Now that 2004 is here, it’s time to take a look back at what happened in the Southern California wrestling scene in 2003.
2003 was sort of a weird year. While it will probably be most remembered for the death (or apparent death) of several key promotions, and the creation of one other, it a lot of ways the territory is a lot stronger as a whole going into 2004 than it was going into 2003. Due to the length of the column I will be covering 2003 in two parts, with this part covering January through June, and part two covering July through December.
When 2003 started, the largest and most well known local indy promotion in the area at the time was still XPW, and they were still off on the East Coast doing their Philadelphia experiment and wouldn’t return to SoCal until the end of February. EPIC, which tried to draw on a lot of the XPW audience, and even ran TV on the same station as XPW had died a few months earlier (though to this day there are still people owed money by the promoter). GSCW which had been around for most of 2002, was just beginning to really gain notice among people around SoCal when they absolutely blew everyone away with their December 14th, 2002 show, which featured 2002’s Southern California match of the year between Super Dragon and Bobby Quance.
2002 also saw the rebound of two heavyweights, UPW and Revolution Pro. By the end of 2001 both promotions were nearly left for dead, and for the beginning of 2002 a lot of people figured they’d seen the last of Revolution Pro, yet both rebounded strong in 2002 and UPW was named the 2002 Southern California promotion of the year, with Revolution Pro finishing second. When 2003 was starting UPW was preparing for one of it’s biggest shows in a long time, it’s fourth anniversary show which would feature the return of several former UPW wrestlers who have gone onto the WWE, John Cena and Victoria.
On January 4th, WWE ran a house show in Anaheim that saw the unannounced return of the Rock to WWE in front of a crowd of about 4,700, making the save for Booker T. when he was attacked by Chris Jericho and Christian. This was the Rock’s first WWE appearance in several months at that point.
UPW’s fourth anniversary show was held on January 8th at the Galaxy Concert theatre in Santa Ana, and as mentioned earlier it featured the UPW return of John Cena, and at the time WWE Women’s Champion, Victoria. Cena wrestled Frankie Kazarian in a match that ended up being ranked 3rd for the month of January in the SCU rankings, and Victoria took part in a Women’s Battle Royal that was won by Erica Porter. The show also featured Tom Howard defending the UPW Heavyweight title against Sylvester Terkay, and the Southern California match of the month for January where Solo, Samoa Joe, and Skulu teamed to defeat the Urban Outlaws (Mike & Marshall Knox) and Hollywood.
PCW ran it’s first show of 2003 on January 25th, which saw the beginning of the Philadelphia invasion of PCW, with the Backseat Boyz from CZW winning the PCW tag-team titles over Scott Lost and Joey Ryan. In the main event of that show Messiah defeated B-Boy to win the vacant PCW Heavyweight championship. The title was declared vacant due to former champion Shark Boy signing with XPW and no longer being able to wrestle for PCW.
Beginning the year as San Diego’s only pro-wrestling promotion, WCWA ran it’s first show of the year at the Dream Street nightclub in Ocean Beach, drawing in the neighborhood of only ten to fifteen people. However their next show on January 31st at the VFW in Lemon Grove is considered one of the strongest shows in their history. WCWA’s main feud was Adam Pearce and Primetime Peterson going up against Al Katrazz and Jason Allgood and this show featured a tag-match between the two teams that drew insane amounts of heat from the crowd. Adam Pearce would become so hated as a heel in San Diego that he would actually incite fights between members of the crowd and himself. The show also saw Frankie Kazarian defeat the Iceman John Black in a very stiff match that finished second in the January rankings. Things were looking very promising for WCWA, at least as far as their Lemon Grove shows would go, but things would take a turn for the worse in a few months. But we’ll get to that later.
January also saw SoCal’s two longest running promotions, WPW and EWF run their first shows of the year. EWF would go on to run more shows than any other promotion in 2003, with no other promotion even running half the number of shows. WPW would start the year continuing with their weekly shows at the Anaheim Marketplace that have become a SoCal staple going back nearly seven years. Mid-year however WPW would run into some problems with their insurance and were unable to continue running there, leading to no WPW shows for months.
