RD: I'm going to be up front with you all, this report is probably not going to be one of our better ones given what's gone down this past week. But here's an attempted road report anyway. Things didn't start out so good as Thursday night/Friday morning, my system started acting up and my computer came down with some sort of virus, so I ended up spending a lot of weekend trying to salvage old information and emails, and since I have never really clean up my mail box, I had threads and threads of old 500 stuff. Like Schneider not knowing what Maximo was which and arguing which one was better. This show was originally supposed to be in Woodbridge, but due to the overwhelming response, it was supposedly moved to Rahway. I originally thought this was a kayfabe of a problem with the building, but when the show started, it clearly wasn't the case. The move was actually a good thing because being in Rahway, I can take the train there and I'd rather spend $9 for a round trip train ticket than $30 for the bus, especially with the whole gamble of Teddy Hart being a head case, working an injury or something similar. This was my first show since my streak of seeing one live wrestling event per month had been broken in January which had gone back for about 2 years. I end up catching up with Buck Woodward who was nice enough to score me a "WHO HAS CALLED ME HAGE" Genki Horiguchi shirt from one of his pals in Japan. The fact that it's a large means I have to lose like 50 pounds to fit into, but by no means makes it any less cool and now gives me a goal. Buck was sort of distracted as he wanted to get in the back to find out "If Teddy has knocked anyone out yet." Since he was nice enough to get me the shirt, I'll give the 1bobwolfpack.com crew a plug and go to see pwinsiders.com to see his article, but use a pop up blocker. I end up setting up shop in the bleachers and watched as a stream of people came into the building. They supposedly did 600+ for the crowd and given how full the bleachers were, I don't have a problem believing that number. I was really surprised the turn out was so huge and am trying to figure out what exactly the biggest draw for the card was, granted nothing was running in Philly, so maybe that helped.

PP: I spent the day on an MTA-sanctioned subway fan trip where they busted out some of the mega old-school 1940s subway trains with all proceeds going to the March of Dimes. This was worth it just for peoples' reactions as they're waiting for their subway when all of a sudden these bad boys come thundering out of the tunnel. At one point we're coming into a station and I see one guy with his back turned to us. I roll the window all the way down (you could do that on these things) and yell "BEHIND YOU!" He turns around, sees the train and I swear the dude almost fell off the platform reacting to it. There's a rumor going around that since it's the MTA's centennial these might get slotted back into revenue service now and then, which would be a hoot and a half. After hitting Bay Shore, Coney Island, Brighton Beach and then going alllllllll the way up to the Bronx terminus for the D line we head back downtown and I hit 34th Street... where we realize that the platform they dropped us off on is closed to the public.  Hilarity most assuredly does NOT ensue as we have to scramble for someone to let us out and my cel phone temporarily gets hosed after it goes flying out of its case. We finally get downstairs and I hit the NJT for Rahway. I get there about 40 minutes before showtime and am AMAZED at just how big this crowd already is. Jerry Lynn and Balls Mahoney are in a spirited Battle of Awe-Inspiring T-Shirts as Balls is wearing the Ken Shamrock Lions' Den shirt while Lynn is sporting a flaming skull FEC number. Speaking of great shirts, Ray shows me the HAGE shirt and we freak out and party 

PP: Yeah, Buck and the 1bobwolfpack.com boys sooooooooooo get a lifetime of free plugs for that.  We wind up sitting in the bleachers with Buck, MKJ and Sabre Mike. Sabre gets his dig at me on City getting turfed by Newton Heath in the FA Cup and I wonder if the world would suffer for the painful death of a Scum fan. Belltime sees an ungodly amount of people in the house... as anyone who's seen the Modtrom footage knows, this will look awesome on tape. If not 675 people as claimed, then at the very least it's a fudgable number based on how full the bleachers look. My guess is that they just did a stupendous job promoting it locally as while a solid show on paper, nothing on the announced card really stood out as a "must-see" draw to the non-Internet folks.

MATCH 1: RODERICK STRONG vs. SONJAY DUTT
RD: I didn't recognize Strong when he initial came out, then again, I had totally forgotten he was booked on the show. This was a pretty good opener. The crowd was pretty into it as Dutt's got a good following from his CZW work and the fans were into him. Strong hit a lot of his neato back breaker based offense. While there were some minor off spots in this, it was still very solid. They did some whips into the railing early on, though the rails couldn't really take it and came apart pretty easy. Dutt did a big dive off the post into the crowd onto Strong. Strong rallied back later on and hit some big stuff including a weird version similar to a turn over into a canadian backbreaker drop like the colt 45. Dutt eventually hit the dragon rana (somersault into a frankensteiner) for the pin. 

