RD : I meet up with Pete around 5:15pm in the driving rain out front of the Manhattan Center. Pete beat me there so he ended up picking up tickets. There's not a lot of people out front, we end up getting front row balcony seats... in theory. We catch dinner and hang out in front of the theatre since I'd rather stand in the dry cover than stand in line for assigned seating. Observation number one for this show, this show was very poorly advertised, mainly due to the rumors that they didn't even have a license to run in New York state, which resulted in ticket master not putting tickets on sale until about 7 to 10 days prior to the event. People at the Manhattan Center claimed to not even know there was an MLW event there for several weeks and even after tickets went on sale, you still couldn't get them at the building they were running. We end up talking to Buck Woodward who says that a bunch of people from out of town passed on the event due to the fact they couldn't get their act together to get tickets on sale. The next bit of fun is security telling everyone that digital cameras, even stills, are barred from the building. Of course, this sort of screws up everything because a majority of the people came in either via subway or train or bus and don't have any place to put their cameras back. The doors open late, supposedly, there was going to be a meet and greet at 6:45 or so, but given the doors opening at 7:15 or so, I'm not sure of a meet and greet they really had. We get in the building and wait on line for the elevator. The funny thing is that Giant Silva was at the show for some reason and we got to see him go up in the crowded elevator right before us. He blended right in, you could hardly notice him. Pete and I try to get our seats and hold 2 for Tom and Phil who are still on their way in and stuck in Lincoln Tunnel traffic. We get to where our row should be... emphasis on "SHOULD" to find out that no such row actually exists. The good point of the lack of advertisement is that there is a lot of space and we were able to snag front row seats anyhow. As we were sitting there, they initially had a velvet ropes around ringside, they ended up carrying in some guard rails, which I imagine were probably the guardrails that were out in the rain while we were waiting in line. Next come the ringside mats. You get the feeling they found out about the NY State Athletic Commission's requirements at the last minutes. The ringside mats looked like someone ran into a local YMCA and stole the Lamaze mats and that there were going to be a bunch of pissed off pregnant couples later this evening. It really looked like a roll of bubble wrap would have provided more cushion that these mats. The set up for the show was the wrestlers entered from off a stage with your standard type archway with curtains and down a ramp which was more or less a long metal handicap ramp without any structures under it.

PS: So after the traditional Satan Pro bail, we assumed that we were not going to this show. However I finagle a car at the last second and we are off. Torrential downpour on the way to New York adds to sense of drama and anticipation, there were points on the trip where I had no idea of what lane I was in. I enjoyed the Jack in the Box style Tacos Burger King has added to their menu. We are cutting it very close and we get stuck in some sort of huge traffic tie up in the Lincoln Tunnel, DAMN YOU TO HELL ROBERT MOSES! As the minutes pass bye we are imagining all the wrestling we are missing, bye bye Dick Togo, see you later Shocker. I visualize arrive right before Corino v. Vampiro Luckly it is an Indy show so we make it in time. Our lateness forces us to pay $37 for parking in a special rate for all the turds going to the Rolling Stones geriatric review. Fucking Keith Richards, why didn't you OD like a respectable rock star.

PP: Obviously Ray's been galumphing around the Homestar Runner site. I leave work with the disturbing news that I'd apparently drowned in the East River, but it turns out that the Peter Stein in question was 21 and a Cornell Law School graduate. I am darkly amused by this coming 12 years after my grandfather (who had degrees from Cornell and Columbia) kept blowing me off at a Thanksgiving dinner so he could schmooze with a cousin of mine who'd been accepted to Harvard. Apparently getting accepted to Bradley, RIT, Missouri and two other universities just wasn't good enough for him. *shaking his fist at the sky* "Too bad he didn't have his precious Ivy League degree to use as a flotation device, eh old man? I'M STILL STANDING! YEAH YEAH YEAH!" Where was I? Oh yeah... I get to the Manhattan Center ahead of everyone else because I wanted to make absolutely sure that balcony tickets were still available for the show. I mean this was a real threat to sellout in light of the stupendous job they did in getting the word on the streets. Miraculously tickets are still available at the door, and the ticket-seller is even gracious enough to set aside two tickets for Tom and Phil. I give her their names and describe them for her: "One's tall with black hair, the other's shorter with glasses, and they'll both be talking at a million miles an hour." Before Ray shows up I check a couple of newspapers... the Post did a nice job in covering my demise but I was very disappointed that the Daily News ignored it. Ray shows up and we hit Wendy's for dinner before heading back. The goodwill I'd had for MLW is instantly lost once the Atlas Security Gestapo^H^H^H^guards announce that digital cameras will be confiscated at the door. They explain that the tickets explicitly say "No cameras," and I'm like "You mean the ticket I just bought 5 minutes ago?!?!" What's even better is that their reasoning behind banning digital cameras is so that people won't be able to put pictures of the show online. I try to explain that people with film cameras can still go home, have their pictures developed AND THEN put them online anyway, but they're not buying that sudden burst of wisdom. This all works out in the end, as they don't bother taking my camera at the door in any case. The fun continues as we start walking upstairs to the ballroom only to discover that the doors have been chained shut and the only way to get to the ballroom is to take the elevator. Really freaking brilliant. Someone should've yelled "FIRE!" to spite them. We finally get to the ballroom and I look for our seats... only to discover that they don't exist. The ICW guys are in that section and I briefly entertained the thought of kicking Jac Sabboth out of his seat in retaliation for that hideous SHOOT ANGLE~! at the March show, but I decide he isn't worth it. I explain the situation to one of the MC ushers, who says she understands (apparently this was cropping up quite a bit) and just tells me to find some other seats. This suits me just fine as I find a nook of four front-row balcony seats next to Buck Woodward's clique. Ray shows up and I head downstairs to the Highspots table. I grab the new Shocker t-shirt ("FEO YO PARA NADA!" on the front, Shocrates quote on the back) and also snag my 2003 Super 8 mask. While I'm kibitzing with Highspots Mike, this big guy shows up and tells Mike that he left some of his stuff at the hotel room. I figure he must be a worker as he's fairly tall and built. Sort of looks like Kurt Angle. The dude leaves and I ask Mike who that was. "Vampiro." THAT WAS VAMPIRO? Suitably mortified, I pay for my swag and head back upstairs so Ray
can hit the table as well.

