RD : Rev Ray Duffy. Surprised to see many recipes for Fried Oreos online
PP: Pogo Pete Stein. Not at all surprised that Ray would do this research.
MH: Marcel Hillie. Won’t be surprised when Dean demands Fried Oreos from Ray at the Super 8.

THE BACKSTORY
RD: Pete and Cel call me up around 5pm to tell me to get out of the office and meet up with them in Jersey already, but then I remind them, unlike the other Playaz, I actually have to do work at my job, whether I like it or not... most definitely not. I was attempting to subject them to the legendary Fried Oreo, but the street fair was out. I end up meeting up with them at Newport for dinner before heading over on the Light Rail honor system to Bayonne.

PP: I leave work early to pick Cel up at Penn Station and head home so I can change clothes and he can drop off his bags. Emi takes to Cel about as well as you might expect as she apparently thinks she’s seeing double with the presence of two bulbous gentlemen trying to squeeze through her front door. We get a big laugh once we get on the PATH train as this elderly Indian couple gets caught in the doors and the conductor starts bellowing at them over the PA to stop holding the train up. For those of you that care, Cel and I opt for Steak Escape while Ray does the Sarku thing.

MH: I set off the weekend early, taking the day off work and catching the day’s World Cup matches live. BTW, I shed no tears for Argentina, as they should have taken Saviola, IMHO. I take the train up to NYC, bumping Scratch’s new CD on the way. When I arrive, Pete’s there to navigate me through the maze that is Penn Station and to his place on the Upper West Side. I meet his sister, a charming young lady, and Emi, who warms up to me pretty quickly, actually. We meet up with Ray and I have the Wild West BBQ sandwich, while Pete, the Jewish guy amongst us, has the Hambrosia. In the Playa subset of Jewish Playaz That Don’t Keep Kosher, it’s better than Tom eating chitterlings, I guess.

RD: We get to the show pretty early, we notice a lot people milling around outside, specifically Dixie having a conversation with Pete from Tough Enough 2. We see Mike Kruel and either his girlfriend or Allison Danger head in, we also see Jacey North head in his NWA Wildside. Some how, the shirt doesn't bury him on the back. Jacey mentions he got hurt and really should be taking six weeks off from wrestling, but is here anyway on three weeks rest. We talk to him a little bit before heading inside and getting our usual seats. We talk to Buck Woodward for a little as he's filling in for the absent Mark Clemson on announcing duties. We are amused by Shinya Hashimoto in a Batman mask. We spot Mafia walking around in what looks like a flower print wrap (sort of like the Samoans used to wear) around his waist... while wearing black socks. The show has an ok turn out, I think more than the previous show.

PP: If what Jacey told us about how he got hurt is true (and we have no reason not to believe him), it doesn’t bode well for a certain internet darling’s position on the next 500. Jacey is a trooper. I got my 12 bones’ worth once I saw Mafia walking around in the muumuu, looking like the lost Wild Samoan. The crowd’s definitely up from last month now that they’ve got the full crew back in tow.

MH: I will be at the forefront of said plunge of said darling in a few months. Our boy Jacey’s got heart, I tells ya. We all lost it over seeing Mafia in Afa’s old ring attire. It’s my first time running into Buck and he seems to be an overall good egg. I would like to give it up for Modtron Video, as they do a great job with the Charity Hall, making it look bigger than it actually is. No slight on the Hall, but I’m saying, though.

THE SHOW
RD: Tonight there are three announcers, their usual guy, who we thought resigned after last show, El Shoes from ICW and another guy. Pre-show, they announce that Eddie Thomas will not be on the card due to being in a car accident that morning. He also said he hoped everyone would say a prayer for him that evening.

CHINO MARTINEZ vs. STRYKER
RD: Chino came out first to practically no reaction. Stry/iker (we're still on the fence about the spelling) came out to a pretty good reaction. This was nothing to write home about as things seemed a bit off, though it seemed to be Chino, not Striker. Stryker got in some of his wacky mat work, the finisher was Chino pinning Stryker with his feet on the ropes. While Striker isn't the prototypical type wrestler for JAPW, Pete points out to me that we don't think he's won a match since coming in and it sort of doesn't make sense for him to put over Chino, who though he's worked for the promotion forever, he's not over in the least.

