wXw/CZW doubleheader show 4-9-11 in Philly

[cavedweller73]

I don't know if anyone on here will be interested in this or not, but I thought I'd mention these shows. Not just because I'm going to be there, but because there's going to be an i-PPV of both of them. Granted, CZW history with i-PPVs has been rough, but considering that everyone from ROH to JCW is doing them now, maybe this will work out. I don't know how any of that fancy modern technology stuff works, but here's a link to the site that's hosting this:

www.hybrident.tv/

Here's the cards for the shows. The first show is a wXw show. wXw is a company from Germany and is where Thumbtack Jack used to work, before he got injured and was forced to retire. They use talent from all over the world really and the two main event matches they have listed are nothing short of dream matches. Here's the line-up:

2.30pm bell time
Location: The Arena
Tickets: at the door // available as internet PAY PER VIEW via www.hybrident.tv

No Ropes Barbed Wire Match
"Golden Boy" Drake Younger (Indianapolis, IN, USA) vs. "Crazy Monkey" Jun Kasai (Hokkaido, JAP)

wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship
Chris Hero (Metropolis, USA) vs. Daisuke Sekimoto (Osaka, JAP)

Heavyweight Tag Team Match
Big van Walter (Wien, A) & Brodie Lee (Nebraska, USA) vs. Johnny Moss (Egremont, UK) & Michael Elgin (Atlantic City, NJ, USA)

Singles Match
Bad Bones vs. 16 Carat Gold 2011 Winner Sami Callihan

Tag Team Rematch
Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly vs. LDRS of the New School [Marty Scurll & Zack Sabre jr.]

Four Way Dance
Brandon Gatson vs. Chuck Taylor vs. Emil Sitoci vs. Johnny Gargano

Singles Match
Karsten Beck vs. Necro Butcher

Then, later that evening, CZW is running their "Best of the Best" tournament. "Best..." used to be their jr. heavyweight tournament but somewhere along the way, it turned into a more T.P.I.-style tournament. They didn't run it last year and this year is going to be the tenth one, so they're going all out for it and bringing in guys from all kinds of different companies. There is going to be 12 guys in it and they're running the first round as three-way matches...which I'm not so sure that I'm happy about, but it'll keep the show from going 6 or 7 hours, I guess. Here's the first round matches and the non-tournament matches:

Round #1 Bracket A:
Akuma (CZW) vs. Jonathan Gresham (CZW) vs. Zack Saber Jr. (wXw)

Adam Cole (CZW) vs. Kyle O' Reilly (ROH) vs. Johnny Gargano (Dragon Gate U.S.A.)

Round #1 Bracket B:
Sami Callihan (CZW) vs. A.R. Fox (CZW) vs. Jake Crist (IPW)

Brandon Gatson (PWG) vs. Chuck Taylor (Evolve) vs. Daisuke Sekimoto (BJW)

Non-tournament matches:
Ultraviolent Underground Title match
Jun Kasai (c) vs. Danny Havoc

6 Man Tag Match - All belts on the line
The Briscoe Brothers (CZW tag champs) & Devon Moore vs. Robert "Ego" Anthony (CZW world champ) & Philly's Most Wanted (Sabian & Joker) w/ Jon Moxley

I kinda wish they were mixing up some of the talent from other promotions in the tournament and not have Taylor, Gatson and Sekimoto all in a first round match, since two of those guys won't go to the second round. I'm expecting Sekimoto, Callihan, O'Reilly and Saber to all be strong....but that's just my guess. The Kasai/Havoc match should be insane. As for the 6 man match, I've heard that Joker is back in the military again so he's already out, which is why I'm guessing they added Moxley to the match, but now that he's signed with WWE, he's sure not going to be winning any titles if he ends up in the match. I'm guessing they'll have to do something cool with Mox though since this will be his last CZW match before he goes to WWE. My guess is that the match will turn into some kind of HUGE cluster-f*ck...which could be good or bad, depending on how they do it.

Anyway, personally, I think the wXw show looks to be a bit stronger. The Kasai/Younger match will be absolutely INSANE, especially since this will be Kasai's first ever match in the ECW Arena. Also, the Hero/Sekimoto match should be off-the-charts good as both of those guys are two of the absolute best in the whole business.

