JAPW 9/18
7th Anniversary Show
Rahway, NJ
Referees: Sean Hanson, Gary Moorer
Ring Announcer: Scott Matthews
Color Commentators for Modtrom.com Release: Mark Clemson and Monsta Mack
Approx Attendance: 610+

The event started off with a pre-show/dark matches. The dark matches are all on the tape, but filmed with one camera, as opposed to two camera's for the main matches on the card. The following are the reviews of those matches:

Alicia d. Tara Charisma
I thought it was odd that a womans match started the show. Usually a womans match is the second or third match on the show. This was an ok match, but both of these girls have looked better against each other in the past. Tara Charisma looked off during some spots in the match, which the JAPW crowd responded with menacing boos. Alicia was uber heel in this one and had the crowd down her throat early in. Tara hit a big tornado ddt early on for 2. Alicia came back with a sidewalk slam. The middle of the match saw both girls exchange some rough forearms, with Alicia getting the better of it, as she whipped Tara to the ropes and hit a sit out hiptoss. Alicia wins this match after a michinoku driver.
Alicia has improved immensely as a heel, and for someone who started her career off as a babyface, she really looks like a natural heel. Tara got some big pops from the crowd in this match. I've seen these girls have better matches, but it was decent for what it was worth.

Ashe Samuels d. Dan Barry
Both guys hit some submissions early on in this one. Barry hit a nice legdrop in this one, but couldn't put Ashe away. After more back and forth wrestling, Ashe put Barry away, as Barry laid on the ropes, and Ashe hit an overdrive. Very cool finisher, that popped the crowd.
Another ok match. I think this match suffered a bit in quality because it was a pre-show match and neither guy wanted to go all out and outshine any of the main card matches.

Mark Clemson was up next for an interview segment. He introduced us to current JAPW Light Heavyweight Champion, Jay Lethal. Jay Lethal came out. Before Lethal could even speak, he was brutally attacked by his opponent for the night, Azraiel. Azraiel and Lethal just brawled all over the place. Eventually JAPW staff broke up the fight. Both guys went to the back, only to come out 2 minutes later, and brawl again. They were eventually broken up for good and taken to the back.
Excellent segment to hype up the match. Little things like this make the upcoming matches more exciting. Great stuff here by both guys as you really thought both guys hated each other.

James Newblood d. Bobby Sills (JAV from USA PW)
This was a spotsfest. I thought it was odd that these guys would hit every move in the book, as it could've taken away from the main show matches. James Newblood hit alot of pretty high flying moves, but as far as wrestling, well, he was far from it. Newsblood hit alot of fast moves in this one. Sills hit some big moves too. The funny thing was whenever either man would blow one of their big moves, as each guy blew a few spots, the crowd would be all over them and boo the shit out of them. Whenever they hit a big move, the crowd adored them and popped huge. Sills hit a huge 650 twisting splash on Newsblood in this one. Sills hit a crazy cradle powerbomb for 2. Newsblood countered with a Tajiri Handspring flip. Blood was able to win this match with a shooting star senton for the pinfall.
Great match if you like spots, but if you're a fan of wrestling, this wasn't for you. Newblood looks like he's watched alot of Jack Evans tapes.

EC Negro d. Pinkie Sanchez
This was Pinkie's return match to JAPW, as well as Negro's sophmore appearance as a singles wrestler in JAPW. Negro hit a nice tombstone position back breaker on Pinkie early on. In a really cool spot, Negro whipped Pinkie into the guard rail, but Pinkie slid underneath it, then hopped on the rail, went for a rana, only to be caught and powerbombed into the ropes by Negro. Back in the ring, Negro hit a clutch suplex, followed by an emerald fusion for the 1-2-3.
Solid match up here, as both guys are familiar with each other. This match would've been better with more time, but the show did start late, assumingly shortening this match. Pinkie didn't get much of his trademark offense off, but he did take a good beating here.

