Blair’s Soliloquies, Issue Forty-Two
I unveil (finally) the first part of my list of the best matches I saw live in the second half of 2009.
I’ll keep this short and sweet. I apologize for not having this posted like a week sooner, but the past few weeks I’ve been preoccupied with other things; for example, I was out of state for Christmas, as I hung out with my family. But now I’m able to post this Part 1, and you’ll see the first part of what I thought were the best matches I saw live in the second half of 2009. I don’t have too much else to say concerning the past few weeks, so let’s move on.
The first match on here is the main event to the Vintage Wrestling event in Sanford on October 24th. I know that some won’t agree as it was a bout where some announced guys didn’t show up and thus people that *I* had no clue of were in there, but even though it may be because I’m a mark for Royal Rumbles, I ended up enjoying this quite a bit. All the little things about it helped make it fun.
15. Bruce Santee won the Florida Rumble. This was like a Royal Rumble, with 90 second intervals. I don’t know how accurate that is as sometimes I wondered if time was shaved off, but it was definitely over 30 minutes long. The first man out was Frankie Capone, as he asked to be number 1 at the last show; why he did that, I’m not quite sure, but OK then. I know I’ll end up forgetting stuff but I’ll try to list at least some of the main things that happened during this match.
• I was thinking that Leon Scott would win this match as hey, he beat JAKE ROBERTS via pinfall at the last show and beating a huge name like that means that it’d be the start of a huge push and he’d win the title in order to explain why they gave Leon such a huge win… right? Why, of course not! He was out there early and he and his two cronies from the God-awful Pro Wrestling eKlipse fed (Vaughn Hampton and Justin Cade, who wore magnificent tights that look like something that Superstar Billy Graham would have worn in the mid 80’s) were dumped by Capone. WHY did they give him such a huge win if it means nothing in the long run? Figures.
• There were some people out there that I hadn’t heard of before, much less seen wrestle. The guy that stands out is someone whose name I didn’t hear clearly. He was a VERY hairy guy with long hair and a beard (anyone who posts on the Figure Four Weekly board and knows the name Ed in San Antonio, think of him minus 100 pounds and that’s this hairy Wildman character). Some of the new guys out there (guys I had heard of and not heard of) paid their dues via the veterans doing stuff like chopping them very hard. I presume that some of the new guys were able to wrestle as other guys (like The Heartbreak Express) didn’t show up.
• Simon Sez came out and he was a chicken and stalled, doing stuff like stretching. Later, out came Bobby Fonta, and as they’ve feuded in several different feds, he went after Simon and they made it to the ring. He then eliminated Simon and the crowd was very happy with that.
• Barney Rumble came out and he got eliminated right away by Frankie Capone. So, he re-entered… and was eliminated a second time by Capone. It then happened one more time and Barney finally got the message
• Chasyn Rance came out and Frankie was eagerly awaiting him to come in, due to the whole MSL thing. Chasyn stalled and then finally got in, and both guys laid in some stiff shots.
• Maxwell Chicago came out and he had the gimmick of… a lounge singer! He sang on the mic as he entered. He held onto the mic and seconds later he was eliminated, so he then sang about how he was sad that he was gone already. That was pretty AWESOME, no lie.
• Other stuff happened (the match was never boring as a lot happened to keep people entertained), but the final two guys were QT and Santee. They fought for a few minutes (which may have been a little long, but it was still loved by the crowd) and after teases, Bruce finally eliminated Marshall and thus he’ll get a title shot at the same January show that has MSL “wrestling” vs. Frankie Capone.
• Shooter Storm was in this match. That alone is noteworthy, but note that he somehow snuck up and eliminated both Snow and Joey Saint! They illegally came into the ring and eliminated poor Storm; don’t ask me why they did that heelish thing or, for that matter, why Saint and Snow were suddenly working with each other after having a match but an hour or so before.
• Shoot Fight Steve… if this isn’t a new guy trained at the training center by Jared David St. Laurent and the other trainers there… I wouldn’t bet my life savings on it but this *has* to got to be something that relates to him. It’s a no-name who says he recently moved to this state and bashed everyone in the state for being homosexuals and yada yada yada. He was in the Rumble and he was a little pipsqueak who was totally nondescript in every which way and who only lasted like 2 minutes in the match! The entire character and everything he said online, it HAS to be one of MSL’s angles, meaning that it won’t draw a dime, it’s totally pointless, and it’s basically him masturbating and thinking he’s a total Machiavellian genius who fools everyone all the time while in actuality he’s a very sick man in the head and he needs to be locked in a mental institution for the rest of his life. Like everything else he does, this won’t draw money and it’s a waste of everyone’s time. Why not do something more productive rather than bullshit like that stupid character?
