JCW Slam TV #7

Tracy Smothers vs CJ O’Doyle

O’Doyle isn’t masked here, which sends Shaggy II Dope into rapture on commentary. Not much of a match here, but the commentary carries it, with lots of talk of how the ladies can’t keep their hands off the newly unmasked O’Doyle. Smothers works a load of schtick into the bout, blindsiding O’Doyle, choking him out, then offering a phony handshake when O’Doyle is in the ascendancy – Smothers of course blindsiding him again. O’Doyle has some basic white meat babyface offence, all dropkicks and a nice crossbody, but he takes a nice bump on the top of his head from a clothesline. Also, got to love that, when O’Doyle tries a cover after his first move of the match, the ICP claim that O’Doyle really thought that one back elbow would be enough to get the win. 2 Tuff Tony runs in on Smothers for the DQ.

Corporal Robinson vs Trent Acid

Robinson is defending the JCW title here. These two pair up fairly well, with Acid the sneaky little shit against Robinson’s big bruiser. Acid takes a big bump to the floor from a clothesline, but uses some cat-and-mouse tactics to lure Corp out for the chase, nailing him as he re-enters the ring. Acid pretend humping Robinson’s chest on a pinfall hilariously outrages the crowd. Robinson comes back with a botched Rydeen Bomb and hits a superkick to Acid’s chest as Trent jumps from the top rope, but Boot Camp is blocked by Acid hitting him with holy water for the DQ. Love the idea that the holy water is burning Corporal’s eyes because he’s such a sinner, making him the face to the crowd.

JCW Slam TV Episode 3

Trent Acid vs NOSAWA

Acid does a great job riling up the crowd, taking his sweet time getting to the ring, blessing the crowd with holy water from the apron (a crowd who must have loved that ICP song where they sang about how their entire was for God), stalls some more, has a pray in the corner…then tells the crowd that God has told him not to wrestle. Amazing work by Acid, who walks to the back, leaving ICP to find a replacement…

NOSAWA vs CJ O’Doyle

I remember the name of O’Doyle from the early 00’s, but I never saw him wrestle. He’s got an amazingly generic look, with a shit orange mask on and some black shorts with the Irish flag on. The ICP clearly think he’s hilarious as they talk about his ludicrous mask and massive feet all match. He hits a lovely overhead belly-to-belly following a sneak attack, but the rest of his performance is him selling for NOSAWA, and his selling is endearingly goofy. NOSAWA blitzes him with kicks, nails a standing Shining Wizard followed by a Michinoku Driver for 3

Man Man Pondo vs Corporal Robinson

This is for Robinson’s JCW title, and has Pondo accompanied by Necro Butcher. Robinson has brought a barbed-wire baseball bat, which gets used throughout. Robinson nails a superkick, which is the last non-weapons move in the match. The rest of the bout is quite entertaining, in a hardcore nonsense way. Robinson hitting a running knee in the corner to drive the bat into Pondo’s face looked good, as did his bulldog of Necro onto the barbed-wire bat. Pondo’s offensive run isn’t quite so good, as Corp basically lands on him during a piledriver through the table, though I loved Pondo just hurling a bin right at Robinson. Corp hits a 2^nd rope powerbomb and Boot Camp, both onto Pondo’s trademark stopsign, for 3. Not going to blow away anyone who’s seen these guys before, but as a “greatest hits” for the two of them, it was fun.

JCW Slam TV Episode 2

Going through these Juggalo Championshit Wrestling shows (which is a lot of fun, just nice 45 min episodes with some dumb, enjoyable action), I can't help but think they're like a better version of Wrestling Society X. It's got better commentary (with one exception, which I refer to later) and better matches (probably the result of using IWA-MS and PWU mainstays, rather than XPW). This episode is weaker than the first, but was still easy viewing.

Jimmy Jacobs & Josh Abercrombie vs Necro Butcher & Mad Man Pondo

Little bit of negativity first, unconnected to the match itself, and that’s based around the commentary. On the whole, I find the commentary on these shows by the ICP very amusing, but I was disappointed with this match. Considering how often they sing about hating bigotry, there was a lot of talk about how gay the Jacobs/Abercrombie team were, and a load of time talking about sucking dick. It’s a shame because I expect better from the ICP.

The match itself was a glorified squash, but was still fun. Watching Necro blast away at Jacobs in the corner of the ring with chops and nasty punches is always going to be enjoyable, and I liked Pondo bealing Jacobs across the ring by his pierced nipples. Pondo then takes out Jacobs with a top rope senton through the chair Jacobs was sat in. Jacobs & Abercrombie are both clad in partially pink gear and are certainly playing up to the homophobics in the crowd, but more importantly, both are able to showcase their talents in the brief chances they get. Abercrombie blows a springboard move, but is smart enough to follow it up with a huge tope through Butcher & Pondo to divert focus away from the error. I also dug the spot where Abercrombie was about to dive from the top rope onto Pondo, who was laid out on the ramp, but spotted Jacobs was in trouble with Butcher and instead dived onto Necro. Something that makes sense, but you rarely see. It’s not enough to keep the advantage, and Butcher hits a tope rope slam on Jacobs through a table to win. Enjoyable, but better watched on mute.

