So I’m writing this review a full 4 days after another ICW:FF show which, whilst nowhere near as good as the show back in May, was still fairly amazing/surreal for many different reasons, due to the post show antics.

1. Kirsty Loveign & Fiona Fraser vs Shelly Starr & Sammii Jayne turned into a no contest when Ayesha Ray interfered and attacked everybody, leading to…
2. Ayesha Ray pinned Bête Noire with a choke bomb and jacknife pin.
3. Leah Owens pinned Sara-Marie Taylor with a schoolgirl.
4. #1 Contender Round Robin Tournament: Rhia O’Reilly made Shanna submit to a Stretch Muffler after Shanna apparently hurt her leg delivering the Injection of Perfection (Warrior’s Way)
5. Crazy Mary Dobson pinned Carmel Jacob with the Split-Legged Moonsault.
6. Nikki Storm pinned Portia Perez with a small package after sending Portia’s head into an exposed buckle.
7. #1 Contender Round Robin Tournament: Erin Angel pinned Rhia O’Reilly with a victory roll.
8. #1 Contender Round Robin Tournament: Erin Angel pinned an injured Shanna in seconds with a messy rollup to secure the #1 contendership.
9. ICW:FF Scottish Women’s Championship: Kay Lee Ray (c) retained her Title over Viper & Amazing Kong in an elimination rules Three Way Dance.
   – Both Kay Lee & Viper pinned Kong following a Viper Bomb/Swanton Bomb/Viper Frog Splash series.
   – Kay Lee Ray pinned Viper following a Swanton in a crazy match that saw Ray thrown off a balcony and Viper perform a dive off the same balcony.

James R Kennedy’s displeasure of Kirsty Loveign continued in this show, and in spite of it being predicted by myself and many of my friends who were at the show, the long awaited Face Turn didn’t happen, but I’m sure that this will eventually happen. As it was the tag match didn’t really have chance to develop into anything after Ayesha’s attack.

Bete Noire vs Ayesha was a brawl, and although I have seen both do better matches elsewhere this did a job. Unfortunately Ayesha had to go and redo the choke bomb after she failed to get proper leverage on her first attempt.

Leah is clearly over with the ICW crowd (calling them her ‘ICW mafia’) and Sara, using a gimmick carried over from the previous ICW show started out by asking her to pray (she had aligned with ‘David the Beloved’ in a Saviour style gimmick). The match itself wasn’t brilliant, but still fairly entertaining in parts and after the match Carmel interrupted and implored her to join her as they had ‘started the revolution in women’s wrestling’. Sara left with Carmel and there were a few Glamour Gym chants.

Carmel by the way is absolutely on fire as far as promo’s go at the moment, as the following videos show:

Rhia vs. Shanna started off as an affair that looked as if it was going to be a damp squib, but after a few minutes the crowd started to finally got into it and as a result it turned into one of the better matches of the night. There was something of an error when it appeared Shanna had got the 3 count but it was announced over the tannoy that Rhia had got her shoulder up so the match would continue. Both women got back into it straight away and Shanna sold an injury that she picked up when she attempted to go for a double foot stomp which she missed and Rhia took full advantage.

Crazy Mary wrestled a straight up match with no weapons involved whatsoever, and its clear that she’s using what she’s learned all over the place (like Japan where she has been for a portion of this year). Carmel proved (yet again) why she is one of the top wrestlers in Scotland today. I rated this as one of the top matches of the night as it went just the right length of time and had a great mix of action and storytelling.

Nikki versus Portia was essentially a battle of ‘I’m the top heel’ and as anyone who has seen either woman work before will know the styles they work and as a result they meshed really well to see a good match where both women attempted to cheat to win, which lead to Portia’s undoing as she had exposed one of the turnbuckles and Nikki took advantage to get a cheeky roll up.

The next match was a completely bizarre one as Shanna was announced as having been injured, so the match would be for the Number One Contendership to the ICW:FF title, which with Rhia working heel and having won her first match didn’t make much sense to me. The match wasn’t particularly interesting, and quite weak with another roll up determining Erin the victor in the contest, and therefore #1 contender…or so everyone thought until Shanna came out demanding her match against Erin. Erin obliged and quickly made the pin and rolled out of the ring to celebrate victory (to a lot of head scratching by myself and those around me).

The Main Event was very worthy of that title (and has my match of the year plaudits already) with Viper’s size and Ray’s speed negated by the Amazing Kong factor. Both Scotswomen ended up teaming up to defeat Kong, having to use a lot of moves to do so. After she had been dealt with they took the brawl to the crowd and saw them battling upstairs before Kay Lee was dumped over the barrier, before Viper dived over the barrier in a move I never expected I’d see from her and was in shock about even post match.

The match slowly moved back to the ring and (after a missed dropkick by Kay Lee) and was interrupted by Carmel and Sara who came out to attack the competitors, but Bete Noire came out and attempted to chase them to the back, but was dealt with by them, however they scampered after Dobson emerged with the ICW:FF title. Seizing the opportunity, KLR went for a Swanton but missed, but after some more battling, she managed to hit the Swanton and score the pin to retain her title, though the belt was nowhere to be found, until Mary returned with it, asking for a title shot… which Ray accepted.

As it was, there was more good than bad in the show and enough to warrant a DVD purchase as and when it gets released, even if I was confused by some of the booking. Kay Lee Ray, Nikki Storm, Carmel Jacob and Viper all showed why they are the top Scottish female wrestlers at the moment.

So that was the show, now for the standard post show shenanigans, where I managed to drink £48 worth of alcohol. It was great to chat to all the talent for at least part of the post show and seeing Kong dance to Madonna’s ‘Like a Prayer’ is one of the most surreal things I’ve ever seen (considering the first time I saw her she was destroying Knockouts left, right and centre in TNA). It was also great to meet Mad Man Pondo who had travelled over from the States with Crazy Mary Dobson. Also BBC Scotland were on hand to film so I may appear on camera at some stage.

So that was this edition of ICW:FF. Next week I fly out to the US for my first ever trip and I’ll be previewing that either later this week or mid way through next week.