THE BACKSTORY:
MH: A few short hours after hanging out with these guys to watch the UFC (BJ Penn is your new favorite MMA Fighter....fuck....), I call Phil to link up for another ECWA Road Trip. Not surprisingly, he no-sells my calls. I say fuck it and hit the bookstore to read the paper for a bit. Tom heads over there and wakes him up.

TKG: I go over to Phil's, talk with his roommate and drink some turned wine while waiting for Phil to wake up.

PAS: I caught up on about 2 weeks of sleep Friday night, and stumble out of my bedroom to see Tom and Cel already there - not the sight you want first thing in the morning. Trust me.

RD: I wake up at 8:30am and get my stuff together for the weekend down to Philly after kicking the supermodels out of my apartment. I get together the tapes I borrow from Pete last week to return and consider what I should bring for viewing this weekend when I realize I have 80 million unlabeled tapes sitting around my TV and if I could thing something to bring, it would take me 8 years to find it. This all works out in the end.

PP: I wind up making it to Penn Station and hooking up with Ray with time to spare despite having to walk Emi twice… this is one of her cheap heat tactics where if she knows I’m going away for awhile, she “still has to go out” but amazingly doesn’t do anything the second time I take her. Think of it as the doggie equivalent of a Larry Zybszko stall.

MH: We watch the end of the EMLL PPV. Phil and Tom tell me things that must be included in my review of it. We also watch our main man Sam Panico against Orion before rolling out. BTW Sam - you sir, are every bit the 200th best wrestler in the world. We won't drop you no matter how nicely you ask.

PAS: I am going to do a longish review of that match, but fans of the indy wrestling should get some Pittsburgh stuff. They are doing some great work and Panico is a hell of a brawler.

RD: Pete and I take the train down to Philly which is pretty uneventful this time. No clowns and no crazy homeless people sitting next to us. I catch up on Pete's Japanese mags and pick out things that really need to be scanned. One has a feature on Giant Silva and Dalip Singh. Singh really looks like Sabu minus the scars if he ate a case of Miracle Grow. One of the mags rule because Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai is on the back in an add for supplements or something. We end up meeting with Los Lurkers Locos member Jeff Crawford and his wife and head to his house to kill some time. We're informed that the VCR is busted, I suspect evil-doing as Jeff's wife is not a wrestling fan.

PP: I make sure to get my stupid dining decision out of the way, as I go to a no-contest with a kielbasa from the Diggity Dog stand at the 30th Street Station. (The kielbasa would get its heat back later.) Ray and I make up for Jeff’s “broken VCR” (nudge nudge) by commandeering his remote and forcing him to sit through “Victory.” Pele and Bobby Moore as Allied POWs! Max Von Sydow as the Nazi commander with a heart of gold! SYLVESTER STALLONE PLAYING SOCCER! What’s not to love?

MH: We get it going, held up by the horrible, horrible traffic on Connecticut Avenue in DC. We realize that we could have saved ourselves a half-hour by taking a different route. We all blame ourselves. Actually, I blame Phil Rippa for not coming along, as he knows these streets better than I do. And the Yankees lost, too - that's what you get for not coming.

RD: We leave late from Jeff's house as we really needed to sit through the entire finish of Victory. We get caught in some traffic and get worried that we might not make the parish in time. Of course , we get their on time, only now Marcel and company are late. Also to our dismay, the sign on the building says the show starts at 6 (well, the doors opened then) despite the website saying 8. We think our adventure to the steak house is in jeopardy.

TKG: I sit in back of car and we discuss the Boondocks and I look over tonight's card. I get psyched for the six man as the heel team has Ooh La La, Mozart Fontaine, and some guy named Roughhouse Rivera. I conjecture that Roughhouse Rivera might be Jose Louis Rivera and that this might possibly be the best six-man comedy match heel team ever.

