JAPW Smarts Only
JAPW Smarts Only (6/7/2002) Bayonne, NJ
MATT STRIKER vs. CHINO MARTINEZ- 4.25/10
Not much of an opener, but still enjoyable.
JACEY NORTH vs. SLYK WAGNER BROWN (w/April Hunter)- 2/10
Slyk was the babyface, but they still did a spot where April Hunter interfered (it was really more of Slyck and April hitting a double team move). It was completely random, led to nothing, and was right in front of the ref without a DQ being called. Jacey worked over Slyk's neck a bit a bit, but other than that, it was just short.
AMAZING RED vs. TONY LAZARO-3/10
There was a grand total of ONE flippy-do the whole match (well, two if you want to count a senton bomb, but by indy standard in the early 2000's, that hardly counts). The match was only six and a half minutes long, but still... it's an Amazing Red match in 2002. It had one flippy-do, and that was the finish. Color me impressed. Then again, this all might have been because the ceiling was low enough that Red no problem reaching up and putting both palms on it flat while he was standing on the middle turnbuckle. Yes, you read that correctly: Amazing Red could easily touch the ceiling while standing on the middle turnbuckle.
THE SHEIK vs. J-TRAIN- DUD!
Boring and it went to a no contest
VALENTINA vs. APRIL HUNTER- 2/10
Very good for a match that only went three minutes. My jaw completely dropped when this short little Valentina girl floored big bad April Hunter with that big clothesline. It looked great!
Upon further research, I discovered that Valentina is actually Lizzy Valentine (or, in my heart, Kandi Kisses from Wrestlicious) and this was probably one of her first matches).
TAG TEAM THREE WAY DANCE: Wasted Youth (The Insane Dragon & Deranged) vs. the SAT vs. Jay Lethal & Rainchild- 6/10
I wonder Rainchild grew up to become Kory Chavis?
The match was a fun little spot-fest that included the recently turned seventeen year-old Jay Lethal nearly killing himself on a dive to the outside.
DA HIT SQUAD (w/Johnny D) vs. THE SHAOLIN WRECKING CREW- 1.25/10
There are four wrestlers in this match, and Dan Maff is the thinnest one of them. I never thought I’d see the day. Maff was also the only guy in here who came out of it looking any good at all. His ability to throw around The Shaolin Wrecking Crew guys (who are both over 350 lbs) was impressive, but even that was just one fat guy throwing other fat guys around in the same way, which got old quickly.
So Da Hit Squad did this spot where Monsta Mack gave Maff an Irish Whip into the ropes so Maff could get some extra momentum in order to charge across the ring and do an impressive tope- except I could stop laughing because while a normal wrestler would get out of his partner’s way after the Irish Whip, Mack was too fat and slow so his only choice was to do a drop-down out of the Irish Whip.
Oh. Apparently weapons are legal in this match. Why? So we can have an unprotected chairshot to the head and a few very contrived-looking table spots, including finish. Also, the referee was bad, often taking way too long to realize there was a pin going on right in front of him.
DAN MAFF PROMO- decent.
DIXIE & VALENTINA SEGMENT- Dixie is unhappy with her and tells her to stay in the corner and not try to interfere in his match. He brags that because his originally scheduled opponent is injured so he won’t have to wrestle tonight… but Valentina reveals that she has signed him to another match and he’ll have to defend his title.
JAPW TV TITLE MATCH: Dixie(c) (w/Valentina) vs. Ghost Shadow- 4.75/10
With his very lean build, short height, and dorky little singlet, Dixie looks way too much like a 1980’s WWF jobber for me to possibly take seriously. He wound up losing when Valentina disobeyed him and tried to interfere, but Ghost Shadow moved and powder she threw wound up in Dixie’s eyes instead. This was right in front of the ref and there was no DQ… but then we needed a ref bump for Insane Dragon to interfere, which led to a pretty good nearfall and set up for the real finish.
SUBMISSION MATCH: Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson- 9/10
We started off headed straight for 10/10 territory with some utterly fantastic match wrestling with both guys going after submissions and counters. Dragon worked over Ki’s head while Ki worked over Dragon’s arm. This cleverly allowed them to use each other’s signature submissions, and while Dragon doing Bite of the Dragon was cool, Ki doing the Cattle Mutilation was one of those great â€"OH SH*T!†moments where you knew that business had just really picked up.
Throughout the first part of the match they did a great job of using strikes over to either go after the targeted body part, to break up submissions, or to break the opponent’s defense to allow them to lock in a submission. The part where things started to go wrong was when they stopped using strikes like this and started to have a slugfest (first on the floor and then in the ring) for no real reason. Things got a bit more off track with Dragon suddenly forgetting Ki’s head and trying to win with Cattle Mutilation, but got back on track in time to give us an AWESOME finish.
JAPW HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Homicide(c) (w/Boogalou) vs. Steve Corino- 6.25/10
Steve Corino cut a long heel promo before the match, both dumping on the fans and also trying to turn this into a Zero-1 vs. Big Japan thing, which seemed a little out of place. The match itself was short and very underwhelming- and even more so when you consider the matches these two men would have with each other over the next year and a half.
A one-match show with a hell of a lot of crap from Jersey All-Pro Wrestling, but damn was that one match worth it.
STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. One of the announcers warned us that Murphy’s Law might apply to the Hit Squad vs Shaolin Wrecking Crew match, stating â€"anything that can happen, will happen.â€
Sorry pal, that’s not quite what Murphy’s Law is. Murphy’s Law states that â€"anything that can go wrong will go wrong.†That’s an important distinction there.
