Steve's View #99
By Steve
Since I received a lot of
positive feedback on my "High Plains Drifter" inspired
tribute to Clint Eastwood with my "Good, the Bad, & the
Ugly" column, I figured I'd do it again with this past weekend's
WCWA and GSCW shows. Here we go.
THE GOOD
WCWA
The Main Event - If there
is one thing WCWA has shown over the last couple of years is it's
ability to build feuds, and this match is just further proof of
that ability. Not only is it the beginning of the Al Katrazz vs.
Adam Pearce feud, but the match served to continue the Jason Allgood
and Primetime Peterson feud that has been really in hot in WCWA
ever since Allgood pinned Peterson for the heavyweight title a
few months ago, only to have the match restarted and eventually
lose. Before this match half of the crowd left, and the half that
remained was virtually dead, but these four were able to not only
bring the crowd back into the show, but get more heat than any
other match on the show, with less people. The match was played
out perfectly, with Al Katrazz getting his hands on Adam Pearce
teased throughout the entire match, to the point where some fans
couldn't wait for Al Katrazz to destroy the cowardly Pearce. Maybe
not the most technically sound match on the show, but the match
that did it's job the best.
John Black vs. Frankie Kazarian
- Black is probably one of the most underrated wrestlers in all
of indy wrestling. He really only works EWF and WCWA, which are
two feds that do not get a lot of hype on the internet. I've said
this plenty of times before, and I'll say it again here, if he
worked for one of the promotions that get a lot of net hype he
would seriously breakout. If this match happened at GSCW, Rev
Pro, PCW, or wherever, people would be praising it online like
their is no tomorrow. Black only being limited to WCWA and EWF
really limits the people he works with too, but like this match
showed, if Black works against guys on his level, the outcome
could be phenomenal. Frankie Kazarian had a terrific January (so
much so that I ranked him #1 on my January rankings), and this
match showed that Frankie isn't afraid to work different styles,
as this match was a brutally stiff, strong style match. Frankie
even had a tooth knocked loose. There was one glaring problem
with this match, but that will be addressed in "The Bad".
Tag Team Title Match - WCWA's
crowd is basically an American styled crowd, that is used to somewhat
short matches. So it is rare when a match can go nearly 25 minutes
and keep the crowd's attention the entire time, but this almost
succeeded in that, however the pacing was a little off and started
to drag in the middle. The finishing sequence, then the match
being ordered to continue seemed to bring everyone back into it
though. WCWA has the most developed tag team division in SoCal,
and has done a lot to make it one of the focal points of it's
promotion. A really good match that did a lot to further the WCWA
tag team division.
Threat - I didn't really
care for Threat and Tommy Wilson's match, but I think Threat is
a very good addition to WCWA, as he has done a great job of drawing
heat. Adding Threat in with John Black and Adam Pearce WCWA has
three of the best heels for drawing heat in all of SoCal.
GSCW
SoCal vs. NorCal - The best
angle going in indy wrestling. The addition of the NorCal fans
made this angle even better, as you really wanted the SoCal guys
to win just to shut them up. Not only does this angle produce
huge amounts of heat for the matches, it also produces fresh matchups
involving both APW and SoCal guys. Awesome angle that looks to
go down as one of the best angles over the last five years in
all of California.
B-Boy vs. Jardi Frantz -
This was easily match of the night, and probably the best match
in SoCal so far this year (of course we are only one month in).
The only flaw in the match is that it looked like Jardi was disinterested
at times, but every match I've seen him in he's appeared the same
way and I somehow doubt that it's true, it's just him I guess.
The post match beatdown was really a good way to further the angle
too.
Bo Cooper vs. Joey Ryan -
While this wasn't the best match on the show, I still thought
it was good, and I thought it was executed in the right way. Most
indy matches are even, despite the obvious size differences between
wrestlers, as a lot of people are afraid to look weak. In this
match however Joey Ryan was dominated, and the story of the match
was told in a logical way. Everyone knows wrestling is predetermined,
but you can only ask people to suspend disbelief so far, and it
is unrealistic for a guy the size of Joey Ryan to be equal in
power with a guy like Bo Cooper. Too many times in indy wrestling
that isn't the case however, and a cruiserweight will be knocking
down some monster with a shoulder block. Joey Ryan had a similar
match with Bigg Babi Slymm in WCWA not to long ago where he used
his speed to counter Slymm's power, while in this match he resorted
to cheating to match up with Bo. Both guys looked good in the
match, and I thought they even were smart by altering the match
to make Bo more the heel once he came out and got the heel reaction.
Building Up Matches - GSCW
has really begun to do a good job of building up future matches,
from the NorCal/SoCal angle, to a Lil' Cholo vs. Lost ladder match,
to the natural feud of 2002 rookie of the year Shawn Riddik and
2002 rookie of the year runner up Scorpio Sky. I think next to
WCWA, GSCW is currently doing the best job in SoCal of building
feuds and matches. One of the tricks to booking is not putting
together matches people want to see, but making people want to
see the matches you put together.
Nikki & Melissa vs. Disco
& Looney - I was shocked at the amount of heat this match
had. A lot of people say that women's wrestling won't work in
the US, but I think it has a shot if it's booked with women who
can actually wrestle. Luckily this match had probably the top
two female wrestlers in the US. With UPW's women's division being
restarted, and GSCW booking Melissa and Nikki, now will be the
time to see if anyone can really make it so women's wrestling
is taken seriously. Obviously it's working to a degree since two
fans demanded their money back early in the show when, in angle,
it was announced Nikki and Melissa wouldn't be wrestling and the
fans had to be told it was just an angle. Also, I can't forget
that this match featured Disco Machine's hard slap on Nikki that
may have been the loudest pop of the night.
