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Originally Written: Friday, September 6, 2002 -

This home video is of the XPW first annual, King of the Deathmatch Tournament, and the show was entitled, "My Bloody Valentine." Let's go right to the tape...

VIDEO REVIEW:

"XPW Baptized in Blood," Copyright 2001 by Goldhil Home Media International (approximately 132 min.). All rights reserved.

EVENT INFO:

XPW Baptized in Blood
Saturday, October 13, 2001
Hollywood, CA
The Hollywood Palace

BEGINNING OF VIDEO:

- A warning for the viewer is shown (there are no periods):

"THIS TAPE IS FOR ADULTS ONLY

"NO ONE UNDER THE AGE OF 18 MAY PURCHASE THIS TAPE

"PARENTAL GUIDANCE IS STRONGLY SUGGESTED"

- XPW warns its fans and viewers that its athletes are trained athletes and that they have practiced the manuevers and stuns shown on this tape many times (some for years). Don't try what you see on this tape at home.

- Short vignette featuring the various XPW logos.

- Kris Kloss (on the viewer's left) and Larry Rivera (on their right), XPW's commentators, are standing behind a "BAPTIZED IN BLOOD" graphic.

KRIS KLOSS: "XPW fans - welcome to XPW Home Video as we bring tu' you, 'Baptized in Blood.' Om' (I'm) Kris Kloss, alongside Larry Rivera."
LARRY RIVERA (in his very Latino accent): "Olà, wrestling fans."
K.K.: "Tonight, we're gonna' see the most brutal night of professional wrestling ever. XPW - known as the premiere in extreme - solidified it's claim by holding our first-ever King of the Deathmatch Tournament."
L.R.: "An' (and) you know, man? I know I say (said) thees (this) before, but this was brutality at it's most brutal - violence at it's most violin' (violent), man."
K.K.: "Eight men entered the tournament - 'White Trash' Johnny Webb, The Messiah, Supreme, Kid Kaos, [in Latino accent] Carlito Montana, [<end Latino accent>] John Kronus, Axl Rotten, an' (and) Homeless Jimmy."
L.R.: "An' (and) you know what, man? The winner of this tournament had to go through three - three - deathmatches full of barbed-wire, broken glass, thumbtacks, bulbs - lightbulbs - and all kinds of other weapons, man."
K.K.: "Well, ladies and gentleman, the deathmatch was not the only occurence that night. XPW gold was on the line - 'The Real Deal' Damien Steele, along with 'The Tall Cool One' Jake Lawless and Nicole Bass, put his title on the line against Chris Candido, with Tammy Lynn Sytch."
L.R.: "An' (and) you know what, man? We also saw why The Westsiders continue to be the best - the toughest tag team on the west coast, as we see Chronic take on former-Westsider JN."
K.K.: "Well, right now - ladies and gentleman, let's go up to the ring and bring you the XPW King of the Deathmatch Tournament."

Cut out.

NOTE: Let me inform you that the entrance ramp for this show is an elevated version. Anotherwards, like ECW did during some of their 1998 Pay-Per-Views, the entrance ramp and stage has been raised up so that it's the same height as the ring, meaning that someone can walk down the entrance ramp and climb into the ring without having to pull themself up onto the apron. The fans, meanwhile, are several feet below the entrance ramp and ring. I just thought that this may be of note.

- We cut to the show, where Kris Kloss stands in the middle of the ring. The lights dim, darkening the arena. Larry Rivera is alone on commentary due to Kloss being in the ring. Kloss is about to welcome the fans to the show when Chris Candido, one of my all-time favorite grapplers, walks out from behind the curtain, followed by the beautiful Tammy Lynn Sytch. Tammy does an erotic dance for the fans before she climbs through the ropes, which Candido is holding open for her. Candido, still on the apron, climbs up onto a turnbuckle (which has a bed of nails mounted to it) and he and Tammy (who's in the ring) have some tongue-lickin' fun (quite literally, I might add) before Candido climbs back down onto the apron, poses for the fans, and then climbs back up onto the turnbuckle, posing for the fans. A few moments later, he climbs back down onto the apron and steps through the ropes into the ring. Tammy eroticly dances for the crowd before speaking into the mic to test that it works, which it barely does. She gives it to Candido, who speaks into it in a surprisingly audible manner:

