GSR

Observer Hall of Fame, two time IWGP Jr Heavyweight champion, WCW Cruiserweight champion (before that title was devalued), J Crown winner, numerous title reigns all over Mexico and Japan. How on earth is Ultimo Dragon underrated and by whom? Hardly underrated by people on here, but I'll throw in Steve Grey and Jon Cortez.

T.J. Wilson has got the ‘Honor Roll’ faction in his corner, while Harry is seconded by Uncle Ross Hart. We’re informed that Davey Boy, Diana and Stu are all in attendance watching the match at ringside, although Bad News Allen thinks it’s no coincidence that the night Principal Richard Pound isn’t here, Davey Boy is. Smith starts out the aggressor, dropping Wilson with a clothesline and getting a quick two count after a legdrop. Shades of his old man with the running powerslam, however it’s too early in the match and T.J. kicks out. Huracanrana, he goes for it a second time but this time Wilson counters into a powerbomb. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker followed by a great looking springboard elbow drop. Awesome backbreaker variation by Wilson, starting off in the torture rack position, pressing Smith up over his head and then dropping him across his knee (think an inverted version of Dean Malenko’s stomachbreaker). Smith lands on his feet off a monkey flip and an inverted Death Valley Driver as he looks to try and get back into this. Meltdown (pumphandle powerslam) and Wilson is able to get a shoulder up just in time. Fireman’s carry into a sit-out powerbomb and fearing the worst, two members of the ‘Honor Roll’ are up on the apron. Smith takes them both out and then makes a beeline for the rest of the group who’re at ringside. Despite Ross trying to help his nephew, the numbers are too great and T.J. distracts the official whilst they all assault Harry behind his back. Somersault diamond cutter by Wilson, but he’s too close to the ropes when making the cover. Tornado DDT off the turnbuckles. T.J. goes for it again, this time though Smith counters into a spinebuster which is enough to put his opponent away and get the three. Davey Boy leaves his position at ringside to attack the ‘Honor Roll’, before we get a couple of interviews. Mauro Ranallo is conducting them and the bleach blonde highlights are not a good look on him! Davey is huge and promises to partner his son here in Stampede and take on any challengers. The ‘Honor Roll’ are not happy that Wilson lost, and all take it in turns to beat on him as some sort of punishment for losing. Major Yates holds Ross Hart responsible and challenges him to find two men to take on two members of their ‘Honor Roll’. For their level of experience I thought this was really good. Smith is aged just 14 at this point whilst T.J. is 19, and my lone criticism for Smith would be that he wrestled in a hoodie, making him look like the young teenager that he is. Had he worn proper ring gear, I doubt you would have even queried his age. Wilson was tremendous, and on the back of this I’d put him ahead of both Styles and Spanky, way ahead of Punk and a notch below Ki and Dragon. Everything he does from controlling the match, to his bumping, his execution, and right down to how he throws a punch has the air of a veteran about it. He’s innovative too busting out moves that I’d not seen before (I can’t rave highly enough about that inverted backbreaker) and can fly along with it. You have to think that had he been based in the US, as opposed to Canada, the likes of CZW, ECWA, FWA and later ROH would have been using him on a regular basis.

