3PW Broadcast From Hell

Historically, I've not enjoyed the 3PW shows I've reviewed over the past few years, but when Lovefilm sent another one through my door, I felt it would be unfair not to give it a go. The result? This is easily the best 3PW show I've seen yet. Not amazing, but pretty solid on the whole

Josh Daniels vs Damian Adams

The commentary team hype up the friendship between the two at the start of the match, and they have a nice even little sequence at the start, where Daniels has a slight advantage. Adams responds by slapping Daniels across the face to give a nice little heel/face divide. Adams hits a lovely Alabama Slam out of the corner, getting real snap on it. Daniels is able to fire back with a great German suplex that dumps Adams on his head. I was also pretty impressed with the commentary team, covering for an Adams superkick that only reaches the chest by pointing out how that would drive the air from your lungs. Adams crotches Daniels on the top rope, but a top rope rana is reversed to a huge powerbomb to give Daniels the win. Fun bout.

Da Hit Squad vs Roadkill & the Blue Meanie

Kinda hoping the three decent guys in this match are able to carry the Meanie. It’s really hard to buy the wimpy punches of the Meanie doing any damage to Monsta Mack and Dan Maff. There’s a fun face-off between Roadkill and Mack that culminates in a nice Mack powerslam. I dug Hit Squad using fun fat guy offence, hurling themselves into Roadkill from many angles. It does feel like Da Hit Squad are slowing down a lot of their offence to allow their opponents to keep up. Maff takes a horrible bump for a Roadkill TKO, landing on his feet and leaping about a foot in the air. Roadkill goes to the top like an idiot, despite Maff being right new to him, so he gets taken out, allowing Da Hit Squad to hit a figure-four/frog splash combo for the win. Had decent spells, but too many poor bits.

Homicide vs Xavier

Basic mat stuff to start until Homicide suddenly goes into overdrive, nailing a massive tope, the cutter, a Yakuza kick and a big Northern Lights suplex within a few minutes. He’s in total control, until he hurts his back, and Xavier wisely zeroes in on it. Love the spear to the back by Xavier, which looks great. He follows this up with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. There’s an awkward reversals series stemming from a sunset flip, but this is generally pretty solid. Loved Xavier bending Homicide almost in half with a Mexican surfboard. Homicide goes for the Cop Killer, but his back is too hurt to lift him, and Xavier hits a backstabber and a Camel Clutch to retain control. I loved the way that Homicide regains control as they head to the outside, as he’s portrayed as being in his element in a streetfighting environment. He hurls Xavier into the railings and nails him with chairshots. We do head into moves overkill at the end of the match, as they really bust out far too much, with powerbombs and 450 splashes before Homicide is finally able to hit the Cop Killer for the win. Enjoyed this more than I expected, was impressed with some logical storytelling and great selling by Homicide.

Balls Mahoney vs NOSAWA

Feels odd to say, but I dug some of Mahoney’s early matwork, especially hitting some vicious crossfaces when he’s got NOSAWA in an STF. We don’t get enough of this, sadly, as they fight outside, using a pizza cutter on each other’s foreheads to prompt profuse bleeding. This bit is also extremely uninteresting. NOSAWA does hit a lovely kick to the face, but a Shining Wizard is blocked with a lowblow. The Nutcracker Suite only gets two for Balls, but he gets to hit a second version off the apron through a table to win. Really, they wasted a great opening to have a pretty dull hardcore match, which reached it’s nadir with the pizza cutter segment.

Gary Wolfe vs Joey Matthews

3PW seemed dedicated with making Gary Wolfe into a star, and it never seemed to work. Probably something to do with him being terrible. Here, he’s defending the title against Matthews, who is accompanied by Matt Striker and Rob Eckos, the future Robbie E. Matthews does a lot of stalling to start, and Wolfe hits him with a chair a lot, even stealing Raven’s drop toehold spot. Wolfe doesn’t give Matthews much, putting him through a table with an elbow drop from the apron. Matthew isn’t able to get any form of control until Striker provides a distraction, and even this control is temporary as Matthews accidentally puts Striker through a table and eats a DVD for the Wolfe win. Pretty terrible.

AJ Styles vs Kid Kash

While some of the prior matches have been better than expected, it’s when you see how good someone like AJ is that you know why he’s still a big star 12 years later. He looks so crisp here, hitting a lovely superkick over the safety rail, and there’s a great looking rana-Styles Clash attempt-rana sequence near the start. Everything Styles does looks crisp, and it has to be pointed out that Kash does his best to match him throughout. Styles hits a nasty looking brainbuster, and I appreciate him really locking in his pinfall attempts. Kash only gets two from the Money Maker, and his attempt to put AJ away with a top rope rana sees Styles reverse to a super Styles Clash for the win. Really enjoyed this.

Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk

With this taking place in Philly, WWE employee Lawler is very much the heel against ECW alumnus Funk. Lawler looks in better shape than Funk, leaner and steadier on his feet, so he’s able to get heat on Funk by beating him down with a series of crisp punches, each one breaking Funk down a little more until he’s bleeding on the mat. Funk sells them beautifully too, invoking sympathy with his slightly-dazed selling as Lawler taunts and jabs away at him. Lawler hits the second rope fistdrop on a convulsing Funk, who instantly stops moving like cattle shot with a bolt gun. Beautiful. Funk makes a comeback with a crowd-popping low blow, then legdrops King through a table. Lawler is still too strong, however, and regains control to hit a piledriver for two. We do get a bit of overkill here, as another piledriver also gets two, before Lawler hits a third outside on the concrete. Lawler does some great trolling by introducing “a move a friend from the WWE taught me”, before hitting a poor stunner for two. The portrayal of Funk as superhuman does start getting a bit ridiculous, especially as a FOURTH piledriver through a table only gets two, but Lawler does such a good job of riling up the crowd that you don’t notice. Funk gets the win with a roll-up, ending a terrific match.

Ron Killings vs Kid Kash

This is a bonus match on the DVD which is taken from another show, and like the last 3PW show I reviewed, Killings is a lot of fun as a showboating heel. Love him hitting a big slam and doing a muscle pose. His overconfidence doesn’t pay off and he crotches himself on the top rope after a failed axe kick. Kash hits a great flip dive, but things swiftly go down the pan as they take a contrived “walk-while-we-hit-each-other-occasionally” stroll to the balcony. Killings hits a big powerbomb off the balcony through some tables, and they then decide to brawl back to the ring. That segment really ruined the flow of the match, and it doesn’t really recover, despite Killings flashy personality riling up the crowd. Kash makes a few nice comebacks, but Killings hits a gourdbuster for the win. Bit of a missed opportunity.

3PW A Night For The Flyboy

Readers of this blog will notice that I'm generally quite positive about pro-wrestling, and am more likely to give a good review than a bad. The reason for this is simple: I love wrestling, to the extent that even stuff that isn't great per se will still have some merit to me. With this in mind, it's very rare I'm hyper critical of a show, but last October's review of 3PW's Three Men & A Bodybag show was one of those times, just a meandering mess of bad wrestling, terrible booking and nonsensical turns. However, my Lovefilm account means that I don't really have to pay for these shows, and I'm going to continue to watch them in the belief that some gold might shine out amongst the shit. This show, a tribute to Ted "Rocco Rock" Petty, has Syxx-Pac vs Ron Killings AND Curt Hennig vs Jerry Lawler, so there must be something good here....right?

Josh Daniels vs Joey Matthews
Matthews heels it up to start, stalling and slapping Daniels in the face. Daniels is a bit lacking in charisma, and is a bit of a Benoit clone. They blow a leapfrog out of the corner, which even on a tribute show earns a "You fucked up" chant. Really lovely top rope clothesline by Matthews. Daniels misses a corner charge, hitting his shoulder in the corner, but is back on offence seconds later, hitting a delayed vertical suplex on Matthews with no notice paid to his arm. Daniels doesn't bother selling the shoulder at all, and seems to be trying to cut off all Matthews' offensive flurries. The match ends with Matthews hitting a reverse DDT following a missed top rope legdrop by Daniels

Rob Eckos vs White Lotus
Eckos is the future Robbie E, whilst Lotus is a balding white guy who claims to be Japanese. Some early comedy sees Eckos trucks pulled down, with a white dildo in his backside. Lovely. Neither guy has convincing looking offence, but Eckos shows some character and moves around the ring nicely. Decent hiptoss into a DDT by Eckos. Conversely, Lotus does a chain of three rolling suplexes but goes from most impressive to least, starting with a T-bone and ending with a normal vertical suplex, not understanding the idea of escalating the impressiveness of the moves. Eckos wins a quick match with a handful of ropes. Neither guy looked great, but if you were asked which one would have a role in a national promotion 10 years later, you'd have correctly picked Eckos from this bout.

Jason vs Del Tsunami
Jason looks in good nick here. Jason pretty much dominates, hitting a few nice suplexes. Tsunami gets very little in terms of offence in, but sells well enough, before Jason finishes with a submission, gravevining the legs with his arms whilst holding Tsunami's body in a leg scissors. Decent enough squash.

Roadkill vs Christian York
York looks a lot less pumped than in his TNA run, very much in part-time wrestler shape. The opening parts to the match are perfectly fine, and I loved Roadkill hitting a dropkick during a York skin-the-cat attempt to send him to the floor. They try some brawling outside the ring, which would look better if York wasn't so unconvincing at it. He looks a lot less slick than he does 10 years later, manging to botch throwing Roadkill out of the ring. His offence just looks a bit soft, which is disappointing, as I remember quite enjoying him in ECW. A few chinlocks throughout the match dont help to build excitement either. Roadkill has looked perfectly fine here, bar one moment where he's getting beaten by York in the corner and casually positions himself on the second rope for no reason other than for York to hit a rana. Roadkill at least comes back with some energy to liven things up. Throughout the match, the commentators have highlighted that Danny Doring isn't in the building whilst Joey Matthews is, so you know that we'll be seeing some interference, and low and behold, Matthews soon comes out. He's soon removed by Roadkill, but we get a blown finish where York superkicks a chair into Roadkill's face for 2, but the bell rings. Roadkill takes it upon himself to save matters by powerbombing Matthews onto York, then nailing a top rope splash for the win. This was inoffensive.

