BACKSTORY:
PP: Before Ray and I headed down for the ECWA show, we started off the weekend with an ICW (TPFKAUCW) show at the Elk's Lodge. Jac Sabboth has put on some fun (if not insanely long) shows there with a good mix of local
talent and fly-ins, and so we were already planning on going before Eddy Guerrero got added to the mix. I hook up Ray at Penn Station where we get our train tickets for the weekend, and then I take him to the "Japanese Yummy Yummy" store on 14th Street where we load up on Pocky. After dropping off his bags at my place, we hit the subway for Queens... you have to love how we now have two solid grouPP (JAPW and ICW) within $3 each way between the subways and NJ Transit light rail. Actually, you probably hate it

RD :  I pick up my "Lucky Mini Almond" Pocky from the Japanese store before hanging out at Pete's and play visual pinball and try to determine what music the 70's KISS pinball played.  I'm banking on "Sweet Georgia Brown." Pete and I head out to the show and are once again treated to a display of security not being able to organize a line.  Amazingly though, the show starts on time which is always a plus for indys.

THE SHOW :
Danny Demento vs. "II Cocky" Kevin Matthews vs. Jimmy Hustler :
PP: Danny Demanto beat "II Cocky" Kevin Matthews and Jimmy Hustler in a 3-way dance. The winner was going to get a lap dance from Kristi Myst, which was the money shot (so to speak) for this match. Demanto's a big kid who's
surprisingly agile for his frame, and he already has his own shirt with "The Fat Man Is Gonna Fly" on the back. He hits a frog splash on Hustler for the pin after nearly killing himself on a tope to the floor that he takes directly on his head and shoulders. Myst comes out and comes this close to making a man out of Demanto when Xavier hits the ring and
escorts Kristi to the back.

RD :  All guys enter from the side of the stage, which is unusual.  Jimmy Hustler uses "Bitter Sweet Symphony" as his theme music which was... odd. We weren't sure if he was a wrestler or a guy working security at one point when he made his entrance from where he entered from.  Matthews does this really crazy move where Demento his hung across the top rope and he drops a leg on the back of his head on the outside of the ring from the top rope. Matthews took a really crazy bump later in the match, I forget if it was a dive or an over the tope rope bump, but it pretty much put him out for the
rest of the match.  So as Demento is getting his lap dance, I note he's not follow NYC protocol as he essentially had his one hand between his and Kristi's legs.  I was fully expecting Rudy Guliani to storm the building and shut the show down.  Many jokes about not being able to stand up afterwards are made.  Post match, there's the announcer reading a queue card about the history of UCW and how it's now Impact Championship Wrestling.  There are several bad reads during this and then when the unviel the new set (which gets it's own music for a few minutes), but during the intro some of the curtains get caught on the cage.

THE BRISCOE BROTHERS (Jay & Mark Briscoe) vs. The SPANISH ANNOUNCE TEAM (Joel & Jose Maximo) for the ICW Tag Titles :
PP: The Maximos beat the Briscoe brothers to retain the ICW tag titles.  The Briscoes came out unannounced (they were scheduled to show up on the ICW website, but we didn't expect them to be working since one brother had the broken arm) and challenged a team from the back, leading to the SATs coming out. This was my first time seeing the Briscoes live and I was impressed with their moves and teamwork given how young they are. They also pull off a SWITCHEROO~! as Joel crushes one brother with his clothesline, only for the other brother to switch off and catch Joeloff-guard. (Jose on the apron: "WHAT HAPPENED?") Maximos hit the Spanish Fly for the finish and everyone shakes hands at the end. This was a fun match that got plenty of time to develop.

RD :  This was pretty fun, though I can't tell the Briscoes apart, though I think Jay was the one with the cast.  The Briscoes looked pretty good in this especially since one had to be coming off being injured for a few months.  One of the Briscoes hit a really great northern lights suplex in this.  The Briscoes also hit a pretty evil superbomb with a top rope neckbreaker double team on one of the Maximos before the other hit the save. Joel was apparetnly working with an ankle injury and while he was limping pretty bad coming to the ring, he seemed to work through it, though he understandably spent a lot of time on the apron.  This was a good match, post match all the guys hugged.  I'm hoping the Briscoes stick around.

