GSR

There's some really lovely tributes to him on Twitter at the moment, universally liked and no-one with a bad word to say about him. RIP Matt

I've not listened to this episode yet, but this was bought up during the PWO2K re-watch last year. Cornette's finger prints are all over some of the stuff that we watched from January 2000, and when I made the observation "anyone have any idea how much involvement Cornette had in the booking of Memphis Power Pro..." Tim Evans posted that he got it after the Doug Gilbert shoot in '99 and thinks that he had it up until the WWF pulled out of Power Pro for MCW.

There’s an even more barren crowd than usual at the IWA warehouse tonight. One member of the audience takes exception to Smooth’s pink top questioning “Don’t you make enough money to buy a different motherf*cking shirt?” which leads to Paul E. calling him a fat motherf*cker and telling him to shut up. For most fans that would be enough for them to keep quiet and sit back down, not this guy though who suggests to Smooth to step outside so he can whip his ass. Paul E.’s response to that is how about he f*cks him in the ass instead, which gets plenty of laughter from the few dozen in attendance. This guy won’t stop and he’s now on about how much money he earns compared to the $25 a night that Smooth makes from wrestling. When he throws a five dollar bill at him saying that’s all he’s worth, both Hero and Smooth rush out the ring to grab it, adding fuel to the fire of all the talk you here about Ian Rotten’s pay offs! He continues to get on Paul E.’s case, to the point Hero just takes a seat in the corner and leaves the pair of them to it. After telling Smooth to “suck his dick right now”, he calls this goon’s bluff, hopping out the ring and walking to the dressing room whilst gesturing for him to follow him. Surprisingly he does exactly that, until getting about a foot from the doorway and thinking better of it. Despite being made to look a prize fool he won’t stop his heckling and Smooth gets a “shut the f*ck up!” chant going. At last we’re underway and Hero drops Paul E. with a stiff lariat. Bloody hell, he’s now turned his attention to Hero calling him “Superman”. Can Ian not do us all a favour and kick him out? Shoulder charge to the mid-section followed by a snap suplex for a two. Hero telegraphs the backdrop attempt and Paul E. counters with a ‘Diamond Cutter’. Whip to the corner is reversed, but Smooth has the tip up scouted, not falling for it, and when Hero lands he kicks him between the legs. Bronco buster, making sure to rub his crotch in Hero’s face, which gets more derogatory remarks from our redneck irritant. Top rope frankensteiner. Springboard crossbody by Smooth, however Hero catches and then dumps him with a fallaway slam. Full nelson sit out slam and Paul E. kicks out of the lateral press. Hero heads upstairs and Smooth just grabs the official, pulls him over to the ropes and says “look at that kid there, he’s jerking off”. With the ref distracted, Smooth’s new bodyguard, 411 (yes!), jumps into the ring and plants Hero with a chokeslam. Paul E. makes the cover and thanks 411 for his help with a smacker. Nothing to see here, unless you want to watch how not to behave at a wrestling event, how to be an obnoxious twat and how to ruin the enjoyment of everyone else. This guys has his ’15 seconds’ at the beginning and then doesn’t stop with the comments all the way through; he’s an utter nightmare. Of all the ECW characters to rip off in 2001 you choose 911? One for the Hero completists only.

Not consecutively though. Plain old Gavin Spears got released in 2009 not long after being called up to the ECW brand before being re-hired in 2013.

C'mon brother... I love me some of those players you got but that wasn't a good first game at all. Lingard cannot be a starter and the likes of Maguire and Walker are going to cost you dearly - Tunisia was defensively great with their fisherman coach, but you do have to wonder what a minimally offensively capable team would do on your defense. (Also not making excuses here, Brazil played like shit and got totally complacent with the 1-0 lead) Second half performance was dire and in the end England were lucky to come away with the win, but they would've been five up at half time if the chances had fallen to anyone other than Linguard. Not to mention two penalty shouts on Kane that were far clearer penalties than the one Walker conceded (which I think was a penalty and was very naive defending on his part). Agree on Maguire, he's a liability waiting to happen (I'd start Cahill against Panama), and Southgate should've made the substitutions earlier than he did with Alli clearly carrying an injury and Sterling offering nothing. Always glad though when a team;s time wasting and play acting like Tunisia did comes back to haunt them though! Sorry guys, back to Raw, Ronda et al...

I believe Koloff shows up for a one shot TV match during the 1990 era where Ole was bringing in cheap, older guys. Yeah he turns up on the 8/18 episode of World Championship Wrestling facing a job guy. It looks like he was only in for the week as he also wrestled on a few house shows alongside Butch Reed (presumably subbing for Ron Simmons) and was then not seen again until Slamboree '93.

