DEBUT COLUMN

Written: June 1, 2002 by Jonathan Barber

Hello readers. This is my debut column, which will appear on my website about once every week. This week's column will focus on the current state of So-Cal's XPW indy promotion.

"The Current State of Xtreme Professional Wrestling (XPW)"

Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) went bankrupt in March 2001, and the World Wrestling Federation (now Entertainment) purchased World Championship Wrestling (WCW) a bit more than a year ago. Since then, the WWF is the only professional wrestling telecast available by major distributors throughout the world (unless you live in Japan, where you can see AJPW, NJPW, Toryumon, etc. on TV), and they've been plagued by injuries (Triple H, Chris Benoit, and partially stale storylines.

Even when the ECW-WCW Invasion occurred in mid-late 2001 and when the nWo returned in early 2002, storylines, while creative, just weren't interesting. Ratings fell, wrestlers left (or were fired [K-Kwik, Road Dogg, Scott Hall, Mr. Perfect (Curt Hennig), Grandmaster Sexay, Chyna, etc.]), and the shock factor that's supposed to be a common prescence in the business became scarcer and scarcer.

Is the pro wrestling world in a recession? Possibly - but even though WWE is now dominating the business, many fans have turned to a new breed of talent, popularizing independent (or indy, for short) wrestling. Run in almost every U.S. state and even in areas like England), indy wrestling has risen to considerable success over the past year or so. Men like Christopher Daniels, Low Ki, Mike Quackenbush, Michael Modest, American Dragon, and The S.A.T., along with companies like XPW, Ring of Honor, ECWA, CZW, Revolution Pro, and more have all found recent success while being involved in the indy wrestling circuit. In this - my debut column - we're going to take a look at the current state of indy wrestling.

However, while a truckload of other indy companies were selling out small venues for their shows, XPW, ran out of Southern California, gained an abundance of publicity - good and bad - from 2000-2002. Controversy became a word commonly associated with them, but XPW, believe it or not, seems to feed on the controversy and critics that currently bombard them.

Xtreme Professional Wrestling, owned and operated by pornography movie director Robert Black and his porn actress wife, Lizzy Borden, XPW debuted in Reseda, CA on July 31, 1999. They've boasted big name players like Big Dick Dudley, Chris Candido, Shane Douglas, John Kronus, Axl Rotten, Terry Funk, and Abdullah the Butcher, among more, all of whom have squared off on XPW shows. Many of their young talent came from the Slammers Wrestling School in California, and while they do have some talented wrestlers, they specialize in extreme, hardcore wrestling. Their annual King of the Deathmatch supercard features wrestlers competing in violent, bloody deathmatches featuring barbed-wire, nails, thumbtacks, and more, all vying to win the single-elimination, one-night tournament. Blood, guts, and sick stunts all are common visions at XPW's premiere annual supercard, and their fans expect nothing less.

In late 2000 and early 2001, former-ECW superstars Chris Candido, who captured the XPW World Heavyweight Title), and Shane Douglas began appearing on shows as megaheels, which gained XPW some great attention, as they had some major names competing on their shows.

XPW has always been fond of attention, and their repuation of being the center of controversy began at ECW's HeatWave 2000, which was being held in their home region of So-Cal. At the Pay-Per-View event, several XPW superstars sat at ringside and caused a ruckus when they revealed t-shirts that featured XPW logos. They were hoping to gain publicity for XPW on national pay-per-view, but more than that happened. The building's security eventually escorted them out of the building, but since they didn't leave peacefully (they were pushing and shoving around security), a host of ECW superstars ran out from the lockerroom, and before one knew it, an interpromotional brawl between two hardcore entities was occurring. XPW accused ECW of planning a premeditated attack on them, but ECW insisted that they were simply protecting their territory.

The HeatWave event brought XPW both good and bad publicity. XPW would continually trash Paul E. Heyman and ECW at their shows, but their problem with ECW would soon disappear, as the promotion folded in March 2001. Around that time, many ex-ECW'ers who had left the promotion before or when it folded, flocked to the So-Cal region to join XPW. Axl Rotten and Axl Rotten both became common stars appearing at XPW's shows. Axl, though, would end up leaving XPW after a few months with them. In late 2000 and early 2001, Juventud Guerrera, Psychosis, Konnan, and Vampiro, all men who had been released by WCW when the WWF purchased them in March 2001, debuted in XPW and commonly wrestled on their shows.

At January '01's New Year's Revolution event, New Jack and Vic Grimes, both former-ECW'ers, debuted and formed a rivalry with eachother. They had real-life heat with eachother from the scaffold incident at ECW Living Dangerously 2000. Grimes joined the heel Black Army, a stable headed by Rob Black

- by Jonathan Barber