This ended the dark matches/preshow. Overall, I thought the 4 matches were ok and nothing was really bad. I think the matches could've been better with more time, as the longest match might've been 10 minutes tops. These four matches, including the promos, were better than what most indy shows offer as their regular shows.

After this, and a quick little intermission, we were ready for our main show.

Note: JAPW invested alot of money into a new lighting system. JAPW booker, Ray Sager, informed the fans that JAPW was testing out the new lighting system. Unfortunately for JAPW, the lights were too strong and ate up too much electricity. So JAPW had these nice lights that didn't work, and the show was lit by house lights. Look for JAPW to invest in some heavy duty wires at their next show, and for everything to be working right.

JAPW's "7th Anniversary" Main Show

Justice Pain w/Johnny D d. Insane Dragon
PREMATCH: Pain cut a promo about his history in JAPW. Pain talked about his horrible match with Kaos. He said he was here in JAPW and that Insane Dragon is his victim.
This was a strong opening match. Insane Dragon started off by busting out alot of furious offense. Dragon hit a big enziguri and sent Pain to the outside. Dragon then hit a plancha from the top rope into the crowd on Pain, illiciting a holy shit chant. Pain came back with a big time german, when the wrestlers got back in the ring. After Dragon missed a move, Pain capitalized with a brainbuster. Pain then hit a DVD for 2. After teasing the finish, Pain finally got the win with a Pain Thriller. (Version of the Angle Slam).
Excellent match to start the show off with, as both guys looked good. Johnny D is a perfect manager for Pain, as he is able to make Pain more interesting in JAPW.
POSTMATCH: Justice Pain continued the attack on Insane Dragon. This led to the H-Effect, Deranged and Dixie, making the save. The trio pummeled on Pain, until Johnny D brought out his tag team champions, The Solution. The Solution/Pain start fighting with The H-Effect. Solution and Pain start dominating, but all of a sudden H20 and AMIL ran out. This morphed right into...

For the JAPW Tag Team Titles
(c) The Solution (Papadon/Havok) w/Johnny D. d. The H20 (Corvis Fear/Rush), The H-Effect (Deranged/Dixie) and All Money Is Legal (K-Murda/K-Pusha) w/Dizzie in a 4 Team Lucha Libre Match, when Papadon pinned K-Murda
This was a very fast paced tag team match. There were alot of big spots in this one, mixed in with some tag team wrestling. Havok, who was injured, as he had 20 staples in his head, avoided going down on his head numerous times. He didn't avoid getting hit with a moonsault by AMIL, as one of AMIL's legs collided with his head. Solution came back with a wheelbarrow/diamond cutter combo. At one point, the Solution who were able to dominate the lighter wrestlers, took Corvis Fear and launched him over the top rope. K-Pusha hit a beautiful top rope X-Factor on Deranged. Solution hit a cool spot, as Havok too one member of AMIL and darted him into a Papadon chair shot. Later on, with the ref distracted, Johnny D ran into the ring and threw a fireball at Rush. After a powerbomb, Papdon went for the pin, but at 2, Dizzie from AMIL pulled the ref out of the ring. Everyone started brawling, and this led to Papadon and K-Murda being left in the ring. Papadon took a steel chair and piledrove K-Murda on the chair for the pinfall victory.
Great tag team match. I thought the finish was a bit anticlimatic, as it was just a solid ending. Johnny D pulled out another "D" Factor tonight, as the fireball has appeared on what seems to be the 4th consecutive JAPW show. This wasn't the end of the match as...
POSTMATCH: The Christopher Street Connection, who are the USA PW Tag Team Champions, and who were challenged by The Solution the night before for the USA PW Tag Team titles came out. The CSC were accompanied by Cherri Payne. CSC entered the ring and popped confetti in the Solution's faces. The CSC then force their lips on The Solution receiving a huge ass pop. The Solution and Johnny D bail from the ring. Buff-E cuts a promo challenging the Solution for the tag team titles, as The Solution said that they have beaten everyone in JAPW. This sets up The Solution vs CSC at the next JAPW show. It was pretty cool how the USA PW and JAPW have the same storyline, as finally some shows show some continuity, whether intentional or not. It was like watching the same angle on two shows, except for having The Solution attack first at USA PW, and the CSC attack first at JAPW. Excellent booking here.
I really liked how JAPW flowed all these segments together without wasting anytime. From the first match, we saw a few segments and 2 good matches. Just great booking and JAPW shows off why they are the best, in my opinion, at what they do.