As a sidenote too, if anyone is watching the i-PPV, I'll be in the second row in the corner, in front of the main entrance of The Arena. Just look for the big, goofy looking guy....actually, that describes most of the people who goes to these show, now that I think about it! HA HA!!!!

[cavedweller73]

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Delewear right now (I have a laptop now....welcome to modern technology!) I'm sick as a dog and have been the whole trip. Yuck!!! I'll write soooooo much more at some point, but the shows yesterday were both AWESOME!!!!!!! Sure, there were some down spots, but still two of the best overall shows I've attended in quite a while. Devon Moore in the new CZW champ, Danny Havoc is the new UVU champ, Jun Kasai is one twisted mofo...and a really nice guy too, Sami Callihan is probably the most over guy in Philly now and A.R. Fox is the most exciting new-comer in pro wrestling (my opinion anyway).

And all of this and I even ended up going to a wrestling convention at a hotel near the Philly airport and saw a bunch of the "old timers". A detailed report is coming at some point....once I stop blowing snot all over myself.

[iketurner]

That WXW show looked sweet. Hero tweeted something about working Emil Sitoci who we all used to watch WAY back in CCW when he very first started. I dont know if they wrestled or just worked the same show, but im sure Emil, who was really good then, is even better now. Cant wait to hear how they went down.

[jayboro]

Emil Sitoci is a name I havent seen anywhere in years....

[cavedweller73]

Hero and Sitoci didn't work any matches against each other, but both guys worked the wXw shows in Philly and New Jersey. I didn't go the Jersey shows yesterday, but I heard that Hero did a match with Zack Saber Jr. and Sitoci did one with Adam Cole.

At Saturday's Philly show, Hero worked an absolutely AWESOME match with Sekimoto and Sitoci was in a really great show-opening, four-way dance match against Gargano, Chuckie T and Brandon Gatson (from Pro Wrestling Guerrilla). Sitoci ended up winning that match and looked great! I didn't know much about him, but I knew that he had worked in America some before. So, he worked in CCW at one time? Cool....I didn't know that. I know that he mostly works in Germany with wXW now.

Anyway, more detailed report coming soon. I'm still sick and still in Maryland right now. I spent the day walking all over Washington D.C. yesterday. I saw a group of protesters get arrested outside of The White House. That was pretty insane!!! I'm heading back home later today.

[iketurner]

Yea, actually Emil got his real start in CCW. Hero used to hold training classes before the shows and Emil was the star student. He actually worked CCW for about 6 months to a year at first. I remember the first time Hero brought over Claudio and Aries in CCW as well. They worked as the "Swiss Money Holding" back then. When Hero was a mainstay in CCW, you never really knew who he was going to bring with him. Since he lived in the "wrestling house" in Clarksville, he usually brought whoever was crashing with him at the time. Made CCW interesting.

[cavedweller73]

Cool, thanks for the info, Ike. I'd heard of the "Swiss Money Holding" group before, but thought that was just Hero and Claudio. I also knew that Hero played a really big part in the talent that was used in CCW back in the day. man, I wish I had been smart enough to be a part of all that. Oh well.

Well, I'm finally back in Evansville (not that I'm proud of that fact, mind you....haha) and here are some thoughts on the things that happened on Sat. Before I get to that though, I just want to say that I'm really bummed about the news of Larry Sweeney. I didn't get on my computer yesterday and when I did this morning, that bit of news really bummed me out. I only saw him one time, the first ROH show in Indianapolis back in 2009, but I've seen a bunch of his stuff on DVDs. Talk about a guy who should have gone so much farther in the wrestling business then he did....and then to end up that way. How sad!!! R.I.P. "Sweet and Sour"!

On to happy things. I'm going to break this report into three parts, the convention in Philly, the wXw show and the CZW show. So, I might not have the time to post everything at once, but I'll work on it.

