Jersey on My Mind, Deranged in My Heart

Deranged vs. Homicide JAPW 12/13/02 - EPIC

ER: For whatever reason the Youth Gone Wild main event lumberjack match the month before didn't work, but back in Bayonne a month later with Deranged in the main event and everything works perfectly. Deranged is a main event superstar who perfectly understood what kind of little shit everyone thought he was, so went above and beyond to be even more of a little shit. It's beautiful. This boy, voice cracking, draws real heat and knows exactly what he's doing. Everything he screams at the crowd is straight out of Memphis, from an era he couldn't possibly have seen. Who was passing the Memphis tapes around New Jersey high schools? He talks trash whenever he has the slightest fleeting advantage and he got a real guffaw out of me when he started yelling, "I TRAINED THIS FOOL HERE! I TRAINED HIM!" He yells, "I'M THE MAN" like the cute Puerto Rican kid in Gloria before pathetically cowering in the corner to break a lock up, running away on his knees. When he's far enough away from Homicide he yells, "HE AIN'T GOT NOTHIN HE'S SCARED OF ME". Deranged is working a Gallagher II version of Jamie Dundee, playing the states Dundee barely wrestled. Is Bayonne familiar with Dundee's shtick? Deranged understands it perfectly. He does a multiple cartwheel escape out of a wristlock and yells, "LOOK AT THAT" before getting his teeth knocked in with an elbow smash. Complaints of hair pulls are requisite, for Deranged is wearing a du-rag. When he screeches, "YOU WANNA SEE A HOT MOVE!?!?" and locks in a chinlock, we know we are watching a wrestling genius. 

If Deranged is a wrestling genius, 2002 Homicide was a wrestling monster. Deranged may have talked a lot of shit, but Homicide made damn sure he got hit. The man fully sidesteps a Deranged rope flip dive and lets the man fully splat on the tile floor of the Bayonne Charity Hall. Good god. He throws hard kicks and chops, and a beautiful leaping kneedrop that lands perfectly worked to Deranged's temple. Homicide was hitting hard on his chops and kicks, but working everything else while making it look fully evil. His elbowdrop lands with similar form to Fit Finlay's, except Homicide also has a nice one off the middle buckle delivered the same way. He hits multiple faces washes with his knees driven into and past Deranged's head, and I watched them over and over because they are impactful, but somehow safe, while they looked devastating. They looked like they were smashing Deranged's skull in but he was somehow going in full speed while pulling every one. Homicide even makes his chinlock look punishing, leaning his weight forward on Deranged, never looking like either man was resting. Aside from all this, Homicide can also draw sympathy. When he gets baseball slide dropkicked into the railing and curses angrily on impact, a little kid leans in and sincerely asks, "Are you okay?" 

Homicide has insanely great offense, and Deranged is great at making it look even better. It's not just the lack of consideration for his future, it's the way he utilizes late kickouts, and how good he is at sneaking in those late kickouts and making them work. His kickouts made Homicide's brainbuster, falcon arrow, and insane kneeling Michinoku driver all look like potential finishes. Although, the actual finish was undeniable, a Cop Killa so dangerous it could only be done by a man named Homicide. It's a running Cop Killa executed with no regard for Deranged's well being. Homicide performed the move like he was doing it to a CPR dummy, not to a living breathing human. He had no way of knowing if Deranged would land okay, he was doing this move to commit murder. He pins him with one finger to his chest because there was zero chance there could have been a kickout even if that were the plan. Earlier, Deranged did a backflip kick that instead shot both his knees straight into Homicide's chin, hard enough that I'm surprised Homicide wasn't knocked out. Since Deranged failed to knock him out, I have to imagine this Cop Killa - the most disgusting one I have ever seen - was a classic Come at the King, Best Not Miss payback. 

Hilarious note: there's a weird altercation as the ref didn't know the finish and thought Deranged was supposed to kick out of THAT Cop Killa, but it was clearly the finish to anyone watching and Deranged's body didn't move because he was not conscious. So the ref is acting like Deranged got his shoulder up, even though Deranged was still lying in an unconscious heap. The bell rings, Homicide's music starts playing, and the ref stays down on a knee signaling to Homicide that Deranged got his shoulder up while Homicide looks at him like he's a real fucking idiot. This ref, presumably, was asking why they weren't starting the damn match at Over the Edge '99. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SPECIAL K