I know, harsh words about Jared David, but it’s true.
Number 14 is from Pro Wrestling Fusion’s show in Daytona Beach on August 22nd.. I don’t have a detailed description of the contest, which I apologize for, although it’s more lengthy than the entries I have from the JPMC in November, when I had those personal issues (thankfully taken care of by now; it ended up, by miracle, being a whole lot of nothing). But anyway…
4. Chris Jones defeated TJ Perkins to retain the Fusion Junior Heavyweight Title. While this was disjointed at a time or two, I still thought this was a very good bout. Both guys were fan favorites and wrestled as such. I don’t know if it was because they liked TJ’s unique moves and offense or if they didn’t care for Jones or what, but much of the crowd ended up rooting for him by the end. It was back and forth from bell to bell, with standoffs, some Lucha style, high flying around, wrestling, working the arm… all that was there in this contest that got a good amount of time. Jones won with some sort of flash pin, and afterwards both guys were still friendly with each other.
This was as good as I figured it would be with those two wrestling against each other. By the way, I still don’t know why one certain wrestling personality decided suddenly one day that he hated me so he thought it would be good to bury me on MSL’s board and also bash a certain nightclub I like to go to. Sure, in the past few months I had an issue or two with that place but that’s in the past; heck, I was there last month and I got a SWING RIDE (not a swing dance) and it was fun. If my going there and having fun there is a bad thing…
Number 13 is something I only saw the last few minutes of, but judging by that and what Alan J. Wojick said about it in his review (linked in the link I’m providing), I’ll put it here. It is from the second night of the Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup, from Crystal River on November 21st..
13. TJ Perkins defeated Shane Hollister. The second and last phone call came right before this contest started. I missed most of this. What I saw at the end looked very good, but who knows how it was in full. TJ won with his submission hold that’s like the Cloverleaf, so the semifinal match was TJ vs. Davey and I had very high hopes for that one.
I did have high hopes for TJ vs. Davey and they were met, and you’ll read about that in Part 2.
Number 12 is from the previous night’s JPMC, in Brooksville.It was a bout that I said was overkill by the end, but even with that taken into account, it was a very good contest.
12. Egotistico Fantastico defeated Scotty Vortekz. I’ve seen Scotty once before but Ego, I’ve seen a number of times back in like 2003 and 2004 before I moved down here. This was a bout representing CZW, even though Ego is from Illinois and Scotty from Indiana. Things started fast with a forearm exchange and then they went outside. Vortekz ended up in a chair out in the seats where the fans were sitting. Ego put on a cape and flew over the railing and landed on Scotty; pretty impressive. From there, things were a blur, to be frank. I remembered it being very good, but by the end, it was overkill, and seeing stuff like a one man Spanish Fly kicked out of, that doesn’t really appeal to me. I know that the CZW fans there (who are often at FIP events) enjoyed this and this was their cup of tea and that’s fine, but for me I think I prefer the less is more kind of stuff. For the record, when I see the ridiculous stuff happen in Japan matches, I feel the same way, so no bias there. I’m no otaku or anything!
You can’t fault the guys for the effort they put into the match or the execution of moves; I just thought it should’ve ended without getting into overkill territory, that’s all.
Number 11 is from Vintage Wrestling’s event in Sanford on July 18th. There was an unfortunate injury in the contest that affected things and I believe that some stuff planned for the ending was not able to take place, but that individual ended up being fine and so sue me, but that’s how I feel about the contest.
11. Aaron Epic defeated Jude Mackenzie, Leon Scott, Eric Cooper, Gus Money, and Simon Sez in a ladder match to win the Vintage Internet TV Title. The belt was just created and would be awarded to the guy who could grab it. The last guy to come out was Simon, who wore a new majestic sparkly black jacket. He got on the mic and insulted the crowd and then his five opponents; that was a mistake as all five other dudes unleashed some big moves on Simon. What followed was what I thought was a very good contest, even though there was a very frightening moment that had an obvious effect on the rest of the contest. I mean, even more obvious than the stretchmarks on David Tuthill’s stomach!
