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Originally Written: Thursday, August 22, 2002

This video is of the XPW supercard, "Halloween In Hell 2." Let's get right on to the show...

VIDEO REVIEW:

"XPW Blown To Hell," Copyright 2001 Xtreme Professional Wrestling. All rights reserved.

EVENT INFO:

XPW Halloween In Hell 2
Saturday, October 13, 2001
Pico Rivera, CA
The Pico Rivera Sports Arena

- We see some quick graphics introducing the show.

- We see a short music video with highlights of the show, featuring (in no particular order) a closeup of the barbed-wire ring ropes of the main event, Vic Grimes, Supreme, The Sandman, Kaos, Psichosis, Juventud Guerrera, New Jack, WEBB, and a few others.

- A graphic hypes the night's first match: SCOTT SNOT vs. "D". Cut out.

- We start off with a short backstage promo by D (formerly Dynamite D) (real name: Darren McMillian): "Rob Black, I don't care if you put me on [short pause] first on the show. Sooner or later, you're gonna' have to put me in the ring with someone from The Black Army, and it's not gonna' be long before I make them tap out. Now, I'm off to the ring to make another poor, unfortunate soul submit to 'D'." D then walks away out of camera range. Cut out.

- We now go to the ring. Kris Kloss and Larry Rivera are on commentary. In the ring, D and Scott Snot are preparing for their match. This was actually supposed to be a dark match, but for some reason, not only is it on this tape, but it wasaired on XPW TV on Southern California's KJLA channel. Anyway, ring announcer Ron Head makes the pre-match introductions: "From The Aslyum [XPW's wrestling training school, where D is the head trainer], the man simply known as [pause] 'Deeeee (D)'." D salutes the crowd as Head climbs out of the ring. I guess Snot doesn't get an introduction for some reason. I do know that Snot, at least in storyline, is from Berkley, CA, so there ya' go. Snot, by the way, is dressed in a formal blue shirt with a tie and big, dorky glasses. His gimmick sees him play - in essence - a dork. This is Snot's debut XPW match. The two circle around eachother and face off.

MATCH 1: SCOTT SNOT vs. "D"

I didn't hear a bell ring, so I'll just assume that it did and I didn't hear it. The two continue circling around eachother and facing off. Tieup. D forces Snot into the corner, and quickly breaks the grapple cleanly. The two again circle around and face off. Tieup. D applies a side headlock, and then performs a side headlock takeover into a grounded clothesline bulldog headlock. Snot counters with and wraps his legs around D's head (a grounded legscissors), and D realizes that his shoulders are down, so he quickly kicks out. Both stand back up quickly, and Snot locks on a side headlock and performs his own side headlock takeover into a grounded clothesline bulldog headlock. After a few seconds, D rolls him over onto his back in a backdrop suplex pin, but Snot rolls back over and applies a grounded bulldog headlock. Both men quickly stand up with the side headlock still applied. D pushes Snot into the ropes. Snot bounces off, ducks D's lariat, and rolls him up with a schoolboy pin. Kickout at 2.

Both men stand back up and Snot cinches D up for what looks to be a suplex, but instead cradles the leg and rolls him down into an inside cradle pin. Another 2 count. Both get back up and D backs up into the corner, which is where he begs for Snot to give him a rest. Snot does, as he backs up and the two again face off. Tieup. D snapmares Snot down. Snot bridges back up with his own 3/4 facelock bulldog (stunner) hold applied and delivers his own snapmare on D. D tries to bridge up himself, just like Snot did, but Snot pushes him back down onto the mat. Snot now runs off of the ropes and sloppily hops over D, who lies down on the mat. Snot doesn't run off the ropes, though, instead deciding to wait for D to get back up and then, once he does, gutkick his foe. Corner whip by Snot. D is in the corner and Snot charges him, ramming his head into D's gut. D stumbles around and ends up in another corner. Snot charges and lariats D, sending him into the post even harder.

Corner whip by Snot. Snott charges, but D back elbow smashes him back a few feet. D climbs up onto the second-rope and performs a Tornado [180º Spinning] Armbar DDT. It had alright execution, but if D wants to really learn how to perform it right, he should watch Jeff Jarrett's perfect execution of the same move on D'Lo Brown at WWF SummerSlam '99. Snot is now lying down on the mat, and D dropkicks him, sending him rolling out to ringside. Snot is on the dirt at ringside (the arena's floor is dirt, not concrete, as it's an outside arena (w/ no top on it). D climbs to the outside as Snot stands back up. D grabs Snot's left arm, positions him on one side of a ringpost, and mvoes onto the other side. With that, D pulls Snot into the ringpost, driving his left shoulder and upperarm into it hard. D climb up onto the apron, and then through the ropes into the ring. Snot rolls in and D delivers a stomp on his body.

D lifts Snot up, applies an armringer, moves around into a hammerlock, and then swings around, cinches up his foe, and delivers a nice suplex. Snot starts to climb back up to his feet, and once D gets close enough, nails him in the gut twice. D, though, seems unfazed, and he delivers a sledgehammer forearm to Snot's back. Snot now stands back up and D applies an armringer. He cinches down on it and delivers two elbow smashes to Snot's shoulder. Another armringer and Snot is on his knees. D applies a hammerlock for a moment before Snot stands back up. D then wraps Snot's left arm around the ring rope, trying to twist it into mere pieces. Snot screams out in pain as D hammers the arm twice, before pulling Snot away from the ropes. D bodyslams Snot before heading up onto the top-rope. Once Snot is standing back up, D leaps off and sends him down with a missle dropkick, sending Snot over to one of the other corners.

D actually lands on his feet, and then move sthe referee out of the way so that he can apply his signature Fujiwara Armbar to Snot. Snot, though, is about a foot away from the ropes, so he is able to grab the bottom one within about one second. D now lifts Snot up, but the dorky one surprises him with three chops, and then whips him into the ropes. D bounces off and surprises Snot, who had bent down for (presumably) an attempted back body drop, with a gutkick. D follows with another, and then drops Snot on his head with The D Driver. The referee checks on Snot, and D covers, but only gets 2. D lifts Snot up and rams his face into the ringpost. D turns Snot around so that he faces him, and then chest slaps him. Snot sells it and tries to stumble away, but D pushes him back into the turnbuckle and delivers another chest slap. Snot fights back with a chop, but D delivers a kneelift, sending Snot back into the corner.

Snot reverses an attempted corner whip and sends D into the corner. Snot charges, runs up some of the ropes, and monkey flips D out of the corner, just like RVD does (only somewhat sloppier). D ends up in the opposite corner, and then walks out of it and receives a running punch, sending him back into the corner. Snot follows with three punches before climbing up onto the middle rope and delivering seven punches before D pushes him off and back down onto the mat. D punches Snot and then whips him into the ropes. Snot ducks an attempted lariat and grabs D's arms from behind. Still holding onto the arms, Snot swings around and tries to hit his finisher, The Snot Drop. D, however, is able to grab Snot's arm and take him down with a Fujiwara Armbar takedown. Both are now on the mat, and D has The Fujiwara Armbar applied. D wrenches back, and within about one and a half seconds, Snot gives up to the pain and uses his free hand to tap out.

WINNER: Dynamite D

- Afterwards, the referee signals for the bell to ring, which it does, and D releases the hold and stands back up. Snot rolls out of the ring as the ref raises D's hand. The ref now climbs out of the ring as Snot catches a breather and D flexes his muscles for the camera and the fans. D climbs out of the ring, onto the apron, and then down onto the dirt floor, all the while inaudibly talking to the camera. He heads to the backstage area as the camera follows him. We zoom in on the XPW logo above the entrance stage, and then cut out.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: This was an alright opener. There wasn't much special about it, though. It was slightly sloppy at times, but considering that D, a veteran, was working with someone making his XPW debut (Snot), it was an alright match. This match was actually very short. D continually working on Snot's arm added a bit of psychology to the match, but besides that, there wasn't much.
RATING: 3/4*

- Kris Kloss is in the middle of the ring, and has a microphone in hand, and he riles up the crowd and welcomes them to the show: "Ladies and gentleman, welcome to Pico Rivera! Welcome tu' Halloween In Hell number two! Folks - tonight, we have a triple main event. 'White Trash' Johnny Webb - XPW World Heavyweight Champion - will be defending the title tonight against a mystery opponent here in Pico Rivera. Ladies and gentleman, Kaos - the new Television Champion here in XPW - will be defending the gold against New Jack. Also - [to the fans] are you ready to be a part of history? Ladies and gentleman, the first Exploding Deathmatch in the history of the United States (is) tonight (It would actually be the second Exploding Ring Deathmatch in U.S. history [read the review of the match down below to find out what was the first])! The winner will be crowned the undisputed XPW King of the Deathmatch. The question is - Will it be 'Vicious' Vic Grimes (pause) or will it be the man who makes his return tonight since his fatal accident in Los Angeles - Supreme?! [shot of fans] Ladies and gentlemi' -- [mic sound starts to become muffled] als' --" The mic sound cuts off and Kloss complains about this to some ringside personnel.

For the next minute or so, nothing seems to work. The P.A. doesn't work. We get a shot of the entranceway, which is engulfed in red smoke, and we stay on that for awhile. Nobody, however, makes an entrance. FINALLY, (in order) Konnan, Halloween, Damien 666, Lady Victoria (carrying a big Mexican flag), Psychosis (wearing no mash), and Juventud Guerrera (wearing no mask), make their way down the aisleway and into the ring. La Familia riles up the crowd, and Konnan soon starts speaking into the mic: "'Ay! [speaks some Spanish] Ola' lay'! [fans repeat] Ariba la raza! [Spanish for "Long live the hood." Fans repeat] Now, let me get this right - you can't even get my music right? This promotion sucks! Rob Black, let me get this right - you can't get laid, so you buy your own porno company and get laid. You hire six jay brooms [hey, that's what it sounded like...] to wipe your ass and f*ck your wife? Then, the only way you'll hire Latinos is because KJLA makes you do so. Well, I got something for you - [speaks some Spanish]!

"Now, why don't you come out here with your army? If you click your heels twice for every talent [inaudible], maybe you'll get some talent [inaudible] come [inaudible words] I cannot believe that you got this Johnny Webb as the heavyweight champion, but that shouldn't be surprising because look at how [inaudible word; may have been, "he," but I really don't know] does your wife. Now, I'm gonna' give you about ten seconds or we're gonna' go in the back and we're gonna' do sh*t [unbleeped] to you that makes the living in [I think he said "the living in"; he definitely said, "living," so I'm just assuming that he said, "the living in"; it was very hard to hear.] 'The Excorcist' look like Southpark." Cut out.

- We back in to where Rob Black is in the ring with a mic: "You see, I don't see what you think you're tryin' to prove. You see, I didn't invite you. That piece of sh*t television station, KJLA that's owned by that f*ckin' beaner. Let me tell you somethin' - what's worse than seven beaners [turns around to crowd] is a crowd full of f*ckin' beaners." Once Black turns back around, Konnan charges him and sends him down with a forearm to the face. Konnan then stomps on his body twice until the XPW owner rolls out of the ring to the dirt. Black's wife, Lizzy Borden helps him away as Black Army members Kraq, Kronus, Damien Steele, and Angel come out to his side. Black, now on the outside, speaks to La Familia via a microphone: "Alright! Alright! You want it?! You want it, Konnan?! Tonight, you're fighting Damien Steele. Halloween and Damien - you're fighting Kraq - hahahahaha [evil laugh] - and John Kronus.

