moxley and Marina Shafir to second Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta for their match against the Flying Bryant Brothers, of course.

Mad respect for Jon Moxley turning up to both EVE and RevPro in a non-wrestling capacity. He literally did not have to be in the building on either night, he could’ve been sat in his hotel watching reruns of Four in a Bed, but he absolutely LOVES this shit.

That meant that, even though people were still filing in at this point, the majority were paying attention to Leland and Zander Bryant’s courageous attempts to overcome the Death Riders.

This was simple, straightforward wrestling and that’s a compliment. Goody vs. baddy, wahey wrestling is the best way to open any show, whether that’s at Wembley Arena or the former Wyvern Hall in Sittingbourne where RevPro ran some of their original shows.

Death Riders shithousery laid the platform for Zander and Leland to use their sparky attitudes and high-octane offence to get the crowd to “wahey” and “woah”, settling them in for the evening’s entertainment.

There has been plenty of discussion about AEW potentially using their relationships with other companies as a way of getting their contracted wrestlers more live reps through lengthy talent loans. Can we keep Daniel Garcia for 3 months, lads? Go on, Tony lad.

Despite the Bryants showing lots of fire, Shafir distracted the referee which allowed Yuta to get a naughty boy roll-up with his feet on the ropes for a Death Riders win.

As the crowd gave the brothers a hearty ovation, Top Tier’s Josh Holly and James Ellis attacked them to effectively rob them of their Wembley Moment™ which we’d pick back up later on.

A 10 minute delay to the Death Riders vs. Bryants tag kicking off effectively meant that it became the show opener rather than a pre-show, as there was minimal turnaround before Will Kaven, Mark Trew, Kieron Lacey and Ricky Knight Jr. made their way down to face CPF.

Big fan of RKJ coming down separately to the rest of his “team”. His dressing down of Kaven in the backstage reactions following Unfinished Business a few weeks ago were class. All four men might be despicable but that’s the only thing that connects them.

If we were still in school, RKJ would be the captain of the footy team (when he’s not getting in bother) while Kaven would be round the bike sheds smoking rollies and listening to screamy music.

The rest of the CPF lads were able to convince Callum Newman to don the jumpsuit once again and we were all set for a 8-man tag before Sha Samuels swanned down the aisle.

The absolute guvnor of RevPro smugly announced that Andy Quildan had lifted his suspension and this was now a 10-man tag, or more aptly, a 5-on-4 because CPF have no other mates left to call up.

Sha was never actually going to miss the Anniversary show and I’m glad it wasn’t a case of him trying to muscle his way into the Gauntlet or anything like that. Yes, it’s wrestling, but a suspension should actually mean something and him breaking that with no further consequence would’ve been daft.

It wouldn’t have been right for RevPro to celebrate their 14 Year Anniversary, on the biggest stage they’ve ever been on, without Sha who has meant so much to both the company and British wrestling at large.

There’s someone else who had to be there on the night in some capacity. Whether anyone thought that WILLIAM FUCKING OSPREAY was going to turn up and actually wrestle is another thing, as he came to even the odds for CPF. LIMBS.

I know some people think he’s a dick, but Ospreay didn’t have to do that. He wasn’t far off being twenty four hours away from the biggest match of his entire life, from headlining Wembley Stadium against Kenny Omega in front of 40,000+ fans.

It wasn’t like he turned up and pulled a Naito special either. He was still springboarding and diving his big, daft head off.

All ten lads put a shift into what was a pure party match but special mention for Danny Black, here. This was the best he’s ever looked, in my eyes, as he got the shit beat out of him and pulled off loads of cool shit in equal measure. Cool shit is cool.

While there had been some tension between Newman and Ospreay prior to the match kicking off, Newman set Ospreay up to decapitate Mark Trew with the Hidden Blade to score the win for Close Personal United Empire Friends.

