Kris Zellner Rewatches the Indies

[KrisZ]

We start with CZW 2/10/01 "Crushing the Competition" from Sewell, New Jersey.

 

This starts with Dennis Shock who is basically a heel ring announcer going over the card and getting pissed at the fans especially Hat Guy then CZW Vice President Robbie Mireno gets heckled as well with "YOU SUCK DICK" chants being yelled out and he plays up to it of course. Mireno then says he has to go party with some lesbians and leaves.

 

Super Crazy vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri

 

Eric Gargiulo & John House play this up as their final encounter because Tajiri is heading to WWF. We get a handshake of respect before the match and Tajiri sprays the green mist before both men go to the floor and hug Hat Guy then raise his hand which is fucking hilarious and starts a "FUCK YOU HAT GUY" chant. The announcers are talking up Tajiri taking a big risk working this show because of his future in WWF and will it cost him a job. They start with matwork early before Crazy misses a plancha to the floor which prompts some brawling around the ring. The action goes back to the ring where both men trade quick nearfalls before Crazy goes for his triple moonsault which brings out Nick Mondo who attacks Crazy but Tajiri slaps him on the ass and kicks him in the head then Ric Blade shows up and the three men just kick the hell out of Mondo sending him scurrying. Blade then gets on the mic and cuts a promo on Crazy which leads to quick brawl between them. Total screwjob on the "final encounter" but a fun way to set up the future match later on the show.

 

3 Way Dance: Jeff Rocker vs. "Mr. Old School" Jon Dahmer vs. Eddie Valentine

 

Dahmer has Pastor Jim & Natasha in his corner which is quite the 2001 looking indie manager/valet combo. Pastor Jim looks like a pimp that Nick Gage would've extorted back then and Natasha looked like a thicker version of Quack's old girlfriend Joanne. Jeff Rocker is quite the jacked up looking dude coming out to "Mother" by Danzig which is hilarious because he looks like Neidermayer from Animal House's lost son. Jeff Rocker stealing Lance Storm's roll into a Half Crab was something else. Oh man was there some bad work here and Valentine did a running dive to the floor on no one hitting his head right on the floor. After that we get more awkward moves with everyone botching moves before Dahmer hit a nice pump-handle Emerald Frosion but he couldn't capitalize on it. Barr Camm (looking like The Gimp from Pulp Fiction) then ran out and brawled with Dahmer as Rocker put out Valentine then got an O'Connor Roll on Dahmer and a Perfect Plex on Valentine to win the match. This was a total clusterfuck.

 

Rocker then grabs the mic and starts to cut a promo before Pastor Jim grabs the mic and demands that his set be brought to the ring which happens as the CZW crew brings out a carpet, chairs, and a table where we get The Pastor Jim Show with Jeff Rocker. Jeff starts talking shit as the MX theme stars playing which brings out Trent Acid & Z-Barr (who is still masked here) who tells Rocker to get the fuck out of his ring. Acid then tells Z-Barr to lose the mask because the time for being goofy is over which he does and a star is born. John House calling Johnny Kashmere a "queer" when Pastor Jim brings his name up is wild considering what would happen a few years later with Johnny. This turns into Acid talking about how he is going to be the top guy now that he has dropped Kashmere and he is aligned fully with Zandig. Acid then talks up his future match with Nick Berk while we get more gay slurs from John House. This was quite the segment.

 

Rockin' Rebel vs. Ruckus

 

Rebel who is one of the biggest pieces of shit in wrestling history has his Rebel Army bring him down to ringside waving the Confederate Flag and they bring some Kentucky Fried Chicken & Bisquick to the ring. Rebel cuts a promo before the match of course where he says that Dennis Shock was sucking off men in Delaware then calls him a fucking queer. Rebel then cuts a promo Hat Guy saying he has never had any pussy either which is hilarious. Rebel talks about how he deserves title shots and then he starts in with the racial slurs on Ruckus which was something else. Ruckus runs in the ring and goes off on Rebel hitting a running cartwheel moonsault to the floor which was impressive as Ruckus was quite big here. They brawl around the building for a bit with highlights being a running cartwheel moonsault from Ruckus on the floor on a laid out Rebel. Rebel just waylaid Ruckus with a chair shot to the head as Ruckus was on the top rope then followed that up with a dive of his own from the top rope to the floor which shocked everyone then followed that up with a clothesline from the apron to the floor. Rebel is working hard here considering how bad he was in the ring even breaking out a bulldog from the second rope for a nearfall. Rebel then gets into it with referee John Hartog before Ruckus makes a comeback before missing a twisting 450 splash off the top rope which allows Rebel to get the bucket of flour which he dumps on Ruckus' head following it up with a lariat. Rebel then gets the KFC chicken and calls Ruckus a "boy" demanding he get up which he did only to meet a fireball in his face. Rebel then got a piece of chicken took a bite out of it and spat it in Ruckus' face for good measure. This segment would definitely be popular in a lot of wrestling personalities households.

 

Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. The Spanish Announce Team (Joel Maximo & Red)

 

This is the beginning of a new generation in the Northeast indies as this is the first ever matchup between these young teams. When I bought this tape back then and watched this match I immediately could tell that these four men along with Jose Maximo would be tearing shit up for years to come. Eric Gargiulo says that the SAT came down for no pay just a chance to work the show. Dewey Donovan managed The Briscoes who were working as heels here which was hilarious and they looked like babies. We get a lot of jokes regarding the Briscoes name while these guys are working on a mat covered in flour. The biggest spot at the start was Jay dropkicking Red off the top rope to Joel who was on the floor with Red doing a nice tope con hilo on him. Then we get the wild dives as Mark hit a sweet no hands plancha then followed up by Red hitting a twisting moonsault followed up by Jay hitting a big tope con hilo and these guys are already having the best match on the show. Then we get the Shelton Benjamin/HBK Superkick spot with Mark playing Shelton and Joel playing HBK followed up by a stiff fucking lariat by Joel. The fans are giving these guys a standing ovation mid-match as they are busting their asses. Both teams then just tear it up even more although the Briscoes botch a Total Elimination before Jay hits Red with a Tiger Bomb followed up by a Mark moonsault off the top rope for the win. The Briscoes were pissed at Dewey for cheating as the fans again give these guys a standing ovation. Considering these guys experience level this was a helluva match and there was more greatness to come from these guys.

 

3 Way Ladder Match: Ric Blade vs. Super Crazy vs. "Sick" Nick Mondo

 

Mondo cuts a promo before the match talking shit on the fans and the other guys in the match. There is very little more enjoyable in this era of indie wrestling than Ric Blade's bowl haircut...it is hilarious. So much going on here so I'll highlight the best spots such as Mondo hitting a sunset flip on Crazy who had Blade in a German Suplex landing right on his head. Everyone hit some fun dives from the ring to the floor and this was Ric Blade at his best as he's doing all kinds of stuff that hurt his opponents and himself. Matches like this definitely helped Crazy spawn the DTU concept because this is that style to almost perfection. The ladder finally comes into play so Blade could take some wild bumps on top of it. Crazy does the powerbomb/superplex spot from the top of the ladder in 2001 which was impressive as shit back then and gets the fans to chant "CZW." Blade hitting the Psicosis bump on Crazy was fun then kicking him in the head numerous times leading to him laying Crazy on the ladder between two chairs so he could hit a running no hands Swanton Bomb from the ring was insane. Mondo hitting a springboard legdrop on a ladder which was on top of a steel chair on Blade's lifeless body was wild. Crazy would hit his 3 moonsaults on Mondo before Blade followed up with a huge corkscrew press for a nearfall. Mondo then takes a wild backdrop bump from the ring to the floor on the ladder on chairs then Blade & Crazy rolled him back into the ring and pinned him to share the victory which the fans didn't like the shared victory. Mondo gets on the mic and tells Blade that he didn't beat him by himself and demanded a barbed wire ladder match the next week in Delaware. This was a really good spotfest which was expected.

 

Trent Acid vs. Nick Berk

 

These guys were the former Softcore Connection before Acid turned and formed The Backseat Boyz so Berk comes running out taking the fight to Acid early and often. They brawl on the floor with Acid hitting a nice moonsault off the caged fence on a standing Berk. Nick would hit a nice sunset flip into a powerbomb on Acid on the floor which was a hard landing before springboarding off of a chair with a nice tope con hilo once Acid got up. Acid made a comeback hitting a big moonsault from the top rope to the floor although he didn't hit Berk clean. Berk fights back though hitting a reverse suplex on some chairs before sending Acid back to the ring where he steals a chair from Z-Barr only to meet a discus forearm by Acid. This leads to a bunch of chairs being brought into the ring which Acid would fall backward onto awkwardly as the crowd booed. Berk hits an awkward frog splash for a nearfall and the fans are getting restless before Acid finally puts Berk through the chairs for a nearfall. Acid though gets launched from the top rope to the floor as Berk threw him off the top rope and they start brawling again with the fans watching their chairs get squashed. The battle goes into the area behind the caged fence brawling into the bleachers where Berk sets up a table which backfired as Acid hit the Acid Bomb on him. Acid & Z-Barr then drag Berk back to the ring by his arms where Acid covered him for a nearfall which surprised the announcers. Acid wants more chairs because they busted all of the other ones but Berk hit the Berk Driver on the chairs to win the match but he didn't win in the 10 minutes that Acid demanded so the win doesn't count. Berk is pissed off afterwards wanting more time which he gets and Berk uses various cradles for nearfalls trying to put away Acid including ripping off the RVD/Jerry Lynn nearfall combos. Soon we get a ref bump and Z-Barr hits the X-Factor on Berk on a chair with Acid following up with a spinning tumbleweed legdrop on a chair to win. They really should've had Berk win the match clean as the crowd never got into the continuation of the match.

