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Video Information Date: 01/14/2007 Runtime: 00:25:02 Codec: WMV v9 Filesize: 382 MB Average: 5 Average: 5 (2 votes) Your rating: Select ratingCancel ratingPoorOkayGoodGreatAwesome Your rating: None

All four of the quarter finals of the tournament had a US vs UK theme, and the fact that they matched these two up not only in the first round but also in the first match of the night blew my mind. Saraya has long been considered the standard bearer for women’s wrestling in the UK, and rightfully so. While Nikita may have leapfrogged her to get a US booking for SHIMMER and eventually a WWE contract, few would deny that this seventeen year veteran still knows every trick in the book. So I couldn't understand quite why we got the local heroine (Saraya is Ricky Knight's wife) against someone who is without question one of the dominant names in women's wrestling worldwide in the first round. If anything, there's your final.

Whatever the reason for it, the match delivered in spades. Remember how I said that it didn't matter that there were only 100 people in the venue? Well it didn't, because everybody was totally into this... some to a scary degree. One guy was so emotionally involved in the match that he got out of his seat to push the bottom rope towards the crawling Saraya who was trying to break a leglock submission. I've never seen that before, and it wasn't a planned spot either... it was just an example of how well these two worked together. Melissa was, as always, dominant in her manner... leaving Saraya to play the babyface in peril, and by GOD was she ever in peril. You know those stories that Jim Cornette tells about the old territory days where he and the Midnight Express would barely escape getting stabbed by rabid fans? Well, this was the closest you're going to get to it in 2007, because I swear there were a load of grown men here who hadn't been smartened up that this was a work.

Saraya was beloved by the crowd, and rallied with offense of her own, encouraged on by her son at ringside (a wrestler in his own right, Zak Zodiak), who encouraged his mum to "…use a Finlay cover! Forearm across the face!" amongst other things. It was a big fight atmosphere like nothing I've felt at a wrestling show before (and bear in mind two days ago I saw the Great Muta's UK debut).

The ending came when Saraya was shot into the ropes and got her head caught between the top two ropes about a couple of feet in front of me. Immediately she started kicking and shouting, and the entire Knight Dynasty (along with help from the back) tried to extricate her from the ropes. As she was let down, the referee called a halt to the contest, advancing Melissa to the semi finals. Melissa wasn't done though, and tried to get at the injured Saraya, and had to be held back by security as a mini riot almost erupted, with fans screaming and getting between the girls. This was absolutely phenomenal. My friend who was sat beside me turned and said "Was that real?" It wasn't, but the fact is that he, and everyone, was worked beautifully. What a start!

Credit:
Stewart Allen
http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/2941/1/