ICW April 12th 2003 Results

The following report was done by Adam Dolan, and was submitted for use by the DOI. To email Adam about his report and send feedback, send to Adam Dolan

ICW HITS ONE OUT OF THE PARK
Impact Championship Wrestling
4/12/03
Ukranian Center, Passaic, NJ

Guesstimated attendance:120-150 I went to this show almost kicking myself for missing the Philly double header. No need to worry, as good as I'm sure that was. While I gather that I missed a heck of a show at ROH, I saw a damn good show right there at the Ukranian Center. In my opinion this was ICW's strongest outing since Last Stand At Elks Lodge back on June 2000, and arguably ICW's strongest card to date. I've written about ICW elsewhere before and been candid about the negatives, so trust me that I'm not just boot polishing here.

I'll get those negatives out of the way first. Currently there's really only one: location, location, location. Passaic is a well populated looking little town but it is WAY off the beaten track. I took the free bus from Elks Lodge and even our bus driver got lost no less than 6 times trying to find the place. [Hint: next time it might be a good idea for someone to bring directions.] ICW would probably triple their attendance if they ran in a more accessible location. The building itself is very similar to a church hall or smallish school auditorium. All the walls were covered with highly varnished wood paneling, which made it feel a little like we were going to wrestling card in someone's very large den. The hall was quite intimate, had good sight lines, and looked to be brand spanking new. There was no smoking allowed in the building. I'm sure this ticked some people off, but having been to a smoke filled hall every week for the last month or so I was very happy to give my lungs a break. Aside from the smoking issue [a plus for me], the only bad thing about the building was that it is a bit poorly lighted. If they can get them cheap, ICW might want to think about setting up some lights of their own, assuming they plan to make the Ukranian Center a long term home. Personally I'd recommend they try to get back to a better known NY venue such as Elks Lodge or Deer Park, assuming the cost of doing so isn't prohibitive. That said, I'm sure they know their business better than I do.

Joe "El Shoes" DiLeo was the ring announcer. He did a decent job and didn't call attention to himself too much, which is exactly how a ring announcer should conduct himself. He did make a couple of weird announcements of match time limits, like "with a time limit of 24 minutes and 32 seconds". I guess this was supposed to be funny but what little reaction it got was of the "huh?" variety. Didn't spot a broadcast table so I assume they are post producing the commentating for the home video.

The opening match featured the team of All Money Is Legal against Moore & Blood. Very good tag match with fast, crisp wrestling that set the tone for the night. Blood & Moore won with a version of the Harris Brothers "H Bomb". I've seen AMIL in PWA and USA Pro and they were noticeably better here. Really nothing bad to say about this match.

Wayne the Convenience Store Guy won a 3 way match over Ken Scampi (w/Tara Charisma) and Joey Braggiol. Wayne reminds me more and more of Mikey Whipwreck circa 1995 in both his appearance and his wrestling, though Wayne is not nearly at that level yet. I saw Scampi and Braggiol last summer in QWA and both men have made a quantum leap in ability since that time. Braggiol has some good big-man moves including a first rate Anderson spinebuster. Scampi, despite his silly gimmick, looked really good and at one point did an insane springboard from center ring over the top rope on Braggiol who was on the floor. This led to Wayne and even Tara making far less good looking dives off the top rope to the outside. Overall this match was very enjoyable and a pleasant surprise. Not that I expected it to be bad, mind you, just didn't expect it to be as good as it was. I am actually looking forward to seeing Braggiol and Scampi in the future if they continue to wrestle this well.

"Hot Stuff" Eddie Guapo pinned Low Ryda next. Not awful but not great either. At one point Guapo did the old Don Muraco knee to the back of the head off the top rope move, driving Ryda's face into the mat. Haven't seen that on in ages and I really enjoyed seeing someone pull it out. Looked quite devastating, too. Nice example of how a good looking move doesn't have to involve doing a death defying highspot. I wish more guys would study the old school stuff as Guapo apparently has. Guapo was out in the crowd watching the show and talking to fans later in the night.