"I know lately, every time ya' turn on a wrestlin' show on Monday night, you tune in for two hours, an' (and) ya' get about ten minutes of people wrestlin', and the rest of the time is some jackass in here talkin' about stuff [Candido starts mumbling, so I tried my best to describe his words, but it wasn't easy] that he really doesn't care about. [Candido stops mumbling] [to crowd] No, not like me...but I'm gonna' ask ya' for one second - if you can please just endulge me for one moment - [Tammy poses in a very...sexual...manner on the ring ropes] there's a lotta' guys that come out here every week and talk about how they got screwed. Well, it's real apprapo (sp?), I guess, here in XPW, but there's nobody that's been screwed more in this business than me. For the last twelve years I've worn a baby bonnet. I did jumpin' jacks in a powder blue freakin' outfit. [Tammy does a few jumping jacks]

"A guy (referring to Shane Douglas) that I thought was my damn best friend, who I have [inaudible word(s)] in this company, stabbed me right in the damn back. So, I come here tu' XP-dubba' you, and there's a - there's a lot u' (of) places I can go - a lot of things maybe I can do - bend over, honey? Oh, thank you. [Tammy bends down and ties one of Candido's shoe laces.] " So - uh - regardless of the fact whether I [Tammy back up after tieing the lace.] go or stay - whatever - the fact of the matter is I've been here in XPW comin' to help this place out with my prescence. I've been screwed again! I beat Damien Steele last month, and then the last time I was out here, I beat him again, yet he's still walkin' around with the XPW Heavyweight Championship and I'm not. So, enough talkin' - Damien Steele, get your damn ass out here now!"

The lights fade to black, and we get a shot of the elevated entrance stage, which is being spotlighted in blue so that we can see who's entering. The Hierarchy make their entrance, as Jake Lawless comes out carrying the XPW World title, followed by the champ, Damien Steele. We are shown four crowd shots before going back to the ring. Steele is in the ring, and Lawless follows him in. Candido, with a mic in hand, stands in the corner, and Tammy stands in front of him. Steele cuts a promo with his own mic:

"Hollywood, California - you suck! Chris - Chris - Chris, you could come out here and whhine all ya' want [Candido climbs up into a sitting position on the top turnbuckle], but the gold belongs to The Hierarchy. So, you just cry me a river, pal. Ya' see, Skip [referring back to Candido's days as a Body Donna (w/ Tom Pritchard) in the WWF in the mid-90's; this reference prompts Candido to climb down onto the ring mat and threaten Steele.], you can come out here and do all the jumping jacks ya' want, [pause[ but the gold belongs tu' me. Now, you couldn't get the job done last night. You're sayin' ya' want a shot tonight. Well, ya' know, today, I thought I'd just come see all these mental midgets [referring to crowd] mutilate themselves in this ridiculous deathmatch tournament.

"I don't think I'm unna' (gonna' [going to]) put the boots on tonight, [we finally have a shot of Steele (we've been getting shots of the crowd and Candido and Sytch), who's holding his title belt over his left shoulder], so - sorry, pal. You're just outta' (out of) luck, and if you can't dig it, you can stick it, 'cuz (because) I'm Damien Steele, and that's the real [pauses for a moment to allow crowd to shout out, "deal!"] [finishes his sentence] deal!" Cut out.

