PCW Review - April 26th, 2003
By Benjamin Tomas

Pacific Coast Wrestling with Alternative Wrestling Shop
4/26/03
Frank &Son Collectible Showcase

When I pulled into Frank & Son, I was surprised to find a nice, close place to park. After recovering from a small heart attack brought on by my shock, I made my way over to the "arena." I found a front row seat with Diablo, Bo Cooper, and his beautiful wife, whose name has totally slipped my mind. First up was the team of Black Metal, King Jakal, and Favi against Supa Badd, Shawn Riddick, and Jedi master Obi Matt Kenobi. Kenobi's team entered the ringside area via a car painted to look like an X-wing fighter. This was very cool to see, words cannot relay the visual. It started with a quick brawl, but the ring soon cleared and Supa Badd had room to do his pushups. Obi became the face in peril, and absorbed a lot of punishment, specifically a ton of boot rakes. Black Metal also gave him a superb delayed suplex right in front of Riddick. Just for Matt I'm going to quote C-3PO here and say, "How rude!" Back Metal got the finish after a brutal coke slam on Kenobi. This was a very good way to start the show. After the match, Favi claimed they should get the car, but to no avail. I must also mention that during the match, Kenobi used the force to distract Favi and make the hot tag.

Next we had two New Jersey guys named The Orphan and CJ Summers. If you can picture Rob black after about 3 years of eating only Monte Cristo sandwiches and snickers bars, that what the Orphan looked like. CJ Summers had the typical highflying pretty boy thing going for him. There's not much to say about this match, as Orphan was too slow to really keep up with a high flyer. Orphan won after knocking out Summers with brass knuckles. These guys might not have been great, but they flew themselves out because they wanted the experience, and that tells me these guys are serious. Props to guys unafraid to pay dues every chance they get. These two didn't suck, they are just learning. SoCal is a tough place to get over with the fans quickly, but these guys were unafraid to try. I look forward to getting another look at them tomorrow.

Little Cholo beat the shit out of Mike Vega. Every time I see Vega, he does stupid and masochistic things to himself. He took every bump stiff as hell, and fought back. At one point Vega hit a pretty fisherman's suplex, then nearly got broke in half by Cholo's rock bottom into a knee to the back. It is like Vega wants to get hurt every time out. I have heard that what we see is just what they let him do, and if it was up to him he's be going through flaming tables covered with broken glass placed over a bed of nails. I bet if he got together with the overweight Rob Black twin and a few crack whores, they could launch a great new promotion, but naah, no one would pay to see that stuff, would they? A cool part of this match was Cholo giving Vega the ten punches in the corner, and the crowd counting to 10 in Spanish, like ECW fans used to do for Super Crazy. I must mention Aaron Proctor's new Gary Newman look, he tells me that the name for the color is plum. Proctor did a lot of interfering, eventually causing a DQ for his man Cholo. Post match he got in the ring and gave the big clothesline from hell to Vega. Proctor is truly hated by the fans, and gets them riled up.

The fourth contest featured B-Boy and Lucky in Lucky's second to last match in OC. This was good stuff. They opened with a lot of armature style sequences, and then got cooking by throwing each other off the ropes. Who in the world knew that Lucky could do a hurincanrana? Lucky hit some very good belly to back suplexes, but B-Boy brought his offense to a screeching halt with a roll of the dice. When Lucky recovered, he got back the upper hand and did a 2nd rope 'rana. Good God, if Lucky has the moves, why have I never seen them? B-Boy took back the offense and hit an exploder, then a sweet belly to back that looked like it hurt a lot. Kicks and punches brought Lucky back into this one, and he actually used a Polish hammer. B-Boy answered that hammer with a vile bitch slap that I'm sure was heard all over Frank and Son's where house. To bring this one home, Lucky hit a tornado DDT, but lost his momentum by missing a frog splash. B-Boy hit the shining wizard and that was all she wrote. This is the best match Lucky has had in a long time, and B-Boy looked very good. B-Boy worked a lot slower than usual and this provided for more selling, thus adding believability to the match. If Lucky wrestled all his matches like this one, he'd be hugely over with the crowd, except for the boyfriends of the girls he relentlessly has hit on.

Pinoy Boy and Rocky Romero (announced as hailing from Brazil?) locked up with the X Foundation's Joey Ryan and Scott Lost. This delighted a certain fan wearing a Van Halen t-shirt. There was a lot of technical wrestling, but then it got very stiff. Lost played like Road Warrior Hawk and took the brunt of a bad beating, while Joey waited to get back into this match. Rocky Romero laid into Scott Lost like a bully, and Lost took it all like a man. After making the hot tag, the finishing sequence went something like this: Joey gives Pinoy a northern lights suplex, Lost hits a top rope senton bomb, Joey hits a top rope splash, and a double team slam brings it all to a finale. Good, exciting match. I'd like to take the time right now to put over Ryan's standing dropkick. It is a thing of beauty, and although dropkick guy was not at this show, I'd like him to know I thought of him every time Joey busted it out in this match.

Damage Inc. vs. Infernal and Silver Tyger was a match I saw little of. Early on Infernal dislocated his shoulder, and Martin popped it back into place. Although they did the quick fix, he was far from ok. When Infernal got back in the ring, he missed a dive to the outside and landed on his face. I was so concerned for Infernal that I failed to take any notes, as those little guys from WPW are like family to me. I've watched a lot of those guys grow up, and I hate seeing any harm come to them. They brought this one home early, and Infernal, if you are reading this, You're in my prayers tonight. Get better soon; you're a great part of the local scene. Much love.

