Scrub's View #29 - Rev Pro 4.12.03 Review
By Scrub
This was probably one of the largest
crowds I have seen at a Rev Pro show. I'd say about 200-250 people,
but that's just a guestimate. I got to Rev Pro about forty minutes
early, and there was a line already! Rev Pro's crowd was actually
awake that day, which is definitely a plus. Not only was the crowd
huge, not only was the crowd hot, but the show was actually pretty
damn good. I can honestly say it's back up to par with the older
"pre Frank & Sons" shows. If Rev Pro keeps it up
with their show quality, they can easily be considered one of
the top federations in SoCal, errrrr, scratch that, in the country.
Usually, with the way I do these
column/reviews, i use the "highs" and "lows"
format. I think this time, I'm just gonna drop a few comments
here and there about the entire card.
Hydro, Extreme Loco, &
Phoenix Star over Jethro, El Gallinero 4, & Big-E-Biggz:
I thought this was a really good opener. Hydro has improved a
helluva lot since the last time I saw him. Extreme Loco was impressive
as was Phoenix Star. This was the first time that I actually took
notice to Gallinero 4. I can never really tell the difference
with the Gallineros and their numbers, because they're always
switching around anyway, so I never really know who's who. But
today, I finally took notice to the fourth Gallinero, and he's
got alotta raw athletic ability. Give him a couple years, and
he'll be alot more polished. It was hard for guys like Jethro
and Big E. Biggs to look good in this match, because they were
being outshined by the smaller, flashier rookies. They work fine
as big men. But when you put them in a match with four other flashier
rookies, it kinda puts them in the backseat, ya know? Jethro and
Biggs did a fine job in the match, but they need to find a way
to get their work to stand out from the rest of their flashier
peers, without having to resort to flashy highspots as well. Really
good opener that "I was feeling yo".
Joey Ryan over Nikki:
This match was one of the main reasons I went. Since all us SoCal
fans got screwed over in seeing Ryan/Nikki the first time, Rev
Pro was definitely thinking smart by booking this match. They
picked up the ball that another promotion dropped, and ran with
it. Before the match started, Joey Ryan kissed Nikki's hand, trying
to utilize his boyish charm and his rugged good-looks to win Nikki
over. Nikki sure wasn't pleased with that, so she took the Technical
Wizard to school and outwrestled him out arm-dragged him to start
the match, frustrating Mr. Wizard and his number #1 fan. Joey
Ryan got in another kiss, much to the dismay of PWI's Nikki. But
our stubborn Wizard still didn't get the hint, and tried for yet
another kiss. But this time, Ryan busted out the DIP KISS! Yes,
that's the THIRD KISS from Joseph P. Ryan. And of course, that
didn't sit to well with Nikki, as she blasted Ryan with a stiff
forearm. Up until that point, the match was pretty good. Nikki
got in some pretty good shots on Ryan. Can't say the same for
Ryan, as I guess he was just trying to be a nice guy. No wait.
I take that back. Joey Ryan almost killed Nikki. Not with his
strikes, but with three moves. First, Ryan drops Nikki on her
head with either a botched leaping rana from Nikki, or a miscue
from Ryan on the powerbomb. Second, with Ryan's top rope swinging
neck breaker, which will now be dubbed the "swinging neck
driver". It was really brutal to watch the first time (yup,
first time). The second time was just as bad. Aside from the finish,
it was a good match. I was really worried for Nikki. Hopefully,
she's feeling better, and that it did not hurt as bad as it looked.
Get well soon Nikki! *swoon*
Johnny Paradise, Chris Bosh,
& Zokre over Espara De La Muerte, Vega, & Nemesis:
This was another good match, that is, until the finish. The finish
was one the biggest clusterfucks ever, as not only I, but the
crowd around me had no clue what was going on. The match before
the finish was really good. These "Fight For the Revolution"
matches is a real good concept, as it gives Rev Pro's rookies
a chance to shine. Zokre and Bosh were impressive, as usual. These
two will be some of the top guys in Rev Pro in a year or two.
The debuting Vega had a rather fine outing in this match, posessing
the raw talent and ability. With the right guidance, Vega can
be polished up to be yet another top guy in Rev Pro, given a couple
years. But not to be outdone, Nemesis was definitely one of the
stars of this match. Nemesis is another rookie that made his debut
in this match, with a much bigger frame out of the younger class,
yet still can wrestle just as fast and just as flashy as his peers.
