Monday Night RaGE 4

Six days.

That’s all that remained between Monday Night RaGE 4 and Entertainmania II, RWL’s next major event and the culmination of several storylines that had been developing throughout the summer.

After the rather cobbled-together affair that was RaGE 3, there was one final opportunity to get everybody together, record some wrestling and give those rivalries a last push before the big show.

Unfortunately, the British weather had other ideas.

There are plenty of RWL shows that are remembered for a particularly good match, an important storyline development or something so spectacularly stupid that it becomes part of the promotion’s folklore.

RaGE 4 is remembered rather differently.

Mostly for being absolutely bloody miserable.

A Message from Beyond the Grave

Rather than opening at Turning Medieval, the show began outside Blackburn Cathedral, where Valo and Spyke were sitting together on one of the large gravestones.

It was quite an atmospheric location for a promo, particularly for two members of The Omen, the faction officially unveiled at RaGE 2 alongside Overkill.

Valo, still the reigning NAW Cruiserweight Champion, had an important announcement to make.

He wouldn’t be appearing at RaGE 4.

Why?

Because he wasn’t needed.

A wonderfully modest statement from a man who, only a week earlier, had fired the reigning RWL Champion, invented a championship competition and proceeded to change his own booking arrangements almost immediately afterwards.

Of course, Valo wasn’t about to let his absence get in the way of interfering with somebody else’s evening.

He announced that “The 21CW Superstar” Hyogo Kantai would be facing “Cyanide” Danny Cooper, just six days before Cyanide’s scheduled Deathmatch with Valo at Entertainmania II.

According to Valo, Hyogo was an old member of The CorZonE, a faction in which the two had apparently worked together after Valo personally trained him just over two years earlier.

There was also a warning for his supposed former student.

If Hyogo let him down, he’d “Enter the CorZonE.”

Spyke, meanwhile, contributed to the announcement by sitting quietly and nodding along.

An excellent afternoon’s work for the Assistant Manager.

There was, naturally, a slight issue with Valo’s explanation.

The CorZonE had never actually existed as a faction.

The entire history had been invented to give the match a little more significance.

And then there was Hyogo Kantai himself.

As established during RWL’s earliest recorded shows, Hyogo was usually portrayed by Valo wearing a Hayabusa-inspired mask. There had been one notable exception at RWL:ACW Hardcore Debut, when Cyanide took over the role so that Hyogo could answer Valo’s open challenge.

Now, Valo was claiming to have trained a wrestler who was, more often than not, simply himself in a different mask.

Quite how this worked was anybody’s guess.

But the fictional relationship served its purpose. Valo was sending somebody to deal with Cyanide without having to face him directly, and Hyogo had been given a clear job ahead of Entertainmania II.

Who Wants Soup?

Back at Turning Medieval, the afternoon’s wrestling began with Teh Gr8 Schitzu facing Adam Watson.

Schitzu had apparently undergone another name change since the previous week.

At RaGE 3, he’d been introduced as Julius “Schitzu” Perkihobo, billed from the entirely fictional location of “Nigera, Japan”.

That had now been quietly abandoned.

He was simply Teh Gr8 Schitzu again.

And he had a message for his former best friend, Teh Gr8 Phuka-U.

He was going to kill him at Entertainmania II.

A fairly serious threat, delivered by somebody whose upcoming wrestling performance would involve asking the audience whether they wanted soup.

Yes, soup.

There was no explanation for this, nor any apparent connection to anything else happening in the show.

Schitzu also continued his increasingly familiar approach to wrestling, which primarily involved sitting his opponents down and repeatedly kicking them in the back.

The previous week’s Triple Threat had featured an extraordinary 60 kicks to Phuka-U, and apparently Schitzu had decided that this was a perfectly reasonable foundation for an entire wrestling style.

Unfortunately, during his encounter with Watson, he managed to exhaust himself through his own repeated kicking, allowing Watson to make use of his increasingly popular Axe Handle Smash.

Watson and Schitzu had been crossing paths since RWL’s earliest recorded shows, including the ongoing Phukin-Schit Challenge, and this was another suitably ridiculous addition to their history.

But things were about to get considerably stranger.