RED vs. SCOOT ANDREWS
PP: Red beat Scoot Andrews with the Red Star Press. Scoot was originally scheduled to work Low-Ki in the main event, so this naturally led us Scoot looked better here than he did the following night against Slyk Wagner Brown as he seems to work better as a heel and he had an opponent who could bump more for him. Scoot had the "BNB" tights, which led me to use my "bed 'n breakfast" line from S8 2000... the guys behind us said it stood for "beef 'n butt." Red gets a flash pin with the RSP but Scoot gets his heat back by absolutely OBLITERATING Red with three Forces of Nature (his
pumphandle K-Driller). Folks had been booing him all night but once he busted his finisher out the crowd fell in love with him. Go fig.

RD :  This was perfectly fine wrestling though there was one or two rough spots.  Scoot has started jacking some of the other King of Indy's guys big moves, busting out Daniels' Last Rights and AJ Style's face first piledriver move... ah, who am I kidding, Nova invented all these moves anyway.  Red showed of what I think was a new move for him which was a run up the guy's back in the corner and kick them in the head spot.  The one rough spot it seemed was the finish where I think Red was supposed to push Scoot in the ropes and it sort of seemed that Scoot ran the ropes away, but Red hits the
kick and nails the Red Star Press.  Post match, Scoot dusts off the Force of Nature which gets a big pop from the crowd.

CHRIS DEVINE vs. QUIET STORM :
PP: Chris Devine beat Quiet Storm clean with a brainbuster after Storm missed a dive off the top. Solid match, but hard to get into due to one throwback behind us making fun of Storm's height non-stop. This would get worse later on. Afterwards Judas Young came out with his arm in a sling and started to say he couldn't work tonight, which led The Solution (Papa Don and Havok) to hit the ring and jump him. Judas still managed to hit the "ARMBAR!" on Don but soon got overwhelmed. Judas promised to bring back someone "from CBGB's" as his partner against the Solution next month at ICW's Anniversary show.

RD :  This was the first weird thing of the evening as Devine is part of the heel faction "The Dynasty", but is sort of the baby face in the match.  This was ok, but again, it seemed a little rough in spots, though they did do some neat stuff in it.  Storm continues his idolizing of Benoit by missing the big diving headbutt before being put away.  The Young interview and the run in was sort of there, but Judas did get to hit the ARMBAR! which was good.

"PRODIGY" TOM MARQUEZ vs. TIM ARSON vs. SABRE
PP: Tom Marquez beat Tim Arson and Sabre in a three-way dance. Most notable part of the match came afterwards, when Tony Devito of the Baldies came out to beat up Marquez only to wipe out on the floor before he even hit the
ring. I keep forgetting this match happened... Marquez has a habit of doing that to some people.

RD :  Tim Arson looks like David Flair and Shocker's juiced up love child. The guy who think was named Sabre sort of looked like Mike Awesome's brother like Don Swayze looks like Patrick Swayze.  Arson's manager got beat up and
there was a bunch of suplexes in this and I feared for Sabre's life before Marquez won this.

XAVIER vs. PRINCE NANA for ICW Northeastern Title :
PP: Xavier beat Prince Nana to retain the ICW Northeastern title. Nana works heel everywhere else, but in the Elk's Lodge he's the world's most inexplicably over babyface. For whatever reason they love him to death here no matter how hard he tries to heel himself to the crowd. It's funny because ISTR him calling his fans "stupid idiots" on his website, so it's sort of like the "Primus Sucks" deal. Anyhoo, this match was basically a reprise of their amazingly great match at the September free show... this wasn't quite as good, but it was solid. Finishing sequence has Xavier start to go for his  450 splash when Kristi Myst comes out to "distract" him... Nana takes over and is about to go for his double-arm suplex finisher when Kristi takes her top off and distracts Nana instead. This allows Xavier to toast Nana with a great-looking fireball and hit the 450 to retain the title.

