Monday Night RaGE 5

One day.

That’s how long RWL waited after Entertainmania II before deciding it was time to start wrestling again.

The previous afternoon had seen Valo and Cyanide go through an extremely violent Deathmatch, the RWL World Championship change hands, and the promotion celebrate the first anniversary of its recorded history.

You might have thought everybody would fancy a bit of a rest.

Apparently not.

On 1st October 2007, RWL returned to the XCW Arena for Monday Night RaGE 5, appropriately subtitled The Aftermath of Entertainmania II.

And there was certainly plenty of aftermath to deal with.

Cyanide was the new RWL World Champion, Overkill had made his intentions towards KillSwitch and the Cruiserweight Championship perfectly clear, and Valo had just lost the biggest match of his RWL career.

Naturally, Valo’s response to all this was to turn up the following day and cause even more trouble.

A New Look for Monday Night RaGE

Before anybody started hitting anybody else, the episode opened with something new.

Monday Night RaGE had received a new logo and opening theme, giving the weekly series a more distinctive identity.

The theme was an original piece created by Valo using audio-loop software, continuing the promotion’s growing interest in making its own production material.

It might not sound particularly revolutionary now, but for a backyard wrestling promotion in 2007, these were the little things that helped make a collection of matches feel more like an actual wrestling programme.

RaGE was gradually developing its own presentation, even if the actual wrestling still involved blue tarpaulin, assorted household objects and whatever unfortunate members of the roster happened to be available that afternoon.

And with that, we were underway.

Dublin, Japan and a Tadpole Splash

First up was Tom Omega against Teh Gr8 Phuka-U.

Omega had only recently made his RWL debut at RaGE 4, before appearing again at Entertainmania II, where Adam Watson had memorably introduced him as “Tom Obscene” from “Dubai, Ireland”.

That particular name had somehow survived into the original advertising for RaGE 5, despite the man himself being Tom Omega.

At least his wrestling was a little more straightforward.

The encounter with Phuka-U was a brief one, with Omega picking up a submission victory using the wonderfully named Walls of Dublin.

A considerably more accurate geographical reference than anything Watson had managed the previous day.

Next came the in-ring debut of Mini Lyger, introduced as “The Number 2 Japanese Superstar”.

Quite how he’d earned that ranking, or who was responsible for maintaining the official Japanese superstar league table, was never particularly clear.

Mini Lyger had appeared during the Entertainmania II pre-show, where his injury outside RWL had been discussed as part of a segment involving Cyanide and The Omen. Now, just one day later, he was finally making his first recorded appearance as an RWL competitor.

His opponent was Teh Gr8 Schitzu, who’d become a regular feature of the increasingly ridiculous comedy side of the promotion.

Mini Lyger came to the wrestling area accompanied by KillSwitch, and the match featured a selection of familiar Lyger-inspired offence, including the UFO Low Blow and a Lyger Bomb.

KillSwitch also decided to contribute, delivering a Powerbomb to Schitzu himself.

Because apparently accompanying somebody to ringside meant you were entitled to join in whenever you fancied.

Mini Lyger eventually finished Schitzu off with a Tadpole Splash.

A smaller version of a Frog Splash.

Obviously.

It was a suitably daft introduction for RWL’s newest Japanese superstar, and another addition to the growing collection of characters who’d somehow found their way into the promotion.

But the light-hearted wrestling wasn’t going to last.

The Omen Have Other Plans

One of the more interesting developments at Entertainmania II had been the formation of Switchblade Corp, the new team of KillSwitch and Teddie H.

Their debut hadn’t exactly gone to plan, thanks largely to the interference of Overkill, who’d spent much of the previous show targeting KillSwitch.

Overkill had also made it clear that he wanted the RWL Cruiserweight Championship, giving the rivalry an obvious direction heading into the next episode.

For RaGE 5, Switchblade Corp had been advertised to face The Omen, with Spyke and Overkill originally listed as their opponents.