PP: I have NO idea why Frank continues to use Chino, much less put him over infinitely more-talented workers like Stryker. There were workers in the audience like JT Jobber, Just G and Callahan who are FAR more over than Chino if not necessarily better workers. This result was confusing and I don’t understand why they continue to job Stryker out like this.

MH: Well, I’ve always known him to be known as Stryker, so that’s what I’ll work with. Chino is not good at all, blowing fundamental stuff. He almost killed young Stryker on an awkardly-turned powerslam, for instance. Nope, not good at all. Stryker’s fun as always, being the 1984 Mid-South midcard babyface that would take Dick Slater to the limit on TV before jobbing to a brass knuckle shot.

RD: Up next Pete from Tough Enough 2 came out and said some words. At this point it was clear the speakers were way too loud during people's ring music being played. He was greeted with a huge ass girly pop from the girls in the audience as well as chants of "You fucked Jackie." Pete basically said he was looking to get into wrestling with JAPW and he was disappointed he didn't have a match tonight, but said to keep an eye out for him. He also answered the chants by saying Jackie would never forget his name and even though he didn't win the contract, he felt like the winner.... riiiiiiiight. Pete's promo wasn't bad though, I think it was better than any of the promos he did on the show. At this point, the Hit Squad's music hits and they come out, but Pete stays in the ring and his cheering for them. At this point, Monsta gets in the ring to answer the question on everyone's mind, which isn't "why the hell is Pete still in the ring", but how they feel about losing their titles to the Shane Brothers. They say that they've changed. They won't beat up Pete because they're happy they lost the tag titles. They're happy they're not in the main event tonight. This of course, is just build up to them beating the hell out of Pete. Pete takes the clothesline from Compton, the slaps to the back from Mafia, the roof raiser and the Burning Hammer. Welcome to the indies, young Pete.

PP: Cel had no clue that it was DHS’ music playing until I told him, at which point he totally dorked out for their entrance. Pete dies like a man as DHS beat him all the way back to South Africa, yelling about how he doesn’t know what it’s like driving 5 hours for a $20 payoff. Mafia (I think) puts Pete’s shirt on after toasting him with the Burning Hammer, which looks exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. Jackie must’ve been quite the conquest if Pete still thinks he’s the real winner after the beating he took here.

MH: I was quite excited to see DHS come out, as a I figured a shit-stomping was imminent. And man, did they ever stomp the shit out of Pete. I think DHS actually tried to impale him on the sprinkler, as Pete seemed to be jammed right onto it in the middle of his spine. And then the Burning Hammer. I was kinda glad to see Mafia (I think) brush aside some of the fans’ screaming for a Wall Toss. Don’t toss it out all the time, or it’ll become like tables being broken, ya know?

TONY LAZARO v. RED
RD: Lazaro debuted new tights, which end up running down on him during the match so we saw his choice in underwear. This was pretty good as Red gave Lazaro a bunch of offense. Lazaro pulled out a neat face first full nelson slam and a neat stretch slam where he released Red in the air and dropped an elbow on him in mid air. Red ended up getting in a few of his spots, including the run up the back kick to the head. Red won when Lazaro jumped off the top rope, Red kicked him low, gave him a brainbuster followed by the Red Star Press for the win. This was perfectly fine wrestling.

PP: The finish here was somewhat dicey as Lazaro couldn’t get the height he needed jumping off the top due to the short ceiling at the Hall, but that’s a minor quibble. I’m really psyched about the JAPW students as they’re all really solid and none of them have had a match that made me think they shouldn’t be out there performing yet.

MH: No problem with this match at all. Lazaro’s showed some potential and didn’t screw anything up. Good show. Red is Red, with all that entails.

