blairreviews (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} blairreviews) wrote,@ 2008-11-10 20:28:00 |
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Pro Wrestling Riot in Port Richey, November 8th, 2008
I mentioned recently the lows of zany wrestling fans who may still believe that the business is a total shoot. Now here are the highs of those same types of people.
I wasn't sure how this event would turn out, given that there is a pair of ROH shows in Canada on this weekend where some wrestlers-staff are, and then there is a 8 team tournament that World-1 South had in Georgia which involved some Riot regulars, so the postponement of this event until this date due to the Rays in the playoffs caused things to be changed (including the bracket) and as it turns out here, I don't think there was more than about 75 people at this event. I'm not quite sure what it was… if it was the date changing or if it was the football games that were on during the night, or the other shows that took place on this night (like SCW's final show ever in Altamonte Springs, or FCW having a show in Tampa) or a combination of those and/or other factors.
Despite that, it was still an entertaining enough event. Note that the first part of the first round of the tournament took place at this show, and the second part will take place on December 12th (a Friday), and the rest of the rounds will be in January, I do believe.
I'll bring up some things along the way, but I'll get off to a fast start now. Much to my surprise, Alan Wojcik and family were there, including his newborn child. I was quite surprised to see him there given what has happened in the past, but if nothing else, you can look here for a more move by move recap of what happened.
We started off on time at 8 PM sharp with an opening match that isn't part of the tournament contests.
1. In a three way dance (first pinfall wins… and here that was a good thing) Myles Long (w/ Bruce Santee) defeated Ronnie Minge and Brett Thunder. If you don't recognize the two guys that Myles wrestled, I had zero clue who they were. I just assumed they were local trainees from some local school, but it wasn't until after I got home and Googled them and realized that they were both from Texas; Ronnie was announced as being from there, and I noticed a vehicle in the parking lot with Texas plates, so I didn't exactly have to be Sherlock Holmes (or even Sherlock Tuthill) here to put the pieces together, but I DO have to pat myself on the back a la Barry Horowitz for finding this page, which explains that those two Texicans (to quote Jesse Ventura) have moved to Florida and now we could be seeing those guys often. So, I better watch what I say here…
We started off with Bruce noting that Brett looks like "Mikey Batts, but in shape" (whatever happened to him, anyway?), and Ronnie cheered himself often and posed, which is about the best thing he did in the ring.
I don't know if he always wrestles like this or not, but Mr. Minge wrestled rather lightly (sure, he doesn't want to hurt his opponent, but it looked rather fake) and overall he just looked tentative all the time and some other things didn't look so hot either. Brett looked fine, although I wouldn't mind seeing those two wrestle against each other one on one or against local Florida talent in order to better gauge them.
Anyway… Myles won with a rollup into a bridge. Bruce uttered a few syllables during the contest but he otherwise was probably wondering what in the hell was going on in the ring with Ronnie.
After the match, he got on the mic, praised all three guys, and then mentioned the Wargames match at the Peterson Cup, and the argument that took place with Sideshow and Sedrick Strong over Sideshow's sister Danielle. Out came Sedrick Strong and Sideshow, the latter with CJ O'Doyle, of all people. They spoke in the ring and Bruce occasionally made witty comments. Sedrick was being sarcastic and that peeved Sideshow. But, Sedrick explained that he was just joking around and told Sideshow that he overreacted at the Peterson Cup, and with some reluctance, both men shook hands and left. During all this, Myles left the ring, and several people in the crowd thought this was a wise move on his part.
Speaking of the crowd, due to the low numbers one section of chairs was taken out so that those peeps could move to the section that faced the main camera. Some people came over to where I was sitting, and a guy wearing a headband and his young African-American gentleman friend sat in the front row, a few rows ahead of me. It didn't dawn on me right away, but after a moment, it hit me like a ton of bricks… those guys were the ones that sat in front of me at the last FIP show! You know, the guy in the headband was the dude who was the superfan of The Briscoe Brothers and he allegedly *cried* when they lost. I didn't particularly want them in front of me, but this time around things went fine. Sure, he and his friend were loony and I still question his mental faculties, but for the most part I ended up not minding them all that much. At least the section I sat in made noise, and it didn't really seem like there were less than 100 in attendance.
2. Chris Jones defeated Austin Amadeus. This was a pretty good tournament opener. We started off with scientific wrestling from both guys, as both are fan favorites; in the section I was in, the young kids and their parents liked Austin, while Briscoe Fan, his pal, and some others cheered on Jones. Like I said, the crowd being into it helped things out, and I was worried about that before the event started. Austin started wrestling more aggressively, and that's when he took over. Yet, the crowd's opinion on who they wanted to cheer didn't seem to change at all. After several close near-falls, Jones was able to get the victory. Afterwards, both men shook hands. Jones will face the winner of Nooie Lee vs. Francisco Ciatso.
