House of Pain: Tag Team Warfare 2010

A year or so back, I reviewed a show by the Nottingham based promotion House of Pain, an academy/promotion who put on shows of homegrown talent, with BritWres mainstay Stixx as head trainer. Here is another show which I picked up on DVD at around the same time. As I stated in my initial review, I'm not going to judge these matches as harshly as I would others, knowing that these guys are learning their craft and, given that the shows are kept at a low price, it's a fair and ideal way for them to improve. On the other hand, this is still a product that the public has to pay for, so if I've spent money on something terrible I will say so. Thankfully, that is not the case for the vast majority of this show...

Lucas Black vs Matt Pedin
This is a rematch from the previous HOP show, which saw Pedin pick up the win. We get a few pre-match hijinx from Pedin goofing around on Black before the match gets underway. Some of Pedin's flash roll-ups early on look really smooth. Black looks a little hesitant in places, but he's crucially got the character and his mannerisms down pat. You can just tell that he'll get better with experience. He does little things like a nice cocky pin that really suits the role. Pedin shows good fire on his comeback, and Black catching him on a springboard crossbody into a cradle neckbreaker looks really good. I loved Black's selling of a codebreaker before interference from Black's manager leads to a low blow and Lucas putting a bucket on Pedin's head before hitting a Neutraliser for the Black win. Reasonable opener.

Adil Khan vs Callum Piper
I get the impression these two guys are a bit more experienced, as they seem more polished than the guys in the opener. They both seem more natural in the ring, and there is a nice snap to Piper's offence. They maybe spend a bit too much time with a Khan Camel Clutch, and Piper seems to dip into Ken Anderson's offence list a bit, but this is pretty good. The end sees Khan grabbing his title belt, and nailing Piper's tag partner Jimmy Crash when he tries to stop him using it, only for Piper to hit him with a scissor kick for the win.

Jewel vs Sammy Hope
Apparently, this is the first 1-on-1 ladies match in the House of Pain. There is a notable size difference between the two, which is played up as the story of the match, with Hope having to hit-and-run on the larger Jewel. To be honest, this isn't terribly good, as neither girl seems too experienced in the ring, but they keep it simple with an easy to follow story. Hope appears to be the better of the two, as Jewel's offence seems particularly weak and hesitant, but they stuck to what they knew and, given that nothing was blown and everything made sense, you have to call this a success.

Kaleb Hughes, Joseph Conners, Brian Wright & Zero Tolerance vs Danny Chase, Paul Malen, Dropkick James & Marc Scott
This is an elimination tag team match. The initial story arc sees Conners trying his best to avoid Malen, and it's nice to see that Conners was an effective shit-talking heel even in 2010. It may seem obvious in hindsight, but the four guys who impress most here are the one's who are still working regularly to this day (namely Hughes, Conners, Chase and Malen), with Hughes and Conners looking particularly vicious in ring. By way of contrast, Dropkick James seems to be struggling with keeping his trousers up. Scott is a well-built guy who seems to have good energy and he swiftly pins Tolerance with a sitout powerbomb. However, Hughes superkicks Scott whilst he holds Wright in a press slam, and Wright lands on top for the pin. I'm not a fan of rapid eliminations, as it takes away the advantage element of the match. Sadly, we get two more in rapid succession, as Wright is DQd for choking Dropkick on the ropes, leading to Conners swiftly pinning him to leave both sides down to two men. This leaves us with the four best performers in the match, and we switch to a formula tag team match, with Malen working as FIP. Chase shows some nice fire and energy on the hot tag, but accidentally nails Malen with a missile dropkick. Brilliantly, Conners gets the mic and uses his poison tongue to try and convince Malen, who is on the apron, to abandon Chase. Even better, it works, as Malen rejects the hot tag and leaves Chase to get hit with a running DVD for the elimination. Conners and Hughes win via countout, as Malen walks to the back. Fun match, and really hot angle to close it.

Tony Asbo vs Nate Colt
The match is being refereed by Asbo's son Burberry, who showed some concern about the tactics used by Asbo in a match on the previous show. A pre-match pat down reveals Asbo hiding a baseball bat and pair of wrenches on his person. Asbo takes some quick offence from Colt early, so slows things down with a baseball dropkick to the leg and a half crab. I loved the wicked punts to the ribs Asbo added, as he shows a real viciousness on offence. Colt does a good job selling the beating, even when he gets back on offence. They work the size difference well, with Colt getting a few flashes of spirited offence, only for the larger Asbo to cut him off each time. Burberry puts Colt's foot on the ropes during a pin attempt to mark his official face turn, though this draws a few boos (including from myself, Asbo is fucking awesome here). Asbo tries to get his turncoat son to nail Colt with a wrench and proceeds to argue with Burberry, only to get hit by a snap RKO from Colt for the win. To compound matters, Burberry hits him with a wrench post-match. Really enjoyed this match, thought Colt looked good and Asbo was tremendous.

Stixx, Shane Spyral & LJ Heron vs SC Supreme, Dave Andrews & "Textbook" Dave Breaks
This is another elimination match, and ties together the three feuds of Stixx/Supreme, Spyral/Andrews and Heron/Breaks. "Textbook" is the champion of the promotion. Some heel stalling starts us off. There is a palpable aura of anticipation for a possible Stixx/Supreme confrontation, the idea of these two big bulls squaring off. Breaks heels it up a storm here, loved him coming in, spitting at Heron, then fleeing to tag in a reluctant looking Andrews. Breaks doesn't enter the match until Spyral is in, and in trouble, at which point Breaks becomes a proper magnificent knob heel, all chokes, stomps and vicious looking kneedrops. Between him and Asbo, there has been some great heel work on this show. Andrews draws heat in a different way, as he's got this odd walk that makes him look like a prize twat, and really makes me want to see him get battered. The heels work a lengthy heat segment on Spyral before Stixx gets in and man alive it looks like he'd break Andrews in half. Real size and physique difference between the two. It all breaks down before Stixx hits a Black Hole Slam on Andrews, leading to a Swanton by Spyral for the first elimination. I really like the logic of Spryal not being fully recovered from the earlier heat section, and thus falling prey to a Supreme powerbomb for an elimination (I know this contrasts with my earlier disapproval of quick eliminations, but this one at least makes sense). The Stixx/Supreme section is suitably meaty, with Supreme hitting two lovely overhead belly-to-bellys. Stixx is smarter though, and avoids a corner charge and rolls up Supreme for the pin. ANOTHER quick elimination happens as Supreme nails Stixx with his own chain to gift Breaks the equalising fall. LOVE Breaks' over the top celebration for this. The final fall between Heron and Breaks is pretty good, as they fight in the crowd, including Breaks getting hurled into some chairs. The end sees Breaks locking Heron in a chicken wing, but LJ adjusts his body positioning to counter into a pinning position to win the final fall. Really fun match here, the fact these guys are the more experienced guys in the promotion was obvious with the character work being better and the move execution being crisper.