SLYK WAGNER BROWN w/ April Hunter vs. JACEY NORTH
RD: Jacey comes out first to "Momma Said Knock You Out" which gets the students chanting "You're not JT" as that's apparently his theme music. Jacey heels it up a bit, though not as much as he did at the Haas show. Slyk really lights up Jacey with some chops and we're pretty sure Jacey was throwing intentionally weak sounding chops. This was pretty good, Slyk doesn't drop Jacey on his head or anything so this is good. April gets in her spot where Slyk whips Jacey into her feet. There's a spot where each guy keeps ducking each other's clotheslines, so when Slyk ducks one time, Jacey just stops and DDT's him. Slyk puts him away with the "Drop of Ecstasy" sitout full nelson buster.

PP: It’s been so long since JT was used that I can’t even remember if it was his music or not. Jacey rules it with the comedy heel shtick, using the world’s daintiest chops to contrast Slyk just blistering him with his. Jacey obviously saved his head at the expense of his upper chest as Slyk Rayo’d the crap out of him. This was OK once we got over the strangeness of seeing Slyk work babyface.

MH: I really like Jacey’s work, as he can get a crowd to boo him at the drop of a dime. I also add my appreciation for the intentionally weak chops to get more heel heat. I can’t watch Slyk work and not crack up over his lifts.

JAY LETHAL & RAINCHILD v. THE S.A.T. (Jose & Joe L Maximo) vs. WASTED YOUTH (Insane Dragon & Deranged)
RD: This was originally scheduled to be Eddie Thomas and Tony Lazaro in the S.A.T.'s place. The match seemed to be focused mainly with Wasted Youth and Lethal and Rainchild taking most of the damage, generally on each other with the S.A.T's coming in to hit them from time to time. There was a big dive sequence with the Wasted Youth and Jay hitting dives, followed up with Rainchild going for his Sasuke Special moonsault, but he sort of skimmed the ropes, but did clear the ropes and sort of landed back first on the pile. Everyone looked pretty good in this, Jay Lethal's starting to pick up some little stuff with presence in the ring that I'm liking, such as pushing Deranged when he got close to their corner as opposed to just standing there waiting to be tagged in and do his spots. The rookies end up getting the pin on Insane Dragon, I think the set up was that the S.A.T's had hit a big move (I'm not sure what, I'm thinking it was probably the Crown's Gate), Jay and Rain knocked them out of the ring, Jay hit the wheelbarrow suplex on Dragon followed by Rainchild hitting an evil looking release dragon suplex for the pin. Post match, Wasted Youth and Jay/Rain congratulate each other on a good match and the S.A.T. even get up on the apron to applaud them before leaving.

PP: Rainchild’s Sasuke Special would’ve been picture-perfect again except somehow he started his jump about a foot too soon… thankfully he had a huge cushion of workers on the floor to brace his fall so it’s no harm, no foul. This was fun and smartly booked as the SATs stayed out of the way for the most part so the regulars could shine. Rainchild and Lethal are really getting pushed huge and even as inexperienced as they are, it isn’t completely unwarranted as they’re amazingly good for how long they’ve been wrestling.

MH: Yeah, it was the Crown’s Gate. The SATs really need to stop wearing those tights – I always thought that the worksuits were kinda original and set them apart a bit. The tights are just generic tights. Rainchild and Lethal are good for rookies, striking me as very young Hardy Boyz back in the day, what with Matt (Lethal) being the better actual wrestler and getting the heat segment, so that Jeff (Rainchild) can come in and hit his spots. I would have liked for Rainchild to have actually hit the Sasuke Special, but I’m not gonna harp on that one too much. Wasted Youth were fine in coming in, hitting their spots, and getting out of the way. Also, it was cool to see Jay’s family in the back supporting him – with who I’ll assume is his dad taping the match and his sisters whooping it up and holding up signs from him. JAPW – fun for the whole family, or something like that.

