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[2000-01-08-CZW-Bloodbath 2000] Ian Rotten vs Madman Pondo


soup23

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I love Ian but hate Pondo so I didn’t know what to expect here. We hear from the announcer that Zandig is out and Ian was the replacement so I guess that explains why this match is strangely main eventing a CZW show. Ian is pretty huge here and comes out in his IWA shirt. The lights go out and come back on with Pondo hitting Ian with his stop sign. Things get gory really quick as Pondo slices Ian’s forehead open with scissors and side Russian leg sweeps him onto a barbed wire bat. I cant make out what Pondo uses next to rake against Ian but he is a bloody mess. Next comes the obligatory crowd brawling portion of these matches and Ian is able to take over with a powerbomb onto a chair. Ian gives Pondo a receipt by slicing open his forehead and arm with scissors. I usually don’t get too squeamish with this death match stuff but those scissor shots look brutal. Pondo powerbombs Ian through light tubes and the lights go out again. They come back on with Axl Rotten hitting a chair on Pondo. The crowd is digging this a good bit. Axl and Ian both destroy Pondo until Lobo comes out to help out Pondo. Axl gives quite the rundown to shooting on Lobo, ECW and the rest of wrestling in general. We get some chaotic action and a pull apart to end the night. Overall, this as an actual wrestling match was short but brutal. It certainly was trashy US hardcore action but the angle worked for me and the crowd dug it so I enjoyed it more than I probably really should. **1/2

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  • 5 months later...

I'm willing to give Ian Rotten more of a try based on people whose opinions often jive with mine really liking him -- and considering that this isn't in his home promotion -- but this did nothing for me. There's acceptable wrestling violence, then there's this, which I felt like crossed a line a few times. Maybe I need to desensitize myself to things like guys cutting each other open with pairs of scissors while the camera zooms in if I'm going to watch 2000s Ian Rotten matches, I don't know. As it is, it felt like a way to cover for guys who can't work a match instead of guys using props to create a style all their own. Axl Rotten shows up at the end to cut a shoot promo and everyone involved swears like crazy because they don't know how to get heat otherwise. Oh joy! My least favorite thing so far.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This is the infamous scissors match where Ian and Pondo have an old blunt pair of scissors that they plan on using, but Zandig buys a new pair and tells them to use that instead. These guys get shredded with the scissors and Ian gets so pissed off about the incident that he doesn't return to CZW for another three years. That's all according to Ian Rotten, so take it for what it's worth.

 

Other than that, this is just two guys beating each other with weapons. Not the best for this style of wrestling, but not the worst either.

 

**1/4

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  • 2 weeks later...

This was trash, but still an interesting watch. Rotten and Pondo each cut the other's head with scissors and Pondo's arm got a nasty gash. This was like watching a horror movie that's all gore but no suspense. The crowd was the most interesting part of the match, as you could hear what individuals were shouting and the young girls squealed and squirmed as Rotten and Pondo brawled past them.

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  • 1 month later...

Before the match commences the ring announcer says that Zandig won’t be able to wrestle tonight due to an injury, however they have found a replacement. Ian Rotten is out carrying a barbed wire baseball bat and plenty of tonnage around his mid-section. He takes the mic and calls Zandig ‘a coward’, but that he shouldn’t be ashamed of himself because a hell of a lot better men than him have been afraid to wrestle Ian Rotten. The lights in the arena go out, and when they come back on Madman Pondo is in the ring and he immediately levels Ian with a stop sign. He pulls out some scissors and graphically slices Ian across the forehead with them. This is fucking gross! Russian leg sweep onto the barbed wire bat, later followed by a barbed wire bat shot to the groin. Pondo throws Rotten outside then stabs him in the head with something (a fork maybe?). Ian with a powerbomb into some chairs and a chair shot to the head that Pondo just about gets his hands up for to protect himself. It’s Ian’s turn to use the scissors and he cuts Pondo across the forehead and his upper arm and it’s every bit as gross as when Pondo cut Ian earlier. Rotten then cracks Pondo over the head with the barbed wire bat. Low blow from the Madman, a DDT, and he heads to the back to later return with some light tubes. He throws a couple of chairs into the ring and lays the light tubes across them. Ian with a right and he sets Pondo up for a superplex. Pondo with another low blow and he powerbombs Ian through the light tubes, then the arena lights go out for a second time. They come back on and Axl Rotten is in the ring. He nails Pondo with a steel chair and starts beating on him whilst calling him Paul Heyman. Brutal ‘conchairto’ from the Rotten’s and a chair wielding Lobo is out to put a stop to things.

 

Axl cuts a post-match ‘anti-ECW’ promo (‘fuck ECW, fuck Paul Heyman and fuck all those wannabes’) whilst claiming the Rotten’s, the Public Enemy and The Pitbulls built the promotion and the wrestlers were afraid to go on after the Bad Breed. Ian then talks about a ‘no-rope barbed wire cactus’ tag match next time, and Axl claims it will draw 3,000 and they’ll be turning people away! Lobo says something in return and it leads to an impromptu brawl. Axl with a couple of stop sign shots to Lobo (which he doesn’t sell) and Ian with a chair shot to him. Axl then hits him in the back with the barbed wire bat and grinds it into his flesh. Lobo, who still isn’t really selling, goes after the Rotten’s and an announcement over the loudspeaker request all security to get in the ring to separate the combatants as the crowd chant ‘let them go!’

 

Of the ‘hardcore’ regulars, it’s a toss-up between Madman Pondo and Mitch Page who I think is the worst, although both are the drizzling shits. As a match this was, excuse the pun, garbage. It was as if they wanted to do something to compensate for Zandig not being there, so went out and mutilated each other as much as they could within reason. It was barbed wire baseball bats, chairs, scissors, light tubes and nothing in between. I couldn’t care less for Axl and it feels like I’ve heard this promo so many times for him (although his opinion on ECW fluctuates from criticism to praise, depending on whether he is after something or not). Don’t know why Lobo wasn’t selling, although a nice visual at the end with security in the ring separating the wrestlers.

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  • 8 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I've loved some Ian Rotten, loved enough that I've had it in the back of my head to watch a bunch of him one day when it's easily accessible to me, but I almost knew from the scissor spot early on this wasn't going to join the love list. Unnecessary, uncomfortable crap. I dropped the 'almost' when Ian just transitioned into offense by, well, just grabbing Pondo's head and kinda moving him. I can take some violence but not when the match exists just to go from one violent spot to another. It's what separates something like this from something like Necro/Klein from KOTDM 2004 (which I consider amazing and one of the best matches of the decade).

 

I can appreciate that you're willing to go through this shit for the sake of.......something.....but I can't appreciate it as good wrestling. This just wasn't good wrestling.

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  • 5 months later...
  • GSR changed the title to [2000-01-08-CZW-Bloodbath 2000] Ian Rotten vs Madman Pondo

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