GSR

The Haas brothers join Corey and Russ has his arm in a sling after the attack on him last week by the Dupps. He explains that it’s sore and the that the Doctor has advised him to stay off if for a couple of weeks, but he’s going to defy those orders and is pumped for Wednesday night in Arkansas. Charlie’s not so sure, not wanting Russ to jeopardize his career, his health and, more importantly, their chance of winning the Southern tag team titles. He’s a match coming up with Shooter Schultz and wants Russ to stay in the corner, support him, and not do anything that could aggravate that injury. I’ve a feeling this isn’t going to end well... Quick roll up from the go-behind by Charlie for a two count as he tries to catch Shooter off his guard. Shooter backs him into the ropes and fires away with a couple of punches. Irish whip, Charlie ducks a clothesline and hits the Tajiri handspring elbow. Jason Sensation is at it already, hooking Charlie’s ankle as he runs the ropes. He grabs Jason by the hair but is nailed from behind by Shooter before he gets the chance to do anything. Butterfly suplex. Backbreaker across the knee followed by a side slam. Charlie peppers Shooter with a few punches but his back gives way when he tries to lift him up. Northern Lights suplex by Schultz. Haas counters a standard suplex and replies with an overhead throw of his own. He sits Shooter on the top rope for a superplex, but Jason grabs a hold of his man to prevent him from being taken down as Charlie then crashes backwards to the mat. Russ has had enough of his interference and takes off after Jason. ‘Shooter clutch’, Charlie with the sit out escape and he cradles Shooter for the three. Schultz attacks him after the match which brings in Russ to help his brother out. Just as Dave is saying how he doesn’t think Russ should be in there, out come the Dupps who jump him from behind. Bo targets that arm; ramming it into the turnbuckle, tying it in the ropes and repeatedly headbutting it. The Dupps are still beating down on the brothers as we cut to a pre-tape. Russ is the better interview of the two at the moment as Charlie seemed stilted and there wasn’t much emotion in his delivery, like his words had been written for him. It was also pretty funny that it came across that he was more concerned about winning the Southern tag belts than his brother’s health, which I don’t think was what was intended! Pretty sure this is the first time we’ve seen the brothers in singles action and this was kept fairly short. I liked the way Charlie’s back gave out after having it briefly worked out, a simple but nice touch, and talking of firsts, think that’s the first time we’ve seen someone escape from the ‘Shooter Clutch’ too.

Corp and Cash are jumped the moment they slide into the ring, although they quickly get the better of their opponents, avoiding the double clothesline and dropping both with a double lariat. Shank takes to the floor with Corp in pursuit where he whips him into the wall before blasting him with a chair. Corp positions the chair on the apron however a reversal sees him being the one who crashes head first into it. ‘Mean’ Mitch and Cash are on the opposite side to them and Cash, like a modern day Jim Cornette, has got himself a Tennis racket which he uses on Page. Back in the ring and Corp with a piledriver on to a chair. Shank kicks out of the cover, low blows Corp and then DDT’s him onto the chair. Corp ducks under a clothesline and hits a huracanrana that actually didn’t look too bad at all. Cash and Page continue to rearrange the furniture on the outside and after splashing ‘Mean’ Mitch against the wall, Cash returns to the ring. Flo with some hard knife edge chops to Shank before he whips him into a racket swinging Corp. After being sat on the top turnbuckles Dorsey rakes Corp in the eyes, stopping whatever he had planned and then hits a tornado DDT, also taking out Cash on landing. Corp blocks being suplexed to the floor and a big right hand sees Page take a nestea plunge to the outside. Cash break another light tube over the back of Shank, jawbreaker, but they’re too close to the ropes. Page has recovered and drops a headbutt to the prone Corp’s groin before being handed a staple gun and stapling a dollar bill to his face. Big splash off the top and Cash breaks up the pin just in time. As he and Page resume their rivalry on the outside Shank with a DDT on Corp. The camera is following Cash and Mitch on the floor so we don’t see what is happening inside but cuts back in time to see Corp gesturing to Cash. ‘Bootcamp’/top rope leg drop combination from them and they pick up the win. I didn’t mind this (with the one exception of Shank kicking out of the piledriver on a chair, Mitch should’ve really saved him on that spot). Same issue that’s a problem with any multi-person IWA match though in that there is still only the one hard camera filming things, so with wrestlers on either side of the arena or some in the ring and some out, you’re not going to see everything that happens. They didn’t go overboard with the weapons shots and there was some actual flow to things. Expectations are always low whenever Mitch Page is involved so if I come out of it having not felt like I’ve wasted my time or with some positive comments, I’ll take that every time.

According to Eric Gargiulo, when the magazines do their ‘dream matches’, this one makes the top five every time! Wifebeater isn’t backing down from Balls as they’re trying to play this up as CZW vs ECW. Balls grabs a side headlock, Beater shoots him into the ropes, drop down, leap frog and then catches him with a powerslam. Figure four attempt, but Balls kicks him off before he can fully lock it in. A series of left jabs to the jaw and a big haymaker floors Beater. He looks for the ‘Cactus clothesline’ but Wifebeater ducks out the way and Balls goes soaring out over the top rope to the outside. Irish whip on the floor is reversed, with Balls holding on to the arm and slamming Beater into a couple of upright chairs instead. He pulls a fork out of his pocket and jabs Wifebeater in the head opening him up (although in reality he bladed himself under the ring apron!). Powerbomb through a set of chairs. Balls whips Beater into the wall, charges at him with a barbed wire covered trash can, however Beater moves and he ends up running into it himself. Beater grates the barbed wire across Balls’ forehead and now he’s busted open too. They make their way back to the ring and Balls with a spinebuster, only to miss on the top rope guillotine leg drop. Side slam by Beater for a two. ‘Choke’n’Stein’ (which is a chokebomb) onto a chair, although he struggles to get Balls up for it, barely getting him off the ground. Mack Smack passes his man a table which he eventually manages to set up after having a bit of difficulty with it at first. DDT onto the chair by Balls. He lays Beater on the table and comes off the top with a frog splash. Wifebeater kicks out of the cover and Balls confronts the referee thinking he’s showing a bit of home town bias to the CZW wrestler. Smack is up on the apron and Balls wallops him with a chair. Even though he had a helmet on for protection, I imagine that still jarred him a bit. He blasts Beater with the chair when out from the back runs Madman Pondo. A pair of ‘Stop’ sign shots have minimal effect, the third dropping Balls. Pondo douses the table with lighter fluid, however Balls knocks the lighter out of his hand before he is able to set it alight. Wifebeater and Mack Smack have disappeared and it looks like this has just ended with no finish like the previous show’s main event did. Balls challenges Pondo to a flaming tables match, before adding Wifebeater to the match and amending it to a three way, two out of three falls, barbed wire flaming tables match. The CZW fans like the sound of that and after not being as receptive to Balls as you might’ve expected (with him facing Wifebeater), chant his name after he makes the challenge. There did seem to be a bit of confusion at the end of ‘Crushing the Competition’ as to whether this would be a tag match (also including Justice Pain and Mikey Whipwreck) or singles, singles it turned out to be. So Pondo is not happy with stinking up his own matches, he’s now doing his best to ruin matches that he’s not even involved in! I wouldn’t have been pleased if I’d attended the previous card and then this, what with neither main event having a decisive finish and just ending out of nowhere. At the moment the post-match announcements (Balls last time, the flaming tables this) seem to be quelling any annoyance from the fans, but they won’t be able to keep that up too much longer.