Triple X Wrestling Wrestle*****

Taking place on the same night as a mildly more famous WWE events, Wrestle***** (which we were to find out stood for "WrestleCunts" was possibly the best top to bottom Triple X show I've been to since I started going last February. Sadly, my run will be ending in June, as their show headlined by Zack Sabre Jr vs Low Ki clashes with my holiday (and trust me, I've been trying to work out ways to get back for this...), but in the meantime, here's some words on the WrestleCunts

Dave Mercy vs Terry Seddon
Seddon is currently billed as "Inbetween Gimmicks" after ditching his zombie slayer persona. This was a pretty fun opening bout, with the sexual antics of Mercy (the "Sleazy Bastard") providing a good few laughs. I loved him hitting a Northern Lights suplex, then getting angry with the ref because he'd only gotten 2, despite using an actual wrestling move. He also went for a super sexual version of Sister Abigail. Seddon was coming back into the match, but a low blow gave Mercy the win.

Keiron Young vs Scotty Essex
Scotty Essex, as his name suggests, is a permatanned goon a la TOWIE and other programmes of that ilk. His look is pretty much "rich man's Danny Doring". Young is billed as "Indy Guy", which led to the crowd singing the Indiana Jones theme in his support. This was pretty fun, albeit spotty in places. Both guys only debuted at the last show, so the fact KY opened the match with three dives (after Essex refused to get in the ring) helped warm the crowd up for them. Essex had some nice moves here, with a meaty looking Death Valley Driver being the pick of the bunch. Young got a two count from a Canadian Destroyer followed by a superkick (Indy!) but Essex got the win with a crafty roll-up and handful of tights.

Big Grizzly & Scott Grimm vs Local Jobber #2
This was supposed to be Flash Morgan Webster taking on the two big chaps, simply because Triple X management hate him. However, it was revealed via big screen video that Webster was in New Orleans for WrestleMania, having taken his paycheck and run. Of course, this didn't sit well with the "Two Big Bastards", with Grizzly demanding an opponent. Out came the ever-popular Local Jobber #2, who got flattened in less than two minutes, culminating with a double-team pedigree. A mysterious hooded figure, who turned out to be Gabriel Grey, watched on from the stage, seemingly managing the team of Grimm and Grizz. I'm assuming there is going to be a tag war with the Henchmen at some point, which I can only imagine will be great.

The Henchmen vs The Hunters Brothers
This was the third successive clash between these two teams, this time being a bar-room brawl, essentially fought under last team standing rules. Both teams came dressed to fight, and it was the larger Henchmen who took control at first, brawling with the Hunters all over Club M, but primarily at the bar area. There was a fun mid-match spot involving all four wrestler drinking whiskey, at which point they all passed out from excessive consumption. The Hunters then got a chance to dominate, levelling the Henchmen with chairs (and causing Benton Destruction in particular to bleed heavily), before ultimately the Henchmen finally settled the feud with Jim Diehard throwing one Hunter onto his brother from the bar area to the floor, and the Hunters were unable to meet the count. Maybe not quite as good as last months epic tables match, but still a thoroughly entertaining brawl, and one that was eaten up by the crowd. Plus, how rad were Jim Diehard's cowboy boots!?!

Doug Williams vs Tyler Bate
One of the big success stories in Triple X in the past 12 months has been the rise of Tyler Bate, who keeps getting better show by show, looking like he belongs with the bigger names that he's been put up against. He's been so impressive, it's easy to forget that he's not picked up a win yet since his debut, yet remains massively over with the crowd. Here, he took on one of the biggest names in BritWres and the result was another terrific match. His style gelled perfectly with Williams, as both guys like to work the mat, throw in cutesy spots (there was a repeated criss-cross section here that was a lot of fun) and hit a nice suplex or two, and this was a really good bout. The story here was that the younger, less experienced Bate was having to struggle to keep up with Doug, but was growing into the match as it progressed. Bate managed to block the Chaos Theory and hit his ever-impressive deadlift German suplex for a very close two, but ultimately Williams was able to tie him up for the three count. Another top performance by Bate, who must be the most promising young wrestler in the UK at the moment.

Joe Coffey vs Damian Dunne
Coffey is fast becoming a highlight of Triple X shows. He's clearly not afraid to be the heel, riling the crowd up something chronic here. Coffey is a big guy, and used this to dominate the smaller Dunne. Given the relative size difference, they did well to make the match look competitive, with Damo using his speed advantage to keep up. The crowd were fantastic here too, with a burst of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" designed to motivate Dunne against the big Scot, but in the end Dunne was forced to tap out to a Boston crab. Really good match.