Some people could compare him to a Super Boy, or a Dick Togo.
He also has alotta charisma, and attribute that will help him
stand out from the pack. Nemesis is gonna be pretty damn good
in a couple years. Fuck man, that's like the 384938th time I've
said "pretty good in a couple years". But be on the
look out for Nemesis. He's really fun to watch. Finish saw the
timekeeper ring the bell, thus making the crowd think that it
was a time limit draw. Yet, the action in the ring was still going.
The next thing you know, ring announcer Travis Gray declares the
technicos the winners. I have no clue how they won, but hey, they
won. And that's all that matters. But before the big clusterfuck,
it was a really good match.
Battle Royal w/ the winner
getting a show at a title of their choosing. Winner: TopGun Talwar:
This was definitely a nice change of pace from the usual patented
"Los Feos" six-mans. This battle royal was entertaining
filled with lots of eight-way submissions and spots. The final
two men in the ring were Black Metal and Top Gun Talwar. There
was an obvious size difference, even though Top Gun thought he
was the bigger man. Black Metal went for a chop and a backhand,
and clearly missed Top Gun, due to Talwar's small stature, as
Top Gun chimed in with a "HA HA!", which was pretty
funny. Finish saw Top Gun hit a chokeslam on Black Metal for the
win. Yes, you read that right. Top Gun was ecstatic and overjoyed
after his win, as he will now face the Rev Pro Junior Heavyweight
Champion, TARO, at the next show in San Pedro, which is cool because
it's rare to see Top Gun in a singles match.
King Faviano over Lone Star
to retain the M.L.L.H. Title: This was an alright match.
I dunno why Lone Star gets a title shot, but what're you gonna
do? The Mexican Heavyweight Champ hit all his signature spots,
including his absolutely brutal running senton. Favi looked to
have killed Lone Star, yet Lone Star was up and running in a couple
minutes.
Bigg Babi Slymm over Kenny
King: This was a fine match. Kenny continues to impress
me every time I see him. I want to join in on the "you lost
to Jackie chants", but he continues to shut me up with his
work in the ring. Babi Slymm has improved since the last time
I saw him as well. He's come a long way since the first time I
saw him in UIWA as Big Tony (I think that's what he was called).
Basically, the story to this match had Kenny dominating most of
the time, pulling out everything in his arsenal. Slymm would make
comebacks every now and then, but Kenny would cut him off. Finish
saw Kenny set up a table in the corner of the ring. Kenny was
getting cocky in the ring, since he was the dominant guy for a
majority of the match, so he wanted to dazzle the fans in attendance
by bringing out a table. His plan backfired, as Babi Slymm spears
Kenny right through the table, which looked frigging bonkers.
Good match from the two, as it did not disappoint.
Mr. Excitement & Angel
over Apollo Kahn & Hook Bomberry: This was yet another
good match. On paper, it seemed like a weird match. You have two
rivals from Pro Wrestling Iron, tagging up, and you have one of
Rev Pro's top guys teaming up with XPW's top fag. Also, three
out of the four guys don't really rely on a coloful gimmick like
Angel does. These three guys let their in-ring work do the talking.
So before the match started, I was skeptical that Angel could
hang. Angel, in fact, did prove that he could hang with these
three, but he does not really surpass his three counterparts as
far as the technical wrestling is concerned. But he did prove
(or already has proven) that he can work well with his given gimmick,
as the Rev Pro crowd seems to be into him. Apollo Kahn looks pretty
intimidating, yet at the same time, looks relaxed. Kahn comes
out of Modest and Morgan's Pro Wrestling Iron, along with Hook
Bomberry and Nikki. So with that said, you should already know
Kahn's style before you even see him work. Hook Bomberry looked
good in his match, as usual. His intensity was as high as ever
in this match. He brings the intensity in the ring, and in the
crowd as well, as he jaw-jacked with the shit-talking Hook-Haters.
