Steve's View #105
By Steve

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending two really good wrestling shows, that both had incredible, off the charts crowd heat. Here are my thoughts on the shows.

First up on Friday the 28th I headed to WCWA's show in Lemon Grove.

WCWA

Despite several good matches on WCWA's last Lemon Grove show, the show itself was something of a disaster with the length of the show and the pacing seeing most of the audience leave before the main event. This show it seemed as if they worked out those kinks and were able to once again put on a well paced, and good show.

The building was decently filled, and I counted around 150 people (DJ Medina from WCWA says it was 211, but a quick count pre-show had it at less than 120, and while people did come in after the first bell, it wasn't 90 people).

Tommy Wilson over Mr. Smalls [7'44]
I really expected this to be a bad match, as Mr. Smalls has really limited experience and training, but the match was very smartly booked where they limited what Smalls did, and kept it realistic with Tommy Wilson not being able to over power Smalls who is at least 200 pounds heavier than him. Wilson really continues to improve, but still hasn't had that breakout match that forces people to take notice of him.

Joey Ryan over Chip Adams [8'57]
Before the match Joey Ryan comes out to the ring and says that he "is after gold", and since all the champions are booked already, he will fight any former champion. Which brings out the returning Chip Adams. Adams, who was vastly underrated in SoCal, was a mainstay of the San Diego wrestling scene from 1998 until early 2002 when he moved to Northern California. His match with B-Boy in CCW is in my opinion the best match in CCW's history. Another sidenote is that Joey Ryan's first match in WCWA was a loss to Chip Adams. There was nothing flashy in the match, as they went for more of an old school style mat based style, but they still kept the crowd in the match. Joey Ryan got the win, but hopefully this means more Chip Adams in SoCal.

Billy Blade over Xtreme Loco [8'16]
This was another match that I was expecting to be bad going in, but it turned out to be a pretty decent match. My experience seeing Xtreme Loco is limited to a battle royal at a Rev Pro show, but I didn't think he was good at all in that match. However he seemed pretty solid here. For being extreme and loco though, he didn't do anything extreme or crazy, but I guess that's a good thing based on his experience level, as it's important to get the basics down first. Billy Blade is a guy who really improves every time I see him. Like Tommy Wilson he seems to just not have had that breakout match yet. Blade won with a devastating looking finisher.

Funky Billy Kim & Scott Lost over Ric Dynamic & Vic Dynamic [4'31]
Sadly the Dynamics wore black WCWA shirts over their gear, so there were no Smurf chants or singing of the Smurf's theme song this show. I thought the match was OK, but nothing really stood out in it as impressive or even good. Just an average match.

Jason Allgood over Adam Pearce by DQ [7'06]
Adam Pearce joining WCWA has really improved the promotion for the better. WCWA was a pretty good promotion before he joined up, but his addition adds an entirely new dimension to the fed, and the promotions main angle of Pearce and Peterson against Al Katrazz and Allgood is being played out very well. I don't think there is a wrestler in SoCal that can generate heat like Adam Pearce does, but more on that in a second. This was a very good match, my second favorite on the night. Jason Allgood is really an interesting wrestler. Whenever he is booked for a match you never really know what you will get. He was one of the few guys to ever have what could be considered a good match with Matt Sinister, but then sometimes Allgood's matches will be downright awful, even with good opponents. This current feud in WCWA has really brought out the best in him however, and over the last few WCWA has been the best I've ever seen him. Jason Allgood got the DQ victory when Peterson interfered in the match. The team of Pearce, Peterson, and CE Vanderpyle, their manager, then attempted to cut off Allgood's hair until Al Katrazz made the save.

Street Style over Scorpio Sky [8'43]
This match was supposed to be Iceman John Black versus Street Style, but Iceman injured his wrist in training and had to be taken off the show. This was my least favorite match on the show, as I just don't think they clicked. I won't say it was a bad match, but on a show filled with above average matches, it was only average. Street Style has always shown a lot of promise, and has improved a great deal since his rookie year, but lately seems to just be running in place. Scorpio Sky on the other hand seems to be getting more solid every match. He'll probably be considered to be in that top tier of wrestlers within a year or two.

