JCW Slam TV Episode 1

I'm 33. I've got a reasonable degree from a decent university. I'm pretty intelligent - I read War & Peace from beginning to end, even the boring final chapter about battle techniques. Yet somehow, I'm still partial to the Insane Clown Posse. I wouldn't sport the facepaint or drink terrible cheap pop drinks, but musically I regularly have an ICP album in my car for which I feel no shame. So when I saw a DVD set of Juggalo Championshit Wrestling episodes on Amazon for a reasonable price, I couldn't resist. There's four disks, with 8 episodes of wrestling leading up to the finale, dubbed "Westside Wars", so I'm going to make my way through these episodes in the coming months. There's a fun selection of guys I enjoy on the shows, including Tracy Smothers and the Necro Butcher, plus some goofy ICP commentary, so these should be fun at the very least.

NOSAWA vs “Holy” Trent Acid

Trent is working a sinister preacher gimmick here, complete with a slow walk to the ring that ICP quip they’ve clipped down from 45 minutes to only 17. Acid stalls pre-match and cuts a “cheap heat” (called by ICP) promo on the crowd, but he does take a hilarious bump when hit with a plastic bottle. The match had a 10 minute time limit, which was good as I’ve seen both guys struggle when working longer singles matches, but this ended up being a pretty fun bout. Loved NOSAWA halting his run as Acid tried a leapfrog, instead nailing Trent with a superkick as he lands. Acid heels it up for a baying audience, doing mock karate poses after kicking NOSAWA down and employing a series of chokes when in control. Acid takes a big bump over the ropes to the hard floor, but NOSAWA spends too long playing to the crowd after throwing him back in the ring, allowing Trent to hit a lovely tornado DDT, swinging NOSAWA down with real velocity. Trent tries setting up some chairs in the ring, but ends up getting superplexed through them for a two count. The end sees Acid use the referee as a shield, and knock NOSAWA out with his bible behind his back for the victory.

Zach Gowan vs 2 Tuff Tony

Gowen cut an awesome dickhead promo before this match, and is billed as “The Asshole” Zach Gowen. To back up this nickname, Gowen spends a while pre-match riling up the crowd. Tony reacts to this by pretending Gowen’s fake leg is a penis. Tony beats Gowen up to start, including a great Gowen goofy punchdrunk sell of his blows, but Zach trips him into the middle turnbuckle and starts to work him over. It sounds strange, but Gowen only having one leg makes his offense seem more painful. He uses his leg like a dart, hitting precise dropkicks right to the skull of Tony. Gowen taunts the crowd some more by dancing, then hits a one legged footstomp, which drives all his weight into Tony through his one leg. Tony breaks a nerve hold with some milky looking blows, but makes up for it with a thunderous lariat. A decent flipping legdrop to Gowen only gets a 2. Tony gets knees up as Gowen tries a moonsault, and hits a reverse piledriver, which looks nicely brutal. This should be enough for the pin, but Tony finishes him off with the Meteorite, which is basically a punch, only Tony sets his fist on fire first. Wonderfully goofy, and this was an enjoyable bout.