So Ricky O was the manager that turned on Da Hit Squad at the last JCW event, and they have a chance to get some revenge on him here in this handicap match for the tag team titles. An additional stipulation has been added, presumably at the insistence of O, in that should any team member do battle outside the ring they’ll be disqualified and the match will be over. DHS have got a couple of chairs, swinging them about, making it difficult for the Moondogs to even get into the ring. Eventually they discard them and the two team’s square up to one another. A double clothesline sends Mollson over the top rope to the floor, before back dropping a charging Wenzel out onto him. A tope by Mack, with Mafia slingshotting his own partner to give him a bit of extra speed. Remembering the rules, Mack picks Wenzel up and throws him back inside. Spinebuster for a one count. Mafia with a running splash in the corner that’s followed by a big Mack clothesline. Pumphandle suplex, elbow drop, but Mafia would rather pick Wenzel up to dish out some more punishment than go for the cover. A pair of clubbing clotheslines fail to take Mollson off his feet, Mack heads upstairs, crossbody, but the big man catches him mid-air turning it into a powerslam. Combination side slam/neckbreaker for a two count. Ricky O wants a taste of the action and punts Mack in the sternum. He mirrors the Junkyard Dog, getting on all fours, then headbutts him, although it looks like he hurts himself more than his opponent with that one. Mollson ties Mack in the ropes and the Dogs take in turns splashing him against them. Wenzel and he trade hard chops until a jumping DDT puts a stop to any potential comeback. Leg lariat and this time Mafia is in to break up the cover. Camel clutch, but Wenzel quickly gives up on that when it looked like he might’ve got somewhere had he stuck with it a tad longer. A textbook double suplex and once again Mafia saves his partner. Rolling senton by Wenzel followed by a Vader splash off the middle. He goes for it a second time, but this time Mack gets his knees up before ducking the clothesline and finally making the hot tag. Mafia is the proverbial ‘house of fire’ as the Dogs bump and feed for him. Irish whip, however Mollson sees the back drop coming and keeps hold of the ropes as Mafia gets levelled by a Wenzel flying lariat. Mollson grabs him in a full nelson and O passes Wenzel a steel chair. As O then distracts the referee, he goes to blast Mack over the head with it but ends up accidentally hitting his own partner instead. Wenzel throws the chair to Mafia, the official turns around to see him holding it and instantly disqualifies Da Hit Squad. The commentator is a bit confused over this ruling, thinking that it was only battling around ringside that they couldn’t do. DHS nail the referee over the head with the chair while Ricky O doesn’t realise that he’s all alone in there with them now. When he does he offers them his hand wanting to make peace and when that doesn’t work is down on his knees begging for forgiveness. Is he really that naïve? O gets laid out with a stiff clothesline and DHS then hammer away at his ankle with repeated chair shots, having to be carried from the ring by the time they are done. My favourite of the three matches from this ‘Rugged Valentine’ show, but that finish took the wind right out of me. I thought it was very good up until then, and a different dynamic was added here with the teams being confined to the ring and not being able to fight all around the building (which is what you would’ve naturally expected from them after how their previous two meetings went). A lousy finish in what has been a night for them in JCW, although another match showing the diversity of DHS (and the Moondogs).

Little Spike getting a crack at the JCW championship in his JCW debut, while Reckless has his buddies Don Montoya and Danny Inferno, the newly christened ‘Triad’, in his corner. A bit of creative license from the commentator when talking about Reckless being under a WWF developmental contract, as apparently he felt the WWF wasn’t right for him and decided to come to JCW instead. Hmmm... Tremendous chain wrestling from both men at the onset. Hip toss from Spike before taking Reckless down with a side headlock. Reckless fights his way to his feet and then backs Spike into the corner where he repeatedly drives a shoulder into his mid-section. He distracts referee Shaun Hanson as Montoya and Inferno interfere from the outside behind his back. Spike reverses the whip to the turnbuckle and a big flying splash in the corner. Montoya is in the ring ready to interfere again when Spike sees him coming, catches him with a drop toe hold and his face ends up in Reckless’ crotch. Inferno gets in there to try and drag Don away and we have that same three way visual that we got in the Corino & Whipwreck tag from last month, this time with the fans chanting “homo, homo” at them. Spike clears the ring of ‘the Triad’ and returns to the side headlock. A back drop sends Spike over the top rope and, although he lands on the apron, Montoya swipes his legs away and he crashes head first into it. Reckless is back distracting Hanson as ‘the Triad’ do a number on Spike on the arena floor. Somersault senton by Reckless for a two. More interference and Spike is having his work cut out with these three on one odds. Spike kicks out of the ‘O’Connor’ roll sending Reckless flying through the ropes and out of the ring, taking out Montoya in the process. Another spot that they’ve repeated from the aforementioned tag at the ‘Teaneck Turmoil’ show, looking even worse here due to the distance Reckless had to travel plus, are we really supposed to believe the Spike has that sort of power in his legs? As Inferno is around to help his buddies out, Spike with a crossbody off the top out onto all three. Huracanrana, rolling cradle and this time its Reckless kicking out of there at two. Go behind by Reckless and he drops Spike with a reverse DDT. Spike floats over on the bodyslam, but the ‘Acid Drop’ is countered as Reckless shoves him chest first into the turnbuckles. ‘Blue Thunder Driver’. Spike runs into a back elbow and as Hanson checks on him, he hits the ‘Acid Drop’ on the official. With the ref down its triple team time on Spike until he ducks the double clothesline and nails Montoya and Inferno with a double DDT. ‘Acid Drop’ on Reckless and a second referee sprints from the dressing room, counts the fall and we have a new JCW Heavyweight champion. No we don’t...what we do have is a ‘Dusty finish’ with Hanson disqualifying Spike when he comes back around. Lots of “bullshit” chants from the fans to that decision. The start of this was great and it looked like we were in for a real grappling treat, as it was, that was probably the peak of the match. It was all very insipid from there with hideous ‘comedy’ (that was done on the previous show anyway), lame healing and cheating from ‘the Triad’, the comical O’Connor roll kick out (another repeated spot) and a ‘Dusty finish’ at the end. I’m guessing Spike was supposed to be dazed and didn’t know he was hitting his finisher on the referee, only problem is that Hanson has got long hair and is wearing a shirt, compared to the short cropped vest wearing Youth. Even if he couldn’t see, he could easily feel that it’s someone else he’s got hold of. I wonder how much being cut from developmental has affected Youth? He, to me, feels like a different wrestler to the one who was in Memphis last year, almost like he tried his best, went all out but all that got him was released from a major company. There seems to be something missing with him from what he used to be.

