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RD:
Rev Ray Duffy, I'm walkin' yes indeed
PP: It was absolutely monsooning the morning of the show and I was
dreading the idea of shlepping over from the train station to the center
in this quagmire, but mercifully the rain slowed up over the day and stopped
outright by the time I pulled into town. Managed to hit Book-Off in my
Saturday travails, where I noted that they have a selection of puro DVDs
for sale. I could almost see myself getting the original UWF DVD set for
$150 if I had the cash, but why spring for that when MLW DVDs are available
for a mere $47? Coming to my senses, I spring for a couple of old puro
mags (Dutch/Maeda pics!) and wind my way to the show. Good sized crowd
for the shebang, including this unwashed freak a couple of rows in front
of us who would spend the entire show reading a D&D book and (we later
noticed) sneaking photos of different women in the crowd. Also a sizable
contingent from DARK MATCH 1: RD: This is my first time seeing Alicia. She worked heel for the
event. It seemed like she worked in a tank top, which didn't seem like
the best choice of wardrobe unless she had invisible straps or something.
I don't think I'm going to be happy until PP: Smart choice for an opener just because it guaranteed a big reaction
from the males in the crowd. Match itself was eh... DARK MATCH 2: DAN BARRY v. ASHE SAMUELS:
RD: Barry has new gear which I think was half green/half orange instead
of his old black and white Tiger Mask outfit. I don't remember a lot of
this. I think Samuels was the one a bunch of guys in the crowd were busting
on about being on roids. The finish was Barry getting dumped over the top
rope and landing on the apron. Ashe ended up catching him and lifting him
up with a fireman's carry and ended up hitting a move. I think it was a samoan
drop, but he might have been something like Rober PP: Samuels I believe is Lit from ROH using his real name. Boy, this
was one jaded-ass crowd even by NY-area standards as folks here were shitting
all over folks for their (lack of) size throughout the night.
RD: I forget if it was before or after the next match, but they went
to do an interview with Mark Clemson with Jay Lethal in the crowd which
resulted in Azrieal jumping them and there being a bunch of pull aparts
with them going to the back, then coming out and brawling again, then heading
to the ring and brawling some more. I was hoping that since they have the
partition out to separate the gym that we would have heard them bouncing
each other off it from the other side, or if there was a door in the partition
that someone would have gone flying out of it.
DARK MATCH 3: JAMES "AIR" NEWBLOOD v. JAVI SILLS:
PP: Pogo Pete Stein, No tildes please, we're British
----------------------------------------
RD: I ended up slacking and waited a while to do this so, this won't
be too precise. I meet up with Pete at the train station in
RD: This got pretty sloppy at points. Newblood I've seen a bunch
of times in
PP: Newblood is ridiculously athletic and he's gotten progressively
crisper on his big moves since we first saw him last year. If nothing else
he could always get bookings up in
DARK MATCH 4: PINKY SANCHEZ v. EC NEGRO:
RD: Sanchez who's announced as being from "The Neverland Ranch" came out this month to "Scream" by Michael and Janet Jackson. EC Negro was working in singles due to an injury to KC Blade, but that didn't stop him from doing his half of the DRS ring entrance, including the jumping for the high/low five into the yell pose. This was pretty good. At one point they were fighting on the floor, Negro went to whip Sanchez into the railings, but Pinky slid under the rails to the other side. He attempted something off the rails, but I think Negro caught him like for a powerbomb and bounced him off either the apron or ring ropes. Of the dark matches, this was the best. Negro ended up putting Sanchez away with a version of the Emerald Frozen, it looked like he grabbed Sanchez's arms and crossed them before dropping him on his head for the finish.
