RD : I ditch out of work a bit early to head over to the JAPW show on Friday. I stop over at Newport and get the somewhat regular dinner of chicken teriyaki from the Japanese place. I note that it might be so good for them to cook this in front of everyone because the chicken looked like it was being scooped out of a bait container. I get to the show pretty early and meet up with Pete before talking to Buck Woodward a bit. Pre-show is pretty uneventful.

PP: For some reason I skip dinner at Newport and head straight out to Bayonne on the light rail, where I immediately doze off for the duration. Hey, it’s Friday and this is the nuttiest time of the year for my department as we’re putting all of the publications to bed for our Vegas convention in May. I get my sleep wherever I can. I kill time bumping around Main Street and marveling at the pet store with the giant freezer where they keep the reptile yummies. “Furry Mice 15 cents, Hairless Mice 20 cents.” MMMMMMMMMMM, mice…

RD : The show opens with I'm guessing the TV open as the Bald Guy and Mark Clemson come out. Bald guy makes fun of Clemson for apparently getting thrown into the Hudson River by Mafia. Clemson calls Mafia a miserable son of a bitch or something leading the Hit Squad coming out. Mafia slaps around Clemson a bit and makes him kneel in the corner. As he does his promo, Clemson stands up and Mafia smacks him down again. Eventually, Clemson tries standing up to him, which results in Mafia going for the burning hammer. As he does, the Boogie Knights run in and hit Monsta with the tag belts and bail, Mafia doesn't hit the move on Clemson and he gets away. Post match, Mafia stays that they're stiffer than Peter North and harder than the wall that killed Dale Earnhardt. I was tempted to give them the "3" when they came out later.

PP: Ray Duffy, fantasy NASCAR dork. I’m not sure what they were trying to do with the BKs and DHS here, as Clemson is a face announcer and the BKs are the heels in the feud, but the angle was pretty much laid out as if the BKs were faces making the save. The other alternative would be that they’re turning Clemson heel, which wouldn’t make a boatload of sense either as that would leave them with two heel announcers.

MATCH 1 : JUST G/JOHNNY T vs. THE CHRISTOPHER ST CONNECTION (Buff E & Mace Mendoza) W/ "Yummy Boy" Chris Cabanna :

RD : G and T are the JAPW Student Tag Champions. We're sitting behind a bunch of the students who boo and taunt their fellow students. G does the mic work and claims that since they are the student champs, they are the #2 team in JAPW. They challenge anyone from the back and the CSC answer the call to Dancing Queen. Its pretty funny how these guys are catching on as babyfaces in the area. Buff does some mic work, saying that if they had known it was these two "ugly fishes" they wouldn't have come to the ring. He also says that G looks like Booker T when he was in high school and asks him to do the spinarooni. G starts off and does the feign lock up twice before he does it again and ends up the victim of an ass grab or two and a reach around for Buff. The students are calling for the CSC to Donkey Punch them. This turns into the rookies getting stiffed a whole lot with Johnny getting a semi Fuchisized chest. The finish is Mace german suplexing G and Buff hitting the clothesline from Idaho. G looked like he landed right on his head. Post match, and G and T try to get themselves together the Shaolin Wrecking Crew music hits and Magic and Suba run in and beat them up some more.

PP: Boogalou (not working the show but in the audience) may have had the line of the night here as he refers to the CSC as “the gay Hit Squad.” This match is all about the rookie discipline as the CSC give G and T a professional ass kicking throughout. T in particular gets his chest lit up like the MSG goal light after Toronto dropped seven on the Rangers the other night. Just when you thought Buff E’s Clothesline From Stonewall couldn’t get funnier, he whips T to the buckles and walks to the corner WAVING at people in the audience before he crushes T with it. G and T take their beatings like men and I think G has some potential if he can put some weight on… he’s a good heel from what I’ve seen of him at the student shows and also very tall by JAPW standards.

MATCH 2 : THE SHAOLIN WRECKING CREW (Magic & Suba) vs. EXPLOSIVE EDDIE THOMAS & TONY LAZARO :
RD : This match was set up after last month during Thomas and Lazaro's debut match when the Crew beat them up. The rookies theme plays and as Magic and Suba wait for them, they run in from the crowd and jump them from behind. The kids get in some drop kick and a dive and avoid a sandwich avalanche attempt by the crew in their offensive part. Eventually, they get caught by the Crew and sort of thrown into each other in a double powerbomb spot in mid air which seemed a little mistimed but fortunately nobody landed right on top of anyone. The beating continues with them getting dived on by Magic from the apron, fortunately Suba was there to absorb some of it too. They got thrown into the wall each. Got avalanched on the wall. Back to the ring, Suba hits I think an Osaka stunner on one of the kids. The rookies get pinned after each takes Suba's Vader Bomb and Magic's Hellsmasher like powerbomb.

