The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. That had been my relationship with CATCH until last weekend.

On two separate occasions, I’ve bought tickets and planned to visit one of the UK’s most buzz-worthy promotions and twice I’ve failed to get through the door. That’s been through no fault of CATCH, by the way. The first time was scuppered by train issues, while the second was curtailed by a last minute emergency.

They do say that third time is the charm. Fittingly, this was also the third leg (wahey, behave yourself) of a full-tilt BritWres weekend that had seen me go from Leeds to Wolverhampton and then back up to Manchester. Three is the magic number. Anymore cliches before we move on? No? Sorted.

Countless pints were sunk across the weekend and I’d spent the prior evening in one of the roughest boozers imaginable to watch the brief encounter between Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois. How did we manage to do this regularly back in the day? I was a broken man by the time I made it to Manchester on the Sunday.

Manchester is a place that evokes a lot of nostalgia for me especially when it comes to wrestling. Grabbing a bite to eat and topping up from the night before in The Paramount before going to queue up on Whitworth Street to watch wrestling brought a flood of memories back from the mid-2010s. Gorilla, CATCH’s main haunt, sits directly opposite the 02 Ritz. They were some times, indeed.

Anyway, back to the present. CATCH have earned themselves the reputation of being one of the strongholds of North West wrestling, bringing together some of the brightest names in the region to duke it out with some of the top stars of the BritWres scene.

We certainly got that in the opening contest as Teddy Reay went one-on-one with Luke Jacobs.

Five points to the CATCH crowd for actually singing along to I Wanna Be Adored as Luke made his entrance . That won’t be the last time the crowd gets some credit from me. The Stone Roses are my favourite band of all time so can we all just agree to sing I Wanna Be Adored when Luke comes out to it, please? Pinkie promise?

With Reay firmly in the role of bad guy here, I felt much more comfortable calling him a rat, when he’s actually being a rat. It’s not an endearing term in the same way cunt is.

You’re in tight and close to the action at Gorilla so you’ve got to keep on your guard in case things spill out of the ring, as the front row found out here with Jacobs and Reay going at it right on their toes, before Luke introduced Teddy’s skull to the top of a chair.

I’ve spoken previously about Teddy Reay being one of the best punchers in British wrestling and he again put his boxing skills on show here, digging away at Luke’s body. Note to up-and-coming wrestlers; learn how to punch someone. It looks mint.

Despite the Rat King’s pugilistic proficiency, Luke Jacobs comes fully loaded with knockout power and that was the throughline of a cracking tear up between the two. There were some absolute BANGS from both men but Luke simply had more ammo to throw at Teddy.

Rat behaviour warrants a visit from the exterminator and that’s exactly what was in store for Reay after clamping his gnashers down on Luke’s arm. The decorated Mancunian almost decapitated his former North West Strong stablemate with a MAHOOOSIVE lariat to pick up the victory.

Couple of questions for the room. What is the score with North West Strong? Also, what is Gorgon?

Whatever Gorgon is meant to be, they were certainly a favourite with the CATCH audience. That was almost a given as Gorgon’s opponent was the irritating Ian Skinner, who was greeted by boos and a couple of erm…unsavoury gestures from the crowd.

This is where mixing beers and bodyslams came into conflict as a couple of minutes into the action, I was hit with an overwhelming need to nip to the loo.

By the time I’d got back upstairs and popped by the bar, Skinnner had beaten Gorgon with a bulldog choke. That’s the live experience sometimes. If anyone wants to pay me to be professional, I’m all ears.

This bled right into the next match as Pele came down to shoo off Skinner who was trying to remove Gorgon’s mask, which in turn brought Briac Strong and Brusier Brad out. With the meaty pair threatening to gang up on Pele, the sounds of Lady Marmalade lit up Gorilla and Tony Wright evened up the odds for an impromptu tag team match, playa!

I’m a massive fan of Tony Wright and Pele so this is by no means meant disrespectfully, but I actually want to talk about Bruiser Brad and Briac Strong to kick things off.

Big fella tag teams are MY JAM. Come in, beat people up, leave. No messing about.

Bruiser Brad is one to watch. He’s already had breakthrough appearances over at NORTH so that’s not exactly earth-shattering news, but he’s got the potential to be an important player on the scene. He’s a big lad who wrestles like a big lad and acts like a big lad.

That’s a bit of a calling card for CATCH that we’ll pick up again later on. Their big lads are treated like big lads. It’s not as common as it should be.

Strong and Brad chucked the absolute fuck out of Tony and Pele. I’m gonna cheer for them regardless but when you’re really beating the piss out of them, it lifts the decibels higher.