TKG: Phil gets a car, calls me “hey would you be ready to go to MLW in 15 minutes”, and it’s like Ferris Buelers Day Off, “hey boss I’ve got the strawberry-chocolate squirts, I’m taking the day off”. This was about as last minute as physically possible. We call Marcel from the car trying to convince him to bail too, I mean it’s Shocker!!!! We make decent time, until we’re stuck in the Lincoln Tunnel for an hour. This is annoying as all hell. I start singing Lil’Trimm tunes to the beat of the windshield wiper to pass the time. And I still can’t figure out who did the Gucci crew diss track, “Gucci…you’re through”. Perhaps the only time I’ve ever been pissed that Shane Douglas wasn’t on the card… ”Please let Shane be cutting a promo right now”. Thankfully its indy wrestling andeven without Douglas, no actual matches start till 30 minutes after posted bell time. We get to Manhattan Center pay preposterous amount for parking. Run to door where two sketchy cracked out scalpers try to sell us Rolling Stones tickets by saying “psst. You want tickets to Counting Crows”. FUCK NO. I decide my Sissyphean Hell would be going to New York hoping to see Shocker and ending up instead in front row of Counting Crows show. Oh yeah and I don’t know what Phil is talking about…Richards has Od’ed, he just hasn’t had the common decency to stay dead. Yeah and I saw this interview where Mick Jagger talked shit about Ike Turner…so FUCK YOU MICK!!, where do you get off talking smack about the IKE?

PRE-SHOW Festivities :
RD : The show starts about a 25 minutes late, the tickets say the show starts at 7:45pm, the announcer hits the ring at about 8:10pm. Stephen DeAngelis is the announcer, they do the national anthem, after which, they do a 10 bell
salute to Ted "Rocco Rock" Petty. DeAngelis introduces Crazy Cabbie who's from 92.3 K-Rock in NY and more familiar to people from various appearances on the Howard Stern Show. The fans for the most part boo him, Cabbie announces the results of the lottery held to determine the matches for the MLW title and the Number one contenders match. The matches end up being Jerry Lynn v. Satoshi Kojima for in the title match and the two "losers" as Cabbie said going to the Number one contenders match, leading to Tayo Kea v. Sabu. Kea ends up coming out and plays the heel, being upset that he lost out on a title shot due to a lottery and taking exception to being called a loser. The fans chant for him to beat up Cabbie. While he's teasing like he's going to, Bill Alfonso comes out and says something to the effect that Kea is just afraid of facing Sabu. This leads to Sabu hitting the ring and attacking Kea. Then Jerry Lynn runs out and I think he jumps on Kea too, but I'm not sure, finally Kojima comes running out and it's a 4 way brawl before it gets broken up. Kojima gets a pretty good pop from the crowd and seems to be pretty jazzed about it. Phil and Tom finally arrive.

PP: Kea's a fast learner as dropping a million f-bombs will always get heat with a NYC crowd. We were all shocked at the reaction Kojima got as he was amazingly over for someone who'd never worked in the US before, much less NYC.
He's hysterical here, egging on the "Kojima" chant and making faces when other fans start a "Jerry" chant. Miraculously Phil and Tom show up just as this is ending, so they didn't miss any actual matches.

