RD : This weekend turned out to be a Los Lurkers Locos reunion weekend as Tom Long was on the East Coast for the first time in a long time so with most of the original Los Lurkers Locos here, we did a full reunion of both crews, resulting in Tom Long, Steve Pillmeier, Jeff Crawford, Jon Boy, Pete and Ryan Wanamaker heading down to Jeff's and then to the show. For those old school fans, yes, this is an official Los Lurkers Locos event because Rick Gualtieri wasn't able to make it. Having 2 kids will do that.

PP: As is the tradition on these trips, I bust out the new Japanese magazines on the train. Nakanishi must’ve heard about us snubbing him on the 500 as he busted out a PLANCHA on the Dome show in the process of letting Giant Silva carry him to what looked like an OK match. And they say no one cares about the list. The first portion of the trip is unintentionally surreal as all five of us plus Tom’s dad cram into his car at the Spring Lake train station while Eric Coates’ “Knightsbridge March” is playing on the radio. This is a piece that’s popped up on the odd Monty Python sketch, and I have this flashback to cycling tours of Cornwall while we toddle through town to Tom’s house. Later we get to Jeff’s place and his wife immediately cuts me off from the remote after the Stallone “Victory” debacle last time.

RD : We get down to Newport about a half hour before the show and hit the Season's Pizza and watch the Bucs insure Tony Dungy would not be back next season. I throw a big monkey wrench into everything by paying for all the pizza and asking everyone else to figure out the rest of the bill as a good 5 minutes is spent trying to figure out the rest of the bill... by a math major.

PP: Note to self: stick to Sizzler.

RD : The show is pretty full again, we get seats in the next to last row of the high spot area of the arena. Pre-show we get our usual Mr. Ooh La La walking around working the fans.

THE SHOW
RD : The show starts as the locker room comes out as does Jim Kettner and Kevin Kelly. Kevin says some words about Russ, they also have a taped interview from Kurt Angle who knew him. They show a video tribute to Russ and do a 10 bell salute.

PP: DHS were also at ringside with the locker room during the tribute, which was a classy gesture on Kettner’s part. OTOH, while it was nice of Angle to send in the interview I was less than enthused with the fact that he felt the need to wear his medals and the “tap out” shirt while saluting Russ. And nothing drives me nuts more than when someone says that “he reminded me of me,” although Kurt undoubtedly meant well.

BILLY BAX (w/ ALEXIS LAREE)/JAPANESE POOL BOY vs. CHRISTIAN YORK/JOEY MATTHEWS
RD : Pool Boy comes out in a glittery top to "I Will Survive". York and Matthews get a pretty subdued reaction from the Delaware crowd, which is sort of a surprise because of their look and the fact they've worked here before. Then again, maybe the fans remember their matches... This was there, I don't think there was anything life threatening or seriously blown in it. Alexis interferes a few times, and the finish comes with Bax accidentally hitting her off the apron when he was aiming for York. York and Matthews hit the Problem Solver (The Swinger/Diamond Flap Jack/DDT finisher) on Bax and get the win. Postmatch, Bax and Pool Boy argue, Pool Boy gets on the mic and gets the reverse Kaientai treatment as he's dubbed in Japanese. The referee who last month spoke Spanish) translated for Pool Boy which boiled down to Bax getting called Opie again. Alexis then dumps Bax and leaves with Pool Boy. Oh the humanity, losing a fine piece like Alexis for a gay Japanese guy who cleans pools for a living. To add insult to injury, Bax suffers the Andy Griffith theme again.

PP: This was quite the ECWA opener, yes indeedy. Bax continues to remain quite serviceable in the ring although it’s hard to take someone seriously who’s literally billed as Billy “Don’t Call Me ‘Opie’” Bax. Alexis is yummy and hopefully she’ll stay on as an ECWA regular.

INFERNO/RYAN WING/RUFFHOUSE RIVERA vs. THUNDER/ABUNAI/BENNY STOLTZFUS :
RD : Inferno comes out with Those Guys(tm Tom K) resplended in the things they probably bought at the Pimphats.com Christmas Sale. Inferno explains that he went from holding a title in the group to opening the last couple shows. He explained that he had intended to do something about it as he and his new pals have banded together. Benny is brought in to sub for Boogie Woogie Brown who was originally supposed to be in this. Early on the faces control with a lot of tags, but eventually, the rudos get Abunai in the ring and beat him up for a while. The finish of this match is almost the same as the last month as Thunder goes for a suplex on someone and has his knee kicked out and he's pinned.