PAS: The Boondocks have been one of the few outlets doing really great humor since 9/11, and this comes from someone who doesn’t particularly agree with them politically. Tom is forgetting to mention Cel bumping the entire Time oeuvre on the way down. Me and Tom get into a heated argument about the merits of Pandemonium versus Ice Cream Castle, things were said, feelings wounded, I am unsure if our friendship will survive.

MH: We get to the Parish and Ray, Pete and Jeff are standing in line, we yank them out of line. Live for the moment, boys, steak is needed. I make a note of Pete's cool Manchester City jersey.

RD: The trip the Sizzler is an adventure in itself. We never seem to be able to find the place. Rippa is the one who knows how to get there, but has sent the directions to Marcel. Mind you, Rippa also got us lost going there at the Super 8. We sit and laugh as we watch and call what turns will be missed and what exits will be headfaked into being taken and then are not. There were more swerves on this dinner trip than a Nitro Main Event with booked by Russo on crystal meth.

PP: There must’ve been a dozen phone calls back and forth just on this portion of the trip as everyone in our car tries to figure out who’s to blame for the faulty directions. The wonders of modern technology. Our Sizzler waitress redeems our faith in that fine dining institution, and we temporarily put our plans on hold to move the S8 pre-show feast elsewhere and reward her by dropping something like a $50 tip on the church plate they call a salad dish.

MH: SIZZLER! We all get steak. And it's good. Well, except for Schneider's, as it hasn't arrived. The waitress (who was working hard all night, didn't miss a single soft drink transition and sold our requests for steak sauce like a pro) then figured out that Ray had taken Schneider's steak. We all have a good laugh at Schneider's expense, until the waitress clues us in that she was kidding. We all wolf down out food and head back. It must be noted that even with all-you-can-eat soup and salad bars, Schneider snapped up Pete's uneaten Garlic Bread on the way out and Tom handled Pete's fries. And they both inhaled some ice cream heading out too.

TKG: Pete left fries on his plate. It's just disrespectful to leave food on your plate. I never would want to appear to be disrespectful.

PAS: Texas Toast is my favorite thing at Sizzler, it is so greasy and tasty and cheesy.

PP: It isn’t garlic bread… it’s “Texas Toast.” (So sayeth Alexander’s Steakhouse in Peoria, home of the swankiest steaks this side of Ruth’s Chris.) You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Tom running out of a restaurant cradling a soft-serve cone like an infant he just saved from a burning building.

RD: Everyone jokes that I have finally gotten my revenge on Schneider for stealing my steak 2 years ago. I play along, not to tip my hand that I have an actual and real diabolical plot which I have yet to unleash on that steak stealing bastard. As we sit at dinner and time ticks away, we start trying to cross off what match of the show we have missed so far. I also call that we'll succeed in hitting every stop light back which we do until we get on route 4.

THE SHOW
INFERNO VS.VINCENT GOODNIGHT
MH: We stumbled in as this one was beginning. We did catch the finish, which was Kid dropping his ass on Goodnight's face and getting the pin - looked like it broke the kid's face. Depending on Inferno's hygiene that could be a wicked finisher. I didn't pay too much attention to this one. I sleep easily regardless. We link up with Jeff Strauch, who's working the Cowboy Jeff gimmick with the cast on his arm.

TKG: I think we actually caught this match in its entirety. We only missed Infernos mic work. I also think Goodnight went over. Inferno tried this move where he locked Goodnight's legs and I think he wanted to bridge over Goodnight. Instead of bridging he dropped flat onto Goodnight with his back crushing Goodnight's face. We could have stayed at the Sizzler longer and missed this match.

RD : The Inferno move he went for is really confusing but it had to suck to take.

PP: We saw this match happening as we came in and immediately bristled with panic at the idea that we may have missed the six-man… thankfully the ticket-taker let us know this was still the opener.

PAS: Goodnight looks like Chris Jericho if Jericho mixed up his steroid needle with a heroin needle. Inferno look like he is making an attack on the 480’s until he breaks Goodnights face and kills some of the goodwill.
 

