UNION Hardcore Brawl 2023 (RLS Premium Live Event)

UNION Hardcore Brawl 2023 was a UNION Wrestling Live Event that took place at the Castle Road Theatre in Leeds, West Yorkshire on the 10th June 2023. It was the fifth event in the overall Hardcore Brawl chronology1, and the first of the rebooted era of the promotion.
It was preceded by Uneasy Alliance 2023 in May, and was followed by UNION London Calling in February 2024.
==Background==
# Following an injury at the previous event to Nancy Warren, new contenders were needed to face Lara Grey for the WOTU World Championship, with Reaper and Bella Yang proving to be the most in-form.
# As per the victory stipulations of the previous Uneasy Alliance match, INVICTA were able to choose their own opponents for this event, eventually selecting Born 4 The Brawl.
# Shortly before Hardcore Brawl, Sitara would enact her rematch clause for Tammy Washington's WOTU Inter Championship.
# Piranha would challenge Harry Daniels after he won the British Championship at Uneasy Alliance, leading to a feud that would culminate here. He made it clear his focus was getting revenge on Daniels for how he went about the championship, rather than the championship itself.
# Better Than You would win several matches before demanding- and receiving- a shot at Starr & Law's WOTU Tag Team Championships here.
# Mikey Ace would, by winning the Uneasy Alliance match the previous month, get to choose his time to get a shot at Virgil Baker's UNION World Championship.
#
==Card==
# 	Result 	Stipulation(s) 	Finish
D*	Hikaru Okuma def. Carita 	Singles Match 	Okuma pinned Carita following a Spear
1 	Lara Grey (c) def. Reaper and Bella Yang 	Three-Woman Hardcore Brawl for the WOTU World Championship	Reaper tapped out in the Greyhug
2 	INVICTA (Zander Adder & Bane) def. Born 4 The Brawl (Grayson Gage & Tyrone Riske)	Team Hardcore Brawl for the UNION Tag Team Championships 	Both members of B4TB pinned after weapon attacks
3 	Tammy Washington (c) def. Sitara 	Hardcore Brawl for the WOTU Inter Championship 	Sitara pinned after Crater Maker onto Ladder
4 	Harry Daniels (c) def. Piranha 	Hardcore Brawl for the UNION British Championship 	Piranha pinned following two Pain in HDs
5 	Better Than You (Elsa & Gaia Cassidy) def. Kenzie Starr & Terri Law (c) 	Team Hardcore Brawl for the WOTU Tag Team Championships 	Starr pinned by Elsa following New Jersey Knee
6 	Mikey Ace def. Virgil Baker (c) 	Hardcore Brawl for the UNION World Championship 	Baker pinned after Ace reversed Alabama Slam into Reverse Leg Sweep
*D stands for Dark Match, a traditional occurrence at big UNION Wrestling events where outside or yet-to-debut talent wrestle tryouts or attendance-exclusive bouts.
==Aftermath==
To be added...
==Trivia==
* The event saw several superstars sport Pride-related attire parts, and the arena itself featured a Pride-patterned version of the Hardcore Brawl logo and Progress flags on the stage, due to it taking place in Pride Month.2
* Squared Circle Insider gave the event a 4 out of 5 rating, noting that the Hardcore Brawl stipulation was "always in danger of being too much for six matches in a row, but found ways to work", and calling the Main Event "the greatest match ever for both Mikey Ace and Virgil Baker".3
==Behind-the-Scenes==
# I have actually five different versions of this event, though in reality they're a little scattered.
# I always do something like this for the event(s) taking place in June.
# As ever, SCI serves as an "in-universe" translation of my own feelings on the event. In this case, I can't actually remember ever having a better match than that Main Event... and not just because my personal CAS won his first world championship since 2013!