Your Guide To The Authors
MH: Marcel Hillie. Paid in Full
PS: Phil Schneider. Don’t Sweat the Technique
TKG: Tom Karro-Gassner. Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em

BACKSTORY
MH: Here’s the second part of my Wrestling Road Trip Weekend up and down the East Coast. I roll out of bed and stumble up the street to Schneider’s who, of course, isn’t awake yet. Tom shows up and apologizes for not calling back yesterday and tells us all about his disastrous attempts to expose at-risk kids to culture. We watch a great tag team match between Tiger Mask and Great Sasuke vs. Gedo and Jado. Tiger’s not afraid to break people’s ribs. We also watch Samoa Joe vs. George Takano. Need to see more Samoa Joe.

PS: I was spinning the sweet sounds of Karaoke to the wee hours Saturday night. I performed backup on If it isn’t Love by New Edition. The ladies went crazy. Tiger Mask/Sasuke v. Gedo/Jedo is the match yall need to see. Samoa Joe v. George Takano wasn’t as good as Samoa Joe v. Yakuza underling Kohei Sato.

MH: We get going and Tom breaks old Lucha match lists to discuss and we make tentative plans to purchase $2351351234 worth of tapes. We also enlighten Phil as to the EMLL PPV results. Every once in a while, we can’t believe our good fortune at seeing Hashimoto in action. We make plans for the next time he tours the US to become Hash-Heads and try to make every show he does.

PS: We need to get so much old Lucha, Satanico v. Super Astro from 1985, Chaz Taylor working the American Chippendale gimmick, Dandy v. Satanico hair v. hair from 1990. Man alive

TKG: Phil so so wants to make an “Evolution of Chaz Taylor: The Nineties” comp, it’s scary. I had recently read in WON from 94 that Mike Lozansky had gotten Pg-13 UWA bookings. I search through match lists for the PG-13 in Mexico matches. Instead I keep finding Jack Victory in Mexico matches.

MH: I wonder if these two good Jewish boys are keeping Kosher these days and Tom tells me of his dinner party last night where he ate chitterlings. Gotta give him credit there – I’ve never eaten chitterlings and I don’t ever plan to. We amazingly don’t get lost on the way up, though it takes a while. We drive through most of suburban Philadelphia looking for this place, at one point seriously wondering if this show’s gonna take place in someone’s basement with an Exploding Christmas Lights Death Match.

TKG: The night before I had ended up at a suit-n-tie dinner party with a catered soul food buffet: chitterlings, yellow potato salad, fried chicken, barbecue, greens, pig knuckles, macaroni, ham, hushpuppies…the whole deal. For me the highlight of the evening cane while I was talking to a young Black woman from New England. She had gone for seconds and piled a ton of chitterlings on her plate. She tells me “mmmmm…This is the best crabmeat I’ve ever had”. I contemplated setting her straight, but chose not to. Sometimes it better to leave people in the dark.

MH: Eventually we make it, with enough time to go for a sit-down type meal. We hit Bertucci’s and the waiter immediately becomes Tom’s favorite waiter ever when he sits us down directly in front of a bunch of 15-year-old girls celebrating one of them just turning 15. Tom goes into Sensory Overload and immediately excuses himself to the bathroom. Over a fine dinner of Tuscan Chicken Wings and Chicken Margherita Pizza, we discuss which of Tom’s 13 Trophy Wives sitting in front us have fathers who are college professors with patches on the elbows of his sportscoats and which ones will get the nose jobs at 18.

TKG: I grab a menu for reading material and head to bathroom immediately. For those of you who don’t know, chitterlings is meat ripped from a pigs small intestine. By the time we got to Bertucci’s I think the pig was trying to rip the small intestines out of my stomach. I think I had to use facilities twice during the course of our meal.

PS: There was this really cute Semitic looking girl sitting directly across from us, she had an earthy look about her, I postulated that her father taught Anthropology and her Mother taught Semantics. I will guess she will have a three semester lesbian period during college. The birthday girl smiled at me.

