Steve's View #111
By Steve
I was really looking forward to
this Rev Pro show, as I had been unable to attend Rev Pro since
December due to work, so it had been five months since I got my
Rev Pro fix. I got to Frank and Sons a little early so I walked
around checking out all the stuff they have there. One thing that
caught my eye was a girl, who looked to be about 10 years old,
wearing a shirt that said "slut". I know it has nothing
to do with the show itself, but it made me wonder about her parents,
who I assume were the large couple with her buying Sailor Moon
merchandise. Anyway, on to the show.
The show started about 20 minutes
late, which is actually on time if you go by Indy Standard Time.
The crowd looked to be about 185 people, give or take, which was
smaller than the last couple Rev Pro shows I attended and the
reported attendance for the last few at Frank and Sons.
Oh yeah, I decided to do star ratings
this show.
Bigg E. Biggz, Jethro George,
& Nemesis over Vega, Gallinero 4, & Espara de la Muerte
[8'57]
The stipulation to this match was that the losing team would have
to wash cars in the parking lot at intermission. With six rookies
in the ring the match is pretty much what you would expect. It
got sloppy at times, and really lacked as far as transitioning
between moves goes, but overall was a fun match if nothing else.
I thought Gallinero 4, Jethro George, and Nemesis were the most
impressive, but the other three didn't look bad or anything.
Rating: ¾*
Scott Lost over Street Style
[8'41]
Scott Lost was announced as the "Professor" by ring
announcer Travis Gray, which got everyone excited for a "Genius"
type gimmick, but alas it turns out he should have been billed
as "The Professional". Street Style came out and did
some dancing (which would become the night's trend) then the match
was under way. I didn't really care for this match too much, but
there was nothing really wrong with it. Just didn't seem like
there was much substance. Lost gets better every time out.
Rating: *1/2
Mongol, Black Metal, & Lonestar
over El Gallinero 2, Supa Badd, & Sexy Chino [12'03]
This was the only match to receive "match of the year"
chants on the show. And on the Bizzaro world this match might
win. The match however was hilarious. Sexy Chino is one of the
funniest wrestlers I've seen in a long time. Rather than have
him even attempt to wrestle, he should be defeating opponents
in a dance competition. A deadly dance competition. I honestly
don't remember anything Mongol did in the match. I know he was
there, and I seem to recall him wrestling, but he didn't do much,
if anything. Supa Badd and Black Metal both looked pretty good,
though Black Metal missed by a mile on a boot slide and Supa Badd
still sold it which is always silly to see. Though I imagine Black
Metal is powerful enough to cause harm with the air pressure his
boot slides create. Neither Lonestar or El Gallinero 2 looked
very good when they were in the ring, but Lonestar does a good
job of drawing heat however. After the match the Supa Sexy Gallinero
team danced about.
Rating: ¼*
Six Man Elimination Match (Final
Two Compete Next Month in FFTR Finals)
Chris Bosh, Phoenix Star, & Johnny Paradise over Xtreme
Loco, Hydro, & Zokre (Chris Bosh & Phoenix Star advance)
[14'28]
-Order of elimination: Xtreme Loco [10'18], Johnny Paradise
[11''24], Zokre [13'04], Hydro [14'28]
This was am elimination style match, where the final two left
would compete in the finals of the "Fight for the Revolution",
but they never explained what would happen if the last three were
all on the same team. Just a minor nitpick. Xtreme Loco never
does anything "xtreme" or "loco". He does
get better every time I see him though, and I suspect he has a
name like Xtreme Loco for a reason, so his rage is probably building
up and when he decides to do something extreme or crazy, he'll
probably go all out and bring a gun to the match and start shooting
people. Johnny Paradise does an 80's hair metal gimmick, and he's
nobody's fool. The highlight of this match is definitely when
Zokre and Phoenix Star were in the ring together. Within a year
people will be raving about them all over the country. In my opinion
they are light years ahead of all the other rookies in 2003. Overall
this was pretty entertaining and fast paced match, but it wasn't
without it's mishaps, and like the other rookies their transitions
for the most part were suspect. At the rate Rev Pro is churning
out talented rookies though, the Rev Pro undercard, which has
always been one of it's weak spots should keep getting better
and better.
