For my first ever UPW show, I can’t say that I was impressed at all. Other than a few good matches like Kazarian/Hellman, the 3-way and Hardkore Inc’s set of matches, the show was fairly dismal. UPW “Possession” October 22nd, 2003 in Santa Ana, CA
Attendance: 220
First off, I gotta say that this being my frist UPW show, I was blown away by the video, audio, and lighting set up at the Galaxy. The theatre itself was pretty nice as well, and the service I had was excellent (thanks Heather).
The show started about 10 minutes late, which isn’t too bad at all. To start, Ivanna Cadaver and Ricky Rachtman both came out and chatted up the show. I’m really not sure what the point of an emcee is at a wrestling event given that you have a ring announcer, but I digress. Basically, the two came out and killed some time which was really what we did not need to start the show.
Our first tid-bit of wrestling related stuff came with a recap of how Pearce managed to defeat Mordetsky at “Title Wave” to become the champ. Pearce was out next with Pete Doyle, and like only the Scrap Daddy can, he had the place absolutely howling at him. In the midst of his promo, we’re interrupted by Mordetsky in the back, who says that he’s going to “give back to UPW” by beating Pearce tonight. However, his promo was stopped short by Appocalypse & Ruckus, who absolutely destroyed Mordetsky. Chris even took a pretty sick bump into one of the lockers. Eventually, the promo ends and the conclusion is that Mordetsky will be unable to wrestle Pearce tonight, so Scrap Daddy and Doyle “take the evening off”. Overall, a long set of promos that probably could have come after the first match, being that it was 8:40 before we ever saw any live wrestling.
Skulu over Lil’ Nate
So I guess Skulu is the lovable Samoan savage. This was a total big man/little guy match with Skulu owning Nate, but he seemed very apologetic after each instance of over-powering the smaller Nate. Nate took advantage of Skulu’s thoughtfulness and managed to mount some offense. This match ended up being largely a comedy match with Nate conintaully attempting moves only to be denied by Skulu in humorous ways. A powerslam into a top-rope splash by Skulu got him the win in this lackluster opener.
Sylvester “The Predator” Torkay over Big Babi Slymm
These two big-men worked a very choppy match in which things just never got going. There seemed to be some communication problems at times as things stopped for several seconds at a time while they tried to work things out. Predator did end up hitting an impressive Butterfly Suplex on Slymm, but sadly, thats one of the few things I remember about the match. Predator hit a Mexican Stretch Bomb to win.
Matrix & Preston Scott vs. Na’koa & Sala
Again, another match where things didn’t click so well. Matrix & Scott heeled it up the whole time, using quick tags and some nice double team moves. There was some nice work in this match, but there were also a few spots where things just didn’t go well. I also think it was way too quick for the crowd to get enough into it. While attempting a powerbomb, Scott (I think) nailed Na’koa in the face with handcuffs to KO him and get the cheap win.
They had a costume contest next, with only two entrants from the corwd, and the rest UPW guys dressed up as various people. The Jesse Ventura guy looked damn good, and whoever the guy on the right impresonating a retard was did a great job too. They gave the tickets to a little girl who dressed as “Puff Daddy”. A kind of pointless segment but it was nice to see the little girl win.
Hardkore Inc. over Team Squash
The concept here was that El Jefe found three teams for Hardkore Inc. to wrestle to demonstrate thier doinance and rightfu place as the champs instead of the Ballards. In the first of these matches, Team Squash got – you guessed it – squashed. I don’t know who these Team Squash guys were, but they did their job and were modately troublesome before one of them took a Flapjack Slam (a la La Resistance) to give Hardkore Inc. the win.
Hardkore Inc. over Los Chivos
Match two in the series was better than the first one, with some good back and forth between the Chivos and Hardkore Inc. They proved to be much more of a thorn in the side of the champs, but in the end the Chivos were too concerned with showboating and got rolled up simultaneously by the champs to lose.
The Ballard Bros. (as Los Payosos) over Hardkore Inc.
This was the best match of the series. The Ballards played their roles as Los Payosos perfectly, hitting awesome spots together. The only downfall to this match is that the lights went out in the middle of it, which is not good at all. The Ballards rolled up Hardkore Inc. when the real Los Payosos came out hog-tied. This incident led to the Ballards challenging Hardkore Inc. for the tag titles at the 5th anniversary show in a TLC match. Should be interesting.
