I got to the KOC a bit early, and was surprised to find the place empty. I saw Jesse Hernandez, Bobby Bradley Jr., EWF Jeff, and Bo Cooper’s hot wife. Very few people were there, so I thought that perhaps the show wouldn’t be a smashing success. However, come show time, they were running out of chairs and people were standing in the back. This was a very good-sized crowd, and they were very hot. I had the pleasure of sitting with frequent SCU poster alknows, who is a class act and a real old school wrestling fan. I wish SoCal had more fans like him. EWF crowds tend to be more on the non-smart mark side of the world, and it makes for a great, comfortable room to watch family oriented, old-fashioned wrestling in. Things kicked off with Kid Karnage wrestling Alex Pincheck. These two guys were rookies, but although they were a bit green, they showed a very healthy drive and passion for telling the story that made the missed spot here and there seem unimportant. Early on Kid took control and attempted a frog splash, but didn’t hit it. He later hit a nice lionsault, and followed it up with an insane standing shooting star press. This was unbelievable. Pincheck mostly played the role of bump dummy, but his bits of offense were good, and he proved he could hang in there. Pincheck hit an out of nowhere spinning heel kick, and Kid decided to take a walk and think things over. After getting himself together, Kid returned to the ring, and after a short series of exchanging moves, he hit an x-factor jumping off the 2nd rope to get the 3 count. I want to keep my eye on both rookies; they have a future in wrestling, in my humble opinion.
Match 2 gave us T.J. Taz vs. Psycho Silly Willie (I wonder how long and hard he thought to come up with that name.) vs. Christian Taylor in a 3 way, 1 fall to a finish match. T.J. was about 220, which makes him a cruiserweight, but he looked huge in the ring with two guys who were both 130 at the most. T.J. Taz was wearing a lot of orange, causing me to wonder what the inspiration for his gimmick was. Psycho was a skinny kid who came out carrying a barbed wire wrapped bat. Christian Taylor looked like a wrestler. This match was short, with the two smaller guys double-teaming the larger man. Eventually, Psycho turned on Taylor, and as Taz was outside the ring, hit the big slice on Taylor. The referee stopped the count at two for no reason I could see, and Willie hit a German suplex to pick up the victory. A bit confusing, but that was the finish.
Liger Rivera wrestled Bino Gambino. Gambino came to the ring wearing white pants with exclamation points all over them, looking like a less threatening Chuck Paulmbo. He did the standard Italian goombah gimmick, whereas Rivera looks like a small Juventud Guerrera without the drug problem. I’ve seen Rivera before, and he has potential. Early on Bino hit a beautiful suplex, and followed up by throwing Rivera over the top rope to the floor. Rivera took a very sick bump on the floor, and the referee, who was playing Rudo, started counting quickly. This referee was decidedly against the baby face Rivera, and it added another dimension to the match. After Rivera hit a nice 2nd rope cross body, the referee counted slower than Aaron Proctor taking time to find the right shade of eyeliner at Robinson May. Rivera then threw Gambino to the buckles, and hit a nice spear. Bino fought back, eventually hitting a sweet double under hook driver to get two, but Rivera took it home with a move that is hard to describe. He starts on the apron, goes over the ropes to land on the 2nd rope, then senton bombs off the 2nd rope to hit his opponent. Good, innovative finish.