TKG: And we arrive 45 minutes late but before the first match starts.GOD BLESS INDY WRESTLING!!!!

MATCH 1 : FUEGO GUERRERO vs. SUPER CRAZY
RD : Red is under the Fuego Guerrero outfit. The outfit looks Rey Misterio-esque, at least pants wise. The crowd knows it's Red and acknowledge it with chants, which is funny as Fuego sells it like who doesn't know who this
Red person is you all seem to be fond of. Crazy looks like he's put on some weight. He seems to be working pretty slow, but it actually sort of works out as it's not non-stop crash and burn. Crazy also gets to power offense and Fuego does selling a lot of selling which he is good at. There were some nice spots especially at the start when both did a neat armdrag sequence including Fuego doing the spin around the body in mid air into a head scissors or arm drag spot. Crazy was mostly over, but even when he was getting ragged on by people in the crowd, he took his turn arguing with them in spanish. At one point, Crazy started a "Misterio" chant for Fuego which was funny. Fuego tried to do the Deranged/Rey Jr high speed sunset flip, but they messed up the spot. Fuego did more or less a skytwister plancha off the top to the floor at one point. He also hit the Rojo Estrella Press which sort of gave a way for sure who was under the mask. Crazy ended up winning with a powerbomb. There was some nice stuff in this and it was a fun opener.

PS: This was a whole lot better then I expected it to be. I really don't care for Super Crazy, and I imagined that Red might have difficulties working under a mask. Super Crazy has gotten really fat, and now looks like a guy who would work a Brazo cousin gimmick in the Guadalahara indies. I really prefer Brazo De Platino Jr. to guy who does alot of shitty moonsaults. I don't get the logic of debuting a guy under a gimmick and them having him lose his debut, but this promotion isn't known for its booking genius.

PP: Man, Helen Keller could've seen the Brazo joke coming from Phil. This was a really good opener. Crazy looks like he's on the vitamin T diet (tacos, tortillas, tostadas), but it hasn't slowed him down as he looked fine. Red also
looked good and the Fuego gimmick is cool, but MLW sort of shot themselves in the foot here by basically giving away who was in the Fuego gimmick. Red Star Press aside, Red did a good job of changing his moveset around to the point
where there could've been some mystery here if the website hadn't all but hit us over the head with a giant "FUEGO GUERRERO IS RED FROM THE SAT'S" sign.

TKG: I was really unimpressed with the Crazy in Puerto Rico and the Crazy vs. Eddy Guerrero at ROH. So I wasn’t looking forward to this. Fuego Guerrera was announced as being from Tecamec. Is he from Guerrera or Tecamec? I’m all confused. Crazy worked powerish offense on Fuego and the two worked real smoothly together like they may have trained in same gym or something. Fuego looked really good with nice kicks and pretty armdrags. I wonder if anyone has footage of Tecamec indies. Does The third generation Villalobos kid still worj there? I need to see Fuego Guerrera vs. Cristian Boy feud.

RD : Our next interlude has DeAngelis introduce Joel Gertner. Joel comes out and looks to be in fantastic shape. Seriously, he looks to be down to the weight he was when he was the substitute ring announcer in Philly when Bob Artese had taken off. Joel thanks everyone and teases like his big announcement was that he going to retire from wrestling, but ends up he's going to stay in MLW, does his usual type of announcement and then introduces his new tag team, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams & "Fear Factor" PJ Friedman. Doc gets on the stick and explains that "Samoyans" were too afraid to fight them, so they no showed, saying that if they were afraid, they should just admit it. Instead, they announce two replacements for them.

PS: Dr. Death has frosted highlights in his hair and looks like he is alot smaller then his heyday, he actually looks alot like Eric Embry. He is not as good on the mike or in the ring as Embry however.

TKG: PJ Friedman looked like a thinner PY Chui. He is not as good on the mic or in the ring as PY Chui.

PP: With the frosted hair, Doc now looks and sounds like the lovechild of Eric Embry and Bluto. FWIW it sounded like he was calling them "Samoyeds..." I want someone to do a Samoyed gimmick (maybe in Osaka Pro or Kageki), but I'm not sure what kind of style you would work when you're dressed as a tiny sled dog. I'm guessing Grady would've liked Gertner's promo more if he bloodied Momoe Nakanishi afterwards.

TKG: "Samoyans"? "Samoyeds"? I heard it as I heard it as Samoas…I thought Doc Death was casting aspersions on Girl Scout cookies. I kept on thinking with Embry and Chui in the ring they were lucky the Samoas no showed. Bauer had enough trouble getting a license without putting two Mempho workers in the ring with girl scouts.