 

Royal Rumble Rules for the CZW Iron Man Title: Wifebeater © vs. Lord Everett Devore vs. Lobo vs. Mad Man Pondo vs. Nate Hatred

 

The ring crew brings out the barbed wire tables before the wrestlers come out and they point out the title is hanging from the rafters above the announce position. Nate Hatred comes out with a trashcan wrapped in barbed wire which is great. Lobo & Hatred start the match off and they trade moves before Wifebeater is the next one to come out and he immediately goes after Hatred who he is feuding with. Zandig's mystery guy comes out next and it's Lord Everett Devore who looks HILARIOUS and he has a white shirt on which means only one thing will happen to him. All three men then beat the hell out of Devore before Justice Pain shows up and says that he has a mystery man of his own and it's Mad Man Pondo who comes in swinging a stop sign which means we now will be getting some violence. Devore puts his wig back on his head wanting a handshake but takes a stop sign right to the head and Pondo puts the wig on which was funny. The blood is now flowing as Pondo staples Wifebeater's potato chips bag to his head and Devore's white shirt is covered in blood. This is just a wild brawl with weapons galore being used and everyone juicing taking wild bumps. Lobo & Wifebeater climb up to the get the belt but Beater sends Lobo flying off onto a flaming table which saw Lobo lay in a blazing fire for a good 20 seconds before they could pull him off because he was stuck in barbed wire. The match continued afterwards as Pondo & Hatred started pounding on Lobo until Nick Gage attacked everyone getting them off of Lobo. Gage helped Lobo up and Lobo celebrated because he kept the belt in his hands as he flew off through the flaming table. Devore then got on the mic and talked about how hardcore he is as blood flows down his face and he challenged Lobo for more. Gage then turned on Lobo clocking him with a steel chair and he picked up the belt taunting Lobo then cutting a promo saying fuck a lot. Lobo then got back up and they brawled for a while taking it to the back. Nick Gage has always been a treasure and this was wild for what it was.

 

Justice Pain vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri

 

Pain runs into the ring trying to catch Tajiri off guard but sprays the green mist right in his face. The battle goes to the floor where Pain gets sent right into the fence and Tajiri is throwing him around like crazy. Pain fights back but he ate a stiff Superkick from Tajiri who then tells John House to shut up which was great. Tajiri is just squashing Pain until he hits an awkward attempt of an Blockbuster for a nearfall. Pain keeps up the offense on Tajiri and has him stunned before eating another Superkick then a reverse DDT. Pain sends Tajiri back to the floor where he hits his own dive on Tajiri and now he is the one stalking Tajiri until he eats a trash can lid to the face. Pain comes back with a German Suplex hold for a nearfall back in the ring but Tajiri hits him with a big brainbuster before going to the floor where he grabs a table to bring back to the ring. Tajiri sets up the table and puts Pain on it but he rolls off which made Tajiri laugh so Tajiri puts him on it again and climbs up top which brings out Wifebeater who saves his partner and the H8 Club double up on Tajiri as they set him on the table so Pain could jump off on him but Mikey Whipwreck makes a surprising appearance and hits a huracarana from the top rope on Pain through the table. Tajiri & Mikey then double up on Wifebeater as the crowd pops big as they do their old laughing schtick. Pain then demands a tag match the next week between the teams but the match never happens. Zandig sends in a video promo from Japan saying that he paid Mikey to come in to beat the H8 Club's asses and he shows a video of Balls Mahoney saying that Balls is coming for Wifebeater next week which got the fans to pop. We got a 4-way brawl again before everyone went to the back although Justice Pain got flour poured on top of him which was funny. Mikey coming out saved the crowd as they were lukewarm during the match which was fine but the shit finish involving Wifebeater killed them.

 

Overall this was a very fun show with the Briscoes/SAT match being the ultimate highlight in the end. Blade vs. Mondo vs. Crazy was strong for what it was as well.

[Matt D]

I'd be way more interested in you watching 1991 indies than 2001 ones.

[KrisZ]

Oh no this is all 2001 and onward.

[Bierschwale]

Great stuff, Kris.

[Matt D]

No, I think we have enough distance from the early 00 indies that they probably deserve to be looked at again. It's just that I'm not sure ANYONE'S every done a real good look at the late 80s/early 90s "indy" footage that is out there, so that'd be untouched ground while this is just ground that hasn't been touched, often times, since it happened.

[Loss]

There are still blanks to be filled in, but myself and others have walked through quite a bit of that stuff.

[Matt D]

I've not seen whole reviews of Blackwell run shows or NWC. That's what I'm saying. You guys did deep dives for the 90s sets, I know, heroic ones, but you can find 15 year old complete CZW reviews and road reports more easily than the Goerge Scott promotion or whatever.

 

That said we look at wrestling way differently than we did 15 years ago so this is valuable. I'm just bring selfishly Parv-ish with Kris' limited time due to my own interests.

 

My feeling about this era of independent wrestling is that this was the first time that we were catered to as a community so heavily. It was maybe the first time that promotions tried to give us what we thought we wanted instead of trying to define for us but we wanted, with a lot of what might be considered "fan fiction" thrown in. It led to a lot of excess, like having steak and vegetables on a plate but having it also covered by a huge pile of sugar. I'll be curious if you prove that sense right or wrong here.

 

Really though a lot of what I want you guys are covering in Between the Sheets, but that's also putting things onto my radar more clearly and making me more interested. That's all.

[Hobbes]

This is going to be great but it's also making me feel old that the early 00s indies are now old enough to warrant nostalgia revisits.

[KrisZ]

Now we go to the vastly under appreciated Revolution Pro Wrestling from SoCal and their "It's Clubberin Time" show from 3/30/01 in Santa Fe Springs, California.This venue was once a church so the ring is actually against a fucking wall. There may be 30 people in the crowd as well.

 

Demento vs. El Gallinero

 

Demento coming out "They're Coming To Take Me Away" from Napoloen XIV is classic and Gallinero is Joey Ryan under a hood doing a crazy rooster gimmick. The pony tail on the referee is quite distracting as it reminds you of Danny Trejo when he has his hair in that way. The match is okay for an opener and it's funny watching Joey Ryan work a fake luchador gimmick. I did like the dueling top rope walk spot where Gallinero crotches himself as the fans clap mockingly. Demento wins with a nice backwards rana off the top rope in a fairly short match.

 

Next we get the fucking awesome Tokyo Gurentai (Ultra TARO Jr. & Excalibur) along with B-Boy for a promo with TARO rips up the sound guy for having feedback which is great. TARO claims that they are the real Twin Towers not Hakeem Olajuwon & Ralph Sampson or Akeem & Big Bossman which is great because TARO is short as shit and he said that he & Excalibur will be on the 2004 Japanese Olympic Basketball Team. Excalibur rips on Revolution Pro afterwards while he gets seriously heckled from the fans which is so hilarious. Excalibur would definitely get better on the mic and TARO was way better than he was at this stage.

 

Jason Allgood vs. "Italian Heartthrob" Romeo

 

Romeo looks like a homeless man's Paul Varelans while Allgood kills me trying to the get the fans behind him saying "YEAH COME ON." Allgood looks the ugly friend from Hardbodies if he had a son. Romeo whips up on Allgood to start as he has a heckling match with some fans. Allgood breaking out a Dragon Sleeper was interesting before missing a terrible diving legdrop off the top rope. This one girl starts singing "Who Wears Short Shorts" at Romeo which pops the crowd. Allgood on offense was definitely lacking although he had a nice hip toss and did have some good fire. Romeo had a nice corkscrew elbow ala Buddy Landell for a nearfall before climbing up top where he got slammed by Allgood. Jason followed that up with a diving elbow to win. The crowd made this match as they had some funny lines.

 

Handicap Match for the Mexican Lucha Libre Heavyweight Championship: "The Expert" Matt Sinister © vs. The Beautiful People (Jason Rayz & Joey Rage)

 

The Beautiful People definitely wasn't Angelina Love & Velvet Sky while Matt Sinister came out to "Judith" from A Perfect Circle which I loved. Sinister was billed as the "Most Hated Man in SoCal" looking like a fat blond haired Tom Marquez while The Beautiful People had the PERFECT 2001 indie babyface undercard look with the headband, shirt, baggy pants. TBP have Sinister on the ropes early using double team moves and quick tags and do a pretty good job working over his left arm but Sinister came back with lariat with his other arm then basically no sold the armwork afterwards. Sinister using Steve Austin's corner offense was funny and i was shocked none of the fans called him out on it. This was worked exactly like a tag match would other than Sinister had no partner as they were doing ref distraction spots so Sinister could either cheat or get pinned and he couldn't see it. Sinister would hit a superplex and this one loud dude chanted "NOW THAT'S A HIGHSPOT" which got some laughs. Sinister would miss a moonsault off the top rope and TBP would make a comeback and they take turns getting nearfalls on Sinister who wouldn't stay down. Sinister though would powerbomb Jason and made Joey tap out to the Crippler Crossface to retain his title. This was easily the best match on the show so far but that is damning praise.