Norwood is decked out like he’s the Godfather, although has a quality entrance theme in the shape of ‘Brick House’ by The Commodores. A freshly cropped Pearce rushes at his opponent but ends up getting clotheslined over the top rope to the outside. He drags Norwood out and the pair of them exchange hard slaps across the chest at ringside. Pearce goes to splash Norwood against the ring post, however he moves out the way and ends up crashing into it himself. Reverse crossbody off the top for two. Ten punch spot in the corner, but Pearce counters by dropping Norwood throat first across the top rope. Terribly super slow sunset flip by Norwood before he fires back, only to then get stopped in his tracks by a Pearce big boot. ‘Scrap Iron’ hits a top rope frankensteiner, but it’s not the neatest in its execution. Superplex attempt is blocked, and Norwood shoves Pearce backwards sending him tumbling to the canvas. He misses an elbow off the top, when some guy strolls out and picks up the ACW title off the timekeeper’s desk. Norwood does his version of ‘Hulking up’ and Pearce is backing off trying to get him to calm down. There’s no-one home on the ‘Stinger splash’, Norwood with a modified sit-out powerbomb and that guy is up on the apron waving the title in his face. He drops back down to the floor out of his reach, but after a bit more action ends up clocking him with the belt for the DQ. Pearce is jumped by someone on his way to the back and they have a spirited twenty or so seconds as ‘Scrap Iron’ bumps and trips over the metal railings and supports. I’ve liked Pearce more than most so far, but this isn’t a good one for his resume. A nothing, forgettable match topped off by the cheapest of cheap finishes. The brief post-match ruckus was better than anything that happened in the match itself.

Only you and that oddball Meltzer obsessive 'Les Moore' it would seem.

Quick pre-match promo from Danielson who says that tonight he has the biggest break of his career, wrestling a WWF superstar by the name of D-Lo Brown. He wants the people to be quiet so he can concentrate, but you know how that ends up! Just like last night D-Lo is over huge again with the fans here in Del Rio. He tells Dragon that his developmental deal and that crappy little promo absolutely suck, before the two of them get the match underway. Danielson tries to wrestle his way out of a wristlock, but every time he looks like he might’ve managed it, D-Lo decks him with a big right hand. After a knife edge chop he takes to the floor and heads towards the dressing room. D-Lo is right after him though and drags him back to ringside. Bodyslam on the outside followed by another knife edge chop where Dragon takes a flat back bump on the concrete. Inside and Dragon reverses a powerbomb into a huracanrana before dropkicking D-Lo’s knee. Single leg crab into a kneebar and D-Lo is forced to grab the ropes for the break. Dragon screw leg whip and a figure four as Danielson focuses all his efforts on wearing down that leg. D-Lo with a leg lariat out of nowhere as he starts to fire back on his opponent. Dragon counters the suplex only to get caught in a sit out powerbomb. Frog splash off the top and D-Lo gets the win. Great crowd and a good match with Dragon showing he’s got no problem hanging with an established WWF star in a singles match. Yeah, he’s not the most heelish of heels in the slightest, but I thought he was perfectly fine in that role. Nice sell job by D-Lo on that leg and I thought Dragon had good facials too.

According to Chris Cruise there’s no-one better to call tag team wrestling that his partner Stan Lane! The Heartbreakers are Apollo and Adonis (one of them being Frankie Lancaster and the other, after a bit of research, is Alex Porteau), and they’re managed by a woman called Geeamore. The Bodies are two guys with matching tights and identical haircuts, presumably made up to look like brothers, and I think the one is Ace Steel but don’t hold me to that. They rush to the ring and immediately take it to the Heartbreakers. The commentators aren’t referring to The Bodies by their individual names, making me wonder if they can’t identify who is who, or whether they simply weren’t given them. The match breaks down with all four men in the ring and with the official having lost control. The Heartbreakers whip The Bodies into one another, then what was supposed to be a double backdrop sees not-Ace Steel-Bodie land on his neck, only just tucking his head. Adam Pearce sneaks to ringside as Cruise talks about him being a Heartbreaker wannabe, but with the official distracted, Pearce nails Apollo with a missile dropkick and puts one of The Bodies on top of him. The ref turns around and counts the three as The Bodies get the win. Oddly they then attack Pearce after he’d helped them out, leading to Tommy Rogers making the save for his partner. This was fundamentally structured and sound, but there was nothing to get overly excited about. Post-match made little sense with The Bodies attacking the man who’d just helped them win the match. Geeamore was also useless at ringside and her main contribution appeared to be giving the double thumbs down when anything would go against her men!

Don't apologize dude, I enjoyed reading all that.

