ECCW Ballroom Brawl 6 Results & Review

A couple of nights ago I got to attend my first ever ECCW Ballroom Brawl event at the Commodore Ballroom, and boy, did it ever make me upset that I missed out on the previous five. The atmosphere, the crowd, the production and the show itself all together made me remember why professional wrestling to me is the greatest form of art and athleticism. It is ECCW’s biggest show of the Summer and from the vibe inside the Ballroom it sure felt like it. In my opinion, unless you really liked to be super close to the action, there was not a bad seat in the house. The air appeared as if it was smokey, there wasn’t an empty corner in the building and all you could hear was the chatter between excited wrestling fans enjoying their beverages of choice in anticipation. It was a sold out crowd, on a warm Vancouver Summer night. The lights were on, the stage was ready and in the centre of it all surrounded by spotlights coming from all directions was the sacred squared circle, where many stories have been told before and tonight many great ones were going to be told again. Lets get this review started.

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The show opens with Derek Drexel coming out to the ring in his own torn up sweatervest. Drexel announced that Sweatervest was unable to make it to the show tonight and Sweatervest came out to Stone Cold’s music, in a Sweatervest 3:16 sweatervest and Stone Cold Stunnered Drexel. He took the mic and cut a parody of the famous King of the Ring 1996 Stone Cold promo. Following that he introduced the show and hyped up the crowd. I freakin loved it. There is no way to get a wrestling crowd hyped than hearing Stone Cold’s music. The ECCW fans love Sweatervest and thats for sure.

This match was awesome and really kept the energy of the crowd alive. Billy Suede makes his way out to the ring pushing the Great Bambino Tony Baroni’s wheelchair as he’s still injured and a long with Goddness Mandy. Nicole Matthews and The King of the Yukon got great ovations from the crowd. Yukon threw his jacket so high it got stuck in the ceiling, and got a reaction of laughter from the crowd. The match was really fun, as the two babyface competitors kept making sure Suede wouldn’t get the upper hand. Yukon refused to hit or wrestle Nicole Matthews because she’s a woman. Nicole tried provoking him with chops and slaps, which led to The King of the Yukon to slap her back. This was the only time he took a hit at Nicole. At one point Baroni got involved, so The King rolled him to the top of the ramp and push him down it, leading him to roll right into the Goddess Mandy. The match ended after Yukon requested Nicole go for the pin, and he doggy piled on top of the cover. Technically Nicole Matthews won but it was announced that both Yukon and Nicole did. This match was fun and perfect to open the show with to keep the excitement levels high. Following the match, The King of the Yukon and Nicole Matthews shared a moment drinking beers in the ring. This was an awesome match featuring some of ECCW’s most popular stars.

In a match between two powerful big men, they surely delivered. The crowd was behind Shreddz but it didnt seem to phase Diaz. Diaz’s logo with the Bull wearing a crown on its horn is pretty badass. I always have to give credit to Shreddz wrestling with a large Mohawk, that never ends up a mess. These two both had something to prove and barley waited for the bell to get at each other. This match was a technically sound match, with a lot of back and fourth between two big guys. It was obvious that a win at Ballroom Brawl meant a lot to both guys. Diaz failed to his 450 splash, but regardless seeing a guy his size hitting a move like that is still awesome to see. Following the failure to hit the 450 splash, Shreddz caught Diaz with a swinging RKO/neckbreaker for the win.  This was a great match with both guys bringing it to one another.