After the match, Ospreay asked his “little brother” to be in his corner at All In and in spite of their ongoing tension, Newman accepted. Brothers can argue, brothers can fight and fall out , but they should always be there when it matters most.

Speaking of brothers, it was good to see Ethan Allen accompanying Luke Jacobs to ringside for his match against PAC. Of course, it will have been bittersweet for Ethan, but he still showed up for his best mate. That’s the mentality.

Here, PAC is in good shape, isn’t he? Good lord, I had worse looking Action Men when I was a kid.

The Young Guns are the absolute kiddies. I love the larger-than-life, over-the-top aspects of professional wrestling, but I connect with Luke and Ethan because they are two very normal Northern lads.

You can walk into any pub or football away end and find lads like Luke and Ethan. Hell, I grew up with and still have mates who are like Luke and Ethan.

While this wasn’t the match that either of the Young Guns wanted, when Jacobs was forced to pivot and throw out an open challenge for Wembley, there wasn’t a more perfect opponent than PAC.

The Geordie is a genuine British wrestling legend, a trailblazer and fit right in with the celebration of the overall scene.

His evolution from a human highlight reel to this grungy, gnarly powerhouse made him a perfect match-up stylistically for Jacobs, too. PAC is no longer “The Man That Gravity Forgot” which meant we were in for a load of suplexes, headbutts and slams.

After a tekky start where Jacobs was more than a match for the veteran, PAC made things dirty with elbows and palm strikes, roughing the younger man up in the clinch.

Every little trick of the trade riled up Luke more and more as the crowd, which started the match in favour of PAC, got more and more behind the Manchester lad.

It wouldn’t be unfair to say that the majority of the crowd were AEW fans that RevPro had managed to grab the attention of, rather than your regular BritWres fan, which made for some interesting atmospheres during the night, particularly in this match.

Ethan was cheering on Luke at ringside by, in what became a bit of a theme of the weekend, acting like a teammate rather than a manager. Having a second with you makes wrestling feel far more like a sport. They don’t have to get involved.

I tell you what though, if PAC had laid a finger on Ethan, which he half-threatened to do at one point, I would’ve jumped down from the stands and steamed into the Geordie bastard. We are the Geordie haters, after all. (This is a joke).

RevPro have often been criticised for rolling over for the big companies and having imports beat their homegrown talent. I know it’s how things work but it’s a legitimate criticism. How many times has a big RevPro show ended with the imports whitewashing the regular roster?

Even with that thought in the back of my mind, I bit like fuck on the two nearfalls after Luke nailed PAC with a piledriver and then a lariat. Like, I was out of my seat, levels of biting.

With what looked to be Luke’s full arsenal used up, it felt like a matter of time before PAC got the win. Except he didn’t use up his full arsenal and PAC didn’t win.

LUKE JACOBS CHOKED PAC THE FUCK OUT.

If you can find lads like Luke and Ethan in a football away end, you’ll find lads celebrating a goal this weekend like I celebrated Jacobs winning this match here. Mega.

He has been using the rear naked choke to win recent RevPro outings, though this result makes it a legitimate killer move now. Every time he locks that in, it’s going to feel like a death knell.

The first of two contests to decide the new #1 contender to the promotion’s main championships was next, with a six-woman scramble for the right to challenge for the Undisputed British Women’s Championship.

This was a personal opportunity to see a couple of wrestlers live for the first time in Cory Zero and Myla Grace.

Myla Grace looks like she’s walked straight out of a SmackDown taping (compliment). If she is not wrestling on American television in some guise in the next two years, I’ll be gobsmacked.

Cory Zero is wicked. Apparently she’s coming up to four years of active competition? If she’s this good now, who knows where she’ll be in another four years time.

Someone I used to see lots of live “back in the day” is Kay Lee Ray and she’s still class, now. What a fantastic resource it must be to have someone of her ability and experience around the scene.

There were some belting tandem and double moves here, especially the dual double submissions that Grace and Zero locked in.