PP: The rookie discipline continues as Thomas and Lazaro get maybe 2-3 moves in on the Wrecking Crew before they get caught in the double-powerbomb spot… from that point on it’s an SWC squash. Magic IS the Black Super Porky of Soul as he hits the plancha off the apron that had all of us fearing for the rookies’ lives. The best part of this comes near the end of the match as we realize that G and T were still selling the beatdown from the previous match as they’re just getting to their feet and limping off to the back. Too damn funny for words.

MATCH 3 : 4-Way Elimination Tag Match : RAINCHILD vs. GHOST SHADOW vs. JAY LETHAL vs. DERANGED :

RD : They kept this as mostly a tag style match so it was usually 2 guys in the ring and either two on the outside so it wasn't a total clusterfuck. I think everyone looked good here. They eventually did some brawling on the floor and Rainchild hit a very smooth Sasuke Special Moonsault dive to the floor. Deranged teased Rainchild by threatening Rainchild with a punch or palm that missed by a mile, but child sold it, he got up mad and told Deranged to hit him, so he does. Deranged busts out the super absurd one man standing on the mat Spanish Fly. This is probably the most contrived move since Ciclope tied up Galaxy in a neblina, walked away and then dropped a leg on him spot from a World Wide taping. Rainchild is the first to go after an evil Ghost shadow powerbomb into a lucha submission that we were trying to figure out. It was like part figure four, part Teioh lock. Shadow disposed of Lethal pretty quickly afterwards after a couple of back drop suplexes. Lethal kicked out of one of them before being pinned with the next one. Deranged and Ghost Shadow go at it for a bit. Deranged escapes from Shadow's MUSCLE buster, eventually he takes out Shadow by jumping over him onto the buckles, when Shadow stands up, Deranged hops off and ranas him for the pin ala Dragon Kid.

PP: The Lethal family is in the house, so it’s good to see that Moesha Lethal got over the beating that DHS had inflicted on Jay’s person last month. This was fun as all four guys look good here… a couple of the Playaz are down on GS for some reason that neither Ray nor I could figure out as he did a fine job directing traffic. Rainchild’s Sasuke Special was a thing of beauty and Jay was showing off some personality, as he would soak up the reaction from the fans after hitting a big move. GS’ submission on Rainchild was one of those jaw-dropping finishers that had everyone whipping out their charts to figure out what he was submitting to.

MATCH 4 : THE BOOGIE KNIGHTS (Danny Drake & Mike Tobin) vs. THE HIT SQUAD (Monsta Mack & Mafia) w/ Johnny D for the JAPW Tag Team Titles :

RD : The Knights heel themselves (thus furthering the question of where they're going with the Hit Squad face or heel wise) by cutting their theme music so the fans couldn't sing along. This was a squash like the Boogie's aren't coming back squash. It's not uncommon for the Knights to get the shit kicked out of them (it's 75% of their offense) and this was no exception. But in the past, I've seen them get beat up and sneak out a win or something. There was none of that this time. Though it was funny watching them shove one of the money guys behind the promotion out of a chair so they could use it. During the finish of the match, Danny Drake takes the press slam throw into the wall lands badly. There's a bunch of commotion as a bunch of people go over to check on him, I can't see him as the ring is blocking where he had landed. I am told that as Drake hit the floor, his head hit the floor and the wall at the same time, knocking him out and cutting his head. As people run from the back, Mafia puts away Tobin with the burning hammer. Post match, the Hit Squad start yelling at the Boogie Knights and call out anyone, Red comes out from the back and as the Hit Squad go after him, the Maximos run in and beat up on the Hit Squad. This seemed to get a subdued reaction as I'm guessing most people were concerned about Drake's condition and not over the angle that was being played out. The SAT's leave, they take a quick break as an ambulance comes and they stretcher him out. I am told that he woke up and sat up in the ambulance and was talking.