For the IWS (Canada) World Heavyweight Championship
Kevin Steen d. Excess 69
Another great match on this show. Both men traded armdrags early on. Excess was able to put Kevin Steen into a lion tamer, while using the ropes for leverage. Cool move. Steen followed up with a big powerbomb. Steen then hit a samoan drop and followed up with some unique submissions. More cool shit. Steen then hit a top rope backbreaker. Incredible. Steen then hit a picture perfect moonsault, followed up with a cradle package piledriver for the pinfall victory.
Amazing effort and match by these two. They really impressed the JAPW crowd.

Super Dragon d. Beef Wellington
Beef Wellington sure has the WWE finisher down, as he's the master of the ass punch. Basically the ass punch, is just that, a punch to the ass. This was a stiff match as Dragon laced in on Beef. In fact, the only move Beef really got in was the ass punch, which surprisingly Super Dragon sold like he got shot by a gun. I still don't see the big deal about Super Dragon. If anyone can explain to me why Super Dragon is this incredible wrestler, please let me know, because to me, and I hate saying this cause it sounds too smarky, he just seems like he wants to wrestle "strong style" but he has no absolutely no pyschology, not making him too great in my, and the Wizard's book. The fact is, everyone else but me and maybe 3 others, think he's the best thing since sliced bread. Gotta go with what draws. Super Dragon hit some stiff shots in this match, and put Beef in various submissions. At one point, Super Dragon hit a top rope stomp to Beef's head. After lifting Beef's head during pinfalls, at the 2 count, Super Dragon just pinned him.
I'm not really a Super Dragon fan, and I couldn't get into this match. Dragon squashed the poor fellow. I thought Dragon showed alot of disrespect for his opponent, as he literally pulled a Bundy 5 count for the pin. Unless Beef can only do an ass punch, he really didn't get to show what he's capable of.

The SAT (Jose/Joel Maximo) and The Amazing Red vs M-Dogg 20/Josh Prohibition/Sonjay Dutt went to a No-Contest
This goes back to what I was talking about in my reviews from last week. Sonjay Dutt and M-Dogg 20 absolutely hate each other in CZW. Sonjay is boys with the SAT in CZW. M-Dogg and Josh hate everyone else in this match in CZW. But in JAPW, Sonjay is boys with M-Dogg/Josh, and hate the SAT's. In all fairness to JAPW, this whole angle was all booked before CZW brought back M-Dogg 20 and Josh Prohibition. For the casual fan, I guess you have to forget about continuity, cause the last time there was a real continuous feud, the participants were The Metal Maniac and Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka.
Anyway, this match was cut short due to Sonjay's injury. There was alot of unique triple teaming offense, including a camel clutch submission by the SAT. The finish of this match saw Sonjay go for a top rope rana on Joel Maximo, but he landed wrong on his hand. This stopped the match and the match was ruled a no contest.
As reported earlier, it was originally thought that Sonjay broke or recieved a compound fracture in his arm and hand. Thankfully it wasn't as serious as feared, and Sonjay amazingly is going to try to come back without missing too much time. According to Ray Sager of JAPW, the elbow fell out of its socket. It was popped in place, and Sonjay was released from the hospital. Glad to see Sonjay ok. This is third minor injury in two weeks, as Havoc and Buff-E were injured at other shows. Here's to hoping everyone can stay safe in the ring, as everyone knows it's not worth getting huge hospital bills for an indy show. Once someone gets injured, it really makes you think how risky wrestling actually can be.