Grace really impressed here though it probably wasn’t the best idea to piss off Rhio by trying to steal the win, after the “Leader of the Pack” had levelled Lucy Sky with a package piledriver.

In the ensuing carnage, Sky was able to hoist Grace up and drop her with a Michinoku Driver for the victory, in what was quite a surprising outcome.

This should open up a few paths for the Women’s Division going forward, with a simmering rivalry between Rhio and Grace, the on-off relationship with Rhio and Emersyn Jayne and Sky as #1 contender.

RevPro need to flesh the division out and this was a great showcase for six women they can really start to build something around, outside of a title match.

TOP TIER…WANKERS. It’s good that, isn’t it?

We spoke at the top about how big-time everyone looked on this card, whether it was because of new ring gear or a concerted effort to get into “Wembley shape”, and Top Tier were no exception.

Ellis and Holly look good in suits. They’re dickheads but you can’t deny, they’ve got style and Leyton Buzzard was not to be outdone.

The defending Undisputed British Cruiserweight Champion looked the business at Wembley. He looked like a champion.

His match with Nino Bryant, that has been bubbling away over the summer, was full of the shenanigans and shortcuts that we’ve become accustomed to when it comes to Top Tier. He is the man with a plan, El Capitan, after all.

There were multiple instances of Ellis and Holly interfering and Buzzard (seemingly) faking damage to his previously injured knee.

When Ellis and Holly were ejected, with Leland and Zander coming down to make sure they left ringside and steal back their Wembley Moment™ from earlier, it felt like everything was set up for Nino to reclaim the Cruiserweight belt.

It may have been the occasion or the summer of torment from Buzzard, but when Nino landed a splash, he opted to go up top for another when he likely could have secured the pinfall there and then.

That miscalculation allowed Buzzard to catch Nino and sink in a guillotine choke, submitting Bryant, to keep hold of the gold.

If you were dialling into RevPro for the first time, it might have been a bit of a head scratcher to see Nino lose. Surely you would want one of your young, homegrown good guys getting the gloss of a Wembley Moment™ and overcoming a resident bad guy?

In most cases, you would. However, Nino Bryant didn’t need a moment. He’s had a boatload of them already as a two time British J-Cup winner, a former champion and having been given the thumbs up by Jushin “Thunder” Liger on last year’s Anniversary show.

Buzzard was the one that needed this and he’s a fantastic foil for the young starlets in the division like the Bryant clan, Leon Cage and Cameron Khai as well as the established names like Robbie X and Joe Lando.

The second of four title matches was next, with the Cowboy Way defending against a pair of living legends in FTR. Ooh boy, strap yourselves in, my Spidey senses told me this one was going get fucking tasty baby.

FTR and Cowboy Way beat seven shades of shit out of each other, here. It wasn’t a match, it was a fight. It was two teams coming together for a shootout, a proper shootout, like a Western, It was proper tag team wrestling at its blood-soaked best.

Some of the early stages of the match weren’t meant to be instant shots of dopamine for the crowd. It was a dirty, nasty, vicious scrap between four blokes who live for this shit. It was a fight that built and built in severity and violence rather than jumped the gun from the opening minute.

There had been lots of talk about FTR’s legacy coming into this match and Cowboy Way turned the tables on the “Top Guys” by using all of their opponents old-school tactics on them. They isolated Cash and Dax from one another, they cut off tags, used foreign objects and dragged their opposite numbers off of surefire pinfalls at the last second to gain an upper hand.

Every underhanded trick that FTR had used in previous wars with American Alpha, the Young Bucks and the Briscoe Brothers was utilised by the Cowboy Way.

It is easy to make note of the tag team history that flows through both teams with Dennis Condrey of the Midnight Express and Dory Funk Jr. playing a hand in training Dax Harwood and Thomas Shire respectively, but this was very much a love letter to that time in tag team wrestling and both men bled in a fitting tribute to their mentors.

