THE EAST COAST INDY WRESTLING UPDATE #1, by Jonathan (Friday, August 1, 2003)

Table of Contents:

- EAST COAST INDY WRESTLERS IN JAPAN NEWS
- EAST COAST INDY WRESTLING TIDBITS
- COMBAT ZONE WRESTLING (CZW) NEWS
- MAJOR LEAGUE WRESTLING (MLW) NEWS
- RING OF HONOR (ROH) NEWS
- IWA MID-SOUTH HARDCORE WRESTLING (IWA--MS) NEWS
- QUESTIONABLE BOOKING BY IWA-MS AND CZWW
- MULTIMEDIA OF THE WEEK
- SHILLS OF THE WEEK

EAST COAST INDY WRESTLERS IN JAPAN

- Michinoku Pro (7/30/03; Honjo Citizen Gym): The Stealth (Chad Collyer) pinned Summer Santa Claus (Quiet Storm) (10:29) in a Michinoku Pro Masked League Match.
- ZERO-ONE Fire Festival 2003 (7/30/03; Tokyo - Korakuen Hall): Noahiro Hosikawa pinned Josh Daniels (8:54) via a Comet Kick. C.W. Anderson & C.M. Punk d. Ikuto Hidaka & Wataru Sakata (8:04) when Anderson pinned Hidaka via a Spinebuster.
- Michinoku Pro (7/31/03; Yuda-cho Agriccultural Training Center): Atlantis, Hijo del Anibal & King Tut VIII beat Masao Orihara, The Stealth (Chad Collyer) & Summer Santa Claus (Quiet Storm) (13:57).
- ZERO-ONE Fire Festival 2003 (7/31/03; Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium #2): C.W. Anderson, Josh Daniels & C.M. Punk beat Naohiro Hoshikawa, Ikuto Hidaka & Vansack Acid (11:16) when C.W. pinned Acid via a Spinebuster.
- ZERO-ONE Fire Festival 2003 (8/1/03; TTokyo - Korakuen Hall): Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Naohiro Hoshikawa, Ikuto Hidaka & Jun Kasai beat C.W. Anderson, Josh Daniels, C.M. Punk & Vansack Acid (15:07) when Takaiwa pinned Acid via a Death Valley Bomb.
- Michinoku Pro (8/1/03; Ninohe Shoppingg Center): The Stealth (Chad Collyer) beat Hijo del Anibal via submission (a Texas Cloverleaf) at 10:17 in a Michinoku Pro Masked League Match. Atlantis, The Great Sasuke & King Tut VIII beat Java Genjin (Gran Apache), Summer Santa Claus (Quiet Storm) & Super MOAI (16:53).
- Low Ki defends his NWA/UPW/Zero-One Innternational Junior Heavyweight Title against Yoshihito Sasaki at the ZERO-ONE show at the Nagano Movement Park Gym this coming Tuesday (8/5). U.S. indy stars Tom Howard, The Predator (a.k.a. Sylvenster Turkay), Steve Corino, and C.W. Anderson will also be on the show.
- IWA Japan announced today that MLW staar “Dr. Death” Steve Williams will debut for them on 8/17 in Kanagawa vs. Keizo Matsuda.

EAST COAST INDY WRESTLER TIDBITS:

- The S.A.T. wrestle Vito and Sal Thomaselli (who are replacing B-Boy & Lil Cholo, who recently cancelled their appearances on the show) on Mexican Standoff, the debut show of Califa LLE in San Francisco, CA on Sunday (8/3). For more info, check out http://www.CalifaLLE.com.
- Christopher Daniels wrestles Doug Willliams in a Best 2/3 Falls Match for the FWA World Heavyweight Title on the FWA show tomorrow (8/2) in Morecambe, England.
- CZW Junior Heavyweight Champion Ruckuss will wrestle on the JAPW show tomorrow (8/2) in Rahway, NJ.
- 3PW (Pro-Pain Pro Wrestling) announcedd the national release of its second DVD yesterday. DG Distributors release in August on Video/DVD titled "Recipe For Disaster." The DVD will contain the following matches:

- Kid Kash vs. Mike Kruel
- Balls Mahoney & Nosawa vs. Da' Hitt Squad
- Wet T-Shirt contest
- Damian Adams & Josh Daniels vs. Roob Eckos and "Hotstuff" Striker
- Low Ki vs. Homicide
- Three-Way 3PW World Heavyweight Title - Gary Wolfe (c) vs. Raven vs. Xavier
- Sabu vs. Terry Funk
- BONUS MATCH: Kevin Sullivan Vs. Abdulllah The Butcher

For more information on this new DVD, check out 3PWWrestling.com.
- Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboatt has been added to the Legends of Wrestling Seminar and will join Les Thatcher and Harley Race. This is your chance to learn about the process of pro wrestling training from three of the very most educated minds in the world of pro wrestling. For more information on lodging, please contact the Eldon Inn at (573) 392-5664 and mention the WLW rate. For more information on the seminar, including payment address, please contact WLW at (573) 392-4100, or visit the seminar’s web site at http://www.harleyrace.com/camp0703.htm. Registration can be completed online at https://vesta.safe-order.net/harleyrace/camp0703.htm.
- Former-Public Enemy member (along withh the late Rocco Rock) Johnny Grunge will compete in the main event of the debut show of the Ringside Wrestling Federation, which will occur tomorrow night in Danville, IN. For more info, check out RingsideWrestling.net.
- According to Mike Tenay during Wednesdday's NWA-TNA Pay-Per-View, New Jack has left NWA-TNA for undisclosed reasons. His former tag team partner in NWA-TNA, Shark Boy, is now teaming with Norman Smiley.

COMBAT ZONE WRESTLING (CZW) NEWS:

- CZWWrestling.com was recently put back online after its bandwidth limit was exceeded earlier this week. It has a slightly modified look and thankfully takes less time to load than it did before. This is the second time that this has happened in the last three months. The first time was when the site posted the "Viking Hall: 10 Years in 10 Minutes" music video on the web site and too many users flocked to the web site to download it.
- Mike Johnson has made a public statemeent to those fans who were affected by the cancellation of the bus trip for CZW Tournament of Death 2 last weekend. It can be found at http://www.czwwrestling.com/News/NYC/nycstatement.html.
- See the below MLW News section for inffo about Sonjay Dutt heading to MLW.
- The current card for CZW Aftermath (8//9 at Viking Hall) is as follows:

- Four-Way F@$# the IWA Match: Ian Rotten vs. Necro Butcher vs. Corporal Robinson vs. "Spyder" Nate Webb (Stipulations to be made by Zandig in the next few days)
- CZW Junior Heavyweight Title: Ruckus ((c) vs. B-Boy
- Tables Match: "The Future of Harddcore" Nick Gage vs. Nate Hatred
- Tag Team Grudge Match: Adam Flash &p; Ian Knoxx vs. The Backseat Boyz (Trent Acid & Johnny Kashmere)
- Ladder Match: Sonjay Dutt vs. JC Baileey

MAJOR LEAGUE WRESTLING (MLW) NEWS:

- MLWZone.cjb.net recently conducted an interview with MLW General Manager Andy Vineberg about MLW and its current storylines.
- PJ Friedman had corrective orbital surrgery yesterday in Manhattan, NY to further repair damage to his eye. He is still in extensive physical therapy for his shoulder and has yet to regain full mobility in his arm. The outlook on a return is not very bright at this point. Nonetheless, the cordial one continues to show his dedication to MLW by coming out to each event showing his support for us.
- Fuego Guerrero (a.k.a. The Amazing Redd) has left MLW.
- WWE commentator Jerry "The King&qquot; Lawler - serving as Steve Corino's "bounty hunter" - has been ordered by Corino to defeat Terry Funk at MLW's next show, Summer Apocalypse, on 8/22.
- GI Ho (formerly Barbara Bush/B.B. in WWWF/E) has launched a new web site, located at HardcoreHo.com.
- MLW's July 26 show was discussed in ann interesting Miami Herald column on Wednesday by Matt Berkowitz. To read the full column, go to http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/wrestling/6413680.htm.
- MLW is apparently seriously attemptingg to bring in Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero to work its 8/22 Summer Apocalypse show in St. Petersburg, FL to wrestle The S.A.T.
- MLW has also signed CZW star Sonjay Duutt to work on the Summer Apocalypse show. If I were booking the show, I'd match him up against Jimmy Yang, who tag teamed with Tony Mamaluke on the most recent MLW show.

