There’s something to be said for experimentation in pro wrestling.
World Underground Wrestling Philippines are the newest promotion to ply their trade in the Philippines, kicking things off with an invite only experimental show called Dojo Storm last October 5. Luckily for those not in the know or unable to attend, the entire card has been uploaded to their YouTube channel.
The presence of this footage is notable in itself. While PWR and MWF have both been known to showcase footage from their shows in the past, it’s incredibly rare for a Philippine wrestling show to be available in such a complete form so soon after the event. It’s especially of note that the footage dropped before their next live event, allowing fans to catch up to everything that has already happened.
The further along WUW go, the more significant this quick turnaround of footage will be. As none of their competition releases complete footage in such a timely manner, it gives WUW a certain edge in the local wrestling market that makes them far more accessible to an average viewer. Of course, I do write this on the eve of MWF’s weekly Aksyonovela premiere online and many have noted that the recent PWR Homecoming show did feature live commentary so we’ll soon see how to handling of footage changes in the local scene.
As for the videos themselves, I’m afraid that WUW doesn’t make the best first impression. Each match video opens on an off-center promotion logo that seems to call attention to its own imperfection before blowing up in a cheap explosion graphic. Perhaps the unpolished look is meant to emphasize the promotion’s “underground” nature so your mileage may vary on that one.
Another theory is that it’s meant to evoke similarly unpolished graphics from the DVD era of independent wrestling. The playing of entrances on a split screen with generic music overlayed, for example, calls to mind a similar aesthetic on PWG DVDs. That, at least, plays to a certain nostalgia I have for a certain aesthetic on wrestling but again, your mileage may vary.
As for the show itself, many of the matches were structured and worked rather conservatively. Nothing going into the 20 minute range, no wild dives, just fairly simple pro wrestling executed in front of a scant crowd. These facts alone give a sign into WUW’s mentality for experimentation.
In today’s day and age, with the advent of the internet and streaming, the world has gotten smaller and that effect can be felt within the pro wrestling world as well. There has been a homogenization effect that has seen most mainstream pro wrestling efforts trending towards certain expectations across the world: an emphasis on “workrate,” for example.
Anything that skews even a little from the common perception of a pro wrestling show does catch my attention. The attempt is always valiant and there’s enough in these six matches to be cautiously optimistic about at best.
Of all the matches on the card, the opener between Ken Cifer and Razael was the most traditionally structured and wrestled match on the card. While not blow away workers, I think both Cifer and Razael showed enough athleticism to be capable hands developing through the promotion’s growth.
They also displayed flashes of nuance in their work here that elevated it ever so slightly from being just a run of the mill exhibition, with their emphasis on leg work and limb selling. While there are still moments of awkwardness and a slight lack of confidence and initiative putting together the connective tissue that goes in between major spots, I find that these are small enough sins to forgive. It’s a rare skill to be able to make a whole match cohere organically and up the pace and excitement of a crowd, and that’s a skill that only develops with experience and time.
I look forward to seeing what these two can do in the future.
On the matter of experience, the three-way CWE Vixen Championship match between Alexis Lee, Crystal, and Luchadonna was incredibly fascinating to me for how it lays bare the difference in experience between different workers. Luchadonna is only a little over a year removed from her first appearances in MWF and she got the chance here to work with two veterans of the Southeast Asia scene. Her experience is somewhat apparent in this match. Nothing too horrible just little things like character work at the wrong times or slightly missed spots.
I must say that in this match, Crystal really did shine above her competitors. All her offense just translated incredibly well in this footage and her presence and charisma showed that there is a very good reason she got invited to a WWE tryout this year.
The match as a whole never quite clicked into gear for me however. More or less we got the standard triple threat formula that has existed as long as the stipulation itself. For me personally, it’s a flaw not of the wrestlers but of the staples of the match itself. There’s just something about it that’s a little less smooth and workable than the traditional one-on-one shine-heat-comeback formula.
My favorite match on the show by far was the Lawin-Rabena match. I’m a pretty simple guy. I like strikes that land. And this match was full of those. Crisp chops, heavy kicks, and solid elbow strikes. Few things in wrestling elicit a near physical reaction from the crowd like a well placed strike.
But simply landing the strikes is only the first step to creating an effective narrative. Shibata-Ishii or Kobashi-Sasaki or Frye-Takayama imitators are a dime a dozen in the wrestling world. What really elevates a strike off is a real sense of narrative backed by selling.
And I must say, I do feel that there was a strong enough thread of that in this match to make it worth seeing. Rabena is a new name trying to make his name by standing up and going toe to toe with one of the local scene’s heaviest hitters in Lawin. It’s a good story to tell and the seeds of it were in there thought not quite as neatly done as they could have been.
Still, they get a lot of points for the attempt and the action itself was clearly effective for the live crowd and I thought it came across well on the footage. I didn’t even mind the non-finish as it more or less guarantees a rematch between these two which I will be more than happy to anticipate.
The last match I want to talk about here today is the main event between The Machine and St. John Martin. Here we find the company’s greatest experiment on this particular show. Wrestled under WuW Rules of no rope breaks, finish only by submission or KO, there seems to be a genuine effort here to evoke shoot style wrestling.
Now I’m no expert on shoot style wrestling. BattlArts, RINGS, or wXw’s Ambition tournaments are not in my particular wheelhouse of wrestling viewing.
In many ways, Martin and Machine put together what is essentially a worked MMA match with some decent looking strikes and minimal bumps all leading to the KO finish. I genuinely admire the risk these two guys took working a very unconventional structure for their match as they try to get over the WuW gimmick.
I liked Martin’s Inoki-esque attempts to chop down Machine and I like that Machine generally plowed through Martin to establish his size and strength. For me, where the match lets itself down is in its pacing. They’re already working a limited time frame as is (this match doesn’t go much longer than five minutes), I would personally have liked to see a bit more action packed in.
But hey, all that’s just me. I’m far from representative of the average wrestling fan by any stretch of the imagination and WuW have very clearly marked this show and their next as “experiments.” They’re testing the waters of their capabilities, seeing what they can get away with and what they excel at. Congrats to them for the attempt and I genuinely wish them the best. There’s a lot of space to grow and the seeds of something special are there. All that remains is to nurture it.
Photo credit to WUW Philippines