PP: It's the
MATCH 1: JUSTICE PAIN w/ Johnny D v. INSANE DRAGON:
RD: Pre-match Justice Pain did some mic work basically saying he was embarrassed how bad his match was with Kaos a few shows back. Pain had injured Dragon on a past show, not sure if legit or not, so he told Dragon to come out and try to get his revenge. This was kind of eh. Pain ended up winning with the Angle/Olympic Slam. Post match, Pain continues to beat on Dragon and threatens to give him the Olympic Slam onto a set up chair when Deranged and Dixie (who faced Pain on a previous show and got fireballed by Johnny D) ran in and made the save, going after Pain and Johnny D. This lead to The other members of the D Factor (that's what Johnny D called them), the Solution running in to make the save, this was followed by H20, Corvis Fear and Rush Magera, and All Money Is Legal running in leading to the 4 way for the tag titles.
PP: You sort of have to feel for Pain as that flaming shitburger
of a match he had with Kaos in February has really handicapped him in JAPW
ever since. All his matches since then have been pretty good. They continue
the slow burn on what would appear to be a Youth Gone Wild reunion as Dixie/Deranged
make the postmatch save for Dragon after Pain continues to work him over,
leading into the next match. They need to pull the trigger on this sooner
rather than later.
MATCH 2: THE SOLUTION (Papadon & Havok) w/ Johnny D v. THE H EFFECT (Deranged & Dixie) v. H2O (Corvis Fear & Rush Magera) v. ALL MONEY IS LEGAL (K Pusha & K Murda) w/ Dizzy for the JAPW TAG TEAM TITLES:
RD: This was kind of clusterfuckish with it being one fall and there being 8 guys and 2 managers involved. I'm not sure but I think Deranged got his bell rung early with one of the AMIL guys. The Solution did something that looked like the were going for the Problem Solver, but Havok powerbombed the guy and Papadon ended up jumping over him and sort of drop kicking/double stomping the guy who was folded up. Not sure if it was something new or a flub. Looked nasty though. Since this was all over the place, I really only remember the finish. Someone ended up eating a fireball from Johnny D, I think it was Rush. Johnny ended up running across the ring to do it though and it looked like his fist was flaming like when you held down the punch button on the 80's arcade game "Bad Dudes". Papadon ended up giving K Pusha a piledriver while standing on a set up steel chair. It looked real brutal and real ugly. Apparently it was the same move that gave Buff E a stinger the night before. It bent the hell out of the chair and looked real dangerous. I'd really prefer guys just play it safe and do a protected piledriver on a flat chair or even just do a spiked piledriver than do something that crazy.
PP: This was the worst kind of clusterfuck as we spent way too much time cringing at stuff as folks were getting killed left and right here. Finish in particular looked messy and brutal as Pusha was going down at like a 45-degree angle and we were fearing for his life. Not good times. Bad times.
RD: Post match, the Solution and Johnny D brag about how they've beaten everyone and they were looking for a challenge, which resulted in "YMCA" coming on and the Christopher St. Connection with I think a new valet in tow coming from the back. They confetti gunned the Solution and then kissed the both of them forcing them out of the ring. Buff E said that he though Papadon tried to slip him the tongue but told him not to be upset because he thought it was good. They ended up challenging them for the tag titles on the next show.
PP: CSC were originally booked into this match but were obviously
held out after Buff's stinger the night before. He also had the greatest
kayfabe explanation ever for the recovery during intermission: "I sucked
the magic stick and that made it all better!" w00t!
MATCH 3: "MR. WRESTLING" KEVIN STEEN v. EXCESS 69 for the IWS HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:
RD: These guys came in as a mystery to me as I hadn't seen them before, but they really tore the house down. Excess 69 looks waaaay too much like Rob Feinstein, to the point he might want to consider getting a mask when wrestling in the North East. Of course, this did give Pete and I to do dueling chat transcript lines though out the match. The main story of the match was Steen trying to hit his piledriver, which he traps the guy's legs and I think their arms too. He goes for it like 4 or 5 times, but Excess keeps escaping it. Excess had a really great move where he did like a side scissors roll up like Rob Van Dam does from time to time and then rolled into a nice armbar stretch move that was sort of part Rings of Saturn which looked like it might get a tap out before Steen stood up out of and dropped it into a samoan drop. Someone, in this match busted out a really great moonsault, but it was like 2 Cold Scorpio level smooth. The finish was Excess going for a standing monkey flip, but Steen catching him, tossing him up in the air and setting him up for and nailing his piledriver. Both guys looked good in this and I wouldn't mind seeing them again. Easily one of the top 3 matches of the night.