Mikey Henderson over Tommy Wilson & Shawn Riddick to become the #1 Contender to the UPW Lightweight Title
This was probably the second best match on the card. It was one of the most sound matches from a wrestling perspective, and these guys kept the action going the whole time. There were some great triple team moves which are fun as always. Props to Riddick for never powdering during the mach and being in it the whole time. Henderson looked phenomenal and Wilson looked great as well. In the end, Henderson pinned Wilson follwoing a spinning sit-out side slam.
Next, Evan Mariott a.k.a. Joe Millionaire came out and started talking about how Tom Howard & Rick Bassman screwed him out of a WWE contract. The crowd was really getting on him and Millionaire played off of it wonderfully. While I wasn’t sure at the time why he came out, (and although his face turn later was unexplainable) it did tie into later in the show.
The Ballard Bros. over Ruckus & Apocalypse by DQ
The Ballards did a pretty good job of carrying Ruckus and Appocalypse in this encounter. It was your typical small speedy smart guys against lumbering oafs. The Ballards were on fire as long as they could frustrate the bigger guys, but once the tide turned, we saw some good power moves. At one point, either Ruckus or Apocalypse (they didnt really differentiate between the two) hit a ginormous Butterfly Suplex. Hardkore Inc. pearl-harbored the ring taking out the Ballards to get their guys DQ’d. Then, in the spirit of TLC< Hardkore Inc. but the Ballards thru tables with the cunning use of ladders and chairs.
Next, Pete Doyle came out as Roddy Piper to tuant the legend. It seems liek we’re seeing an awful lot of this Doyle guy, and I’m not finding him too interesting. At any rate, once Pearce got out there, things picked up. Then, the Hulkster showed up and Piper proceeded to lay down for him as Evan Mariott made the 3-count. The promo ended with Pearce putting out a challenge to Piper, which I would absolutely love to see happen.
Erica Porter over Desire to retain the UPW Women’s Title
This match was good. I haven’t seen two ladies work a match this good in a while, and while there were still some issues, for the most part they had great timing and what not. By this point, the majoirty of the male audience was inebriated so this match was very hot. Porter ended up with the win after a Second-rope Superplex.
The play by play guy came out next and introduced John Predator Torkay. Predator says that since the 5th anniversary show is coming up and because he was the first-ever UPW champ, he wants to do something special. Thus, he challenges “The Most Dangerous Man in the World” Ken Shamrock to a match. Shamrock came out next which made me very happy. Shamrock then cut a funny promo saying that he’d break Predator’s legs and that it’s on on Dec. 17th.
Frankie Kazarian over Andrew Hellman to retain the UPW Lightweight Title
This was the match of the night, hands down. Frankie came out with guns blazing, and these two worked a fast-paced match with lots of innovative stuff. Frankie hit all of his signature stuff like his Springboard Leg Drop and his Slingshot DDT. Hellman looked good in there with Frankie, and he used the presence of So Cal Val at ringside to get an advantage a few times. In the end, Hellman fell victim to the One Man Revolution – which had me marking out like a shcool girl – and Frankie retained his belt. Val then got in the ring and tried to pay off Frankie, but she got a Wave of the Future for her troubles. The crowd was dead for this match which is something I don’t understand at all, but oh well. Post match, Henderson came out and asked Frankie to take him to the limit on December 17th. Play by play guy came back out and said that shouldn’t be a problem since Frankie would now be defending his title in a triple threat against Mikey Henderson and LOW KI!!!!! UPW, you just gave me a reason to come back.
Adam Pearce and Doyle came back out and watched the footage of Adam’s win at “Title Wave” once more. When Adam requested to see the footage again, Bassman played video of Doyle promising to make Tom Howard the #1 Contender. This led to Bassman coming out with the freshly returned from Japan, Tom Howard.
Tom Howard over Adam Pearce to become the NEW UPW Heavyweight Champion
This match started with a stiff clipboard shot from Doyle to Bassman. Decent work between these two with a pretty dead crowd at this point. Finish saw the Hardkore Inc goons come out and hold Howard for Pearce. Evan Mariott hit the ring and as he was about to smack down Howard, he made his big face turn (for no reason at all) and attacked Adam and Doyle. After Pearce thought he dispatched of Mariott, he got a face full of powder before getting rolled up by Tom Howard to lose his belt. I feel bad for Adam, he had the belt for all of one show, but I guess that’s how it goes sometimes. Post match, Doyle challenged Bassman to a 100% owners match at the anniverary show and Bassman announced Tom Howard vs. STING for the UPW Heavyweight Title.
All in all, I was disappointed in all honesty. I had heard a lot about UPW and maybe I had too high of expectations, but I have seen better shows. They did a good job of setting up for the next show but I wish this show would have given me more incentive other than Frankie vs. Mikey vs. Low K, but I will be returning nonetheless.
