Written by: Sean McCaffrey from http://www.declarationofindependents.net/doi/pages/index1.html
PRESHOW: Picked up Viper and the newest Chinese superstar on the independent circuit, Bi-San. After meeting up with the Wizard of Brain, we checked out the Outback. Got a lot of beer and rum at outback. The Wizard of Brain ate a 22 oz steak like a champ. The steak was looking mad mouth watering, thank god for beer. Bi-San looked like he got a cat, but I think he got a steak too. Mr. Viper was down with the French fries. After eating and drinking like animals it was off to the show.
Oh yea, there was also a convention there with WWE superstars, dealer tables and autograph signings. Pretty cool set up here. Biggest thing of note was a member of the JAP ringcrew going at least 45 minutes in a freestyle battle with John Cena. I forgot the guys name who battled Cena, but in this McOpinion, he took Cena to the limit and won this. Cena showed him props and gave him free Smackdown tickets. Cena got a lot of good stuff off on the kid, and it was great to see him not only live his character, but to put over a fan/free style competitor and have great fan interaction and make the WWE look better as a result. As far as Cena’s raps, let’s just say that he is very censored in the E, and if he could do his raps, like the way the Dudley Boyz cut their promos in ECW, Cena would be the best guy on the stick ever.
JAP Wrestling
Secaucus, NJ at the Meadowlands Expo Center
Bell time 8 PM
Approx attendance 375-425
Show started off with a 10 bell salute for Road Warrior Hawk and Crash Holly. Seems like 9/10 indy shows I go to, are having a 10 bell salute. Hopefully things will be better in 2004, as it seems like a pro wrestler is dying at least once a month.
Corvis Fear vs. Eddie Thomas vs. Rush went to a no contest
Match was extremely short, but the double teaming between Rush and Corvis on Thomas was good. Match ended when Balls Mahoney, who continues to lose weight and dyed his hair blue, instead of it’s patented blonde, ran in and beat the crap out of all 3 guys. The crowd was feeling Balls Mahoney and gave Balls a big pop. Balls Mahoney is a different man from his ECW days and a much better wrestler now, then he was then. He seriously must’ve lost about 150 pounds since his ECW days.
For the JAPW Light Heavyweight Championship
© Azriael d. The Insane Dragon
A good bout here, with good counters and high flying. When things didn’t go right, both wrestlers were able to save the match and improv extremely well. The champion defended his title successfully and finished off The Insane Dragon with a diamond dust.
The Christopher St. Connection w/Jailbait (USA Pro/SSCW’s Dana Dameson) d. Dunn and Marcos
I don’t think it’s possible for the CSC gimmick to ever play out. Funny back and forth action like usual from the gayest tag team in the indies. Dunn and Marcos were ok, but pretty much made CSC look stronger than anything else. Jailbait was in her Dana Dameson gimmick, so I don’t understand the name change, unless she becomes Dana “Jailbait” Dameson, which would probably work. CSC pick up the clean win with their tag team finisher, the Gaybasher.
Ever realize that gay or alternative wrestlers always have women with them? Goldust w/Terri Runnels, Rico w/Jacky, Adrian w/Precious.. etc. I guess it’s a proven formula.
Sumie Sakai d. Ariel
Really good womens match. These two women proved how great womens wrestling is in the indies today. Sakai was able to pin Ariel with a moonsault. Good wrestling and buildup in this match.
POSTMATCH: The returning Church with Johnny D, minus the SkyScrapers and Allison Danger, came out to the ring. Ariel pleaded with them to no avail, and Church chokeslammed Ariel. Johnny D continues to be a bitch that you want to slap, which means he’s doing a good job out there. Johnny D kept screaming at Ariel, as he left with Church. Ariel had to be assisted to the back, but swore to get her revenge at the next show.
For the JAPW Television Championship
Strap Match
© Skinhead Ivan d. Jay Lethal
The night continued to roll with another good match. Even though this match was short, they got a lot in, including strangling Referee Hanson in a funny spot. Crazy Ivan continues to improve and Jay Lethal is on the cusp of indy superstardom. (I think that’s an oxymoron though lol) Skinhead Ivan gets the win with his flipping kick to Lethal.
POSTMATCH: Lethal attacked Ivans manager, but he was able to escape with Ivan.
In the Best of The Lightheavyweights 6 Match
This match had four wrestlers from four different territories. It was a gauntlet match, where a new wrestler would enter every 2 minutes, even though it seemed that Derek Wylde entered at the 3 minute mark and Roderick Strong entered at the 3:30 mark.
This was also contested under elimination rules.
Derek Wylde (representing Canada) d. Grim Reefer (NY/NJ), Ruckus (Philly), and Roderick Strong (Florida)
Excellent match. I thought that Reefer was going to get the win to satisfy the homecrowd, but a virtual unknown in the NY/NJ area went over cleanly. Reefer vs Ruckus started the match and worked really well together. A one on one match between these two would be really exciting. Roderick and Derek entered the match later on. As soon as Reefer and Ruckus got bounced out, in that order, the crowd was out of it and weren’t too thrilled. Derek got the win with strong style powerbomb on Roderick Strong.