Saturday was an insanely long, crazy, fun day full of all the things that (to me) make my life away from the "normal" stuff worth living. The day before I left Evansville, I found out about this wrestling fan convention that was going to happen at the Ramada at the Philly airport and that besides the usual "old guys", Jun Kasai and Daisuke Sekimoto were going to be there. So, I figured the whole thing would be a HUGE money-pit (which it was....$15 for an autograph AND $15 to get your picture with the "old timers" NO THANKS!!!) But, I knew this would be a good chance to meet Kasai and Sekimoto and I'd at least get to SEE the older guys. So, Sat. morning, I headed to Philly early. I got there at is was the normal sort of convention set up, with vendors selling stuff and people milling around. I've been to several Sci-Fi conventions in St. Louis, so I know how these things work.....AND NO, I'm NOT a sci-fi geek. I'm just a hardcore Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan (I even own a couple of props from the show) and whenever they book anyone from the show at those conventions, I HAVE to go. Anyway, this was set up much like that. Basically, everyone there just wanted every dime of money that anyone has in their pockets. So, I had to play it smart....and I did.

Anyway, I get there and there's a CZW table set up. DJ Hyde, Jonathan Gresham, Adam Cole and Drew Gulak were there with Sekimoto. Kasai was at another table with, of all people, a lady who sometimes goes by the name of Yuki (that's what they called her when she worked in IWA:EC anyway) but here, they were calling her Nikkan Lee. She's the lady who is the referee for most of the matches in Big Japan Wrestling and she is also Ryuji Ito's wife. I went up and talked to them (as much as I could anyway....language barrier and all) and got Kasai to sign some stuff and asked him for a picture. Lee took one of him and I. Kasai then stopped me and said, "Wait!" he then pulls his shirt off and asked Lee to take a picture of me standing next to him with his back turned, proudly displaying his scars. The dude's proud of them, that's for sure! His body is a MESS too. They don't call him the "Crazy Monkey" for nothing. He was super cool though and Lee was an absolute sweetheart. I then tried to talk to Sekimoto some. He didn't say much or show much emotion, but he was super cool too. He's actually a short guy, but he's built like a tank! I got a picture with him as well.

After that, I pretty much just milled around the room and took pictures of different people who were there. Everywhere I'd turn there would be someone else that I remembered from the "old days". I'll make a list of the people I saw and comment on how each of them looked.

The Blue Meanie - He was one of the first I saw before some of the "bigger" names got there. He looked about the same as I remembered him. He's actually a really big guy....not just fat, but tall and large.

Bill Apter - He was milling around and talking to anyone and everyone. He's looking old, but hasn't changed much.

There was a table set up with women wrestlers and Sara Del Ray, Sassy Stephie and April Hunter were there with a couple of others that I didn't recognize.

Kimona Wanaleya - She was showing her age in her face, but her body was still pretty hot.

After that, the bigger names started showing up....

Jimmy Snuka - Looked pretty darn good, just older. He's actually a pretty tall guy.

Jim Neidhart - His gut was HUGE!!!

Nick "Eugene" Dinsmore - Looked about the same as always.

Doug Gilbert - He was walking around with a baseball bat, for some reason.

Road Warrior Animal and Paul Ellering - They both looked good, especially Ellering. I don't think that guy ages. Animal was really tall, but didn't look to be quite as muscular as he was back in the day. He was in full face-paint and character and everything. I went to the bathroom at one point and he was in there taking a leak.....HA HA!!!

Lance "Dallas" Hoyt and Douglas Williams - Both guys looked good. Hoyt is really, really tall. When they showed up, Williams made a bee-line to Sekimoto and was really happy to see him. I know those guys have worked together some in Japan and Germany.

Lex Luger - He came in with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan (who'll I'll talk a LOT more about soon). Luger is looking older but really doesn't look much different then he ever did, which is kind of amazing considering the life that guy's led.

Ricky Steamboat - I would go so far as to say he looked better then just about any of the older guys.

Molly Holly - She looked as stunningly beautiful as ever.

Pat Tanaka and Mr Fuji - I remember him from way back in the USWA days with Paul Diamond. He looked pretty good. Fuji looked great! He was in a suit and I didn't even recognize him at first.

Van Hammer - He came in wearing a cowboy hat, black shades and jacket with fringe on it. He looked like something straight out of "The Wrestler". He looked as though he was totally full of himself.

Sandman - He looked surprisingly well, considering that he probably should have died of cirrhosis of the liver by now. He looked the same as always really.

Salvatore Bellomo - He was hanging out with The Sandman. He looked good. He was walking with a cane and is pretty heavy these days though.