RD:  I don't think that Nana had his usual blond patch in his hair during the match, but I think he had it in Delaware.  Pre-match, Nana insults the crowd which gets a pop and then suggests that Xavier maybe gay because he came out to cover up Kristi earlier in the match.  This was a perfectly fine match with some good wrestling.  Xavier got Nana up for his pumphandle face first slam move during this.  Xavier went for an amazing crazy move where he tried to do an asai moonsault while holding a chair.  It seemed really out of control, but fortunately, nobody got hurt. It should be noted that Kristi was wearing tape on her boobs.  While Nana was distracted, Abunai runs in through the crowd and passes off the materials for the fireball which puts Nana down for the count.

PP: After the intermission Jac Sabboth comes out and buries the last guy who promoted under the UCW name (and who subsequently barred Sabboth from using said name), then turns around and buries Simon Diamond. "Yeah, I stiffed
Simon on money... and I stiffed Dawn Marie too! And she LOVED it!"  This naturally leads Simon to hit the ring from the crowd and take out Sabboth's Dynasty stablemates one at a time. See, this is what happens when everyone
attacks Black Ninja style. All of this sets up Simon against Sabboth at the Anniversary show. If you have to hate Vince McMahon, hate him for starting the trend where every indy promotion has to have the "evil president / commissioner" gimmick.

RD :   Heel promotor comes out to work a babyface pop for the promotion. Then there's SHOOT! talk about 1wrestling.con not paying workers.  And Simon comes out and talks about not paying dues and other stuff.

GUANTLET MATCH : TREKKIE/CONVENIENCE STORE GUY vs. THE CHRISTOPHER ST. CONNECTION (Buff E. & Mace Mendoza) w/ FUN ATHELTIC GUY
PP: The Christopher Street Connection (w/F.A.G.) beat the Trekkie and the Convenience Store Guy in the first round of a Gauntlet Match with the winning team getting ICW hosequeen Xtacee as a manager. Just like at the JAPW show we went to, the CSC is so over the top with the gimmick that it's impossible to hate them. Trekkie is almost certainly the same guy as "El Gringo," also known on the Highspots board as "that guy who desecrated Blue Demon by wearing his mask and getting squashed on a RACIST UCW show". Long, stupid story. CSC wins the match when Mace Mendoza hits the Stonewall Jam off the top onto Trekkie while he tries to pin Buff E.

RD :  If we ever have to give equal time to Rob Feinstein on the site, I  will give him that his butterfly outfit he wears as Fun Athletic Guy is great.  This time he keeps his pants up too, which is a plus.  Trekkie and Ref Hansen must share the same barber.  This was sort of there.  As Trekkie and CSG weren't going to go over.  If they're going to keep the Trekkie
gimmick, they should go really over the top with it and have the guy go for the Vulcan Neck Pinch and Mind Meld.

CSC vs. DAMIAN DRAGON/STRYKER (w/ Miss Kara)
PP: Damian Dragon and Stryker (w/Miss Kara) beat CSC in the second round. Damian: "We came to this promotion for the three Gs: the green, the gold and the girls- NOT THAT GREEN!" as Stryker stands behind him making "toke"
motions. CSC wind up losing after they get whipped into each other only to stop and share a kiss, allowing Dragon and Stryker to pin them while they're pre-occupied with each other.

RD :  So far, we've had 3 teams in, 2 of which have declared they weren't interested in Xstacee.  Damian and Striker were pretty funny with some of their banter between each other.  CSC do a few more touchy feely type moves on Dragon and Striker (including Mace proclaiming that "He's not that big!" after cheap feel up.)  The CSC really went at it before they set up the finisher (which I'm pretty sure was the striker Overdrive move and a Dragon top rope splash.)

THE SOLUTION vs. DRAGON/STRYKER
PP: The Solution beat Dragon and Striker in the third and final round to win Xtacee's services... as a manager. The crowd got all over Havoc's... hirsuteness, leading to this great bit where Ref Hanson can't even look at Havoc's back without flinching. Face team miscommunication leads to aclean Solution win with their cool Buff Blockbuster-into-Liger Bomb combo, after which Jac Sabboth hits the ring and asks Striker if he wants to turn on Dragon. This is all a setup for Dragon turning on Striker and Kara while Sabboth distracts them, and Dragon joins the Dynasty. The guy on my left had
a digital camera with him, which he used to tape an MPEG of Xtacee throughout the entire gauntlet. On the one hand I guess it's better than illegally taping a match for illicit purposes... OTOH it's that other illicit purpose that creeps the bejeezus out of me.