"And Juvi, I thought I fired your ass a long time ago. You? You're gonna' fight - Psychosis!" Juvi and Psychosis climb out of the ring and yell at the army. Black continues: "You see - here's the thing. Here's the thing - I'm only gonna' pay one u' you, (pause) and the one who loses gets a bag u' oranges! [Kraq laughs into the mic] Get the f*ck outta' here..." The Black Army, now including Vic Grimes (who I guess has also came out), taunt La Familia and make their way back to the lockerroom. We get a shot of La Familia, who's in the ring. Konnan grabs a mic and speaks again: "Can you guys not afford more than one f*ckin' microphone? It's all good, Rob Black. It doesn't matter who you put us against. La Familia will come out on top, but like I said before - and I promise you this - either you're gonna' get it in the asss, or your wife is!"

With that, Konnan climbs out of the ring and walks back to the lockerroom, followed closely behind by Damien 666, Lady Victoria (carrying a Mexican flag; she turns around and waves the flag in front of the camera, allowing the following to go in front of her), Halloween, Psychosis [points at the camera], and Juventud Guerrera [makes some sign with his hands; Victoria, who has practically wrapper herself in the flag, follows behind Juvi, now.]. Cut out.

- We see a graphic hypes the next match: G.Q. MONEY vs. ANGEL. Cut out.

- G.Q. is making his XPW wrestling debut here. We begin with Ron Head introducing Angel: "In the ring - from West Hollywood, California - and sported [I think he said, "and sported"; It was hard to hear] to the ring by his life partner, Kraq - this is - An-gel!" Angel poses for the crowd on the middle buckle, and then climbs off and down onto the mat. The referee checks Angel for foreign weapons while G.Q. talks to a ringside T.J. Rush.

MATCH 2: G.Q. MONEY (w/ Veronica Caine & T.J. Rush) vs. ANGEL (w/ Kraq)

The bell now rings, and the two competitors face off. Angel tries to surprise G.Q. with a lariat, but he ducks and applies a back waistlock. Angel uses a standing reversal into one of his own, and then tries to use a takedown, as he lifts his foe up high into the air. G.Q., though, lands on his feet, drops down out of the hold, and applies his own back waistlock. Angel back elbows G.Q. twice [G.Q. shouts, "Oh, no," in between each elbow smash], and then reaches around his back and touches G.Q.'s ass, which forces G.Q. to release the hold immediately, as he was grossed out. Angel flutters his arms like a chicken as G.Q. yells out at his ringside managers, presumably complaining to them about what Angel did. The two circle around and then face off again. G.Q. slides around on the mat to try to throw Angel off, and the two then tieup again. Angel with a side headlock. G.Q. lifts him up for an atomic drpo, but as Angel comes down, he turns it into a side headlock takeover. Angel has a grounded clothesline bulldog headlock hold applied for less than a second before G.Q. turns it into a backdrop suplex pin.

Angel kicks out at 2 and applies another grounded clothesline bulldog headlock hold. G.Q. wraps his legs around Angel's head (a legscissors hold), but Angel swings out of it and ends up with his head in between G.Q.'s legs. Angel rolls over, and the two now have a grounded bridging waistlock applied, with Angel on top. They bridge up and swing around, and G.Q. ends up with Angel's head in between his legs. G.Q. lifts Angel up for a powerbomb, but drapes him over his head and applies a Gory Guerrero Special hold (Back Mounted Crucifix Powerbomb hold), and then bends downward, turning it into a backslide (w/ the back mount and crucifix powerbomb hold still applied) pin. This is actually a signature move of G.Q.'s. VERY creative. Angel turns it into a sitdown pin, but G.Q. rolls forward at 2 and turns it into a 'rana pin. With both close to the ropes, Angel kicks out at 2 and both climb back up to their feet. Both try dropkicks, but neither makes much contact. They get back up (G.Q. uses a nice kickup to do so) and G.Q. tries a lariat, but Angel ducks and G.Q. ends up in the corner. Angel tries his own lariat, but G.Q. ducks that. Both again charge eachother and each one lariats the other down.

Both are down for a few seconds, and they get up at about the same time. G.Q. looks to attack with a double axehandle, but Angel gutkicks him and applies a side headlock. G.Q. brings him back and bounces him off of the ropes, trying to whip him into the opposite ones. Angel, though, holds on and both run into the middle of the ring with the side headlock still applied. G.Q. hits Angel in the gut and then wraps his leg around his side and kicks his foe's waist. G.Q. then performs "The Cash Flow," (Inverted Death Valley Driver [with not much of a head drop/head spike]) a signature move of his. Kraq climbs into the ring, though, and breaks the count up at 1 by stomping on G.Q. twice. Angel gets up and stumbles around, and G.Q. rises back up and lariats him over the top ring rope and to the outside. Angel lands on his feet and Kraq checks on him. G.Q., seeing both paying attention to eachother and not the match, flies out with a nice Springboard Crossbody Suicida. He knocks both down, but actually catches more of Kraq than Angel. Nice move by G.Q. (a rookie).

T.J. Rush comes over and stomps on Kraq's body four times, while G.Q. (in between the third and fourth stomp) lifts up Angel and rolls him into the ring. G.Q. slides under the bottom rope, too, and the ref climbs back in, too. G.Q. whips Angel into the ropes and then drops down. Angel hops over him, bounces off of the ropes, and ducks under G.Q.'s leapfrog. Angel bounces off of the ropes again and G.Q. floors him with a fine-looking Japanese Armdrag. Angel is now down on the mat, laying still, so G.Q. lifts him back up and again whips him into the ropes. Angel bounces off and ducks G.Q.'s lariat. Angel continues his run and bounces off of the ropes, while G.Q. does the same on the opposite side of the ring. G.Q. forward rolls under Angel's lariat and then back springboards (slingshots) up off of the bottom ring rope. Angel, who has ran off of the opposite ropes after G.Q. avoided his lariat, arrives in time to catch G.Q. by the legs (w/ G.Q. facing down), and the Enterprise member performs a headscissors takeover, sending Angel rolling out of the ring under the bottom rope.

The referee gets up off of the mat (he had to duck down when G.Q. performed the slingshot headscissors), while T.J. Rush hammers Angel twice (from what the camera picked up; the camera was a bit late getting to that action). G.Q. charges and performs a considerably sloppy baseball slide huracanrana takeover, sending Angel down onto the dirt. G.Q. plays to the crowd and talks to the ref and T.J. as Kraq helps Angel back up. Kraq has his back to Angel's opponent now, and G.Q. comes over and forearms his back, while T.J. delivers a double axehandle. With Kraq down, T.J. delivers another double axehandle to his back, and then a stomp to his back and a punch to the back of his head. G.Q. comes over and, as Kraq starts to try standing back up, pushes him back down with his (G.Q.'s) foot. T.J. delivers a stomp to his chest, and he and G.Q. then turn around...into a cool move by Angel that takes both down. Angel, who was standing on the apron, back springboarded up off of the middle ring rope, and then spun around and took both men out. I guess I'd call it an Apron Slingshot 180º Spinning Vertical Body Attack Suicida.

Everybody (Angel, G.Q., Kraq, and T.J.) but the ref is now down. Kraq is the first one to stand back up, and Angel then does the same and lifts G.Q. up. T.J. then starts standing back up, only to get gutkicked back down by Angel, who has lifted G.Q. back up. Angel slides G.Q. back into the ring under the bottom rope, and then slides in himself the same way. He lifts G.Q. up and lays him up against the ring ropes. Two chops. Angel now tries to whip G.Q. into the ropes, but G.Q. tries to reverse it, so Angel just whips him back toward the ropes and G.Q. ends up being whipped down onto the bottom rope, with his neck and throat driven into it. He bounces off of it and Angel spanks him twice before running off of the opposite ropes, vaulting off of G.Q's back and over the ring ropes, and, on the way down, dropping an apron guillotine leg drop, again driving G.Q.'s neck and throat down into the bottom rope. That vaulting catapult apron guillotine leg drop is actually a signature move of Angel's.

Angel hit his ass on the apron's edge as he was coming down, so he limps around on the outside as Kraq leans in under the bottom rope and spanks G.Q. once (possibly even twice [it was hard to see, as Kraq was bloocking my view]). Angel now slides back into the ring under the ropes, lifts G.Q. back up, and corner whips him. Angel charges him and drives him into the ringpost even harder with a corner lariat. Angel now moves G.Q. a foot or so away from the corner and climbs up and sits on the top buckle. He rams G.Q.'s head into his crotch area 10 whole times, a move that Kloss calls, "The Angel Job." Angel, still sitting on the top, now punches G.Q. away, sending him down onto the mat, still near the corner. Angel turns around so that he's facing away from G.Q. and then performs a backward front flip (Inverted Senton Bomb) off of the middle buckle. Kloss calls this move, "The Bathouse Bomb." That was a creative move. Angel lays on top of G.Q. for the cover. The ref gets to 2 before T.J. Rush leans in under the bottom rope, grabs Angel's legs, and pulls him into the ringpost, squishing his crotch area into it. Kraq runs over, which scares T.J. away, and checks on Angel.

Angel stands back up (facing the ringpost), and G.Q. comes over and forearms him in the upper back/back neck area before whipping him into the opposite corner. G.Q. charges and hits a Jumping Corner Vertical Splash on his opponent. G.Q. then climbs through the ropes onto the apron, and then onto the top buckle. He places his left leg over Angel's head, jumps off, and slams Angel's face into the mat with a sloppy Super Leg-Face Driver (Famasser). With Angel down in the corner, G.Q. backs up into the opposite corner, charges, and hits a cool Rolling Thunder Leg Drop (front roll into leg drop). G.Q. covers Angel, who's in the corner, but the referee doesn't even reach 1 before Kraq pulls G.Q. out by his right leg and punches him twice before sliding him back in under the bottom rope. Angel, who's now recovered, waits until G.Q. has climbed back up to his feet and turned around, before grabbing his crotch (performing a testicular claw), spinning around with the hold still applied, and then, after about six seconds, performs a front roll and releases. As Kloss pointed out, Angel calls that move, "The Circumsizer."

Angel gets up and delivers a gutkick, followed by an Inverted Atomic Drop. G.Q. stays on his feet, and he's now facing a corner. Angel backs up into the opposite corner, charges, and tries to bulldog him into the corner, but G.Q. slams him crotch-first into the ringpost in between the middle and top ropes. With Angel on the mat recovering, T.J. Rush comes over, grabs a steel chair from under the ring, and leans up over the top ring rope and hands it to G.Q. G.Q. drops it in the middle of the ring, lifts Angel up, and whips him into the ropes. Angel bounces off and G.Q. lifts him up on his shoulders in a fireman carry, and then proceeds to turn that into a Michinoku Driver II (Sitout Bodyslam Piledriver), dropping Angel on the steel chair. Nice move. With Angel still planted in between his legs, G.Q. locks one of his legs for the cover, but Angel escapes at 2. G.Q. is frustrated that he didn't get the 3, and he shouts, "One more time!" out to the crowd. He lifts Angel up, whips him into the ropes, and again lifts him up on his shoulders. This time, though, Angel drops out behind G.Q. and performs a Falling Inverted DDT.