RING OF HONOR NEWS:

- Three matches have been added to the 8/9 ROH show in Dayton, OH. Jimmy Rave will take on Slim J and the winner will receive an invitation into the Field Of Honor tournament, Matt Stryker will wrestle Justin Credible, and finally, Chris Sabin will wrestle Homicide. Plus, Michael Shane will be on the show. Jason Cross and "Technician" Tom Carter (a.k.a. Reckless Youth) are both suffering from back injuries and have been pulled off of this show, which will also feature the winner of the Heartland Wrestling Association Heavyweight Title #1 Contendership Tournament (the brackets of which can be found at http://www.hwaonline.com/images/hwatournamentbracket.jpg) receiving a title shot against HWA Heavyweight Champion Chad Collyer. Chet Jablonski and Nigel McGiness will wrestle in an Special Attraction HWA Match for the number one contendership of the HWA World Heavyweight Title, also. There are only about 10 ringside seats left for this show until the ringside seats are totally sold out.
- As for the 8/16 Fairfield, CT show, foormer-Prophecy allies Chris Daniels and Xavier will battle for the Number One Contenders Trophy and "The Prophecy's Assassin" Dan Maff (a.k.a. Mafia) will wrestle Low Ki. Steve Corino will also be on the card. Pro Wrestling Bus Trips has arranged a round trip bus trip from Boston to Fairfield for the 8/16 show. The trip will cost a total of $45 per person and that price includes an early admission ticket to the show and a meet and greet session with some ROH wrestlers. For more details, check out PWTours.com. There are less than 10 second row seats left for Fairfield, CT on 8/16.
- ROH World Heavyewight Champion Samoa JJoe has some ligament strains and a slight tear in his elbow, but he will apparently be alright within about a week.
- The CM Punk vs. Raven Steel Cage Matchh on the 9/6 Cambridge, MA show has received an added stipulation of also being a Hair vs. Hair Match. Low Ki has also been added to the lineup of this show. First and second row seats are completely sold out for this show and third row seats are expected to sell out very quickly.
- Things are heating up with Steve Corinno after Homicide issued a challenge to him on ROHWrestling.com. Check the ROHwrestling.com and SteveCorino.com message boards forr all of the latest news about this challenge.
- The 12/7/02 Night of the Butcher DVD wwas released yesterday. The 6/28 "WrestleRave" VHS home release will be released sometime next week, while the 2/8, 3/15 and 4/12 DVDs will be out a few weeks after that.
- Lastly, Xavier - along with Colt Cabanna - have been announced as competitors in the Field of Honor round robin tournament, which will occur on 9/6 in Boston, MA and 9/20 in Philadelphia, PA. They'll join Chris Sabin and John Walters (who have already been announced) as participants in the event.