This is the no time limit re-match from last month’s ‘Teaneck Turmoil’ show. The commentator is claiming their previous match went to the ten minute duration, clearly hoping that there are no sticklers like me watching who know that it did nothing of the sort! Guido transitions to a cross armbar from the take down, however Ki has his knuckles locked together preventing him from straightening the arm out. Ki rolls out and returns the favour, slapping on a cross armbar of his own. Guido tries the same defence, but Ki is able to break his grip before he too rolls out. He adopts a boxing stance throwing out some jabs, although when Ki responds with a kick to the bread basket he thinks better of it, stepping through the ropes and out onto the apron. Guido counters the wheelbarrow with a Fujiwara armbar, but just like what happened with the cross armbar Ki spins his way free. Drop toe hold and Ki with a ‘Steve Grey style’ surfboard. Rolling cradle for a two and Guido again ducks out of the ring to the floor. Ki chases after him, but in doing so falls into the trap as he gets dropped by a clothesline on his return inside. A hard open hand slap to the chest. Whip to the corner is reversed and a dropkick to the knee then takes the legs out from Guido. Ki with a trio of kicks, the first two to the chest whilst the third boxes his ears. Out of desperation, Guido grabs hold of Ki’s pants pulling him head first into the middle turnbuckle. ‘Rocker dropper’ but Ki kicks out on two. ‘Sicilian Slice’ and Ki once more gets a shoulder up. Guido gives up on the ‘Kimura’ only to get caught by a tornado DDT. Handspring kick to the head that causes Guido to face plant to the mat. The two then trade hard open hand slaps before a Ki ‘Rude Awakening’ for the nearest near fall so far. German suplex and after Guido gets a shoulder up he backs himself into the corner, calling the referee over to have a word with him about something. Ki signals for the ‘Ki Krusher’ but, with Guido keeping the ref occupied, in sneaks Don Montoya who clocks him from behind with his TV title belt. Guido makes the cover and that’s all she wrote. Better than their previous match and there was some good intensity in there, but due to that finish I was again left feeling underwhelmed after watching it. Despite this being no time limit, the bout still went less than ten minutes, so shorter than what the original was purported to have done so.

Justice’s CZW Heavyweight title isn’t on the line in this non-title affair, although he still runs to the ring, clearly in a hurry to get his hands on Tajiri. Tajiri ducks a clothesline, spits the green mist in his face and then tosses him over the top rope to the outside. He whips him into the steel mesh fence, a member of the audience and finally a row of chairs as these CZW matches are all starting to morph into one. Pain picks Tajiri up, driving him backwards into the fence, but walks into a thrust kick. Kick to the balls. A ‘hot shot’ followed by a basement dropkick and this has been all Tajiri so far. Justice lands on the apron after being backdropped over the top rope and grabs Tajiri by the hair pulling him to the mat. He heads upstairs and hits a pretty shitty looking ‘blockbuster’ for a two. Spinning neckbreaker but he overshoots on the Lionsault. Even though he lands on his feet he gets caught by a superkick and then planted with a reverse DDT. Pain blocks the German with a back kick low blow and a ‘not so’ superkick sends Tajiri tumbling through the ropes to the outside. He backs up that crappy superkick with a crappy dive to the floor, coming up a tad short and landing hip first on the concrete. John House describes Justice Pain as ‘the Ultraviolent All-Star’; I’ll have to remember that one! They walk amongst the fans and Tajiri surprises Pain, bashing him over the head with a metal tray. Handspring elbow is thwarted as Justice grabs Tajiri around the waist and lands a German suplex for a two. Our ‘All-Star’ wasn’t close enough to Tajiri on that spot so it looked suspect, like most of his offense to be fair. Tajiri blocks the hip toss and clocks Justice with a couple of stiff kicks to the head. ‘Brain buster’ before hopping out to collect a table from ringside. Pain slides off the table as it tips over and Tajiri does a good job making light of the situation. He puts him back on it and climbs to the top for the double foot stomp, when out comes Wifebeater who attacks him from behind. Justice and Wifebeater struggle with that table and are about to put Tajiri through it when Mikey Whipwreck makes the save. Dropkick to Wifebeater and a huracanrana on Pain that sees him (not really) go through the table. It looks like the match has just ended, no ringing of the bell, no official announcement etc. Justice challenges the two of them to a tag match next week, before remembering that this is Tajiri’s last show so Mikey won’t anyone to partner up with. At this point a video message from Zandig, who isn’t there, is projected onto the wall at the back of the arena and he’s got a surprise. Mikey Whipwreck will have a partner on 2/17, and that partner is Balls Mahoney. Boy does Justice Pain suck. We’ve had a right old rag bag of finishes to the matches on this show, and this was our second non-finish out of the five watched. Tajiri more and more feels like a guy phoning it in until he joins up with the WWF, not that he had much to work with here mind. I thought it after Acid/Berk, but a lot of this CZW stuff blurs together with how similar that the matches are, thankfully you’ve something like the Briscoes/SATs which deviates from the norm. Mikey and Balls got sizeable pops showing that at the moment there is a definite market for fans wanting to see the old ECW guard.

These two were former partners in the ‘Softcore Connection’ and Acid’s got Z-Barr with him, who Gargiulo says looks like he’s out trick or treating dressed as Zandig and that he has an apple with a razor in for him! There’s an added stipulation here that Berk only has ten minutes to beat Trent and he sprints to the ring not wanting to waste a second of those ten minutes. Both swing for the hills until a big right hand sends Trent over the top rope and to the outside. Berk launches him into a row of chairs, but when he whips him into the mesh fence, Trent jumps up it and moonsaults off onto him. He throws Berk into the ring but then spends too long arguing with the fans and Berk hits a sunset flip powerbomb to the concrete (check Trent crack his head on the corner of a chair). Tope con hilo with Berk vaulting off a chair to help him clear the top rope. They briefly return to the ring before Trent dumps Berk back out after catching him on the tip up. Moonsault from the top turnbuckle to the floor, although it looked ridiculous the way Berk walked way more than he should to get into position and then just waited for Trent to jump. Acid and Barr set up a bunch of chairs next to each other, however Berk floats over on the suplex and lands an inverted version onto them instead. He snatches a chair from Z-Barr and we have some more waiting around. Trent ducks the chair shot and responds with a roaring elbow sending it crashing into Berk’s own face. Bloody hell, yet more positioning and setting up of chairs, this time in the ring. Berk blocks the superplex and shoves Trent backwards, although rather than getting the big bump they’d wanted, the chairs part like the Red Sea. Despite all the bumps that these two have taken, the CZW fans choose to boo and groan at that spot. Frog splash for a two. Trent escapes the ‘Berk Driver’ and drops his opponent onto the chairs. He looks for a third moonsault of the night but Berk is back to his feet and gives him a push, sending Trent four rows deep to the outside. They walk and brawl to the back of the arena where Berk drops Trent onto the wooden bleachers before grabbing a table. Acid ducks the punch and a ‘Blue Thunder Driver’ off the bleachers and through the table. Barr and Trent carry him back to the ring and while they do so, according to my timing that should be the ten minutes up. Having had the best part of a minute or more to recover, Berk kicks out of the eventual cover. More furniture arranging and Trent has to call for replacement chairs because all the ones from earlier are now broken! The ‘Acid Bomb’ is reversed, ‘Berk Driver’ onto the chairs and at the count of two the bell rings, the time limit having expired. They were only two and a half minutes late! Berk wants another five minutes and surprisingly, despite Z-Barr’s protestations, Trent agrees. All sorts of roll ups and cradles as both men get a host of near falls. The ‘Guerrero/Malenko’ sequence, a cool little backslide drop by Trent, nothing getting more than a two. German suplex by Berk who then heads upstairs but has his leg pulled out from under him by ‘Z-Barr’. ‘Cat’s cradle’ off the top although Trent didn’t look to comfortable on that. Northern Lights suplex as the near falls continue. Berk picks Trent up for an atomic drop and the ref walks right into a flailing leg. That was contrived as anything! Barr with a sit-out pedigree, Trent then puts a chair over Berk’s face and comes off the middle with a tumbleweed leg drop for the win. I think it’s safe to say that the ‘additional five minutes’ were better than the first ten (twelve and a half) as we got a fair bit of actual wrestling crammed into that (joke of a ref bump aside). They overdid the use of chairs something rotten during this, and I hated all the furniture arranging, time wasting, and the blatant setting up of spots. When we’ve just had the three way ladder stunt show, not sure these two doing the same kind of match is the way to go. You quickly become numb to the stunts. I also found it funny that after seeing matches have time shaved off them, here we had one go long and then they had to claim it was shorter than it actually was.