All six went at it and you had ladders and chairs involved. Some definite “ouchie” moments! It was crazy. But then the unfortunate moment. There happened to be the problem of guys having the opportunity to grab the belt but instead they couldn’t help themselves and did big dives to other wrestlers on the outside. When Gus Money did this, though, he went to nearly the top of the tall ladder and he pretty much pushed off the ladder to do a somersault, and no referee or anyone else was holding on to the ladder. Yep, as I feared was going to happen, he couldn’t get enough momentum from the ladder and there was a frightening landing on the ground; he partly landed on guys but also partly landed on the ground back-first and it was obvious that he was in pain. Some guys came out to check on him and needless to say he was done for the rest of the match, which obviously had an effect on things and screwed up the plans that all the wrestlers had for the rest of the contest. I’m sure that’s why The Vacation Foundation (who came out during the bout and just watched on; they vanished by the end and I wondered what happened to them) ended up not being a part of this contest at all. Instead, Miss Betsy came out and she got involved for the last few minutes of the bout, which I enjoyed as at least it’s different, but I’m not sure what the male wrestlers thought of it. I mean, she powerbombed Cooper as he was climbing the ladder, she was waylaid by a Sez clothesline and even received a chairshot, but she kept on fighting. See what I mean? But I still enjoyed all of this contest-except for what happened to Gus, needless to say-and that even includes the ending where Epic climbed the ladder, went to unhook it from the rope that was holding it up… and had trouble unhooking it. Oops. Jude ended up climbing the ladder as something to do on the fly, but finally Epic unhooked it and he and Betsy celebrated. Like I said, a bout I thought of as very good, even though who knows what would have happened if Gus wasn’t hurt like that. Money was helped to the back but I have VERY good news to say… Gus was at the hospital and got X-rays but his back ended up not being seriously hurt, which is a relief. He was also walking around at intermission which made me and everyone else feel better at the time. Hopefully he can recover and be back in the ring again soon.
Like I said, Gus ended up being fine after that frightening moment. Number 10 is also from the second night of the JPMC in Crystal River. It was technically a pre-show bout, but both guys wrestled their ass off.
10. Bruce Santee defeated Erick Stevens via DQ to retain the Pro Wrestling Riot Heavyweight Title. This was a very good contest. You had hard hitting, big moves, near-falls, and all the works. It was laid out nicely too, and Erick was very good as a heel also. He came close a few times to winning but he finally grew frustrated at his inability to put away Santee, so he just kicked Bruce right in the cock and balls, in front of the referee, for the disqualification.
The ending wasn’t the best, but what can you do? Riot is supposed to come back sometime this year, and that is good news. Number 9 is an old-school contest that was at Pro Wrestling Fusion’s event in Temple Terrace on September 5th.
9. Buck Quartermaine defeated Chris Nelson. This was about as old-school as you can get. From the instant that Nelson stepped out the crowd disliked him, but as soon as he got on the mic and hilariously ripped on everyone for being trailer park trash that was missing teeth and were unable to raise their unruly kids, they HATED him. He explained that he has been wrestling against Buck for years now and this would be the end of him. The bout started and Chris did the thing of making it sound like Buck illegally hit him when the ref got Buck out of the corner (so his back was turned to Chris) so that Nelson could get out of there. He did that a few times and then, as always, Buck hit him for real, and “real” is a good word to use as Nelson was bleeding from the mouth. He was a cowardly heel so that egged on the audience even more. They did the test of strength and of course Chris lost that. He also claimed that his hair was being pulled. He finally got control with a punch to the face, and then he used his wrist tape to choke out Buck. Q got control again and a few minutes later he won with a top rope legdrop, much to the delight of everyone. It took a few minutes for Chris to get up and go to the back. The audience laughed at him losing. I’ll say this was a very good contest, as it was pretty awesome seeing these two guys have the crowd in the palms of their hands and the match was classic old-school stuff that you don’t really see anymore, sad to say, and it worked wonderfully in front of this crowd, which I suspect is filled with people who don’t go to too many shows, if any at all.