PP: Really strong opener (no pun intended) as both guys looked sharp here and gelled quite nicely. Strong in particular was an excellent catcher for Dutt's offense what with his 1,001 backbreaker mutations. Dutt with arguably the spot of the night as he tossed Strong into the crowd, went up top and hit a gargantuan flip dive onto Strong two zipcodes away. Dutt goes over with the Dragon Rana and both guys get an ovation on the way out.

RD : Up next, La Familia came out to do some mic work. Maff put over how much he and Monsta Mack had accomplished as a team, mentioning all their title wins in JAPW and mentioning that they held, I think it was 6 tag titles at the same time. He told the DRS that he had to face his past and he wanted to do it alone. He also announced that the match would be a no DQ match. The DRS got on the mic and demanded that they get a title shot against Slyk Wagner Brown and April Hunter right then and there.

MATCH 2 : THE DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELZ (EC Negro & KC Blade) vs. APRIL HUNTER/SLYK WAGNER BROWN for the JAPW Tag Team Titles
RD : Oofa, was this not a really good outing. I'm not sure what was up with Blade, whether he was in new gear that was sized right or old gear that he had outgrown, because he kept falling out of his pants. Fortunately, he had gear on under it. Slyk is one of the wrestlers who runs hot and cold and tonight was one of those cold nights. Initially, the DRS had Slyk as the face in peril before he made a hot tag to April. The finish was Slyk getting Negro into a stretch muffler with a head scissors that I think Ultimo Guerrero uses to get the tap out. Post match, Slyk and April head to the back and Kaos, who has Johnny D with him I think hits on April, which results in Slyk punching him and leading to a brief fight between the two.

PP: Buck said something here about how Slyk looks really good in 3 out of every 4 matches and this happened to be the fourth match, which I agree with as he was blowing stuff left and right here. FWIW I think Blade's problems with his gear could actually be a neat heel spot, not that it was intentional here. Slyk gets the win by tapping Negro to the Octagon Special variation, which was basically the one thing of note he pulled off correctly in the match.

MATCH 3: CORVIS FEAR/RUSH MARGIERA vs. THE OUTKAST KILLAZ (Oman Tortuga & Diablo Santiago)
RD : Fear and Rush come out as shiny happy baby faces for this match which was... odd. This was pretty fun, The Outkast Killaz looked a lot better than they did when I saw them work in LXW. This is a bit fuzzy due to time, but I remember liking this a lot. Rush has looked pretty solid in the 3 or 4 times I've seen him. I don't really remember anything been blown hideously. I did remember seeing the Solution waiting in the wings on this, but once again, they let the guys finish the match and then did the angle, which is good. The finish was the Killaz setting up what looked like a russian leg sweep/yakuza kick combo, with I think Rush pushing down the Killa going for the kick and knocking him out of the ring. I'm pretty sure Fear set up Tortuga for a tombstone, with Rush bear hugging him too so it was like a sandwich piledriver/tombstone move to score the win. Post match, Papadon & Havok run in and jump Rush and Fear and obliterate them, hitting a bunch of their big double teams, including hitting the Problem Solver before dumping both Rush and Fear at ringside. They did mic work complaining about not getting a match, though this time they did it without Fat Frank as their manager and as the Solution, their regular gimmick and not the New Express. During this, Balls Mahoney, resplended in his Lion's Den shirt, came out, who's getting to the point he might be able to challenge for the light heavyweight title soon. Balls got on the mic and said he remembered a few years ago meeting ago and giving them some pointers and he didn't like the fact that they were beating up on kids who were trying to pay their dues. He challenged them to a match.

PP: FWIW I like Fear better in this role as he's a natural babyface and I never bought him as a heel. He and Rush have another solid tag match against the OCK, if not quite as good as the match they had with the twins at the previous show. Sandwich tombstone is a nasty little move in concept but they protected Tortuga on it and it came out fine. Postmatch the Solution come out and burn through a bunch of their hot moves to take out the spinach-chins until Ray Sager comes out and sends Balls to the ring. All I can think of is when they were working together against Homicide and DHS. "I TALK FIRST, ROOKIES!"