3. Bumz R Us (w/ Milo Bearsley; yes, their bear mascot, who happened to be in a wheelchair himself) defeated The Dynamic Duo of Fantastic Dantastic and K-Deezy. Here was another bout where you had fan favorites going at it, although just about everyone in the crowd supported the homeless men rather than the masked men. This was another pretty good contest, and this one had its fair share of comedy from all the men. It wasn't just comedy, though… you also had high flying from all the men and some entertaining spots. I wasn't sure what to expect here, but I was pleasantly surprised. Alan's review explains what happened. I don't think I can add anything else to that, except that after the contest, all the men shook each other's hands. The Bumz will face the winner of The Heartbreak Express and the Loggers.
4. Sideshow defeated Damballah (to use the name provided on the official brackets of the tournament; w/ Amy Vitale) via DQ. This was a contest where the two men wouldn't shake hands after the match. Amy spent the entire match with a look on her face as if she was scared shitless of her charge. It reminds me of how at an old FIP show in Crystal River, Damballah had a squash match, and as he came out to ringside, I saw a young kid with the look on his face that he was frightened to death of the big man, which shows that he's great in his role. In this bout, which was good, things got started when both men brawled with each other outside of the ring for a few minutes, which Damballah controlled with a fork and other implements. It was only when both men got into the ring that the match officially started, and by that time, Sideshow was already bleeding. It was pretty much a slow methodical brawl in the ring that was crazy at times, such as when Sideshow used a pair of brass knucks on his opponent while the ref was distracted. The ending came when Damballah used a hold on Sideshow and he made the ropes but he wouldn't break the hold. Several faces came out to make the save as Amy called someone on her cell phone and stated that she needed help. Sideshow will face the winner of CJ O'Doyle and Chasyn Rance… although Chasyn may not be back from his latest injury by then.
Intermission time. It lasted around 20 minutes. I'll take time to mention two things, and what do you know, both of them revolve around the individuals known as The Afro Squad. Now, I've met PJ before, I of course don't have a problem with "Lil Andy", as hey, he's a kid, and I know several of their buddies, but the squad itself… just the fact that they always wear *afro wigs* when they attend shows… need I say more?
The first thing is this epic thread, where in a pair of posts, Lenny Leonard just HUMBLED those guys, SERVED them, put a dress on them, or whatever term you want to use. That may be the thread of the year just for Lenny's comments, but the other ones from the non-idiots were funny… and I even laughed at what Joshua Rich said.
The second is more recent. After reading this , I don't know how you could be familiar with Slyck Wagner Brown and April Hunter and somehow not know about that incident between the two. While MikeWG was incorrect in saying that snowman was a host of that SCW podcast (which I wouldn't listen to if you paid me a few bucks to do so!), the fact that he called snowman a dumbass brought me much mirth and yes, I did chortle!
Ok then, back to the show review…
5. Jaison Moore defeated Craig Classic. This was yet another pretty good contest. The fans were more familiar with Moore (no pun intended) so they supported him rather than Classic, even though Craig wasn't a heel during the match. They went back and forth and you saw stuff like an armdrag on the floor, which I'm sure didn't make Craig feel good, as he was the one who took it. They went back and forth, attempting their finishers, until Jaison won with his J Driver. Afterwards, Craig went to shake Moore's hand… but attacked him and laid him out instead; that made the audience pretty ticked off. Jaison will face the winner of Jerrelle Clark and Scott Davis.
Amy Vitale came out and she explained that she now had "a spiritual advisor" by the name of Vic Slowhand. He came out and he was a loud braggart who wore a great harlequin multicolored shirt and sunglasses that looked like something Elton John wore in a concert in 1976. He did a "rap" as he praised Amy and her charges and berated the crowd. Immediately, said crowd despised him. It was a great time watching him work. As he was now there, Amy went to the back. By the way, it wasn't until I was driving home that I realized Vic was the guy that Amy called on her phone earlier in the day. D'oh!
