Two years can simultaneously go by in the blink of an eye while also being a long enough span of time to encompass a host of life-changing events.

A person could, in theory, meet, marry and start a family with the love of their life in a two year period. There are walking, talking children that weren’t on this planet when Oasis announced that they were getting back together.

On the other hand, the socks I’ve got on at the minute have lasted longer than Keir Starmer did as Prime Minister.

Two years ago, I started watching and attending True Grit Wrestling shows. That’s mental to think about because that means I’ve been a True Grit fan throughout my entire thirties so far yet it doesn’t *feel* like two years have passed.

Across those two years, amongst all of the cracking matches and crazy twists and turns, one thing has remained. One overarching narrative has encompassed the promotion, the bitter rivalry between True Grit owner James Carr and Wesley Nsereko and Last Rites promised to put the final nail in that coffin (wahey).

Originally scheduled to be held in May, a late issue forced the promotion to alter their calendar and it has been a bit of a stop-start period for True Grit with schedules not aligning, injuries to key figures and such an integral story being halted at its crescendo.

That had not spoiled people’s appetite though as the queue to get into Left Bank went out of the venue grounds and into Cardigan Road. For context, I usually get the last possible train over from Leeds to Burley Park, sailing straight in to get a pint as Bobby Cash gives the crowd an initial welcome around ten minutes before showtime.

Last Friday, using the same tactic, I was settling in to my spot with a beer as Judas Grey was making his entrance for the first match. Fantastic to see such a healthy crowd outside of the annual Rumble and Pride shows.

Prior to the show starting, the True Grit team, roster and fans gathered for a ten bell salute to Samara “The Underbaker” Reyn who recently passed away. Samara was involved with CAMP Wrestling and had also been training at the True Grit Academy. I hope it is some solace to Samara’s friends and family to see the outpouring of love to Samara on this show.

As said, by the time I had beer in hand and found a standing spot, Judas Grey and Ian Skinner were about to get underway in the show’s sponsored match.

Judas getting cheered in a church, who’d of thought it? A lot of people probably because Judas Grey is wicked and Ian Skinner is a bit of a bell, when he’s in this frame of mind.

As the old saying goes, styles make fights, and this one saw Skinner trying to use his traditional grappling and MMA offence to ground and grind down the batshit crazy and innovative attacks of Grey.

Judas Grey is a weapon. Not in a bad way. He uses his entire body as a weapon and he chucked himself all round the ring in an attempt to flatten the “cool guy with loads of friends”. Chops, dropkicks, body blocks, sentons, shooting star presses. Judas emptied the clip.

The pair have a significant history of competing against each other in Discovery Wrestling and you could tell they shared an understanding of each other’s arsenal, able to counter certain bits and landing attacks with a thud, until Judas wrapped things up with a beautiful twisting butterfly suplex/DDT (I don’t know to be honest, but it looked cool).

Grey was making his debut here while Skinner was appearing in the promotion for the first time in over 16 months. Both lads are more than welcome back sooner rather than later. A big Goth-Off between Vanity and Misery Business? Yes, please.

While Judas and Skinzy were introducing themselves to large parts of the audience, the following match involved four fellas that are mainstays in True Grit as Ace Matthews and Vusyk teamed to take on Nash and Joey Slade of The Regime.

Nash and Slade were joined by Ruby Radley, who has recently taken to accompanying Nash. Whatever floats your boat, I guess. My initial thoughts were that it’s great to see Ruby still involved in wrestling in some capacity, though that would change by the end of this match. FORESHADOWING.

Nash turning his back on Ace and siding with The Regime was a massive kick in the bollocks, figuratively for the fans and literally for Ace, and Ace entering to the Nashboat theme was another.

A harsh reminder of what we all lost. Unfortunately for Joey and Nash, Ace was followed by Vusyk, the bald again batterer of bastards.

