RD : I show up in Bayonne kind of late due to the first of the 5 trains I have to take from downtown Manhattan to Bayonne deciding not to show up for 15 minutes as the platform is overflowing with people trying to get out of town for the weekend. I got to the show on time and find Pete by our usual seats. It seems like they've moved the ring further from the wall than it has been in the past. This is probably going to stop people from eating the wall, which I'm sure the new restaurant next door will be happy about. The draw back is the corners now appear to be directly under a row of lights. Pre-show, Fat Frank comes out and does the warm up. It seems like they've added some more to the regular lighting rig they have, plus they had someone flicking all the light switches in the back so the regular lights were going on and off. It was a neat effect, but it made me feel like the teacher wanted us to sit down and shut up. Frank explains the upcoming schedule of events. They mention that the Charity Hall will be closed in October as the building will be converted into a Haunted House for the month. I really think they JAPW should get in on that action, I mean, they could schedule some matches that could scar kids for life. They announce that they'll run two shows in November. They confirm that they'll be bringing in Jerry Lawler again and that the building will have a 500 seat maximum with assigned seating, so I guess they're counting on a big crowd for him. Jerry's a lot more fun to watch punching someone right in the face than he is announcing RAW for what it's worth. Frank also mentions that JAPW will have some of the wrestlers over from Big Japan Pro Wrestling and mentions that Homicide will be facing "some guy called the WINGER". It also sounds like they will have Lowlife Louie Ramos and "Lightning" Lou Diamond (Frank's wrestling persona) will have a tag match, I think against a Big Japan Tag Team. Pete's already hoping it's Abdullah Jr Kobayashi and Benkei.

PP: Ray forgot to mention how distraught he was as Dani forgot to bring the Kyle Petty cup for the second week in a row. The configurations in Bayonne seem to be switching from show to show as this week the locker room is back inside the Hall. The crowd is of course down from last week, but down to the normal levels as opposed to the sickly attendance that was there in May. My guess is 250. Frank had this great line about an hour before the show started: “The Briscoes are on the show, of course it’s a small crowd.” Meow! Homicide/Winger should be fun fun fun. I called Abby Jr. and Benkei because I have no interest in wasting the actually good BJW guys on Frank and Louie. ;) Actually, there’s your match to scar kids for life right there.

THE SHOW:
MATCH 1: AZRAEL vs. DERANGED
RD : This was a fun little opener as both guys seemed to want to bring the wrestle rather than do really crazy and stupid stuff to each other. There was a nice collar and elbow segment and a nice segment with a knuckle lock where we thought they were gonna go for the upside down tied up slap fight, but we didn't get it. There was some nice stuff with both guys laying in the kicks on one another. The finish was kind of abrupt as there was a slap fight going at one point, Deranged suckered Azrael to duck a slap attempt, kicked him and hit his high speed sunset flip for the win. Good match. Post match, the jWo, JT Jobber, Callahan, Sylvester Q Greendexter and the newly recruited Roach come out and try to recruit Azrael. They do some mic work which pretty much establishes who's goofing on who as Greendexter tells us "Yo Hey", Callahan does a little Hogan and Roach provides a million crotch chops. Anyway, Azrael turns them down, which results in a beat down. Greendexter has a really tripped out move that's sort of like a Cop Killer though it's more dropping the guy on their face rather than their head. As they're putting the boots to Azrael, Elax runs in and makes the save. The jWo tries to fight him off black ninja style, which everyone knows never works. Elax ends up trapping JT in the ring, Azrael recovers and he an Elax put two chairs set up on each side of JT's head and do a sandwich drop kick to them. The jWo need to work on that whole group attacking/defending deal.

PP: Let the record show that the group is Hollywood Callahan, Big JT Cool, Da Green Guy and Roach-Pac. The “Yo Hey” bit was funny, but again I question the logic of giving Greendexter the lion’s share of the micwork when JT and Callahan are right there. The match proper was really good as they kept it in the ring and Deranged didn’t do as much comedy as he usually does up until the finish. He has a headband with his name on it that makes it look like his name should be pronounced like DeBarge. Azrael (and I have no idea why JAPW calls him “Azrieal” as his frigging outfit says “AZRAEL” on it) is a lock for the 500. The early part of the match was especially fun with the aforementioned collar-and-elbow segment.
 