RD :  The solution did have a few nice double team moves during the match, the afore mentioned Liger  Bomb/Blockbuster combo and a face eracer/stunner double team.  I'm pretty sure there was a dive in this match where it was someone who was probably too big to be trying a tope suicida and they hooked themselves on the ropes.  The Solution win Xstacee and it seems like they do a fake turn with Striker when it's Dragon who turns and joins Sabboth as Jac takes out Kara with a spear post match.

GHOST SHADOW vs. LOWRIDER vs. ABUNAI
PP: Lowrider beat Abunai and Ghost Shadow in ANOTHER three-way dance. Enough of the three-ways already. GS continues to impress with his wacked-out lucha stylings, at one point interlocking his opponents' knees together so he can work them both over at the same time. This three-way is conducted under elimination rules, the first occurring when GS slaps a Romero Special on Lowrider... which allows Abunai to slither underneath Lowrider and cover GS for the pin. GS loves lucha but he apparently fast-forwarded past those Rayo de Jalisco matches. Lowrider gets the flash pin on Abunai with a roll-up, but he gets no time to celebrate as the Boogie Knights immediately hit the ring and destroy him for some reason. This in turn leads to Lowrider's pals Homicide and Boogaloo Lou to hit the ring with a CHAINSAW for the next match.

RD:  From what I've seen of Ghost Shadow, he could be the next indy guy like Mike Quackenbush who's really well versed in the whacked out submissions. Shadow's got some good highspots, but his work on holds and locks are a lot
better.  Lowrider had a cool bike on the ramp for his entrance, I was convinced that he and JAPW's Deranged were the same guy, but apparently they're not.  I'm guessing they're brothers or something because they both look a lot alike and both wear similiar gear and face paint.  And Abunai is still tiny. The spot where Shadow tied up was funny because with their legs tangled, Shadow would try to submit one, when it wouldn't work he would try the other.  Plus I got to make a bad joke about Lowrider and Abunai looking like two dogs that were stuck together.

NATURAL BORN SINNERS (Homicide/Boogaloo Lu) vs. THE BOOGIE KNIGHTS (Danny Drake & Mike Tobin) :
PP: Natural Born Sinners (Homicide and Boogaloo Lou) beat the Boogie Knights (Danny Drake and Mike Tobin). The BKs continue to get beaten into our hearts as Homicide hits them with (I swear) the stiffest rubber chicken and celery
shots you'll ever see. Boogaloo does a neat spot where he launches himself onto the ropes knees-first and hits a springboard swanton onto Tobin. (Tobin deserved worse for wearing this dopey hat that made him look like a reject from "Newsies" while he and Drake were goofing off in the announcers' booth earlier in the show. Finish has Homicide knock Tobin to the floor with a Yakuza kick and then destroy Drake with a hideous RGSB for the pin. Hideous in that it looked like it killed Drake, not in that it was a botched move ... we in the Playaz would never speak ill of Mr.
Homicide's technique. This was really fun.

RD :  Boy, the Boogie Knights are the whipping boys of the promotion because just about every time we've seen them in the match, it consists of the them taking a hellacious beating.  I seriously was worried about whoever took Homicide's Cop Killer because it looked like that landing was all on the back of the neck and evil as fuck.

