Credited to Death Valley Driver

PP: Pogo Pete Stein - I fix my funk like Thelonious Monk, stayin' true to the game cause I ain't no punk

RD: Rev. Ray Duffy - If you move my desk again, I'm going to burn the whole building down.

PP: I hook up with Ray at Newport Center in Jersey City for dinner after galumphing around NYC looking for the new Liberty Meadows comic and pricing out cellular phones. I am sooooooo getting the phone that comes with the old "Qix" game built-in. After the typically pleasant light rail ride, we get to the Charity Hall with time to spare and scope out our now-usual seats by the commentators' table. They're passing out actual tickets at the door (as opposed to the usual hand-stamp) plus programs and even photos of Russ, which is a nice touch to the occasion. The dressing room for the workers is even more ridiculously tiny tonight since Frank put in about 100 extra seats for the show... my guess is that they were changing in the bathroom at the Quik-Check (New Jersey's 7-Eleven equivalent) next door. Come showtime the Hall is absolutely packed to the gills with people as the Russ tribute kicks off the show. Frank gets legitimately choked up while talking about tonight, and lots of people in the audience are crying as well while they show a montage of Russ on the wall. Very well done piece, I might add.

RD: I meet up with Pete after showing up at Newport early. I learned apparently WCW made a Mike Awesome figure. Pre-show we mill around a little. The place is pretty packed. We talk to Velvet a little and try to see if Jacey's available to talk, but he was busy chatting to someone. We talk to Buck Woodward for a bit. We notice former area worker Lord Zeig is there and damn has he shrunk since he stopped wrestling. The video piece was good and had lots of their old footage with the Haas'. Charlie has some words for the fans as Russ' widow and their sister show up. It was funny watching them set up the JAPW-tron which was white sheets of paper on the wall and them trying to make sure the ropes didn't block the camera view, which resulted in them taking down the bottom rope so the projector would be un-blocked.

"Lucha Rules:" Ghost Shadow/Jay Lethal vs. Rainchild/Deranged
PP: Good opener to kick things off, with GS playing Zeppo to the rest of the Marx Brothers. I'm guessing they went with the "lucha rules" stip so that they wouldn't have to bother with tagging in and out. Lots of cool matwork mixed in with the usual fiery death spots as Rainchild does a GIGANTIC tope con hilo to the floor and takes out one of the lights on the ceiling in the process. GS/Lethal get the win when Lethal puts the Bull Nakano submission on Rainchild while GS simultaneously hits his tricked-out powerbomb on Deranged for the stereo pin/tap.

RD: I not sure who's supposed to be the rudos and technicos in this, but it seems Rainchild has more fans (or relatives as it maybe in the case of indy wrestling) in attendence. Again, all the guys looked good in this, though Lethal was the partner in peril for a bit getting beat up a bunch, but not really showing any "I really need to make a tag", just sort of taking a beating and then switching over to offense. I'll cut the kid slack because he's a rookie though. Deranged tried for his whacky finisher a few times during the match, but it kept getting countered. Rainchild's dive was pretty insane. Good opener.

NWA Virginia Title Match: "Mr. Delicious" Jacey North vs. Chino Martinez
PP: Jacey immediately endears himself to us by going total Southern heel in freaking Bayonne, at one point "blowing" a kip-up try 2-3 times in a row. The great part about this is that the crowd marks out for his shtick in a "boo, you're evil" kind of way as opposed to a "boo, the J-Team are better" kind of way. Sadly the match itself isn't much to write home about, as Jacey and Chino don't really gel. Finish has Chino accidentally bump the ref in the process of hitting a sort of inverted airplane spin on Jacey. Chino covers, at which point Kane D (who's apparently Chino's brother) runs in and turns on Chino with a chairshot allowing Jacey to cover Chino and retain the title. Jacey is awesome with his heel mannerisms and I hope he gets brought back.

RD: This match is all about Jacey going balls out as a Southern heel. He was working his ass off to try to get the crowd into the match, but given he was unknown and Chino, while a long time JAPW wrestler, isn't what they would call really over, sort of hurt the match. I was really expecting him to complete the southerness in the match by using either an ether rag or a chain on Chino after he was KO'ed.