TKG: The earthy looking girl was also my favorite. I also dug the girl’s field hockey player with the braces and the gray fleece. She’ll develop a blonde unibrow that resembles the Mcdonalds sign, and she’ll be mistaken for lesbian for her first three years of college. A third string men’s lacrosse goalie will spot her amazing legs and recognize her as a great diamond in the rough. Hopefully they’ll have three kids.

THE SHOW
MH: Not yet, as the PWF tries their best to convince their fans to not come back as there’s a Meet & Greet inside for those who have brought Golden Ringside tickets. Well, we didn’t see the need to spend an extra five dollars, so we have to wait outside in the brisk winter air. Now, I’m used to this stuff, but Phil’s not cut from the same stock as I am, so he’s complaining loudly. We eventually get in and we see the Japanese contingent arrive and we are suitably in awe. Of their great ZERO-ONE jumpsuits. We get good second-row seats, next to Dylan Night’s mom and kids and etc. Sadly, three Dipshit Jackasses choose to sit behind us. See, they’re the Sign Guys, and they’re cool. They take great pains to tell us so all night. Then again they would know about great pains, as they make anal sex jokes with Rob Feinstein upon their arrival.

PS: The offered up their “Rings of Honor” to Feinstein. These guys were huge tools, they had the whole “punk rock cause I like Blink 182” look to them. And out of 3 hours of incessant unending jokesterism, they said nary a single funny thing. Except when they said “I can wrestle better then that” something I wish Hashimoto took them up on. This arena is legit as small as Revolution Pro, and there are 40 people there tops. I love watching wrestling like this, the violence is so much more visceral and in your face.

TKG: The arena is tiny but I think the ring is bigger than Rev Pro’s. Hash has headlined dome shows. This was like seeing an arena band at CBGB’s. Fuck, screw CBGB’s this was smaller than the most intimate jazz lounge ever. We sat next to Knight’s kids and their friends. I love watching wrestling with elementary school kids around me. Unfortunately we also had the tools behind us. I have come to accept toolish guys at wrestling shows north of the Mason Dixon line, and to some extent I think northern promoters encourage them. The promoters see it as part of the “fans are the show” package. Any trip to Georgia or the Carolinas would tell you that you can have the fans feel part of the show without having a crowd full of assholes. I was hoping the guys wouldn’t curse or break kayfabe in front of the kids. That’s all I can ask.

QUIET STORM vs. CHRIS DEVINE
MH: Cool, wasn’t expecting this. A nice, fast-paced opener that’s almost like a Quiet Storm squash, with him staying in control for most of the way and getting the win fairly quickly. Plenty of matwork, they worked some nice exchanges, no problems here. I check my messages in here and find that Pete’s called asking if any ZERO-ONE Merchandise is available. Sadly, no signed Hashimoto headbands were available. For sale.

PS: This match was a little one sided, but really crisp. Mostly Quiet Storm, although Chris Devine does smash QS into a wall with a tope, a move which got a smile from Hashimoto. This was probably the best I have seen these guys look, and was a real nice opener.

TKG: It was neat watching what Hash pops for. The ring has a really stiff outer edge but dipped and was too bouncy near the center. On the other hand, the cables were really solid and I don’t think they needed to be adjusted for entire show. Having strong ring ropes is pretty important when your going to have Hash run them. Devine and Storm had a nice mat section going that eventually degenerated into the two-count roll up thing that makes me go “uggh”. I really liked the point where Storm was struggling to hook Devine’s arm for a suplex. Storm used his leg to manipulate and force Devine’s arm into position. It was a nice touch. Hash smiled. I predict both will end up jobbing to Mcculeys.

