[2000-03-11-APW-5th Anniversary Show] Boyce LeGrande & Robert Thompson vs Jardi Frantz & Vinny Massaro

[soup23]

I liked this. I really enjoyed the dynamic of both teams with one powerhouse member and one high flyer. It added a lot of diversity to the match and a many off shoot mini matches that looked interesting. Even the big guys looked good with moving around and hanging with the others. Massaro eats a 3D to a big pop and then stereo dives that looked really impressive. I would like to see more from these four guys. ***1/4

[Loss]

This was a total blast. Loved the power guy/flyer vs power guy/flyer dynamic Chad mentioned, and I also loved the pace these guys cut. Everyone seemed out to impress, and the crowd was eating this up with a spoon every step of the way. Interesting flipside to APW from Daniels-Modest in January, which had a much more old school crowd filled with kids, while this was more of an ECW-style crowd filled with teen dudes chanting "A-P-Dub" after highspots. ***1/2

[Moonsault Marvin]

Nice fast paced start with a lot of double teaming. LeGrande and Thompson work together well, and I wonder why they never made it to the big time. The match dragged a little in the middle, but overall it was a fun match.

[Tim Evans]

Hey it's Twitter's favorite Lucha underground fan Vinnie Massaro. This was fun in a 2000s indie type way. Boyce and Thompson have some sweet double teams and Vinnie takes a beating yet looks competent. That 3d looked very painful.

[Robert S]

Fun action tag team match. The handcam that was too close to the ring made the thing a bit hard to follow from time to time when the action was too fast.

 

Strange that most of the bigger APW names of this era, even though they were among the early internet indy darlings, did not much of notice in their careers. Except of those four guys Tony Jones (of Beyond the Mat fame) comes to mind as well. And after breaking with APW even Modest and Morgan only had (except from a couple of ROH appearances) their NOAH gig. Frantz is the only guy among all those people who did PWG, and even he only had three matches (according to cagematch, not sure how complete their results regarding PWG are).

[GSR]

The match gets underway with all four men battling in the ring together, but the camera work (one handheld) is so bad that it’s a struggle to see everything that’s happening. It looks like the Playaz hit stereo missile dropkicks, and as Frantz and Massaro take to the floor to re-evaluate, Thompson backdrops LeGrande over the top rope and out on to them. Jardi with a headscissors takedown, but Thompson responds with a stomach breaker as both teams continue to feel each other out and try and get an early advantage. LeGrande hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on Frantz who comes back with a ‘round the world’ headscissors and a contrived wristlock takedown, bouncing and jumping off the top rope in the process. He steps outside for a breather, Jardi goes for a baseball slide dropkick, however Boyce sees him coming and sidesteps out the way. Quick as a cat LeGrande hops up on the apron, kicks Frantz in the chest and an Asai moonsault to the floor. He tosses him back inside, and with the official obstructing the view, you just about catch the end of a springboard dropkick. Frantz tags out and the Playaz start focussing their efforts on the big man’s left arm. Jumping single armed DDT by LeGrande is off as Massaro jumps too early. Boyce grabs the arm and climbs to the top turnbuckle, but Vinny shoves him in the backside and he takes a spill to the arena floor. Unfortunately the bump is completely missed because this hopeless cameraman is stood in the one place in the entire building where you can’t see it! It looks like he might have ‘hurt’ his knee on the fall and that’s where Frantz and Massaro now concentrate their attacks. Dragon screw leg whip, STF, and Thompson is in to break the submission. LeGrande with an enziguiri and he’s able to make the tag to his partner. Great overhead belly to belly on Frantz and a stunner on big Vinny. Add a tornado DDT to the floor to the list of things missed by the cameraman! Thompson sits Frantz on the middle for a superplex, however he pushes him backwards as he’s climbing and then nails him with a missile dropkick. Running flip dive over the turnbuckles (barely caught by the camera) and Frantz looks like he landed hard on the wooden gym floor. Top rope frankensteiner for two. Massaro with an ‘Emerald Frosien’ on LeGrande and Thompson has to drop an elbow on him to put a stop to the count. Double armed DDT on Vinny and now Frantz is the one breaking up a pin. Great looking Samoan drop from Thompson as the two counts continue. LeGrande with a suicide dive to the floor and a 3-D on Massaro. Combination Swanton Bomb/Frog splash from opposite turnbuckles, but Jardi saves his partner just in time. Double team blockbuster/powerbomb on Frantz and this time Thompson cuts off Massaro to prevent the save and the West Side Playaz get the three.

 

Not a good day for me and APW, although it was clearly down to the camerawork here, which missed plenty of the action and also made it difficult to follow what was going on. I watched this after the Modest/Morgan match and although bad there, it was substantially worse here. I liked the way they tried to escalate the match building to all the big moves at the end, but there was no connection with me. Others mentioned how in the Modest/Morgan match they struggled to determine who was the face and who was the heel, something that I felt was more of an issue here. I’m guessing by their entrances the Playaz were the faces, but at times it seemed like both teams chopped and changed. Like the WSP’s match in January, some nice double team offense from them although I thought Robert Thompson was the standout of the four, with LeGrande and Frantz both showing potential.

[Edwin]

APW was a blast back in the day. I'm still waiting for those long matches from that one garage with the likes of Super Dragon, TARO, Bobby Quance, B-Boy, etc.

 

Camera work hurts this. He's way to close to the ring and it's hard to tell what's going on a lot of the time.

 

I dug Jardi and Vinnie going after Boyce's knee after he was tossed to the outside. His selling of it could have been a bit better, maybe not to the extent of Rick Michaels' vs. RnR, but still.

 

I thought that 3-D was pretty awesome as Boyce just popped up from out of nowhere and they nailed it.

 

Anyway, I didn't like this as much as you all did. I thought it was OK, but it didn't blow me away or anything.

[TravJ1979]

One of the better Indy matches thus far, but in the early 2000 Indy scene, that’s not saying much