Trent Acid vs 2 Tuff Tony

Both guys won on the last show, so it stands to reason that this was a pretty close match. Acid sneak attacks Tony pre-bell, but Tony soon gains the advantage and uses a Cactus clothesline to send Acid out. Tony backdrops Acid into the crowd, but Trent is able to use his wits to take over on Tony. He hides under the ring and re-emerges with a chair, which he uses to level Tony. A top rope splash get 2 for Acid. Tony is able to fire back in style, suplexing Trent into an open chair. Acid superkicks a chair into Tony’s face, which doesn’t look great. Tony hits the flipping top rope legdrop to Acid, who is too close to the ropes to pin, and hits a top rope rana, which sends Acid onto what is left of the chair. Tony Driver should be enough to finish, but Tony decides to light his fist for the Meteorite, which prompts Acid to run off for the count-out. An entertaining, if sloppy, spotfest.

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.

CZW Apocalypse 2004

Ah, my beloved 2004 CZW. Why I love you, I'm still not quite sure...

CKNY vs Blackout
This is Cory Kastle and Niles Young vs Sabian and Joker of the Blackout. CKNY are accompanied by Jude, but Ruckus just beats him to the back. This is a perfectly acceptable little opener, with some nice quick movements to start, ending with stereo dives by CKNY. I like the nastier side of Blackout here, with Sabian holding Young's long hair whilst kicking him in the spine, or Joker grinding his wrist tape into Young's face. Young gets the hot tag after Joker misses a diving headbutt. CKNY are a fine pretty boy face tagteam, though sadly in the worst possible promotion for a team like that to get cheers. Blackout manager Robbie Mireno stops Young on the top rope to prevent a double team Killswitch, and Blackout finish Kastle with the Joker Driver and a senton. Solid stuff.

Rick Feinberg vs Jon Dahmer
Even though Feinberg seems to have have toned down the gay stereotypes of his gimmick, you still know he's got no chance here. Dahmer offers to lie down for him to start, but kicks out at two and just destroys Feinberg. There is a brief Feinberg comeback, but he gets caught with a powerbomb from the top rope and Dahmer finishes with the Move of 1000 Maniacs.

DJ Hyde vs Jude
Bit of a size difference here. I love Hyde reversing a Jude choke into a big Northern Lights suplex. Jude botches something on the outside, so nails Hyde with a chairshot to the head before overshooting on a top rope moonsault. Aside from that, it's pretty much all Hyde, as he nails a nutty German suplex and a Blue Thunder Driver for the easy win. Hyde looked pretty great here.

Ruckus vs Derek Frazier
I always say this about Frazier, but his haircut was terrible. He does put in a good showing here though, with a nice agressive streak. He takes it to Ruckus early with some nasty looking strikes and a few throws to the guardrails. Ruckus' offence is a bit more pony, with some milky kicks and a shitty looking moonsault from the apron. Only a flipping neckbreaker from Ruckus looks especially hurty. The end sees Sabian put Ruckus' foot on the rope following some more vicious Frazier kicks, and Joker shoulderblocks Frazier to the torso, leaving him prone to a half Nelson driver for a Ruckus win.

Nick Berk vs Emil Sitochi
Sitochi wisely understands the crowd he is wrestling for and hits an early tope to win over the fans. Berk is a bit more solidly built, so his offence looks pretty good on Sitochi. Love his hiptoss into a backbreaker, and his big lariat looks great. I only saw a few Sitochi matches on his 2004 US tour, and he always came across as a smooth performer. He has some swanky armdrag variations and a few fun snapmares too - not a phrase you often get to say. Sitochi misses a missile dropkick and Berk locks in the Texas 2K2 for the tap. Fun little match.

Alex Shelley vs Roderick Strong vs Dan Maff vs B-Boy
This is an elimination match to become number one contender to the Iron Man title. Only 2 guys are allowed in at once, which gives a fun bit of psychology, where it makes sense for guys to not be tagging into the match. Strong is soon stooging for some Maff chops, which establishes the big man as the powerhouse of the match. The match soon ends up like a tag match, with Strong and Shelley teaming up against Maff and B-Boy. This works by giving it a face-in-peril section, as S&S take over on B-Boy. It soon, predictably, breaks down to all four guys in the ring, and B-Boy hits a Shining Wizard on Strong to eliminate him. Maff's size and power advantage lets him dominate again, but Shelley is able to reverse a burning hammer into Shell-Shock for three. B-Boy and Shelley exchange some near falls, before Shelley locks in the Border City Stretch. B-Boy manages to reverse this to his own stretch variation for a tapout.

GQ vs Chris Cash
These two trained together, so they should be able to work well. It's a ladder match, but with pinfall rules. There are some slightly milky strikes by both guys, but also some really sick bumps. There is a sick running powerbomb to the turnbuckles by GQ and then a few nasty powebombs onto a ladder. I did enjoy the way they teased and built up a splash mountain onto a ladder as a big spot. A load of chairs get set up outside the ring, leading to a top rope superplex to the floor. Cash only gets two from a top rope Cash Flow, but he hits a second, sloppier version from a ladder onto another ladder for the win. This is probably the best GQ match I've seen, even if large parts of this were sloppy or didn't really work properly (a bit near the end sees Cash and GQ seemingly make up before GQ nails a superkick, to minimal reaction). The big bumps were suitably horrific looking and both guys get a strong crowd reaction at the end, so you have to say it did a job.

