I know it’s a little late for a review now, but what
the hell I’ll do one anyway. I attended UPW’s “Title Wave”
on Friday July 11th at the Grove in Anaheim.
This was UPW’s first “big” show in a few
months. The attendance was down by about 300-400 from the last
show, which is probably best explained by the lack of WWE superstars
and the general feeling that the last show was pretty lackluster.
With the seating configuration in the Grove (which is probably
the nicest venue in SoCal, along with the Mayan), and the lighting,
it should still look pretty good on video. The show started with Pete Doyle in the ring, then
Rick Bassman coming out. They went over Doyle stripping Howard
of the UPW Heavyweight title, and Bassman told Doyle that he “endorses
the decision”. Bassman then handed Doyle his metal clipboard,
which was meant to be symbolic of control of the company.
One thing that I’d like to mention, is that I think
UPW is doing a great job of using the Internet to help push it’s
storylines with the Weekly Wires and columns on it’s site, and
did a great job in the promos of touching on what’s been happening
on the Internet to familiarize fans in attendance who might not
have read it, without over doing it. Everyone there knew the basic
gist of what was going on, and to the people who do follow the
net, they didn’t have to sit through an entire recap of what has
been happening. I think a lot of promotions can learn from how
UPW is using the Internet to further it’s storylines, while not
doing it at the expense of those who aren’t up to date with the
websites.
UPW Title Tournament Semi Finals: Big Chris Mordetzsky
over Keji Sakoda [5’09]
Before the show I had one of these two guys picked to win the
title, and kind of figured this would be the finals. Big Chris
is going to be a star in pro-wrestling, there’s no doubt there.
And with this show he really proved that he can hang with top-notch
guys. Keji looked pretty good in the match too. I’m surprised
how under rated Keji is. He always puts on solid matches, but
rarely gets any real hype. Big Chris won this with a roll up.
Next Big Schwag comes out with Erica Porter, Ruckus,
and Apocalypse and says he’s restarting the Schwag Army. He also
says he paid top dollar to get the Schwag Army a champion and
get one of the top wrestlers around, Adam Pearce. Pearce comes
eating a banana, and spits banana at a few people then cuts a
promo. Which of course leads to the next match.
UPW Title Tournament Semi Finals: Adam Pearce
over Skulu [5’56]
I’ve never seen a bad Skulu match, and I don’t think I’ve seen
a bad match from Adam Pearce. Skulu dominated the match early,
and when Pearce tried to get something going, he head butted Skulu,
knocking himself out. At one point Skulu gave Pearce a stink face,
then later in the match Pearce dropped his pants to give Skulu
a stink face, but got a banana shoved up his ass for his troubles.
The Schwag Army was able to distract the ref, and Pearce threw
powder in Skulu’s face and got the win. Pete Doyle then came out
and said that he will be the special ref in tonight’s main to
insure that it is fair. Everyone who has watched wrestling more
than a month saw what was coming.
Steve Masters over Sabbath to retain the EWF
Heavyweight Title [5’59]
This was easily the worst match on the show. I’d go as far as
to say it was the show’s only bad match. My main problem with
the match was just the style that they worked. It was just boring.
I like old school wrestling, but matches need to have some payoff.
Not just boring move after boring. The match built to nothing,
and the crowd quickly lost interest in it. Sabbath looked pretty
crisp throughout the match. Masters looked OK too, except when
taking a clothesline. Overall a bad match.
The Miz & Lil’ Nate over Tony Stradlin &
Kid Vicious [5’58]
Tony Stradlin had a fantastic match at the last UPW show in San
Luis Obispo, and looked great once again here. The Miz should
be one of the top rookie of the year contenders, it’s just too
bad UPW doesn’t run more shows so he’d have a better chance at
winning. Lil’ Nate is always fun to watch, and Kid Vicious is
another guy who doesn’t get the hype he deserves. The four of
them put on a pretty fun match. Of course Lil’ Nate got his Three
Stooges spots in. Nate did a splash off The Miz’ shoulders and
got the pin on Stradlin.
