Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro) return to the York Hall in London for their annual Uprising event, featuring a stacked night of action. A handful of talents from RevPro’s affiliate New Japan Pro Wrestling will be making the journey to England for the show, including both the Undisputed British Heavyweight and Tag Team Champions. This will be the seventh annual event under the Uprising banner, with previous events featuring names such as current NXT star Matt Riddle, British Strong Style, reigning WWE United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura, and members of Bullet Club. With a night like this in store, it’s difficult to see how this show will fail…
Taichi vs Chris Brookes
Taichi returns to RevPro for the first time since the summer’s Strong Style Evolved UK, where he went undefeated over the two days with victories over CHAOS’ Gedo, Jay White, and Toru Yano while teaming with his Suzuki-gun brethren El Desperado and Takashi Iizuka, while also defeating Will Ospreay on the second night. He hasn’t had too good of a time since this point, losing his NEVER Openweight Championship back to former champ Hirooki Goto at NJPW’s recent Power Struggle show this past Saturday, and so a victory here would be ideal for him moving forward. Unfortunately for him though, he’s against Chris Brookes. The taller half of CCK has been more of a singles wrestler as of late with Kid Lykos going down with injury, with one on one bouts this year including matches against the likes of WALTER, YOSHI-HASHI, and El Phantasmo. Brookes could find himself challenging for the Undisputed British Cruiserweight Championship if he can scoop up some big wins, and this could be his starting point.
Prediction: Chris Brookes
WALTER vs Satoshi Kojima
Up until August, WALTER had been undefeated in singles action on RevPro shows in 2018, as he holds victories over Chris Brookes, Yuji Nagata, Yujiro Takahashi, and Josh Bodom. His singles winning streak came to a crashing halt at August’s Summer Sizzler, falling at the feet of ‘The Stone Pitbull’ Tomohiro Ishii. In fact, this is The Ring General’s first singles encounter since that night as all his other matches since have been in tag team action, where he and Ringkampf ally Timothy Thatcher are currently 1-2 in 2018. The reigning PROGRESS and OTT World Champion will, however, return to a singles career here with a match against lover of all things bread, Satoshi Kojima. Kojima has been a firm favourite whenever he’s part of these UK tours, with a recent match at Ireland’s OTT seeing fans throw bread at him during his entrance. He loves a bit of fun. WALTER does not. This should be an interesting one, to say the least.
Prediction: WALTER
Josh Bodom vs Chris Ridgeway
A battle between two of the top contenders in the cruiserweight division sees Josh Bodom taking on ‘Smashmouth’ Chris Ridgeway. Bodom has been on a tear in RevPro this year, picking up some pretty huge wins against names such as NXT UK’s Jordan Devlin, Aussie standout Jonah Rock, and World of Sport’s Kip Sabian. The man who is 100% Bro is, of course, a former record-breaking 3-time holder of the British Cruiserweight Championship, with a combined length of 422 days (the third longest in history behind Will Ospreay’s 598 days over two reigns and Prince Devitt‘s 540 days over one reign). His most recent reign came to an end exactly one year ago, when he lost the title to Ryan Smile on November 9th last year. While he’s had some huge success in a RevPro ring, Chris Ridgeway hasn’t been as fortunate when it comes to championships. While he does have some massive wins under his belt (most recently against Will Ospreay), Smashmouth is yet to hold a title in Revolution Pro Wrestling. A win here for either man would surely put them in contention for David Starr‘s Undisputed British Cruiserweight Championship.
Prediction: Chris Ridgeway
Mike Bailey vs MK McKinnan
‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey returns to RevPro for the first time since July 8th as he is set to take on MK McKinnan, a man who only recently to professional wrestling full-time following a brief hiatus. Since emerging out of his home of Canada, Speedball has been a standout on any show he appears on thanks to his unique arsenal of flips and kicks. With a background in taekwondo, Bailey is one of the most prominent strikes on the indies today. It’s this style of wrestling that has earned him plenty of accolades since debuting in 2006. As he tries to make his presence felt, MK McKinnan stands in his way. Bearing the moniker of ‘The Future’, McKinnan took a lengthy absence from in-ring competition from the summer of 2016 until December 2017, now seemingly working exclusively for RevPro and Fight Club: PRO. Since his return, MK has mostly been on the losing end of things in RevPro, with his last victory there coming over Zack Sabre Jr. in the summer of 2013. Five years without a victory in the company – that can’t be good for his motivation.
Prediction: Mike Bailey
El Phantasmo vs El Desperado
It’s a battle of the El’s at Uprising. 2018 British J Cup winner El Phantasmo has been one of 2018’s breakout names and has cemented his name on the British independent scene as one of the greatest high-fliers of the modern era. The British J Cup helped him a lot in that process as he garnered victories over some of the world’s biggest non-WWE talents, including current IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA and wrestling icon Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger. With his headbanging entrance theme, it’s hard to see how anyone can hate him. That is unless your name is El Desperado. The Suzuki-gun member is one half of the reigning Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions in NJPW alongside Yoshinobu Kanemaru, being the sidekick of sorts to leader Minoru Suzuki. Just because he’s in a bigger group though doesn’t mean he can’t hold his own in singles action as we’ve seen time and time again. It just seems like a bit of a long journey to stopping the momentum of Phantasmo right now.
Prediction: El Phantasmo
RevPro Undisputed British Tag Team Championships Match: Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr.) (c) vs The Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher)
Speaking of Suzuki-gun, Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr. are set to defend their Undisputed British Tag Team Championships against The Aussie Open at the show. Suzuki and ZSJ have been near unstoppable since capturing the gold from Moustache Mountain at the start of the year, with successful defences following against CCK and the CHAOS duo of Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii. It’s no surprise, considering the general attitude of Suzuki towards his opponents and Sabre’s technical prowess. They’re two singles wrestlers that have gelled into one impressive (and destructive) unit. Their opponents are the opposite in a way, in that they have been a team for much longer and know each other better than the Suzuki-gun representatives. Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher have made a habit out of collecting tag championships this year, capturing the PROGRESS, HOPE, and Defiant Tag Team Championships. If they’re looking to add the RevPro straps to their trophy cabinet, they’ll need to come in with a well thought out game plan.
Prediction: The Aussie Open
RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship Match: Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs David Starr
After David Starr’s petition to be granted a championship opportunity at the Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship, promoter Andy Quildan decided to give in to Starr’s wishes and gave him the match he so desired with Tomohiro Ishii. It’s not every day you see someone pleading for a match with The Stone Pitbull. David has the chance to become a dual champion if he walks out victorious here seeing as he’s the reigning Undisputed British Cruiserweight Champion also. With that title around his waist, he’s been quite impressive in RevPro, although that’s no surprise these days as well all know. Even if he is quite experienced, he’ll need all the support possible to overcome Ishii. The CHAOS member regained the strap from Minoru Suzuki at last month’s Global Wars show, then successfully defended it against him at NJPW’s Power Struggle show on Saturday. Given how hungry he was to take the title back around his waist, don’t expect to see Tomohiro giving it up that easily.
Prediction: Tomohiro Ishii