On February 1st GSCW ran it’s first show of the year, and it’s first show since it’s critically acclaimed December 14th show, which would see them draw their largest crowd in their history, and a legit sellout in their venue (which admittedly only holds about 230 people). The show was headlined by Sabu going up against the Messiah, which a few years earlier was the top feud in XPW. That show also saw the beginning of the very popular, but in retrospect very poorly done SoCal versus NorCal angle between GSCW and APW LA. The angle would take place in both GSCW and APW in Northern California, and added tons of heat to the matches, as the SoCal and NorCal fans would chant at each other and both sides were actually pulling for their sides to win.
Revolution Pro ran it’s first show of 2003 on February 8th, with a main event featuring XPW’s Kaos and Angel making their first SoCal appearances since the summer of 2002 when XPW last ran in the area. Kaos teamed with Scorpio Sky and Angel teamed with Rising Son. This match was also the start of a worked shoot angle between Rising Son and Revolution Pro and Scorpio Sky, that really didn’t have any effect on Rev Pro’s business and only served to ruin several matches down the road. After the match Rising Son got on the microphone and began to shoot on the promotion saying how it’s not the same anymore and you have to be buddy buddy with the promoter to get a push. This lead to some of the Rev Pro students and Ron Rivera, the promoter, coming out and forcing Son from the ring. Some people associated with the angle still claim it was a shoot, but most involved now admit it was a work.
One noticeable absence from the Revolution Pro show, and all SoCal shows in general from January and February was Super Dragon, who was in All Japan wrestling at the time. Dragon was with All Japan for two tours, and trained with the promotion in between tours. Overall his matches in All Japan weren’t all that well received however, and he has yet to go back.
WWE also returned to SoCal for the second month in a row, running both a Raw and Smackdown taping, as well as a house show.
In what seems to be becoming an annual tradition, Lucha VaVoom ran a show near Valentine’s Day, on February 13th. The show drew between 1200 and 1400 people, and was very well received by both fans who went, and the mainstream media, as countless articles about the promotion appeared throughout the year including in such places as Rolling Stone and Time Magazine. This was just the beginning for Lucha VaVoom in 2003 though, as their attendance would grow every show, and they would announce an expansion to television and other cities.
XPW was getting set to make it’s return to Southern California with back to back shows at the X Park on February 28th and March 1st. A few months earlier it was announced that XPW had signed an exclusive lease on Viking Hall in Philadelphia (the ECW Arena) despite the declining attendance for their shows. Well, on February 28th XPW had been evicted from Viking Hall for reportedly bouncing checks to building owners, as well as for violations of the agreement signed to lease the building. The initial deposit check XPW gave to Viking Hall had bounced, as well as several others, and Viking Hall management refused to take any more personal checks from XPW, so XPW was forced to pay expenses with a combination of money orders, cashier’s checks, and personal checks from individuals.
Also, XPW had run concerts prior to their January shows, which was reportedly in violation of their lease agreement, though since they waited a month and half to evict XPW after the concerts, it is believed the bounced checks and eventual total lack of payment was the real catalyst for the eviction.
On top of Viking Hall getting bounced checks, XPW wrestlers also began to privately complain about bounced checks, though to XPW’s credit they did make good on all of the bad checks from Philadelphia to the wrestlers.
The same day XPW was evicted from Viking Hall, they made their return to Los Angeles, with two of their most highly acclaimed shows to date. On XPW’s February 28th return to Los Angeles they drew about 450, which is half of what they were normally doing in Los Angeles, but had far less comps than normal. On the show Sean Waltman made his XPW debut, defeating Kaos for the XPW TV title he had held since August 2001.
The next night XPW held what is considered by a lot of people the best show in XPW’s history, wrestling wise at least. At the show XPW announced return dates in SoCal on April 4th and 5th. XPW was finally generating some much-needed positive buzz.
The next week on March 8th, XPW made it’s debut in Pittsburgh in front of their largest crowd since July of 2002, approximately 1,200 people, thanks mostly to all the mainstream publicity Shane Douglas was able to generate for the promotion in his home city, even getting a feature article in the local paper just a couple days before the show. However all was not well as there were several notable no-shows such as Sean Waltman, who was given a bounced check in Los Angeles, and Mexico’s Most Wanted, who reportedly had transportation problems. Also on the show the top rope broke and eventually the bottom rope had to be moved to the tope leaving XPW with only two ropes, and undoubtedly making XPW look bush league in a few of the people who came to check out the show’s eyes.
Also on March 8th Super Dragon made his return to SoCal, wrestling in the main event of Revolution Pro’s show, teaming TARO to defeat Joey Ryan and Scott Lost. This match was the beginning of the year long build between TARO and Dragon, who had for the most part been kept apart over the last several years after feuding in 2000, that would eventually lead to the biggest match in indy wrestling in Southern California in recent history.