Damage Inc. (Matrix & Preston Scott) over Off da Hook (Shawn Riddik & Supa Badd) to win the WCWA Tag Team titles [15'21]
Another strong point of WCWA is their tag team division. While having the best tag teams would be arguable, I don't think any promotion, aside from UPW, can argue that their tag division is as well developed. This was a pretty solid match, but it seemed like they lost the crowd at times, aside from an extremely drunk girl who's only thoughts were sexually assaulting all the wrestlers in the ring. I've seen both teams have better matches, but still was a pretty fun and solid match. For anyone who questions Shawn Riddik winning rookie of the year in 2002 should check him out in WCWA as it seems to be where he really shines. I'm also surprised Matrix doesn't get very much hype, as he has become a pretty good wrestler.

Primetime Peterson vs. Al Katrazz for WCWA Heavyweight title
-24/7 rule in effect.
-CE Vanderpyle pins Al Katrazz [8'18] to win the title.
-Jason Allgood pins Vanderpyle to win the title.
Before the match they announced that the 24/7 rule was in effect for the title, giving away that something was going to happen with that. I understand WCWA's reasoning for using the rule as a way of getting the title from Al Katrazz to Allgood, but I'm not sure WWE angles from three years ago is always the best option. I'm sure in ten years a 24/7 gimmick would be fun for nostalgic value though. Overall this was a pretty decent match, and with Pearce and Vanderpyle out there the crowd was more worked up than usual so the heat really added to the match. Actually, the crowd was hot all night long, even popping for a clothesline in the opening match, but during the matches with these guys, and of course Big Babi Slymm, they were hotter than normal. At one point in the match Vanderpyle pins Al Katrazz, becoming the WCWA champion for a brief few seconds until he is pinned by Allgood, who manages to keep the belt. Normally I'd be against a screwy title change like that, as I think it devalues the title, but in this case I think the storyline they are building outweighs that.

Post match Jason Allgood challenges Peterson to a cage match for the title at the next Lemon Grove show. Peterson declines until Allgood agrees to throw in his hair. If Peterson loses however he is out of WCWA. As Justin Crast pointed out at the show, that does more to damage the prestige of the WCWA title than anything, as Peterson's desire for the title should be all that is needed to drive him to taking part in a steel cage match. It will also be interesting to see how the pull off the cage in this venue.

After this point Pearce started getting into it with a fan in the audience, the same fan who was destroyed by John Black within seconds when he got in the ring several months ago. Pearce and the fan were face to face when Pearce started giving him kisses, with threw the fan into even more of a frenzy. Pearce got in the ring and begged the fan to get in, but he was being held back by the Dynamics and DJ Medina. It truly was a hilarious moment, and Pearce and Al Katrazz were even able to capitalize on it by having Al Katrazz come back out and saying "he may not fight you but I will" then chasing Pearce out of the ring. Anytime something like this comes up you have to question if it's a work or a shoot, but based upon the stiff shots this guy took from Black a few months ago, my money is on shoot.

Bigg Babi Slymm over B-Boy to retain the WCWA California title [14'28]
This was my match of the night. Slymm always brings a huge following to the shows and they are so wild for him that he is like Junkyard Dog in Mid South on a much smaller scale. Crowd heat adds a lot to matches, but I think if this match happened in a silent room it still would have to be considered very good. This was easily the best Slymm match I have ever seen, and B-Boy is B-Boy, which is a very good thing. B-Boy had one of the best weekends I've ever seen him have. Really a fantastic end to a great show.

GSCW

The show had about 200 people there, not as much as last time but I think that could be attributed to no Sabu on the card.

The show opens with GSCW's promoter Henry Luna in the ring thanking the fans, then the APW contingent of Gabe Ramierez and Jason Deadrich come to the ring. Gabe gets on the mic and says that the NorCal versus SoCal war should end and they should team up to put on the best shows in the indys. While I think it was way to soon to end that angle, as it was so well done, I figured something along these lines were coming, as the APW team pretty much destroyed SoCal and I expected them not to let SoCal get it's payback (though all the NorCal guys did lose later on in the show, except Melissa, so in retrospect I think it ended fine).

My timer was messed up, so no match times.

Silver Tyger over Infernal
A nice short spotfest to get the crowd into the show. A few sloppy moments and no real psychology, but it did the job it was supposed to do.