Damian O'Connor vs Mike Bird
O'Connor was apparently part of the first run of Triple X, but this was my first time seeing him, and he was a pretty impressive sight, built like a brick wall with a mighty looking beard. Bird was quite likably funny and, despite being billed as "Flying" Mike Bird, he used some fun matwork to down O'Connor in the early stages. I really liked a good chunk of O'Connor's offence, with a cannonball to the barrier outside looking particularly nasty. O'Connor won a good match with an electric chair into a sitout driver (I'm sure there's a better name for it, but that's the best I could do)

Eddie Dennis vs Devilman
This was chaotic, but really fun chaotic. Dennis was hilarious here, cutting a brilliantly indignant pre-match promo where he ranted about being labelled "Bad Wales" and having to wrestle a street fight instead of a pure wrestling match. His resigned mid-match reaction of "Oh bollocks" as he stood in the ring watching Devilman pull out a Singapore cane wrapped in a chain was great. They went all out here, which did lead to DM seemingly knocking himself loopy off a rana from the stage to the floor. Despite this, they still managed to put on a great match, fighting all over Club M. The end saw Dennis driving DM onto some lightbulb tubes on a chair, but this only got two. Dennis stayed on the offensive, repeatedly hitting DM with a chair and re-pinning him until eventually he picked up the win. I liked the ending, with the idea that it was sustained blows rather than one big move that finished off DM. Devilman looked pretty hurt post match, but eventually got up to a nice round of applause. Great match.

TNA Hardcore Justice 2014

I've reviewed a couple of these TNA One Night Only PPV's in the past, and I've always been glad we don't have to pay for them in the UK. The few I've seen have been too bitty and filled with short matches to be any good. This, however, had a card that looked pretty promising and it lived up to my expectations. Though it's not too grand a claim, this was easily the best of the PPV's I've seen so far.

Ethan Carter III vs Tommy Dreamer
I loved Carter stating hardcore is synonymous with the letters E...C...III. This is a tables match. Crowd loves some Dreamer, and he dominates proceedings until ECIII drops him crotch first on a guardrail. Carter tries a pinfall, but Earl Hebner has to remind him this is a tables match. ECIII is only in control briefly before a missed elbow lets Dreamer take over. Dreamer looks pretty good here on offence. Dreamer sets up a table outside the ring, but his attempt to suplex Carter through it gets blocked. Carter gets hung in a tree of woe inside the ring, before Dreamer dropkicks the table into his face, followed by a DDT. However, Dreamer takes a little too long to set up the table and ECIII reverses an Irish whip into the 1%er. Dreamer gets up but makes the mistake of charging Carter near the table, leading to a spinebuster through the table for the win. Pretty by the numbers, but both guys looked good here.

Chris Sabin vs Austin Aries
This should be good. They're billing this as an X-Division Escape match, which just means it's a cage match. I love Sabin trying to quickly escape following minor moves like a hiptoss or armdrag. Aries looks to be trying a similar tactic, only to leap off the top rope onto Sabin when he sees him coming. Aries really milks the build up of the Pendulum elbow, but still manages to hit it. Sabin takes control after blocking an escape attempt and powerbombs Aries into the cage in a nice spot. Sabin continues to use the cage as a weapon, dropkicking Aries into the walls. The thing I find with cage matches is that it's easy to transition from one guy to the other on offence, as the aggressor often stops attacking their opponent to try and escape, which gives the opponent a chance to take over. It happens here as Aries catches Sabin on the top rope and tries to climb out over him, before instead hitting a top rope standing Frankensteiner in a swank spot. Aries locks on the Last Chancery to wear Sabin out, but Sabin grabs his leg in desperation to try and stop him escaping the cage. This leads to Aries trying a brainbuster, but Sabin breaks and again uses the cage, which he rams Aries into head-first. Aries manages to get the brainbuster and NEARLY escapes before Sabin is able to stop him. Sabin uses his belt to tie Aries to the rope, but Aries escapes just before Sabin can win, and Sabin ends up crotched on the top rope, leading to an Aries victory. Really fun match here.

Bobby Roode vs Samoa Joe
This is to determine who gets the advantage in the Lethal Lockdown match later in the night. I love Roode goofily stooging to start as he gets outstriked by Joe. Joe dominates with his usual offence befoe Roode starts working over Joe's neck, hitting a blockbuster, a seated necksnap and working over a headlock. Joe isn't looking as motivated as he does nowadays, and there is no real change from his usual offence. We get a ref bump from Roode breaking the Kokina Clutch, and Roode fakes getting hit with a bin to draw the DQ win. I especially loved Roode waving at Joe from the mat from behind the referee. This was ok.

Velvet Sky vs Lei'D Tapa
I have low expectations here. This is a streetfight, and Sky tries a hit-and-run tactic on the larger Tapa, peppering her with some milky kicks. Tapa pretty much dominates the early going, using basic power offence to ram Sky into the ring steps and the apron. Tapa disappears to the back and gets a chair, before pulling some terrible scary faces. Tapa sets up a chair in the corner, but stupidly decides to charge at Velvet despite knowing this chair is behind her. Sky batters her with some timid chair shots, but Tapa shrugs them off, kicks a chair into Velvet's face and hits the TKO for a win. I liked the booking more than the wrestling, they made Tapa look like a monster here.

Eric Young & Joseph Park vs Bad Influence
This is a Full Metal Mayhem match. EY tells Park pre-match that he knows that he's Abyss and is going to make him bleed to psyche him up for the match. Bad Influence rush to the ring to stop this, pretty wisely, and give us one of the running themes of the match: EY wanting his partner to bleed and Bad Influence wanting to prevent that, This is tornado rules, but the heel team isolate one member of the opposition to keep an face-in-peril structure to the match. There are a few really nice moments in the match, with a Young dive to the outside onto both Daniels and Kazarian looking particularly choice. I also liked Daniels baseball sliding a ladder into EY on the outside, leading to a spot later where Young again tries to bring a ladder into the ring, but this time avoids both heels trying a baseball slide and instead nailing them both with it. The end sees Kaz threaten a Flux Capacitor from the top of a tall ladder on Young, only to get pushed off and EY nail a picture perfect elbow from the top of the ladder to win. After the match, Park starts to bleed. Uh-oh...

Bully Ray vs Mr Anderson
This is originally due to be a stretcher match, but Anderson rejects that, as being on a stretcher means Ray will get medical attention, and he doesn't want that. Instead, this is a last man standing match. Despite these words, this never really feels that heated, even with Bully making Anderson bleed and smearing the blood all over his own face. Some of Anderson's selling is also way too goofy, though he does look good making comebacks with litle spurts of offence. The spot where Ray and Earl Hebner get into a blazing row is also pretty incongruous for a heated brawl. There is some nice usage of weaponry, with Anderson nailing a rolling firemans carry, then a senton onto a guard rail for a count of 8. Hebner gets bumped, which predictably leads to Anderson downing Ray for more than a ten count (with a Mic Check onto the guard rail), but Bully hits a low blow and kicks Anderson into the ring steps in time for Hebner to recover and count Anderson out for ten. Both had good moments here, but this didn't really work.