MATCH 2 : "DR. DEATH" STEVE WILLIAMS & "FEAR FACTOR" PJ FRIEDMAN w/Joel Gertner vs. AFTERBURN & ERIC ADAMS
RD : Ok, there's a lot of confusion over this match. One of the two guys who got squashed in this match was local worker Tim Arson, though it seemed like the ring announcer called him Eric Adams and their website says it was Arson and Adams. So maybe it was a mistake on the announcing, kind of like how it was a mistake to let this go like 15 minutes. First off, the jobbers for the match stall a whole bunch before the match even starts. If the idea for this was to get over Williams/PJ as a monster team, they really shouldn't have taken so long to do this. This was my first time seeing Friedman, who they sort of push as a shooter, mentioning his training in jujitsu. The only really memorable things he did in the match was a nice dragon suplex at one point and when brawling on the floor, he took a really comically great bump where someone threw him up the ramp and he did this rolling bump off of it. Doc went through 3 of his finishers, a semi Oklahoma Stampede (no turnbuckle smash on it), a Doctor Bomb and finally the Backdrop Driver for the win. Each time he'd hit a finish Arson would run in and save the other guy, prolonging the match. During the match, I saw someone in the back giving the kill sign, it turned out it was actually Vampiro.

PS: This was so awful, it really needed to be a MVC v. O'Days level squash instead it was 15 minutes of fullness. This really had the feel of those long squashes Nash booked Wrath in to kill his heat, having Wrath v. Damien go 12 doesn't help either guy, makes Wrath look ineffectual and hurts Damien because Wrath won't sell for him. P.J. Friedman has got to be Court Bauer's high school buddy who used to hook him up with painkillers and introduce him to cutter girls with low self esteem, there is no other excuse for him being booked or pushed.

PP: Sweet baby Jesus, this match would not end. The big problem with this is that when the Samoyeds no-showed the dynamics of the match should've changed from a nominally competitive match to a straight squash for Doc and PJ, only it was like they couldn't be bothered to re-book this on the fly. So instead of a competitive 15-minute match, they gave us an excruciating 15-minute squash. The crowd booed every time Allen or Arson broke up Doc's pinfalls, and not booing in the traditional "Boo, the heels prevented the babyfaces from winning" sense either. I also don't understand why they would stick them with Gertner if they were going to be faces.

TKG: The rolling bump was amazing. Instead of taking a back bump, Freedman does a full tucked in forward roll. This went on forever. I was hoping Silva was gonna come out and 911 all four of these guys.

MATCH 3: SHOCKER vs. LA PARKA
RD : Parka's got the skeleton boots that say "ORIGINAL" up the sides. He's still doing the chair gimmick and has his trusty "lWo" chair. He gets a pretty good pop and gets a good reaction whenever he'd go into the dance. This was a
fun match as both guys did a bunch of stuff and it wasn't like they were mailing it in. The heat wasn't really constant through out this though. La Parka did a full on Jerry bump to the floor at one point which looked like he was going to land on some ringside photographers. Parka was dealing out some loud ass chops at one point he took off his glove and wailed on Shocker. Shocker hit a whiplash at one point for a near fall. During a fight on the apron, Parka was on the outside with the chair and Shocker hit him, when Parka bumped off the apron, he lost control of the chair which ended up hitting the female time keeper in the head opening up a cut, she walked off to the back under her own power though. Shocker ended up doing a tope right into a La Parka chair shot. They went on a bit more, Shocker hit a bronco buster sans face hump, when he went for a second he got an UN FOULE~! for his troubles. Parka ended up getting the win with his off the top rope somersault body block move.

PS: This was the match I came to see, and it didn't disappoint. Shocker looks fucking great and both guys had their work boots on. I was afraid that La Parka would just do cheap heat, but he was bumping big and hitting some nice spots and nasty chops. Shocker does the tope into the chair, which is a way bigger bump then he should be taking in front of this useless apathetic New York crowd.

PP: This was the perfect way to get the crowd back into the show after having been killed deader than a Donovan Morgan trainee (blame Phil for that joke) by the previous match. Shocker comes out and Buck asks us where our giant "DVDVR #1" banner is for him. Parka then comes out to Kiss' "Lick It Up"(!) sporting the LWO chair... further inspection would later reveal that the "Latino" in the LWO logo has been replaced with "La Parka." Both guys brought their A-game to Gotham, starting with some lightning-quick exchanges on the mat. Parka soon rolls outside and removes one of his gloves... we couldn't figure out why he did it until he gets back into the ring and hits Shocker with The. Loudest. Chop. Ever. It sounded like a bomb going off. This gets the crowd into the match big-time, and we spend the next few minutes looking for the giant handprint on Shocker's chest. I joke to Phil that if this match was in Monterey it would go 50 minutes with double juice... he responds that it'd be 50 minutes of crappy comedy spots. Shocker crosses himself a couple of times after the match, probably because he was thanking Jesus for not having his career ended in front of 300 obnoxious NYC wrestling fans. This ruled.

