EWF Review - May 23rd, 2003
By Benjamin Tomas
EWF 5-23-03
Knights of Columbus Hall Covina, Ca
I got to the KOC a bit early, and
was surprised to find the place empty. I saw Jesse Hernandez,
Bobby Bradley Jr., EWF Jeff, and Bo Cooper's hot wife. Very few
people were there, so I thought that perhaps the show wouldn't
be a smashing success. However, come show time, they were running
out of chairs and people were standing in the back. This was a
very good-sized crowd, and they were very hot. I had the pleasure
of sitting with frequent SCU poster alknows, who is a class act
and a real old school wrestling fan. I wish SoCal had more fans
like him. EWF crowds tend to be more on the non-smart mark side
of the world, and it makes for a great, comfortable room to watch
family oriented, old-fashioned wrestling in.
Things kicked off with Kid Karnage
wrestling Alex Pincheck. These two guys were rookies, but although
they were a bit green, they showed a very healthy drive and passion
for telling the story that made the missed spot here and there
seem unimportant. Early on Kid took control and attempted a frog
splash, but didn't hit it. He later hit a nice lionsault, and
followed it up with an insane standing shooting star press. This
was unbelievable. Pincheck mostly played the role of bump dummy,
but his bits of offense were good, and he proved he could hang
in there. Pincheck hit an out of nowhere spinning heel kick, and
Kid decided to take a walk and think things over. After getting
himself together, Kid returned to the ring, and after a short
series of exchanging moves, he hit an x-factor jumping off the
2nd rope to get the 3 count. I want to keep my eye on both rookies;
they have a future in wrestling, in my humble opinion.
Match 2 gave us T.J. Taz vs. Psycho
Silly Willie (I wonder how long and hard he thought to come up
with that name.) vs. Christian Taylor in a 3 way, 1 fall to a
finish match. T.J. was about 220, which makes him a cruiserweight,
but he looked huge in the ring with two guys who were both 130
at the most. T.J. Taz was wearing a lot of orange, causing me
to wonder what the inspiration for his gimmick was. Psycho was
a skinny kid who came out carrying a barbed wire wrapped bat.
Christian Taylor looked like a wrestler. This match was short,
with the two smaller guys double-teaming the larger man. Eventually,
Psycho turned on Taylor, and as Taz was outside the ring, hit
the big slice on Taylor. The referee stopped the count at two
for no reason I could see, and Willie hit a German suplex to pick
up the victory. A bit confusing, but that was the finish.
Liger Rivera wrestled Bino Gambino.
Gambino came to the ring wearing white pants with exclamation
points all over them, looking like a less threatening Chuck Paulmbo.
He did the standard Italian goombah gimmick, whereas Rivera looks
like a small Juventud Guerrera without the drug problem. I've
seen Rivera before, and he has potential. Early on Bino hit a
beautiful suplex, and followed up by throwing Rivera over the
top rope to the floor. Rivera took a very sick bump on the floor,
and the referee, who was playing Rudo, started counting quickly.
This referee was decidedly against the baby face Rivera, and it
added another dimension to the match. After Rivera hit a nice
2nd rope cross body, the referee counted slower than Aaron Proctor
taking time to find the right shade of eyeliner at Robinson May.
Rivera then threw Gambino to the buckles, and hit a nice spear.
Bino fought back, eventually hitting a sweet double under hook
driver to get two, but Rivera took it home with a move that is
hard to describe. He starts on the apron, goes over the ropes
to land on the 2nd rope, then senton bombs off the 2nd rope to
hit his opponent. Good, innovative finish.
At this point I would be remiss
to state that American Idol star Ruben was in attendance, and
I spoke with him a few times during the show. He's a class act,
and it ya'll want to start a Ruben chant next week at the Coach
House, just remember that the reference came from the dreaded
Worlds Biggest Mark. Tag straps were on the line as Los Chivos
went into battle with champs Bo Cooper and Jason King. This was
contested under elimination rules. This match started off slow,
with the Chivos exchanging punches and kicks with their opposition.