No sound here and the match is joined in progress. The action quickly breaks down with Savio Vega and Ricky Santana going at it in the ring and everyone else fighting on the outside. Sean Hill is about to nail Savio in the back with a chair when he’s distracted by some scantily clad dominatrix looking woman flashing her backside at him. Savio blows mist in his face, DDT onto a chair and the Boricuas get the win. After the match Miguel turns on Savio, hitting him across the head with one of the title belts. He’s berating him about something and Jesus is over to confront him. It looks like he’s in complete disagreement with what Miguel just did, only to then clock Savio with the ring bell. The Boricuas bloody him up with a chair while their opponents from earlier cheer them on. Chicky Starr, Victor the Bodyguard and another dude are out to join them and Miguel and Jesus encourage them to blitz Savio as well, but they drill the Boricuas instead and clear the ring of them as Vega is taken out of there on a stretcher. Lack of sound hurts this as the post-match attack looked pretty vicious with the way the Boricuas had Savio’s head trapped between a chair and Miguel was repeatedly blasting it with further chair shots. Decent blade job from Savio too but there’s only so much you can say when you’re missing out on the audience’s reactions to this.

This is a steel cage match and bridging across the roof is a scaffold. It’s a rickety looking cage and before the match has even begun Justice Pain climbs onto the scaffold and tries to get the crowd to start a “Ric Blade sucks!” chant. When they don’t, he proceeds to squirt them with a super soaker! Pain charges at Blade the moment he steps through the door, only to get backdropped into the cage. Spinning heel kick, but Pain counters the huracanrana by powerbombing Blade against the cage wall. Superkick followed by a backdrop driver. He hits a Lionsault and starts climbing up to the scaffold. Justice isn’t the quickest and Blade follows suit, getting up there before him. This is shaking a fair bit now. Blade blows an attempted ‘Death Valley Driver’, but in typical Ric Blade style, immediately repeats the same spot. Pain with a suplex and I honestly thought the scaffold was going to collapse. They fight on the side of the cage and with Justice on the outside, he catches Ric with a super smooth sunset flip into a powerbomb back into the ring. Blade reverses a huracanrana into a facebuster, and once again they’re fighting on the side of the cage. Zandig is out, attacks Justice and then passes Blade a table. He lays Pain on it and hits an awesome 450 splash off the top of the cage putting him through it for the win. There’s not a chance I would’ve climbed that scaffold with how unstable it all looked. He may botch that ‘Death Valley Driver’, but that’s all Ric Blade blows, so in that regard this is a good night for him! That 450 splash off the top of the cage is one of the spots of the year so far.

....and even if they could, why waste that kind of money on something that everyone knows will be 99.9999% bullshit anyway? Which was the point of my post on Hogan's interview with Michael Schiavello which was exactly this.

Because they probably saw 'The Voice vs ...' interview that he did with Michael Schiavello and realized there would be no point to it.

The Ninja Assassins are two guys who’re decked out like Kato from the Orient Express, while the ‘Crazies’ are doing a combination escaped mental patient/Oddities gimmick. Very early the camera angle switches to the hard camera, which is at the back of the building, so you’re a long way from the action. Lots of quick tags by both teams, though quick tags for the sake of it as I don’t think they really know what they’re doing. One of the Assassins throws a dropkick but catches Charlie in the thigh with it! Some real bad looking clotheslines in here too from the Crazies. After a splash in the corner the Ninja collapses face first to the canvas, Jimmy then lies on top ‘trying’ to pin him (the old Kamala spot) while the ref is telling him to turn him over. He counts three himself and then raises his own arms, before Charlie is in and repeats exactly what his partner just did. Christ this is awful. Give them their due, a nice savate kick by one of the Ninjas and some double team action as the one front suplexes the other on top of a prone Jimmy. Single leg dropkick off the top for two. Nerve hold, because what else would you expect from a master of the martial arts! Jimmy’s trapped in a Boston crab and slowly edging over to make the tag to his partner. The other Ninja Assassin comes in the ring and tries to cause a distraction so the official won’t see the tag, but they mess this up and the tag happens right in front of him so he has to let it go. Hot tag to Charlie who hits another crappy looking clothesline and then calls a timeout! Please make this shit stop. After an insufferable seventeen minutes that felt about five times longer, the Crazies get the win after a Bushwhacker battering ram. I doubt there will be a worse one two punch in the project than this and the tables match that follows. Maybe they switched to the long shot hard cam because someone realised how crap this was? An appalling excuse for a match.