The promo before this match was sweet and really built up both guys. Brian Cage is a complete beast. Its mind-blowing seeing some of the stuff he can do for a guy his size. Cage wrestles on the popular Lucha Underground and its where he has made a name for himself thus far. El Phantasmo is the hometown favourite and ECCW is his home where has grown to become one of the post popular stars of the company. El Phantasmo has been having open challenges for his ECCW title during his reign and Brian Cage could possibly be his biggest threat yet. Cage comes out and there are some fans behind him, but it was nothing compared to the love El Phantasmo got from his hometown crowd when he came out. El Phantasmo added some stuff to his entrance including a different intro and female dancers in lingerie due to it being a bigger and more important show. Brian Cage made a funny comment about it not being fair that El Phantasmo used the distraction of a certain female body part to distract him.
The match gets underway and Brian Cage was in charge for a lot of the first part. There was some of Phantasmo’s comedy stuff in this match as well, such as his slow motion chop and purple nurple. Cage showcased his strength and the story being told here was El Phantasmo, obviously being the smaller of the two had to find a way overcome the power of Brian Cage. Cage’s stalling vertical suplex while doing squats was one of my favourite moves of the night. I always love when El Phantasmo walks the ropes from one side to the other to do a moonsault to his opponent on the outside. The match went back and fourth for the second half with near falls that had everyone on the edge of their seats. It was also during this time we saw some really epic movies, such as the F5 and the Canadian Destroyer but neither man would stay down. Finally El Phantasmo his finish and got the three count. Following the match, the two shook hands, hugged and Cage raised El Phantasmo’s arm in a show of respect. El Phantasmo continues his reign as ECCW Champion and this match is must watch for fans of Brian Cage, El Phantasmo or wrestling in general. I can’t exaggerate how awesome this match was being there live as a fan.
If you want to watch the highlights of this match, you can watch it on YouTube by clicking the link below:
El Phantasmo vs. Brian Cage

There was an intermission following this match and the crowd was still very lively. I was loving the atmosphere , because for me personally, there is no place that feels more like a second home than being surrounded by wrestling fans, regardless where in the world it is. I met some people who spotted me out and wanted to know if I was The Wrestling Classic from IG and the inter web and that was cool. I remember I used to always say no because I didn’t want people to know, but I’m over that phase now. It’s really cool meeting people who have supported my page, brand and what I try doing in bringing wrestling fans together. I like having the ability to say thank you those people who introduce themselves to me. If you think you see me somewhere, feel free to ask if I am Mr. TWC so I can introduce myself and allow me to say thank you in person. I dig it.

As we come back from intermission there is a group of guys in the ring, and we soon find out they’re the owners and staff of FILE news. FILE news is media company that has their own magazine (which I realized I sitting on for the beginning half of the show as there was a copy of their magazine on all of our seats) and they announced they will now be covering ECCW in their magazine. They wanted to start and announce this relationship here at Ballroom Brawl. I should have done this and aired it on my IG page and my YouTube channel but then I would have to fully reveal my identity. I’d be lying if I said I didnt imagine this exact segment in my mind before but with the TWC over FILE news. This is what happens when you’ve been booking wrestling in your mind for as long as you can remember, you see some of your ideas actually happen. Anyway, as FILE news is talking about their excitement to work with ECCW, Scotty Mac’s music hits. It wouldn’t be a Ballroom Brawl without the man himself, Scott Mac. I’m pretty sure he’s recovering from an injury so he was unable to wrestle, but I was excited to see him make an appearance. Scotty comes out with a couple of guys from his entourage and ECCW security. Scotty makes claims that nothing happens in ECCW unless he’s okay with it. He talks about how he made ECCW what it is today and that the Commodore Ballroom is sold out because of him. There was a funny remark about Vancouver Canuck fans and he mentioned the city of Surrey which got a mixed reaction pop. They have confrontation in the ring, when the main FILE news guy, I think his name was Rob (I’m assuming one of the owners) and Scotty nearly get into a brawl after Scotty smacked him. The FILE news guy is clearly a trained fighter or something, because he did some awesome kick that didn’t connect. Scotty flees as security tries to keep a brawl from taking place. This was a fun segment and it was great that Scotty was able to make an appearance.

This is a match between former tag team partners and tag team champions, Mike Santiago and Ethan HD. The Amerikan Guns are fighting for Ethan HD’s Canadian Championship, more importantly they’re fighting over pride. Ethan HD has been accumulating accolade after accolade over the past year. He has won the ECCW Pacific Cup tournament and the Canadian Championship just in 2016. On the other hand, Mike Santiago has been taking on all comers and suffered a knee injury out of nowhere. It was while he was out with this knee injury he finally got to sit back and see all the momentum his friend Ethan was gaining. This made Santiago return and attack Ethan demanding a chance at his title. Here we are now at Ballroom Brawl  where these two finally face off against each other, to finally find out who truly is the best between the two. The match was good but the fact that they played the Bollywood Boyz/Cunningham video promo before this match had the fans anticipating that match and chanting “Butterchicken”. I feel like if they didn’t do that maybe people would be more focused into this match. Ethan HD is truly a star and does some impressive things in that ring. Santiago is down right ass kicker and his sole purpose is to get the job done. Their styles mesh well together and the two of them know each other very well. In the end, even though there was a 50% chance of it happening it was still shocking that Santiago won and cleanly at that. I know this feud is not over yet, but this was just a stepping stone to a much longer rivalry rather than a blow off of a feud. I think if I watched this match again over now, I would enjoy it a lot more.

