[2001-02-17-CZW-Break on Thru] Lobo vs Nick Gage

[GSR]

Nick Gage was scheduled to be on tour for Big Japan, but he allegedly cancelled that because he wants a piece of Lobo and a piece of the Iron Man title.  These two aren’t bothering to hang around as a back elbow and a clothesline sends Gage retreating to the outside.  Lobo with a tope that doesn’t quite go to plan, as Gage launches a chair flush into his face and he just collapses to the concrete (it should be pointed out that Gage was standing too far back in the first place and he would’ve never reached him with that dive anyway).  The fight continues amongst the fans as Gage nails Lobo with more chair shots before whipping him into the RF concession stand table, wiping out all of their merch.  Somewhere in all of that Lobo got busted open.  The champ measures Gage with a chair shot of his own and then hurls him into the metal fence.  Irish whip on the floor is reversed and Lobo sails into another row of chairs as they do their best to make a mess of the venue.  Gage climbs to the top turnbuckle, teasing a plancha, but jumps back to the mat flipping the fans the bird who respond just as he would’ve hoped.  Brainbuster, however Gage takes too long arranging and positioning some chairs in the ring and by the time he’s finished and climbed to the top rope again, Lobo has recovered, snatches him and puts him through the chairs with a rolling ‘Death Valley Driver’.  Gage ducks the clothesline and a belly to back suplex dumps Lobo on his head.  The frog splash is missed as Lobo then collects a table from under the ring and sets it up inside.  Gargiulo mentions that when Lobo gets a table, he’s the one that usually ends up going through it.  Not quite, but not far off as Gage counters the ‘suicideplex’ and SUPLEXES LOBO FROM THE TOP ROPE TO THE OUTSIDE, only barely hitting the table that was there to try and cushion some of that fall.  Both somehow make it back into the ring where Lobo lands a double armed DDT.  The Briscoe brothers are out to help their fellow Dewey Donovan brethren but Lobo gets the better of them, pressing Mark overhead and throwing him at Jay.  Roaring elbow by Gage and now here’s Nate Hatred as ‘the Dew’ is calling on all his troops.  Gage grabs hold of Lobo, however he moves and he accidentally clocks Gage with a piece of broken table instead.  Lobo makes the cover as the champ retains and we’re left wondering whether that was accidental by Hatred after all.

That suplex from the top rope to the floor that Lobo took was insane and the guy is nuts with no regard for his own body, but a spot like that (which did take a while for them to set up) should be used for the finish.  Gage did a nice sell job, getting to his feet and then collapsing again, although literally a minute or so after they’d done it Lobo is up and acting like he’s just about to start the match.  The finish was overdone as there was no need for the involvement of the Briscoe’s and they should’ve just used Nate Hatred on his own.  It does look like a storyline brewing between him and Gage mind.  I know they won’t, but they need to knock this trope of fighting among the fans and whipping a wrestler into a row of chairs to send them scattering, that’s already outplayed.  The wrecking of the RF merch got a legit laugh out of me.

[soup23]

Not a bad generic death match with only chairs being used. This show was going to be full of stunt show spotfests and a gorefest main event so it made sense for them to go a little simple here. Still, that superplex to the floor on the table was a nuts bump and Lobo cant do anything else but take punishment well. Overall, I enjoyed this well enough. ***