I wish I had written more about this contest; trust me, though, it was great entertainment as they had the crowd in the palms of their hands and it was like a bout from the early 80’s. In Part 2 I’ll have a match that was just like something from Championship Wrestling From Florida in the 70’s, especially with the crowd reactions.
The last one for Part 1 is another bout from the second night of the JPMC. It is quite different from number 9 as it is a total spotfest that-again-gets rather ridiculous by the end with the overkill stuff. Aside from a near-injury and the overkill, though…
8. Drake Younger won the FRAY match. This was taped for a Dragon Gate USA DVD, so you can imagine what it was like. It was very good, even with the final few minutes… the eight men in it were Younger, Chris Jones, Arik Cannon, Dave Cole, Brad Attitude, Scotty Vortekz, Flip Kendrick, and Marion Fontaine (a.k.a. “That Gay Guy”, according to one random fan in the audience). Brad and Arik started off and every two minutes a new man would enter and pinfalls or submissions would eliminate people. There was a lot of nutty stuff and flying in the ring and outside of the ring too. There was a scary moment when Chris was on someone’s shoulders and someone else did a dropkick off the top rope so that he’d do a reverse huracanrana! Well, it didn’t go quite as planned and Chris had a rough landing. Moments later he was pinned and helped to the back. The final match, he was out and walking around so he ended up being fine, thankfully. The final two men in the ring were Younger and Scotty. They are tag team partners in a team known as Naptown Dragons (as the smart marks were so kind to inform everyone via chanting) and they wrestled for at least 5 minutes. In my opinion, at least, it reached overkill by the end. I mean, getting dropped on your head from the middle rope and kicking out, a suplex where you get dropped on your head and no-selling, and then shoot headbutts (you could hear the impact; I’ve seen it before at IWA Mid-South events and back then I wasn’t comfortable with it) and man, this day and age, with all the hullabaloo and clamor on concussions, and having that take place… all I’ll say is that I hope those guys know what they’re doing and all the shit they’re doing now won’t have a negative impact on their lives down the road years later. But, despite all that, I thought this was a very good contest as there was so much action and the smart marks loved it.
So yeah, this match should be well-received by those who purchase that Dragon Gate USA DVD as it’s right up their alley.
I’ll be back next weekend with Part 2 of this list.
I’ll keep this short and sweet. I apologize for not having this posted like a week sooner, but the past few weeks I’ve been preoccupied with other things; for example, I was out of state for Christmas, as I hung out with my family. But now I’m able to post this Part 1, and you’ll see the first part of what I thought were the best matches I saw live in the second half of 2009. I don’t have too much else to say concerning the past few weeks, so let’s move on.
The first match on here is the main event to the Vintage Wrestling event in Sanford on October 24th. I know that some won’t agree as it was a bout where some announced guys didn’t show up and thus people that *I* had no clue of were in there, but even though it may be because I’m a mark for Royal Rumbles, I ended up enjoying this quite a bit. All the little things about it helped make it fun.
15. Bruce Santee won the Florida Rumble. This was like a Royal Rumble, with 90 second intervals. I don’t know how accurate that is as sometimes I wondered if time was shaved off, but it was definitely over 30 minutes long. The first man out was Frankie Capone, as he asked to be number 1 at the last show; why he did that, I’m not quite sure, but OK then. I know I’ll end up forgetting stuff but I’ll try to list at least some of the main things that happened during this match.
• I was thinking that Leon Scott would win this match as hey, he beat JAKE ROBERTS via pinfall at the last show and beating a huge name like that means that it’d be the start of a huge push and he’d win the title in order to explain why they gave Leon such a huge win… right? Why, of course not! He was out there early and he and his two cronies from the God-awful Pro Wrestling eKlipse fed (Vaughn Hampton and Justin Cade, who wore magnificent tights that look like something that Superstar Billy Graham would have worn in the mid 80’s) were dumped by Capone. WHY did they give him such a huge win if it means nothing in the long run? Figures.
• There were some people out there that I hadn’t heard of before, much less seen wrestle. The guy that stands out is someone whose name I didn’t hear clearly. He was a VERY hairy guy with long hair and a beard (anyone who posts on the Figure Four Weekly board and knows the name Ed in San Antonio, think of him minus 100 pounds and that’s this hairy Wildman character). Some of the new guys out there (guys I had heard of and not heard of) paid their dues via the veterans doing stuff like chopping them very hard. I presume that some of the new guys were able to wrestle as other guys (like The Heartbreak Express) didn’t show up.
