Mathew Hulbert | Columnist | 13 March 2023

So, okay, let’s just get the embarrassing bit for your star columnist out of the way early… I went to the wrong venue.

Wrestling in Hinckley’s events have moved from previously being at Hastings High School to now being at Hinckley Parks Primary School, which I had got into my head was where Redmoor School was – or, as I discovered, still is – when, in fact, it was the old Holliers Walk school.

As a result of arriving late, I sadly didn’t get to do any pre-event interviews for this review.

But, thankfully, the show had only just started.

You certainly feel a lot closer to the action at this new place.

I very nearly had a wrestler falling in my lap at one point. Which, depending on which of them it was, I wouldn’t necessarily have minded. (Editor: Mathew, behave yourself.) (Mathew: Just jesting, boss.)

So, as I finally was taking my seat, we were all set for the action to begin.

The first contest saw BDK (two big brutes, who you wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of) taking on the now fan favourites known as Health and Safety.

BDK dominated this one, but Health and Safety pulled out the win in the end.

The second contest was what’s known as a fatal fourway.

This saw good guys and sometimes tag partners Tyler Owens and my personal WiH fave the Local Hero Sam Best against the no longer popular ‘Captain’ Steve Valentino and the loud mouth himself and long time fan of this column Mr Jason Joshua.

I need to stress this wasn’t a tag match, they were all taking on each other. With whoever got a fall or submission or DQ against one of the other competitors winning the whole thing.

Not to say that alliances weren’t formed during the course of the match as, of course, they were; with them splitting down traditional good guy/bad guy ‘teams.’

But, just when you’d least expect it, Best and Owens would start taking chunks out of each other and the same with Valentino and Joshua.

Part way through the match, the golden boy himself, my mate Sam, took a shin to the face which all but knocked him out. I think the poor fella’s still feeling groggy two days later.

Mr Joshua, ever the opportunist, took advantage of this, pinned Sam for the 1, 2, 3 and won the contest.

Of course he’s never going to let me forget about this; Tweeting me yesterday, saying: “Wins a win. “He was hurt”, it’s wrestling, mate, enough excuses. I pinned ya boy.” (sic).

I replied thus: “Ah, Mr Joshua, it’s been a while. You got the W, that’s a matter of fact. Slow hand clap. I still believe, one on one, however, that ‘my boy’ as you describe my mate Sam Best would pin you. No doubt in my mind.”

Stay tuned for more in this war of words.

Next up was Kieran Young up against former WWE NXT UK star Millie Mckenzie.

Young used every dirty trick in the book and was eventually disqualified after CJ Connors – who was due to be taking on WiH champion Dominita in the main event – coming in the ring, where he attacked Millie. Young then joined in on the attack.

This lead to Dominita stating that the main event would instead now be a tag team match between her and Millie vs Kieran and CJ.

It was then interval time. If you’re interested, I had a coffee and some of those big Dairy Milk buttons (I love them!)

The second act begin with the new Pro Wrestling Subjective champion (who beat Jason Joshua for the title at the Christmas Rumble in December) making his first title defence…against fellow fan favourite Luke Basham in a two out of three falls match. As you’d expect from wrestlers of this calibre, this was a back and forth affair.

BDK ran in and started attacking Basham, leading to Joey Scott getting disqualified (I know, I didn’t understand it either.) Scott, however, retains the championship as titles don’t change hands on DQs.

The fifth match of the night seen rising star, the ace Jay Matthews, facing literally his biggest challenge yet in a WiH ring; taking on The Judge who outweighed him by goodness knows how much.

Before the bell rang, The Judge was very dismissive of Matthews, intimating that he’d beat him with ease. And, to be fair, his size and weight advantage did see him dominate much of the match.

The Judge was also at his disgusting rule-breaking worst in this one.

Poor Jay had to endure The Judge doing the following:

• Smothering his face with spit and armpit sweat
• Shoving his bum in his face (which wrestling fans call a stinkface – and never have words been more true!)
• The Judge pulling a pair of his dirty underpants from his tights and shoving them in Jay’s face

No wonder that after all of that, young Matthews might be about to bring up his lunch.

But, The Judge got too cocky and Jay took his chance, where he scored the biggest win of his still-young WiH career. The Judge grabbed the mic and uttered something disparaging about Hinckley. What a sore loser that man is.

It was then time for the main event of the evening.

Dominita and McKenzie got sweet revenge on the two fellas, with Dominita getting the pin on Young.

Young and Connors literally crawled away as the victors celebrated in the ring. Another fun family friendly Wrestling in Hinckley event.

The next is the always exciting ‘Fear of Falling’ tournament on Saturday, June 17th.

I’ll be ringside and I hope you are too.

See you soon, grapple fans.