The Omen, of course, was the faction led by Valo, with Spyke and Overkill serving alongside him.

When the faction appeared on this occasion, however, it was Valo and Overkill who came out to confront Switchblade Corp.

And they weren’t particularly interested in having the advertised tag match.

Switchblade Corp had arrived first, with Teddie complaining that their opponents had apparently chickened out of facing them.

That accusation brought The Omen straight out.

Valo, who had seemingly recovered remarkably well from the previous afternoon’s Deathmatch, promptly announced that he had other plans.

Rather than allowing Switchblade Corp to face The Omen, Teddie H would instead wrestle Adam Watson.

And, because changing the match wasn’t enough, Valo added a stipulation.

If Adam Watson won, he would join The Omen.

Quite whether Watson had been expecting a recruitment opportunity when he turned up that afternoon wasn’t explained.

Valo then turned his attention towards KillSwitch, telling him that he wasn’t needed anymore.

Before KillSwitch could do much about it, Valo attacked him.

Overkill went after Teddie H, and the whole thing quickly descended into the sort of chaos that generally followed The Omen wherever they went.

The assault on KillSwitch was particularly nasty.

Valo placed a bicycle onto KillSwitch’s knee before delivering a Double Stomp onto it, leaving the Cruiserweight Champion injured.

This was a significant escalation from Overkill’s attacks at Entertainmania II.

What had started as an apparent desire to win KillSwitch’s championship was now becoming a sustained effort to physically break him down.

And Valo, despite having been through a brutal Deathmatch less than a day earlier, was more than happy to help.

Eventually, the newly arranged Teddie H vs Adam Watson match got underway, with the injured KillSwitch and members of The Omen still at ringside.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t going to be a particularly fair contest.

During the match, Overkill attacked the referee before delivering The Overkill to Teddie.

That left Watson with a perfect opportunity to finish the job, connecting with his increasingly successful Axe Handle Smash to secure the victory.

And just like that, Adam Watson became the newest member of The Omen.

It was a notable development for the faction.

Until this point, The Omen had consisted of Valo as its leader, alongside Spyke and Overkill. Now Watson had joined them, expanding the group to four members.

It was also quite a turnaround for Watson, who’d previously had his own problems with Spyke and Overkill during the summer.

Apparently, all could be forgiven if there was an opportunity to join the bad guys and hit somebody with an Axe Handle Smash.

There wasn’t a grand initiation ceremony or a lengthy celebration.

The music video simply moved on.

But Watson’s newfound allegiance would become clear soon enough.

The One Man Valo Couldn’t Beat

Next came Valo vs Jayyy, another chapter in a rivalry that stretched back through RWL’s early history.

The original YouTube description made a particular point of Valo’s inability to defeat Jayyy, presenting the match as yet another opportunity for Valo to finally get one over on a man who’d repeatedly frustrated him.

It was hardly the ideal time for Valo to be wrestling, either.

Only the previous day, he’d lost the RWL World Championship Deathmatch to Cyanide in one of the most violent encounters the promotion had produced.

But Valo had never been particularly good at accepting defeat.

And apparently he was determined to collect another opportunity to prove himself.

By this point, daylight was becoming a problem.

The music video switches to night-vision footage as the match gets underway, with Valo and Jayyy initially backing one another towards a trolley positioned near the corner of the tarpaulin.

Jayyy used his athleticism to gain the advantage, but Valo was able to cut him off, and it wasn’t long before The Omen became involved.

With Valo distracting the referee, Overkill and Adam Watson attacked Jayyy.

There was the confirmation of Watson’s new allegiance.

Not content with having won his way into The Omen earlier in the show, he was already helping Valo interfere in somebody else’s match.

A natural fit, really.

Despite the interference, Jayyy continued fighting back, and the two exchanged some impressive moves, including a big Code Red from Jayyy.

Valo also attempted a Canadian Destroyer, only for Jayyy to reverse the move into a Canadian Destroyer of his own.