It looked like Nash and Ace would start the match off in True Grit’s very own rendition of the Rock and Stone Cold WrestleMania face-off, but Nash quickly tagged in Slade.

We’ll get onto Joey Slade more when it comes to the main event because we’re gonna sing his praises a little bit, but here it was just class seeing Ace and Vusyk taking turns to boot him all over the ring.

In a straight tag match, Ace and Vusyk would’ve dogwalked The Regime duo because Vusyk is a top contender for the heavyweight championship. Here though, it was more 2 vs. 4, with Ruby getting involved and paid-off official Ref Lee turning a blind eye.

When Vusyk was able to force Slade to tap to his Czech Cloverleaf, Lee simply didn’t acknowledge it and was equally “distracted” when Ruby chinned the Czech killer with a set of brass knuckles.

Alone in the ring, Ace finally got his hands on Nash, who immediately begged off, pleading with his former partner and spreading his arms out for a hug.

Ref Lee attempted to use the knucks to clock Ace but, potentially sensing a disturbance in the force, he span around and blocked it only for Nash to use the distraction to once again whack Ace in the nuts and roll him up for the 1, 2, 3. BOOOOOOOO.

One of the places that has perhaps suffered the most from the stop-start nature of True Grit’s summer has been the women’s division. We haven’t seen enough action from the ladies and before Last Rites, the last defence of the title was in February. That’s in part due to having such an in-demand champion like Alexxis Falcon, but the division needs a boost.

The two matches that were featured on Last Rites certainly represented a chance to get things back on track, first with Kanji taking on Melissa Fierce, who was a late-notice replacement for Hollie Barlow.

You quite simply cannot fall off with Kanji and Melissa Fierce. The fact that Fierce, at this point, was readily available to step in at short notice is staggering.

The pair had a strong showing against each other in April at True Grit Mayhem and they picked right up where they left off with Kanji’s technical prowess being a fantastic foil for Melissa’s explosiveness.

Kanji has made her name through being arguably the best underdog in independent wrestling, as well as her technical ability, though in True Grit we’ve seen more flashes of her nastier side.

Don’t get me wrong. Kanji isn’t a baddie in True Grit but she certainly isn’t the twinkly eyed beloved underdog either, whether it’s putting that little bit more sauce on her strikes or cranking on her opponent’s limbs with a little more aggression than you usually see from the fan favourite in other places.

In the same way that Zack Sabre Jr. is able to squeeze an extra five or ten percent of meanness out of his holds depending on who he’s facing, Kanji has used the same tactic in both outings against Fierce.

I’ve always wondered about the makeup of True Grit’s audience because, genuinely, everyone is welcome. You get families, students, your TV wrestling fans, families of wrestlers, your “hardcores”. Everyone really so it was really interesting to me that we didn’t get any Kanji Sabre Junior chants when she twisted Melissa’s neck as a way to pay homage to ZSJ.

That extra spitefulness brought out the same energy in Fierce who finished the contest with a devastating chain of suplexes and slams, tying their True Grit at one apiece. While both women paid respect and shook hands at the end of the match, this story isn’t over. We need a new #1 Contender after all.

The tag division has also found itself stuck in limbo due to a number of factors, not just related to schedules. In the past twelve months, three of the top teams in the company have disbanded either through storyline or injury with Meat Wagon, Crashboat and NashBoat all being removed from contention.

There is a lack of genuine, week-in week-out, teams in British Wrestling at the moment as well but we desperately need some fresh blood to come in.

That’s in no way a criticism of Franco Fate and Brad Matthews once again facing off against Misery Business. Have we seen this match multiple times? Yes. Would I watch these four scrap it out multiple times again in the future? Fuck yes.

They never fail to deliver and this was no exception.

Before we got to see this latest instalment, there was a change to proceedings. Alan Kay was visibly unhappy with The Regime’s lackey Ref Lee overseeing the match (because Alan is a smart wrestler who watches the rest of the show and sees what goes down) which brought Senior Official Scott Bell down to the ring.