Following the match, Teh Gr8 Phuka-U suddenly came flying into the camera shot, performing a flip onto his back while singing the opening riff from Mothership by Enter Shikari.

He promptly took himself out.

Schitzu was understandably confused.

“What the fuck… you’ve been wrestling trees again you cunt!”

Phuka-U apologised.

Schitzu then attempted to remind him about their upcoming match.

“Me you Entertainmania.”

“Whaaaat?”

“Me you Entertainmania.”

“Whatttt?”

This continued for considerably longer than it had any right to.

Eventually, Schitzu came up with a better idea.

Why didn’t they team up and fight the entrance barriers instead?

And so, with absolutely no formal agreement or explanation, the two charged towards the roadwork barriers that formed part of RWL’s makeshift entranceway.

Phuka-U dropkicked one, while Schitzu attempted to perform his snapmare and repeated back-kick routine against another.

Having apparently settled their differences through the shared experience of attacking roadside equipment, the pair held hands and skipped off backstage together.

It was a touching moment.

Only minutes earlier, Schitzu had threatened to kill Phuka-U at Entertainmania II. Now the two were skipping away together after assaulting a couple of barriers.

Lovely stuff.

Of course, Phuka-U wasn’t finished for the afternoon.

He returned to face Teddie H, although he managed to get his entrance wrong before the match had even started.

When the entrance door opened, Phuka-U was facing the wrong way and proceeded to perform his entrance back into the backstage area.

He eventually realised his mistake and found his way towards the wrestling area.

The match itself continued the comedy, with Phuka-U somehow surviving repeated Face Adjustments, losing his mask and participating in a traditional British pantomime routine involving the audience shouting “He’s behind you!”

At one point, he’d taken so much punishment that simply standing up appeared to be a challenge.

Which was probably appropriate preparation for Entertainmania II.

Behind the masks, of course, Phuka-U and Schitzu were still Cyanide and Valo, the two wrestlers involved in RWL’s most personal storyline.

That contrast had been a recurring feature of the previous few shows, with the same performers alternating between completely ridiculous comedy characters and a considerably more hostile rivalry built partly around genuine events in their lives.

It was an unusual combination, but one that had become thoroughly embedded in RWL by September 2007.

Who the Fuck Are You?

Elsewhere on the show, RWL welcomed a newcomer.

Tom Omega was making his debut against Adam Watson in a contest announced as a “Who The Fuck Are You? Match”.

A lovely way to introduce somebody.

Watson entered first, followed by Omega, who was greeted with chants of:

“Who the fuck?”

Unfortunately, the match itself didn’t do a great deal to make Omega’s arrival particularly memorable.

It was a rather rough encounter, with both wrestlers struggling to put together anything especially convincing.

There was, however, one amusing development involving Watson’s increasingly popular Axe Handle Smash.

Omega attempted to use the move himself, only for Watson to avoid it and later deliver his own version.

Watson was becoming so closely associated with the Axe Handle that other wrestlers were now apparently trying to steal it.

Unfortunately, Watson himself was still having difficulty finding ways to actually win matches with the thing.

The match eventually descended into some questionable People’s Elbow attempts, one of which appeared to connect somewhere around Omega’s knee.

It wasn’t exactly an auspicious debut.

And as if the wrestling wasn’t already struggling, another problem had started developing.

It was raining.

The Weather Has Other Ideas

What had begun as a relatively manageable afternoon was quickly becoming something considerably less pleasant.

By the time Overkill and Jayyy were preparing to wrestle, the rain had become increasingly heavy.

Overkill was making his first confirmed RWL appearance since RaGE 2, having been absent from the previous week’s show.

He’d become an important part of The Omen alongside Valo and Spyke, and his development since debuting at Smack!YerBitchUp had been noticeable.

Jayyy, meanwhile, was coming off an impressive non-title victory over Valo at RaGE 3.

Overkill wasn’t particularly interested in waiting for his opponent to finish making an entrance.

He attacked Jayyy with a plank of wood, then dragged one of the roadwork barriers towards the wrestling area.

Using the barrier as a pivot, Overkill positioned the plank like a seesaw and drove it upwards into Jayyy’s ribs, breaking the wood in the process.

An inventive use of RWL’s ever-growing collection of construction equipment.

