This show opens with a "Remember the Sacrifices" 9/11 flute instrumental memorial, showing fire fighters and ground zero extraction crews, segueing directly into a warning that CZW contains graphic and violent content because 2000s wrestling and (well, everything, for a few years) 9/11 had a strong bond. CZW even ran two shows on this day, the 3rd anniversary of 9/11, presumably to honor troops and first responders twice as much.
Super Dragon vs. Chris Hero - FUN
ER: For two guys who seem like they would have some real classic against each other, turns out they only had two singles matches. They had some tags opposite each other, but half of those included Davey Richards, so, you know. This one never really came together, and felt more like an assemblage of neat things both men do rather than a cohesive match featuring those things. You get your rolling wristlock exchange opening, your forearm exchange section, your suplex exchange section, and the momentum basically turned whenever either of them felt like turning the momentum. A lot of the greatest hits looked good: I'll always love Dragon's ringpost Cassandro bump, or Hero's running face wash big boot. You get hard Dragon short arm clotheslines, wrenched in cravats from Hero, a great German suplex spot where Dragon throws him after no selling an eyepoke, a Hero capture suplex that really folds Dragon, and a nice Dragon tope con hilo. But some of Hero's elbows actually don't look great, and the whole thing has a kind of exhibition feel throughout. It felt like they were checking off boxes rather than actually putting together a match. Moves got bigger, but since neither guy seemed to have much trouble getting back on offense, the moves never felt significant. Hero maneuvering through Dragon's limbs to get to the deathlock cravat was a slick as hell finish, and the whole thing would certainly make for a great 4 minute highlight video. But this was below what these SC favorites are capable of, and you gotta hold legends like these to a standard.
PAS: I agree that this was less then the sum of its parts. You are going to have some cool shit in a match with two wrestlers with a ton of cool shit, but I never felt it built to anything. I really liked Super Dragon stepping in on a flippy roll from Hero and just pasting him in the chops, and the Super Dragon double stomp to the head is one of wrestling sickest moves. Still that is a move which ended TARO's career and Hero kicks out at two and goes right back on offense. There was a lot of do-si-do reversals for a pair of guys who are normally bangers, and it did just kind of feel like it went till it stopped.
Sexxxy Eddy vs. El Generico vs. Kevin Steen vs. eXceSs 69
ER: I was about to skip this one, as the first several minutes were pretty bad, the kind of 2004 multiman wrestling that doesn't hold up and looks like guys carefully trying new moves and sequences. Eddy throws the absolute worst knee strikes I've seen, with his foot floating up and out behind him every time he did a knee, it looked like some kind of joke offense Rip Rogers would do to get heat (except I'm pretty sure they were just supposed to be actual kneelifts). Then we get one of those dive trains where most of the guys don't seem to know how to catch dives, and it was both a bad moment but also the moment of the match that started winning me over? I mean something about guys just hitting concrete and guardrails has a kind of unifying vibe to it. Generico does a tope con hilo and just lands on his feet without hardly touching anyone, Eddy takes a gnarly flight into the guardrail and crowd on an Asai moonsault, and my brain switched over into "I mean if they're going to kill themselves then let's see it."
And then they killed themselves! Generico was throwing heavy ole kicks in the corner, Steen started crushing people with suplexes, Generico dropped Steen disgustingly on the top buckle with a brainbuster, and then while I was reacting to that he dropped Sexxxy Eddy even more disgustingly with a buckle brainbuster! Steen attempted to cripple eXceSs 69 (presumably and understandably for his name) by throwing him overhead with a cradle suplex that dared Excess to bump on anything other than his neck. And the thing that started really getting me involved with this - other than potential death - is just how strong the crowd gets into Eddy. They really really want to see their guy beat these Canadians (they are all Canadians, but he's THEIR Canadian). You see, before the match, Eddy had done a strip tease for a barely legal girl, aggressively rubbed his dong on her, and then autographed her bare ass, so obviously he's a babyface at the New Alhambra. But the crowd really organically got into an Eddy win as the match went on, and I really like a crowd getting into a wrestler rather than rooting for a MOTY. Steen looked really awesome in this, delivering a ton of dangerous offense (kids never even piledrove their Wrestling Buddies as hard as he delivered a package piledriver in this match) with a smug look and teen acne, he hit a top rope gutbuster that should have shattered his leg, and Eddy kicking out of Steen's great moonsault was a genuine surprise. This was rough and bad, and then won me over. Eddy got the big win, and then everyone stood in the ring for a long time afterward congratulating themselves on what a great job they all did, and it was hilarious watching them all take curtain calls like they were all retiring immediately.