- We immediately cut back in (it's actually hard to see that we cut out in the first place) to where the then-XPW TV theme, "Five Finger Crawl," by Danzig, plays in the background of the arena, whose lights have now been dimmed greatly so that it's very dark. Lizzy Borden comes out and ducks into the ring under the middle rope. She eroticly poses a few times for the fans before the lights come back on and the music cuts off. She has her own mic and she cuts a promo:

"[to Steele] Damien - Damien - Damien, I don't like you, but since you're from XPW, well, I guess I just gotta' deal with it. [to Candido, who's in the corner with Tammy] But Chris Candido - I f*ckin' hate you [pause] "Suck Her T*ts!" chant begins, prompting Lizzy to lean over the ring ropes and allow the fans to - quite simply put - receive an interesting view of her incredibly large and round boobies.] for two reasons -- Now - now - now, Damien. You don't wwanna' get fired, do you? Back away...[refers back to Candido] two reasons, Chris - you're an outsider and - well - the second - ya' hang around a skanky ho you call a la(was about to say, "lady.") --"

Tammy attempts to grab at Lizzy (she manages to touch a bit of her red skirt), but Candido grabs her around the waist from behind. He finally restrans her after having to take her (Tammy) down to the mat. Lizzy continues: "Wo! Wo! Wo! Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Tammy. Don't get your panties in a(n) uproar. [Candido finally has Tammy pretty much calmed down by now.] Chris, you want a shot at the XPW Heavyweight Title? Well, you got it tonight. [Candido allows Tammy to stand back up.] You and your little skanky ho got a shot against Damien Steele - 'The Real Deal." Steele is shown complaining ("That's bull! I got the night off!") about having to defend his title.

Candido now grabs his microphone, which is down on the ring mat in the corner, and speaks: "[inaudible word(s)] I only have one more chance. That's all Chris Candido needs is just one chance, but I guess it's [I think he said, "it's."] tonight - in the spirit of the xtreme deathmatch - I say [I think he said, "I say..."] I'm takin my heavyweight championship - not 'cuz I can't beat your ass in the ring because I have - but whud' d''you say I beat your ass all over this building for that(?!) - 'Falls Count Anywhere?!'" Rivera repeatedly hypes the world title bout just made, along with some of the other night's scheduled bouts as Steele compains about this title defense before exiting the ring. Candido and Tammy stay in the ring and play to the crowd. Tammy climbs up onto the bottom turnbuckle and poses for the fans before climbing back down onto the mat. The couple kiss before Tammy ducks our under the bottom rope (Candido helps hold the ropes open for her) to the elevated entranceway. We cut out before seeing Candido also exit the ring.

- A graphic hypes the next match (K.O.T.D.M. Tourney: KID KAOS vs. SUPREME).

PRE-MATCH NOTES: Over the next year and a half, a storyline would evolve where it was revealed that (in storyline; not in reality) Supreme was Kaos' uncle. This was before that storyline began, so this is just a deathmatch between two of XPW's top stars.

- We cut back in and receive a shot of the ringside fans, and then of Kris Kloss, who's in the ring making the introductions by reading off of a cue card: "The following bout is scheduled for one fall with no time limit and is a first round match in the King of the Deathmatch Tournament. It is a 'Beds of Nail and Barbed-Wire Match'." The lights dim, darkening the arena, and we see Supreme's intro video on the Xtreme Screen (XPW's version of WWE's Titan Tron and WCW's Turner Tron), featuring clips of various matches of his. A shot of Supreme (on the elevated entrance ramp) is shown, and he plays to the crowd before climbing down the ring steps so that he's at the ringside level where the fans are. He wears a white bandage on his forehead, and he allows the fans to touch him. He looks and points down toward a ringside wooden board of barbed-wire before walking past it and slapping the hands of more fans. I can see a fan wearing an ECW t-shirt. Supreme slides into the ring and shouts out to the crowd for several moments before the lights dim again, darkening the arena.

Kid Kaos' intro video is shown, and Larry Rivera mentions that he and Supreme have met before in other promotions. Kaos comes out and immediately climbs into the ring. The lights go back on as Kloss introduces each man (first Supreme and then Kaos) and then exits the ring.

MATCH ONE: First Round K.O.T.D.M. Match Tournament Match: SUPREME vs. KID KAOS (Beds of Barbed-Wire & Nails Match) (referee: ?)