Unfortunately, things weren’t going quite as well for the wrestling itself.

The rain was now coming down heavily enough that visible puddles had begun forming across the blue tarp.

Jayyy attempted a frontflip dive over one of the barriers, but slipped slightly during the movement, losing his momentum and taking out himself, Overkill and the barrier in one spectacularly messy collision.

It was the sort of moment that demonstrated exactly why wrestling on wet plastic sheeting wasn’t a particularly good idea.

The match continued, with Overkill delivering some impressive offence, including his Tigerbomb Backbreaker and a Spin-Out Brainbuster after catching Jayyy from a Crossbody.

But by this point, both performers were absolutely drenched.

Even the cameraman was struggling, attempting to shelter the equipment from the increasingly relentless rain while still recording the action.

Looking back, the recollection is that much more had originally been planned for this encounter. Unfortunately, the conditions meant that several sequences had to be abandoned, with the match being shortened considerably.

It’s not difficult to see why.

Eventually, Jayyy managed to catch Overkill with a Hurricanrana for the victory.

But Overkill wasn’t finished.

Furious at the result, he attacked Jayyy after the match, delivering his Overkill finishing move, assaulting him with the plank of wood and then delivering another Overkill.

Jayyy was left down and out.

Overkill then announced that the attack was a message for Ciaran Kennedy, insisting that he wasn’t going to lose anymore.

Quite why Kennedy had become the target of Overkill’s anger is difficult to establish.

Kennedy had previously been involved in several RWL storylines, particularly his issues with Valo, but there’s no surviving explanation that definitively connects those events to Overkill’s warning.

Unfortunately, this is one of those areas where the RWL archives aren’t entirely complete.

Some footage from this period was filmed in poor lighting conditions, never released and eventually taped over with later events. Occasional fragments have resurfaced during subsequent tape captures, but there are still gaps in the surviving history.

Whether the explanation for Overkill’s sudden interest in Kennedy existed somewhere among that missing material remains unknown.

What is certain is that, by the time the match ended, everyone involved was thoroughly soaked.

And there was still one more match to film.

The 21CW Superstar

Thankfully, the rain had eased by the time “Cyanide” Danny Cooper made his entrance for the final match.

The blue tarp had dried out considerably, and the conditions were finally suitable for something resembling normal wrestling.

Cyanide entered to an enthusiastic reaction, encouraging the audience to clap along before receiving a loud “CY-AN-IDE!” chant.

His opponent was the man Valo had introduced earlier.

“The 21CW Superstar” Hyogo Kantai.

The nickname wasn’t entirely fictional.

Hyogo had previously appeared for 21CW, the professional wrestling promotion running at Lava/Ignite in Preston, where Valo had portrayed the character in a match against Kris Travis and Scotty Hexx of Project Ego.

And when Hyogo began speaking, there was something rather familiar about the voice.

Almost as though somebody had combined Valo and Teh Gr8 Schitzu into one person.

An extraordinary coincidence.

Unlike the comedy earlier in the show, however, the match had a much more serious purpose.

With Entertainmania II approaching, Hyogo had been sent to deal with Cyanide on Valo’s behalf.

And from the way he wrestled, it was clear that simply winning wasn’t his main concern.

Hyogo wanted to hurt Cyanide.

The match began with a surprisingly technical exchange, both men working through holds and counters before gradually increasing the intensity.

Hyogo eventually began unleashing some particularly heavy offence, including a huge Trapper Keeper Piledriver.

But rather than attempting to finish the match, he simply continued attacking.

That became a recurring theme throughout the contest.

Hyogo delivered a succession of suplexes, piledrivers and submissions, repeatedly choosing to inflict more punishment rather than concentrate on securing a victory.

For Cyanide, who was only six days away from his Deathmatch with Valo, it was hardly ideal preparation.

Yet he continued fighting back.

The match also featured the introduction of a new move to Cyanide’s arsenal, the Arizona Destroyer, alongside his familiar hard-hitting offence.

Hyogo, meanwhile, continued demonstrating an increasingly unpleasant collection of manoeuvres, including a move known at the time as the “Skull Fuck”, a variation of what modern wrestling audiences would recognise as Stephanie Vaquer’s Devil’s Kiss.