PP: Montreal guys were all ice-cold going in to this crowd and Steen's
gear didn't look like much for a guy who calls himself "Mr. Wrestling"
as he hit the ring. Then the bell rang and these two absolutely ripped
it up for 15 minutes. This was probably my MOTN. Steen was a total machine
here as it looked like he was just as comfortable working on the mat as
he was doing strikes and highspots. He did the aforementioned moonsault
and it was like one Angle or Kobashi would do, it was that impressive.
Excess had cool gear and hung with Steen the whole time, but his resemblance
to RF was downright eerie and we're convinced he needs to get a mask or
at least dye his hair or something. Steen teased his piledriver like a
champ and all the IWS "ringers" in the crowd did their part in reacting
to the teases, so when Steen finally hit it it was like Austin hitting
the Stunner in terms of the rock-star reaction it got from the crowd. Steen
retains the title and puts the boots to Excess afterwards for good measure.
MATCH 4: BEEF WELLINGTON v. SUPER DRAGON:
RD: Beef Wellington is not the guy who used to team with Benoit, but a younger guy who's from IWS. Pete was waiting for me to bust out the "TELL 'EM BEEF" line through out this match. As I've said in the past there are two types of great wrestling gear. Stuff that looks amazingly great and stuff that is so bad it's great. Beef has great bad gear, with sort of shorts with neon green and black Holstein cow design and a shirt with the cow logo on the front which a bunch of people ended up buying with "Ass Punch 1/4" on the back. He also uses "Hangin' Tough" by the New Kids on the Block with a cow moo at the start. Super Dragon got into a stare down with Green Lantern Fan when he came out. Beef tried to eye poke Dragon at the start of the match but it didn't work because of how Dragon's mask is and Dragon dropped him with an elbow. Beef got control at one point, setting Dragon in position to hit a 619, but when he did the rope spin, he slid out and landed on his feet on the floor. This was followed up by Super Dragon hitting a crazy tope which was about a foot away from landing on GLF. Beef was able to hit his Ass Punch, which is a punch to the ass from the top rope to a standing guy which Super Dragon did the great freak out and fall out to the floor sell for. Super Dragon ended up hitting the curb stomp (elevated surfboard set up where as he lifts the guy up, he shoves him face down with a foot to the back) , including one into the turnbuckles. Dragon ended up pulling up Beef a few times before putting him away with the Psycho Driver and a one finger pin. Beef seemed fun as a comedy guy and had a good presence. This was my first time seeing Super Dragon live and I thought he looked good. A fine match.
PP: After the previous match we were dreading the prospects of anyone
who had to follow it. I'd only seen one photo of Beef on the IWS website
and was convinced that he was doing a gay gimmick as said pic had him wearing
sparklers or something on his head. Thankfully this wasn't the case. Beef
comes out to mooing noises as a SEGUE! into
"Hangin' Tough" and the crowd is IMMEDIATELY into this. The IWS ringers
come through again as he gets a confetti shower from someone in the front
row (may have been IWS' Elsa Bangz based on her tattoos). Super Dragon
comes out to Faith No More's "Epic" and the 1990 theme songs are off the
hizzy here; he stops to talk shit at GLF and the "KILL!" chants begin in
earnest from our part of the bleachers. Match proper is shockingly competitive
as we were expecting SD to go through Beef like a bonesaw, but he gives
Beef a ton of offense including Beef's 619 (which I immediately dubbed
the 514). SD's ensuing tope comes within maybe a foot of hitting GLF, which
was when we decide that any wrestler who actually takes him out during
a match will be #1 on the DVDVR 500 for perpetuity. Shit, we will come
out with a 500 just to make him/her #1. The Beef Wellington Experience
culminates with him hitting the Ass Punch off the top, which the IWS fans
were calling for and the crowd were looking for as well since by now there
were a bunch of "FEAR THE ASSPUNCH" shirts floating around the crowd. SD
sells the punch by FLYING two-thirds across the ring, through the ropes
and to the floor; by now the crowd is totally into the Beef joke and this
gets a huge "HOLY SHIT!" chant. I'm already off and running for his shirt.