Samoa Joe over B-Boy and Frankie Kazarian [9’25]
-Samoa Joe won via submission on B-Boy.
This match was pretty disappointing. I’m not saying it was a bad
match, but it definitely wasn’t the match you’d expect from these
three. The match had a lot of brawling through the crowd, then
the ending just came out of nowhere and came off really flat.
The match was OK, but not what it should have been.
Next we went to intermission so the cage for the
Outlaws versus Native Nation could be built.
The Outlaws (Mike Knox, Marshal Knox, & Derrick
Neikirk) over Native Nation (Navajo Warrior, Ghostwalker, &
Ma’koa) [12’11]
-Ma’koa was eliminated at 7’23
-Marshall Knox was eliminated at 8’27
-Navajo Warrior was eliminated at 10’28 when he left the ring.
-Ghostwalker eliminated at 12’11
I actually thought this was a pretty good match, and told the
story that they were trying to well. I’m of the school of thought
that thinks gimmick matches like cage matches, or ladder matches
should be saved for matches like this, where it is supposed to
end a long feud. The match played out well, especially with the
pre-match video clips adding to the match’s story. Ghostwalker
was put over strong in defeat, holding out as long as he did while
being outnumbered, and the feud had a real resolution and a change
with Navajo Warrior turning on Ghostwalker, which was actually
built to. After the match Skulu ran down for the save, and did
a splash from the top of the cage, which got a huge pop from the
crowd.
Erica Porter over Sara del Rey to retain the
UPW Women’s Title [7’03]
This was one of, if not the best women’s match that I have ever
seen live in the US, featuring US wrestlers. I think this match
proves the point that if you present good women’s wrestling, the
crowd will get into the match and move away from the cat call
mentality that most women’s matches have. At the start of the
match, there of course were a few comments yelled at the ring,
but as the match progressed the crowd started to get into it,
probably more so than most of the previous matches. Erica looked
great in the match, as she’s clearly one of the top female wrestlers
in the United States. I don’t really know what is going on over
on the East Coast as far as women’s wrestling goes, but I’d guess
Erica, Sara del Rey, and Melissa are probably the top three women’s
wrestlers in the US, or not far from it. That being said, I thought
Sara was a little slow in the match, and really didn’t look crisp
at times. Still, it was a really good match, and my second or
third favorite on the show. I wouldn’t mind a rematch in the future.
Hardkore Inc. (Hardkore Kidd & Al Katrazz)
over The Ballard Bros. (Shannon Ballard & Shane Ballard) and
Scott Lost & Funky Billy Kim to retain the UPW Tag Titles
[8’10]
UPW really ended on a high note with the top three matches on
the show going last. This was a really good match that had a ton
of action throughout. It was pretty much nonstop for the entire
duration and everyone looked really good in the match. Hardkore
Inc versus the Ballards is a feud that should probably never die,
as they seemingly always bring out the best in each other. Hardkore
Inc won when Al Katrazz pinned Funky Billy Kim.
Adam Pearce over Big Chris Mordetzsky to win
the vacant UPW Heavyweight title [9’32]
-UPW commissioner Pete Doyle was the special referee for the
match, and hit Big Chris with a chair, giving Pearce the win.
I thought this was the best match of the night. Pearce has really
done an awesome job in 2003, after taking most of 2002 off. This
was easily Big Chris’ best match of his career, and he couldn’t
have picked a better time, having had it in the biggest match
of his career. The build up to the match all through the night,
plus the importance placed on the UPW Heavyweight title throughout
the night really got the crowd into this. I’d say everyone saw
the Doyle turn coming, but it was a necessity for where UPW is
going with it’s storylines, and they couldn’t have asked for a
better crowd reaction to end the show. Once Pearce got the win
after the Doyle turn, the crowd went wild. Bassman came down to
the ring and started getting beat down also (even hit with the
metal clipboard) and the crowd started throwing cups of water,
plastic bottles, and every piece of trash it could find into the
ring. When this show comes out on video or DVD the ending is going
to make the Schwag Army and Pearce come off as big time heels.