 

The Twin Towers (Excalibur & Ultra TARO Jr.) vs. Los Ocho Rojos (Mr. Excitement & Rising Son)

 

NOW we are talking.....I always wanted a fucking Tokyo Gurentai shirt as I loved the gimmick to death and you can't beat Excitement & Son coming out to Powerman 5000's "When Worlds Collide" and the crowd pop when Excitement tore away his pants as was great. Everyone in this match was criminally underrated at this time and I am loving going back to rewatch this stuff so I can keep their memories alive a little. Son & TARO's feud working their Asian gimmicks was always fun and they didn't disappoint here. We had a good mixture of matwork and high spots to start and I really dug Son's ankle work on Excalibur especially the Muta Lock. TARO selling the double chop in the corner when Excitement came in was fun although Excitement's Lance Storm tribute Half Crab floatover was awkward. The Twin Towers would then take over with Excalibur using a Pedigree on TARO on Son was a cool spot. TARO then hit a sweet tope con hilo from the top rope to the floor with Excalibur following with a tope suicida but hit all floor. Son followed that with a nice Asai Moonsault on the Towers while Excitement gyrated his hips to the crowd. Son was kicking ass now with a nice 619 then a headscissors takedown from the apron to the floor on Excalibur before eating a powerbomb from a springboard by TARO. Excalibur & Excitement would both get hot tags with Excitement hitting a slow jumping DDT then would catch Excalibur in a Capture Suplex. Son would come back in with a nice frog splash, reverse huracarana, Fisherman's Buster, and a Swanton Bomb but he still couldn't put away Excalibur. Excalibur would come back with some hard ass lariats on Son before hitting his version of the J-Driller for the win. Damn fun match here as these teams worked very well together and I love me some Gurentai.

 

Super Dragon vs. B-Boy

 

B-Boy with hair is such a funny sight and he comes out with Excalibur & TARO watching his back while DMX plays. Our hero Super Dragon comes out with Mr. Excitement watching his back but Excitement would grab the house mic so he could announce the participants in Japanese which was AWESOME...this was really great. The crowd is kinda split but it's swayed more towards Super D which was expected. There was a feeling out process to start but once B-Boy punched Dragon in the ribs as he tried a tope suicida then the mood changed and Super D got pissed so he clocked him with a steel chair. They would go back to the ring where we got some cradles from both men followed up by some fun legwork from both. Super D just torched B-Boy with some chops to the chest but B-Boy fought back by working over Super D's left knee which was really well done. Super D fought back and tried to do a cartwheel dive but sold the knee perfectly allowing B-Boy to go right back to work on the knee with a figure-four leglock. B-Boy continues his onslaught as the crowd tries to get Super D pumped up which he did hitting a sweet backdrop suplex sending B-Boy to the floor. Dragon is still selling hard but he springboards off of B-Boy's chest to hit a moonsault on Excalibur & TARO on the floor which was followed by B-Boy jumping off the top rope with a jumping DDT on Dragon from the apron to the floor. B-Boy would hit a Goriconoclasm on Super D from the apron to the floor then followed with a chairshot of his own before taking it back to the ring where he went back to work on Super D's left knee with a figure-four trying to put him away. Super D tried to go for a Michinoku Driver but B-Boy countered into an ankle lock which was sweet and Super D really looked like he was in deep trouble before hitting a desperation lariat although he couldn't capitalize because of his knee. Super D tried a Lionsault but totally missed and B-Boy was going for the kill until he missed a diving legdrop off the top rope allowing Super D to hit a springboard spinning legkick which started his comeback and now he works over B-Boy with a jujigatame followed by a Dragon Sleeper followed by a wakigatame. Both men at this stage are feeling the effects of the hard hitting action but Super D would break out the rolling German Suplexes until B-Boy nuked him with an Ode to Kobashi half-nelson suplex for a nearfall. B-Boy would keep up the pressure even hitting an Iconoclasm from the middle rope for a nearfall. Super D would come back hitting a reverse Draogn Twister before locking on a jujigatame to win which brought in Gurentai for a brawl but Excitement & Rising Son would make the save. This was a god damn great fucking match and a total showcase for both men who barely anyone East of say Arizona were even talking about.

[Woof]

"Allgood looks the ugly friend from Hardbodies if he had a son"

 

I'm debating whether to be proud or ashamed for getting this reference.

[KrisZ]

Next we go to Frontier Wrestling Alliance from the United Kingdom and their "When Thunder Strikes" show from 4/21/01 from the Horwich Leisure Centre in Bolton, England.

This starts with a fun Alex Shane promo and he was so underrated as a stick man. Then we get promos from "Solid Gold" Scott Parker and New Breed (Ashe & Curve).

"Righteous" Paul Travell vs. "The Specialist" Mark Sloan

Both guys wrestle in t-shirts which is typical for this time period in the indies. Not a whole lot going on to start the match until Sloan starts working over Travell's left leg but Travell fights back with a damn good spinebuster that would make Arn Anderson proud. Travell would come back with a nice Perfect Plex as well before being punted in the balls by Sloan. Travell's selling of a Sloan side backbreaker was great as he contorted his body like Charlotte in the figure-8. Sloan would start taking it to Travell until Paul countered with a missile dropkick off the top rope. Paul went on offense hitting what was supposed to be a Falcon Arrow but botched which was followed up by a big diving body press for a nearfall as Sloan got his right foot on the bottom rope. Both men would try to put the other away and then started doing flips for the sake of flips which made no sense at this point of the match and this became a clusterfuck as both men looked like they didn't know what to do. Travell would hit a couple of overhead suplexes to win a match that had some good moments but fell apart at the end. The fans were into the action though.

FWA British Tag Titles: New Breed (Ashe & Curve) © vs. The Cuban Connection (Alex & Jorge Castano)

Yes we have some fake Cubans working in the United Kingdom which was funny and the fans hate their guts especially when the fake Cubans cut a promo before the match trolling them hard. The fake Cubans jump the champs at the bell but that doesn't work out well for them as they are run to the floor not long thereafter. Man is there some bad looking offense in this match especially from the fake Cubans. New Breed teamed good together and they did some nice things and the Castano's did have some nice dives to the floor but this match had zero psychology and was just moves for the sake of moves basicallly. The match would end by DQ when ring announcer Mo Chatra would enter the ring and helped the Castano's beat down the New Breed.....hilarious.....Mo Chatra then went off on the fans afterwards until the New Breed attacked the heels hitting stereo Van Terminator's on the Castano's as the crowd chanted HOLY SHIT.

Then we get a long promo segment with a whole bunch of motherfuckers coming out and this was like WWE.....thankfully Alex Shane came out with like 20 people in his entourage to save the day as he attacked a planted fan from the crowd which was hilarious. Shane was great on the mic here going off on everybody. Scott Parker then showed up to go off on Shane and this is exactly like a RAW opening segment.

"TomKat" Kevin O'Neil vs. James Tighe

Tighe is doing a Lance Storm tribute gimmick meanwhile O'Neil is another guy wearing a t-shirt. Man does O'Neil throw some bad punches and this is against a Lance Storm clone no less. O'Neil chases Tighe's manager around the ring before getting clotheslined by Tighe. O'Neil would get dropped with a draping DDT off the top rope by Tighe who followed with a belly-to-belly suplex but couldn't capitalize after a missed diving elbow. O'Neil fought back with his shitty punches then followed that up with the WORST version of a Casita (La Magistral) I ever saw. O'Neil couldn't even slam Tighe properly before going for a dive that Tighe would counter with a superplex. Tighe would go for a frog splash that missed and O'Neil used a crappy Michinoku Driver to win. This....was....not...good.

FWA European Title: Scottie Rock © vs. Jack Xavier

Xavier is another guy wearing a shirt but at least this shirt is black. Rock starts off strong taking the battle to Xavier with some nice punches then backdrops him over the top to the floor where he follows up with a tope con hilo which popped the crowd although he is the heel here. Rock's valet would trip up Xavier at ringside so he chased after her then he got Rock and put him balls first into the ringpost. Rock though came back and nearly broke Xavier's neck on a huracarana off the top rope again Rock is supposed to be the heel here but he is hitting all high spots and popping the crowd. Rock would hit various high impact moves like a tornado DDT but would go for another one which Xavier countered into you guessed it...an ICONOCLASM but for a nearfall. Rock would slingshot Xavier into the referee and then nailed xavier with his title belt before hitting a big Alabama Jam off the top rope to win. This was easily the best match on the show so far but had some backward ass psychology as the heel was way more flashier and the face looked like a goof.

Doug Williams comes out next for a promo about his match with Nova later in the show where he talked shit on Nova before Nova ran out and chased Doug out of the ring. Nova talks about how great it is to work in England for the first time which is followed by "bWo" chants which was something else. Nova then tells Doug that he was going to kick his "bloody ass" which popped the crowd.

Next is some random ass Death Metal music video which is so unintentionally hilarious.....my lord 2001 was something else as there were so many bands like this out at that time.

