Fight Club: PRO, Infinity 2018, The Hangar - review and pictures
Despite a month filled with trials and tribulations, Fight Club: PRO returned to The Hangar for its eighth annual Infinity Tournament.
The tournament final would see Mike Bailey, Jordan Devlin, Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis vie for the trophy.
All but one had won a qualifying match to enter the final, with the exception being Fletcher, who had actually lost to former WWE UK Champion Tyler Bate.
In a tense match, Fletcher would nearly win due to assistance from his Schadenfreude stablemates Timothy Thatcher and Kid Lykos.
However, led by Chris Brookes, the gang would not accept Fletcher’s loss.
They would storm the ring during a multi-person scramble match, brutalising not only the participants but both ring announcers and the referee.
Bate and his tag team partner, Wolverhampton’s Trent Seven, would storm the ring, only to be attacked from behind by other members of Schadenfreude.
They would bundle the Dudley native into the ring, attacking his shoulder with steel chairs.
Fight Club: PRO promoter Martin Zaki would come to ringside, only to be forced to remove Bate from the tournament final lest Brookes’ gang injury his neck.
Zaki would try to even the odds in the final, by leading a horde of fan favourites armed with chairs, to chase Schadenfreude away from ringside.
The final would be an excellent match that saw Devlin and Fletcher be eliminated by Canada’s Mike Bailey.
Better known as “Speedball”, he combines high-flying and supreme kickboxing, able to lay in hard kicks despite his small frame.
Against a larger opponent, he would use both skills to repeatedly keep Davis at bay.
However Davis’s power would ultimately overwhelm his opponent, defeating Bailey with a piledriver and a strong punch to the face.
With this victory, Davis joins his stablemate Walter as a future contender for the Fight Club: PRO world title.
It was a disappointing result for the sold out crowd that repeatedly made clear its antipathy towards Schadenfreude, to the extent that they would even cheer Ireland’s Jordan Devlin during tournament final.
He would face a very different reception when he faced his fellow WWE UK superstar Millie McKenzie.
To a chorus of boos, he would defeat her despite being very nearly overwhelmed by her ferocious onslaught at the start of the match.
It was another successful night for a promotion that not only brings some of the world’s best pro-wrestlers to Wolverhampton every month, but also sees people travel from all over the UK to watch the action. In doing so, it ensures that both performers and fans spend time and money in the city, whether it’s at the venue, bars and restaurants, or hotels.
As Fight Club: PRO prepares to celebrate 100 shows next month that contribution should be better supported and celebrated.
Infinity 2018 will shortly be available to by on DVD or Video on Demand. Fight Club: PRO next returns to The Hangar on Friday 30th November and 1st December. For more information, go to fightclubpro.bigcartel.com
By Will Cooling
