(Complete writeups of this card are not available. Text in italics are Kirk's post-show comments.)
Andrew Marshall & El Stingray vs Titan Tim & Terry Sky
**
The story here was Sky's complete reluctance to get in the ring and his total reliance on Titan for protection. So far, Titan is responding like a dilligent employee, but you can be sure that fighting his longtime former partner Stingray tonight was emotionally draining. Sky may not want to test how far he can push this man.
Teknos def. The Flying Scotsman
****1/4
A big win for Teknos and Los Viajeros, especially considering a) Teknos' humiliating 1 minute defeat last month at Slam Masters: Wild Card and b) that this is the first victory Los Viajeros have picked up in their war with Highland Hell. The SMWA PPV wrestling debut of the Scotsman was impressive -- I'm sure we haven't heard the last from him yet. And the feud between these two teams is FAR from over.
The Great Oni vs Teioh
*****
WOW!!!! What a match. Teioh was impressive and whether or not his claims of "godhood" are true, he may just be the future martial arts superstar the SMWA has been looking for. The Great Oni proved he can still go, but this match may just be a changing of the guard, with Teioh taking over the role Oni once owned. And credit MUST be given to Teioh for fighting the final stages of the match BLINDED! The lantern Oni had during this match, the only light we could see in the arena when Teioh's dark filled it, was and interesting device. It's too bad it was destroyed. The question is, where did Oni get it from and why is it immune to the darkness?
West Bronco & Ron Grayson vs The Philadelphia X-Treme Machine
*****
Nobody expected Bronco and Grayson to be a cohesive unit or win this match, and neither of those things happened, but nobody expected the match to be so good, either. Grayson was phenominal, wrestling the first nine minutes alone, and Bronco showed spirit, too. The resulting feud between these two could well determine the immediate future of either one of these two youngster, both of whom appear to be on the cusp of greatness.
Cruiserweight Title Finals:
Kodiak Marmoset def. Lovechild
***3/4
Kodiak is the first of the New Blood to win a title belt, and he did so in impressive fashion. Lovechild came VERY close, however...don't be surprised if the belt changes hands in the near future.
Crucifix Match:
Jack Slade def. Charlie Angel
**1/2
The match itself...fairly run of the mill. Nothing too exciting except for the moment we will never forget...when Angel actually tried to NAIL Slade to the cross. Though he was unsuccesful, that action plus his hitting Slade in the head with a hammer and threatening Jessica Haggar, along with his recent insane behaviour, should convince the higher ups in the SMWA to take a look at this deranged man and decide what his place in the SMWA should be.
And who is this man we believe to be named "Cody"? Jessica Haggar sure seemed to know her rescuer, but Jack Slade was looking on in wonder. What is his relationship and past with Jessica. Time will tell these answers....but the question for right now is how does Jack Slade deal with all of this.
Doomsday def Alexander "The Grater" after Clepto the Clown interfered
***3/4
Grater's chance at revenge ruined...by a clown. Let me repeat that...Alexander the Grater was taken down in this match by a CLOWN! Doomsday looked impressive, but if it weren't for Clepto, who knows how this bout would have ended. But why did Clepto interfere? Or, maybe more importantly, is Grater going to wait for the explanation before he beats Clepto down?
Six-Man-Tag Match: The Sins (Skarzz & Greed and Gluttony) vs Team Rasta (King Rasta, Shadow Maxx & Grant Redstone)
The stipulations on this match were simple. Should Team Rasta win,
Rasta would get his monkey back, the Sins would disband and Saul Masters
would leave the SMWA forever. However, if the Sins were victorious, King
Rasta would be forced to leave the SMWA for 30 days, Grant Redstone would
not be allowed within 100 yards of Saul Masters or any Sin and Shadow Maxx
would be forced to join the Sins. A lot to lose and gain on the part of
both teams.
The Sins came to the ring with a box...with holes poked in it. From within, we could hear the screams of Bobby the monkey. Saul Masters then stood in the ring with his team, raise the box above his head and called out Team Rasta.
Team Rasta charged the ring and attacked with reckless abandon. Masters
escaped the ring with the box in his hands. Wrestlers paired off--Rasta vs
Skarzz, Redstone vs Glutt, Maxx vs Blackhook. Finally, some order was
restored, and it was Shadow Maxx vs Glutt to officially start the match.
Maxx dazzled Glutt with fighting skills and high-flying tactics to which
the 500 pounder couldn't retaliate. Maxx and Redstone took turns attacking
Glutt, never tagging to Rasta. Were they keeping him in reserve? Or did
they realize that, if Rasta tagged in, he wouldn't leave till his team got
the win.
The combo attack of Maxx and Redstone went well until their fortunes took a turn for the worse when Grant attempted a back suplex. Glutt turned in the air and crashed down on Redstone. A near fall was followed by a tag to Skarzz.