Brad Bradley vs BJ Whitmer
This is a first round match in CZW's Extreme Strong Style tournament. Fans don't really seem into this match, and a Bradley chinlock does nothing to win them over. Aside from a typically awful strike exchange in the middle (hate them!), there is nothing particularly strong style about this match, as Whitmer pretty much grounds Bradley by working the left knee. It's all logical and tells a good story, but it's pretty dull to watch. Indeed, it's Bradley who excels, clubbing Whitmer frantically to try and get a breakon a legbar. Bradley shows more guts than brains by hobbling his way to a plancha on Whitmer. The end is quite cool, with Whitmer going for the exploder, Bradley trying to break it and Whitmer hitting him in the face THEN hitting the exploder to win. Nothing wrong with this match, but it is pretty dull.

Chris Hero vs Jimmy Rave
This is for Rave's Iron Man title, which has a twenty minute limit. This...isn't as good as I was hoping it would be. I like both guys, but this is a bit of a mess. The first half of this has some goofy, but fun, matwork, and I did love some of Hero's fakeout work. Stuff like going for an eyepoke off a roaring elbow, or going for a figure four before just stomping on Rave instead. But a lot of this is just Hero (the heel) making Rave (the face champ) look like a total chump. A sequence of Hero locking on various cravates requires Rave to just stand there like a berk whilst Hero contorts around him. The second half of the match is just them exchanging finishers with both the Hangman's Clutch and the Dusk to Dawn Crossface getting ropebreaks, and Rave's running knee and the Hero's Welcome both getting two counts. With both guys having killed all their finishers, Hero gets a fall off a backslide, where both guys are clearly in the ropes. I did like Rave going for desperation rollups, knowing there is only a minute left, but then Hero runs to the back. Rather than waiting and taking the countout to tie the falls, Rave runs into the back with him as the time runs out and both guys are counted out. This means Hero is the new champ, but what a disappointing way to get there.

The Messiah, Adam Flash & Sabu vs Nick Gage, the Wifebeater & Trent Acid
This is an elimination tables match. Big brawl starts things off, and this is pretty fun to start, though you can see Messiah having to slow down his offence to allow Wifebeater to keep up. It's also useful to have heel manager Dewey Donovan involved, as he can set up weapons for the heels to allow the match to flow better. He sets up a few chairs in the ring, ready for Flash to superplex Gage onto them in a fun spot. Acid and Sabu work quite a fun section in ring together, especially for two guys who can be pretty sloppy. Messiah sunset flips Wifebeater through a ringside table, but this is somehow deemed a double elimination as Messiah also went through the table. Gage must be a total idiot, as he learns nothing from this and piledrives Flash through a table, which again eliminates both men. So, please note, if you go through the table with your opponent, you seem to be eliminated too, even if it's clearly your attacking move. Sabu and Acid face off for a bit, before the Messiah returns to help Sabu (clearly Acid's partners couldn't be arsed) and Sabu crashes Acid through a table and is declared the winner, despite the fact that he clearly went through the table with Acid. These rules make no fucking sense and ruined a potentially decent match.

CZW Cage of Death IV (2002)

As stated before, I was a massive CZW a decade ago. While the likes of Bryan Danielson, Low Ki and Samoa Joe were the big indy stars of the day, the Messiah, Trent Acid and Adam Flash were amongst my favourite wrestlers. Pretty much every EWR game I played at the time would feature the Messiah as world champ, with the Backseat Boys as tag champs. Of course, I'm pretty aware now that I wasn't really with the majority on this, so it's going to be interesting to see how this 11 year old show has aged.

Before we get to the opening match, which is the titular Cage of Death match between John Zandig and Lobo, we get a hilarious video where Zandig gets massacred by Lobo and his cronies. They kidnap him in a lorry, hurl him through barbed wire boards and even hang him from hooks through his skin. Lovely. This apparently means Zandig wont be making it to the match, but unsurprisingly, he still comes to the ring, wearing the same bloody rags he got beaten up in a few hours earlier.

Zandig Vs Lobo
We excitingly start off with a load of promos where fun stuff like legality of contracts and double-double crosses take place. To cut a long story short, Lobo has to face Zandig in the cage for the ownership of CZW, with the winner being decided by grabbing a contract hanging from the ceiling. Despite being a bloody mess who we saw getting killed earlier, Zandig totally dominates, with Lobo thrown into the electrified cage within a minute. I do quite like a Falcon Arrow onto a cactus by Zandig. Lobo finally gets a period of offence, but soon Zandig fires back and powerbombs Lobo into a table and drops another plant on him. Zandig sets up a table and a plane of glass over it before both decide to climb to the top of the cage to grab the contract. I was about to sarcastically comment how obvious it was that one of them would get thrown from the top through this table, but FUCKING HELL!! Lobo hits a death valley driver from the top of the cage through two tables OUTSIDE the ring. Absolutely mental. Though the impact of this is kinda ruined as they're back on their feet brawling again within a minute. Zandig puts Lobo on a table outside the ring, then drops an elbow on him from the top of the cage. No attempt to grab the contract. They both climb the cage, and Zandig press slams Lobo from the top through the glass table from earlier before grabbing the contract to win. Absolutely no attempt to tell a coherent story, and some of the brawling was a bit weak, but when they hit the big spots, they really went for it.

