Reefer posing with the USA PRO Xtreme title and a DOI
BEST
OF GRIM REEFER VOLUME 1
1st Match
Reefer vs Quiet Storm vs Deranged vs Amazing Red from USA Pro
This match was in more of a clip form, but showed all the great work in the
match. Reefer hits his senton splash while running on the top rope on Quiet
Storm. Reefer then hits the chronic crossface, which if you haven’t seen is
unbelievable. It’s when he has a guy in the hurracana and turns it into the
crossface. Deranged and Red then team up on Reefer. Red throws Reefers head
on the middle rope and hits the 718. Reefer dazily gets up and falls to the
opposite side of the ring middle rope. Deranged then follows up and hits the
718. The crowd is going crazy and I spill my beer on my chair! Then Deranged
and Red both hit the Red-Star Press at the same time. (Shooting Star Press)
Reefer gets pinned by Deranged, and the clip ends here. Great ring work by all
4 involved.
2nd Match
Reefer vs Mike Mayhem vs Livewyre from CZW
This was a fucking great match. Some of the highlights were Reefer hitting his
signature senton bomb, and then doing a double somersault to the floor to Mayhem.
Livewyre is a great wrestler and looked solid here, suplexing the shit out of
everyone. There’s a reason why Livewyre is going to OVW, and this match highlighted
him as much as it highlighted Reefer. Reefer is nuts in this match, and I thought
he would be legit hurt, when Mike Mayhem suplexed Reefer on a steel chair. Reefers
neck literally hit the chair, sick move. Mayhem would follow up with his twisting
corkscrew and the crowd goes nuts. The match ends when Livewyre does his running
razors edge on Mayhem, and Reefer follows up with the senton bomb for the win.
Great match, and another impressive performance, but this is a best of tape.
The commentators in this match saw Reefer for the first time, and they made
a pot joke at least once every 30 seconds. I guess it’s played out after you
seen Reefer work, but it’s good for the CZW fans who never saw him before. What
an impressive way to debut in a fed.
3rd Match
Reefer in a Gauntlet Match- USA PRO
Reefer defeats Tim Arson after he reverses a suplex into a small package.
Reefer defeats J-Train w/Slugger
Best match in this gauntlet. J Train is full of energy and comes out swinging
hard. Reefer would eventually hit the frogsplash from the Elks Lodge stage to
the floor. The crowd eats it up bigtime. Reefer goes back to work with J-Train
in the ring for a bit and then throws J Train out of the ring. Reefer then hits
the top rope somersault to the floor. Sick. They go back in the ring and J-Train
gets back to, and hits a NASTY jumping piledriver on Reefer. Reefer gets his
legs on the rope and breaks up the 3 count. Finish sees Reefer german suplex
J-Train on the chair for the win. Slugger then comes in the ring and beats down
Reefer, and Ref Hanson escorts Slugger and J-Train out.
Reefer vs Mike Mercedes
Mike tries to capitalize on a downed Reefer, but Reefer kicks out. Mike goes
to complain but get wrapped up for the duke.
Reefer vs Dixie
Dixie runs in and hits a fast and nasty version of the vertebreaker. He picks
up Reefer fast, before he can get a chance to recover, and powerbombs Reefer
into the turnbuckle. Dixie then gets the fast pin. I saw all these USA gauntlet
matches live, and I’m not just saying this, but Reefer carried these matches,
and the fans were really only electric when he was involved. Although he never
won the short-lived USA gauntlet title, fans remembered Reefers performance
in it.
4th Match
Reefer vs Deranged w/DRS from the 5/31 USA show.