Veronica Caine takes this oppurtunity to climb up onto the apron and distract the referee. Meanwhile, Angel stomps on G.Q. and then goes up top, poses, and connects with a Flying Splash, which Kloss calls "The Flying Ferry." Angel covers G.Q., but the ref is still being distracted by Caine. T.J. Rush takes the oppurtunity to enter the ring and send Angel down with a chairshot to the back. T.J. then taunts Angel, but when he turns around, he's floored with a Kraqerjack (Spear) by Kraq, who had just climbed into the ring. Kraq lifts T.J. back up and repeatedly hammers on him in the corner as "Dorko Dude" Kevin Kleinrock runs down, slides into the ring, and sends G.Q. down with a chairshot with the chair that G.Q. had used to plant Angel. Kleinrock places Angel on top of G.Q. and then retreats back to the lockerrooms and Kraq tosses T.J. out over the top ring rope as the referee, who's finally turned around, counts the pinfall for Angel, who had covered G.Q.

WINNER: Angel (w/ Kraq)

- The referee signals for the bell to ring (which it does), and Ron Head, at ringside, makes the announcement: "Here is your winner - An-gel!" Veronica Caine climbs down off of the apron, "Barbie Girl" hits, and Angel climbs out of the ring, as Kraq lifts up G.Q., spanks him three times, and then tosses him out of the ring through the top and middle ring ropes to where T.J. Rush is. Rush checks on G.Q. while Kraq climbs up onto the middle buckle and does his rhino taunt. Angel, meanwhile, pulls part of his shirt down and shows of his chest to the ringside fans and the camera. Kraq climbs out and does his rhino taunt and says some stuff into the camera, and Angel comes over and puts his arm around his (Kraq's) shoulder. Kraq now lifts Angel up and carries him to the back. Cut out.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: Very good match, especially considering that this was G.Q.'s first official XPW match and Angel isn't exactly a veteran. G.Q. certainly was impressive in his debut. The technical exchange at the beginning was good, and G.Q. impressed me with his Gory Guerrero Special move, which was very innovative. His Springboard Crossbody Suicida looked great, and so did his Cash Flow and Fireman Carry into Michinoku Driver II. The baseball slide 'rana wasn't executed as nicely, but considering this was his debut, you really can't ask for much better. He looked fine running the ropes and performing the leapfrog, and I liked that they threw in the Japanese Drag. Kraq and T.J. Rush's interference was somewhat annoying, but it definitely didn't hurt the match. Angel's Bath House Bomb (Inverted Senton Bomb) looked very cool. I've always wondered why that move isn't done more often, and Angel performed it very nicely. I thought the finish could've used some work. Firstly, the ref was in position to be distracted by Veronica Caine, but he clearly was able to see Angel performing The Flying Ferry (Flying Splash), and even Kraq's Kraqerjack and Kleinrock picking up the steel chair. I thought that the finish could've been edited a bit, or at least spread out more. The finish was a bit annoying, but it doesn't get much better than this, considering each participant's experience. An absolutely fine match. This was my first real look at both Angel and G.Q., and this was a very pleasant surprise. Neither are regarded as particularly great workers, but they worked well together in this match. This was the very first match of what would become an ongoing series that would continue until XPW's third annual King of the Deathmatch Tournament at Night of Champions on July 20, 2002.
RATING: **1/4

- We see a next match: HALLOWEEN & DAMIEN 666 vs. KRAQ & KRONUS. Cut out.

- We cut back into the show. Mexico's Most Wanted (Damien 666 & Halloween) are in the ring, and they're with their manager/valet, Lady Victoria. Halloween is holding a pumpkin for some reason. Ron Head immediately starts the introductions: "Introducing first - accompanied to the ring by Laid [started to say, "Lady"]--" Halloween, still holding the pumpkin, grabs the microphone away and decides to do the introductions himself. He does them in Spanish, and the only words that I could understand were "introducing" and "Meh-he-co" ("Meh-he-co" [Mexico] was said three times). Halloween now gets down on one knee and introduces Damien, who was standing up on the middle turnbuckle. Damien gets off and Halloween then hands him the mic and climbs up onto the same buckle, while Damien introduces him. Halloween then climbs down onto the ring mat as Damien introduces Lady Victoria. As their opponent's music starts back up, Halloween, who Damien has handed the mic to, says a quick word or two (in Spanish) to Ron Head, and then hands the mic to Head.

We now see Kraq and Kronus charge out down the aisleway towards the ring. Both men slide in and we start off immediately.

MATCH 3: Mexico's Most Wanted (DAMIEN 666 & HALLOWEEN) (w/ Lady Victoria) vs. KRAQ & KRONUS (w/ Angel) (referee: Felony)

Kraq starts slugs it out with Halloween, eventually gaining the edge over the Mexican, while Kronus and Damien slug it out. I guess that Victoria has exited the ring. Felony (the referee) climbs in so that he can do his job. Kronus beats on Damien, eventually sending him down into the corner, while Kraq tosses Halloween out of the ring through the top and middle ring ropes. Both men then target Damien. Kraq delivers a forearm shot to his back, and then Kronus does the same. Both men whip Damien into the ropes and double back elbow him down. They then roll him backwards so that he's back on his feet, but the Mexican surprises them by nailing each with a shot to the gut. Kraq and Kronus are now standing facing eachother, with Damien basically in between them. Damien grabs Kronus' right and Kraq's left hand and lifts them high in the air. He sidekicks Kraq's hip, and then charges the ring ropes. He leaps onto the middle rope, and then onto the top one. After balancing himself, he falls down in a sitting position and uses that momentum to backflip down onto the mat, landing on his feet (standing rope slingshot backflip). Damien now hurls both of his foes backwards with a double joint-arm Japanese Armdrag-like throw.

Halloween is now on the top buckle. Kraq and Kronus stand back up and grab eachother's hands. Damien is in the opposite corner of Halloween, and he charges both of his foes and ducks under their attempted double lariat. Damien is now in Halloween's corner, while Kraq and Kronus are in the opposite one. Victoria is standing up on the apron right next to Halloween. Kraq and Kronus turn around and charges towards the opposite corner, but Halloween flies off the turnbuckle and sends both down with a missle dropkick, using a separate foot to knock each man down. Kronus rolls out of the ring to take a breather, and we see Angel, fresh off of his win over future rival G.Q. Money in the previous match, at ringside, meaning that he must've accompanied the Black Army members out to the ring. Kraq also rolls out of the ring, and Halloween climbs up onto the middle buckle and yells out to the fans. Damien climbs into the ring (he was standing on the apron) as Halloween, still on the buckle, rallies the crowd into beginning a "Lucha-Libre!" chant. Halloween now climbs off onto the mat and joins Damien. WTF?! Halloween bends down behind Damien and starts to pretend to low blow him. OK...

Anyway...Kraq now slowly climbs up onto the apron, and Kronus then follows. Kraq signals for Kronus to go in and act as the legal man for their team, and he does. Halloween is now on the apron, and his partner, Damien is the legal man for their team, meaning that it's now Kraq vs. Damien. Both men prepare to lockup, but before they can, Kronus nails Damien with a low sidekick to the side of his left hip. Another of those kicks send Damien down to the mat. He gets back up in the corner. Kronus punches him once before whipping him into the opposite corner. Kronus charges and pancakes him into the ringpost with a lariat, and Damien again goes down to the mat. Kronus stomps on his chest, yells "Shut up!" to somebody (presumably the fans; or actually, it may have been Lady Victoria, who was near where it looked like he was yelling to; I'm not really sure, though), and then whips Damien, who's gotten up, into the corner where they just were. Damien tries a tipup, and Kronus stops in his tracks, ready to catch him when he comes back down. Holy Sh*t! Damien, who was already halfway down with the tipup, actually pulls himself back up, and it looks like he has no problem doing so! WOW! Damien starts coming back down in a few seconds, and then again pulls slightly back up.

Finally, he then comes fully down, and Kronus catches him in a headscissors position on his shoulders. Kronus shoots him back up, and Damien lands on the apron. He blocks a punch by Kronus, grabs the fist, and punches him in the gut before climbing up onto the top buckle. He performs an awesome praying (yup, he took a page out of Jinsei Shinzaki's book, as it looked like he said a bit of prayer while performing the move) ropewalk joint-arm swinging huracanrana takeover. Cool. Kronus slides out to ringside, and is now standing. Damien runs off of the ropes, charges Kronus, and dives through the middle and top ring ropes, catching Kronus and taking him down with a diving plancha (crossbody) suicida. Angel is right near the action, but makes no attempt to interfere. Kraq comes down off of the apron, picks up a pumpkin, but before he can throw it at Damien, or even use it, some dirt flies into camera range and he sells it going into his eyes. Apparently, according to Kloss, someone (I think it was Halloween, as I didn't see Lady Victoria anywhere in sight) somehow kicked it into Kraq's eyes. Whatever...Damien lifts Kronus back up and slides him back into the ring, then sliding in himself, as Angel helps Kraq out.

Damien covers Kraq, and the referee slides in and counts. He gets to 2 before Kraq kicks out. It actually looked more like Damien released the pin. Damien now goes over and tags in Halloween, who's back on the apron. Halloween enters and Damien goes over to help him lift Kronus up. Both deliver a chop at the same time sending, Kronus into the corner. Halloween now climbs back onto the apron. Damien sits Kronus up on the top buckle, punches him one, and then backs up into the opposite corner. I think I know what this is going to be...and yes, I am right. Damien charges and brings Kronus back down to the mat below with his signature Running Rope Climb Super Huracanrana. Halloween is now on the top buckle next to the one that they used, and once Kronus makes contact with the mat, he leaps off and delivers a Flying Splash onto the Black Army member. Damien now climbs out and onto the apron, while Halloween covers. The referee counts, but Kronus escapes at 2 by press-slamming Halloween off. Hey! Halloween wasn't even tagged in, and therefore wasn't the legal man, yet the ref counted the pin. That's dumb...

Damien now enters as Halloween yells at and spits in the face of Kraq, which causes the big guy to start yelling at the ref. The ref turns back around within a few seconds, just as MMW back Kronus into the corner and whip him into the opposite post. Halloween charges toward him, but instead slides down onto his hands and knees. Damien charges and tries to hit an Air Sabu (Vaulting Corner Heelkick), but Kronus moves away, causing the MMW member to land in the corner. Halloween gets back up and turns right into a lariat, sending him down. Kraq now climbs into the ring as Kronus collapses down to the mat. It looked like Kraq tagged Kronus, and Kloss also pointed that out, but once Halloween gets back up, Kraq climbs back out onto the apron and allows Kronus, who gets back up, to take care of their business for now. Kronus blocks a punch and delivers his own. The two do that two more times, and Kronus punches Halloween one more time, before whipping him toward the ropes. Halloween, though, actually slides down head-first and plummets down to the ringside dirt, sliding under the bottom rope. Nice bump.