TKG: This was really great. I don’t understand weight classes at all as both Shocker and Parka looked bigger than Williams( who had what looked to be two Orndorf arms). The Shoker tope was great as was his mafia kick. He didn’t do his Budro Elbow (maybe cause Crazzy used it in the first match). Parka also looked really good here. I would have liked two more caidas.

MATCH 4 : JOSE & JOE L MAXIMO & QUIET STORM vs. THE FAR EAST CONNECTION (Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka) & "FALLEN ANGEL" CHRISTOPHER DANIELS
RD : This was a reshuffle on the card as Low Ki apparently had injured his ankle and couldn't work tonight, so Ki/Daniels v. Togo/Hidaka was switched to the SAT/Storm v. FEC/Daniels instead. The Far East Connection got a huge pop, especially Daniels and Togo. There were several "DICK" chants started up during the match. What can I say, New York loves Dick. It was funny as Togo was getting into it as he was bopping his head along with the chants. Overall, this was a fun match and they got plenty of time to work. We caught up with Green Lantern Fan after the show and I think he had this timed out at like 22 or 23 minutes. This was probably the match of the night. The FEC team looked sharp, the SATs and Quiet Storm had some daylight on some of their stuff including some really bad kicks by Storm. Storm was also the victim of an "Oompa loompa" chant by a bunch of people. The SATs did their spot where they do the Camel Clutch on one guy and the Boston Crab on his partner spot, which results in the FEC
revenging later on with the surfer boy with Daniels and Togo taking turns in the pose and Hidaka just opting for the drop kick to the face as Togo and Daniels held the guy. They did a big tease towards the end with finishers where one guy would go for the finish and the partners would run in for the save. Storm hit the Spinal Shock at one point, Hidaka hit his Shawn Capture kneebar, Togo hit a good powerslam and was setting up for the Senton Bomb when the SAT's caught him and hit the Spanish Fly. After taking the Spanish Fly, Togo appeared to have really hurt his leg bad and after Daniels did the save, he rolled out to the floor. He ended up taking a dive from one of the Maximos which I'm sure didn't help matters any. In the end, Daniels hit the Last Rights and got the pin on Quiet Storm. Post match, Hidaka and Daniels helped Togo to the back.

PS: Togo and Hidaka were wrestlers of the night for sure, but the face team was pretty fucking bad for most of this. I have no idea what happened to the Maximos, but they have looked pretty awful the last couple of months. Joel's
lareit even sucks now. Quiet Storm looked weak too, including not connecting at all with his Beniot stomps in the corner. Togo was amazing as he really looked like Eddie carrying shitty Edge for most of this match. People who were losing their shit for this need to check some Michinoku Pro as this was like Togo/Hidaka/Daniels v. an apathetic Gran Hamada/Orihara and the guy with a condom on his head.

TKG: Guy with condom on his head? Howie Mandell is working MPRO? Fuck Sasuke IS nuts!!!

PP: Storm and the Maximos came out to Static-X's "Cold," which is one of my favorite alt-noise tunes. Just thought I'd share. No one seemed to be complaining about the match being shuffled here as the FEC side was just gigantically over, Daniels and Togo in particular. The FEC were all really crisp with their moves and teamwork... Maximos and Storm less so. Joe L appeared to get really gassed towards the end of the match as he worked most of the middle portion. This turns into a big ole M-Pro stunt-show at the end as they do about 5-7 minutes of finishes until Daniels finally ends it with the Last Rites on Storm. Sadly no Fat-Ass Senton from Togo, who appeared to roll his ankle taking the Spanish Fly from the Maximos. While not a classic, this was pretty fun and I could see them working this match in elementary school gyms all over Hokkaido.

TKG: Not sure who was face or heel here as Togo and co were super over so started working semi face. Daniels curry man stuff in NJ has looked awkward lately but he looked real sharp with everything here. Last time I saw Hidaka live he was getting squashed and put through a table by Sabu, so anything would be better than that. And Togo was super fun, he hit a cool low grade senton and never got to go for the big Senton. The Maximos and Storm looked off. How many shows are the Maximos driving to per week now? Jose looked like an exhausted Puerto Rican Greyhound driver about to drive his passengers into a ditch. Storm tried to make up for the shitty kicks by hitting some really tight forearms later.

MATCH 5: CW ANDERSON vs. DEVON STORM
RD : This was an ok match, but I ended up going on a bathroom run during part of this. Anderson did some good work on the arm, it's just too bad I don't think I've seen him win a match with any sort of arm offense ever. I'll let Phil and Tom get into the particulars of the goofiness of what is and isn't allowed in MLW when it comes to the use of a chair, since this seemed to be the only match where they teased it was illegal. CW got the win with a spinebuster on the chair.