Scott and Lee, who’ve traded blows in the past, got into a pushing match over who was going to referee the contest. Bobby Cash, announcer extraordinaire and co-GM, was essentially in complete control of the proceedings due to JC preparing for the coffin match.

While he agreed that Lee shouldn’t be in charge of the match, he said he couldn’t allow Scott to barge his way in to overseeing a championship match so instead brought Sandy Beeches down to officiate.

With the four contestants having to wait to get their hands on each other as Bobby tried to bring some semblance of calm to things, this only served to cause tensions to boil over, as Fate and Matthews attacked Misery Business before the bell.

If you like four hard dudes hitting each other dead hard, this match and their previous encounters are for you. Joe Wade is class, man, and not just because I always seem to end up stood near his family at Left Bank and they get right behind him which adds an extra buzz to his matches.

Yes, there are lots of blokes in wrestling who do lots of kicks and have tattoos, but Wade stands out in that field of moody music and long hair.

As always, we got just enough of Joe going against Franco Fate to know that’d rock as a singles match, while Alan and Brad slugged it out with each other. Wade and Fate are the two more “buzzy” names in their respective teams, but Kay and Matthews work so well with their partners and against each other.

Even though I had to wake up at 7am last Saturday to get the train to Wolverhampton, I definitely wasn’t having as bad a morning as these four men, who must’ve been covered in bruises and bumps.

It looked like The Regime were about to go 2-0 on the evening when Fate and Matthews spiked Wade with an assisted piledriver, but he kicked out at two, which brought a roar from the crowd especially from my side of Left Bank which housed the Wade clan.

Misery Business secured the win with a double dose of what I’m going to call the DudKnee Goth Drop. Bare with me here… Alan hoisted Franco up in a flapjack directly into a bicycle knee square on the chin. Then did it again to get the pinfall. See, it looks like a Dudley Boyz 3D but with a knee and they’re goths. I won’t quit the day job.

Someone who went full steam over the summer in True Grit is Sammy Blue. More appropriately, Sammy has decided to go full dickhead, showing his true colours as the Super Brat alongside Sammy Two.

Formerly a firm favourite of the True Grit faithful, he was met with a round of boos rather than the Sammy chants that used to ring round the Left Bank as he made his way to face off against Pele.

That was the theme of this contest, as Sammy pulled out his usual repertoire and peacocking to the crowd, but where in prior months he’d receive support for his actions, he was constantly met by boos.

Once allies in the Pride Division’s crusade against Adam Bolt, Pele clearly feels aggrieved by Sammy’s turn to the dark side, doing their best to batter Sammy into turning the same colour as his outfit.

Both contestants paid respects to Samara here, going Old School and hitting an Undertaker-style chokeslam. Lovely touch, troops.

If anyone was in doubt about Sammy’s character now, he stuck two metaphorical fingers up to the crowd at the close of this match. After a rough landing when missing a bodyblock into the turnbuckle, Sammy screamed in pain, as Ref Scott brough things to a halt to allow the medic to see to Sammy.

Pele backed off with a look of concern for a man, despite his attitude, is still one of his peers while quiet fell across the Left Bank.

This commotion allowed Sammy Two to skulk to ringside to grab Pele, bouncing their head off the ropes and straight into the clutches of a miraculously recovered Sammy Blue, who cinched in a guillotine on Pele to gain a quick submission victory.

As stated previously, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a defence of the True Grit Women’s Championship and our co-main event saw us finally graced with the presence of Alexxis Falcon (sarcastic).

Having been in Hull recently for NGW, seeing Falcon in her natural habitat as the self-anointed Hull Hogan, it was good to get back to normality and boo the life out of someone who has been on a tear in 2026.

Falcon has been the IT girl of British wrestling this year. She became the first person to beat Mercedes Mone in a RevPro ring, she was a headline feature at Wembley Arena and she’s held titles up and down the land. Everyone has wanted a piece of Alexxis Falcon, there aren’t many people more in demand than Falcon.

