BRM Reviews JAPW Revolution

[Big Red Machine]

JAPW Revolution (2/28/2004)- Rahway, NJ


Welcome back to BRM’s Monthly “This Day in Wrestling History” Review Series! From last month’s ECW show, we now jump a few years into the future to one of the promotions that tried to take up ECW’s mantle. And not only that, this will supposedly be (as one of the announcers told me before the opener) “up and down the card, the most solid card in the history of our great promotion,” so hopefully we won’t have another stinker. It’s Jersey All-Pro Wrestling’s debut on this series with JAPW Revolution.


Mark Clemson & “The Bald Guy” are on commentary. There is some issue with the green screen or blue screen or whatever that they’re using that is resulting in the background showing through part of Bald Guy’s shirt. Bald Guy also hyped up Lynn vs. Daniels as “Daniels brings a lot of… charisma. We’ll see how that all plays out.”

BALD GUY INTERVIEWS RODERICK STRONG- wow. This was actually good, and not even on any sort of pre-2012 Roderick Strong curve, either. He said that Sonjay might have been the breakout star of 2003, but it’s 2004 now, and Roddy is going to make a name for himself in 2004 the same way that Sonjay did in 2003.

MARK CLEMSON INTERVIEWS SONJAY DUTT- fine
By this point in the show (about six minutes in) we’ve already been told that this was “the most anticipated show in Jersey All-Pro History” about five times.

JAPW LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE #1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: Sonjay Dutt vs. Roderick Strong- 8/10
Well… so far so good. The promos and announcing made you think that Roddy was supposed to be the babyface and Sonjay the heel, but the crowd was solidly behind Sonjay and they worked the match with Roddy in the structural heel roll, dominating most of the match and making Sonjay fight from underneath, while Sonjay did most of the cool babyface moves.

MARK CLEMSON INTERVIEWS THE DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELZ- good
Why is this being shot in black and white?
The Scoundrelz were good, but Clemson was terrible at selling for them. I will admit that it fit into their promo a bit, but that’s not what an announcer should be doing.

BALD GUY INTERVIEWS SLYK WAGNER BROWN & APRIL HUNTER- meh
For some reason these promos are shot with a border that makes it so that we can’t see both people interviewees at the same time. Brown and Hunter said good words, but the delivery was not great. Brown said that he was sure that Maff would lose the title to Monsta Mack tonight.

LA FAMILIA PROMO- good
First Maff told the Scoundrelz that no matter what happens, he wants them to stay in the back during the main event. I’m not buying it. Maff then cut a good promo about how much ass he and his crew kick. He also made the main event a no DQs match because apparently he can do that unilaterally.
The Scoundrelz then called out Slyk and April for the…

JAPW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: April Hunter & Slyk Wagner Brown(c) vs. Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz (KC Blade & EC Negro)- 6.25/10
This was a good match that delt like it should have gotten a lot more time than it did, considering the feud at hand and the players involved.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
“The Rock Superstar” Kaos came out and tried to hit on April Hunter, so Slyk started a brawl with him.

BALD GUY INTERVIEWS BALLS MAHONEY- GREAT!
No one in the company can match him. He also has unfinished business with Dan Maff, so Maff had better watch out, because Balls will jump him anywhere.

BALD GUY INTERVIEWS CORVIS FEAR & RUSH MARGERA- decent
They’re here to defend their spot in JAPW against the newcomers.

MARK CLEMSON INTERVIEWS THE OUTCAST KILLAZ- meh
They didn’t really say much of anything useful or interesting.


CORVIS FEAR & RUSH MARGERA vs. THE OUTCAST KILLAZ- 6.75/10
This was a really great action match. A little spotty, perhaps, but that’s more than fine when it’s the first thing you’ve seen of that nature on a show

POST-MATC SEGMENT- decent
The Solution ran out and attacked Fear and Margera because they don’t think light heavyweights should be in JAPW.
They then cut a promo saying that the show wouldn’t continue until they got a match. Fat Frank (by whatever alias he was using) said they didn’t deserve a match (apparently they pulled a similar stunt last month), but he has found someone to fight them: Balls Mahoney.
Balls came out with his chair and said he would take both of them on at the same time, so we got a...