Angel and Lady Victoria watch as Kronus climbs out and thrust kicks the face of Halloween, but the MMW member doesn't go down, instead only stumbling back, eventually hitting the guardrail, which has been moves back dramatically so that the fans are safe during the Explosion Ring Deathmatch main event. Meanwhile, back in the ring, Kraq drops down and front low blows Damien before whipping him into the ropes. Kraq lariats him down, and then starts to lift Damien back up. We now switch to a ringside camera view just in time to see Kronus toss Halloween into a barrell with a pumpkin standing on top of it. Halloween sends both objects flying. Back in the ring, Kraq has whipped Damien into the ropes and lariats him in the gut. The MMW member is now bending down forward. Kraq gets behind him, looks at the fans for a few moments, and then runs off of the ropes behind him. He bounces off and leapfrogs partially over Damien, landing by slamming Damien's face into the mat with his - well - his crotch area. Kraq covers, and the referee gets down and, after a good few seconds, starts counting. He gets to two before Damien kicks out. Ver slow count. As the referee counts, I can see in the background Halloween ramming Kronus' head down onto another barrel.

As Damien and Kraq get back up, we now get a view of the happenings between Halloween and Kronus. Halloween rams Kronus' face down onto the standing barrel once again. Lady Victoria is nearby watching her man take care of Kronus. As Kronus falls down to the dirt, Victoria delivers a punch to him. Back in the ring, Kraq whips Damien into the ropes and back body drops him down onto the mat. While he lands on the mat, Damien holds on to Kraq's legs and tries to take him down with a sunset flip. We see Victoria slide into the ring as Kraq, trying to stay up, wobbles around, and we now move back to the aisleway and see Halloween pick up a barrel and ram it in some others, causing them to land onto Kronus. Back in the ring, we see that Damien has in fact successfully taken Kraq down with the sunset flip, as he has him in a sitdown pin. Angel, who has entered the ring, pulls Kraq up at 2 , though, so that he has Damien in a 'rana pin. The ref reaches 2 again before Victoria pushes Kraq back down into Damien's sitdown pin. At 2, Angel again pulls Kraq up so that he has Damien in a 'rana pin. Victoria performs a sloppy, standing sunset flip-like move on Angel and tries to pin her, but Felony doesn't count for her, as neither are legal participants in the match.

The ref is counting for Kraq, though, and again at 2, Damien again sits up and turns it into a sitdown pin. Felony hesitates to count, though, and when he does start, Kraq kicks out at 2 and rolls out of the ring, just like Angel has done. Another very slow count. Halloween is now back at ringside, and while Damien slides out and punches Kraq, Angel, at ringside, pulls Victoria, who was exiting the ring, off of the apron and to the dirt. The two grapple and move around with the tieup still in place. They eventually end up near the guardrail, and Victoria rams Angel's head into it. Meanwhile, Damien tosses Kraq into another guardrail, and then follows by delivering a big boot/gutkick combo and sloppily ramming his head into the side of Kraq's gut. Back in the ring, Kronus rams a fist down on Halloween's head, sending him stumbling into the corner, and then delivers a low gutpunch. Damien and Victoria watch on on the ringside dirt, and Kraq does the same several feet away from them. Kraq delivers a gutkick on Halloween (in the corner) and then tries to whip him into the opposite ringpost, only to have it reversed. Kronus is sent into the corner, and Halloween charges and tries to catch him with a running heelkick. Kronus, though, moves away, and Damien hits the ringpost and lands on the mat in the corner.

Kronus now starts climbing up onto the top buckle, probably looking for his 450º Splash. Victoria, though, climbs up onto the apron and pushes him a bit, causing him to land down on the buckle. He was supposed to move his legs behind the buckle so that he'd be crotched, but he didn't, so it looks like he just drops down into a sitting position on the buckle. Victoria climbs down and she and a ringside Damien (still on the dirt; not on the apron) watch as Halloween now gets up, adjusts Kronus' position on the buckle, and then climbs up onto the second rope. Halloween tries twice to Superplex Kronus off, but he can't lift all of his weight. So, Kronus hammers him in the gut and then slams him off, causing him to land face-first in a release Afront suplex-like throw on the mat. Halloween now gets back up as Kraq re-enters the ring. He whips him into the ropes and lifts him up in a sideslam position. Kronus now leaps off of the middle buckle and, as Kraq drops Halloween on his back with a sideslam, performs a flying leg drop on the MMW member. Kronus rolls out of the ring as Kraq covers Halloween. 1-2-Damien climbs into the ring and breaks it up by dropping a double axehandle on Kraq.

Kraq gets back up and Damien, standing in front of him, hammers him with his fist on the back, and then delivers two punches. Kraq then surprises him by hammering him in the gut, and then bodyslams him. Halloween is now on the apron. In the ring, Kraq lifts him back up and bodyslams him again, and then does that one more time. He tries to do the same thing again, but Halloween surprises him by poking him in the eye (I think; Kraq was in the way, making it hard to say; It's possible that he punches him in the gut, but I'm going to go with an eyepoke), and then delivers his own bodyslam. Damien falls down to the mat, selling the strain on his back (due to having to lift Kraq's weight), and then covers the fallen Kraq. 2. Damien now tags in Halloween, who climbs in and lifts up Kraq as Damien hammers Kronus off of the apron. Halloween chops Kraq twice, and then holds him in a full nelson hold from behind, allowing Damien to running punch the Black Army member. Damien then runs off of the ropes, probably to charge him again, but Kronus, who's back on his feet at ringside, grabs his foe's feet, tripping him down to the mat, and then drags him out.

Kraq, still being held by Halloween, now runs into the ropes, causing Halloween to bounce back, thereby releasing the full nelson. On the outside, I presume that Kronus is hammering Damien (they're out of camera range, but back in the ring, Halloween ducks Kraq's running punch and downs the big man with his signature jumping 180º spinning sidekick. Halloween covers, locking the leg: 1-2-3. It's over. The ref signals for the bell, and it rings.

WINNERS: MEXICO's MOST WANTED (Damien 666 & Halloween) (w/ Lady Victoria)

- Lady Victoria is on the apron celebrating, and she jumps off down to ringside as soon as a fatigued Halloween rolls out. Victoria says some stuff to Halloween, and we then see Angel slide into the ring and tend to his man, Kraq. Damien soon meets Halloween and Victoria, and Damien, facing away from the ring, hurls a pumpkin high over his head, and it lands in the ring where Angel and Kraq are. MMW slap eachother high-fives, and Victoria stands between them as they all raise eachother's hands. In the ring, Angel waits for Kraq to get back up, while MMW celebrate on the outside. Kraq now slides out of the ring and catches a breather right near Kronus, while Angel also climbs out and catches up to him and Kronus. MMW climb back into the ring and slap eachother high-fives for a few moments before climbing back out and heading to the back. Kronus, near the entranceway, hurls a pumpkin that narrowly misses Halloween, causing the MMW member to charge to the lockerrooms after him. Victoria runs after him and Damien follows her. Cut out.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: This was a fine match. It started off exciting, and then it slowed down a bit before picking back up again. I liked Damien's rope slingshot double Japanese armdrag, ropewalk huracanrana, and diving plancha through the ropes. Damien twice freezing while in mid-tipup was very impressive. That takes great balance and lots of practice. I would've liked to see a bit better selling during the ringside brawling, but XPW obviously isn't known for their selling (they're known for their deathmatches and innovative spots). The Super Huracanrana (by Damien)/Flying Splash (by Halloween) sequence was OK, and the Sideslam (by Kraq)/ Middle Buckle Leg Drop (by Kronus) combo was also fine (albeit clearly recycled, as it's been used many times before). I didn't see the need for Kraq to bodyslam Damien so many times, even if it was supposed to show his power. I also didn't see the purpose for the series of pin reversals featuring Damien, Kraq, Angel, and Victoria. That was pretty annoying. The finish could've been more legit, as it's not completely realistic that a big guy like Kraq wouldn't kick out of (basically) a spinkick (by Halloween). Some of the stuff that should be the easiest part of the match were not done very well. What I am referring to by that is the ref's terribly slow counts. Overall, though, the highspots saved it, though. Damien was definitely the best performer in the match. He had a good night and worked well.
RATING: *1/4

- We see a graphic for the next match: POGO (the Clown) vs. STEVE RIZZONO. Cut out.

- Backstage, we see Enterprise member Steve Rizzono walk up to XPW Executive V.P. "Dorko Dude" Kevin Kleinrock, who's leaning against the wall (standing) reading some papers. Rizzono: "Ah, Kevin - there you are. I can't find Veronica (Caine). I can't find - uh - T.J. (Rush). I can't find [hesitates] G.Q. (Money). Kaos is gettin' his [TV Title] belt shined somewhere. I can't - ya' know - he don't return phone calls." Aftter stuttering over some words, he asks, "Who am I wrestlin', man." Once he finally stops rambling, Kleinrock replies: "Ya' know, [hesitates] your girl - [hesitates] sh' - she's got ya' in a little bit of trouble." Rizzono: "[after some rambling] Oh, no...[more rambling]" Kleinrock: "You're wrestlin' Pogo. Don't worry about it [casually slaps Rizzono on the shoulder]." Rizzono (it hasn't kicked into him, yet): "Oh - Pogo. [says something inaudible] [it finally kicks into him now as Kleinrock heads through a corridor; Rizzono chases him] I can't wrestle Pogo! Kevin?! Pogo?!" Cut out.

- In a lockerroom, the rest of The Enterprise (G.Q. Money, T.J. Rush, and Veronica Caine) are sitting with Kaos (who's wearing his TV title belt around his waist, and is dressed in his usual ring attire), discussing their plan for his match against New Jack that night when, suddenly, Rizzono pops into the room (and camera range). Rizzono: "Guys! Guys! Guys! I got Pogo tonight!" G.Q. says, "Dude, he's [Kaos] got (New) Jack." They then go back to counciling Kaos, acting like Rizzono isn't there. Rizzono again pops into the conversation: "You don't understand. Pogo - in a deathmatch. He'll rip my head off." G.Q. again tells Rizzono that Kaos is taking on "'The Original Gangster,' New Jack. He could be homicide (number) five. We don't want that." Rizzono again tries to get it through his allies' heads, as he pleads, "Pogo?!"

They continue concentrating on Kaos' match, though, as G.Q. says, "You know - just [hesitates] get the weapons out of the ring." Rizzono tries one more time and shouts, "Guys, I got Pogo the Clown!" G.Q. again responds: "Dude, he's got New Jack!" Kaos: "Dude, come on!" They again go back to discussing their plan for the New Jack match, and Rizzono, looking shocked that they don't understand his worries, walks away out of camera range. The E. now finish up planning for the match, and it looks and sounds like Kaos is psyched up and ready. G.Q.: "Dude, don't worry. You're you. You're you. You got that belt." [everybody says something at the same time, making it hard to hear what G.Q. says] Kaos: "I got it (referring to his TV title belt). Whooo!" G.Q.: "Let's do it." G.Q.: "A'right (Alright)..." Cut out.

MATCH 4: POGO the CLOWN vs. STEVE RIZZONO (w/ T.J. Rush & Veronica Caine)

We cut right into the match, which is joined in progress. Enterprise members T.J. Rush and Veronica Caine are at ringside for Rizzono. Rizzono has Pogo in the corner, where he punches him twice and chest slaps him twice (then shakes his hand, selling how much it hurts to slap Pogo) before whipping him into the opposite corner. Rizzono charges and running knee smashes Pogo's stomach. Rizzono bounces back a few feet, shouts his signature phrase, "Booya," out to the crowd, and then steps back in and delivers a gutkick, a chest slap (shakes his hand again), and a chop before climbing up onto the middle buckle and delivering six punches to Pogo's head before the monster pushes him off, sending him back down onto the mat. Rizzono gets back up and again charges Pogo, who's still in the corner, and delivers another running knee smash. Rizzono punches Pogo before again climbing up onto the middle rope and delivering some punches. This time, he gets up to two before Pogo pushes him off, sending him sailing back down onto the mat. Pogo is ready for his opponent, as, once Rizzono gets back up and turns toward him, the giant charges out of the corner and sends him down with a vicious running lariat.

