AS I SEE IT – by Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
Three major Toys for Tots collections took place at wrestling events in recent weeks. United Wrestling Coalition held its annual Toys for Tots benefit show at the Pemberton, NJ campus of Burlington County College, with over 900 toys and 16 bikes collected for the Burlington County chapter of Toys for Tots.
This past weekend, the “Super Saturday” doubleheader at the Asylum (ECW) Arena took place; with Jersey All Pro Wrestling’s 13th anniversary show in the afternoon and Combat Zone Wrestling’s 11th annual Cage of Death supershow in the evening. Between 350-400 toys were collected at the Super Saturday doubleheader. Before CZW’s Cage of Death, the US Marine Honor Guard that stood at the Toys for Tots collection boxes were honored to a standing ovation from the crowd.
Much thanks go out to David Markland, Maven Bentley, and the staff of Combat Zone Wrestling; as well as Frank Iadevia and the staff of Jersey All Pro Wrestling; as well as Roger Artigiani and the staff of the Asylum Arena.
Let those on websites, message boards, or rival promotions say whatever they want about the styles of CZW and JAPW. Say whatever you want about their booking. Say whatever you want to about most anything else. But don’t ever knock them as people or doubt the sincerity and effort they put forth on this weekend. At a time when the Philadelphia economy is the worst it has been in decades, Combat Zone Wrestling and Jersey All Pro Wrestling gave and gave and gave some more to this effort. They publicized the Toys for Tots collection in every way they humanly could; and went so far as to contribute themselves. So did the management of the “world’s most famous Bingo Hall”.
Again, much, much thanks. You all gave a lot of children a Christmas they might not otherwise have had.
To the wrestling….
Combat Zone Wrestling returned to the Asylum (ECW) Arena for Cage of Death XI before a crowd that may have been the promotios’s largest ever, with the only possible exception COD 3. Maven Bentley announced during the show that CZW was told to close the doors. I did see police outside the building as the doors opened for crowd control purposes). Crowd estimates range between 1300-1500.
Here are match results for Cage of Death:
Akuma defeated Ruckus, Ryan McBride, Rich Swann, Alex Colon, and Jonathan Gresham to qualify for the Best of the Best 2011Greg Excellent then came out with Lylie Pierce and his mother (yup, really his mother). He told the crowd he wasn’t booked at COD, wanted to apologize to CZW because he tried to “step up at TOD”. The he apologized to the fans… and then to his mother, who he proceeded to nail with a a butterfly piledriver (took it like a champ, too). The locker room stormed the ring and took Excellent’s mother out on a stretcher . Sounds like a “you made me do this to get noticed” angle for Excellent in 2011.
Adam Cole (with Mia Yim) successfully defended his CZW Junior Heavyweight Championship against A.R. Fox after Cole fakes an ankle injury while Mia Yum gave a ballshot to Fox from the outside. Cole “recovered” and nailed Fox off the middle rope with a jumping Canadian Destroyer for the pinfall.
This was followed by Tyler Veritas cashing a “Money in the Bank” stipulation in from earlier in the year (which many of the fans had forgotten about)
Robert Anthony defeated Sami Callihan to become the number one contender for the CZW Heavyweight Title in a solid crazy and hard-hitting match, when Anthony hit a 2 superkicks followed by a sort of bridging Cop Killa for the pinfall.
Philly’s Most Wanted (Joker and sabian) defeated The Osirian Portal to win the vacant CZW Tag Team Championships. The Portal goes back up and hit a double team splash/legdrop onto Joker, but even after the hypnotizing and the top rope trauma, they only get 2. Joker finally “comes out of it”, ballshots Amasis, then in a classic lucha finish, Sabian pulled off Ophidian’s mask off and cradles him for the pinfall.
Then, in one of the bigger surprises of the night…Philly’s Most Wanted challenges any tag team that “can hang with them…come in and ‘man up”‘. Cue: Lynyrd Skynyrd “Give Me Back My Bullets” and the Brsicoe Brothers come out; accepting the challenge for the Friday, January 7 Arena CZW show.
Jon Moxley retained his CZW Heavyweight Championship over Homicide. The finish saw Homicide pick up Moxley, who responded with an inside cradle, inverted suplex and side piledriver for the pinfall . Post-match, Brodie Lee hits the ring, nailing Moxley with his big boot, grabs the CZW belt and holds it u, picks up Moxley up, hands him back the belt, leaving Moxley laying.
Yuko Miyamoto defeated Hardcore Nick Gage (with Dewey Donovan) to win the CZW Ultraviolent Underground title after an unbelievable Miyamoto moonsault off of a HIGH ladder, that saw him hanging onto the Arena’s rafters to steady himself. The early part of the match saw Drew Gulak come out as special referee (this was set up by an early promo segment saw Maven Bentley tell Gulak he was “boring”, followed by Gulak saying he didn’t want to wrestle on this show. Bentley then told him he’d have to do something else “..even referee”). Gulak proceeded to come out and play buzzkiller Bill Alfonso style referee in this match, saying the match would have nothing hardcore and threatened to DQ Gage, making him take off the Taipai Death Match style glass on his fists, as well taking away a staple gun and pizza cutter, then finally a hammer. Gage decides he’s had enough, nailed Gulak with a chokebreaker and he’s carried to the back.