The bell rings as the two square off. Tieup. Kaos does an arminger and transitions into a hammerlock. He switches into a side headlock, and then spins around a few times, trying to grab at the arm that he had had a hammerlock on before. He eventually does, as he applies another hammerlock, but Supreme grabs a nearby top ring rope. Kaos breaks. Kloss arrives back at the commentating position (as he was in the ring doing the introductions) as Supreme trash talks towards Kaos. Kaos gets too close, and he receives a punch, sending him stumbling back a few feet. The youngster looks angrily at Supreme before running toward him and delivering his own punch. Supreme punches back. Kaos punches back. Supreme punches back. Kaos punches back. Supreme tries a lariat, but Kaos ducks under and dropkicks him down. Supreme rolls out of the ring and moves the barbed-wire board over a few feet. Kaos, still in the ring, bounces off of the ropes, charges toward Supreme, and hits his awesome Running Catapult Tumbleweed, taking his foe out and knocking the guardrail back about a foot.

Kaos sells the pain for a few moments before getting up and grabbing the head of Supreme, who's down on his hands and knees. He tries to rake some of the barbed-wire from the board across his face, but it looks like he barely got any contact before Supreme back elbows him twice in the gut, and then forearm smashes his face before climbing back up to his feet. Forearm to the back of Kaos, sending him down. Supreme lifts him back up and tosses him into a nearby guardrail. Meanwhile, Supreme lifts up the barbed-wire board and lays it up against the ringpost. Kaos is back up by now, and Supreme forearms his back before whipping him toward the standing board. Kaos, though, baseball slides down so that he ends up a few feet short of the board, and then gets up and charges toward Supreme, who's also charging toward him. Supreme tries a lariat, and Kaos clearly ducks under it. However, he decides after ducking it that he actually wants to act like it connected, so he drops down back-first onto the ringside floor. Bad miscommunication.

With Kaos down, Supreme stomps on his head three times, and then argues with the referee (back in the ring). He lifts Kaos back up and tries to whip Kaos toward the board, only to have Kaos reverse it and send Supreme into it. Supreme hits it and goes down to the floor. The force he used to whip the big guy into the board caused Kaos to go down, too, and he's just getting up now. A "One More Time!" chant ensues as Kaos goes over and sets up the board again. A "We Want Tables!" chant now begins when Kaos goes over and lifts up Supreme, who was down right next to a barbed-wire-wrapped table. Kaos ignores that and leads Supreme around the corner of the ring, and then whips him into the standing board again! Supreme bounces off of it and sells the pain, but stays on his feet. Kaos grabs him and rakes the wire of the board (which stayed up against the ringpost, even after Supreme ramming into it) across Supreme's face for about five seconds, and it's easy to hear Supreme's screams. That's something that he's very good at. When he takes a big bump of is getting cut up, he's very good at letting the fans hear his screams.

Kaos eventually releases the pressure, and as Supreme stumbles away, the board falls down and across his back, driving some wire into his back and knocking him down in the process. It ends up leaning against the guardrail with Supreme under it, and Kaos quickly lifts it back up and again leans it up against the ringpost. Supreme starts crawling away from the board, only to realize that the lower part of his left foot has wire tied around it. The ref yanks it off, and Kaos stomps on the back (or maybe it was the back of the head; It's hard to see.) of Supreme before lifting him up and rolling him into the ring. Supreme gets up and Kaos delivers a punch, followed by a nice Falling Inverted DDT. With Supreme down on his back in the middle of the ring, Kaos climbs up onto the top turnbuckle, which has a bed of nails mounted to it. Supreme climbs back up to his feet as Kaos flies off and looks to have attempted a Corkscrew Somersault Body Attack, but it turned out to be more of a Corkscrew Shoulderblock. Kaos botched it fairly badly, but it looked alright due to it turning out to basically be a shoulderblock.

