Posted May 10, 201312 yr comment_5544427 This was everything I could have hoped for from Rudge & Kilby and more. They were given the six rounds on the undercard of the Big Daddy/Giant Haystacks Wembley Arena show and basically went for as much heat as they could possibly get. Kilby was one of the most likeable guys on the circuit, not only because he was deaf, but because he was an excellent and charismatic worker with tremendous babyface presence. It's an old point of mine, but it's extremely difficult to play a likeable babyface in wrestling and Kilby was second only to Steve Grey in the UK and possibly better than him. Since Kilby was so popular, Rudge was in full-on rudo mode here, and spent a large portion of the match sparring with Kilby in a manner befitting the best Fujiwara shoot style bouts. He worked a mix of inside shots and legal strikes, both of which pissed Kilby off, and they teased everything from a pull-apart brawl to Rudge being thrown out. In fact, if there was ever a bout that should've been thrown out, this made a good case for it. Rudge kept coming out of his corner before the bell despite having two public warnings to his name and the crowd let the ref have it. The finish was kind of obvious and probably could have been executed better, but it got a strong pop from the crowd and Rudge posed gratuitously on the outside, including on one of the chairs near Walton, which amused me as I'd never seen Rudge do any pantomime before. Flash pin aside, a really good bout, probably in the top six Rudge bouts I've seen. Delivered big time.