VALENTINA vs. APRIL HUNTER
RD: April just towers over Valentina... in more ways than one, especially in the pectorial region. I jokingly suggest that April is going to smother her like Chesty Morgan. Valentina's outfit was not very...flattering at all. She was wearing tights, sort of a shorts design with a sort of sports bra type top, both with a spray paint design. But the outfit didn't leave much to imagination and a bunch of people were chanting either "Fatentina" or "Yokotina" at her. I'm not sure how warranted it, was but it wasn't doing her much good. It didn't help that she was fighting someone who was a fitness model. I won't mention the kayfabe of them going over parts of the match prior to the show, but this wasn't really good as it seemed that Valentina blew up at some point as her strikes towards the end of the match were really weak looking. April ended up getting her is an armbar/arm scissors type move, may have hooked her neck in there too, forcing Valentina to tap with her foot.

PP: April has the bigger rack so she was the defacto babyface here, although Valentina will always work face in my pants. Her outfit was indy-ish but still better IMO than what Molly wears in the WWF now... the heat she was getting was more from these clowns at the Hall who like to rag on her non-stop for some reason. Of course they’d probably drop their drawers if a beanpole like Francine showed up, but that’s neither here nor there. Valentina tried here but she’s emerald-green and way too small to heel convincingly. Dixie would have the same problem if it weren’t for the fact that he’s solid gold on the stick and can bring the wrestling.

MH: Methinks Ray doth protest too much WRT Valentina. It isn’t like he (or Pete, or I) would kick her out of bed or anything. Pete pointed out Valentina’s sister to me in the audience who’s been used as a prop in angles before – it’s like Valentina went and had a clone made to be here personal jeering section. She couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 and she was throwing up middle fingers and cursing all throughout this match. As soon as she’s able, I think we’ll be seeing her working angles with big sister in the Charity Hall. The match wasn’t much of anything, as Valentina is green and April’s no great shakes either. The move April was going for at the end looked to be the El Samurai/Octagon ground octopus hold, but was either a modified version or it went horribly wrong, as both women ended up looking like they were visiting their gynecologist. I think one of the students in the crowd called it a Cameltoe Clutch, I can’t be certain, though.

RD: Up next, the Sheik came out to do a promo. The only thing of note is the fact Sheik got a hair cut, so he no longer looks like Afro Thunder from Ready 2 Rumble or Arabian Haku, but he only seemed to cut the sides, so it's still high on top, so now he sort of has the Kid from Kid-n-Play hair going. Anyway, he annoys us with his promo before J-Train runs in and they fight and the Sheik runs off and J-Train dances.

PP: The guy who works the soundboard at the Hall does the neat thing of mixing Sheik Diaz’ theme song way loud to make it even more annoying for the fans. This is all well and good, but the fact that the PA volume had already been set at eardrum-hemorrhaging decibels before he came out didn’t help this at all. I guess I really am too old.

MH: Nah Pete, you’re (much) older than I am, and I was feeling it, too. And I hit concerts at the 9:30 Club regularly, so I know I’m working on minor hearing loss right now, and that shit was still too loud for me. And the Sheik’s hair was not Kid-ish; his hair is nowhere coarse enough, one punch sent it flying in all directions. Kid’s hair didn’t move, period. I see what you’re saying though. I tried to interpret J-Train’s dancing, but I couldn’t. I will say that he was rocking a nice hat. You can tell how much I thought of this segment by my ramblings, right?