Nothing really got underway until Kayam went to the top and got
thrown off Ric Flair style by Cooper. He tagged out to Enigma
de Oro, who promptly got 9 head butts to the buckle courtesy of
King. The Chivos took a walk, and came back ready, but things
backfired when Kayam accidentally kicked his partner in the head
during an attempted double team. King made the tag, and just as
Bo started to clan house, the Chivos pulled off a successful double
team to regain control of the match. Bo was cast to the outside,
and King submitted to a leg hold by the Chivos, leaving Cooper
in a two on one situation. After beating Bo down, Kayam went for
a top rope moonsault, but missed. While Kayam was hurt, Cooper
was able to schoolboy Enigma for the 3, leaving the match up one
on one. Cooper hit a sweet nail in the coffin on Kayam, but Oro
distracted the referee. While the ref was distracted, Kayam hit
Cooper with a low blow, and got the three. New tag champs, Los
Chivotes.
After intermission, the match of
the night came into play. Ragin' Dawg wrestled The Technical Wizard,
Joey Ryan. Dawg and Joey exchanged a lot of slaps and unkind words,
and then Dawg hit a beautiful amateur style double leg shot. After
taking Ryan down, he nibbled on Joey's forehead. Joey got up,
and the two ran the ropes, but Dawg hit a Thez press, followed
by more nibbling. Joey took control and worked the leg, using
all the moves Flair used to use to set up an opponent for the
figure four. He did the leg on the rope; hit it with my butt move,
and all the rest. Dawg tried to battle back, and missed the lionsault.
Ryan left the ring to slam Dawg's legs against the pole, and did
the Bret Hart signature hanging figure four, much to my delight.
Dog recovered to hit a spine buster, but fell victim to Joey's
in ring smarts. Joey locked in an STF, and Dawg barely made it
to the ropes. At this point Joey accidentally knocked out the
referee, so he handed a chair to Dawg, and then laid on the canvas
as if he had been hit. As the ref questioned Dawg, Joey tried
a schoolboy to get two. Dawg went up top, but got nutted for his
efforts. Ryan attempted a superplex, but was knocked down and
fell victim to a frog splash to give Ragin' Dawg the duke.
The next match was suppose to be
Blade and Jin Hiryu vs. Rudy Luna and Under Pressure, but Black
Metal was added to Blade's team, and Bonzai was added to the baby
face team. I forgot to take notes on this match, as it was crazy
how much the crowd hated Blade. Blade came out talking mad shit
to the crowd, and they wanted him to get his ass kicked. Blade
has the uncanny ability to make a crowd hate him just by walking
through the entranceway. This was a great three on three-way match,
and while Blade generated the heat, Black Metal took a lot of
bumps, making himself look great as the big man who needed to
be worked huge to be taken down. Blade eventually took the pin,
after being DVD'd by Rudy Luna into a slam by Under Pressure.
Great match, I wish I'd taken better notes.
The main event saw Steve Masters
wrestling Vizzion, and I had the pleasure of being seated next
to Vizzion's brother, who apparently thought this was a shoot.
Vizzion is incredibly over with the EWF Covina fans, and they
went apeshit when he came through the curtain. Steve Masters came
out to a lot of boos, and he started stalling from the get go.
Masters plays the redneck stereotype to the hilt, and the gimmick
is awesome. After a lot of stalling, Vizzion left the ring to
take a seat in the crowd, and referee Rick Knox slapped the shit
out of Masters for all the stalling. This brought the crowd to
its feet. Once things got going, Masters hit a great dropkick
that rivals Joey Ryan's. Masters continued control after a massive
low blow the mullet-wearing challenger, and gave Vizzion a lot
of chokes and chops. For a long time Masters had the upper hand,
with Vizzion fighting back but never gaining momentum. It looked
like the match was over when Masters hit a monster spine buster,
but only got two. Vizzion countered with a lot of knees and punches,
but when Vizzion made a cover, Black Metal interfered and pulled
the referee out of the ring. While the referee was distracted,
Masters got a chair and opened up Vizzion's forehead. Masters
got the three with a reverse pedigree, and that was the main.
Good, solid main, even if there was interference. Next show has
Black Metal and Masters against Bo Cooper and Vizzion.
Thanks for reading,
Benjamin Tomas
The Worlds Biggest Mark