Near the finish Ray asks me if I think Beef's crazy enough to take the
Psycho Driver, at which point I remind him that he's questioning the sanity
of a man wearing lime green cowhide pants who came out to cow noises and
NKOTB music. Beef of course takes the Psycho Driver; SD picks him up at
2 so he can do the one-finger pin for the three-count. In a nice touch,
they play Beef's music after SD leaves so he can bask in the big pop afterwards. Fine
match.
MATCH 5: THE SAT (Amazing Red, Joel & Jose Maximo) v. SONJAY DUTT, M-DOGG20 & JOSH PROHIBITION:
RD: I think this was supposed to go long, but this ended up getting stopped. Early on the SAT's did a bunch of teaming, including what Pete called an ode to the Russians where they had someone in the corner and would do a bunch of quick tags and they'd stomp away on the guy trapped in the corner.
PP: I remember a few Techwood squashes where the Russians (Ivan/Nikita/Krusher) would do lots of quick tags where 2 guys would come in and perform the INFURIATING ENEMY PUMMEL on some hapless wrestler, always tagging out right before the 5-count... they would do it a bunch of times, like 5-6 times in a row. Even as a 12-year-old I marked big for that. Couple of tools behind me start making with the 7-11 jokes for Sonjay, at which point I tell them that 1985 called and they want their joke back.
RD: The spot that ended the match was Red and one of the Maximos holding either Josh or M-Dogg in the set up similar to the surfboard pose that Kaientai DX used to do. One of the Maximos ended up standing on the guy to do the pose, but looked unsteady, to the point that it looked like Dutt who was going up the top rope had to pause to set up the spot. Dutt jumped and went for a rana which looked real ugly and which had an ugly bump by both he and the Maximo. At that point he was clutching his arm and they stopped the match as the locker room pretty much cleared with a bunch of people. They ended up taking the bottom part of someone in the crowd's crutch to stabilize the arm before they helped him out. While we were sure he had broken his arm, apparently it was just a dislocated elbow. They ended up taking an intermission during this while they got Sonjay out of the ring.
PP: Ugly, ugly, ugly spot. Dutt goes down right on his arm and just
like that the match is over as he's in agony... Jose starts kicking away
at him for a couple of seconds but immediately stops once he realizes that
Dutt is fucked. They immediately call for an intermission as a bunch of
folks run out to check on him. This was pretty fucking nasty as you could
see the imprint of the bone through his skin. I head out for some air and
note with some amusement that Rahway's civil services have become one in
tending to Sonjay as you have an ambulance, a police car and a FIRETRUCK
waiting outside for him.
MATCH 6: BEST OF THE LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHTS: CHASYN RANCE v. GRIM REEFER v. EL GENERICO v. JACK EVANS:
RD: Rance's tights had a logo which was sort of a Star of David with an X in the middle or triple X's outlined by a top that looked like a Star of David. He's from Florida and they have some hick sections down there, maybe it's a label for Moonshine Manoshevitz. Generico came out to "Ole Ole" by Bouncing Soul and is from IWS. He has a generic luchador gimmick and works the crowd into doing "OLE!" chants after doing stuff. Evans came out and did the electric boogaloo. Rance was the first one out, but he did hit a nice move where he did a yakuza kick after vaulting off someone's back. Generico put him away with a nice brainbuster, though 2 or 3 guys had done big brainbusters as throw away spots earlier in the show. Generico ended up giving Evans a brainbuster onto the top turnbuckle while standing on the top rope which resulted in Jack bumping down to the floor. While he was down, Reefer eliminated Generico with a piledriver. I wanted a DQ call but I was denied. Of course, Jack sells his brainbuster and big bump... by going on offense. Jack ends up taking a suplex, it may have been a superplex to the floor I think kicks out of Reefer's rope walk swanton. Evans eventually got on offense and got the win with the 630 senton. OK match, though it seems like these matches are tough since they generally have been putting together guys from across the country who have probably never worked each other before. I kind of dug Generico as he was fun, worked the crowd well and had funny big exaggerated sells. I was bugged by the fact that Evans took a whole bunch of death bumps and ended up going over and switching to offense quick.