PS: Decent but heatless, Storm took some nasty chair shots to try to get the crowd to care. I have no idea what the rules of this match are as the chair seemed legal but discouraged, like the referee was hoping their conscience would get the better of them.

PP: I missed this match as I was talking with Highspots Mike and Lucha Mike downstairs while this was going on. From what I gather both guys were working face, which seems odd as CW's always worked heel to the best of my knowledge.

TKG: CW may have tried to work heel. Crowd is pretty uninterested at beginning. CW thinks “Hey I know how to get shitty ECW crowd into a match, CHAIR SHOTS”. So he goes for chair and looks like he was originally trying to work heel and hide it from ref. Ref kind of refuses to not notice it or be bothered by chair use. He kind of admonishes against using the chair by sometimes taking it away from the wrestlers, sometimes handing it to them. HUH? The spot where Storm puts opponent into chair outside ring to dive on him, looked better than it normally does. I wish Slash and Kobain would’ve harrased Bauer on the phone to get booked in MLW.

MATCH 6 : CHRIS CANDIDO w/ Sunny vs. TERRY FUNK
RD : Candido is out in his Terry Funk outfit. I'm not sure why, but they did announce Tammy as "Sunny". Tammy got huge. She also took a ton of abuse from the fans from the "She's a crack whore", "You fucked Bret", "Hey Tammy, where's Low Ki's chair", etc. Terry looks really old. This was not an especially good match. Funk bled buckets. Terry won with a small package I think.

PS: I liked this more then Ray, both guys bumped big and Funk bled huge. I was confused by Candidos valet as I thought I read that Anna Nicole Smith was going to work for the WWE. At one point a hideously bloody Funk performs analingus on Tammy which has to be the craziest bump in wrestling this year. Putting an open cut next to Tammy's ass? That is just begging for facial chlymedia.

PP: This had its moments as Funk was bumping like a freak. This was also painful to watch at times for the same reason. Tammy comes out with Candido and the throwbacks with Buck immediately start a "Show your tits" chant. SWEET GOD, NOOOOOOOOOO! One of the anti-drug lobbies really needs to sign Tammy up. "My name is Chad and my anti-drug is seeing that spread Tammy did for Wrestling Vixxxens."

TKG: This was streetfight rules I think, but who cares since chairs I think are legal in MLW. I liked this match a lot. Both guys were in their Renaissance festival pants. The opening mat reversal section was really smooth. Both guys have nice punches and the match moved from one section to the next really well. There were a couple awkward spots including Candido screwing up his signature ladder spot. But this was far far better than I expected it to be. Some one started a “you fucked Bret Hart chant” at Tammy which Phil misheard. “Huh, she fucked Black Bart?”. I had nightmares about the three way with Tammy and the Desperados. Dead Eye Dick, “Hey Dutch give me the speculum. I’m gonna go look for Stan Hansen”

MATCH 7 : STEVE CORINO vs. VAMPIRO vs. THE SANDMAN in a 3 Way Street Fight
RD : The initially starts out as a street fight between Corino and Vampiro. Corino gets on the mic and makes fun of "Vam-Pyro" for working in WCW and sucking up to Russo while he was in ECW. Vamp said basically said fuck Russo
and fuck WCW and said the only reason he didn't work ECW is because Heyman was afraid he'd have to pay him and that he'd beat up all the jobbornies there. So, by burying ECW, Vamp more or less turns himself heel. So they get ready to go, Sandman's music hits and he comes out. And here I thought they arrested the guys responsible for Bumfights. Anyway, this turns into a 3 way, Vamp hits the Michinoku Driver as like his second move. This is a cluster. We all cringe as Sandman sets up a ring barrier on 4 chairs and then superplexes Corino on it. I don't like guys mailing stuff in, but I have no problem with people not being a dumb ass. So after killing himself and Corino, Vamp takes the opportunity and pins Sandman. Corino and Vamp go at it some more with Vamp hitting a lot of kicks and stuff. I'm not sure if Corino hit it or not, but I know he teased the old school explusion at some point. Corino got the win when he hit a stunner off the second rope on Vamp for the win.

PS: Corino has a contract in Japan he shouldn't be bumping this big in front of a shitty crowd to carry useless Vamp and boozed up Sandman. I don't care how much Cort Bauer's daddy paid him. This match sucked fucking ass, Vampiro was the worst worker on the card, and that included P.J. Friedman and the two shmoes he wrestled.

