Hey everyone, welcome to another McReview here on http://www.declarationofindependents.net
The show getting reviewed today is ICW “The Land of the Rising Stars” which took place on 3/15 in the “lovely” town of Passiac, New Jersey. The show took place in the Ukrainian center, which was like a mini clean version of the Elks Lodge in Queens. The attendance was around 90-100. This was ICW’s return show after having a 7 month layoff. On to the results, comments and final words.

All Money is Legal (Kash and Kaos) d. Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz (KC Blade and EC Negro)
Match was decent, and featured some “highlight reel” spots by AMIL. DRS are one of the better bumping teams today. Highflying match mixed with mat wrestling. Some miscommunication in some spots. Good opener, and set the crowd up for a good night of wrestling.

Wayne “The Convenience Store Guy” d. Johnny Ova
One of Wayne’s better matches. Johnny Ova always looks good and the match was better than I expected. Good footwork by both wrestlers too. Johnny Ova can be big one day, but he needs to add more mass. Wayne got the win, in about, a solid 10 minute match.

Danny Demanto and Damian Dragon w/JCW Skin To Win Winner, Foxxxy Dreams went to a double disqualification in a Loser-Leaves-ICW match.
Eh. Not one of the better matches of the night. Match saw Demanto take a sick bump off the top rope where he banged his leg really bad on the close guardrail. Crowd was happy to see both of these guys get DQ’d, because Harry Slash, the ICW (and former ECW worker) booker, said to both of them, in a McMahonism, “You’re FIRED.” Crowd ate it up. Harry Slash said the only way these 2 can return to ICW, is if they agreed to a meeting with him, and the Kiss-My-Ass-Club. Post-match saw Damian Dragon curse his head off, for no apparent reason. If you can’t get over without cursing a streak, then you need to work on your promos. He threw a bottle of water, which hit a fan, not Harry Slash. The only bad point of the night.

Mega/Scampi d. The Braggiols
I’ve seen Mega wrestle before, and this was one of his better shows. He’d wrestle later on, and looked good in this tag team match. Mega played the big man role, and hit all the big man signature moves, such as the chokeslam. Way better match, than what I thought it would be.
Post match saw the Braggiols break up, when Poppalicious attacked his Josh Deeley look-a-like partner

. Prince Nana d. Divine
Nana hit most of his signature spots, such as the running butt to the face in the corner. Good solid match, which went about 7-8 minutes. Divine held his own and looked decent against the more polished Nana.

Billy Reil d. Rob Eckos, Abunai (w/o mask) and Low Ryda in a ladder match for the Super Junior Championship.
Not one of the better ladder matches I’ve seen, but this match was short and that’s probably the reason. Eckos/Reil teamed up throughout the match against Abunai/Low Ryda. Finish saw the faces knocked out by Reil and Eckos. Reil said to Eckos, “Go ahead, I have enough gold.” Eckos would climb the ladder only to get a side of a chair stuck up his rectum. Eckos writhed in pain, and Reil easily won the title to become the new Super Junior Championship.

15 man Battle Royal for a ROH DVD. (A ROH DVD being offered as the prize for an ICW show? Whatever happened to the $20,000 prize? It’s good though to see a promotion recognize another promotion)
Prince Nana won the battle royal. Some other participants where: AMIL, Low Life Louie Ramos (in black shirt), Johnny Bravado, and Mega. The last 3 guys were Nana, Mega and Skinhead Ivan. Nana and Mega teamed up against Ivan, in a gesture of African-American pride, and Mega wound up tossing Ivan out. Nana quickly then threw Mega run out and won the DVD. Nana would get the microphone and would then call Mega “the fat pig from the Lion King!” Mega would run back in the ring, and hit a chokeslam on Nana.

Tim Arson d. Grim Reefer
For me this was the match of the night. I know others enjoyed the main event more, but the match here was back and forth and Reefer hit some really sick spots, such as a corkscrew from the top rope, and landed on his feet after contact. Reefer hit the walking of the top rope- into a senton on Arson at one point in the match. Arson hit some power moves, and won the match unexpectedly. Arson looked good here, and the match really flowed well.

Striker d. Eddy Guapo
Good solid match. Striker took a sick suplex where he landed on his neck with his feet behind his head! Striker can get over as a face, like he did here, or as heel like he does in ECWA or USA. Guapo looked smooth here as well. Back and forth match, with solid wrestling, and Striker got the duke around 10 minutes.

Livewyre d. Ivan and John Walters in a triple threat match.
There were some missed spots here, but the wrestlers re-acted calmly, and adjusted into something else. Crowd didn’t do the usual “You Fucked Up!” chant and that was good, as you can see all 3 were working hard. Match wasn’t one of the better matches from these guys, as I’ve seen them in better matches. With that said, it was still a decent match and got Livewyre over.

Boogie Knights w/XTC d. The Solution w/Miss Michelle
The match was billed as the “Boogie Knights Return Match” I thought it was everyone’s return match, as the promotion hasn’t had a show in 7 months, but I digress. Great solid tag team match. Solution played the heels, and Boogie Knights played the faces. Solution look better every time I see them and had a really good showing here. Boogie Knights really had the crowd behind them, and that was also in part of the heat the Solution were drawing. I’d say about 15 minute match and all of it was good wrestling. One of Boogie Knights better matches, and it was good to see them in a match without ticket sellers.

Boogalou defeated Kruel
Back and forth match which eventually saw Boogalou get the win, even though the foot was on the rope, which the referee didn’t see. Decent match and did everything it needed to do in a short amount of time.

Main Event:
Mikey Whipreck and The Christopher Street Connection d. Steve Cornio w/Simply Lucious, CW Anderson and Guillotine LeGrande
Lot of changes here, as it was originally supposed to be Whipwreck vs Corino. Also Michael Shane was originally booked to be in this match, but due to his ROH commitments, Guillotine LeGrande took his spot. Result: a great 6 man tag. One of the wildest main events. A lot of action in this match, and got the biggest crowd reaction of the night. Whipwreck hit the pedigree to get the win.
Post match saw CSC try to get Whipwreck to do some gay kissing with them. Whipwreck served up 2 Whippersnappers for their effort and saw the CSC get laid out in a 69 position. Eventually CSC woke up and all 3 united and left.

Final words:
Wow, a surprise. Expectations weren’t too high by other indy fans, and honestly myself. Everyone was proved wrong, and the show was solid. Harry Slash booked the card, and it flowed nicely. The show was around 3 hours and 15 minutes. A solid show top to bottom. No long drawn out interviews, just solid “Shut-up and Wrestle.” Only one title match here, so it will be interesting what other titles will be re-enacted or created. Low Ki is still the current world champion, but no mention of titles except the Super Junior was defended/mentioned. Again, just a great booked card and the show wasn’t ridiculously long or short. It will be interesting to see what ICW does in the future, as they are going up against a myriad of shows on April 12th. Maybe they should run a 2 pm show, so fans can do a double header? After tonight’s show, ICW looks like they have a bright future, especially if they can get a better venue, outside of nowhere, NJ.

-Sean “The MiC” McCaffrey
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