WWE UK Championship Tournament Night 1: Review

Quarter Final: ‘Liverpool’s Number 1’ Zack Gibson vs ‘Gentleman’ Jack Gallagher

Mauro quickly redeemed himself with his opening to the Gibson-Gallagher clash – as he told the fans that the first ever wrestling match in the Royal Albert Hall was in 1904 between George Hackenschmidt and Tom Jenkins. That’s a quite magnificent piece of trivia right there.

Zack Gibson came out to some generic theme music, which is hilarious for anyone who watched him steal the show every week on the short-lived and much-maligned 5 Star Wrestling TV show on FreeSports earlier this year, when he’d lambast his own terribly ordinary theme tune on a weekly basis.

“STAND UP IF YOU HATE GIBSON!” “IF YOU ALL HATE GIBSON CLAP YOUR HANDS!” “YOU SCOUSE BA***RD!” Yes, the London crowd, no doubt containing many fans of PROGRESS Wrestling where Gibson is a mega heel, were all over the Scouser from the off.

This was a great match. Gibson and Gallagher know each other very well, having both come up together on the North West grapple scene competing in GPW and FutureShock, and their chemistry was evident. Both are expert practitioners of the British style and they were able to smoothly transition their passion for mat grappling into the WWE environment to create an admirable match that built to a gripping conclusion.

An extended finishing sequence of twists and turns saw Gibson employ a second rope lungblower, which Mauro called the ‘Ticket to Ride’, then a release Liger Bomb, only to get caught in a Triangle.  Gallagher then leaped from the apron, floated over the top of Gibson and locked in a sleeper with silky timing, but only got a two count off the Gentleman’s Drop Kick. Zack then chucked Jack into the steel post to injure his shoulder, which he’d already been targeting throughout the bout, and hit a second lungblower from a tombstone piledriver position.

Gallagher’s kick out sparked a “THIS IS AWESOME!” chant, firing him up to counter with a stiff drop kick. “Gallagher just smoked Gibson like a Rasta!” crowed Mauro, in an inspired quip. But then the Gentleman missed a top rope head butt, landing on his shoulder, and ‘Liverpool’s Number 1’ quickly locked on the Shankly Gates for the tap out. As Gibson celebrated, Ranallo paid tribute to the great football manager Bill Shankly on WWE television…which for a Liverpool FC fan like myself, put the icing on the cake of what was quite simply, a British wrestling clinic between two of the best this country has.

• mark coffey
• johnny saint
• jordan devlin
• ashton smith
• dave mastiff
• Joe Coffey
• pete dunne
• Flash Morgan Webster
• toni storm
• adam cole
• british strong style
• kyle o'reilly
• Trent Seven
• Triple H
• Tyler Bate
• Roderick Strong
• The Undisputed Era
• isla dawn
• Jack Gallagher
• HHH
• mauro ranallo
• killer kelly
• Zack Gibson
• nigel mcguinness
• travis banks
• Moustache Mountain
• shawn michaels
• NXT UK

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