Not a promising start as Blade struggles to execute a cartwheel when looking to escape a wristlock. You expect the ‘big botch’ out of him, but not on the ‘simple’ stuff. Fair play though as he takes Mondo down off a hammerlock, tying him up in a nifty little submission and forcing him to reach for the ropes with his leg. After barely managing that cartwheel, they then screw their timings up on a Mondo assisted back flip, Ric just about rescuing it. Oh dear, this is getting worse. What looks like a complete miscommunication between the two sees Blade not duck low enough on Mondo’s flying back elbow and he’s caught by the point of it square in the forehead. Not the ideal thing to be on the receiving end of considering he was concussed a fortnight ago. Blade whips him into the corner, Mondo leaps to the top turnbuckle in one motion and springs backwards, catching him with another elbow. Ric still looks to be feeling the effect of that first one and rolls under the bottom rope. He’s paying no attention whatsoever to his opponent here. Baseball slide dropkick fails to even reach, so Mondo tries a twisting springboard senton to the outside. That goes even worse! He was supposed to jump to the top rope and springboard backwards out over them to the arena floor, twisting in mid-air, but fails miserably. The twist seemingly disorientating him and HE LANDS IN THE RING not even clearing the ropes, let alone hitting his intended target! After whipping Blade into some chairs Mondo collects a ladder which he lays out in the ring (no sign of any barbed wire just yet). Rolling belly to back suplexes by Mondo before a ‘Blue Thunder Driver’ onto the ladder. Tilt-a-whirl powerslam for a two. Blade reverses the Irish whip and a Samoan drop on to the ladder. Nip up, standing moonsault and Blade leaves the ring to grab the barbed wire ladder. Rolling fisherman’s suplexes finishing with a ‘Ki Krusher’ onto the barbed wire ladder that lacerates Mondo’s back. He takes to the outside but Blade nails him with a corkscrew press from the top turnbuckle, although this was another situation similar to Acid/Berk where Mondo walked a shit ton around ringside to get into position and then had to just stand there waiting for Blade. Mondo avoids the double jump springboard 450 as Blade crashes and burns to the mat. He throws Blade to the floor, attacking him with chairs as they make their way past the concession stands to the back of the arena. DDT onto the bleachers and Mondo briefly disappears, returning with a barbed wire and light tube covered table. Blade counters whatever Mondo had planned and puts him through that contraption with a variation of the ‘Acid Bomb’. He drags Mondo back to the ring, whipping him into a cluster of chairs on the way, although ‘Sick’ Nick somehow raises a shoulder up on the cover. Blade gets a fan to pass him another chair, but before he gets the chance to use it is low-blowed. ‘Dominator’ and Blade returns to the arena floor to compose himself. Mondo throws the chair at him, jumps to the top rope for a springboard, but Blade launches the chair at his head as Mondo then shoots backward across the ring landing on the barbed wire ladder which had been propped up against the ropes on the opposite side. That looked tremendous, contrived, but tremendous, and shreds Mondo’s back up even more. Blade puts Mondo over his shoulder and carries him to the back by the entrance curtain where he lays him on a table. He then climbs to the top of the building for the craziest swanton bomb you’ll ever see. There was no margin for error on what was easily a 20ft dive and nuttier than that leg drop off the basketball back board from a year ago. He picks Mondo up again, carrying him back to the ring so that he can get the pin, but the cover is broken up by Z-Barr and Trent Acid who jump him. ‘Kryptonite Krunch’ by Barr and a huge “bullshit” chant breaks out. I don’t blame them on that one! ‘Acid Bomb’ onto the ladder however Blade kicks out. They tie Blade in the ‘tree of woe’ and bridge a ladder across the middle ropes, laying Ric on it. ‘Coast to coast’ leg drop by Mondo, but Blade lifts himself up out the way and Mondo fucks himself up royally when landing on that ladder. Blade takes out Barr and Acid before making a Mondo ladder sandwich. He moonsaults the sandwich, fucking up Mondo even more in the process and that’s enough to put him away for the win. It looks like that moonsault broke his nose and Mondo is in a real bad way, unable to walk due to that ‘coast to coast’ and being helped from the ring, although getting a huge standing ovation as he does so. I thought this was going to be an unmitigated disaster by the way it started with all those terribly blown spots, topped off by that horrendous twisting springboard senton to the floor where Mondo didn’t even make it out of the ring, let alone hit Blade. After that they got their act together and this turned into the expected stunt show with all sorts of crazy spots that you’d expect from these two. It was contrived, but on seeing how beaten up Mondo was at the end of this and the effort, and daring, they showed, I’m not going to be too harsh on this. I’m also very glad that we got a clean finish in the end. I was in disbelief when Barr and Acid interfered, fuck, you’ve had Blade risk his life and can’t even give him a pinfall after doing so? Luckily there is no rhyme or reason when it comes to disqualifications in CZW so the match went on and Blade ended up getting the better of all three and coming out on top.

Maybe I just don't see this praise, or the people I discuss football with are more realistic when it comes to the England team. We've one World class player (Kane), some very good ones (Stones, Rashford, Alli when he wants) and some flat out average ones (Pickford, Walker, Young). There is no depth there, as evidenced by how poor we were against Belgium, and after Colombia got their equaliser all I could think of is, "Christ, half hour of Eric Dier now who was brought on to supposedly shore up the midfield". What we do have is a manager who has got the best out of the squad, togetherness that hasn't been there for twenty years and players performing above and beyond what I expected (Trippier has arguably been our player of the tournament and Maguire is improving with every game). In regards to 'Football's Coming Home' I suppose it has become an unofficial 'anthem' of sorts for England and is considered one of the two best Football songs ever in this country (it's either this or 'World in Motion', although I'm partial to 'This Time (We''ll Get it Right) from World Cup '82). The media do us no favours in this country constantly hyping up the team ('Golden Generation' again!) and seemingly every time a tournament comes around we're reminded that it's 'x' amount of years since 1966. I can imagine from an outsider looking in it's kinda laughable seeing this praise considering we fail all the time (Iceland any one?).

Agreed. I fully expected things to change around here but didn't expect it to happen so quick. Some of the posts in this thread (and especially the language) is down right embarrassing.

