VPW returned after taking 3 months off. For those who don't know about VPW, VPW is a 1/2 student, 1/2 "real" wrestler promotion, which is still struggling to find its identity. The crowds are always good (because families pay to see the students) and the shows are enjoyable. It's not really for smart marks, but it's a place to go on a Friday night.

As of late, for me, these shows have been harder to watch than in the beginning, and that's because there are more students. Nothing against anyone involved, but the students are just horrendous. They aren't getting better at all. I know from talking to other indy fans that attend these shows, that they feel the same. I don't think I can think of 1 student who stands out of the whole crop. The students that were around a year ago look exactly the same today. It's just painful to watch at times. I know VPW wants to help the students, but when you have established indy guys on this show, it takes away from your stellar matches because you have to sit through some garbage matches. At least in the old USA Pro days, the ticket sellers were hilariously bad, knew they sucked and didn't care if they were awful. With these students, they are trying to be taken seriously and sometimes that is hard to do.

Victory Pro Wrestling
6/8
Centerreach, NY
Refs: John and someone I'm not familiar with. Of note "Beard" was in the crowd but not allowed to ref.
Attendance: 200+

After about a 15 minute delay, the show started. This was the first VPW show that ever started late, which is due part to running on a Friday night, as some talent had travel/traffic issues.

Dead Presidents (Boogalou/Low Ryda) d. The Eclipse (Jay Delta/Xander Page) w/Jack of Hearts
This match started off with a bang, as the Dead Presidents, Boogalou & the now healthy Low Ryda, charged to the ring and attacked both members of the Eclipse. Eclipse went to the outside and Low Ryda dove over the top and knocked both guys down. Boogalou then followed suit, wiping out Eclipse. This was a good way to start the show, as it fired up the crowd, which was a bit restless, waiting for the show to start.

After DP's offensive onslaught, The Eclipse went on the attack, singling out the smaller Low Ryda. Eclipse's offense isn't that impressive, so it was a huge relief when Boogalou finally made the hot tag. Jack of Hearts, who is one hell of a character in real life, tried interfering for his boys, and busted out a briefcase. Like 99/100 times when you see a heel manager swinging an object, the predictable thing happened here, as Jack took out one of his own guys, as he missed Boogalou with the briefcase. That signalled the end, giving the DP the pinfall victory.
POSTMATCH: The Dead Presidents slapped Jack of Hearts around, which I think promoter Don Bon Jovi would like to do sometimes.

Eclipse needs a gimmick and to buy gear that doesn't look Salvation Armyish. The Dead Presidents are trying to showcase their stuff, but what can you do when your opponents aren't physically capable of going hold for hold? I question the booking of this match and using a fuck finish to start the show. I did like how the match started as it got the crowd right on their feet.

The injured Kevin Matthews came out for a promo. Kevin talked about how he found god. What, did Bobby Reidel brainwash him too?

Kevin then went on about being sorry for being such a dick at past VPW shows, and apologized for his actions. He then said he wanted to apologize to Reefer & Anthony Deblasi for his attacks on them at recent events. Reefer & Deblasi, who was wearing a John Gotti shirt to prove that he knows people in the mafia, came out.

Kevin apologized to Deblasi first and then asked Deblasi to leave. Don't worry Deblasimaniacs, there was more Deblasi on this show.

Kevin then went into a large speil, apologizing to Reefer. Reefer said he didn't buy it. Reefer questioned Kevin on his new found God and asked him to say an "Our Father". Kevin flubbed some lines, and the crowd popped. Reefer then ripped up Kevin orally and it was pretty funny. Kevin offered his hand. Reefer asked the crowd what they thought, but unbeknownst to Reefer, Kevin was holding handcuffs in his left hand behind his back. The little kids at this shit up. I swear, Reefer is one of the most over wrestlers anywhere. I've seen him wrestle for the better part of 5 years now and I've never seen a dead crowd when he's in the ring. Whether it's a smart crowd, little kids, a chicken shit show or whatnot, he always has the crowd's attention.

As Reefer questioned the crowd, Kevin kept his right hand extended for a handshake. Reefer eventually bought into it and shook Kevin's hand. Kevin then tried hitting him with the handcuffs but Reefer blocked it and put Kevin in the Chronic Crossface, which Kevin tapped out to right away. Reefer walked out the bigger man for now.
Nice little promo to set up the events for later on.

Johnny Suburban w/ Jack O'Hearts d. Mr. Professional w/ Vinny the Guido
Vinny The GUido is another person in the wrestling business to pay people to manage them, which you'll see later on. Nice guy, but I never get what these people get out of it.

This match wasn't too my liking, so all I will say is that Suburban won the match after a reverse ace crusher. For someone who calls themself Mr. Professional, it would be cool to get professional looking ring attire.

Nick Noshus (Formerly Iceberg) d. JMS
JMS, or Just My Style, looked like a gay prostitute with his ring gear. If you look 2nd rate, you have to expect people to assume you're second rate. I haven't seen Noshus since the early NYWC days. He seems to have improved his ability and crowd interaction skills. There were several blown spots in this match, but most were covered up. Noshus wins after a swinging neckbreaker.
POSTMATCH: Matt Morgan F5'd Noshus. Morgan was huge, and is 6'10" easy.

Javi-Air d. Deranged
This was one of the top matches on the show. These guys have good chemistry with each other and always put on entertaining bouts.

This match started off even, with both guys trading holds and shots. One spot saw both guys go for a test of strength, with Javi-Air winning out and balancing himself on Deranged while Deranged neckbridged to prevent a pinfall.