PP: Those Guys rule just for the gimmick continuity as all three of them come out in furry pimp hats as well as furry sleeveless robes. BW’s no-showed twice now, although Benny was a perfectly fine substitute as now the cool-ass “Pennsylvania Polka” music he uses for his entrance is back again. =P

JOHNNY MAXX/BUCK WYLDE vs. INFERNO/RYAN WING (w/ Ruffhouse Rivera)
RD : This match started as a singles match between Maxx and Wylde and I decide a bag of popcorn is looking awful good right about now. Anyway, while I'm in the lobby, Those Guys come back out and apparently are going to work their way up the card... TONIGHT, so it becomes a tag match. Stuff happened here and Those Guys win some how. I think Inferno hits a face first Full Nelson slam, but don't hold me to that.

PP: I hit the facilities at the intros, only to bump into Fat Frank going in the opposite direction. THE JAPW INVASION CONTINUES! Actually, it turns out that Frank is there along with DHS, Ray Sager/Glenn Strange, Ref Hanson, Dixie and JT Jobber to hand out flyers for the Russ memorial. This match was… there. They did work a funny bit as both Inferno and Maxx went down at the end of the match and tried to make tags, with Inferno dumping the cliché on its head as he drunkenly tried to get the tag from Wylde.

RD : Up next Jeff Peterson comes out and thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers during his battle with cancer, which he says he's now in remission from. They go to announce the Super 8 participants who are Xavier, Pepper Parks, Matt Stryker, Bobby Rude, Donovan Morgan, Red, AJ Styles and RC Haas. Charlie has taken the name of RC in honor of his brother. It should be interesting. Xavier, Red and Styles should be real good in this and hopefully they get a good run. While the knee-jerk reaction is that Haas is going to get the sympathy push to the title/finals, you never can tell as in the past Jim has moved away from some finals that on paper looked like they were going to be the end result, so who knows. I'm going anyway.

PP: Kettner once again pulls an S8 wildcard from out of his ass in the form of Bobby Rude… my guess is Kozina recommended him. And Rolo finally gets one of his guys on the S8- oh wait…

SLYK WAGNER BROWN (w/April Hunter) vs. STRYKER
RD : I am disappointed that Stryker's not in a tag match because all his Hormel prize ham moments on the apron cannot be seen in the match. April interferes in this, I’m sort of drawing a blank on a bunch of this stuff, but I remember the finish being April in the corner getting ready to hit Stryker, but Stryker reversing and Brown getting hit. Stryker hits his Overdrive (Elix Skipper finisher) on Brown to get what I think is an upset win.

PP: This was fun while it lasted as Stryker uses some cool matwork including this amazingly whacked-out reverse crab hold on Slyk. He is such a hammy old-school babyface (in a good way) that it’s a mystery why it took him this long to make it down to ECWA.

MR. OOH LA LA/BARRY CASINO vs. MOZART FONTAINE/E.S. EASTON
RD : Pre-match, Casino threatens (and if you've seen Casino, I do mean THREATENS) to do the Ooh La La strip gimmick, but ES and Mozart break it up, babyfacing them in my eyes. I think one of the light cues go out at one point as well. ES doesn't bust out the really great punch, which makes me wonder if that was just a one-time thing or he really popped the guy the one time. ES ends up getting the stink face from Barry (who thankfully kept the pants on and up). The tease the Poetry in Motion as Oh La La gets in position for Barry to hit the move, but Mozart runs in and stops it by asking if Barry's joking. Barry ends up pushing Mozart into a schoolboy and a pin by Ooh La La. There really wasn't any further angle in the match, but I get the feel if they're going with continuity, that Ooh La La will probably be getting a shot at Fontaine's title at one of the next shows.

PP: This was exactly what we expected it to be.