Al K. Holic is somehow now the Commissioner of Memphis Championship Wrestling and is also the guest referee for this bout, which is a number one contender’s match for the Light Heavyweight title. Not only do we have a guest referee, but also a guest commentator in the shape of Fabulous Rocker. Living his gimmick, Al K. is officiating this whilst holding a can of beer! Satellite headscissors by Spanky. Dragon stuns him with a couple of headbutts, however Spanky counters the hip toss with a nice arm drag takedown. Great looking belly to back suplex by Dragon who is pretty measured in his approach here. Powerbomb and folding press for two as old Al K. is a bit slow in getting down to count the pin attempt. Another belly to back, but this time Spanky flips over and catches Dragon with ‘Sliced Bread #2’. Fabulous Rocker then leaves the commentary desk and enters the ring where he nails Spanky and Dragon over the head with a metal sign. Al K. then clocks Rocker with his beer can, puts both Spanky and Dragon on top of him and fast counts a three. He declares them both winners and I have no idea! Al K. as official, Rocker as commentator, that’s all the indication you need to know there was going to be some sort of shenanigans going on here. I wouldn’t say Dragon and Spanky half assed it, but certainly not one of their finer matches due to the booking and finish as they probably realised they didn’t need to go all out. The less said about that ending the better.

Reckless isn’t happy that when he taps the microphone the audience don’t go quiet and show a bit of respect for him! For the past several weeks he’s come out here, worked hard, and done these technical wrestling matches, but all these people have done is boo him. He’s heard them insinuate that he’s a cheater, that he’s used the ropes to try to beat people, and the biggest insult of all is that they cheer for this nobody, the American Dragon, who’s only just got here. Youth rushes Dragon, but he ducks under a clothesline and leaps over a charge, landing a dropkick after both and sending Reckless packing to the outside. He returns to the ring and a blatant kick to the groin where he acts as if he’s just kicked a field goal, watching the ball sail through the posts and then signaling the two points! Reverse neck snap and Youth tries to get the fans to clap him but they’re having none of it. Now he’s blatantly choking his opponent and Reckless counts along with the referee, breaking on four before telling the crowd that he’s got a five count. He ties Dragon in the ‘tree of woe’ and a baseball slide dropkick to the face. Tumbleweed legdrop off the middle misses as Danielson moves out the way. Dragon whips him into the corner, but Reckless blocks the hip toss and counters with a brutal looking double underhook piledriver, spiking Dragon flush on his head. Danielson fires back with a flurry of kicks and this gorgeous variation of a Fisherman’s suplex (like a combination Northern Lights/Fisherman’s). Double leg takedown and folding press by Reckless. Unlike last week though, the official catches him with his feet on the ropes and stops his count. Youth says something to him, pushing him in the face at the same time, and he responds by shoving him backwards, right into a Dragon German suplex for two. Crossbody off the top, but Reckless pulls the ref in front of him and he gets taken out instead. Youth reaches into his pockets, instructing the cameraman to “go away” as they catch him up to no good, and drills Dragon with whatever it was he pulled out. The official is still pretty much KO’ed, although is able to count the fall as Reckless gets the win. Oh, he doesn’t! Ronnie James (who Reckless will be teaming with on a spot show later in the day) is out and grabs the foreign object, explains what happens and the referee reverses his decision. Heel Reckless Youth is so much more fun to watch than face Reckless Youth! He showed a ton of personality and charisma here in the way he was heeling it up throughout the match, the way he was interacting with the crowd and even in his pre-match promo. He’s like a totally different person. That double underhook spiked piledriver looked nasty and I would use that as his finisher, not having someone kick out of it like what happened here. Dragon is seemingly inventing new suplex variations on a weekly basis at the moment and that one here was a thing of beauty.

