[2003-08-03-FWA-Northern Exposure Tour - Night 2] Alex Shane and Stevie Knight vs The Family

[TonyPulis'Cap]

Alex Shane and friends vs. The Family in 2003 was essentially the FWA version of Dreamer vs Raven, with various different combinations of hardcore matches involving lots of different characters. Shane and Knight – not regular partners and teaming for the first time – had won the tag titles on the first night of the tour, with Stevie being a local replacement as both Nikita and Ulf Herman (Shane’s regular partners) were unavailable. As had happened on the first tour, the title change was in part to draw interest in new markets but also breathe some life into the longer running feud I’ve mentioned.

It’s never officially announced, but as with most of the matches in this feud, it’s NO DQ, and just like in most of the matches, Shane uses his size early on to dominate. The Family can’t get anything going until they get Knight in there, and then their superior tag experience as a team starts to show. Whenever Shane is in, he dominates, so The Family try hard to keep Knight in as long as they can, which was a nice story to the first half of the match where they largely stick to the tag formula. The second half then breaks down to become more of your standard ‘walk and brawl’ early 2000s hardcore match. Knight and Raj Ghosh just disappear for a bit, but to be honest that works fine as the sequences between Shane and Paul Travell have much better energy and excitement to them. As is the norm in these matches, Travell bleeds and takes some nasty bumps, but he also gets an impressive hurucunrana on Shane off the camera platform.

The intensity of the match is let down by the ref bump finish, before Knight ‘plays dead’ to get a rollup and retain. This is a match of two halves that felt bolted together, and Knight’s more comedy persona and style didn’t really fit with the blood feud that Shane and allies had been having with The Family. The tactic of trying to pop a local market with a title change but returning the belts to where they belong for the more ‘canon shows’ would be in full effect -The Family would win the titles back on the last day of the tour. (** ¼)