GSR

A ‘Loser Leaves NWA Wildside For 30 Days’ match and with both of these being staples of the company Steven Prazak cant imagine Wildside without either. Bliss is walking gingerly and wearing a knee brace on his left leg after an earlier attack by the Cole twins. He still manages to get the better of the opening exchanges and Styles is quickly out on the floor with Jeff G. Bailey complaining to referee James Hanson about his hair being pulled, Bliss pulling his tights etc. Hanson gets in the way of an Irish whip as Romeo ends up colliding with him in an ugly looking spot. Release Fisherman’s suplex by A.J. Both go for a running crossbody which Bliss gets the better of. He bars the arm and Bailey is trying to pull his man towards the ropes, caught in the act mind by Hanson. Styles backdrops Bliss over the top rope and he lands hard on the wooden floor, aggravating that already injured leg. Shooting Star press from the top turnbuckle to the outside! Bliss launches A.J. overhead into the guard rail, however as the referee then checks on him, Bailey kicks and stomps away at Romeo’s knee. Hanson does a real poor job here in his attempts of acting like he can’t see what’s going on. Styles thinks that the knee is the way to go as he starts focussing his attack on it. Brainbuster followed by a high frog splash, Bliss barely getting a shoulder up. Romeo reverses the flying crossbody, using his own momentum, however is unable to keep A.J. down for the three. More interference from Bailey, using every opportunity to get in some digs to that knee. Desperation neckbreaker by Bliss. For some reason he starts climbing the turnbuckles but has to stop due to that bad wheel and Styles hits an ‘Ace Crusher’. Pretty foolish on Romeo’s part there even attempting that. He backdrops Styles over and onto the apron, then snaps the back of his neck across the top rope. The action takes to the floor again, Bliss giving Styles a “tour of the front row” as he chops him on each side of the arena, A.J. taking a backwards bump over the barricade into the front row each time. Interesting point from the commentator’s who suggested that maybe Bliss should’ve stayed in the ring, rested that leg and looked for the count-out, but that isn’t his style. Back inside and for some reason Bliss is again trying to climb the turnbuckles. He does manage it, although is so slow that Styles meets him up there and hiptosses him to the mat. 450 splash is missed, Bliss rolling out the way. For a third time he goes up top and once more A.J. is up after him. Why he is persisting with this strategy I don’t know. Well this time it does pay, off as he counters the hiptoss with a bulldog. He makes the cover and Hanson counts the three. What he didn’t see though due to his positioning was Bailey putting Styles’ foot over the bottom rope. Despite not seeing it, after JGB points to A.J.’s foot and where it is, he orders the match to continue. FFS, for a fourth time Bliss goes to the top, Styles falling into the ropes and causing him to take a great tumble to the outside. Bailey rolls him back into the ring, top rope legdrop by Styles and although Bliss gets a foot over the ropes, Bailey this time pushes the foot off. A.J. getting the three as Romeo Bliss must leave Wildside for thirty days. Some irate fans try to explain to the referee what just went down, but despite being prepared to order the match to restart on the word of known cheat, troublemaker and all around bad guy Jeff G. Bailey, when a group of fans tell him what happened he’s not listening. An infuriating match for me. Bliss’s strategy of constantly going to the top, on a bad leg that he was struggling to stand on, made no sense to me and I couldn’t understand why he would continue to do so. Ultimately that was his downfall too. The official also came across as terribly incompetent, between getting in the way of the wrestlers, his efforts of “not seeing” Bailey’s interference and in the final few minutes. I didn’t expect to going in, but I preferred their TV match to this one.

Simon & Swinger & C.W. have a problem. Considering they’re interrupting Joel Gertner just as he’s finishing saying “Well, well, well”, I reckon they must’ve had a gutful of his smutty, innuendo laden little poems. ‘Tough Guy’ Simon still has a score to settle from the PPV and wants to fight “four eyes” (Joey Styles), thinking that he’s not so tough without a microphone in his hand. Maybe he should ask Bradshaw how tough Styles is. He takes exception to the way that he talks about them and thinks he has no right to criticise seeing as neither he nor Gertner have ever stepped in the ring themselves. Styles says that is true, however at one point Gertner was a successful manager and has got a couple of kids who would love to kick their ass. Christian York and Joey Matthews step through the curtain but that still only makes it three on two. Gertner continues that when he managed the Dudleys there was one man who was a constant thorn in his side who he now has a lot of respect for, enter Tommy Dreamer making his return after injury. Matchmaker Tommy has a poem of his own, declaring the match ‘Falls Count Anywhere’. After an initial slugfest in the aisle things take a more traditional route as everyone gets a brief moment to shine in the ring. Springboard bulldog by York on Swinger, Simon Series, C.W. with the Ferris Wheel etc. Not before too long though everyone is back on the outside as the six battle it out around the Mid-Hudson Civic Centre. Anderson tries to dump Dreamer off the bleachers, eventually managing to do so. York has been busted open at some point, although as there are three separate fights taking place it’s tricky to keep an eye on everything that’s going down. Matthews is bleeding too now, even worse than his regular partner. Great delayed superplex by C.W. holding Matthews upside down. As he heads back up top York gives him a push causing him to crotch himself. Anderson kicks out after the ‘Rebel Yell’ and then York does the same following a ‘Problem Solver’. A Simon pescado accidentally takes out Swinger as we see that Dreamer is bleeding also. C.W. counters the ‘Spicolli Driver’ with a spinebuster before collecting a table from under the ring which he bridges upright in the corner. He looks for a second spinebuster but this time Dreamer is the one doing the countering and puts C.W. through the table with another ‘Spicolli Driver’. Anderson kicks out of the cover and you can clearly see he’s getting the push as that is now both of his opponents’ finishers that he has kicked out of. Crazy suicide dives by York and Matthews leaving Diamond and Dreamer all alone in there. Simon has him on his shoulders ready for the ‘Simonizer’ when in the ring steps a shirtless Joel Gertner doing his white Kamala gimmick. He gets decked but Simon ends up tied in the ‘Tree of Woe’, helpless as Dreamer dropkicks a chair which he had placed in front of his face. ‘Studmuffin Splash’ in the corner. That name is every bit as bad as corny as the ‘Damaja Splash’. Dreamer with a DDT. Gertner does the Kamala gimmick of covering the man when he is lay face down, Dreamer having to tell him to roll him over, which he does, and Gertner gets the pinfall with Tommy sat on his back. If you were in any doubt about that push, C.W. kills the face team with brutal chair shots post-match and then puts the Anderson armbar on Gertner as Styles screams for someone to get him off there as he’s going to break his arm. On the back of the OMEGA match where we saw them play 80s heels, more versatility shown from York and Matthews, this time in a bloody brawl. Unfortunately the match fell off a cliff for the last few minutes when Gertner interjected himself, topped off by him being the one getting the pinfall. I suppose that is one of those “ECW things” that you just have to accept. Deeper story is the push of C.W. up to the mains, kicking out of those finishers and leaving everyone laying at the end.

No audio on this for me, so, with time now at a premium as I race to finish, I’m not sitting through all the pre-match interviews and mic work when I can’t hear a thing. Montoya is accompanied by Reckless Youth and Rick Silver who he has in his corner. If you have the same issue skip to 06:30, that’s when ‘the Don’ and Quack are taking it in turns to climb the turnbuckles to see who gets the biggest reaction, only Don ‘slips’ as he climbs and headbutts the top one. The match itself gets going eight minutes in. It looks like Reckless is filming for a bit as a graphic comes on screen saying ‘Reckless cam’, all I can say is stick to the day job as he makes RF look competent. I think I’ve written “the Tiger Mask spinning drop toe hold” twice all project and both times in the past day, Quack doing a far better version here than Suicide Kid did. Quack with the Bob Backlund crossface chicken wing, Montoya stomping on his foot to escape. He distracts the ref so Reckless can attack him, but as he holds him in position on the outside, Quack moves and Don nails Reckless with the baseball slide. Corkscrew plancha from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Back inside and more comedy, Quack backed into the corner but constantly avoiding Montoya’s punches and kicks as the Don keeps connecting with the padding. Silver trips Quack from out at ringside and Montoya with a tilt-a-whirl side slam. After that corkscrew legdrop of his he does, the worst Fargo strut you’ll ever see followed by a marginally better Rick Rude hip swivel. He comes up short on the twisting splash from the middle so has to crawl over to Quack to cover him. Pretty sure that was deliberate. Back up to the middle and he misses again, Quack avoiding the big splash. Montoya is straight to his feet claiming that he’s okay, only to fall backwards to the mat. Quack off the top with a frog splash. He throws out some palm strikes but Don ducks a shot lands a trio of release German suplexes. One all impact powerbomb later and this one’s over. Much more comedy based than previous matches involving these, so the lack of audio really hurts as you miss out on the crowd laughter as Montoya constantly comes a cropper. Still very funny and I genuinely laughed out loud on more than one occasion throughout. Even without sound worth persevering with as I’m sure most will enjoy something in there.

