WAR Review (11.12.04)
by Stan aka SoCal Strong Style
Attendance: approx. 130-150 people
As of late, there have been quite a few new feds popping up and basically embarrassing themselves and the great sport we all love so dearly. Bad planning, representation and just plain laughable attempts at putting on a wrestling show. Feds (and I use that term loosely) that have really left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of the fans that follow the local scene. With that said, any new fed is going to face that kind of stigma until they can prove otherwise to the fans.
Going into the first WAR show, this new fed to the scene had to face not only that, but the fact that they were linked to EPIC Pro Wrestling by way of having Gary Yap, the former owner of EPIC, as a main player. I myself was a victim of the fiasco that was to be the last EPIC show. So I was a bit apprehensive as well.I did like the fact that they were acting in a professional manner in dealing with the advertisement on this board. Then with the announcement of the fact that the show would be free to the fans, I started to get a good feeling about this fed being something different and positive for the local scene. I also got the feeling that it was Gary Yap’s attempt to make amends with the local fans for what happened with EPIC. A nice gesture in my opinion. It’s never too late to make amends, and in this case, I thought that Mr. Yap deserved the benefit of the doubt.
Luckily, I missed the opening promo that was done by the guy who used to work as Under Pressure in GSCW. I was taking my young nephew to the restroom and still had to cover his ears in there. The guy did a promo that would have made Supreme say, “Hey buddy, watch your language.” Pretty harsh to say the least.
Charles Mercury vs Ronin vs Quicksilver
This match started out with Quicksilver and Ronin working as a team against Mercury. Mercury got little offense as the other men worked him over pretty badly. At one point, Quicksilver and Ronin bombarded Mercury in the corner with a series of stiff chops (I mark for the chop… whooo!!!) Having Mercury well under their control, Ronin held Mercury from behind and called for Quicksilver to kick Charles in his nuts. Quicksilver misses and hit Ronin instead. At this point in the match Quicksilver turns on Ronin and gives him a Silverado Spinebuster. Mercury then hits Quicksilver with 3 straight northern lights suplexes and gets a near fall. Ronin is back up, and hits a brutal lariat on Mercury. Quicksilver then hits Mercury with a superkick in the corner. Ronin from behind then grabs Quicksilver and hits him with a Death Valley Driver. Mercury then hits Ronin with what I guess I would call a tilt-a-whirl small package for the win. Very good opening match. Good effort from all three guys and a good story was told. The crowd was very hot for this match and would be the entire show.
Vennis DeMarco vs Billy Blade
I missed the first couple minutes of this match to have a smoke break. What I did see of it was not good. I am not huge fan of either of these workers and nothing happened Friday night to change my feeling on the subject. Vennis while not being the greatest worker has charisma and can draw some heat. Billy Blade is lacking in both departments and the fans did not like him. Can’t say I blame them. This was by far the low point of the show.
Supa Badd w/ Dino Windwood aka Robert Stamos vs the Human Tornado
This starts out with Supa Badd going up into the seats and singling out our very own “True Fan” as “the only faggot in the place who paid to get in.” Then back in the ring, Stamos does a promo about the fans being too fat.
As for the match, it begins with a sneak attack by Supa Badd from behind. Hitting Tornado with a serious of stiff kicks including a really brutal one to the ass. Ouch! Supa followed this up with stiff chops, a stomp and another stiff kick. Tornado then comes back with a spinning clothesline. Tornado then for some reason runs in circles around Supa and then finally stops and pimp slaps Supa. Supa and Tornado then go into Tornado’s punch/block sequence in the ring with Tornado getting the better of it of course. Both guys then hook up in a greco roman knuckle lock which quickly becomes both men doing jumping jacks. Supa then gets Tornado in an abdominal stretch and goes into a stretching exercise while applying it. Tornado then goes for a series of chops on the mammoth chest of Supa to no avail. They have no effect and Supa Badd just shrugs them off. Tornado hits Supa with a lariat sending him outside of the ring. Tornado then hits a tope con hilo in which his feet hit the hanging star over the ring. He then stuffed Supa into the trash near the concessions head first. Stamos tries a sneak attack but is caught by Tornado who ordered Stamos to, “GET SOME BEER!” Stamos does what he is told. Tornado and Supa Badd then proceed to fight through the entire crowd. When the action reached the row behind me Supa Badd stopped, grabbed my note pad and shouted, “No more reviews!” and hit Tornado over the head with my notes from the show. Then at some point, Stamos is knocked to the floor and Supa slams Tornado on top of him. Tornado then slams Supa onto Stamos. Supa then slams Tornado on top of Stamos. Both men then fight to the back. Very fun match that was crazy and hard hitting with some great comedy mixed in. Two of my favorite SoCal stars in top form. Crowd was insane for this match as was I.
FYI, the ref never even made an attempt to officiate this match. She stood outside of the ring near the podium the whole time acting as if she couldn’t care less that a match was happening. She was not a good ref and unfortunately for the fans the only one WAR had booked for the show. VERY, VERY, VERY BAD! She made Junior from WPW look like Earl Hebner.
Disco Machine/Excalibur vs Lil Cholo/Silver Tyger
Excalibur starts things out by telling his opponents to take their “lucha” and their “libruh” back to Mexico. Excalibur and Cholo start things out with a nice opening sequence of armdrags, armlocks, wristlocks and reversals. Tyger and Disco in and they trade elbows. Disco then hits a nice fisherman’s suplex on Tyger. Cholo and Tyger hit a cool slingshot DDT like move on Excalibur I think. Disco gets the pin on Silver Tyger with a chokeslam onto Excalibur’s knee. Fun match. With the exception of Silver Tyger looking a bit rusty at times, this was pretty solid.