Christopher Street Connection (Mace Mendoza & Cabbana Boy w/F.A.G.) vs. the Shaolin Wrecking Crew (Magic & Suba)
PP: This is basically a non-match to get as many participants onto the show as possible. CSC come out to ABBA's "Dancing Queen" (minus Buff E, apparently out with a shoulder injury) ostensibly for their "Out of the Closet" interview segment, but the Wrecking Crew follow and quickly take out the CSC plus Dave Greco, Orphan and 2-3 other guys before the lights go out... when they go back up, Lowlife Louie Ramos is in the ring and gives each of them a chairshot. The Wrecking Crew no-sell but take a powder once Laithon and Kory K hit the ring. Laithon is the first of countless minority wrestlers on the show to wear a Confederate bandanna (the Haas' old symbol, although I don't remember any racial connotations with their usage of it).

RD: I dunno if I'd really call this a match. I think it was more or less supposed to be an interview segment with the Shaolins getting a big debut or push and then to slip in a lot of cameos. Judging how it ended, I'm guessing they'll be building the Shaolins v. Laithon/Kory at an upcoming show. If FAG isn't in the butterfly outfit, he has no reason to be at ringside.

Seijin AKKI vs. Krazy Ivan (w/Judas Young and the Sheik)
PP: Ray marks out because AKKI uses one of the Fire Pro D themes for his entrance music. He also comes out with the old-school Imperial Japanese flag tied to the horns on his mask... thankfully, no "USA!" chants which I'd been dreading. AKKI looks good working over Ivan's leg throughout the match, including a dragon screw with Ivan sitting on the top turnbuckle. He's also crazy enough to try a MISSILE DROPKICK off the top rope, which is total insanity in the Hall with that short ceiling. AKKI eventually gets the duke after Judas and the Sheik try to interfere with powder only to have both spots backfire on them. Post-match Ivan and Judas turn on the Sheik. I will not mention anything about our tossing streamers at AKKI except to say that I should've taken Frank's advice and moved closer to the ring to throw them.

RD: A two man streamer fest would have looked bad from the front row too, don't fool yourself. AKKI using the Fujiwara music from FPD was pretty great. He was going with the neo-Mutoh offense with the focus on the knee on Ivan in the match. I am disappointed that Judas ended up with Ivan. I watched SLC Punk, I got the gist that Punks hate Nazi's and now the power of the all mighty ARMBAR is under the influence of a puerto rican skinhead with a jewish girlfriend. He's sold out his anarchist beliefs. The match is more or less a backdrop for them to do the split with the Sheik and Ivan. This was sort of there.

JT Jobber vs. Katarina Heiss
PP: Your second non-match of the night. JT comes out and is immediately followed in by Katarina Heiss, out to defend the rights of women everywhere after JT took out Trinity H Campbell with a knucks shot at the last show. Well, the result is the same as last month as JT takes a ton of abuse but uses the knucks to win inside of 2-3 minutes.
Yaaaaaaaaaay.

RD: Originally, I thought this was Trinity H Campbell and recorded it as such in the original report. All I know is it was a somewhat beefy woman in lowriding pink leather pants going after JT before he used the Power of the Punch on her for the win. JT tried to do some heel "I'm not a momma's boy" stick work before this.

Slyk Wagner Brown (w/April Hunter) vs. Stryker
PP: This is basically the same match they worked at the last ECWA show, although this time Slyk goes over clean with a sit-out full-nelson buster. Slyk looks like the best of the debutantes tonight in that he's the first to figure out what he can and can't get away with WRT the ceiling. Stryker is not at his hammy best, which is just as well since his act tends to play better down in the ECWA sticks than it does up north.

RD: I think this was better than their match in ECWA as I think they had a little more time and I think looked smoother too. Both guys looked good, they had some stiff chop exchanges during this too. Slyk got a pretty good reaction, though it may have been more for April, I think they got more of a reaction than the rest of the new faces on the show which bodes well if they're going to be brought back.