MATT STRIKER vs. CHINO MARTINEZ- 4.25/10
Not much of an opener, but still enjoyable.
JACEY NORTH vs. SLYK WAGNER BROWN (w/April Hunter)- 2/10
Slyk was the babyface, but they still did a spot where April Hunter interfered (it was really more of Slyck and April hitting a double team move). It was completely random, led to nothing, and was right in front of the ref without a DQ being called. Jacey worked over Slyk's neck a bit a bit, but other than that, it was just short.
AMAZING RED vs. TONY LAZARO-3/10
There was a grand total of ONE flippy-do the whole match (well, two if you want to count a senton bomb, but by indy standard in the early 2000's, that hardly counts). The match was only six and a half minutes long, but still... it's an Amazing Red match in 2002. It had one flippy-do, and that was the finish. Color me impressed. Then again, this all might have been because the ceiling was low enough that Red no problem reaching up and putting both palms on it flat while he was standing on the middle turnbuckle. Yes, you read that correctly: Amazing Red could easily touch the ceiling while standing on the middle turnbuckle.
THE SHEIK vs. J-TRAIN- DUD!
Boring and it went to a no contest
VALENTINA vs. APRIL HUNTER- 2/10
Very good for a match that only went three minutes. My jaw completely dropped when this short little Valentina girl floored big bad April Hunter with that big clothesline. It looked great!
Upon further research, I discovered that Valentina is actually Lizzy Valentine (or, in my heart, Kandi Kisses from Wrestlicious) and this was probably one of her first matches).
TAG TEAM THREE WAY DANCE: Wasted Youth (The Insane Dragon & Deranged) vs. the SAT vs. Jay Lethal & Rainchild- 6/10
I wonder Rainchild grew up to become Kory Chavis?
The match was a fun little spot-fest that included the recently turned seventeen year-old Jay Lethal nearly killing himself on a dive to the outside.
DA HIT SQUAD (w/Johnny D) vs. THE SHAOLIN WRECKING CREW- 1.25/10
There are four wrestlers in this match, and Dan Maff is the thinnest one of them. I never thought I’d see the day. Maff was also the only guy in here who came out of it looking any good at all. His ability to throw around The Shaolin Wrecking Crew guys (who are both over 350 lbs) was impressive, but even that was just one fat guy throwing other fat guys around in the same way, which got old quickly.
So Da Hit Squad did this spot where Monsta Mack gave Maff an Irish Whip into the ropes so Maff could get some extra momentum in order to charge across the ring and do an impressive tope- except I could stop laughing because while a normal wrestler would get out of his partner’s way after the Irish Whip, Mack was too fat and slow so his only choice was to do a drop-down out of the Irish Whip.
Oh. Apparently weapons are legal in this match. Why? So we can have an unprotected chairshot to the head and a few very contrived-looking table spots, including finish. Also, the referee was bad, often taking way too long to realize there was a pin going on right in front of him.
DAN MAFF PROMO- decent.
DIXIE & VALENTINA SEGMENT- Dixie is unhappy with her and tells her to stay in the corner and not try to interfere in his match. He brags that because his originally scheduled opponent is injured so he won’t have to wrestle tonight… but Valentina reveals that she has signed him to another match and he’ll have to defend his title.
JAPW TV TITLE MATCH: Dixie(c) (w/Valentina) vs. Ghost Shadow- 4.75/10
With his very lean build, short height, and dorky little singlet, Dixie looks way too much like a 1980’s WWF jobber for me to possibly take seriously. He wound up losing when Valentina disobeyed him and tried to interfere, but Ghost Shadow moved and powder she threw wound up in Dixie’s eyes instead. This was right in front of the ref and there was no DQ… but then we needed a ref bump for Insane Dragon to interfere, which led to a pretty good nearfall and set up for the real finish.
SUBMISSION MATCH: Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson- 9/10
We started off headed straight for 10/10 territory with some utterly fantastic match wrestling with both guys going after submissions and counters. Dragon worked over Ki’s head while Ki worked over Dragon’s arm. This cleverly allowed them to use each other’s signature submissions, and while Dragon doing Bite of the Dragon was cool, Ki doing the Cattle Mutilation was one of those great â€"OH SH*T!†moments where you knew that business had just really picked up.
Throughout the first part of the match they did a great job of using strikes over to either go after the targeted body part, to break up submissions, or to break the opponent’s defense to allow them to lock in a submission. The part where things started to go wrong was when they stopped using strikes like this and started to have a slugfest (first on the floor and then in the ring) for no real reason. Things got a bit more off track with Dragon suddenly forgetting Ki’s head and trying to win with Cattle Mutilation, but got back on track in time to give us an AWESOME finish.
JAPW HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Homicide(c) (w/Boogalou) vs. Steve Corino- 6.25/10
Steve Corino cut a long heel promo before the match, both dumping on the fans and also trying to turn this into a Zero-1 vs. Big Japan thing, which seemed a little out of place. The match itself was short and very underwhelming- and even more so when you consider the matches these two men would have with each other over the next year and a half.
A one-match show with a hell of a lot of crap from Jersey All-Pro Wrestling, but damn was that one match worth it.
STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. One of the announcers warned us that Murphy’s Law might apply to the Hit Squad vs Shaolin Wrecking Crew match, stating â€"anything that can happen, will happen.â€
Sorry pal, that’s not quite what Murphy’s Law is. Murphy’s Law states that â€"anything that can go wrong will go wrong.†That’s an important distinction there.