Morgan has got the nickname ‘Funboy’ which could have a multitude of connotations. The two are fairly evenly matched as neither gets the upper hand in the chain wrestling department. Capri is the first to open up firing off punches and moving away from pure wrestling. Morgan tries that Jacques Rougeau reverse roll off a backdrop but doesn’t make the best effort of it. High backdrop followed by a dropkick sends Capri to the outside. Tope suicida. Saito suplex for a two. Capri ducks under the clothesline, snatches the arm and hits a great looking exploder. Running splash in the corner and after Morgan collapses to the mat, he baseball slide dropkicks him in the groin. Springboard kneedrop, Capri then forward rolls through, leaps to the top turnbuckle but misses the moonsault. Locomotion Northern Lights suplex finishing with an ‘X-Factor’, Morgan kicking out of the cover. Capri gets dumped with a German. Release overhead suplex. Morgan with a top rope rana, almost landing on his head. Shiranui by Capri. Finally Morgan with a sit out pedigree that puts his opponent down, ‘the Funboy’ joining Michael Modest in the semi-finals. An Indyriffic match as they try to cram as many big movez~ into six minutes as possible. Some cool suplexes in there, but this lacked the character work that was evident in the opener.

The more famous King of Indies was in 2001, that was the event that Rob Feinstein saw which led to the creation of Ring of Honor, however there was one which took place twelve months prior. There is a basketball game going on in the arena behind the ring, which I hope stops, because that could be real distracting. ‘The Natural One’ Michael Modest throws his drink at Thompson, jumping him before the bell. After Thompson blocks having his head rammed into the turnbuckles, he returns the favour, using the top, middle and bottom buckles. Modest takes solace on the arena floor, wanting a time out, but considering he was pretty vocal to the referee earlier I doubt he’ll be getting any favours from him. That basketball game is not stopping by the way. He drags Thompson out with him, ramming his head into the metal guard rail. A measured elbow drop, only to then throw Thompson back out to the floor, this time launching him over the top rope. As the official admonishes him, Modest gives him a shove which results in the ref shoving back and the crowd chanting “ref, ref, ref”. Modest hammerlocks the arm and sends Thompson shoulder first into the ringpost. He snapmares him at ringside and then brings a chair down across his back leading to more shoving of the ref as he tries to get the action back inside. That cool armwringer into the mat that Modest does, why more people don’t steal that either I don’t now. ‘The Natural One’ crowbars the arm looking for a submission, Thompson stretching a leg to the ropes for the break. He ducks under the clothesline and catches Modest with a sky high. Modest starts backing off but Thompson isn’t having any of it. I do like the way Modest takes a whip to the corner. Big scoop powerslam. Thompson takes his time heading upstairs and I was convinced Modest was going to move out the way of whatever was coming next, however he still connects on the frog splash with Modest barely kicking out of the cover. The referee gets between the pair to separate them and Modest gets in a cheap shot. He does slip as he goes to climb the ropes, so punches the arm a couple of times before resetting. No issues this time, Modest leaping from the middle turnbuckle to the mat with a Fujiwara armbar and forcing Thompson to tap. Standard first round tournament fare, although Modest’s character work was strong.

Cham Pain “the former exotic dancer who now brings his skills to the wrestling ring”. I hope his wrestling skills are better than his pants which are hideous. Fast paced opening, which he gets the better of, and Corino is on the outside catching his breath. There’s an absolutely hideous botch when Corino reverses the whip to the corner, Pain supposed to leap to the middle ropes, but he’s not giving it full care and attention, his feet not even landing on the ropes as he embarrassingly crashes and burns to the mat. Great facials by Corino as he stalls for a few moments. He tosses Pain to the floor where he slams his head into the wooden kiosk doors. Corino cuts off the comeback with a clothesline before yelling at the fans that he’s “the man”. The current ECW World champion collects a chair from ringside and makes out that he’s going to brain Cham with it, only to take a seat, making himself comfortable as he applies a front facelock. Pain escapes the sleeper and an accidental clash of heads sees both men go down. Cham is back throwing punches which has been the basis for a high proportion of his offense. Neckbreaker for a two count. Corino counters the reverse DDT with a nice Northern Lights suplex. For the second time in the match he throws him to the floor and then clears merchandise from a table which he drags towards the ring. Pain is up to his feet and yet more punches from him. Weirdly he retrieves a table from under the ring, weird in the fact that the one Corino was dragging is only a matter of feet away and surely it would’ve made sense to just to use that one? One table becomes two, again taken from under the ring, and he places this adjacent to the first. Back inside Corino lifts Cham Pain onto his shoulders and his swinging legs take out the official. Great, another ref bump. Reverse DDT, Cham getting the visual three. A second ref slides into the ring to take the place of the original but, before he can complete his count, C.W. Anderson is out and drills him with a big right hand. Anderson KO’s Pain with the ECW title belt, puts Corino on top of him, but he’s still able to kick out of the cover due to the groggy, original ref’s, slow count. Corino accidentally superkicks C.W as their attempts to work together misfire. Cham goes up top, however he’s not quick enough and Corino gives him a shove, Pain taking a corkscrew senton through those tables he’d arranged at ringside moments earlier. C.W. throws him back into the ring where he’s easy pickings for Corino. Two matches from this OMEGA show, two ref bumps, two lots of outside interference, two unsatisfactory finishes. Not ideal and Chad’s review doesn’t bode well for the A.J. Styles/Rick Michaels match which I still have left to watch. This was struggling to maintain my attention and Pain especially seemed hesitant at times, maybe thrown off by that horrible botch towards the start. The table bump is really the only memorable thing about this.

Todd Morton promises a straight up technical match, giving the people “the best fucking wrestling match they’ve ever seen in this building”. How do the fans respond to that? Chanting “You’re a faggot” at him. Nice! This is taking an age to get going. Once you get past the gay slurs being thrown around the opening exchanges aren’t bad, Kid even busting out the Tiger Mask spinning drop toe hold. Kid mistimes a huracanrana before a superkick sends Morton to the outside. Asai moonsault, Kid’s trajectory slightly off though. They trade punches on the floor before we get the Christian York spot, Morton backdropping Kid into the ropes, which he rebound off and comes back with a DDT onto the concrete. Morton counters a missile dropkick with a powerbomb, these goons chanting “you fucked up!” at them, even though they didn’t. A pair of snap suplexes followed by a brainbuster. Big powerbomb for a two. He slingshots Kid into the turnbuckles then distracts the referee so Harry Palmer, who is in his corner, can choke him over the ropes. Morton telegraphs a backdrop as they sloppily run through the Guerrero/Malenko series of pinfalls and reversals. Kid kicks out after a fist drop from the middle and starts to fire back. Handspring elbow, Tajiri he ain’t mind. Split legged moonsault, Morton getting a shoulder up on the lateral press. Kid is now doing these contrived Rob Van Dam spots. Palmer hands Morton some powder which he throws in the face of his opponent. Even though this is in full view of the referee he does nothing. Morton gets behind the official and yells “come on Kid” as Kid swings wildly. The ‘blinded’ Kid eventually boots the ref in the gut and powerbombs the referee. Is he a complete imbecile? Morton is bare chested, the ref is wearing a loose fitting shirt WHICH HE GRABS when executing the powerbomb. Boy do I absolutely spots like that the makes the face look like a cretin. Palmer and Morton laugh about their plan working, although they’re not laughing for long as Kid hits a shiranui. He exits the ring, and the door, and then next think you know he is up in the rafters, traversing his way across the wooden beams supporting the roofing. LEGDROP FROM THE RAFTERS IS MISSED and Morton with a press slam into a facebuster for the win. As he and Palmer celebrate their win as well as Morton becoming the new IWA-MS Heavyweight champion in the process, the celebrations are interrupted by Ian Rotten. Ian claims that they have rules around here and Morton doesn’t meet the height requirements, so if he wants to continue working in the IWA he needs to hand the belt over. Morton doesn’t take too kindly to the request, reckless throwing chairs into the ring, one inadvertently landing on Kid who is still laid out. ‘The boss’ then sets up a ladder match for the next show; the belt to be hung from the rafters while Harry Palmer to be handcuffed to him at ringside. I may be going out on a limb here but I don’t think this was “the best fucking wrestling match” the people in this building have seen. It started off well but was very sloppy in places, while Kid seems to be someone who watches plenty of stuff then tries to incorporate it into his output. The legdrop from the rafters into the ring was up there with anything Ric Blade has done all year. Absolutely detested the spot where he powerbombed the referee. Had a tough time ranking this, I’ve placed it third for the month in IWA but think that could be too high and it could feasibly go below the midget match.