A week after KO’ing himself in Jersey All Pro, Ric Blade is back and wrestling in a ladder match. Mondo cuts a funny promo at his expense, talking about him nose diving into the mat when on a Shooting Star and claiming that he had to pay Shorty to stand in his corner and cheer for him. John House seems to think that Crazy will wait until Blade comes out before getting in the ring because he doesn’t want to square off one on one with Nick Mondo. No idea why he would’ve thought that and turns out to be completely untrue. A Crazy Asai moonsault takes down both men, he grabs a waistlock on Blade and Mondo with a sunset flip on Crazy who at the same time launches Blade with a belly to back suplex. Blade bails to the outside but gets levelled by a Mondo tope con hilo. Quebrada to the floor by Crazy. Not wanting to be left out as usual and still showing that he’s got zero idea when it comes to selling, Blade follows that with an Asai tumbleweed (as Gargiulo called it). Handspring kick to the jaw of Mondo after a couple of his lousy looking kicks. A real contrived spot as Blade throws Mondo a chair and he has to stand there holding it while Ric runs the ropes for another handspring. This time though Crazy is on the apron, grabs Blade on the handspring and with him upside down, Mondo dropkicks the chair in Blade’s face. Double jump springboard moonsault by Crazy and Mondo collects the ladder which Crazy then props up in the corner. Surfboard and the momentum on release sends Mondo crashing head first into the ladder (that looked so hokey). A Samoan drop, nip up, standing moonsault from Blade and Crazy kicks out of the cover at two. Blade turns his attention to Mondo, but his attempted tornado DDT is countered with a sit-out spinebuster onto the ladder. Mondo opens out the ladder, starts climbing it and is met up there by ‘Mr No Sell’ who’s ascended the other side. That fast becoming staple of the three-way, the ‘superplex/powerbomb’ with Crazy powerbombing Blade while he superplexes Mondo off it. Crazy covers both men though only gets a two as Blade kicks out (surprise, surprise) while Mondo gets a foot over the bottom rope. As Crazy steps out to re-position a couple of chairs on the concrete, he’s caught by a Mondo baseball slide dropkick. He continues what Crazy had begun, bridging the ladder between the chairs. After laying Crazy across it, he hits a running Swanton over the top rope and back out onto him. Amazingly for Blade he hits it perfectly and didn’t overshoot like I was half expecting. Tilt-a-whirl powerslam by Mondo on Blade. Teeter totter springboard leg drop to the ladder, with the ladder crashing into a chair which had been placed over Blade’s face. Crazy breaks up the cover and then powerbombs Mondo hard to the canvas. Consecutive moonsaults off all three turnbuckles and its Blade’s turn to break things up. Corkscrew moonsault, but before he can get the three, Crazy with a leg drop to the back of the head. Crazy and Blade agree to work together and a double backdrop sends Mondo flying out the ring and onto a ladder which has once more been bridged between a couple of chairs. Blade drags him back inside, they both cover him and we have co-winners. Huh? Crazy’s got no real interest in hanging around any longer than necessary, preferring to have a chat with Doug Gentry (who’s filming this for RF) while he wanders to the dressing room. We’re not quite done as Mondo then demands a barbed wire ladder match against Ric Blade for next week’s show. I intend to not try and repeat myself when it comes to these three ways, but see my previous comments with this being the worst example yet. The purpose of this being a ‘ladder match’ was solely so they could incorporate using it as there was nothing for them to retrieve. I should get used to Ric Blade’s non-existent selling but it bothers me more each time I see him. And what on earth was up with that garbage finish? Just declaring co-winners? Nonsense.