The Achilles Heel of a big lad is that they often believe their own hype and think they’re invincible. You’ve met them before in the pub, the ones who love to throw their weight around and that happened to Brad here as he sent Tony up for an incredibly high-angle powerbomb to finish the contest.

Blinded by his own beef, Brad didn’t calculate that by doing so, he’d put Tony in the perfect position to come crashing down with his own Famouser, landing right on The Beef King’s head before getting the pinfall to win the match. Stunning bit of kit, that reversal. Chef’s kiss, slightly offensive Italian hand motions.

Lilly Winter is someone that I’ve praised before for being an absolute dream to have on family-friendly/all ages shows because kids totally cling onto her as Elsa come to life. Going into CATCH, I was really intrigued to see how she’d fair in a “nightclub” type atmosphere with an adult-only audience.

Quite well, is the answer. Lilly Winter is a firm fan favourite at CATCH, holding the promotion’s Women’s Championship on home turf, and she was defending that championship against Violet Nyte.

One point to the crowd for the calls of Violet Shite. Yes, it’s low-hanging fruit but someone has to pick it or it’ll just go to waste. Slightly more inventive, earning the CATCH crowd another five points, was the rendition of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland”. It’s the only time that I’m going to allow Christmas music outside of December. Everyone else can jog on.

Continuing the Christmas theme – yes, I hate myself right now – Nyte is meaner than the Grinch. She was intent on dulling Lilly’s sparkle with some nasty power offence and ripping strikes, with both wrestlers trading some gnarly suplexes in this one. Viva La Suplex.

Despite Nyte threatening to put a sour note on proceedings on a number of occasions, Winter was able to retain her championship with her version of the Dead Eye to cap off a stiff, gritty scrap.

From one moody bugger in Nyte to another as, after the break, Chris Ridgeway made his way to the ring to welcome the debuting Alejandro West.

When you regularly attend/watch indie wrestling, you’re bound to routinely see the same faces so it’s always nice to see some fresh blood breaking through. It’s even better when they make an entrance to Bohemian Rhapsody as West did here, though Ridgeway clearly doesn’t appreciate one of the most successful bands of all time, attacking West before the bell.

This was a proper, good ol’ fashioned stretching for the new boy. Ridgeway beat the piss out of Alejandro West with all of the chops, forearms and kicks that you’d expect from Riddy.

The former PROGRESS World Champion has always been my type of grappler, going back to first seeing him in Tidal in 2015, and he’s exceptional in this role as the bitter, battle-scarred veteran that refuses to welcome the new generation with open arms.

West rose to that challenge from his vastly more experienced opponent, fighting back at Ridgeway’s disdain with a few bright spots, that showcased his potential as a fiery underdog.

It was obvious that Ridgeway believed he could finish the match off at any time and West almost made him pay for taking him lightly. After taking some thumping kicks to the back, West fired up and demanded more punishment, only to roll through and pin Ridgeway who kicked out at two.

This was always going to be a lesson for the youngster and that lesson might be that if you play with fire, then you’re going to get burned as that indiscretion only served to royally piss off Ridgeway who battered him into submission.

Adding insult to injury, Ridgeway broke his own pin up after a brainbuster, just to get a few more kicks in before finally deciding to put West out of his misery.

Would anyone like to know what you can do during a Scott Oberman entrance? You can go to the toilet, wash your hands, come back upstairs and get a fresh pint at the bar and still have a minute or two to spare. I genuinely think I’ve ordered a Maccies and been shovelling it in my gob in less time.

Oberman, after all that carry on, was defending the CATCHweight Championship against “Dynamite” Lee Dawson, who has been on a hot streak in the promotion.

That streak has seen Dawson build up a groundswell of support and he was backed by a vociferous, partisan crowd on his entrance and throughout the match. The CATCH crowd came into their own in this one.

You may have seen the video by now or at least seen reference to it, but during the match, the crowd broke out into a chorus of “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz which got louder and stronger as the match went on. 500 points to the CATCH crowd. Ding, ding, we have a winner!

As Troy Ryan put it, Taio Cruz in the big ’26. The fact that Cruz is now considered a nostalgia act makes me sick. We danced to Dynamite at my prom. ‘Kin hell.

As fun as the crowd was, that should not take anything away from the match and in fact, the atmosphere only served to enhance a contest that to-and-fro’d. 90% of the people in attendance were absolutely desperate to see Dawson overcome Oberman and he gave it one hell of a shot.

This was the perfect embodiment of North West wrestling. There were hallmarks of Zack Gibson, James Drake, Joey Hayes, Damon Leigh, Ashton Smith, Sam Gradwell, Ridgeway et al. all over the match.