Chalk up another person using ‘Last Resort’ as their entrance in Mike Shane. We’re in ‘the Stretcher’s’ home town of St. Petersburg tonight so maybe he will work as the face. Horowitz isn’t impressed by Shane’s size, saying how he’s taken down the Undertaker, taken down Earthquake and has been in with bigger and better than him. A semi-final match up in the IPW TV title tournament, the winner moving onto the finals. ‘The Stretcher’ points at Shane’s valet and wants to know “who invited trash to his match?” That leads to the cameraman zooming in on the valet’s cleavage! I was convinced that Shane was the heel (he’s also got Sir Ronald J. Niemi IV in his corner who cut a promo on the crowd pre-match) and Horowitz the face, yet Shane is doing face spots and Horowitz heel. Shane takes all of the first half of the match, using his power advantage and giving ‘Bad Barry’ nothing. After a sit-out powerbomb Horowitz roils under the ropes to the floor. Shane is on his tail and throws him back inside, but ‘the Stretcher’ gets the jump on him...briefly. Snap suplex by Shane, however there’s no-one home on the middle rope elbow drop. On Horowitz’s first actual offensive move of the match, a jawbreaker, the referee gets bumped, caught by an errant Shane elbow. That’s something else! Some quality European uppercuts from Horowitz. The valet has now removed her jacket so we get another close up of her breasts. Dear me. Shane taps whilst trapped in a single leg crab, although with the ref still down it isn’t seen. Niemi climbs up onto the apron and Horowitz releases the crab to slug him. Jet Jaguar runs out, but he gets double arm suplexed for his troubles, then we have another run-in, this time courtesy of Mike Sullivan. He fares better than Jet and softens Horowitz up who ultimately falls victim to a Shane reverse DDT as the future member of Gymini moves onto the finals next month. The Cuban Assassin makes an appearance post-match with his valet. I thought he was offering to form some sort of alliance with Horowitz to go against Niemi and his cohorts but don’t think that was the case in the end. Not good. You had the confusion over who was the face and the heel (not the first time this has happened in a Horowitz match as it was the same situation when he took on the Cuban Assassin – maybe he just automatically resorts to the heel as he’s more comfortable that way?), Shane taking everything at first and giving ‘the Stretcher’ nothing, a soft ref bump on Horowitz’s first move, him then laying there until the finish which was still several minutes away and then two run ins, for some reason required to beat someone who had looked dirt weak the vast majority of the match. Not worth the time.

A rarity here as we have an ECW duo facing off against a WCW tandem. Were officials aware of this or as it’s on some Indy in North Carolina did it just fly under the radar? There’s a bit of pre-match shtick involving York & Matthews’ unnamed manager and the ringside fans, while there is a big ovation for the returning 3 Count. 3 Count hit their combination Samoan drop/neckbreaker on Matthews within the first minute, but for some reason the referee just stops counting the cover. One solitary handheld is filming this so we don’t see why. It’s definitely nothing to do with York as he’s outside the ring and nowhere near the action at the time, maybe the manager did something? York & Matthews have had enough already, booed vociferously as they make out their leaving. Shannon orders the ref to count them out, the fans joining in, although predictably they have a change of heart. Interesting to see them take on the roles of heels here, what with them being faces on ECW at this time. Real fun simple stuff with them being outsmarted by the faces, Joey accidentally clotheslining York when Shannon ducks out the way of his clothesline and later York going to break up the cover by dropping an elbow, but again he’s spotted, Shannon moves and he hits his own man. Cool backslide/middle rope legdrop combo by 3 Count. The camera again misses something, I assume York kneeing Helms in the back as he comes off the ropes. That turns the match in their favour as they start to take control of things. One spot I did like was Matthews throwing Helms out to the floor, teasing like he was going to throw him into the chairs, but just swinging around and throwing him straight back inside. Good heat section on Shane with a couple of teases of the tag before countering a neckbreaker with the ‘Nightmare on Helms Street’ and getting it at the third attempt. Shannon runs wild in there and York is forced to save his partner following a ‘sleeper drop’. 3 Count with another double team move and this time York & Matthews’ manager pulls the official’s leg to stop the count. As he’s warning him not to do it again he gets bumped in the corner. It gets no better for him, Shannon catching him with a dropkick as Matthews steps out the way. The manager is now in the ring but he accidentally KO’s Joey with something, Moore evading the shot, and then mule kicks Christian, erroneously thinking that it was Helms behind him. He calls for reinforcements and two guys I don’t recognise run out from the dressing room and attack 3 Count, the referee seeing what’s going on when he comes around and calling for the bell. York & Matthews lose it with ‘Mr Incompetence’ slugging him, before teaming up with 3 Count to clear the ring of the two unknowns. Samoan drop/neckbreaker for the manager as the four shake hands and raise each others arms. Okay, the finish was super cheap but I’m guessing now that ECW and WCW officials were fully aware of this match and the caveat for it going ahead was that neither wanted their team to job to the other company’s team. As a result this is what we got and I really enjoyed this right up to that finish. York & Matthews were tremendous and their heeling was a throwback to years gone by, simple, highly effective and a perfect fit for the environment they were in. Good heat section on Shane with teases and cut off spots, while the crowd got their feel good moment at the end, all four teaming up to give it to the manager who gets his comeuppance.

Dave tweeted earlier that the Hall of Fame issue will be next week and there are ten new members this year. Let the speculation begin.

You’d think the Von Erich’s had took a wrong turning and entered the IWA warehouse with all the screams that Cash Flo gets from the females in attendance. I’ve never remotely considered him a “sex symbol”, however that’s what these fans seem to see him as. Cash takes it upon himself to do his own introduction because for too long Jim Fannin has messed it up. They each slap the other, pretty weakly across the face, before Cash tackles Rollin and unloads with a bit of ground and pound. He throws him through the ropes to the outside where he bashes him over the head with a tack covered baseball bat. Hard blocks being hit with a metal sign and gets in a shot with a sign of his own. It looks like roof insulation is laid out along one side of the ring which is something I haven’t seen previously. With Rollin seated in the corner, Cash places a sign between his legs and baseball slide dropkicks it. He uses something to attach a dollar bill to his forehead, this in the days before a stapler was a staple in Hardcore matches. Flo takes too long in his furniture arranging and is clubbed from behind. Rollin fires off some jabs but his footwork is hardly reminiscent of Muhammad Ali. The two fight it out on the apron and Cash with a flatliner from there and into the furniture that he had been arranging earlier. With the help of security he then bridges a barbed wire board between two chairs on the concrete. Hard puts on a barbed wire crown and nuts Flo in both the head and groin. As he drags him out to the apron Cash shoulder charges him in the mid-section. He goes for a sunset flip powerbomb to the floor and through the barbed wire board, however accidentally knocks the board off the chairs with his feet prior to impact. They move to the other side of the ring where Cash sits Rollin in a chair just in front of a pit of mousetraps. He heads upstairs, coming off the top with a cannonball, but Rollin moves and he lands in the mousetraps himself. There is a lot of “I take a big bump, you take a big bump” when it comes to these Hardcore matches. Hard brings a bunch of light tubes into the ring, although following the trend I’ve just mentioned, it is Cash who ends up spinebusting him into them. Wow, 450 splash by Flo that Rollin kicks out of. As he heads back to the top, Rollin falls into the ropes causing him to lose his balance. ‘Death Valley Driver’ into the light tubes and Hard moves on. Quick post-match interviews from both as Rollin promises that tomorrow “they’re going to tear this mutha fucker up!” Best match of night one and for the main event of the show I thought this over-delivered considering it involved Rollin.