Eddie Kingston vs. B-Boy - GREAT
ER: This was nothing but action, with both men throwing increasingly heavier and heavier shots, never going into overkill but ramping up the violence consistently. It was a chance for both guys to show off some deep offense wells, while never feeling like either guy was trying to get all their moves in. This was Kingston's first singles match in CZW (and probably the earliest Kingston singles match I've seen, since I haven't dove too far into his Chikara work) and it's so good. He and B-Boy slugged it out and Kingston is a slightly more raw version of his later singles work, but it's surprising (it probably shouldn't be) how confident and mostly formed his style was just 75 matches into his career. Bobby Quance is on this show, and he's a guy whose whole thing was "incredibly quick learner", yet Kingston didn't even have as many matches as Quance at the time of this match. Kingston talked a ton of trash while leaning into some mean B-Boy shots, both men throwing big running kicks to the face, both throwing hard follow through elbow strikes, and the quick pace lead to minimal down time without ever feel like they were rushing to get to another big moment. It looked like it was going to be a real B-Boy steamrolling, loved him kicking King around, bouncing a chair off his head on the floor, and Kingston is great at taking ringside beatings.
I loved how King would make inroads, especially his blocked shining wizard cradle suplex, or when he caught a kick and used B-Boy's trapped leg to lift him up and plant him with a sitout powerbomb. BLKOUT gets involved, and I'm 95% confident that B-Boy murders Sabian with an electric chair driver. His head gets driven directly into the mat and his body goes stiff (before getting rolled out of the ring and out of our lives). We got a lot of Ultimate Warrior Actually Died rumors in the 90s, but the Second Sabian hasn't gotten nearly as much press. BLK Jeez is not the original Sabian, and you heard it here first. Kingston takes a ton of gross damage, like a brutal death valley driver and a blockbuster through some set up chairs, and the finish is a fantastic visual: B-Boy drops him in the corner with a chair over his face, lays a table over him, and then hits a running kick THROUGH the table into King's face. THAT is a kill shot finish, people. Kingston is a lunatic from taking something so unprotected, and you can even see B-Boy taking extra time in the corner to psyche himself up for putting his damn leg through a table. When the guy about to murder you is having second thoughts about murdering you, that's a weird vibe to bring to a wrestling match. And it ruled.
PAS: This had the awkwardness you might expect from Kingston still being green, but both guys have a ton of charisma and aren't afraid to throw heat. This is a fun role reversal with B-Boy in the later Kingston role of veteran beating on a young stud, and Kingston being an awesome Tre Lamar as the young outgunned cocky kid. Poor Sabian though. That electric chair drive landed on the crown of his head and must have knocked three inches off his height. That finish took a while to set up, but you can't quibble with B-Boy driving his foot through a table and through someone's face.
M-Dogg 20 vs. Bobby Quance
ER: Bobby Quance, as I mentioned before, is famous for being a pro wrestling natural, who moved on quick and left people wanting more. This match was basically the end of his career, with the announcement after the match that he was joining the Navy. And for a guy who never wrestled full time and worked less than 100 matches, he really did have a lot of polish. He looked even more polished wrestling opposite M-Dogg 20. Quance had a lot of cool grappling to start, trying to get wrist control standing, taking M-Dogg down while going for armbars, and M-Dogg actually appeared to be working a funny heel gimmick where he only did disappointing highspots to get under the crowd's skin. M-Dogg hit a springboard tomahawk chop, and kept locking on chinlocks for heat instead of following through on spots (like hitting a snapmare and stopping short from kicking Quance in the back, opting for a chinlock). I was getting plenty of entertainment out of M-Dogg pulling this bullshit - man who is only known for gymnastics refusing to do gymnastics - but the crowd didn't seem to care. And then, M-Dogg stopped caring as well. They went to the finish earlier than expected, felt like they were building to something a bit longer, and the match ended with an M-Dogg shooting star press that landed 2 feet short. That finish felt like somebody shit their pants and they had to immediately go home no matter what.