Hard-hitting action, technical prowess and the emotional manipulation of a crowd that cared deeply about both characters and the final result.

The nearfall when Lee did indeed Light The Fuse had the crowd biting as did Dawson beating the referee’s ten count after Oberman had laid him out with a piledriver on the outside.

With Dawson barely breaking the count, Oberman pounced, hoisting him up for a match-ender that was countered into a pinning attempt by “Dynamite”. He couldn’t, could he?

Being rather small and not having the clearest view of the ring in this moment, I thought Dawson had won the belt as the ref slapped the 1..2…KICK OUT FOR OBERMAN. I said 3 out loud because it felt inevitable. There must’ve been fractions in it.

Both men gave everything in their attempt to leave Gorilla as CATCHweight champion and it was only the big match experience that Oberman possesses that saw him edge it out, as he wrapped Lee up in a version of the Liontamer submission, sinking his knee right into Dawson’s back.

Taio Cruz might be able to go all night but Lee Dawson had burned out and was forced to tap out.

Oberman is making a habit out of delivering Match of the Year-level contests in CATCH and this was another feather in his cap, with Dawson calling it the best match of his own career on social media.

Genuinely, if the show had ended there, I would’ve been happy. That would’ve been a fitting main event to cap off a great Sunday evening and a fabulous three days away for me, personally.

That wasn’t the end though. We still had the GMAC Championship match between Big T and Troy Ryan.

Remember earlier when I mentioned that CATCH treat their big men like big men? Nowhere is that applicable with how they present Big T.

Big T is a seven foot tall behemoth and he felt every inch of that as he walked to the ring. He is an unstoppable monster and he didn’t only look like one, he wrestled like one once the match got underway.

When you have an unstoppable monster, you would usually be holding out hope for a superhero. While superheroes might not be real. Super Athletes are and if anybody had the capability to put a stop to Big T, it was going to be Troy Ryan.

Previously friends, Big T had attacked Ryan and turned his back on the CATCH crowd upon his return from injury and both men went at each other with the type of physicality and white-hot anger that only comes from being wronged by someone you used to care for.

A wrestling ring isn’t capable of containing that type of fury, never mind two raging bulls, and the pair found themselves slugging it out at the bar. Very glad that I wasn’t one of the people stuck between trying to order another drink and avoiding the carnage.

A part of treating big men like big men is making sure they look like an immovable object. If *anyone* can knock them down, what makes them different to the other 20 wrestlers backstage? You can’t get that toothpaste back in the tube.

However, when you finally have an irresistible force that can meet that immovable object head on, it makes that moment so much more special. When Ryan was able to lift Big T onto his shoulders, it made sense because he’s a proper unit and it felt big time, rather than just the next point of the match.

Every time Ryan seemed to gain the upper hand, Big T would rise up again like the creature from the deep, a haunting presence that would fit right into the Halloween slasher flicks everyone is watching at the minute.

With T, he isn’t *just* a presence, he’s a physical specimen, and that was best on show when Ryan went to the top rope. He had the space and time to steady himself for an aerial assault. Well, he should have.

In a flash, Big T scaled the ropes and launched the Super Athlete right across to the other side of the ring with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex, with Ryan landing headfirst into a chair and the turnbuckles with a sickening crunch.

It seemed an impossible hill to climb, even for a Super Athlete, but when Troy repaid the favour and sent Big T into the chair, following it up with a monstrous slam, you’d have been forgiven for thinking that it was over. Unfortunately though, once again, the monster rose up and kicked out.

That seemed to sap the life out of the crowd and Troy himself. He’d promised to give everything in this match and that final effort was everything. Two Big T blackhole slams sealed the deal and, interestingly, sent the fans home unhappy.

Both men’s title match positioned a crowd favourite against a villain. Wrestling logic dictates that at least one hero would’ve come away triumphant but they didn’t. Love it.

As Big T gave it big licks after and basked in the piss he’d boiled by defeating Ryan, my mind wandered to the next time I’d be at CATCH.

It had been a belter of a show with at least three matches that deserve the sign-up fee to join CATCH’s Patreon to watch. The North West scene rocks and I hadn’t had as much fun in a crowd in year so the wheels were already in motion about coming back again.

With CATCH often running during the week, it’d be a slog to make the trip over from Boro on a worknight but it’s doable and certainly worth it.

Then, as my brain squirrelled away on just how doable it might be,Tony Wright came out to challenge Big T for the GMAC Championship.

I’ve got to come back now, haven’t I?

Image Credits: CATCH: Pro-Wrestling