The Briscoe’s are being managed by Dewey Donovan and he’s not too keen on them being friendly and slapping hands with the fans. John House and Eric Gargiulo make some rather predictable ‘jokes’ about not knowing whether it’s Jack or Jerry in there, and how if they get fired from CZW they can at least go and work at the auto body shop in Florida. Red shoots Jay into the ropes and Joel kicks him in the back from the apron. That doesn’t go as planned though as he responds with a clubbing blow that sends Joel falling to the floor. Red then runs at Jay but he launches him overhead, however Red manages to land feet first on the top rope. As he’s getting his balance, Jay with a dropkick to the backside which sends him tumbling out and onto Joel who was still on the arena floor. Double ‘Rock Bottom’ by the Briscoes on Joel. He looks to grab a breather on the outside but gets caught by a sky high plancha from Mark where he just soared over the top rope. That running back flip/moonsault by Red and the train is completed by a Jay flip dive from the top turnbuckle (although he doesn’t get much protection to cushion the bump, landing flat on his back on the concrete). The action returns to the ring and Mark springboards into a superkick. A super stiff clothesline by Joel followed by a double spinebuster. They continue to take advantage of the five count with a combination standing Shooting Star press/twisting leg drop. Powerslam by Red for a two. Another stiff Joel lariat and it looked like the SAT had a bit of a brain freeze, uncertain on what to do next. Double suplex and Joel heads upstairs. Red is in the opposite corner and he whips Mark towards his partner, only for him to reverse things and send Red crashing into the turnbuckles, which in turns leads to Joel losing his balance and crotching himself. Top rope frankensteiner on Joel but Red is there to prevent the tag. Single leg dropkick and a big diving headbutt to the shoulder for another two. Joel with a version of the ‘Kryptonite Krunch’ and a DOUBLE JUMP SPRINGBOARD PHOENIX SPLASH by Red! Standing moonsault and Dewey Donovan grabs Red by the leg to break the pin. He takes off after him and Dewey ends up in the ring between the SAT, however as Joel is about to decapitate him with one of those clotheslines, he avoids the shot and Joel levels Red instead. Mark finally makes the tag and Jay with a pair of dropkicks followed by a pair of leg lariats. ‘Total Elimination’ on Joel, but the Briscoe’s timing is slightly off. The crowd are harder on them that I expected for blowing that, although some rare credit to John House who reminds everyone how one of the brothers got pounded on for about fifteen minutes as he looks to cover for it. Dewey whacks Red in the back with his briefcase, ‘Tiger bomb’ by Jay and Mark with a moonsault as the Briscoe’s pick up their first win in CZW. The fans give these guys a standing ovation while there already appears to be dissension in the Donovan/Briscoe camp. This was the SAT’s CZW debut and only the second appearance of the Briscoe brothers (they debuted at the Delaware show) who turned 16 and 17 respectively last month. It was by no means perfect and a tad sloppy at times, but they constructed a solid match that told a compelling story. Seeing Jay take a bump on his back from a flip dive off the top turnbuckle to the floor you wonder how he’s still going strong today, while Red continues to amaze with his high spots and flying. Thankfully House and Gargiulo quickly gave up on the Brisco/Briscoe brothers stuff as it was neither beneficial to anyone nor funny.

This is being billed as “the possible final meeting of all time” between Crazy and Tajiri, as the latter “could be bound very soon to another organization”. We get a handshake between the two as a mark of respect for all that they’ve put the other through, before both step out the ring and hug ‘Hat Guy’ who’s in the front row. Leg trip by Crazy. He then grapevines the leg, locking on a variation of the Indian deathlock and Tajiri is forced to go to the ropes for the break. Tajiri with a drop toe hold, STF and this time it’s Crazy who goes to the ropes. Handspring elbow and Crazy rolls to the floor. He pulls Tajiri out after him, quickly darts back inside, pescado but Tajiri sees it coming and he crashes to the concrete. Crazy kicks out of a sunset flip and then levels Tajiri with a clothesline. Moonsault off the bottom, moonsault off the middle, but before he can moonsault off the top, Nick Mondo jumps him, presumably looking to get a bit of payback after what happened in Delaware. Tajiri comes to his long-time rival’s aid, smacking Mondo on the ass to get his attention and then kicking him in the chin (that looked fantastic). Ric Blade joins the fun and it doesn’t take long for Mondo to realise that this wasn’t the smartest of ideas and get out of dodge. The wrestling was smooth, but as a match this was another disappointing outing from the former ECW guys. Tajiri and Crazy both have other matches later in the show and this smacked of “Tajiri is signing with the WWF, so let’s chuck him and Crazy together to open the card so that we can say their last ever encounter took place in CZW”. The fact that it only goes four minutes doesn’t do anything to detract from that thought. The Mondo interference at least plays off the events in Delaware and adds to the three-way later in the night. You’ll struggle to find a worse Crazy vs Tajiri match than this.

I'm generally not a fan of gifs (and I won't make a habit of posting them), but here's that corkscrew elbow that made me get up out of my seat.

Lee Marshall and Bobby Heenan are our commentary team for the PPV. The ‘Heavy Metal Maniac’ Riot is introduced first in this hardcore, anything goes, pinfalls count anywhere match. ‘The Brain’ seems rather enamoured with her, although Marshall guarantees that she’s frightened more men than Loretta Bobbitt! Riot cuts a pretty basic promo saying how she’s unbeatable, unbreakable and unstoppable. ‘America’s Favourite Garage Pin Up’ is pushing a shopping cart and doesn’t even make it to the ring as Riot goes out to meet her. Wendi avoids the swinging right hand, dumps Riot into the cart and tips it over. She grabs a mop, but gets clobbered with a serving tray before she gets the chance to use it. Riot asks some ringside fans “what do you want me to do with her?” and then slams her head first into the announcer’s desk. She goes for a piledriver on the floor, but Wendi counters with a backdrop. Flying clothesline from the apron followed by a sunset flip back into the ring. Back elbow smash by Riot, who then drags Wendi over to the corner and hits a ‘Riot Twister’, which is a corkscrew elbow off the top rope. Marshall describes that as phenomenal and he’s not wrong, that looked incredible! Wheels kicks out of the cover (that move should be her finisher), so Riot deposits her through the ropes and back to the outside. Bad move as Wendi grabs that mop from earlier and swings it at Riot as she comes off the apron with a double axe handle. Riot snatches a drink from a fan, emptying it over Wendi, before hosing her down as an excited Heenan starts talking about wet T-shirt contests, however Wendi wallops her with a metal sign to put a stop to any of those notions. They return to the ring where Riot ducks a punch and takes Wheels down. Combination oma plata/crossface! It’s sloppily applied, but is another nice idea out of her. Wendi reaches the ropes although has to be reminded that there are no rules in play so that doesn’t automatically lead to the break. Instead she uses a conveniently placed pizza tray to bash Riot in the head with. She sits her on the top turnbuckle but spends too long playing to the crowd and Riot uses her foot to shove her backwards to the mat. Powerslam on to the pizza tray. Riot dropkicks a garbage can that she’d put over Wendi’s head and finally a delayed powerbomb puts her down for the three. I wanted to watch something from the WOW PPV and there was not a chance it was going to be the Bambi/Peggy Lee Leather main event which according to the YouTube uploads runs for thirty minutes, so it was down to either this or the ‘Hair’ match as they looked the two most interesting. WOW has got production values on a par with WCW, and although there are clearly empty seats in the arena, there’s a sizeable crowd in attendance for this. You know going in that this wasn’t going to be that good, although I came out of it not regretting watching it due to Riot. I’ve no idea where she came from or what she did after that, but the girls got a shed load of potential based on this. Someone really should steal that corkscrew elbow as well, or maybe it’s a case that so few people watched this PPV that hardly anyone has ever seen it?