MR. OOH LA LA/JORGE RIVERA/MOZART FONTAINE VS. JOHNNY MAXX/THUNDER/TROY
AVALON
MH: Ooh La La no-sells our "FIVE OH OH!" chant. Troy Avalon looks like Bob Backlund if Bob picked up some polish. And how dare Boogie Woogie Brown no-show? This match was...there. Yeah.

TKG: Ooh La la is in a lot better shape than the last time I saw him. He doesn't blow up at all. He's slimmed down enough that his stripper gimmick looks semi believable. You wouldn't hire him if you wanted a Tom of Finland stripper, but I could see him making money from bear fans. He bumps enough and his strikes are decent enough to justify position on 500. Ooh La La is matched up with Thunder and keeps the horrid Thunder under control. Jorge Rivera is the former Persian Prince. I am assuming that post 9-11, ECWA decided to change the gimmick being too classy of a promotion to take advantage of cheap anti-Arab heat. Rivera is serviceable in the match but is so so not Jose Louis.

RD: Fontaine makes the ring crew move the ring steps when he comes out to the other side of the ring, I call for the Ooh La La or someone else get them to move it back to it's original spot, but they don't do it. The match starts with the heels setting up an ambush at the face locker room but are foiled when the faces come out the other entrance. Ooh La La does a great bit where he runs to the rings when he realizes the faces are in the ring, he slides in the ring but slides at an angle and goes right through to the other side and does the Psicosis head first slide to nowhere. Fontaine blows all our minds by busting out a half nelson suplex. "What the fuck was that" that proposed by many a Playa not expecting guys to try to murder each
other in a comedy match. Powder gets used at one point in the match, the finish comes when I think Avalon is taking a cookie sheet to everyone and accidentally takes out his own guy, resulting in Oh La La getting the pin. I think. Either that or Mozart kicked out Thunder's leg when he had Oh La La in the rack leading to the pin. Johnny Maxx looks like Nise Christian York.

PP: I love how they busted out the full AAA-style intros as the heel side takes something like 10 minutes before the babyfaces run out en masse. The finisher had a little of both of what Ray mentioned: Avalon accidentally clocked Johnny Maxx with the cookie sheet, then Rivera ejected the both of them while Super Backlund tried to apologize to Maxx. This led directly into the portion with Ooh getting the pin as Ray described. The gimmick switch for Rivera is an interesting choice since I honestly don’t think anyone would’ve given it a second thought as he’s been doing the gimmick seemingly forever.

PAS: I liked this match a lot, although it was burdened by the totally worthless Troy Avalon. Johnny Maxx, Thunder and Troy Avalon sounds way more like the lineup for a gay porn three way then a wrestling “Watch Johnny take it to the MaXXX.” I didn’t dig the Tequila Sunrise, they shouldn’t be burning big moves like that it a comedy six-man, you don’t see Eigen doing Emerald Erosion’s.

RED/ABUNAI VS. JAPANESE POOLBOY/RYAN WING
MH: Abunai is shorter than Red. Which means he should be teaming with Mascarita Sagrada in the inicial match at Arena Mexico next weekend. They're a fine babyface tag team, though. "Sure Thing" Ryan Wing is most assuredly not, not bothering to catch Red on a suicide dive. We all start noticing that the ropes are really, really, really loose. Uh guys, you've got the flashiest wrestler in the world right there and you can't tighten the ropes? Red with the Skytwister. Wouldn't mind seeing some more Abunai.

TKG: Japanese Poolboy and Ryan Wing are not good as a rudo tag team and never manage to catch Red and Abunai's dives. Red smartly chooses to only do his dives that don't require cooperation mostly landing feet first. I was impressed with that kind of decision-making. I would like to see Red/Abunai vs. Mozart Fontaine/Ooh La La.