Though this was a tag team match, some of the best parts of the match came when the two teams were paired off in 1 v 1s, with Manders and Dax slugging it out and Shire and Wheeler attempting to flatline each other.

Dax and Manders particularly seemed intent on coming away from this encounter with the bragging rights. Their brawl in the middle of the ring brought Wembley to its feet.

There was a lovely touch from Shire here after Dax had kicked out of a piledriver. Rather than pulling “TV FACES”, he stepped over Harwood and clubbed Wheeler, who had attempted to break up the cover. Head on a swivel.

Photography is so important in wrestling and there are some fucking stunning images of Thomas Shire, doused in his own blood, from a number of the immensely talented individuals we have on the UK independent scene. Have a blast through his Instagram and support those people.

FTR eventually captured the Undisputed British Tag Team Championships after landing the Shatter Machine on Manders. Hopefully this means we get to see FTR return to RevPro a couple of times in the same way Mercedes was able to pop back and forth when she was Women’s Champion.

FTR and Cowboy Way may have been incredibly physical but it wasn’t particularly personal. It was business.

Leon Slater versus Liam Slater was as personal as you can get, as the star student of the Slater Dojo got his hands on the man he once called “Coach”.

There was a time when RevPro were roundly knocked for not “telling stories”. We’re so far removed from that time that it doesn’t really need reiterating, but for anyone that may have been in attendance because they were already down for All In, this should be the final nail in the coffin of that particular opinion.

Since Liam Slater walked into the promotion in December 2024, all roads have led to this final outcome. They were always going to clash. One of them was always going to reach a breaking point. Whether it was Liam’s meddling and manipulation or Leon overstepping his place within the Dojo hierarchy, it was going to come to a head.

It was simply a case of who would break first and when.

As previously stated, this show was a celebration of British wrestling’s past, present and future. Yorkshire is the unsung hero of British wrestling. It has produced some of the best talent of this generation, is home to some of the most passionate fans in the country and has multiple companies that are capable of bringing in audiences of 1000+.

Having Leon (the superstar of the region), Liam (the man forming the next generation, HMD (one of the regions brightest prospects) and Sandy Beeches (one of the best referees in the country who came through the PPW system) representing the area in an All-Yorkshire contest was mint.

It’s no secret that both WWE and AEW are circling Leon Slater, whose contract with TNA is reportedly up in October, and he’s ready to go. He looks like it. He feels it. Leon Slater is ready to be a television superstar.

He’s certainly progressed past Liam Slater’s teachings, edging ahead of his mentor in this match. In a story that has been so entrenched in that student-teacher relationship, both were forced to make tactical alterations as the match unfolded.

Leon had to be patient and let the opportunities to use his explosive offence to open up naturally, instead of pulling the trigger too soon. Liam had to be more explosive to damage his opponent, rather than focusing on a heavy mat-style.

There were times they seemed to be equal before one man would gain the upper hand like when both were locked in battle on the top rope before Liam dropped Leon gut-first onto the top turnbuckle, or when they both refused to let go of a suplex clinch and ended going over the top rope, where Leon drilled Liam onto the ring apron.

They both called upon their own influences and mirrored the others, The Styles Clash was expected. The 720 Phoenix DDT was not. A nice shout out to the legendary Jody Fleisch. That’s all that was. A nod of appreciation…

When Leon scored the pinfall with his patented 450 Swanton, he extended his hand to Liam who took it. All’s well that ends well. Except HMD attacked Leon from behind as he and the older Slater put the boots to the prodigy.

Enter Jody Fleisch. It wasn’t just a nod of appreciation. Here was Jody Fleisch live and in the flesh to make the save. He and Leon did the Spider-Man meme before embracing.

This was as true a celebration of British wrestling as we got all night. An icon of one generation standing side by side with the leader of the new generation.