NWA Wildside Junior Heavyweight title match, Caprice Coleman having earned himself a shot at the gold due to racking up the wins in recent weeks. Coleman has got one almighty chip on his shoulder, talking about how he was told to stay in the corner, how his time will come, that Cham Pain stole his spotlight, that he was given tag team partners who suck and the one who never they took off him, that he’s never been given a chance and that the crowd has held him down. He doesn’t need them as it is his time to shine. When talking about Lazz he says he’s going to “smear the queer that does the spear”. They do bleep out the word queer, but not a chance that line is being approved or making air in 2019. As Lazz makes his entrance, doing his dance at ringside, he’s surprised by a wild Coleman flip dive, who then kicks and stomps away on his downed opponent. Inside Lazz ducks the back elbow and lands a spinning headscissors. He clotheslines Coleman back out to the floor with Caprice landing hard on the wood. Awesome, deep, somersault bodyblock from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Referee Andrew Thomas prevents Lazz from throwing a closed fist and as he does so Coleman cheap shots the champion, inadvertently turning the match in the challenger’s favour. Spinning axe kick. Dropkick to the knee followed by a Dragon screw leg whip as Caprice focuses his attack on the knee. With Lazz backed up in the corner Coleman fires away with shots to the ribs. He intertwines his leg in the ropes and dropkicks it before then wrapping it around the ringpost. The backdrop is telegraphed and Lazz with a go behind into a Russian legsweep. Nice to see him actually still selling the leg. As he hobbles around, Caprice clips it out just as we go to a commercial break. On our return Coleman delays on a second Dragon screw and Lazz connects with an enziguiri. He whips him into the corner, however there’s no-one home on the charge and an ‘Ice Cutter’ gets Coleman a near fall, the champion only saving his title by getting a foot over the bottom rope. Thomas gets bumped so there is no-one to count when Lazz hits the ‘Britney Spear’. After slapping the mat himself he goes over to check on the official. Low blow by Coleman, he then cradles Lazz and uses the ropes for added leverage to become the new Wildside Junior Heavyweight champion. Not floorless but a good TV match. Coleman looks like he could be someone with this new attitude and the flip dive to the floor might have been the best, most surprising, start to a match all year. I really appreciate Lazz continuing to sell the leg on his comeback, something that Derrick King doesn’t bother to do later in the month. Incidentally both matches contained the same spot leading to the comeback with the delay on the Dragon screw allowing the enziguiri. Worth a watch.

So for the final time in 2000 we get to see these four do their stuff, this time coming to us from ‘the Madhouse of Extreme’ in Queens Boulevard. Curiously, even though the Guilty as Charged PPV is only a fortnight away (1/7/01) no tag team title match has been announced yet for the show, Joey Styles saying how both of these teams would like a crack at the champions, Danny Doring and Roadkill. Mikey is wearing an FBI T-shirt for this which Mamaluke takes umbrage with. Styles has a tremendous line about Whipwreck being fine until he went to WCW, that’s when he cracked “and did he ever crack!”. A pretty physical lock up between the two as they both jockey for position. Nice headscissors takeover by Mikey. The look and gimmick is so deceiving as he’s a real good technical wrestler when he actually shows it. He drops Mamaluke across his own knee for a backbreaker before the Unholy Alliance unleash some quality double team combinations, Tajiri mocking his opponent’s pain like we have seen him do so many times this year. Guido counters the handspring elbow by grabbing an arm, but as he looks for the armbar Tajiri then counters that by grabbing his leg. This is great. Tajiri backdrops him over the top rope and although Guido lands on the apron he takes his head off with a superkick, collapsing onto the ringside mats. More double, even triple, teaming from the Alliance as Tajiri applies a Boston crab with Guido’s neck lay across the bottom rope, the Sinister Minister then places a chair across the back of his neck which Mikey legdrops . Tony is in only to end up joining his partner being tied in the ‘Tree of Woe’. Guido raises himself up to avoid the Mikey baseball slide, but whereas you will have been expecting Mamaluke to do something similar to avoid Tajiri’s, no ‘the Buzzsaw’ takes aim at Guido and nails him instead. Layers. The Minister is now in the ring and applies a testicular claw to Mamaluke. That spot is my least favourite thing of the act as it always takes a fair bit of suspension of disbelief to think that the referee is unaware as to what is going on. This time he’s put his head through the ropes to speak to Big Sal on the floor about something. Not believable really, especially as Sal has yet to be involved in the match. Mikey with an Indian Deathlock before Tajiri ties him up with this awesomely wacky Lucha pretzel submission. Guido is forced to break that up but then he ends up being stretched, helpless as Mikey dropkicks him in the face. Whipwreck climbs the turnbuckles to pound away on Tony who manages to shove him off and onto the top rope. Inverted tornado DDT followed by the ‘Sicilian Slice’. I knew it was only a matter of time and maybe Mike Kehner was forewarning him not to get involved when he spoke to him earlier? Big Sal wasn’t listening as Guido distracts Kehner so Sal can get some shots in. Snap suplex into a Northern Lights by Tony for a two count. Double belly to back. The FBI makes a wish, and as they apply stereo leg locks Tajiri is in to break things up. Mikey goes for the wheelbarrow off the bodyscissors but Mamaluke counters with a Fujiwara armbar. Again this is so smart if you’ve watched the matches that these teams have had. The FBI go for a second double belly to back, this time though Mikey flips over, lands on his feet and hits a double Whippersnapper. Tag to Tajiri who just goes to town on the Italians with all manner of strikes and kicks. Double brainbuster by the Alliance. Mikey gets backdropped over the top rope and, just like Guido earlier, he too lands on the apron, however the big man trips him from the floor and he goes crashing head first into the apron. Tajiri lands on his feet from the release German, grabs a waistlock, but Mamaluke with the mule kick low blow and he’s easy prey for the ‘Kiss of Death’. As much as I had had enough of this match a couple of months ago, I’m glad we got it one more time before the turn of the year. I thought this was excellent; moreover how the match has evolved, the counters, the layers, the development of spots, the storytelling, how you expect one thing but got something else. Also none of the excesses that were an issue for me with the Unholy Alliance’s match against Super Crazy and Kid Kash from earlier in the month. A fitting way to finish ECW in the year 2000 and on the back of Rhino vs Spike Dudley, this has been a superb television episode.

You can sense Steel getting more and more frustrated as Hero outwrestles him. He forces the escape from a rear chinlock and not wanting to risk Hero countering, ramps up the aggression. Hero reverses the Irish whip and a big side slam gets the first two count of the match. We don’t have to wait too long for our second courtesy of a rolling neckbreaker. There’s no-one home on the twisting senton and a Steel lariat takes Hero’s head off. Just like last night he’s back taking a rest on the turnbuckles, although with a place in the finals on the line decides it would be wiser to go for a cover. Springboard elbow drop and Hero kicks out. There’s some pretty blatant talking between the two going on here. Hero snaps Steel’s neck across the top rope but is caught when going upstairs. Ace briefly thinks about a suicideplex before opting for the standard superplex. The crowd look to get behind Hero and that seems to be working as Steel’s shots just fire him up. I was going to say “Hulk up”, then he drops a leg and goes full on Hulk Hogan cupping his ear to all four corners. The ‘Hero’s Welcome’ is countered into a Northern Lights suplex for a two. Steel grabs him and in going for one himself Hero reverses and we have ourselves out first finalist.

