RD: The adventure begins on Friday as old Los Lurkers Locos partner Steve Pillmeier heads up from DC to join us for the show on Saturday. So Pete and I meet at Penn Station and wait for Steve to show up. We split up and both watch the escalators up from the train... no dice. I do an individual sweep while Pete keeps watch... no dice. We have him paged. No dice. We try his phone... no ring, no voice mail set up. So after Pete suggested checking Port Authority in case I screwed up and thought he was coming in by train when he was coming in by bus, I check there. Still no dice. I head home... no messages aside from the ones of me failing to figure out how to remotely access my voicemail. Eventually I get a call from Steve only to find out that he was at the train station the whole time. I imagine it was a scene much like the cartoons where two people are walking back to back unaware the other is there, even missing each other when they turn around to check behind themselves. Somehow, this is all Tom Long's fault. Steve hangs out at my house Friday Night and we watch old NWA interviews from the 80's. Flair and Garvin manage to stiff each other in the "Ronnie is Precious" angle at the hotel. Sean Royal has the greatest sun glasses ever for one interview and a secretly wish I was from their 2002 instead of ours. On Saturday we brave the downpour we head into Hoboken for the giant slice of Benny Tudino's pizza before Steve and I take a walk down memory lane and go over what stores have changed in the past ten years on Washington Street in Hoboken.

PP: I could totally see Ray as chubby Elmer Fudd although young Steve is a bit of a reach as the grizzly bear. I think the Dallas police handled the Oswald prison transfer better than this as somehow we contrive to miss each other even to the point where neither party hears the other's tannoy announcements. This was a total team effort as I didn't hear Steve's pages, Steve didn't have his cel phone voicemail configured and Ray resigned himself to traveling (wee wee wee) all the way home to check his voicemail. Note to Ray: GET A CEL PHONE. Steve eventually turned up fine so it's no harm, no foul. The world's largest slice of pizza at Benny's was entirely servicable and we wind our way to Bayonne while gawking at how high the water level is on the Hudson River. Between the gigantic blizzard and all the ensuing rain, we haven't had this much precipitation in years.

RD: We roll into Bayonne and make it to the hall grabbing our usual last row seats. We get to inform Buck Woodward that he's lost a travel companion now that Hangman Tim is engaged. Prior to the show, they announce that they have had some changes to their schedule, but the big news is the next Woodbridge show is going to have Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler, which has everyone jazzed. Pre-show they do a 10 bell salute for Curt Hennig.

PP: Sadly, no pre-show gab session with Buck this time as he's doing color with Mark Clemson for the TV show. Frank announces Funk/Lawler for Woodbridge and I immediately call Tom K with the news. Tom: "YOU'RE JOKING~!" He's coming up for the show. Frank also announces an all-women show for April which might be fun, although announcing Tracii Taylor as the first name is NOT an incentive for getting us to show up. There's probably 200-250 people at bell time; I think the bad weather actually helped the attendance here as most of the locals probably decided to stay close to home and not brave the elements. Really, when you get right down to it the fact of the matter is that at $10, you're paying as much for a JAPW show as you are for a movie ticket in the NYC area.

MATCH #1: TONY LAZARO w/Deranged & Dixie vs. RIC BLADE:
RD: Pre-match, H Effect come out and do some heel mic work. Deranged informs us that there will be no show today, so get out. When nobody leaves, the threatens us with some singing. He starts singing something awful before Blade's music hits and he comes out. Blade is now a face again despite the fact he was a heel the last time he was in. Not that it really matters, because I can't really get any feeling on Blade as he just doesn't seem to have any connection with the crowd at all. Fortunately, Deranged and Dixie do an admirable job of working the crowd as the fans continue to get on them with "homo" chants. This is ok. Lazaro doesn't have his faced caved in and he also resets his "Tony kills himself on the railing" streak again, but there's nothing wrong with that. Blade hits a decent slingshot 450 splash that 2 Cold Scorpio used to do (the original version of the Diss that Don't Miss). He hits a nasty backbreaker out of a powerbomb where he drops Lazaro so Lazaro lands back first on Blade's knee. At this point, Dixie distracts the ref and Deranged whallops Blade with a chair. Lazaro hits the stretch powerbomb for the pin fall. Post match, H Effect beat on Blade some more, I forget if he runs off Dixie and Deranged or if Insane Dragon does the run in for that, but Blade ends up hitting some sort of move where the threads Lazaro's arms through his legs and flips him over so he lands on his back or back of his neck.