Chris Curtis comes out next for a promo wearing an Oakland Raiders shirt and says that he is going to kick Stuart Fury's ass later in a TLC match. Curtis then threatens to powerbomb the ring announcer before Fury runs out and nails Curtis from behind with a steel chair. Curtis would then do the same and then DDTed Fury on the chair before stomping him down and leaving.

"The Showstealer" Alex Shane vs. "Solid Gold" Scott Parker

Alex comes out with his bodyguards and his bitches as he called them and threatens to beat up more fans before getting into the ring. Shane wearing a black wifebeater gets on the mic before the match and again cuts a promo on the fans while stealing the New Age Outlaws & Triple H's opening schtick from 1999 saying "Let's Get Ready To Steal The Show." Shane bumps and sells for Parker early on before dropping to the floor where he eats a really sweet no hands running plancha by Parker to the floor. Parker keeps taking it to Shane before one of the "bitches" crotches him on the top rope which Shane follows with a spinning wheel kick sending him to the floor. They would brawl into the crowd for a bit where they climbed up the bleachers seeing Parker bash Shane's fingers with a steel chair sending him flying off to the floor with Parker following up with a diving cross body block off the top bleacher with the fans chanting "HOLY SHIT." They would battle back to the ring where Parker would climb up top again only to meet the steel railing after Shane threw him off. Shane then brings Parker's female valet in the ring and drops her with the Baldo Bomb after she slapped him. Parker pulled her out and then both men grabbed steel chairs where they jousted each other for a bit before Parker would go back up top where he would miss a moonsault allowing Shane to completely fuck up a spinning DDT for a nearfall. Parker then would slingshot Shane into the referee for yet another ref bump. Parker then hit a Falcon Arrow on Shane as music played seeing The Dominator come out with a trash can lid that he used to KO Parker followed up by Guy Thunder running out to attack Dominator. As this is going on, Shane drops Parker with a TKO to win the match. This was really fun at the start but it got way overbooked at the end and that botched DDT was terrible.

Tables, Ladders, & Chairs Match: Stuart Fury vs. Chris Curtis

Fury is skinny fucker who doesn't look like your weapons match kind of guy...he looks like a emaciated relative of Ric Blade's while wearing a FUBU jersey tucked into his baggy jeans. Curtis looks like a lost member of Los Gringos Locos circa 1993 with the tights and the long blonde mullet. Regarding the match it was pretty much your TLC by the numbers match and the crowd really wasn't reacting much to anything which surprised me because they cheered when the stip was announced. The ladder was only used once and that was when Fury hit a dive off the second rung of the ladder to win. This was just kind of a blah match to me.

EWW Heavyweight Title: The Dominator © vs. Guy Thunder

Dominator is part of this goth looking crew then he takes off his black leather jacket to reveal a shiny silver singlet....hilarious. Dominator of course dominates the early part of this match before he sent Thunder to the floor who grabbed a trash can and beat up Dominator's goons before going back to the ring where he fired up on Dominator before going for a sunset flip only to get a glass bottle broke over his head. Dominator then broke out a fucking dagger and started jabbing it in Thunder's head causing him to juice. Dominator's goons came in the ring and hit Total Elimination on Thunder who fired back with the Big E. spear through the ropes until Alex Shane ran out and attacked Dominator allowing Thunder to powerbomb Dominator then hit a frog splash to win the title. Dominator's goons attacked Thunder afterwards but he got the trash can and chased them off. This was yet another clusterfuck of a match.

Nova vs. "The Anarchist" Doug Williams

The fans are definitely into Nova and Doug does his Memphis heel stalling work early on which was fun. Some decent matwork to start with Doug looking strong and Nova trying to hang with him. Nova gets the advantage so Doug goes to the floor again and walks around for a bit before coming back to the ring where Nova would work over Doug's left ankle. Doug would use the referee to his advantage by pulling him in the way of an attempted splash by Nova which he stopped before execution and Doug would get a cheapshot in which started his offensive barrage. Nova would get some good nearfall hope spots in but Doug was good at working over Nova hitting a sweet tornado DDT for a nearfall. Nova hit a nice enzuigiri to start his comeback and had Doug reeling after a bicycle kick. Doug though would come back with the Chaos Theory but was too close to the ropes so Nova was able to come back and caught Doug with a shitty Superkick for a nearfall. Doug got too over confident while punching Nova in the corner and paid for it because Nova caught him with the Kryponite Krunch for the win. The babyface locker room then came out and celebrated afterwars with PYRO shooting off the ring posts which was hilarious. The match overall was pretty good and Nova was more subdued here working a different style. I dug it.

[Dewar]

Alex Shane is now the color commentator on "Fighting Spirit Wrestling", and he's terrible. Significantly worse than anyone on WWE/ROH/TNA right now, which is a scary thought. That being said, he was pretty fun in the early 2000s.

[soup23]

Everything about the presentation and crowd of that FWA show makes me cringe.

[KrisZ]

Baseball and other stuff has delayed my indie rewatching but I'm back and watching CZW's "Best of the Best #1" on 5/19/01 in Sewell, New Jersey.

This starts with the legendary CZW announce team of Eric Gargiulo & John House with House picking his boy Trent Acid to win the tournament before we get promos from the contestants which was hilarious especially Nick Berk looking at the wrong camera angle when he talked, Minoru Fujita playing arcade games, and the SAT's trying to steal John House's truck!!!!!. Danny Rose calling everyone "cockplate" was awesome as well as Trent Acid saying that W*inger beat him in Japan by a "cunt hair."

Ring announcer Dennis Shock comes out to introduce all of the Best of the Best participants and the fans are more welcoming of Shock than the last show I watched. What a crew of guys that were in this tournament....John Zandig then comes in the ring in his jorts and weedwhacker in hand to hype up the tournament.

Best of the Best - Round 1: Red vs. The W*INGER vs. Ric Blade

The deal here is that the man who loses is eliminated and the next two men advance to the next round. Red coming out to Dispoable Teens by Marilyn Manson is so great. Blade looks terrible to start whiffing on takedowns and spots and everything is disjointed which was kinda expected since it was a 3-way. W*INGER would hit a nice tope con hilo to the floor on both men. Holy shit Blade's Drug Bomb on Red was awesome and I'm surprised more people don't use that move today. Red then would come back though hitting his Red Star Press for a nearfall and the fans are now starting to get into the action. Blade pushing Red off the top rope hitting a tope con hilo to W*INGER on the floor with Blade following up with a corkscrew splash of his own was great. Blade hitting rolling Fisherman's Busters on W*INGER then the Edge of the Blade on Red looked like it was going to be the end of both men but it wasn't as W*INGER threw Blade off the top rope and Red hit a wild looking corkscrew press with W*INGER hitting a Senton Bomb Togo style to eliminate Blade in a huge upset. Blade then cut a promo after the match putting over how tough W*INGER is as well as giving Red love before leaving. It was mentioned on commentary that Blade's wife Shorty was expecting their baby at any time so this may be why Blade lost so early but it was still very weird.

Best of the Best - Round 1: Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe vs. "Sick" Nick Mondo

This is another highly interesting matchup. Mondo cuts a fun promo on the fans before the match for being sheep which has Green Lantern Fan at ringside looking outraged. Young Briscoes are so fun to watch and they should bring back the old black shirts with "BRISCOE" in red letters on the front. Gargiulo talking about Jay being a high school Junior and Mark being a high school Sophomore is wild considering they are wrestling as pros. Briscoes faced off against each other for the first time here and the early part of this match was better than the last match because of the Briscoes working together although they would attack each other as well. Jay hitting a reverse wheelbarrow suplex on Mondo was fucking sweet and another move that should be brought back. Mondo countered a swinging DDT by Mark with a sitout driver was also sweet. Mark hit a nice running springboard dive on Mondo followed up by a twisting splash by Jay and Mondo was in deep trouble. Jay & Mark would fight each other allowing Mondo make a comeback and he would bring steel chairs to the ring holding them up to his head as the Briscoes came off the top with stereo dropkicks. Briscoes then started working together again but missed diving legdrops off the top rope on steel chairs. Mondo again fought back and hit the Assault Driver on Mark for a nearfall before getting out a table where he puts both Briscoes on the table as the crowd chants "DEW SUCKS DICK" for Dewey Donovan. Mondo went running to dive on the Briscoes but Jay would get in the ring and Mark stood up on the table where Jay would backdrop Mondo over the top onto Mark for a powerbomb on the table which looked dangerous as shit. The Briscos would then hit a Phoenix Bomb to win the match and Mondo is eliminated in another upset. Mondo snapped and attacked the Briscoes afterwards until Justice Pain ran out to attack Mondo before they got pulled apart. Pain wearing a "HARDCORE NICK SUCKS" shirt while cutting a promo on Mondo is great.

Best of the Best - Round 1: Nick Berk vs. Minoru Fujita vs. Jose Maximo

NICK FUCKIN BERK!!!! always thought that guy was underrated. Fast but sloppy action to start although Jose hit a sweet Asai Moonsault to the floor on both men. Fujita looked very impressive and the most polished here which should come as no shock and then you had Berk hit Fujita with the Berkolater on Maximo and that was the match as Maximo was eliminated. Berk & Fujita then brawled after the match to set up their match later. Gargiulo even hinted these guys could be shooting on each other while House dropped a "Pearl Harbor" line.