PP: I am sooooo stealing "Moonshine Manischewitz" if I ever become a wrestler. The Montreal guys all brought something to the table. Steen/Excess: great wrestlers. Beef: OK wrestler, stupendous gimmick and personality. Generico was probably the most balanced of the four as he had a great gimmick and charisma combined with looking pretty damn sharp in the wrestling sense. Really, all four guys looked good here. Rance goes out first after Generico hits him with this kick-ass brainbuster, which was something else they teased/built to well as his shirt has a) him hitting a brainbuster on someone, and b) "BRAINBUSTAAAAA!" in giant red letters. Rance looked fine in the limited time he had here but no one was complaining about him getting sent out. Generico follows this by brainbustering Evans off the top rope onto the TURNBUCKLE, which was probably the move of the night. Crowd loses their collective shit for this while Generico basks on the middle buckle... he turns around and is promptly greeted by Reefer who fucking NUKES him with a piledriver for the elimination. Crowd HATED this, more due to Generico being so king-sized than any pre-conceived hatred of Reefer. Evans eventually goes over with the 630. Fun fun fun clusterfuck (as opposed to the tag team clusterfuck earlier in the show). Rance should get a second chance with JAPW where he gets some more time, and Reefer is a guy who should get a big break with someone down the road. As for Generico (and the rest of the IWS gang), all you need to know is that by this point their DVDs were completely sold out.
MATCH 7:
RD: Kashmere was seconding Acid and looked like he showed up after
a job interview. Maff used "Oya Como Va" into a version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida."
I was kind of non-plussed for this as Acid is a guy I don't get the CZW
marks hype for and this was heavily shitty CZW style with them doing a
few spots which involved construction with chairs. Of course, this became
difficult as a majority of chairs in the crowd were padded, which was nice
for the people in the chairs, but the guys were looking for straight chairs.
They did a big spot with I think them building a landing area of a bunch
of chairs for them to do a suplex or bump off an apron on. Of course, it
seemed like
PP: I hit the facilities while Trent is making his entrance (he wound
up dancing directly through the spot I'd just vacated, which is neither
here nor there) and am just coming back as they do the match intros. Two
EMTs are standing at the door, and the female EMT losing it for
MATCH 8: B-BOY v. LOW KI:
RD: Although I didn't look up the web site, but they angle going
into this was that Teddy Hart supposedly was going to hire an assassin
to take out Low Ki and there were rumors going around it was B-Boy. Onto
the match. Wow... this was soooo one sided it wasn't funny. I really
don't care about the whole politics of guys with
PP: By this point the show was approaching the 5-hour mark and the
last thing anyone needed was a slow, methodical match... Ki giving B-Boy
nothing didn't help either. As Ray mentioned, you can have a long ass-beating
that people can still get into and find entertaining. Homicide vs Teddy,
Norton vs Shat, Tough Enough Pete vs anyone come to mind right away. But
all of those matches had a wrestler who people wanted to see on the business
end of a beatdown... not so here. It's a shame as this was (to the best
of my knowledge) the first time they'd run this match anywhere and it could've
been something special. I was zoning out like I was back in the upper deck
at the Elk's Lodge by the time this was over. As another distraction, the
Virgin Wonder I'd mentioned earlier got busted by the cops here... apparently
he'd turned around to take pictures of someone's girlfriend in the group
to my left, at which point they gave up and sicced the cops on him.
