[2000-04-15-XPW] Chris Candido vs Shane Douglas vs Sabu

[soup23]

Was Candido done with WCW already? Douglas asks for the mic to start things off but doesn't say anything. XPW announcing is truly atrocious. The action starting out Douglas and Candido is actually pretty damn good. Some annoying stuff like blatant low blows but overall some solid action and Tammy is outside in a role of strict cheerleader for Candido. Candido misses the diving headbutt and bounces off the mat onto his feet which is a great spot. Douglas gets headbutted in the nuts on a leap frog attempt in a clear planned spot. The crowd is too dumb to notice and chants you fucked up. Lacy comes out and this is the guy that is going to "save" XPW. With Lacy distracting everyone, Sabu comes out to a big pop and lays out everyone. Match now breaks down into garbage brawl with the three way but the pace is good at least. Shane gives Candido a piledriver and he bumps like crazy again. They seem to be teasing that Shane and Sabu are working together which makes little sense. Thankfully, Douglas double crosses that alliance. Douglas then however pushes Candido on top of Sabu to win. Yeah that didn't make any sense at all. Douglas tries to cut a promo afterwards about his reasons but it again results in him helping XPW. Way too much stuff about who is saving the company and why wrestlers actions are helping/hurting the company. Go out and win a match instead. The action here was good so this rating is probably the ceiling for XPW given the other nonsense. ***

[Loss]

The wrestling here was pretty good, as Chris Candido has pretty good chemistry with broken down Shane Douglas. Sabu comes in and the booking gets confusing and overly complicated, and I don't know what to say about a guy like that coming in and doing the honors the same night he debuts. The promo after is about as self deluded as possible, but I guess that's what great heels are made of. Douglas is off to Russoland to save the world.

[Migs]

"This is a traditional move - da chin lock."

 

I'm guessing Douglas and Candido were signed by WCW and fulfilling dates here, as the match is pretty lackluster. I mean, I've seen worse, the pacing seems completely off. Or maybe they just knew the first part of the match was going to be irrelevant. Sabu hits the ring, and Douglas just sort of leaves the match, for reasons unexplained. Sabu hits his spots, which keeps this at least somewhat entertaining. Douglas turns back and forth, I think. Whatever.

 

Douglas cuts an acceptable program that makes no sense if you know any backstory, as it's based on Candido and Sabu having never wrestled for a title, when of course Sabu and Candido wrestled for titles a bunch in ECW.

[Tim Evans]

Shane Douglas's 2000 is weird. He's gone from WCW, goes to XPW and then back to WCW. Candido looks massive here. The wrestling was typical from the two and then Sabu enters the match. Shane keeps avoiding Candido after spending minutes wrestling him for some reason. Sabu loses when he goes face first on the table which had to suck. Shane then cuts a promo where he's not yelling about Dick Flair which is nice.

[GSR]

Candido and Douglas square up to one another, they exchange words and Candido shoves him to the canvas. Some stinging knife edge chops followed by a couple of fists to the forehead. Douglas reverses a whip to the turnbuckles and a big back bodydrop. Elbow drop, but the early cover only brings him a one. Rear chinlock and Larry Rivera starts talking about how this is a traditional hold that you don’t see very often “too much flying around, too much violent crap”, before referencing his ‘cousin’ Victor Rivera and Dominic DeNucci winning the tag titles in the 70s! Nice scoop powerslam from Douglas and now he’s talking about Buzz Sawyer. Candido starts to fire back with more of those chops, and a low blow drops ‘The Franchise’. Douglas reverses a vertical suplex into one of his own, only to see Candido reverse that into a small package for two. Eye poke and ‘The Franchise’ gets some revenge for that low blow with a kick to the balls. ‘Pittsburgh Plunge’ is blocked and Candido with a DDT. He misses a diving headbutt off the top, they then have a ‘miscommunication’ on a leapfrog spot with Douglas not ducking and headbutting Candido in the groin. The crowd can’t wait to chant ‘you fucked up!’ at them, but I actually think this was planned and went exactly as it was meant to. Some chap called Josh Lacey is out and up on the apron with the commentators saying how this is the guy who’s going to save XPW, when from the back and into the ring sprints Sabu. Candido and Douglas bump and feed for him, they then decide to work together but Sabu ducks a double clothesline and takes them both out with a Lionsault. He grabs a table from the outside and puts Candido through it with a legdrop off the top, while it looks like ‘The Franchise’ is now happy to watch on from the arena floor. Douglas sneaks back in, clocks Sabu with a chain that he’d wrapped around his fist and drags Candido over to cover him. That’s not enough to get the job done though as Sabu is just about able to get a shoulder up. A foot up stops Candido in his tracks, Sabu with a DDT before going to collect himself another table. He lies Candido on it, climbs the turnbuckles, but changes trajectory and takes out Douglas with a plancha to the floor. Sabu crashes into the guardrails after and Irish whip is reversed then ‘The Franchise’ with a great looking piledriver on Candido. He doesn’t make the cover himself and tells Sabu “he’s all yours”. I’m confused! Sabu heads up top, but Douglas grabs his ankle and he loses his balance falling face first into the table. Now I’m really confused! Douglas pushes a groggy Candido onto Sabu, the referee counts the three and he retains his XPW World title.

 

Post match dressing room interview from ‘The Franchise’ where he says he did XPW a huge favour because the company is now on track and they have the opportunity of a future because of him. He goes on to say that Chris Candido may have thought he helped him, but in fact he screwed him! Candido has never been in the ring with Sabu when there is gold on the line, but he has and when that gold is on the line he goes into a predatory mode where he’s going to beat, cripple and then take a piece of your ass with him!

 

A surprisingly fun bout for XPW and much better than Candido’s previous effort with Damian Steele. The two of them were having a good match in the first half of this with Candido laying his stuff in. Sabu’s arrival and the crowd’s reaction to him came across as a big deal, although the match quickly descended into a typical stunt show with the tables. The ending was confusing as hell with Douglas helping Candido one minute and then Sabu the next. I think by his post-match promo it was a way of trying to put Sabu over, but that’s clutching at straws on my part as it really made no sense. Doubt we’ll get many (if any) XPW matches than this.

[Moonsault Marvin]

Douglas and Candido were having a boring match that picked up when Sabu entered. Douglas quitting the match and deciding he wanted Candido to win seemed silly. Sabu's stunts were fun, but the match as a whole wasn't very good. Below average.

[Edwin]

I didn’t like this as much as the majority of you did. I was kinda bored with the first half between Candido and Douglas. The Sabu appearance was odd, but he got a massive pop and he continues to carry this odd mystique in the indys. He carried that mystique over to the other three way with Billy Reil and Low Ki in JAP. That last bump that Sabu took face through the table look brutal and was a pretty awesome finish to what I thought was an entirely forgettable match up.