Rizzono is down for awhile, and once Pogo finishes resting against the middle ring rope, he gets back up and shouts his signature phrase, "F*ck you," out of the crowd. The fans cheer, and even though he seemed to be referring to the fans, Pogo is a monster face. Before Pogo has a chance to lift Rizzono back up to his feet, T.J. Rush climbs into the ring and, from behind, clips Pogo's left foot out from under him. With Pogo down on one knee (the right one), Rizzono kicks the bad one (that T.J. attacked) twice. Both Rizzono and T.J. now kick it at the same time, and Rizzono then adds in one more before T.J. lifts Pogo back up to his feet and both Enterprise members double hiptoss/suplex combo Pogo over their shoulders and back down onto the mat. After they both celebrate, tauning the crowd, T.J. now climbs back out to ringside to let Rizzono abuse Pogo for awhile. Rizzono now sets Pogo down on his back and performs two knee drops to his face before T.J. slides back into the ring with a steel chair. Rizzono sets the chair on Pogo's face, and then drops a leg onto it, driving the chair into Pogo's face. Both men lift Pogo back up and perform a nice double suplex on the big man. Pogo grips at his back, selling the pain, and T.J. stomps on that back before picking a chair up and giving it to Rizzono.

T.J. then picks up his own steel chair (I'm not sure how two got into the ring, but somehow they did.), and the two each swing their own at Pogo at the same time. Pogo, though, ducks under. T.J. and Rizzono act stupid, giving Pogo several moments to recover, and then turn around. Rizzono blatantly reveals the business by holding the damn chair up to his face, allowing Pogo to punch the metal object into it. T.J. gives Pogo a few seconds to get back up, and then swings, only to have Pogo bash it back into his face with a hard double fist smash. Pogo raises his arms up in triumph, and then grabs Veronica Caine, who's climbed up onto the apron. Within a second or two, though, Rizzono crawls over to them and low blows is opponent, allowing Caine to climb off, back down to ringside. Pogo is still on his feet, right near the ropes, and Rizzono gets back up, applies an inverted facelock, and then plants Pogo with The One Night Stand. Rizzono now moves Pogo down onto his back and covers him. At 1, though, Rizzono releases the pin and lifts Pogo back up and performing another One Night Stand. Rizzono again covers, but Pogo press slams him off at 1.

Both men rest for several seconds, and then get back up at about the same time. Rizzono runs off of the ropes, but Pogo sends him back down with his signature inverted spinning back elbow smash. Pogo, down on both knees, shouts, "F*ck this [I think it was this; There's a low possibility that it was, "you," but I'm pretty sure it was, "this."]," out to the crowd, who pops for the big guy's insane attitude. Pogo lifts Rizzono back up and plants him again, this time with The Basement Bomb/Pogo Bomb (Powerbomb), folding his opponent up like an accordian. Pogo covers: 1-2-3. Pogo wins! The ref signals for the bell, and it rings.

WINNER: POGO the CLOWN

- Both Pogo and the ref get up, and the ref starts to raise Pogo's hand, only for the big guy to pull away. He heads toward the ropes, probably about to exit the ring, but T.J. Rush climbs in and charges him. Pogo is ready, though, and he surprises the motivational speaker with a gutkick, and then powerbombs him, too, folding him up like an accordian. Pogo then climbs out of the ring and, as the fans chant, "X-P-Dub!" heads back toward the lockerroms. As Kloss hypes the main event, an Exploding Ring Deathmatch, we see Rizzono recovering in the ring, and T.J. leans in through the middle and bottom ring ropes and talks to him. Rizzono rolls out of the ring under the bottom rope. Veronica Caine, acting pissed off that Rizzono lost, is carrying a miniature American flag, and T.J. and a tired Rizzono follow her back up the entrance aisleway. On the way, Rizzono shouts out to the fans. T.J. raises Rizzono's arm, and the three Enterprise members then make their way to the back. Cut out.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: This was definitely the shortest match of the night, so far (from what has been shown), and it wasn't anything special. It was joined in progress, so I don't know if we saw the whole thing, but I tend to think that we probably saw most of it (about 90-95%). Anyway, Rizzono got in much more offense than most would think he would, and he and T.J. Rush's double-team manuevers looked fine. I didn't think that Rizzono had to perform a second One Night Stand. I think that performing one, and then having Pogo press slam him off and down him with the spinning back elbow would've bene perceived as well, if not better. Pogo's power was well displayed, and everyone (including T.J.) played their roles fine. This was basically a nothing match.
RATING: 3/4*

- Backstage, Juventud Guerrera (on the viewer's left) and Psychosis (on the viewer's right) (both unmasked) are sitting down in chairs discussing their match (in Spanish) when Konnan comes in and slaps Juvi, and then Psichosis on the shoulder. He tells them the following: "See-Cose-iss (Psichosis) - savè scayo [I sounded it out. It was something in Spanish.]. When you go out there, just have the s' - same type of matchup you had there in Triple A [AAA] and WCW. Don't let Rob Black get to La Familia." As Konnan talks, he pats Psichosis, and then Juvi on the chest. Juvi: "I know, bro. OK?" Konnan: "OK. Ola' lay'. [both Juvi and Psichosis mutter some stuff] Have a good match. Ola' lay'." Konnan walks away (out of camera range) as Psichosis starts to get up. Juvi and Psychosis are going to put on a classic like they did in AAA or WCW? Let's just see about that...Cut out.

- A graphic hypes the next match: JUVI vs. PSYCHOSIS. Cut out.

- Both Juvi and Psychosis are in the ring, and Ron Head introduces Juvi: "His opponent - from San Diego, California - Juventud Guerrera!" As Head climbs out of the ring, Juvi grabs his mic and speaks into it: "'The Juice' just want(s) to say one very important thing - You know, tonight, all of the [or maybe it was "you"; I think it was, "the," though.] people - you're [or maybe it was "people are gonna'"; it was hard to hear.] gonna' see two of the best wrestlers in the world. So you, Rob - Rob - La Familia - La Familia is not for life, it's not forever, it's for real, and we gonna' kick your (Rob Black's) ass." With that, Juvi hands the referee the mic, who in turn hands it to somebody at ringside (who's out of the camera range). Juvi and Psychosis now square off.

MATCH 5: JUVENTUD GUERRERA vs. PSYCHOSIS (referee: Patrick Hernandez)

The bell rings as the two rivals face off. Juvi runs off of the ropes twice, just to get loose. He riles up the crowd by getting them to clap. Psychosis, who may I note is wearing an "AWF" t-shirt (which is probably some indy fed that he worked for), slides down on the mat towards Juvi, also just trying to get loose. The two suddenly stop, shake hands, and then continue facing off. Juvi signals for Psychosis to come closer, and when he does, Juvi slaps him. Psychosis slaps Juvi back. Juvi acts all mad, as he wanted to get in the last hit before they locked up. They again face off, and then finally tieup. Psychosis immediately tosses Juvi with a judo arm throw. Juvi slides out of the ring, but immediately slides back in when Psychosis slides out to where he was. In the ring, Juvi taunts Psychosis, who slides back in and charges his opponent, only to be sent down with a drop toehold. Juvi then gets down on his foe's back and applies a sleeper hold. Juvi spins around a bit, trying to find a good position to hold Psychosis' arm, eventually settling for a grounded armbar. Juvi now rolls Psychosis into a Gannosuke Clutch-like pin (ala former-FMW'er Mr. Gannosuke). Psychosis rolls out of the hold at 2 and applies a front chancery.

The two fight for control for a few seconds before Juvi spins out of the hold with an armringer-like move. He has an armringer hold applied, and now stands up with it still applied. Psychosis starts to get back up, and Juvi gutkicks him. Juvi lifts him back up and cinches him up, but Psychosis drops down on one knee each of the two times that Juvi attempts to suplex. Psychosis fights out with an armringer, and then takes Juvi's left leg out from under him with a back leg trip. He holds onto the lower part of that leg with an anklelock hold. Juvi does three pushups with the leg still being held onto, and the third helps to catapult him up to his feet (or rather, foot). Juvi turns around toward Psychosis and sends him down with an enziguri kick. Psychosis grabs his neck and rolls out to ringside to catch a breather. Juvi is standing up on the middle buckle, riling the crowd up, and Psychosis soon climbs back into the ring.

Juvi climbs off of the buckle and the two look to want to do a Greco-Roman knuckle lockup (single-hand fist - to - fist lockup), and after each one hesitates for awhile, they join fists. Each garner for control, and Psychosis now back rolls, and then climbs back up onto his feet. Psychosis uses his other arm, too, to grab Juvi's arm, and then forces him backwards, down to the mat. Juvi kickups back to his feet, but Psychosis, still holding onto his arm, chest slaps him back down. Juvi again kicks up, and Psychosis again chest slaps him down. Another kickup. Juvi ducks a lariat and they release the hold on eachother. Juvi chops Psychosis three times, causing him to lean up against the ropes. Some guy in the crowd yells out, "bor-ing!" Juvi tries to whip Psychosis into the ropes, but he holds on, counters with an armringer, ducks Juvi's lariat, and plants 'The Juice' with a cool Jumping Sitout Back Head (Inverted Face) Plant (Edge's Edge-O-Matic).

Psychosis now tries to powerbomb Juvi, but he flips out, lands on his feet, and pushes Juvi down, adding a front low blow kick as he fell back. Psychosis covers Juvi and barely gets a one count, as Juvi pushes him off and, as Psychosis gets back up, sweeps the left leg out from under his foe. Juvi covers Psychosis and barely gets 1, as Psychosis pushes him off. Both get back up and again square off. Psychosis wants to do another single-arm Greco-Roman knuckle lockup. Juvi starts to lift his hand up, but Psychosis surprises him with a chest slap, then a punch, and then a chop. Juvi is now in the corner, but Psychosis moves him out of it and tries to whip him into the ropes, only to have it reversed. Psychosis bounces off of the ropes and delivers a swinging neckbreaker to Juvi, who had bent down (probably for a back body drop). Several people yell out, "bor-ing!" Juvi sits up and Psychosis gets up and stomps on his head from behind.

Psychosis lifts Juvi back up and whips him into the ropes. Juvi baseball slides under and through the feet of Psychosis, who now charges at him. Juvi tries a corkscrew pickup, but Psychosis flips out of it and lands on his feet. Psychosis ducks a lariat and Juvi charges him. Psychosis uses his own corkscrew pickup, but Juvi also flips out, landing on his feet. Psychosis tries a lariat, but Juvi ducks and runs into the ropes. Psychosis does the same, and each bounce off and charge eachother. Juvi nails a spinning heelkick, which Psychosis sells well. Psychosis is down, and Juvi gets up and salutes the crowd before running off of the ropes. He bounces off and passes Psychosis, who's getting back up. Psychosis turns around to face Juvi, who bounces off of the ropes. Psychosis performs a double-rotation tilt-a-whirl, with Juvi eventually spiking him with a (swinging) DDT. Nice spot.