MATCH 2: "SHOOTER" MIKE KRUEL (w/ Allison Danger) vs. TONY LAZARO
RD : Lazaro's back to using "Bitter Sweet Symphony" as his theme music, which I find odd that I've even heard more than one guy using it as an indy wrestling theme. He gets his usual pop from the Dial MTV crowd. This was actually a pretty good match up. Tony keeps up the trend of murdering himself on the ringside railings as he hits a dive to the floor and I think lands part of his back on the railing as he lands in the crowd on I think a tope con hilo. I think we get our first ceiling hit of the night as Kruel goes for an Asai moonsault and hits his foot on the ceiling. Luckily, he comes through that unscathed. Kruel continues his mat work, Lazaro relies on his high flying. Lazaro tries to go for his stretch bomb, but Kruel is able to block it. Eventually, he catches him and taps him with a Minoru Special #1 set up for the crossarmbreaker.

PP: This was fun. I question whether or not they even need the guardrails anymore now that pro wrestling was deregulated in New Jersey, especially when you’ve got at least one guy per show who kills himself on the rails off a dive. My guess is that if they aren’t required to have mats at ringside (and while they really should, they don’t), then maybe they don’t need the rails either.

MATCH 3: BOOGALOU w/ The Sheik vs. J-TRAIN
RD : This match was sort of there. Lou hit some suplexes. J-Train did the dance and some goofy selling. J-Train did a corner 10 punch spot and did the dance on the ropes up in Lou's face, which may have resulted in Lou getting more than 10 punches. Train sort of did a boogie down second rope flashing elbow too. Lou kicked out of the piledriver. Lou ended up beating him with his feet on the ropes. Yup.

PP: The best part of this was seeing how much heat Train’s lost now that it’s been established that Ivan is a better dancer than he is. I like the fact that Lou’s on the heel side now since it seems like the JAPW faces are better workers for the most part and it should lead to some stronger matches for him.

MATCH 4: DEVASTATION INC (Crazy Ivan & Stryker) w/ The Sheik & Boogalou vs. TEAM THOMAS ("Explosive" Eddie & "Chiller" Miles Thomas)
RD : Pre-match, the fans are calling for Ivan to dance again, which he teases doing. The Sheik gets mad and says that they'll be no dancing. They tease some trouble between them, but Team Thomas uses this as their chance to attack. This was ok, but nothing really to write home about. There was a neat spot where Strykbu put one of the Thomas' in the Happy Monkey and Ivan did a drop kick to the guy. The finish was after a brawling spot on the floor, Ivan and Stryker get back in the ring, the Thomas set for a double sunset flip into the ring, but the Sheik grabs both their arms and they counter the spot and pin both guys. Post match, the fans chant for Ivan to dance again, the Sheik says no again, but Ivan says he'll dance if he wants to dance. We get a shoving match, as this is going on, "Tough Enough" Pete runs in and runs off Stryker, Boogalou and the Sheik. Pete tries to convince Ivan to dance and says he'd team with him against Devastation Inc. Ivan does a little dancing, and then immediately hammers Pete. All four guys beat the shit out of Pete again, to the point I get the feeling en leau of pay, they're working for the chance to beat the crap out of Pete. They give him some chair shots to the back, he gets hung over the ropes by Boogalou's chain and Lou just starts kicking him right in the back of the head. When they're done, Pete crawls back in the ring and though he's wearing a shirt, you could see a real sick looking welt on his back. He calls out Ivan for a one on one match on October 4th, though that was probably the concussion talking. Unless there's a show on the 4th I'm not aware of.

PP: Ivan is a riot during the pre-match festivities, mugging away as the crowd starts a “Dance, Ivan, Dance” chant. The Thomas’ dad was sitting in front of us again but Mom is a no-show... I can’t say I blame her after seeing the way Miles was selling his neck after the SWC match the previous week. The beat-downs on Pete (Pete-downs?) are getting sicker and sicker as Frank has sadistically booked Pete to be double/triple/quadruple-teamed by bitter indy workers at every show in Bayonne. I’d love to see MTV do a “Tough Enough Behind the Music” documentary to show what happens to the TE folks who didn’t get the “Get into the WWE free” cards. It could be like “Scared Straight” for wrestling fans if they did it right.

