[2001-02-03-XPW-Payback's A Bitch] Sabu & Homeless Jimmy vs The Messiah & Vic Grimes

[GSR]

Rob Black is giving a pep talk to his ‘Black Army’ in the dressing room, Kevin Kleinrock with them wearing a referee’s shirt, and he’s wanting someone taken out.

Vic Grimes is introduced first and as Kleinrock walks out alongside him it’s clarified that Black has assigned him as the special referee for this match.  Rather than just ushering the original ref out of there, Grimes boots him in the gut, gives him his cool over the shoulder backbreaker and then comes off the top with a frog splash onto him.  Larry Rivera calls Sabu’s manager’s Abdullah Lacey Farouk which is pretty funny.  This is a handicap match which begs the question who gets the XPW title belt if they beat Sabu?  The guy who pins him?  Does Rob Black decide?  It sounds like Sabu had the chance to get a tag team partner but couldn’t find one.  There’s a light chant for the Sandman from the fans.  Rivera talks about how Jack Brisco and Rick Martel never had to put their titles on the line in a two-on-one situation.  Messiah looks like he’s starting, but doesn’t even lock up with Sabu before tagging out to Grimes.  Sabu avoids an Avalanche splash and comes off the middle with a springboard tornado DDT which he hits perfectly.  Kleinrock puts Grimes’ leg over the bottom rope, so when Sabu makes the cover he points that out, indicating he can’t count.  This is going to be a long night...  Messiah is again in no hurry to lock up with Sabu, stalling, then once more tagging his partner to let him do the work.  A clubbing clothesline from Grimes and now we get Kleinrock attempting to fast count the pin.  Twisting legdrop, all that weight coming down on Sabu.  Homeless Jimmy shows up, coming through the crowd wheeling his shopping trolley, he’s supposedly been fired but is aligning himself with Sabu and Lacey.  Sabu avoids the Grimes tumbleweed and tags out to Jimmy.  As he takes it to the Messiah, Rivera is demanding that XPW security get out here and escort him from the arena.  With Messiah now controlling things, Sabu sticks his arm out for a tag which Kleinrock kicks away.  Lionsault by Messiah.  Nice double team, Grimes pancaking his partner onto Jimmy.  A nut shot stops Grimes in his tracks and Jimmy is out to his cart full of weapons.  A super slow count by Kleinrock following a splash, although according to Rivera it was “regulation”.  Grimes blasts Jimmy over the head with a mailbox as Messiah then uses a cookie sheet.  Stiff looking dropkick.  Burning Hammer by Messiah, they’re too close to the opposite corner though and Sabu slaps him on the head to break up the cover.  Double running crossbody and both men go down.  After a pair of low blows Jimmy makes the tag.  Lacey throws him a chair, Arabian Facebuster, however Kleinrock is nowhere to be seen.  Jimmy is quickly back in the ring, bulldogging Grimes into the shopping cart.  He tries something else but ends up getting dumped face first into it.  Brutal powerbomb on the cart.  Sabu with a top rope Frankensteiner on Messiah.  Grimes throws Jimmy to the floor and comes off the apron with a flying clothesline.  Kleinrock continues to be absent on the faces pin attempts.  Triple jump moonsault.  Jimmy and Grimes are now going at it in the crowd, Grimes picking him up in a Razor’s Edge position and running him into the wooden bleachers.  Running plancha over the top rope by Messiah out onto Sabu.  Grimes is about to powerbomb Jimmy from the bleachers, however he manages to reverse things and suplexes Grimes from them through a table on the floor.  Another nuts bump in this match.  A table gets bridges between the ring and guardrail, but the size of Grimes means it snaps under his weight when he’s laid on it.  Sabu throws him into the front row then and hits a triple jump plancha.  Jimmy wraps a chain around his fist, he’s about to use it on the already bloody Messiah when Kleinrock prevents him.  Sabu is throwing chairs at Grimes, one rebounding off his head and hitting some fans.  Messiah suplexes Jimmy onto a chair while Grimes and Sabu continue to slug it out in the crowd.  A second table gets bridged between the apron and the railing.  Plancha by Jimmy from the top turnbuckle to the floor.  Sabu gets laid on the table, which you can see is about to give way at any moment, so Lacey is helping to prop it up.  He avoids the Grimes senton from the top, the big man crashing and burning through that table.  Single leg crab on Messiah, however Kleinrock is paying no attention so even if there was a submission he wouldn’t hear it.  Actually, how he’s called this even if there was a submission I don’t think he’d be waving the match off.  Grimes saves his partner with a chair which he then sits Sabu on.  He stumbles heading upstairs and is caught with a top rope rana, landing on top of the chair.  Kleinrock starts counting the cover, but then stops at two to go and have a word with Rob Black.  Sabu nails Black with a chair followed by a hard shot to Grimes as he then sets up a third (I’m losing track) table, in the ring.  Arabian facebuster off the top puts Grimes through that.  In the space of three minutes the commentators have added an additional ten to the length of the match.  Jimmy suplexes Messiah on the concrete.  A third Arabian facebuster by Sabu, again Kleinrock stops his count at two, this time though Lacey slams the hand down for the three.  Things get heated in the Black Army post-match resulting in the leader having to try and calm things down.  New Jack shows up carrying a trash can and Messiah doesn’t bother to stick around.  He blasts Grimes with various weapons, even using a sickle as Rivera wants someone to call the police, saying that this is “legal battery” in his broken English.   

Where to begin?  A heavily ECW influenced main event that wouldn’t have looked out of place at all in that promotion.  There was some bonkers stuff in there, but the match was all over the place and there was minimal in the way of selling from anyone.  I thought they were going home around the 18 minute mark but they were only about half way through at that point.  My usual thoughts and comments apply when it comes to the heel referee, although I did like the finish here.  Jimmy appears to be someone who can just take ridiculous levels of punishment (powerbomb on the shopping cart) and Grimes took some crazy bumps.  I did find Larry Rivera funny with his lines and the sucking up to the Black Army.