Team Angle (James Storm, Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle & Abyss) vs Team Roode (Jessie Godderz, Robbie E, Bobby Roode & Magnus)
I've listed the team members above in the order that they entered the match. I was pleased to see Godderz start with Storm, as he's ever improving and got the chance to look good in the opening section. He wrestles like his character, a preening jerk who will get angry if things aren't going their way, which I love to see. Joe looks far more motivated here than in his earlier match, and his section killing both Broman's is pretty fun. The middle section sort of dragged, as we got some unispired brawling, but the last two guys bringing in weapons is a nice touch and helps make the final part of the match even more interesting. Team Angle has a mystery man as their last member, which turns out to be Abyss, paying off the earlier angle nicely, and I loved Robbie E timidly brandishing a cheese grater as Abyss got in the ring. Joe had some fun with the weapons here, joining up with Storm and using a kendo stick to send a dustbin into the groin of the Bromans, before just punting a bin into Roode's face. A little run of finishers culminated in a great ending: Robbie E decided to run in fear from Abyss, only to walk directly into a Last Call superkick from Storm and get nailed by a Black Hole Slam by Abyss directly onto barbed wire. This got the win, as well as some magnificent selling of the spot by E. This ended up being really fun by the end.

Southside Wrestling: Day of Reckoning 2014

So my local indy Southside Wrestling held two shows on the Sunday in Nottingham last weekend and I decided to attend both of them. Here is some words on the daytime show, Day of Reckoning

Joseph Conners vs Tommaso Ciampa
Conners is now a solo act, having turned on Predators tag partner Paul Malen at the last show. I can happily get behind a Joseph Conners singles push, guy has really polished his act in the last 2 years, to the point that he now looks and acts like a big deal. Ciampa is a guy I know by reputation only, and I thought he was really good here, which gave us a fine opening bout. They started slowly, but things started to move as Conners concentrated his attack on Ciampa's leg, which makes sense given the massive knee brace he was wearing. I did love some of Ciampa's offence, like the running knees in the corner, with the good knee. The end came when Conners went to grab a belt that he'd brought to the ring. The ref stopped this, but the distraction allowed Conners to hit a hammerlock DDT on Ciampa for the win.

Martin Kirby vs Kay Lee Ray
Intergender matches are always a tricky balance to get right. You need to keep the male wrestler credible, but at the same time I've seen too many uncomfortable Ian Rotten/Mickie Knuckles matches where Rotten beat the tar out of her. This was balanced right, I felt, as Lee Ray got plenty of offence in on Kirby, but when he regained the advantage, he was firmly in control. KLR took the initiative at the bell with a tope, and rammed Kirby into the merch stand and walls to main this advantage. However, she made a big mistake in yelling "up top" before delivering a Swanton, which allowed Kirby to get his knees up in time. Kirby was swiftly in control and nailed a superkick to a kneeling Lee Ray, which would have won the match if he'd not lifted her shoulder up at 2. Instead, he went under the ring to get a bag of tacks/glass, and in doing so gave her enough time to recover and roll him up for the win. Very well executed.

Rich Swann vs Tommy End
First time I’ve seen Swann, and he’s very charismatic. He came out dancing to Lionel Ritchie’s "All Night Long"…for pretty much the entire length of the song, prompting a bored End to grab a broom and start sweeping in a funny moment. End is fast becoming one of my favourite guys in Southside, I loved the ZSJ match last year, and he put in a great performance here. They played up the contrast between the slick high-flying of Swann and the meticulous breakdown by End, with End focusing on bodyparts (specifically the arm of Swann). End picked up the win with a big kick to the head.

Robbie X vs Johnny Gargano
There were parts of this I really liked and parts that didn’t sit so well with me. I think the way Southside are using Robbie at the moment is spot on, as he’s clearly exceptionally talented, but he isn’t getting overly pushed. He fights big names, but rarely picks up the win. However, he’s always getting to look good in defeat and as if he can hang with these big names. He’s also noticeably adapting as a wrestler, still hitting some nice highspots, but now adding more strikes and high impact offence to consolidate himself as an attacking threat. That said, I think he needs to cool it a bit with strike exchanges, though that may be because I personally don’t really care for them. There was a bit here where he and Gargano (who looked great here) exchanged superkicks that I absolutely hated. However, based on the evening show I think that’s more of a Gargano staple than Robbie, so hopefully he wont be repeating that too often. Gargano wins with You’re Dead followed by the GargaNO Escape in what was on the whole an enjoyable match.

Mark Andrews vs Mark Haskins
This was supposed to be Haskins defending the Southside title against MK McKinnan, but due to an injury to McKinnan, he issued an open challenge that was met by Andrews. To be honest, I was pretty happy with this turn of events, as Andrews wasn’t due to be on the afternoon show, and he’s a guy I’m a really big fan of. This was well worked, with Haskins subtly heeling things up against the smaller Andrews, who in turn put in a good shift as the underdog. They threw in a good few hope spots for Andrews, who hit a couple of nice highflying spots for nearfalls, but he was ultimately overmatched, with Haskins hitting Made In Japan for the win.

Kris Travis vs El Ligero vs Stixx vs Trent Baretta
Following his pro-BritWres speech at the Supershow last year, Adam Curtis is now accompanying Travis to the ring. The match kicked off with Stixx, the largest man in the match, delaying getting in, so Baretta took him out with a suicide dive, and things didn’t calm down from there. This was a pretty wild match, with guys fighting all over the venue, with the action even spilling outside at one point. All four guys were happy to bump around, including Baretta, who got tossed into some chairs by Stixx. Stixx provided a good base here with some power stuff, but he’s a big guy who can throw himself around with the best of them. Travis picked up the win with the double-underhook piledriver on Ligero (still in broken mask, still demoralised from his defeat to Kirby last year). Really good main event.