Rudy Rude being a renamed Bobby Roode. A similar opening to Saturn’s match against Chad Collyer as they work some chain wrestling. Fireman’s carry take down by Rude, he hammerlocks the arm and Saturn with a pair of back elbows to the jaw for the escape. Tip over the incoming Saturn, drop toe hold, flapjack and finally a spinning neckbreaker as Rude is really taking the fight to his opponent. A hot shot stops him in his tracks and that’s followed by a superkick as Saturn has a look on his face that he wasn’t quite expecting this out of Rude. Release overhead belly to belly, however he then misses the moonsault. Spinning kick to the chest. Float over by Saturn, but Rude reverses the go-behind and gets a one count off the roll up. That’s enough for Saturn to stop playing around and he levels Rude with a short clothesline then gets the three after a ‘Death Valley Driver’ (which has got some really long winded name that they’ve given it). It’s not like there were any other Bobby’s in the WWF in 2001 that would’ve prompted the name change (like when Shane Helms became Gregory or like when Lance Cade became Garrison), was it just someone’s idea of a joke? It is strange seeing these guys so young and not really ‘filled out’ but even back in 2001 Rude was pretty proficient as a worker.

As E.Z. Money is being introduced and doing his bicep pose he’s jumped by Youngblood who just unloads on him, bad mouthing Money as he does so. He heads upstairs but it’s too early for that and as he comes flying off is met by a dropkick whilst in mid-air. A big running clothesline sends Youngblood over the top rope to the outside and Money then nails him with a plancha from the top turnbuckle to the floor. High release belly to back suplex for a two. Arm bar with E.Z. digging his elbow into the shoulder of Youngblood for added pressure. Somersault clothesline from the apron into the ring. E.Z. whips Youngblood into the ropes, leap frog, however Youngblood slides under and kicks Money in the knee before dropkicking him in that same spot. A combination inverted Indian deathlock/butterfly stretch and Money is tied up with seemingly nowhere to go. He gives up on the stretch thinking his opponent won’t tap, giving him the opportunity to reach for the ropes to break the hold. Money with a reverse crossbody off the top but Youngblood uses his momentum against him, rolling over and is shade away from getting a three. E.Z. ducks the clothesline and rebounds off the ropes with the Tajiri handspring elbow. ‘Crash landing’ release suplex and a beautiful Moonsault as Money picks up the win. And so another ECW alumnus hits the independent scene (though not for long in this case). With Wildside having such close ties to WCW I wonder if this is the match that got Money a look in from them as he debuts less than a month later. Nothing overtly spectacular or anything here, although Money has some unique stuff in his arsenal (somersault clothesline, handspring elbow, ‘crash landing’) that even if you’d never seen him in ECW you know he’d be a reliable hand for you.

You can clearly see the influence of the British style on Cabana’s work in the initial exchanges and trading of holds. Side headlock and as it looks as though Lynn is about to escape, Colt grabs a handful of hair to prevent him from doing so. He backs Jerry into the corner and unleashes a couple of forearm smashes to the chest. Lynn switches position and fires back with a pair of hard open hand slaps. Irish whip to the opposite corner, but as Colt comes rushing in Lynn leaps up over, hooks his arms and takes him down with a lovely sunset flip. Both men duck under lariats so Colt changes tactic, throwing a dropkick to try and catch his opponent off guard. Springboard flying forearm followed by a scoop powerslam for a two. He misses a right but, after backdropping Jerry over the top rope, doesn’t realise that he’s landed on the apron. Cabana blocks having his head rammed into the turnbuckles then does what Lynn had planned, to him. He fails to connect on the attempted shoulder to the mid-section as Lynn sees it coming, jumping up out the way and catching Colt with a leg drop to the back of the head sending him tumbling to the floor. Back inside and Lynn with a quesadora bulldog (sounds much fancier than a wheelbarrow into a bulldog!) and Ace Steele (who is cornering Colt) has to alert the official to Cabana’s foot being under the bottom rope. Colt floats over on the bodyslam attempt, hits a huracanrana but then runs into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. The cradle piledriver is countered with a backdrop before they run through a ‘Guerrero/Malenko’ sequence of pinfalls and reversals. Belly to back by Jerry for a near fall as Colt gets a shoulder up at the last moment. Another wheelbarrow, but this time Cabana pancakes Lynn to the mat. Middle rope moonsault is missed and Lynn with a perfectly executed jumping tornado DDT. Spinning neckbreaker from Colt and now both men have been a fraction from putting the other away. The Irish whips is reversed and Colt goes crashing into the referee. Gut wrench suplex and Cabana gets the visual three as the ref is still KO’ed. He heads to the top rope for a big splash when Steele turns, shoving him to the mat. Cradle piledriver and Lynn takes the win. This might be a bit dry for some people’s tastes but I thought it was a good match and it was cool to see Cabana in a singles bout with someone other than Punk. Admittedly even though Jerry Lynn is a veteran, Colt matched him in the wrestling department and looked pretty darn impressive for someone with less than eighteen months of experience. I wasn’t fond of the ref bump with how the match had gone, but in saying that, it was one of the more believable ref bumps that I’ve seen in this project. I’ll be watching plenty of Lynn throughout 2001 including most, if not all, of his WWF run.