Eventually, Valo went for the CorZonE, but Jayyy managed to counter the attempt into a Crucifix Pin.

It was another frustrating encounter for Valo, whose long-standing difficulties against Jayyy were showing no signs of going away.

Unfortunately, the surviving full-length recording of this match begins partway through, meaning that much of the original contest can now only be seen through the edited music video.

Nevertheless, the footage preserves one of the episode’s most important developments.

Adam Watson wasn’t just nominally a member of The Omen. He was already taking an active role in the faction’s interference.

And with The Omen now operating as a four-man group, things were becoming increasingly difficult for anybody unfortunate enough to cross them.

A World Championship Match in the Dark

By the time the final match came around, the lighting situation had gone from inconvenient to almost completely hopeless.

Overkill called out the newly crowned RWL World Champion, “Cyanide” Danny Cooper, leading to an unexpected RWL World Championship match that hadn’t appeared on the original advertised card.

It was a significant encounter, coming just one day after Cyanide had finally defeated Valo to capture the championship at Entertainmania II.

And now, less than twenty-four hours into his reign, Cyanide was already making his first title defence.

Against another member of The Omen, no less.

Cyanide had survived the extremely violent Deathmatch with Valo, emerged with the RWL World Championship and celebrated alongside the rest of the promotion after the show.

Now he was straight back into action, with the championship on the line once again.

Overkill, meanwhile, was becoming increasingly prominent throughout RWL.

Between attacking KillSwitch, pursuing the Cruiserweight Championship, interfering in other people’s matches and representing The Omen, he was rarely far from whatever trouble happened to be taking place.

And despite already having his sights set on KillSwitch’s Cruiserweight Championship, Overkill now had an opportunity to capture RWL’s biggest prize.

Not a bad way to spend a Monday evening.

Unfortunately, the match itself was filmed in conditions that made the footage extraordinarily difficult to see.

By this point, darkness had almost completely swallowed the wrestling area, leaving the camera struggling to capture anything useful.

And this wasn’t just a case of the footage looking a little grainy.

For long stretches, it’s genuinely difficult to tell what is happening.

A few moments remain identifiable, including Cyanide connecting with a Shining Wizard, only for Overkill to catch him with a DDT.

Beyond that, much of the encounter is extremely hard to reconstruct from the surviving recording.

It’s particularly unfortunate given the historical significance of the match.

This was Cyanide’s first defence of the RWL World Championship, taking place just one day after his victory at Entertainmania II, yet it ended up being one of the most poorly lit matches the promotion had recorded.

The finish, however, is visible enough to establish what happened.

Cyanide delivered The Syringe Elbow Drop to defeat Overkill and successfully retain the RWL World Championship.

A successful first defence for the new champion, even if very few people watching the original recording could properly see how he’d managed it.

Unfortunately for Cyanide, retaining the championship wasn’t the end of the evening.

That’s What Happens When You Beat Valo

With Overkill beaten, Valo attacked Cyanide after the match.

Just one day after losing the RWL World Championship to him, Valo clearly wasn’t prepared to leave their rivalry behind.

He took Cyanide onto the concrete path, where he delivered a CorZonE Side Slam variation.

Then, with the new champion laid out, Valo offered one final explanation.

“That’s what happens when you beat Valo.”

And the footage faded out.

It was a fittingly bitter ending to an episode built around the immediate consequences of Entertainmania II.

Only a day earlier, Cyanide had overcome Valo in the Deathmatch and finally captured the RWL World Championship.

Now he’d successfully defended that same title against Overkill, proving that his victory the previous afternoon wasn’t going to be followed by an immediate loss.

But Valo clearly wasn’t prepared to accept that.

The bonus footage from Entertainmania II had even shown Valo and Cyanide embracing after the match, surrounded by their friends as everybody chanted “RWL”.

But that was after the cameras had stopped telling the fictional story.

Within the world of RWL, Valo clearly wasn’t finished.