• Simon Sez came out and he was a chicken and stalled, doing stuff like stretching. Later, out came Bobby Fonta, and as they’ve feuded in several different feds, he went after Simon and they made it to the ring. He then eliminated Simon and the crowd was very happy with that.
• Barney Rumble came out and he got eliminated right away by Frankie Capone. So, he re-entered… and was eliminated a second time by Capone. It then happened one more time and Barney finally got the message
• Chasyn Rance came out and Frankie was eagerly awaiting him to come in, due to the whole MSL thing. Chasyn stalled and then finally got in, and both guys laid in some stiff shots.
• Maxwell Chicago came out and he had the gimmick of… a lounge singer! He sang on the mic as he entered. He held onto the mic and seconds later he was eliminated, so he then sang about how he was sad that he was gone already. That was pretty AWESOME, no lie.
• Other stuff happened (the match was never boring as a lot happened to keep people entertained), but the final two guys were QT and Santee. They fought for a few minutes (which may have been a little long, but it was still loved by the crowd) and after teases, Bruce finally eliminated Marshall and thus he’ll get a title shot at the same January show that has MSL “wrestling” vs. Frankie Capone.
• Shooter Storm was in this match. That alone is noteworthy, but note that he somehow snuck up and eliminated both Snow and Joey Saint! They illegally came into the ring and eliminated poor Storm; don’t ask me why they did that heelish thing or, for that matter, why Saint and Snow were suddenly working with each other after having a match but an hour or so before.
• Shoot Fight Steve… if this isn’t a new guy trained at the training center by Jared David St. Laurent and the other trainers there… I wouldn’t bet my life savings on it but this *has* to got to be something that relates to him. It’s a no-name who says he recently moved to this state and bashed everyone in the state for being homosexuals and yada yada yada. He was in the Rumble and he was a little pipsqueak who was totally nondescript in every which way and who only lasted like 2 minutes in the match! The entire character and everything he said online, it HAS to be one of MSL’s angles, meaning that it won’t draw a dime, it’s totally pointless, and it’s basically him masturbating and thinking he’s a total Machiavellian genius who fools everyone all the time while in actuality he’s a very sick man in the head and he needs to be locked in a mental institution for the rest of his life. Like everything else he does, this won’t draw money and it’s a waste of everyone’s time. Why not do something more productive rather than bullshit like that stupid character?
I know, harsh words about Jared David, but it’s true.
Number 14 is from Pro Wrestling Fusion’s show in Daytona Beach on August 22nd.. I don’t have a detailed description of the contest, which I apologize for, although it’s more lengthy than the entries I have from the JPMC in November, when I had those personal issues (thankfully taken care of by now; it ended up, by miracle, being a whole lot of nothing). But anyway…
4. Chris Jones defeated TJ Perkins to retain the Fusion Junior Heavyweight Title. While this was disjointed at a time or two, I still thought this was a very good bout. Both guys were fan favorites and wrestled as such. I don’t know if it was because they liked TJ’s unique moves and offense or if they didn’t care for Jones or what, but much of the crowd ended up rooting for him by the end. It was back and forth from bell to bell, with standoffs, some Lucha style, high flying around, wrestling, working the arm… all that was there in this contest that got a good amount of time. Jones won with some sort of flash pin, and afterwards both guys were still friendly with each other.
This was as good as I figured it would be with those two wrestling against each other. By the way, I still don’t know why one certain wrestling personality decided suddenly one day that he hated me so he thought it would be good to bury me on MSL’s board and also bash a certain nightclub I like to go to. Sure, in the past few months I had an issue or two with that place but that’s in the past; heck, I was there last month and I got a SWING RIDE (not a swing dance) and it was fun. If my going there and having fun there is a bad thing…
Number 13 is something I only saw the last few minutes of, but judging by that and what Alan J. Wojick said about it in his review (linked in the link I’m providing), I’ll put it here. It is from the second night of the Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup, from Crystal River on November 21st..
13. TJ Perkins defeated Shane Hollister. The second and last phone call came right before this contest started. I missed most of this. What I saw at the end looked very good, but who knows how it was in full. TJ won with his submission hold that’s like the Cloverleaf, so the semifinal match was TJ vs. Davey and I had very high hopes for that one.