Anyway, Supreme goes down. Kaos covers. 2. Kaos lifts Supreme back up and, after having trouble deciding what to do next, whips his opponent into a bed of nails mounted to a corner turnbuckle. Supreme bounces off and stumbles around to sell the pain, but stays up on his feet. Kaos backs him up into the corner that he just whipped him into, and then tries to whip him toward the opposite one, only to have it reversed, sending the young phenom into the nails himself. Kaos sells the pain and falls down onto his hands and knees while Supreme climbs out of the ring. He slides the big barbed-wire board that's laid up against the ringpost under the ropes and into the ring, and then adjusts the location of a ringside barbed-wire-wrapped table. Kaos is by now up, and he climbs through the ropes, leaps off of the apron, and forearm smashes Supreme's back. Supreme is barely affected, though, and he fights back with I think (it was hard to see which connected) six punches, and then lays the youngster down onto the barbed-wire-wrapped table. Supreme climbs up onto the apron, and then up onto the outside of the middle turnbuckle.

Kaos, though, gets back up and climbs up onto the apron. He punches Supreme's crotch, and then back elbows it. Supreme sells the pain. With Supreme sitting on the top turnbuckle, Kaos climbs up into a standing position on the same buckle, and then delivers a Super Huracanrana Suicida, sending Supreme through the barbed-wire-wrapped ringside table Kaos landed on the ringside concrete, but away from the table)! An innovative and very sick-looking bump. Both men sell the pain for awhile before Kaos gets up and lifts up Supreme. Kaos leaves Supreme to stumble around when he bends down and grabs a steel chair from under the ring, which he bashes over his opponent's head. This sends Supreme into the ringside guardrail. He then walks about a step forward, and Kaos delivers about three (it was hard to see whether the second [if there was one] actually connected) punches before rolling him back into the ring. Kaos climbs in and, with Supreme down on one knee, delivers two punches before lifting him back up and trying to whip him into the ropes. Supreme, though, reverses it, and drops Kaos onto the barbed-wire board with a sloppy catapult/press slam-like move.

Kaos sells the pain while Supreme cirlces around him and curses out toward the fans. With Kaos down on his stomach on the barbed-wire board, Supreme punches him four times, and then rams his face down into the wire. Supreme delivers five more punches, and then rakes the wire across Kaos' forehead. Supreme stands back up and drops back down with a double axehandle to Kaos' back. Supreme lifts Kaos up and punches him back down. Supreme lifts Kaos back up, punches him, and then drops him onto the barbed-wire board with a botched powerbomb. What happened was that, while he was (I believe he was) aiming to powerbomb Kaos onto the board, he tripped over his own two damn feet, causing Kaos to land more on his butt than on his head. A "You F*cked Up!" chant begins as Supreme moves the position of the barbed-wire board more into the middle of the ring. He moves Kaos over a few feet, and then puts the barbed-wire board over Kaos' body. Supreme climbs up to the top-rope and hits an odd, yet alright-looking Flying Moonsault Splash, pancaking the barbed-wire into Kaos' body. Supreme presses down on the board as the referee counts: 1-2-3! The bell rings.

WINNER: SUPREME

- Supreme gets up off of the board and sits on one knee. He raises both arms in triumph as the ref declares him the winner. Kloss gets over the P.A. system and announces Supreme as the winner. Supreme gets up and celebrates, circling around the board that covers Kaos, and then decides to kick at the board to further the damage. He front rolls onto the board (senton bomb/somersault senton) before Josh Lazie and another referee (other than the one already in the ring) come out and convince the winner to leave the ring. He does this, and Lazie and the two referees tend to yanking the barbed-wire out of Kaos' clothes and skin. Some XPW ring crew members enter the ring and help take the board off of Kaos. We see that there is some blood (from Kaos) stained already stained into the wood. A ring crew guy takes the board out of the ring as Lazie and the others check on Kaos, who has a few minor blood stains on his white XPW t-shirt.

