True Grit Wrestling Jacob's Ladder

What’s a better way to spend your Saturday night than watching wrestling in a beautiful grade II* listed former church building in Leeds. Well that’s what we did this Saturday night, we attended True Grit Wrestling ‘Jacobs Ladder’ at Left Bank!

We arrived 2 hours early to Leeds and got parked on a street nearby to the venue, we spotted a little Mexican Cantina ‘Lupe’s Cantina’ across the road and decided to get some food. The cantina was busy with lovely Mexican décor and latin music playing. We ordered two mocktails, some nachos to start and then Enchiladas De Mole Negra for our main, the drink and food were delicious! We definitely recommend and we will be visiting again! We still had a little time to pass so we continued to walk up the street and came across Dukes Donut & Coffee. We enjoyed a Cappuccino, Hot Chocolate and Banoffee Waffles before leaving to queue for the show to start.

On arrival to the show, on entering the beautiful church we were welcomed by a friendly staff team and directed to our seats. Then there they were 2 tag team belts hanging above the ring waiting for their owners to be crowned in the main event of the night! El Kantina Mexican and Southern Street Food were preparing their dishes to supply us with some food later in the evening. We settled down with an Americano (£2.65) and diet coke (£1.50) from the bar.

Nash Boat greeted us with their ducking shenanigans, taking to the ring to sell their autographed limited edition Nash Boat ducks and a photo for £5. They had lots of happy quackers!

We have broken this show down with a small synopsis of each match and a short fan filled video to give you a feel of what the night entailed. The referees for the evening were Lee Thomas, Sandy Beaches and James Aryton and the ring announcer was Bobby Cash.

Match 1 - Nsereko & Rhio vs Ivy & Brady Phillips

A mixed gender tag team match with championship title implications. The winner gets a title shot!

‘Definitely not a Karen’ The True Grit Woman’s Champion Ivy and ‘Bullet Proof’ Brady Phillips Vs Rhio and the True Grit Men’s Champion Nsereko.

Nsereko was greeted with a fan ‘Nsereko section’ holding a giant banner and Nsereko t-shirts and wigs, It’s safe to say Ivy was not impressed and asked where her sign was, all she was greeted with was a crowd of “boo’s”.

Whichever team got the victory the non-title holder would receive a number one contender spot for the relevant championship. This was a fantastic opening match which set the mood for the night to come.

The match started with Rhio versus Ivy, but Ivy wanted no part of Rhio. Unlike most mix gender matches you see on the telly this is True Grit! So we started with Ivy vs Nsereko. Both teams demonstrate technical skill, hard hitting often top rope action. Brady and Ivy bent the rules at every opportunity with long rope breaks, excessive 2 on 1 in ring double team manoeuvres and stopping their opponents tagging. Ivy got Rhio in what looked like a Boston crab but she managed a last minute rope break. Ivy and Brady where victorious after Nsereko accidently Ugandan head-butted his partner and in the confusion received a clothesline and devastating pile driver to the noggin.

Brady will challenge the Ugandan warrior for the True Grit Wrestling men's championship down the road. But who will face Ivy?

Match 2 – Commander Stirling vs Lana Austin vs Zizi vs Helen Charlotte Campbell

Next was a Fatal 4 way , first to arrive to the ring was the Queen of mean superstar Lana Austin she was followed by ‘Pure Evil’ Helen Charlotte Campbell with a piercing scream, then it was a popular Zizi with her cool flashing coat! Last but not least to enter was Commander Stirling with a sparkly cape that any superhero would be jealous of!

Commander Sterling started strong by overpowering their 3 opponents, slapping Lana with their glove (Robin Hood men in tights style) in each one of the corners of the ring. Sterling was kicked and pushed out of the ring on 2 occasions. Zizi, Lana and Helen took their opportunity with Commander Stirling out of the way, turning the match into a 3 way dance to kick punch, stomp, slam and stun each other into the back end of next week. When Sterling returned back into the ring they climbed the top rope ready to pounce on their opponents only to be shield style power bombed off the top rope by Lana, Helen and Zizi. Zizi was the victor of the match when she picked up a cheeky roll up pin on Lana for the win! Zizi left the ring and Lana decided to celebrate herself by inviting her only two fans into the ring!

Match 3 – Nashboat vs Violent Party

Next up, comedy hour, Violence Party ‘The Vicious BA Rose and Scary, Hairy (only on his back and beard) Jack Turner’ eagerly awaited their pray NashBoat ‘Wing Commander Nash and Ace Matthews’. The blood thirsty Violence Party weren’t too impressed when out waddled NashBoat to the chants of "Duck them up Nash boat, duck them up". BA and Jack shouted for the crowd to “shut up” but this just fuelled the crowd to chant louder! Jack did not like the 2 little ducks that had chaperoned NashBoat into the ring and yeeted them as far out of the ring as he could nearly breaking the beautiful pane glassed windows. NashBoat continued with their ducking shenanigans before the Violence Party took control and dominated the match. The tides seemed like they were about to turn when a misplaced elbow drop by BA to Jacks crown jewels made a grown man squeal. Although NashBoat tried they still couldn’t pick up their first True Grit win and succumbed to what the two monsters referred to as an unofficial SBJ.