Rob "Robbie E" Eckos - About all I can say about him is that his hair is really high!

Steve Blackman - He looked EXACTLY like he did 10-15 years ago.

Muhammad Hassan - He looked exactly as he did when he was in the WWE too.

Duane "Gillberg" Gill - He looked really old, but otherwise, about the same as always.

I know there were others there but some of them I just didn't recognize. I know that Amy Lee was there. She's huge and has a really loud motuh....haha! I think Chubby Dudley was suppose to be there, but I didn't recognize him. There were a few others at The Blue Meanie's table that I wasn't sure about either.

The real story of this whole event was Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. He showed up with Lex Luger and I knew that he was in bad shape, but OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! I knew he was suppose to be there so I expected the most shocking looking person would be him, but I wasn't ready for what I saw. If I didn't know he was going to there, I would have NEVER recognized him. I'm not even sure how he's still alive. He can still walk (with a cane) but he can't talk. He has no lower jaw and his mouth can't close. When he walked into the room, Bill Apter ran up to him and shook his hand, so I knew then that it was really him. It was a very, VERY sad sight to see, especially because of the fact that he was one of my favorite things about watching WWF back in the 1980's and early '90's.

After all of that, I made my way into South Philly and made a Tony Luke's run. Hey...I was sick, but not too sick to enjoy a cheese streak! HA HA!!! I then made my way to The Arena.

I'll post more later this evening.

[cavedweller73]

Ok, here's my report on the matches from the wXw show in Philly on Sat.

When I got to The Arena, there wasn't hardly anyone waiting to get in. The only other shows I've attended at The Arena have been Cage of Death shows which are huge draws. This show was more of a normal-size crowd. Even when I got inside and the show was starting, there couldn't have been more then 300-400 in there, which is far cry from the near 1200 that was at the last Cage of Death. It was nice to have some "breathing room", so to speak. I saw a bunch of interesting people milling about the Arena, including Chris D*ckenson, WHACKS, Rob Feinstein (who was also at the convention, selling DVDs and probably scoping out little boys) and I even saw Gabe Sapolsky who was there, promoting the next Evolve show.

The guy who is the ring announcer for wXw was there (the one who sorta looks like he should be in a Mariachi band at a Mexican restaurant) and so was the one referee (the tall, skinny guy who sorta looks like John Cleese back in the "Fawlty Towers" days). Bryce Remsberg and Drew Gulak were doing commentary for the show.

Emil Sitoci vs. Chuck Taylor vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Brandon Gatson
A strong opener. All four guys worked well. I had heard a lot of great things about Gatson, but he really didn't do too much that was over-the-top impressive. Taylor and Gargano worked together most of the match and beat down Sitoci. Sitoci looked really good and in the end, he won the match by hitting a jumping, spinning pile-driver on Chuckie T.

Bad Bones vs. Sami Callihan
I honestly believe that Sami is now the most over guy in Philly. The crowd went CRAZY for him. I can sum up this match in one word....STIFF!!! Good Lord, both guys beat the living sh*t out of each other. By the way, Bad Bones is a large, very muscular bald guy from Germany. The action went back and forth, but in the end, Sami hooked on his submission/finisher the "Stretch Muffler" in which he locks his opponent's leg around the back of his neck and then locks his legs around their arms (cool move, but a crappy name) and Bad Bones tapped out.

Michael Elgin and Jonny Moss vs. Big van Walter and Brodie Lee
Nikkan Lee was the ref, which was awesome! Moss is a really jacked up bad German dude who kind of looks like a cross between Bob Holly and Scott Stiener. Walter is another large German guy who looks like he hasn't evolved much past being a caveman. Lee looked the same as always, but I was most impressed with Elgin. Back when I first started going to indy shows in 2008, I used to see him at IWA:MS shows and he was not that impressive. He's improved a lot and I hear he's working ROH shows now. He looked to be in great shape. The match was stiff, hard-hitting....and slow....REALLY slow!!! There were a few, small "boring" chants. Personally, I didn't think the match was boring, but it wasn't overly exciting either. To me, it was a kind of "Who can out-powerlift the other guy" kind of match. I can't remember exactly how it ended, but Elgin and Moss got the win.