6. The British Lions defeated Raymond "Killing Machine" Snow-Lou The Fixer (w/ Vic Slowhand). I guess this was fine, although these guys sometimes weren't on the same page… hell, I'm not sure if they were even reading the same book. I figured it would be a contrast in styles, but wow, these guys didn't mesh together too well at all. There was hardly any flow to it, and at one point one of the Lions tried to pull down the pants of Lou (?!), so I got to see more of his backside than I ever wanted to. The fact that this seemed like it went 20 minutes (!) didn't help matters either. I don't know what went wrong here, but otherwise I enjoy all four guys wrestling in other matches, so I guess this was just a bad night for all involved. What was a benefit was Vic's heeling. He upset Briscoe Fan so much that he went over to where Slowhand was standing, just to yell at him up close! If it wasn't for that heat… the ending came when the British guys had Lou in the corner and Snow attempting to run into them but he squashed Lou instead; after the match, Lou and Snow argued, and the crowd was egging them on, but Vic was able to calm them down and they were buddy-buddy again. The Lions will face the winner of Dark City Fight Club and The Lifeguards.
7. Shawn Osborne (w/ Rod Steel) defeated Sedrick Strong. Yep, a pretty good contest. Osborne and Rod were the only two 911 Inc. dudes there. Shawn did a goofy dance before the bout started, so early on, at least 6 different times Sedrick mocked Osborne by doing that same dance, much to the audience's joy. The match started off in Sedrick's favor as he wrestled scientifically. The tide turned when Shawn tossed Strong over the top rope to the floor. With some interference from Rod, Osborne wore down Sedrick with strikes and submissions. The ref (poor Frankie Gastineau) was knocked down for a few minutes, and chaos happened. Rod hit Sedrick as he ran the ropes. Sideshow came down to lay out Steel, and he picked up the chair… yep, Strong turned around and saw Sideshow with the chair, and naturally assumed that HE was the one who smacked him with that implement. Don't you hate it when that happens? As they bickered, Shawn was able to use his finisher and that's how he got the win.
Afterwards, for a few minutes they brawled with each other as several faces (including Bruce Santee) tried to keep them apart, as the crowd was yelling for them to fight. As you might imagine, they were fired up for this battle.
Overall, this 2 hour and 25 minute long show wasn't the best event that PWR has ever had, but it was still an entertaining time, as even though the amount of people there was down, there still was a lot of noise made. Also, the matches were enjoyable enough, whether in a serious manner or in a trainwreck manner. Hopefully despite it being on a Friday, there will be more people there for Riot's next show. Remember, Riot's website is www.prowrestlingriot.com
My next show review will be of WXW's Elite 8 Women's tournament in Leesburg this upcoming Saturday night; hey, it's close by. It being filled with wrestling women has nothing to do with it… I doubt I'll see a show after that this month, but right around Thanksgiving I will post something else.
I mentioned recently the lows of zany wrestling fans who may still believe that the business is a total shoot. Now here are the highs of those same types of people.
I wasn't sure how this event would turn out, given that there is a pair of ROH shows in Canada on this weekend where some wrestlers-staff are, and then there is a 8 team tournament that World-1 South had in Georgia which involved some Riot regulars, so the postponement of this event until this date due to the Rays in the playoffs caused things to be changed (including the bracket) and as it turns out here, I don't think there was more than about 75 people at this event. I'm not quite sure what it was… if it was the date changing or if it was the football games that were on during the night, or the other shows that took place on this night (like SCW's final show ever in Altamonte Springs, or FCW having a show in Tampa) or a combination of those and/or other factors.
Despite that, it was still an entertaining enough event. Note that the first part of the first round of the tournament took place at this show, and the second part will take place on December 12th (a Friday), and the rest of the rounds will be in January, I do believe.
I'll bring up some things along the way, but I'll get off to a fast start now. Much to my surprise, Alan Wojcik and family were there, including his newborn child. I was quite surprised to see him there given what has happened in the past, but if nothing else, you can look here for a more move by move recap of what happened.
We started off on time at 8 PM sharp with an opening match that isn't part of the tournament contests.
1. In a three way dance (first pinfall wins… and here that was a good thing) Myles Long (w/ Bruce Santee) defeated Ronnie Minge and Brett Thunder. If you don't recognize the two guys that Myles wrestled, I had zero clue who they were. I just assumed they were local trainees from some local school, but it wasn't until after I got home and Googled them and realized that they were both from Texas; Ronnie was announced as being from there, and I noticed a vehicle in the parking lot with Texas plates, so I didn't exactly have to be Sherlock Holmes (or even Sherlock Tuthill) here to put the pieces together, but I DO have to pat myself on the back a la Barry Horowitz for finding this page, which explains that those two Texicans (to quote Jesse Ventura) have moved to Florida and now we could be seeing those guys often. So, I better watch what I say here…
We started off with Bruce noting that Brett looks like "Mikey Batts, but in shape" (whatever happened to him, anyway?), and Ronnie cheered himself often and posed, which is about the best thing he did in the ring.
