by Daniel Johnson
Welcome pals! Show your love for indie/foreign wrestling and vote for The Crown J here. Also, go here for details on how to win a free Blu-ray of OMG! Volume 2: The Top 50 Incidents in WCW History. Tons of info on the 30 in 30 Reborn series can be found here. Contest ends August 23, 2014 at 4:00 p.m.
The full Singapore Pro Wrestling (SPW) YouTube channel can be found here.
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Here are the facts about SPW’s YouTube channel:
Number of videos: 69
Frequency new videos are added: A little less than once a week on average at this point.
Frequency full shows are added: No full shows have been added yet.
Total views of the most popular video: 8,859
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This channel is different from many wrestling channels out there on YouTube in that it precedes the promotion it now represents. SPW was founded as a wrestling school by Vadim Koryagin before holding it’s first show in 2013. Koryagin had previously got the ball rolling on the Independent Wrestling Federation (IWF), which is based in Russia. A short piece about the founding of SPW and Koryagin can be found on the channel. What shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise is that SPW features English commentary. After all English is an official language in Singapore and the only language used more in that nation is Mandarin (the more you know). What may be more surprising about this channel is how much it’s production and the shows resemble fairly high up American independent promotions. “This is awesome,” chants. International talent from around the world. Johnny Gargano! Oh, that’s right. freaking Johnny Gargano of all people is featured and wrestles on this channel. Other stars featured on this channel in a non-wrestling capacity are Shane McMahon, Booker T. and Mickey Rourke. How’s that for an odd cast of characters? Less well known talent is also featured and some guys to look out for are Eurasian Dragon, Trexxus and Andruew Tang. Aside from full matches the channel also features interviews (both kayfabe and non-kayfabe), video packages and all sorts of odd bits and ends like Eurasian Dragon marketing himself.
A recommended clip:
Johnny Gargano vs. Ilya Malkin
This match is from SPW Wrestling Island, which featured talent from Dragon Gate (DG) and IWF in addition to local SPW workers. Ilya Malkin defends his IWF Heavyweight Championship against Johnny Gargano in match where the styles of the two fit perfectly.
Before any blows are exchanged Gargano and Malkin do some crowd work each trying to get support from attendees.The audience is clearly behind Gargano, but the heel commentator feels Malkin should be cheered.
Actually, the commentary is great on this clip in general. Moments later the face commentator brings up how Malkin faced Zema Ion recently and the heel commentator says, “Who cares about Zema Ion?” Given his booking in TNA recently I have a feeling Dixie Carter doesn’t. Also, there is an argument between the commentators about which nation has one billion people Russia or China throughout this match. To give the IWF title a little more shine the face commentator says it represents all one billion people of Russia and at one point says, “One billion people’s lives are at stake here.” Speaking of TNA I haven’t heard such hyperbole in wrestling commentary since Don West told me I didn’t have a soul if I didn’t get caught up in the X division. I wish even a fraction of American indie commentators sounded that enthused.
As for the match quality it’s Johnny Gargano and some Russian dude most Americans have never heard of,but a Singapore promotion presumably paid to fly down. Of course, it’s going to be awesome! A big part of this match actually takes place outside the ring and at one point Malkin spears Gargano off of the apron and onto the floor. Back inside Gargano jumps through the ropes and hits Malkin with a DDT. Despite this Malkin is soon ready to gore Gargano again, but Gargano sees Malkin coming and instead kick the Russian in the face. Gargano proceeds to lawn dart Malkin’s face into a turnbuckle and then nearly hits him with a tornado DDT from off the top rope. Nearly. Instead Malkin wiggles out of it and wallops Gargano with a super kick while Gargano is still up top. This allows Malkin to put the dazed Gargano in a tombstone piledriver position and plant him on the mat. Only then does Malkin end it all with a final spear to put away the young DG talent.
Categories: Smooth Runs
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