PAS: So me Tom and Marcel were watching the awesome UFC on Sunday, and Phil Baroni comes out billed as “The King of Smack talk” and “The New York Badass.” Wearing gel in his hair for a shoot fight and hailing from Long Island, this “former teen bodybuilding champion” was the personification of every double earinged, roofie sporting, backwards white South Carolina Gamecocks “COCKS” baseball cap wearing frat boy I despised in college. He was Lizzie Grubman’s date that night in the Hamptons, and he slapped her on the dance floor making her all flustered and causing her to mistake the gas for the clutch. This guy had so much natural heel heat in my living room, that we spent a good portion of the ride up discussing why their had never been anyone doing that gimmick in wrestling. Tom brought up Tom Brandi, but I mentioned he was too old, the punk who dropped out of the HWA training camp on the MTV special came close, but he never actually worked a match. So when I saw Ryan Wing basically living my dream gimmick I was thrilled, he needs to go farther though, come to the ring wearing TIVAS, wear T-Shirts which have Cartman smoking pot, use a sleeper and call it the Ruphanyol clutch, I SMELL MONEY!! Too bad he eats it in the ring though. I would really be into Red and Abudani v. Ooh La La and Mozart, but Pool Boy and Wing despite great gimmicks don’t bring the wrestling.

RD: I'm pretty sure Red and Abunai have worked against Wing in the past, but not Poolboy. This was eh. The ropes were bad. It also seemed Red and Abunai decided they wanted to do a lot of mirror spots which sort of bugged me for some reason. Their other double teams however were pretty cool. Could have been better though. Red lands the Sky Twister and lands right on Poolboys head. Ouch.

PP: I was truly amazed at just how short Abunai is… it’s one thing when you’re watching his matches from the balcony at the Elk’s Lodge in Queens, but the perspective completely changes when you’re watching him from the floor. He’s kind of green and he’s never going to break out of the indies as tiny as he is, but he’s fun to watch and has a cool gimmick. (Abunai is Japanese for “danger.”) Red gets this borderline Japanese-style pop tagging in for the first time as everyone in the building goes nuts for him. You can see how all he needs is one match to get over like a mofo with the fans once he debuts with a promotion.

CROWBAR VS. BILLY BAX
MH: Bax isn't so good. Nope. Somewhere here, Bax gets knocked loopy and is out of it. Crowbar misses big-time on a legdrop and the kid is still on Dream Street, so he covers and ends the match . Bax looks to be okay.

TKG: Pete had brought an issue of "Box y Lucha" that had part three of a five-part interview with Bello Greco (one of the original Exoticos and father of the Stones and Super Calo). It's an interesting interview where Greco shoots~! on the current generation of Exoticos. In the same issue there was an interview with indie luchador El Atrevido. The high school cheerleaders, sitting directly across from me, had spread their legs up on the guardrail. Crowbar threw a German suplex early in match. Billy Bax seemed to botch all his offense. But honestly, there were too many distractions for me to keep track of the match.

PAS: During one brief moment that tom was paying attention to the match he asked “What the hell was that move” and I replies “I think it was a body slam.” That is a basic summary of the talents of Billy Bax. He did this really painful mike work where he instructed the crowd “Don’t call me Opie” which kind of reminded me of the time Kevin Nash dressed up as McMahon and begged unsuccessfully for Asshole chants.

RD: Having heard bad things about Bax, I skip the pre-match stuff to hit the facilities and to check the Merchandise table. I end up picking up a Fallen Angel shirt and go sit down. I wasn't really paying attention during this match, but it seemed that Bax had gotten knocked loopy at one point earlier in the match, but I could be wrong. The next thing we know, Crowbar is pinning him and the crew and Jim Kettner is out checking on Bax. I feel bad because if this was a homicide, my testimony wouldn't help with a conviction of anyone.

PP: I also raid the gimmick table and wind up with the new Curry Man “C-ya!!” shirt. I will not judge Bax since I still have yet to see him a work a match… not even the one that was taking place in front of me as we traded various magazines back and forth. I can only imagine the PR disaster this would’ve been with the Wilmington PD if Bax had been seriously hurt… “whaddaya mean there were 600 people there and nobody witnessed it?!?!”