Rockin' Rebel, Greg Matthews, "Doomsday" Danny Rose, Chris Cash & GQ vs Chris Stylz, Ian Knoxx, Derek Frazier, Jon Dahmer & Adam Flash
Wrestlers in this match I was convinced 10 years ago would go on to become big stars: Knoxx and Matthews. I was an idiot. This is an elimination match, so expect this to be a bit of a clusterfuck. A few early dives are pretty fun, especially Flash diving onto everyone into the aisleway. Some of the early exchanges with Frazier taking on Cash, Rebel and Matthews are pretty fun, before Matthews pins Frazier with a Snow Plow. Rebel takes out Stylz with a fireball to the eyes and a huge legdrop to make it 5 on 3. Flash takes Matthews out with a top rope facebuster to help the numbers. Flash falls victim to the numbers game as Rose and Rebel team up to eliminate him, with a Rose death valley driver followed by a Rebel legdrop for the pin. Flash decides he's not leaving yet and levels Rebel with a chairshot whilst Dahmer comes in and nails Rose with a lariat allowing Dahmer to pin both men simultaneously. Weak section. Knoxx looks really good here, and it's a shame injuries caught up with him to the extent they did. GQ manages to maintain his one-botch-per-match average by missing a top rope stomp to Dahmer's head. Things break down and Dahmer hits GQ with the Move of 1000 Maniacs to eliminate him. Despite being down 2-to-1, Cash manages to eliminate his two larger opponents, hitting a top rope Cash Flo on Knoxx and a facebuster on Dahmer to be the sole survivor. CZW were clearly looking to give Cash a big push, and he looked really impressive here.

Z-Barr vs Rick Feinberg & the Hurricane Kid
Feinberg was CZW's very subtle parody of the RoH owner Rob Feinstein, a flamboyant camp character, whose ring music was Abba's "Dancing Queen". The commentary seems to suggest that this match is the result of a romantic interlude in a truck between Feinberg and Barr. Obviously. Feinberg and Kid dominate to start, but essentially they're comedy jobbers and Barr soon takes over. Decent tope by Barr takes both down. Feinberg kisses Barr midring, so Barr destroys him with some weak offence. Everything here is slow and telegraphed as the crowd starts to turn on the match. Barr dominates a bit more, before pinning Feinberg with the Donkey Punch. Not very good.

Nick Berk vs Josh Prohibition
This is a submission match. I like both guys, with some reservations, so this should be decent. They trade a few holds, before Prohibition ups the tempo with a suicide dive. The commentators talk up a previous Berk neck injury as Prohibition locks on an Indian deathock. Prohibition keeps on the neck, both with holds and impact offence. Berk hooks on a nice reverse cattle mutilation. A seated guillotine by JP keeps the offence focused on Berk's neck. In an odd spot, Prohibtion hits the Straight Edge and goes for a futile pin. This gives Berk time to recover and lock on a Scorpion. Prohibition nails Berk with brass knucks and locks in a surfboard half-nelson called the Path of Resistance, but Ian Knoxx comes out to distract him, based on a "boozing vs teetotal" feud. This gives Berk time to fire back with a powerbomb, and lock in a Texas2K2 Cloverleaf for the tap. Prohibition really carried this match, as his offence was focused on one body part and made sense due to Berk's known injury. In contrast, Berk just locked on some submission holds without bodypart focus. This was ok, but should've been better.

M-Dogg 20 vs Sonjay Dutt vs Ruckus
The winner of this match becomes the no.1 contender to Trent Acid's CZW Jr Heavyweight title. If this is anything but a spotfest, I'll be shocked. Some of M-Dogg's early stuff looks a bit sloppy, though in fairness they run through a series of reversals that looks super-slick before throwing Dutt from the ring. M-Dogg nails the first bit of offence that actually looks hurty by catching Dutt in midair and ramming him into the turnbuckles. Dogg also hits an awesome highspot, by diving onto his two opponents outside the ring with a huge number of twists. A subsequent Dutt dive is both less impressive and manages to barely hit his opponents. Dogg gets the next swank highspot by getting elevated up a pillar, climbing further up then diving 12ft onto his opponents. A slightly clumsy Tower of Doom spot doesn't come off as well as you suspect they'd intended. M-Dogg tries an overly complicated double DDT that looks like shit. Chris Cash comes out to interfere, but gets beaten up by all 3 competitors, thus totally taking the shine off his big win from earlier. They spend about 3 minutes destroying Cash before getting back to the match. Dutt picks up the win by reversing another overly complex M-Dogg move into a pin and grabbing the tights to win. Frustrating match, which was really fun in places, then boneheadedly awful in others.

The H8 Club vs Chris Hero & B-Boy
Hero cuts a pre-match promo, declaring himself IWA-MS through and through. Man, I forgot how intimidating the H8 Club looked. Hero does a great job schticking it up in fear of Nate Hatred. I always liked Hatred, he always came across as a dominant beast and wrestled like a monster should. The H8 Club pretty much beat the shit out of Hero to start. It takes B-Boy coming in and dropkicking Hatred's leg to give them an advantage. This doesn't last long as Hatred takes his head off with a clothesline. B-Boy finally gets a prolonged period of offence after hitting a twisting neckbreaker on Nick Gage. Hero's cravate-plex on Gage is pretty choice. B-Boy is pretty stiff on offence, and Gage seems happy to take it, so this period of offence is plenty fun, before Gage nails a brainbuster on B-Boy. Hatred just kills guys on the hot tag, blitzing Hero with chairshots. They pancake Hero on a flat table on the floor, which absolutely has to suck. B-Boy gets a very close two after a Shining Wizard on Gage. Decapitator by Hatred turns B-Boy inside out and gets the win. After the match, the H8 Club continue to kill Hero whilst B-Boy leaves him to die. Quite fun, they certainly presented B-Boy as the stronger link of the team here, and it's always enjoyable watching the H8 Club kills guys.