WCWA returned to the VFW in Lemon Grove on March 28th, after another disastrous showing at the Dream Street nightclub earlier in the month. Once again the Lemon Grove crowd was very hot for the show. The main event of the show was actually Babi Slymm, who is easily the biggest star in the San Diego area, defeating B-Boy to retain the WCWA California title. The semi-main event was a match between Al Katrazz and Primetime Peterson for the WCWA Heavyweight title. Before the match they announced that the “24/7” rule was in effect, so anyone could come in and win the title. Adam Pearce’s manager CE Vanderpyle actually got the pin on Al Katrazz to win the title, then after a few seconds was pinned by Jason Allgood, giving Allgood the WCWA Heavyweight title. Damage Inc. defeated Off da Hook earlier in the show to win the WCWA tag-team titles.
The SoCal and NorCal feud continued at March 29th’s GSCW show, featuring B-Boy and Super Dragon defeating Bobby Quance and Jardi Frantz in a very strong match of the year contender. In the show’s main event Scott Lost defeated Lil’ Cholo in a ladder match to win the GSCW Lightweight title.
XPW was unable to capitalize on their recent successes with two highly acclaimed shows, and their biggest draw in months, as quietly any mention of the April shows in Southern California were removed from their website. Also planned New York show and return to Philadelphia was no longer being mentioned by the promotion. April 19th’s show in Pittsburgh was scheduled to be their next show.
XPW’s money problems continued, as Shane Douglas was complaining to other wrestlers backstage at an Insane Clown Posse show about XPW’s money problems, and how slow they are to pay him. Then Justin Credible came out on an interview with chicagowrestling.com and admitted that XPW had bounced him a check.
Then it was announced Kaos, GQ Money, and Valentina had parted ways with XPW. Kaos, who had been with XPW since the beginning, was one of the company’s most popular wrestlers. No reason for the departures were given by the promotion, but they did quit the promotion and were not fired. GQ Money had been unhappy with the direction of the company for some time, and it’s believed he and Kaos were both owed money by XPW.
Advertising for April 19th’s Pittsburgh show was almost nonexistent at first, and when tickets finally did go on sale, they were very slow. After a week of being on sale XPW hadn’t even managed to sell out one third of the front row tickets, which are normally the first tickets to go. There had been talk privately that XPW would just cancel the show, as the company’s funds were running low.
Then on April 8th about 25 FBI agents and postal inspectors from Pittsburgh, PA in conjunction with the Los Angeles Police Department, arrived at the offices of XPW’s parent company Extreme Associates with a 10-page sealed warrant.
No arrests were made, though the law enforcement officials seized three copies each of Extreme Teen 24, Cocktails 2, Ass Clowns 3, 1101 Ways to Eat My Jizz, and Forced Entry as well as sales records, invoices and records of transactions. Rob Black and Lizzy Borden were indicted in Pittsburgh in August obscenity charges for allegedly distributing pornographic movies that depict murder, rape and other violent acts against women.
After the raid, XPW announced that they were canceling the Pittsburgh show due to the raid, because the warrant states that Rob Black and Kevin Kleinrock are not allowed to leave the state for 10 days. However, the warrant was a search warrant and there is no such thing as a search warrant that prohibits anyone from leaving the state, and even if one was invented specifically for XPW, that would not prevent them from letting Douglas run the show. Never the less, the show was canceled and XPW was never to run again.
In an interview I conducted with XPW vice president Kevin Kleinrock here on SCU, Kleinrock stated that Rob Black had lost his passion for wrestling, and that no future XPW live events were planned, though he did leave open the possibility for future shows if their “best of” pay-per-view was a success and they needed more footage. However people inside the company have said they believe all the XPW footage is being sold to XEG (the company who distributes their videos and sets up the pay-per-views), as well as Rob Black telling people he blames wrestling for his financial troubles, making it very unlikely there will ever be another show.
At April 12th’s Revolution Pro show the feud between Super Dragon and TARO continued as they were teamed with each other in a match against Scorpio Sky and Quicksilver. Throughout the match Dragon would no cooperate with TARO, and at times would even attack him. Scorpio Sky and Quicksilver were able to get the win, and with a pin on Super Dragon even. The match was also chosen as April’s match of the month.