An outdoor CZW show! Lots of audible “Kash-queer” chants and one loud lone voice calling the Backseat Boyz “f*cking fags”. After being recently fired as a referee, they introduce ‘Discount’ Dewey Donovan as their new manager. He’s managed to get them out of defending their tag titles today with a bit of contract wrangling, when to ringside walks Ric Blade and Shorty. You can’t make out everything he says, but he thinks that he deserves a rematch with Trent for the CZW Jr Heavyweight title and the match is made. Blade takes Trent over the top rope and to the outside with a headscissors, and as Johnny is around to check on his partner, catches them both with a quebrada into a flip dive. Springboard missile dropkick back inside for two. After Trent escapes a surfboard, Blade boxes his ears with some kicks, although this is hardly Tajiri or Low Ki dishing out the punishment! Irish whip is reversed and Kashmere pulls down the top rope as Blade sails over it. Trent with a plancha off the top turnbuckle to the floor, soon followed by a moonsault bodyblock off a skip, as both Dewey and Johnny hold Blade in position. Missile dropkick by Trent and Dewey is distracting the official allowing the Backseats to double team behind his back. Acid heads upstairs, but Shorty swipes a leg out from under him. Another weak looking distraction spot and Shorty, obviously fancying herself as being the next Lita, goes for a top rope frankensteiner but botches it so badly that it looks like Trent powerbombed her! Springboard somersault legdrop by Blade for two. Trent backdrops him over the top rope, however Blade lands on the apron and a slingshot DDT back into the ring. He sets up a table on the outside, but that works against him as Acid puts him through it with a great looking ‘Blue Thunder Driver’ off the apron. As the ref starts to count both men out, Dewey sneaks up from behind and clobbers him with his briefcase. Trent misses a moonsault off the middle and Blade is out and setting up a second table. Dewey and Johnny snatch him so that Trent can blast him with a chair, but he ends up accidentally hitting Dewey instead. Blade then kicks the chair into Trent’s own face and lays him on the table. He climbs up onto the top of a trailer only to overshoot the ‘Swanton bomb’, missing Trent completely, and landing tailbone first on the grass. Only Ric Blade! The crowd chant “one more time” and he’s ready to repeat that spot when he’s jumped by the H8 Club. They give him a few shots before dragging Shorty to the ring and superplexing her through a table. A couple of officials, Nick Mondo and some medics are out to check on her, and the match just ends with Blade carrying Shorty to the back. Bar that cool ‘Blue Thunder Driver’ off the apron and through the table I didn’t think this was good at all. The sequences that these two did looked like they’d been rehearsed and practised meticulously; there was nothing organic about them in the slightest. The distraction spots were ridiculously bad, and also what is the point of doing distraction spots when earlier in the match Kashmere and Dewey had both been involved right in front of the official’s eyes? Shorty is the worst and I’m hoping that the injury angle at the end was a way of writing her out and we never have to see her accompanying Blade again. That botch at the finish was typical Ric Blade, overshooting the Swanton and crashing and burning on the grass. Didn’t like Trent then having to lie there like a lemon, but at least the H8 Club’s interference and putting a stop to the second Swanton didn’t make it look a preposterous as I thought it was going to.