MATCH 4: THE SOLUTION (Papadon & Havok) vs. BALLS MAHONEY/CHAIR
RD: I was kind of hoping his partner would be MIKAMI's ladder, but I'm sure airfare was an issue, maybe if they keep drawing 600 a show. Balls did a bunch of straight wrestling early on taking down the Solution. Eventually, they start double teaming him, I think Balls got the chair at one point and doled out a few shots, but the Solution outnumbered him. The finish was them setting up a table in ring and setting Balls up top. While this was going on, Rush and Fear, who unknown to us had been down at ringside the whole time selling, crawled up to the apron and caused Papadon to crotch himself on the top rope, I think Havok got knocked out of the ring and Balls used the opening to do the Nut Cracker Suite from the second through the table.

PP: I could've sworn Balls mentioned trying to get Axl Rotten as a partner for this during his micwork only for Axl not being able to make it. Someone feel free to correct me on this. OK match as Balls got to spare his forehead for a change and was doing some neato matwork here. He's still wearing the Shamrock shirt leading our group to figure out when Balls jumps to MMA. BALLS VS CROCOP! MAKE IT HAPPEN! Finish here is cool as Rush and Corvis pop up from out of nowhere and crotch Papadon on the ropes... we thought they'd been taken to the back but it turned out they were on the floor selling the whole time. Nutcracker through the table looked really great as the table just exploded into a million pieces for the spot.

MATCH 5 : INSANE DRAGON vs. JAY LETHAL vs. JACK EVANS vs. AZRAEL for the JAPW Light Heavyweight Title
RD: This was changed match as Derek Wylde was supposed to be at the show but had some sort of problems at the border. Evans provided us with plenty of "You Got Served" and "Breakin' 2 : Electric Boogaloo" joke opportunities. I noticed once he lost the bandana, he's sort of get a reverse Donald Trump hair thing going on, instead of it being all in the back and combed forward, Jack's got it up front and combed back. Jay Lethal looked great as he has for a long time. Evans' stuff looked pretty spotty, but with the 4 way, he sort of got to hide and hit some big spots, spending a lot of time selling his leg, though he was limping around later in the show, so I don't know if he did bang up his knee or not. There was the usual 4 way with big moves being hit and someone else running in to make the save, which made sense since this was a 1 fall match up. The finish was Jay Lethal hitting a spinning underhook brainbuster move on Azrael to win the Light Heavyweight Title. Post match, Azrael congratulates Jay on winning the title, but ends up laying him out and I guess fully turning heel. I got no beef with them putting the title on Jay as he's good and I think I would dig a series of single matches between he and Azrael.

MATCH 6 : JUSTICE PAIN vs. "THE ROCK SUPERSTAR" KAOS w/ Johnny D
RD: Man, did the fans shit on this match. This is really my first time seeing either guy. Pete actually watched some XPW a while back when Kaos was I think Kid Kaos and he thought he had potential. We were putting together a list of things that were pieced together frankenstein style to make Kaos' look. The less said about this, probably the best. Kaos won with a piledriver out of a powerbomb set up.

PP: Yeah, I fully cop to digging Kaos on the "Go Funk Yourself" tape... then again that could've been the night of his life for all I know. Here he comes out with Shocker's hair, Mace Mendoza's wardrobe, the Maximos' theme music and Slyk Wagner Brown's lifts... with basically none of the talent. I think Sabre Mike describes Kaos as "K-Mart Shocker" which naturally into my "Attention K-Mart Shockers!" line. No one in the crowd cared about either and the bus trip kids were shitting over both Pain and Kaos even before Kaos went into his stalltastic routine. Y'all can fast-forward right over this to the next match when the tape comes out.

MATCH 7: TEDDY HART vs. HOMICIDE
RD: Teddy came out with perhaps the greatest pants ever. It was like he skinned an Ming vase or stole the wallpaper from a really nice Chinese restaurant. He had a matching jacket, but he lost it before he got to the end of the aisle. The ROH fans were riding him about the CM Punk incident on Wednesday. For a guy with a knee injury, he did like 4 moonsaults landing on his feet. This was pretty much an ass beating, I think I'm being generous if I said it 80% Homicide and 20% Teddy, but this was pretty enjoyable because I've seen enough Skinhead Ivan v. Tough Enough Pete matches to enjoy a one sided ass beating and this is what the crowd wanted to see. If it's a shoot or a work, Teddy has gotten people to mark out for seeing him get his ass kicked and he took an ass kicking in this. He did bust out a big moonsault to the floor which was really the turning point of the match as after doing the move, he started favoring his knee and Homicide went after it. They did a few spots with Teddy slapping Homicide and paying for it. They ended up brawling up into the stands by us and Homicide gave Teddy a piledriver on the bleachers. Unfortunately, I had a feeling what was coming next and unfortunately it came true as Homicide threw Teddy down the bleachers, the only problem was there were a lot of people in the bleachers and very close to the action and with the bleachers having railings in the middle, he had to be thrown to the side. I was worried because there was a kid who was on crutches sitting in front of me. Fortunately he got missed, but some lady in a few rows down wasn't so lucky and got landed on. She seemed dazed and was helped to the back, though walking under her own power. Let's review, brawling into bleachers, bad. The finish was Teddy knocking Homicide down and going for his twisting 450 which he missed. Homicide recovered and floored him with a lariat for the win. Post match, Homicide decides he's going to give Teddy the Cop Killa, but Jack Evans who had come to ringside springboard drop kicks Homicide in the back to save Teddy, but ends up eating the move himself. Homicide gets on the mic and lets Teddy know that the ass kicking was for his friend CM Punk. Teddy said Homicide was tough, but only beat him because he was at 50 percent and said he'd face him again. Homicide was upset about Evans saving Teddy and told him if he wanted to bring his crew, he'd be sorry if Homicide brought his crew. They set up a rematch for April, which I'm going to miss because I'll be in Vegas for a friend's wedding. The great part of this was Teddy calling us all mark assholes and then finishing with "God bless you!" I was really expecting Teddy to go over with a screw job win given how much of a beating he was taking, but the match had fantastic heat otherwise.