INTERMISSION
This time was used to get Sonjay to the hospital.

Best of the LightHeavyweights VII
Jack Evans d. Chasyn Rance, El Generico and The Grim Reefer in an incredible fucking match
Order of Elimination:
1. Chasyn Rance after a brainbuster from El Generico
2. El Generico after a frogsplash from Reefer
3. Reefer after a top rope 630 splash from Jack Evans

This match was simply fantastic. All four guys mixed in wrestling with high spots. Jack Evans has to be considered the top high flyer today in pro wrestling. The guy, who was looked at as Teddy Hart's lackey, has stepped out of the shadow and has become one of the most seeked cruiserweights today. Grim Reefer also had a great match here and showed why he's been having a career year.
Some of the big spots in this match saw: -Evans hitting a springboard corkscrew on El Generico
-Chasyn with a double suplex sunset flip powerbomb on all three guys. Incredible.
-El Generico hitting a brainbuster on the top turnbuckle on Evans. First time I ever saw that, fucking boss.
-Reefer with a top rope superplex to the floor on Evans. One of the biggest moves I've ever seen that got a huge holy shit chant.
Evans eventually won the match with the 630. Fucking great match here, and suprisingly it wasn't even the match of the night. Reefer vs Evans would be a fucking kick ass rematch. Great job by all four guys involved.

For the JAPW Heavyweight Title
(c) Dan Maff d. Trent Acid w/Johnny Kashmere
In the battle of the guys who dumped their tag team partners, ha!, Dan Maff proved superior. With Mack and Kashmere there, it would've been cool to see something develop between them. Then again, Mack has seemingly seen his push/angle drop out of nowhere in JAPW, as he's now relegated to announcing duties.
This was another fantastic match, which somehow was able to follow up a kick ass match previous. Maff hit his huge suicide dive early. Trent came back with some aerial work of his own, as he hit his asai moonsault. In the ring, Maff hit his cannonball and Trent hit his Yakuza kick. Neither move was able to put the other man away. After a few false finishes, and after teasing the burning hammer, Maff finally hit the burning hammer on Trent for the 1-2-3.
Easily the best title defense in Maff's career. I would like to see Trent to be continually pushed in JAPW, as he had a great match against the champ tonight. The one thing that hurt is that this show was so stacked, that this match wasn't close to match of the night status, which says more for JAPW then anything else. Great effort by both guys here. Where this leaves Maff now, is beyond me...

Low Ki d. B-Boy
This match was a test for B-Boy in JAPW. Low Ki really whooped B-Boy's ass in this one. Low Ki lit B-Boy's chest up with many chops. Low Ki hit his roaring elbow drop early on in this encounter. Low Ki hit a wicked ass top rope double stomp on B-Boy's chest. Ouch. B-Boy tried fighting, but didn't get much offense off, as he mustered up a DVD for 2. Low Ki put away B-Boy with a Ki Krusher.
This match would've been better if B-Boy got more offense in. Then again, it did set something up for later on, so it's all good in my book, as...

In a NO DQ Match
Homicide and Teddy Hart w/Jack Evans went to a no contest
Ok off the bat, I don't get how a No DQ match gets ruled a no contest. This was a rematch that I thought would have a definite finish. I thought the No Contest finish was just a way to further the angle, but then the match shouldn't have been billed as a No DQ match. That is one thing I didn't like about this show, as I thought everything else was nicely done.
This match was a fight and started off as a brawl. Hart was bloody in the face very early in this match. Homicide took a fork and just stabbed Hart repeatedly with it. At one point, Homicide took the fork and just scraped it up and down Hart's back. Nasty. One sick spot in this match saw Hart get put on a table on the outside, and Homicide jumped off the top rope and headbutted Hart through it. Ref Hanson tried breaking up the violence in this match, but got tossed by Homicide. Jack Evans quickly interfered and hit a reverse 630 on Homicide. Evans started beating up Homicide. Quickly, Low Ki came out and beat up Jack Evans. This is where the match was ruled a no contest. While Low Ki was beating up Jack, B-Boy came out. B-Boy and Low Ki stared off. B-Boy then embraced with Low Ki and started beating up Jack himself. This led to the newly formed Strong Style Thugs aka the new Hit Squad, Homicide, B-Boy and Low Ki just ripping apart the bloody as a tampon Hart, and Jack Evans. Homicide hit a cop killa and Low Ki hit a Ki Krusher. Homicide then cut a promo saying these guys would never be back in JAPW. He said he'd fight any Hart whether it be Bret, Neidhart or Bruce. Then with Jack and Teddy down, Da (new) Hit Squad/SST stole Jack and Teddy's sneakers.
Great booking and excellent execution here. The finish was dumb, but everything else was great. Stealing sneakers, something as small as that, was a great touch.