Why have you ignored what a mod advised you to do a few months back? http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/39016-the-power-of-love/

Krush is accompanied by Bobcat, who Kevin Kelly refers to as “the virtual door knob of Memphis Championship Wrestling” in that everybody has had a turn of her, while Lawler has got The Kat with him. ‘The King’ reels off a few jokes at Bobcat’s expense, saying that she’s got a lot of class...but it’s all low, and how Krush knew he was bringing The Kat out but the best he could do was one of the Godfather’s girls who lost her seat on the ho train! Lawler backs Krush into the corner off the lock up and he’s immediately complaining about a non-existent hair pull. After a bodyslam by ‘the King’ he tells the official to check on Bobcat, but that’s just a diversary tactic as he then drapes Krush over the middle rope so the Kat can slap him. Bobcat is around to stick up for her man and referee Bill Rush has to get between the two women to stop them tearing clumps out of each other’s hair. Krush pulls a chain from his pants out of the view of Lawler and Rush, and a rather vocal member of the audience is up and trying to tell them both what he’s doing. Rush can’t find it on Krush, but the moment he turns his back, he cold clocks the King’ with the chain. He starts taking it to Lawler, dropping him with a clothesline and a (slow motion) back drop. There’s no-one home on the slingshot senton and as ‘the King’ goes for a chance pin, Bobcat is in at the count of two to break it up. She starts stomping Lawler which is enough for the DQ, and that also brings in the Kat as we get an ECW style catfight complete with gratuitous panty shots. Enjoyable fair here and I liked Krush as an almost old fashioned heel here with his actions and mannerisms. Nothing world beating or anything, but if you’ve got ten minutes to kill you won’t watch and think you’ve wasted those ten minutes.

First round match in the MCW Light Heavyweight title tournament. Fabulous Rocker joins Lance and Kevin Kelly on commentary, and apparently Spanky was introduced as Rocker’s ‘big brother’ last week. Spanky with a drop toe hold, he then runs across the back of Dragon and dropkicks him in the face. He’d rather gesture to the crowd instead of following up, and Dragon levels him with a big boot to the face. A unique, if contrived, sunset flip by Dragon after Spanky had whipped him into the corner. Great counter of the Dragon suplex with a tornado DDT. Huracanrana, but Dragon reverses the whip to the turnbuckles and nails Spanky with a running forearm smash. A second forearm smash followed by a stiff clothesline gets him a two. Rocker is now down at ringside, and after a series of counters and reversals Spanky hits a brainbuster. Dragon puts his foot over the bottom rope, however Rockers knocks if off before the official sees. The ref then counts the three and Spanky advances to the next round of the tournament. Dragon tries to explain to the referee afterwards what happened, but Spanky flees before he can change his decision. Not overly keen on Spanky being associated with Rocker, hoping that is something that gets quietly forgotten about in the upcoming weeks. Good short match and one that I preferred to Dragon/Reckless from last week. The two of them have really got their stuff together down pat now with their sequences all looking really fluid (that Dragon suplex counter was quality). Spanky gets the cheap win and with the way it happens, the loss doesn’t hurt Dragon one bit.

10.25.99 Scott Hall & Kevin Nash vs three strippers (Monday Nitro) And a few low lights from my PWO2K watching: 03.19.00 Terry Funk vs Dustin Rhodes (bullrope match) (Uncensored PPV) 04.24.00 Sting vs Vampiro (first blood match) (Monday Nitro) 06.11.00 Sting vs Vampiro (human torch match) (Great American Bash PPV) 06.12.00 Ric & Reid Flair vs Vince Russo & David Flair (Monday Nitro) 08.09.00 Lance Storm vs Mike Awesome (flag match) (Monday Nitro)

Kevin Kelly is in the commentary booth with Lance, and on the day he makes his final appearance on TWA TV, Dragon makes his televised MCW debut. He comes out to ‘Bawitdaba’ (making him the third person at least this year to use that as their entrance) and is back in his original ring gear complete with mask. Kelly talks about how Dragon is from the Shawn Michaels Texas Wrestling Academy, and his style is similar to that of the Ultimo Dragon (who is certainly a name I wasn’t expecting to hear get dropped). The opening exchanges are really fast paced and Dragon looks smoother and crisper than Youth. Some nice chain wrestling, before Reckless takes Dragon down with a satellite headscissors followed by a reverse atomic drop. Fallaway slam with bridge by Dragon for a two count. Youth escapes the Dragon suplex and tears at Danielson’s knee with a dragon screw leg whip. Tornado DDT off the turnbuckles but Dragon is able to get a shoulder up just in time. He counters Youth’s Magistral cradle attempt by swiping a leg out from under him, Magistral cradle of his own and Danielson gets the upset win. A strong debut for Dragon who looked good in everything he did and got the clean win over an established upper carder. Just in this one match it definitely feels like there’s something fresh about MCW, and that’s with Spanky, Lance Cade and Shooter Schultz all still to come in the next few weeks.