Our first look at the former Rodney of the Mean Street Posse, now styling himself after Jesse Ventura and going by the name Rodrageous. A boot to the mid-section as opposed to a conventional lock up catches Rodney off guard, although he quickly gathers himself, ducking under a swinging right hand and retaliating with a bunch of his own. Hip toss, arm drag, a dropkick and I don’t think Bradley was expecting this as he takes to the floor to have a quiet word with Victoria about what he should do next. She leans into the ring under the bottom rope, distracting Rodney, which allows Bradley to sneak attack him from behind. He telegraphs the backdrop though and a flying forearm gets Rodney a two. Butterfly suplex, and this time Victoria grabs Rodney’s leg on the lateral press, pulling him off her man. He takes off after her but Bradley is lying in wait and levels him with a clothesline. Rear chinlock with Bradley digging the knee into the back for added pressure. The camera cuts to Victoria offering encouragement at ringside, although the fan to the right is more interesting in gawping at her ass (he’s blatantly staring at it) as opposed to watching the in ring action! Bradley chokes Rodney over the ropes and then diverts the referee’s attention so Victoria can do the same. Whip to the corner, Bradley comes charging in, but Rodney moves and he ends up straddling the turnbuckles. As the official checks on the Unified champ, Victoria hits a tornado DDT off the middle. Rodney kicks out of the cover and lands a DDT of his own. Bradley grabs one of his title belts but is stopped in his tracks by the referee who prevents him from using it on his opponent. It looks like they’d planned for that and almost ‘knew’ it was going to happen as Victoria is already in the ring and sledges Rodney with a double axe handle. That has no effect and she immediately starts to back off when he turns around. The ref gets between them, but while he does so Bradley clocks Rodney with his other title belt (the ref still had hold of the first one he took from him) and covers him for the three. Rodney, sorry Rodrageous looks so much better than Pete Gas; he’s got charisma, personality and a decent understanding in there, the one thing he hasn’t got compared to his former partner is size, and that’s basically the crux as to why Gas is getting the main event push and he’s not. Solid TV match and Victoria continues to work hard from the floor channelling her inner Sherri.

The official MCW debut of Derrick King after his previous ‘unscheduled’ appearances during the Power Pro/Memphis Championship Wrestling feud. Rocker lands on his feet from a hip toss, headscissors take down by King, a couple of dropkicks and finally a clothesline for a one count in what are selected highlights from a super-fast paced opening. Whip to the corner is reversed, however Rocker runs into a big boot only to then drop King with a clothesline of his own. Running high knee to the face before he chokes DK over the middle rope. Back elbow smash, lateral press, although King is able to roll a shoulder at two. Rocker misses the ‘Swanton bomb’ and King starts to fire back on him. Neckbreaker followed by a high backdrop. Superkick and Rocker gets a foot over the bottom rope to break the count. DK whips the Rocker into the corner, but he runs up the turnbuckles, backflips over the charging King and levels him with a rabbit lariat. Frustrated that he’s not been able to get the job done with his wrestling, Rocker picks up his ‘Stop’ sign. The referee snatches it away from him and, while he’s disposing of the item, Enrique of the Salsario Boys sneaks into the ring and waffles Rocker over the head with a trash can lid. ‘X-Factor’ by King and he gets the victory. An improved Fabulous Rocker from what we saw of him last year as he’s far more wrestling orientated here than he ever was previously. I don’t know if that was a subconscious change to limit the high spots or Derrick King bought this out of him, either way it’s a change for the better. I was surprised to see the non-contracted guys are still knocking about in MCW as thought they were long gone by now (WWF developmental talent are currently all over both Memphis shows with a handful of exception on Power Pro). It also sounds like how this match finished is the beginning of a ‘hardcore division’ for MCW.

Dave Prazak doesn’t think the people showed the proper respect to the ‘Year 2000 Wrestler of the Year’, despite the plaque that he’s carrying saying something slightly different. He believes everyone in MAW is running scared of CM Punk and Punk backs that up, claiming everyone in the locker room is afraid of ‘the alpha male of Mid-American Wrestling’. A fan wanders past the camera giving Punk the bird and his response is to call him a “child raper” because of the fact he’s got a moustache! It sounds like Billy Joe Eaton no showed as Punk tells them to “bring somebody out here so I can put on a show for all you dickheads”. Frankie DeFalco is out but not dressed for wrestling. Punk’s getting some good heat from the crowd and a one armed guy (I’m not jesting) squares up to him and ends up being physically manhandled by an overzealous member of security. Jason Dukes is the opponent and Punk stomps away on him the moment he slides into the ring. He whips him back and forth between opposite corners until telegraphing a backdrop. Dukes with a dropkick before rubbing Punk’s face in his sweaty man boobs. As he takes to the outside, Dukes goes for a tope which Punk side steps. Dave Prazak is right in front of the camera so we don’t get a clear view of what happened however, from the laughter and what we can see, it looks like Dukes got tangled in the ropes and blew that dive big time. ‘Pepsi Plunge’, but it’s too early in the match for that, and Dukes fights Punk off who ends up taking a spill to the floor. Dukes rams Punk’s head into the ring post, only to go charging shoulder first into it himself when he avoids the running splash. Rear chinlock with Punk resting his legs over the middle rope for added leverage. Dukes counters the huracanrana with a powerbomb but then misses the frog splash (he’s not having much luck today!). Double underhook suplex for a two. A “Pepsi sucks” chant breaks out and Punk tells them all to “keep it down”. The distraction takes his mind off the match and Dukes catches him with a high knee. He’s confident that he’s got his man but a Punk low blow blocks the superplex. A second ‘Pepsi Plunge’ is countered by a Samoan Drop, although Punk needs to figure out a better set up for that move rather than having his opponent just climb the turnbuckles! Dukes with a ‘pumphandle driver’ that spikes Punk on his head. As he heads upstairs for a moonsault, Prazak nails him with that plaque he’s been carrying. ‘Pepsi Plunge’ at the third attempt (nothing wrong with this set up) and Punk picks up the win. He gets into it with some more fans after the match, flicking the cap of on, and when he sees a girl in the front row give him the finger, knocks her drink on to her. The girl doesn’t take too kindly to that, throwing the drink at him and then hitting him before security gets between them and escorts her out of there. Punk still wants to go some more getting in the face of another fan and daring him to hit him, even after that woman did just very that. The match is not particularly good, but this is worth watching the beginning and end for just to see Punk riling up all the locals. He gets some serious heat from everyone and is pretty fearless squaring up to folk, getting in their faces, insulting them and even taking a punch for his trouble. A quick note that he should never have gotten up as quickly as he did after that pumphandle driver right before the finish, Dukes bodyslamming him would make it look much more plausible than it did.