Rating: *¾
King Faviano over Bigg Babi Slymm
to retain the Mexican Lucha Libre Heavyweight title [6'21]
Both guys got some pre match dancing in. This match featured two
guys who are pretty underrated (well, I guess technically Slymm
is only underrated outside of San Diego, where he is the most
popular indy wrestler in the county). During the match Lonestar
tried to come out and help Slymm by giving him a chair, but Slymm
was having none of. Then Favi got the chair and hit Lonestar,
then Slymm and got the pin. Post match Lonestar got into a fight
with John Lambert, the guy running for honorary mayor of San Pedro.
Rating: *
Hook Bomberry over Apolo Kahn
[13'19]
This was my favorite match on the show. Apolo Kahn and Hook Bomberry
are both from Northern California's Pro Wrestling Iron. These
guys worked a really stiff and realistic style match. There was
one neckbreaker spot that got messed up, but aside from that the
match was totally solid. Both guys looked great. It's amazing
to think they are both rookies. Just from what I've seen I'd be
willing to bet PWI is the best wrestling school currently running
in the US. This should be a match of the month candidate, but
it doesn't hold up to some of the serious match of the year candidates.
Rating: ***
Angel & Mr. Excitement over
Quicksilver & Scorpio Sky [12'30]
My opinion has always been that Angel was probably the best wrestler
in XPW (until they started filling their roster with guys like
Jerry Lynn and Super Crazy), and it's great to see him working
other promotions where he is really getting a chance to show his
skills. Excitement, Quicksilver, and Scorpio Sky are all great
also. This started out as a fantastic match, and could have easily
been the best match on the show. Then all hell broke lose. Quicksilver
and Scorpio Sky both did dives to the outside on opposite sides
of the ring. Scorpio Sky landed near a maskless Rising Son who
was sitting in the audience. Rising Son and Scorpio Sky have had
heat for some time, but it pretty much died out until Scorpio
Sky talked about Rising Son in an interview, calling him a "backstabber"
among other things. Anyway, Rising Son came to the show and planned
on at the least having words with Scorpio Sky, but I guess he
saw the dive as a good opportunity to attack Scorpio Sky. Rising
Son started hitting Scorpio, which brought security over and started
a mini riot as people were hitting Son and Son was trying to get
at Scorpio. Rising Son was carried out of the venue, and at first
he thought his nose might have been broken in the melee, but it
turned out he was OK. The match started back up, and they immediately
went to the finish. The fight really killed what was shaping up
to be a great match. A lot of yelling could be heard coming from
the back after the match, and when the ring announcer returned
he was pretty flustered and was stumbling over his words. There
was no acknowledgement that it was Son in the audience, though
someone did yell "fuck Rising Son". A lot of people
seem to think it's an elaborate work, but Rising Son swears it
isn't.
Rating: **1/4
Joey Ryan & Sara (formerly
Nikki) over Super Dragon & Disco Machine [16'06]
"I will NEVER wrestle ever again." - Disco Machine,
February 9th, 2003
I don't think wrestlers should be allowed to announce retirement,
but saying that I'm glad Disco is back. I think everyone was expecting
Joey Ryan's partner to be TARO, so it was a nice surprise when
Sara came out. I thought the match was pretty good, but something
just didn't seem to click. The sequences when Dragon and Ryan
were in the ring together were really crisp and came across really
well. Sara didn't look as good as she normally does, and Disco
seemed a little rusty at times. Still, it was a fun match that
could have been a lot more than it was.
Rating: **1/2
The thing I don't like about star
ratings is that they don't really show how I felt about the show
overall. While only three matches broke the two star mark, which
is generally considered to be average (though I grade an indy
show the same way I would a WWE or any other promotion, so on
an indy basis two stars would be above average) I had a blast
at the show. While the crowds at Rev Pro aren't as lively as APW
LA's or WCWA's, the atmosphere at Revolution Pro is just really
fun. So based on how much fun I had at the show, it was a great
show, but watching it on tape might leave a little to be desired.
--
Messiah lives in the Philadelphia
area now, so I'd expect to see less of him on SoCal shows.
--
At May 10th's Rev Pro show, XPW
commentator Kris Kloss said XPW would be making a major announcement
soon about the future of XPW. There was no mention of when "soon"
is.
--
Just a correction from Steve's View
#110, I incorrectly mentioned Shane Douglas being at Gathering
of the Juggalos, it was actually just a regular JCW show.
--
Please don't forget to take the
survey on the front of the site if you haven't already. The results
will help SCU grow and help us support indy wrestling.
--
Just a short column this time around,
I'll be back next week with a review of SoCal Hall of Famer Freddie
Blassie's book, and more.
-Steve
