Scrub’s View #7 – MPW “Elements” Review

CarrieSCU put her foot on the ground and demanded that I give Steve a break and do an MPW review or else I’d get fired! What the boss wants, the boss gets.

January 12 has finally arrived. This date was a date that was heavily anticipated by every single SoCal wrestling fan. January 12 was an important night in SoCal because two wrestling feds decided to run a wrestling show on the same night at the same time. Which show did I go to? Well, let’s see: I like wrestling. I don’t care about any “big names” that used to be in the WWF or WCW. And I wasn’t the only one that saw Spanky vs. Super Dragon listed on the MPW card. So obviously, you know where I was. I did what every kid does on a Saturday night. I went to go hang out at the Atlantis Jewish Community Center.

Going into this show, I was really hyped up. Usually, MPW shows get almost any SoCal wresting fan pretty hyped up. Getting hyped for an MPW show can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing. Elements was a good show, but it didn’t meet my expectations. But then again, my expectations for this show were really really REALLY high. The last good SoCal show before this Elements show was MPW’s last show, Shock to the System. And that show was back in early November. So that meant I haven’t seen a really really good wrestling show in awhile, and that made me look a lot more forward to MPW’s Elements. I guess that after you watch APW’s King of Indies live, it kinda makes watching other wrestling shows hard because nothing really measures up. But then again, I doubt the MPW brass really wants to blow 10K on a show. OHHHHHHHHH!

Good show from top to bottom. Not a great show. Not a King of Indies show. Not even a Critical Beatdown show (MPW’s best show to date). But it was still a good show. On to the High’s and Low’s:

Highs

Closer venue: Who can complain about that? 45 minutes from OC? I certainly can’t complain about that. Although, I must say I do like the Bernard Milken center more than this closer place. The Bernard Milken JCC is one of the best wrestling venue’s I’ve ever been to.

Jerry’s Birthday: What the fuck are you talking about Scrub? Well, in case you weren’t at MPW, little Jerry celebrated his birthday at Elements along with twenty of his friends. Jerry and his crew had the first three rows reserved at MPW. How is that a good thing? Well, Jerry and his posse added the “face vs. heel” dynamic to the show. The traditional “face vs. heel” atmosphere is rarely at an MPW show, or even an Indy show for that matter. So because of little Jerry and his gangsters, the wrestlers were able to easily get heat thus adding a little more to the show.

Rolling Blackout?: That’s what Scott Lost’s Rolling Northern Lights into a Ki-Krusher is called right? I mark out for that every time. Lost pulls that off with perfection. Too bad Lost and his partner Ryan Rufio could not compete in the Tag Finals. My only wish during that match was to see more of Joey Ryan. I’ve heard so much about this Joey Ryan character, but yet have I seen him wrestle. He wrestled in that opening six-man at MPW, but the fans didn’t get to see him utilized to his full potential. Hopefully, I will get the chance to see Joey Ryan work singles sometime down the road.

Chris Daniels Promo: Daniels is always known for cutting great promos. Daniels also had Spanky with him in the ring, which is always a plus in my book. Judging by the crowd’s reaction to the promo, they ate it up. Daniels said that after he defeated Tech IX, he’d give any of the SoCal Elite a shot at the MPW title (B-Boy, Samoa Joe, Super Dragon, Frankie Kazarian).

Phenomenal Phil vs. Frankie Kazarian: The scheduled match was supposed to be Frankie Kazarian vs. Messiah. But since Messiah opted to take a booking for Combat Zone Wrestling up at the Viking Hall, Kazarian was left without an opponent. The MPW Brass certainly picked a good replacement in Phenomenal Phil. I think a lot of people tend to “sleep” on Phil. People tend not to give Phil credit where credit is due (myself included). Frankie and Phil put on a great match that certainly surprised me. Phil’s Rana on Frankie looked kinda sick from my vantage point, but Phil seemed to be walking around A-OK. The solo Spanish Fly by Frankie was pretty sweet to watch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Spanish Fly done solo before, so I guess that’s pretty innovative. Phil almost looked like he was gonna land square on his head. Glad he walked out of the ring safely. Really good match put on by both participants. Phenomenal Phil might have turned a few heads.

Psycho Driver 2001 (Supernatural Driver): Absolutely sick (I mean that in a good way). It boggles the mind how Spanky could walk around after that. Must see this move done live. It was also the debut of the Supernatural Driver in MPW. SoCal fans have only seen it in RevPro and XPW, but now MPW fans have seen some real sick shit. SICK SHIT DOJO!

Spanky vs. Super Dragon: Just seeing those two square off in the ring was a mark out moment for me. The mat work in the beginning of the match was great. Too bad the match was cut short due to a Dragon injury.