Match 4 – Nathan Black vs Lou Nixon

A strap match, hailing from Sheffield, the comedian Nathan Black entered the ring with his potty mouth antagonising the audience and the arrival of his lively opponent Lou Nixon.

Tension between Lou and Nathan Black have been building over the weeks and it had finally reached its peak. Recently when both had an exchange of words (see here) a stipulation had been put into place for a strap match where both men were tied to each other with a leather strap. To win one man had to touch all four corners of the ring post. This was an absolute slugfest! The strap was used by both to whip countless times, they beat each other black and blue in and out of the ring. It was a close fought contest with both men touching more than 2 ring posts several times. However in the end Lou Nixon was victorious!

Interval - There was a brief interval where we enjoyed some Veggie Nachos from El Kantina for £10, it was delicious!

Match 5 – HT Drake vs Priscilla

The second half began with a singles match between HT Drake and Queen of the ring Priscilla.

HT drake eagerly awaited the arrival of Priscilla the Queen of the ring. The match started with some good old fashioned tie ups in which Pricilla lost her skirt and wig. Priscilla removed the remainder of her entrance gear showing that she meant business. Drake took the early upper hand and slammed the Queen all over the ring. BUT he then BROKE PRICILLAS NAIL! This was a BIG MISTAKE! Nobody breaks the Queens nail and gets away with it! Her rage was unleased and she slapped the sillies out of HT so hard people back in his native town of Newcastle could probably hear it! Priscilla took to the top rope and looked like they were heading for victory, when Sandy Beaches got in the way. This allowed HT to capitalise with a devastating Lunblower and pick up the win. HT had to take to the microphone to inform us, once the crowd had stopped to listen that he will be back for the Rumble on the 13th January at Left Bank!

Match 6 – Liam Slater vs Kev Lloyd

A Pure Grit Rules, 3 rounds, 5 minutes win by submission or judge’s decision, 3 rope breaks and up to 3 public warnings. The Judges were Sandy Beaches and Jay Aryton.

Both opponents entered the ring with corner men. The match started with a collar and elbow tie up and proceeded to be all about who could lock the opponent in the best lock. Round 1 finished and Liam had used his first rope break. Round 2 finished whilst Kev had Liam in a head lock, Liam was holding onto the ropes but he was saved by the bell. Liam’s left ankle had started to smart and he had used all his rope breaks. In Round 3 the match started to be more hit happy when Liam started playing dirty resulting in both men hitting each other. Liam received his second public warning for the use of the ropes in an unlawful way. It looked like Liam was about to have Kev tap as he had him in a knee hold but Kev was saved by the bell! Both men were hopeful of the victory. The judges made their decision by taking into account the amount of submissions and reduction in public warnings of the contenders! But with Liam’s warnings and sore left ankle Kev's hand was raised in victory!

Match 7 - Sean Only Open Challenge!

Mr Only’s open challenge consisted of Sean putting up five thousand pounds of his own hard earned cash to anyone from the new next generation of British wrestling, who had never appeared on a True Grit show before. Who would answer the call?? Well, all the way from the El Kantina Street Food emerged the least Mexican looking Mexican wrestler of all time El Bilzo, who looked to give Only a run for his money. But he was stopped dead in his tracks by the snarly, gnarly veteran. A couple of kicks to the head and a last caress (curb stomp) and it looked like the match was over! Or was it? Only was more interested in removing the masked man's mask that he got rolled up in a small package and lost his 5k savings! A gob smacked Only was shell shocked as like a thief in the night El Bilzo legged it up the ramp, out of the building and back to Casa Bonita for as many tacos and nachos he could get his hands on!

Match 8 – CrashBoat vs Leon Slater & Jet Martial & Misery Business

All night they had been hanging above the ring, two shiny red belts! Finally the time had come to crown the first ever True Grit Wrestling Tag Team Champions. The ladders were set and off we went three of Yorkshire's finest tag teams doing battle. First to the ring were Alan Kay and Joe Wade who make the team ‘Misery Business’, then Jack Bandicoot and the Pop Punk Kid forming the team ‘CrashBoat’. Last but not least entered Leon slater and Jet Martial. All the teams not only used their wrestling abilities but used the ladder as a weapon throughout the match. Chairs were added and even a table! The action spilt all over the arena into the crowd and up the ramp. Finally after a gruelling war a winner emerged! Crashboat! Personally I would have been happy for any of the 3 fantastic teams to win, all 3 are grand! However we have followed CrashBoat since their inception in 2017 and even before. I have watched them go from strength to strengh. As you can tell from the video... I was over the moon for their win!

So what is the definition of True Grit?

"A person with true grit has passion and perseverance. Goals are set and followed through. A person who works really hard to follow through on commitments has true grit. It is not a word you hear very often" (Beverly Przystas, Michigan State University).

However everyone involved in True Grit Wrestling demonstrate these skills flawlessly, be it the wrestlers, referees, management and production team. True Grit not only deliver excellent shows, all upcoming shows can be found on their Facebook Page and Website. They have shows booked for the next Year in both York and Leeds.