In a very anticipated match we get the Cunninghams vs. The Bollywood Boyz. The Bollywood Boyz are one of the most popular ECCW acts over the past decade and recently received global recognition in being part of the WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic. All this momentum and growth in popularity was getting under the Cunningham’s skin, as they believe they are just as good if not better than the Bollywood Boyz. There has also been this side story, where The Natural has recently shown interest in the Bollywood Boyz as his hand chosen tag team which makes it seem like there is potential for them to turn heel. The Cunninghams came out to a pop, sporting “It’s Tricky” by Run DMC as a new theme song, opposed to Chumbawamba’s “Thubthumping”.  I liked the change but I’m sure as hell going to miss their old theme. Im not sure if this is going to be their new official theme, or if it was just a Ballroom Brawl special. The Bollywood Boyz music hit and two dancers from Vancity Bhangra came out dancing to pump up the crowd even more, before Harv and Gurv came out to join them in dancing. The fans were loudly behind the two asskickin butter chicken brothers. Both teams came into this match as babyface’s with the crowd behind them. Big Jack Cunningham announced to keep this brothers vs. brothers match straight down the middle, he requested a special referee to make sure there was no outside interference. Big Jack’s request was granted and the special referee was the ECCW legend Dr. Luther.
The match was fast paced back and fourth action. It started off as a brawl outside the ring, which left Harv cut open. Back in the squared circle there was a ton of cool spots and both teams got in some of their signature moves. There was cool super kick spot that the Bollywood Boyz got on the Cunninghams. I also love all of the big guy;small guy double team maneuvers the Cunningham’s use such as Karl launching himself off Jack’s shoulders for a splash. The competitive spirit between the two teams was evident, as you can tell they were both gunning for a victory here, I’m a big fan of both teams, so to be honest I wasn’t to concerned about who was going to walk out as winners. I think in my predictions I chose the Cunninghams because I figured they had more to gain from winning here at Ballroom Brawl. Natural came out to try to help the Bollywood Boyz get the shady win, but was knocked out by one of them. The Bollywood Boyz wanted nothing to with Natural and wanted to win the match clean. They got the Cunninghams down and simultaneously locked them into sharpshooters, which looked like it was going to be the finish of the match. That was until Dr. Luther close lined both Gurv and Harv while they had the submission holds locked in. This was followed by a beat down to the Bollywood Boyz. The Cunninghams turned heel aligning themselves with Dr. Luther. The Voros Twins came out to aid the Bollywood Boyz to also get beat up. It was chaotic beat down and it had the crowd rowdy in anger. It’s the first time I’ve personally heard the Cunninghams get boo’ed. The cherry on top of it all was when Big Jack saluted the crowd with two middle fingers. This was a swerve and it was fucking awesome. It was one of those moments you were glad to be there live for. It was executed perfectly. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

The moment you hear there is a TLC match on a card, it gets you excited. When I realized who the competitors involved were, it made me even more excited. These are four of ECCW’s best, in a TLC match for ECCW’s grand prize for tag teams. The West Coast Express, Alex Plexis and Nelson Creed along with Kassidy make their way out first. I don’t think anyone gets more natural heat than Alex Plexis. People just don’t like the cockiness that spews from Alex Plexis, because he’s this scrawny little guy. Regardless of that he’s a complete in ring technician and one of the best characters in ECCW. Talking about characters how Nelson Creed, another great wrestler, great character and best ECCW has offer. The Good Brothers may not have been on the scene as long as those two previously mentioned but they’ve made an impact during the time they’ve been here. They’re already fan favourites and tag team champions when they beat the West Coast Express for the titles. The Good Brothers came out to a great ovation in special entrance gear and face paint.
I expected complete chaos in this match and complete chaos is what we got. There were tables breaking, ladders smashing and chairs shots a plenty. I loved the showboating and cockiness from Plexis and Creed when they were in charge. It just show how comfortable and great they are as heels. There were some memorable moments near the closing of the match, such as Good Brother Everest doing the Catcus Jack elbow off the apron putting Nelson Creed through a table and Good Brother Pesky pushing Alex Plexis off the ladder onto a table covered in thumbtacks. In the end, after this extreme match it was the Good Brother’s who walked out still your ECCW tag team champions. They celebrated the only way the Good Brothers know how to celebrate, like rock stars.