Only pinfall rules are in operation here and the ladders are to be used as weapons, they’re not to help you retrieve something from up high. No Dewey Donovan with the Backseat Boyz, seriously injured apparently in his match earlier in the night with Nick Berk. Not to worry, Shorty is here though! A balls to the wall opening ending with a Blade and Mondo double somersault plancha over the top rope to the floor. As they get back in the ring and climb the turnbuckles to play to the fans they forget about their opponents and are caught by stereo sunset flip powerbombs. Spinning powerbomb by Acid on Mondo. Kashmere breaks up the pin attempt on his partner after a Blade rolling German with bridge and then hits this cool ‘Backseat Driver’ on him. The champs place a ladder on top of Mondo that Kashmere comes off the top onto with a tumbleweed. Blade kicks a chair into the face of Kashmere, ducks an Acid enziguiri and keeping hold of that leg transitions to a surfboard. Shorty is in and she holds a chair over Trent’s face as Blade with a tumbleweed of his own, this time a springboard variation. ‘Total Elimination’ but Kashmere kicks out of the cover. Acid reverses the Irish whip, sending Mondo clattering into the ladder that Blade was holding, and a superkick then sends him crashing out to the floor. Orihara moonsault by Trent followed by a Kashmere corkscrew plancha from an in ring ladder. Back inside and Blade with a sky high springboard legdrop over the ladder. After bridging it between two chairs he’s attacked from behind by Acid who ‘Blue Thunder Drives’ him onto that ladder as Mondo is forced to make the save. Mondo suplexes Trent into a ladder resting upright against the top rope before hitting a picture perfect quebrada. Spinning torture rack into a neckbreaker by Kashmere on Blade. The Backseats sandwich him between the ladder and Johnny then pancakes Trent onto it. ‘Acid Bomb’ into a ladder as pinfalls continue to be broken up. The ladder incorporated double ‘Van Terminator’ takes an age to set up only for Blade to botch his first attempt so of course he immediately repeats the spot! Blade collects a table and heads to the back of the arena in front of the entrance way where he places it on top of another table. He lays Trent on the top table and heads to the top of the building while Mondo lays Kashmere on the bottom one. Jeez, he’s going to cripple himself if he over shoots like he has done in the past. He does a tad and as a result the bottom table doesn’t break due to how little impact there was. The challengers carry the champions back to the ring in order to make the cover, although there is no title change as at the count of two Dewey Donovan pulls the official from the ring. Shorty almost slips off the top turnbuckle but connects on the leaping side kick, apparently she’s an accomplished martial artist according to Gargiulo! Amazingly his nose didn’t grow when he claimed that. Robbie Moreno then comes out, lays down and pulls Mondo on top of him, getting pinned and screwing his brother out of the tag team titles. If that wasn’t lame enough, referee Rob Hartung is now in the ring raising the hands of Mondo and Blade and walking right past Moreno. Can he not see him? What a shit finish.

The Sinister Minister is back with Mikey and Tajiri after his absence last month. On a recent episode of Hardcore TV, the two joined forces with Super Crazy, but an eventual Crazy miscue cost them the match against Hot Commodity. Tajiri and Crazy got into it after with Mikey caught in the middle. Eventually he ended up siding with his longtime partner which led to this tag team match tonight, Crazy able to choose any partner he wants to take on the Minister’s army. Crazy slides into the ring and is immediately double teamed as Joey Styles starts speculating that he couldn’t get himself a partner. You really should know better by now Joey! Of course a partner arrives moments later in the shape of Kid Kash. Kash clears the ring of the Unholy Alliance, but as he and Crazy look at something in the audience Mikey jumps Kash from behind. Springboard sunset flip by Kash as Mikey cackles to the crowd. Nice standing huracanrana. Respective tags are made and Tajiri is not wasting any time as he connects on the handspring elbow. Crazy with a kip up though. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker by Crazy and this time it’s Tajiri who kips up. Double springboard armdrag before Tajiri counters the tilt-a-whirl with one of his own. They trade moves again and stand-off to a standing ovation. Tajiri locks on a Scorpion Deathlock and with Crazy’s head draped over the ropes, a Mikey slingshot guillotine legdrop to the back of his neck. Kash tries to help his partner but gets floored by a thrust kick. He’s laid next to Crazy and with the Minister orchestrating things the Alliance place chairs either side of their heads which they then dropkick. Kash and Crazy avoid stereo baseball slides while in the ‘Tree of Woe’, the Alliance ending up on the floor having slid out of the ring. Gorgeous inside out top rope Quebrada by Crazy. Not to be outdone, Kash vaults off the referee’s back (having crouched down on all fours) and springboards out onto everyone with a flip dive. The action returns to the ring and following a Kash corkscrew senton we get stereo punches in the corner so that the crowd can count along. The Alliance stop the rot with a pair of shotgun dropkicks before Mikey gets hold of a couple of chairs. Kash blocks the attempted suplex, countering with a Falcon Arrow. He heads upstairs, but Mikey catches him and hits a Super whippersnapper onto the steel. A confused Kash staggers out to the apron where Mikey hits a second Whippersnapper, this time through the table at ringside. With their partners down and seemingly out, Tajiri and Crazy take over. Three storey moonsault by Crazy. He positions a chair just in front of Tajiri who is backed up in the corner, however as he runs at him and leaps off the chair, Tajiri moves out the way. Although Crazy manages to balance himself on the top turnbuckles, Tajiri gives him a shove on the behind and he goes flying to the floor. I don’t know, it all kinda feels a bit aimless as they’re on the outside, Mikey and Kash still down selling the Whippersnapper. Crazy with an Arabian moonsault for a two. Tajiri uses a chair to put a stop to the sunset flip and then ties Crazy up in the Tarantula. Kash has recovered to break that up, but as Tajiri goes to mist him he ducks and hits Crazy instead. The Unholy Alliance bring a table inside and set up another on the floor which Mikey lays Kash on. As he climbs the turnbuckles he doesn’t realise Crazy has grabbed hold of him, preventing him from moving anywhere, and Kash with a huracanrana from the top through the table! Springboard missile dropkick by Crazy. Tajiri counters the powerbomb with a DDT and then lights Crazy up with some rapid fire kicks. He buries him under some chairs and finally a table, coming off the top with a double footstomp onto it all for the win. I tend to find myself agreeing more with OJ here. To me it came across as thought they were trying to outdo the Alliance’s matches against the FBI, as a result it all became to excessive. As an example I’ve said previously how the Super Whippersnapper had become an overused move, so how do you go one better? Super Whippersnapper onto a couple of chairs followed immediately by a Whippersnapper through a table at ringside. I don’t mind a bit of gimmickry but not just for the sake of it, which is what this felt like to me. Also, one of my pet peeves when it comes to ECW is when the referees involve themselves in matches. It comes across as hokey and low rent and as a result I didn’t care one jot for Finnegan being the launch pad for Kash’s dive to the floor.

Prior to the match we get an appearance from Jerry Lawler, looking resplendent in his Christmas jumper. ‘The King’ doesn’t say much, just plugging the upcoming Corinth Chaos card on 1/13 featuring a bunch of WWF superstars (Tazz, Raven, Too Cool etc) and his Christmas Chaos book. Dave Brown reminds everyone what went down last week, the American Dragon challenging Spanky for the Light Heavyweight title, when all of a sudden he turned on Derrick King, as it looked like he was going to help him, and rejoined the Kliq. The opening is almost Lucha-esque, I’m not sure what the Memphis regulars thought of that? King just about holds on for the headscissors before sitting Dragon on the top turnbuckle and landing a top rope rana. Dragon rolls under the clothesline and dropkicks the left knee of DK, Brown pointing out the problems that King has had with that wheel these past few weeks. Danielson’s working over of that knee for the next few minutes is exemplary. He calls for a second dragon screw, but King gets in first with an enzuigiri. DK fires back, unfortunately he starts running across the ring and doing leapfrogs, no selling all that leg work and pretty much making everything that’s gone before redundant. He only gets a two count following a powerslam and, thinking the referee slow counted him, is in his face complaining. Dragon knees King in the back who crashes into the official. As DK tries to wake the ref, Dragon loads his mask, headbutts King and then puts the object back down his tights. King gets a foot over the ropes to break the count, however Shooter Schultz and finally Spanky’s subsequent interference is too much; the champion KO’ing him with the title belt as Dragon escapes with the victory. A quick promo from Raven closes things out. It’s another plug for the Corinth show (he can’t concentrate on Christmas because this is all he’s thinking about!) but he says less that ‘the King’ did earlier. Dragon’s leg work was great, then that all counted for nothing due to King’s non-selling of it on his comeback. The match was good up until that point and I get Spanky/King is the end goal but it’s not a match I’m in any hurry to see (even though I have!) based on what went down here.

