Smack!YerBitchUp

Just seven days after Inhuman Creation Station, Radical Wrestling League returned to Darwen Vale High School for Smack!YerBitchUp, a show featuring visiting talent from Scotland, two chaotic triple-threat matches, the first defence of the RWL World Championship and the beginning of a storyline that would blur the boundaries between wrestling and real life.

It was another event that demonstrated how far RWL had come since its earliest days on the grass in Blackburn.

Although, judging by some of the wrestling, there was still a considerable distance left to travel.

The Scots Are Coming

By the summer of 2007, RWL’s connections with other backyard wrestling promotions were continuing to grow.

The previous months had seen RWL talent become increasingly involved with National Alliance Wrestling, while Ciaran Kennedy’s appearance at Inhuman Creation Station had introduced another promotion into the picture.

IW, or Impact Wrestling (Scotland).

For Smack!YerBitchUp, a group of IW wrestlers travelled down from Scotland to appear on the show, including Kennedy, “The Russellor” Iain Russell and “The Monster” KillSwitch.

The event opened backstage, with Kennedy warming up alone in the Darwen Vale locker room.

That was until Valo walked in, accompanied by Iain Russell.

Kennedy looked genuinely confused to see Russell standing there.

An intense staredown followed between Kennedy and Valo, who had faced one another just seven days earlier. Kennedy had defeated the reigning NAW Cruiserweight Champion in a non-title match at Inhuman Creation Station, and there was clearly no love lost between them.

Eventually, Kennedy turned his attention to Russell and demanded to know what he was doing at RWL.

Russell, apparently deciding that Kennedy’s name wasn’t particularly important, addressed him as “Calvin Klein”.

He explained that he and KillSwitch had travelled down to compete in an IW showcase match.

Before leaving, Russell wished Kennedy luck in his upcoming RWL World Championship match.

Valo, meanwhile, made it perfectly clear how much he couldn’t stand Kennedy.

Not exactly the friendliest of reunions.

And, as it turned out, the tension between Russell and Kennedy would become rather important later in the afternoon.

A Debut, a Return and a Terrible Finish

The opening match introduced a new face to RWL in Kris “Overkill” Kage, alongside the returning Spyke and the increasingly familiar Adam Watson.

Spyke hadn’t been seen in RWL since Leaping Spoonkick From Hell on 23rd September 2006, when he faced Nixy Nix.

That was more than ten months earlier.

Back then, RWL had been wrestling outdoors on grass, with makeshift equipment and very little idea what it was doing.

Now it had access to a school sports hall and proper gym mats.

The wrestling, however, wasn’t necessarily any more organised.

In fact, the match began before Adam Watson had even made his entrance.

What followed was a rather disjointed contest, full of awkward exchanges, sloppy moves and sequences that didn’t always come together particularly well.

It certainly wasn’t going to win any awards for technical wrestling.

There were, however, two important developments worth remembering.

The first was Kage.

Despite the rough nature of the match, the newcomer showed genuine promise. Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, that potential would prove to be very real as the wrestler who debuted as Kris “Overkill” Kage continued to develop over the following years.

The second involved Adam Watson.

During the match, Watson delivered his Axe Handle Smash, receiving a genuinely big reaction from the small audience for the first time.

It was an early indication of just how closely the move would become associated with Watson throughout his RWL career.

The Master of the Axe Handle Smash was beginning to emerge.

Unfortunately, somebody still had to decide how the match would end.

And whoever came up with the finish deserves a very stern talking-to.

All three wrestlers ended up on the ground.

The referee counted to ten.

Nobody got up.

TRIPLE COUNTOUT.

In a triple-threat match.

Somehow.

All three men were counted out simultaneously, resulting in a draw.

It’s difficult to explain precisely how that was supposed to work, and even more difficult to defend it as a satisfying conclusion.

A genuinely terrible finish.

But if nothing else, it demonstrated that RWL was still capable of finding entirely new ways to confuse itself.

The Monster and The Russellor

Next came the promised IW showcase match.

And the difference in physical size compared with the opening contest was immediately apparent.

Standing at 6’5” and weighing approximately 28 stone, “The Monster” KillSwitch was an imposing figure.

His opponent, “The Russellor” Iain Russell, was hardly a small man himself, although he was noticeably smaller than KillSwitch.

This wasn’t a match built around elaborate technical exchanges or high-flying manoeuvres.

It was two very large Scottish wrestlers hitting each other.

Hard.

The contest featured heavy strikes, physical exchanges and some substantial slams, offering a very different style of wrestling from the disjointed opening match.

It also gave RWL the opportunity to showcase visiting talent from another promotion, something that was becoming increasingly important as the group developed relationships throughout the UK backyard wrestling scene.

Towards the end of the match, however, Ciaran Kennedy made an unexpected appearance.

Kennedy approached Russell and offered him a handshake.

Russell refused.

Kennedy responded by delivering a superkick, knocking Russell to the ground.

With his opponent incapacitated, KillSwitch seized the opportunity and delivered his finishing move, KillSwitch Engage, securing the three-count.

KillSwitch had won the IW showcase match.

But Kennedy had made an enemy of one of his fellow Scottish wrestlers.

And Russell wasn’t finished with him yet.

Seven Days Can Change Everything

Away from the wrestling, the week between Inhuman Creation Station and Smack!YerBitchUp had been particularly difficult.