On April 25th UPW ran it’s first show at the Grove Theatre in Anaheim, and drew it’s largest crowd in over a year with over 700 people in attendance. Making special appearances on the show were Rey Misterio Jr. and Chavo Guerrero Jr. The main event for the show was a much-hyped battle royal, which was being promoted as if it was a return to the annual battle royals that were held at the Olympic throughout the 1970s. The match itself didn’t come close to living up to the hype, and with all the promotion behind it only lasted a little over five minutes. The show also saw Erica Porter defeat Savvy for the vacant UPW Women’s title. Overall the show was a disappointment, as most of the matches came off as too similar with only a match between Mikey Henderson and Frankie Kazarian really standing out. The production however was top rate, with a pre-taped segment with Al Katrazz, Hardkore Kidd, and El Jefe at a hardware store that was better than anything WWE was doing at the time.
PCW held a joint show with the Alternative Wrestling Shop on April 26th that featured a ladder match between Frankie Kazarian and the Messiah for the PCW Heavyweight title, and a show that was plagued from top to bottom by bad booking. While the Philadelphia invasion angle that PCW was doing was good in theory, the execution itself was terrible. The idea was for the Philadelphia group to be the promotion’s heels, but they used the promotions most popular wrestlers, and booked them in matches against opponents where it was impossible for them to get any heel heat. Though the next night the booking wouldn’t be the only troubles they’d have.
On the 27th PCW ran another show, this time at an outdoor venue. The original plan was for them to run a tournament over two nights for their new title, the PCW MAXimum title, which was inspired by UIWA’s Maximum title of a few years ago. However with the venue being outside, and the show starting in the early evening, it quickly got dark and there were no outside lights. An angle was run where Joey Ryan was attacked and would be unable to compete for the title that night, leaving the finals for another night. In the main event Super Dragon and Messiah met for the first time ever in a singles match. The match took place in near darkness, with only headlights being used to light the ring. The show was said to be good overall wrestling-wise, but overall disappointing due to the darkness.
May would see Revolution Pro run three shows in the month, including a show at the Norwalk Indoor Swap Meet where it ran throughout the summer of 2001, a period which is still considered by some one of the best in company history. On May 4th they ran in Harbor City, followed by May 10th in City of Industry, then Norwalk on May 25th. The three shows in May also represented the first time since the summer of 2001 that Revolution Pro would run more than twice in a single month.
May 4th also saw the debut of FUSION, which was promoted by Carlos Zamora, one of the promoters of the Azteca promotion that drew over 4,000 to the Grand Olympic in 2002. The promotion drew in the 500 range for it’s debut show, but was hurt by the terrible venue, that wouldn’t even allow the promotion to sell merchandise, and forced them to start very late due to not opening the doors on time and doing a thorough search of everyone who came in the door. After just a few more shows FUSION would cease running due to poor crowds and money troubles.
The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo was held in Los Angeles in 2003, and to help promote the new Backyard Wrestling video game Eidos Interactive put on wrestling matches during the show featuring Super Dragon, Bobby Quance, M Dogg 20, Angel, and Mad Man Pondo among others.
Then on the May 21st Jimmy Kimmel Show, Lucha VaVoom ran a mini’s match to promote it’s June 26th show. The match saw Mascarita Sagrada and Octagoncito defeat Piratita Morgan and Pierrotito.
Throughout 2003 EWF’s biggest shows of the year have for the most part been at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Covina. On May 23rd’s card Los Chivos (Kayam & Enigma de Oro) defeated Bo Cooper and Jason King to become the 18th EWF Tag-Team champions.
On May 29th UPW ran what would basically be considered a house show for them at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. The show featured no angles, just straight wrestling, which is a rarity for UPW. At the same time it was probably UPW’s finest show of the year, at least in terms of ring-work. The biggest news coming out of the show was that UPW wrestler Horshu had been signed to a WWE developmental contract. Horshu would be the first of three UPW wrestlers to get signed to WWE developmental deals in 2003.
