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[2000-01-08-CZW-Bloodbath 2000] Low Ki vs Ric Blade


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This was a match I never knew existed until we started researching 2000 dates. It is odd in that it takes place in CZW and it does involve Ric Blade who is a pretty big cult early 2000’s indy guy. Also, this is some of the earliest Low Ki we will have. Ki has his signature entrance music already and there really isn’t a large difference in his appearance from here to the Super 8 2001 tournament. Fast start with both running through some moves and Ki catching himself from slipping to hit a somersault dive to the outside. I guess this show predates Eric Garguilo and John House taking over the CZW commentary but this is also filmed fan cam style. Blade is able to take over with a DVD and then hits a swantom and really nice legdrop in quick order. The road must have owned Blade as he looks way younger here facially than he will in mid 2001. Arabian moonsault is executed to Ki on the outside. So far, we have had a spotty affair but the spots have looked nice and there is a sliver of a story being told. A slight moment of miscommunication was covered well with Blade hitting a big Doctor Bomb. Ki does his corner kick and a German that lands Blade right on top of his head. Blade does a leg drop where he stands on the actual ring post instead of the top rope. He also has some racist mannerisms for Ki as the heel in this match but it is 2000 so this was the norm of the times. Ki gets a nearfall on a 450 and then retrieves a table from the outside. After some back and forth, Ki hits the Ki Krusher from the ropes through the table and the crowd goes ape at that spot. That gets a 2 count and it really should have been the finish. Ki goes for another table on the outside. Ki ends up on the table in a pretty contrived way and Blade does a pretty bad botch where he tries to leg drop Ki on the table by diving over the referee but he falls short and bounces on the concrete. He ends doing a springboard leg drop to send Ki through. Blade then does four moonsaults in a row from a standing position to the top rope to get the win. Finish let the air out of the match a good bit as the crowd was ready to explode on the Ki Krusher spot which looked great but even moreso than the Punk vs. Cabana match earlier, Ki this early on was pretty damn complete as a worker and only needed a few tweaks to become one of the best wrestlers in the world in the next year. **3/4

 

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  • 5 months later...

Wow. So I jumped through quite a few hoops to find this show, but I'm glad I did. It was a great early look at both guys, with Blade looking every bit as good as Low Ki, who ultimately became the bigger indy star of the two. It's funny to me that CZW even existed before ECW folded, because what exactly were they rebelling against when ECW had that market cornered already? That aside, this is equal parts great match and trainwreck. It's hard not to admire the effort here, although they do way too much. But the overkill is part of the charm of the viewing experience, and I will give Blade huge credit for recovering nicely and not missing a beat when he missed his dive onto Low Ki on the outside. This has every nutty bump, crazy moonsault-style dive and headdrop you could possibly ask for in a single match. It's nuttier than Tanaka-Kuroda from three days earlier, and I think it's ultimately better worked because they didn't even pay lip service to the idea they were trying to have an actual wrestling match -- they just shot for the moon. Every once in a while, that works. This could pass for a WWE main event now. ***1/4

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  • 3 weeks later...

Low Ki vs the King of the botches Ric Blade. Blade makes Sabu look like Mr. Wrestling II. If I saw this in 2000, I would have probably loved it as it was just a go go go style and they did hit some spectacular moves. The Ki Krusher through the table that only resulted in a 2 count was funny. Not as funny as Blade missing the dive through a table and having to do it again. Ki looked like a 5 year vet here and he'd only get better. Good performance from him but I didn't care for the match.

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The CZW setup at this point feels exceptionally grungy and dirty and "underground." I kinda like the vibe. Blade's vibe is even worse than I remember - I recall the horrendous hair line, but not this club dancer look (I think he went to baggier clothes later).

 

A little bit of wrestling at the start, but we get to Ki's dive really fast. And from there on we have a sprint. They try to shoehorn in submission moves, but they have literally no effect - the moves are just there to show off what they know. Not sure who to blame for this - is it that Ki hadn't developed yet, or that he's being pulled into a pure spottiest by Blade (who never got any good beyond being a spot guy)? Either way, this is sort of fun in an absurd way. Blade's crane kick from the ring post is particularly amusing. The Ki Krusher through the table is epic (as is the crowd reaction to it), and that they use it for a 2 count is quite the foreshadowing of how the indy style would develop. The finish is meh, but that's unsurprising.

 

Bit of personal background - Ki's the guy I most want to rematch, because in '01-'02 he was my guy. He was on all the NY indy shows I went to, usually in the best match, and as he went national, I was a big supporter (and sure that dude would be a star of some sort - if not in the US, then Japan). So I want to see how the matches I remember hold up, and also where exactly it went wrong for the guy.

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Ric Blade matches are always fun to watch, but for all the wrong reasons. You're just waiting for him to botch something horribly. We get that here late in the match, but unfortunately the camera man misses the shot.

 

This match would fit on most indie shows today as it was a bunch of big moves and dives. Ric Blade even kicks out of a top rope Ki-Krusher through a table. A bit too ambitious but this is fun in spots.

 

**3/4

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This is a time period ofindy wrestling that is all new to me, so I'm not sure I've ever seen a Ric Blade match before. But this is a straight up late 90s guy -- Johnny Cage meets club boy look, girl with a Joey haircut and midriff shirt at his side, Kid Rock entrance music. He reminds me of a kid hanging out in front of a Sinclair station trying to offer you a $20 if you get him a case of Keystone Ice.