MATCH 5: THE DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (E.C. Negro & K.C. Blade) vs. THE SOLUTION (Papadon & Havok)
RD : Negro and Blade do some heel mic work before hand. The Solution are working face, though I don't think that's their strong suit. This was serviceable, but not really anything to write home about. Papadon isn't as big as Havok or the SWC, so the Scoundrels were able to get in a few of their double teams, like the Curtain Call/Back Breaker combo and the spiked spinebuster off on him. The Solution got off a spot where Havok pressed Papadon over the top rope onto both of the guys on the floor. Fortunately, he didn't try his out of control big guy dive. The match pretty much was drawn out, they do a ref bump, then the Shaolin Wrecking Crew run in and attack both guys, leading to a double no contest when the ref sees them. Eh.

PP: At the bell I duck outside, go next door to the Quick Chek (New Jersey’s thinking man’s 7-Eleven) and buy a large soda, then head back to the show without being hassled at the door. I love the Hall. This was just there as DRS aren’t nearly as effective when their opponents are bigger than they are. The Solution also have problems here as a) they work better as heels, and b) the short ceiling keeps them from doing top-rope stuff like their finisher. I was amused trying to explain to Bix after the show that “no, the Solution don’t do a Holocaust gimmick.” DRS need to bring in Smoked Out so they can do the full Tijuana opening-match six-man rudos gimmick.

MATCH 6: RAIN vs. JAY LETHAL for the JAPW TV TITLE
RD : Jay won the title on the previous week's show when Ric Blade turned heel as the referee and laid out Rain, allowing Lethal to win the belt. During the match, Lethal offers a handshake, which Rain wants no part of. They do a few spots where Lethal would do a clean break and again offer the handshake, which Rain would blow off. Overall, this was another good match between the two. Rain at one point did a handspring into a phoenix splash that was pretty amazing; the only draw back is he sort of landed on Lethal's knees, which I don't think was by design. It also looks like he's modified his dive to the floor as he's now sort of doing the handspring into sort of a corkscrew body press. Both guys looked solid in this. Lethal ends up winning by catching Rain in his tricked out piledriver. Since I've seen it from different angles now, it's more like a straightjacket piledriver with one of the guy's arm wrapped around their neck and the other pumphandled. Neat move. Post match, Jay helps up Rain and tries to reconcile with him again, but Rain's still pissed. Ghost Shadow runs in and jumps Lethal with a flying head butt. Violence! Lucha style! Rain ends up leaving, I think he jumped on the apron at one point, but then just decided to bail, but I could be wrong, I was sort of distracted. So Shadow lays into Lethal and puts him in a tricked out submission hold that has Lethal bent in half. Then Allison Danger comes out of the back and distracts Ghost Shadow and Mike Kruel runs in and starts being up those two, I think work over both their arms with a jujigatame. He ends up taking the belt claiming that it was his. Pretty good. I do like that it sets up the undercard. I'm hoping if they're going to do a 4 way feud, they rely a little more on singles matches, but it is the indies, so I guess we'll be seeing a 4 way dance soon.

PP: Rain’s handspring into a STANDING Phoenix Splash was all sorts of amazing. The match is fun but it seems like their booking has slipped a bit, as Ric Blade didn’t show up a week after setting up this big angle with him turning on Rain. So we were sitting there the whole match waiting for a run-in that never occurred. That said, it’s interesting as they aren’t doing a traditional “turn on your partner” angle. Ghost Shadow hits the ring postmatch and the crowd goes right into aping his “BOOOOOOO!” noises. It’s a cute little gimmick to put some heat on GS.

MATCH 7: THE HIT SQUAD (Monsta Mack & Mafia) w/ Johnny D vs. JAY & MARK BRISCOE for the JAPW Tag Team Titles
RD : They do handshakes before the match. Again, Monsta tells the crowd that they're working on their wrestling again. This wasn't bad as early on for the most part they take it easy and work some stuff, not as good as they did in the match with Wasted Youth. Early on they did some no selling of some german suplexes which I didn't particularly care far. The fans were calling for the wall spot, but with the ring moved over, instead they did two ceiling hit spots instead. They ended up getting the win with the Burning Hammer on Marc.

