R&W Promotions/XBOKU presents
"One For The Ages"
Bill Williams Gym, Danbury, CT
9/28/03
Guesstimated attendance:100-125
"Some days you get the bear, and some days, well, the bear, he gets you." - dialogue from THE BIG LEBOWSKI

Expectations. I think sometimes that's the key to either enjoying a show or not enjoying a show. I went to USA Pro on Friday and while they put a fine show [albeit too long], I went home disappointed because it wasn't what I expected. On Sunday I walked into the Xboku show with few or no expectations beyond getting to see Terry Funk in person, and wound up having a very good time.

Unlike when I saw PWA here last spring, they had a partition dividing the building in half. This turned out to be a good idea as by keeping the crowd confined to a smaller area it made the action seem more immediate and probably kept the small crowd livelier. As usual for a Connecticut show, there were no ring barriers. There didn't seem to be any security keeping fans away from the ring or the wrestlers either. That's something they may want to implement next time, since there were a lot of small children running around during the matches, which frequently spilled outside of the ring. [The matches, that is, not the kids!] All it would take is for one of these kids to accidentally get hurt and then the fun would be over for everybody. Nothing remotely like that happened, and in fact everybody including the kids had a great time, but you don't want to wait until something does happen to implement a little basic safety.

Okay, enough with the lecture, on with the report.

One additional note: the sound system was very distorted, so I just flat out didn't get a few people's names. I apologize for that.

Ted DiBiase signed autographs before the show. He was selling books, t-shirts and hats that said "WWF: World Wide Forgiveness" and dvds of his religious show that he does with Sting and the Road Warriors. I didn't buy a dvd but now I wish I had, I'd kind of like to see what that thing looks like. DiBiase was a nice guy in person.

They were a little late getting statred, bell time was 2:00 and they got going a little after 2:30. No biggie but just long enough for people to start getting restless. Show started on a very classy note with Terry Funk coming out to thank the people for coming. A young heel who I didn't know interrupted Funk, insulted him by calling him old and washed up, and got a Funk piledriver on the wood floor to the approval of the crowd. Good start that set the tone for the afternoon.

The show stayed nice and hot with a really good opening match between Dan Barry and Johnny Ova. Ova had a heel manager who did a good job riling up the crowd, as did Ova himself. Barry won the excellent match with the Irish Car Bomb. Awesome looking finisher. Funny to see these guys against each other after just having watched them team up on USAPW. Crowd really liked the match, and rightly so.

On a side note, how many shows did these two guys work this weekend? Four? Five? More than that? Man they must be hurting by Monday. You'd never have known it here though.

Somebody called Brian Cairo came out and did some brief heel mic work that was hard to hear. Some scattered "What" chants in response.

Next they did a battle royal for the vacant lightweight title that was more or less the equivalent of a USAPW ticket sellers type bout, only a little tighter and faster paced. I missed most of the names in this one, but among the people I recognized were Iron Eagle, Nocturne, Dizzie of A.M.I.L. [they have a 3rd member now?] and one of the Elm Street Kids. Okay match that got a lot better any time Nocturne was in. Nocturne was booked as the "monster" as he eliminated 4 or 5 people and finally won with the help of some outside interference to become the new lightweight champ. A mostly watchable match that went up several notches in quality any time Nocturne was in there. This is the 3rd time I've seen Nocturne this year and he really impressed me in his NAWF outing also. He could really be a guy to watch.

Johnny "The Bison" Bravado retained his World Television Championship against [somebody] Molsonn, a big [6'6'' or so] heavy guy who got lots of 'man boobs' chants.
Enjoyable match. Bravado looked good and took some serious pounding from the much larger Molsonn. Bravado won when Molsonn set up 2 chairs and The Bison reversed a powerbomb attempt and sent Molson face first into the chairs. Crowd were pretty solidly behind Bravado.

Damien Dragon (w/Foxxy Dreams, Nocturne, and another guy who's name I never got) defeated Bad Leroy Brown and Mark [unintelligble].
Sorry about the name thing, the sound was really bad. Mark Whatever was a big guy who did some pretty impressive top-rope moves for guy his size. Everybody did top rope dives to the floor at one point. Dragon finally won it with his version of the Acid Drop.