BILLY FIVES/XAVIER vs. SCOOT ANDREWS/RED
RD : Pre-match, we give the team of X-5 a combination salute of the Xavier X and a 5 finger salute which Fives picks up on and seems to appreciate. Xavier and Red appeared to be paired off with one another and this gave Xavier a chance to show off his power move set as he was throwing around Red like he was... well, the size of Red. Red took at least 3 big bumps out to the floor, including one overhead toss to the floor by Xavier. As this was the first time of everyone but Pete of seeing Xavier, I was explaining his usual move set and bringing up he's one of the few people I've ever seen use El Matador's El Paso Del Muerte, which Xavier then doesn't use in the match. What a great heel. Red did get in the Red Star Press early in the match as well as the run up the back corner kick and a nice dive. Scoot and Fives mixed it up a bit, but I don't remember much of their stuff compared to the Red/Xavier segments. The finish of the match is Fives getting a roll up on Scoot with a handful of tights. Post match, Scoot hits the Scoot Bottom and Red hits the Infra-Red Skytwister on Xavier with ASARI-esque accuracy (meaning he landed on his knees). This set up the title match between Fives and Andrews on the match show, which will be a ladder match. I'm not sure how good it will be; I personally would rather see a straight match.

PP: I’m assuming that Fives and Scoot have worked each other a bunch of times in Florida. The Xavier/Red sequences were really good as Xavier is officially the world’s smallest rudo catcher… I’m calling a match between them at S8. Ray and I were also amazed at the fact that X somehow managed to get all the flour out of his tights from the USA show.

INTERMISSION
RD : During intermission, Ryan and his girlfriend get their picture taken with Mr. Ooh La La, which is pretty funny, because Ooh La La moves right into the scene and does his best to move Ryan out of the picture as he makes the moves on his girlfriend. While this goes on, the "15 foot high" Steel Cage is set up. We try to figure if the 15 feet counts the distance between the floor and the top of the cage.

PP: Intermission is quite eventful, as a) they set up a big autograph/meet ‘n greet session with everyone from the undercard to kill time while the cage is set up, and b) Fat Frank and Ray Sager are handing out the flyers for the Haas show. Personally, I would’ve had DHS and Homicide handing them out but that’s why I’m not a promoter. ;) FWIW, Sager tells us that he’s known Jacey “for years.” I’m strongly tempted to get an autographed E.S. Easton 8 x 11, but instead go outside to update Cel on the show so far and the S8 lineup, leading to the following exchange:

Me: “Alexis Laree came out with Bax. You’ve seen her, right?”
Cel: “Oh yeah. Nice ass.”

Insert comment here. =P Cel also insists that he would’ve gone to the show if he’d known that we’d be going… obviously he didn’t read the 12/1 report where we said precisely that.

LOW KI/AMERICAN DRAGON vs. THE S.A.T. vs. THE J TEAM in a Steel Cage match
RD : They play it smart and sort of make this like War Games rules for entrances into the match as 3 men start and then they add a member from each team. This is a good idea because it keeps the clusterfuck for the whole match and at least giving a little room early on. They explain the rules as "consecutive escape" rules, though I think they mean that just both members of the team have to escape because at one point 3 guys escaped with their partners still in there and nothing was said by the announcers. American Dragon, JR Ryder and I think Jose start up the match. AD and Maximo get into it and JR tries to attack them, so they both punk him and go back to beating on each over. I'm pretty sure JJ Johnston is the next in as he and JR take control beating up the little fellers before the other Maximo enters the fray. At this point, they have JR and I think Jose on the top of the cage and JR busts out the tarantula where the door is opened up so he can do it on the cage. Of course, while hanging there, Ki enters the match and kicks the fuck out of JR to enter the cage. The first really crazy spot of the match was a double escape with I think AD and someone going out and one of the Maximos and I forget the other grabbing them on the top, teasing a superplex into the ring, but the J-Team sneaks in and they do the bizarre Powerbomb/Superplex that Yamakawa and Honma used to do. This match was good, I think because JJ didn't have the option of pussing out in this and as a result, he takes a few shots in this. I was really dreading it when they announced it after the impromptu to match between Ki/Jose v. the J-Team. Spots include Ki's tree of woe Dragon clutch on the top of the cage with AD holding one of the Maximo's legs. They tease the Spanish Fly off the top of the cage, but everyone wises up they don't do the spot. They have a bunch of partner escapes that comes in by a few of the teams. The J-Team hit their double spear on someone diving off the top rope. The Maximos get off the Spanish Fly on I think JR. The main turning point of the match is AD escaping and Ki getting to the top of the cage, AD is on the floor pleading with Ki to escape, but Ki stops and then does his phoenix splash dive into the ring taking out all four guys. The spot took way to long to set up though. As a result, AD enters the ring again at one point and he and Ki briefly go at it because the fighting starts again. The finish had AD escaping and then dragging Ki out of the cage for the win. This was a lot better than I expecting. Plus I was jazzed that JJ Johnston didn't get a belt. JR Ryder it's still a-OK in my book.