The link doesn't appear to be working. Tried to find the interview on the actual website but gave up, that site is a complete mess.

A lengthy recap of what happened last week; where Bo Dupp went on a rampage in the studio after Blade Boudreaux showed up with a giant teddy bear that he found in the Dupps dressing room, where Victoria turned on The Kat, aligning herself with Brandon Baxter, and the two then attacked Kat’s sister Suzanne “in one of the most disgusting acts ever in Power Pro Wrestling”, and where the Spellbinder interfered in the Southern title match breaking a bottle over Peter Gas’ head. ‘Commissioner’ Bill Dundee wasn’t here last week but is this, and has requested some time to talk about what we’ve just witnessed. The Commissioner has got his clipboard with him and means business! Dundee fines the Dupps $2,500, mainly for chasing off Dave and Corey who he says have nothing to do with the wrestling except the announcing, before additionally also kicking them off today’s show. Even though he likes the Spellbinder, he tells him that he can’t go around hitting people over the head with a bottle and has no alternative but to fine him $1,000. That brings outs Steve Bradley who approves of the fining, but thinks Spell should also be suspended so he can no longer interfere in his championship matches. The Commissioner agrees that something needs to be done about that, so makes a title match for later, that way he’ll be in the match and can’t interfere! That doesn’t sit well with Bradley who thinks that Spellbinder is being rewarded for his actions. Spell joins them and pays the fine, suggesting that Dundee fine him an extra $5,000 because he “wants fatty’s rear end right now!” Bradley and Binder then go at it as officials, security and some of the lower card wrestlers try to separate them. Pete Gas joins Dave and Corey for guest commentary on the main event and they compliment him on having done some good things around here since he left the Mean Street Posse, hoping that he’ll keep it up. A focussed Spellbinder doesn’t wait for the bell, marching into the ring and going right for “Who’s Your Daddy?” Russian leg sweep, although that only gets him a one count. Back elbow smash, but Binder makes the mistake of taking a swing at Victoria, who’s on the outside, which allows Bradley to catch him with a reverse atomic drop. Bradley tosses Spell to the floor and keeps the official busy so that Victoria can put the boots in. Swinging neckbreaker. He chokes him over the middle rope and is back distracting the referee so that Victoria can get another lick in, this time slapping him across the face. Bradley whips Spellbinder into the turnbuckles, runs in, but Binder moves and he goes shoulder first into the ring post. DDT and a rather presumptuous Corey thinks that Spell will be tasting victory again on the Power Hour. Fallaway slam, somersault senton and at the count of two Victoria pulls the referee out of the ring. Dave’s calling for a DQ until remembering that he can’t win the title on a disqualification. Binder snatches her by the hair but is then clobbered in the back of the head by a belt wielding Bradley. He makes the cover, when from out the back sprints The Kat and now she’s pulling the official from the ring to break the count. Action continues inside while Victoria and The Kat have a lame looking catfight around ringside which consists of them just rolling around on the floor. ‘The Kliq’ jump Pete Gas in retaliation for him saving Lance Cade earlier, and if that wasn’t enough, Brandon Baxter is out to help Victoria. The bell just starts ringing at this point with the match thrown out. Baxter clocks The Kat, Shooter puts ‘the Clutch’ on Gas and Bradley’s choking away on Spell. It’s a chaotic ending to the show as Dave thinks the Commissioner may well be back next week dishing out yet more fines! With the Kliq/Cade feud, Bradley/Spellbinder, Baxter, Victoria, Haas brothers, there’s some good stuff going on in Power Pro at the moment. There’s a clear attempt to try and move Pete Gas to the uppercard, which is going to be a tough sell, but we’ll see how they get on. I’m warming a touch to Jason Sensation too of all people. When he’s not being a goof or doing his impressions (primarily Shawn Michaels, although he has given us The Rock and Steve Austin too) he’s not bad promo, but then he’ll go and ruin it by acting like a monkey. If he’d cut that out and tidied his look up they may have actually had something with him.

There are a couple of fans in the audience dressed up like the ‘Right to Censor’ with Dave suggesting that they are in fact spies for them, which is pretty funny. Blade has got the giant teddy bear with him and he sits it on the desk in front of Dave and Corey for them to look after. Apparently he’s been out of action recently for a few weeks as a result of the Dupps’ ‘Brain Scrambler’ finisher. Blade reverses the whip to the corner, backdrop and a dropkick that comes up short but is sold anyway. He sits Spanky on the top turnbuckle, but Jason Sensation grabs a hold of his charge to prevent the superplex and Blade’s momentum when attempting the move sends him flying backwards to the mat. Missile dropkick for a two. Flying bulldog from the middle and Spanky doesn’t really get all of that as this is actually pretty sloppy. Spanky telegraphs the backdrop and Blade with a sunset flip. Jason Sensation leans through the ropes to grab hold of Spanky’s hands and they’re doing the exact same spot that led to the finish in the previous match. This time the official kicks Jason’s hands away but, unlike Shooter, Spanky kicks out. ‘Gator Drop’ and, with Blade one second away from becoming the new Light Heavyweight champion, he’s attacked by a smartly dressed Bo Dupp who slides into the ring and starts pounding away on him, resulting in a disqualification. A suited Jack is alongside his ‘brother’ and Spanky and Jason aren’t bothering to hang around. As Jack puts the boots to Blade, Bo collects his teddy bear from the desk. They look to give Blade another concussion courtesy of the ‘Brain Scrambler’ when the Haas brothers make the save just in time. In the confusion Bo drops the teddy which is picked up by the Haas’ and presumably that bear is going to be the basis of a feud between these two teams.