I got to Frank and Sons (yeah, I said Sons, plural. I’m not changing what I call it because WhiteTrashMark had some kind of revelation. I choose to live in ignorance) at around 1:25 and walked into the arena to find it sparsely populated. Now this was my first (and last) RevJ, but I was under the assumption that people would turn out en mass for this. Closing in on show time there was still less than 30 folks. Luckily by the time the show started it filled out a bit more. Not a huge crowd, smaller than the last AWS show, but still, good enough.
There was another difference between this crowd and the one at the last AWS show and that was their attitudes. The crowd did their best to show the folks in the ring their respect. It was a pretty hot crowd for most of the matches.
Match One: Scorpio Sky vs. Scott Lost
I was looking forward to this one. I love Scott Lost in the ring, he’s simply one of the most entertaining folks in SoCal. And Scorpio is always highly entertaining, so I figured this would be a good contest. And it was, indeed. Both guys got to hit their spots. Lost got the flying headbutt into the corner, which I mark out for each time. In the end Sky took the win with the triangle choke. It’s a cool hold and put the cap on an extremely entertaining opener.
Match Two: Jason Styles vs. Wild Storm
When Storm came out, he looked a bit crazed and I thought it would add to the match. However he was more or less emotionless throughout. I dug Styles’ character. He was playing up to the crowd and having a great time. It really helped this match, especially since no one knew these guys. I also didn’t take notes so I’m a bit fuzzy on details, but Styles took the win. It was a decent first round match, not much interest.
Match Three: Dante vs. Super Dragon
Before Dragon made an appearance, Dante was already being chided by fans with comments like “You’re gunna die!” Very funny. I always love the crowd’s reaction to Super Dragon, but more specifically his opponents. They’ll turn on ANYONE who is facing Dragon. It’s marvelous. The Super Dragon (Clap Clap Clapclapclap) chant broke out even before his music but died quickly. Then Dragon made his way out to the cheers of everyone… except Dante and some kid. Dragon should’ve punched that kid. It would’ve been funny.
Dante did his best to piss off Dragon and it was quite funny. Of course we know how this went, after some back and forth Dante got ruled. Dragon took it with the double stomp.
Match Four: UK Kid vs. Disco Machine
I was looking forward to this one. I dig Disco and had yet to see UK Kid. The UK Kid was a great heel. He played it to the tee, just taunting everyone relentlessly. Great back and forth between the two. Something I noticed is that UK Kid leaves the ring a LOT during his matches. It was alright for his character, I suppose, but bordered on annoying after so many times. Disco hit the choke slam, but UK Kid got the win with a second-rope tombstone, which looked absolutely sick.
So far, four matches in, and three of them were winners. Give a half match for an entertaining Style and we got 3.5/4
Moving on.
Match 5: Chris Bosh vs. Hook Bomberry
Again, looking forward to this. Bosh entertains me, nearly entirely because of his shouts of “Bosh” while hitting people, and I had yet to see Bomberry but have read great things. Another damn good match, RevPro was certainly putting on a show. I don’t get how Bosh can take the pain he does on his chest. The slaps are so intense, and looking at his chest just hurts. It ain’t right. Bosh also took a mean looking suplex into a bunch of chairs from Bomberry.
I was highly impressed with Bomberry, he’s a great talent that I hope I get the chance to see more of. In the end though, Bosh took the win, although given the goings on later in the night I wish he hadn’t.
Great match, that’s 4.5/5
Match Six: Joey “King of the Any Match” Harder vs. El Hijo De Chupacabra
Pretty solid match, actually. The crowd actually got into this one. Why? Because Joey Harder may very well be the most dangerous man on the planet. None the less. Again, no notes, so I don’t recall details, but Hijo had some nice lucha moves and in the end Harder took the win. Why? Have you ever seen The Passion? Well…It really has nothing to do with this.
This one deserves at least 70 stars, but alas, I’ll give it the match point.
5.5/6
Match 7: Human Tornado vs. The Human TORCH-er, Quicksilver
Tornado is always a great man to see in the ring. As is Quicksilver. Both fan favorites, so one had to go for the bad streak. In this case it was Tornado. He laid a savage beating on Quicksilver, starting with an awesome flip out of the ring, landing on Quicksilver, some chairs, some fans, some concrete. This match had quite a few nice high spots, along with some good wrestling. It was sad to see Tornado go so early, but no one can stop the man that is both quick and silver-colored.
6.5/7
Match Eight: JJ Perez vs. Dana Lee
I didn’t care too much. Lee’s theme was fun, but both lacked a certain amount of entertainment to me. Perez got the win.
6.5/8
Match NINE: Scorpio Sky v. Jason Styles, older brother of AJ Styles, uncle to little Billy Styles, the kid with one leg
Fun match in which a new catch phrase was born. All hail the Wooooooooooooooo. Scorpio Sky continued to impress. He took the win in this one with a triangle choke, again. I liked that. It lends a sense of authority to the move. Great idea.
7.5/9
Ten, yo: UK Kid vs. Super Dragon
I swear, Dragon was gunna kill that kid and I was ready. It was going to be worthy of PPV. Alas, the kid ran. Luckily UK Kid was there though. I wanted to see this match, because the Kid was so damned cocky you knew Super Dragon was going to kill him. However, UK Kid impressed, laying a beating on Dragon and taunting the crowd with “Where is your Super Dragon now?!” making Dragon sound like a comic book hero. Kinda’ funny and also kinda’ cool. However, “Our Super Dragon” was still there and fought back. High point of the match was when Dragon had Kid in a submission hold and took orders from the fans to punch the Kid in the face. Highly entertaining. Dragon took the win with a nice-looking Psycho Driver.
8.5/10
The big Eleven: Bosh/Harderkore legend, Joey Harder
Talk about match of the millennia. Joey Harder DOMINATED Bosh, even breaking chairs over Bosh’s face! He was chopping Bosh into next week. He applied an arm-bar that cost Bosh his left arm. Quite a match.
Or… Bosh forfeited. Come on, which match would YOU rather see?
8.5/11
Doce: Quicksilver vs. JJ Perez
Hey look, I don’t care! I knew Quicksilver would take it because he’s at least three times as awesome as Perez and likely drinks a lot more diet Coke. Silver got the win with a Small Package.
Thirteen: The cage match.
I dug the cage, it looked pretty sturdy and, well, like a cage should. The match itself wasn’t quite as important as I expected it to be. Angel and AWC took the win.
8.5/13
The end is near…
Four Way Elimination Match for the RevJ Cup!
Although I SAW NO CUP!
Joey “Not Ryan, but” Harder vs. Super Dragon vs. Scorpio Sky vs. Quicksilver.
This match was awesome. It dissolved into a tag team match, AXP/The Harder Dragons. Joey earned from his mighty mentor Super Dragon how to curb stomp, how to throw his very own Violence Party, and how to deliver a mean backbreaker. It seemed like the SoCal guys were surprised by Harder’s reaction from the crowd, which made it MORE fun.
Dragon in the end killed Harder in a sad moment. Then got killed by Sky, who then killed Quicksilver to win RevJ. Sorry that got short, but my fingers hurt.
GREAT show.
Top matches:
Maine Event
Lost/Scorpio
Dragon/UK Kid
Bosh/Bomberry
Worst?
JJ Perez/Dana Lee
The cage match
The Duckman