No idea what you saw after Mina scored his goal but I didn't see any harassment by the English players to the Colombians after it. Great header, no complaints, the only issue was with him taking an eternity to get back for the kick off. After they'd showed all the replays from various angles he was still in the England half celebrating while England were ready to kick off. My take on the Stones' incident at the time was that he tried to jump over Falcao and caught him accidentally with his boot. I've tried to find it on YouTube to re-watch but couldn't find it anywhere. Yeah, no idea what Ashley Young was playing at on that tackle when he was the one who went over the top. What diving though? Harry Maguire gestured to the official that when he went down it wasn't a penalty, and the ex-pro's who did the analysis on the box over here all thought another in the second half which wasn't given (I can't recall if it was on Lingard or Sterling) should've been a penalty as the Colombian caught him. Was there a third incident that I've forgotten? Don't agree at all with your take on the Colombian's behaviour after conceding the penalty, it was blatant delaying tactics to put Kane off right down to the one guy who was following him around when Kane was walking away from it all. If there was any 'pushing and pulling' by Kane it was to free himself from the Colombian who was trying to rip his shirt from him. Sorry, but whilst England are certainly not 'holier than thou' and have been guilty of plenty over the years, Colombia were on a completely different level with their behaviour last night. In regards to your initial post, I don't think one person in England claims that we're the best. We weren't even the best team in the UK not too long ago! It's just after years of having the so called 'Golden Generation' who were going to win something on the World stage and repeatedly failed tournament after tournament, expectations were pretty low going into this one. Now the draw has opened up and there is a very realistic chance that for the first time in a lifetime England could reach a World Cup final, and yeah if they do they'll have hardly done it the hard way, but you can only beat who's in front of you. Not sure how much you know about 'Football's Coming Home', but it was released prior to Euro '96. The country got fully behind the England team that summer and for the first time since then, football seems to have caught the nation again so no surprise that it's been adopted again by the supporters.

More footy I'm afraid, but I'd love to hear your explanation on how England played the same as Colombia. Colombia tried every dirty tactic they could to try and provoke a reaction out of England. From memory alone there was the headbutt on Henderson that should've been a red, Henderson's yellow in the second half was as a result of the Colombian putting his head into the back of his, the constant holding and grabbing of England players at corners, delaying the penalty by over three minutes due to their harassing of the referee, Colombian players scuffing and kicking the penalty spot to loosen the turf whilst doing that harassing, there was a needless body check on Maguire and at half time one of the Colombian staff elbowed Sterling as he was leaving the field with said member of staff later caught on camera laughing about it after playing 'innocent' to the fourth official. The irony of all this is that for the last twenty minutes of the ninety and when they cut out all of that nonsense, they looked the better team by far and is every chance they would've beaten England if they'd played the previous seventy like that.

Nick Gage was scheduled to be on tour for Big Japan, but he allegedly cancelled that because he wants a piece of Lobo and a piece of the Iron Man title. These two aren’t bothering to hang around as a back elbow and a clothesline sends Gage retreating to the outside. Lobo with a tope that doesn’t quite go to plan, as Gage launches a chair flush into his face and he just collapses to the concrete (it should be pointed out that Gage was standing too far back in the first place and he would’ve never reached him with that dive anyway). The fight continues amongst the fans as Gage nails Lobo with more chair shots before whipping him into the RF concession stand table, wiping out all of their merch. Somewhere in all of that Lobo got busted open. The champ measures Gage with a chair shot of his own and then hurls him into the metal fence. Irish whip on the floor is reversed and Lobo sails into another row of chairs as they do their best to make a mess of the venue. Gage climbs to the top turnbuckle, teasing a plancha, but jumps back to the mat flipping the fans the bird who respond just as he would’ve hoped. Brainbuster, however Gage takes too long arranging and positioning some chairs in the ring and by the time he’s finished and climbed to the top rope again, Lobo has recovered, snatches him and puts him through the chairs with a rolling ‘Death Valley Driver’. Gage ducks the clothesline and a belly to back suplex dumps Lobo on his head. The frog splash is missed as Lobo then collects a table from under the ring and sets it up inside. Gargiulo mentions that when Lobo gets a table, he’s the one that usually ends up going through it. Not quite, but not far off as Gage counters the ‘suicideplex’ and SUPLEXES LOBO FROM THE TOP ROPE TO THE OUTSIDE, only barely hitting the table that was there to try and cushion some of that fall. Both somehow make it back into the ring where Lobo lands a double armed DDT. The Briscoe brothers are out to help their fellow Dewey Donovan brethren but Lobo gets the better of them, pressing Mark overhead and throwing him at Jay. Roaring elbow by Gage and now here’s Nate Hatred as ‘the Dew’ is calling on all his troops. Gage grabs hold of Lobo, however he moves and he accidentally clocks Gage with a piece of broken table instead. Lobo makes the cover as the champ retains and we’re left wondering whether that was accidental by Hatred after all. That suplex from the top rope to the floor that Lobo took was insane and the guy is nuts with no regard for his own body, but a spot like that (which did take a while for them to set up) should be used for the finish. Gage did a nice sell job, getting to his feet and then collapsing again, although literally a minute or so after they’d done it Lobo is up and acting like he’s just about to start the match. The finish was overdone as there was no need for the involvement of the Briscoe’s and they should’ve just used Nate Hatred on his own. It does look like a storyline brewing between him and Gage mind. I know they won’t, but they need to knock this trope of fighting among the fans and whipping a wrestler into a row of chairs to send them scattering, that’s already outplayed. The wrecking of the RF merch got a legit laugh out of me.