Best of the Best - Round 1: Trent Acid vs. Ruckus vs. Joe L Maximo

Ruckus is taking Juventud Guerrera's place in this match because Juvy had travel issues and if Ruckus advances then Juvy will take his spot later. Gargiulo mentions that Ruckus had lost 35 pounds over the last couple of weeks which is crazy. Ruckus hits the "Fatass" dive from the ring to the floor on Acid & Maximo and god I loved fat Ruckus. Maximo nuked Ruckus with a backdrop driver then Acid followed with a nice missile dropkick off the top rope. Ruckus was a house of fire here hitting some big moves on both men before eating a tough lariat and moonsault from Maximo. Ruckus came back though and started cleaing house again until eating a Yakuza Kick from Acid. Acid would then follow with an Acid Bomb but it wasn't hit cleanly so Ruckus kicked out. Acid would sit out on Maximo as he tried to cradle him so Acid & Ruckus advanced.

Ruckus & VD (Eddie Valentine & Jon Dahmer) vs. The Rachies (Adam Flash & "Doomsday" Adam Rose) & Jeff Rocker

Ruckus is now in his scheduled match for the evening. Jeff Rocker is still looking like a roided up Lance Storm. Rocker using a Fisherman's Suplex into a Sharpshooter which he called the "Rocker Locker" was hilarious since he is basically doing a Canadian wrestling star tribute gimmick. VD hitting a powerbomb into a shoulderbreaker on Rocker was pretty sweet. Dahmer & Rukcus being two big men hitting smaller guys spots was fun and I dug the shotei/backdrop suplex combo on Rocker. Dahmer's spinebuster on Rocker was damn good and Rocker is getting his ass kicked. Rocker tried to tag in Danny Rose but he was denied so Rocker took a missile dropkick into a powerbomb from VD and still kept fighting. Rocker caught Dahmer with a desperate belly-to-belly suplex then picked up the big Dahmer for a TKO and a nearfall. Rocker then slapped Danny Rose on the chest for a tag and the Rachies would double up on Dahmer and they were good as a team giving this match some psychology as Dahmer played FIP plus they were no-selling Rocker's attempt at a tag. Dahmer would finally get a tag to Valentine and Ruckus would come in as well for a 6-way brawl that would spill to the floor where chairs would get used and Ruckus would climb up to the camera area where he would hit an INSANE moonsault where Ruckus almost slipped and ladned headfirst. The match ended up back in the ring with the heels working over Ruckus as Rocker held up Ruckus so the Rachies could hit him with a conchairto but Rocker got it instead and Ruckus followed up with a huge 450 Splash to win the match.

Best of the Best - Quarterfinals: The W*INGER vs. Red

Winger changed his gear from the first match to this one as he had the Onita jeans look earlier and now he has the red mask with the pony tail out of the back and his Hayabusa pants. W*INGER is another guy who no one talks about any more but was so damn fun. Red took the battle to W*INGER early sending him to the floor where he would hit a crazy twisting corkscrew press off the top rope on W*INGER. John House then talks about how Red has a history of banging the rats after shows which was hilarious. W*INGER was fun playing to the fans who chanted his name as he was dropping Red with suplexes. Red would hit the Sliced Bread #2 which was the first time I ever saw that move at the time for a nearfall then a Red Star Press but he hurt himself which got worse after missing another corkscrew press off the top rope. W*INGER then dropped Red with a Michinoku Driver followed up by his huge Senton Bomb to advance to the semifinals. This was a very short match not even 4 minutes long and I would've liked to have seen these guys definitely go longer.

Best of the Best - Quarterfinals: Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe

This was their 1st ever singles matchup but Dewey Donovan doesn't want them to wrestle and wants Jay to advance but referee John Hartock kicks Dew out of the ringside area. This starts with the brothers working holds and counters which is way different for this crowd but they don't shit on it. Funny watching the Briscoes working a Dory Funk Jr. vs. Jack Brisco type match but Mark sent Jay to the floor and did springboard tease sending a message to Jay. That signaled the end of the holds and then they started to work a faster pace with Mark hitting a leg lariat which caught Jay offguard. The fans are really into this match and chanted "FUCK THE HARDYZ" which was great. Mark became the more aggressive at this point taking the battle to his brother but Jay would fire back hitting a Tiger Driver for a nearfall. Jay works over the neck and back hitting a big tombstone piledriver but doesn't capitalize on it as he poses in the corner. Jay then climbs up top and hits a big diving body press across the ring on Mark for a nearfall then dropped him hard with a DDT. Jay would hit the J-Driller and fucking spiked Mark but Mark kicked out. The fans are hot for this match now as Mark comes back hitting a Fisherman's Buster then climbs up top hitting a big huracarana on Jay who was on the apron sending them to the floor. Jay is now laid out on the floor as Mark climbs up top and hits a moonsault press on a floor that had ZERO give. The battle goes back to the ring where Mark continues working over Jay hitting a Northern Lights Suplex off the top rope which was cool as the fans gave them a standing ovation. This now becomes a total war of attrition as Mark hits a Cutthroat Suplex on Jay which was sick as hell. Mark then dropped Jay with a jackknife powerbomb but missed a moonsault press and ate a half-nelson suplex right on his head for his trouble. Jay then used it again but Mark still kicked out so Jay used a top-rope Tiger Driver which was insane to put Mark away. This was a simply amazing match and maybe the best brother vs. brother match ever. These guys were still in fucking high school and were tearing fucking shit up. The fans then demanded they come out for a curtain call afterwards which they did and this was a great moment. Everyone should see this fucking match.

Best of the Best - Quarterfinals: Minoru Fujita vs. Nick Berk

Good luck following that shit up here. Gargiulo claimed these guys had real heat earlier but they didn't really show it here as they went into just regular pro wrestling stuff. Fujita started strong until Berk got the Muta Lock on him which Fujita countered with a wakigatame which started him working over the left arm. Fujita again looks more polished than most of the other guys on this show but Berk is solid and hangs with Fujita using some high impact moves to offset Fujita and also worked a limb as he went over Fujita's left ankle. Fujita though was a savage working over the arm with Berk getting to the ropes as much as possible. Berk was now basically working with just one arm making it tough for him to do anything. Fujita would eventually hit a Dragon Suplex hold to win and advance in a fine match with some actual limbwork and psychology.

Best of the Best - Quarterfinals: Trent Acid vs. Juventud Guerrera

Juvy finally showed up coming out to Ruckus' music no less which was funny. Juvy of course cuts a Juvyriffic promo before the match and he starts kicking Trent's ass as the match starts. Juvy hit a baseball slide to the floor on Acid & Z-Barr then followed up with a springboard plancha so at least he was trying in this match. Acid then tried to leave but Juvy chased him and threw him through some chairs. Juvy took the match back to the ring where he dominated some more even hitting his People's Elbow which was a nice callback to WCW. Z-Barr got Juvy to chase him around and into the ring where Juvy ate a Yakuza Kick giving Acid the opening he needed. Juvy though didn't stay down long and went back to work on Acid hitting an ugly springboard legdrop for a nearfall. Juvy then spiked Acid with a powerbomb then called for the Juvy Driver which brought in z-Barr who ate the Juvy Driver instead. Acid though got an inside cradle on Juvy to get a cheap victory. You fly Juvy in and you put him in a 6 minute match. Juvy then celebrated afterwards though pouring water on himself so nice of him to not give a fuck about losing as the fans cheered him. I definitely wanted more but oh well.

Best of the Best - Semifinals: The W*INGER vs. Minoru Fujita

It's a Battle of Big Japan stalwarts in the semifinals. Fujita hits a tope suicida to the floor 30 seconds into the match and starts throwing chairs taking the fight all over the building before they take it back to the ring where of course they start working holds and counters. Fujita with the half crab and boot on the back of the head was nice. They took it back to the floor again where W*INGER would drop Fujita with a piledriver on the floor before taking it back to the ring. W*INGER tried putting Fujita away with an STF and really cranked it in before a Blue Thunder Driver for a nearfall. Fujita would come back though with a flying forearm splash and then a missile dropkick off the top rope before starting to work over W*INGER's right leg getting a swank modified Bow & Arrow but W*INGER broke free. Both men now start trying to put the other one away with Fujita kicking it into high gear trying to get his Dragon Suplex but W*INGER kept finding a way out of it. W*INGER would hit his Senton Bomb but Fujita would kick out then he would hit W*INGER with a lariat for a nearfall. W*INGER though would catch Fujita in a Casita to win and advance. This was a pretty damn good match here which was expected since these two had some chemistry against each other.

Best of the Best - Semifinals: Trent Acid vs. Jay Briscoe

Mark accompanies Jay to the ring which is cool with Gargiulo saying that Mark suffered a concussion in the match earlier. Both guys are starting to show wear and tear but still hit some big spots but Jay looks better than Trent even after that war earlier. Jay works over Trent's left leg some before hitting a springboard lariat for a nearfall followed up by a Tiger Suplex for a nearfall. Jay would climb up top but Trent tossed him off right onto some steel chairs before Trent would lay Briscoe across some chairs so Trent could hit the "Bad Trip" off the top rope in a scary spot where Trent looked like he fucked up his knee. Jay then hits the fucking Big E. spear through the ropes spot on Acid through the steel chairs as the crowd chanted "HOLY SHIT" and they were right. Jay missed his version of a Senton Bomb but fired himself up to get back on his feet and he ate a Yakuza Kick while standing on the top rope to set up the Acid Bomb which gave Acid the victory. This was a pretty damn good match considering both men were beat up from earlier matches. The Briscoes were done for the night but they were made into God Damn stars from this show.