At this point I would be remiss to state that American Idol star Ruben was in attendance, and I spoke with him a few times during the show. He’s a class act, and it ya’ll want to start a Ruben chant next week at the Coach House, just remember that the reference came from the dreaded Worlds Biggest Mark. Tag straps were on the line as Los Chivos went into battle with champs Bo Cooper and Jason King. This was contested under elimination rules. This match started off slow, with the Chivos exchanging punches and kicks with their opposition. Nothing really got underway until Kayam went to the top and got thrown off Ric Flair style by Cooper. He tagged out to Enigma de Oro, who promptly got 9 head butts to the buckle courtesy of King. The Chivos took a walk, and came back ready, but things backfired when Kayam accidentally kicked his partner in the head during an attempted double team. King made the tag, and just as Bo started to clan house, the Chivos pulled off a successful double team to regain control of the match. Bo was cast to the outside, and King submitted to a leg hold by the Chivos, leaving Cooper in a two on one situation. After beating Bo down, Kayam went for a top rope moonsault, but missed. While Kayam was hurt, Cooper was able to schoolboy Enigma for the 3, leaving the match up one on one. Cooper hit a sweet nail in the coffin on Kayam, but Oro distracted the referee. While the ref was distracted, Kayam hit Cooper with a low blow, and got the three. New tag champs, Los Chivotes.
After intermission, the match of the night came into play. Ragin’ Dawg wrestled The Technical Wizard, Joey Ryan. Dawg and Joey exchanged a lot of slaps and unkind words, and then Dawg hit a beautiful amateur style double leg shot. After taking Ryan down, he nibbled on Joey’s forehead. Joey got up, and the two ran the ropes, but Dawg hit a Thez press, followed by more nibbling. Joey took control and worked the leg, using all the moves Flair used to use to set up an opponent for the figure four. He did the leg on the rope; hit it with my butt move, and all the rest. Dawg tried to battle back, and missed the lionsault. Ryan left the ring to slam Dawg’s legs against the pole, and did the Bret Hart signature hanging figure four, much to my delight. Dog recovered to hit a spine buster, but fell victim to Joey’s in ring smarts. Joey locked in an STF, and Dawg barely made it to the ropes. At this point Joey accidentally knocked out the referee, so he handed a chair to Dawg, and then laid on the canvas as if he had been hit. As the ref questioned Dawg, Joey tried a schoolboy to get two. Dawg went up top, but got nutted for his efforts. Ryan attempted a superplex, but was knocked down and fell victim to a frog splash to give Ragin’ Dawg the duke.
The next match was suppose to be Blade and Jin Hiryu vs. Rudy Luna and Under Pressure, but Black Metal was added to Blade’s team, and Bonzai was added to the baby face team. I forgot to take notes on this match, as it was crazy how much the crowd hated Blade. Blade came out talking mad shit to the crowd, and they wanted him to get his ass kicked. Blade has the uncanny ability to make a crowd hate him just by walking through the entranceway. This was a great three on three-way match, and while Blade generated the heat, Black Metal took a lot of bumps, making himself look great as the big man who needed to be worked huge to be taken down. Blade eventually took the pin, after being DVD’d by Rudy Luna into a slam by Under Pressure. Great match, I wish I’d taken better notes.
The main event saw Steve Masters wrestling Vizzion, and I had the pleasure of being seated next to Vizzion’s brother, who apparently thought this was a shoot. Vizzion is incredibly over with the EWF Covina fans, and they went apeshit when he came through the curtain. Steve Masters came out to a lot of boos, and he started stalling from the get go. Masters plays the redneck stereotype to the hilt, and the gimmick is awesome. After a lot of stalling, Vizzion left the ring to take a seat in the crowd, and referee Rick Knox slapped the shit out of Masters for all the stalling. This brought the crowd to its feet. Once things got going, Masters hit a great dropkick that rivals Joey Ryan’s. Masters continued control after a massive low blow the mullet-wearing challenger, and gave Vizzion a lot of chokes and chops. For a long time Masters had the upper hand, with Vizzion fighting back but never gaining momentum. It looked like the match was over when Masters hit a monster spine buster, but only got two. Vizzion countered with a lot of knees and punches, but when Vizzion made a cover, Black Metal interfered and pulled the referee out of the ring. While the referee was distracted, Masters got a chair and opened up Vizzion’s forehead. Masters got the three with a reverse pedigree, and that was the main. Good, solid main, even if there was interference. Next show has Black Metal and Masters against Bo Cooper and Vizzion.
Thanks for reading,
Benjamin Tomas
The Worlds Biggest Mark