December 2000 APW 1. Christopher Daniels vs Donovan Morgan (King of Indies 2000 12/30) 2. Michael Modest vs Donovan Morgan (King of Indies 2000 12/30) 3. Scoot Andrews vs Vincenzo Massaro (King of Indies 2000 12/30) 4. Michael Modest vs Robert Thompson (King of Indies 2000 12/30) 5. Donovan Morgan vs Vic Capri (King of Indies 2000 12/30) 6. Boom Boom Comini & Super Destroyer 2000 vs The Snott Brothers (George C. & Seymour) (King of Indies 2000 12/30) NR –West Side Playaz vs Michael Modest & Christopher Daniels (Kristmas Kaos 12/16) ECW 1. Mikey Whipwreck & Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Little Guido & Tony Mamaluke (Hardcore TV 12/24) 2. Rhino vs Spike Dudley (Hardcore TV 12/24) 3. Rhino vs Spike Dudley (Massacre on 34th Street 12/3) 4. Mikey Whipwreck & Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Super Crazy & Kid Kash (Massacre on 34th Street 12/3) 5. Tommy Dreamer vs C.W. Anderson (Massacre on 34th Street 12/3) 6. Little Guido & Tony Mamaluke vs Danny Doring & Roadkill (Massacre on 34th Street 12/3) 7. Steve Corino vs Jerry Lynn vs Justin Credible (Three Way Dance) (ECW Massacre on 34th Street 12/3) 8. Tommy Dreamer & Christian York & Joey Matthews vs C.W. Anderson & Simon Diamond & Johnny Swinger (Falls Count Anywhere) (Hardcore TV 12/3) 9. Christian York & Joey Matthews vs Simon Diamond & Johnny Swinger (Massacre on 34th Street 12/3) 10. Rhino vs Kid Kash (Hardcore TV 12/3) Indies 1. Backseat Boyz vs Ric Blade & Nicky Benz (BBP Season’s Beatings 12/9) 2. Mark Coleman & Mark Kerr vs Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka (Inoki Bom Ba Ye 12/31) 3. Christian York & Joey Matthews vs Shannon Moore & Shane Helms (OMEGA 12/1) 4. Low Ki vs Xavier (USA Pro Return to the Madhouse 12/1) 5. Shinya Hashimoto vs Gary Goodridge (Inoki Bom Ba Ye 12/31) 6. Mike Quackenbush vs Don Montoya (UWC 12/2) 7. Keiji Muto & Nobuhiko Takada vs Don Frye & Ken Shamrock (Inoki Bom-Ba Ye 12/31) 8. Prototype vs Chase Tatum (UPW Proving Ground 12/20) 9. Alexander Otsuka & Bas Rutten vs Naoki Sano & Ricco Rodriguez (Inoki Bom Ba Ye 12/31) 10. Steve Corino vs Cham Pain (OMEGA 12/1) 11. Barry Horowitz vs Mike Shane (IPW New Year Nightmare 12/30) 12. A.J. Styles vs Rick Michaels (OMEGA 12/1) 13. Beckie the Farmer’s Daughter & Bronco Billie vs Riot & Danger (WOW 12/16) 14. Dino Divine vs Hungarian Barbarian (Dog Collar) (WPW Holiday Madness 2000 12/17) NR - Glamour Boy Shane vs Steve Corino (IWA-PR Hardcore Weekend 12/16) NR - Curt Hennig vs Ray Gonzalez (WWC 12/16) NR - Antonio Inoki vs Renzo Gracie (Exhibition) (Inoki Bom Ba Ye 12/31) IWA-MS 1. Bull Pain vs Blaze (Barbed Wire Baseball Bat) (Christmas Carnage 12/16) 2. Corporal Rorbinson vs Allister Fear (Last Man Standing) (Christmas Carnage 12/16) 3. Todd Morton vs Hy-Zaya (IWA-MS Christmas Carnage 12/16) 4. Ian Rotten vs Mark Wolf (Four Corners of Pain) (Christmas Carnage 12/16) 5. 2 Tuff Tony & Mitch Page vs Cash Flo & Rollin Hard (Hardcore Christmas Tree) (Christmas Carnage 12/16) JAPW 1. Low Ki vs Monsta Mack (Season’s Beatings 2000 12/8) 2. Backseat Boyz vs Christopher Street Connection (Buff E. & Mace) (Season’s Beatings 2000 12/8) MCW 1. Steve Bradley & Tracey Smothers vs K-Kwik & Shooter Schultz (12/2) 2. Steve Bradley vs Joey Abs vs Scott Vick (12/16) 3. Tracey Smothers & Fabulous Rocker vs Shooter Schultz & Lance Cade (12/9) 4. American Dragon & Spanky vs The Dupps (12/16) 5. Tracey Smothers vs Shooter Schultz (Chair on a Pole) (12/16) 6. American Dragon & Spanky vs Salsario Boys (12/2) 7. Seven vs American Dragon & Spanky (hc) (12/9) MPPW 1. American Dragon & Spanky & Shooter Schultz vs Derrick King & Alan Steel & Blade Boudreaux (12/2) 2. Lance Cade vs Tracey Smothers (Texas Death Street Fight) (12/2) 3. American Dragon vs Derrick King (12/23) 4. Derrick King vs Shooter Schultz (12/9) 5. Steve Bradley & Shooter Schultz vs Lance Cade & Blade Boudreaux (12/23) 6. American Dragon vs Spanky (12/16) 7. Spanky vs Derrick King (12/30) 8. American Dragon & Spanky vs Alan Steele & Blade Boudreaux (12/9) 9. Lance Cade & Joey Abs vs Tracey Smothers & Slash (12/16) 10. Bulldog Raines vs Tracey Smothers (12/9) 11. Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee & The Kat vs Slash & Steve Bradley & Victoria (12/9) NWA Wildside 1. Onyx & Terry Knight vs Suicidal Tendencies (Adam Jacobs & John Phoenix) (TV 12/16) 2. Lazz vs Caprice Coleman (TV 12/9) 3. A.J. Styles vs Air Paris (Christmas Chaos 12/23) 4. A.J. Styles & Onyx vs Suicidal Tendencies (Air Paris & Adam Jacobs & John Phoenix) (Handicap) (TV 12/2) 5. A.J.Styles vs Air Paris vs Sabu (12/14) OVW 1. Damaja vs Rob Conway (12/2) 2. Brock Lesnar & Shelton Benjamin vs Suicide Blondes (Jason Lee & Derrick King) (12/2) 3. Brock Lesnar & Shelton Benjamin vs Mark Henry & Mr Black (12/16) WCW 1. Shannon Moore & Shane Helms vs Jung Dragons vs Jamie Noble & Evan Karagias (Ladder) (Starrcade 12/17) 2. The Perfect Event (Chuck Palumbo & Shawn Stasiak) vs Kevin Nash & DDP (Starrcade 12/17) 3. Shannon Moore & Shane Helms vs Jung Dragons vs Jamie Noble & Evan Karagias (Thunder 12/13) 4. Shane Helms vs Shannon Moore (Nitro 12/18) 5. Mark Jindrak & Sean O’Haire vs Jamie Noble & Evan Karagias (Thunder 12/6) 6. Jeff Jarrett vs Lance Storm (Nitro 12/18) 7. Chavo Guerrero Jr vs Jamie Noble (Thunder 12/20) 8. Scott Steiner vs Meng (Thunder 12/13) 9. Bill Goldberg vs Lex Luger (Starrcade 12/17) 10. Mike Sanders vs Chavo Guerrero Jr (Thunder 12/6) 11. Lance Storm vs Rey Mysterio Jr (Nitro 12/18) 12. Kevin Nash & DDP vs 3 Count (Nitro 12/4) 13. Scott Steiner vs Ernest Miller (Thunder 12/20) 14. Bill Goldberg vs DeWayne Bruce (Nitro 12/11) 15. DDP vs Mike Sanders (Thunder 12/13) 16. Bill Goldberg vs Shane Douglas (Thunder 12/6) 17. Bill Goldberg vs M.I. Smooth (Nitro 12/4) 18. Terry Funk vs Meng (Hardcore) (Nitro 12/18) 19. Bill Goldberg vs Norman Smiley (Thunder 12/20) NR - Bill Goldberg vs Buff Bagwell (Nitro 12/18)