EDDY GUERRERO vs. LOW-KI for the ICW "World" Title :
PP: Low-Ki beat Eddy Guerrero to retain the ICW heavyweight title. The whole building went absolutely unglued the second "LATINO HEAT!" came over the PA. Eddy truly brought his A-game to Queens, busting out tons of matwork he probably hadn't used in public since before he came to WCW. Ki hung right with him, and you could tell that he respected the hell out of Eddy as this was the lightest I'd seen him work against anyone since he teamed with Santo
last April. At one point Ki goes for a sunset flip on Eddy, who simply pulls his foot away from Ki's grasp and cinches in a leglock. It's a bizarrely cool spot. Later Ki hits his three-kick combo (which he's thankfully sped up on so it isn't as absurd as it used to be), only for Eddy to grab Ki's foot on the third kick and slap on an STF; Ki stretches for the ropes but Eddy pulls his hand back at the last second so Ki has to use his other hand to get to the ropes for the break. This was an AWESOME sequence. Finish has Eddy go for the frog splash and miss it. Ki drops Eddy and goes up top for a
Phoenix Splash; Eddy moves out of the way but Ki rolls through and hits a rollup for the clean finish. I heard where someone complained that Ki refused to job to Eddy here, but IMO the finish was fine. Eddy comes in and puts over the promotion's "ace" in a tremendous match... nothing wrong with that in my book. What's important is that this
was the Eddy of old out there, and he was clearly jazzed to be performing in front of a crowd that respected him. <Rant mode> That said, the throwback behind us from the Storm-Devine match spent the entire match yelling drug/alcohol/DUI insults at Eddy. Folks, I'm a big believer in karma- I believe Australia lost the World Cup bid in their last game because they had felt the need to put 31 goals on the board against American Samoa in an previous qualifier. And I sincerely hope that jackass fucks up at his workplace and winds up in Eddy's predicament. </Rant mode>

RD :  This was really great.  As Pete mentioned, this wasn't the usual Ki murderlizing people beating we were used to seeing.  Eddy was bring out the wrestling holds, including the Gory Special and the Reverse Gory Special in the match.  This was a really really good match, but I was really annoyed by the jerks behind us chanting DUI at Eddy.  This are the same type of guys who'd probably mark out if the Sandman made the show.  Eddy looked good here and there is a great potential for some indy shows coming up as long as he stays healthy.

DA HIT SQUAD  (Monsta Mack & Mafia) vs. BALLS MAHONEY/KEN SWEENEY
PP: Da Hit Squad (Monsta Mack and Mafia) beat Balls Mahoney and "Hardcore" Ken Sweeney in a tables match. That's right... Ken Sweeney. Sandman was supposed to be Balls' partner, but he no-showed even as their match got stalled and stalled to the point where Eddy-Ki was bumped down to the semifinal. Finally Balls comes out, buries Sandman and demands that Sweeney team with him. We'd seen Sweeney milling around during the show, and we had no idea he was an actual wrestler... and after this match, we're still not convinced that he's an actual wrestler. Sweeney was gawd-awful to the point where he couldn't even BLADE properly, and what makes matters worse is that DHS still had to bump like pinballs for his offense (as in "offensive enough to make a preacher swear"). Balls tries to save the match by busting out the blade himself, but by now the crowd's totally turned on the match and Balls has to be restrained from going after someone in the crowd. DHS eliminate Balls first, but Sweeney hits a pair of awful stunners on DHS to start the Spirit of Seventy-Suck comeback. Homicide and Boogaloo come out and work over Balls, which allows DHS to set Sweeney up for a Burning Hammer off the top through a table. The problem is that Sweeney apparently has no idea how to take it, and is in the process of killing himself and taking Monsta with him before they call an audible and give him a sick powerbomb through the table for the match's mercy killing. Postmatch everyone buries Sweeney on the mic and Balls leaves him laying to set up a Balls-Sweeney match at the next USAPW show as well as Balls bringing a REAL partner to the Anniversary show for a rematch against DHS.

RD :  Boy, was this not good. I'm willing to give a someone the benefit of the doubt if they have to take something on short notice, but Sweeney's clotheslines and punches looked bad and that was like 90% of his offense. Not good, not good at all.

PP: This would've been a borderline "show of the year" candidate had it ended with Eddy and Ki embracing, but the tag match really took it down a peg. Nevertheless, with 14 matches there was a ton of good stuff and the Eddy-Ki match is a must-see. Jac really needs to cut down on the number of matches, but that tends to be the worst part of his shows... you can't really blame him for Sander's no-show. We hit my place and dub some tapes for Dean before we attempt to get some sleep in advance of the Saturday train ride.

RD :   This was about a 3 1/2 hour show.  There were a bunch of good matches that got plenty of time which is always a plus, but as Pete mentioned, it's like a cast of 1000's at the shows.  Given how long the night was, I kind of question doing that guantlet match and having some guys do two matches on the show, but if you are going to an ICW show, you can expect a lot of matches, so pack a lunch.