East Coast Professional Wrestling [ECPW]
Suffern High School
Suffern, NY
Benefit show for the Suffern HS football program
Official Attendance: 1655

Yes, you read that number right. I’m not even going to attempt to dispute it either. This place was PACKED. They had the most people I’ve seen at an indy show since ROH Final Battle 03 or USA Pro’s last-ever show at Elks Lodge. They gym looked to be around the same size as the Armory in Philly and all the ringside seats were full, the bleachers were full except for a very few holes here and there, and people were standing all over the place.

The show was definitely geared to appeal to the local audience as it was a benefit for the high school football team, featured the pro wrestling debut of Kevin Apollo, who I gather is a student at Suffern High, and was headlined by Crowbar taking on Scotty Charisma, who is a teacher and football coach at the high school. Well either the folks in Suffern really like their wrestling, really get into supporting their high school athletics, or both, since every person who lives in Suffern must have been at this show. It probably also didn’t hurt to have WWE Hall Of Fame inductees Tito Santana and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine wrestling on the show the day before they were to be inducted into the HoF.

The show itself was very old school in approach. There were a few things creatively that I disagreed with, but the crowd seemed to enjoy most of what they were being offered so you’d have to say it worked. A few things were overused in my opinion, such as the spot where the heel chickens out or can’t stand the crowd’s jeers, bails out of the ring, runs away, and has to beat the ten count back in after he changes his mind. Great spot when used in the right place, however they did it in EVERY match, which really killed its effectiveness after a while. Overall the 80s type approach has advantages and drawbacks like everything else. The drawback is that you tend not to see a lot of the crazy highspots that many of us have gotten used to, so to someone who’s only used to lucha/Japanese based styles it can seem a little “boring”. The advantage is, guys who work this style are forced to be more well educated in the basics of wrestling holds and especially crowd psychology. There’s a reason why the basics are called “the basics”: they work. If you’re a young guy looking to make a full time career in wrestling some day, then you’re probably also better off learning the 80s style since it is what the WWE is going back to. At the end of the day, part of the art of wrestling is getting the crowd to react and to care about what you’re doing in the ring, whether you accomplish that via a triple jump moonsault or a wrestling hold and a facial expression. Neither is easy to do, for different reasons.

By the description “old school” I don’t mean to imply that the matches were dull or lacked action. Most of the show was pretty entertaining, and a couple of matches were damned good. I’d seen ECPW once previously, a small show in Fairfield CT, and had to struggle a little to find positive things to say. Based on tonight’s show my CT experience was not typical of ECPW as this one in Suffern had a major-league feel with some good action, including excellent work from a number of guys who I hadn’t paid much attention to in the past. Of course I’m sure it’s also a little more inspiring to perform in front of hot crowd of 1500+ than it is to perform in front of 60 disinterested people in a little room in Connecticut.

Card was scheduled to start at 7:30 but didn’t get going until closer to 8. They really couldn’t have started much sooner since people were still arriving in groups of thirty [I counted] at 7:45. Did they come on a bus? Several busses? Whatever, I’m just glad I got there early and snagged a good seat. Crowd had lots of kids and teenagers, which is an automatic given the style of wrestling and the fact that it was a school benefit. Most of the fans there appeared to be more of the casual variety, probably an easier group to perform for than us pain in the neck ‘smart marks’. Between this and the hometown factor, they had a pretty hot crowd for most of the night, though people seemed to tire a bit toward the last couple of matches.

Before the show started they announced that anyone caught throwing things at the ring would be ejected, and due to NY state school laws, anyone using foul language would also be ejected. Well, f*** me! I mean, dang!

They opened with a ten bell salute for Hercules Hernandez. One of the few times I’ve ever heard something approximating actual silence during one of these. A nice touch, but I really hope we can go for a while without the occasion for one of these memoriums. It seems like every time I go to a show there is another wrestler who has died way too young and gets the 10 bell salute. Even the NEXT show I’m going to, ACW’s Dave Vicious Memorial Cup, is in honor of a fallen indy wrestler.

The first match of the night got the show off to a slightly shaky start as “Mr Italy” Gino Caruso went to a time limit draw against Rocky Jones. I try not to talk about the wrestlers physiques too much, being as I’m a fat slob myself. However, Mr Italy REALLY should consider switching from an amatuer singlet to something else. His current gear is unflattering to say the least. Match was okay but went a little too long, which I felt was the case for most of the matches. A time limit draw seemed like a weird way to start the show and the crowd wasn’t really into the finish. Both men were ‘faces in this one, so I think this was the one match where we didn’t get the attempted escape to the dressing room. Happily, things got better after this match. I believe Caruso is the owner of ECPW, so despite his questionable choice of ring attire the man clearly knows what he’s doing.