I don't know if he always wrestles like this or not, but Mr. Minge wrestled rather lightly (sure, he doesn't want to hurt his opponent, but it looked rather fake) and overall he just looked tentative all the time and some other things didn't look so hot either. Brett looked fine, although I wouldn't mind seeing those two wrestle against each other one on one or against local Florida talent in order to better gauge them.
Anyway… Myles won with a rollup into a bridge. Bruce uttered a few syllables during the contest but he otherwise was probably wondering what in the hell was going on in the ring with Ronnie.
After the match, he got on the mic, praised all three guys, and then mentioned the Wargames match at the Peterson Cup, and the argument that took place with Sideshow and Sedrick Strong over Sideshow's sister Danielle. Out came Sedrick Strong and Sideshow, the latter with CJ O'Doyle, of all people. They spoke in the ring and Bruce occasionally made witty comments. Sedrick was being sarcastic and that peeved Sideshow. But, Sedrick explained that he was just joking around and told Sideshow that he overreacted at the Peterson Cup, and with some reluctance, both men shook hands and left. During all this, Myles left the ring, and several people in the crowd thought this was a wise move on his part.
Speaking of the crowd, due to the low numbers one section of chairs was taken out so that those peeps could move to the section that faced the main camera. Some people came over to where I was sitting, and a guy wearing a headband and his young African-American gentleman friend sat in the front row, a few rows ahead of me. It didn't dawn on me right away, but after a moment, it hit me like a ton of bricks… those guys were the ones that sat in front of me at the last FIP show! You know, the guy in the headband was the dude who was the superfan of The Briscoe Brothers and he allegedly *cried* when they lost. I didn't particularly want them in front of me, but this time around things went fine. Sure, he and his friend were loony and I still question his mental faculties, but for the most part I ended up not minding them all that much. At least the section I sat in made noise, and it didn't really seem like there were less than 100 in attendance.
2. Chris Jones defeated Austin Amadeus. This was a pretty good tournament opener. We started off with scientific wrestling from both guys, as both are fan favorites; in the section I was in, the young kids and their parents liked Austin, while Briscoe Fan, his pal, and some others cheered on Jones. Like I said, the crowd being into it helped things out, and I was worried about that before the event started. Austin started wrestling more aggressively, and that's when he took over. Yet, the crowd's opinion on who they wanted to cheer didn't seem to change at all. After several close near-falls, Jones was able to get the victory. Afterwards, both men shook hands. Jones will face the winner of Nooie Lee vs. Francisco Ciatso.
3. Bumz R Us (w/ Milo Bearsley; yes, their bear mascot, who happened to be in a wheelchair himself) defeated The Dynamic Duo of Fantastic Dantastic and K-Deezy. Here was another bout where you had fan favorites going at it, although just about everyone in the crowd supported the homeless men rather than the masked men. This was another pretty good contest, and this one had its fair share of comedy from all the men. It wasn't just comedy, though… you also had high flying from all the men and some entertaining spots. I wasn't sure what to expect here, but I was pleasantly surprised. Alan's review explains what happened. I don't think I can add anything else to that, except that after the contest, all the men shook each other's hands. The Bumz will face the winner of The Heartbreak Express and the Loggers.
4. Sideshow defeated Damballah (to use the name provided on the official brackets of the tournament; w/ Amy Vitale) via DQ. This was a contest where the two men wouldn't shake hands after the match. Amy spent the entire match with a look on her face as if she was scared shitless of her charge. It reminds me of how at an old FIP show in Crystal River, Damballah had a squash match, and as he came out to ringside, I saw a young kid with the look on his face that he was frightened to death of the big man, which shows that he's great in his role. In this bout, which was good, things got started when both men brawled with each other outside of the ring for a few minutes, which Damballah controlled with a fork and other implements. It was only when both men got into the ring that the match officially started, and by that time, Sideshow was already bleeding. It was pretty much a slow methodical brawl in the ring that was crazy at times, such as when Sideshow used a pair of brass knucks on his opponent while the ref was distracted. The ending came when Damballah used a hold on Sideshow and he made the ropes but he wouldn't break the hold. Several faces came out to make the save as Amy called someone on her cell phone and stated that she needed help. Sideshow will face the winner of CJ O'Doyle and Chasyn Rance… although Chasyn may not be back from his latest injury by then.
Intermission time. It lasted around 20 minutes. I'll take time to mention two things, and what do you know, both of them revolve around the individuals known as The Afro Squad. Now, I've met PJ before, I of course don't have a problem with "Lil Andy", as hey, he's a kid, and I know several of their buddies, but the squad itself… just the fact that they always wear *afro wigs* when they attend shows… need I say more?