PP: Peaches and Tyler had been hanging out on the stage at some points during the night so it was pretty much a given that Sander would be showing up sooner or later. Vamp's looked REALLY good in EMLL as of late, so it was pretty
disappointing to see him mail this match in like he did. I also could've gone without another Corino blade-job. Phil and Tom were convinced that Sandman was only there to do the job so neither Vamp or Corino would have political problems with their respective offices in Japan. So Sander gets eliminated and we find out that it's an elimination match. Ooooookay, there goes that theory. Tom and Phil spend most of the match looking for this skinhead in a Skrewdriver shirt so they can peg coins or something at him.

TKG: Sandman looks in ok shape at start. I’m looking forward to seeing Vampiro in PR, but here he looked like quite the poor man’s Chris Champion. He didn’t look as good as current hospitalized Chris Champion. After Rays comment about this being bum fights, I gave up on the match and went to the merchandise table where I tried to bait the skinhead into buying the Doc Chan mask. “Cool Skrewdriver, I’m a big fan of that Swishahouse Playas sound. I never thought he was as good as Lil Flip though”

MATCH 8 : TAYO KEA vs. SABU w/ Bill Alphonso
RD : This is for the number one contendership for the MLW title. Kea hits some wicked chops during this. Early on Sabu tries to set up a triple jump plancha, but he can't find a folding chair to do it with. Eventually he gets it and does the move. This was actually pretty good, Sabu didn't really seem to blow anything too bad and I don't really recall him taking way to long to set up something aside from him being unable to find the chair the one time. Kea hit his kick combo at one point. They did do a table spot where they steal the time keeper's really tiny table and Sabu splashes him through it. Kea ended up getting a clean pin after hitting the Hawaiian Smasher, then a fireman's carry into a neckbreaker and then the Hawaii 5-0 (torture rack into a neck breaker) to pin Sabu.

PS: This may have been the match of the night, and was amazingly better then it had any right to be. I got the sense that Kea may have been a 1995 ECW fan, as he decides to wrestle a Sabu match, and does it well. Sabu takes a beating like a man, and hits all of his big spots cleanly. I imagine these two may have worked each other in a RWTL at some point, but one would expect a huge style clash which wasn't really there.

PP: This was the best Sabu match I've seen in a LONG time as he hit everything he attempted. The missing chair for the Triple Jump was pretty goofy but you can't really blame him for it. At one point they go back into the ring and Sabu places Kea's neck on the unfolded chair, leading us all to fear Sabu doing something really intensely stupid to Kea's neck. Thankfully nothing comes of it. Sabu jobs clean as a sheet off the Hawaii Five-0, which is the cleanest Sabu job I can ever remember seeing. I don't know if this completely makes up for that horrible, horrible finish to the Ki match in January, but it's a good start.

TKG: This was the match of the night. Shockingly good. This starts with Sabu working the mat and Kea going for the dives. Yep you heard that right. Sabu on the mat and Kea with the dives…and it works. Kea throws nasty stiff chops and kicks. I think it was actually Kea who placed his own neck on top of the chair as though he was setting up for a really nasty spot. Was Kea a big ECW fan back in his Mossman days or something? Sabu looked at him and went “hey there’s no need to do that kind of dangerous garbage spot” and moves Kea’s head off top of chair and gently places it on ring mat. This was really good. Bauer needs to book the Curtis Iaukea/Kea vs. Sheik/Sabu tag RIGHT NOW.

MATCH 9 : JERRY LYNN vs. SATOSHI KOJIMA for the vacated MLW Title
RD : By this point it was around 11 o'clock and some people were filtering out. Kojima's ring entrance gear was neat. It was like an orange version of Hayabusa's old ring gear with a semi hockey mask on. It was like he was Lord
Humongous. This was mostly Kojima, with Lynn getting some flashes of stuff, but Kojima dominated hitting a bunch of stuff. He got some chants and you could tell he was into it, especially when he went for his corner elbow smash/top rope elbow drop combo. He really reddened up Lynn with some chops during this too. Kojima ends up winning with the lariat. Post match, he thanks everyone and says some words and english. I believe he said "My name is Satoshi Kojima. I wrestling for All Japan Pro Wrestling. I love sushi, tempura, karaoke... and New York City" and said he hoped to come back to defend the title. After he had one the belt, Tayo Kea was standing on the stage, teasing the up coming title match.

PS: This was a fun match, Lynn who is about 5'4 did not look significantly shorter then Kojima. Kojima takes about 65% of this match, but his offense looks really great so I didn't mind. Lynn kept it simple so didn't annoy me like he
occasionally does. It was fun to see Kojima like, although not the orgasmic experience that live Hashimoto was.