I’ve been quite glowing about this show so far and – spoiler – I will continue to be. I will say, on the night, there was some discussion about the use of AI in people’s entrance videos. It was especially noticeable in the Revolution Gauntlet. Leon Cage’s video has the same font that every takeaway in my area uses in their advertising now. Wrap that in, please.

Good to hear Tom Campbell doing the countdowns for each entrant, though. He’s well good.

One of the things I enjoy about wrestling is when it is treated as a living organism and things bleed over from one promotion to the next. The Gauntlet scratched that itch a number of times.

Francesco Akira and Dan Moloney made a beeline for each other given their relationship in New Japan while Drilla and Robbie X, as Unbound Co. and formerly War Dog companions acknowledged that before cracking on. It’s every man for himself in a Gauntlet.

Nowhere was this more evident than when, with Moloney alone in the ring, Gabe Kidd entered to a thunderous reaction and the pair of them tore lumps out of each other for the rest of the match. Good idea from Isaac Murray who remained in the corner while Kidd and Moloney squared off at one point.

There were a good mix of surprise names and regular RevPro talent here with the final field being Leon Cage, Akira, Robbie X, Drilla, Kidd, Murray, David Francisco, Josh James, Henare, JJ Gale, Cameron Khai, TK Cooper and JEFF JARRETT.

I haven’t belly laughed at wrestling like I did when the ol’ bree woo hit and Double J came out. Who else in the history of pro wrestling has “stayed winning” like Jarrett? Some geezer and he got an enormous pop. TNA had a chokehold on the UK that is still felt today.

Well into TK and Henare having an Islander-Off in the centre of the ring before hugging it out and I was well into the finish of the match as well. Cooper had Francisco wrapped up in a submission at the same time as Moloney obliterated Leon Cage with a Drilla Killer. The ref counted the three moments before Francisco tapped out to.

Just because TK Cooper is paranoid doesn’t mean that RevPro isn’t out to get him. Mobilise.

We further celebrated the past, present and future of both Revolution Pro Wrestling and British wrestling as a whole when Jay Joshua faced off with Zack Sabre Jr.

When all is said and done, ZSJ will be considered on the Mount Rushmore of British wrestling. If you want a rundown of his accolades, check out my preview of this match Columns but while he only pops in on an annual basis now, there are few people more important to this scene than Sabre.

He looked to be in the party mood, swaggering down to a live performance of his tune by Mass Lines, ready for his yearly dose of RevPro fun.

This wasn’t fun for Jay Joshua, though. This wasn’t a party or a celebration. This was the biggest match of Jay Joshua’s career and he made sure Zack understood that early on. At Global Wars last year, I was a bit critical of Joshua in the opening stages of his match against Ishii, where it seemed like he showed a little too much respect to the Stone Pitbull.

There was no such issue here. Jay made Zack feel his power from the opening bell and if Sabre had come for a party, he was quickly forced into business.

He may be regarded as a technical wrestling icon but that exact reason is why Zack Sabre Jr. is also one of the nastiest motherfuckers in professional wrestling. I have no idea what it feels like to go through a sheet of glass or get hit by a steel chair (and I hope I never find out) but we all know what it feels like to twist a joint the wrong way or jar a limb.

When Zack targets a body part, he makes the crowd feel it and that was the case here, as he incessantly targeted Jay’s left arm. Twisting it, bending it, stamping it. Sabre did everything in his Rolodex of stretches, holds and submissions.

Being regarded as one of the best wrestlers of the twenty-first century would make anyone a bit of a prick and ZSJ has a bit of an ego on him. As noted frequently by Andy Quildan in the lead-up to this match, Zack can be goaded into striking battles and Joshua was able to do just that gaining the upper hand with a flurry of lefts, rights and elbows.

Though he wasn’t there on the night, ZSJ reversing Joshua’s Gotch-Style Piledriver evoked memories of Minoru Suzuki, himself a former Undisputed British Heavyweight and Tag Team champion.