WCWA would run it’s last show of the year, and possibly ever, on May 30th. The show featured a main event of Primetime Peterson challenging Jason Allgood to a cage match for the WCWA Heavyweight title, and if Peterson lost he would be forced out of WCWA forever. Allgood was able to get the win, and Peterson was given a standing ovation for what he’s done in his years in the ring in Southern California. During the show itself Adam Pearce was involved in an altercation with a fan in the audience and his girlfriend. The altercation lead to a fight that cleared the locker room when Pearce was attacked from behind by the fan. Later when WCWA’s next show was suddenly canceled, one of the promoters, DJ Medina, tried to subtly blame the fight as the reason for the cancellation, saying the promotion and the venue were going to be sued. When the venue was contacted they had no knowledge of any pending lawsuits, and the promoter’s story started changing. Medina then made an announcement that WCWA was restructuring and all titles are now vacant. That was followed by Ric and Vic Dynamic, who co-promote WCWA, making an announcement on the SCU message board that DJ Medina was no longer part of the promotion and that no titles would be vacated. Whatever the case may be WCWA has yet to run a show again or announce any future dates, though there was talk at one point of them becoming APW San Diego.
Southern California Hall of Famer Mil Mascaras defeated Black Metal in the main event of May 31st’s Alternative Wrestling Shop show, which also saw Joey Ryan and Scott Lost defeat B-Boy and Lil’ Cholo for the AWS Tag-Team titles.
Also on May 31st APW LA, which was formerly GSCW ran it’s first show under the APW LA banner. The show featured another main event featuring B-Boy, Super Dragon, Jardi Frantz, and Bobby Quance, this time in a four-way match, but it didn’t quite live up to the tag match featuring the four from the last show.
WWE held it’s Smackdown and Raw tapings in SoCal once again to begin June, with the Smackdown taping featuring Rey Misterio Jr. winning the WWE Cruiserweight title from Matt Hardy.
The PCW MAXimum title tournament finally ended on June 7th’s PCW show from the Anaheim Marketplace, with Joey Ryan defeating B-Boy in the finals. On the show Aaron Proctor would defeat Vance Hartman to win control of PCW for the Philadelphia Connection (and Vance Hartman would really be gone from the promotion afterwards), and Messiah defeated Hardkore Kidd to retain the PCW Heavyweight title.
Revolution Pro would begin it’s tournament for it’s new Tag-Team titles on June 14th with several first round matches.
A new lucha libre promotion run by local luchadores, WCA, debuted in June, and it featured the long awaited return to the ring of Super Boy, who had been out of action for some time do several injuries he’s built up over the years. In his return he teamed with Chilango and Durango Kid to defeat Captain Oro, Shamu, and Impacto by DQ.
Antonio Inokoi’s Santa Monica Dojo ran a show on June 21st, that featured wrestlers who had been training at the Inoki Dojo, as well as several New Japan wrestlers. The show had techno music playing throughout the entire matches and laser lights. While for the most part the wrestling on the show left a lot to be desired, Puma (Pinoy Boy) and Bobby Quance stole the show with a match that finished second in the SCU rankings.
June 22nd saw the Spanish Announce Team (Jose and Joel Maximo) make their Southern California debut at APW Central Coast’s show in Nipomo, in a four way tag match featuring the teams of B-Boy and Vic Grimes, Jardi Frantz and James Choi, and The Ballard Brothers. The show all featured a tournament for the APW CC Heavyweight title that was won by Brawlin’ Bo Cooper, and Super Dragon defeating Brian XL in the show’s main event.
Lucha VaVoom ran it’s second show of the year on June 26th, and drew roughly 1600 people. This show featured Hijo del Santo in the main event, teaming with Felino and Chilango to defeat Blue Panther, Misterioso, and Gringo Loco.
Next column I will be covering the second half of 2003, which includes Best of the West, the debut of PWG, Revolution J, the birth of Revolution X, troubles for several promotions, and more.
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The wrestler formerly known as the Iceman John Black, who now wrestles only under Iceman, will be making his mixed-martial-arts debut under his real name, Webster Dauphiney, on January 10th in Hawaii. The show will be a mixed wrestling and MMA show for Don Muraco’s Hawaii Championship Wrestling called Shin-Nen Battle 2004. Dauphiney is representing Inoki Dojo in the match and is scheduled to face David Padilla who has a record of four wins and four losses in mixed-martial-arts matches. Justin McCully, who used to wrestle in UPW as Justin Sane, will also be on the card.
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I’d like to send my best wishes to Brawlin’ Bo Cooper who’s grandmother has fallen very ill and is not expected to make it very much longer. Bo was raised by his grandmother and I wish him the best during this trying time.
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I’ll be back in a few days with the second part of my look back at 2003 and my thoughts on this weekend’s UPW “Creation” show.
-Steve