SLYK WAGNER BROWN VS. BUCK WYLDE
MH: Brown comes out with April Hunter, apparently she's his valet. They've got matching outfits, routines, and everything. Brown's pretty okay. Got in some good heel work on the stick. Wylde ain't so good. The match isn't bad, though. Brown with a schoolboy after Wylde was distracted by slamming Hunter. I could stand to see more of Brown.

TKG: April Hunter catches a dive right in her implants. I fully expected them to explode and douse hat guy with silicone. Buck looks to have BM written across the back of his tights. Wylde does the ten rolling suplexes spot that I hate so much. I was hoping that spot wouldn't end up infesting the Indies. DAMN YOU BENOIT/ANGLE!!

RD: Buck Wylde's punches were bad, bad, bad. April and Wagner start badmouthing Simon and Dawn Marie, so I guess that's who they're going to be programmed with in the future. Wagner yells out "What's my name?" and gets answered with a resounding "SISQO!" from the crowd. I'm glad Buck got pinned because he was a woman beater. Go work that out in therapy.

PP: ECWA needs to find a better picture of Hunter to put on their website as she’s much more attractive in person than that picture would indicate. At one point Brown drapes Wylde over the middle rope face-down and leads the ref away so Hunter can interfere on the apron… she’s wearing kicker-style boots and for a second it looked like she was going to Kawada Wylde right in the face. Sadly, she went for the more pedestrian legdrop. Brown reminds me of Mamadou Diallo with his blonde dyejob, which will always get him heat with me, Ray, Barnwell and every other Metrostars fan on the MB. ;) Wylde’s rolling vertical suplexes would be the second-most ludicrous spot on the show. The finish has Wylde giving the Baldo Bomb to both Brown and Hunter, the latter of which allows Brown to schoolboy Wylde, grab his tights and use the ropes for leverage like a true heel to get the pin, which was the least that misogynist Wylde deserved.

PS: Amadou Diallo played for the Metrostars before the NYPD shot him? Huh news to me. I enjoyed Brown, he is a fun heel who also would fit really well in Memphis, they should team him with Nana.
 

SCOOT ANDREWS VS. PRINCE NANA
MH: Nana graces us with his heelnees before we get started, running down his adversary, Cheetah Master. Match isn't bad. Schneider hates Andrews right now, but I thought he looked okay here. I missed the sunset flip Schneider talked about, so I might not have all relevant info. Cheetah comes out to distract Nana, allowing Scoot to hit a Rock Bottom for the pin (Is the Rock Bottom the new indy powerbomb?) Fine match. Nana's manager E.S. Easton (the guy with the suits) lands a better punch than most of the workers on the show.

TKG: Nana and Xavier have the best heel mic work of any workers in the US today. ES Easton has improved a bunch since the last time I've seen him. Last time his apron bump looked really poor. This time he had a good manager apron bump and threw a great punch. It's really fun to watch indy manager develop. I'd like to see him work with a tag team. The loose ropes continued to cause problems.

RD: I think there's something weird about Scoot's hair, but Cel assures me it's usually like that. It seems like he's inbetween looks right now like he's going for longer hair. Nana's good with his gimmick. He's actually more enjoyable in the more family environment because he's not cursing and his heelisms (which are good) get heel reactions from the Delaware audience that get him pops in NYC. He even does the gimmick where he insults Cheetah in his native language and then translates it for us ingnorant fans. Easton's punch was great and his suit is awesome as well. We all knew what the finish was going to be, but I can appreciate the fact that Cheetah/Nana is the match they're building to.

PP: The consensus in our group is that Nana would be a superstar if he’d come along 15-20 years ago, as he’s got a great gimmick and is charismatic as hell. The fact that he’s also a good worker is just the gravy for the deal. Easton throws a great-looking punch and has the suit that says “I’m playing bass guitar in the Baptist church band tomorrow morning. YES SIR!”