Air Paris is seconded by John Phoenix, however no sign of Silky Boom Boom who is Jacobs’ regular tag team partner. The commentators say how they would expect him to be here, even if he isn’t scheduled for a match this week. Are seeds being planted? Paris is immediately complaining of a hair pull, Jacobs getting the crowd to back him up that there was no such thing. It’s mentioned how Paris has started to take a more methodical approach in his matches recently, not resorting to the high spots as often as in the past. He lands on his tailbone off a backdrop and a dropkick sends him scuttling to the outside. Jacobs with a leapfrog but Air stops in his tracks and kicks him between the groin. Paris then throws him to the floor, distracting the official so that Phoenix can get in some shots. Michinoku Driver. We’re back on the outside again and Jacobs avoids the superkick as Paris ends up crotching himself over the barricade. After fighting in the crowd they return to the ring where Jacobs telegraphs the backdrop and Air spikes him with a DDT. More illegal interference by Phoenix. Rear chinlock, evidence of Paris slowing things down, as “six months ago it would’ve been a triple lindy from the top”. Phoenix pulls down the top rope, however Jacobs reverses the Irish whip and Air sails over the top rope to the wooden floor. Big plancha out onto both. He misses a big splash as Paris rolls out the way, but quickly gathers his bearings and clotheslines Air over the top rope to where, the floor of course! As the official checks on him, Phoenix nails Jacobs with a missile dropkick “from hell”. Slingshot somersault legdrop by Paris. Jacobs rolls a shoulder on the cover so he reverts once more to the rear chinlock. Figure four chinlock, I haven’t seen one of those for years, with Phoenix adding some additional leverage form ringside. Somehow Jacobs manages to get to his feet and, with Paris in the Electric Chair position, he dumps him backwards to the mat. Phoenix’s constants interference eventually pays dividends as he cracks Jacobs in the back with a chair and Air picks up the win following a spinebuster They could’ve done with knocking five minutes off this. I understand trying to get this new, more methodical, calculated, approach of Paris over, but as a result they spend far too long sat in chinlocks and it’s just boring. There is also an over reliance on taking bumps to the floor, like they were short on any other ideas on how to fill the time. Skippable.

Hmmm, last time we saw Adam Jacobs he was going against Air Paris, now he’s in Suicidal Tendencies’ corner so something has happened in the few weeks that we’ve missed. It’s noted that Jeff G. Bailey asked Paris to bow out of his upcoming World Heavyweight title match against Sabu but he refused. High, as in high, release German suplex by Onyx. He catches Phoenix with a powerslam and as Jacobs enters the ring, A.J. comes off the top with a crossbody onto him. As Phoenix and Jacobs regather themselves on the floor, A.J. whips Paris towards Onyx who backdrops him out onto his own partners. Air claims a hair pull on returning inside, although I’m trying to work out how is that even possible off a backdrop? He gets the jump on Styles as Suicidal Tendencies go about isolating and wearing him down. Jacobs, after originally starting the match as a second, is interchanging with both Paris and Phoenix, so all three members of Suicidal Tendencies are now working the match, it being joked the ‘Freebird Rules’ have been evoked. Styles with a floatover, however Phoenix counters the inverted suplex and lands a reverse ‘Roll the Dice’. Standing shooting star press. Nice huracanrana by Jacobs. Paris is once more slowing things down with a rear chinlock until out of nowhere hitting a ‘Burning Hammer’. Onyx breaks up the pinfall attempt and does so again following a big frog splash. We return from an ad break and A.J. makes the hot tag after wiping out Paris with a corkscrew senton, leaping off Phoenix’s chest who was being held in the corner from the apron. Onyx takes it to all three members of Suicidal Tendencies; throwing Jacobs through the ropes to the wooden floor, planting Paris with a huge spinebuster and giving Phoenix a ‘Cactus clothesline’. A.J. misses a gorgeous looking top rope splash, when, from the back comes Terry Knight who KO’s Paris while Steve Martin is keeping the official occupied. Romeo Bliss enters through the crowd, although this is clearly seen by the badly positioned ref who just turns away and ignores it. Bliss powerbombs Styles before putting Paris on top, his ’30 days’ now over after the ‘Loser Leaves Town’ match. The run ins aren’t over just yet, the Cole twins attacking Air and then the Boogalou Crew making a beeline for the Coles, the ref at this point finally throwing the match out. Suicidal Tendencies get out of dodge leaving the NWA Elite to it and the footage goes off the air just as someone is on their way out to help the Boogalous.

The match is joined in progress and not the best of starts as we miss seeing Red’s move off the top, the camera choosing to concentrate on Grimes instead. It’s not long before the weapons are introduced, Grimes collecting a bunch of stuff from under the ring that he throws inside. “We want tables” chant from the fans. I reckon they may be in luck tonight. Joe ducks a double clothesline and comes back with one of his own. He dents a trash can over Grimes’ head who calls him on wanting another. Some sort of axe kick/enzuigiri, although whatever it was it wasn’t hit clean. Joe places the trash can onto the prone Grimes and suplexes Red onto it. Huge running splash in the corner to Red. Grimes is back to his feet and as Joe has climbed the turnbuckles for the ‘ten punch’ spot, gets underneath him and gives him a running powerbomb. Flying elbow off the top by Red, but as he makes the cover Grimes punts him in the face. Up to that point the two had been working together. He throws Red to the outside and comes off the apron with a flying clothesline. Cactus Jack style elbow drop off the stage to the concrete. If he needs a new hip later in life he’s going to regret that spot. Corkscrew plancha by Joe onto both! Back in the ring Grimes clobbers Joe over the back with a chair which he then sits him in. He misses the top rope cannonball though, Joe moving out the way as he ends up flattening that chair. Red with an exploder to Joe. Shooting star to the cement floor by Red! Not the most aesthetically pleasing of shooting stars, but considering his size bravo for even attempting that. They fight their way up the stairs towards the back of the building, Grimes bringing a table which he lays Red on. As he comes off a ledge with a splash, from another ledge comes Joe (barely caught by the camera) as tandem splashes put Red through it. Grimes DDT’s Joe onto the concrete before collecting a second table which he sets up at ringside. After been laid on it, Joe avoids the somersault as Grimes crashes through it from the top turnbuckle. Release German suplex onto an upright chair by Joe. Grimes is holding his neck after that which could easily have been a neckbreaker. Red has returned but Joe puts him away with the ‘Samoan Driver’ for the win. The effort, and what the three of them were prepared to put their bodies through, was insane. It’s one thing Vic Grimes having New Jack have him throw him off a scaffold on a PPV, it’s another to do running elbow drops onto concrete, somersaults from the top turnbuckle to the floor through tables and take German suplexes onto upright chairs in front of 150 plus people max. I’ve never seen Cincinnati Red before and have no other information on him, while something completely different from Samoa Joe compared to the match he had with William Regal last month. A little rough in a couple of places, but this is night and day from the Hardcore matches that I’ve watched in IWA-PR recently.