GQ Money, Veronica Caine, and Kaos come out for a promo. With the sound system it was a little hard to hear what was being said. I was surprised Valentina wasn't with the crew. Messiah then runs out and attacks them, giving GQ a real stiff looking punch. Messiah cuts a promo saying how "this isn't Messiah talking, this is William Welch" and that he thinks GQ had something to do with the attack that cost him his thumb.

Super Dragon over Joey Ryan
Fantastic match. Up to this point this had been the best match I've seen all month. The crowd really got into this match and both guys seemed to take a lot of punishment. Ryan worked over Dragon's arm the whole match, but never was really able to capitalize. Dragon won with the psycho driver 2001.

After the match Bo Cooper ran in and attacked Joey Ryan, which lead to Al Katrazz running out and attacking Cooper. They brawled for a minute or two, until Al Katrazz got the best of Cooper and Bo got on the mic and let Katrazz know that he now has a problem.

Bobby Quance and B-Boy then come out for their match. Jardi Frantz and Quance jump B-Boy and Super Dragon makes the save, which sets up their tag match for later in the night.

Shawn Riddik over Scorpio Sky
Battles between the rookie of the year and the runner up never seem to go off as well as people would expect, or go off at all as the case seemed to be last year. The match wasn't bad or anything, and not even the worst on the show in my opinion, but didn't live up to the hype. I think Riddik and Scorpio are stylistically different, and probably neither are experienced enough to adapt to the differences so they can get around them and make those differences work for the match. Scorpio looked better here than with Street Style the night before though.

Hardkore Kid over Frankie Kazarian to retain the GSCW Heavyweight title
Frankie and Hardkore Kidd both cut promos before the match making fun of APW and the NorCal fans. This was a really good match and one of the better performances I've seen from Hardkore Kidd. Every time I see Frankie wrestle I have to question why he isn't in the WWE at this time.

Melissa and Mr. Excitement went to a 15 minute time limit draw
I think Melissa is one of the best female wrestlers in the US, and I'm pretty big on Mr. Excitement, but this wasn't a very good match. Once again that's compared to the rest of the show, as the match was average, but average on this show really sticks out. There just isn't a lot of realism to Mr. Excitement and Melissa trading strikes. The last GSCW with Disco and Looney versus Melissa and Nikki is a good example of how to pull off an inter gender match without compromising realism.

Excalibur over James Choi
I haven't been to impressed with Choi, but thought he looked really good here. He got a lot of Low Ki cat calls, and deservedly so as he looks like him to an extent and mimicked his move set. Excalibur looked much better than the last GSCW show, as I guess he got rid of that ring rust. They worked pretty stiff and had a couple nice sequences, with Excalibur getting the win with the tiger driver.

B-Boy & Super Dragon over Bobby Quance & Jardi Frantz
This was an incredible match and definitely a match of the year candidate. The only real flaws in the match were little things, such as Dragon not selling his arm from his Joey Ryan match earlier in the night, and B-Boy's selling of his arm was suspect at times too. The finishing sequence was off the charts with fans pounding the ring. B-Boy destroyed Bobby Quance with a shining wizard that busted him open, and was able to get the pin. You have to get the tape and see this match to believe it.

Scott Lost over Lil' Cholo in a ladder match to win the GSCW Lightweight title.
I felt bad for these guys having to follow the tag match, but while they couldn't eclipse it, they did a match that was different enough, and they really put their bodies into the match, where they got the crowd right into it and in a way stole the show. When two wrestlers are putting themselves on the line and really putting everything into a match the way these guys were, it really draws you into the match, because if they are willing to do all that to win a match, then it shows the match means something to them, making it mean something to the audience. I thought this was the second best match on the night, and an incredible performance by both guys.

After the show all of the wrestlers got a standing ovation. This was probably the best show of the year in SoCal so far, and I'd bet in all of indy wrestling.

Overall it was a very good weekend for wrestling in SoCal. I wish every show had crowds like the shows this weekend had.

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If you weren't at GSCW this weekend, or just didn't pick up a copy of Rick Knox's SCRAP Magazine, I suggest you send Rick an e-mail and order one. It is a very nicely put together magazine, and a really good read. E-mail Rick Knox for more info.

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GQ Money, Kaos, and Valentina have a new website up at hollywoodincdotcom.com. They are supposed to have some announcement on April 11th.

-Steve