 

This was a totally nothing match that I'm totally glad I watched. I'm not going to seek out more Ric Blade or anything, but as a novelty it was worth the 15 minutes.

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You can't get much more 2000 than a dude coming out to Bawitdaba. Blade also wore some of the most indyrific gear you'll ever see. He had some ability though. Ki, meanwhile, didn't have his badass aura quite yet. He was still more of a daredevil. I watched this back to back with the Puerto Rico match, and what a contrast. That was classic face vs. heel. This was just two guys trying to do a bunch of cool shit. The shortcomings of the "cool shit" approach became apparent when Blade whiffed on a table spot to the floor and instead of selling at all, when right up for another attempt as Ki lay patiently waiting. I could only laugh at that one. On the other hand, they did hit legitimately impressive stuff, including Ki's falcon arrow through the table. Ultimately, I found the Puerto Rican match more satisfying.

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I've seen a bit of Blade so knew what I was getting coming in. If you like selling and any sense to a match this isnt for you. The Ki Krusher through the table is the climax to the match and turning it off here assuming Low Ki won is probably a benefit to the match as it really doesnt get any better here on.

 

**3/4

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  • 1 month later...

Blade comes out to Kid Kash’s ECW music and has got a valet called ‘Shorty’ who dresses like him. Opening salvo where they exchange holds followed by a couple of quick pin attempts before they stop and stare at each other. Boy do I hate that! Ki with a rolling heel kick sending Blade to the outside. He feints a dive then leaps to the top rope (only just keeping his balance) and a reverse somersault senton to the floor. Double arm underhook suplex, and he floats over into a submission. Blade reverses a second double underhook into a Falcon Arrow. Swanton Bomb off the top, he then immediately runs to the opposite turnbuckle and comes off the top with a leg drop for a two. He throws Ki to the floor and an Arabian moonsault onto him. Back in the ring and Blade with a nice looking surfboard. He kicks Ki in the head but his kicks lack the crispness of his opponent. Ki reverses a fireman’s carry into an armbar and Blade has to get to the ropes to break the hold. A lousy clothesline from Blade and a sit out powerbomb. He misses a handspring elbow (which looks dreadful) and Ki responds with a handspring rolling kick. It all starts to look a bit choreographed at this point, until Ki with a German suplex where Blade lands right on the back of his neck. Diving headbutt misses and Blade with a crane kick leg drop off the ring post for a two. He misses a springboard somersault leg drop, Ki with a 450 and Blade kicks out. Ki brings a table into the ring, goes for a tornado DDT through it, Blade blocks and hits another Falcon Arrow. Ki Krusher off the top through the table but it’s only a two! Ki sets up a table on the arena floor, Blade escapes a powerbomb over the rope attempt and nails Ki with a superkick. He then, in a very convoluted way, falls out of the ring and rolls onto the table. Blade goes to leapfrog over the referee with a leg drop onto Ki and through the table, but he comes up short and crashes to the arena floor. He’s straight back to his feet and a springboard leg drop puts Ki through it as the crowd chant ‘you fucked up’. He rolls him back into the ring, standing moonsault followed by successive ones off each turnbuckle and that’s finally enough to put Ki away as the two receive a standing ovation.

 

Ki is already smooth in the ring and shows none of the rawness that you see with the American Dragon, Spanky and A.J. Styles. A ring outfit change will be for the better, while Blade just screams Indy. This felt like a match of spots, at times very choreographed, with both of them trying to show everything that they can do and I lost count of the times that they went to the top rope. No psychology or selling and they were kicking out of moves that really should be finishers (swanton/legdrop combination, 450 splash and especially the Ki Krusher through the table); excesses that will become more commonplace as we make our way through the decade. One awful botch from Blade where he crashed and burned, but the effort was there from both and the crowd lapped it up. I think this is a case of my taste in what I enjoy watching having evolved from when this took place.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Aww, this was fun. That Ki Krusher through the table really ought to have been the finish, or at least not included if Ki wasn't going over, as the end of the match was really anti-climactic after that. However, you can't fault the effort here and this was the right match for this audience.

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  • 6 months later...

Ric Blade's outfit is a fantastic relic of early 2000s indie wrestling where enough time has passed that I greet it with some kind of reverent nostalgia. I actually didn't think he was too bad in this kind of situation since he cut a pace alongside Ki who was super quick and super crisp, as you'd expect. The Ki Krusher through the table seems like something that you shouldn't be using as a near fall but I guess it was that kind of match in front of that kind of crowd.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

This was exactly what you would expect it to be early 2000s Jr.s go-go-go wrestling. Ric Balde is obviously a Jeff Hardy fan. His ring attire somewhat resembles the Hardy Boyz Brood attire and he does the Swanton Bomb a lot. Low Ki despite still being a rookie, looked polished. Kis counter suplex into a modified armbar and the Ki Crusher through the table were neat, albeit kicking out of the Ki Crusher spot was way to much.

 

Blade botching the legdrop dive to the outside through the table is the type of thing you would expect in a typical Ric Blade match. Him popping back up and going for it again made it worse imo.

 

In 2017, this would main event the majority of indy shows. Although in their defense, this had way less blatant thigh slapping than the majority of matches you see anywhere now-a-days.

 

Not particularly good.

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  • GSR changed the title to [2000-01-08-CZW-Bloodbath 2000] Low Ki vs Ric Blade

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