PP: You have to love it when a heel worker’s theme music is so great that he/she/they can get heat by cutting it off. This was totally booked as if the BKs were never coming back to JAPW, which is odd as the matches they’ve had together have always been good and fun (if not exactly competitive). But this is a total burial job as DHS nuke them throughout and barely sell anything. It got to the point where I thought they were getting beaten up too much not to win, but obviously that never happened. The aftermath of the wall spot is scary as hell as folks come running from all corners of the building (Frank, Ray, Modtrom, the cop, refs, Low-Ki) to check on Drake while Monsta toasts Tobin with a Fire Thunder and Mafia hits the Burning Hammer to end the match. To be honest, up to this point I thought it was a work (since Ray and I couldn’t see that Drake was bleeding and KO’d legit), but the appearance of the ambulance outside put paid to that theory. I’m willing to chart up the lack of reaction to the SAT’s return as folks being confused as to whether or not they should be cheering them as DHS have been going babyface and the SAT beating them down after a match is something of a heel move. During the impromptu intermission I mosey outside to see what’s going on… the EMTs don’t seem to be particularly rushed in getting Drake to the hospital and Ref Hanson’s talking movies with Ray Sager, so at that point I figure that Drake’s been stabilized and I can focus on enjoying the show again.

MATCH 5 : KID KRUEL w/ Allison Danger vs. XAVIER :

RD : Kruel challenges anyone from the back after reminding us that he beat Low Ki. Out comes Xavier making his return to take the challenge. This was a good match, but I don't think the crowd was really into it, again probably due to the Drake injury. This was fun as X dusts off the El Paso Del Muerte which guarantees a pop from me every time. Kruel works the arm, which Xavier sells pretty well at the start. He uses his bad arm and sells that it's hurt and the switches the arm he's using to do chops. The problem is, starts forgetting this towards the end of the match, Xavier starting forgetting about the selling the arm part. Xavier hit his pumphandle face first slam (which they call "Kiss Your X goodbye" in ICW) for a near fall when Danger distracts the ref to break it up.

PP: That’s a monumentally stupid name by anyone’s standards, especially when it isn’t even his finisher. But I digress.

RD: Xavier goes over to hit her, but Kruel low blows him. I think Allison also snaps his arm on the ropes as she drops off the apron. Kruel got the pin with what looked like he was going for the stretch move that Dr. Wagner Jr. and Dos Caras do, but turned it into a cradle and pinned Xavier. Post match, Kruel reminds us again that he's beaten Low Ki before Ki comes out to confront him. Ki reminds Kruel that he made him tap the last time they faced. During this, American Dragon runs in and attacks Ki from behind. Homicide runs out to make the save, but Kruel and American Dragon catch the both of them in their finisher's (Kruel's jujigatame and Dragon's bridged double armbar).

PP: This was good, and I’m immensely digging the Kruel push. Xavier’s selling of the arm was great at first, but him forgetting which arm he was supposed to sell was a pretty glaring fault although I don’t think anyone else picked up on it. Again, I’m willing to credit the lack of heat here to the fact that it was heel vs. heel… the ring announcer was giving updates on Drake’s condition so it wasn’t like we were being kept in the dark WRT whether or not he was OK.

MATCH 6 : SLYK WAGNER BROWN w/ April Hunter vs. INSANE DRAGON w/ Deranged & Sylvester Q. Greendexter :

RD : Slyk debuts his new tights which say "Don't Hate" on the front and "Appreciate" on the back which I guess is his new catchphrase or something. Dragon comes out with his Wasted Youth tag partner Deranged and Greendexter, who does a nerd gimmick on the student shows and I think they've put with Wasted Youth with. This was pretty good. At one point Wagner threw Insane Dragon out over the top rope onto Greendexter. Hunter then chased Greendexter away so he and Deranged left for the rest of the match. Dragon at one point went for his springboard 450, but hit the ceiling. Fortunately, it didn't look like he landed funny and seemed to be OK. Slyk won with a wheelbarrow suplex held on, lifted dragon up and hit his Drop of Ecstasy sitout full nelson slam. Dragon got good height on it. Both guys looked good here and Dragon is a lot better than he's not doing something amazingly stupid like he tends to against Deranged.

PP: JIM CORNETTE JR! Dixie had a hysterical match with Greendexter at the last student show (which is actually where he debuted the gimmick, as he was “Green” on the previous show) where Dixie was billed as “JAPW Triple Crown Mid-South champion” and came out wearing a giant hillbilly beard and using “Midnight Rider” for his theme music. This has nothing to do with the Slyk/ID match, but I wanted to bring the exposition. This match is OK as Slyk does a good job of reeling ID in. ID’s still pretty green (as opposed to Greendexter) but is immensely carryable, although there was the scary moment where ID grazed the ceiling with his feet as he hit his springboard 450. Thankfully he didn’t lose any momentum and hit the spot OK.