Juvi lays Psychosis down on his back, runs off of the ropes, and hits a snap leg drop. Juvi holds the leg drop in place and the referee counts, but Psychosis kicks out at 2. Juvi climbs out of the ring and signals for a fan to throw him a steel chair. Several do, causing some security to come over and point out some fans and say some stuff to them. Juvi picks one chair up, holds it up for the crowd to see, and climbs back into the ring, where Psychosis is still lying down on the mat. As the fans boo him, Juvi waits until Psychosis is sitting up on both knees to bash the chair over his head. Psychosis goes down as Juvi, the fans, and I watch a fan run away from a security member, prompting the official to chase after him until they're out of camera range. After consulting Sean McCartney of XPWTV.com, I discovered that the guy was not arrrested or anything, which somewhat surprised me. It was a funny sight, though. Juvi now mounts the chair in between the top and middle buckles, and then goes over and stomps on the head of Psychosis, who's on his hands and knees.

Psychosis is in the corner, and Juvi twice tries to whip him into the opposite corner, but Psychosis holds onto the top ring rope to assure that he stays where he is. A frustrated Juvi chops his opponent twice, and then punches him before again trying to whip him into the opposite corner. Psychosis goes halfway across the ring, but holds onto Juvi and then tries to reverse the whip, to send Juvi into the buckle. Juvi doesn't go, though, and Psychosis ends up swinging around, and then tries to whip Juvi into the corner that they were just at. Juvi, though, reverses that whip, sending Psychosis into the buckle that they were just at. Juvi charges, but Psychosis gets both feet up into his face. Psychosis charges out of the corner, ducks Juvi's lariat, and gutkicks him. He puts Juvi in between his legs, probably looking to powerbomb him, but immediately (within about a second) decides to cinch him up for a suplex. He does just that, and drops Juvi face-first with a Sitout Vertical Suplex (Juvi lands in a Face Plant [X-Factor]). Nice exchange between both men, all the way back to the multiple corner whip reversals.

Psychosis covers, but Juvi kicks out at 2, prompting Psychosis to start yelling at the referee. Psychosis lifts Juvi back up, backs him into a corner (the opposite one that they were at before), and whips him into the opposite one (the one that they were in before). Psychosis actually follows about two feet behind Juvi, so, once Juvi makes contact with the ringpost, Psychosis pancakes him into it again with a running corner lariat. Another corner whip by Psychosis (to the opposite corner; which they were just at a few seconds ago). Juvi barely even touches that ringpost, as he stops about a foot away from it and drop toeholds Psychosis, who was charging after him, face-first into the chair that was mounted in between the buckles. The chair bounces out of it's mounted position and falls out to ringside. Juvi signals for the 450º Splash (at least that's what I think he's signaling for) before going to the opposite side of the ring, climbing through the ropes, and then making his way up to the top turnbuckle. Psychosis gets back up as Juvi proves me wrong (I thought that he was going for the 450º Splash) as he hits a fine-looking Diving Huracanrana. Cover. 2.

Juvi gets up and signals for a chair, and he takes one that a ringside Ron Head is holding up for him. Juvi drops the chair in the middle of the ring and lifts up Psychosis, who he delivers a chop to. Psychosis goes back down again, and Juvi waits till he's back up to whip him into the ropes. Psychosis, though reverses the whip, sending Juvi into the ropes. Juvi bounces off and uses a sunset flip to try to bring down Psychosis, who has bent down (probably for a back body drop). Psychosis stays up, though, and instead grabs the chair and bashes it down over the forehead of Juvi. Psychosis takes a quick breather before covering Juvi. 2. Psychosis gets up, unfolds the chair, sets it up in the middle of the ring, and stomps on the head of Juvi, who's on his hands and knees. Psychosis lifts Juvi up and tries to whip him into the ropes. Juvi, though, holds on and doesn't go, instead deciding to charge back toward his foe. Psychosis is ready, though, and drops him face-first on the set up chair with a flapjack.

A small, "Holy Sh*t!" chant begins as Psychosis gets up, unfolds the chair, and sets it down in the middle of the ring. Psychosis signals that it's the end for Juvi before lifting his foe back up. He lifts him up high with a vertical suplex (probably looking for a brainbuster), but Juvi drops back down (in front of his foe) and plants Psychosis on the chair with The Juvi Driver. Juvi covers, pulling back the leg. 1-2-3! Patrick Hernandez signals for the bell, and it rings.

WINNER: JUVENTUD GUERRERA

- Ron Head makes the announcement: "Your winner - Juventud Guerrera!" Juvi sells fatigue, and eventually makes it back up to his feet. Hernandez raises his hand, and Juvi then kicks the chair out of the ring, bends down on one knee, and talks to Psychosis. Juvi holds up the hand of his fellow La Familia member before getting back up and taking the mic from the ringside Ron Head. Juvi: "This match was very emotional [I think he said, "emotional."] for me, [inaudible word(s)]. So, it doesn't matter who win(s) the match - Psychosis or myself. (to fans) You know who win(s) the match, for real? [points out to crowd] All you people. You people." With that, Juvi tosses the mic out of the ring (to someone out of camera range; possibly Ron Head. I'm not sure.) and helps Psychosis back up. Psychosis, though, wants none of it, as he lightly pushes Juvi away with left arm, sparking some boos from the crowd. The two have some words for a few seconds, and each Psychosis then reluctantly reaches his hand out. Juvi does the same, and the two shake hands before Juvi raises Psychosis' hand for about a second (Psychosis' hand drops down when he bends down to try to catch his breath). An "X-P-Dub!" chant begins as Psychosis argues with Hernandez and Juvi again grabs the mic from Ron Head (I guess that's who he threw it, too, or at least that's who retrieved it).

Psychosis rolls out of the ring as Juvi: speaks: "[inaudible words; I think they were English, but I couldn't understand then.]...already. He told ye' we have a surprise for somebody. We have a little surprise for all you [referring to the fans]." Juvi now climbs out of the ring and, shouts, "Psycho," referring to Psychosis (he wanted to get Psychosis' attention). A fatigued Psychosis turned around and he and Juvi head back to the lockerroom together. Juvi sets the microphone down on one of the barrels with a pumpkin on top of it as he walks past it. Juvi suddenly turns to his left and walks over to where some fans are behind a guardrail (Psychosis continues walking back to the lockerrooms, not even realizing that Juvi had turned away). He slaps the hand of a young, blond-haired boy, then the hand of an older then the hand of an even younger, blond-haired boy (younger than the other kid), who's sitting up on the main's shoulders, and finally the hand of a black-haired 25-or-30 something year old, before heading back towards the aisleway and heading back to the lockerroom. I think the two kids and the older man were all related (anotherwards, I think the older man was their father). Juvi gives the camera a peace sign as we cut out.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: This was definitely not like any of the AAA or WCW classics between these two. However, it was a great match, especially considering that this is XPW. This was not the best match in XPW history (that'd probably go to D/Messiah at Abuse of Power or D/Kaos at Damage Inc.), but it was a great match. These two have done far, far better, though. I think both men turned it up a notch due to the fact that they were going up against eachother. Juvi especially is often criticized for not working his hardest during indy shows, but he worked hard enough in this match. This was far more mat-based than aerial-based, like most of their amazing classics. They began with an acceptable (although not great) technical exchange, and it slowly picked up as the pace quickened. I liked that they added in the sitout head plant by Psychosis, as that was a nice addition. The whole sequence with the trading of corkscrew pickups, ending with Juvi's spinning heelkick, was done nicely. The double-rotation tilt-a-wirl into Juvi's swinging DDT was a cool sight, too, as was the series of corner whip reversals. The fan being thrown out was funny. I liked Psychosis' sitout vertical suplex, and Juvi performed a nice diving huracanrana. The flapjack onto the chair looked alright, but I would've liked to see the finish with The Juvi Driver be a little bit more unpredicable. I thought countering it out of the attempted vertical suplex was a little - well - I thought the lead up to the finish could've been more creative. Although they weren't in front of an audience of several million (like they were in WCW and their Mexican bouts), I would've liked to see a bit more aerial spots. While this was a fine match overall, considering that the two were mega Lucha Libre rivals who had a historic feud, this was a big disappointment. I would have little problem with it if it weren't between Juvi and Psychosis, but since it was, and they're both mega rivals, this was far below their usual level.
RATING: *1/2

- A graphic hypes the next match: DAMIEN STEELE vs. KONNAN. Cut out.

PRE-MATCH NOTES: "The Real Deal" Damien Steele wrestled in XPW during it's early days, and not only was he it's first-ever World Heavyweight Champion, but he was (and still is, to this day) it's only two-time World Heavyweight Champion. In an early 2000 Casket Match vs. The Messiah, he was put into the casket and carried away by Messiah's altar boys (not to be confused with the future-XPW tag team, The Altar Boys [Luke & Matt]). It was said that he was "dead," and was gone from XPW forever. In reality, he left XPW and had successful stays in IWA Peurto Rico and fellow-Southern California indy promotion UPW. He returned to XPW at its previous show, Damage Inc., and helped "White Trash" Johnny Webb to win the XPW World Heavyweight Title. He had become the newest Black Army member. The new version of Steele had long, black hair rather than blond, and was hyped to be back from the dead. In addition to being called "The Real Deal," Steele also received the new nickname of "The Dark Angel." His new persona was far darker than his old one, which was much more of a cocky heel. Rob Black made his match vs. La Familia member Konnan earlier in the night (read above).

- We see Lizzy Borden, dressed in a Trish Stratus-like coat, cowboy hat, pants, etc. (back when she managed T&A), leading Damien Steele (real name: Tim Fisher) (w/ black hair) to do battle with the leader of La Familia. Steele's music plays in the background as Lizzy leads him to the ring. Steele says some inaudible words into the camera, and then circles the ring and gets some heel heat before climbing into the ring. Lizzy stays at ringside as he climbs up onto the middle buckle and poses for the fans before jumping back down to the mat. Ron Head introduces him as the ref checks him for foreign objects: "Introducing first, from Boris Falls, (that's what it sounded like) California - accompanied to the ring by Lizzy Borden - here is "The Real Deal" Damien Steele!"

Steele poses for the crowd as rap music hits over the P.A. and Lady Victoria comes out, leading Konnan to the ring. Konnan walks around the ring, causing Lizzy and Steele (I guess he climbed out to ringside) to run around it so as not to be encountered by him. Steele rolls back into the ring, and after walking completely around the ring and slapping the hands of several fans, Konnan climbs up onto the apron, hands Victoria his shades (sunglasses), and then catapult somersaults himself over the ropes, landing on his feet in the ring. Damn...this dude is cool. Rivera calls Kloss a "piaso" as Steele gets down on both knees in the corner, crossing himself like The Messiah used to do. Ron Head introduces Konnan: "His opponent - from Miami, Florida - accompanied to the ring by Lady Victoria - this is Ko-nan (Konnan)!" Konnan takes off his plad shirt to reveal a muscle shirt, which he usually wrestles with. He hands Victoria the plad shirt and the ref checks him for foreign objects as Head exits the ring.