Ron Killings vs Syxx-Pac
Some stalling from current NWA champion Killings starts us off, as he decides to give the crowd a piece of his mind. This isn't too long after Syxx-Pac left the WWE and he looks sharp. I'm convinced fired-up face Waltman is his best incarnation, certainly more endearing than his DX persona. I loved Killings keeping up his war with the crowd, jawing at them whilst choking Pac over the ropes. A nice bump follows, as Killings hiptosses Syxx-Pac over the top rope to the floor. Killings cuts off a comeback as he catches Pac with a dropkick leaping from the top rope but misses a rare 450 as neither man can get a real advantage. This is a pretty short sprint of a match, so the back and forth nature feels fine here. I did fear a shitty ending after Pac hits an X-Factor, as he lies covering Killings, waiting for a count like moron despite having seen Sabu pull the ref from the ring. Luckily, he moves when Sabu tries an Arabian facebuster from the top rope, having set it up so that Killings gets hit, which means the spot makes sense. Syxx-Pac removes Sabu, and picks up an academic 3 count. I enjoyed this a lot, both guys looked really crisp.

The Blue Meanie & Jasmin St Claire vs The Rockin' Rebel & Missy Hyatt
When you've got a tag match and Rebel is the best guy in there, you're in for a painful ordeal. Watching this atrocity, I'm not convinced Jasmin isn't second best. You can clearly see Meanie guiding her through everything, but her offence on the Rebel still manages to look more convincing than that of her partner. Poor Rebel gets double teamed in the early going, as Hyatt just stands on the apron. Rebel is one of those guys you know is a bit shit, but for some reason, I've got a soft spot for the guy, possibly because he'll happily let himself look like a berk in a throwaway comedy match like this. Here, he takes all the token comedy spots - a headbutt to the crotch from a dazed Meanie, then falling into the doggystyle position with Hyatt after they get splashed in the corner (which Missy initially manages to blow by falling out of the corner too early). This match even ends like a crock of shit, Meanie shoving Rebel over a crouching Jasmin, who rolls him up for the win, despite Rebel's foot being clearly in the ropes. Just utter shite. Postmatch, we get an angle, as Tod Gordon turns up with some massive bloke who chokeslams Meanie, allowing Jasmin to turn on him. Aside from the fact that the company owners still have to get their win in before the turn, the angle feels out-of-place on a tribute show.

Curt Hennig vs Jerry Lawler
This should be fun. We get off to a good start as both guys try to one up each other, trading slams before Hennig hits a backdrop and Lawler reverses a second attempt. Neither guy manages to get a clear avantage. Hennig takes a trademark bump as he's punched over the top rope onto table. Lawler plays face here, which is odd given his anti-ECW past. Hennig concentrates on wearing down Lawler, locking in a sleeper then stomping away at him. Lawler comes back with a stunner for two, complete with double middle fingers. Hennig retaliates with a piledriver, but only gets two with a cocky pin. Neither guy is doing anything special, but the execution is noticably better than previous matches on the show. A Lawler second rope fistdrop only gets 2, before Hennig wins in the corner with his feet on the ropes. Breaking all wrestling conventions, without any proof as to the cheating the ref restarts the match. Hennig rightly decks ref, only for Lawler to roll him up, winning with a quick count from the ref. Despite the rubbish ending, this was plenty of fun. Maybe not great, as they never really left first gear, but proof that you can do more with less.

Sabu vs Gary Wolfe
Wolfe gets beaten down pre-match by Tod Gordon and his massive henchman, apparently called Annihilation. Despite this, Wolfe dominates early, though is well out of position for Sabu's rebound clothesline. They brawl outside, with Wolfe throwing some pissweak forearms. More weak brawling follows, before Sabu livens things up with a triple jump dive into the crowd. They wander around the arena a bit more, where Wolfe DDT's Sabu through a table on the stage. We get more tedious wander-wander-punch-wander fighting, before they get back to the ring. Wolfe rolls Sabu into the ring, then immediately throws him back out again, as he's clearly got no ideas on what to do in the match. Gordon and co hits some crap cheap shots outside the ring, which Wolfe totally no-sells. Sabu hits the triple jump moonsault for two. A second attempt is met with a chair, before Wolfe powerbombs Sabu through a table to the floor. This obvious finisher gets two. Inside, a burning hammer also gets two, and this match is really dragging. Having killed two finishers, they try to fill up time with bland offence that exists only to drag this match to "epic", but it's failing miserably. Worst DDT ever is hit by Sabu. It's totally fair to say that a ten-years older Sabu had better matches with Wild Boar and Jimmy Havoc in the UK last month than this, and it's all because those matches, whilst different, had actual structure to them. This is just overlong, drawn out nonsense. Eventually, Sabu sets up Wolfe on a table, which promptly falls over. Bonus points go to the commentators for covering this up by claiming Wolfe saved himself. Bonus points lost by following a trademark Arabian facebuster through the table by saying they'd never seen that before from Sabu. Started badly, and kept on (and on and on...) getting worse.