PP: Good lord. Not much of a match but as a spectacle this is one of the most amazing things I've seen live. Teddy comes out first in the greatest pants ever. Fuck those trunks he was selling on ebay... these pants were the real deal and the consensus in our group is that we would all pay that starting bid of $1000 for them. Homicide hits the ring next and we get a huge "KILL!" chant going. First part of the match has Teddy in control, punking out Homicide a bunch of times off rope breaks while Homicide makes with the "I want you to think you're winning" faces. Eventually he sends Homicide outside and hits a huge moonsault to the floor, but he "re-injures his knee" and Homicide starts going to town on him using one of the guardrails and someone's crutch, then slapping a sharpshooter on him using the ringpost. While this is happening, Fat Frank sidles up to Buck and intones something to the effect that this isn't in the script and Homicide's shooting. Sure Frank, whatever you say.  Before long they're wading up to us in the bleachers and Homicide drills for oil with Teddy's head via piledriver onto the steps. I missed this at the time since I'd turned away wincing from the piledriver (that's me on the Modtron clip in the hockey jersey), but Louie Ramos hands Homicide a can of beer which he chugs away in one of the funniest things I've seen. Homicide then tosses Teddy down the bleachers without any warning and wipes out about 5 people in the process, which was the probably the most monumentally stupid thing he could've done. If you're going to do something like that, yell out for people to move, count to 5 and THEN do it. They get back inside where Teddy somehow takes over on offense, drops Homicide and struggles up top where he goes for one of his twisting flippy-dos. He misses it and Homicide absolutely CRUSHES Teddy with a lariat for the pin. Postmatch they set up a rematch for April with Teddy promising to bring his "crew." Later I postulate to Ray that they're all going to look like Terence and Philip from South Park... BECAUSE THEY'RE CANADIAN! Again, as a match it wasn't any great shakes but as a one-sided bear mauling it's off the charts. I'm guessing Modtron sells a million copies of this tape based off the clips they put on the board.

MATCH 8 : JERRY LYNN vs. "THE FALLEN ANGEL" CHRISTOPHER DANIELS
RD: Man, it was tough to follow that previous match, but otherwise, this was a very solid match. Daniels plays to the crowd well, trying to get the crowd to root for Lynn and trying to shut down the people chanting for him. I was kind of distracted during this, but from what I remember, it was good. Daniels worked over Lynn's ribs. They did some near fall stuff with Lynn hitting the TKO at one point and Daniels kicking out. Lynn escaped the Last Rites at one point. The finish had Lynn setting for the cradle piledriver, but not being able to lift Daniels. Daniels rammed him into the buckles and put him away with the Angel's Wings for the clean win. Good match.

PP: As this match is getting to the ring I head outside to get some air. Kevin Matthews announces that the Teddy/Homicide rematch has been signed for the April show, and I lose it then and there as Matthews mentions Teddy's "Canadian crew." Frank sees me laughing and cracks up himself. Ray is putting it mildly as from a crowd heat standpoint, there was no way in hell Lynn and Daniels could possibly follow the visceral experience that was Homicide going through Teddy like a chainsaw... wisely, they don't try it and work a solid technical match. Daniels is a riot as he tosses Lynn to the floor at one point, heads out and yells for a chair. Someone in the crowd hands him one; he sets it up and gives it to one of the cameramen to sit on. Priceless. Daniels goes over with the Wings after Lynn couldn't lift him for the piledriver due to selling a nutshot Daniels had given him a couple of minutes earlier. This match should come across a lot better on tape.

