On September 20th Revolution Pro will run the third annual Revolution J tournament. In this column we’ll take a look back at the history of Revolution J, and a look ahead at the Revolution J 3.
The first Revolution J was built up throughout the summer of 2001, really starting in earnest when TARO (then Ultra Taro Jr.) faked a retirement and then decided to wage war on Revolution Pro by bringing in wrestler from throughout the world to feud with the Revolution Pro regulars of Super Dragon, Mr. Excitement, Disco Machine, Excalibur, and Rising Son. The angle was meant to culminate with the Revolution J, but Rev Pro unfortunately was no longer able to run at the Norwalk Indoor Swap Meet and with a short hiatus the original Revolution Pro versus the world concept was largely abandoned, though it did retain some aspects of it.When the Revolution J was first announced even, the plan was to run it in Stockton, with a bus trip from SoCal up to the tournament. Thankfully. It was realized that running the show so far from the source of Revolution Pro’s fan base probably wouldn’t do so well and it was decided to run the show at the Anaheim Indoor Marketplace.
One of the first major announcements regarding the tournament was that Michiko Ohmukai and GAMI from the now defunct Joshi promotion ARSION would be making their United States debuts on the show. To go along with them wrestling for the first time in the United States, they were to run a tryout for local female talent for ARSION. That tryout was all together a bust however when most of the female wrestlers who committed to going never showed up and only three ladies did show up, two of which were barely even trained. Still the addition of the ARSION match brought Revolution Pro it’s first Japanese press, with the show being covered by Japan’s Samurai TV.
The first Revolution J had what is by far the best lineup of the three Revolution Js so far. Spanky who is now in the WWE, Super Dragon, NOSAWA, B-Boy, Ricky Reyes, and Tomokazu Morita from FMW, who later became Garuda, the successor to Hayabusa in that promotion. However the show itself wasn’t without problems.
First as most people around SoCal know, the Anaheim Marketplace isn’t always the best place to run a show. Since the show was at night, generators needed to be running for the lights, and the noise from the generators kept the show from gaining any real heat. Then there were the problems with mats getting condensation on them, leading to wrestlers being on a virtual slip and slide when they left the ring.
Inside the ring, the first round didn’t go as planned at all. Firstly Messiah didn’t show up due to injury, and with it being only his second match after leaving XPW, his being there was one of the selling points on the show, not to mention the possibility of a second round match between Super Dragon and Messiah that was something of a SoCal dream match at the time (though that match wasn’t scheduled to happen at the time, as Mr. Excitement was always planned to go over Messiah).
Then there was the Rising Son and Ricky Reyes match was pretty much nothing more than Reyes beating up Son and not working with him the entire match. Prior to the match Son went up to Reyes to talk over the match, but Reyes didn’t want to discuss the match, and when they got into the ring it turned into a pounding.
Also the first round saw a Disco Machine versus Spanky match that was pretty much like the Reyes versus Son match, with Spanky knocking Disco around, and Disco doing nothing back.
The second round and semi finals went off pretty much without a hitch, and NOSAWA defeating Morita in the second round even placed fifth on SCU’s monthly rankings.
The original finals was scheduled to be Super Dragon versus NOSAWA, but NOSAWA was injured, and the finals was changed to Super Dragon versus B-Boy, with Super Dragon going over. With the finals being changed during the show, Dragon and B-Boy had no time to go over their match, aside from a few minutes during the ARSION special attraction match, and virtually the whole match was called in the ring. Still, the match came off very well as it was the September 2001 match of the month, and finished strong in the 2001 match of the year voting, finishing seventh.
The biggest problem with the show though, was the attendance. The first Revolution J drew a disappointing 350 people, and the money lost on the show nearly meant the end of Revolution Pro. Aside from a show the night after the Revolution J, Revolution Pro didn’t run again until March 2002, then not again until June.
On September 28th, 2002 Revolution Pro held it’s second Revolution J. Rev Pro had been running the last few months prior to the show at Frank and Son’s Collectables in City of Industry.
Frank and Sons was a more affordable venue for Revolution Pro to run in, and the venue already was attracting a large number of people for the twice a week collectables show, which allowed Revolution Pro to begin to rebuild. Of course with the new cost cutting Revolution Pro, the Revolution J would become slightly altered.