The Big Unit (Rick Silver and Dave Desire) vs. the Black T-Shirt Squad ("Lightning" Mike Quackenbush and "Freakin' Puerto Rican" Don Montoya w/the CSC)
PP: Quack is hysterical doing a slow burn at the fact that he and Montoya have to come out with Mace, Feinstein and Cabbana. I think Velvet (running Quack's gimmick table) was even selling it. This is all comedy as Desire wants the $15 back he paid for Quack's book since he's heard all of the stories in it. Eventually the Big Unit pull out two tag belts of unknown vintage against the $15. Montoya happens to have $15 in his boot and starts to count it out, but the Unit attack anyway after Don counts out the first $10. At one point they do a long sequence where everyone gets low blowed, including Ref Hanson... then all five of them get up and do a Kendo-style spin n hop spot. It went over everyone's head in the Hall, but that's their problem. Finish has Quack put the figure-four on Desire, but Silver bulldogs Montoya onto Quack and gets the pin sitting on top of both guys. Montoya and Silver make up and head to the back with the rest of the entourage, forgetting the fact that Desire's still trapped in the figure-four because the now-unconscious Quack can't break it. This was a big ole batch of goofy fun, although it probably went on about 5 minutes too long.

RD: Pete didn't pay too close attention to this as the cost of the book was $14.95. The mic work was good at the start as they did explain why this was labled a grudge match and did plug Quack's book with all the subtity of the guy who sold sports memorablia on the home shopping network. At some point Don points out that Hanson's new haircut makes him look like a lesbian. The Unit looked good for guys who I don't think wrestle all that much anymore. Quackenbush and Montoya do the first nod to the Haas Brothers as they do the slingshot by Quack into an overhead belly to belly by Montoya on I think Silver. Kristy Kiss is at ringside with the unit, she's probably best known as the manager who had her neckbroken on a show and as an end result led to problems for JAPW with reguards to their garbage wrestling days. She interferes a few times in the match, at one point, Montoya has her and is threatening to do something to her when Gabrielle Leigh hits the ring and double crosses the BTS and starts off the low blow train on Montoya. This was fun and the finish was good and funny too.

The Boogie Knights (Mike Tobin and Danny Drake) vs. Elax the Exploited Child and Ric Blade (w/Donnie B)
PP: Man alive... I know Donnie's related to Nova, but now he's grown his hair out and dropped some weight to the point where the resemblance is downright staggering. This match is OK, but I can't get into Blade at all. His stuff looks great when he hits it, but he has the personality of a fencepost and there's no real connection between him and the crowd. It's like watching a trained chimp go through a routine. BKs work over Elax for the most part until Blade gets the hot tag at the end. They do a dive sequence "highlighted" by Elax going for a tope and literally going "Splat" on the floor. Frank really needs to invest in some ringside mats. Finish has Donnie come in to help Blade and Elax land a triple superkick on Drake; Blade follows up with his springboard 450, but Tobin pulls him out and waffles his bad ankle with a baseball bat while Drake pins Elax with his feet on the ropes. This was fine... despite my misgivings with Blade, he looked good here and didn't blow anything.

RD: A good part of the match was me talking to Pete trying to figure out what it is about Blade that bugged me before we came to the conclusion about his wooden-ness. The Knights who had came in as quasi-faces on the previous card are full blown heels in this, which sort of throws a monkey wrench into the face/heel dynamic that had been built into the the JAPW main events (namely the Ki/Homicide/Insane Dragon v. Da Hit Squad/Dixie feud). Anyway, the Knights rudo it up by taking out Elax with the bat AND going after Blade's bad leg AND using the feet on the ropes to get the pin. They've probably better heels, but again, I'm interested to see how and if it effects the feuds as they were. Blade did pull out 2 Cold's slingshot 450 into the ring at one point.