THE SHAOLIN WRECKING CREW (Magic & Suba) vs. THE HIT SQUAD (Monsta Mack & Mafia) w/ Johnny D
RD: One of the guest ring announcers calls Johnny D by the wrong name. Early on one of the students passes another's sneaker to Suba as Suba's thing is he yells "SHOE!" all the time. Of course, Suba immediately starts chewing and tearing the thing apart as the students laugh as they've just cost someone a shoe. It seems like a stalemate at the start until Monsta ends up surprising everyone by slamming Suba and I successfully goad him into do muscular poses afterward. Suba DIES DIES DIES in this match because as much has he's laid the students to waste on past student shows, he's taken it in the past two months against the Hit Squad and the Christopher Street Connection. Suba takes a release German and a half nelson suplex at one point and guys that fat aren't supposed to land on their heads like that. He also took some evil shots like a chop right to the side of the face. Mafia ended up getting in a tope out onto both Suba and Magic while they were out on the floor. Monsta teases doing a dive, but he opts to stop, step through the ropes and then do something that I forget onto the pile. As they brawled on the floor, Monsta and Magic ended up breaking part of the wall, not going all the way through, but you could see where a panel or something cracked. The finish to this was with two tables being set up in the ring in opposite corners. Mafia teased going for the burning hammer on Suba but he couldn't lift him, it seemed like Suba was going to try to avalanche him through the table, but Mafia countered with a back drop through the table, which he sold the damage of great as he grabbed his groin like he pulled something, to the point I actually bought he might have hurt himself. Somewhere in here, Suba got murdered with a chair shot too. Monsta and Magic both got in the ring and were fighting over moves in the other corner with both Suba and Mafia down. Magic seemed to have the upper hand, teasing the Hellsmasher, but having it blocked. He set up Monsta for a suplex or a brainbuster, but as he had him up, Mafia charged and hit him with a spear through the table to get the win.

PP: Suba bumps way too well for a guy his size including taking an exploder from Monsta… then again he’s already shown that he can take a shot first from the CSC and now from DHS. This was much better than I thought it would be as we all expected a bunch of fat boy no-selling… Magic sort of “lived up” to his end of the equation but everyone else’s selling was quite good, especially Suba’s given his experience. Suba actually sets up the backdrop on Mafia by giving him this awesome-looking UN FOUL, hence Mafia’s sell-job. There is no need for any of us to yell for Mafia to sell the schvanz as he spends a couple of minutes selling the shot before recovering to spear Suba out of his boots for the finish. Shockingly fun match.

MH: I dug this a bunch. Suba had his ass in the air all night, dying like a man and should be commended for risking death in a charity hall to make this match. Everyone did their part, though. Even the ropes for taking Mafia’s hanging upside down in them in celebration after the end of the match. I will note here that the ropes did need re-tightening after the match.

DIXIE w/ Valentina vs. GHOST SHADOW for the JAPW TV Title
RD: This match was for a new title as they're retiring the New Jersey State title and renaming starting a TV Title. Dixie comes out with Valentina and says that there's a question on everyone's mind. No, not where's Elax? No, not why the Sheik's hair looks like Kid-n-Play's? He asks Valentina what her problem is. He asks her what she was thinking booking him twice in one night, including a match against Homicide for the Heavyweight Title. He won't let her answer though and tells her to keep her mouth shut and stay in the corner. He then goes on to explain that the match was supposed to be against Mike Kruel, but since Kruel's injured, he has won and declares he's the TV champ. Valentina then tells him that she signed him to a match anyway which Dixie gets all upset, including yelling "WHY GOD WHY?" at the ceiling. Shadow ends up being the opponent, resplendent in his alien face outfit. Shadow ends up employing more power moves in the match than his neato lucha mat work, then again, he's in with Dixie who can easily toss around, so you might as well do it when you can. He did get in the rolling tapatias. Dixie ends up selling a majority of the match, taking some Shadow back drop suplexes and a lygerbomb at one point. Dixie hit some elbows and the rolling elbow for a near fall, but couldn't get the pin. Dixie ends up holding Shadow so Valentina can throw powder in Shadows face, but she ends up hitting Dixie, who takes out the referee with an elbow as he's blinded. With the ref down, Insane Dragon runs in and nails Dixie and hits the springboard 450 on him. The ref recovers, but Shadow can only get a two. Shadow ends up whipping Dixie to the corner and absolutely crushes him with a jumping knee type move before hitting him with a running MUSCLE Buster for the win. I'm kind of disappointed that Dixie is losing so much as he's so frigging awesome as a heel, but I think they really did need to get the titles on other people. So now Dixie is down to having the Light Heavyweight title. He ends up arguing with Valentina to the back.

PP: This was basically a GS squash, which was pretty surprising given their respective positions on the JAPW pecking order. Nevertheless it’s fun while it lasts as GS gets to flash his offense and Dixie’s selling is totally king-sized. I’m hoping the cameras got a shot of him after the GS kneelift into the corner as his eyes rolled right up into his head and he looked like he’d been knocked goofy by the move legit.