MATCH 7 : DIXIE w/ Valentina vs. STRYKER for the JAPW Triple Crown :

RD : This match was pretty good, although I've seen both guys have better against different guys. Styker got in a bunch of his mat work in this, but I think his babyfaceness is lost on the crowd up here. Valentina interferes several times, though it was more blatant stuff than some of the more subtle heel work she's done in the past. Dixie hit some nice rolling elbows in this, I think pulling up Stryker once from one pin attempt. The finish was a rolling elbow to a chair, which was sort of unnecessary. It was an ok match, unfortunately the rest of the weekend and 3 days of work have burned much of this match out of my memory. It was very ok.

PP: This was a good match marred by an AMAZINGLY ludicrous finish. I mean I can buy the Van Daminator spot because RVD is kicking the chair with his boot-covered foot. OTOH there was nothing protecting Dixie from theoretically breaking his elbow driving the chair into Stryker. When you do something that makes an RVD spot look logical, it’s high time to rework the spot.
 

MATCH 8 : “THE STIFF DANCE”: HOMICIDE vs. AMERICAN DRAGON w/ Kid Kruel vs. LOW KI:

RD : This starts out Homicide and Ki jumping on Dragon and putting a beating to him. I forget if it was Dragon throwing someone out of Kruel just dragging them out, but the story of the match became the fact Kruel was at ringside and was keeping it one on one with whoever Dragon was matched up with. Of course, when they announced this match, I would have rather them just done a tag match, and perhaps this is their way of setting this up... but I really would have just liked the tag match. Dragon and Homicide drilled each other with some great elbows. They did a few relays of spots from the ICW show, including the Homicide sliding drop kick to Ki as he had Dragon in the handing Dragon Clutch. They also did the stacker back suplex. The show was running a bit late at this point and it seemed like the finish, sort of came out of nowhere, with Dragon catching Homicide in the Dragon Suplex for the pin as Kruel kept Ki from making the save. Post match, Homicide and Ki beat on Kruel as Dragon cowers away and leaves Kruel to the wolves. Post show, Ki, the Hit Squad and Ray Saeger come out and tell everyone that Homicide has been chosen to be on the World Extreme Cup tour and everyone wishes him luck.

PP: I flashback to WCCW ca. 1984 and have a total dork out moment as AD comes out to “Stranglehold.” It’s the perfect theme for his Texas-via-Japan psuedo-shooter gimmick and I could easily see him replacing Lance in the Sportatorium as the Von Erich cousin. I was oddly hoping for him to wear his ROH tiny pants outfit just to assure myself that this is something he regularly wears now, but he’s wearing his usual ensemble of long red tights. $3 bills are less queer than RF. Going into this match we couldn’t understand why they felt the need to make this a three-way dance in the first place given what’d happened at the previous show with Scoot attacking Homicide… then again that would’ve set up AD/Scoot vs. Ki/Homicide, and we’ll take Kruel over Scoot any day of the week. In any case Ki and Homicide pretty much ignore the three-way stipulation and just give AD a beating, interspersed with Ki and Homicde breaking up each other’s odd pin attempt on AD. Kruel constantly interferes on AD’s behalf so this basically amounts to two singles matches going on at the same time. Again, it’s great if this is supposed to be a tag match. Homicide gets a nice sendoff from Ki and DHS post-match, although technically his final JAPW show before he heads off to Japan will be the student show tonight (April 12).

RD : Overall, this was a pretty good show. I think everything sort of gotten down a peg once Drake got hurt. I'm hoping that they'll be building out the feud with American Dragon against Homicide and Ki in JAPW, and the addition of Kruel to a good way for him to be elevated some more. Post show, I go through as many cups as I can at 7-Eleven so I can complete my NASCAR Big Gulp Collection. WHOO HOO! Bobby LaBonte and Steve Park.

PP: This was a good show even with Drake’s injury, although the booking and finishes were pretty spotty in places. Hopefully the SATs will actually stick around and not jump back to CZW or Phoenix or whatever promotion they ditched this week. As we head home I start talking about what Big Japan could’ve done if JAPW had been the invading New Jersey promotion as opposed to CZW. I also bring up that Phil Schneider’s “Homicide is a drug dealer who kills people” theory is out the window since Japan is allowing him into the country. Ray’s immediate response is that he’s working for Kojika, hence the theory still holds water. NOTE TO HOMICIDE: Phil lives in Washington, DC in the Georgetown section of town. Ray and I are sure you’re a perfectly legitimate businessman and we would never mock you in such a manner.