The Backseat Boys vs Ric Blade & "Sick" Nick Mondo
We open with a lengthy sequence of reversals that almost feels like a dance routine, before the face team of Mondo and Blade hit stereo dives on the Backseats. Weaponry is swiftly brought into the ring and a ladder is balanced over two chairs, which Acid puts Blade through with a Blue Thunder Driver. Trent goes to hit a tornado DDT on Mondo onto a ladder, but Mondo reverses into a Northern Lights suplex onto the same ladder. The Backseats remain one step ahead, playing up their tag team familiarity, hurling Blade into another ladder in the corner. They split up, Kashmere and Blade fighting in the crowd as Acid and Mondo stay in the ring. Apparently this is Blade's first match back in 18 months, so obviously putting him into a TLC match makes perfect sense. He's also the worst wrestler in the match, all milky strikes and average flips. Everyone else at least looks like they're hurting their opponents. Splitting up has hurt the Backseats, as both faces take control and they reunite to set up the Backseats on tables next to the balcony, with a ladder drapped over both of them. Blade and Mondo then hit stereo moonsaults on the ladder/Backseats/table sandwich. Unsurprisingly, the faces look in worse shape after that. Back in the ring, they've learnt nothing, hitting dives from the top rope onto another ladder sandwiching the Backseats and AGAIN hurting themselves. Blade hits a legdrop from the top of what must be a 15ft high ladder onto Kashmere, which only gets two. Trent Acid has recovered in this time and takes Blade out, giving the Backseats time to double team Mondo, then both diving through a Ric Blade-covered table. Kashmere puts a ladder round his neck, Terry Funk style, but Mondo stomps on the ladder in a nasty looking bump. The match ends with Mondo getting thrown through a ringside table and the Backseats sandwich Blade in a ladder to win. Spotty as all Hell, but ridiculously entertaining, and the story of the Backseats dominating in a team environment, but suffering when separated, made total sense. The faces were too daredevil to survive, taking bumps even when on offence, and the Backseats were able to hold out longer.

Justice Pain vs the Messiah
Both hold gold here, with Messiah holding the Iron Man title whilst competing for Pain's world title. This is apparently under Iron Man rules, which essentially means anything goes. Messiah is one step ahead of Pain in the opening minutes, until Pain suplexes him into the turnbuckles. I like Pain catching Messiah mid-leapfrog and slamming him down. Messiah is able to come back with a killer tornado DDT. They end up outside the ring, and the logic of booking another hardcore brawl right after the tag TLC is pretty odd. Messiah goes for a cannonball off the apron, but misses and lands on a non-breaking table. Swanky neck-snap on the floor by Pain. Blockbuster gets two in the ring, and Pain is looking pretty good here. His movement and execution is great. He also takes a killer bump as he flies into the guardrail off an Irish whip. They blow a Pain dropkick into a chair, so Pain levels Messiah with a chairshot for two. Insane bump as Pain stands on the apron and Messiah throws himself at him, sending both men onto a pile of chairs on the floor. Nick Gage comes in for a totally pointless run-in, nailing both guys with big moves, though he does helpfully pour a bag of thumbtacks on the canvas. Messiah hits a cutter on Pain onto the tacks for two. The Fall From Grace (running burning hammer) onto the tacks only gets two. Pain gets the Pain Thriller (barely on the tacks) for two. A top rope superplex by Messiah onto the tacks gets a more direct hit, but only gets two. After all that, the Messiah is finally able to pick up the win...with a crucifix. Well, I suppose he's the right man to have perfected that move. Decent main event fight, this is probably the best I've seen Pain look.

GWF Battle of the Champions

So, today is the 10yr anniversary of the demise of the GWF, a British indy that ran one show (which you're about to read below) and had their second cancelled on the day by the ring never turning up on 02/02/03. This infamous episode in British Wrestling is captured nicely in Greg Lambert's excellent book "Holy Grail", but I felt like today was the perfect day to revisit their only show. The focus of it is an 8 man title tournament, with four Brit wrestlers (Jonny Storm, Jody Fleisch, Paul Sloane and James Tighe) and four international talents (Little Guido, Trent Acid, Justin Richards and Michael Kovac) battling for the GWF title.

Graham Hughes vs Mark Sloan
Christ, these two rattle through a meaningless selections of highspots like there is no tomorrow. Hughes takes a rana and busts out a moonsault in the first 30 seconds. Within two minutes Sloan has nailed him with a sunset flip powerbomb for two. Sloan then hits Angels Wings for two. We do get a nice jumping kick by Sloan, but this is totally lacking in storytelling. The match is interrupted by heel manager Ross "The Boss" Gordon dancing at ringside, and all the international talent booked for the show jumps in for a double DQ. Not a great loss to have this cut short.

Justin Richards vs James Tighe
This is the first match of the tournament. They run through a nice little series of holds and counters to start. Richards soon starts heeling it up by yelling at the ref before grinding Tighe's eyes on the top rope. Richards maintains control by cutting off Tighe's offence with an eyepoke. They keep the moves simple compared to the first match, but tell a straightforward story where the face/heel divide is easy to follow. Tighe gets two on a roll-up, which I suspect was supposed to end it as he follows win a small package for 3 right away.