Aaron Proctor came to the ring to run down Foob Dog. There was some stupid stuff with their horrible commissioner that went down, and Ian Knox was introduced as Foob's opponent. Knox showed strength early on, giving the big man a body slam, a sidewalk slam, and finally a fall away slam. Foob's offense was mostly variations of the suplex, as he nearly hit every type imaginable. Knox got in a good double arm DDT, but only got 2. Foob got in his big finish off the 2nd rope, only for Proctor to break up the pin. At this point, Bo Cooper interfered to pummel Foob Dog, knocking him silly with a chair shot. He then turned on Knox and beat him down as well, leaving a scared Aaron Proctor across the ring from an angry Bo Cooper. Bo hit Proctor with a death valley driver, popping the crowd like nobody's business. Cooper was over huge, and the crowd screamed his catchphrase along with him. I guess he's working face tomorrow.

This brings us to the Super Dragon, whose partner Konnan didn't bother to show up. Hardkore Inc. was more than happy to wrestle him handicap style, but Babbi Slymm offered to tag with Dragon. This match got underway in a brawling style, and Al Katrazz attempted a choke slam on Dragon, but then he lifted Dragon, the masked guy turned it into a stiff dropkick. Dragon proceeded to give Al a pair of boot stomps, followed by a tag for Slymm to give a boot stomp of his own. Al tagged out to Kidd, who was very disrespectful to Dagon, and when HKK attempted his patented seated choke slam, he ended up in a code red style arm submission. He made the ropes and tagged out, only for Al to hit his signature shoulder block from the outside onto Slymm, who had tagged in as well. At this point Hardkore Inc. took control, working over Slymm for a long period of time. Babbi finally started to build steam and attempted a clothesline, but he and Slymm double clotheslined each other. The match ended quicker than I thought it would, and Dragon got Kidd on the outside in a front row chair, then did his big summersault through the bottom and middle ropes to mangle HKK, as well as the chair he sat in. After hitting Kidd, he landed in Steve SCU's lap, and when Steve caught him it looked for a split second like long lost lovers being reunited after years of separation. This warmed my heart. When Kidd recovered, he entered the ring and beat up referee Aaron Hasson, causing another DQ ending to a match. Next Frank & Son show Dragon, Slymm, and Konnan will face Hardkore Inc. and a mystery opponent.

The main event ladder match between Frankie Kazarian and Messiah was very well done. This was a good main event to cap off a great day of wrestling action, with the winner being crowned PCW champ and getting the prize of massive boot stomps tomorrow from Super Dragon. Kazarian was accompanied to the ring by the oh so hot SoCal Val, who told everyone that the reason she was with Frankie was because he was the coolest person ever. Frankie refused to use the ladder, and wanted a regular match. Frankie was on offense from the get go, using everything in his arsenal to put Messiah to rest. He continued to try for a pin, and grew increasingly frustrated with the referee who would not make a count, as this was a ladder match. He put Messiah in a submission move, and SoCal made Messiah's hand tap, but this did no good either. Frustrated with his inability to have things his way, Frankie finally got the ladder. They used the ladder in a lot of cool ways, and were careful not to mimic the ladder spots used the night before at the Grove in Anaheim. The ladder was used as both a weapon and a tool to get to spots, and there was not a lot of the usual, "I'll climb real slow so you can pull me off when I almost reach the belt" psychology that is found in most ladder matches. This is the psychology that dominated the Messiah/ Rising Son ladder match last year at the marketplace. Frankie did a lot of spots off the ladder, including one where both men were up top and he sunset flipped Messiah off the top of the ladder. Also, while the ladder was leaning in the corner, Messiah used it to moonsault off of. There were a lot of sick bumps, but in the end Messiah took victory by knocking the Future off the ladder to the floor and making the climb for the title. Good main event, good show.

I am looking forward to tomorrow's PCW show, and I'd like to send a shout out to my boy Lucky. For as many bad stories as I've heard about Lucky being less than a professional, he has always been a class act to me. Tomorrow he is leaving town forever, and I would like to wish him luck and a bright future. He is one of the few workers I consider to be a friend instead of an acquaintance, and he will be missed.

I would also like to mention last night's UPW show at the Grove. I had a good time, and it was a nice place to see a show. It needs more chairs, but that can be fixed. I had fun, and the Kazarian/Henderson match was awesome. However, in my opinion, giving the lady's match 20 minutes and the tag title match 4 minute was lame. If I were to book a table match, I'd damn sure know that it takes longer than 4 minutes to build to a meaningful climax. The bumps were good, but they would have meant more if they were built to properly. This is especially true following the awesome pre tape they showed of the hardware store. It was also disappointing to see 17 men in a 22-man battle royale. I like the Grove, though, and look forward to seeing another show there. The rising curtain was dope, as was the audio in the lobby. Rey Rey was a great guy, as was Chavo Guerrero. I enjoyed meeting both of them. I am sure UPW saw it's problems last night, and will fine tune things for the next show, as this was the first one and they have a small learning curve. I hope to see a lot of fans tomorrow in Buena Park to say goodbye to a man who has given his body to SoCal and is gonna do it one more time.

Thank you so much for reading,
Benjamin Tomas
The Worlds Biggest Mark