Jeff Jarrett: King of the Mountain (Disks 3 & 4)

It's taken me months to work through them, but here's the second half of the Jeff Jarrett King of the Mountain set. The set ends with a few bonus matches from the early days of Jarrett's career, which is a nice touch.

Jeff Jarrett vs Monty Brown
They give this a really nice build-up for a TV match. Love the way the opening moments shows Brown countering each Jarrett attempt to out-wrestle him with sheer power. Brown has injured ribs though, so JJ takes advantage of an opening to ram Brown's ribs into the guard rail on the outside. Back inside, Jarrett continues to focus his attack on these ribs. It also gives Jarrett a way to logically stop Brown's comeback attempts, jamming his shoulder into the ribs as Monty runs the ropes. Brown fires back with a nice butterfly suplex. A swank running powerslam gets two, before Brown hits a big powerbomb for two. Brown no-sells a guitar shot to a HUGE pop and a Stroke only gets two. Brown nails the Pounce on JJ, but has to battle off some Scott Hall interference (with another Pounce) which allows JJ to nail two chair shots for the win. Really good TV match, where they protected Brown and, if anything, made him look more invincible.

Jeff Jarrett vs Kevin Nash
Jarrett is banned from using the guitar here, otherwise he loses his title. Jarrett launches himself around the ring early on, bumping big for Nash and feeding himself to big shots. Jarrett wisely goes to Nash's legs to try and chop him down to size, but this doesn't last too long before Nash is beating him on the outside. They end up brawling around the Impact Zone, including Nash throwing JJ into the catering table. Nash looks pretty driven here, which is nice to see. Jarrett turns the tide and grabs a CELLO to attack Nash with. Absolute genius. JJ goes right for the knee here, as there seems to be no DQ with Jarrett closing the cello case around Nash's leg. I like the logic of JJ going to the legs, firstly to take away the height advantage of Nash, but also as Jarrett uses a figure-four as a finisher, which he locks on. Nash comes back with a few power moves, but Jarrett can regain control with one blow to the injured leg. The ref gets bumped before Nash powerbombs Jarrett onto the cello (nice touch) before Billy Gunn runs in a nails Nash with a chairshot for two. Sean Waltman comes out to destroy Jarrett with a bronco buster and the X-Factor, but this only gets two. BG James stops Gunn from hitting Nash with the title belt, but this again only gets two. Stroke gets two. As overbooked as this is, the false finishes are very effective. A low blow and another Stroke gets the win for Jarrett. Kevin Nash was motivated here, and the result was maybe his best match in years.

Jeff Jarrett vs Rhino
Crowd is hot for Rhino here. Jarrett tries to work over the arm of Rhino early, but Rhino powers out of an armbar, then hits a suprising plancha outside the ring. We gets some brawling in the crowd, which is Rhino's domain, so he dominates. Lovely overhead shot on the ramp as Rhino batters JJ with punches. This is a nice change from some of the other Jarrett matches, as Rhino is a machine he can't outfight, so he's going to have to find another way to take over. He does this by luring Rhino to a high scaffold before hitting him with a chair to send him crashing off through a table. However, he keeps trying to fight Rhino outside the ring, and Rhino is soon able to re-establish control, goring JJ through a table down the entrance ramp. Team Canada comes out to beat Rhino up, hurliing him down the entry tunnel to try and give Jarrett the countout victory. Spinebuster gets a very close two. Token ref bump as Rudy Charles gets gored leads to more Team Canada interference. JJ guitarshot only gets two. The appearance of Jackie Gayda of all people leads to Rhino hitting a gore for two. Finally, the final run in comes from Scott D'Amore, who nails Rhino with a hockey stick. This leads to JJ hitting a Stroke from the second rope onto some chairs for the win. Started brilliantly, but more overbooking lead to this becoming painfully predictable again.

Jeff Jarrett, Abyss & America's Most Wanted vs Rhino, Ron Killings & Team 3D
Shockingly, this starts with a huge brawl all over the Impact zone. Things are kept just the right side of chaotic. We finally get into the ring, with Jarrett's heel team taking over following an Abyss chokeslam on Ray. This advantage doesn't last long, as Ray and Rhino soon batter both AMW members. Gail Kim prevents a gore on Rhino, leading to Tenay rather ungallantly yelling for Rhino to "GET HER!!". Thankfully, Abyss stops Rhino piledriving her with a big boot to take control. Strange to think people thought Chris Harris would be the breakout star of AMW, as even here James Storm looks far more comfortable and polished in the ring. The heel team keep control on Rhino, albeit not in a particularly interesting manner, before miscommunication between AMW member leads t the hot tag to Killings. Killings has the most energy and explosive offence on the team, so he's a good choice for the role. Chaos ensues, with finishers, interference from Gail Kim and Jackie Gayda, Harris getting handcuffed to a turnbuckle and ref bumps, before Jarrett hits the Stroke on Truth to end a match that lagged in the middle, but was terrific by the end.

Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner & America's Most Wanted vs Sting, AJ Styles, Ron Killings & Rhino
I always found the TNA Lethal Lockdown matches to be a bit of a mess, so it'll be interesting to see how this goes. At least the heels won the coin toss here, which they didn't always do, stupidly. Styles and Chris Harris start, and Harris looks a lot better than he did in the singles match vs Jarrett on the earlier discs. He looks more confident and more fluid as a worker. AJ splashing Harris into the cage repeatedly is pretty fun. Ref Earl Hebner decides to count a pinfall after a Styles Clash, so Harris is forced to kick out. Storm is out next, and AJ dropkicks the cage door, missing Storm, but wiping out Gail Kim. Rhino evens the numbers up and he comes in firing on all cylinders. He's the perfect choice for two minutes of fired up offence to pop the crowd before the next heel comes out. Jarrett is next, and he gets met by Styles and Rhino outside the cage, which is smart of them as it cuts off the numbers game. However, once in the cage, it's 3-on-2 and the heels dominate. Killings is next out and we get a crazy tower of doom spot with AJ taking the highest bump from the cage top. Steiner is out last to pick up the remains in his TNA debut. It's suplexes all round for the face team. It strikes me that TNA were much smarter in their choice of debut match for Steiner than the WWE were - the last entrant in a multi-man match versus working a 20 minute main event style match. Sting enters last as the cage roof gets lowered down. Love Sting stacking up all four heels in the corner for a pair of Stinger Splashes. I like the touch that the weapons don't become available until all the men are in the match as it adds something new to the match at that point. Styles and Storm end up on top of the roof, where Styles hits a splash from the lighting rig to put Storm through a table. Great spot. In the ring, we get a string of finishers, before Harris nails Sting with some handcuffs and locks on a Scorpion Deathlock. His cockiness backfires, as Sting counters his own finisher and locks in his own for the tapout. Ok, that was a whole heap of fun.

Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner vs Sting & Samoa Joe
This is from the period where Joe was the most over guy in TNA, and on the verge of a face turn. Sting dominates both heels to start, looking energised and nailing a double top-rope clothesline. The air of anticipation when Joe tags in to face Steiner is palpable. Their section together is pretty great, with Joe taking Steiner's offence, but looking more angered than hurt. Jarrett gets a bit cocky after nailing a few moves on Joe, but he gets planted when attempting to charge into the corner. Sting tags in and looks so energetic, really motivated and in great shape, but gets caught by the heels double-teaming. The heat segment on Sting is pretty brief, but the Joe hot-tag is awesome, as Jarrett and Steiner both make Joe look unstoppable. A JJ lowblow allows him to hit the Stroke on Joe for two, but a top rope version is blocked by Joe, and the musclebuster gets the win. A bit brief, but a fun tag match, with the heel team putting Joe over as a killer.

Jeff Jarrett vs Christian Cage vs Sting vs Abyss vs Ron Killings
Another King of the Mountain match, with Cage the defending champion. We get some early dives, with Christian, Truth and Sting(!) all leaping to the outside. Sting takes out Jarrett with a Stinger Splash, then lets Truth pin him with a missile dropkick. They're working a story of Sting only being focused on stopping Jarrett winning. Cage soon pins Abyss with a roll up. Released from the penalty box, Jarrett goes after Cage with real abandon outside the ring, before teaming with Abyss to set up a stack of tables outside the ring. Hmm. He then takes advantage of an opening to hit the Stroke on Truth onto the guard railings to get himself a pin. With Truth in the penalty box, Sting/Abyss and Cage/Jarrett pair off to fight in the crowd. Truth gets released and, with everyone in the crowd, has to blatantly waste time when faced with an obvious opportunity to win the match. Earl Hebner gets bumped, before Abyss tires of working for Jarrett and hits a Black Hole Slam on him to send JJ back to the penalty box. However, as he cimbs the ladder, Sting pushes him off it onto the stack of tables outside the ring. Sting locks a Scorpion Deathlock on Cage, but releases it when he realises Jarrett is making an attempt to climb the ladder. Sting gives the belt to Cage, in order to stop JJ winning the match, but Larry Zybysco gives Cage a low blow. Sting hurls Larry out and nails the Scorpion Deathdrop on JJ, but with no ref to count he has to use Earl Hebner's limp hand to give himself the three count. Sting and Cage fight on top of the ladder over who gets to win the title, before Earl Hebner, of all people, turns heel and pushes the ladder over to give Jarrett the win (in a hailstorm of garbage). At the end, Jim Cornette appears to take the belt off Jarrett, which is a bit of a cliffhanger for a DVD that wont get resolved. Better than the first KotM match on the set, as the big spots were set up better and there was a better overall story.

Jeff Jarrett vs Samoa Joe
This is a "fans revenge" match, with 18 fans at ringside with straps to whip the competitors. Brilliantly, JJ comes to the ring with several layers of clothes on as protection. Joe pretty much obliterates JJ to start, but Jarrett just avoids falling to the floor for a whipping. They wisely build up to the whip spots as Jarrett keeps managing to avoid landing outside, before eventually he hits and takes a whipping. JJ throws Joe out, and hilariously no-one hits Joe. Jarrett manages to get himself a strap, which he uses to wear out Joe, which is a nice way to give him the momentum without making Joe look weak. Joe manages to fire back and takes Jarrett's tops off before sending him to the floor. You get a really great sound of leather repeatedly hitting JJ's skin. Joe ties Jarrett to the top rope, and the fans swarm in to take free shots on Jarrett. JJ goes for the guitar, but Joe ducks and locks in a Kokina Clutch. Jarrett only just makes the ropes. Ref bump leads to a Stroke onto the guitar for just 2. Top rope Stroke is blocked, and Joe nails a musclebuster for the win. Fun match.

Jeff Jarrett vs Sting
Sting has put his career on the line here, so no surprises for guessing who wins. Kurt Angle is ringside as special enforcer. Jarrett is one step ahead of Sting in the early going, which they play up on commentary as ring-rust on Sting's part. However, JJ spitting in Sting's face backfires, as it only causes Sting to get angry and wail away on him. They brawl outside the ring, though both guys act like idiots at points by ignoring their opponent to get into a face-to-face with Angle. Action back in the ring is fine, though marred by a little sloppiness by Sting. We look to be heading to a double countout after a mid-ring collision, but Angle gives Rudy Charles the Angleslam on 9, and takes over as ref to ensure a winner. Both guys are suddenly perfectly healthy after this happens, and Sting gets 2 on the Scorpion Deathdrop. Jarrett then gets 2 on the Stroke. Sting tries to splash Jarrett, but gets only knees, primarily because his torso lands nowhere near Jarrett's body. Jarrett gets an anklelock on Sting, possibly proving his MMA credentials years before he bragged about them. JJ nails Sting with a guitar, only for Sting to no-sell and lock on a Scorpion Deathlock for the win. Felt a bit too short and sloppy for a PPV main event.