Kid McCullen vs Boxing Joe Grizzly went to a no contest.
McCullen and his very effeminate manager did a gay gimmick that got big heat from the crowd. Hmm, I guess the CSC wouldn't be too over here. This was billed as man vs. grizzly bear. What we got was a guy in bear suit wearing boxing gloves. They swatted at each other for a minute to mostly puzzled crowd response. Then the bear took off his head to reveal MIKEY WHIPWRECK! Mikey shucked the bear suit to reveal his usual ring gear of Tajiri type leather pants and cool AC/DC shirt, proceeded to whipper-snapper everybody in sight to a huge "ECW!" chant, and that was that for the match. Somebody came out and challenged Mikey to add himself to a 4 way match later in the show. Mikey was not advertised and the place popped huge for his surprise appearance.

Intermission.
Terry Funk signed autographs at a table. He signed 4 things for me and wouldn't even charge me. When somebody bought the one t-shirt he had for sale [left over from JAPW I suppose] he said, "Now I can eat tonight." Funny stuff. Terry Funk is the classiest of class acts. But you already knew that.

The second half of the show opened up with total tag team mayhem. I didn't get ANY of the names down as I was on my back from Funk's table when the match started, but I did recognize Danny Demanto and Dru Blood. There were 3 teams in total [I think] and they beat each other all over the building, up the bleachers, thru the chairs, into the concession tables, everywhere. People were running for their lives. It was great. The crowd was absolutely pumped and going crazy after this one. There was too much going on in too many places to even really be able to take it all in. They did one move I've never seen before as one of the smaller wrestlers got dumped into a trash can, then they put the trash can with wrestler still in it on a table and powerbombed both trash can and wrestler through the table. Demanto and Blood went after 2 rotund 300 plus pound fat guys [at least one of whom was supposed to be in the match, the other might have been an audience plant as I didn't see how he got involved] and beat them half to death with chairs. Demanto looked as good here as I've seen him and the crowd was really into him and Blood. They aren't New Yorkers up here so I guess they don't know they're not 'supposed' to like him, and this match really played to his strengths.

Jose Perez d. Crazy Ivan by disqualification.
Your basic Crazy Ivan match. Ivan was his usual self, toned down a little but not much. ["This guy smells like refried beans!"] Ivan clobbered his opponent with the gas mask right in front of the ref and got DQ'd. They didn't have a ring bell so the DQ came off a little anticlimactic since some people in the crowd didn't realize the match was over 'til the ring announcer announced it.

Elm Street Kids d. All Money Is Legal and Team Target in a 3 way tag match.
Pretty innovative finish as one of AMIL had the larger member of TT pinned and one of the ESK rolled on top of both of them, hooked a leg, and basically stole the pin. Good tag team match. I thought the smaller member of the Elm St Kids wasn't the guy who usually wrestles for them, but I'm not that familiar with their work so I might be totally wrong, especially since the last time I saw them was in a 6 man. I'd like to see ESK vs AMIL in a straight tag, that would rock. Maybe next time?

Wayne The Convenience Store Guy (w/Tara Charisma) d. Boogalou, Anthony Michaels, and Nick Nosious [sp?] to win the R&W World Heavyweight Championship.
Wayne, who was announced as "from the Danbury 7-11" [nice touch] made big entrance, running around high-fiving fans, even the fans way up in the bleachers. It worked as the crowd was into him big time. Math started off with Wayne and Noxious inside the ring and Boogalou and Michaels brawling outside the ring. They kept up that pattern in various combinations throughout most of the match and people were fighting all over the floor area on my side. Crowd loved it. Wayne eventually got the win and the title to a big pop. Afterwards Tara celebrated with Wayne...then hit him with a low blow from behind! Nosious, Michaels and Tara beat on Wayne for a very long time. The referees scraped up what was left of him and helped him to the back, still clutching his belt. The whole match was great fun to watch. Wayne has really done well for himself as he showed that at least with this crowd he has the ability to carry an important match as a top babyface. He should make a good champ for this promotion. Who'd have thought back in the "Wayne & Trekkie" days that I'd be writing that?