The first thing is this epic thread, where in a pair of posts, Lenny Leonard just HUMBLED those guys, SERVED them, put a dress on them, or whatever term you want to use. That may be the thread of the year just for Lenny's comments, but the other ones from the non-idiots were funny… and I even laughed at what Joshua Rich said.
The second is more recent. After reading this , I don't know how you could be familiar with Slyck Wagner Brown and April Hunter and somehow not know about that incident between the two. While MikeWG was incorrect in saying that snowman was a host of that SCW podcast (which I wouldn't listen to if you paid me a few bucks to do so!), the fact that he called snowman a dumbass brought me much mirth and yes, I did chortle!
Ok then, back to the show review…
5. Jaison Moore defeated Craig Classic. This was yet another pretty good contest. The fans were more familiar with Moore (no pun intended) so they supported him rather than Classic, even though Craig wasn't a heel during the match. They went back and forth and you saw stuff like an armdrag on the floor, which I'm sure didn't make Craig feel good, as he was the one who took it. They went back and forth, attempting their finishers, until Jaison won with his J Driver. Afterwards, Craig went to shake Moore's hand… but attacked him and laid him out instead; that made the audience pretty ticked off. Jaison will face the winner of Jerrelle Clark and Scott Davis.
Amy Vitale came out and she explained that she now had "a spiritual advisor" by the name of Vic Slowhand. He came out and he was a loud braggart who wore a great harlequin multicolored shirt and sunglasses that looked like something Elton John wore in a concert in 1976. He did a "rap" as he praised Amy and her charges and berated the crowd. Immediately, said crowd despised him. It was a great time watching him work. As he was now there, Amy went to the back. By the way, it wasn't until I was driving home that I realized Vic was the guy that Amy called on her phone earlier in the day. D'oh!
6. The British Lions defeated Raymond "Killing Machine" Snow-Lou The Fixer (w/ Vic Slowhand). I guess this was fine, although these guys sometimes weren't on the same page… hell, I'm not sure if they were even reading the same book. I figured it would be a contrast in styles, but wow, these guys didn't mesh together too well at all. There was hardly any flow to it, and at one point one of the Lions tried to pull down the pants of Lou (?!), so I got to see more of his backside than I ever wanted to. The fact that this seemed like it went 20 minutes (!) didn't help matters either. I don't know what went wrong here, but otherwise I enjoy all four guys wrestling in other matches, so I guess this was just a bad night for all involved. What was a benefit was Vic's heeling. He upset Briscoe Fan so much that he went over to where Slowhand was standing, just to yell at him up close! If it wasn't for that heat… the ending came when the British guys had Lou in the corner and Snow attempting to run into them but he squashed Lou instead; after the match, Lou and Snow argued, and the crowd was egging them on, but Vic was able to calm them down and they were buddy-buddy again. The Lions will face the winner of Dark City Fight Club and The Lifeguards.
7. Shawn Osborne (w/ Rod Steel) defeated Sedrick Strong. Yep, a pretty good contest. Osborne and Rod were the only two 911 Inc. dudes there. Shawn did a goofy dance before the bout started, so early on, at least 6 different times Sedrick mocked Osborne by doing that same dance, much to the audience's joy. The match started off in Sedrick's favor as he wrestled scientifically. The tide turned when Shawn tossed Strong over the top rope to the floor. With some interference from Rod, Osborne wore down Sedrick with strikes and submissions. The ref (poor Frankie Gastineau) was knocked down for a few minutes, and chaos happened. Rod hit Sedrick as he ran the ropes. Sideshow came down to lay out Steel, and he picked up the chair… yep, Strong turned around and saw Sideshow with the chair, and naturally assumed that HE was the one who smacked him with that implement. Don't you hate it when that happens? As they bickered, Shawn was able to use his finisher and that's how he got the win.
Afterwards, for a few minutes they brawled with each other as several faces (including Bruce Santee) tried to keep them apart, as the crowd was yelling for them to fight. As you might imagine, they were fired up for this battle.
Overall, this 2 hour and 25 minute long show wasn't the best event that PWR has ever had, but it was still an entertaining time, as even though the amount of people there was down, there still was a lot of noise made. Also, the matches were enjoyable enough, whether in a serious manner or in a trainwreck manner. Hopefully despite it being on a Friday, there will be more people there for Riot's next show. Remember, Riot's website is www.prowrestlingriot.com
My next show review will be of WXW's Elite 8 Women's tournament in Leesburg this upcoming Saturday night; hey, it's close by. It being filled with wrestling women has nothing to do with it… I doubt I'll see a show after that this month, but right around Thanksgiving I will post something else.