MATCH 9: MONSTA MACK vs. DAN MAFF for the JAPW Heavyweight Title
RD: The crowd was starting to get a little burnt at this point as they were past the 3 hour match. I didn't mind this getting time as due to the late start, I would have had to wait 40 minutes for the train anyway, the longer the match went the less time I had to spend standing on the platform. Monsta Mack had new gear and it was sort of odd not seeing him in the cammo he usually wears. This was OK, but kind of flat, it didn't have the crowd heat it would have had if they had done it like 8 months earlier in Bayonne. Maff hit the big tope early on, later in the match, he would go for it again, but Monsta would nail him in the head with a garbage can. Monsta Mack was put in a corner under a table and Maff did the rolling senton into the corner onto the table, though the tables seemed shorter and didn't break so easy so he had to do it twice to break the table. Monsta was setting up for the Van Terminator at one point, Maff recovered and hit him with the chair. He went for the Burning Hammer, but Monsta escaped, but eventual got caught in a half nelson suplex and pinned for Maff to retain the title. After the match, the DRS hit the ring and got on the mic. They were mad at Maff because La Familia was supposed to be about all three of them and they were upset they he was all lovey dovey with his ex-partner. They said if his father was still alive, he'd slap him in the face. Maff was going to get in the ring when the Hit Squad music hit and Monsta came back out with the Hit Squad shirts. They put them on and got in the ring and started beating up the DRS. They set up for the Figure Four/Frog Splash combo, but Monsta Mack ended up splashing Maff. The DRS and Monsta joined up and lay into Maff for a bit. Monsta said all he has been hearing about is Maff, but he was always the brains of the outfit, so he had taken over La Familia. Post match, Homicide came out to check on Maff. It was an interesting change as I'm guessing now it will be Maff/Homicide against Monsta Mack and the DRS. I'm not too upset by this as I think they sort of turned Maff heel too early last year and I really don't think he needed the La Familia gimmick to get over on his own. Having Monsta Mack with them at least gives him something to do in the mean time.

PP: Monsta's new gear makes him look like he should be teaming with Jimmy Rave in ROH or Wildside... his pants have "MACK" in the same font as Rave's gear. OK match, but the crowd was still dead from before and by now folks were starting to head home. Also I don't think people figured Mack had a chance in this. Maff was all sort of suplex-intensive in this, busting out a bunch of half-nelson suplexes including the one that finally got him the pin. Maff and Monsta hug each other afterwards, which leads DRS out to bury Maff for losing his edge. Maff is about to go after them when the DHS music hits and Monsta comes out with DHS shirts for them. They go to town on DRS for awhile until Maff slaps the figure four on Blade, setting him up for Monsta's frog splash. Instead Monsta splashes Maff and the DOUBLE TURN~! is in full effect as they waste him for a few minutes, eventually burying him under the PR flag. I'm digging the idea of Monsta as the mastermind behind La Familia as he'd essentially disappeared since August and the concept works that he would be "behind the scenes" pulling DRS' strings. OTOH he doesn't have the charisma that Maff possesses so it should be interesting to see how this unfolds.

RD : Overall, I thought it was a pretty good show, though the rebooting of a few angles and a few turns take getting used to. I'm not sure what happened to the Skyscraper angle since Ariel and the Skyscrapers weren't at the show and it seems like Johnny D is managing Kaos and the Solution for now. I still wish they'd start a little earlier on the weekends as late night Saturday train schedules aren't the best. We had the fun of standing on the platform and trying to figure out what it meant with the train stopping on the express track when there was no obvious way to get to the express track, which ended up having us go all the way to the end of the platform and walk across the tracks to get on the train. With this going on, pretty much all the buses in my town were shut down, so I had a 2 mile walk at 1 am on a Saturday night to my house, but I look at it as early work on getting into the HAGE shirt.

PP: Really good show overall with a money match that should sell a zillion tapes... hopefully they won't have any heat with the building over the fan getting hurt as that's way too good a building to lose. We meander over to the NJT where chaos ensues as no one knows where the hell the train is going to stop. At one point you've got a bunch of kids across the tracks... two of them go "fuck it" and hop two fences running 100 feet across the tracks. I start to wonder how fast those dudes would start running if they heard that "dingdingdingdingDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDING" as a train came in but nothing of the sort happened. Eventually the train pulls in halfway across the tracks and we have to brave the tracks while listening for the "dingdingding" ourselves. Meh...