I did have high hopes for TJ vs. Davey and they were met, and you’ll read about that in Part 2.
Number 12 is from the previous night’s JPMC, in Brooksville.It was a bout that I said was overkill by the end, but even with that taken into account, it was a very good contest.
12. Egotistico Fantastico defeated Scotty Vortekz. I’ve seen Scotty once before but Ego, I’ve seen a number of times back in like 2003 and 2004 before I moved down here. This was a bout representing CZW, even though Ego is from Illinois and Scotty from Indiana. Things started fast with a forearm exchange and then they went outside. Vortekz ended up in a chair out in the seats where the fans were sitting. Ego put on a cape and flew over the railing and landed on Scotty; pretty impressive. From there, things were a blur, to be frank. I remembered it being very good, but by the end, it was overkill, and seeing stuff like a one man Spanish Fly kicked out of, that doesn’t really appeal to me. I know that the CZW fans there (who are often at FIP events) enjoyed this and this was their cup of tea and that’s fine, but for me I think I prefer the less is more kind of stuff. For the record, when I see the ridiculous stuff happen in Japan matches, I feel the same way, so no bias there. I’m no otaku or anything!
You can’t fault the guys for the effort they put into the match or the execution of moves; I just thought it should’ve ended without getting into overkill territory, that’s all.
Number 11 is from Vintage Wrestling’s event in Sanford on July 18th. There was an unfortunate injury in the contest that affected things and I believe that some stuff planned for the ending was not able to take place, but that individual ended up being fine and so sue me, but that’s how I feel about the contest.
11. Aaron Epic defeated Jude Mackenzie, Leon Scott, Eric Cooper, Gus Money, and Simon Sez in a ladder match to win the Vintage Internet TV Title. The belt was just created and would be awarded to the guy who could grab it. The last guy to come out was Simon, who wore a new majestic sparkly black jacket. He got on the mic and insulted the crowd and then his five opponents; that was a mistake as all five other dudes unleashed some big moves on Simon. What followed was what I thought was a very good contest, even though there was a very frightening moment that had an obvious effect on the rest of the contest. I mean, even more obvious than the stretchmarks on David Tuthill’s stomach!
All six went at it and you had ladders and chairs involved. Some definite “ouchie” moments! It was crazy. But then the unfortunate moment. There happened to be the problem of guys having the opportunity to grab the belt but instead they couldn’t help themselves and did big dives to other wrestlers on the outside. When Gus Money did this, though, he went to nearly the top of the tall ladder and he pretty much pushed off the ladder to do a somersault, and no referee or anyone else was holding on to the ladder. Yep, as I feared was going to happen, he couldn’t get enough momentum from the ladder and there was a frightening landing on the ground; he partly landed on guys but also partly landed on the ground back-first and it was obvious that he was in pain. Some guys came out to check on him and needless to say he was done for the rest of the match, which obviously had an effect on things and screwed up the plans that all the wrestlers had for the rest of the contest. I’m sure that’s why The Vacation Foundation (who came out during the bout and just watched on; they vanished by the end and I wondered what happened to them) ended up not being a part of this contest at all. Instead, Miss Betsy came out and she got involved for the last few minutes of the bout, which I enjoyed as at least it’s different, but I’m not sure what the male wrestlers thought of it. I mean, she powerbombed Cooper as he was climbing the ladder, she was waylaid by a Sez clothesline and even received a chairshot, but she kept on fighting. See what I mean? But I still enjoyed all of this contest-except for what happened to Gus, needless to say-and that even includes the ending where Epic climbed the ladder, went to unhook it from the rope that was holding it up… and had trouble unhooking it. Oops. Jude ended up climbing the ladder as something to do on the fly, but finally Epic unhooked it and he and Betsy celebrated. Like I said, a bout I thought of as very good, even though who knows what would have happened if Gus wasn’t hurt like that. Money was helped to the back but I have VERY good news to say… Gus was at the hospital and got X-rays but his back ended up not being seriously hurt, which is a relief. He was also walking around at intermission which made me and everyone else feel better at the time. Hopefully he can recover and be back in the ring again soon.