Little Guido vs Jody Fleisch
We get a nice little opening sequence, which sees both men try to out-do one another. Jody is more of a risktaker than Guido, so despite a successful flurry of high-risk offence, he crashes and burns on a springboard dropkick to give Guido the advantage. Guido keeps it to the mat, playing a safer game. Guido shoves Fleisch to the floor on an attempted springboard, sending him flying into the railings. Jody manages to get two from a bridged pin, which obviously worries Guido's manager Jake Roberts enough to throw Guido a foreign object for the cheap win. Too short, and lacking decent structure. Twice Guido locked in a cross-armbreaker, with no build up or aftermath.

Robbie Brookside vs Jack Xavier vs the Zebra Kid
One of the things I like in the opening sections is that the wrestlers would tactically just stop and let the other two fight, rather than have a load of convoluted 3-way spots. Zebra dives off the top to the outside, but the camera is static and thus totally misses it. This is followed by Zebra hitting a cannonball from the apron on the opposite side of the ring to the camera, so not a good day for his highspots. Zebra and Brookside both seem to be focusing their assault on Xavier, taking each other out so they can concentrate on Jack. Zebra nails a sick looking piledriver on Xavier, before yet ANOTHER Zebra dive is missed, so all you see is him leaping off the screen. The ringwork is mostly crisp, though they aren't helped by the ref telegraphing a false finish by dramatically slowing his count before Zebra makes the save. A top rope elbow on Xavier gets the win for Zebra Kid. This wasn't bad, but I hoped for a bit more structure, rather than just guys taking it in turn to hit moves.

Michael Kovac vs Paul Sloane
Kovac, I believe, is a German wrestler. Sloane is the guy I know least about in this tournament, but his first in ring act is to hit a spear followed by some of the worst forearms this side of the Divas division. Kovac seems to be the more experienced of the two, as he carries himself nicely in the ring and busts out some nice offence including a swank torture rack dropped into a facefirst slam. This gets three, total squash. I'm looking forward to seeing more Kovac in this tournament.

Trent Acid vs Jonny Storm
CZW was pretty popular in the UK in 2002, so Trent gets a decent reaction here. Ross Gordon returns and cuts a promo that I can't hear very well. Acid stalls like Hell to start. The highlight of an overly-flippy opening segment is Acid smoothly reversing a hiptoss into an abdominal stretch. Acid really has his character work nailed on here, waiting until Jonny turns around before hiding behind him, then following him in a hilarious, OTT manner. They brawl into the unlit crowd, with something impossible to see earning a "Holy Shit" chant. Acid feigns a leg injury in the corner, then suddenly strikes to attack Storm in a classic heel spot. Acid's mannerisms are great in his control spot, and I like the way that, for a guy who often did too many choreographed looking moves in his matches, he works simply here, drapping a leg over Storm's throat whilst posing to soak up the boos. I also like him following up a backbreaker with a full Nelson camel clutch to focus on Storm's back. Storm's offence at this point was mainly high-risk and flashy, so he was perfect for comebacks that pop the crowd, with a top rope leg-lariat looking great. A triple jump rana gets two for Storm. They work a pin reversals sequence before an Acid Yakuza kick gets two. A second attempt misses and Storm hits a rana for the win. It broke down in places, but overall this was damn good.

Little Guido vs James Tighe
We're now in semi-final territory in the tournament. Tighe is slightly bigger than Guido, so I liked him using a few shoulderblocks to establish his strength advantage. Tighe hits a poor looking bridging German suplex, but makes up for it with a swank looking 2nd rope moonsault. However a distraction from Jake Roberts allows Gordon to come back and nail Tighe with a weapon, gifting the win to Guido. Short match, but it puts more heat on Guido getting an easy route to the final.

Michael Kovac vs Jonny Storm
Storm is still selling his injuries from the Acid match, and Kovac is much larger, so the story should write itself here. Storm goes for broke early, nailing a dive on Kovac (which the camera caught!) but as soon as Kovac takes control, he slows the pace down to his comfort zone and starts to tie Storm up to work over the back. Kovac uses a camel clutch here, which plays back to the Acid match in a nice touch. Storm gets a few hope spots, but Kovac is great at turning them to his advantage, reversing a sunset flip into a belly-to-back piledriver. He hits the torture rack facebuster, but Storm turns his cocky pin into a crucifix to win. Normally I hate that finish, but it worked here as Kovac had essentially killed Storm, so it shows Storm's desire to win, whilst keeping Kovac looking like a monster. Kovac is really someone I'd like to see more of.

Shak Khan vs Lee Butler
This is a hardcore match to kill time before the final. It's probably fair to say these two are a bit bulkier than the contestants in the tournament, so this should be a change of pace if nothing else. Brilliantly, within 2 minutes they're brawling in the unlit crowd away from the hard camera. No idea what is happening. This is probably for the best, because this is total shit when it gets in the ring. No weapons get involved, just some slow, plodding action as neither guy looks particularly bothered. Butler misses a moonsault and Khan rolls him up in the ropes, which the ref somehow counts for 3. Seriously, Butler's shoulders were pretty much on the ring apron when he was pinned, with the refs hand hitting the bottom rope everytime he lifted his arm to count. Nonsense.