Some of the bigger spots in the match saw Javi-Air stall suplex Deranged. Deranged stole the show, with the move of the night, as he hit a top rope leaping huranacarana, while Javi Air was standing on the top rope. The crowd went nuts.

Deranged would later on hit a backwards rana. Javi-air returend the favor with a diving facebuster. Javi-Air then got the win out of nowhere, rolling Deranged up for the win, in an impressive match.
POSTMATCH: Both guys shook hands and showed respect for each other.

Azraiel d. Grim Reefer w/Anthony Deblasi
The Deblasi-aholics got another taste of the man who both Captain Lou & Bobby Heenan idolize, as Deblasi came out to manage this one.

Azraiel & Reefer are no strangers and have had many great matches in different promotions over the years. This was a good match, but had a storyline finish.

The match saw both guys hit some wicked chops on each other. Both then brawled on the outside for a bit. The crowd was solidly behind Reefer, which is probably due to the fact that Deblasi is the best manager of all time and when he isn't paying to manage on wrestling shows or playing with voicemails, he's answering bags of fan mail.

The finish of this match saw Reefer put Azraiel in the crossface. Kevin Matthews then hobbled out and cracked a huge pan over Deblasi's head. The pan shattered all over the place, and our hero & saviour of the wrestling business, Anthony Deblasi, was down. The man who took barbed wire, thumbtacks and everything else short of a gun shot from the King of Ny, Low Life Louie, was down because of a frying pan. The man who destroyed Louie's career was in peril, as Kevin sidestepped Deblasi to take care of Reefer.

Reefer would hit a tombstone on Azraiel, as crossface was broken. Reefer, unlike the rest of us, didn't care that Deblasi, the man who reinvented wrestling and wrestling voicemails, was laid out. Reefer climbed to the top rope, but Kevin tossed Reefer down. Azraiel then hit a top rope stomp to the back of Reefer's head for the questionable pinfall victory.
Good match, with a good finish. Everything fits into what VPW is doing. I don't know if Kevin will be back in VPW, and with the surgery coming up it's questionable, but at least they built to something. INTERMISSION

This show was dragging a bit and you knew it was going to be long. The air conditioning was broken in the building and it was hot as balls in the building. The only relief- a cool bar, which is in the building, airing the Yankee game.

It's getting late and I gotta run, so let's breeze through the rest of this quickly:

Major Intensity d. Scotty Rio
I missed this match, but was told I didn't miss much.

Sabotage d. Richie Tyler
Another solid match in their best of 3434838 series. These guys have been stepping it up on VPW shows.

Xavier d. Matt Morgan w/Vinny The Guido
Imagine getting paid $500 to hardly bump, get a two night stay in NY, a free round trip airline ticket and have all your meals paid for in 2 days. "Thank you Mr. Guido" is what Matt is saying right now. Xavier did his grounded game here, relying on fast kicks and strikes to take the huge 6'10" giant down. I don't know why VPW went with this match, because I think the crowd would've ate up Morgan squashing a bunch of students and just making him look like a manbeast.

Talia d. Alicia
Talia wins with her finisher. Talia is a good addition to the VPW locker room and gives Alicia fresh matches there.

Mack Daddy Flexxx d. Joe So Delicious w/Jay Static
This match started off fast and furious. How many times have you seen guys run the ropes and do shoulder tackles and you just yawn and accept it's an early stage of a match. When the two did this in the beginning, they were racing at the ropes and hit believable shoulder tackles. It's hard to describe, but these guys made basic match stuff look great.

The finish of the match saw Jay Static, who is on a cane after already having surgery, hit Joe Delicious accidentally with his cane. So pretty much, the two bookend matches (first & last) had the same finish. Kinda lazy booking if you ask me. Flexxx then schoolboyed Joe up for the pin, sending everyone home happy.

Final McWord
This was another mixed bag show. There are some good matches here like the main, the girls, Javiair/Deranged, Reefer/Azraiel but you do have to sit through some crap to get to it. However, if it wasn't for the students/ticket sellers/the Icon Anthony Deblasi, then these shows wouldn't be affordable to run, so it's understandable.

The only real match set up for the next show would be Reefer vs Kevin Matthews but due to Kevin's injury & brutal attack on a fan (Anthony Deblasi with the frying pan) who knows how long until he can come back.

There is some tightening to be done booking wise, as some of the finishes were repetitive, and the first match and last match ended the same way. It would also be good to maybe throw some of the ticket sellers/students in one match rather than having them eating time away from the more established guys. I mean who wouldn't pay to see Vinny The Guido vs Anthony Deblasi in a who can buy Bon Jovi a 2008 Cadillac first match?

Quick notes: WWE Hall of Famer, Johnny Rodz was in attendance. Expect a big announcement from his WUW soon. It will affect NY Wrestling in a positive way. Other wrestlers in the crowd were VPW alums Danny Demanto & Bison Bravado, who weren't booked due to the increasing number of ticket sellers/students on the show. Wrestling is a business and it's a necessarry reality for a promoter to have to use guys who don't belong in the ring over trained guys to make sure the expenses are covered.

Rockshah 337 despite being hyped up in the press releases, was never on the show. Rockshah showed up several minutes late and missed his match. The Niggataker also showed up. 90% of the locker room politicked for VPW to do the match but VPW didn't do it because they were already going too long and had alot of matches. In my opinion, if you already have the show cluttered with students what's one more match? Especially a match that will help DVD sales and pop locker room morale. Not to say the morale in VPW is an issue, but personally, I would've loved seeing Niggataker vs Rocksha go 30 minutes then half the matches on this show.

Overall
A fun night out, but VPW is still looking for their identity as consistency hasn't been found.

Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com