Then we get a promo from W*INGER in the locker room in a mix of Japanese/English about his upcoming match with Acid.

War Games Rules: The H8 Club (Justice Pain & Wifebeater) & Lobo vs. "Hardcore" Nick Gage, Nate Hatred, & "Sick" Nick Mondo

Pain gets on the mic before the match and puts over all the BOTB matches so far as being amazing. The first two men in the ring are Justice Pain & Nick Gage and these guys beat the shit out of each other with Gage hitting fucking rolling piledrivers then a sick Hot Shot on the top turnbuckle. Gage then hit a spinning powerbomb on Pain through the table on the floor as the crowd went nuts. Pain comes back with a kick to the balls then the Alabama Slam into an STF but Nate Hatred would come out to make it 2-on-1. Pain fought back a little but Lobo would come out next to even the odds where he would take out Gage & Hatred with a tope con hilo to the floor followed up by one from Pain. Mondo would then come out and the action was going all over the building now which would get even more wild when Wifebeater joined the match and now we have everyone involved. Weapons now come into play as guys are swinging chairs as Gage dropped Pain with a brainbuster on a steel chair which was one of his key spots. There is a lot going on here as everyone is battling all over the place so it's kinda hard to keep up with but that god damn Nick Gage hit a big tope con hilo off the top rope to the floor taking out everyone. Pain would get a Pain Thriller on Gage but Nick wisely rolled outside the ring where everyone else was still brawling. Lobo & Wifebeater put Mondo through a table with a sideslam then Hatred was pinned after a Chokenstein by Wifebeater and a moonsault from Pain. Fans chanted BULLSHIT at the finish as it did kinda come out of nowhere. Gage cuts a fun Nick Gage esque promo where he says fuck and shit a lot and at this time of his life he really did look like Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket. This was still a fun ass brawl though.

Best of the Best - Finals: The W*INGER vs. Trent Acid

Acid being hailed from South Philly, Japan is always hilarious and he limps down to the ring selling his leg injury from the match with Jay Briscoe. They shake hands before the match and of course Acid jumps W*INGER when he turns his back on him. These two had issues the year before in Big Japan so this is playing off that feud. W*INGER hits a big tope con hilo from the ring to the floor and W*INGER looks fresh until he takes a big moonsault press from Acid from the top to the floor. Acid sets up chairs in the ring but W*INGER would try and counter with a bulldog onto the chairs which was countered by Acid in a cool spot. W*INGER then NUKED Acid with a reverse powerbomb onto a chair and kicked him in the face for a nearfall. Acid though would put referee Brian Logan in the way of a missile dropkick who went down and Acid followed up with a Yakuza Kick which W*INGER no-sold into a cradlebreaker. Z-Barr then slapped W*INGER who unmasked to reveal Johnny Kashmere which was a really good shock. and he threw Z-Barr out of the ring where they brawled to the back. The real W*INGER then showed up hitting a big missile dropkick on Acid but missed his big Senton Bomb. The fans didn't know what to think now as Acid went for his "Bad Trip" but missed hitting all chairs then rolling to the floor where he ate a springboard twisting press by W*INGER. W*INGER gets help from guys to set up two tables side by side and he lays Acid on top as he climbs up top to the camera area where he hits his huge Senton Bomb in an insane spot. W*INGER rolls Acid into the ring but he still can't put him away so they do the RVD/Lynn cradle nearfall exchange for a crowd pop. W*INGER would cut back an Acid attempt of an O'Connor Roll and won the match and the tournament. This match had a lot going on with the Kashmere surprise then the huge W*INGER dive...was it a great match no....it was a pretty fun match although Acid was running on fumes but gutting it out hard. Zandig walks out after the match and talks about the fans saw the "WRESTLING" in CZW as the other BOTB competitors came to the ring where Zandig put over everyone in the building. Acid then demanded the mic and put over W*INGERd demanding that he shake his hand which he did and they hugged with Acid giving W*INGER the BOTB Trophy as everyone applauded. Zandig then called for all of the BOTB guys to enter the ring and they lifted W*INGER on their shoulders. The fans then started chanting for the Briscoes and Zandig put them over saying they had the best match of the night and they got two trophies. I hope those trophies are on a mantleplace at the Briscoes Ranch next to some fucking deer heads. Zandig also confirmed that Best of the Best would be coming back in 2002.

[elliott]

Best of the Best - Quarterfinals: Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe

 

"These kids have a future if they have a future!"

-Phil or Dean on DVDVR

 

I cannot think of this match or these two in general without thinking of that line.

 

Really enjoying this thread, Kris.

[Phil Schneider]

Thanks to the wayback machine, I found Tomk and my road report for this show. This was 14 years ago, I am old

 

RED! and the BRISCOES! have a future if they have a future! JUSTICE PAIN! loves the kids! JESUS! bled for you sins! DOORKNOCKERS! and other stuff from the CZW Best of the Best Tourney!

Authors:
TKG: Tom K.
PAS: Phil Schneider

BACKSTORY:
TKG: Show up at Phil’s around 1:30. Being very polished as a roadtripper, I brought a map, as well as the yahoo and mapquest directions.

PAS: I am completely intellectually unable to work with directions so Tom’s preparedness was a big help.

TKG: We are given car, with a best of James Taylor tape in it. There is a best of Nelson Riddle tape sitting on the dashboard waiting to be played. And we hit the open road.

PAS: I was able to finagle the car from the mysterious Dr. Ricardo Ligor, who you may be hearing more about in the future.

TKG: Pretty early in trip, I forget to tell Phil to make a turn, so open the map and ignore the mapquest.

PS: We stop off in Aberdeen, MD for Taco Bell where I use my boxing polished hand-eye coordination to win free cinnamon twists, and we observe the tremendous numbers of Baltimore Ravens T-shirts which are worn like some redneck catholic school uniform in this part of Maryland. The army appears to be running a car wash in the parking lot, which really puzzles me considering there is a Republican president and all. We also see the van painted with “Jesus Bled for Your Sins” written in dripping red paint in the style of a horror movie or IWA Japan poster, we ain’t in the city anymore boys.

TKG: We stop in Delaware to get gas. Working at the gas station are two young girls in their late teens. I chat with the plumper of the two with the heavier eye shadow. She had just had a horrible prom night, as her date didn’t treat her well. I tried to comfort her. Phil tries to convince the two to quit their gas station jobs and join us on the trip to see wrestling in Jersey.

PAS: Tom offered to take the chubbier of the two, leaving me to attempt to ply the anorexic one with my played out 1990’s game.

TKG: Neither of us manages the presence or polish to get them to come with us. The road trip was just too much to ask. We should have stuck with the simpler “hey we’ll buy you a pack of ciggs if you…behind the station” offer.

PAS: I blame myself, I think I went too “loud guy”. I should have demurred to Tom’s breadth of experience in picking up teenagers. My attempt to take the lead was like Goldberg trying to call the Regal match.

TKG: We arrive in Sewell. Sewell is actually beautiful looking pastoral farm country. If this were Virginia, I’d call it horse country. I was expecting Sewell to look more like Camden, ex-industrial area with crackheads, check cashing stores, and liquor-terias on every corner. Once we got to stadium there was no liquor store in site.

PAS: The lack of liquor stores, and our failure to compensate for that fact was the major failure of the trip.

TKG: We look to be some of the oldest people at show. Unlike your southern indies, this is a mostly male audience.

PAS: The crowd was the seediest I have ever seen at a wrestling event, innumeriable tatoos, lots of pissed off juvenile delinquents giving angry suburban trash stares from hooded brow pierced eyes, outside the couple of black guys, it looked like we were at a Screwdriver show.

TKG: The oldest men at show all had John Waters-esque mustaches. I think they were recruiting for the local militia.

PAS: Piercing highlights included the guy with a pair of studs imbedded in the back of his neck, and his girlfriend with the white t-shirt huge breasts and visable doorknocker nipple piercings.

TKG: He also had the giant earing inside his ear. This kind of made him look like the butchest, fattest, whitest Masaai woman I had ever seen.

TKG: We reintroduce ourselves to Jeff and all the board posters. “Ric Blade Mark” mistakes Phil for Dean. Phil is very polished at the whole intro bit. I think I have more presence, but am less polished.

PAS: I have the kind of polish that you can only get by working nearly a hundred wrestling reports, being on the selection committee of all 3 500’s and innumerable long message board threads. Tom hasn’t reached the big leagues yet.

THE SHOW:
TKG: The show starts off J Cup style as all the competitors are introduced in the ring by Zandig (brandishing a weed whacker).

PAS: Zandig sure cusses a lot. And is really fat for a guy who used to do an Ultimate Warrior gimmick.

TKG: Well everyone comes out other than Juventud.