MH: I thought Insane Dragon was going to send himself through the ceiling on that springboard 450, but I guess he’s done the move enough in the building to know what height he can get away with. Dixie’s such a great heel, it’s just fun to watch him get heat for a few minutes. I was anticipating Dixie stealing on Valentina after the match, but I guess they’re going with a slow burn here. Valentina was wearing normal clothes, which meant that Ray wanted her again.

AMERICAN DRAGON vs. LOW KI - Tap Out Mach
RD: Let me start off by saying there's been a bunch of mixed reviews of this match, but I loved this match... well, aside from the fact that American Dragon was wearing his disturbing white tiny pants. If you like mat work, you'll love this as it's 90% mat work, but it's good mat work. I saw Regal-Severn go 30 minutes in a total snoozefest, this was at least built around guys fighting to see who could get a hold. There was a lot of tie ups for the mount with one guy going for one thing, the other guy fighting and basically back in forth work until one guy would come up with some sort of hold which the fans would recognize and then give applause to. Early on, Dragon was able to catch Ki in the dragon clutch. Ki was later able to catch Dragon in the bridge double armbar, which I think has been wrongly called a cattle mutilation, but I haven't seen a Poison Sawada match in forever, but I digress. This mainly stayed on the match, but there was a lot of movement going on, with guys struggling to hook a hold, which is not like they were just laying on the ground. There wasn't many high spots in this, I think the biggest standing spots were two running high kicks in the corner by Ki. At one point Dragon got Ki in a Regal Stretch type move and was just laying into him with cross face forearms which was pretty great. Ki would occasionally chop Dragon in the leg when they were tied up to break a hold or to get him to give up his leg or arm. Dragon seemed to control the mat segments, with Ki getting control by using knee strikes to set up his stuff. The finish was a neat spot with Ki jumping and locking in a hanging armbar which forced Dragon to tap. It was a neat looking move, but sort of odd as I can't figure out why Dragon didn't try to drop to the ground to make Ki break the lock, but that's just me. This still was fun, while it might not have been the match for that crowd, it was a good match none the less. Plenty of forearm on cheekbone action and 2 or 3 cravat segments.

PP: Latin Lover left a voice message on my cell phone saying that AD needs bigger pants. Once you get past the outfit, what’s left is one hell of a match as these two take it to the mat for the better part of 25 minutes. We actually started to score it under the old UWFi rules, with Ki winning 6-0 after AD exhausted his points with rope-breaks and one knockdown. Sadly they continued to wrestle afterwards, the poor saps… I’m not sure why some folks are complaining about the crowd. To be sure they were quiet at times, but at the same time there was a pretty steady buzz throughout the match and they definitely seemed to be popping at the right times. One of the throwbacks on the JAPW board helpfully illustrates the pointlessness of the star ratings system by giving this one star LESS than he did for the Valentina/April match. BOOBIEZ!

MH: I wanted to score the match using the old RINGS rules, but Pete shouted me down. Once I get hold of the tape, I’m going to score it that way and see if Dragon would have pulled it out. This match rocked, and the crowd was fine for this kind of match, popping for the submission and knockdown spots – kinda reminded me of a NOAH crowd. I actually liked the finish, as I’ve studied in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu briefly and when you get caught in a joint lock and you know you’re caught, you are taught to give up rather than risk injury – there’ll be another day and all that. Dragon got caught and he had to tap. Now, I’m not the Dragon/Ki Dead-Head that Schneider is, but I’ve seen most of their matches live, and this isn’t up there with their best matches, simply because the Tap-out rule automatically took away the psychology of going for a pin or knockout. This narrowed the focus of the match as opposed to past and future encounters and gave them less to work towards. However, in the Tap-Out/I Quit subset of pro wrestling, this is right up there with Flair/Funk and is still a damn fine wrestling match.

