Rev Pro Review - April 12th, 2003
By Benjamin Tomas

Revolution Pro 4/12/03
Frank & Son Collectible Showcase
Industry, CA

First off, I want to comment on how Frank and Son's has the most convenient, easily accessible parking lot in all of SoCal. Finding a spot there makes me long for the stressfulness of leaving Irvine Meadows after a concert, where there are only two exits for 22,000 people. I spotted several SoCal regulars, like Tom Walters having the same fun I was in their quest for a parking space. I finally found a spot, and the 1 1/4 mile walk to the building was quite invigorating.

I strolled into the place a bit early (I allowed a lot of time), and looked at all the comic book marks. I am very fond of the boys and girls who dress in character to shop for comics. It was like the comic version of a Trekkie convention. I found my way to Bart's shop and looked at all the stuff I'd like to buy. I saw a Best of Lil' Cholo and B-Boy DVD which will likely be my next purchase form there. After salivating at the thought of owning all the ECW tapes in there, I made my way over to the "arena."

I found a third row seat next to the loveliest fan in SoCal, Da Bean. She was there with her equally lovely sister, Tita, and her charming nephew. At exactly 2 pm Travis Grey walked out with a microphone, and I thought to myself, "Wow! An Indy show is gonna start right on time!" Travis put the mic to his lips and said, "The show will begin in 10 minutes." So much for me and my wishful thinking. After this announcement, the sound system blared Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" like it was 1989, and the boys in the locker room could be heard as they all sang along. I was glad I wasn't the only one in attendance who has a copy of "Slippery When Wet" in their CD collection.

The show kicked off with Xtreme Loco, Hydro, and Phoenix Star vs. Country Boy Jethro, Gallinero 4, and Big E. Biggs. The heel team attacked Gallinero's squad before the bell, and it was on. To open, Biggy hit a Venturaesque thumb to the eye on Star, and followed it up with a rock bottom, sending Star rolling from the ring. Jethro came in to hook it up with Hydro, and threw some very nice looking punches. After tags were made, Star and the chicken did a bit of chain wrestling, running a couple of sequences culminating in a very nice tornado DDT by Gallinero 4. When Loco was tagged in, he did a picture perfect delayed suplex on the chicken that puts Riddick's move to shame, even without a camel toe. Later, Hydro put Gallinero over his knee and Star hit a huge top rope leg drop that looked like it killed Gallinero. The chicken got his ass kicked like Rickey Morton for most of the match, and made his opponents look very good in the process. After the hot tag, Jethro hit the bareback on Loco, but it was to no avail. Though there was a hot tag, the heels effectively emulated the Mighty Ducks and killed the power play. Star hit a kick ass 450 splash onto Gallinero 4 to get the win for his team.

The second contest of the night was Joey Ryan vs. Nikki. They opened with a lot of very stiff slaps to one another, and Joey appeared to be unfazed by her beauty. Once they got moving, Nikki hit a sick Belly to back that looked like it hurt Ryan a bit. Joey tried to come back with a tornado DDT, but Nikki resisted and gave him a northern lights suplex for his trouble. A bit later she hit a good German, and Ryan looked frustrated by that point. He started a comeback, but due to frustration he tried for the kill too early, and missed a moonsault, causing him to fall victim to that same move from Nikki. Eventually, Ryan turned it around, and when he hit a top rope DDT on Nikki, she landed very badly, and I thought she was hurt. Her landing was very similar to Brock's botched finish at Wrestlemania. Nikki was so dazed she fell victim to Joey's top rope neck breaker, and that was it. Good showing from Nikki, solidifying that she is a wrestler and not eye candy. Good match from both. On a side note, Joey's top fan was surprisingly quiet for this one, causing me to speculate that he was sick.

Match 3 was Vega, Espa del Muerte, and Nemesis vs. Johnny Paradise, Chris Bosh, and Zorke. I hope I got those names right. If not, sorry, guys. I had only seen two of these guys before, so my notes on this are worthless. I have no clue if I wrote down the right names for moves and spots; so I'm not even gonna try. I can say I liked this match a lot, and even though it fell to pieces near the end, it was entertaining and fun. Zorke has a lot of potential, hitting a dazzling array of acrobatic moves. Although he was the star of the match, I mean to take nothing away from the others. Everyone in the match gave it their all. Can't remember who won, but I'm pretty sure it was Zorke's team. I apologize to all six men for my confusion and bad note taking.