For large parts of this match, Jay Joshua looked to be in step with Sabre, using his power advantage to equalise ZSJ’s technical prowess.

When Sabre would tie him one way, Jay would power out the other way. Every time Zack attempted to pull guard or wrap him in a triangle, Joshua was a threat to unleash some devastating ground and pound.

We’ve seen this countless times in RevPro though. It looks like someone is on the same level as Zack and then he starts to go through the gears. It’s just a case of how quickly you’ll fall behind the pace.

Since losing the Undisputed British Heavyweight title to Will Ospreay in 2020, nobody has beaten Zack in a RevPro ring. He has beaten Michael Oku, Leon Slater, Connor Mills, Zozaya, RKJ, Robbie X, Hechicero, Jordan Breaks and JJ Gale. They have all tried and they have all failed.

Everybody except Jay Joshua because when he uncorked a humongous lariat, the kind of lariat that 1 Called Manders used to threaten Joshua’s title reign earlier this year, and turned Zack Sabre Jr. inside out, there was no gear ZSJ could go to. You can’t go up a gear when somebody turns the power off.

Jay Joshua untangled the “Windy Man” and covered him for the 1…2…3!

Never mind “Say Less”, I couldn’t say anything. I was speechless.

Jay Joshua joins an incredibly exclusive list of men who’ve beaten ZSJ in RevPro singles competition. That list includes Shinsuke Nakamura, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii, Katsuyori Shibata and Kurt Angle.

If you are the company you keep, Jay Joshua is in for one hell of a career.

The less said about the company Alexxis Falcon keeps, the better. Shaun Jackson and Skye Smitson are a pair of sycophants. I’m sure everyone in BritWres was hoping for a Wembley Moment™. Not everyone decided to align themselves with the Wicked Bitch of Wrestling, though. *The purple gear looked good mind, troops.

Kanji and Falcon have been locked in a bitter rivalry with both women particularly quick to point out how different they are from each other at every possible opportunity.

That’s been clear in their actions, their motives and even in their choice of ring gear. Kanji’s yellow two-piece attire paid homage to the House of Pain, Stixx’s wrestling academy where Kanji honed her craft.

Falcon’s attire and entrance paid homage to the Iron Queen. To herself.

While they may be ethical opposites, they both shared a common goal as they squared off at Wembley. Both women were determined to walk out as Undisputed British Women’s Champion.

Kanji may be the darling of the RevPro masses, the underdog we all love to cheer for, but this was the most keyed in she’s ever been. As Francesca rolled through Falcon’s taglines, she refused to take her eyes off the woman who has cast a dark shadow over her year so far.

The seriousness of the encounter was shown as Kanji immediately went for the “Kanji Sabre Junior” head snap, a move she often reserves for later in a match. Kanji seemed dead set on popping Falcon’s head off her shoulders, like Sid in Toy Story with his sister’s toys.

Equally, Alexxis seemed as prioritised with stomping a hole in Kanji’s head as she was with retaining the championship. It was as if defeating Kanji would extinguish everything good and wholesome in RevPro, with only Falcon’s cackles left to pierce the darkness

The main issue that Kanji knew that she’d have to overcome to leave as champion – the presence of Smitson and Jackson – reared its head on multiple occasions.

When Falcon knocked Referee Tom Scarborough to the ground with a head kick, Kanji locked in a triangle choke that had the Iron Queen tapping, but nobody was there to confirm the call.

Instead, Falcon’s hyenas circled the ring. Skye picked up the belt and went to knock Kanji cold. In a nod to the incident that allowed Falcon to first win the belt, Kanji ducked and Smitson walloped her boss in the face. With Smitson dispatched, Kanji turned her attention to Jackson, who backed away like the coward he is straight into the arms of Stixx, who clobbered “Double Action” straight into a Kanji KO.

Great to see Stixx get involved here. We should never let the actions of a few be the reason that the achievements of the wrestlers who were involved in the “boom” period of 2014-2019 are lost to history.