A big test for ‘Big Poppa Pump’ just four days away from defending his World title against Sid Vicious at Starrcade. Ric Flair has become tired of trying to keep Steiner and Vicious apart so has made an open offer for Sid to show up at the arena if he wants to. Steiner tells the Commissioner that his plans are going to waste as Sid is too afraid to, but challenges him to show up at Starrcade, if he’s got the guts, where he’ll kick his ass and take him straight to hell. As Steiner goes on about what he’s going to do to Meng he’s jumped from behind by the big Tongan who unloads with a bevy of punches, dropping ‘the champ’ in the corner. Backbreaker for a two. Steiner smartly rolls to the outside to stop the opening onslaught. Back inside Meng telegraphs a backdrop and ‘BPP’ with a reverse neckbreaker. You’d think he’d be wanting to get this one over with asap, not so, preferring to flex and kiss his biceps. As he then starts doing pushups Mike Tenay agrees with my thoughts thinking that this could be a mistake. Scotty hoists Meng up and sits him on the top turnbuckle, however he fires off repeated headbutts and Steiner falls backwards to the mat. Clothesline from the middle followed by a second rope splash. Meng runs into a big boot and, as he staggers, Steiner hooks him with a belly to belly. He tosses him to the outside, however Meng with the reversal on the floor and Big Poppa Pump goes clattering into the railings. Midajah is on Meng’s back, and although he shrugs her off, the distraction allows Steiner to land a clothesline. Paisley goes after Midajah however the ‘catfight’ spot, usually a crowd pleaser, gets hardly any reaction. I don’t think the commentators could be any more obvious with their telegraphing of Sid’s arrival at this point. Steiner breaks the Tongan Death grip and hits a release overhead suplex. ‘Steiner Recliner’ and as Sid slowly ambles down towards the ring the referee calls for the bell as this one’s over. The two briefly go at it, Thunder closing just as Sid leaves Steiner laying with a chokelsam. A better match than you would expect. Steiner is Steiner, but Meng was motivated and worked hard here, almost as if he was trying to make the most of getting a rare TV main event to show what he had.

I can’t ID everyone here, but those I do recognise are Vyzago, Pain, Ninjitsu, Ricky Banderas, Huracan Castillo Jr, Taka Michinoku, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Super Crazy, Chicky Starr, Victor the Bodyguard and Savio Vega. Everyone has a weapon and the match begins with everyone outside the ring on the floor. Vyzago is first to be busted open from what I think is the first shot of the match. RF is having a terrible time trying to keep up with everything here. Like last night’s Hardcore match, this is also nothing but the wrestlers hitting each other with weapons (primarily trash cans, trash can lids, baking trays, chairs and Kendo sticks). People are making covers on the gym floor so it looks like this is Falls Count Anywhere too. Vyzago is bleeding pretty profusely now. Chicky gets a pin on Ninjitsu and he’s holding up a belt. Crazy was doing that earlier so maybe its last man holding the belt at the end of the twenty minutes is declared the champion? Feinstein is spending a lot of time following Tajiri again and misses at least one elimination. Savio destroys an unknown chest with vicious chops, as Victor joins Vyzago in sporting the crimson mask. Tajiri pins Miguel with a Magistral cradle with about the third actual wrestling move of the match. He eliminates an unknown and then nails Vyz with a handspring elbow as this starts to actually resemble a wrestling match. Castillo KO’s Tajiri with an object and he becomes the current title holder. With the time limit fast approaching Victor and Castillo trade near falls, the bell signifying the end of the time limit just as Victor goes for a sunset flip. As the last person to have gained a pinfall, Huracan Castillo Jr is the IWA-PR Hardcore champion. Post-match interview between he and Victor conclude things but I’d long since had enough. I’ll start by saying that I had no idea what the rules were to this or that it was even an elimination match at first, I was having to piece things together as I was going along. The final couple of minutes when it became a wrestling match was okay, but it was an almighty chore sitting through everything up to then and it was way worse than the Corino tag match from last night’s show. I was seriously contemplating fast forwarding to the end to find out the result half way in as I was bored numb of watching people hit each other over the head. For posterity’s sake I did a bit of digging afterwards and according to RF’s website the unidentified wrestlers were Andy Anderson, Andres Borges, Shan Hall and Nuevo Gran Apollo. With that added information I believe the belt went from Borges to Crazy to Ninjitsu to Chicky to Miguel to Tajiri and finally ending up with Castillo.

We start off with a promo from earlier in the day, Steve Bradley talking about coming back to Memphis after being away for almost a year and immediately becoming the Southern Heavyweight champion. He says how everyone told him that he was too small, that he was never going to be the top guy, but this belt he’s holding means that he is the top guy and he’s the best in MCW. From there he warns Shooter Schultz that the only things he’ll be leaving here with are a black eye, another concussion and a mark in the loss column. Good little interview addressing a few things (he now has Victoria with him too) and promoting the TV main event. Kevin Kelly mentions how Victoria was originally one of the Godfather’s ho’s, but what happened to her at the hands of Chyna changed her demeanour and now she’s siding with the likes of Steve Bradley. Shooter is such a master of suplexes, an awesome release German dumping Bradley on the back of his head. After a belly to belly he goes for the ‘Shooter Clutch’, but Bradley hooks the ropes with his legs to force the break. Victoria grabs Schultz’s ankle from the outside and he takes off after her, however as he chases her around the ring he’s cut off by a Bradley clothesline. Missile dropkick to the back of the head. It’s not long before Victoria is interfering again, choking Shooter behind the referee’s back whilst Bradley keeps him occupied, then distracting him herself so he misses a Schultz pinfall attempt and finally punting Shooter in the chest after he’d been thrown to the floor. Bradley goes flying through the turnbuckles into the ringpost, Shooter avoiding his charge, as he looks to get back into the contest. Quality gut wrench suplex, although that one takes it equally out of him as it does his opponent. Double underhook suplex and Kelly thinks that the title is slipping out of Bradley’s grasp here. Drop toe hold into the ‘Shooter Clutch’ when out from the back comes Tracey Smothers who attacks Shooter from behind for the title saving DQ. Lance Cade looks to help his fellow Shawn Michaels Academy trainee, but he gets clocked over the head with a steel chair. The Fabulous Rocker is with Tracey and it’s three on one until K-Kwik evens things up and clears the ring of the heels.

JCW Heavyweight title match, Reckless Youth, ‘the King of Independents’, challenging the champion, Low Ki. Reckless has got some choice words to the fans, not impressed with the response they are giving him. He says how for the past eight months he’s been in Memphis and the fans there were an awful lot more respectful than the pieces of trash in this rat hole of a town. Whether Low Ki likes it or not he’s taking the night off, there will be no flips or no dives to the outside because he’s not getting paid enough to work that hard! Nice reversals by Reckless who ends up grounding Ki with an armdrag take down. The test of strength sees both men display textbook neck bridges before Ki boots Reckless in the gut and looks for the Dragon sleeper, “a terrifying move” according to the commentator. Reckless scrambles free but Ki catches him with a huracanrana. Ki gets backdropped over the top rope to the outside, however as Reckless goes for the suicide dive, Ki jumps up and kicks him in the head. Considering ‘Mr Memphis’ said that he wasn’t being paid enough to work that hard, I was expecting him to tease the tope and not actually go through with it. Back in the ring Ki lights Youth up with some more kicks. Handspring kick in the corner and Reckless rolls out of the ring to recuperate. Phoenix splash to the floor is missed by the cameraman, plus I don’t think he caught Youth much with it anyway. Apron DDT by Reckless. Ki blocks the suplex and Reckless is able to get to the ropes as he again looks for the Dragon sleeper. After a butterfly suplex Youth locks on a rear chinlock variation, grapevining Ki’s left arm with his leg. He’s too slow heading upstairs mind as Ki nails him with a kick. Reckless fights off the attempted superplex and front suplexes Ki to the mat. Flying knee to the back of the head. Ki floats over and at the third time of asking looks to have the Dragon sleeper finally cinched in. Not quite, Reckless squirming over towards the ropes and outstretching a leg to force the break. Mafia kick followed by a top rope rana, the challenger still having a bit of fight left in him, as he kicks out of the cover at two point five. Ki misses a clothesline and Reckless spikes him with a Michinoku Driver, at which point Billy Reil joins the commentators to watch his mentor and trainer “now that he’s in control”. Lousy timing on ’Highlight’s’ part as Ki almost immediately hits a ‘Ki Krusher and then locks in the Dragon sleeper. Reckless pokes referee Sean Hanson (the long haired scruffy one) in the eye, moments before he starts tapping furiously. Ki thinks he’s won but is unaware that Hanson didn’t see the tap. He lifts Youth’s limp body for a second ‘Ki Krusher’, however takes too long and Reckless counters it into a small package for the three, becoming the new JCW Heavyweight champion in the process.