THE BACKSTORY
PS: Tommy and Cel come over and we watch some Excalibur killing and various other wrestling goodness. Revolution Pro is some fun stuff and got us in the mood to see some indy wrasslin

MH: I'm all about the Revolution Pro right now. All the praise made me a little skeptical, but it looks to be well deserved. The Psycho Driver is a fucking insane bump.

RD: I spent about a month trying to wrangle a ride to this show. I ended up getting a ride from Travis after bumping into him on the chat. I end up having my travel plans fucked up due to the train wreck in Baltimore, but hey, I got a ride and I'm going to see Ki vs. Dragon with Ricky Steamboat as the referee!

PS: TKG makes about a thousand filthy jokes which almost makes Marcel swerve into the traffic barriers. We also discuss the bizzaro WO story which linked GHB (roofies) to near deaths among wrestlers, I suggest that some wrestlers
may have such low self esteem that they need to incapacitate themselves to masturbate

MH: Warning to all who may drive Tom around some day - when he gets on a  roll, get out of the left lane.

TKG: I sat in backseat reading Meltzer and pointing out goofiness. Endless jokes about what kind of tool has to slip themselves a roofie.

RD: On our trip up to Delaware, I regale Travis with stories of why I like early 90's AJPW and why Yone Genjin is the worker of the wrestling cave men.

PS: We go to a Delaware Burger King, and I have the Xtreme burger, my stomach quickly starts the "you fucked up" chants

MH: I get Burger King's equivalent of the Side Headlock, the chicken sandwich. We were shooting for Sizzler, but we got completely lost, and decided against calling Rippa, home sleeping after getting his stomach pumped. Life Lesson here - when faced with a choice of BBQ or Caesar Salad,  always go with BBQ.

RD: After quickly casing the area and discovering our choices were Alpha Pizza or Burger King, we choose the King. I dare the Xtreme burger without consequences. Travis and I show up early and get seats. It took me a while to figure out if the other Playaz had shown up as Rippa was sick and I kept looking for the 7 foot tall person saying "SHUT UP, PHIL!" so that it could be heard in another county. As they head to the locker room, Persian Prince points out my Tokyo Gurentai shirt and Japanese Pool Boy marks out for it.

THE SHOW
INFERNO vs. CROWBAR
PS: Surprisingly watchable for an Inferno match. Basically was a Storm v. Ace Darling match with Inferno doing a passable poor man's Darling. Crowbar has all that polish that Meltzer is always blathering about

MH: Crowbar was did everything that he needed to do here. We all wondered why Crowbar would hold onto a gimmick given to him by a promotion that died. We then remembered Dangerous Devon Storm's neon orange tights. Inferno's
been pushed down to the opener, maybe by the time we come back he'll have taken JJ's old spot setting up the ring.

RD: This one was kind of surprising to me as the opener as Inferno had in the past had a pretty big push in ECWA and Crowbar is well known name. The theory was that Crowbar was double booked, but that gets thrown out the window later in the show. This was OK, Crowbar did some ok stuff. They sort of mess up a apron dive spot where Crowbar clotheslines Inferno out of a chair, but instead of it tipping over, it slides out and slams into the guardrails.

TKG: On paper this whole card up to the main event looked to be the shits. This was the first of several better than expected matches. Travis was sitting with during the show.

MOZART FONTAINE vs. J.R. RYDER
PS: Mozart has spectacular hair, and a decent basic grasp of ring work. Ryder has worse hair and worse wrestling ability.

TKG: Ryder has cool looking chaps, if you’re into that kind of thing. That’s all I have to say about this match.

MH: Yep, Ryder still sucks. Nothing spectacular here, which is a compliment, as I was expecting to retch all over Tom.

RD: Fontaine has the Jimmy Garvin/Dr. Tom Pritchard curly mullet going and his manager E.S. Easton had a jacket on that made him look like he was going to start singing  Rev. Al Greene songs or something. JR busts out the tarantula and then does the world's worst Tajiri kick to the head. Fontaine works the leg well and has cool theme music. The evil J.J. (the ring crew guy) Johnston and Sebastian Night run in allowing Fontaine to win.

MR. OOH LA LA/PERSIAN PRINCE/JAPANEESE POOL BOY vs. JOHNNY MAXX/VINCE GOODNIGHT/ "6'10" MIKE MAYHEM
PS: If Mike Mayhem is 6'10 then his partners must have been 6'7 and 6'5. I  was once at a keg party and after several beers had my Rugby teammates blast me with a cookie sheet, and the reason they are always used in wrestling is that you can smash someone with them, and they sound nasty with out hurting at all. Johnny Maxx was throwing loose cookie sheet shots which is just ludicrous. I will save the Ooh La La praise for Tom.

MH: We all popped for Pool Boy and had to tell Ray to put the dollar back in his pocket. Outside of Ooh La La, there was nothing good to say about this match. I too will let Tom elaborate on Ooh La La-Mania.