Here is a cool pic from the JAPW website, showing off the newly formed trio:

In the Main Event
In a Match of The Year Candidate
Match of the Night
Ladder Match
For the JAPW Light Heavyweight Championship
(C) Jay Lethal d. Azraiel
Words do not do this match justice. This was just a 5 star match of the year candidate. These guys have been feuding all over the indies for about 7 months now. This was the culimination of all that. This was a match that will be remembered for some time. This was the second time JAPW opted to put the Light Heavyweight title in the main event, and once again, it wisely paid off.
This match started off with violent chops. Azraiel came back with some lightening quick kicks. Lethal was able to wheelbarrow Azraiels head into the bottom turnbuckle 3 times. Both guys brought out the ladders and chairs and killed each other with it. At this point, I was really hoping neither guy would get hurt, as the past few weeks haven't been exactly too kind to injuries. This match eventually turned into a brawl, and both guys made their way into the crowd. These guys fought all the way up to the top of the bleachers, where Azraiel ddt'ed Lethal on the wood bleacher. Azraiel then jawed with Lethal's dad, who was at the top of the bleachers. Lethal's dad responded with a cold cocked right hand, sending Azraiel down the bleachers. Excellent spot which the crowd was very into. After more brutality, both guys set up the ladder. On top of the ladder, Lethal put Azraiel in a submission. Fanfuckingtastic. Azraiel would later come back with a south of heaven from the top rope. Sick. The finish of this match saw Jay Lethal hit a top rope powerbomb on Azraiel through the table, which knocked Azraiel long enough for Jay Lethal to scale the ladder and grab his championship title.
Just a spectacular match and an effort from both guys. This is a match that really showed why Lethal has become one of the better wrestlers today, and why Azraiel is the MOST underrated wrestler today. When talking about cruiserweights, Azraiels name is hardly mentioned. To me, it has to be, as the guy has been having a career year so far. An amazing match for these two, as they do it one more time, in easily the best match between these two. Mark the date and the match down, this is a Match of a Year Candidate.

Final McWord
Despite the show being pretty long, this is a show of the year candidate. Easily the best JAPW show of the year, as it edges out JAPW's 2/28 event. The show was about 5 hours long, untypical for a JAPW show. In JAPW's defense, the crowd was into every match and maybe 10 fans left at the main event. The crowd was hot all night, and the crowd showed their loyalty and appreciation for JAPW.

I gotta be honest, there wasn't one bad match. I wasn't a fan of the Super Dragon match, but that's because I'm not a fan of him in general, so I have to put that bias aside. 600 or so fans will disagree with me if I say it was bad, but I just didn't like it. JAPW was wise bringing Dragon in as the crowd loved him.

Lethal/Azraiel stole and made the show one of the best shows in JAPW and indy wrestling history. Go to http://www.modtrom.com and just order the tape now. This is a MUST SEE match. I don't say too many things are must see, but this is one of them.

Maff/Trent was a great match that elevated the importance of the JAPW title. The JAPW title has been flat until this past Saturday, as Maff has been herbed out at the end of many of his matches. It's time for Maff to be dominating. I really wish JAPW would acknowledge the La Familia angle and let it die in the ring, instead of crumpling it up and forgetting about it.