Ballards vs. Excalibur & Rising Son: The opening camera bit was great. Whoever came up with that one is a genius! I want the negatives! Too bad that guy in the crowd almost killed their heat by yelling out “You Suck” repeatedly (but it’s cool because he didn’t know any better). I really like the Ballards and Melissa’s new ring gear. Looks a lot better than the Hanson Brothers gear in my opinion. Cheerleader Melissa was looking pretty good as well. I liked the interplay between Excalibur and Rising Son, since Excalibur really didn’t wanna team with him in the first place. Also another reason I liked this match was because of Excalibur’s…

SHINING WIZARD!: Yep, the Shining Wizard deserves its own little “High” heading. It couldn’t even be included in the above heading. I marked out like a little schoolgirl for that. For those of you who do not know what a Shining Wizard is, let me do a little educating. Excalibur jumped off one of the Ballard’s knee, and gave that same Ballard a knee to the face. A move made popular by Keiji Mutoh aka the Great Muta.

B-Boy vs. Samoa Joe: I was looking forward to this match too, because these two guys know each other pretty well. A sick dropkick in the corner by B-Boy, some sick suplexes (and I do mean really sick “God he’s fucking dead” type suplexes) and some sick lariats from Joe, and a dangerous looking dive from B-Boy (B-Boy landed pretty damn hard) were some of the highlights of the best match on the card. I saw for myself the “AH” written on Joe’s taped fist. Not only did he write Ayako Hamada’s initials on his fist to show his love for the former ARSION champ, but Joe also stole her Spiral Bomb spot! (I know I know, Ayako stole that from Shinjiro Ohtani, but still, it’s the principality!) I should consider that a “Low” but I’ll be a nice guy. Just promise me you won’t do La Ayakita. I wouldn’t mind if you did Ayako’s patented spin kick though. That would be quite the sight to see. Quite hilarious indeed, without the “E”. Oh, I’m an MC!

Hot Chick on the Side that was Taken: I would have probably been caught staring at her during the “less interesting” parts of the show. Tom Walter’s says that that girl’s boyfriend is a fag. That comment from Thomas was not really surprising.

Lows

It’s Our Time Not Available: I wanted that tape! Thanks a lot jerks! JOKE! I kid because I love. MPW Brass rules!

Suncal Wrestling: Bwhahahhahaah, yep, SunCal Wrestling or Interpro was actually passing out flyers at MPW. I was also even told that Kriss Kross is behind this whole Interpro/Suncal Wrestling thing. Kinda makes sense doesn’t it? Message board aficionados all know about Interpro and SunCal. Bwhahahahahaahaha.

Cash Money Brothas vs. Lil’ Cholo & Silver Tiger: If this match was cut, the show wouldn’t have ran as long as it did. This was NOT a terrible match. I repeat, NOT a terrible match. This match was just there. If this match did not take place, it really would not have affected the show. If Under Pressure wrestled that night, did that mean he didn’t do commentary for the whole show? Also, I didn’t see Larry Park commentating. Was he?

Super Dragon Injury: Dragon injured himself during the enziguri variation he did on Spanky. This injury prevented Spanky vs. Super Dragon from being a great match. But I’m still impressed that Dragon finished the match with an injury. Dragon even did a dive injured. How nuts is that?

Aggravated Assault: MPW fans were anticipating the Cubans vs. the Lost Boys, but Ryan Rufio could not compete. So a replacement tag team was needed. We saw that the MPW Brass picked a good replacement for the Messiah earlier. I can’t say the same about the Lost Boys replacements. This was my first time seeing Aggravated Assault work, and they were neither bad nor good. They were just there. I heard Digable James and company yell out “Kronik” when they came out. Well, I’m guessing that Aggravated Assault was a last minute replacement. I’m HOPING that was a last minute replacement. I think that this match killed a lot of the heat for the show. This match kinda dragged on as well, as I heard some calls from the fans to “take it home”. Yep, smart chants. Smart chants sure do suck, but I shared the same sentiments of that chant.

Tech IX’s Ring Gear: He had a good match with Daniels, but I’m not really big on the generic street gear. A lot of wrestlers on the Indy circuit sport the generic shirt and pants look that ECW made popular. But that look has become a dime a dozen. Not only do Indy wrestlers use that, but backyarders as well. Ric Blade from the East Coast looks like a backyarder to me, just because of his ring gear. Sure, Blade’s got skill, but he still looks like a backyarder in a cut-off shirt and generic pants. Tech IX had gear at the November show. I think he should continue to sport the singlet to the ring as opposed to the Adidas pants.

Overall, Elements was a good show. Not on the level of Critical Beatdown but still a good show. It’s my own fault for setting my expectations too high for this show. Match of the Night goes to B-Boy vs. Samoa Joe. Sleeper Match of the Night goes to Phenomenal Phil vs. Frankie Kazarian. The most entertaining match goes to Ballards vs. Excalibur & Rising Son. MPW has always put on a good show. They have not had a bad show yet (that I have seen). I look forward to their next show, and I hope it’s back at the Bernard Milken Center. I’d travel an extra 15 minutes for that venue any day.

Scrub
Drinking the Kool-Aid…
Scrub@SoCalUncensored.com