For the JAPW Tag Team Championships
© Slyk Wagner Brown and April Hunter d. The Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz (EC Negro and KC Blade) and The H Effect (Deranged and Dixie) to retain their titles
Slyk and April dominated this match. I thought the match from last month with the DRS and Slyk/April was stronger. This also followed a 4 way dance as well. With no intermission at all in this show, there was no break and everything was just poured on all at once, without a chance to seep everything in. There wasn’t too much interaction between the two heel teams in this match. Still, a decent match. DRS continue to roll as the best heel tag team on the indies today. Slyk/April can probably dominate the indies as a tag team, if promoters booked them as a team, they work well together, look like wrestlers, are great wrestlers… maybe a tag team finisher is all they need. The H-Effect seem to be on the back burner in JAPW. Days of their electrifying and hilarious promos in Bayonne seem to be just a memory. Slyk hit his Slyk slam on Deranged for the pinfall.
Mafia and Homicide d. Raven and Steve Corino.
PREMATCH: Raven said he didn’t need a partner to win, and would beat these two up by himself. Originally advertised was Terry Funk and Sabu, but Funk was filming a movie and Sabu double booked himself and worked a show in Texas. Great job by JAPW to put two excellent replacements in their spot.
This match was more of a brawl with a good storyline than a wrestling match. Midway through, Steve Corino under a mask ran out and helped Raven. Then the finish saw another masked man ran out. The second masked man then DDTed Raven and Mafia was able to capitalize for the pin.
POSTMATCH: Mafia and Homicide and Corino cleared out and all in the ring was the second masked man and Raven. The masked man revealed himself to be Shane Douglas. Shane Douglas got big props from the crowd. Shane got the mic, and I was like oh no hear comes a 30 minute promo, but instead Shane just told Raven he’s going to finish this feud and will follow Raven around to any promotion he’s in. Seems that is the truth as both men will be at USA PRO on Nov 29.
For the JAPW World Heavyweight Championship
Jerry Lawler d. © Al Snow w/The Coach to become new JAPW Heavyweight Champion
The Special Guest referee was Mick Foley
PREMATCH: Foley said he was calling this match down the middle. He told Lawler that even though they wrote a best selling book together, he’d have to do it that way. He then told Coach if he interfered, he’d knock his dick in the dirt, whatever that fucking means.
Definitely a WWE style match. Pretty long match with lots of antics, from the Coach commentating during the match, and Foley threatening to kick him out. During the match Jerry Lawler gave the double bird salute and a stunner to Al Snow, after a 34 punch count in the corner. Snow was able to kick out at two. Later on in the match, Al Snow hit everything he could, Stunners, Rock Bottoms and Pedigrees, but only for two counts. Imagine Al Snow doing those moves on Heat and having someone kick out of them. I know I can’t lol. Finish saw Al Snow use Head on Jerry Lawler, and seemingly get the pin, but Ref Mick Foley saw Head and wouldn’t count the pin. Al argued and pushed Mick, and Mick pushed him back and Jerry Lawler wrapped up Al Snow from behind for the three count to become new JAPW champion.
POSTMATCH: Foley and Lawler clear the ring of Coach and Al Snow. Out comes Mafia, who is the number one contender, because he never got a rematch for the title since losing it to Avatar back in August. We then go to…
Jerry Lawler vs Mafia with Mick Foley as special referee went to 30 second no contest
This wasn’t really a match, just something that set up the next show. Foley applied Mr. Socko on Mafia, and Mafia’s La Familia members, Homicide and the DRS saved Mafia and left. Lawler and Foley celebrated and that was the show.
Final McWord
Great wrestling show. It was sad to see that JAPW did everything right, yet couldn’t get more fans to check out this spectacular event. I mean everything to promote a show was done. From newspaper ads, to internet ads, to press releases, to flyering the area, to flyering other shows, to word of mouth, to tv ads, to radio ads to anything else you can think of was done. The management of JAP did everything, but was only able to get 425 people in there. Other people reported 500-600, but it didn’t seem that way to me at all. It just goes to show you that when the WWE fucking sucks, then it’s hard to draw fans. If WWE isn’t giving a good product, and attracting new fans who crave wrestling, then casual wrestling fans aren’t going to drive all over NJ for a wrestling show, despite how good the card is and booked. There is no other fed in NJ or the immediate area, that is putting on shows with big names on their fulltime roster, and a solid undercard in 3 hours or less. This was a great show. The only thing that I see JAPW doing is putting the big names over in their main championship. Whatever happened to the days when Homicide ruled supreme over the pack? I see Mafia is getting a title shot at the next show, so that is at least something I want to see. Maybe it’s just me though, being an indy fan, that wants to see Mafia, Homicide and all the other loyal JAPW Wrestlers wrestle these WWE guys. The show tonight had great matches and the main event was nothing like the other matches. Usually that is good, but the main event looked it was two different companies presenting one show. The show drew really fucking well, but I think JAPW was expecting more and should’ve gotten more with the line up they had. The wrestling business is still in a lull and I think the WWE needs to get on track and get business booming again. Overall another great show by JAPW.