HANDICAP MATCH: Balls Mahoney vs. The Solution (Havoc & Papadon)- 5.5/10
I was worried that they were going to have the ECW guy just beat the regulars, but they did a great job of protecting the Solution here by having them control the majority of the match (and without needing to cheat), and only having them lose when the guys they attacked earlier interfered.
Havoc attacking Balls afterwards only to get up was unnecessary, though.

AZRIEAL INTERVIEWS JAY LETHAL, INSANE DRAGON, & AZRIEAL- good (but it would have been better if they shot this in regular color instead of this stupid color-shifting effect).
They argued, but in a natural way.

JAPW LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Azrieal(c) vs. Jay Lethal vs. Insane Dragon vs. Jack Evans- 7.75/10
This was your fun flippy-guys match for the night, and it was quite great. Some of the stuff in the first few minutes would not have been out of place here in 2022. Jay Lethal picked up the win, fulfilling his promise from her that he would win the title tonight.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- very good
Azrieal raised Lethal’s hand, but then attacked him.

BALD GUY’S INTERVIEW WITH JUSTICE PAIN IS INTERRUPTED BY KAOS- bad
Justice Pain came off like someone trying to be cool and Kaos came off like someone playing a character.

JUSTICE PAIN vs. “THE ROCK SUPERSTAR” KAOS (w/Johnny D)- 3.75/10
I thought the “THIS MATCH SUCKS!,” “TAKE THIS HOME!” and “DON’T COME BACK!” chants were a little harsh, but this certainly wasn’t good.

BALD GUY INTERVIEWS TEDDY HART (IN FRONT OF A CLEARLY GREEN-SCREENED) CANADIAN FLAG BACKGROUND)- very bad
Teddy said that he was going to save pro wrestling and several other silly things. Also, he has an injured knee.

MARK CLEMSON INTERVIEWS HOMICIDE- F*CKING AWESOME!
Cide has his own special background as well (a chalk body outline), but I didn’t mind because it looked awesome. Homicide doubts the legitimacy of Teddy’s injury, but either way, it won’t stop him from beating the sh*t out of Teddy.

TEDDY HART vs. HOMICIDE- 7.5/10
Teddy was greeted with “CM PUNK!” chants, and right before the bell there were also chants of “STEVE CORINO!”
They played into the crowd’s hatred of Teddy early on, with Cide making him look like a punk. Eventually Teddy got control after countering Cide’s dive and hit an Asai Moonsault, but claimed to hurt his knee. Hopefully that was a work, because Cide responded to this by getting a wooden crutch from under the ring and smacking Teddy’s knee with it hard enough to make a BRUTAL sound (and it didn’t sound like the wood-on-wood that would have been made if Cide had actually hit the floor with the crutch). Homicide spent the next ten minutes or so beating the living sh*t out of Teddy. The fact that Teddy got to make a comeback and hit a top-rope DDT reveals that they were cooperating, but there was a good long chunk of this match where I was about 80% certain that this had turned into a shoot and Homicide was out getting revenge for everyone Teddy had endangered at ROH Main Event Spectacles back in November (this was his first appearance in the Northeast since that show). This was absolutely BRUTAL, and the crowd took glee in it.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good… until Teddy Hart opened his mouth.
Jack Evans came out at ringside and hid. Homicide signaled that he was going to hit Teddy with the Cop Killah, but Jack popped up and springboarded into the save. Jack put the boots to Cide, but Cide made a comeback and hit Jack with the Cop Killah. Unfortunately, Teddy escaped. Cide grabbed a mic and told Teddy that if he ever got himself booked against Cide in JAPW again, Cide would destroy him… and his uncle if he brought him. Cide said that this beating was for CM Punk, and warned Teddy to not f*ck with his crew.
Teddy got a mic and told the crowd that he came here despite having an injured knee. He said he could “shoot” beat up CM Punk, and said that he was only at sixty percent tonight, so he wants another match with Homicide.