Nick Berk vs Trent Acid (CZW Break on Thru 2/17/01) We get a bit of fun at Hat Guy’s expense as the ring announcer pinches his straw boater and replaces it with a dodgy looking wig. It doesn’t sound like he’s the most popular of fans as a “Fuck you Hat Guy” chant erupts shortly after. A rematch from last week as the former partners from the Softcore Connection go at it one more time. Trent Acid waits in the aisle for the arrival of Nick Berk, who surprises him, coming from the opposite end of the building and taking him out with a chair assisted suicide dive. He’s all aggressive, waffling Acid with chair shots while Z-Barr pleads for mercy on Trent’s behalf. The two combatants finally make it into the ring where Berk gets a two after ‘the stroke’. Moonsault off the middle, but Berk’s trajectory is all wrong and he lands on Acid’s face. Berk peppers him with some punches and a groggy Trent swings wildly in return, although his shots are all easily avoided. Face first slam and Z-Barr grabs the ref at two to halt the count. Sit-out ‘dominator’, frog splash and Barr is now up on the apron. The official goes over to have a word and as he does so, out of his line of vision, Barr powders Berk. ‘Acid Bomb’ and after taking a beating all match, Trent’s first and only offensive move is enough to put his opponent away. Acid starts flapping his gums about being the best junior heavyweight around when he’s interrupted by Reckless Youth, making his return to the Combat Zone. Reckless disputes those claims and challenges him to a match right now. Trent looks like he’s not interested, heading back towards the dressing room until a “pussy, pussy” chant and some more words from Reckless make him have second thoughts. Trent Acid vs Reckless Youth (CZW Break on Thru 2/17/01) Strong opening between the two with both countering and reversing whatever the other tries. Reckless has got a real cool fireman’s carry take down into a cradle that I like an awful lot. Of course all this wrestling can only end one way, the ‘stand off’ and Eric Gargiulo already believes that we’ve got a ‘classic’ on our hands. Let’s see? I don’t think ‘classics’ have over two minutes of stalling like we get here mind! Reckless has had enough of Trent’s walking around ringside and tells either he or Z-Barr to get their ass in here. Trent smoothly blocks the hip toss with an abdominal stretch before Youth powers out and slaps on a version of the octopus. Z-Barr grabs at Reckless from the outside to distract him, Acid with the charge, but he gets back dropped over the top rope. Even though he lands on the apron, a swift kick to the legs takes them away and Trent crashes face first into the apron. A springboard dropkick sends him deep into the crowd, however as Reckless goes for a tope Barr (who’s now on the opposite side of the ring) grabs his ankle again, this time pulling him out with him. As Barr and Reckless hammer away at one another, Trent with a moonsault press from the top turnbuckle to the floor although, as per with these things, the wrestlers just stopped fighting and stood there waiting to catch him. They briefly return to the ring where Reckless misses a Lionsault and a Trent basement dropkick sends him to the outside once more. Trent throws him into the ring post before rolling him back inside. He positions a chair in the centre, but Reckless with the float over and a dropkick to the knee. Just like earlier that takes Trent’s legs out from under him and he goes face first into that chair. Reckless then dropkicks the back of it sending it smashing into Trent’s head. Sit out pedigree. Belly to back suplex followed by a lariat for a two. Acid ducks the roaring elbow, big boot to the face and hits a ‘Blue Thunder Driver’ for a near fall. Trent drops Youth with a superkick as John House optimistically thinks that if Z-Barr were in the match it would be over by now! He sets up a couple of chairs and bridges a third one across them. There’s no waiting around as he leaps to the top turnbuckles, but Reckless still manages to swipe a leg away causing him to crotch himself. Top rope ‘Ace Crusher’ and Barr is up on the apron leading to the official abandoning his count to go and have a word with him. As Reckless goes over to see what’s going on, Barr again with the powder, however unlike Nick Berk, Reckless ducks and it hits Trent instead. Youth slugs Barr and a brutal looking ‘Northern Lights 2K’ through the chairs for the win. Only a short one and even though it was there purely to facilitate the return of Reckless Youth, the Berk/Acid sprint wasn’t that bad. At times I thought Reckless/Trent was on its way to being one of the best CZW matches we’ve watched, then Trent would go and stall for two minutes, or it would get too co-operative, or selling would be forgotten about. Good twist and call-back to the first match at the end with the powder, but I just want to see these two have a wrestling match with Z-Barr nowhere to be seen, without Trent involving chairs and without any stalling, as on the basis of what we saw here they’ve clearly got a very good match in them (there was some real unique and nice stuff in this). The finish with that ‘Northern Lights 2K’ looked nasty as with the way Reckless spiked Trent on the chair.

Eric Gargiulo is at it again with the Brisco/Briscoe brother ‘jokes’, talking about them being NWA tag team champions and their classic feud with Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood! VD jump the Briscoes from behind, but the brothers duck under double clotheslines and take them down with stereo springboard moonsault body blocks. Gargiulo must be on an old NWA binge, now comparing Dahmer to Ole Anderson, saying how he isolates a body part like Ole used to (although I think it’s more due to the fact that Dahmer has similar facial hair). Jay counters the tilt-a-whirl with a neckbreaker and then looks to the crowd for some appreciation. Double Japanese arm drag meets ‘Spanish Fly’ on Valentine, and the Briscoes follow that up with a double standing moonsault. The official refuses to count citing that there wasn’t a tag, and Dahmer is in to help his partner out. Stereo release German suplexes by VD. Dahmer with a spinebuster on Jay before they pinch the Filthy Animals’ ‘Nutcracker’ (with Valentine being the one to deliver the top rope leg drop to the groin). Torture rack by Valentine who then slams Jay hard, chest first, to the canvas. After getting the heat on Jay for the past few minutes, Mark just enters the ring as VD are setting him for another double team manoeuvre and DDT’s Valentine from the top turnbuckle to the mat. DDT by Jay on Dahmer and the match has all of a sudden turned around with the brothers now the ones in control. Huracanrana, dropkick, and after both Jay was looking for some sort of acknowledgment from the crowd. Double ‘Rock Bottom’ as Valentine gets a shoulder up in the nick of time. ‘Rolling Hills’, top rope senton, moonsault sequence and rather than make the cover they’re at it again playing to the fans. Have they been watching videos of Rob Van Dam in the week leading up to this? Jay eventually does so and Dahmer is in for the save. He gets tossed to the outside where Jay levels him with a corkscrew suicide dive. Tope by Valentine and a high springboard plancha from Mark. The brothers aren’t quite done, climbing to opposite turnbuckles for stereo flip dives to the floor. The action returns back inside and Dahmer with an awesome double Saito suplex on both Briscoes. ‘Pumphandle Erosion’ and Dewey Donovan is up on the apron distracting VD. The two of them grab him, but he waffles them with his briefcase. A pair of roll ups with Jay utilising the Tim Horner natural bridge and the Briscoes get the win. There seemed to be a little dissension in camp Donovan post-match, with the brothers not too happy about his interference, even if it did ultimately lead to the victory for them. As a match this was all over the place (for example why even bother with a heat section if Mark is just going to run in after a few minutes, while on other occasions Mark was just stood around in the ring looking like a lemon) and ended up feeling like a showcase for what the Briscoes can do. VD don’t offer much while Dahmer, Saito suplex aside, is plain bad. I know they’re only teenagers but they need to get out of the habit of playing to the crowd after every sodding move. For the CZW crowd this worked as an opener to get them into the show, and it’s always fascinating to see what the Briscoes will pull out next.

This is the match that was set up on Smackdown where Essa challenged Kurt after he’d accused him of stealing his T-shirt and then made stereotypical racial slurs when he wanted him to buy a replacement (it’s funnier than it reads). Kurt tries to make his pre-match promo as he’s walking to the ring but the fans are all over him, not giving him the quiet that he wants. He gives up waiting and says that the people aren’t hallucinating, he’s agreed to Essa Rios’ challenge (non-title) as that’s just the kind of guy he is! Angle then congratulates Essa informing him that after tonight he’ll have the honour of telling his future illegitimate grandchildren that he lost to the very best. It’s all Kurt Angle to begin with as it looks like he’s going to make quick work of Rios. Essa flips over on the back suplex and lands a spin kick to the chest. The crowd are into this judging by the response that gets. Angle misses a clothesline but then catches Essa with a release overhead belly to belly. Whip to the corner, however Rios runs up the turnbuckles, back flipping over the incoming Angle. Drop toe hold followed by a leg drop to the back of the neck. Powerslam for a two count. Essa runs into a big boot, but then cuts Kurt off before he is able to capitalize. Double jump top rope rana for the closest of near falls. Angle gets his knees up on the moonsault (Essa’s really is a thing of beauty) and picks up the ‘w’ after an ‘Olympic slam’. Not satisfied he dumps Essa with two more ‘Olympic slams’ after the match. The crowd here were surprisingly super into this match and super into Essa Rios’ comebacks which has to be all down to Kurt Angle judging by how all over him they were when he made his entrance. Shame they never gave them longer as the crowd bit on that top rope rana, so every chance a few more near falls would’ve sent them over the edge. Good stuff while it lasted.