PP: This has to make Samurai TV before too long as it’s a battle of the familial Big Japan gaijin tag-teams. This was good as they apparently got the fiery death out of their collective systems at the Seaside shows and worked a straight match here with some “hail-fellow-well-met” handshakes in between sequences. Monsta continues his gimmick by dropping Jay onto his stomach with a double-leg, yelling “WRESTLING!” and doing a HEADSTAND into a sort of inverted Muto-lock. At another point they do a crisscross and Monsta leapfrogs Mark, who is so impressed by this that he immediately stops the match and shakes Monsta’s hand. I reiterate: DHS will be ungodly over in Japan if they get to do everything they’re capable of.

MATCH 8: DIXIE vs. THE INSANE DRAGON for the JAPW LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE
RD : Dixie and Dragon did a pretty good job in this as they played it out as more of a fight than a match. Both guys really brawled with each other and I think Dixie bled hardway from some of the punches. Dixie's head really seemed discolored from this, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were doing an extra good job of punching each other. The finish to this was weak as Dixie just bails out on the match and gets counted out. Deranged comes out to congratulate Dragon, but the title doesn't change hands on a count out. Ray Saeger comes out and signs a lumberjack match between Dixie and Dragon on the next show. I'm guessing this probably leads to some angle with Dixie getting a new alliance going with someone or Deranged turning on Dragon, which is something they teased during the summer.

PP: Sibling rivalry jokes abound while this is going on. “MOM ALWAYS LIKED YOU BEST!” Short but intense match as they were really laying into each other at points with Dixie apparently getting cut open hardway on his eyebrow. The finish sucked although at least they did it for a reason. That said, I was hoping for them to squeeze a cage into the Hall and do a cage match if they’re so concerned with people walking out on their respective match.

MATCH 9: SLYK WAGNER BROWN w/ April Hunter vs. HOMICIDE for the JAPW HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE
RD : This was pretty back and forth. Early on, Homicide hit Slyk with a Shining Wizard which sort of looked like it hit Slyk in the back, so kick out on the move wasn't too surprising. Slyk went for another near fall by hitting the underhook suplex move. I think it was supposed to be an underhook suplex into a neckbreaker, but I'm not totally sure of that. April did a few interference spots, which eventually results in J-Train running out and chasing her to the back leading to a one on one again. Homicide hits the Shining Wizard and gets the win and the title back.

PP: Short, competitive match, but really there was no doubt that Homicide was getting the strap back here. Upon seeing Slyk’s neckbreaker from a different angle it’s easy to see how we mistook it for a plain suplex the previous week as he lets go of the opponent’s arms and grabs his neck in mid-air. Looks cool. Once Train chases April to the back the match becomes a formality as Homicide makes a quick comeback and just cracks Slyk with the Blazing Wizard to regain the title.

RD : Post show, the locker room clears out and everyone goes to congradulate Homicide on the winning the belt back. Fat Frank announces that The Hit Squad have also been picked up to go on an upcoming tour. Both guys spoke, Mafia talked about how hard he worked to get on the shows from when he moved back to the area. He thanked everyone in the ring saying that they helped him get the trip to Japan. Monsta Mack says that before they go, he felt he could dance since he saw Ivan dance, so in the end, he danced and then Mafia danced. Kind of spooky that Ted Petty passed away just as the Public Enemy/Hot Stepper gimmick had just made a comeback. Overall, it was a pretty good show.

PP: This was the typically solid Bayonne JAPW show. The post-show festivities are really nice as everyone (heels and faces, including the Sheik) hits the ring and surrounds Homicide and DHS where they make the announcement that DHS are going to Japan. Monsta puts himself, Mafia (now wearing J-Train’s hat- hysterical), Homicide and Low-Ki over as “the Four Horsemen of the Indies.” IMO a “Boricua Four Horsemen” gimmick would be much cooler, not that I don’t want a “Four Horsemen of the Indies” t-shirt yesterday. People start clearing out and I’m already out the door (elbowing my way past some dudes handing out flyers for the 10/5 XPW show) when Ray yells at me to come back in as DHS are having a dance-off, capped off with the MONSTAROONIE~! from Monsta. Miraculously we get to NYC with only one work train to sit through (plus a 15-minute layover in Hoboken, which is neither here nor there).