Karsten Beck vs. Necro Butcher
This match was for some wXw title that Beck held. Beck came out and the guy sitting next to me asked me who he was. I just said, "Um, well, he's some German guy." He got on the mic and cut a heel promo which was a good way for the fans to know that he was the bad guy. He then challenged anyone in the back to a match. once "Freebird" came over the speakers, The Arena went CRAZY!!!!! Necro was total "old school" too....shirt-less, shoe-less...crazy as ever. Beck got on the mic again and started ranting, but Necro headbutted him so hard that Necro was busted open, hardway. And he was bleeding all over the place. Beck then threw some chairs into the ring and set them up facing each other. Dude had the guts to challenge Necro to a bar fight. Necro beat the crap out of him. The action went outside the ring and since The Arena wasn't full, it was easy to run around and follow what was happening. Necro crotched Beck on the guardrail by the entrance and then clotheslined him off. Necro then grabbed Gulak's "Wired!" belt and nailed Beck with is. Gulak was p*ssed. In the end, Beck somehow got the win, but I don't remember exactly how. It was some kind of a quick roll-up kind of end, but it happened so fast that I missed it.

Lords of the New School (Marty Scurll and Zack Sabre Jr.) vs. Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly
O'Reilly's got a goofy tattoo on his ribs now. After all the Necro craziness, this match seemed like a bit of a "come down". While I know all the guys involved are very talented, young guys it just felt kind of slow to start. The action was back and forth with neither team getting a full advantage. Once things broke down and all four guys were going at it, things really took off. There were so many quick, high-impact moves going back and forth that there was no way to keep track of it all. There were so many quick, close pinfalls and hot tags and saves....it was insane and after a while, the crowd was going crazy for all four guys. In the end, Cole and O'Reilly got the win.

wXw United World Heavyweight Championship Match
Daisuke Sekimoto (c) vs. Chris Hero
The term "Dream match" gets thrown around a lot, but I can honestly say that this was a dream match. The thing about it is that I can't profess to saying that I've seen a lot of Hero's matches in person but the matches I have seen of his, he always seems to be in control, for the most part. That wasn't the case with this match at all. In fact, there were times where Hero looked to be frustrated with the fact that he was taking most of the the punishment. Both guys worked good, stiff moves but for the majority of the match, Sekimoto was beating the crap out of Hero and Hero was just trying to knock Sekimoto off his feet. Hero was doing moves such as pulling off his arm pad and clotheslining Sekimoto but then Sekimoto would answer back with a clothesline that would almost take Hero's head off. In the end, Sekimoto hit Hero with a series of dead-lift suplexes and got the pin. I enjoyed everything about this match and it was one of those matches that shows what it is that I love so much about indy wrestling. Absolutely awesome stuff!

Main Event
No-Rope Barbed-Wire Match
Jun Kasai vs. Drake Younger
Drake came out first in his full-on "Golden Boy" gimmick. He's now using "I Am a Rock" by Simon and Garfunkel as his entrance music, which is really cool....in my opinion anyway. Kasai came out and looked as crazy as ever! Nikkan Lee was the ref, which gave the match a full BJW-feel.....total mark-out moment for a BJW mark, such as myself! There was really nothing in the match that stood out as a completely insane moment. Both guys were throwing each other into the wire. Kasai was cut open first and bled quite a bit. Once Younger got cut he did a really deep blade-job on himself and was bleeding buckets. At one point, he set up Kasai for a "Drake's Landing" and the blood was pouring out of him like a faucet. At one point, Drake brought a very tall ladder into the ring. He then put Kasai between two chairs and put a board covered in barb-wire over him, with the wire on the bottom, meaning that it was against his chest and stomach. He then climbed the ladder and was going to jump off, but Kasai got up and they fought on the top of the ladder. Kasai then suplexed him off the top, into the wire and pinned him. I was kind of expecting a little more from the match, but overall, I can't complain. It was a really good match!

After all of that, I went back and hung out in the rental car until it was time for CZW's "Best of the Best". I'll write about that tomorrow.

[cavedweller73]

I'm going to TRY to make this one quick because I gotta get ready for work, but here goes....

