SEA Wrestling Weekend Preview: ROR, WUW and VPW Academy

What's Happening This Weekend in SEA Wrestling: Ring of Rebirth, World Underground Wrestling and VPW Academy

Three shows run this weekend across Southeast Asian wrestling, and all three sit in very different worlds. One is a comedy-led show in a small Singapore room with a title triple threat on top. One is a hard-hitting underground card in a Makati bar. One is a closed-door academy show in Ho Chi Minh City that almost nobody will see. Same weekend, three completely different ideas of what a wrestling show should be. For a region this spread out, that variety is a good sign, and it is worth looking at each card in turn.

Ring of Rebirth: Comedy Wrestling – Majulah (1 August, Singapore)

Comedy wrestling returns as the follow-up to June's Father of the Year show. The main event scene in Ring of Rebirth has been tightly contested and often over the top since the ROR Championship was introduced. There is also a sense that ROR is turning into a kind of forbidden crossroads for the Singapore scene, with Grapplemax names joining the roster after a well-publicised meeting between The Eurasian Dragon and Endboss GREGORY.

ROR Championship: Tok Bomoh Mekong (c) vs Raga Ngadai vs The Eurasian Dragon

The main event should finally settle things between the champion and his two leading challengers. The Eurasian Dragon earned his shot by outlasting seven other competitors in an eight-man tournament. Raga Ngadai has pushed through most of the ROR roster to get here, and has been demanding the opportunity for a long time. Mekong, meanwhile, has come back from a bad eye injury and looks stronger for it. His confidence has not dropped either, given he was predicting World Cup results while preparing for what he calls the hardest defence of his reign. Three men, three very different routes to the same match, and in my opinion the hardest title defence to book cleanly.

Mr Showtime vs Fariz Bravo

Not a first, but it has been a while. Grapplemax legend and Singapore original Mr Showtime is back, wrestling his second match inside a week. The longest-reigning Wrestle Square Cruiserweight Champion faces another cocky newcomer, which is something we know he cannot stand. To be clear, it is the newcomers he objects to, not the cockiness.

Fariz Bravo is one of the more promising talents coming out of Singapore. Beating someone with Showtime's history would put him on the map with all three of the island's promotions at once.

Erfie Blackheart vs Tobias Frost

There is a useful stipulation attached here. If Blackheart wins, Frost is barred from ringside during the main event. Blackheart wants revenge after the low blows in their last meeting, and Ngadai clearly depends on Frost, so the result would change the shape of the title match.

The question is what Blackheart actually gains. Winning helps The Eurasian Dragon, who is his long-time enemy, or Mekong, who pinned him for the title. Neither outcome is good for him. That contradiction is what makes the match interesting.

Midnight Snack vs Geylang Green

Snack debuted last show and seemed to enjoy a short and painful run-in with Raga Ngadai. This time it is Geylang Green, a masked punisher and one of the longest-serving names on the ROR roster. We will find out whether there is another side to Snack, or whether they simply take more punishment.

Comedy on the night comes from Christopher Yong, Zhihao, Stevie Botatoes and Foong, with Shai Jinggaro hosting.

World Underground Wrestling: Heel Hooks, Hell Raising & Havoc (1 August, Sari-Sari, Makati)

WUW takes over Sari-Sari, a venue that has hosted PUSO and Baka Gaijin shows before. This one is pitched differently, with a harder underground feel.

Devil Danny Cavite vs Kiko Kasalanan

Kasalanan is a rookie with plenty of effort and very little mileage. That is a problem against "The King of the Underground" Devil Danny Cavite, who has built a reputation on picking apart newcomers and knows every shortcut needed to do it. Effort against experience, and experience usually wins in this setting.

Robin Sane vs Poknat

At Master Wars, "The Fastest Pinoy Wrestler" Robin Sane walked out on Mignificent Underground Makeover and handed the main event to the WUW originals. Poknat now wants to answer for that, both for his benefactor Sexy Juicy ME-Guel and for the rest of the faction. It is a rematch from Fight Night 3, where Sane took the win.

Lakambini ng DEXCON Women's World Championship: Joya (c) vs Trixia

Joya has held the title since the start and has carried it as a straight, respectable champion. Trixia, the reinvented Patricia Ligaia, is next in line.

JOMAR vs Zera

The pair came up short against HY/OP in the tag team contendership match, and the fallout was immediate. Rather than regroup, "The Pinoy Wrestling Rider" JOMAR turned on his own partner from behind. Zera now gets his answer in a singles match.

WUW Eurasian Championship: Hakai Mateo (c) vs La Verna

Mateo's defences tend to be destructive by design. La Verna is not travelling to Makati to fill a slot on the card, and has been clear that the belt is the point.

Aside from the women's title, which carries the DEXCON name, the card sits well away from the DEXCON storylines that dominate Philippine wrestling talk at the moment, and that separation works in its favour. It also gives several newer names a real chance to be noticed.

Vietnam Pro Wrestling: Academy Secret Show 2 (1 August, VPW Academy)

Vietnam Pro Wrestling runs its second secret show, again from the VPW Academy in Ho Chi Minh City. These shows put the promotion's rising talent against long-serving veterans in front of a small audience. The first one delivered a surprise main event of Billy vs Bobby from The Classic Night, so there is a fair chance of something similar again.

Results and reports from all three shows will follow in next week's newsletter, with fuller coverage of ROR Majulah and WUW in the next issue of SEA Wrestling Magazine.

AI Transparency: AI was used to proofread this document efficiently. All information is taken credit of ROR, WUW and VPW's publicly available content and curated by a human.