PP: The heels get announced as "H Factor," which leads Deranged to bust on the ring announcer and go into the STICKWORK! They pontificate for awhile until Blade's music (Korn's "Blind") hit and H-Effect panic and start running around like headless chickens. Match proper is OK as Blade manages not to injure himself or Lazaro... then again there's no way he can do his idiotic 20-foot dives in the Hall so this really might be the greatest wrestling building ever. Lazaro wins with the STREEEEEEETCH BOMBU after Deranged waffles Blade with the chair behind the ref's back. Blade makes his own comeback afterwards and H-Effect scatter again.

MATCH 2: MAFIA w/Low Ki vs. HOMICIDE for the JAPW Heavyweight Title:
RD: This is the main event and is on early because the Hit Squad is working for Kettner later that night. Ki is in Mafia's corner which makes the 2nd or 3rd JAPW show he's been at but hasn't worked. Monsta Mack is handheld recording this on the interview platform with Fat Frank. This was probably the best match of the night and probably went about 20 minutes. Mafia teased going for the burning hammer early but Homicide fights out of it. Homicide hits the shining wizard pretty early, but it's not enough to put down. They also did some stuff where they'd go for knuckle locks but Homicide would find a way to slap Mafia in the face and one time where he had Mafia down in an arm scissors and was slapping him in the head with his foot. I think Homicide did some work on Mafia's back to weaken him so he couldn't pick him up, including some stiff kicks the back. There was a nice Homicide straight tope in this. At one point, Mafia went for a powerbomb, but it looked like he was losing Homicide and was leaning up against the ropes. If Mafia was taller, it may have been as scary as the Undertaker leaning waaaaaaay back over the top rope when trying to powerbomb Test from that one Raw. They had a slap fight at one point with both guys slapping the crap out of each other. Mafia fights for a drops Homicide out of the Burning Hammer a few times before he eventually hits it for a two count. They did a spot where Homicide seemed to be going for a top rope frankensteiner, but ended up bumping his head on a light bulb which fortunately didn't break. Homicide tries to get the win with a brainbuster, but Mafia ends up rolling him up in a small package and gets the win and the title. Homicide pleads his case with everyone from the ref, to Ki, to fans at ringside claiming it was 2 with everyone telling him it was three. Even with Monsta Mack offering to show him the replay from the handheld that it was 3 which Homicide said he wanted to see a replay of. They sort of tease Homicide playing the bad sport and not wanting to turn over the belt, which eventually relents and does. It was funny as some kid was giving him a hard time and Homicide told him "I'll see you in the locker room later!" They sort of break off with Slyk doing a run in and jumping Homicide with Ki and the Hit Squad making the save, but it didn't seem to be real well timed. Like they were on the apron, half in the ring when Slyk did the jump... why didn't they just stop him from hitting a move? But they run of Slyk and do a 4 man group shake of hands.

PP: Neat to see Ki back even if he isn't working, although it does make one pine for a "Four Horsemen of the Indies/Boricua Four Horsemen" eight-man tag. Hopefully they can pull it off in Z1. This match lives up to its promise as Homicide really takes it to Mafia on the floor with some whopper chairshots (Mafia "getting his scars" like Ki and Monsta foreshadowed at the previous show). Also plenty of cool matwork early on. There's one shaky moment with the aforementioned powerbomb spot; Homicide is facing our direction when Mafia goes for it and you can clearly seeing his life flashing before his eyes before Mafia gets control back and powerbombs him in-ring. The Frankenstein spot with Homicide bumping his head on the lights actually seemed like it was planned that way as Homicide was clearly sizing up the lights when he went for the move. You would also expect him of all people to know what he can and can't get away with in the Hall, and it wouldn't be like he hasn't taken stiffer shots from other folks than that. Postmatch stuff is funny with the get-together in-ring (Homicide to Monsta: "Play it back!") and the crowd doing a big "Speech! Speech!" chant for Mafia, who puts over Homicide and the rest of the Doghouse boys before Slyk comes out and jumps Homicide. This sets up Mafia/Slyk for the title on 3/29. Monsta definitely looks like the odd man out now, although they haven't overtly teased anything yet. There was a funny bit where Mafia forgot to put over Monsta in his post-match speech and Monsta did the Bionic Pout (.7 Tatum).