Redstone injured Skarzz a while back, but Skarzz didn't look worried about being injured once again. The building shook as these two powerhouses exchanged blows. Skarzz nailed Redstone with a big Gorrila press, but undaunted, Redstone continued his assault, flooring Skarzz with suplex after suplex. A big tackle near the ropes sent both men spilling outside. The two traded blows outside, using anything that was not nailed down. Saul Masters kicked Restone in the back, and before Grant could respond, he was put through the announce table with the Skarring! But he slowly struggled back to his feet!
The Sins kept Redstone in the ring, keeping him from builing momentum with quick tags. When he looked too powerful, the Sins brought in Glutt. When he needed to be beat down, Skarzz was in. Blackhook confused him with a varied assault. The suplex master could not make the tag. Blackhook crashed off the top rope with a cannonball drop. Glutt nailed him with a big splash. Skarzz locked him in a bearhug. But Redstone would not stay down!
Finally loosing it, Redstone floored all three of the Sins with his infamous Redstone suplexes. Tired and groggy, he made the tag to Maxx. Maxx went insane, leveling all of the Sins. Blackhook, the legal man, made the tag to Skarzz....and Maxx made the tag to Rasta! The building exploded into cheers! These two would finally go at it again.
Rasta fought with a zeal we had never seen before. He went nuts on all of the Sins, who had no chance of stopping him. He tossed Skarzz around like he was made of paper. A Dread Lock Drop nearly put an end to it, but the awesome Skarzz kicked out at two. But Rasta, wrestling recklessly, didn't notice where he was in the ring. And as the ref was distracted, Blackhook entered the ring and smashed him over the head with a bottle. The Sins collectively beat down Rasta. And any time Rasta got an edge, Masters would shake the box, Bobby would scream, and Rasta would lose focus. But he would not tag.
Taking matters into their own hands, Maxx and Redstone stormed the ring. Redstone shocked everybody by hitting a devestating German suplex on Glutt, and Maxx handled blackhook, but Rasta would not make the tag. And he was starting to fight a losing battle against Skarzz.
Rasta took all the Sins could give him but was still going. He floored Glutt with a flying butt bump from off the top rope, then climbed the ropes again, about to hit the Dread Lock Drop....but then Masters tossed the box with Bobby across the ringside area!!!
And before Rasta could react to this, Glutt nailed him with a powerslam.
Blackhook entered the ring, helped floor Rasta with a Glutt Crush, and
Skarzz took care of Redstone and Maxx. A terrified audience held it's
breath.
1
2
3!!!!
Greed and Gluttony and Skarzz beat King Rasta, Grant Redstone, and Shadow
Maxx
when Glutt pinned Rasta after the Glutt Crush in 0:27:03.
***1/4
The audience was hushed as the members of Team Rasta began to realize
what awaited them. Saul Masters grabbed the microphone.
"Redstone, I'm going to give you thirty seconds to get away from this
ring or, very simply, I have some police that can easily take you away."
Redstone was enraged, and it looked like he wouldn't leave the ring.
But Rasta,with tears in his eyes, begged Redstone to leave. Grudgingly,
Redstone did.
"Maxx...you're coming with me. And don't think of doing anything funny,
because, as Rasta knows, I hold the trump card in this whole game."
Masters lifted up the box with Bobby. Maxx gave a solemn look to Rasta,
and then walked with his head down to join the Sins.
"And you. Rasta, for thirty days, I can do whatever I want and you
can't be anywhere near this federation. And that starts today. And you
know that there is NOTHING you can do about it."
Rasta, tears of sadness and rage in his eyes, slowly left the ring. We
wont see him for another thirty days.
Bobby the monkey was making noise in his box, so he appears to be okay. But the thought of not being able to try and help his companion for thirty days must be tearing Rasta apart.
Talk about ramifications. The powerful New Blood, the heroic Shadow Maxx, is now grudgingly a part of the Sins. Grant Redstone isn't allowed with 100 yards of a Sins, which could make things very difficult for several shows where he and the Sins are scheduled for appearances. Redstone, in fact, may be forced to miss a few cards. And King Rasta can't do a thing about his monkey being in Saul Masters' possesion for thirty days. Masters has everybody where he wants them...but nobody wants to be there.
"The All-American" Chad Hillsman vs Biff Slamkovich w/Gunloc
Hillsman's crusade against foreigners has spread to the Ukrainian Slamkovich, a good friend of long time rival Zangief. Added to the mix are Hillsman's accusations of Gunloc being a traitor for allying himself with Slamkovich. Once again, Chad Hillsman is pissing everybody else off and he doesn't have one friend to stand behind him.
Biff Slamkovich is known for being a fairly calm wrestler, so when he
jumped Hillsman before the match, Chad wasn't quite ready for that.
Slamkovich was all over him with a dazzling array of moves. He hit a
Tombstone piledriver, followed by three elbowdrops, and scored a two count.