Eventually, Hyogo connected with the Hyogo Driver, dropping Cyanide squarely on his head.

Even then, he couldn’t put him away, with an overly casual cover allowing Cyanide to survive.

And that proved costly.

Cyanide eventually found the opening he needed, connecting with Crystal Clear before following up with The Syringe Elbow Drop.

This time, it was enough.

Cyanide had defeated Hyogo Kantai, overcoming the punishment delivered by Valo’s supposed former student and securing an important victory ahead of Entertainmania II.

There was no elaborate post-match confrontation.

Cyanide simply left the wrestling area, while Hyogo remained lying on the damp blue tarp.

It was a relatively understated conclusion to a show that had begun with Valo announcing that he wasn’t needed.

His absence hadn’t stopped him from trying to make Cyanide’s life miserable.

But his plan hadn’t produced the result he wanted.

Six days before their scheduled Deathmatch, Cyanide was still standing.

The Show Behind the Music Video

Watching Monday Night RaGE 4 in its entirety nearly twenty years later is a rather revealing experience.

And, frankly, not always an enjoyable one.

We’ve discussed in previous chapters of RWL’s history how the promotion was very much music video-first during this period.

We weren’t producing weekly television episodes that people were expected to sit through from beginning to end. The footage was recorded primarily so that we could pick out the best moments, edit them together with music and share the finished videos through YouTube and the file-sharing websites popular within UK backyard wrestling at the time.

Those videos were usually tiny by modern standards, both in file size and resolution.

And RaGE 4 is perhaps one of the clearest examples of why that approach made sense.

The original music video lasted less than two minutes.

It took selected highlights from across the afternoon, mixed them together without much concern for chronological order and presented something entertaining from a show that hadn’t exactly gone according to plan.

Watching the complete footage is a very different experience.

Some of the wrestling is rough. Some of the comedy goes on longer than it probably should. Certain sequences feel awkward, while others simply don’t have the pacing needed to make a complete match particularly enjoyable.

And the rain made everything considerably worse.

The conditions affected virtually everybody’s performance, made the wrestling area slippery and caused problems for the camera equipment. Matches had to be shortened, planned material was abandoned and everyone was left trying to get through an afternoon that had become far more difficult than intended.

In a short music video, you could simply select the moments that worked.

Watching the complete recordings exposes all the moments in between.

But that’s also what makes preserving this footage worthwhile.

The original music video was the finished product. These recordings were the raw material used to make it.

And while RaGE 4 isn’t exactly a show you’d recommend somebody sit down and watch for its wrestling quality, it offers a much more complete picture of what actually went into producing RWL in 2007.

The awkward moments, the missed opportunities, the improvised solutions and the increasingly miserable wrestlers trying to perform while the weather did everything possible to stop them.

It’s not particularly glamorous.

But it’s honest.

Six Days Until Entertainmania

Ultimately, RaGE 4 wasn’t one of RWL’s better shows.

There were entertaining moments, particularly from the comedy characters, some impressive offence from Overkill and Jayyy, and a worthwhile final encounter between Cyanide and Hyogo Kantai.

But taken as a whole, the show struggled.

The combination of difficult weather, uneven wrestling and the limitations of the production made it an afternoon that probably worked far better as a two-minute music video than it ever would as a full-length release.

That doesn’t mean it has no place in RWL’s history.

Quite the opposite.

If RWLuk.com is going to document the promotion properly, it has to include the difficult shows as well as the good ones. The afternoons where things didn’t come together, where people made mistakes, and where circumstances beyond anyone’s control turned what should have been a relatively straightforward filming session into a bit of an ordeal.

There’s no point looking back through rose-tinted glasses and pretending everything we made was brilliant.

Some of it was genuinely quite rubbish.

But it was ours.

And despite everything, RaGE 4 had still managed to serve its main purpose.

Valo had sent Hyogo Kantai to weaken Cyanide.

Cyanide had survived.

And with six days remaining before Entertainmania II, RWL could finally turn its attention towards the next major event.

Hopefully, this time, somebody would remember to check the weather forecast.

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One cathedral promo, a newcomer greeted with “Who the fuck?”, two masked idiots wrestling roadwork barriers, and enough rain to threaten the entire production. Sometimes the music video really was the better option.