TKG: Before tonight I had only known Ooh La La for his strip tease and tripping in ropes comedy bump. But after this match I am fully on the Ooh La La bandwagon. Ooh-La-la was the worker of this match, directing traffic for six, over-bumping for pathetic offense, throwing the best strikes and a stiff baseball slide. Ooh La La is a ring general. Compared to other garbage workers with poor cardio (Rob Hartog or Uncle Honkey), Ooh La La is the Hijo del Santo of out of shape workers. This match had no reason to be as good as it was. Ooh La La delivers the goods.

RD: I try to talk Cel out of trying to get Ooh La La to go to the champagne room with him after the show, but I'm not sure if I was successful or not. Mayhem was big, but he wasn't like huge big. We thought he was like Giant Tommy Dreamer if he stole Cruel Connection #2's pants. Goodnight looked like nise Chris Jericho. There's a gigantic plot hole where the heels run out and the referee starts a count on them even though it's no DQ and no countout. This is one of those deals where a lot of the weapon shots look weak. If you want to use gimmicks in a match, you should make them look like they hurt. Persian Prince was a trooper and at least tried with some of his shots. Pool Boy did some ok stuff
in this as well.

TKG: And Persian Prince threw salt/sand.

MH: Hey, I thought he just did good in the match, that wasn’t worth tips or anything. Besides, working this well, he’s bound to develop a rat following.

PRINCE NANA vs. BENNY STOLZFUS
PS: Benny blows up about 35 seconds in, and these two have a genuine mat classic. Really worth seeing as they blow everything they try in comical ways. Worst match I have ever seen live, but in a Hogan v. Beefcake on Thunder kind of way. MILLION BILLON blah blah

MH: Blech, this was horrible. Fun to watch, but horrible. This must make tape, if only to see the "finish."

TKG: FIVE MORE MINUTES!!!! Greatest botched sunset flip ever.

RD: Hey, Easton did at least come out with an even better suit, it was like shark skin and two colors and stuff. Benny does a sunset flip that was baffling! Prince Nana sees his life pass before his eyes in one spot.

PATCH vs. TY STREET
PS: This was amazing, in a way more impressive then the main event. I mean I expected a MOTYC from Ki v. Dragon, but I didn't expect this to break positive stars. Patch got good somehow, as he carries the basically worthless Street, showing nice powermoves and brutal chops, I need to see recent Oulette but I think Patch is now the best one-eyed worker in the world.

MH: Schneider is too kind (never thought I'd ever say that). "Basically?" Patch surprises the hell out of all of us by carrying the completely  worthless Street here. We all watched this match with mouths agape at Patch's amazing new life as a decent worker.

RD: I think we were all fearing and loathing this match. All the previous matches I've seen with Ty before have been nothing to right home about and Patch's previous high mark in my esteem was the time he spit his gum out at him. Patch
busted out some nice power moves including the Dynamite Kid style superplex and Albert's old torture rack neckbreaker. Ty didn't blow anything and even did a run up the ropes armdrag thing. This was kind of like the Kane v. Albert bizarro good match.

TKG: Congrats to Ty Street for making it all the way though a match without concussing himself.

J.J. JOHNSTON vs. GLEN OSBORNE
PS: Technically as bad as Stolfzus v. Nana but not nearly as funny. Osborne is the dictionary definition of worthless

MH: I think there was as heel turn here, I can't be bothered to recall anything about this match. I take one look at Osborne, turn to Tom and remind him that Roids and Schlitz are not a good combination.

TKG: Well the trick is you are supposed to inject the steroids and shotgun the beer. It looks like Osborne got that backwards.

RD: JR Ryder pays back Johnston for running in on his match by running in on this match and turning heel on Glen Osbourne. That'll teach him to run in on a match again! I think the highspot of the match was when Sebastian Night almost sets his hair on fire when he steps under the ropes and his candle's flame hits his hair.

INTERMISSION
PS: We scope the teen girls and call Dean on the cell phone during the intermission, this is a family board so I won't transcribe Tom's comments about the girls of Delaware

TKG: I was very unoffensive. I think the high-school softball team could really use a guy like me to help them out.

MH: I joined in the conversations after escaping the cloud of tobacco smoke that hovers around the front door during intermission of every indy I go to these days. Dean has to have Schneider spell out Stolzfus' name about 23 times. I wonder why they thought it was worth the effort.

RD: When we come back from break, we get a video package explaining how Scoot Andrews broke his arm. They have a video segment from Chicago from the week before where Scoot meets up with Chris Daniels back stage, they seem cordial but when they leave the building, Chris slams the door on Scoot's arm. ECWA already proving they have better business sense then WCW as they seem to be setting up a future Daniels/Andrews title match down the line.

TKG: I love kayfabing the injury into an angle. As cool as the Tahitian Title excuse.

CHEETAH MASTER RETIRES
PS: Prince Nana is a great heel, and this sort of actually made me want to watch the Cheetah v. Nana match. They did nice booking by not having Master make the immediate comeback, I am going to assume they will hold this out for
a while

TKG: Nana has cool entrance music and does great mic work. Where does his manager buys those suits.