Someone who knows what it is like to wear that crown is Lana Austin, which gave this match-up a fascinating wrinkle.

Now the wily veteran, Lana was able to stay one step ahead of Alexxis at every turn, countering or straight up seeing each act of skullduggery coming. Austin was the IT girl while Falcon was still dreaming of going to Disney World.

Austin wasn’t content with just preventing Falcon from taking the low road, either. When Falcon pulled Ref Sandy between her and Lana, only to low blow Austin, the current Odyssey Pro Women’s Champion soon repeated the trick, low blowing Alexxis. You don’t get to the top of the mountain without at least learning where the shortcuts are.

For all of the shenanigans, Lana and Falcon both absolutely brought the boom with them to this match as well, laying in heavy strikes and power moves. There is a reason that they’re both considered two of the best on the scene.

As things heated up, Falcon decked Austin with the Off With Her Head twisting DDT to wrap up the match, only for Lana to defiantly kick out and rise to her knees with middle fingers aloft for the Wicked Bitch of Wrestling.

Falcon’s frustration boiled over and, rather than attempting to finish Lana off, cracked Ref Sandy in the face to get herself disqualified.

With Lana and Melissa Fierce positioning themselves at the head of the queue and potentially both Kanji and Hollie Barlow to return to True Grit, Falcon finds some of the best of BritWres on her tail.

Finally, our main event was upon us and finally, Wesley Nsereko got the chance to get his hands on James Carr in a Coffin Match.

Former friends turned sworn enemies after a moment of betrayal by James Carr, who screwed Nsereko out of the True Grit Men’s Championship against Brady Phillips, this was the moment that the last two years of True Grit Wrestling has been heading towards.

Everything, either directly or indirectly, within the company comes back to the moment that James Carr refused to count that pinfall and turned his back on Wesley.

The Regime was formed in response to that moment, a power mad owner trading in real friendship to flank himself with lackeys.

Franco Fate and Brad Matthews were brought in by Sash and dominated the tag title scene. Riley Nova was brought into the fold as the heir apparent to his mentor Brady Phillips

The group ran roughshod over the company, hurting anyone who got in their way, until staff were forced to go on strike forcing JC to name Bobby Cash and Ivy as co-GMs.

The Regime did everything in their power to protect the title reign of Brady Phillips, hampering the career of Vusyk and Kemper, until Cash made Phillips defend the belt against Kemper in a steel cage. To bring the title back under their control, they turned on Brady and crowned Nova, and that betrayal led to the three-way dance that saw Kemper reclaim the title.

Ivy used her powers, given by JC, to routinely interfere and prolong Adam Bolt’s Pride title run which resulted in the groundswell of support for Tony Wright to finally become the Leading Man of the division. Ivy also inserted herself into the dispute between Alexxis Falcon and Rhio, which eventually resulted in Falcon becoming Women’s Champion.

Carr engineered two of the most emotionally devastating moments in True Grit, the defections of both Joey Slade and Nash to his side, with Slade stabbing Nsereko in the back resulting in the Ugandan Warrior being removed from the company before he returned as part of The Rebels to a thunderous reception.

The dissolution of Crashboat, NashBoat and the ejection of Sash all came due to directions from the Regime.

That one moment, where James Carr decided to turn his back on Wesley Nsereko, literally sent shockwaves through True Grit that are still being felt today. Everything comes back to that moment.

Slade, one of those most directly affected by that moment, led out a host of hooded druids with the coffin to signal the beginning of the end for this all-encompassing rivalry.

Nobody has benefitted more from their time in the whirlwind of the JC and Nsereko arc. People have won titles, but nobody has had the platform to grow like Joey Slade has.

From the happy-go-lucky young pup trying to prove he belonged at this level to the scheming, pissboiler who can get a rise out of anyone, Joey Slade has proven that he belongs in True Grit, in the most unlikely of circumstances.