With her minions in a heap on the floor, Alexxis caught Kanji with an inside cradle for a nearfall before eating a Kanji KO herself. When she kicked out, Kanji became incensed, snapping Falcon’s fingers then delivering some vicious ground and pound, forcing Scarborough to separate the pair to check on Falcon.

That flash of anger almost cost Kanji, as it gave Falcon the opportunity to land a huge OFF WITH HER HEAD. Thankfully, this wasn’t Falcon’s fairytale ending and Kanji kicked out just before three. Imagine if she hadn’t? We wouldn’t hear the end of it.

Falcon’s last roll of the dice was to spit in Kanji’s face. It’s a disgusting action but it’s been an effective one for Falcon. It has always resulted in Kanji losing her cool.

Until now.

Kanji caught Falcon’s spit, chopped her and absolutely smashed her with two Kanji KO elbows, one to the jaw and the other to the back of the head to claim the pinfall and finally become RevPro Undisputed Women’s Champion.

Alexxis Falcon created a monster and that monster was finally able to bite her back. Not by losing their temper, by tapping into a violent streak and taking control of it.

As Francesca confirmed that Kanji was THE NEW champion, there were jubilant scenes between Kanji, Stixx and the fans.

The reason this whole story has worked and the crowd reacted so enthusiastically to Kanji’s win is, aside from their being no better hero/villain combination currently in independent wrestling than Kanji and Falcon, this wasn’t Kanji’s 9th bite at the cherry.

This was her first shot at the championship since sharing the ring with Mercedes Mone at High Stakes in April 2025. That’s 16 months between title opportunities.

We didn’t have to suffer through Smitson interfering in one title match, then Jackson being introduced and interfering in another, to the point where Kanji simply HAD to win here.

She would have been the bookies favourite but it wasn’t inevitable. That made the moment so much sweeter and if the show had wrapped up here, I don’t think anyone could have complained.

However, there was one final score to settle. RevPro might have been working towards Wembley Arena for over a year but Connor Mills and Michael Oku had been working towards this moment for over six years.

From best friends to bitter enemies. From Destination Everywhere to Destination Wembley. Everything they have done to each other and in their own careers led to this moment. BIG FIGHT FEELS.

The battle started with the ringwalks that represented exactly who each man is. Connor Mills’ was brought to the ring by a live performance of his entrance music by Filthi, a gritty, smashmouth track delivered with a touch of spite.

On the other hand, Michael Oku, along with Amira, was sung to the ring by a spectacular performance by Tristan McIntosh that was full of grandeur, pomp and circumstance.

Mills has essentially been in fight camp for Wembley since May, after winning the Revolution Rumble. While his opponent remained a mystery for a while, he knew he was going to be here, allowing him to get into tremendous shape, with a single goal in mind. Oku did not and his journey here has been full of wobbles. That was reflected in how both men literally walked to the ring.

Mills was head down, destination assured. Oku wasn’t entirely confident. There was the odd look over at Amira. The slight discomfort on his face. Michael Oku has been a broken man for a long time and there was a piece of him missing here.

This is a blood feud and the claret was pouring almost immediately from both Oku and Mills, as the two warriors collided. Bet the St John’s medic was thrilled to see Mills after already dealing with Shire earlier in the night.

Oku is a broken man who lost his identity. Mills is not. Mills is the same person that he was a year ago, even six years ago. He might get cheered now but Connor Mills has not changed who he is. He has still done bad things to Michael Oku. He cost him the title against Jay Joshua and got cheered for it.

This pursuit of happiness, this quest Oku has been on to re-find himself, has led him down a dark path where his worst qualities have grown tenfold and he’s become almost unrecognisable to the person that loves him the most.