He even got in a couple people's faces. If you still haven't had
the chance to see Hook in action, make sure you do. But if you
like your wrestling WWE style, don't even waste your time, because
you won't get that from Hook. Hopefully, SoCal will get to see
Super Dragon vs. Hook Bomberry sometime in the near future, hopefully
within this year. Excitement was also good, as usual, hitting
all his signature spots, and proving that he can gel rather well
with his PWI counterparts and be a formidable tag team partner
with the Hardcore Homo. During the match, Apollo Kahn gave Angel
not one, but two german suplexes on the outside of the ring. These
looked pretty brutal. You think Angel was watching the latest
Misawa/Kobashi bout, and maybe got inspired? Whatever the case,
Angel proved that he is one psycho bastard for wanting to take
german suplexes on the frigging concrete. Finish saw Excitement
take out Kahn with three backdrop drivers. After the match, Kahn
and Bomberry were having problems, and then proceeded to exchange
blows with each other, causing the refs and students from the
back to pour out and separate the two PWI grapplers. This was
a really cool pull-apart too, because the refs and wrestlers were
ACTUALLY pulling these two apart, unlike your usual poorly done
pull-apart, where it's obvious that the wrestler A and wrestler
B don't really wanna fight. Bomberry and Kahn would break free
periodically and beat the mess out of each other, with Kahn even
drawing a little bit of blood. Good match from all four competitors.
Scorpio Sky & Quicksilver
over Super Dragon & TARO: I was definitely looking
forward to this match, and of course, it did not disappoint. It's
Rev Pro's old school vs. Rev Pro's new school. Scorpio Sky and
Quicksilver definitely proved that they can hang with their top
tier piers. They also took one of the most hellacious beatings
ever from, THESUPERDRAGON (what's up Nic Aragon?). And you know
what that means, footstomps for everyone! The opening sequences
were really smooth and crisp. Dragon continued to dick around
his tag team partner throughout the night. Everyone hit their
signature spots, including their signature dives, which were executed
rather smoothly. At one point in the match, everyone was outside
the ring, except for TARO. TARO was on the top rope, ready to
make a dive onto his opponents. When out of nowhere, TARO dives
on Super Dragon, finally sticking it to the man that's been dicking
him out for the past couple matches, showing the SoCal fans that
he has had enough. Finish saw Dragon hit Quicksilver first with
the Supernatural Driver (Psycho Driver II). Dragon goes for the
cover, but pulls Quicksilvers head up at 2, which was remeniscent
to Dragon's match with Gallinero 3 in Sept 02 and TARO in Dec
02. Then, Dragon hit Quicksilver with the Arm-Trap Psycho Driver,
goes for the cover, and pulls up Quicksilver yet again. After
that, Dragon then goes for the Super Psycho Driver off the second
rope. TARO sees this at ringside, and yanks Quicksilver off of
Dragon's shoulders, stopping the senseless violent tirade that
Dragon was on. Scorpio Sky then hits his beautiful leaping super
rana on Dragon for a really close nearfall. Scorpio's got hops!
Errr, I mean, a really high vertical leap. Very impressive sight
that must be seen. The Rev Pro new blood got the duke on Dragon
by hitting their patented double-team knockout dropkick. It doesn't
seem that cool on paper, but if you've seen it, you'd agree that
it looks pretty sick. This can be seen as somewhat a "passing
of the torch", if you will, with Dragon letting Sky and Quicksilver
get the win, which was quite a surprise to the crowd. Post match
saw Dragon throwing chairs in the ring, and staring down fans.
Dragon could be the next Tracy Smothers! Mr. Excitement and Angel
came to ringside and made the challenge to Sky and Quicksilver,
setting up a tag for the next show at Frank & Sons. Really
awesome main event. Definitely Match of the Night. Definitely
a contender for Match of the Month. Match of the Year could also
be a possibility, even though we are only 4 months deep into the
year.
Overall, really good show. I want
to say that it was just as good as the latest GSCW show, but not
better than. Rev Pro seems to be getting back into the groove
of things, with their shows looking to turn back into the Rev
Pro of old. By tweeking the undercard, and making it "less
crappy", Rev Pro shows are turning out a really good product,
which is sure to make fans want to keep coming back for more.
--
Be on the lookout for an interview
with PWI's Nikki coming up within the week. Hook Bomberry has
a min-interview intertwined with Nikki's as well, as he stuck
around and polliticked with us. Plus, a handful of other SoCal
wrestlers decided that they would reign in on the PWI parade and
chime in as well.
Scrub
384 days since my last column.
scrub@socaluncensored.com