Lazie and a few other ring crew members help Kaos exit the ring and head back to the lockerroom. Kris Kloss, who's on the entrance stage, rallies up the fans: "Let's hear it for both men, ladies and gentleman." Cut out.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: Acceptable deathmatch, but nothing very special. Kaos' awesome Super Huracanrana to the outside saved the match so that it was at least watchable. I really wanted to give it **, but I couldn't. If Supreme hadn't botched the powerbomb onto the barbed-wire board, then I would've given it **, but because Supreme clumsily tripped over his own two feet while performing that move, I couldn't give it the **. The beginning, very short wrestling sequence was absolutely nothing special, but it wasn't terrible, either. Kaos' Catapult Tumbleweed was done nicely. Kaos screwed up selling Supreme's lariat when they were at ringside. The two whips that sended Supreme into the barbed-wire board were OK with me, and Kaos' Falling Inverted DDT looked nice. The Corkscrew Shoulderblock, while botched, actually looked pretty good, too. I wish the powerbomb wasn't botched. Supreme's finishing moonsault looked very awkward, but it connected fine and looked OK. The match would've been given ** if Kaos had sold Supreme's lariat better, completely connected with the corkscrew shoulderblock (which was mean to be a corkscrew somersault body attack), if Supreme's powerbomb worked out, or if Supreme's finishing moonsault looked better. The match had several chances to get **, but it failed. Overall, this was an acceptable opener, but there wasn't anything very special about it.
RATING: *3/4

- A graphic hypes the next match (K.O.T.D.M. Tourney: "White Trash" Johnny Webb vs. The Messiah).

PRE-MATCH NOTES: In this match, a ladder with a bit of barbed-wire wrapped around the top of it will be used as a weapon. The object of the match is to climb up the ladder and retrieve a bag of thumbtacks that hangs above the ring. They can then use those tacks on their opponent in any way that they want to. The winner is the man that pins their opponent.

- We cut back into a shot of Kris Kloss in the ring. The arena darkens and we see The Messiah's music video on the Xtreme Screen. Messiah emerges from the smoky entranceway and does his signature crucifix pose (like Raven used to do). He walks a few steps toward the ring, but then goes back through the curtain and comes back carrying a yellow ladder with a bit of barbed-wire wrapped around the top of it. The lights go back on as Messiah sets up the ladder on the entrance stage. Messiah enters the ring and climbs up onto the middle ring rope for a few seconds. He yells out at the crowd before stepping back down to the mat, yelling out toward a ringside camera, and sitting down in the corner.

We see "White Trash" Johnny Webb's music video up on the Xtreme Screen, and he comes out with his signature singapore cane. He plays up his loony persona by bashing the cane across his forehead a total of seven times (from what we saw; He may've hit himself more times before we cut back into a live shot.). Webb goes back, leans through the curtain, and grabs a brown bottle of some kind of liquor. He gulps it down a few times before walking down the stairway to the ringside floor. Webb walks around the ring, bashing the cane against his head and gulping down some of the liquor all the while. He eventually climbs back up the stairs so that he's on the entrance stage, and after looking at the ladder that's set up near him, drops his cane down at ringside and catapults himself over the ropes and onto the ring mat.

Kloss makes the introductions (first Webb and then Messiah). When Kloss announces his name, Messiah yells out, "Who's your savior?!" to the crowd. I actually heard somebody shout, "Messiah," while another shouted, "You suck d*ck!" Talk about a difference of opinions...Anyway, Kloss leaves the ring as the referee signals for the bell.

MATCH TWO: First Round K.O.T.D.M. Match Tournament Match: The MESSIAH vs. "White Trash" JOHNNY WEBB (Barbed-Wire Ladder & Thumbtacks Match) (referee: ?)

The bell rings and we're begin. The two square off for a few moments before Webb charges toward Messiah, prompting a slugfest to ensue. Messiah is soon able to take Webb down to the mat (so that he's [Webb's] on his back) and delivers nine punches before getting back up to his feet. Kloss arrives back at the commentary position aside Rivera as Messiah shouts, "Get up!" at Webb, and then stomps on his body four times. Messiah grabs the top ring rope for leverage in between the first and second stomp. Messiah lifts Webb up and face-first into a nearby turnbuckle before whipping him toward the opposite corner. Messiah charges and delivers a lariat, pancaking Webb into the steel post. Messiah, obviously unsure of what to do next, moves Webb out of the corner and delivers a picture-perfect floatover suplex with a slight snap. 2. Messiah lifts Webb up a bit so that he's sitting down on the mat, and then, from behind, punches the back of his head three times before running off of the ropes and connecting with a low running dropkick.