The Sabu/Morton/Blaze trio is like something you’d get in a WAR six-man from the mid-90s. Tracey’s got a few words for everyone and it’s his usual shtick about coming out there and slapping people if he hears them chanting for the opposition, or threatening to kill someone if he hears any “Tracey sucks” chants. After the bell rings he tries to get the fans to clap along with him, but not surprisingly considering how he just spoke to them, they don’t. Blaze and Smothers kicks us off and Tracey’s already complaining about non-existent hair pulls after Blaze gets the better of the opening lock up and an arm drag. Blaze catches him with a dropkick and when Gilbert and Rich come in, he nails each of them too. High knee to the jaw and a rolling heel kick before making the tag to Ricky. The two bust out an old Rock & Roll Express spot, inverted atomic drop and Tracey crawls over to his corner. His head ends up in Tommy’s crotch though which Rich’s not best pleased about. Sabu gets his first involvement and targets the leg of Gilbert. A brief double team from the heels but Sabu is quickly back in control, levelling Tracey with a clothesline. A “we want tables” chant has started which is customary it seems for a Sabu match these days. Smothers pinballs for Morton and Blaze before crawling back to his corner again, this time his head ending up in Gilbert’s crotch. Sabu grabs a chair from somewhere and launches that into Tracey’s head before DDT’ing him onto it. Smothers takes to the outside where his partners check he’s okay and Sabu with a chair assisted springboard plancha out onto all three of them. Back inside and Tracey shoots Blaze into the ropes to escape the side headlock, drop down, and as he hits the ropes on the other side, Rich and Gilbert pull the top one down so that he goes sailing out over it. Lots of distraction spots with the heels goading Sabu and Morton into the ring and then, when the ref’s back is turned trying to get the two of them back on the apron, they’re double teaming or illegally beating on Blaze. Another “we want tables” chant which is rather odd seeing its Tracey Smothers and Bobby Blaze in the ring at the moment. Knee to the groin by Gilbert. Blaze ducks a back elbow, lands a crossbody, but Pee Wee Moore is now otherwise engaged with Gilbert and Morton so by the time he sees the cover, Tracey has had ample time to recover and kick out. Rear chinlock, Blaze’s arm drops twice but not the third. Smothers telegraphs the backdrop, DDT by Blaze and he makes the hot tag to Sabu. Chair shots all around. ‘Air Sabu’ in the corner and Tracey takes a nice bump, throat first, onto the upright chair that Sabu had sprung off. He goes for the triple jump moonsault, but Tracey hooks his ankle as he jumps over him and he crashes head first into the chair. Sabu with a leg trip as Tracey is about to nail him with a chair and then hits an ‘Arabian facebuster’. Triple jump moonsault and that puts Tracey down for the three. Somewhere in all of this Tommy Rich bladed, presumably after the chair shot. Smothers and Rich get into it post-match with Gilbert doing his best to separate them and keep the peace. His words work as they have a three way hug and all is good between them again. A one man show from Tracey Smothers who was great here and did the bulk of the work for the heel team. This was a bit frantic at times and they could’ve possibly slowed down on all the double team and distraction spots, although that’s not helped by Pee Wee Moore being like a headless chicken in there. I thought Sabu was going pure wrestling tonight with how he started out and although the crowd didn’t get to see tables they got chairs and some of his staples. Fun match, made and worth watching due to Tracey Smothers who continued to work the fans all the way to the back and until the moment he stepped back through the curtain.

A quick video recap of what happened on Raw Monday, when Kurt Angle confronted Essa Rios in the dressing room accusing him of stealing his T-shirt to sell for tequila. Those good ol’ wrestling stereotypes there! He insults him once more by offering money to go and buy him a replacement which leads to Essa challenging him to a match that is set for tomorrow’s episode of Heat. Nice roll up counter off the go behind by Romeo for a super early two. He ducks under a swinging right but Kid’s not as smart as he thinks, as while he points at his head Rios lands a spinning kick to the upper back. Romeo with a side step and Essa goes crashing head first into the turnbuckles. Rios lands on his feet following a monkey flip, however a drop toe hold sends him sliding along the canvas and all the way to the outside. He avoids the baseball slide and floors Romeo with a thrust kick. Jawbreaker to escape the rear chinlock. Essa goes for a satellite headscissors but Kid just pancakes him instead. A wheelbarrow bulldog gets him a near fall and it may well have been a three if he hadn’t played to the crowd before making the cover. Romeo heads upstairs, but Rios falls into the ropes and he crotches himself. Big slam to the mat. Essa heads to the top himself, hits that beautiful looking moonsault and he takes a win into tomorrow’s match against Angle. I was thrown when I saw this match because Romeo is a WCW Power Plant graduate and thought he was under contract to WCW at this point. I checked my records and it turns out his last match was back in April 2000 before next wrestling Chris Harris in the ‘Superbrawl Revenge’ dark match eight days after this appearance on Metal. Guess someone wasn’t too keen on seeing one of ‘their own’ on WWF TV and signed him back up pronto. He stayed with the company for the final few months and was one of the contracts that the WWF picked up when they bought WCW, although got zero look in and was farmed out to HWA until his eventual release. I’ve always like Romeo and he was tailor made for WCW, but as someone who was a small guy and not a flyer, there weren’t too spots available for guys like that in the WWF back then. Another fun (that seems to be the key word on this show) Metal match with Rios looking better here than he did against Scoot Andrews.

On paper this looks like a squash, but Mike Tenay does a grand job on commentary giving purpose to the match and saying how Harris is looking for a full time contract with WCW and victory here may very well earn him one. Tony Schiavone talks about how 3 Count has broken down as there’s no more Evan Karagias, while Shannon Moore and Shane Helms are wrestling exclusively in singles competition at the moment. Shannon gets a couple of near falls but is caught when attempting a tip up and ‘the Wildcat’ dumps him over the top rope and to the outside. Pescado by Harris before throwing Shannon into the guard rail and back into the ring. Two count after a clothesline that turns his opponent inside out. He telegraphs the back drop though and Shannon grabs him by the hair slamming him backwards to the mat. Harris reverses the Irish whip and catches Moore with an inverted atomic drop. He whips Shannon into the corner but he runs up the turnbuckles and nails ‘the Wildcat’ with a corkscrew senton that gets him a two. ‘Rocker dropper’, that Schiavone laughably calls the ‘Bottom’s up!’ and Harris again kicks out of the cover. Swinging neckbreaker by Harris. Moore with a float over into a sleeper, from where he falls to the mat taking Harris with him (a ‘sleeper drop’ almost) and that’s enough to get him the win. A couple of nice bumps from Shannon Moore in here (the one to the floor and then off the clothesline), but this was all a bit too much ‘your turn/my turn’ for my liking. The WWF is definitely leading the way when it comes to the C-show stuff, although props to Tenay for his commentary here.

