[2000-11-08-UPW] Samoa Joe vs Cincinnati Red vs Vic Grimes (Hardcore)

[GSR]

The match is joined in progress and not the best of starts as we miss seeing Red’s move off the top, the camera choosing to concentrate on Grimes instead.  It’s not long before the weapons are introduced, Grimes collecting a bunch of stuff from under the ring that he throws inside.  “We want tables” chant from the fans.  I reckon they may be in luck tonight.  Joe ducks a double clothesline and comes back with one of his own.  He dents a trash can over Grimes’ head who calls him on wanting another.  Some sort of axe kick/enzuigiri, although whatever it was it wasn’t hit clean.  Joe places the trash can onto the prone Grimes and suplexes Red onto it.  Huge running splash in the corner to Red.  Grimes is back to his feet and as Joe has climbed the turnbuckles for the ‘ten punch’ spot, gets underneath him and gives him a running powerbomb.  Flying elbow off the top by Red, but as he makes the cover Grimes punts him in the face.  Up to that point the two had been working together.  He throws Red to the outside and comes off the apron with a flying clothesline.  Cactus Jack style elbow drop off the stage to the concrete.  If he needs a new hip later in life he’s going to regret that spot.  Corkscrew plancha by Joe onto both!  Back in the ring Grimes clobbers Joe over the back with a chair which he then sits him in.  He misses the top rope cannonball though, Joe moving out the way as he ends up flattening that chair.  Red with an exploder to Joe.  Shooting star to the cement floor by Red!  Not the most aesthetically pleasing of shooting stars, but considering his size bravo for even attempting that.  They fight their way up the stairs towards the back of the building, Grimes bringing a table which he lays Red on.  As he comes off a ledge with a splash, from another ledge comes Joe (barely caught by the camera) as tandem splashes put Red through it.  Grimes DDT’s Joe onto the concrete before collecting a second table which he sets up at ringside.  After been laid on it, Joe avoids the somersault as Grimes crashes through it from the top turnbuckle.  Release German suplex onto an upright chair by Joe.  Grimes is holding his neck after that which could easily have been a neckbreaker.  Red has returned but Joe puts him away with the ‘Samoan Driver’ for the win.

The effort, and what the three of them were prepared to put their bodies through, was insane.  It’s one thing Vic Grimes having New Jack have him throw him off a scaffold on a PPV, it’s another to do running elbow drops onto concrete, somersaults from the top turnbuckle to the floor through tables and take German suplexes onto upright chairs in front of 150 plus people max.  I’ve never seen Cincinnati Red before and have no other information on him, while something completely different from Samoa Joe compared to the match he had with William Regal last month.  A little rough in a couple of places, but this is night and day from the Hardcore matches that I’ve watched in IWA-PR recently.