PAS: Nana tries really hard, but he can’t carry Scoot, who is really an uncharismatic Austin Idol in the whole ECWA/Memphis galaxy. He blows a sunset flip at one point, Nana is a load of fun, the angle with him and Cheetah is lots of fun, as Cheetah is over enough to get Nana really hated. He really should have gotten the belt, as it is wasted around Scoot at this point. Easton is turning into a great manager, along with the suit and the punch, he taunts the Mentally retarded section of the audience to get a big heel reaction. It wasn’t done with malice though, it was done to help them feel part of the show, plus it got the crowd into a match Scoot was killing with his “work.”

INTERMISSION

TKG: Went outside, stood near Feinstein's beard, and spotted Xavier.

MH: We give Dean an update. During this, a reader of the site (Hey, Justin.) introduces himself. We chat for a bit. Schneider rambles on with Dean - he's just not himself when he doesn't get enough Dean time on the weekends, I tell ya.

PAS: Dean is the slowest typist in the world, there are some great rats in ECWA BTW. Including the high school cheerleading squad, who were totally desperate to make Red a man, the goth chick who offered herself to Sebastian Night, the 260 pound blond who looked like she was going to end up with Thunder or someone, and the tattooed Asian girl with the Fallen Angel shirt.

HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY

MH: They induct Crowbar, Reckless Youth, Chris Daniels, and Flyin' Ryan the Production Guy. This is well done and Daniels even gets choked up. We, of course, are waiting for the Cheetah/Nana angle. Sure enough, Nana has hauled ass across town and is at Cheetah's gym. He then proceeds to lay waste to the gym by....throwing some towels on the floor. And spreading some trash from under the desk on the floor. I know I'd be pissed at having to clean up that mess.

RD: The Production Guy gets his award then a tape won't play right afterward. The speeches were kept pretty short and sweet. Reckless says he has a torn disk and doesn't know if he'll be back or not. Daniels' gets choked up and mentions that Jim opened a lot of doors for him by giving him a chance to shine at the Super 8. We mark out because our "He's Hot, He's Spicy, He's Tasty" sign from the 2000 Super 8 makes Daniels' video package. The Nana angle was pretty good. He knocks over a towel rack and messes up some supplement flyers on the desk. I was waiting for him to something really sinister... like use the gym equipment and not wipe it off when he was done. Or maybe take a leak in the Jacuzzi.

PP: “I will show Cheetah Master that I am not one to be trifled with! I shall rent the stereo headphones for the Lifecycle and not return them when I am done exercising!”

PAS: I was looking at the program and noticed that Nigel Fairservice was inducted in 1994, that means he must be an almost 10 year veteran and this is a guy who looked like he won a radio contest, in the battle royal at the Super 8.

LOW-KI VS. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS
MH: Oh yeah, this rocked. Very even match, well-paced and thought out. Each guy got a bunch of offense in and sold for the other. They worked the angle that they're now familiar with each other and kinda know when each other's spots are coming and can try to counter them, adding to the four-way feud going on. So this meant Ki doing Chris' Pop-Up Moonsault and Daniels going for the Ki-Krusher. A cool thing in this match for me, though - they did a completely original series of two-count pinfall predicaments. This is very, very heartening to see in a time where the standard two-counts-back-and-forth has been run into the ground and then picked up and ran back into the ground. Another great spot is the finish, where Ki goes for his Handspring Kammen-Giri (Having nailed it earlier in the match), but gets met upside-down with a spear and the Last Rites ends it. Well worth the trip.

TKG: Better than any of the Daniels matches I had seen during the 500 voting period. Begins with a knuckle lock sequence where both jockey for positioning followed by a collar and elbow tie up where both jockey for position. Both made this jockeying seem meaningful. I especially liked Ki's grinding his head into Daniels during the knuckle lock. They establish their different characters in this section with Daniels showing that he is vulnerable to Ki's martial arts-based offense, and establish that Ki is vulnerable to Daniels throws and slams. This set the story for the rest of the match and both get long extended periods of offense. After a series of Daniels slams, Ki "SELLS THE BACK AND NECK!" for the entire match, struggling to do anything that involves straining his back. The cheerleader's legs were also spread during this match, but I was never distracted from the action in the ring. Daniels throws great punches but needs to work on his clotheslines.