MH: I'm glad they did this, as 1) Nana had all the heel mic-work you could ever want, and 2) They didn't do another Boogie Woogie Brown heel turn like I was fearing (Also in the ring as ECWA was recognizing his being up and
around after his knee replacement surgery. When Cheetah announced his retirement, Brown got righteously indignant. "WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS?" I feared the worst.)

RD: Nana's good on the stick, but if you have the potential to get rid of the top babyface when he's willing to retire, why challenge him to stay.

BATTLE ROYAL
PS: This match really was hurt by the omission of Nigel Fairservice. I saw the Gas insignia on the masked man's tights, but I just thought that was a definition of his training regiment.

TKG:Ooh La La continues to deliver, with the best over the top rope bump of the Battle Royal.

MH: ECWA Summit II. Hey look, it’s Pete Gassed. Surprises are supposed to be good surprises, not groan surprises.

RD: We made jokes about who the masked guy was. I was betting it was Sid back from the injury. He looked passable in the battle royal part of this, then the mask comes off and we discover it's Pete on the Gas.

SIMON DIAMOND vs. PETE GAS vs. SCOOT ANDREWS
PS: Ouch, I can't believe Gas made the 500, he is sub Stasiak and his punches are some of the worst I have ever seen. Andrews continues to disappoint me, I really need to see something big out of him soon or I am plummeting him on the next update. Diamond tried

MH: I'm willing to forgive Scoot only so much due to his hand. If it's affecting his work, he should take time off to heal. Gas threatens Dawn Marie at ringside to set up the big Diamond/Gas feud. Was initially surprised they let Scoot retain here, but their next show's not until September, so I guess they're counting on his hand being healed by then.

TKG: Why would ECWA bring in Pete Gas? I mean Rodrageous is right there!!

RD: This was an elimination match, but Simon and Pete can't work together for some reason and have comical exchanges as they pull each other off of Scoot "What are you doing?" "I'm trying to win!" "SO AM I!" Scoot busts out The Last Rites in this to possibly add more fuel to the fire with Daniels. We're disappointed as Scoot doesn't bust out the hellish "Force of Nature" Virgo driver, but instead wins with the rock bottom. Pete ruined his good will he built up from me in the battle royal.

AMERICAN DRAGON vs. LOW-KI
PS: I need to watch this on tape, but it is my MOTY so far. Just amazing intensity, stiff, brutal and really great mat wrestling, with each hold being heavily contested. Steamboat is as good a ref as he was a wrestler, and he is the only guest ref I have ever seen add to a match. I also dug the fact there was no dives, just hard ass wrestling. I love this kind of wrestling and this was the best live match I have ever seen. Just incredible.

TKG: Steamboat does the great super old school reffing. He checks the boots, explains the rules, starts the ten count when a wrestler is on the apron, and post match checks both guys vitals. I was standing up for whole match, there were moments where I got so caught up in the match that I felt like it was being performed solely for me. A bunch of knucklelocks, and THE GREATEST TREE OF WOE EVER!!

MH: Fantastic match. Everything meant something and built the match, which was all about who could hurt each other more in the ring. The one Phoenix Splash was enough - any more highspots would have hurt this match. I  also have to mention the Tree Of Woe Dragon Sleeper, which I have never seen  before and blew us all away when it was slapped on. Steamboat was simply a great ref, no shenanigans, just calling it straight down the middle and selling everything that Ki and Dragon did. Hell, he sold like Ki chopped him a couple of times. I need to see this again on tape, but right now, this
gets current MOTY status from me as well.

RD: This was sooooo fuckin' awesome. Steamboat was awesome with his reactions to some of the stuff the guys were doing to each other and stayed out of the way and let the guys do their stuff. American Dragon must have taken a lot of notes from Steven Regal on simple ways to be a dick in a match as the initial tie up ends with AD trapping Ki in the corner and rubbing his forearm across this face. Another great spot was Dragon's opening to work on Ki's arm. Ki does for his Tidal Crush, handspring kick in the corner, Dragon rushes out and drop kicks out Ki's arm as he's doing the cartwheel and the punishment to the arm is on. Great mat work in this. I think they also didn't try to do too many dangerous spots that got kicked out of. The finish is gutsy and was sort of surprise, but it was good. Now the question is do we get Ki v. Dragon III or will they get a decent run as the tag champs. Worth the price of admission, Travis' ticket and the bus ride to see. As good as the first and I liked it better than the Low Ki/Xavier ladder match from the UCW show at the Elk's Lodge.

EPILOGUE
PS: ECWA is a fun promotion, classy for the kids and not afraid to bring in the wrestlers I want to see. If they run Daniels v. Andrews at the next show, I am coming back. Pete Gas needs to go back to the loving arms of  Quinones though

MH: I love the attention to detail. The video angling Scoot’s injury gave us hope for Daniels vs. Scoot in September. We may rag on the undercard, but I'd sit through Stolzfus vs. Ryder 3/5 falls if it meant getting to Daniels vs. Scoot and/or Dragon vs. Ki. (It has to happen, the only question is when). Either match means I'll come back, though.

RD: Fun if not a long trip. Always nice to go to a card that you don't need to take a shower to get the stench off of you afterwards. The main event is something you should try to make an effort to see.