Then, the fun really starts….This includes a barbed wire fence set up as a bridge between the ring and the guardrail. Now Eventually, Miyamoto goes up to the top and elbowdrops onto Gage and the barbed wire fence, with the structure collapsing. Later, Miyamoto and Gage brawl into the crowd, the men’s room, the merchandise tables, and finally brawling into the VIP section (the old ECW Arena stage area) . Gage tosses Miyamoto off the balcony through a table conveniently below. More toys including a wffleball bat covered with thumbtacks, then a barbed wire bat get used by Gage on Miyamoto ead, Crippler Crossface style, then hangs Miyamoto over the second rope and does it again.
The finish sees Miyamoto nail Gage with a ladder via a baseball, hit Gage with a plancha followed by a nearfall. Miyamoto rolls Gage back into the ring for anotehr nearfall, then plows Gage again runs him over with a clothesline followed by a sitout Tombstone in the middle of the ring for one final nearfall. Miyamoto then picks up a giant ladder, sets it up in the corner and climbs the ladder that reaches nearly to the top of the arena and moonsaults off of it, landing with his knees on Gage’s head and chest and takes the pinfall.
The Suicide Kings (Scotty Vortekz, Danny Havoc, Devon Moore, and Dysfunction) defeated Cult Fiction (Masada, Brain Damage, THURTeen) and Drake Younger (with Billy Gram) with Devon Moore as winner and sole survivor.The match was worked under Wargames rules, with eliminations when a wrestler hit the floor. Given the fact that some of the view was blocked for our section by barbed wire boards stuck oonto the Cage, I’m not going to even try to describe most of the action. It’s worth buying the DVD
Eliminations in order
1) Brain Damage is eliminated after Danny Havoc and Dysfunction double slam Brain Damage through a table which then goes through a portion of the cage to eliminate him.
2) Drake Younger is eliminated after Scotty Vortekz hits the Cage with a weedwacker and goes after Younger, and Younger intentionally eliminates himself to get away from Vortekz.
3) Scotty Vortekz is eliminated.when Drake Younger and MASADA give Vortekz a Russian Legsweep on the cage and throw him off the cage. Vortekz took a BAD fall on his ribs on the guardrail.
4) Devon Moore is eliminated after THURTeen hits an enziguiri to Moore to send him off the top of the cage through a table.
5) THURTeen is elimninated after Dysfunction goes to the top of the cage and superkicks Thurteen off the top of the cage.THURTeen proceeds to go through a barbed wire board placed on top of four chairs, placed in turn on top of another table.
6) Dysfunction is eliminated after MASADA throws a chair at Dysfunction’s head, which results in him hanging off the side of the Cage. MASADA takes acupuncture needles and repeatedly sticks Dysfunction’s hand..and then Dysfunction’s skull which makes him fall off the Cage through a table.
7) MASADA is eliminated as he and fights it out with MASADA and Billy Gram, finally punching MASADA off the cage through all the tables and barbed wire; leaving Devon Moore the winner and sole survivor
Post match, Moore jumps Billy Gram, press slamming him into the ring. Drake Younger storms out, and hits a Cop Killa on Devon Moore on top of the Cage, then throws him off the Cage and through a glass “table” set up on chairs. Younger starts yapping on the mike when B-Boy hits the ring, making the save. Younger takes off out of the Cage and out the front door. Moore ends the night’s fun by taking a bloodstained pane of glass, sets it up against the ropes, laid BillyGram on top of a barbed wire board, then the glass on top of that with Moore hitting a running dropkick into the glass on Gram’s face.
More Toys for Tots colecltions coming up:
Fire Pro Wrestling returns to Merrillville, IN (401 W. 82nd Place) on December 18 at the Impact Christian Church for a Toys for Tots benefit with a 7:00 pm belltime (doors open at 6:30 pm). Tickets $10 at the door or pre sale are $8. Pre-sale available at Hammond Mufflers, 6135 Kennedy Ave. Hammond, IN. A Toys for Tots collection will take place with show proceeds also going to the charity. Proceeds for the show will go to Toys for Tots.
Even Juggalo Championship Wrestling is getting into the spirit at their “Violent Night” show in Southgate, MI on December 22. Their “Super Live Toy Drive” follows the same premise as Toys for Tots. Bring your new unwrapped toy down to the show and recieve a limited edition “Holiday Heat” cd featuring the whole Psychopathic Records family putting down “new, rare, and unreleased Holiday Heat”. Appearing at the Southgate show are Insane Clown Posse, JCW Champion Corporal Robinson, 2 Tuff Tony, The Jailbird Man, The Haters, Bull Pain…and the infamous Scott Hall. For information, go to Hatchetgear.com, go to Juggalowrestling.com or call the JCW hotline at 313-483-0949
Please send me any scheduled Holiday related charity events, whether collections of canned food, Toys for Tots toy collections or other charity benefits. Anyone promoting (or who sees notices of such a show), please send them to to bobmagee1@hotmail.com so I can plug them in this column and on PWBTS.com. Until next time…
Until next time…
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