Ladies, gentlemen and everyone in between, welcome to the first piece of writing to be exclusively posted on my new website, CromulentGeorge.com. For those of you new here – welcome! You’ve joined in at a really pivotal time where the first part of the RevPro season concluded at Epic Encounter at The Hangar in Wolverhampton, and now on course to the 229 where we will see the road to High Stakes start to take place!
If you’re familiar with the concept you may well be used to seeing the Twitter posts with my commentary and wonder why that format is changing? Well, dear reader, it’s rather simple – I have thoughts, too many thoughts some might say, all while not wanting to further line Elon’s pockets and subscribe to Twitter Premium so alas, here we are!
So, now that the pleasantries are out of the way, shall we talk about the wrestling?
MICHAEL OKU CONTINUES TO RULE THE ROOST IN THE MENS DIVISION, BUT KAVEN STAKES HIS CLAIM FOR THE TOP 3
To say that Michael Oku has dominated the RevPro Power Rankings on the Men’s side of the division would be an understatement. Since re-capturing the Undisputed British Heavyweight title from Luke Jacobs at Uprising 2024, Michael has competed at 2 of the 6 events that RevPro has held this year and went straight in to the top spot with an outstanding 115 points from one show alone – a feat that hasn’t been done by anyone else on the roster….. until Epic Encounter!
With a successful main event performance against 1 Called Manders, Michael earned bonuses for being the main event, and for a successful title defence, however he’s now moving into ‘positive form’ territory – simply put, anyone who has won more than 3 matches in a row activates the in-form bonuses which with Michael’s fourth win in a row saw him to be the second person of the year to successfully earn this bonus – the first being Kanji. Bonuses are done as a percentage basis of the week it’s earned, and is applied every week with further percentages being applied at different points so getting this bonus in the main event with a successful title defence is as perfect as it could get for Oku who, sitting on 389 points opens up a massive 224 point differential between him and second place. However despite beating his own record with 144 points this week, Michael should know that this can change at any moment and that momentum is key as we found out with none other than the biggest climber this week….
Will Kaven has been an interesting case since the start of the year. Shocking the world in the Anniversary show scramble match and winning the Undisputed British Cruiserweight title, Kaven has gone from strength to strength, however much like Michael Oku, Will has found that challengers were setting their sights on him and with other conflicts popping up in the cruiserweight division if could give people that ever important momentum in what is looking to be a competitive division. For Kaven, however, he’s competed at 50% of shows this year in singles matches and prior to Epic Encounter, lost both matches – with Stephen Wolf pinning Kaven, who himself relied on title length bonuses to leave with a positive point count that first week, even with a loss. Coming out of his triple threat title defence at Epic Encounter, Kaven has achieved a record in these power rankings – with a single night point count of 160, he beats both the previous record and the amount Michael Oku earned in the main event. Literally coming from a negative position to the top 3 in the men’s division in RevPro and holding JJ Gale and Ricky Knight Jr outside of that top 3 spot. We’re only a quarter of the way through the year though and all it takes is someone to pin his shoulders to the mat for just three seconds, and despite a losing effort, Stephen Wolf’s 2025 to date has been so strong – pinning Kaven and winning three of the four remaining matches prior to Epic Encounter put him in a really comfortable position and even with the penalties that come with failing to win the title, Stephen holds on to that 2nd spot in the leader board.
We know the route to High Stakes for the Undisputed British Heavyweight title, as Michael Oku called out Leon Slater and the graphic made it official – but what will be interesting is to see how Michael’s run goes between now and then. With TNA commitments to fill also, Leon may not feature on as many RevPro shows – and at current standings even if Michael lost the title, he would likely still occupy top spot on the rankings with how dominants his year has been. If he continues to wrestle every show and comes out with the win each time? Well, Oku could be on for a year bigger even than his and Luke’s 2024, which is staggering.
With the Undisputed British Cruiserweight title, the picture is not as clear. Will Kaven is showing that when the pressure is on, he finds a way to win the match – arguably the most important time to be locked in as champion, but Stephen Wolf still sits above him and could lay claim to a singles match for Kaven’s title at High Stakes. Conversely, Lio Rush has still not taken his opportunity following the 2024 British J Cup win and with him missing Doncaster last time out he could well want to take his shot at Kaven there – or could he have sights of walking into Doncaster with the belt, having a match with Wolf. Interesting times ahead there.
