Fledgling UK promotion LCW Roses held their third event, Mayday, at Brockington College in Leicester yesterday, headlined by a superb rematch between Addy Starr and Rhia O’Reilly, held under No Disqualification rules.
After the controversial finish to their match at the inaugural Roses show in January, Starr and O’Reilly were given the chance to settle things once and for all on yesterday’s show. The action began immediately as O’Reilly attacked Starr while she made her entrance and continued on the outside for for a good portion of the match, with O’Reilly being thrown into the seats at ringside and both women using everything around them to create offense. Soon enough, the “We Want Lego” chants began to emerge from the crowd, and Starr, whose forays in wrestling with Lego are well known, was quick to oblige, covering the ring with small coloured bricks.
Now, we all know how much it hurts to stub oneself with a Lego brick. Imagine being curbstomped into a smattering of them! That’s exactly what happened to Addy Starr, the “All-American Canadian” initially being hoist with her own petard as O’Reilly drove her face into the mat. However, it was experience that paid off in the end as Starr hit a Northern Lights Suplex on O’Reilly into the Lego, followed by her patented Sliding D to pick up the victory and ensure that her closing note at LCW Roses (Starr is returning to Canada soon) was a winning one. After the match, she gave a farewell speech to the crowd, which was met with a rousing reception.
The rest of the card consisted of matches that were average-to-solid on a technical level, but highly entertaining regardless. One thing that cannot be faulted about the majority of the Roses roster is their commitment to their characters, and the level of wrestler-to-audience interaction during the matches helps to keep the story moving at a good pace.
Two people who do this brilliantly are the heel duo of Nadia Sapphire and Faith Lehaine, whose characters are utterly detestable and very quick-witted – a “look down and don’t say anything” moment for the socially-awkward front row spectator. Despite being the first eliminated, Sapphire greatly impressed in the four-way elimination match which included Kirsty Love, Felony and Jenna, and was fought under lucha rules. Sapphire took the first fall to Kirsty Love, who pinned her after a creative bit of forced collaboration with Felony, only for “The Living Dead Girl” to pin Love immediately afterwards. The final sequences between Felony and Jenna were excellent, with both women landing some impressive moves, before Jenna got the win with a top rope leg drop. A great performance by Jenna, while Felony’s character continues to get better and better.
Faith Lehaine made up for Sapphire’s loss by pulling off a surprise victory over “Amazon” Ayesha Ray, thanks to interference by Viper. Ayesha dominated for the majority of the match despite Sapphire’s regular attempts to subvert her from ringside, but after hitting the choke bomb on Lehaine the Amazon was taken out by Viper’s fist, allowing Lehaine to make the pinfall. Ayesha would have her revenge after the match though, as she wiped Lehaine out with another choke bomb. An enjoyable match, if a little too stop-start at times.
Viper had earlier been in action against fellow Scotswoman Kay Lee Ray, and though their performance wasn’t quite as exciting as you’d normally expect from these two, it was still a solid contest, with Viper using her considerable power advantage to counter Kay Lee Ray’s agility. In the end, it paid off, with Viper managing to counter Ray’s top rope rana attempt into an (albeit slightly mistimed) powerbomb for the victory.
Due to Kasey Owens‘s recent foot injury her twin Leah was left to fight the team of Shauna Shay and Violet Vendetta alone in handicap action. However, the scores were soon level as Shauna Shay submitted to a figure four leglock early on and then had to be carried to the back by crew, having seemingly tweaked something in her leg just before – a real shame, as I was looking forward to seeing how Shay had progressed since the last time I saw her in action. Another figure four leglock saw Violet tap out soon afterwards in what was a decent exchange between her and Owens.
Finally, Nikki Storm came out claiming to be a changed woman, capable of keeping her cool and not letting herself get angry, while dressed like some weird Bavarian schoolgirl fantasy. Her opponent, Nixon, let her naivete get the better of her, accepting Storm’s handshake at the start and immediately falling for a cheap shot. In the end, Storm got the win with a devastating Perfect Storm. This match would end up being the strongest match of the undercard, with Storm at her best and Nixon really showing what she can do. She should probably work on her standing moonsault though.
Three shows in and LCW Roses looks like it’s starting to have an idea of the direction in which it wants to head. Mayday saw an excellent main event top off an entertaining series of matches, with great characters giving it their all despite the slim attendance – which for its low figure provided a more than engaged backdrop to the action. Some of the crowd chants were extremely entertaining – and were often met with an even better rebuttal from the wrestlers. The in-ring work sometimes leaves something to be desired, but that is surely to be expected when there are so many up-and-comers on the roster, and if the more opportunities they get to wrestle live the faster the shows are going to improve. Clearly with LCW Roses, this is already happening.