Jeff Jarrett, Sting, Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe & Rhyno vs Christian Cage, Tomko, AJ Styles, Scott Steiner & Abyss
Jarrett has turned face in time for his return to enter this Lethal Lockdown match. Whoever gets the pin earns a title shot against Cage. We start with Styles and Angle. They showed the JJ return angle where he interfered in a match to give his team the entry advantage, but they explain on commentary that this had been reversed by Jim Cornette, so the heels have the edge. Styles dominates after Angle runs headfirst into the cage, but manages to pop off an Angleslam just in time for the entry of Abyss. AJ wisely lets Abyss work Angle over. Rhyno comes in to even the numbers up, and looks pretty good with bursts of power offence. Tomko is next in and he helps to bloody up Rhino. The two minute intervals don't really give enough time to build up any sense of peril for the faces, shown by Joe coming in next and just killing everyone. Joe looks terrific on offence here. Angle gives Tomko 5 German suplexes just because. Steiner takes over when he gets in, and it's getting a little predictable that we get two minutes of uninterrupted offence from each new guy, who then turns straight to defence when a new wrestler comes in. Steiner hits a top-rope Frankensteiner on Rhino, which is an awesome display. Sting comes in, two minutes of reasonable looking offence from him. They do hit a mental looking tower of doom spot, which is pretty great. Christian comes in, but he gets dominated by Sting. Even Don West picks up on Cage being the first person not to clean house. Jarrett is the last man in, with his guitar collapsing on his way to the ring. The lid comes down, and Jarrett throws weapons to his team-mates. Nice touch to show that he can be trusted after his turn. Styles and Angle climb to the roof of the cage, which doesn't bode well. There's some pretty fun brawling spots at this point, with Rhino managing to gore Tomko through the cage door being a highlight. Tacks end upin the ring, and Cage gets chokeslammed into them. At this point, Angle punches AJ off the roof of the bloody cage, landing onto men at ringside. Mental spot. Abyss fills a guitar with tacks (of course he does) but the cruel hand of irony means that Jarrett gets hold of it and nails him with it. JJ completes his face turn by beseeching Sting to cover Abyss for the win to get the title shot. Started slow, but it got spectacular by the end.

Jeff Jarrett vs Kurt Angle
This is Jarrett's first match back after taking time off due to the death of his wife. Mick Foley is the ringside enforcer. Jarrett has been of for two years at this point, so the crux of the story is seeing how Jarrett can fare after so much time off. He works over Angle on the outside, but he launches into a strut back inside the ring and gets his head taken off with a clothesline. They seem to be building this up as a match of survival for Jarrett, as Angle tries to ground Jarrett with JJ getting a few hope spots due to Angle's over-enthusiasm. An Angle corner charge meets only the steel post, but Angle comes back with a slick belly-to-belly suplex. Jarrett has to use his experience to keep in there with Angle, and a little trip leads to a figure-four for Jarrett. Angle gets his own submission locked on with the Anklelock, cruelly pulling JJ away just as he gets to the ropes. I like the use of JJ's selling here, with Angle pouncing to Angleslam him whilst Jarrett is pulling himself up to his feet. Only gets a two, and the leg injury from the figure four means he takes too long getting to the top for moonsault, which he misses. A ref bump leads to the Stroke, which only gets two with Mick Foley counting. Foley tries to stop Angle using a chair, but gets levelled with it instead, and Angle also nails JJ with it. Foley ain't too happy with that, so he gives Angle the mandible claw. Jarrett nails Angle with a guitar and Foley counts three for the feelgood win. Loved this.

Buddy Landell & Bill Dundee vs David Johnson & Jim Jamison
This is Jarrett's first TV appearance, as he's the referee for the contest. This is pretty much pure squash, with the heels even throwing Johnson into his corner to let him make a tag. Landell is particularly vicious pumelling Jamison in the corner. Dundee slams Jamison on the concrete floor just because he can. Landell picks up the win with an elbow. Landell beats up Jarrett after the match, and Jerry Jarrett gets taken out trying for the save. Jeff gets a few fired-up blows in, before another wrestler makes the save.

Jeff Jarrett vs Tony Falk
This is Jeff's debut in-ring. Falk levels the smaller JJ to start, and throws Jarrett through the ropes. This is his big mistake, as JJ comes in with a sunset flip to win. Afterwards, Landell and Dundee come back and beat the tar out of Jarrett. Jos Le Duc makes the save for Jeff.

Jeff Jarrett vs Hector Guerrero
Jarrett's hair has grown out a bit here. JJ wears Hector out with a headlock, causing him to flop to the mat. Jarrett maintains control, albeit not in a particularly exciting way. Plenty of armdrags. Hector takes over with a punch to the eye, and retains control with some cheap shots to Jarrett. Nice double-underhook suplex gets two for Hector. German suplex gets two. JJ looks good with his comeback, being a bit more fired up than his earlier offensive spell. Jarrett levels Guerrero with a 5lb bag of flower to give Guerrero the DQ win. Got pretty good by the end.

Jeff Jarrett vs Jerry Lawler
This is for the CWA title, held by Lawler. JJ shows great fire, recovering from a hiptoss to level Lawler with a clothesline. Jarrett locks a headscissors on Lawler and brilliantly stops an escape attempt by ramming Lawler's head into the mat. Great height on a Thesz press gets two for Jarrett. They hit mutual dropkicks, before a crossbody by Jarrett takes out both Lawler and the ref. This lets Dundee nail Jarrett with a loaded fist to give Jarrett the win.

Jeff Jarrett & Bill Dundee vs Gary Young & Cactus Jack
Jarrett and Dundee are now teaming up, might not have hurt to give a little pointer as to why they're now friends. Jarrett is noticably improving with each appearance, and looks great taking care of Young. A lithe Jack takes an insane bump on a missed corner charge, flying out to the floor. The heels take over on Jarrett after a Cactus knee to the back, but the heat section doesn't last long, with the tag to Dundee made moments later. It all breaks down and manager Downtown Bruno nails Dundee as he pins Young to give the faces the win. Pretty good fun.

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.

