ECPW “Spring Slam”
Knights Of Columbus Hall
Fairfield, CT
3/20/04

ECPW returned on Saturday night with their second show in 8 days. You can’t say this fed doesn’t give their guys a chance to work. This show had to feel like a bit of an adjustment for ECPW, as they went from filling a huge gym wall to wall with 1600+, to working the somewhat small [though well situated for wrestling] K of C hall. Turnout was a little on the low side, even for this room. Hopefully they will do better next time; the product isn’t bad and personally I think there is, or should be, plenty of room for all the indies who run in CT.

Once again I’m behind schedule on these reports – my ‘real’ job has been running me ragged – so let’s get right to it.

Johnny Thunder (w/Luxurious Lynne) beat Matt Nelson (w/Troy Nelson) after interference from Lynne. Entertaining, well wrestled opener. This was scheduled as a tag team title match but Troy has a foot injury, hence the switch to a singles match. Interesting that Thunder got the duke, since the Nelsons are the champs. First time I’d seen Matt as a single and he made the adjustment well. Nelsons are young and seem to be fine wrestlers already. They may be guys to watch as time goes on. Thunder was his usual reliable self.

Since scheduled contender Scotty Charisma was absent ‘due to injury’ [they unwittingly booked him after he had committed elsewhere], next they did a battle royal with everyone on the card to determine tonight’s challenger for Red Hot Russ’ ECPW World Heavyweight Championship. The Punisher never made it to the ring as he legit twisted a knee on the way out. A quick but enjoyable battle royal, ended when Jay Santana eliminated Tony Moose to earn the title shot. This was followed instantly by:

ECPW champ Red Hot Russ vs Jay Santana. Russ charged the ring as soon as the battle royal ended to take advantage of the tired Santana. They did some almost UFC like ground fighting stuff early on. Lots of holds and counters. Santana hit some nice looking armdrags. Santana got overwhelmed here as Russ’ partners in crime Thunder and Lynne ended up interfering. Lynne distracted the Ref Garry, allowing Thunder to hit a thunderkick on Santana, and Red Hot Russ put him away with a nice looking death Valley Driver to get the pin. Good match with some very nice technical wrestling from Red Hot Russ. I am definitely starting to become a fan of this guy, or at least of his work in ECPW. I give both men extra credit for working hard off in front of not the largest crowd.

Intermission, 3 matches and maybe an hour in. Not much to do but walk around. No food or concessions, and not much in the way of customers if there had been any.

Second half started with Andy Anderson (w/ Sports Agent Doug Devito) taking on Wiqued (w/ Miss Sinful). Yes, you read that right USAPW message board fav Miss Sinful was in the house. She and Wiqued played the good guys, an unusual role for both of them. Somewhat to my surprise, they made it work pretty well. Anderson is, as you might suspect from his name, working a Gene/Arn Anderson gimmick a la CW, though Andy didn’t do that many of the signature Anderson moves in this match. He does have the general Anderson look and seems larger than most of the ‘real’ Andersons. He’s a big, scary dude with that old time bearish, physically intimidating appearance that you don’t see much of any more on the indy level . Match was entertaining. Wiqued got the win via DQ after the Sports Agent interfered so blatantly that even Ref Garry couldn’t miss it. Anderson might be better off moving to a different type of in-ring identity somewhere down the line rather biting a gimmick that’s already been ‘borrowed’ by numerous others. For that matter, does a teenage indy fan today even know who the Andersons are?

Btw I might have mangled the sports agent’s name. My ears are ruined from 25 years of heavy metal concerts so I occasionally have trouble making out the ring announcements at shows. It’s pretty much NEVER the fault of the ring announcer or the PA unless I specifically say so. It’s me. Thanks also to ECPW ring announced Pat Savino for help on the names that I did get right.

Dennis Abunai defeated Garrett Dominance with a flying DDT. Enjoyable cruiserweight match with Abunai especially putting out a fine effort. This was scheduled as Tony Mafioso vs Abunai, but Mafioso announced that Dominance would be subbing for him since Abunai wasn’t worthy of wrestling him.

Spider vs Iron Eagle went to a no contest after Bad Boy and Garrett Dominance attacked both men. Spider was subtly playing the heel throughout this match prior to the attack. A couple of fairly noticeable miscues in the match itself. I try never to bring that sort of thing up, and I like both of these wresters as people, so if I’m mentioning the miscues then you know they were bad. Crowd really didn’t get on them for the misses but the likes of a Philly or USA Pro would have absolutely crucified them for it. It was announced that Spider and Iron Eagle would team up on May 22 to face the heels here in at the Knights’. I guess that explains why they had two guys are usually local favorites here going against each other.

Wiqued, subbing for the injured Punisher and working for the third time, defeated The Ninja in a short street fight after Punisher hobbled out to ringside literally on one foot to distract Ninja. Disappointing match but understandable given that it was thrown together at the last minute due to the injury situation.

ECPW announced a 5/22 return to CT. They will be running throughout April in NJ, including an interesting looking legends show on 4/17 featuring, among others, the team of Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkov. Larry Zybysco [sp?] vs David Sammartino, and the in-ring return of Brutus Beefcake. Check www.ecpw1.com for details on all upcoming shows.