WWE can learn a lot from the way UPW booked this one show, as
everything worked out perfectly, and in the context of one single
show UPW was able to get the fans to care about a match and the
characters involved enough to bring them to a near riot.
Overall, the show was better than the last UPW show
at the Grove, but it had the same problems that have plagued UPW
for the last few months with there being no real blow away matches
on the show. While most of the matches were above average, none
really came off as memorable (except the main due to the ending).
Also, while the triple threat was booked a little differently,
I think UPW could stand to mix up the shows a little more. Wrestling
is supposed to be like a three ring circus, and when all three
rings have almost the same identical thing in them, the show starts
to drag.
One thing I’d like to mention also is that during
the show they played a clip from one of the Roddy Piper segments
that will be on the UPW DVDs with Hardkore Kidd. The segment was
absolutely hilarious and to was further proof that the WWE totally
misused Piper in his latest stint there. Piper is at his best
when he is working on the fly and is unscripted and this segment
really proved it. I wont spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it,
but these Piper segments will be worth picking up the UPW DVDs
for alone.
—
WPW’s “Best of the West” is coming up
this Friday, and it looks to be a pretty good show. Earlier this
year WPW signed into a three year deal with Toryumon, which was
supposed to send WPW guys there, and bring Toryumon guys here.
There hasn’t been a whole lot of activity on either front, with
only Martin Marin (El Genio) going over to Toryumon so far, and
now at “Best of the West”, Toryumon wrestlers will be
in WPW for the first time since the deal began.
The tournament is a one night, sixteen-man tournament
featuring some of the top wrestlers from the West Coast. The one
night format is not the most desirable format for a tournament
with so many people, since it forces lots of short matches, but
it is the most practical for indy promotions. Revolution Pro has
been able to pull it off the last two years with their Revolution
J tournament, so it should work out fine.
The talent pool in the tournament itself is very
deep, and probably the best tournament lineup in SoCal since the
first Revolution J in 2001. WPW actually tried to get Paul London
for the show, but he was unable to commit in time (PWG was also
wanting to book London for their August show, but him signing
with WWE changed those plans).
One of the best things going for the tournament
is the uncertainty over who’ll win their matches. With most tournaments
you can probably guess all the first round winners, but in at
least half the matches in the first round at “Best of the
West” it’s really up for grabs.
The biggest highlight of the show will probably
end up being the Toryumon match between Taji Ishamori and “Royal
Brother” Henry Sugawara the 3rd. If you haven’t seen these
guys before you are in for a real treat.
Anyway, here are my predictions for the first round.
Disco Machine over Excalibur – This one could really
go either way, but I see Disco advancing here.
B-Boy over Matrix – I think this one is pretty much
a no-brainer. This should be a good matchup of guys who trained
together at CCW’s Palace of Pain.
Lil’ Cholo over Eric Matlock – Another no brainer.
I’d be surprised if Cholo doesn’t make it to at least the semi
finals, but I expect him to go even farther than that.
Tony Kozina over Joey Ryan – This is another match that is really
anyone’s guess. I picked Tony just because he drove a lot farther
to get here. This match has some curse on it and probably wont
happen anyway, as it always seems to get cancelled.
Jardi Frantz over Scott Lost – This one is also
a toss up. Lost works WPW every week, but NorCal has to get some
representation past the first round.
Frankie Kazarian over Hardkore Kidd – This is another tough one,
but I’ll go with Frankie just because the name he’s been making
for himself lately.
Super Dragon over Infernal – No way Dragon goes
out in first round.
Silver Tyger over Funky Billy Kim – I’ll go with
Tyger here because he has the home field advantage.
—
XPW is still saying they’ll run again, but they
are also saying it wont be for at least two more months.
—
Roddy Piper will be signing autographs at Comic
Con International in San Diego on july 17th through the 20th.
He will be at booth AA15 in the autograph section at the following
times:
Thursday, 3:00 PM-7:00 PM
Friday, 3:00 PM-7:00 PM
Saturday, 3:00 PM-7:00 PM
Sunday, 2:00 PM-5:00 PM
—
I should be back early next week with news from
“Best of the West” and Comic Con International.
-Steve