Kid Kruel (w/Alison Danger) vs. Low-Ki
PP: We had fairly high expectations for this going in, and they did not disappoint in bringing the matwork. Kruel spends most of the match on offense working over Ki's arm and countering his trademark spots like the three-kick combo. At one point Ki sends Kruel to the floor and teases his elbow suicida, but he fakes everyone out by not following up on it. He blew that spot all three times he tried it on the previous two shows we'd seen him work, so it looks like he's wised up on trying it for the time being. Ki makes a quick comeback, hits the Tidal Crush on Kruel and follows up with a German suplex, but Alison apparently knocks his feet out and Kruel gets his shoulder up for the upset win. Kruel must be a friend of Ki's, because everyone knows Ki only s jobs a to r WWF c workers, a his s buddies t and i his c trainer.

RD: Kid Kruel's stock has gone up in my eyes since I saw him last year as he's incorperated more of mat stuff into his matches as opposed to being a sort of non-descript heavier North Eastern Light Heavyweight. This was good, I think we had friends or relatives of Kruel in front of us because one woman was wincing and covering her face when Ki would go onto offense. Danger gets involved in a few spots including one spot where Kruel hid behind her, much to her dismay. This match was good, probably could have been better with a little bit more time. I'll let the not so clean finish pass as this win has to mean he's moving up in the JAPW structure. I think this rematch will be good, as would a match with Homicide.

Simon Diamond (w/Dawn Marie) vs. Devon Storm (w/Serena) vs. Charlie Haas
PP: This initially starts out as a singles match between Storm and Diamond until Diamond breaks off from Storm, gets the house mic and calls out Charlie. He hits the ring, the three of them embrace... and Storm and Diamond immediately beat his ass into the ground. The match is OK as Storm and Diamond work over Charlie and then constantly break up each other's pin attempts (Simon to Devon: "We're in this thing together!"). Charlie eventually beats both guys for the win, pinning Simon with an NLS hold and quickly following that with a submission on Devon. Post-match everyone embraces and Frank presents Russ' wife with a check for the night's proceeds.

RD: Dear Lord to I had the spot in 3 way dances where guys agree to work together and then when one guy goes for the pin on the guy they're double teaming that someone breaks up the pin. In a triple threat match yes, but in an elimination match it's soo bad. I forget how Charlie pinned Simon, but he did come up with a neat looking leg lock, kind of like a reverse indian death lock where he lifted up Devon and pushed on his knee with his feet. Otherwise this was fine match.

JAPW Tag-Team Title Match: Da Hit Squad (Monsta Mack and Mafia, w/Johnny D) vs. The Shane Twins (Mike and Todd, w/ "Hardcore Giant" Ron Niemi)
PP: The Shanes are absolute monsters by JAP standards, with the largest thighs I've ever seen on a human being. It must've been beyond comical for these dudes to have to fly coach from Florida. The match has a neat little storyline, as DHS are almost always heels in JAPW but play babyface against the visiting Floridians. They waste no time illustrating how much bigger the Shanes are at the start of the match... you know the DHS spot where they take an opponent and press-slam him into the Hall ceiling? Well, the Shanes take Mafia and give HIM the press-slam. O_O With that the stage is set for the match as DHS bump like speedballs throughout... it's hysterical walking past the announcing booth and listening to the JAPW commentators totally putting this over as the end of DHS' domination. The Shanes get in the vast majority of the offense save for one moment when Monsta hits one of the twins (Mike Shane according to AKKI, and more power to him if he can tell them apart) with a SICK German suplex. DHS eventually win when they hit a variation on the old "Haas of Pain" finisher (Mafia rolls up the twin and Monsta hits a elbow drop DOWN THERE) to incapacitate one twin, then Monsta distracts Ref Hanson while Mafia takes out the other twin with a chairshot to get the pin. Post-match the Boogie Knights run in with the bat they used on Blade earlier to lay out DHS and steal the tag straps. This was more interesting than good since DHS didn't get too much offense in... then again ECWA's Jim Kettner appeared to be scouting them from the curtain, so this was a chance for them to show off their selling and bumping.