Little Guido vs Jonny Storm
Storm is still selling his battering in the two previous matches. They start off, making as if to run through a quick exchange of moves, but Guido abruptly drops a low elbow on Storm to give himself an advantage. Guido dominates, but does allow Storm a few hope spots, with Storm getting two from a moonsault. Guido holds Storm to allow Ross Gordon to attack him, but Jonny ducks and Guido gets nailed instead. Storm rolls him up and...wins? Christ, that was abrupt. Really feel like all of Guido's matches were way too short, though at least Storm gave a great accounting of himself throughout the event. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the entire output of the GWF

CZW Uncivilized 2003

Back in 2003, I was all about CZW. It was the first indy I watched constantly and, despite it's many obvious flaws, I loved it. Many of my favourite indy names were CZW guys and I thought it'd be fun to revisit a show I think I only watched once before.

Jude vs Jon Dahmer
Teacher vs student match here, with Dahmer the head of the CZW academy and Jude but a few matches into his career. As such, it's far from special. Jude has to rely on the more experienced Dahmer to structure the match, and he doesn't do a great job. The match kinda ends up feeling like some moves done at random. That said, there are some positives: Dahmer hits a sick looking German suplex that looks like it kills Jude, and the rookie looks pretty promising here. It's a shame looking at this 8 years later as Jude has some real fire when on offence, and his snap suplex is really good. He hits a pump-handle Emerald Frosion, which gets 2 when it should be a stonewall finisher, before outside interference from fellow rookies Niles Young and Cory Kastle lead to Dahmer hitting the Move of 1000 Maniacs (Gansobomb) for 3.

Before the next match, we get some antics involving Rockin' Rebel and John Zandig to set up the main event: Rebel and Greg Matthews vs Heartbreaker (!?!) and TATANKA! What an odd match.

Adam Flash & Ian Knoxx vs Derek Frazier & Hurricane Kid vs Chris Stylz & Z-Barr
This is an elimination match, though the team of Frazier and Kid are pretty superfluous due to Kid's uber-jobber status. The team of Flash and Knoxx decimate them to start, including a nice doubleteam where Flash elevated Kid up in the air for Knoxx to lariat on the way down. Knoxx really had the look and ability to be pretty big in wrestling before injuries took him out and he looks really good throughout this match. Barr gets tagged in the match and instantly takes Frazier down with a side headlock. And then another one. Then gets on the mic and says he'll hold the headlock as long as he wants. Easy, easy heat. Frazier, who has one of the least imposing looks of any wrestler I've ever seen, actually looks pretty good on offence, nailing a crisp Dragon whip on Barr, and also bumps huge for an overhead belly to belly. The Kid gets tagged in and instantly gets caught with the Barr Driller for 3. Knoxx and Stylz, former tag partners, finally go face-to-face for the first time and it's not really as heat filled as you'd imagine as they circle for position, but their sequence in the ring is really smooth and looks really good.Stylz hits a nice Northern Light suplex for 2. Knoxx regains the advantage with a sweet looking fallaway slam from the second rope before Flash hits a top rope legdrop for the win. This got pretty good after the first elimination and would have been much better as a straight up tag. Stylz would leave CZW shortly after this, which is disappointing as both him and Knoxx looked really good here.

Tai Smiley vs GQ
Tai Smiley is wearing a yellow bodysuit with a smiley face on, and seems to be working a retard gimmick, so don't expect a mat classic. They work through an elementary wrestling exchange before GQ gets on the mic to talk some smack. He then pretends to take off Smiley's nose. The comedy is dying on it's arse, so fortunately GQ is wise enough to go on the attack, hitting Smiley with a vicious belly-to-back suplex and giving him a backbreaker on a steel chair. Annoyingly, every time the crowd are starting to get back into the match, we get some more comedy which pisses them off. A shame, because GQ looks pretty good here in what is, essentially, a squash. He locks in a killer cloverleaf-looking hold and nails a nifty DDT for the win. More wrestling, less bad comedy needed here.

Mike Mayhem Vs Livewyre vs Grim Reefer
I really thought this would suck, but actually I pretty much enjoyed this. Firstly, all the participants brought something to the dance: Reefer was pretty sloppy, but won my heart over early on by hitting two dangerous dives to the floor in the first 2 minutes. Livewyre is far bigger than the other and came to the ring making generic "I'm going to break you" gestures. He's also crucially better known as Mikey from the Spirit Squad and during the match he busted out some cool stuff, including a swank half Nelson suplex and a massive spear that nearly broke Mayhem in half. As for Mayhem, he was less flashy, but actually had a semblance of character which tied the whole thing together and he was arguably less spotty than the others. The oddest thing is seeing a future WWE tag champion, who was the smallest in his stable, get booked like a monster in CZW, but he looked really good here. Reefer wins with a walking Swanton from the middle of the ring to end an enjoyable match.

Stefan Perez vs Nick Berk
This is Perez's CZW debut and he's challenging Berk to a submissions match. Remember this, it's important. Perez takes control in the early going and tries a pinfall. The ref doesn't count, presumably reminding Perez that HE WANTED A SUBMISSION MATCH. Perez then hits the Three Amigos (with Berk actually getting up before him) which ends with a Fisherman Suplex. Still no pins allowed Stefan. Garguilo and House mock him for this, especially as he made the damn challenge. Berk applies actual submission holds to Perez, but Perez keeps making the ropes and hits a nice top rope Blockbuster. He then tries to springboard into the ring, but gets caught and put into the Texas C2K2 for the tapout win for Berk. Perez looked like a moron here and never returned to CZW.