IWA MID-SOUTH HARDCORE WRESTLING (IWA-MS) NEWS

- IWA-MS co-owner Jim Fannin and employee Tommy Thompson have posted their responses to Jim Cornette's recent criticisms of IWA's product at http://www.leoweekly.com/archives/073003/erosia.shtml.
- IWA announced in its Wednesday newslettter that it has arrived at an agreement with the Samurai TV 24-hour martial arts and wrestling channel in Japan. A crew from Samurai TV will be in the US for this weekend's IWA-MS shows (for more info, please read below) and KOTDM will air during the coming weeks on Japanese TV.
- Tickets for the promotion's second annnual Ted Petty Invitational Tournament (to be held November 7 and 8th in Clarksville, IN) will go on sale tonight at night one of the IWA-MS King of the Deathmatches Tournament. Two-night, front row tickets for the TPI show will be $50. For more info, check out IWAMidSouthWrestling.com.
- Speaking of IWA-MS's KOTDM Tournament - it will occur tonight and tomorrow (8/1 and 8/2) in Clarksville, IN and has been highly anticipated by IWA-MS and hardcore wrestling fans for the last couple of months. The bell time for Friday night will be 8 pm EST, while Saturday night's card will begin at 7:30 pm EST due to the larger number of matches that are scheduled will take place. IWA-MS will also be holding a Q&A session, which will be filmed by SMV for video release, on Saturday afternoon. Admission to the Q&A session will be $5 for those not a part of the east coast bus trip.

The first round matches of the tournament (including the stipulation of each match) are listed below:

- Barbed Wire Tables & Electrified Light Tubes DM: 2 Tuff Tony vs. IWA-MS Light Heavyweight Champion JC Bailey (non-title match)
- Four Corners of Pain DM: CZW star &quoot;Hardcore" Nick Gage vs. Dysfunction
- Taipei DM: Deranged vs. "Mean&quoot; Mitch Page
- Barbed Wire Baseball Bat & Barbed Wire Boards DM: Former-ECW star Balls Mahoney vs. Horace the Psychopath
- Fans Bring the Weapons Match: Former-EECW star Axl Rotten vs. Corporal Robinson
- Fans Bring The Weapons Match: Necro Buutcher vs. "Mr. Insanity" Toby Klein
- High Impact Tables Match (the pin mustt take place after the opponent is put through a table following a maneuver off an elevated surface): Madman Pondo vs. "Spyder" Nate Webb
- East Coast Thumbtack DM: Former-ECW sttar & IWA-MS Owner Ian Rotten vs. CZW World Heavyweight Champion The Messiah (non-title match)

The non-tournament matches that will be held on the KOTDM weekend are:

- IWA referee Mickie makes her in-ring debut against Hailey!
- Jerry Lynn wrestles "The Barbaricc Berzerker" Jimmy Jacobs!
- Homicide makes his ROH debut against CChris Hero!
- "Classic" Colt Cabana, Alex Shelley, Nigel McGuinness, and others" will also be in action.

JC Bailey, Corporal Robinson, Necro Butcher, "Spyder" Nate Webb, and Ian Rotten will be wrestling in a death match tournament for the second straight weekend. Necro advanced to the second round of CZW's Tournament of Death 2 last weekend before being eliminated by Rotten, while Bailey, Robinson, and Webb were eliminated in the first round. Rotten advanced to the finals of the show before losing to "Sick" Nick Mondo, who thereby won the event. Mondo was actually scheduled to compete in the IWA-MS tournament this weekend, but pulled out of it a few weeks ago, citing the understandable concern of competing in death match tournaments two weekends in a row. Besides losing a gallon or so of blood during the event, Mondo also suffered a broken wrist.

Until Tuesday, "Mean" Mitch Page's opponent was scheduled to be "Lowlife" Louie Ramos, but according to the latest IWA-MS newsletter, published Wednesday, "Lowlife" Louie Ramos has pulled himself out of the tournament due to schedule conflicts. Louie posted a public apology for the abrupt cancellation on the IWAMidSouthWrestling.com message board on Wednesday. Deranged, who participated in IWA's 2001 KOTDM tournament and CZW's Extreme 8 a few months ago, will replace Louie and will wrestle Page in the tournament.

It would be interesting to have Axl and Balls advance to the second round, which would provide fans with an ECW-style battle between two former-ECW tag team partners. I doubt that it'll happen though, as I have a feeling that Corporal Robinson will advance over Axl. Don't take me up on that point, though, if I'm wrong. Most people are favoring JC Bailey to advance at least to the second round, but don't be surprised to see him in the finals, either. He's really starting to become a popular worker on the indy circuit and unlike many of the others competing in this event, he is also a solid wrestler and not just brawler. As for my prediction, in all honesty, I haven't seen any recent IWA-MS shows, so I haven't seen most of the guys scheduled compete before (besides Axl, Ian, Messiah, Necro, Klein, and Pondo), so it's hard to determine who I think would be most benefited by winning the tournament or who - based on who they're scheduled to battle - is most likely to win their first round match. However, after using the knowledge I do have about the workers booked in the event, I'm going to select Webb as the winner of the tournament after beating Bailey in the finals.