RED/NAOHIRO HOSHIKAWA vs. THE DAMNED
MH: Lost in the reverie over seeing Hashimoto is the fact that we also get to see Naohiro Hoshikawa as well. I’m happy. The Damned (Mad Dog and Draven) play a cruel trick on Tom as one of them come out with a noose around his neck, prompting poor Tom to hold out hope for a Texas Hangmen appearance. We feared for Red’s life tonight, as we thought he’d try to land all wrong on the top of his head to try and impress all the Japanese Cameramen in the house. Oddly, this doesn’t happen, but it is a good match, though, with the Damned going over. (Iron-Man Tournament. 10 points for a pinfall/submission, 5 for a COR/DQ) Draven – okay. Mad Dog – so not good. Hash is upstairs watching all of Hoshikawa’s matches. We all take notice of the Demonica, the Damned’s goth-chick valet.

PS: Hoshikawa is a tiny, tiny man. He is legitimately an inch shorter then Red. I had seen the Damned on tape before and they sucked it raw, but they were quite serviceable here. They hit their spots, and took a nice beating from Hoshikawa, I thought I saw one of Mad Dogs teeth fly out on a dropkick. Hoshikawa proves he is certifiable, by taking the Nicho spear-the-ring-post-fly-into-the-crowd bump…. in front of 40 people….against the Damned. Hoshikawa also did a nice Robert Gibson run into the ring, and let the opponents double team my partner.

TKG: Hoshikawa was full on Robert Gibson even going as far as to complain about use of closed fist. He would briefly do the same shtick as Hash’s second later (there is nothing funnier than seeing Hash’s second complaining about Hash’s opponent using a closed fist). Red was working a more ground based punch and kick offense than usual. Didn’t throw out that many of his usual spots. His body part selling, his speed and his punches were being showcased here. The Damned’s valet, Demonica, steals my heart. She doesn’t have the gross fragile eating disorder body of your typical valet, as she looks legit strong. She has strikingly beautiful eyes and has very fun/clever banter with her team. Draven is the more athletic of the Damned but plays more of a tentative/scared character than Mad Dog. Draven needs Demonica’s encouragement and incurs her wrath more than Mad Dog. Mad Dog has a nice looking last ride on Red and takes a lot of Hoshikawa’s punishment. Mad Dog acts as the workhorse of the team, as he normally spends more time in the ring than Draven. It might be helpful if Mad Dog spent about a minute less in the ring, as being in their too long exposes him.

THE SATs vs. THE NEW-ERA HORSEMEN
MH: The Horsemen are Paul Atlas and Jimmy Angel. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out which one was the one in the work boots and which one was the one in the Ski boots. The Horsemen lose me in a big way at first, as Work-Boots Guy wimps out on a Jose Leg Lariat, but Schneider and Tom Defend these guys. I come around slowly, as they are quite proficient at being southern heels. But apparently cheating doesn’t win, and Ski-Boots Guy gets wasted by a Jose Tope Atomico and Joel 450 for the pinfall. Ski-Boots Guy, to our delight, sells this for the rest of the night. Okay, they won me over. Wait, who’s this guy heckling the Horsemen in the back? Is that Rockin’ Rebel?

PS: I really liked the New-Era Horseman, kind of ironic that they were using the New-Era part, as they looked about as old as Arn. Very well worked heel stuff, and really nice selling. The fake Arn even broke out a nice suplex or two. I can’t remember in that bag of shit Rebel was heckling this match or not, he definitely started later.

TKG: The New Era Horsemen come out to the theme from 2001. Paul Atlas wears red trunks with a permanent wedgie and is wearing black work boots instead of wrestling boots. Jimmy Angel is wearing white trunks with a wedgie that would make Furnas blush. Anjel is also wearing ski boots. SKI BOOTS!!!! Both look to be “out of shape” (lacking the “ring polish” look that McMahon demands). This is just conceptually brilliant as it instantly gets heel heat. Two guys who look nothing like “what wrestlers should look like”, taking the name of a tag team that for the average fan represents wrestling class. I thought Paul Atlas’ wimping out of the leg lariat seemed really deliberate move to me designed to garner even more heel heat. The two do a bunch of old school basic double teams in their corner including the fist drop into the abdominal stretch that I had suggested for the Fontaine/Ooh La La team. They sell every move like old men about to have a heart attack. They have this gimmick perfected….Anjel even goes so far as to wear a g-string under his trunks to accentuate the wedgie. They are just a heat machine, and we boo them and mock them endlessly. When they do the figure-four they totally have the audience in the palm of their hand “ YOU’RE NO HORSEMAN!!! “…how dare you use Flair’s signature spot.