PP: Kojima's "Hayabusa Meets the Phantom of the Opera" outfit was AMAZING. I was afraid he was going to wrestle his match dressed like that, but thankfully he stripped down to his normal ring gear once the bell rung. This was good. Kojima's another Japanese worker with the crazy charisma going for him, although I can see where Phil wouldn't have had the same Hash-level dorkout here. After all he was maybe two feet away from the PWF ring when Hash was in, whereas we were all the way up in the balcony here. Lots of dueling chants for both guys, and I still can't get over how well folks reacted for Kojima here. Kojima wins the prestigious MLW title with the Koji Cutter followed by a lariat for the pin, and we hit the street as Kea comes back out and we have a stare-down between him and Kojima.

TKG: Kojima is shorter than I expected. My memory of Lynn vs. Taka was that Taka was taller than Lynn. Kojima looked thicker but not much taller. Kojima was neither as thick or as tall as Shoker (who worked as a NJ junior. Kojima was really over with the crowd and him and Lynn worked well together. Kea came out at end to watch and this distracts crowd weaned on ECW/WWF as they expected a run in.

PS: I chat with Green Lantern Fan for a while, and head to the worlds most expensive parking lot. We spot the group of Skinheads, including the Rockabilly Skinhead with leather jacket, no shirt and Val Kilmer as Elvis sunglasses. It
looked liked he headed the Race Metal version of the Strokes or something. He had a cute junky girlfriend who I wanted to infest with my verminous spremitoza. I considered socking the shit out of them, as I missed out on pounding skinheads during my Berkeley CA youth, but I decided against spending the night in an NYC jail.

TKG: Exactly who do the skinheads root for in a show with a Mexican vs. a Puerto Rican, a two Japanese guys and a lapsed catholic vs. two Puerto Ricans and the race traitor who hangs out with them, and a semi main of a Hawaiian vs an Arab. I think the ref was Polish so its not like they could root for him either. And that junky girlfriend was not pretty, she was all concave looking. I like my skinhead girls to have that worlds cutest bulldyke who will take it in the ass look: be short with large asses, have the suede haircuts, and the ringlets. Those are the ones who will swallow the last drop of my Juden Demon. The junkie didn’t look like she even swallows her breakfast. I guess Phil is a little more militant than I am: I prefer to make the anti-Semites enjoy the taste of Zion, he wants to make them gag on it. She looked to be built for gagging.

RD : Post show we head out, I end up nabbing a ride with Phil and Tom under the guise I could find them _THE_ Dunkin' Donuts in town. Overall it was a pretty good show, everything got time, which is good thing in some cases (like the 6 man) and bad in others (like the Doc match). MLW sort of misses out on advertising their next show, having the date or even having tickets for sale for it, so who knows what they're gonna draw for that. If they're in the city, I'll probably hit it the show again, but while the lineups look promising, I'm not sure if I put a lot of stock in the direction of the company.

PS: I really liked how Ray presented the Dunkin Donuts as if he was doing us this huge favor by driving him home. Like the Dunkin Donuts was Terra Del Fuego or something. We had the epically long ride back to D.C. where we
masochistically listened to 80's radio suffering through Human League waiting for a good Duran Duran song.

TKG: I like Phil’s revisionist history here. Suffered through Human League? Like they’re gonna play a lot of Fad Gadget on arrow 90something “the best of the 80s and more”. “More” turned out to be Hootie and the Blowfish and the Spin Doctors. We were happy whenever Human League came on. Plus I’d get confused at the start of every Human League tune…”wow are they playing Stephin Merrit?” which was always amusing. We’d suffer through marathons of Tracy Chapman, Europe, Midnight Oil, Billy Joel and John Cougar Mellencamp…hoping that they’d eventually break it up with a Human League tune. Human League actually are a lot better than I remember them being as they’re kind of a fine male version of Martika. “Open your heart”, “Don’t you want me”, and that song with the line about Budah and sericulture are all nice lil tunes. In the end a fun show everything given alot of time wether it needed it or not.

PP: It would've been hard for this show to disappoint live with all of the talent they brought in, and it did not disappoint. As many horror stories as I heard about their first show, they seemed to get rid of those problems (*KOFF* *SHANE DOUGLAS*) and this was a fine sophomore effort. Every match got time to develop... whether it needed to or not as the Williams/PJ vs. Samoyeds stand-ins match showed. Post-show we get the official match times from Green Lantern Fan and I hit the subway, where I bump into a fellow ESC (Metrostars "ultras" group) member and we bemoan their season-ending collapse before I get home.

PS: I enjoyed the show, but the ECW reject crowd may have been one of the worst I have ever been around. No sustained heat, tons of stupid chants, made me hate the East Coast over again. I can't imagine the amount of money they lost on this show, but I do appriciate Bauer losing money for me. I am not sure I will take the ride again, but more Shocker will go along way to getting my $20 again, which should buy Court a nice tie for the Bankruptcy hearing.