He might have lost the championship, but he hadn’t lost his determination to make Cyanide suffer for beating him.

And with The Omen now strengthened by the addition of Adam Watson, Valo had even more people available to help him do exactly that.

Piecing Together the Aftermath

Unfortunately, Monday Night RaGE 5 is another show where very little of the original full-length footage survives.

Only one complete match recording, the RWL World Championship encounter between Cyanide and Overkill, and an incomplete recording of Valo vs Jayyy remain among the surviving individual AVI files.

The earlier matches, the disruption of Switchblade Corp’s scheduled tag match, and the events surrounding Watson’s recruitment are therefore preserved primarily through the original music video.

That makes the video an especially important part of RWL’s archive.

Without it, there would be very little surviving visual evidence of Mini Lyger’s in-ring debut, the attack on KillSwitch’s knee, or the match that officially brought Adam Watson into The Omen.

It also preserves the episode’s new opening sequence and original RaGE theme, representing another small step in the promotion’s evolving production identity.

The closing championship match presents a rather different challenge.

Filmed in near darkness, Cyanide vs Overkill was difficult to make out even in its original edited form, and the limitations of the equipment and editing options available in 2007 left very little opportunity to rescue the footage.

For the modern restoration of the music video, the intention is to preserve the original editing of the earlier matches while recreating the Cyanide vs Overkill section using the surviving footage.

That approach should make the championship encounter easier to follow without replacing the original look and feel of the rest of the show.

And it’s worth preserving that look.

Because, for better or worse, the rough presentation is part of what these early RWL recordings actually were.

Matches were filmed when people could get together, often without much consideration for how quickly the weather or available daylight might deteriorate.

Sometimes that meant wrestling in the pouring rain.

Sometimes it meant struggling with uneven ground, questionable equipment or whatever obstacles happened to be lying around.

And sometimes it meant continuing to film well into the evening, until the camera could barely distinguish one wrestler from another.

RaGE 5 certainly wasn’t the first show to suffer from those limitations.

But it was one of the more extreme examples.

No Rest for the Wicked

Looking back, Monday Night RaGE 5 is a surprisingly significant episode, despite how little of the original footage survives.

The wrestling itself might not have been especially remarkable, and the production quality certainly had its problems, but the show continued several important developments from Entertainmania II almost immediately.

The newly formed Switchblade Corp found themselves targeted by The Omen, with KillSwitch suffering an attack that escalated his rivalry with Overkill.

Adam Watson officially joined the faction, expanding The Omen from its original three members to four.

Mini Lyger made his in-ring debut, while Tom Omega continued establishing himself in the promotion.

Valo’s long-running frustrations against Jayyy continued, despite the assistance of his increasingly troublesome allies.

And Cyanide, having only just won the RWL World Championship, was already forced to defend it against Overkill.

His first title defence was successful, but the post-match attack from Valo made one thing abundantly clear: the rivalry that had dominated the previous few months wasn’t over.

There was also a noticeable effort to improve the show’s presentation, with a new logo and original theme helping Monday Night RaGE develop a little more personality of its own.

All of this happened one day after Entertainmania II.

The anniversary show had been a major moment in RWL’s early history, with its main event providing a dramatic conclusion to months of building tension between Valo and Cyanide.

But rather than treating that as the end of the story, RaGE 5 immediately began exploring the consequences.

The World Championship had changed hands and already been defended.

The Omen had gained another member.

The Cruiserweight Champion had a growing problem with Overkill.

And Valo, having lost the biggest match of his RWL career, was determined to remind everybody that he was still perfectly capable of causing havoc.

In that respect, The Aftermath of Entertainmania II was a particularly appropriate title.

The big event was over.

But the fallout was only beginning.

One day after Entertainmania II, RWL had a new RaGE theme, a new member of The Omen and a World Champion who’d already made his first successful defence. The future was looking bright. Unfortunately, by the end of the show, the footage wasn’t.