THE DAMNED vs. THE NEW-ERA HORSEMEN
MH: The Damned win here and take the lead in the standings with 20 points in a fine, fine indy tag team match. The Horsemen are really good southern heels. Somewhere in here, some indy-for-life moron named Guillotine LeGuillotine comes out and cuts a looooooooooooong promo basically designed to get Gary Steele over as a face. We immediately begin fearing some kind of booking fucking up the main.

PS: The GLG promo which was too long, came before this match. The match itself was quite a surprise, as all the hate the Horseman were getting turned the Damned into de facto faces. Fake Tully was selling his ribs like his was going to vomit, and the worked over Draven’s taped hand. During this match Rocking Rebel gets up a loudly proclaims that “I ain’t going to watch this shit” and walks out with the Sign Guys who had become his cabana boys at this point. I have seen the Rockin Rebel wrestle and he has never been in a match this good, he is utterly and completely worthless, won’t bump, has offense which is Jim Powerish in it’s exposure of the business and has to rely on racist cheap heat or else you could hear the roaches crawl during his match. However, even if he was Jack Brisco, to completely disrespect fellow workers like that in some misguided attempt to put yourself over, is about the most classless thing I have ever witnessed at a wrestling show. I can forgive the Sign Guys, they are idiot teenagers who spend their days working at Arby’s and sniffing paint thinner, but Rebel has to be in his late thirties, and has been a wrestler for a dozen years, he is a complete embarrassment.

TKG: If you ever fantasy booked a Worldwide semi-main between the Texas Hangmen and the Disorderly Conduct, you would have loved this. Coming to this show I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. I was expecting Red/Hoshikawa vs. SATs to be good, and I was expecting the Hash beatings to be fun if not objectively good matches. I had never seen the New Era Horsemen’s work before and expected the Horsemen vs. Damned to probably be the worst match in the tag tourney. I was more than pleasantly surprised as I think this may have been my favorite tag tourney match. The Horsemen get such huge heel heat that the Damned become faces here. The Damned do a good job working face and this is pretty well worked basic face v heel tag match. Atlas whips out a pretty great looking super kick. Many of Angel’s moves seem awkward, probably due to the ski boots limiting him. However much the ski boots may hurt his offense, they more than make up for it in the amount of heat they get. Demonica hits Atlas with a great whip shot.

Rebel’s behavior was inexcusable. He loudly proclaimed the Horsemen to be shit and the promoter to be shit for booking them and announced that he was walking out of the room in protest. You often read on the net where wrestlers and promoters criticize self-declared smart fans for their behavior at matches and the way they judge matches despite never having been in a ring. Rebel despite having ring experience, behaved worse than any self declared smart fan I have ever seen as he deliberately shat all over the workers and promoters involved in this match. His behavior was disgusting and I hope the PWF promoter doesn’t reward his behavior by ever booking him to actually work for them. I would also hope other promoters get a hold of the tape of this show, and think twice about using him on their cards as well. I’ve seen a lot of unprofessional behavior in indy wrestling, but this was about as unprofessional as you can get.

RED/NAOHIRO HOSHIKAWA vs. THE SATs
MH: This isn’t the barnburner we were thinking it would be, but that said, it was another really good match, with Hoshikawa laying in the kicks, and almost all of the SAT hijinks we know and love (No Spanish Fly, no Lariat, I’m guessing these spots get saved for later). Red and Hoshikawa go over to make things interesting in the standings.