The second Revolution J had sort of evolved into a showcase of some of Southern California’s up and coming talent, replacing a lot the established wrestlers, and adding in wrestlers who were still making a name for themselves in SoCal like Joey Ryan, Scott Lost, El Gallinero 3 (Scorpio Sky), Topgun Talwar, and Street Style. Brought in for the tournament was Xtasis from Tijuana’s XLUM (who had wrestled for Revolution Pro and XPW before) and Mike Quackenbush.
The second Revolution J was largely heralded as a great show, with the two most notable matches being the finals of Mr. Excitement defeating Super Dragon, and Super Dragon defeating Excalibur in the first round, with both matches earning a spot on the monthly rankings, though neither were ever seen as a serious match of the year contender. In our show ratings poll on SCU the show scored 3.68, which was the sixth highest score of the year, and the third highest rated Revolution Pro show of the year. It should be mentioned however that there were a few complaints about the show’s length, but anytime there’s a sixteen-man tournament in one day those complaints will be present.
That brings us to this year’s Revolution J. Like Revolution J 2 this years tournament is geared more toward getting exposure for up and coming guys on the local side, than bringing in a ton of big names. Phoenix Star, Zokre, Quicksilver, and Chris Bosh will all be getting their first big tournament experience in this show. Super Dragon, Scorpio Sky, and Mr. Excitement will in fact be the only three participants in this year’s Revolution J that were in either of the previous tournaments.
This tear’s Revolution J is also more lucha based than previous year’s, with Durango Kid, Chilango, Principe Unlimited, and Super Boy all entered into the tournament, not to mention Zokre and Phoenix Star who began their training at Gil’s Garage, a famous SoCal lucha training center.
Speaking of Super Boy, he’s no stranger to wrestling tournaments, having been a part of the 2000 Super J Cup (although he was only in a six-man tag and not in the actual tournament). Super Boy was until recently all but retired, after suffering a serious knee injury. Like most wrestling retirements however it didn’t last and Super Boy returned to the ring earlier this year for WCA, a lucha promotion run by several SoCal wrestlers. Revolution J will be his highest profile match since his return.
Also entered in the tournament are Vito and Sal Thomaselli from Northern California’s Pro Wrestling Iron promotion. Vito has wrestled all over the United States, starting out in the Midwest, and even won the T-3 tag tournament with Low Ki as his partner. Vito also wrestled against Michael Modest for NOAH’s GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship in May of this year, the first time that title was ever defended in the United States.
Rounding out the tournament is Angel and the Ballard Brothers. Angel is no stranger to tournaments, going to the finals of XPW’s third King of the Deathmatch tournament, losing to Supreme in an exploding ring scaffold match. Like wise the Ballards have been in several tournaments before, mostly as a tag-team, including the T-3 and the Haas Cup Tournament.
With the death of XPW, the Revolution J will become the longest running currently active tournament in Southern California, and despite the recent tournaments that have popped up using bigger names than Revolution J has been using over the last two years, Revolution J still retains it’s mystique as SoCal’s premiere tournament.
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Revolution J Won Loss Records
Super Dragon 7-1
Mr. Excitement 5-1
B-Boy 4-2
Rising Son 4-2
Mike Quackenbush 2-1
NOSAWA 2-1
El Gallinero Tres (Scorpio Sky) 1-1
Street Style 1-1
Tomokazu Morita 1-1
Xtasis 1-1
Disco Machine 1-2
Excalibur 1-2
Acero Dorado 0-1
American Wild Child 0-1
Joey Ryan 0-1
Messiah 0-1*
Pinoy Boy 0-1
Ricky Reyes 0-1
Scott Lost 0-1
Shogun 0-1
Spanky 0-1
Topgun Talwar 0-1
Lil’ Cholo 0-2
TARO 0-2
*Messiah did not wrestle and lost by forfeit.
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EWF’s show on September 13th at the Set Free Arena in Yucaipa was featured in the September 14th San Bernardino Sun, and will be the subject of an upcoming article in the Riverside Enterprise.
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From the “wait a second it’s not April Fools dept” Gary Yap is making plans for restarting EPIC and running this November. Wait it gets better. He plans on running the Tuesday before Thanksgiving at the El Rey Theatre. Gary still owes quite a few people money from when EPIC was around the first time, and most people are taking his claims with a grain of salt.
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As has become tradition on SCU, we will be running the first part of our match of the year poll in October. Like in years past the webpoll for the match of the year will be broken into three parts, with the first part covering January through April. The second webpoll covering May through August will run in November, with part three running in January.
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Look for a new interview with B-Boy to be up on the site in the next few days.
-Steve