PAS: One of the better Chris Daniels matches I have seen in a long time. This had really long stretches of offense from both guys, instead of the counter, counter, counter style Daniels is want to use which has begun to irritate me. I thought Ki was great, selling the beating and the back really well, while Daniels made Ki’s kicks (which weren’t as stiff as they can be) look just deadly. The two count pinning reversal was at a point of the match where it looked like a real struggle for a win, rather then just a chance to pose for applause. I liked this match more then any of the Ki or Daniels matches at King of Indies, Daniels going over was the right move, and they should finally run Daniels v. Scoot soon.

RD: This was pretty great. From a drawing in the crowd stand point, I think Daniels is a good opponent for Ki because he has a lot of charisma and can play the crowd well. This worked well because Daniels would be a prick and then Ki would sneak in a kick to the head from an odd angle (from his back, from a handstand) which worked to do some transitions. The pacing was a good, it wasn't too fast, they guys didn't hit every spot in the world which worked well. I liked that both guys were trying to piss off the other by stealing their spot and that they knew their own holds well enough to stop it from being used against them. The spear counter to the Tidal Crush was great and the Last Rights puts this one over. I start thinking about the possibilities for the Super 8 already.

PP: The pacing was great as they do a slow build to start with exchanges on the ground. There’s a cool spot early as Daniels has Ki on the mat and stops to pose; Ki spins up on his head and about a half-second later, kicks Daniels in the head. I dug this because I could buy Daniels getting taken aback by this sudden turn of events just long enough for Ki to strike. They then pick up the pace as Ki ends an exchange by just NUKING Daniels’ thigh with a kick, which Daniels sells like a champ and then yells “SON OF A BITCH!” at Ki to heat up the building. Daniels works over Ki’s back throughout the match as a theme, at one point hitting an STO. I ask if that should be called the STD and get this classic “don’t make me hurt you” look from Cel as a result. Ki eventually comes back and goes for the three-kick combo… Daniels flips him off as he’s going for the trifecta, so Ki kicks his hand and then just wastes him with the BOOT TO THE HEAD~! The finish is great as Ki whips Daniels to the buckle, sells the back and then tries to go for the Tidal Crush, but by now Daniels has recovered and he spears Ki out of his boots while Ki is upside down in mid-air. Last Rites, clean pin and “hail fellow, well met” handshakes follow. I love the professional wrestling.

THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TEAM VS. JR RYDER/JJ THE RING CREW GUY

MH: Schneider still can't tell Jose and Joel apart. This is the best Rock N' Rolls vs. Nikita Koloff & Krusher Khruschev ever - pretty fun, and should not have been as good as it was. JR gets on my bad side to start, setting Jose on the top rope and nearly knocking him off and then walking way too far away afterwards, making Jose have to stretch way out to connect on his drop kick transition. He recovers though, throwing a bunch of nice suplexes which Schneider counts. Then he hits the Rolling Thunder. Moron. An SAT member slips on the hideously loose ropes. They really, really need to fix that for next month. Red interferes, which the ref blows by clearly seeing and just ignoring it. I start to wonder if Russo has been named co-booker and has instituted Relaxed Rules in ECWA. Red with a Tope Con Hilo that SOMEONE was way out of position on, leading to Red splatting on the floor. SATs with the Spanish Fly. Due to a match stipulation, the SATs are getting a tag title shot next month against Low-Ki and American Dragon. Yep. I'm there.

PAS: Marcel steals my Russian comparisons, JR is better then Krushchev, JJ is worse then Nikita. JR moves well for a big guy and threw 6 different suplexes, if this was 1982 he would be BostonIdol’s favorite wrestler. The non caught Red tope-con-hilo was full on Ciclope v. Prince Iakuea on WCWSN bad looking, he was doing safe dives in his tags and should have done anything where he relied on those loads catching him.