MATCH 6: "The Real Deal" DAMIEN STEELE vs. KONNAN (w/ Lady Victoria) (referee: Patrick Hernandez)

The ref signals for the bell, and it rings. Both men square off. Steele, several feet away from Konnan, tries a big boot thrust kick, and then a spinning jumping big boot thrust kick, but neither comes nowhere near making contact (I don't think that they were supposed to; I think Steele was supposed to just be loosening up.). Konnan, who was in the corner, steps forward a few feet and flicks Steele off with his middle finger, and then mocks having an orgasm while he shouts out, "Ola' - lay!" Now, there's classic Konnan for 'ya...Steele poses for the crowd, but they aren't impressed. They again square off. Tieup. Konnan steps behind Steele and applies a back waistlock. Steele tries to swing out of it, but Konnan delivers a cool arm snapmare. He doesn't let go of the arm, though, and instead rolls around on the mat, and then gets back up and, once Steele is up, throws his opponent with a nice armdrag. Steele backs off, and he wants to square off again. Konnan rips off one of his several arm pads and tosses it out of the ring.

Steele signals for a Greco-Roman knuckle lockup, and then tries a big boot thrust kick, but again, it comes nowhere close to making contact. Steele tries a low sidekick, and the same result occurs. He tries another, however, and Konnan catches the foot, and then pushes his opponent down so that he's on his stomach. Konnan applies a standing (Konnan is standing; not Steele.) elevated anklelock hold, and then decides to switch to a standing (Konnan is standing; again, not Steele) elevated camel clutch hold. Steele counters by rolling him into a hold where Konnan is on his back behind him (Steele), and his (Konnan's) legs are being held under Steele's armpits). Konnan quickly reverses it into a grounded cross-armbreaker (w/ Steele sitting on the mat rather than lying on it), though, and then turns it into a cross-armbreaker pin. At 2, Steele sits back up, and after a few seconds, Konnan releases the hold, climbs out of the ring, and chases Lizzy around. Lizzy eventually rolls into the ring and hides behind Steele.

Konnan hesitates to climb in now, but Victoria climbs in and low blows Steele from behind. Konnan now climbs in and goes right over to Lizzy (who's in the corner), rips off her hat, and climbs up onto the middle buckle, probably looking to repeatedly punch her. Victoria, though, runs over to him and tells him not to touch her because she wants to go at it with Lizzy. Konnan climbs back down to the mat and Victoria signals for Lizzy to come and try her. The referee, though, comes in between the two women, allowing Lizzy to slide out of the ring. Steele is now back up, and he hammers Konnan down from behind, and then stomps on his back twice before lifting him back up and into the ropes. I can see Victoria at ringside, so she has also climbed out, obviously. Konnan bounces off of the ropes, ducks a lariat, delivers a gutkick, and spikes Steele with a stiff DDT. Cover. 2. Konnan lifts Steele up, whips him into the ropes, and downs him with his signature Rolling Thunder Clothesline (forward roll into lariat). Konnan yells, "Ola' - lay," out to the crowd and then yells at a ringside Lizzy.

Steele is on both knees now, and Konnan positions his head so that it's laying on the middle ring rope, and then drives his boot into the front of his neck (Steele is facing Konnan), choking him. Hernandez reaches a four count, and Konnan breaks the hold. Steele catches his breath, as a ringside Lizzy leans through the ropes and talks to him. Steele is now in a sitting position in the corner, and Konnan signals for Victoria to come into the ring. She's already on the apron when we get a look at her, and we see her climb through the ropes into the ring, charge Steele, and deliver her signature Bronco Buster. She boucnes up and down a total of six times. She then stands back up, slaps Konnan high-five, and exits the ring as Konnan drives the front of Steele's neck down into the middle ring rope. Hernandez reaches only 2 when Konnan breaks the hold, lifts Steele up, and whips him into the ropes. Steele ducks a lariat, stops his run, turns around, and spits green mist into the Konnan's face, sending him down to the mat.

With Konnan now down, Steele stomps on his back four times before lifting him back up, placing Konnan's head under his armpit in a standing front facelock, hooking the arms, and hurling him with a nice double underhook overhead suplex. Steele floats over for the pin. 2. Steele lifts Konnan up and plants him in between his legs with a partilaly sloppy version of what was once known as The Steele Driver (a Falcon Arrow [Vertical Suplex into Michinoku Driver II]). With Konnan in between his legs, Steele hooks one of the legs for the pin. 2, again. Konnan rolls away, but Steele gets up, grabs him, and, with his hands, pushes his neck down on the middle ring rope, choking him. Hernandez reaches 4, and Steele breaks the hold, lifts Konnan up, and rams his face into the (top) turnbuckle that they're right near. Corner whip. Konnan slams into the opposite ringpost, and Steele performs a nice handspring (cartwheel) into...an eye poke. Yes - an eye poke. Whatever...

Steele gets down on both knees, extends both arms out, bends back a bit, and does his signature crucifix pose. Steele lifts Konnan (who's in the corner) up and punches him in the chest before trying to whip him into the opposite buckle that they were just at. Konnan, however, reverses the whip with an armringer, sending Steele into the opposite ringpost. Konnan follows right behind Steele, but Steele tips up over him. Steele applies a back waistlock and tries a german suplex, but Konnan won't go. Instead, the La Familia leader tries to nail Steele in the head with a spinning back elbow smash, but it's ducked, and Steele now takes Konnan over with a bridging northern lights suplex. 2. Steele lifts Konnan up and tries to whip him into the ropes, but Konnan again reverses with an armringer, sending Steele into the ropes. Steele bounces off, ducks a lariat, stops his run, and forearms Konnan's back. There's tons of miscommunication, and Steele obviously has no idea what to do. He applies a back waistlock, trying another german suplex, but Konnan doesn't go, as he instead escapes with an armringer and sends Steele down to the mat with a Russian legsweep.

Both men stay down on their backs on the mat, but Konnan lands with his arm draped across Steele's chest. Hernandez counts, but Steele kicks out at 2. Konnan gets up, lifts Steele up, whips him into the ropes, performs a gutkick, and then slams Steele face-first into the mat with his (Konnan's) signature Jumping Sitout Face Plant. Konnan rests on the mat for a few seconds before getting up, rolling Steele over onto his back (he had rolled over onto his stomach after being planted on the mat), and applying The Tequila Sunrise submission (Armlock through legs/Crab combo). Lizzy climbs up onto the apron and distracts Hernandez. Meanwhile, Victoria climbs up onto the apron, leans through the ropes, and tosses some pepper spray (that's what Kloss called it) powder of some sort into the eyes of Konnan. She badly misses his face, but Konnan releases the hold, gets up, and stumbles around the ring, selling an inability to see. Lizzy now climbs off of the apron, and Hernandez turns around to see Steele, who's gotten back up, gutkick Konnan, and perform what I presume The Real Deal, as I didn't see it due to the terrible camerawork (the damn cameras started scanning the damn crowd just when he hit it).

We finally get a shot of the ring, and Steele lifts Konnan back up, punches him in the face, gutkicks him, and, as Victoria climbs off of the apron and back down to ringside, performs another Real Deal, which was performed rather sloppily. Steele covers, hooking Konnan's leg. Hernandez counts: 1-2-3. He signals for the bell, and it rings.

WINNER: "The Real Deal" DAMIEN STEELE

- Steele rolls out of the ring as we get a shot of Lizzy (w/ out her cowboy hat) and Victoria holding eachother's hands up, showing that Victoria was clearly in cahoots with The Black Army the whole time. They skip around the ring together as we get a shot of Steele having his hand raised by Hernandez, as the fans chant, "X-P-Dub!" Hernandez walks out of camera range, and Steele, with green mist on his chin, looks into the camera and crosses himself. He then turns around as Lizzy and Victoria arrive to his side and accompany him back to the lockerrooms. Lizzy is on his left, and Victoria is on his right. Steele suddenly pulls Lizzy and Victoria over to his right so that they're on the side of the entrance aisleway. The reason for this is that La Familia runs out to the ring. Damien 666 leads the bunch, and he's followed by Halloween, Psychosis, and Juventud Guerrera. All of them slide into the ring, and Damien and Halloween check on Konnan as Psychosis and Juvi yell out at Damien and his girls, who have presumably (as we don't get another shot of them) went back to the lockerrooms. Damien and Halloween climb back out of the ring, and then come back into the ring with a water bottle, which Halloween pours over the head of Konnan (sitting on the mat) to try to both wash the mist off of his face and wake him back up.

Konnan, still sitting on the mat, apparently has been given the mic, as he starts speaking: "Rob Black, I know you put Lady Victoria up to this, so [inaudible] down and die, motherf*cker [unbleeped], 'cuz I'm going back there [to the lockerrooms] and I'm gonna' beat your ass!!!" As he slides out of the ring, Konnan continues: "I want the camera to follow me back there. I want this on TV. I wanna' f*ck [unbleeped] you, Rob, and your b*tch [Lizzy] [unbleeped]!" Konnan drops the mic and charges back up the aisleway. Cut out. Nothing would ever be shown of the aftermath of Konnan's threat (we never saw any backstage footage on the tape).

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: This was an alright match, but considering the adequate experience of each man, it was considerably sloppy. The start with Konnan's armdrags and submissions was fine, but the sequence with Konnan chasing Lizzy, Victoria threatening Lizzy, and Victoria's Bronco Buster on Steele was basically a waste of time. Steele took a stiff DDT, landing right on his head, and then performed a nice-looking double underhook suplex, only to follow with a sloppily-done Falcon Arrow. The handspring eye poke was pretty ridiculous. Steele's northern lights suplex was fine, but the exchange that led up to Konnan's Russian Legsweep featured obvious miscommunication, as Steele had no idea what to do after Konnan ducked his lariat. Konnan's Face Plant (X-Factor) was OK, but everything after that, which all fell into the category of the finish, was very chaotic. When he applied The Tequila Sunrise, Victoria through pepperspray toward him, but completely missed. The camera completely missed Steele's first Real Deal, as they were focusing on the crowd, so somewhat must've told Hernandez to tell Steele to perform another, which he did. The problem was that that Real Deal was VERY sloppily done. This match would've been fine if everything wasn't so sloppy, but since it was, it gets a far worse rating than it would've gotten. I decided to give the finishing exchange absolutely nothing, because it was so incredibly sloppy.
RATING: *

- We get a shot of Kaos, wearing his TV title belt around his waist, and G.Q. Money psyching eachother up in the parking lot for the match against New Jack. Both men hop up and down non-stop as G.Q. tells Kaos that he's the champ and he won't lose the belt. G.Q. praises Kaos' footwork. G.Q.: "You see that [referring to the two spinkicks he just did]? We got it. We got it, baby. We got it. It's me and you. Me and you. We're takin' it all the way. Oh, jeez - you're quick! [referring to Kaos' snap sparring punches that he's practicing] Whooo! Whooo! Oh my God! [stays quiet for a few seconds] That's why you('re) the man! That's what it's gonna' take!" Cut out.

- We see a graphic hyping the next match: T.V. TITLE MATCH: KAOS vs. NEW JACK. Cut out.

PRE-MATCH NOTES: This match came about at XPW's previous show (8/25/01), Damage, Inc. An eight-man, one-night, single-elimination tournament was held to crown an inaugural XPW World Television Champion. Kaos advanced to the final round, and in that match, Kaos eventually pinned Konnan (who had debuted that night) to win the title and become XPW's first-ever TV Champion. After the match, however, The Enterprise, who Kaos had been fueding with, came out and started beating up on his uncle (in storyline), the injured Supreme. However, fans were shocked when Kaos joined The E. in demolishing Supreme, even going so far as to put him through a bed of gore, which featured barbed-wire, lightbulbs, lighttubes, thumbtacks, and more dangerous weapons. Kaos had turned heel, and he was now the newest member of The Enterprise.