Johnny D and his henchmen (Solution/Pain) had solid outings tonight. It's time for Pain to be elevated on the card and make this stable really something to fuck with. With the amazing ensemble in the Strong Style Thugs/Da Hit Squad, these two trios might be leading to an inevitable path of violence.

Jack Evans = best high flyer hands down. He may not be the best wrestler, but he's the most entertaining cruiserweight today bar none.

Grim Reefer made his return to JAPW, and looked good at it. I'd like to see him back on future shows, as a series with Lethal, Azriael or Evans would be interesting.

The pre-show was nicely done, and fast paced. I enjoyed it.

Alot of new faces made their debut in JAPW on Saturday. I think El Generico would be worth taking a second look at, if I had to take only one guy back. That top rope brainbuster was sick.

Overall- Excellent show that showed off great booking, great wrestling and great execution. The length might be my biggest complaint, but how can you really harp on it when everyone, including myself was still into the show. If anything I was bothered that it was long because it wiped me out for an after party, at Breathless, ha!

You couldn't have asked for anything more. JAPW is doing everything right from promoting to wrestling to storylines. Matches are built up properly. Wrestlers go all out in the ring. JAPW presents professional loooking shows and you can see that the JAPW staff really takes their shows seriously, something you don't see that much anymore. As someone who sees alot of indy wrestling, thank you, it is appreciated.

That is how the show went down live. Here are my thoughts on the tape:

-The production that went down on this tape is incredible. The tape is 5 hours long, and you can tell there were no short cuts taken at all on it. Almost every match had promos before it. The tape even started off with Dan Maff talking about the importance of the JAPW Heavyweight Championship, in a deep promo. As far as my favorite promo on the tape, it hands down goes to Grim Reefer, as he just herbed out Mark Clemson. I watched the tape with Mike Zevon, and we had to rewind it several times just to get the full gist of it, because we kept laughing over the sound. Definitely some of Reefer's better stuff.

-While on the subject of Mark Clemson, he teams up with Monsta Mack on commentary. Both guys kept the show flowing nicely. There is also some commentary by Fat Frank on the show as well. Clemson and Mack did all the pre-match promos. It is weird watching Mack interview people. Mack has Shane Douglas syndrome, he belongs in the ring and not interviewing people, although he did a good job as a commentator/interviewer.

-Sonjay Dutt's arm injury is freaky. I rewound that several times. I can't believe he only missed a month of action because of it. That was seriously sick looking.

-Watching the tape, I saw several things I missed live, because I was sitting all the way up top in the bleachers. Among them was Low Ki taking Teddy Hart's blood and writing "SST" on B-Boy's arm. Talk about an initiation. Also, the SST (Homicide, Low Ki and B-Boy) cut a post-show promo, which came out very good.

-After watching this tape, I'd like to see Jack Evans vs Reefer one on one. While the pyschology of the match was ignored as the match focused on high spots (For example, Reefer suplexes Evans from the top turnbuckle onto the FLOOR! 1 minute later, Evans hits a 630 off of the top to pin Reefer) I would like to see these two wrestle again. It would be a really good and exciting match.

-I must talk about the job Modtrom (RULZ) did on this tape. Modtrom doesn't have the fastest turnaround, but that's because they go insane with their production. The tape was like a movie, everything just flowed and it was easy to get into every match.

Overall- This show was voted the DOI's Show of the Year for 2004. With about 100 or so shows that we watched, this was the top one. It still holds up watching it 4 months later, and it easily the best show JAPW has ever put on. A kick ass show on all levels, and if you want to see why we gave this show of the year, just pick this tape up.

To purchase this tape go to http://www.modtrom.com or http://www.japw.net
Modtrom Video will also be selling this tape live at JAPW's next show, scheduled for 1/29. You won't be disappointed.

Thanks for reading.

Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com