The Fans - The fans were
hot all night, and hot for every match. The idea of having a NorCal
bus trip down to the show was a great idea, as it really added
to the feud, and NorCal has some loud fans that were really into
the show and really helped the SoCal fans get into the show.
THE BAD
WCWA
Length of the Undercard -
WCWA should have cut a match out of their undercard, and definitely
should have cut time out of some of the undercard matches. You
don't need to book everyone who shows up, just because they show
up.
Promos - There was pretty
much a promo before every single match. That added in with the
undercard going long really made the show long and drag on at
times, in turn killing the crowd. I think of a wrestling show
like a film script. Why use words to tell a story when a picture
will do just as fine. So why use promos to tell a story when it
can be done in the context of a match. Unnecessary promos have
to go.
No Babi Slymm - A WCWA show
doesn't feel like a WCWA show without Bigg Babbi Slymm and his
posse of fans. If there was one show that needed Slymm and crew,
this was it. Slymm had to work, so I can't fault WCWA for this,
but he was still missed.
John Black vs. Frankie Kazarian
- The match itself was awesome, which is why I mentioned it earlier,
but there was one major flaw to the match. I believe part of putting
on a great match is wrestling to the crowd you are in front of.
WCWA clearly has an American wrestling styled crowd, and most
people couldn't get into a strong style match. The match probably
would have came off better to the crowd if they worked the style
they did, but incorporated elements of American style into the
match such as playing to the crowd. Also establishing a clear
heel and face would have been a good idea, as the WCWA crowd knows
Black, but has never really figured out what to do about Frankie.
GSCW
Excalibur vs. Bobby Quance
- This match was a major disappointment, mostly due to Excalibur's
below average performance. Excalibur, who is just coming off a
major injury that has kept him out for a few months, looked really
rusty by the middle of the match. Quance looked good in the match,
but I have seen better from him also. I didn't think the match
was really bad, but definitely did not live up to the expectations.
Hardkore Kidd's Logic - Hardkore
Kidd comes out for a promo, questioning why he has to wrestle
D, who he says doesn't deserve a shot. Hardkore Kidd then refuses
to wrestle D until he is forced to by Glen McNeil. So, later in
the show D comes out and says he is not wrestling, only to have
Hardkore Kidd come out and demand a match. What type of sense
does that make?
Messiah vs. Sabu - These
two had one of the top SoCal feuds of 2001, but had what I'd consider
a disappointing match here. Sabu had looked very good in all his
EPIC matches, but seemed to be just "there" at GSCW.
It's understandable that Sabu wouldn't be 100% into the match
with the recent passing on the Sheik, but the match came off as
a real letdown with the recent build to a Messiah and Sabu rematch
in EPIC, and their first match since mid-2001. Another thing was
the match felt out of place on that show. There was no real mention
of the match throughout the show, and with the hot SoCal/NorCal
angle, this seemed secondary and didn't feel like a main event,
despite Sabu's legendary status. Also, with Messiah being the
local star, and more than likely going to be back more often than
Sabu, I didn't see the point in Messiah losing to Sabu, though
I doubt GSCW had much control over that.
THE UGLY
WCWA
Pacing of the Show - WCWA
used to really know how to pace a show, but over the last few
shows it seems like they have lost the art. The ugly thing about
it is when fans leave half way into a show because they are bored,
those are probably fans that won't be coming back. WCWA needs
to fix this fast.
GSCW
The Gary Yap Angle - Once
again an angle involving an EPIC invasion being lead by Gary Yap
was planned for the GSCW show. Luckily once again it didn't happen.
This time however Gary Yap showed up at the show, and the plan
was for NOSAWA, who was also at the show, to do a run in during
the main event. However the plan hinged on Gary Yap paying NOSAWA
the travel money that he is owed from the EPIC show that was canceled,
and when that didn't happen NOSAWA said "no" to the
plan and Gary left the show. Why Gary Yap feels the need to run
any type of angles before he takes care of his business with EPIC,
or why GSCW would add an unnecessary angle to an already stacked
show is beyond me. I will give Gary credit for meeting with NOSAWA
face to face however, as that did take some courage, as NOSAWA
was probably one of the guys who was screwed over the most from
the entire EPIC fiasco.
OVERALL
All in all I enjoyed both shows,
though I think WCWA has been heading in the wrong direction so
far this year with it's first show that drew less than 20 paid,
and now this show that had at least half it's audience leave before
the main even started. GSCW on the other hand has really really
improved from what it started as. If you would have asked me if
GSCW would even be around at this point, let alone arguably be
SoCal's hottest fed, I'd have said "no way".
--
Martin Marin has been all over the
Japanese wrestling magazines from when he wrestled as El Genio
for Toryumon in Mexico a couple months ago. To see a scan from
Gong magazine, click
here. Marin will be debuting in Japan for Toryumon shortly.
He is currently getting his paperwork in order. It isn't known
if he will be El Genio or get a new gimmick.
--
We are looking for any pictures
for the Southern California Hall of Fame of Dick Lane and Johnny
"Red Shoes" Duggan. Please send any pictures to steve@socaluncensored.com.
Thanks.
--
I'll be back later in the week with
my 100th Steve's View which will have a review of Ben Peller's
(who is a former SoCal wrestler) book "Living the Gimmick",
more information on the supposed deal making Revolution Pro an
XPW developmental territory, and the history of Steve's View among
other things.
Steve