PS: The match itself was a fine Worldwide style match. I am surprised Joel didn’t break out his lariat, as this was the match the photographers and Zero One officials were watching. No Spanish Fly either.

TKG:. Rebel and his boys return for this match. Apparently during last match they went to Feinstein’s table loudly objecting to having to watch a wrestling match wrestled by men who didn’t have perfect abs. Feinstein lent Rebel his latest issue of Inches. Rebel and the sign guys circle jerked while ogling the cover model. They were all too spent to mock us during this match. They did complain several times about being more entertaining than the action in ring. Having someone else stroke them off sure made them feel self-important.

Hoshikawa worked a mat section with Jose and Red seemed to be pared up with Joel. This seemed like an odd choice of pairings but everything seemed to gel pretty smoothly. Hash seemed to enjoy some of the matwork in this match. I would have also liked to have seen Hash get to see Joel’s clothesline, but it wasn’t to be. Joel still seems to be bothered by his ankle but neither lets it interfere with his work nor incorporates it into the match storylines.

INTERMISSION
MH: We call Dean with the customary Halftime report, but he isn’t near a computer and asks us to call him back later. We mill about outside while doing this and Rebel walks by and tells us that Red/Hoshikawa vs. the Horsemen are up next and that we may want to stay outside for the match. I leave the Rebel hatred to Schneider and Tom.

PS: We all respond with “We like the Horseman” I also said “I’ve seen you wrestle” but I am unclear if he heard me.

TKG: It wasn’t just that we “may want to stay outside”. It was that we should “stay outside”. He called the Horsemen an “embarrassment” which is quite the pot calling the kettle black. I am sure he either heard Schneider or he heard me say, “they’re so better than you”, as he proceeded to walk toward a wall while muttering to himself.

RED/HOSHIKAWA vs. THE NEW-ERA HORSEMEN
MH: We’re full-on in support of the Horsemen here, which none of the crowd gets. That’s fine. Interesting here, as this one ends in a double-pin, with Work-Boots Guy getting a pin off a knee-destroying splash and Hoshikawa making Ski-Boots Guy forget Algebra with a top-rope Enzuigiri. It’s ruled a draw and both teams get 5 points, knocking Red and Hoshikawa out of the running. Another good match, and again, Ski-Boots Guy was still selling his ribs. Around this point, the Dipshit Jackass Sign Guys think they insult us by calling us the Mod Sqaud. Meanwhile, somewhere in Huntingdon Valley, some 7-Eleven’s Slurpee machine goes uncleaned.

PS: This was really fun, as the Horseman are working hard for the Japanese press, including fake Arn breaking out multiple suplexes. Fake Tully also took some really nasty kicks from Hoshikawa, although Red was in for most of the match. Our friend the Rebel says “I saw a Junior High School Linebacker through a better tackle then that” to which fake Arn responds “You were probably dating him.” Outwitted, the Rebel then starts sputtering threats to “kick his ass” after the show. Now I just felt bad for Rebel, it was just pathetic now, I wonder if he still has the Eastern Championship Wrestling TV Title above the sink of his rat infested Philly tenement. I can just see him telling long winded story after long winded story to the customers of Tod Gordon’s pawnshop. “See then I feuded with Larry Winters after I turned heel on him, I was teaming with Johnny Hot Body and we were really over.” “Yeah yeah Rebel great, how much will you give me for this microwave.” I actually think the Mod Squad name was coined by Rebel, basically the name comes from the fact that both Tom and I are white, while Marcel is Black. At least Rebel doesn’t break kayfabe, and is a racist out of the ring too, better then Skinhead Ivan who was kissing his Jewish girlfriend at the JAPW show last week.