Messiah lifts Webb up and whips him into the ropes. Webb ducks a lariat and runs off of the ropes again, while Messiah bounces off of the opposite ones (which Webb had just ran off of). As the two near eachother in the middle of the ring, Messiah tries a leapfrog, but Webb, clearly unready for it, drops down onto his back and uses his left foot to kick Messiah's groin. Messiah grabs at his lower extremities and soon falls down to the mat. He sells the pain as Webb gets up and hits a sloppy running 360º spinning leg drop. Webb adjusts Messiah's position before climbing up onto the middle buckle and, after shouting out, "OWWWWWWEEE," jumps out toward Messiah and performs a leg drop. Webb climbs back up to his feet as Messiah sits up. Webb stomps on his back and punches the back of his head. He lifts Messiah back up and delivers a knee lift and forearm smash to his foe's back before tossing the (wannabe) holy one out of the ring through the top and middle ring ropes. Webb follows him out.

Webb lifts Messiah up, cinches him up, and drops him onto an already set up ringside table with a nice suplex. The table does nothing for about a second, but suddenly then collapses and both drop through. Webb gets back up quickly and climbs up onto the entrance stage. He grabs the ladder and tosses it over the ropes and into the ring. Webb climbs back into the ring just as Messiah slowly rolls himself back in. Webb lifts him back up and lays him up against the ring ropes. Knee smash. Gut punch. Double axehandle smash to Messiah's left shoulder. Sidekick to the gut. Webb grabs the ladder and, after gutkicking Messiah, rams the bottom of it into his foe's gut twice, and then swings it around and bashes the front of it across Messiah's head, instantly knocking him down to the mat. As Messiah starts getting back up, Webb grabs the ladder and lays it between the top and middle ring ropes.

With Messiah now back on his feet, Webb cinches him up for a suplex. Messiah doesn't budge, though, and instead spins around (so that they're in the opposite places that they just were) and drops Webb onto the ladder with a picture-perfect suplex. The ladder buckles but the spot looked nice. Both men sell the pain for several moments before Messiah makes it back up to his feet. He shoos away a camera man on the apron and starts to climb up onto the top buckle. Webb now gets up and, with Messiah still not completely steady, begins repeatedly shaking the top ring rope back and forth, causing Messiah to lose his balance. As he plummets down to the concrete, though, he manages to grab the ladder and bring it down with him, causing it to catapult upwards smack into Webb's face. Both are down now; Messiah at ringside and Webb in the ring. Both men sell the pain for awhile. Messiah soon gets up and slides back into the ring.

With Webb on his hands and knees, he stomps on the back of his foe twice before setting him on his back and punching his face. Messiah now lifts up the ladder and lays it up against the corner ringpost nearest to Webb. He climbs up to the top and rides his way down on the ladder, eventually crashing it into Webb's chest. With Webb still down, Messiah grabs the ladder and brings it into another corner, but decides the better of it and sets it up in the middle of the ring. After steadying it, he begins climbing. He only gets about three steps up, though, before Webb gets back up and dropkicks the ladder, causing it to collapse down to its side and drop Messiah down to the mat. Webb takes a few seconds to recover before getting up, grabbing the ladder, and dropping across Messiah's back. He then sets it up in the middle of the ring and successfully climbs up high enough to reach the bag of thumbtacks, which is hanging from a wire or something that extends across the arena.