We get a recap of a handful of interviews from last week’s show. Jeff G. Bailey tells Air Paris that after Bill Behrens saved him last time out, he won’t be getting another shot at A.J.’s TV title. He’s currently in the process of scouring the planet to find the perfect man to destroy him once and for all and that day is coming and its coming sooner than he thinks. Paris responds throwing out phrases like “wrestling angle” and “storyline” and how he no-longer wants Styles’ belt, he wants his ass! Finally we hear from A.J. who says that everyone knows Paris is jealous of him and if he wants a shot at his time, “come get it if you can” (which goes against what both Bailey and Paris said previously, but there you go). A.J. Styles and Jeff G. Bailey make their entrance and we go straight to a commercial break. We return with the match now in progress and the much larger Stone Mountain in command. Styles is backed up begging for mercy and offers Mountain his hand. He accepts, but then snatches A.J. around the neck and hurls him into the corner. A.J. ducks a big boot and clips Mountain’s knee with a shoulder tackle. That’s followed by a kick and then a dropkick to the same knee which finally fells the big man. The commentator mentions how Terry Knight adopted this strategy against Stone Mountain and it worked for him, so this is smart thinking on Styles’ part in trying to take away one of his wheels. A.J. distracts the referee’s attention which allows Bailey to remove his shoe and repeatedly hammer away at that knee with it. Bloody hell, another advert! It doesn’t look like we’ve missed much though. Sleeper hold by Styles and Mountain runs him backwards into the turnbuckles to force the break, however he’s so high up on his back due to the size difference between them that A.J. ends up taking a spill over the top rope to the outside. Mountain heads out after him, but as he hobbles around ringside gets caught with another dropkick to the knee. Leg drop off the top to the knee as A.J. continues to focus his efforts on that body part. Styles makes the cover and an almighty kick out sends him flying through the second and third ropes to the floor. Mountain catches a kick, lifts A.J. up and plants him with an inverted side slam. ‘Landslide’ (which is a choke bomb) and Bailey is interfering, disrupting the count. A.J. heads upstair,s but Mountain grabs him, and a second ‘Landslide’ sees the Heavyweight champion come out on top in this non-title affair. These commercial breaks are really annoying! One in a match is bad enough, but we get two here and that’s not the first time it’s happened in Wildside. Luckily they didn’t really disrupt the flow in this match like they have done in previous ones. Something a little different out of A.J. here as we get to see him in there and working with a much larger opponent as opposed to the Cruiserweight and Light Heavweights that we usually do.

The match is joined in progress with Coleman in control of Rave. Twisting axe kick followed by a high leg drop to the back of the head, and Lazz is in to break up the cover. Combination suplex/leg drop off the middle and this time Rave kicks out. My first time on seeing William Wealth III and he looks like he got lost on the way to the library, accidentally ended up in a wrestling ring instead! Spinning headscissors by Rave. A miscommunication sees both men duck under non-existent clotheslines (someone clearly forgot their spot) and as Rave hits the ropes, Coleman pulls down the top one and he goes tumbling over it to the floor. Caprice measures the superkick, catching Rave flush in the jaw. Jeez, the ref then gets in the way as Rave goes to bounce off the ropes and he collides with him. Wealth distracts the official allowing Coleman to choke Rave from the apron in their corner, although when he turns around he makes out as if he was just doing Jimmy’s hair, not trying to half kill him! Desperation spinning neckbreaker on Wealth and this is the perfect time for Rave to make that tag. Which he does, and as Lazz takes it to WW3 he’s stopped by referee Speedy Nelson who’d been distracted by Coleman and didn’t see the tag. ‘Death Valley Driver’ by Wealth and Coleman with a big splash off the top rope. Nelson is still trying to explain things to Lazz and by the time he finally sees the lateral press, Rave has mustered up enough energy to kick out. He ducks the spin kick and a double clothesline sees both men go down. Coleman tags Wealth and at the same time Rave with the tag to Lazz. He’s like Ronnie Garvin in there the way he’s dropping them with single rights! Leg drop/headbutt to the groin combination on Caprice, Lazz with the ‘Britney Spear’ on Wealth and Rave makes the cover for the win. I thought this was a fair bit better than the Coleman/Rave singles bout with Rave doing a good job taking, and selling, the beating. Wealth is up there as one of the most ‘unwrestler’ looking wrestlers of all time. One thing that I do like about Wildside is we’ve a mixed bag of performers; all shapes, all ages, a wide variety of looks, there’s no cookie cutting going on here. The screw up was bad, but this is a definite step in the right direction for Rave.

The Haas brothers are still carrying Bo’s giant teddy and don’t even make it into the ring, getting jumped from behind by the Dupps. Bo cracks Charlie over the back with a chair sending him crashing into the ring post as they then double team Russ. ‘The Kliq’ leave them to it, watching on from the announcer’s desk. ‘Brain Scrambler’ on Russ before they trap his arm between one of the folding steel chairs and stomp away on it. A couple of referees try to get them to stop, but Bo is showing no sign of letting up. It’s only when Jack grabs the teddy bear and passes it to him does it calm him down. Earlier in the show the Haas’ had come to ringside during a Dupps/Joey Abs & Pete Gas tag match, distracting the Dupps with that bear right after they’d hit the ‘Brain Scrambler’ on Abs and ultimately costing them the win (Pete moments later pins one of them with the ‘Gas Mask’). A non-match and angle advancement in the Haas/Dupps feud, I debated about whether it was worth posting this but I’m watching all the Spanky and Dragon Memphis stuff so the completist in me had too!

Grandmaster Sexay mocking what Rodrageous is wearing is like the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. He stops for a quick interview with Dave to promote his match against K-Kwik at the Jonesboro show, before saying how Derrick King and his toothpick body should be sticking out of a club sandwich. DK ducks the lariat and takes Rodney down with a ‘Rude Awakening’ style neckbreaker. Facebuster for a two. Rodney blocks the tornado DDT, but they botch whatever it is that they had planned. King leaped to the middle turnbuckle and jumped backwards grabbing at Rodney, although he never go hold of him and just crashed into him instead. He climbs to the top for a moonsault, but Rodney ‘stumbles’ into the official knocking him into the ropes and causing DK to crotch himself. With him tied in the tree of woe Rodney kicks away at his mid-section. Swinging neckbreaker but he then telegraphs the backdrop and King with a sunset flip for a near fall. Double underhook suplex by Rodrageous. He whips DK chest first into the turnbuckles, but King flips over on the attempted belly to back and then spikes him to the mat with a DDT. Great looking superkick which GMS thinks he learned from the Grandmaster (he only does it in every match Brian!). Running X-Factor but they’re too close to the ropes and Rodney gets a foot over them for the break. Rodrageous grabs hold of the turnbuckle to prevent being taken down on the top rope frankensteiner and as King gets back to his feet, he hits the ‘High Society’ for the win. Maybe not with this gimmick, as the name and look is cheap and tacky, but I do see something in Rodney as a middle of the card talent if he hadn’t have been cut. Bad botch aside I thought this was an okay match.