After waiting around outside the Arena for about an hour, it was time for "Best of the Best 10". The crowd for this show was bigger than the wXw show. Best guess, I'd put it somewhere in the 500-600 range. The first round matches were all 3-way matches. I'm guessing they did that so that the show wouldn't run until about 1 or 2 in the morning. The show started off with DJ Hyde coming out and introducing everyone in the tournament. Once they all posed with the trophy and left, DJ was thanking us for being there when Greg Excellent came in through the front door and attacked DJ. After kicking him and dropping him on his head, Excellent just walked back out the front door. The crowd didn't really seem to care and I guess they really are going to drag this feud out until Tournament of Death.

Round 1
Akuma (with Kimber Lee) vs. Zack Saber Jr. vs. Jonathan Gresham

The match started off kind of slow. All the guys worked well but now that I've seen Akuma a couple of times, I've decided that I'm really not all that impressed by him. Thankfully he was eliminated first and the match came down to the two guys who are actually really good. Although, nothing of real note happened between then. Saber ended up getting the win and moved on to the next round.

Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole (w/Mia Yim) vs. Kyle O'Reilly
For some reason, Drew Blood was the ref for this match. I guess he's still on the payroll, so Deej figured out another way to use him. Anyway, all three of these guys are really good and all of them worked hard. The match was full of high-impact moves and a LOT of kicks to the head. I don't know what was up with all the super and Yukuza kicks but it looked like a Shawn Micheals and Trent Acid convention in there. Gargano got eliminated first. It came down to Cole vs. O'Reilly and the two ROH partners went at it. In the end, Cole got the win. I was kind of hoping O'Reilly would go over in this one.

Next, a guy by the name of Larry David (I think that was his name anyway) came out and introduced Chuck Taylor. I'm not sure who this David guy was, but I guess he's Chuck's manager somewhere else. No one really cared.

Chuck Taylor (with Larry David) vs. Brandon Gatson vs. Daisuke Sekimoto
Awesome match that was full of high-impact moves and Chuckie T screaming like a little girl, like he usually does. Gatson still didn't do anything that was too over-the-top impressive, but he still looked good. However, he was the first eliminated. Sekimoto and Chuck had an awesome match between the two of them. In the end, Sekimoto got the win.

Sami Callahan vs.. Jake Cris vs. AR Fox
Again, Sami was WAY over! This match was really good. All of the guys looked impressive and it was obvious Cris was trying to win over the tough Philly crowd. He did too. Him and Fox were pulling off all kinds of insane high-flying moves and Sami was doing what he does best, just flat-out beating the crap out of both of them. At one point' when both guys were down, Sami locked Crist in the "stretch muffler" and he tapped. It came down to Fox and Sami. At one point, Sami was on the outside in the entrance ramp and Fox dove over the ring post and MISSED Sami. He landed on the concrete HARD too!! It was NASTY!!!! The match continued and in the end, Sami got the win. I think he made Fox tap as well, but I'm not totally sure. Honestly, as much as I like Sami, after what he did in that match, I kind of wish Fox would have won. AR Fox is AWESOME!!!!

Next, Drew Gulak and "Full Price" Dewey Donovan came to the ring to cut a promo. They were putting down Nick Gage again....that's pretty much Gulak's whole gimmick these days. Devon Moore came out with The Briscoe Brothers and they ended all of that. Jay Briscoe then got on the mic and said he wanted to get the six man tag match going.

All the belts on the line
The Briscoe Brothers (tag champs) & Devon Moore vs. Robert Anthony (world champ) & Philly's Most Wanted (Joker & Sabian) w/ Jon Moxley
The heels came out to the Dr. Dre song that Tha Gangstas used to use in ECW. That was odd! Moxley's dancing was funny though. Mox got on the mic and put over Sabian as the best in Philly, which is funny since everyone there is so sick of him. There were a few small "You sold out!" chants at Mox, but nothing making a huge mention of him leaving for WWE. The match was again, full of crazy, high impact moves. Mox interfered several times and the ref threw him out. At one point, the ref got knocked out. Then, Mox ran back out in a ref's shirt and tried to screw the faces. The Briscoes hit Mox with the Doomsday Device and he's out. Drew Blood runs in as the new ref and makes the count as Devon Moore gets the pin on Robert Anthony and is the new CZW champ. So much happened in this match that it was hard to keep up, but I honestly couldn't believe Moore got put over like that. I mean, he's good and he's a cool guy, but I would have never thought of him as world champion material, mostly because he has NO muscle mass what-so-ever and looks as though he weights about 125 pounds. Moore was really emotional about the win and climbed up on the ropes, crying and pointing to Trent Acid's banner. After everyone left, Mox was still in the ring. Scrawny Shawny (the main security guy) got in the ring and was yelling at him. He picked Mox up, kicked him in the stomach and gave him a Stone Cold Stunner. Mox then staggered to the back and the crowd gave him a small "Thank you, Moxley!" chant. As he left, he turned around and blew a kiss and then stumbled to the back.