MATCH 3: THE SHAOLIN WRECKING CREW (Magic & Suba) vs. THE DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELZ w/Becky Bayless for the JAPW TAG TEAM TITLES
RD: Becky comes out first and distracts Suba and Magic to allow the DRS to run in and attack from behind. DRS bumped around a lot. This was probably the 5th or 6th time I've seen this match up. It was OK though, though there wasn't really ground breaking in this version of this match, though they did the spot where one of the DRS gets back dropped into the other one twice. DRS did a good job of working the crowd as usual. Suba and Magic stack up the DRS and give them the Vader Bomb. Instead of going for the pin, Becky gets on the apron and distracts the SWC. This allows the DRS to crawl out and they decide to bail on the match. They get counted out so the SWC win. While Becky begs off from Suba, Magic ends up charging her from behind and they do the sandwich avalanch on her. Magic forces Suba to do the Vader Bomb Becky as he doesn't seem to be too willing to do it. It seems he has discovered he likes two things in life.... boobies and shoes. Post match, the DRS sneak back out to check on Becky when the announcer says that because they were counted out that the DRS are still the champs. The DRS then immediately forget about Becky and start celebrating that they're the champs. It was pretty funny. Blade carries her off the to back while Negro gets both belts and proclaims "You can have her" and he hugs both belts.

PP: With DRS as the holders and the Strong Brothers challenging on the 29th, I am officially calling them the JAPW Southern Tag titles for the time being. DRS got off some more funny lines on the SWC during an interview earlier in the show as Negro called them "two walking heart attacks" and "the Cholesterol Brothers." SWC get most of the match until Becky distracts them long enough for the DRS to take a powder and get counted out. Becky takes a Suba Vader Bomb and Magic hauls him out while DRS sneak back into ringside via the sound booth, celebrate with the belts and grab Becky. Between this and USAPW Becky's been getting tossed around like the suitcases in the old Samsonite commercials.

MATCH 4: AZRAEL vs. NICK BERK
RD: Before the match, Berk announces there's good news, bad news and good news. "Good news is that Hamrick isn't here. The bad news he's still wrestling. The other good news is that is wrestling tonight." I dunno, I might switch the first good news and bad news around as I was kind of hoping to see Hamrick. Anyway, H Effect do another appearance and Deranged offers "Gargamel" a spot in H Effect. They say they've seen his stuff and they think he would fit in. They know he doesn't get laid much and Deranged promises they'll get him laid. I think this was the point fans were continuing the homo chants and I think Deranged yells that "I am not sexual attracted to my partners!" Anyway, Azrael gets the mic and says he doesn't want to be seen with a bunch of homos like them, leading to H Effect storming off... temporarily. The match didn't really go all that long as eventually H Effect runs back in and jumps both guys. Ric Blade runs out, wearing his glasses no less, to make the save and run off H Effect. He calls H Effect a few uncreative versions of gay and they set up a challenge for H Effect between Berk, Blade and Azrael. I would have liked this to have gone longer, especially since they had just done a screwjob finish just before this match.

PP: I'm guessing that Hamrick got screwed up in transit by the weather and put the word out as Nick was the one who buried him instead of Frank. Hamrick's no-show was disappointing but Azrael is really good so we were looking forward to Plan B here... that said, the NC finish REALLY sucked a dick here especially in two straight matches. Match itself was fine while it lasted, although it should've gone to a finish before the Effect ran back in. Blade makes the save and does all the redneck homophobic micwork a guy couldn't ask for to set up himself and Berk vs. Dixie/Deranged on 3/29.

MATCH 5: APRIL HUNTER vs. NIKKI ROXX
RD: Having seen April work on more than one occasion, I was prepared for a whole lot of suckatude. This was surprisingly not terrible. Nikki looked pretty and was willing to bump around and stuff. I get the feeling they've probably worked each other before as this was smoother than I've seen April work and some of her strikes weren't as laughably bad as they've been in the past. I think I figured out that April's weird roll up stretch she does is actually La Ayakita that Ayako Hamada does. April does the win with a somersault into a swinging neckbreaker that Shannon Moore uses from time to time.

