Next up was Pride and Hardaway, arguably the biggest match of round one. Truth be told this is one match I have wanted to see since both men arrived in FRONTIER. The fact that this is a first round match is unbelievable and shows what strength and depth of talent this company has right now. This match has final quality written all over it, the crowd were pumped and ready, and so was I!
Hardaway was out first, to a great reception as always from the UK fans who have really taken to this guy. He stood in wait for his opponent but Pride was taking his time in showing up. The fans got anxious, worried that yet another star would fail to appear here tonight. But their concerns soon passed as the Scot turned up and rushed down to the ring. But he was holding his arm and the referee had some talks with him before calling for the bell to start the match. Later in the evening I found out that Pride had been attacked backstage, quite possibly by the same person that’s been causing so much havoc here tonight. Fortunately for Jay and the fans here in Broxbourne the attack was interrupted and no major damage was done.
Hardaway gets control over Jay’s arm and begins working it over; Jay looks like he’s in a huge amount of pain. Hardaway beats Jay on the floor, but when he throws the Scot into the ring, Jay uses the ropes to momentarily blind Hardaway, then attacks his opponents arm to even the playing field. A hurt arm effects Hardaway as much as Jay, as not only does he need the arm for his Angelina’s Crossing finish, but Jay has his rebound lariat which will now be weakened.
Jay is too weakened to control for long, but does succeed in limiting Hardaway with his arm work and is still far too strong to be defeated so he has succeeded in his goal at this early point of the match. They begin to exchange offense until Jay hits the first really big move of the match, the inverted facelock backbreaker, then uses the Dragon sleeper to further weaken his opponent. He tries to hit another inverted facelock backbreaker while on the apron, but Hardaway escapes and is poised for a big move that Jay can’t hope to take in current condition, so he breaks out his ace in the hole, a huge lariat… which hurts Jay’s arm as much as it damages Hardaway. Hardaway ends up more hurt in the exchange, however, when Jay breaks out a scoop powerslam to the floor. Hardaway barely avoids a countout.
Jay tries to set up the rebound lariat, but is countered by Hardaway who has now had plenty of time to recover into a sunset flip powerbomb. Hardaway doesn’t have the energy to press his offensive attack with impact moves, so he intelligently attacks the arm with Jay’s own armwringer throw.
Jay quickly escapes and both men begin reversing signature moves to pins, desperate to get out of this grueling match until Jay is able to lock in his own armwringer throw. Jay tries to pull Hardaway to the center of the ring, but Hardaway reverses the move into his own Decapitation Lariat, but Jay gets his feet on the ropes.
Great match here between these two men. The crowd are really eating this up!
Hardaway isn’t ready to give up the arm, so he goes into a cross armbreaker on Jay, who again makes his way to the ropes. Hardaway gets up with a flurry of offense and even an KTFO~! won’t keep Jay down. A few more counters and Hardaway manages to hit his Williams Driver, but Jay is in the ropes so it’s only a close two.
Jay is in serious danger here as Hardaway goes for a second Williams Driver. Jay counters and when both men collide, Pride falls back and manages to hit his impact finisher, the Pride Eater. Hardaway is out, but Jay is in too much pain to immediately cover and only gets a long two!
And out of nowhere, Hardaway turns the pin into a cross armbreaker! Jay slowly, barely reaches the ropes. Jay gets up with another lariat attempt, but he’s slow with it due to an injured arm and misses. Hardaway nails the Angelina’s Crossing and we have a winner!