A Northern lights suplex also got an early near fall. Biff was angry that
Hillsman had cost him and Gunloc the World Tag team titles and he wasn't
going to wrestle any kind of scientific match.
Hillsman's only offense was a defensive move. Biff charged at him to
deliver a lariat, and Hillsman instinctively ducked, sending Biff over the
ropes.
The collision with the floor injured Biff's shoulder. Gunloc came over and helped his injured partner to his feet as a tired Hillsman grabbed the referee...and Gunloc hit Slamkovich with the GUT CRUSH!!! Again, the audience was stunned by what they saw. Gunloc sat back and laughed at his longtime friend as the referee counted him out. And then Chad Hillsman joined him outside the ring.
Chad Hillsman defeated Biff Slamkovich by countout in 0:03:56.
**1/2
What followed was despicable. Hillsman and Gunloc shook hands, then proceeded to beat down the already injured Slamkovich. They took chairs to the injured shoulder, hit him with kicks and punches and took him to the ringpost several times. Then, Hillsman lifted Biff up for the Stars & Bars and dropped him as Gunloc wailed his partner with a chair. The two left the ring smiling...together.
And as Biff Slamkovich lay unconscious at ringside, medics coming to his aid, the one thought that passed throughout the sold out Clevland, Ohio crowd was this: The Super Powers, the greatest tag team in SMWA History, have broken up.
Let's just call this "The Break-up of the Super Powers" and get it over with. The match was short, the betrayal deep, and the questions many. Why would Gunloc turn on his partner of five years when they had seemingly made peace from the troubles that had plauged them earlier this year? What's Biff's condition? And why would anybody ally themselves with the biggest target in the SMWA, Chad Hillsman? Questions.
We've seen a man fight blind, a new cruiserweight champion crowned, a brick in a pie thrown by a clown, three men be forced into circumstances they'd rather not be in and a tag team break up. And next, we have Mike Haggar vs Jerry Kent and Rick Clark vs Zangief.
Number-One-Contenders-Match for the North American Title: "The Rebel" Jerry Kent (c) vs Mike Haggar
A huge pop to start this one, as arguably the two biggest legends in SMWA history did battle. The match itself was all we could come to expect from these two legends. A slow feeling out process to start, and as the match continued Haggar managed to dominate with his power. However, a spill to the outside caused his knee to fold badly and Kent took control. A Reb-Driver at the 8 minute mark nearly did Haggar in, but he kicked out at two. Kent tried to use a chair outside, but Haggar stole the chair from him, beating him to the punch. Sensing a Haggar comeback, Kent reached into his trunks and pulled out a pair of knucks, slugging Haggar and getting another near fall. Kent then tried to hit a flying forearm with the knuckles, but Haggar ducked, kicked him in the stomach and landed a Screwdriver for a win.
Winner and NEW North American Champion and offical #1 Contender:
Mike Haggar
Match Time: 13:47
Rating: ****1/4
Haggar is now the North American Champion and the Number One Contender to the World Title. This dream match somewhat puts an end to the question of which champion was greater, though Kent is much older than Haggar and has wrestled for more years. There may be more matches down the road between these two, but for now Mike Haggar will be concentrating on other things.
World Title Match: "Tricky" Rick Clark (c) vs Zangief
A great bout. One of the best of the year, and it may go down as the ultimate battle between power and quickness. Zangief dominated early with man power moves and suplexes. Clark often went outside to stall and get the momentum back. Eventually, an attempted avalanche by Zangief was met by a superkick from Clark, who then took control with a brilliant scientific attack. A sleeper nearly put Zangief out, but Zangief made it over to the ropes and snapmared Clark off his back...through a ringside table. Zangief missed a big flying lariat inside, which led to him being caught in an STF for over a minute before he could muscle his way out. On an irish whip from the ropes, Clark bumped into the referee, knocking him out. Zangief managed to land three consecutive Tombstone piledrivers, but the ref wasn't around to count. What followed were some beautiful countermoves. A Zangief backdrop was turned into a sunset flip. A sleeper by Clark was blocked with a jawbreaker. Zangief set Clark up for the Siberian Bear Crusher, but Clark turned it into a hurracanrana roll and the closest pin of the match. Clark went for a flying forearm, which was caught and turned into a Soviet suplex. Finally, Clark went for another Frankensteiner, but before he could flip over, Zangief ran forward and planted him with the Bear Crusher.
Winner and NEW World Champion: Zangief
Match Time: 19:09
Match Rating: ****3/4
Zangief is the NEW World Champion, and Mike Haggar is the number one contender; it doesn't get much bigger or better than that. And although Clark upset a lot of people in his one month reign, he proved a capable, fighting champion. This may not be the last time we see a World Title around "Tricky" Rick's waist.
Mike Haggar vs Zangief...somewhere down the line, it's going to happen!