MATCH 9: HOMICIDE v. TEDDY HART w/ Jack Evans:
RD: This was the rematch of their match from earlier in the year. I don't think this was as heated as the previous one. Teddy did a few of his celebratory moonsaults after being in controlled early only to be leveled by Homicide. Teddy went to do the big moonsault to the floor, but Homicide ended up shoving Evans in the way and avoiding the move. Homicide busted out a fork and went to work on Teddy with it. There was a table spot where Teddy was set up on a table on the outside and Homicide dove on him from the top rope to break the table. Hanson tries to stop Homicide from using the fork on Teddy and gets decked by Homicide. Then Evans starts attacking Homicide. B-Boy and Low Ki both run in, but it turns out that B-Boy is allied with Homicide and Evans ends up eating the Cop Killa. Post match Homicide berates Teddy telling him never to come back, and calling GLF a "faggot" again. Ki ends up writing "DHS" on B-Boy's arm with Teddy's blood. I'm not sure if they're turning Homicide heel for this. In the end, they end up stealing Teddy's and Jack's sneakers from their feet and B-Boy stole Evan's do-rag. I was kind of hoping they'd throw the sneakers up on the rope which was holding up the title for the main event. I'm not sure what the group is going to go by. Da Hit Squad was originally Homicide and someone else, however, Homicide's also using the Strong Style Thugs name in USA Pro and that was a name he dropped during his promo, so I guess we'll wait and see.
PP: This could've had a ton of heat, but since both guys were apparently
banged up going in ("apparently" since who knows with Teddy),
they decided to keep this short. What they did was really heated as Homicide
jumps Teddy right away and it's on like Donkey Kong. Before long Homicide
has a fork and is just juicing the shit out of Teddy; Ref Hanson tries
to break it up and Homicide punches him out. Evans tries to make the save
for Teddy onbly for Ki and B-Boy to save Homicide return and the beatdown
is on. Amidst the carnage a second ref runs in and calls a no-contest at
maybe 5 minutes. Big "WTF" reaction from the crowd since this was billed
as a No-DQ match, but the postmatch festivities are really intense and
overall I dug it. I don't think this is a heel turn for Homicide since
he was still getting cheered by everyone and the face heat Teddy had in
JAPW has pretty much evaporated after he wasn't used on the June show and
thus was gone between April and today. Also, it's not like they haven't
tried Homicide as a heel and given up after folks continued to cheer him.
Anyhoo, this sets up Teddy/Evans vs Homicide/B-Boy at their Halloween show,
which I'd be all over if I wasn't out of town that weekend (going to Chicago
for my cousin's wedding).
MATCH 10: LADDER MATCH: JAY LETHAL v. AZRIEAL for the
RD:
I guess it says a lot about the fact that Jay has gotten to headline the
last two JAPW shows in
PP: Really strong main event with lots of creative spots, and not
nearly as death-intensive as you might expect from two guys in their early
20s at most. At one point Azrael places Jay between both halves of the
ladder and I'm dreading him doing something stupid like a splash onto the
ladder, but instead he simply grabs a chair and gives Jay some shots with
it. Later on they take it into the stands, brawling through our section
and up to the Lethal family where Azrael
sends Jay flying down the bleachers. He starts mixing it up with Lethal's
dad, who hauls off and PUNCHES Azrael to the biggest reaction of the night.
I love me some indy wrestling. Finish comes
down to Azrael trying to superplex Jay through a table, only for Jay to
reverse and put Azrael through the table instead with a huge powerbomb.
He grabs the belt and we immediately haul ass for the train station.
RD: Overall, it was a pretty good show, though it was pretty long.
Then again, it was an anniversary show, so as long as it doesn't get into
constant
PP: Strong show overall even with the disappointing Ki/B match...
way on the longish end but it isn't like they do this on a regular basis.