PAS: I break out the Tijuana crackhouse joke, but I kid the Juventud

TKG: All of the first round matches are going to be three ways. I really dislike 3 ways. I spent a good portion of the car ride up talking about how much I dislike three ways and cluster fucks. Someone is always left feeling out of place and not sure exactly how to connect to the action. When should you break up the action? When should you let it play out? Pro-wrestling three ways suffer from the same problems.

PAS: God those stories, Tom is quite the yarn spinner, he is like the Spaulding Grey of the perverse sexual underworld. I hate three way wrestling matches too BTW.

RIC BLADE vs. WINGER vs. RED
TKG: I had been wondering what exactly Winger was going to do since he couldn’t set himself on fire. At least in this round, the answer was not much. He was willing to take Blades power moves right on the top of his head.

PAS: I seem to remember a plancha or something, Winger spends most of this tourney looking slightly out of place, he is pretty electric in garbage matches, but it seems like a waste to fly him over for a wrestling tourney.

TKG: Red takes everything on his face and head and is insane.

PAS: Red looks about 12 years old and is a hell of a smooth highflyer, his spots are comparable to Jody Fleish or Ricky Marvin or Dragon Kid, and his standing shooting star press is pretty flawless and impressive, not much in between spots, but this kid has a future if he has a future. Blade hit a bunch of nice spots and a really cool freaked out submission thing, but his was more a cameo as he was off to the JAPW show later in the night.

TKG: At end of match Blade does a speech about how tough Winger is. Blade put over Wingers toughness by pointing out how Blade had almost “accidentally ended Wingers career” in Japan. Ok exactly how many Japanese workers have had their careers almost “accidentally ended” by CZW workers?

PAS: I believe he said he accidentally almost killed him, boy Kojika is just going to be left with Sekimoto and Shunme Matsuzaki unless he kiboshes the CZW deal.

SICK NICK MONDO vs. MARK BRISCOE vs. JAY BRISCOE
TKG: Clearasil is sponsoring this whole tournament as none of these guys looks over 17.

TKG: Briscoes are a tag team. They come out with their heel manager Discount Dewey Donovan who doesn’t want the Briscoes wrestling each other. That story never really got followed through on. The Briscoes rarely used any double team moves on Nick. It pretty much starts off every man for himself, and the Briscoes don’t really pull out the double teams till end. Everything about this match felt a step and a half off, as spots just took too long to get set up.

PAS: I liked this match better then Tom, but they did do a double Van Damniator which was about the most preposterous thing I have seen live. I believe I audibly snorted. The Briscoes mom nervously had her hand on my shoulder as they were setting up the table spot, I found the presence of the Briscoes parents rather unnerving, especially when people would go up to them after their singles match and compliment them on the job their kids did, when one of those kids had a concussion and both nearly broke their necks, but hey they aren’t my kids and I did enjoy the wrestling.

TKG: I am a strike mark so while rest of crowd pops for an ugly looking corkscrew, I pop big for Sick Nicks punches and kicks. Sick Nick may quickly become my favorite indie garbage worker. Sick Nick has surprisingly good worked strikes. Not really stiff looking strikes but just well worked, like he had studied Billy Joe Travis tapes. I mark out for Nicks punches.

PAS: I think Tom is overstating the greatness of Nick Mondo, he ain’t Dick Murdoch.

TKG: No he ain’t Murdoch. Murdoch throws punches were you believe hes actually shoot punching his opponent. Mondo’s punches aren’t stiff, just really believable. Roddy Piper wishes he could throw punches like this.

TKG: Nick works a “guy who NEEDS to be a hardcore worker because of voices in head or whatever” gimmick. His strikes are good enough that he doesn’t really need to be a hardcore worker if he chose not to. Of course Little Spike Dudley’s matwork is good enough that he shouldn’t need to…..Screw it, it’s a lost cause.

PAS: Mark Briscoe also does a nice springboard plancha. And the powerbomb that Mondo took through table looked nasty.

MINORU FUJITA vs. NICK BERKE vs. JOSE MAXIMO
TKG: Ok so I was happy with Mondo’s punches and in comes Nick Berk. As Berk throws actual stiff strikes. Nick Berk works a Texan gimmick I guess. He comes in at a worked weight of 220, which makes me laugh.

PAS: I liked Nick Burke all though his Texas gimmick contrasted with his Erik Watts Special K dealer shirt and necklace.

TKG: Berk and Fujita exchange stiff good-looking strikes.

PAS: Yeah those were neat, Maximo did very little.

TKG: Maximo does an Asai moonsault to Phil’s chin. And then stays out of way. Match ended way too fast.

PAS: Yup and it was shaping up to be the best three way of the night too.

TRENT ACID vs. JOEL MAXIMO vs. RUKKUS
TKG: Acid had lots of “polish”. For a guy who I expected to be all bumps, he was very well rounded, leaned in on his strikes, could work the mat, and take the nutty bumps. Ruckus was replacement for Juve. He supposedly dropped weight for tournament.

PAS: Yeah Acid looked pretty good, although facially he looked like an emaciated Rhyno which was kind of disturbing.

TKG: Ruckus is chubby guy with highspots. He is pretty big over among the CZW crowd. Most of his spots looked pretty awkward to me.

PAS: Rukkus sukkus

TKG: And it’s INTERMISSION TIME

PAS: And we geek out by calling Dean and giving him a real time report.

EDDIE VALENTINE/JON DAHMER/RUCKUS (ACCOMPANIED BY MACSMACK) vs. DANNY ROSE/ADAM FLASH AND JEFF ROCKER
TKG: Jeff Rocker takes a beating throughout this match. It looked like the kind of beating Bill Watts would book for people leaving the territory.

PAS: Yeah Rocker was the Mike Bell of the evening

TKG: Dahmer and Valentine do a lot of neat and painful looking double team spots. The thinner of the two looks to have had ptomaine poisoning and I think he’s going to vomit any minute. The bigger gets blown up pretty early. But still a fun tag team.

PAS: I liked those two, although I would like to see how they would do in a traditional southern tag style match, rather then in the Public Enemy on Sunday Night Heat match.

TKG: I continue not to be impressed by Ruckus.

PAS: His highspots looked kind of like the stuff Kronus used to do. And so did his wrestling.

WINGER vs. RED
TKG: Winger comes out in new mask. Red did a bunch of spots into nothing destroying knees. Somehow its one thing to destroy your skull and it’s a whole other level of insane to destroy your knees. I mean you can still have a wrestling career with no functioning brain.

PAS: I like Red, I need to get more of him on tape.

TKG: Red hits skytwister press that hits Winger right in head, almost taking out our chairs in the process. I am not sure if Winger just really sold this well or was legit concussed.

PAS: This was like 6 inches from us too, and that was one of the big fun things of the night, being so close to insanity, grabbing your coat as Trent Acid flies into the chair you are sitting in. That kind of close approximation to violence isn’t something you get at a Smackdown taping, and is one of the reasons why Indy wrestling is so fun.

TKG: Winger wins with a senton. Winger’s senton is just great looking: it gets a lot of altitude and lands deliberate and hard. No it doesn’t involve corkscrew or rotations but it’s infinitely more impressive than the 450 the crowd popped for in the previous match.

PAS: Yup, although the rest of Wingers wrestling left something to be desired.

MARK BRISCOE vs. JAY BRISCOE
TKG: Donovan comes out and demands that this match not happen. Donovan is banned from ringside for rest of show.

TKG: The two lock up (always collar and elbow lockup-no knucklelocks). When two brothers wrestle you expect them to work stiff on each other, neither Briscoe leaned in on their strikes for most of the match. This kind of makes sense, I guess since this wasn’t a “brother feud” but rather two brothers working each other in a tourney (although they threw strikes at each other pretty early in 3-way). The older brother seemed less tentative with his strikes.

PAS: Yeah they did have a chop section in the end that was pretty stiff, I do think it should have been a little more viscerally violent, like it is when brothers really fight.

TKG: Match began with fun really good mat work. Schneider who has always thought I was a pederast, now thinks I am a homosexual pederast as I mark out for young boy riding sections. But the matwork was great. Beautiful tight looking “polished” armbars.

PAS: Yeah the matwork ruled it, we started a Holy Shit chant for the armbar. Not a ton of highspots for a bunch of young kids, although Mark did do a moonsault onto a prone Jay who was lying on the floor, which he is lucky he didn’t shatter his kneecaps doing.

TKG: They do start a huge headdrop section. For guys who didn’t strike each other hard, they sure were willing to drop each other right on their heads. Any of the headdrops would have worked as an ok finisher. I was ok with them kicking out of some of the headdrops, some of the kick outs were done well (took a lot of time to go for cover after drop, etc.) others weren’t.

PAS: I seem to remember a Cham Pain style pedigree, a burning hammer, and two Tequila Sunrise suplexes, their may have been a released German in there somewhere, It got to be a little much, as they were just burning through legit finishers, and the match could have easily ended with two less headrops.

MINORU FUJITA vs. NICK BERKE
TKG: That last match got a standing ovation and just left the crowd drained. I felt sorry for Berk and Fujita having to go on after that match. I would have booked an intermission right here.

PAS: Yeah this was death to follow.

TKG: Fujita and Berk decide the only way to go on after a mattastic match is by taking it right back to the mat. And it works. Fujita went after Berk’s arm, Berk went after Fujita’s knee.

PAS: I don’t think the previous match was mattastic, we may have dug the matwork the most, but the crowd remembered the neck trauma. Working a mat match was a smart move, just because it was very different from the previous match.