Corey Maclin has got the day off so Grandmaster Sexay is filling in for him. Spanky confirms that ‘the Kliq’ will be in six-man action at ‘the Showdown at the Nutthouse’ taking on Joey Abs, Pete Gas and Lance Cade. He’s pretty confident about their chances, intimating that they’ve got already got something up their sleeves. The American Dragon is still pissed about being unmasked by Cade and challenges him to face him right now. Dave Brown points out he did that last week and the whole Kliq ended up interfering. He thinks that if they can figure out some way to make it one against one it’s a good idea, otherwise he doesn’t like it all. Dragon tells ‘the Kliq’ that he doesn’t need their help today, he can do this one on his own, although the tone in his voice implies for them to not venture too far away. Lance makes his way out for the match and he’s carrying Dragon’s mask with him which he places on one of the ring posts. There’s no waiting around or holding anything back between these two as both can’t wait to get their hands on the other. So much for Dragon doing this on his own, as Shooter Schultz hooks Cade’s ankle as he hits the ropes. That interference brings out Pete Gas and Joey Abs who run Spanky and Shooter out of there. Big boot to the face before Lance tosses Dragon over the top rope and to the outside. Shooter and Spanky may have been run out of there but not so Jason Sensation who clubs Lance from behind and then wraps himself around his legs to prevent him from getting back in the ring. Dragon takes advantage of the situation landing a baseball slide dropkick. Lance ducks under the back elbow but Dragon avoids the running crossbody and he sails out over the ropes again. Flying forearm smash off the apron to the floor. Dragon’s knife edge chops only seem to fire Lance up who replies with a couple of his own. A stiff clothesline drops Danielson and Cade gets a near fall after a superkick. Seeing Dragon in trouble ‘the Kliq’ are back with Gas and Abs not too far behind. Lance gets hold of Jason, who’s now up on the apron, but amid all the confusion Dragon retrieves the mask and loads an object into it. Flying headbutt, Dragon takes off the mask so the official doesn’t suspect anything and a KO’d Lance Cade is easy pickings for a three.

Victoria is in the dressing room on the phone to Brandon Baxter wondering if he’s found them a partner yet for the big show on the 21st. While she’s more than confident she can take care of The Kat, she’s not so sure when it comes to he and Jerry Lawler though. Steve Bradley snatches the phone from her, hangs up the call and tells her that the only match she should be concerned with right now is his against the Spellbinder. Only a short little vignette, but I always like stuff such as this which interlinks the two promotions. Both of Bradley’s belts are on the line tonight and with the prospect of becoming the Unified champion, Spellbinder’s not hanging around. Bradley takes to the outside after a Russian leg sweep, looking to grab a break, but Binder is right behind him so opts to roll back in the ring hoping it’ll be safer there. Victoria is up on the apron and that distracts Spell who heads over and grabs her by the hair. The distraction works mind as Bradley clips the knee out from under him. From here he targets Binder’s leg looking to slow him down. Bradley throws Spell to the floor and then keeps the ref busy allowing Victoria to put the boots to him. She continues to interfere throughout the match which eventually brings out a chair carrying Lance Cade. Lance pulls her away from ringside and orders her to sit down on the chair, proceeding to then stand between her and the ring hopefully nullifying any more potential interference. Bradley’s not happy and confronts Cade, but in doing so forgets about Binder who nails him from behind. Spell goes to ram him into the ring post, however the champ reverses things and he goes crashing into it. Back inside and Binder avoids a charging Bradley who goes shooting between the turnbuckles, shoulder first, into the ring post. DDT by Spell and both men are down. Fallaway slam, when out comes Shooter Schultz who jumps Cade. Spell makes the cover but the official is pre-occupied with what’s going on outside the ring. Scott Vick then runs out from the dressing room and clocks Binder over the back with a chair. The ref turns around to see Bradley on top and returns to the ring to count the fall as the Unified champion retains his gold.

Mark Coleman is wearing a Goldberg T-shirt and carrying a title belt, which I think is most likely the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix tournament belt that he won back in May. Iizuka backs into a corner off an early takedown attempt, so Coleman just picks him up and slams him to the canvas. ‘Can opener’ but they’re too close to the ropes. Iizuka shoots for a takedown of his own only to get slammed to the mat again, this time after a great gut wrench suplex. He takes to the outside, visibly frustrated that ‘the Hammer’ keeps getting the better of him. Kerr, never a kicker in his MMA career, throws one which is caught by Iizuka, and with him hopping about on one leg tags in Nagata who drags him down to the mat. Armbar which Kerr initially tries to roll and reverse his way out of before deciding to reach for the ropes instead. Takedown by Kerr and he throws a few strikes form inside Nagata’s guard however leaves an arm dangling which Yuji snatches, applying a second armbar. This one looks more dangerous than the first, but again Kerr utilizes the ropes for the break. Iizuka, feeling like he’s something to prove after earlier, unloads with everything he’s got on Kerr, stomping a mud hole in him and not letting him catch a moment’s breath. He tags Coleman who vaults over the top rope and you can hear the energy levels rise in the crowd as he does so. Awesome belly to belly from ‘the Hammer’ and Iizuka is forced to turtle up as ‘the Godfather of Ground & Pound’ lives up to another of his nick names. A couple of knees to the ribs followed by an armbar and even though they’re already in the ropes, Coleman is not too quick on the release. Nagata with a flurry of headbutts that stun Coleman, leg trip and he keeps hold of that leg as he looks for a submission. ‘The Hammer’ rolls out for the escape and then tees off on Nagata, alternating punches to the body and head. Nagata crumples in the corner but Coleman’s relentless with his attack, even dishing out some headbutts as payback for those ones he gave him. Belly to belly by Kerr and this one looked even more awesome than Coleman’s. Armbar and Iizuka is in for the save. Nagata with a release Northern Lights on Kerr. Exploder by Iizuka and finally something other than an armbar as he locks on a heel hook. Coleman saves Kerr this time out and a double team dropkick on ‘the Hammer’ (Nagata holding him) as the pro wrestlers return to their roots. A left kick to the head drops Coleman and the crowd pops big for that. Nagata concentrates on his kicks, where he’s had the most success, until Coleman times his tackle, lifting Yuji off his feet and then slamming him hard to the mat. Some more G&P before Coleman gets the tap with a neck crank. A tale of two Mark’s, one who shows a ton of aptitude for professional wrestling and would’ve been an awesome pro wrestler had he decided to go that route, one who has some nice suplexes but is generally pretty bland. Cagematch lists this as Coleman’s debut and he’s a natural right from the off (he actually ended up wrestling more than I knew, though would never class him as a regular). He’s got intensity, agility, fire, power, aggression and an aura of a seriously bad mofo who’s not to be messed with. I’m not sure how many would’ve picked up on these, but there were also some nice call backs to the early days of his UFC career with the can opener submission attempt, the ground & pound, the headbutts (before they were banned) and finally getting dropped by the Nagata high kick (just like Pete Williams dropped him). I’ll absolutely be watching Coleman’s singles match with Nagata from July ’01 after this, and easily the best of the matches from Bom-Ba-Ye that I have watched so far.