Ric Blade vs B-Boy
Never been a big fan of Ric Blade, but I always dug B-Boy, so it'll be interesting to see who influences the match more. They start out with an exchange of strikes, which is a poor choice as Blade's strikes suck while B-Boy is pretty hard hitting, yet they act as if both guys are inflicting the same damage. We then have to take a break as it looks like Blade pulled a muscle in his leg during the opening stages. It's all made better when Blade flips into the ring, only to get suplexed into the corner by B-Boy. Blade continues to throws kicks at B-Boy so poor that I actually feel bad for B-Boy having to sell them, though it seems B-Boy is content to drop Blade on his head with a neat Dragon suplex. Johnny Kashmere comes out to distract Blade which allows B-Boy to hit a Shining Wizard into a baseball bat onto Blade for the win. Too much shitty Blade offence makes this a pass, though bonus points to B-Boy for selling the knee that crashed into the bat.

Ruckus vs Sonjay Dutt
This is a Junior Heavyweight title match. Chris Cash comes to ringside before the match starts and somehow becomes special referee. The problem with this is you know there will be some kind of screwy finish which could ruin the match. In this case, the problems arise even earlier as Cash refuses to count for either man, at which point you wonder why either man continues fighting. Cash continues in this vein, blocking Ruckus' attempt at the Razzle-Dazzle and pretending to trip into the ropes to knock both men from the top at various points and for some reason neither man assaults him. It's a shame this distracts from what is quite a fun pair of performances from Ruckus and Dutt. As far as early 00's CZW Junior Heavyweights go, both are smooth, unlikely to blow spots and, while maybe over-flippy, they've got a good chemistry which shines through amongst the poor booking. The ending is predictably disappointing- as both men fight on the top rope, Cash nails them both with a ladder to send them both through a ringside table for a double-countout. A shame.

Tatanka & Heartbreaker vs Rockin' Rebel & Greg Matthews
At the time, I was convinced that Greg Matthews had the look and the promise for a big future in wrestling. Shows how much I know. Before the match even starts, Zandig and the Wifebeater beat the tar out of Rebel & Matthews, taking all the heat away from special guest Tatanka. In the ring, they work through a basic, but decent match, as Tatanka dominates both Rebel's Army members before they take control. Nothing fancy, which is sensible due to Matthews' rookie status and Rebel's limitations. Things get less interesting when Heartbreaker eventually gets in, with one of his first moves being an overly fussy (and pointless) springboard kneedrop. He spends most of the match selling, which is probably wise because he manages to hit a shockingly bad spinebuster on Matthews. The end comes when a nameless man runs in the ring, allowing Rebel to hit Heartbreaker with a loaded fist for Matthews to cover him. The in-ring work was fine, especially the Tatanka bits, but the booking was poor. As well as pre-match, Zandig and Wifebeater beat up the Rebel's Army members as soon any time the left the ring, including several shots with weapons, which makes the losers look even worse.

The Backseat Boyz vs The H8 Club
This is for the CZW Tag titles. The story here is that new Backseats manager Dewey Donovan used to manage the H8 Club, so they should have the advantage. It doesn't show in the early stages, as Nick Gage and Nate Hatred decimate the Backseats, who bump like pinballs for the monsters, including a double 360 sell of a Hatred clothesline. A baseball bat shot to Hatred's midsection allows Acid and Kashmere to take over on Gage, which includes a double eyepoke on Gage to cause him to blindly swing for Kashmere, only to get beaten down. Gage gives the smaller wrestlers a lot of offence and bumps well enough that this all looks convincing. The BB's start to work in the Dream Sequence, only for Acid to get folded in two by a clothesline from the returning Hatred, which gives the H8 Club a chance to dominate on the floor. A Donovan distraction allows the Messiah to attack Hatred on the outside and Gage stupidly goes after Donovan, leaving his partner to eat a T-Gimmick from the Backseats, which is enough to win them the title. Really fun power vs speed match and both teams were able to play up their strengths.

The Messiah vs Sick Nick Mondo
Mondo asked for a title match earlier in the night, which Messiah granted. The early stages of the match really don't click- Mondo's strikes look off and he barely catches the Messiah on a plancha. After about 5 minutes, things suddenly click, and they work a nice little sequence of moves and reversals that includes a decent Lionsault from the Messiah. He then hits a double jump splash on Mondo through a ringside table. I always dug the Messiah, even after CZW foolishly turned him heel following his emotional title win after getting his thumb chopped off during an assault at his home. Back inside, they fight over powerbombing the other through a table, which Messiah eventually wins for two. There is one hokey spot where Messiah manages to staple Mondo's hand to his back, but the rest is good stuff, with both guys pulling out all the stops to get the win. The Messiah has control when Big Mac Smack comes to the ring and gives Mondo a bucket of thumbtacks. Mondo downs the Messiah and pours the tacks over him, before hitting a springboard legdrop for two. On the surface a stupid move, but one consistent with the Sick Nick character. An M Bison from the top (a double footed stomp) onto the tacks gets the win for Mondo. A post-match brawl ensues and it's announced that Mondo has won Messiah's Iron Man title, not the World title. A silly end to a good match