TKG: We tried to counteract Rebels loud shouts for them to just stop this match and send the Horsemen home, by cheering on the Horsemen. I’ll play the Blackjack role here and claim that the Mod Squad thing wasn’t meant to be racist as even Rebel would be smart enough to realize that Linc threw better punches than Rebel ever has. Heck Linc’s “Solid” punches got him thrown in the slammer. I think Mod Squad was more likely a reference to Schneider’s sixties hair and fashion sense, plus his penchant for stealing cars. It might have also been a reference to my stunning doe like eyes and girlish figure, which so intimidated him that he was afraid to respond to my insults.

This was a fun match. I think I totally marked out when Hoshikawa ate a stiff chest-reddening heart punch from Atlas. Never in my wildest dreams did I think one day I would mark out for Hoshikawa getting hit with a heart punch. I tend to prefer the heart punch when it’s set up with a wrist clutch as that stretches the chest out and makes it look nastier. But Atlas’ heart punch was stiff enough that it didn’t really need it. Atlas does seem to land his splash awkwardly torching his knees (thank God he wasn’t wearing ski boots).

THE SATs vs. THE DAMNED
MH: At this point, the Dipshit Jackass Sign Guys start taunting the Damned’s manager to come hit them with her cat-o-nine-tails. Well, Mad Dog says to them, “$10 a whip, boys.” Phil, Tom, and I all immediately go for our wallets. Phil sticks his chest out at her to whip and I wave a $10 bill at her. This combination cracks her up for a second until she regains her composure and starts acting like a heel again. Shame about that - I’d have paid up. $10 a pop sounds like a good deal, and Tom even confirms that he’s paid more than that. But I digress. This is the last match and The SATs need to win to tie The Damned in the points standings. Finally we get the lariat that we were waiting to see unleashed in front of Hash. The cat-o-nine-tails gets involved at ringside with a LOUD smack across Jose’s back. I don’t think that $10-a-whip thing is a work. You guys know how this particular round-robin points scenario works, right? After The SATs win, a sudden-death playoff is ordained. I’ll buy The SATs in the Hokuto/Toyota role, and Mad Dog has the heft to be Kyoko, but I don’t quite buy Draven as Toshiyo Yamada. Anyway, out questions about not seeing a Spanish Fly tonight are soon resolved as Draven almost takes it directly on his neck for the pin. SATs win and all is right with the world.

PS: This was worlds better then the earlier Damned v. SAT match, and was worthy of a tourney final. The Damned valet is a really good valet. She works a crowd well, spends a lot of time cheering on her team, reacts well to the match, and has a nice whip shot. She also has a really pretty face for an Indy valet, missing the “life’s been too rough to use moisturizer” skin that most Indy valets have.

TKG: Demonica uses what looks to be about an eight-inch cat of nine tails (I think leather) with light tresses and a studded handle. Not that I would know enough to be able to really say for sure. Honestly I don’t know. There are a couple dives into audience and some brawling in front of us. This knocks the front row seats away. Yes we now are in the front row for the main, thank you Damned/Maximos. Draven doesn’t look to land well on the Spanish Fly. Every match in the tag tourney was good. Nothing was spectacular but everything was good. I can’t think of any card I’ve ever been to where I’ve liked every match on the card. I’d love to see the PWF Hamrick/Red team against any of the other three teams that wrestled tonight.

I hope the PWF promoter is smart enough to bring the Horsemen back to run Hamrick/Red vs. Horsemen. I think if given the time that could be loads of fun.

SHINYA HASHIMOTO vs. STEVE CORINO vs. DYLAN NIGHT vs. GARY STEELE
MH: At first, we’re bummed because this isn’t a round-robin, but we’re willing to see what develops – BTW, it’s a four-way Iron Man match. That patience is rewarded as this is easily the best four-way match I’ve ever seen, and one of the best matches I’ve seen live this year.

(As all four guys face off in the ring and the ref holds up the belt, Hash takes off his headband and throws it at the belt. As we all wonder what kind of symbol of honor/manly challenge this is, he smiles, picks up the headband, and throws it right into the crowd, where Phil Schneider grabs it. So this coming Friday night, Phil will be in the Karaoke Bar where he DJs, putting the blast on every lady that comes in while wearing his signed Hash headband.)

