MDRN NMD - Mad Kurt Forever

Tuesday Night saw a sold out Bread Shed in Manchester celebrate the life of Kurtis Chapman.

The man known as Mad Kurt brought so much joy to everyone he encountered that wrestlers and fans wanted to come together as one.

I’ll start by saying it was mentioned that all the wrestlers were there for free. This is their livelihoods and although I would expect nothing less from a great bunch of humans, they gave their time, money and body to entertain.

LK Mezinger opened the evening by calling the MDRN NMD roster to the ring. As everyone stood around the ring in silence instead of a 10 bell salute we got a 10 brr brr brr brrrrrrrr.

It was then announced that the opening match would be a Battle Royal for the Keyboard Warrior Championship.

Match 1 - KEYBOARD WARRIOR CHAMPIONSHIP Battle Royal

Predictably chaos ensued. Leon Slater was eliminated by Dereiss. The youngest in charge then teased Dereiss with his McDonalds food and the man from the 0121 eliminated himself reaching for it.

Kid Lykos and Kid Lykos II exchanged attempted brainbusters all the way to the apron where they eliminated themselves before hugging.

Rhio was popular with the crowd as was the obvious favorite Harry Milligan (formerly Harry Chapman).

Mills, Harry, Rhio and Jacobs were the last 4. They squared up to each other before doing a simultaneous dab.

Milligan hit Mills and Rhio with a keyboard in tribute to his former partner before Jacobs moved and Milligan eliminated himself. Mills was out next leaving a battle of North West Strong.

Rhio called Jacobs North West weak. The 2 battled back and forth but it was the Young Gun who eliminated Rhio to become Keyboard Warrior Champion.

Match 2 - Eddie Kingston (Brendan White) Vs Inflatble Mad Kurt

The Triple Crown winners music hit as most spent 3-4 seconds thinking no fucking way before Brendan White came out as Kingston. It was like Eddie was there himself as the Greedy Soul has his mannerisms down to a T.

Inflatable Mad Kurt was being guided by someone is a black morph suit as the 2 opponents traded chops and moves. Inflatable Mad Kurt was flung into the crowd a few times and took a beating.

IMK wasn’t going to stay down though and performed some high flying moves to the outside before picking up the pinfall.

Match 3 - Lio Rush Vs Kid Lykos II

Lio came out in a jacket at least 12 sizes too big for him. The 2 traded high flying moves with the crowd concerned 1 of them was going to take out the lights in the low ceiling venue. Rush picked up the win with a frog splash.

The interval had an impromptu raffle for some specially made Mad Kurt keyrings. It kept having to be redrawn as the same guy won. We found out later he’d bought 100 tickets so he deserves some adulation.

Match 4 - Dan Moloney Vs Kid Lykos

The IWGP Junior Tag Team Champion Vs the new Progress Champion.

Both men have done plenty on the BritWres scene but it could be argued are at their peaks in 2024.

At one point Moloney was down in a seated position and Lykos ‘too sweeted’ his forehead. Dan said “Let’s do it properly then” as Lykos excitedly screamed “So I’m in”. The War Dog soon shot that idea down with a “Nah nah nah”.

Some shenanigans ensured with referee James Greenwood taking some accidental and intentional hits. He eventually threw the match out before Lykos and Dan both hit him again and clinked titles.

Match 5 - Andy Quildan (Michael Oku) Vs Minoru Suzuki (Gene Munny)

This is genuinely 1 of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. Rev Pro Champion Oku’s impression was superb as he tried to get the “bush league outlaw mud show” shut down as Quildan. He then said he’d rather watch wrestling at the Electric Ballroom (a nod to Progress).

Minoru Suzuki’s music played as Gene Munny came out and continued the evening’s theme of having mannerisms perfected. Gene had a skin cap with black marker to copy Suzuki’s hair.

‘Andy’ got very little offense in apart from calling his own high cross body like a commentator. Quildan offered to pay ‘Suzuki’ his full wage if he stops beating him up before counting out £10 and another £10 before taking 1 of the notes back for production costs. ‘Minoru’ picked up the win.

Match 6 - Pete Dunne (Nico Angelo), EC3 (Dani Luna), Jonathan Gresham (Dereiss) and Austin Aries (Elijah) Vs Harry Milligan, Conor Mills, Rhio and Luke Jacobs.

This went all over the bread shed before the team all dressed as Mad Kurt won.

I had to leave before the end to make the last train back to the Midlands but watched the emotional address after the match on YouTube. It’s still there if you can give it your time or/and make a donation.

A very sad occasion but also fun filled. I hope everyone did Mad Kurt proud. He will be missed by all.

MAD KURT FOREVER.