Rutten and Rodriguez start us off and both are clearly pulling their stuff. Ricco catches a kick and drops ‘El Guapo’ with a palm strike. Slow motion take down and it doesn’t look like much must’ve happened as the camera is focusing on Otsuka on the apron and when it cuts back to the action they’re already getting back to their feet. Guillotine attempt from Rutten and Rodriguez with a bodyslam to escape. More palm strikes that have got nothing behind them. Double leg take down by Bas and he’s in Rodriguez’s guard. Ricco looks for an armbar from the bottom but Rutten is able to power out. Now Ricco with the double leg, practically falling into a triangle choke, which he powerbombs his way out of. Armbar submission on Otsuka who is just about able to stretch a leg to the ropes for the break. After a scramble on the mat and being close with the power guillotine, Sano with an STF forcing Otsuka to go the ropes for a second time. Reverse rolling kneebar and, now close enough to his corner, he tags Rutten. ‘El Guapo’ with a couple of kicks, another armbar and another rope break. Rear naked choke by Sano that he just gives up on. Otsuka throws a dropkick that misses and now he’s on his back like Inoki against Ali. A cartwheel pass brings the crowd to life but Otsuka snatches his leg and applies an ankle lock. They suddenly move away from the ‘worked shoot’ aspect busting out some traditional pro wrestling moves. Otsuka whips Ricco towards Bas who demonstrates his great vertical leap with a spin kick (although it barely connects as his timing is off). Dead weight German suplex by Otsuka on Ricco. Baseball slide dropkick sends Sano to the floor and Otsuka follows that up with a tope. Sano ducks the clothesline, lands a release German and hits a shotgun dropkick off the top. That’s as good as it got for them though as Rutten gets the taps shortly after, floating over on the double underhook and applying an arm lock submission. Was this an MMA exhibition? Was this a worked shoot fight? Was this pro wrestling? It felt like all three at various points of the match and didn’t particularly excel at any of them. I thought Rutten would translate pretty well to pro wrestling but he was a disappointment and it was his exchanges with Rodriguez that made this feel like it was an exhibition of sorts. Things picked up when Otsuka and Sano were against each other as they at least showed an urgency that was lacking from the MMA fighters. It was very weird how they all of a sudden went full on pro wrestling towards the end of this.

A quick pre-match interview from ‘the Kliq’, and Jason Sensation has added Kurt Angle to his repertoire of impressions although this isn’t one of his best. Shooter Schultz issues a warning to the Haas’ telling them that this isn’t the amateurs, it’s professional wrestling and reminds them that his name isn’t ‘Sports Entertainment’ Schultz, it isn’t ‘cut a good promo’ Schultz, it’s Shooter Schultz, and to remember what that means. Shooter cranks on a hammerlock that Charlie is able to reverse. Top wristlock take down followed by a deep arm drag, and Shooter resorts to punching his way out of the armbar as Charlie seems to have his number when it comes to straight up wrestling. Good aggression from him as he then hammers away on Haas in the corner. He whips him to the opposite one but Charlie tips up over and fires back with some rights of his own. Tag to Russ and, with Charlie down on all fours, he handsprings off his brother’s back splashing Shooter against the turnbuckles and getting the first two count of the match. Spanky is in to try and help his partner out but runs straight into a superkick. Shooter reverses the Irish whip and a knee to the mid-section takes the wind out of Russ, stopping him in his tracks. Stomachbreaker before just dumping him chest first across the top rope. Spanky badly overshoots the springboard guillotine leg drop, missing Russ completely who has to take the bump back into the ring anyway. Slingshot splash. Another springboard and Spanky is looking really sloppy here so far. He nails Charlie on the apron, bringing him into the ring, although that’s just what they wanted as with the referee now trying to get him back on the outside ‘the Kliq’ can double team his brother. Double underhook suplex by Shooter for a near fall. They’re throwing everything they’ve got at Russ but are unable to put him away with Jason Sensation complaining about the apparent slowness of the official’s count. Slingshot senton, although this time Russ gets his knees up. Overhead belly to belly and he makes the take to his brother. Charlie is all over Shooter until he’s caught from behind by ‘Sliced Bread #2’ (erroneously called an ‘Acid Drop’) courtesy of Spanky. ‘Shooter clutch’, but Russ has recovered from his earlier beating to make the save as now all four men are in the ring. Release German suplex on Shooter and a Spanky dropkick sends Russ under the bottom rope and to the floor. Frog splash, however that’s taken as much out of Spanky as it has Charlie and as he staggers around the ring clutching at his ribs, Russ with a slingshot shoulder block. Shooter is there to break up the pin in the nick of time but Charlie then plants him with a powerslam. Handspring moonsault/corkscrew leg drop finisher, now known as ‘Total Haastility’ and the brothers pick up the hard fought victory. The Dupps jump ‘the Kliq’ after the match as payback for last week, and we get a brief taster of what’s scheduled for the ‘Showdown at the Nutthouse’ as they also go at it with the Haas’ too before thinking better of it and deciding to leave it until the 21st. A longer than expected match that had the chance to build. I don’t know what was up with Spanky today as he looked the worst of the four and it was almost like he’d regressed a year with how sloppy he was; I’m sure that’s just a one off though. Pretty elaborate closing stretch and nice that the Haas brothers’ finisher has finally been given a name now.

Gary Goodridge is dressed like a Roman Gladiator and accompanied by a muscular woman who seems to be having the time of her life, flexing her guns at the fans as they make their entrance. ‘Big Daddy’ is also coming out to the entrance theme (Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’) of the late Andy Hug who passed away earlier in the year. A cautious start with both men throwing out tentative strikes as they look to try and find their range. After the referee gets between them to separate a clinch, Goodridge has had enough and tees off on Hashimoto with a mixture of punches to the head and body. Those have really rocked Hash who rolls out the ring to the floor in order to buy himself a little more recovery time. When he returns to the ring he throws some kicks to the knee which fell ‘Big Daddy’. That’s pissed Goodridge off and when the official tries to separate them again there’s no clean break this time, as he cheap shots Hash who’s backed up against the ropes. Judo throw by Hash, but Goodridge is able to reverse position, get the mount and unload with a flurry of punches. The ref pulls him off, potentially saving Hashimoto, telling ‘Big Daddy’ to open the hands. Leg trip and Hash with the leg lock forcing Goodridge to grab the bottom rope. Nice rolling kneebar into an ankle lock and this time it’s Hashimoto who goes to the ropes. Bodyslam and more ground and pound, although surprisingly no interference from the official this time. Hash bucks his way out and a bit of G&P of his own before switching to side control. It’s definitely an MMA smart crowd as they react big to the attempted ‘Americana’ even though Hash doesn’t really get anywhere close to locking it on. A headbutt drops ‘Big Daddy’ and Hash is on him immediately, repeatedly headbutting his floored opponent while Goodridge’s valet is now up on the apron complaining about the illegality of them. The official struggles to get Hash to stop, eventually doing so, but the damage has been done and a single legged crab forces Goodridge, whose valet is still not happy about those headbutts, to tap. It must be difficult for the MMA fighters to throw a convincing looking worked punch when 99% of the time they’re used to trying to knock the block off whoever it is they’re facing. ‘Big Daddy’ clearly struggles in that aspect! I didn’t think much of Goodridge here, but Hashimoto was tremendous with his facials and selling, while there were noticeable gasps from the audience whenever a submission was attempted showing that they understood what they were watching. No idea who Goodridge’ valet was, but she showed some plenty of personality on the entrance walk and then at the finish complaining about Hashimoto’s headbutts.