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[2001-02-03-JAPW-The New Beginning] Nick Berk vs Reckless Youth vs Ric Blade


GSR

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Reckless cuts a brief promo on ECW and the ECW Arena (where this event is being held) to establish himself as the heel. Blade is accompanied by Rick Silver and Berk, the Jersey All Pro Light Heavyweight champion, is seconded by a valet called Poison; both seem pretty generic on first look. The expected ‘triple stand off/show of respect’ to end the opening portion. Berk pulls out what can be best described as a side frankensteiner on Blade, although I absolutely loathe the repeated ‘leg trip/cover/roll off’ spot they do which just looks shit. Blade and Reckless drop Berk with a double clothesline and Reckless then gives the orders, telling him to “kick him”. RF is right on top of things filming this and you blatantly see Blade clapping his hands to make the sound of his foot connecting (which it doesn’t) with Berk’s face. Reckless with a dropkick to Blade, however after being on the receiving end of a boot to the gut and a spinning neckbreaker he takes to the outside. An inverted suplex by Berk before Reckless DDT’s Blade on the ring apron. He likes that one, shouting “Who’s the man?” not Reckless as he gets nailed with a baseball slide dropkick. Silver comes off the top turnbuckle to the floor with a plancha that hits Blade, although you can’t tell if it was accidental or whether he deliberately aimed for him. Berk with an Asai moonsault and Blade and Silver don’t do much of a job of catching him as he cracks his shins on the guard rail. Flip dive through the ropes by Reckless and Blade finishes things off with a slingshot senton (like he was going to be selling for long!). It looks like Reckless caught the back of his head on that same guard rail as he’s now holding it. Handspring kick to the jaw of Berk, but he then reverses the Irish whip and plants Blade to the mat with a facebuster. Springboard moonsault body block by Reckless. ‘Dragon sleeper’ and when he realises that isn’t going to get the submission, drops into a reverse DDT. He turns his attention to Blade, sitting him on the top turnbuckle after a running double knee to the chest. Berk catches Reckless with a heel kick and then looks to continue what he’d started with Blade. He positions himself for a superplex but they’re taking too long and are joined up there by Reckless. Youth with a sunset flip to Berk who at the same time superplexes Blade. The pace picks up and we get some nice stuff such as fireman’s carry take down into a cradle by Reckless, a wheelbarrow suplex from Berk and a high impact belly to back suplex where Reckless dumps Berk on his head. Top rope ‘Ace Crusher’ to Blade and the champion breaks up the pinfall just in time, saving his title. Berk sits Reckless on his shoulders and Blade comes off the top with a missile dropkick to him. Those two have got no idea whatsoever when it comes to selling. 450 splash and just as you’re thinking “Ric Blade hasn’t blown anything tonight”, it appears he knocks himself out on landing! I kid you not; he’s his own worst enemy. Reckless realises when he tries to pull Blade up and he’s just dead weight, so he stalls for a bit and shouts to the crowd “I think he’s dead”. Tornado DDT to Berk followed by a moonsault for a near fall. Blade is laid out in the corner and still hasn’t moved. ‘Sky High’ by Berk and he hops out the ring to collect a table. It turns out the table leg is broken so he opts for a couple of chairs instead. He has Reckless set for a ‘Death Valley Driver’, when Youth escapes and gives Berk a brainbuster onto those upright chairs. Blade has somehow got to his feet and Reckless sits him on the top turnbuckle, however he gives him a shove backwards and Reckless crashes to the mat. Corkscrew moonsault (which is all kinds of crazy considering the state he’s in) and that puts Reckless away as we have ourselves a new JAPW Light Heavyweight champion. Now the bout is over the referee immediately calls for some medical help for him. Reckless helps Blade to his feet and I’d be amazed if he isn’t concussed seeing how dazed and groggy he still is.

 

I’ve a horrible feeling that I’m really going to struggle with a lot of these three way matches. My issue is when things look like they’ve been rehearsed, practised in the back, looks co-operative, inorganic, which was this match right from the get go. I imagine this is just the beginning too for those ‘cutesy’ sunset flip/superplex spots as we’ll see slowly see that evolve and more people added and it’ll become even ‘cutesier’. Reckless didn’t do a bad job of holding this together and there are some nuggets in there, though this has reaffirmed what I thought after the JCW three-way on 1/6, that this style just isn’t for me. I don’t know whether Blade should be applauded or scolded for finishing the match (and finishing it with a corkscrew moonsault of all things!) after KO’ing himself. An audible of Berk retaining the belt by pinning Reckless should’ve been the way to go, but they’d booked the title change and they were going to have it no matter what.

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  • GSR changed the title to [2001-02-03-JAPW-The New Beginning] Nick Berk vs Reckless Youth vs Ric Blade
  • 9 months later...

Some good spots but a whole lot of contrived stuff make this an uneven 3 way and a chore to sit through all the way. Blade knocking himself silly and then hitting the most breathtaking spot of the match 2 minutes later for the finish was appropriate given his inconsistency as a performer throughout 2000 and 2001. *1/2 

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