TKG: JR Ryder is better than I remember him being. Because the Maximos are smaller they work face, and do it well. Jose works the Ricky Morton role for most of this match and takes a scary looking bump getting a lot of altitude before bouncing his face off the apron and then hitting the floor. The Maximos seem pretty skilled at adjusting when their opponents are out of place for their moves. Red decides to do a headfirst dive in this match. No one catches. I'm also there for next months tag match. I hope they have the Maximos work heel in that match since they are a natural heel team and have great double teams.

RD: This was pretty good when JR was in and pretty there when JJ was in. Jose spent a lot of time in there and I'm wondering if Joe L was hurt or something. We all laugh our asses off at the Rolling Thunder set up with a slingshot into the ring by JR. Tom gets off a great line about JJ fixing the ring, so we start a "Fix the ring JJ" and "Fix the Ropes JJ" chant. Jose did the neat counter to the J Team's double spear by leaping over them. I was surprised the Maximos got off the Spanish Fly, but if they were going to hit it (and when all 3 guys were on those ropes I was really scared for all of them) they were going to do it to JR. I was annoyed also by the referee either being totally out of position or the relaxed rules going into place for the match. I really gotta start working on my ride for Dec 1.

PP: One last time… Jose is smaller and has the ponytail, while Joe L is bigger and uses the Crown’s Gate. The kielbasa ran in on me while I was distracted and demanded its rematch NOW, so I was forced to miss the first few minutes. This was quite fun as JR works his ass off and JJ even breaks out an Octagon Special. JR’s Rolling Thunder might be the most ludicrous thing we’ve ever seen… he gets an “A” for effort, but sweet Lord were we howling with laughter at that. Red pretty much dies at the end as Sebastian Night is too far back to catch his tope con hilo and he toasts his back on the floor. It goes without saying that we are sooooooooo there next month.

EPILOGUE

MH: Hey, it's ECWA, you know what you're in for - Good matches that you have to sit through some not-so-good matches to see. The Good Matches are so worth the trip, though. I'm digging the continuing four-way feud of hatred and respect, as well as anytime Prince Nana goes near a microphone.

TKG: We stop at garage to get gas. I contemplate trying to score some oxycotin from the garage employee. Rest of trip back is pretty uneventful. We get back to Phil's and watch some more Orion. We discover that not putting Lawler on the 500 was probably our biggest mistake. 2001 Lawler smokes everything I've seen from 2001 Nakanishi.

PAS: I am reviewing that match too, but it was an amazing performance by Lawler, the best he has looked since the early 1990’s. I wasn’t that jazzed for this show, having just come back from the KOI, but I had a great time and it was a heck of a show.

RD: On the way back, I start fantasy booking for the Super 8. I realized that they could probably do a gimmick where they could have someone going to be the first 2 time champ, bring up they could use Ki and Daniels, Pete brings up Bradley and I mention Darling which everyone else shoots down. But later I remember Simon Diamond won one as well. The booking could be interesting, but then again, there's also the great thing about the Super 8 of the unknown factors who get to shine in the past, which I think would be lost. So maybe they'll have to do the Super 8 and a King of the Super 8's tournament and just skip the battle royal this year. We get back to Jeff's house and find out that the Yankees were losing 15-2. I laugh myself to sleep realizing that Rippa skipped Low Ki v. Daniels to watch his precious Yankees get spanked by the D'Backs like Sunshine being spanked by David Von Erich.

PP: I almost want to say that they could do a normal S8 tournament and then slot the winner into a “King of S8” elimination match with previous winners, sort of like merging the S8 with the Shamrock Memorial Cup. Maybe even work it on consecutive shows. No matter what, you really can’t go wrong with this setup. ECWA rules because the parish atmosphere is always clean and family-friendly, their marquee matches are always worth seeing, and even the gut-worst wrestling matches (read: ECWA Summits) are tolerable when one is surrounded by their very best friends. We get back to Jeff’s place in time to gawk at the Game 6 score and watch Jeannine hyperventilate as she waits in vain for Mad TV to come on after the game and evening news.

THE DEATH VALLEY PLAYBOYZ.