Then out of nowhere Tornado and Supa Badd come fighting out of the back. Tornado at one point has a kid in the front row hit Supa in the ribs. Supa hits Tornado with a trash can. He then grabs the box of free rolling papers from the table and throws them at Tornado. “Luger Fan” then takes off his boot and gives it to Supa Badd who in turn makes Tornado smell the boot. They once again fight to the back. Crowd once again very into this brawl.
Austin Aries vs Scott Lost
Match starts with a really nice series of takedowns and reversals. Aries hits a really stiff super kick to Lost in the corner. Lost fights backs with a nice Russian leg sweep. Lost goes for his spear and hits the post instead to the floor (Super Dragon style). Aries then does a great dive bluff/fake. Scott hits his trademark Superman spear/dive on Aries in the corner. Scott then gets Aries in a Sharpshooter. Aries ends up getting the pin with a swinging fisherman’s neckbreaker. Great match! Aries impressed the hell out of me. I would love to see him brought back to SoCal. Scott kept up his string of great matches as of late. My Match of the Night. I spent most of this match watching instead of writing thus the lack of move info. Crowd gave Aries a “please come back” chant.
Tony Kozina vs Scorpio Sky
Scorpio berates a ringside fan for flipping him off and informs him if it weren’t for that very finger the guy would still be a virgin. Match starts out with Kozina going right to work on Scorpio’s leg. He hits a dragonscrew legwhip, some kicks, etc. Kozina goes for the figure four but it is blocked by Scorpio. Scorpio hits Kozina with an overhead press off the turnbuckle. Scorpio then hits a tope con hilo onto Kozina who is outside the ring. Kozina lands really badly and hits his head in the stairs. Back in the ring Scorpio hits a frogsplash on Kozina. Then from the back comes Brawlin Bo Cooper who grabs Scorpio and hits him with a Death Valley Driver. Kozina goes for the pin but Scorpio kicks out. Then Bo, Gary Yap and Under Pressure hit the ring and attack Scorpio until he is saved by Ronin and Quicksilver. Post match, Bo throws his shirt at a fan, and then asks for it back. This led to a game of “keep away” with his shirt between the fans in the section. Funny stuff!
Then out from the back is Supa Badd and Stamos again. They proceed to head into the crowd and take some seats with the fans chanting, “Evans, Evans.” Tornado then sneaks up from the side and attacks Supa with his nunchucks! Tornado then pimp slaps Supa again. He then stomps on Supa Badd’s testicles. He then hits a spinning kick to Supa Badd’s back. Supa then hits Tornado with a chokeslam into a backbreaker from the top rope. OUCH! Tornado backdrops Supa on the floor. He then sets Supa in a wheel chair at ringside and rolls him into Stamos. They then fight into the back again. The crowd once again went crazy for this action.
About this time, a “new ref” chant started up.
Super Dragon vs Jack Evans
Match starts out with Dragon hitting lots of chops and he is in control. Dragon then hit a surfboard into the turnbuckle move I haven’t seen from Dragon before. Evans hit a nice springboard spinning kick in Dragon. He then hit a springboard twisting senton followed by a springboard elbow and a standing twisting senton for a pin attempt. Evans went for a second twisting senton but Dragon reversed it into a piledriver of sorts. Dragon then hits a couple of brutal curbstomps. Evans then hits a nice reverse huracanrana. Dragon the hits a huge LARIATO! turning Evans inside out. Evans then hits a running 360 splash. Evans ends up getting the pin with a top rope twisting 630 (!!!) splash. Another really good match. Evans has some incredible moves. Post match Tony Kozina, Gary Yap, Brawlin Bo Cooper and Under Pressure (Team Yap?) run in and attack Dragon prompting a save by SBS (Disco and Excalibur).
Show thoughts:
Great debut for WAR. With the exception of the Blade/DeMarco match, everything was above average to great. Best of the night going to Aries/Lost with Dragon/Evans a close second.
The pacing for this show was great. The on again off again battle between Supa Badd and Tornado really helped tie the show together.
The crowd was off the hook for this show. Best I have seen in quite a while. I can’t say enough about how much fun the crowd seemed to be having. It was one of the funniest shows I have ever been to. I was laughing my ass off all night long as was the rest of the crowd.
Gary Yap making himself a part of the heel faction was a great idea. Taking a tip from Vince McMahon and turning his real life heat into an angle and joining the heel faction makes a ton of sense. It worked for Vince.
The one really negative thing I will say is about the ref. She was really bad and did every match. Well, except the Supa Badd vs Tornado match in which she didn’t seem interested so she just stood outside of the ring doing nothing. WTF was up with that? This needs to be taken care of before the next show. She was really screwing up all night long. The fans gave her hell all night for her bad officiating.
Overall, I think this was a very impressive debut for the guys at WAR. Really great pacing all night long. The matches were really good as well. In my opinion this blew away the debut show for PWG. I am really looking forward to seeing what WAR has in store for us in the future. If this is any indication of what we will be seeing from this young fed we are in store for a ton of good times at the Elks Lodge. Welcome back Gary Yap!
Stan aka SoCal Strong Style