After my first True Grit show I wrote that “one day Joey Slade will win the True Grit Championship and blow the doors off the Left Bank”. I still firmly believe that.

How Bobby Cash managed to keep a straight face as Slade mean mugged to the crowd, I’ll never know. Professionals doing professional things.

Then it was time for James Carr and Wesley to enter, with only one of them destined to leave of their own volition. Both men sported BIG MATCH jackets and readied themselves for war.

There was almost a part of me that had to show respect to JC, who isn’t an active competitor anymore, finally stepping into a ring one on one with someone who wanted to rip his head off, in a match that meant Nsereko wouldn’t be shackled by rules.

However, that feeling was soon extinguished as it became obvious that James Carr was intent on stacking the odds against his former friend.

Not only was his handpicked lackey Lee going to be overseeing the contest, with Joey at ringside to ensure Nsreko couldn’t open the coffin, but JC had clearly instructed the druids to protect him as the hooded figures cut off an early Nsereko flurry.

As Wes, the best WAHEY wrestler in the country, soundly battered the druids for some big WAHEYs from the crowd, JC cowered in the pulpit of the Left Bank. A safe haven from which he’s witnessed many acts of wickedness play out on his behalf, JC didn’t find such peace as Nsereko ran up the steps and clobbered away at the True Grit owner before lifting him on his shoulders and dumping him onto the waiting druids and ring crew below.

Not content with removing JC with forceful intent, Nsereko followed his nemesis down to the floor, leaping from the pulpit with a big splash.

With the druids skittled on the floor, Wesley still had to contend with Ref Lee and Joey who refused to open the coffin lid, and the action once again spilled out of the ring into the crowd.

One of the people who has suffered the most at the hands of JC and The Regime is MerchMan Stu, who has been embarrassed and placed into harms way on a number of occasions by the villainous stable. That made it all the more cathartic when, with the Anti-JC flag flying high, Nsereko drilled Carr through the merch table.

Back in the ring, Wes moved to put an end to JC’s reign of terror, fixing him for a Pedigree of his own until Joey crashed a chair into his back in a mirror image of that moment at Redemption 2025. The chairshot heard around the Left Bank.

Not content with retreading old ground, JC, Slade and Ref Lee positioned Wes near the coffin, trapping his hand in the lid, with JC smashing down onto it with the chair. This all started because Carr felt like Wesley was putting his Gladiators commitments ahead of True Grit and with the national tour coming up, attempting to take him out of it was downright despicable.

A tombstone piledriver laid Nsereko out and as the three cowardly villains rolled the hero across the mat towards the coffin, my heart sank. Surely not?

However, when an entity tries to strangle the life out of a community, it creates resentment. The Regime have made a number of enemies and nobody has suffered more than Vusyk, who came sprinting down to wallop Joey and try to even the score, dragging him away.

With momentum swinging his way, Nsereko began to fight back, drawing on the support of the crowd and taking JC to the top rope. Angling for a superplex directly into the coffin, the Ugandan Warrior had the crowd in the palm of his hand and the watching Ref Lee pissing his pants.

Scrambling for reinforcements, Franco Fate and Brad Matthews tore down to the ring and cut Nsereko off, with Carr sending the crowd’s hopes, dreams and Wesley crashing to the canvas with the Pepsi Plunge.

But where Franco Fate and Brad Matthews step into a True Grit ring, Misery Business aren’t far behind, and our favourite Goth Boys rushed through the crowd and went back to what they do best, kicking the fuck out of The Regime.

Again Wes fought back, this time from inside the coffin, wrapping his fingers around Carr’s throat and escaping. This had to be it.

The Regime have thrived because James Carr holds all of the power in True Grit but they’ve survived because there’s always a Plan B. With Joey and The Powers That Be out of action, Nash ran down and low blowed Nsereko.

The Regime might always have a Plan B but The Rebels had an Ace up their sleeves as the lights went out and the gong reverberated around the concrete walls of the Left Bank.