PS: The best pre-match antics was Corino verbally destroying one of the sign guy putzes, just making him look like an idiot, to the point where all he could do was pathetically whine “I used to like you man.” Corino is gold on the mike.

TKG: As a rule, I dislike 3ways and 4 ways. As a rule I dislike Iron Man (most pinfalls in allotted time) matches. I thought whole night was going to work Starcade 1990 Iron Man style. That said this was smarter and provided a far better match. As all I had formerly expected was some fun Hash beatings and maybe a goofy angle where Rapid Fire Maldonado interferes in Gary Steel match. This also meant 30 minutes of Hash. I can’t think of the last time I’ve seen Hash go that long on tape and here I was going to see it live standing next to Dylan Knights kids and their friends yelling “Go Daddy” and trying to help them get better angles on the action. I also want to say that the too long mic segment by Legrande was probably necessary as Steele needed to be established as a face and his work alone wasn’t going to be able to do it. Cheap heat sucks, but Steele is such an anonymous worker that he at least needed to be established as a face somehow. The segment could have been shortened but it was a good move. I still don’t understand Randazzo’s claim that Hash is the Japanese Rock. In contrast, Hash seemed to have a thick head of flowing hair…no thinning at all.

MH: There’s so much to discuss about this match, but the best place to start – obviously – is with Hashimoto. He projected this aura that said “We can wrestle, but don’t make me mad or I’ll chop your left nipple off and then kick it back on.” It was if all of the other guys knew that they were in over their heads, but were determined to go down fighting. And all four guys delivered in spades. I have never seen Steve Corino wrestle a better match, having the conniving heel thing down cold, and trading blows with Hash throughout. Gary Steele is fine in this, but blows a couple of things and honestly gets outclassed by Dylan Night. Night is up for this one, working up to everyone’s level and taking the requisite beating for daring to wear a kicker’s outfit in the same ring as Shinya Hashimoto. But then, all these guys take an absolute shitkicking, with big highlights being Hash’s Cringe-inducing senton onto poor Dylan, and the One True Move From Hell – Hashimoto’s TOP-ROPE DOUBLE-STOMP onto what was once Gary Steele’s stomach. The falls don’t come quickly, but come in bunches when they do. And in true fashion, it comes down to the last seconds, with everyone tied up at 3 falls apiece and Hash kicking the fuck out of Corino and locking on a sleeper to get the deciding fall with 2 seconds left. Great match, I need a tape of it and so do you.

PS: This was incredible, I was initially weary of the stipulations, but it worked well, in that it allowed a sense of drama, without Hash having to ease off on what makes him Hashimoto. All four guys ratchet up the stiffness, with even the non Hash sections being super stiff. Corino has great, great punches; they look like Bob Sweetan at this point in his career. Dylan Night had the match of his life, as he stepped it up big and took a beating like a man, also doing some nice heel shtick, stealing the pin from Hashimoto after Hash demolished Steele with the double stomp. He also had a really nice mat section with Corino, as they did stereo submission reversals with Steele and Hash working each other and Corino and Hashimoto working. Hash seemed to be enjoying himself in America, as he worked in some American heel spots, including chasing after Candi (Night’s valet) with a chair, doing a log roll on Night, and even doing a three stooges nose pull. At one point he is pounding on Night and Candi slaps him, and he sells it more then he sold anything for Otsuka.. The end of the match was great, everyone is tied at three falls (although no one pinned Hashimoto) Hash just destroyed Corino’s arm, and it is limp at his side, he has to just throw headbutts. I disagree with Marcel as Corino was clearly the babyface in this match, the match is counting down and Night piledrives Steele on the floor (which looked like it might have concussed him) and Corino yells at Hash “COME ON MOTHERFUCKER” and they just have a hellacious exchange of chops, with Corino going down to a Hash sleeper choke at the bell. I felt spent, I was on a serotonin high, I have never enjoyed a live wrestling match as much. So much greatness, plus I have Hash’s bandana. The punishment they took was incredible, Corino’s chest looked like someone had left a steak out in the sun.