With Mills receiving medical treatment, Oku laid in extra punches and when Amira tried to pull him away, he shoved past her to keep up his attack. He then jumped into the ring and demanded that Oscar Harding counted Mills out with a petulant, childish and fearful exclamation of “fucking count him out, he’s not in the ring”.

That’s not Michael Oku. Michael Oku has stood against all odds. He has looked fear in the eye and stood proud. He has got off the canvas a million times and came back swinging when everyone in attendance has counted him out. Michael Oku hasn’t cried for the referee to count his opponent out.

When Mills was able to dump Oku onto his back and unload a barrage of ground and pound, Oku was able to roll through into the half crab. How many times over the years have we cheered a counter like that? Not on this night. It was met by boos. This wasn’t the Michael Oku of the past.

When Mills mocked Oku’s Viking Clap that precedes his Fosbury Flop, I held my breath and hoped that Oku wouldn’t pull Amira in the way of it. That’s who Michael Oku has become.

Going into the match, Connor Mills had never beaten Michael Oku and he was forced to call upon every ounce of skill and every move in his arsenal. He volleyed Oku out of the sky with a Millshot, dropped him onto the top turnbuckle with a key crusher and hacked away at his legs with kicks.

There is a reason that Oku had previously dominated their encounters and that’s because he is Mr Big Match Wrestler and even now, with the person he has become, he used all of that knowledge to try and stem the tide by Lionsaulting directly onto Mills’ head, which was pissing blood.

Having a split audience was evident at the start of this match, with plenty of fans who were unfamiliar with the story still chanting for Oku. Those chants died away and made way for chants for Connor Mills, which grew and grew as each moment passed.

When Mills captured Oku’s ankle and wrenched down on it, for the first time, an entire arena demanded that Oku tap. Not “please don’t tap”. Not reaching out with him for the ropes. Demanding that he tapped.

Oku pleaded with Amira to hand him the belt and for Isaac Murray to pass him his chain, anything he could use to break the hold.

Isaac, the young man who idolises Oku, stepped forward and was stopped in his tracks by Amira.

Without saying a word, Amira made it perfectly clear. No more. No more of this. No more of whoever Michael Oku has become.

As Mills kept the leg trapped and wrapped his own around Oku’s neck, Oku was also forced to say no more, tapping out and conceding defeat to Connor Mills for the first time in a RevPro ring.

That Michael Oku, Connor Mills and Amira were able to keep a crowd engaged and vocal as we came on the five hour mark of back-to-back wrestling matches, moments and emotional investment should speak for itself.

With Oku and Amira’s future always up in the air, this might be the last time Oku and Mills cross paths. If it is, there isn’t a better end to their story than this.

To put a bow on their story, at least for now, it was Oku who strapped the RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship around the waist of Connor Mills, who then celebrated with Jay Joshua.

Did a wave of worry cross my mind when Joshua put Mills on his shoulders? A little bit, but that’s a story for another time. Perhaps for next year’s anniversary main event.

With an arena show, everyone is going to have their own unique experience. Where you sit and who is sat around you can make or break things.

For me, RevPro absolutely knocked it out of the park at Wembley Arena.

Was the show long? Yes. Five hours sat watching anything is a long time. There were a couple of times where I had to have a quick stretch of the legs but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Genuinely, what do you remove from the card?

All four titles needed to be defended. Jacobs and Joshua got major victories that will be integral to their stories going forward. You might not get another chance to pay off Leon and Liam.

You drop the CPF/Mugs tag and you don’t get the Ospreay surprise. The Gauntlet was meaty though without that, you don’t have the Gabe Kidd and Double J surprises and once one of the main singles championships was having a #1 contendership, you had to have the other represented as well.

Nothing is perfect but RevPro got as much right as they could for an arena show. The matches that had to deliver ended up smashing it, they provided moments that’ll live long in the memory and celebrated the past, present and future of the promotion.

They get held to a different standard on the scene but when they deliver, they deliver at a totally different standard.

Image Credits: Revolution Pro Wrestling