QUESTIONANABLE BOOKING BY IWA-MS AND CZW

I also would like to bring up the supposed logic of booking Ian Rotten and Messiah against one another, but that actually brings me to a more broad topic, because I also plan to discuss the logic of the booking of CZW's next show, which I question.

Firstly, let's discuss Ian and Messiah's match with each other. Like others have alluded to already, I don't understand the logic in booking such a match. Hi-V (pronnounced "High Five") - the stable of which Messiah is the leader) assisted Ian in pinning CZW owner John Zandig at CZW Deja Vu 2 two weeks ago and then after the match, Zandig and a bunch of other CZW wrestlers chased Hi-V out of Viking Hall and down the street as the show ended. So, Hi-V seems to be not only be in opposition of Zandig (Ian's current arch-enemy), but also in full support of Ian. So, it's quite wierd that Ian and Messiah would be wrestling each other in a first round match.

IWA-MS isn't the only promotion whose next show possesses some questionable booking. The same goes for CZW Aftermath, whill will occur on August 9 at Viking Hall. The highest profile match announced so far is what is deemed a "F%$k the IWA Match" between IWA-MS wrestlers Ian Rotten, Necro Butcher, Corporal Robinson, and "Spyder" Nate Webb. Plus, Zandig will apparently be announcing the stipulations of the match. Although pro wrestling isn't always the most logical form of soap opera (Why would Akeen The African Dream, a former-WWF wrestler, be portrayed by a white man and not a black man, considering he was supposed to be African?), a bit of attention - at the least - being paid to the storyline would be appreciated, yet Zandig doesn't seem to be following such a formula. Once again, like others have questioned, I am completely unclear on why the IWA-MS competitors are participating in this match, for a number of reasons:

- Considering that a war between CZW and IWA-MS is occurring, it seems pretty illogical to have any IWA-MS wrestlers - let alone four of them - wrestling each other, unless it's on an IWA-MS show (which this isn't). The IWA-MS wrestlers should be busy waging battle against the wrestlers of CZW, not against themselves.
- Why would the IWA-MS wrestlers - in sttoryline - even agree to participate in this match? They know - of course - that they should be fighting the CZW guys and not themselves (as already mentioned), but also let's not forget that this match will occur on a CZW show and not an IWA-MS show, which means that none of them should have any contract or anything like that forcing them to compete on a CZW show. Common logic would obviously cause them to just refuse to perform in the match and instead just do what they've been doing since the beginning of the CZW-IWA invasion angle - attack CZW performers.
- Considering the match's name is meant to rip on IWA-MS, why would the IWA-MS wrestlers agree to wrestle a match with such a stipulation?
- Fans already saw Necro Butcher pin Corrporal Robinson a week ago in T.O.D.'s first round and Ian pin Necro in the second round. This makes me wonder two things - 1. why the first round match between Necro and Robinson even occurred, considering that - once again - the IWA-MS wrestlers shouldn't be fighting each other on a CZW show (unless they both won their first round matches and ended up randomly being matched up in the second round, which isn't the case with the Necro/Robinson match) and 2. why Necro, Robinson, or Ian are fighting again at the next CZW show when Necro proved he was a better hardcore wrestler than Robinson by winning their first round match and Ian - in turn - proved that he was a better hardcore wrestler than Necro by winning their second round match. If Zandig is going to be so illogical and book IWA-MS wrestlers against each other, then at least have them be someone like JC Bailey, Nate Webb, or Robinson, alll of whom were eliminated in the first round of the CZW event.