At the previous show, a painful real-life situation involving Valo, his close friend “Cyanide” Danny Cooper and Cyanide’s then-girlfriend had unfolded behind the scenes.

At that point, nothing romantic had happened between Valo and Cyanide’s girlfriend.

By Smack!YerBitchUp, however, the circumstances had changed.

Valo and Cyanide’s now-ex-girlfriend had entered into a real-life relationship.

The fallout was considerable.

There had been arguments, disagreements, tears and a great deal of hurt between people who had previously been incredibly close.

This wasn’t a fictional disagreement invented to create a wrestling storyline.

It was something genuinely painful happening between friends.

Despite everything, Valo and Cyanide made the decision to try to work through their differences.

And, perhaps unsurprisingly given the people involved, they also decided to turn the situation into wrestling.

The inspiration was the sort of worked-shoot storytelling associated with Vince Russo, where genuine backstage tensions are incorporated into fictional storylines, deliberately making it difficult to distinguish reality from performance.

There was one particularly unusual element to the plan.

The audience consisted of the other wrestlers.

Everyone watching already knew what had happened.

There was no need to establish an elaborate fictional reason for Cyanide to have a problem with Valo. The people in attendance understood the circumstances perfectly well.

Valo and Cyanide agreed to begin the storyline at Smack!YerBitchUp, with the intention of continuing it over multiple shows.

There wasn’t a predetermined ending or a carefully mapped-out sequence of events.

They would simply see where it went.

Whether turning such a difficult personal situation into entertainment was particularly sensible is another question entirely.

But the decision had been made.

And the first chapter was about to unfold.

Soul on Fire

The main event brought together three wrestlers with very different reasons to want the RWL World Championship.

Flaming Chaos had captured the vacant title at Inhuman Creation Station, defeating Shawn O’ Mercy to become the new champion.

Now, just seven days later, he was making his first defence.

One challenger was Ciaran Kennedy, who had already defeated Valo the previous week and interfered in Iain Russell’s match earlier that afternoon.

The other was Valo himself.

Still the reigning NAW Cruiserweight Champion, Valo arrived with a new entrance theme:

“Soul on Fire” by HIM.

It was another change in presentation for a wrestler whose character had already undergone several transformations throughout 2007.

The match itself was an action-packed triple threat, with all three competitors exchanging offence and the momentum constantly shifting.

For RWL at the time, it was a strong main event.

And then things became considerably more complicated.

Late in the contest, Valo caught Kennedy with the Indian Deathlock DDT.

There was something rather familiar about that move.

Just seven days earlier, Teh Gr8 Schitzu had introduced the very same manoeuvre during the opening match of Inhuman Creation Station.

An extraordinary coincidence.

Before Valo could capitalise, however, another wrestler appeared.

“CYANIDE” DANNY COOPER.

Cyanide entered the match and delivered his Crystal Clear finisher to Valo, taking him out of contention.

For the wrestlers watching, the significance was immediately obvious.

This was the first on-screen development in the worked-shoot storyline that Valo and Cyanide had agreed to create from their real-life circumstances.

The interference was planned.

The feelings behind it were very real.

With Valo out of the picture, Kennedy turned his attention to Flaming Chaos.

He connected with his Lightning Spiral, a finishing move he called “The Next Level”, and appeared to have the RWL World Championship within his grasp.

But just as Kennedy was about to secure the three-count, another familiar face arrived.

IAIN RUSSELL.

Earlier in the afternoon, Kennedy had cost Russell his match against KillSwitch with a superkick.

Now Russell was returning the favour.

He slapped Kennedy, preventing him from securing the victory.

Flaming Chaos seized the opportunity, catching Kennedy with a roll-up.

ONE! TWO! THREE!

Flaming Chaos retained the RWL World Championship in his first defence.

Two outside interferences.

Two separate personal rivalries.

And one champion who somehow managed to walk away with the belt.

Not a bad afternoon’s work.

Where Reality Met Wrestling

Looking back, Smack!YerBitchUp is an interesting event for several different reasons.

It marked the RWL debut of Kris “Overkill” Kage, the return of Spyke after more than ten months away, and the first genuinely big reaction to Adam Watson’s Axe Handle Smash.

It also brought a group of wrestlers from Impact Wrestling (Scotland) to Darwen, demonstrating the connections RWL was developing with other promotions.

Flaming Chaos successfully defended the RWL World Championship for the first time, while Ciaran Kennedy and Iain Russell began developing a rivalry of their own.

And, of course, there was that opening match.

Some finishes are remembered because they’re brilliant.

Others are remembered because they’re absolutely bloody terrible.

The triple countout belongs firmly in the second category.

But the most significant development was undoubtedly the beginning of the Valo/Cyanide storyline.

What had started as a genuinely painful situation between close friends was now becoming part of RWL’s on-screen history.

Neither Valo nor Cyanide knew exactly where the storyline would lead. They only knew that they wanted to continue it beyond this show.

The decision to work together didn’t erase what had happened behind the scenes, nor did it make the hurt disappear.

But it represented an attempt to move forward, both personally and creatively, during a particularly difficult period.

And for an organisation where the wrestlers were also the bookers, camera operators, audience and friends, it demonstrated just how difficult separating wrestling from real life could sometimes become.

RWL was still learning how to put on wrestling shows.

It was also learning that some stories were considerably more complicated than anything that could be written into a match.

Scottish visitors. Questionable finishes. Real-life drama.