Round two
Adam Cole (w/Mia Yim) vs. Zack Saber Jr.
After all the insanity of the last match and the fact that there had already been so many different combinations of Cole/Saber/O'Reilly throughout the entire day, this match came off as kind of boring. That's not to say it wasn't good though. It was alright, but nothing really stood out. In the end, Cole got the win.

Diasuke Sekimoto vs. Sami Callihan
This was the match I was dying to see in this tournament and man, did it deliver! Both guys beat the SH*T out of each other. Sami's chest was so red that it looked as though it was going to explode! Sekimoto used a few submission moves on Sami as well. He also hit Sami with his awesome German suplexes and Sami kicked out. In the end, and after a lot of trying, Sami caught Sekimoto in the stretch muffler and he actually tapped out. That was sure one way to make Sami look like a monster. I honestly couldn't believe they did that ended really. That was, by far, my favorite match of the entire tournament though!

Ultraviolent Underground title
Glass match
Jun Kasai (c) vs. Danny Havoc
They had a fancy name for this match, but it was basically a panes of glass match. Nikkan Lee was the ref again which gave the match another BJW feel. Danny has a huge scar on his back now from The Carnage Cup. I guess he did end up in the hospital that night because you could still see the stitches in there. Havoc was the first to go through glass and he got cut on his lower back again. He also had his head busted open and Kasai was biting him. The crowd chanted "YOU SICK F*CK!" and Kasai looked around as if to say, "Yeah....so???" One pane of glass was in the corner right in front of me. Kasai got thrown through it and I got literally pelted with glass. I had my safety glasses though. I did get hit pretty hard with one piece of it though. Kasai's back was bleeding hard! He ended up on the floor at one point and when he moved, the floor was covered with blood. I heard one of the workers from the Arena say, "Man, I'm not cleaning THAT up!" At one point, Kasai ended up taking his pants off....which he usually does in matches these days. In the end, Danny put him through a pane of glass covered in barbed wire with a suplex off the top rope and got the pin and won the UVU title. Kasai got up and Danny offered his hand to shake. Kasai started to shake his hand but then said, "NAH!!" and grabbed Havoc and kissed him on the mouth. Danny expression after that was priceless.

Best of the Best finals
Sami Callihan vs. Adam Cole (w/Mia Yim)
This match was really, really good. So many hard strikes and high-impact moves. Sami just looked like a broken down man at this point too. Cole took some VERY stiff strikes which was impressive. Sami got Cole locked into the stretch muffler but Mia Yim distracted the ref as Cole was tapping out. Sami got up and grabbed her a put her in the hold. Cole then grabbed Sami and put HIM in the it! Sami tried to reach the ropes but couldn't. The ref (Drew Blood) lifted Sami's arm and it fell twice, the third time he lifted it but then dropped it and Blood called for the bell. Cole wins and is the new Best of the Best champion.

After the match, DJ Hyde came in and put Sami over and then proceeded to bury Cole. Way to kill the show there, Deej!!! Granted, Sami should have won and the booking of the entire tournament was kind of poor, but still....way to bury your tournament winner and Jr. champion! Sami ended up on the mic and said he didn't want the match re-started. He knocked over the trophy and broke it. DJ then brought everyone out to the ring and did the "Fans favorite" winner. I always hated that part of the BOTB shows. Anyway, the vote came down to Sekimoto, AR Fox and Sami. Sami ended up winning. He got on the mic again and said that CZW wasn't about stars, it's about MAKING stars and he said that AR Fox deserved the award and then handed it to Fox. I can't say that I disagree with that one!