TKG: Fujita really knows how to smartly work the crowd. He has them in the palm of his hand yelling at the ref to “shut up” during every rope break “five count”.

TKG: Berk decides that as a Texan he’s obligated to do a Brody tribute and yells “huch” after every punch.

TKG: Again this match ended quickly. I’d like to see these two go longer.

PAS: This match had really nice counter wrestling for an indy show, and if it wasn’t for some real awkwardness near the end, it would have been the best match.

TRENT ACID vs. JUVENTUD GUERRERRA
TKG: Juve is a very “polished” worker. He mailed this match in but still was tight. Juve did his Rock shtick. Thankfully the Juice unlike the Rock actually knows how to throw good punches, brawl meaningfully and drop a mean elbow drop.

PAS: This was sort of Juvi by the numbers, but he had a certain presence, which was really neat to see. Juventud is probably one of the top ten most talented workers in the world, and although this match had a WCWSNish feel to it, it was still fun to see him up close and live.

AND ITS INTERMISSION NUMBER TWO

WINGER vs. FUJITA
TKG: I didn’t expect to see this match. I couldn’t see most of the brawling in the crowd. Still Fujita has the fans in the palm of his hands. His charisma translates easy.

PAS: The wrestling section of this was pretty great although the stopped the wrestling to do some very pedestrian 1999 BJW style crowd brawling which sucked and was uneeded, the crowd had already shown they would buy into a wrestling match, and in CZW the bar had been raised for brawling, as far as crazy bumps and such, tossing each other impotently into walls, wasn’t going to cut it.

TKG: Winger wins with a variation of la majistral, which involves him hooking the leg slightly differently than your normal La majistral. I’ll need to see it on tape to figure it out. Cool looking roll up.

PAS: In the ring this match rocked, out of the ring it sucked

TRENT ACID vs. JAY BRISCOE
TKG: This is the match of the night. Mark Briscoe comes out with enormous knot on his head. Trent continues to impress.

PAS: That knot was knarley and Mark had that thousand yard stare thing too.

TKG: Jay and Trent do some mat work as wrestling fans never get burned out by more mat work.

TKG: Acid leans in on his strikes. The whole chair set up spots actually didn’t seem too contrived and were impressive manly bumps.

PAS: Acid was really laying it in, which is why I liked this match the best, the two chair spots, Acid laying out Jay on a series of chairs and doing a legdrop off the top to the floor, and Jay spearing Acid out of the ring into the chairs, were both insane and really innovative and neat looking. The end was better then the other Briscoe match too, as Acid just wastes an ascending Briscoe with a yakuza kick and gives him a reverse razor’s edge thing (The Acid Bomb) off the top. Real good match, and props need to be given out to Jay Briscoe for delivering a hell of a pair of matches.

WARGAMES GARBAGE MATCH
JUSTICE PAIN/ WIFEBEATER/ LOBO vs. SICK NICK MONDO / NATE HATRED / HARDCORE NICK GAGE:
TKG: Justin Pain does his Tommy Dreamer-esque speech

PAS: He blathers on about how great these highflyers are, and what amazing talent these kids have, and then talks a little about how they are going to show us some ultraviolence, but doesn’t say ultraviolence in a Malcolm McDowell voice.

TKG: Nick Gage starts the match off with, I think, Justin Pain

TKG: There are like three piledrivers in opening minutes. I’ve watched too much lucha and Memphis. I am disappointed that no one riots after all the piledrivers.

PAS: Triple piledrivers as a transition spot suck ass

TKG: It’s a MARTINETE! And the ref is right there.

TKG: Sick Nick Mondo’s punches didn’t look as cool in this match, but he’s still the star of match.

PAS: I like his gimmick and look and he will take a beating for you

TKG: Discount Dewey Donovan is back out for this match even though he had been banned from ringside.

PAS: Wifebeater looks like Sean Stasiak. He wrestles like him too.

TKG: Lobo looks like the guy who you would expect to run the “Ferengi Fan Club” table at a Dr. Who convention. He kind of wrestles like that guy too.

PAS: Lobo was fucking awful, he must own the ring or supply the painkillers or something. The crowd really turned on this match which is sort of pathetic considering the beating these guys laid on each other. Although the elitist in me enjoys a vampire crowd marking out for matwork and disdaining chairshots.

FINALS:
WINGER vs. TRENT ACID
TKG: Worst match of tourney. They Russo up the finish by having Johnny Cashmere come out in the Winger mask.

PAS: This match was an abortion, the whole crappy Kashimere angle killed the crowd, and then Winger spent way too long setting up the balcony senton, and then the do some roll ups and Winger wins. Bad match and it really left a bad taste in my mouth. This kind of masturbatory booking sucks no matter where it rears its head.

TKG: Post match Zandig comes out to congratulate all the tourney participants and give Winger his trophy. Zandig surprises me, by not turning heel and smashing trophy over Wingers head.

PAS: Zandig then gives this weird kayfabe break speech about how the kids (Briscoes) really laid out a match and didn’t just bust out highspots, I thought I was reading Powell’s Take or something. Lots of cussing too, forget the mustard they need to have a wash your mouth out with a bar of soap death match.

Post-Show:
TKG: We go to Pizzeria Unos for food. We talk wrestling. I call the payphone at a bar outside of the college I went to, to see if anyone’s there that I know. We go. There are next to no women out at bar, bartender who I haven’t seen in about two years gives me a hug and a free pitcher, and I learn about bets I had made with freshmen when I was a junior. Pretty disappointing all around.

PAS: I was really expecting more debauchery, I think the error was made by leaving the bar to go to the house party as the house party was basically lamer hippies bong passing, and the scattering of girls were very in need of sammich. Tom almost gets left in Philly to attempt to fulfill his word by drinking an entire keg in a day,, but is able to weasel a stay of execution. The attempted TKG guilting of pony tailed Phish fan into procurement was the comedic highlight of the afterparty.

TKG: Phil drives back to DC.

PAS: And comes very close to nodding out

TKG: Taxi companies hang up on us. “Can we get a taxi”…”hey she hung up on me”. I get home around 6:30 AM, filled with energy and excitement about this amazing art form known as THE pro-rasslin’.

PAS: It was quite the fun time all around, CZW has some talented youngsters although I wish they would take more of a “less is more” approach in some of their matches. I would like to see kids like the Briscoes and Red working in two years and they are really burning through their bodies at a frightening rate. I am cyked to see Fujita working the US though, he is fun as all get out.

[KrisZ]

Holy Shit that brought back memories.....I totally forgot Berk was working a Texan gimmick. The old DVDVR Road Reports were always classic.

[Matt D]

How does that Briscoe match rank with their ROH one from Boston?

[KrisZ]

I prefer this one because of the novelty and they were just so good so young. The Boston match may have been better as a match but this one has more of an emotional attachment to me

[Happ Hazzard]

The early FWA stuff was terrible. The later stuff wasn't that much better, nearly all the "FWA guys" - Sloane, Tighe, Jack Xavier, Scott Parker, Paul Tyrell - never did anything outside the promotion, only Paul Burchill really broke out of that pack. Jody and Jonny gained some notoreity but they were names before that. Always hated the fact that every upstart British promotion tried to imitate ECW and ended up going down in flames, meanwhile you had All-Star doing packed houses (they did a crowd of 2000+ just down the road from me with a show with Earthquake) and getting absolutely no credit or coverage online at all.

 

Alex Shane is a absolute carney who was always far better at promoting himself than promoting any group he was involved with. But I do give him credit for getting British wrestling back into the media with the Talksport show, and spots on the Big Breakfast etc. But the British scene is so much stronger now than then that it's not even funny.

[Bierschwale]

I only learned tonight that Nick Berk has unretired just to job in Dojo Wars matches, which made me inordinately happy.

[Matt D]

I prefer this one because of the novelty and they were just so good so young. The Boston match may have been better as a match but this one has more of an emotional attachment to me

 

I was there live for the Boston one, so I might lean otherwise. I haven't seen it in ten years though.

[hammerva]

I only learned tonight that Nick Berk has unretired just to job in Dojo Wars matches, which made me inordinately happy.

 

I saw Berk at the Nick Gage Death match tournament and was shocked to see him. He looks like Zandig he is so jacked right now. Prime CZW Nick Berk looked like Reckless Youth in terms of size and build.

[Woof]

 

I prefer this one because of the novelty and they were just so good so young. The Boston match may have been better as a match but this one has more of an emotional attachment to me

 

I was there live for the Boston one, so I might lean otherwise. I haven't seen it in ten years though.

 

 

Ditto. I didn't even know who the hell they were that night and we and my buddy were fucking gobsmacked after the match they put on. Some pretty intense storytelling for a couple of kids. I'll always have a softspot for the Briscoes thanks to that live introduction.

[jpchicago23]

Awesome project Kris. After listening to the indies episodes of Exile I've started collecting indy footage from 2002 onward to start my own watching project. A lot of it will be first time viewing except for ROH mainly. I'm going to shoot for a timeline of 2002-maybe 07. The groups I'm focusing on are PWG, ROH, IWA MS, CZW, JAPW and maybe Chikara. I'll also look for Wildside/Anarchy if its attainable. Am I missing any promotions that are must follows?