A Battle Royale was held to determine who would get a title match of his choosing at the next show. The participants were: El Mario, Goalie Howe, Gallinero 1 and 2, Black Metal, AWC, Shady, and Top Gun Talwar. It opened with a lot of Lucha stuff, with all 8 guys in a daisy chain doing the same move to each other. First it was a chain of them all grabbing the dude in front of them by the nuts, and then they did a thing where it was a star. By star I mean then they get in a circle and the faces grab the heels legs and they all make a wish. Once it got going the chickens made a great showing, eliminating several guys before meeting their doom. Talwar took a break by exiting through the ropes and hit on a girl in the front row, asking her to give him a kiss. When she decided to comply, he ran away in horror. This was very funny stuff. Metal attempted a choke slam on Shady, who somehow got out of it by doing a flip. Lucky mentioned he was going to steal this move. It looked very good. It came down to Talwar and Metal, with them playing heavily on the big man vs. little man scenario. Black Metal finally got eliminated, and Talwar announced he didn't want to title shot. AWC told him to be a man and take the match, so Taro vs. Talwar is on the next show.

Lone star came out to wrestle, and got in a fight with the guest ring announcer. I didn't catch the dude's name, but he is the promoter of the Triple mania show coming up soon. Lone star kicked his ass. Favi came out to wrestle Lone star, and although Favi didn't have the belt with him, it was for the Lucha Libre Heavyweight Title. Lone star started the match strong with many clotheslines, but soon fell to the veteran's attacks. Favi spent most of the match doing moves to Lone star's groin area, even dedicating one kick in the nuts to his "Mexican friend in the crowd." Lone star had little offense, and was beaten by Favi after the senton splash. Very short match, so there is not much to say. Lone star had a lot of heat for this one.

Kenny King wrestled against Big Babbi Slymm. This former Tough Enough 2 star really proved to me that he is the real deal. He hit an amazing spinning kick early on, and had charisma to spare. He hit an impressive kick posting on 1 hand in a cartwheel type position. He followed that up with a blockbuster off the top rope. As He and Slymm brawled to the outside, King got Slymm down, and walked to near where I was sitting, looking for a weapon. Since I'm a nice guy, I offered him the use of my chair, but he had bigger plans: a table. He set up the table on end in the corner, and the two teased spot after spot through the table, but every one ended up on the mat. King was given a huge move by Slymm, which put him in a vulnerable state, and Slymm gored him through the table for the 3. I really liked this match, and hope to see Kenny King in SoCal again real soon.

The semi main event saw Hook Bomberry and Apollo Kahn take on Mr. Excitement and the "Hardcore Homo," Angel. Angel and Mr. E came out wearing tear away pants, and when Mr. E was about to do his big thing where he rips off the pants, Angel beat him to the punch. Anger then asked Mr. E to return the favor by undressing him. Excitement wanted no part of this, so Angel and Bomberry started wrestling, with Angel trying to cop a feel. After tagging out to their partners, Kahn and Excitement got in and did some very good technical wrestling. Later Angel came in and gave Bomberry the head bob in the corner, then hit a great 'rana off the top rope. When the match lost control, Apollo was on the outside with Angel and gave him two German suplexes on the concrete floor. I guess that this homo is very hardcore after all. After this, Excitement hit the exploder in the ring on Hook, but only got 2. With Angel down on the outside due to the Germans, Apollo was able to interfere and his team took control. When Angel came back up, he distracted Hook, and when Apollo climbed to the top to hit a moonsault on Excitement, Mr. E jumped to his feet to give a German suplex on Kahn, and followed up with a couple of belly to back suplexes for the pin. Great match.