Next Mike Tobin of the Boogie Knights came out with Xtacee. He put over the history of the Knights, Hit Squad, and SAT in ICW, and announced that his Boogie Knights partner Danny Drake had been called away on a family emergency and they'd have to face The Solution on the next show. Solution came out and attacked him until Justin Credible made the surprise save. Crowd blew the roof off for Credible in the first really big reaction of the night. Tobin played his part well. Odd to see him as a face but it worked. They booked a lot of guys who usually play heels as faces on his show, and I've got to say they were on to something because in every instance the crowd got behind it.

This was followed by the sleeper match of the night, Johnny Storm vs Grim Reefer. This was a fantastic match and could have comfortably headlined or co-headlined the show strictly from a match-quality point of view. Too many great highspots to describe, and they remembered to mix in some good simple stuff like headlock exchanges too. At one point Reefer hit a move I can best describe as a spinning DDT into a Crippler Crossface. After a lot of very evenly matched back and forth action Storm eventually won with a rollup/double leg hook a la Rey Mysterio Jr. Worth picking up the tape for this match alone.

Billy "The Human Highlight" Reil retained the Light Heavyweight title over Joey Matthews by pinning Matthews with his feet on the ropes for leverage. Good heel antics by Reil who really had the crowd hating him. Matthews, continuing the role switching theme of the booking, worked as a total babyface here. They did an angle before this with Reil and the injured Rob Eckos that looked to be setting a match between these two down the road.

Intermission.

2nd half started with a comedy match as Monsta Mack of Da Hit Squad issued an open challenge that was answered by......The Mime. No prizes for guessing who won. All silly (but not unamusing) comedy with maybe 3 wrestling moves total. Served its purpose of putting something in the ring while the crowd got settled. Mack put over ICW on the mic beforehand and said he will always be there when his schedule lets him.

Mega (w/Tara Charisma) beat Prince Nana with a chokeslam in the next match, after a little help from Ken Scampi (who is also managed by Charisma). Tara had climbed on Nana's back and applied the world's most pathetic attempt at a choke to distract him from pressing his illegally obtained advantage on Mega, and Scampi came out to save her and distracted Nana. Not much of a match, but the visual contrast between the cute, tiny Tara and the immense Mega was fun. Looks like they might building to a 'Mutt and Jeff' type tag team with the smallish Scampi and the huge Mega. [Note: a little quick research reveals that they already did book these 2 as a team on the last show, which I did not attend.] At one point Mega gave Nana a wedgie, exposing more of Nana's ass than anyone ever needs to see. Aargh! My eyes!!!!

The Christopher Street Connection beat Hot Commodity [EZ Money and Julio Dinero] after Buff-E threw glitter in Dinero's eyes, leaving him open for a rollup into a pin. Dinero has slimmed down quite a bit from his ECW days. Commodity worked as the heels here. They were accompanied by Alexis Laree and Miss Michelle because they wanted to have 2 valets to prove how heterosexual they are. [They said it, not me!] Overall very similar to CSC's matches against Simon and Striker. At one point CSC got in a "catfight" with the valets and did a rowboat spot with girls' legs - and complained about the smell! [Hey, I just report this stuff.] A lot of really funny comedy and very good wrestling, with Mace taking a beating most of the match before making the hot tag to Buff-E. Miss Michelle has the best legs in the indies, if not the world.

Next we had a surprise as Red took on Brian XL, with Matt Striker [not the HWA one] as guest referee. Story was that XL and Red were two of Striker's best friends and that was why he wanted to ref their match. I don't remember Red being advertised and neither did anyone else I talked to. If this was ICW's way of making up for the absence of Boogalou and Danny Drake, all I can say is: thank you. I'd rather see these two guys any day of the week. Red got the duke in an excellent match. The sloppiness I used to sometimes see in XL was nowhere in evidence here and both men really looked good.

Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels and Mikey Whipwreck beat the SAT when Daniels pinned Jose [or was it Joel?} with the springboard moonsault. SAT worked as the heels and Daniels/Mikey were the faces. Somewhat to my surprise, the crowd bought the role switch one hundred percent. This was an off the charts match that was worthy of main event status anywhere. Brought back happy memories of the old Mikey/Tajiri combo. Daniels was really at the top of his game here.

In the headlining match, Justin Credible beat Jerry Lynn with That's Incredible to win the vacant ICW World Heavyweight championship. Crowd gave both men a loud "ECW" chant at the start. Despite his earlier babyface appearance Credible worked as the heel here. Credible demonstrated what a master he is at working the crowd as he parlayed one solitary guy's ''Aldo'' chant and a couple of "Jerry" chants into getting the majority of the fans in the building to hate his guts to the point where they were dying to see him get beat. I have to admit that included me - I "marked out" for this one big time. And of course after making most of the crowd rabid to see him lose, Credible won. Perfectly booked and brilliantly played. Credible is SUCH a great heel. Match itself was excellent as you'd expect. Worth the endless bus ride all by itself. Just as good as any of the matches they had in ECW, if not better. I really hope they bring Lynn back for a rematch. A perfect capper to a fine evening of wrestling.

No return date was announced.

Adam Dolans's Other Reviews located below: 3PW [Pro Pain Pro Wrestling] 3/29/03
The Electric Factory, Phhiladelphia, PA
Guesstimated attendance: 300

Josh Daniels pinned Damian Adams in a surprisingly good opener. Killer Benoit-esque suplexes from Daniels. Daniels was always good but has improved substantially since I last saw him. I'd say he's about ready for bigger things. Adams made a good foil and both hit some excellent near falls.

Da Hit Squad beat The Blue Meanie and Roadkill after a top rope splash on Meanie. Monsta Mack splashed and pinned him while Mafia had him in a figure four. Ouch. Good mix of comedy, wrestling, and brawling. Roadkill & Meanie looked pretty good as a team. You will definitely see me on the tape of this match as I was in the front row and Roadkill, Monsta Mack, and Mafia wiped out into the guardrail in front of me numerous times diving out of the ring at each other. When Mafia did a 2nd rope plancha at Roadkill (who was right in front of me about 6 inches away)I think my life flashed before my eyes for a second there. All that pounding was not too good for my bad back but what the hell - it was f'in great! Reminded me of the good old days of ECW when if you bought a front row ticket there was good chance you'd end up with parts of a match taking place IN your seat.

"Hot Stuff" Striker (w/ Joey Matthews and Rob Eckos) pinned Rockin Rebel. All comedy. Striker [the NY/NJ one, not the HWA guy] plays a heel who thinks he's an 80s babyface and does all the 80s moves, like the Santana flying elbow, the Chief Jay Strongbow tomahawk chops, etc, etc. Funny stuff. At one point Striker did a Baron Von Raschke impression (complete with the big stuck-out ears) and then put the Von Raschke Iron Claw on Rebel, who no sold it and just looked at Striker like 'what's wrong with you?'. Rebel then stuck Striker's hand on Striker's own forehead, and Striker sold his own Iron Claw like it was killing him. Matthews eventually lost patience with all this and clobbered Rebel with a chair when the ref wasn't looking, allowing Striker to score the pin. As a wrestling match this was a total mess but it worked pretty well as comedy. I was dying laughing at Striker.

Balls Mahoney pinned Nosawa after a Michinoku Driver thru a table. Great brawl. Nosawa's gimmick does nothing for me but he definitely earned my respect with his performance in this match. They used a pizza cutter on each other during the match, although from my perspective you could clearly see that they bladed themselves in the usual way and the pizza cutter wasn't actually sharp enough to do anything. Well, I could see it. Some other folks who work for the state apparently couldn't. Tons and tons of juice in this one. Both men wore the crimson mask big time - which unfortunately led to a problem. Read on.