ECPW tag team champions The Nelson Brothers retained their titles in a hard fought match against Johnny Thunder and “The Specialist” Mike Xylas (w/Luxurious Lynn). Good, fast paced match. Xylas is one of those guys who I haven’t really been into in the past, but he looked very good here with a lot of crisp kicks and leg sweeps. Xylas and Thunder played the heels well and got the crowd good and riled up at them. Nelsons were on fire early but got grounded as Xylas/Thunder got one brother in their corner and did a ton of classic heel double teaming on him, included the old phantom tag behind the ref’s back. [Ref Garry played the old 80s style ref to the hilt throughout the night: he missed EVERY heinous thing all the heels did all night long.] Nelsons are really small and youthful so they basically play the Fantastics type undersized underdog babyfaces. Blue Nelson finally got the tag to Red Nelson [I have no idea which brother is which, other than one wears blue and one wears red.] The brothers cleaned house and got the pin on Thunder after knocking Xylas out of the ring.

Tito Santana pinned The Executioner after a flying hammer. Somehow I don’t think this was actually the same Executioner that he beat in the opening match of Wrestlemania. [That would be the first one, back before Wrestlemania even had a number, in the days of closed circuit television.] Having a “Wrestlemania 1 rematch” was a fun idea though. Santana has clearly slowed as you would expect considering his age, but he’s still got that charisma and the crowd was fairly into the match. They did a lot of stalling before locking up. Santana worked holds and spent a lot of time selling nerve holds that the The Executioner applied to his neck. Basically what you had here was an old school match from one of the guys who built that school. Santana finally rallied with a cross body and followed up with the flying forearm, or “flying jalapeno” as Jesse Ventura used to call it. Overlong but okay for a nostalgia match. Santana has a great babyface personality that still connects with a crowd.

The first half of the show ended with ECPW world heavyweight champ Red Hot Russ defending his title against Vic D Vine. D. Vine is the same guy who wrestles in ACW as Vic Gun’R. This was strength vs stealth as D.Vine played the Goldberg-like monster babyface [only with actual wrestling skills, unlike the ‘real’ Goldberg LOL] while Russ was the tricky heel. Vic did lots of pretty good looking power moves such as press slams, clotheslines, and even the old Ultimate Warrior spot where he pressed the other guy over his head and then just walked out from under him. Ouch. Russ won after Johnny Thunder and Luxurious Lynne interfered and Thunder superkicked D.Vine while Russ and Lynne distracted the referee. Red Hot Russ is another guy who hasn’t sparked my interest in the past but was very good in his role here. Vic D Vine makes an effective monster. Maybe with some of these guys it’s just a question of being given a good basic angle or issue for the crowd to react to. Very enjoyable title match.

Intermission. Santana and Valentine were taking polaroids with the fans in the ring and Viscera was doing them ringside. They had quite a few customers, and not just kids either.

After intermission the ring announcer interviewed Kevin Apollo, the Suffern kid who would be making his pro debut here tonight, along with his manager, a really skinny guy called Justin Idol. [I’m thankful for the nice printed program provided for the evening’s event, since I heard something like “crusty Ivan” when they announced him.] Not sure if Apollo’s an actual Suffern HS student or a recent alum but either way he had lots of family and other supporters in the crowd. Crowbar, complete with WCW era ripped jeans and carrying a steel pipe, ran Apollo and Ivan, er, Idol off and cut a heel promo on Scotty Charisma. Crowbar reminded everyone that he was a former WCW tag team champion, hardcore champion, and cruiserweight champion. He said Scotty may have a hot streak going, but here he isn’t Scotty Charisma, he’s just Mr [real name], the teacher and football coach, and the streak ends tonight, and said that he was gonna destroy Charisma right there in front of all his students, fellow teachers, etc. Since the room really was full of Charisma’s students, football players, coworkers, etc this got tremendous heat. Good way to strongly establish Crowbar as the heel and Charisma as the hometown hero.

They got right to it after his angle as Kevin Apollo (w/Justin Idol) took on The Kodiak Bear. Kodiak is a big heavy balding guy a la Earthquake and even uses some of Earthquake’s mannerisms, such as posing and flexing his non-existent biceps. Kodiak insulted the crowd, and then threatened to leave unless everyone stopped chanting “Baldie” at him. They was no such chant up until he told them not to do it, of course, but there certainly was after that. Kodiak did a ton more stalling before finally locking up. Match probably went about 20 minutes, a little too long for guy in his first match if you ask me. Basically the size vs agility type match you’d expect, with a story of Apollo several times going for a slam only to get overwhelmed and squashed by Kodiak’s weight, but finally getting the slam toward the end of the match. There was moment near the end where I could have sworn Apollo got a 3 count, but apparently it was a two-and-seven-eights count. Apollo had the match all but won when his manager Idol turned on him by deliberately throwing powder in his eyes, allowing Kodiak to deliver a big squashing powerslam for the win. Kodiak and Idol left together.