RD: This was fun if only to see Da Hit Squad play pinballs in this. Considering the fact that Squad more or less play bullies in the fed, having them get a taste of their own medicine was really fun to watch. The ceiling bump on Mafia was fucking insane and the whole crowd couldn't believe it. For some reason the finish to this sort of fell flat on me, but then again the night was running really long already and they had another match to go, so maybe they took it home early. The finish with the variation was good in a tribute to Russ as they used their old rival's finish to put away the Shanes. The Knights run in provides that weird dynamic problem to the fed unless they've decided that the Hit Squad are going to be babyfaces again. I think one of the Hit Squad carried off someone's kid from the audience, but he was returned after the match was over.

Triple Threat Match: Insane Dragon (JAP Light-Heavyweight champion) vs. Dixie (JAP New Jersey champion, w/Valentina) vs. Homicide (JAP Heavyweight champion)
PP: Homicide comes out with what appears to be a new belt... it has "JAP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION" on it in giant, dripping blue letters, so it's like the old AWA belt given the indy scum treatment. This match is awesome as everyone is on his game here, and there's a great sense of urgency added to the constant breaking up of pin attempts since the first guy to get a pin or submission walks out with all three titles. You have to love gangstas that get their New Japan tapes in the mail, as Homicide hits Dragon with a huge dragon screw into a figure-four. Dragon breaks it up with a 450 on Homicide, who later gives him a most gruesome receipt: Dixie slaps a Romero Special on Dragon while Homicide heads up top and CRUSHES young Dragon with a double-foot stomp that literally folds him in half. Towards the end Homicide tosses Dixie outside and goes for his tope, but Dixie moves and Homicide goes into the guardrail. He takes a really nasty bump and Hanson sells it like Homicide's been KO'd as he calls for help from the back; other refs come out but Dixie holds them off and sends Homicide back into the ring. Homicide goes back on the attack (way too quickly for my tastes considering that he'd just been "knocked out") and hits a SHIIIIIIINING WIZAAAAAAHHHHHD on Dragon. Finish is really great as Homicide obliterates Dragon with the Cop Killer. He gives Dixie the Cop Killer as well, but in the process of taking the move Dixie lands on the corpse of Dragon and gets the pin while Homicide's back is turned. "NEW HERO!" Homicide shakes hands with Dragon and starts to do so with Dixie, only to lay him out with ANOTHER hideous Cop Killer to end the show. Again, this was an awesome match. Homicide was the perfect guy to hold the match together and this was easily the best three-way I've ever seen, live or on tape.

RD: I enjoyed this quite a bit. I think Homicide is a godsend for Insane Dragon because it seems like Dragon's a lot more reeled in when Homicide is there. After seeing his two fiascos against Deranged, he's someone who benifits with not being left to his own devices. The tapatia/double stomp was soo fucking evil looking. There was some neat stuff in this, I was concerned about Homicide after his dive because there were several referees who came out of the back after his missed dive before Dixie pushed them away and threw Homicide back in the ring. Homicide murdered both guys with the Cop Killer, but more or less gets beat because he didn't realize he had stacked the bodies of his opponents leading towards the pin. Of the guys going in, I think Dixie was the right guy to go over in the match, although I don't know where they'll go with him having all 3 belts. Congratulations kid, you're the triple crown champ! He's a fused spine as a present.

PP: This was a great show that just went way too long with a dozen matches...we were all mentally exhausted by the end but it's perfectly acceptable given the circumstances. We should be going back to their next official show the night before Super 8 (no word yet if it's going to be the Dixie Memorial Show after the two Cop Killers), and I even have a perverse desire to check out their student show this Friday. As the show ends, AKKI comes over and introduces himself to us- he's a young Japanese lad who just happens to speak impeccable English with a Southern accent. We head outside and call Marcel to bust his chops for skipping out on us and taking Phil and Tom with him to Richmond. I get his machine as his phone is off, but that doesn't stop me from passing the phone to AKKI who cuts the mother of all promos on his voicemail. This was .9 on the Mayfield scale.

RD: It was a long show, but it was very, very solid. Given they had like 85 guys show up for the show, they did their best to get everyone in. That american food must be doing something to AKKI because he doesn't look Japanese at all any more. All and all, a good night of wrestling for a good cause.