Lance Russell is in the ring plugging a house show in Memphis for later today, before introducing the current Southern Heavyweight champion, Jerry ‘the King’ Lawler. ‘The King’ says that he’ll be defending the title against K-Krush, when they’re interrupted by Reckless Youth. Youth can’t believe he’s giving a title shot to Krush, he beat him on TV last week and that makes him the number one contender! They’re joined by Bitty Little and he says how he did ‘the King’ a favour when he won the Southern title, giving up his own show to give it to him, and now thinks he deserves a crack at the belt. Hmmm, where have I seen this before… Lance points out how they both voluntarily gave up their shots (Youth to face Krush the week he defeated him) and now Krush is the next man in line. Lawler jokes how he though letting Bitty wear his crown and tights was repayment enough, but now he wants a title shot too? Krush and Jim Neidhart join them and Lance tries to calm the situation by saying how Krush is the one who’s got the title match this afternoon and that’s settled. After challenging Bitty to take on ‘the Anvil’, where if Neidhart wins he gets five minutes with his midget, he turns his attention to Lawler. He says how ‘the King’ runs his mouth too much, and when he was champion Lawler was constantly telling him that he needs to defend the belt, he needs to wrestle and he needs to put that belt up. Krush knows he can whip both their butts, but wants to see if ‘the King’ can whip Youth’s, and tells him to give Reckless a chance to win that belt from him. Lawler thinks it’s a bit weird as Krush could potentially lose his title shot later this afternoon, but because he came out here and ran his ‘fat lips’, that’s exactly what he’s going to do! The match hasn’t even begun when Krush and Neidhart are back out to watch from ringside and make sure that nothing goes wrong before Krush’s match with ‘the King’ later today. Reckless takes Lawler down with an arm drag followed by a dropkick, only for ‘the King’ to mirror what his opponent’s just done on him. As Youth runs the ropes, Neidhart hooks his ankle from the outside tripping him up, and Lawler is over telling him to stay out of his match. Just like ‘the Anvil’ previously, Krush trips ‘the King’, and when he backdrops Youth over the top rope to the outside, Neidhart and Krush are both around putting the boots to him. Back inside and an accidental clash of heads sees both men go down. Neidhart gets up on the apron to distract the official, Krush with a double legdrop off the top, however nobodies home as Youth and Lawler move out the way. The two of them then team up together against Krush and ‘the Anvil’ as the ref calls for the bell. The Little’s also end up getting involved and no idea what the end result was (I’d guess no-contest), although the ref does raise Lawler’s arm. The opening angle with everyone claiming they deserved a title shot was exactly what Power Pro did the week before, and that always smacks of desperation, even if you have got infinitely better performers like Lance and Lawler involved. Not a lot to say about the match itself as we didn’t get much before the interference started and subsequent teaming up of ‘the King’ and Reckless to take on Krush and ‘the Anvil’.

Agreed, that was an excellent listen. Barring the tremendous Lance Russell tribute, this was the first episode of the 6:05 I'd listened to in a long time, purely for the 'roundtable' discussion and it didn't disappoint. Sad to see that the 'Top 10' is still going, and even unfunnier than it used to be (Hot Dog, The Magnificent One and Brother Midnight were all atrocious). If you want to skip all that nonsense, the roundtable starts at about two hours ten minutes in.