PP: I'm not as down on April as Ray is as she's flashed some potential here and there, although Nikki was the X-factor going in as we'd never seen her before. She looked good (and also looked good) and the was fine, although she should probably upgrade her wardrobe. Really, the outfit she had on made her look like one of the 50 underaged rats that go to all of the Bayonne shows had suddenly hopped the rails to challenge April. Anyway, this was fine and Nikki should be back for the JAPWW show.

MATCH 6 : Double Jeopardy: JAY LETHAL/AERIAL ASSASSIN RAIN w/Insane Dragon vs. DIXIE/DERANGED w/Tony Lazaro
RD: The gimmick set up for this match on a previous show was that if Jay or Rain got pinned, they would lose their respective titles (Jay's TV and Rain's Light Heavyweight titles) to whoever pinned them. H Effect comes out and does more mic work, informing us once again, the show is cancelled and started to do a singalong again. This time, they took requests which I suggested "Free Bird" and got denied. Deranged I think starts with "It's Raining Men" and quickly changes the toon to something else. As he's singing, Dragon runs out and punches out Lazaro. As he does this, Lethal and Rain come in the ring and tap Deranged and Dixie on the shoulders as he ignores them, thing it's the announcer and tells them to go away until they see the announcer on the floor and get clubbed. This was fun. Dixie and Deranged are really great heels. There was really fun stuff in this like Dixie doing the rolling claw hold. The finish had Lazaro trying to interfere and Dragon coming in and tying him up into a pendulum hold as Lethal slapped I think Dixie into the Nakano Scorpion hold as Rain ends up hitting I think Deranged with the handspring 450. Fun match, had good heat through out.

PP: By this point it was the H Effect Show as they were out for their fourth segment... not that this was a bad thing as they were a riot all night long. Dixie is hysterical turning down Ray ("FREEBIRD?") for the second show in a row before they eventually swing into something from the BSB or N*suck catalog leading into the Mid-Card Express bum-rush to start the match. This match is fun as hell and the crowd heat is off the charts as all of the kids are getting into the "HOMOS" chant at Dixie, Deranged and Lazaro, who rudo it up like champs. At one point Dixie looks like he's going to bust out the Roaring Elbow only to debut the Roaring Iron Claw on Rain. #1 and the best.

MATCH 7 : SLYK WAGNER BROWN w/ April Hunter vs. JONAH from Tough Enough 3
RD: Jonah got a pretty decent reaction coming out. This was pretty passible. Given the matches I have seen with Dan and Pete from Tough Enough 2, I was really expecting the worst. I think that Jonah did the smart thing and didn't try to throw really bad punches. He did have one very ugly looking neckbreaker though. Slyk did a pretty OK job of carrying this along. Jonah gets distracted by April and Slyk puts him away with the Rock Bottom out of a body slam positon (which I think is the Kanda Bottom) for the win.

PP: We were fearing the worst after having been tortured with TE Dan and TE Pete on previous shows, but Jonah actually showed some potential here and was entirely watchable. Slyk did a solid job carrying him and they kept the match short enough that Jonah didn't really get exposed on anything. Obviously it wasn't the greatest way to end the show, but then it wasn't like this was the draw in the first place.

RD: Overall, this was a pretty good show. There was some things that were mixed up though. I was disappointed that Hamrick wasn't there. JAPW's web site said that it was Dixie who was hurt, not Dragon, but then again, if my name showed up opposite Ric Blade, I'd probably get injured too. A fun show though, things roll along quick. DRS, Dixie and Deranged are turning out to be really fun heels. Post show we head back to Hoboken and get the giant 24 oz steak from Arthurs. Ahhhhh... a good cut of beef for $16.

PP: Soooooo... much... beef. This was a much better show than last month and the bigger crowd helped matters considerably. I'm looking forward to the next two shows ("Southern Invasion" on 3/29 with the IPW Hardcore boys coming up and 4/12 with Funk/Lawler) as it seems like they're taking more of an old-school bent with the booking. We hit Hoboken for the giant slab of beef they call steaks at Arthur's and head into NYC where we poke around the World and the new Toys R Us. I believe Ray and I will both be picking up the giant foam Hulk hands before too long.