Column Especiales
By Justin Crast

APW JR

When I heard Golden State Championship Wrestling was changing their name to All Pro Wrestling-Los Angelas, I laughed. Who wouldn’t? The very names are ironically hilarious. GSCW’s name implied a statewide fed, not contained to one region. Now they are based out of LA, as regional as it gets.

The move comes just as GSCWs’ hype in SoCal was reaching its highest points. Several reports from their shows have proclaimed it the best fed around, producing some of the best shows in recent memory. Some people even claim the show quality is better than EPIC’s, which had been the near consensus pick for sheer show quality. This move, however, has resulted in a near consensus of negative opinion.

It is not hard to know why. APW has ran exactly one non-sold show since November 2001. They have ran a handful of sold shows in that time period as well. Running one big show in 18 months could be reason enough to avoid a merger, but the fact that there is a very controversial, potentially business-ruining lawsuit hanging over APW’s heads is even worse. You have to question the sanity of a man that takes what was one of the most critically acclaimed businesses in SoCal wrestling and decides to become a subordinate of one of the most controversial (and inactive) feds from NoCal.

As has been pointed out by Paul T. on the message board, this new relationship puts Henry Luna’s control of merchandise and promotion in a sticky situation. Roland Alexander’s claim to the APW name would also logically give him claim to APW-LA. Who knows how far he can push that. The move also introduces a whole slew of politics to the fed that was already beginning to suffer under the weight of such things. Workers such as Hook Bomberry and Nikki who are building names for themselves in SoCal will now more than likely not be welcome in the new promotion. Also, with UPW aligned with PWI, the NorCal politics that have been plaguing that scene could become front and center in SoCal.

Like I said, I laughed when I heard about the merger. Luna’s dealings with APW over the past few months started out good but of recent the politics involved have caused him to be criticized by both fans and those in the business. The North-South feud was botched, with APW squashing GSCW up North and the two feds running even in the South. To make things worse, there was never a blow off to the feud, bringing back memories of the epically botched NWO-WCW (non)blow off. In hindsight, someone should have realized something was up when the feud was hurriedly ended without resolution on the last GSCW show.

Hopefully an official statement by Henry Luna will be available soon. Right now the opinion going around is that he had to have been made an awesome deal to become a subordinate to APW. That is questionable, though, since APW’s finances can not be all that fantastic or they would be running regularly. The idea that this opens up the door to a wealth of Northern talent is a flawed one, as the only break out star in APW is Bobby Quance, and his affiliation with APW lessens each month (he lives in SoCal and trains at the Inoki Dojo now). Robert Thompson and Jardi Frantz are good talents but neither are super stars or fantastic workers. Guys like James Choi, Larry Blackwell, and others are young and with potential, but green and not of much use to a fed that already has the ability to bring in much better seasoned pros locally. As I have said, and many others too, this deal clearly favors APW. It gives the company the appearance of a larger corporation with a smaller subordinate in the South. It also opens up the door to more talent for the home base in the North, which without SoCal talent, would be lagging far below its past levels.

How will it all work out? I don’t know, but I can’t deny that I am not looking forward to APW -JR.

XPW

Xtreme Pro-Wrestling looks done, at least for the moment. They are losing TV in nearly every market, including the home base of Los Angeles. Future shows are being cancelled and Rob Black will be forced to spend a decent chunk of change to defend himself against federal authorities.
Talent is jumping ship, including their most high profile “homegrown” star Kaos, something that has been predicted for a long time. The roster is carried by exclusively ex-ECW stars unable to land big jobs in larger feds. The only top star left that has been in XPW from nearly the beginning is Supreme. Call it a hunch, but I doubt he will be around for the long haul either.

XPW was the most well known and popular fed in SoCal throughout the past few years, but its complete inadequacy in the pro-wrestling business has weakened it throughout. Now it appears to be almost over. Not many are shedding a tear.

UPW

Ultimate Pro-Wrestling’s big show at the Grove is shaping up nicely. The battle royal is being hyped big on the net as a return to past glory, following in the tradition of the legendary 22 man battle royals of the past. These types of matches are traditionally boring, but hopefully a lot of thought gets put into it and they do something exciting to live up to the hype.

The match that is interesting me the most, though, is the likely Frankie Kazarian vs. Mikey Henderson match. A couple years ago, both guys were on the WWF radar, with Henderson generating a lot of hype on the West Coast for his series of matches with Chris Daniels while Kazarian was gaining fame as Nova’s tag team partner. Kazarian has kept up the pace, becoming maybe the best all around wrestler in SoCal while Henderson’s focus has drifted. This is sort of his big “come back” match after taking a lot of time off. He has wrestled recently, but this, in my opinion, is his first high profile match. It will be a chance to show he is back and can hang with the elite talent..

A complaint about UPW’s matches has long been that they are formulaic, short, and don’t really showcase the full range of what the guys can do. Hopefully, Kazarian and Henderson transcend that reputation. This will be a test for both to prove they really do belong in WWF and that they are able to offer something no one else can.

ETC.

I just recently recalled an opinion Dave Meltzer had on Adam Pearce from way back. He didn’t feel Pearce had the great look WWF looked for in a wrestler but was extremely impressed with his talking skills. He felt Pearce could have made a great heel manager since he possessed those talking skills, plus he could bump and get involved physically when needed. The role, at the time, did not really exist in WWF but at the present there are two guys that basically do the same thing: Ric Flair and Rico Constantino. Both are trained wrestlers but for one reason or another basically are managers who wrestle on special occasion. I think if WWF is serious about this new wrestler/manager hybrid, they could find no better candidate than Adam Pearce.

Looks like Bobby Quance will be starting in New Japan Pro-Wrestling by the end of the year.

WCWA is still hopeful of starting a wrestling school before the end of the year. It would be the only school located in the San Diego area.

Threat is trying to stay out of the spotlight at the present and let all the controversy die down, but UWW is still being planned and Threat himself plans on wrestling in SoCal again shortly.

None of the junior heavyweight foreigners All Japan used on the past couple tours have been officially invited back yet. The company is on cost-cutting mode and the fact that Super Dragon, Red, and Elix Skipper have yet to be officially announced seems to imply the promotion was not impressed enough to make any permanent roster members. That doesn’t mean they will never be back, though, as it also took NJPW a few months to invite American Dragon back.

Rumors that Gary Yap hasn’t really “tapped out”, or at least he thinks it was a premature ref stoppage, because there are rumors he is going to try and get back into the scene. Money, cameras, apologies, and the such are all still owed to various people.

And that’s that.

Justin
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