A ladder carrying Fabulous Rocker walks out to Right Said Fred, as Lance Russell says how he’s an ‘unusual guy’, whatever that means! He calls out ‘the biggest little man’ Todd Morton and challenges him to a ‘hardcore ladder match’. Morton accepts and also now appears to be a face judging by the crowd’s reaction to him. There’s no feeling out process here, as Morton immediately reverses a whip to the turnbuckles sending Rocker crashing into the ladder that he’d positioned there when he first entered the ring. He looks to splash him against it, but Rocker moves out the way and goes flying into the ladder himself. Spinning heel kick barely connects but Morton sells it anyway. Arabian moonsault for two. Rocker jabs the ladder into Morton’s ribs, places it on top of him and then comes off the middle with a springboard legdrop. Moonsault off the second top rung of the ladder but no-one’s home. Morton grabs hold of the Rocker, only for Bull Pain and Al K. Holic to start arguing amongst themselves over who gets to clobber him. They decide on Bull, but he ends up hitting Morton with his beer can as the Rocker moves out the way. Rocker dropkicks Bull into Al K. and covers Morton for the win. Morton holds the pair of them responsible for the loss, spending too long arguing, and leaves without them as dissension is brewing between the Kick Ass guys. Not sure why this was called a ‘ladder’ match when pinfalls were in operation and there was nothing to retrieve? Just call it a ‘hardcore’ match, which is what it was. Rocker seems to fancy himself as some sort of junior flyer but everything he did (Arabian moonsault, springboard ledrop, moonsault (which he landed on his knees from)) all looked sloppy. Poor match.

Lengthy highlights from last week’s show, and the situation involving Brandon Baxter, Wolfie D and the Spellbinder. Dave Brown thinks it’s a miscarriage of justice that Wolfie is still the Power Pro champion, when he’s interrupted by Baxter who introduces Wolfie. He talks about Randy Hales hating him being the champion of his prized company, and that he’s sent Ali after him, has sent Spellbinder after him and today he’s sending his TV champion after him. It doesn’t matter what he does though because he’ll remain the champion until he decides to retire. Spellbinder must be loaded mind as Baxter then informs us that the $15,000 cheque he paid him hasn’t been deposited yet. He wants it back and offers a $1,000 reward to the person who gets it for him, along with an additional $5,000 if they put Spellbinder in hospital. Blade escapes a side headlock and they trade holds before Wolfie’s had enough of that and drills him with a right. Whip to the turnbuckle, Blade with a tip up over a charging D and he takes him down with a Russian legsweep. Hip toss followed by a dropkick, and Baxter is in there trying to help his man out. Boudreaux has him backed into the corner, but the distraction works as Wolfie hot shots Blade across the top rope (well that’s what was supposed to happen, he never actually made contact with the top rope!). Nice combination of strikes from Wolfie and a DDT for two. He misses the somersault senton off the top and Blade starts to fire back. After he reverses the Irish whip attempt, Wolfie with an airplane spin, however the swinging legs of Blade catch the official in his side, taking him out in a really weak looking bump. Boudreaux escapes the airplane spin, reverse DDT, though no referee. Baxter gestures for Seven to come and help, but that doesn’t go to plan as he accidentally clotheslines Wolfie instead. Blade with a roll up and here comes Randy Hales to play referee again, only to be attacked by Baxter just like last week. Wolfie nails Blade across the back of the head with his shin guard, ‘Rude Awakening’ and the official has recovered to count the three. Although he fudged the clothesline across the top rope, and his dropkick wasn’t the greatest, I didn’t think Blade looked that bad here. What sucked the life out of this for me was that the closing stretch was the same as last week, complete with ref bump, Wolfie being taken out by one of his allies, being pinned twice but no-one to count the fall, Randy Hales interjecting himself into the match and playing referee, Baxter attacking him and finally Wolfie clobbering his opponent with his shinguard. These screwy finishes have long been played to death, but doing the same shit two weeks on the bounce? Oh, and that ref bump looked dreadful!