MULTIMEDIA of the WEEK:

- CZWWrestling.de has posted a video clip of Necro Butcher vs. "Spyder" Nate Webb from last year's IWA-MS King of the Deathmatches Tournament in the site's Media section. WinRAR is required to view the clip.
- Be sure to check out the Video Clips ssection of Assault Championship Wrestling's web site, AssaultWrestling.com. The section, which can be found at http://www.assaultwrestling.com/clips.htm, features a variety of video clips in various formats pertaining to the history of ACW, a promotion that has currently features Justin Credible, Tony DeVito, Slyk Wagner Brown, Abunai, Kappa Tappa Kegga, and others. In the past, ACW has features many big-name wrestlers, including Chris Hamrick, Chris Chetti, Balls Mahoney, Julio Dinero, Steve Corino, and Tommy Dreamer. AssaultWrestling.com also provides fans with the opportunity to view past and present ACW TV episodes. The current episode can be found at http://www.assaultwrestling.com/thisweek.htm, while past episodes are archived at http://www.assaultwrestling.com/tvarchives.htm.
- ROHWrestling.com's newest Weekly Clip features highlights of the Paul London vs. Samoa Joe match from Death Before Dishonor on 7/19 and the farewell ceremony that occurred for London after the bout. Also on the ROHWrestling.com web site is an .MP3 clip of the Special K stable's theme song (which is composed by Urial a.k.a. DJ Legacy of New York City) and Version 2 of an ROH Music Video created by ROHWrestling.com webmaster Joe Ferrara.

SHILLS of the WEEK:

- XPW will be airing it's debut pay-per-view, titled Best of XPW: Xtreme Pro-Wrestling Vol. 1 beginning on Thursday, August 7 at 8:00 PM. As an added bonus, XPW will be giving away two free DVDs to everyone who orders the pay-per-view. For the full schedule of the PPV, please go to http://www.indemand.com/moviesandevents/viewProductShowtimes.jsp?page_sectionId=2&prodId=10386 . The PPV will highlight the most popular spots, angles/storylines, and matches in XPW's four year history. XPW's past roster has featured a variety of former-ECW performers, indy wrestlers, foreign competitors, and XPW homegrown stars, including Altar Boy Luke, "The Hardcore Homo" Angel, Chris Hamrick, "Vicious" Vic Grimes, Nosawa, GQ Money, "The Rock Superstar" Kaos, Mexico's Most Wanted (Damien 666 & Halloween), New Jack, Psychosis, Juventud Guerrera, Big Dick Dudley, Homeless Jimmy, John Kronus, The Messiah, Sabu, Chris Candido, "The Franchise" Shane Douglas, The Sandman, Supreme, "White Trash" Johnny Webb, The Pitbulls (#'s 1 & 2), The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge), Pogo the Clown, "The Real Deal" Damien Steele, Dynamite D, Michael Modest, and Donovan Morgan, among many others. XPW's official web site can be found at http://www.XPWrestling.com/ .

Free DVD Offer
Mail a copy of your cable or satellite bill to the address below and specify whether you would like to receive two videos or two DVDs. All receipts must be received by December 31st, 2003.

XPW PPV Offer
16032 Sherman Way #6
Van Nuys, CA 91406

- HouseOfXtreme.com, the premiere fansite of XPW, was relaunched today. Featured on the web site is the most up-to-date XPW newsboard on the Web, archived results, wrestler biographies (many of which are by moi!), information, and TONS and TONS of XPW multimedia, from full XPW TV shoiws to full matches to music videos and more. Plus, the HouseOfXtreme.com forum is one of the most popular XPW message boards on the Web. Check out HouseOfXtreme.com today!

- I recently came across an excellent MLW fan web site, the second one to be launched since MLW's inception. The web site, MLWFAN.com, can be located at http://www.mlwfan.com/. MLW's first fan site was (and still is) MLWZone.cjb.net and is located at http://www.mlwzone.cjb.net/.

Sources: CZWWrestling.com, DVDR, IWAMidSouthWrestling.com, MLW.com, PuroresuFan.com, PWTorch, ROHWrestling.com

Feedback, suggestions, etc. about this column may be sent to [email protected].