The main event brought the up and coming team of Scorpio Sky and Quicksilver into battle with Rev Pro's two top guys, Super Dragon and Taro. Taro entered the ring talking mad shit to the rookies, feeling they were not fit to be in the ring with him. Taro started out with Sky, but Scorpio requested that Dragon be tagged in. Sky and Dragon exchanged blows, and when Sky got the upper hand, he did Dragon's signature chest stomp on Dragon himself. This was a horrible mistake. Dragon's fury destroyed what little steam Sky had going, and he beat the hell out of Scorpio, returning the chest stomp big time. Quicksilver came in, and Dragon grabbed his arm. He would chop Silver, then pull on his arm to prevent him from falling, so he was in position for another chop. Quicksilver's chest quickly was a bright shade of crimson. The worst was yet to come for Silver. Taro tagged in and did a slingshot, but as Silver came up, Dragon clotheslined him so he was lying on Taro's knees, then Dragon did the chest stomp off the top turnbuckle. This was painful to watch; I can't imagine what it felt like. Quicksilver finally made the tag after hitting a spine buster on Dragon, and the rookies cleaned house for a bit, throwing the veterans to the outside and doing a double dive over the top rope onto their opponents on the floor.

The rookies got Taro in the ring, and while Silver held Taro in the power bomb position, Sky hit Taro with a missile dropkick from the top to send him down. Quicksilver hit a huge splash on Taro, but as he lay on his opponent's chest for the cover, Dragon stomped the middle of his back off the top rope. It was insane how much punishment the new guys took in this match. Soon, both Quicksilver and Sky were on the outside with Dragon, and Taro was ready to dive. Dragon signaled for Taro to wait for him, so they could double dive like what happened to them earlier. Taro waited, and as they both prepared to dive, Dragon pushed Taro out of the way to do his summersault dive between the ropes onto the opposition. This created a major "Holy shit!" chant from the crowd. As Dragon stood aside, Silver and Sky helped each other up, and Taro got on the top rope. When he dove, though, instead of hitting his opponents, he jumped the other direction and somersaulted onto his own partner! After this, pretty much everyone took a few minutes to recover, and when they were back in the ring, Dragon gave Quicksilver the pump handle psycho driver. The ref counted 2, and Dragon pulled his opponent's shoulders off the mat. He gave Silver the regular psycho driver, and pulled him up again. Dragon drug Quicksilver to the top rope, and prepared for a top turnbuckle psycho driver. At the last minute, Taro pulled Silver out of the move, saving his ass. Scorpio got 2 off a top rope 'rana on Dragon, then Taro kicked Dragon in the nuts. This led to the big finish, and out of nowhere Quicksilver pinned the Super Dragon! Holy shit! I never thought I'd see this in a million years. What a main event. I could not believe what I had witnessed. What a way to end a show.

In closing, I have a few thoughts on this show. A few weeks ago I said Mr. Excitement was not exciting at all. This week, he truly lived up to his name. He got to work with guys who have a similar mixed martial arts style, so they gelled and put on a superb match. This is my favorite Mr. Excitement match I've seen. Props to him this week.
I'd also like to say that it's amazing how many dudes come up to say hello to you when you happen to be sitting next to Da Bean. "Hey, Ben, what's going on? How are you? Oh, and who is this?" It was so subtle I'm sure she didn't notice.

This was a great Rev Pro show, and I have something to say about Revolution Pro. A ton of people told me today that they heard I was boycotting Rev Pro shows for one reason or another, but nothing could be further from the truth. I have a job that requires me to work an 8am-4: 30 shift, or a 1:30 - 10 pm shift. If a show is at night, I can request the day shift with no problems. However, Rev Pro runs in the hours those shifts overlap, so I simply have a hard time making it out to the shows. Anyone with a job can guess how my boss responds when I ask for a Saturday of because I want to see some pro wrestling. For the record, he hates wrestling. I had a great time today, and would recommend Revolution Pro to anyone, despite how goofy AWC looks with the baldhead. My only disappointment was that Rising Son and Disco Machine are no longer part of the locker room. I didn't miss Excalibur, as he clearly cooked his own goose. Two thumbs up from this mark. Hope to see everyone at the PCW shows in two weeks. From what I hear, they are gonna be a hoot and a half, with some surprise wrestlers from Philly.

Thanks for reading,
Benjamin Tomas