Xavier Galaxy has to be one of my personal favourite people on the ECCW roster. Galaxy comes out to “Candyshop” by 50 cent and cuts a quick promo on Andy Bird. This brings Bird out, who does hold back from having a badass entrance and entrance gear for the big show. The usually colourful Andy Bird came out in black and white with more serious music rather than his upbeat happy theme. This was a serious Dreadful Bird who wasn’t here to mess around. This match proved that as Andy Bird made quick work of Xavier Galaxy getting the victory after  a quick ass whoopin. Although, Andy Bird is popular for his high level fun personality, I really enjoyed seeing this more dark side serious Dreadful Bird.

In Sid Sylum’s final professional wrestling match he wrestles his former tag team partner and friend Bishop.  This match came about when the Natural was on a rant and was confronted by Sylum. It lead to Bishop attacking Sylum and Sylum coming out of retirement for one last match at the biggest show of the Summer. This was going to be Sylum’s final match and its fitting that it’s against his former G.O.D.S teammate and with his former manager out there. Slum has been on and off aligned with Bishop and Natural throughout his entire ECCW career, whether it was as friends or enemies. Overall, the whole scenario made perfect sense. Bishop came out to his regular heat and with his regular ego. Sylum came out to a loud ovation from the Vancouver fans and ready to fight.
These two held nothing back and started brawling almost immediately after Sweatervest finished introducing them. They fought all around the venue. Since I was there live and near the ring, I couldn’t see most of the brawling that was happening around the ballroom, however I did see Sylum dive off one of Balcony’s onto Bishop which was pretty damn cool and got the crowd chanting. Once the match got back in the ring, it was back and fourth and really exciting. I know it had me on the edge of my seat because even though it was Sylum’s retirement match, it didn’t mean he had to win, right? There was a point where Bishop tried throwing a flame ball in Sylum’s face but he dodged it and it caught the referee. When the second referee came out when Bishop thought he had the match won but Sylum kicked out, it looked as if Sylum was seriously hurt. Sylum was forced to retire due to a  neck injury and the referee was signalling that he was hurt in the same area but Bishop didnt hold back and Natural handed him a chair to beat Sylum with. Sid’s wife came out and took out Natural pushing him face first into the ring post. Sid came back with a tombstone piledriver on the chair to Bishop for the victory in a very, very good match.
Following the match most of the ECCW locker room came out to the ring to bid Sid Sylum farewell, as this was the end of his phenomenal professional wrestling career. Bishop and Natural both got up and also embraced Sylum before heading to the back. The fans chanted “Thank You Sid”and Sid thanked the fans. That was the end of Ballroom Brawl 6.

I’ve been to Wrestlemania. I’ve been to Summerslam. I’ve been to Raw and many other wrestling events. Personally, this was one of the top 20 wrestling events I’ve ever been too. Maybe, its because it was in my home city, at the Commodore Ballroom. Maybe it was because it was put together by a company and a group of guys and girls I really have gotten to know on a more personal level over the past year. I know how hard they work and what Ballroom Brawl means to them. Maybe its because I just enjoy quality story telling and just simply fucking love wrestling overall. It’s the greatest form of art and athleticism and at Ballroom Brawl, I saw that right in front of me with my own two eyes along with a ruckus and loyal ECCW crowd. I hope if it becomes available to watch for everyone, possibly on Pivotshare or something, so that everybody check it out. I recommend to anyone who lives in Vancouver area or anywhere in BC to check out ECCW and I strongly suggest you come to the next Ballroom Brawl event. They really go all out for it and it can go up against any live event or concert in my mind as quality entertainment on a Saturday Night.
Thanks for reading this, and I hope to review more ECCW shows.

For more ECCW check out the links below
Website – www.eccw.com
Twitter – @ECCW
Instagram – @ECCW_Wrestling
Youtube –  ECCW Tube