This was followed by another nostalgia match of sorts as Greg “The Hammer” Valentine (w/Johnny Ova and manager Bobby Rydell) wrestled Viscera aka Mabel. Man, I don’t what Greg Valentine has, but whatever it is, I want some of it, as Valentine literally did not appear to have aged one day since the 1980s. I mean, has this guy been in cryogenic freeze, or what? In the 80s I was twentysomething years old, young, and in shape. Now I’m a middle aged disaster area, but The Hammer looks like EXACTLY THE SAME GUY. He also wrestles like EXACTLY THE SAME GUY. Maybe there’s picture of him in the attic that keeps getting old while he stays the same. So I hesitate to label this a nostalgia match as such. It was more like a time warp, only with Johnny Ova interfering at ringside. How did Ova wind up back in the 1980s? Anyway, Viscera started out overwhelming The Hammer before getting distracted by the 2 villains at ringside, allowing Valentine to capture and maintain the advantage with his usual arsenal of chops, elbows, and technical wrestling, plus (more than) a little help from outside. Damn that Ref Garry, he missed all the interference AGAIN! Tch, tch. Viscera finally got a second wind and squashed Valentine like a bug in the corner, causing Ova and Rydell to blatantly jump in the ring and attack the big man. In fact, they were so blatant that Ref Garry actually saw it, and called for the DQ. Viscera got hold of Rydell and Ova knocked their heads together, and Rydell and Valentine bailed. Viscera gave Ova a big ass [literally] sitout powerbomb. So now I know what the heck Ova was doing in this match in the first place: he was there to take that powerbomb. Ova was good in his role but it seems kind of a waste to have him on a card without putting him in a match. Very enjoyable match, thanks primarily to Dorian Gray, er, Greg Valentine. [Hammer if you’re reading this, that’s meant as a complement!] Crowd was a little quiet here in comparison to the earlier matches, I think they were starting to tire out. Personally I really enjoyed this one. All it was missing was Gorilla Monsoon on commentary.

The last match of the night was the one that probably drew a lot of the people, as hometown boy Scotty Charisma took on the dastardly Crowbar (w/Serena). It must be weird to wrestle a match literally in your place of employment. Crowbar did the bailout thing before the match even started and did it again at least once during the match proper. Yup, definitely getting a little old to me, although it got huge heat. Match pretty much ran the gamut of styles as they did some scientific wrestling, some brawling outside the ring, some highspots – both men work well off the top rope – and some matwork. Match went a legit 15 to 20 minutes and by the end there was a series of perhaps 10 to 15 near falls and 2 counts. Both men kicked out of each other’s finishers. The crowd was red hot at the beginning, quieted a little in the middle, and was going nuts toward the end. Hell I have to admit I marked out myself. The last 5 minutes or so were particularly well done. Charisma finally had Crowbar down for what seemed like a surefire three count – but the time limit ran out as the ref’s hand came down for three. Aaaagh! ANOTHER time limit draw? Noo! Crowd thought it was over and started to leave en masse, so Crowbar quickly got on the mic, showed Scotty respect, and told the ref he wanted another 5 minutes. Charisma eagerly agreed, and unlike what usually happens in these situations, the ref actually gave them the extra five and the bell rang to start the overtime. Crowbar, mic still in hand, instantly switched off the nice guy act, grabbed Charisma and started beating him on the head with live mic, and they were back into it again. After several minutes of very intense action Crowbar went for a sunset flip. Charisma dropped his knees down on Crowbar’s shoulders, hooked both legs, and got the three count. Interesting finish that you don’t see very often. After having both men hit big finishers and not get the pin with them, I was wondering how they were going to end the match and they did it with a simple yet believable looking move. Charisma celebrated in the ring and then did several walks around ringside to greet kids, fans, and well wishers. Definitely the best match I’ve seen Charisma in to date, and a good match by anyone’s standards. Both guys went pretty much all out for a solid 25 minutes.

ECPW are running again this Saturday [3/20] back in Fairfield, CT, at the Knights Of Columbus hall with Thunder/Xylas vs Nelson Brothers and a title defense by Red Hot Russ. They return to New Jersey the following week on 3/27 for a tv taping, and they have a Legends show in April with Iron Sheik and Nokolai Volkov vs Masked Superstar & The Patriot (presumably Tom Brandi). Info and updates are available at www.ecpw1.com. The Fairfield show looks to be a smaller scale affair – it would have to be given the difference in the halls - but it’s 20 minutes from my house so I will definitely be back with another ECPW report next week.

NOTE: In what seems to have been a chronic problem here at the DOI last Friday, I lost my notes for this show, which is annoying since I made a lot of them. If you’ve got any corrections the best thing to do is probably to post them on the DOI message board.