STEVE CORINO vs. HOMICIDE w/ Boogalou
RD: Homicide is sporting the Shadow WX paint again. Pre-match, Corino gets on the mic and addresses some guy in the crowd yelling that he ruined ECW by saying that it was the guys fault ECW died because he was too cheap to pay for the ppvs so Corino didn't get paid, and that he was too lazy to go to a real wrestling city, Queens, to see ECW. Corino proclaimed himself "GOD" to that guy. He then moved on to Homicide, pointing out that even though they both worked in Japan, Corino said he worked for the number one company, while Homicide worked for the bush leagues. Corino promised that he would beat Homicide and take the belt back to Japan so Shinya Hashimoto could take a dump on it since the belt meant nothing. At this point Homicide went after Corino. This was a fun match, though at this point, it's a few days after the fact and some things seemed hazy. Corino did the Ohtani boot scrapes on Homicide and did the running version, which Homicide did a bump to the floor on. Corino hit a pretty good powerslam off the ropes at one point. Corino ate a lariat trifecta from Homicide Kojima style. The finish sort of came as a flash as it was pretty late in the night. Homicide escaped the Old School Expulsion, Corino did a corner whip, but Homicide blocked him, took out his knee with a drop kick and put him away with the Shining Wizard. A fun match, though it seemed a bit abrupt. I'd like to see a rematch with both guys getting a bit more time.

PP: Corino: “Do you know who I am? I AM GOD!” Corino rules it with the micwork and I’d love to see an angle with him playing Old-School Jedi Master to Dixie’s young Padowan. Boogalou came out with Homicide, which led me to think they were setting up something screwy… thankfully Lou’s presence didn’t result in anything untoward. This match was good while it lasted, but ironically enough the crowd was less enthusiastic for this than they were for the tap-out match as there were some “boring” catcalls. Even in New Jersey, Corino somehow manages to juice as he appeared to get cut hardway on the back of his head after Homicide drilled him with his tope to the floor. I’d also love to see a rematch although I’m not sure what the point would be as Homicide won clean and there didn’t seem to be any loose ends that needed tying up afterwards. Of course they could always bring in Hashimoto for that Zero-One vs. Big Japan interpromotional battle we’ve all dreamed of.

MH: I’d be all for Masato Tanaka and Samoa Joe vs. DHS. This seemed a bit rushed, as it was short and the finish did come out of nowhere, but it was fine pro wrestling. The way this match was done, I’m led to think that this was kind of a Tommy Dreamer Tours The Indies thing, with Corino coming in, having a good match with the promotion’s ace, then jobbing clean to said ace’s finisher. I too would love to see them do it again and for longer, but I’ll take what I can get.

THE EPILOGUE
RD : Post match, we hit the 7-Eleven before heading back to the city and are subjected to six work trains in the tunnel. Overall, this was a really good show, with four matches I really liked. This was a strong outing, but I'm disappointed it's the last show for the summer as it was nice to be able to take an easy ride to the Hall to see a show. Oh well. I guess I'll be hitting one or two of the shore shows. All and all, a good time was had by all.

PP: I dug this a bunch and it’s a bit of a shame that they’re vacating Bayonne for the summer, although I can certainly understand their thought process WRT the move. It also allows them to build up for the larger crowds in Bayonne once fall comes and the local families are back from vacation. We wind our way home, helpfully illustrating for Cel the one pitfall of JAPW running shows on the first Friday that is the monthly PATH work train parade. Eventually we make it home and wait for Barnwell to show up for the World Cup weekend, where he immediately endears himself to the dog by absent-mindedly pointing at something with his Gray’s Papaya hot dog.

MH: Really fun show top to bottom, and I’m glad I made the trip for it. I don’t know about trying to locate Seaside Heights, but I might be convinced to make the trek if they load up a good enough show. I again reiterate that I’d becoming up a lot more often if they ran Saturdays, but Pete explained the whys and wherefores of Frank’s desire for Friday shows, and I kinda understand. I am get irritated by the PATH system deciding to run work trains at a 6:1 ratio to commuter trains. And I thought Ray and Pete were kidding about that. When we get back, Barnwell eventually shows up, and he tells us of the Kaiju Show That Would Not Start, explaining his lateness.