Intermission. Many of the wrestlers were signing autographs, including Terry Funk and Abdullah. I used to think I'd never get to shake hands with these heroes of my youth - now I've met Terry Funk twice and Abdullah 5 or 6 times! Funk took pics with fans for free and only charged $5 for a signed and personalized 8x10. The man is a class act. His wife was at the table with him, and a number of fans recognized her from BEYOND THE MAT and got pics with both of them. Only drawback to the Electric Factory is that the lobby is dark as hell. As Terry Funk said "I can't see a darned thing!"

Following intermission, ring announcer Bob Artese announced that "due to the incident in the Balls Mahoney vs Nosawa match, both men have been suspended indefinitely by the PA State Athletic Commission". What incident? We were never told. When I argued with one of the Commission reps later that night he said something about a kid getting blood on him. If that is true then I'd have to agree it's a problem, but it doesn't seem possible since the 2 combatants never left the confines of the ringside area - as per commission rules.

Don't they conduct any kind of a review before taking such a drastic action? I guess the right of due process doesn't apply in PA since instead they announced this *during* the show the alleged incident happened on. And why compel Artese to announce it at all? I was actually talking [well, listening] to Mahoney when a commission rep called him over, so unfortunately I can state with reasonable certainty that this was not any kind of a work.

Something needs to be done about this Commission. These guys are professional wrestlers, not 9-11 terrorists. They should have rights. If they really did do something stupid then that casts a different light on things, but even so there should be a formal review process before this kind of decision is made. Furthermore there is NO need to announce it to the live crowd. That's just dick swinging.

End of rant.

Homicide over Xavier in an awesome match. Tons of killer moves and near falls. Crowd started out not caring about either man but were totally won over by their great work. This could easily have been a headliner match anywhere else.

Pitbull Gary Wolfe pinned Joey Matthews (w/ Rob Eckos & Hotstuff Striker). I missed some of this because I was busy having a shouting match with Commission rep Frank Talent, who was at ringside. Not much of a match, but made watchable by Striker's ringside antics. The promotion had originally announced this match as Wolfe vs Sabu but changed it a few weeks ago.

Jasmine St Clair over Missy Hyatt in a "panties and pasties" match when ref Todd Gordon decked Missy for reasons unknown and unexplained. Match went less than 2 minutes. The pasties were very large, bigger than the ones Sable used way back when. I bought Missy's book from her after the show and she sounded ill, which may be why the match was so short. In the interest of rumor control I should emphasize that she didn't sound drugged up in any way [no slurring of speech], just hoarse like she had a bad cold or flu.

Terry Funk beat Dusty Rhodes and Abdullah The Butcher in about 15 minutes in a Last Man Standing match. Rhodes actually got up before the 10 count but the ref didn't see it. Funk cut a long promo before the match telling Abby how he hated him but that they should work together against Dusty. Didn't happen as there were no alliances whatsoever during this match. Slow paced, as you might expect given the ages of those involved, but a lot of fun to watch. Rhodes, though a bit slow, looked much better here than in the tape I saw of his match at the ECW Arena in November. Everybody in the match did their signature type moves, everybody bled, and Dusty bled like it was 1987. He had the pool of blood around his right eye just like in all those old NWA matches. Surprisingly the crowd seemed indifferent to this match - it might have helped if the rules of the match had been explained beforehand - but I loved it. This was the match I drove to Philly to see and I wasn't disappointed. The crowd seemed to hate the finish but aside from being a bit abrupt I though it was pretty good. It was real pleasure to see these 3 legends in the ring together one more time.

I look at a main event like this one as being a nostalgia match. On that level it worked great. Only an idiot goes to an Old Timers Day baseball game and expects the retired veterans to be hitting homers out of the park and making Rickey Henderson snatch catches over the wall. The pleasure is in simply getting to see them in action again. And so it was here.

An excellent show, the most enjoyable one I've been to in a long time. Very well paced too, which is something of a 3PW signature. They have actually tightened up the shows even more since the last time I saw them live in October, and they've beefed up the undercard too. No bad matches at all on this show. Marred only by the unprofessional behavior of the athletic commission. I actually enjoyed this show more than the last Ring Of Honor show.

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