TKG: Corino totally credibly pulled off “tough shit kicker character” which I didn’t expect him to be able to pull off. I have seen Taz live (who Corino worked cowardly heel against) and Tazz was never able to work tough guy as credibly as Corino did here. Part of what made him look so tough was that unlike Tazz he sold and took punishment. Corinos arm gets worked on a lot in match and he sold it to the point that he started holding his arm limp and sold as though he were forced to give up on the arm and move to headbutts. Corino looked world class here, like he could be one of the top twenty workers in the world.

Dylan Knight also stepped up to the plate huge. Knight worked a more conniving semi chicken shit heel character, and was able to pull that off within the context of this match. His strikes and matwork looked good. And he ate a hellacious beating, including a chair shot on the floor from Hash and the senton on floor from Hash. I tried to comfort one of his daughters friends at one point as Knights arms looked beat red. At one point Hashimoto began running the ropes back and forth about four or five times before building up enough momentum to hit Knight with the meanest shoulder tackle I’ve ever seen.

Knight also leans in for a Corino superkick for a pin and eats a Hash DDT for another pin.

When Knights mom (filming) accidentally took a bump for one of the workers, Schneider went over to check on her:
Phil: Are you ok?
Mother: yeah, thanks
Phil: Is your son ok?
Mother: Don’t worry, he’s tough.

Knight was not only able to absorb punishment and show off his offense, he also was able to project his character, in a way that would make a member of the audience want to see him have a singles match with any of the other three guys in the ring. He got over his heelish character stealing a quick roll up on Steele after Hash hit Steele with a double stomp. Steele later avenged this when all the participants held Knight down for a pin and Steele got on top of the pile to steal that win. Smartly laid out, and worked.

Steele was the least of the guys in the ring but threw some nice suplexes and had some neat submissions. Steele needs to find a way to make the process of moving into the submissions look smooth or interesting. With Steele’s submissions, only the ends looked cool but the process of applying them was visually uninteresting.

Hash was charismatic as all hell and just a monster heel. He was Aja like in his willingness and ability to sell for everyone else in the ring enough that no-one left this match looking weak. Everyone was working strong here. No one looked to be aiming at happy medium, they were all aiming at the HAPPY-STRONG. I could have bought into any of the participants winning this match, and I would have left happy.

EPILOGUE
MH: We manage to not get too lost while raving about the match on the way back. We were all just so excited about what we had just seen that we couldn’t stop raving about it in the car. We were so high on the match we had just seen, we didn’t even care about the morons behind us or anything. The Hash-head thing gets reaffirmed. I am so glad I went to the show, and folks who were going to come and for some reason didn’t really missed out. We eventually make it back to DC just in time to put an end to the Politics discussion that had somehow popped up after we finished talking about wrestling. There’s no way I could make it home to bed after dropping off Tom and Phil to get anything resembling a decent night’s sleep, so I stay up and get to writing up my Weekend On The Road.

PS: Best overall wrestling show I have ever been too. Everything was good, and the main event was transcendent. When Hashimoto comes back to the U.S. you owe it to yourself as wrestling fans to go see him.

TKG: Man oh man. After the main I felt like I needed a cigarette. I had a full on runner’s high going and was totally blissed out. It takes me a long time to come down from the high , when I finally do come down it was like mesc where you think your done with it for a couple minutes and then BOOM it fires back up full blast all over again. I didn’t get any sleep till late Monday night. The card was solid top to bottom and the main rocked. I hope PWF promoter is inspired by this show and the crowd’s reaction to the main event. Man oh man. Lots of people claim that the puroresu product could never get over in the US. I’d like to point out that about 4 minutes into the main, the biggest rockin’ idiot rube in the crowd said, “Damn! This Hasihomo guy is my favorite wrestler”. Man oh man.