Like I said, Gus ended up being fine after that frightening moment. Number 10 is also from the second night of the JPMC in Crystal River. It was technically a pre-show bout, but both guys wrestled their ass off.
10. Bruce Santee defeated Erick Stevens via DQ to retain the Pro Wrestling Riot Heavyweight Title. This was a very good contest. You had hard hitting, big moves, near-falls, and all the works. It was laid out nicely too, and Erick was very good as a heel also. He came close a few times to winning but he finally grew frustrated at his inability to put away Santee, so he just kicked Bruce right in the cock and balls, in front of the referee, for the disqualification.
The ending wasn’t the best, but what can you do? Riot is supposed to come back sometime this year, and that is good news. Number 9 is an old-school contest that was at Pro Wrestling Fusion’s event in Temple Terrace on September 5th.
9. Buck Quartermaine defeated Chris Nelson. This was about as old-school as you can get. From the instant that Nelson stepped out the crowd disliked him, but as soon as he got on the mic and hilariously ripped on everyone for being trailer park trash that was missing teeth and were unable to raise their unruly kids, they HATED him. He explained that he has been wrestling against Buck for years now and this would be the end of him. The bout started and Chris did the thing of making it sound like Buck illegally hit him when the ref got Buck out of the corner (so his back was turned to Chris) so that Nelson could get out of there. He did that a few times and then, as always, Buck hit him for real, and “real” is a good word to use as Nelson was bleeding from the mouth. He was a cowardly heel so that egged on the audience even more. They did the test of strength and of course Chris lost that. He also claimed that his hair was being pulled. He finally got control with a punch to the face, and then he used his wrist tape to choke out Buck. Q got control again and a few minutes later he won with a top rope legdrop, much to the delight of everyone. It took a few minutes for Chris to get up and go to the back. The audience laughed at him losing. I’ll say this was a very good contest, as it was pretty awesome seeing these two guys have the crowd in the palms of their hands and the match was classic old-school stuff that you don’t really see anymore, sad to say, and it worked wonderfully in front of this crowd, which I suspect is filled with people who don’t go to too many shows, if any at all.
I wish I had written more about this contest; trust me, though, it was great entertainment as they had the crowd in the palms of their hands and it was like a bout from the early 80’s. In Part 2 I’ll have a match that was just like something from Championship Wrestling From Florida in the 70’s, especially with the crowd reactions.
The last one for Part 1 is another bout from the second night of the JPMC. It is quite different from number 9 as it is a total spotfest that-again-gets rather ridiculous by the end with the overkill stuff. Aside from a near-injury and the overkill, though…
8. Drake Younger won the FRAY match. This was taped for a Dragon Gate USA DVD, so you can imagine what it was like. It was very good, even with the final few minutes… the eight men in it were Younger, Chris Jones, Arik Cannon, Dave Cole, Brad Attitude, Scotty Vortekz, Flip Kendrick, and Marion Fontaine (a.k.a. “That Gay Guy”, according to one random fan in the audience). Brad and Arik started off and every two minutes a new man would enter and pinfalls or submissions would eliminate people. There was a lot of nutty stuff and flying in the ring and outside of the ring too. There was a scary moment when Chris was on someone’s shoulders and someone else did a dropkick off the top rope so that he’d do a reverse huracanrana! Well, it didn’t go quite as planned and Chris had a rough landing. Moments later he was pinned and helped to the back. The final match, he was out and walking around so he ended up being fine, thankfully. The final two men in the ring were Younger and Scotty. They are tag team partners in a team known as Naptown Dragons (as the smart marks were so kind to inform everyone via chanting) and they wrestled for at least 5 minutes. In my opinion, at least, it reached overkill by the end. I mean, getting dropped on your head from the middle rope and kicking out, a suplex where you get dropped on your head and no-selling, and then shoot headbutts (you could hear the impact; I’ve seen it before at IWA Mid-South events and back then I wasn’t comfortable with it) and man, this day and age, with all the hullabaloo and clamor on concussions, and having that take place… all I’ll say is that I hope those guys know what they’re doing and all the shit they’re doing now won’t have a negative impact on their lives down the road years later. But, despite all that, I thought this was a very good contest as there was so much action and the smart marks loved it.
So yeah, this match should be well-received by those who purchase that Dragon Gate USA DVD as it’s right up their alley.
I’ll be back next weekend with Part 2 of this list.