As the lights went up, so did the cries of the True Grit fans. Nash looked like he’d seen a ghost as a familiar figure removed his ducky hat and stared daggers through him. The UnderAcer is in the building, going part ways to settling the score between the two as Matthews dinged his former friend in the knackers and levelled him with a chokeslam.

With Plan A, B, C and Nash now out of the window, Ref Lee scrambled onto the coffin, refusing to move out of the way so Nsereko could put Carr to rest.Using this distraction, JC leapt onto Wes’s back and locked in a chokehold. This brought Scott Bell screeching to the ring.

Not Senior Official Scott Bell. Not Ref Scott. No, Scott had no interest in refereeing this match. He just wanted to beat the shit out of a man who has besmirched the Referee’s Association for too long and beat the shit out of him, he did.

That finally, FINALLY, after two years of pain and anguish, of cutting corners, of hiding behind all and sundry, FINALLY left James Carr all alone in the ring with Wesley Nsereko.

And Wesley Nsereko dispatched him in moments, with a barrage of his signature attacks, because of course he did. Wesley Nsereko is an active competitor, one of the best in the company and James Carr is not. He is the owner.

This is what would have happened if JC had dared to settle their animosity straight away, on fair ground. This what would have happened if James Carr hadn’t surrounded himself with The Regime and a host of ridiculous stipulations.

And most damningly, this is what would have happened if James Carr hadn’t let his jealousy take over. If he’d just spoken to Wesley two years ago, they’d have squashed this misunderstanding in short order. Instead, he ruined a years-long friendship and subjected his company to a reign of terror that has infected every corner of True Grit.

With Carr out cold, Nsereko rolled him into the coffin and slammed the lid shut, closing the book on this chapter of True Grit history and laying The Regime to rest, hopefully for good.

Ace, Vusyk and Misery Business joined Wes in the ring to celebrate and then removed the coffin from the ring, with the anti-JC flag draped over the top.

The War is Over, The Rebels Have Won.

This was fucking fantastic. This was everything that it needed to be and more.

The evil owner going mad with power and ruling with an iron fist over the company is the most outplayed, overdone thing in wrestling. It shouldn’t work in 2026 but it’s kept me coming back to True Grit again and again. All for this moment.

That’s what happens when you’re invested. If you dropped in for one night only, this might have looked ridiculous. Referees fighting, the Avengers-style closing stretch which is almost as overdone as the evil owner schtick, yet you couldn’t have asked for a better ending when you’ve spent years following the story.

The reason that I’ve been coming back, as often as possible, to True Grit is because the environment they’ve created is one I’m heavily invested in. In-ring, you are guaranteed quality professional wrestling and emotionally charged stories. I’ve never come away from a True Grit show and not felt *something*.

It is also the place where I feel most comfortable. I sometimes feel odd talking about “community” in wrestling, because I’m not very social when I’m at the wrestling. I like to stand by myself, switch my brain off entirely and concentrate on what’s going on in the ring.

Yet, True Grit is the place where I most strongly feel a sense of community within British Wrestling. A lot of places say that everyone is welcome. At True Grit, they just are. Nowhere else elicits the same homely comfortability and buzz in me.

Before the show, I had a panic attack in my hotel room. It was the worst one I’ve had and it scared me because there wasn’t a reason for it.

If there had been anything else going on that night, I’d of given in and sat in the hotel shower all night. To be honest, if it hadn’t of been the culmination of Wes and JC, I think I’d have stayed in that room.

Six hours later, I was walking out of Left Bank with a huge smile on my face, saying “I fucking love professional wrestling”.

That’s the magic. That’s what keeps me coming back and I can’t wait to see what is next.

It feels like a dark cloud has finally lifted and the sun is finally shining on True Grit again. Anything is possible. We can go down any road.

Here’s to the next two years.

Image Credits: @Elliottt93, True Grit Wrestling