Ladder Match: Nate Webb vs. JC Bailey vs. Chris Cash
ER: This had down time, but was much closer in spirit to Crazy Crusher vs. Hell Storm, which is the only logical way to judge a ladder match. That match was focused on impossibly stiff strikes and death wish bumps with no thoughts to safe landings, and that's what this was. It wasn't as pure as that backyard indy dream, but the vibe was there. There are some UGLY bumps in this one, the kind of things that could have easily crippled someone. The grossest moment was Webb dropping Bailey with a back suplex while Bailey had a ladder hung around his neck. The way Bailey gets folded up I honestly don't know how how he didn't break his neck. That's not the first time in the match I thought Bailey broke his neck, as the finish saw him take a burning hammer off the top of a ladder, onto a ladder that was set up between chairs. That's the perfect beauty of Canadian indy backyard spirit. Webb is super talented, a flyer with a crazy ideas, someone who could have been a super successful "straight" worked, but his willingness to do crazy things without thinking too hard about them makes him even more special. I didn't love Cash here, even though he took a similarly gross bump to Bailey's ladder around neck bump, he seemed to be slower on the draw in pulling off the crazy spots. Bailey and Webb were in there to take incredibly stupid bumps onto their heads or into piles of chairs, and Cash was the guy to pick up the scraps. This wasn't a clean match and there were some longer than needed set up times, but the heart and craziness was there and that's far more important.
Necro Butcher vs. Wifebeater
ER: This was a few big gross landings with not a whole lot in between, so it's going to come down to how much you like to see Necro take punishment. I like that quite a lot, so for me there was plenty here to enjoy. The bumps are what you're here for, and there were plenty of crazy bumps. They brawl through the crowd, Necro superplexes Wifebeater off the bleachers through a table, Necro gets powerbombed off different bleachers through a couple set up chairs, Necro eats a powerbomb through the merch table while some poor guy tries fecklessly to move the VHS and DVDs off the table first (he does not, meaning Necro lands right on a ton of VHS, the table eventually gets broken, VHS tapes everywhere). The set ups to a lot of these are kind of ugly. Wifebeater has a really difficult time both lifting Necro for moves, and appears to be deadweight while being lifted. If you're generous, maybe it comes off like they're struggling to prevent a move, like Misawa sandbagging a powerbomb. It isn't that, but if you're generous you could at least make that argument. It would be a good thing for someone to cover it up on commentary. In the ring Wifebeater snacks on sour cream Pringles, shoves thumbtacks down the front of Necro's pants before hitting a fistdrop on his groin, and then a gruesome inverted atomic drop. That kind of stuff is great, but there's a lot of time in between this stuff. Sure, some of that time is spent on punches to the head, but the whole match is pretty disconnected. The finish is a real cluster, with more tacks than I've ever seen on a mat getting poured out but not really used, then a glass pane getting set up between two chairs. Lobo is guest ref and kind of commandeers things, preventing Wifebeater from using a weed whacker, then taking far too long to open up some lighter fluid and light this pane of glass. Necro has to basically stall for 30 seconds and act like he can't lift Wifebeater for a powerbomb, and they stumble a bit when the glass is finally lit, but Wifebeater finally exploding through glass is a great finish. His back covered with rivulets of blood as he walked out looked even cooler. This is the kind of match that would make a killer 3 minute highlight video, and I'm okay with that.
Labels: B-Boy, Bobby Quance, Chris Cash, Chris Hero, CZW, Eddie Kingston, Excess, Generico, JC Bailey, Kevin Steen, M-Dogg 20, Nate Webb, Necro Butcher, Sexxxy Eddy, Super Dragon, Wifebeater
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