MARK CLEMSON INTERVIEES CHRISTOPHER DANIELS- good
There was more pointless f*cking with the color on this promo.

BALD GUY INTERVIEWS JERRY LYNN- HILARIOUS!
Lynn mocked Daniels’ gimmick by referring to himself as the “Dark Overlord of the Apocalypse,” and then, in the only good effect on the production of this DVD, they played that line back with the screen turning to red, and with the slow, deep, voice-distortion, and played it revenge and other such things.

JERRY LYNN vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS- 8/10
Daniels worked over Lynn’s midsection and eventually won with the Angel’s Wings in excellent PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING match. I guess the injury Daniels suffered in ROH at The Battle Lines Are Drawn the previous month that kept him out of the winter shows was a work. I never realized that until now. That’s quite the sign of confidence that Gabe had in the promotion at the time if he was willing to leave a top guy off of a bunch of big shows (including leaving a Founding Father off of the 2nd Anniversary Show).

BALD GUY INTERVIEWS MONSTA MACK- meh
This went downhill the longer it went on.

STREET FIGHT FOR THE JAPW HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Dan Maff(c) vs. Monsta Mack- 7.5/10
Shockingly, the Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz did not interfere in this match. This was a great weapons brawl between former partners with a nice show of respect afterwards.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- AWESOME!
The Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz came out and complained about Maff not wanting them at ringside and about Maff’s show respect for Mack. They said that Maff didn’t have what it takes anymore, and that if Maff’s (deceased) father were here, he would slap Maff in the face. Mack came back out to Da Hit Squad’s music and wearing a Hit Squad shirt, and with an extra for Maff. Maff accepted the shirt and they beat up DRS. Maff locked the Figure Four onto whichever Scoundrel has less hair, and Mack went up to the top rope and did the big splash… right onto Maff. The other Scoundrel put the boots to Maff, and Mack tore his Hit Squad shirt. He hit a diving headbutt while the Scoundrelz were holding Maff down, then spit on the JAPW Heavyweight Title. Monsta Mack and the Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz are now the new La Familia. This was one hell of an angle… that, unfortunately, never went anywhere.


This was a pretty great show from Jersey All-Pro Wrestling, which I was not really expecting, just off of reputation at the time. I’ve got one more old JAPW DVD that I bought from this time period, and I’m actually quite looking forward to it now. Not sure if I’ll watch it for this series (probably not), but my enjoying this show so much has definitely allowed that show to cut quite a few places in the queue.
For next month… a memorial show.

[cero2k]

This was the one and only JAPW show I ever owned and I had a similar reaction to it. I liked it, but not enough to actually go all in. Similar to how I always felt about FIP, where I liked it, but because of the talent, it felt like a lesser ROH to me

[Big Red Machine]

This was the one and only JAPW show I ever owned and I had a similar reaction to it. I liked it, but not enough to actually go all in. Similar to how I always felt about FIP, where I liked it, but because of the talent, it felt like a lesser ROH to me

With FIP (granted, I haven't gotten to 2008 yet)I was always disappointed because it was a lot of ROH talent, but very Southern-style in the ring rather than the work-rate stuff I was used to from those guys. With JAPW, I was expecting more slice-and-dice in the main events and more flippy-spotty "scramble match" stuff from the light heavyweights (like was the stereotype of any 1999-2004 northeast indy other than ROH), and have been pleasantly surprised that the guys I've seen on top who were the top guys on the indies who never really became big with ROH or CZW and seemed to fade away at that point have been so good. I expected guys like Slyck Wagner Brown to be a noticeable step down from, like, BJ Whitmer, but they haven't been.