KANJI HAS HER SIGHTS SET ON MERCEDES MONÈ; DIVISION WIDE OPEN
When talking about people being in-form, you absolutely cannot have that conversation without the leader of the women’s division than Kanji. She was the first person to earn the in-form bonus, clocking up wins in every match, featuring on five of the six shows so far. When it came to positioning in all of RevPro, Kanji was the highest point score based on pure points – no main event bonuses, not title defence bonuses – all just based on her match points and since hitting the in-form bonus she is the third highest point scorer across all of RevPro, herself being 165 points ahead of the person in second place in the Women’s division.
Coming out of tomorrow’s Live in London show, the top three won’t change in the division and the permutation could remain the same. Now that’s not to look past tomorrow’s show or to suggest that it’s not a competitive division – 14 different women have competed in the past six shows, however with the exception of Kanji, no woman has wrestled more tan two RevPro shows this year. So what does this mean for Live in London? Well, for as much form as Kanji is in right now you simply cannot look past her opponent, former Undisputed British Women’s Champion, Dani Luna. Dani has only wrestled once in RevPro this year, where she celebrated her birthday by vanquishing a trio of the CutThroat Collective when tagging with currently second place Zoe Lucas and joint fourth placed Amira Blair. Dani’s absence however isn’t because she’s not earned a spot in the division of course, but because she is at her most in-demand period in her career and wrestling all around the world and wrestling weekly for TNA Wrestling!
So what does that mean for Sunday? It definitely makes things interesting. If Kanji wins the match, she moves into the next bracket of “in-form” bonuses. Assuming this is the main event, it will put her in second place across all of RevPro – the only person to have not needed a title win or defence to get there. For Dani, she would retain third spot, but it would also allow room for someone to try and claim that spot.
If Dani Luna wins, Kanji still retains her top spot with a healthy points advantage, but she would LOSE her in-form bonus. For Dani, there are two possibilities, if the match doesn’t main event then she would stay in third spot, but would create an 80 point advantage over the pack in fourth place.
Looking further afield to High Stakes, we know that a Women’s Gauntlet has been announced – however something to note is none of the women announced so far have picked up a win in singles action this year in RevPro, but winning the gauntlet would definitely give the winner a huge boost. It’s a very exciting time for the RevPro Women’s division
YOUNG GUNS SEAL THE TOP SPOT IN WAR WITH MILLS X JOSHUA
2024 was undoubtedly the year of Luke Jacobs in RevPro. He went on a run that nobody else rivaled, he won the Revolution Rumble, toppled Michael Oku at the 12th Anniversary Show, and finally vanquished his foe, former Undisputed British Heavyweight champion and puroresu legend, Tomohiro Ishii but after losing the title to Michael Oku at Uprising, Luke and Young Guns tag team partner, Ethan Allen have joined forces again for Jacobs to equal Oku’s achievements and take the legacy – some might say they’re on a different gear.
Coming out of 2024, Connor Mills and Jay Joshua has proved to be impactful champions even in such a short reign. They’ve had hard hitting matches wherever they’ve been, Mills also scoring a huge submission victory over Luke Jacobs, however few will forget the match between both teams in Wolverhampton. An absolute war of pure fire and intensity, with opponents that feel like they couldn’t lose due to the momentum they held – big fight, championship battle feels. Coming out of this it makes one thing clear, Young Guns are at the top of the pack in the tag team division and second overall in RevPro.
What is interesting is that the tag division has revolved around these teams since January and there’s currently nobody in pole position to step in as challngers. In fact, the second place tag team is in facthas not necessarily been earned through tag matches, but as trios. CPF are sitting on 100 points and in a division with more tag teams in line, I may not have mentioned these guys, but it would be remiss to not mention CPF when they currently hold their trophies that grants a match of their choice. Could that mean a shot at Young Guns? Time will tell and the path to High Stakes is an intriguing one.
Thank you all for reading and supporting!