Mikey Whipwreck won a 4 way match over Spider, J-Busta and Luis Ortiz after hitting a double whippersnapper off the top on Spider and J-Busta.
Really good, fast paced match. Crowd picked up on J-Busta's Canadian gimmick and gave him major grief with "USA" and "Canada sucks" chants, which he played up to well. The crowd, while small, was pretty hot all afternoon, which was part of why the show worked. The identical show in front of dead crowd might have seemed pretty average but when people get into it just brings everything up another level. Very nice looking stuff from all 4 guys in this match, with Mikey hitting superkicks all over the place to set up his big finishing move. After the match Mikey gave a stunner [differentiated from the whippersnapper by the fact that he did the Austin double middle finger - hey Mikey knows damn well who Stone Cold learned this move from] to ref Holyoke Joe. This led to a kind of lame post-match angle where Joe 'hulked up' and got into a brief exchange with Mikey before getting KO'd again.

Next it was time for our main event: "Legend Killer" Low Life Louie vs. The Living Legend, Terry Funk.
Yup, that's how they announced it. Funk came out to his old ECW theme, "Desperado". This was a great match that actually exceeded my expectations. [There's that word again.] You couldn't tell from looking at Funk that he was wrestling in front of a maximum of 120 people, if that, as he went all out. Louie proved he can carry a non-weapon-heavy match just fine. People who were angry with the LLL/Abdullah match in July [which I haven't seen] would have been much happier with this one as Louie got in plenty of offense and The Funker really made him look strong. They started out in the ring, then quickly went to the floor where Louie caught Terry Funk in Funk's own patented spinning toe hold. Funk finally reached up and countered it with a Greco-Roman punch in the face. Back in the ring, Louie regained the advantage and pulled out a bent up, nasty looking fork, which he used to pry the bandage off Funk's head and re-open the fresh wound. Funk bled buckets. They went back out to the floor where Louie set up a table. Funk hit Louie with a few nice hard punches to regain the advantage, laid Louie out on the table, and dropped a leg from the apron to send Louie through the table. Somewhere in this second trip to the floor Louie got busted open too. They eventually made it back to the ring and after some more very good action Terry Funk got the duke with a rollup.

There were 2 guys in ring gear and what I can best describe as satanic court jester outfits sitting in the crowd all afternoon along with another guy dressed as a priest. Most people including me thought they must just be whacko fans. The second that Funk was declared the winner, they hit the ring and started triple teaming The Funker. [Nice to see someone go to that much trouble to set the thing up.] Louie got up and tried to help, Crazy Ivan and some more heels hit the ring, and the locker room emptied for a good old-fashioned mass brawl. The whole floor was filled with guys hitting each other with everything but the proverbial kitchen sink. There must have been 20 or 30 people all out there fighting. I LOVE this sh*t so I really enjoyed it. The faces eventually ran off most of the heels, leaving Crazy Ivan and jesters on one side and Funk, Louie and Mikey on the other. Ivan got on the mic and challenged Funk to 6 man tag next show with partners of his choice. Funk and Louie did that great old deal where they cautiously go to shake hands, look around for crowd approval [which they got], and slowly shake to seal the new alliance. Funk said he would choose Louie and Mikey as his partners for the next show. Mikey then immediately attacked Funk and Louie! Mikey stood with Ivan and taunted the 'faces as the jesters left, so I guess this means next time out it's Terry Funk and Low Life Louie vs Mikey Whipwreck and Crazy Ivan. If so that's a match I definitely wouldn't mind seeing. Funk and Louie raised each other's hands in celebration and camaraderie. In case I haven't mentioned it, Funk is really a class act as he put Louie over huge in this segment. That was the end of the show. By this time the floor looked like the aftermath of the LA riots as there was literally not a chair left standing and there were trash, chairs, and blood spatters everywhere. Great ending to a surprisingly solid show.

Shout outs to Susan, Brian, and Mike, who shared this afternoon of mayhem with me.

No return date announced yet. Check the message board right here at the DOI for more info on the next show as it becomes available, or go to the promotion's website at

Adam Dolan