PP: This was about 1000 times better than it had any right to be in that tiny ring. It was booked well in that just about every time all six guys were in the ring, there would be 2-3 of them on the mat selling to ease the congestion as well as allowing the fans to focus on the guys still on their feet. JR’s tarantula on Jose made for an amazing visual for the few seconds he had it latched on before Ki entered the match, climbed the cage and just wasted JR with the kicks. The SAT going for the Spanish Fly off the top of the cage led to Mafia (sitting in the crowd with the JAPW contingent) yelling “What are you, STUPID???” as they started to go for it before JJ came in and broke up the spot. Hysterical. JJ earned some goodwill from us as he took the beating he oh so richly deserved after the last show, including a NASTY chairshot from AD whipping the chair at JJ’s head from the floor as he tried to escape the cage. Finish comes down to AD escaping and attempting to pull Ki out. JJ grabs Ki’s legs and a tug-of-war ensues before AD finally gets the upper hand and pulls Ki out for the victory. Postmatch the ring announcer calls for a round of applause for “these six phenomenal athletes,” leading us to figure out who the sixth phenomenal performer is since it couldn’t possibly be JJ. The ref? Sebastian Night? The chair? The inanimate carbon rod?

PRINCE NANA vs. CHEETAH MASTER in a cage match :
RD : The rules to the match was pinfall or submission only. While I think they blew the set up to the match by not having Nana really get heat on Cheetah Master, they did a good job with this cage match. Cheetah Master hits a gusher in this as at one point, the lights go out and a masked man hits the ring with a chair and wallops Cheetah. He was wearing a mask similar to the one worn by Mystery in WOW. Maybe it was a slimmed down Goon. Black is a slimming color after all. Anyway, Nana gets a lot of heat in this match, a lot of offense and making Cheetah taste the steel a bunch. I think Cheetah bleed so much that it even showed in Nana's tiny blond streak. The finish to this is Cheetah hitting the big splash off the top of the cage. I'm not a vampire fan, but I think if you're going to do a cage, you should do it right and have someone get color in it.

PP: I bust out the Ghana flag again during the intros but this time Nana stays in character while he passes our corner of ringside. Now I really can’t wait to bring it to the ICW show on 1/26 and try to convince him that I’m a white-boy stalker, planning to kill Donnie B to prove my love for him. The match itself is fine as far as blow-offs go, with Cheetah hitting a Beverly Hillbillies-style blade job (“the next thing you know, ole Jed’s a millionaire”) off a chairshot from the mystery man. Nana goes on the attack, whipping Cheetah into the cage enough times that both guys are soon covered in Cheetah’s blood. Cheetah takes everything Nana dishes out including his running butt-butt in the corner with Cheetah on the floor, but somehow he comes back long enough to drop Nana, scale the cage and hit the Superfly splash off the top for the pin. I’m with Ray in that they botched the setup for this pretty badly, but they recovered as best they could with this match. Then again, I grew up on the MSG formula. Match 1: heel gets heat on the top face and wins in screwy fashion. Match 2: top face gets his heat back but can’t put away the heel. Match 3: cage match to settle the feud. Matches 2-3 went perfectly and if they’d given us a Match 1, this would’ve been an even better feud.

RD : Overall, this was a lot better show than I thought it was going to be last month. Turns out it was worth the trip even though we didn't get to do as much LLL hanging out as I would have liked to due to arrival schedules of parties involved. Jonboy actually flew up from Florida for the weekend and he didn't get in until noon in DC, plus taking trains to Philly and everything. All and all, a good show. Let's hope ECWA can keep the momentum going with the Super 8. See ya there. And if you're in the North Jersey/NYC area we're looking for a ride.

PP: This was a fine ECWA show, not nearly the steaming turd we had steeled ourselves for coming in. Super 8 is Super 8… you get what you pay for, and we expect a fine turnout as always. Bring your masks.