From the McReview:
For the USA Extreme Championship
c. Grim Reefer d. Deranged w/DRS
I thought this would be the best match, and I wasn’t disappointed. Reefer and Deranged are two of my favorites today, and need to be booked everywhere, these guys get it done. Size doesn’t matter, and these guys show you don’t need to be 6’5” and 285 pounds to be a pro wrestler. These guys are phenomenal. Reefer hit all his signature spots, as he hit the 540 flip on the DRS from the top rope to the floor. He also hit his cool walking down the rope senton bomb. Deranged also countered with his flipping powerbomb. The crowd was way behind Reefer, as Deranged was the heel as usual. Finish saw DRS hit the Dirty Rotten Driver on Reefer when Deranged had the refs attention. Deranged went for the cover, but Reefer kicked out. Deranged went to complain, and Reefer rolled him up for the 1-2-3. Perfectly Acceptable Wrestling.
5th Match
Reefer vs 2 other guys from LIWF
The quality of this match is poor and very grainy, and it’s hard to make out
his opponents, as well as Reefer. This was a very early match in Reefer’s career
and focused more on acrobatics then wrestling. A big black guy (maybe Laithon)
comes in and makes a run in and the match is called a no-contest. Too hard to
watch due to the tape quality.
We then go to Reefer clips, which see him in various promotions hitting his signature spots, such as the senton bomb, the frogsplash and the chronic crossface.
We then go to Reefer vs Mega clips. This shows how great Reefer sells and bumps. Mega powerbombs him and Reefer is laid out. This was more for a promoter to see Reefer’s great selling ability, and a “smart mark” fan can appreciate it too.
We go to more clips of Reefer hitting signature spots and more bump work. Good stuff.
7th Match
This is another gauntlet match from USA pro, and this is another match that
Reefer dominated and shined in.
Reefer d. Poppalishus very quickly after the chronic crossface.
Reefer d. Justin Cage after the twisting neckbreaker to the knee.
Reefer d. Dan Barry in what is probably one of the best match you can ever get
out of a gauntlet and a pre-curser to their 5 star match feud over in NYWC.
The match cuts out after that.
8th Match
Reefer vs Mike Mayhem from ICW 5/16
This was a great freakin match. From the review:
Grim Reefer d. Mike
Mayhem after a running top rope swanton bomb
Great match here. Reefer has been turning it up, and don’t count Mike Mayhem
out, as he’s been having good matches as well. Reefer is really moving up and
is one of the greater wrestlers today, even when the ropes are too slick. Mayhem
is another solid athlete capable of having a good match with anyone. PAW.
We go to some doghouse clips then go to some clips of Brian XL vs Reefer. For the first time ever on tape, we see Reefer jump into the crowd and somersault like how RVD used to do in the old ECW opening. Wow, that could break some bones.
9th Match
Tim Arson vs Reefer from ICW 3/15
Another good match, here is the review:
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.
10th Match
Deranged vs Ghost Shadow vs Brian XL vs Reefer for the USA Pro Xtreme Title
4/9
From the review:
Wow great match and another PAW match. The rules were complicated as hell, and didn’t make sense, so I’m not going to bother to explain them. It was just you had to pin everyone a bunch of times. Really dumb rules, but it didn’t hurt the work rate and fan reaction to this match. You have 4 of the most talented wrestlers in one ring, so it was easily a great match. Reefer finally got the USA PRO respect he deserved, and became the new champion. Can’t complain about that. Deranged is still the best singles heel in USA pro. Ghost Shadow and XL looked very well here as well.
The tape ends here.
Final McWord
Great fucking tape and well worth the money. I think it’s only 10 bucks, I forgot.
To order the tape you can email
GRIMREEFER001@aol.com
or come to the DOI table at the next USA Pro Show and they will be on sale there.
This is a great tape, and there are not too many made. I definitely recommend
that you pick up Best Of Grim Reefer Volume 1, so in a few years from now, you
can say when watching the WWE or NWA TNA, that you saw Reefer’s early beginnings.
The tape is about 3 hours long and for 10 bucks how can you go wrong? If you
get it let me know what you thought about it, and let me know if you thought
it was good as I thought! I anxiously await The Best of Grim Reefer II, especially
if they include the NYWC matches with Dan Barry. Thanks for reading-
Sean “The MiC” McCaffrey
Send all feedback to: BULLSMC@aol.com