However, it's not as easy as he thought to untie it from the wire, so he ends up kicking the ladder away, sending it bouncing off of the top ring rope. With nothing to support him, he drops down (the wire can obviously barely hold any weight) to the mat, taking the bag and the wire with him. The bag comes untied and the wire flings back up to the level that it was. The ladder actually lands onto the back of Messiah, who was on his hand and knees. Both men get back up and Webb hits Messiah across the face with the thumbtacks bag. While Messiah recovers, Webb lifts the ladder up and tosses it out of the ring. Hey! That could've been used during the tournament final! Anyway, Webb now gutkicks Messiah and again swacks him across the face with the bag, sending him down to the mat. Lame sequence. With Messiah down, Webb spills out the tacks near a corner, and then gets down onto one knee and uses his hands to spread them around.

Webb now lifts Messiah up, applies a front facelock, and after pausing for several seconds, plants Messiah into the tacks with a DDT! The move actually hurt both, as both men landed in the tacks. Messiah stays down on the mat and sells the pain while Webb gets up and stumbles around, doing the same and repeatedly moaning out in agony. Webb soon recovers, and once he does, he lifts Messiah up, brings him into the corner with the tacks and inverted atomic drops him up into a sitting position on the top buckle. Webb punches Messiah's gut and then his face before climbing up into a standing position on the middle buckle. Messiah, though, hits him in the gut three times, and, after climbing up into a standing position on the top buckle, performs a cool Super Sunset-Flip Sitdown Powerbomb, planting both Webb and himself onto the tacks. Messiah moans out in pain, grabbing at his behind, which have obviously landed right onto the tacks.

The ref hesitates to count, as Messiah is moaning out. Messiah yells at him to count, but he still hesitates. A "Holy Sh*t!" chant begins, and by the time the ref finally does start counting, Webb realizes that they must resort to another finish, so he kicks out at 2. Messiah rests by leaning back against the ropes for a few moments, and then lifts Webb up and tires to whip him into the ropes. Webb, though, reverses it and sends Messiah in. Messiah bounces off, ducks a lariat, bounces off again, and takes Webb down with a somewhat sloppy crossbody block (it almost looked like a bulldog lariat, but not quite). He lands in a crossbody position, and this time the ref is sure to immediately count: 1-2-3! The ref signals for the bell. It rings, and we have a winner.

WINNER: The MESSIAH

- Kloss leaves the commentating position to head down to the ring to make the announcement. Before he gets there, though, Messiah makes it back to his feet and decides to add a some further abuse on Webb, as he stomps on him a few times before lifting him up and planting him on the tacks with a front slam. With Webb laying on his back, Messiah stomps on his chest once before exiting the ring. Messiah walks back up the entrancewa and heads back to the lockerroom as we get a closeup shot of the shoe soles of Webb (who's down on the mat after Messiah's post-match attack), which has some tacks stuck into it. Josh Lazie comes out and enters the ring to check on Webb, who's still down. The fans give Webb a standing ovation as Lazie and some ring crew members help him exit the ring. Cut out.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: Alright match, but I've seen FAR better/ Messiah is, in my mind, the king of standard suplexes. He executes them flawlessly. Both of the suplexes he did in this match looked beautiful. This match lacked psychology, though. Webb especially was performing seemingly random moves, but at least he was executing them alright. I would've liked to see the ladder used a bit more often, but the spot where Messiah flew out to ringside and catapulted the ladder into Webb's face as he came down was pretty cool. It's too bad that the ringisde table didn't break right away when Webb suplexed Messiah onto it, but it did break about a second after they made contact with it, so the spot looked alright. I found Messiah's sunset-flip powerbomb to look very nice. It's too bad that the referee wasn't ready to count. That hurt the match. The crossbody was a very lame finish, but after the original sunset-flip powerbomb finish was botched, a new finish had to be improvised. So, in summary, the spots in this match were executed nicely, but the bout itself lacked psychology, with many moves being thrown in at random moments. The finish, of course, also hurt the bout's quality.
RATING: *1/8

- A graphic hypes the next match (K.O.T.D.M. Tourney: Kronus vs. Carlito Montana).

- We cut back into

MATCH TWO: First Round K.O.T.D.M. Match Tournament Match: KRONUS vs. CARLITO MONTANA (Beds of Barbed-Wire and Lightbulbs Match) (referee: ?)

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