All Star Wrestling 14/03/2001

This is a show I bought from IVP Videos, which is being sold there under the title "Best of the UK V.55". It's handheld footage from an All Star show in Plymouth from 13 years ago, and had an interesting enough line up to convince me to check it out. It also comes with bonus matches at the end, which is nice

Legend of Doom vs Mustafa the Turk
LoD is Johnny South in his Road Warrior tribute/rip-off gimmick. Mustafa, bless him, is a generic "evil foreigner" heel. Mustafa dominates to start, before LoD sends him from the ring with a series of clotheslines. South grabs Mustafa's leg out from under him, toppling the big man like a tree, which gets a nice pop, and some brawling in the crowd also gets a good reaction. They work a rest hold into the match, and already South is selling more than the real LoD normally would. A missed avalanche in the corner sees Mustafa take a big spill to the floor, and back inside LoD nails a second-rope clothesline to pick up the win. Perfectly decent wrestling.

American Avalanche vs David Sierra
It's PN News vs the Cuban Assassin in a battle of former WCW stars. Sierra is accompanied by his manager Fantasy, and the camcorder zooms RIGHT IN on her breasts as they approach the ring. Sigh. Sierra attacks from behind, but makes the mistake of attacking the vast stomach of Avalanche. Avalanche keeps it simple, whilst working in crowdpleasing spots like holding onto a headlock when Sierra tries to fire him into the ropes. The headlock is held a tad too long though, and they bizarrely do the arm dropping spot on Sierra, who managed to get his arm up on two, despite being heel. Big bump is taken over top as Avalanche missed his namesake move in the corner. A 2nd rope cannonball senton misses, but AA gets fired up by the "belly" chants. An Avalanche DDT puts both men down, they then do a double clothesline spot to keep them down longer. Sierra tries using his Cuban flag on Avalanche, which the ref prevents, and the distraction lets AA hit a standing avalanche for the win. Not one to remember.

Marty Jannetty vs Totoru
Man, we certainly didn't get Marty Jannetty when I went to an All Star show 2 years after this. Totoru is a masked chap, allegedly from Thailand, in Super Dragon-esque pyjamas who trips as he comes into the ring. After Totoru spends ages stalling, he suckers Jannetty into posing on the turnbuckle, then attacks him. After Jannetty gets the upper hand, Totoru exits the ring and stalls for even longer. Jannetty dominates, throwing Totoru from the ring with a sunset flip, where he gets bullied by kids. For some reason, Totoru's trousers fall down, just fucking awful "comedy". Totoru gets back in the ring, and in the process of pulling himself to his feet, he pulls ref trousers down. Oh, hilarious. At this point, the ring announcer announces that 10 minutes have gone by, 10 minutes where we've seen barely any fucking wrestling. Jannetty misses a corner charge, giving Totoru his only offensive flurry, where he repeatedly whips Marty to the corner. Marty even cracks out the 360 degree clothesline spell, which is wasted on a load like Totoru. This lasts barely a minute, before Jannetty reverses a backdrop into a facebuster for three. A steaming sack of shit.

Chad Malenko vs Jonny Storm
You may know Malenko better as Chad Collyer, so this has the chance of being decent. Hilariously, he still has the initials "CC" on his trunks. Malenko tries to get a "USA" chant going for some easy heat. Nice little mat sequence gets us warmed up. I love the simple touches, where Storm asks the crowd if he should wrench Malenko's arm again, while Malenko shakes his head. They work a nice sequence of counters and reversals, which ends with Storm on top, which must seem like manna from the Gods for this crowd after some of the earlier toss on this show. Malenko takes control and slows things down with a chinlock. He sends Storm high into the air with a massive flapjack. This is being worked very simply, like a good TV match, with Storm getting a few hope spots on his comebacks before Malenko cuts him off. Makes sense, as this isn't a crowd that wants long indy-style matches (which these guys could certainly do). Top rope rana and a moonsault press by Storm gets a good reaction from the crowd. The end comes as Malenko blocks a second top rope rana and hits a tornado DDT for the win. Really enjoyed this.

James Mason & the Legend of Doom vs Hollywood Blonde & Bad Brad the Nasty Boy
Poor James Mason must feel left out at not getting an early 90's tag gimmick to work here. Couldn't he have been "the Natural Disaster" James Mason or something? This is a tables match. No idea who are portraying the heels, but Blonde looks like Brian Pillman playing at being Curt Hennig. The match starts and Bad Brad can hardly bump on an armdrag. Bodes well. Blonde at least looks competent, but Brad is working lighter than a feather. A brief heat spell sees a hot tag to Mason, and he looks top drawer here, hitting a sweet flipping senton. He gets caught by a Blonde DDT though to become face-in-peril. Blonde works in some nice heel spots on the apron, while his useless partner distracts the ref. Mason gets his comeback from out of nowhere, almost as if he just decided that Brad was too shit to keep selling for. The faces clean house, as the crowd start getting excited about seeing a table spot. It soon comes, as Mason blocks a top rope superplex attempt by the Blonde to put him through a table. The fact that this was still fun despite Bad Brad being utter shit is a testament to the work of the other three.

The crowd disperses as the MC offers photo opportunites with the Cuban Assassin and the camera zooms in on his manager's backside. So classy.

The two bonus matches at the end comes from an All Star show in Bristol from 22/2/01.

Jonny Storm vs Chad Malenko
This was filmed 3 weeks prior to the other match, so it'll be interesting if they just had a stock touring match. Seemingly not, as Malenko stomps the shit out of Storm in the corner to start. No mat work, just the more muscular Malenko hammering away on Storm. Storm sends him packing with some dropkicks, playing up his speed advantage. There is a mat section after this, but it's nice to see they mixed it up a little bit. They're definately working some different bits into this match, with Malenko doing a nice little showboat by running round whilst holding a delayed vertical suplex. Malenko keeps control on Jonny, with a nice single leg crab and an STF. Jonny's comeback here includes a nice rana in the middle of the ring, but Malenko catches him leaping off the top for another rana and plants him with a powerbomb for three. Another good bout between these two.

The Barbarian vs American Avalanche
This is joined in progress. I'd have fucking loved to have seen the Barbarian in action when I went to All Star. Barbarian is busy nailing AA with a chair as we come in. He misses a diving headbutt and a DDT puts him down, totally going against all wrestling has taught me about him having a hard head. Avalanche splashes a chair onto Barbarian for two. A chairshot to the head gets the win for Avalanche. Short and sweet.