With that, the show ended. Overall, the matches on the show were really good. Some of them did drag a little, but overall, there was nothing that stood out as "bad". The only thing I didn't like was the booking. I mean, Adam Cole is a talented young guy and has a VERY bright future in wrestling, BUT he's only been in the business for three years, so I think Deej is pushing him to the moon a little TOO fast. But, Deej is proud of him because he trained him, I guess. Personally, I would have liked to have seen O'Reilly win the first round match and go all the way to face Sami in the end, considering the AWESOME match those two had in Indianapolis back in Jan.

But again, overall, I'm not going to complain because I had a LOT of fun at both shows. It was WELL worth the trip and I can't wait for the DVDs to come out so I can re-live the whole day over again! ;D

[cavedweller73]

I just found this on You Tube. It's an interview that Bill Apter did with Bobby Heenan's wife at the convention in Philly on Sat. and there are shots of him signing autographs.

I just thought I'd post this since I was talking about it in my report about what I saw that morning.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDaVxw5JXl8

[cavedweller73]

Lyle C. Williams' AWESOME pics from the CZW show are up:

www.lylecwilliams.net/czw2846.html


Sadly, I didn't make any of them...maybe that's not such a bad thing! HA HA!!!!

[iketurner]

Thanks for posting all the info. Here are a few thoughts.....

-Didnt think Doug Gilbert really fit in with the "Legends" Just my opinion.

-Pretty crazy to have take a piss next to Road Warrior Animal in full paint! Id prolly get stage fright in that situation.

-I watched Strikeforce on JustinTv the other night and they have an old WCW/WWF channel. Lugar was the man in WCW at that time. I wondered what he would look like today.

-Shame about Heenan. He is a true legend. I saw him back in IWA years ago at the "Meeting of the minds" show and he looked really bad then. Darn shame.

-I used to be in love with Molly Holly. Babys got back!

-Steve Blackman!!!!! Freakin awesome. I saw some of his matches on that justin tv channel too. Actually it was him vs Dan "The Beast" Severn. Classic!

-The shows sounded decent. Elgin is a rising star in ROH. Hes been having some great matches. Its awesome to see his power vs the smaller flippy guys. Hes been having some great matches with El Generico. Im also a huge fan of Coreilly! They had some fantastic matches Wrestlemania weekend. If you get a chance to see them from the Kings, on day 2, its well worth checking out.

[cavedweller73]

I know what you mean about Doug Gilbert. He was running around and marking out for legends almost as much as some of the fans really. He looked like such a goof. The fact that he had a baseball bat the whole time made me chuckle. It was almost as if anyone else had shown up in that room with a bat they probably would have been thrown out or arrested.

It was funny about Animal in the bathroom. What made it even funnier (or maybe sadder) is that he was also sporting a fanny pack! HA HA!!!!!

Luger really looks pretty much exactly the same as ever. He has short hair now and is, of course, a little older looking, but other than that, he looked good. I actually remember first hearing about him in his pre-NWA/WCW days when he worked in Florida. I remember reading about him in the Apter magazines and seeing pictures of him and thinking that he was a monster because he was soooooooo big. He did walk past me at one point and he was taller than me.

Blackman looked as though he could still kick anyone's butt at a moment's notice!

The whole Bobby Heenan thing made me want to cry. But, at least the guy is still alive, even if he is in such terrible shape. He was pretty much the main reason I ever watched WWF back in the day. When I was at The Arena waiting to get in for the wXw show, two guys behind me were talking about meeting him at that convention and saying that they felt bad for having sign autographs because he didn't even look as though he was strong enough to sign his name.

Elgin is a beast! Something I forgot from my report of the wXw show is that at one point during his match, he picked up both Brodie Lee AND Big Van Walter on his shoulders and did a Samoan Drop-style move on them.

Thanks for the info on the Cole & O'Reilly match. I'll check that out. They are two of my favorite younger guys, that's for sure. The match they had with Saber and Scrull at the wXw show was awesome. I just wish Cole had been booked a little better for the BOTB tournament. Course, if he moves up the ROH ranks quickly (which isn't out of the question considering his talent) then maybe I'll look back at this and think that DJ was ahead of his time for pushing him so far, so quickly. Time will tell, I guess.