Also that night, an over-the-top elimination battle royal was held to determine the number one contender to the TV title. The winner of it would wrestle Kaos at the next show (Halloween In Hell 2, which you're reading the review of right now), and the last man standing would end up being "The Original Gangsta," New Jack, meaning that would Jack would face Kaos for the TV title at this show. Going into the match, Jack was hyped as a major threat to Kaos' title.

- We're getting a shot of Kaos (real name: Joey Munoz), with his title belt around his waist, in the ring, and Ron Head is introducing him. We cut in about a second too late, as we missed the first word of the intro, but it's obvious what it was: "[From] Colorado Springs, Colorado - accompanied to the ring by G.Q. Money, T.J. Rush, and Veronica Caine [we zoom out and get a shot of those three in the ring to support Kaos] - he is the XPW World Television Champion - this is Ka-osss (Kaos)!" As Kaos climbs up onto the middle buckle to taunt the crowd, G.Q. grabs the mic from Head and, after some inaudible stuff, says the following: "...[inaudible words] no longer Kid Kaos - will not respond to Kid Kaos. This is Mr. Kaos, and he is a rock superstar[extension on "ar."]. G.Q., who may I say absolutely rules, hands the mic back to Head.

We now get a shot of the entrance stage, and New Jack, wearing his typical red army attire and blue bandana, comes out to a big "New Jack!" chant. He wheels his usual garbage can full of weapons behind him. Once he gets halfway down the entrance aisleway, he lifts up the garbage can, charges the ring, and hurls it up over the ropes and in. Kaos hammers the can away from him as it comes down. Jack climbs up onto the apron, and as he climbs through the ropes, receives a gutkick.

MATCH 7: XPW World Television Championship Match: "The Rock Superstar" KAOS (c) (w/ G.Q. Money, T.J. Rush, & Veronica Caine) vs. NEW JACK (referee: ?)

The ref climbs into the ring through the ropes and signals for the bell to ring (which it does) as Kaos, wearing his title belt around his waist, punches Jack twice. Jack is now in the corner, and Kaos delivers four gutkicks and a back elbow smash before turning around and, after hesitating about which to pick (he originally picked up a computer keyboard before dropping it and), picking up a dust pan and using it to bash over Jack's head, sending the extreme legend down in the corner. Kaos backs up to pose for the crowd (he flexes his muscles) before going back and stomping on the head of Jack, who's lying down on the mat, twice. Kaos picks up the computer keyboard and, as Jack gets on his hands and knees, bashes it over his foe's head, sending several buttons and keys flying off of it. Kaos drops the keyboard and stomps on the head of Jack (who's on his hands and knees) before lifting him up and bodyslamming him. Kaos drops a leg on Jack, and then covers. 2. Kaos lifts Jack up so that he's on both knees and punches him before whipping him into the opposite corner.

Kaos charges toward Jack and delivers a back elbow smash before whipping him back into the corner that they were just at. Jack, though, bounces off and drives a fork, which he had pulled out from his ring attire, into the forehead of Kaos, sending the champ down. Kaos stays down on the mat for awhile as Jack looks out at the fans. Jack now sits Kaos up on both of his knees and delivers another fork shot to his forehead. Kaos gets up, and Jack rips the title belt off of the champ's waist as he tosses him out of the ring through the ropes. Kaos lands on his feet on the outside and Jack climbs out and delivers an uppercut before signaling for the fans to move out of the way so he can toss Kaos over the guardrail, which he does. Kaos lands on several set up chairs, and Jack climbs over the rail, lifts Kaos up, and brawls with him into the mob of fans. It takes a very long time for a cameraman to get a shot of the action, and we can barely see that Jack is dragging Kaos along with him, and an army of fans follow them. We finally get a good shot and see that Jack is bringing Kaos up some stairs, leading up to about a 10 foot high balcony.

Jack throws a fairly bloody Kaos down onto the floor, and then drives his neck down into a guardrail on the balcony, choking him with the rail. Jack punches Kaos before leading him through the mob of fans. Jack hammers Kaos twice, and then starts cutting his head open even more with a weapon that I can't make out. The fans chant, "New Jack!" as as the challenger punches Kaos, who partially blocks it. Kaos surprises Jack by fighting back with his own punch, a gutkick, and a back elbow smash. Kaos drags Jack a ways before stopping and delivering two gutkicks, and a punch. He steps back and taunts the crowd before punching Jack, who's now on his knees. Kaos again turns around to taunt the crowd, and Jack takes advantage by low blowing him from behind. Jack (who's name the fans are chanting) gets back up and drags Kaos a ways before forearming his back. Kaos gets up again and starts backing up, trying to beg off Jack. No mercy is shown, though, as Jack picks up a trash can and throws it at the champ, knocking him down. The two are now away from most of the fans, and Jack clubbing fist smashes the head of Kaos, who's on his knees.

Jack lifts Kaos back up and drags him a ways before pushing him over a railing, sending the champ plummeting about 10 feet down to the dirt floor below. Jack climbs down, and the referee follows him. Jack follows Kaos, who's trying to stumble away. A bloody Kaos jumps down a few feet onto another dirt floor, and he's now stumbling down on the entrance stage and carelessly knocks a barrel down. G.Q. and T.J. Rush give some tips to Kaos, who eventually makes it down the aisle and slides into the ring. Kaos signals for something, and T.J. leans in and gives him his title belt. Jack is now walking down the aisleway, and after some hesitation, slides into the ring, only to be nailed with a grounded dropkick by Kaos (who has fastened his title belt back around his waist) before he can even make it back up to his feet. Kaos starts lifting Jack back up, but the challenger surprises him with a slap. Jack delivers a clubbing fist smash to Kaos' head, sending him down to the mat. Kaos gets back up, only to be punched back down again.

Kaos is now down on the mat (laying on his back), and Jack picks some weapons up from the pile in the ring. He lays the computer keyboard that was used before on Kaos' crotch, and then, while standing over Kaos' head, bashes it down with a vicious crutch shot. Kaos grabs at his groin, selling the pain. Jack covers. 2. Jack lifts Kaos up, but the champ surprises him with a punch, regaining control. Jack stumbles into the corner, and Kaos grabs a silver garbage can and tries to bash it over his opponent's head. Jack, though, blocks it and hammers Kaos twice before grabbing the garbage can and bashing it over Kaos' head, sending him down. Jack again covers. 2. G.Q. climbs up onto the apron for a moment before hopping back down onto the ringside dirt. Jack picks up the garbage can and waits for Kaos to get back up before stepping up onto the middle turnbuckle and leaping off, sending the champ down with a vicious garbage can shot to the head.

Right as Jack flew off with the garbage can, though, G.Q. climbed up onto the apron and bashed some weapon over the referee's head, knocking him down. Jack covers, but there's no ref to count. G.Q., who's hopped back down to ringside, slides into the ring and delivers a stomp to Jack's head. T.J. Rush slides into the ring, too, and together, he and G.Q. continually stomp on Jack. The two now lift Jack up and hold him still as Kaos climbs through the ropes and up onto the top buckle. Kaos, who's wearing his title belt around his waist, leaps off and nails his signature Flying Guillotine. Jack goes down, and G.Q. and T.J. scurry out of the ring as the ref reawakes and counts the 1-2-3 in favor of Kaos, who had pinned Jack, including grapevining his leg. The ref signals for the bell, and it rings.

WINNER and STILL XPW World Television Champion: "The Rock Superstar" KAOS

- G.Q. and T.J. climb into the ring and congratulate Kaos as Ron Head makes the announcement: "Here is your winner, and still XPW World Television Champion - Kaaa-oss (Kaos)." A bloody Kaos leans over the ring ropes and directs his attention to a ringside camera: "I am the champ. I am simply the best. Veronica Caine climbs up onto the apron, through the ropes, and into the ring to join in the celebration as Kaos climbs up onto the turnbuckles to celebrate. Jack starts climbing back to his feet as Kaos climbs off the buckles. G.Q. and the rest of The E. taunt the crowd as Kaos rolls out of the ring. The fans chant, "New Jack!" as Kaos' proud look turns to an obvious worry, and we soon get a shot of what he's seeing. T.J. and Veronica have climbed out of the ring, and G.Q. has been left in the ring with Jack. Jack downs "the agent to the stars" with a garbage can shot to the head, and we get a shot of Kaos urging T.J. and Veronica to leave the dangerous ring area as Jack whips G.Q. into the ropes and sends him down again with a stiff lariat/punch combo.

A bloody G.Q. stumbles around on his knees, eventually landing against the ropes. Kaos, T.J., and Veronica retreat back to the lockerrooms as Jack watches G.Q. continue stumbling around, eventually ending up climbing out of the ring and dropping down to ringside in his desperation to escape Jack's warpath. A very bloody G.Q. stumbles and around on the dirt as Jack climbs out of the ring, too, and sends him down with a clubbed fist smash. The fans chant, "X-P-Dub!" as Jack lifts a very bloody G.Q. up and leads him over to a table set up on the entrance stage area. Jack delivers another clubbing fist smash, and then lays G.Q. down on the table. I think we know what's coming next. G.Q. is now lying on the table, and Jack delivers one more clubbing fist smash to his forehead before disappearing through a nearby doorway. G.Q. looks to be spitting up some blood. About 15 seconds later, Jack emerges on an upper balcony, and then climbs up onto a big board ad for Budweiser. Jack stands up, poses for the fans for several moments, and then steps off of the edge and plummets down onto G.Q., splashing him through the table and landing on the dirt floor with an approximately 20 foot high balcony dive!

The fans chant, "New Jack!" as he pats G.Q.'s tummy a few times before getting back up and heading back down the aisleway. Jack slides back into the ring, rests on his back for a moment, and then sits up on both knees. Some XPW ring crew members attend to G.Q., and two guys lift him up in an atomic drop and hold him in an H-Bomb position (The Harris Brother's finisher) as they carry him back to the lockerrooms. G.Q. was VERY bloody. I'd say he was about as bloody as Ian Rotten after his Tapei Death Match vs. his brother, Axl, in ECW. G.Q. was wearing all white clothes, and all of that attire was littered with red drops. His face was the epitomy of the phrase, "crimson mask," as it was absolutely covered in blood. We zoom in on the XPW entrance logo above the entrance stage before cutting out.

- We get a shot of T.J. Rush, Kaos, and a blood-covered G.Q. Money in the parking lot. G.Q. cries as he looks over and wipes blood off of his blood-covered clothes before looking towards the camera and cutting a promo: "That's what we told you, ladies and gentleman - fast cars and [inaudible due to him spitting over his words], pictures on walls and bars. That's the agent to the stars, and that's the TV champ, baby." A bloody (yet far less bloody than G.Q.) Kaos takes over for him: "I told ya' once and I'm gonna' tell ya' again - ya' see - the XPW Television Champion. I'm not only the television champion because I'm good; I'm the television champion because, simply put --" G.Q.: "...you're simply the --" Kaos: "...(pauses) best."

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: The main purpose to this match, besides to be a title defense for Kaos, was to be a brawl around the building. That's just what it was. The brawling was done pretty well, and unlike most other matches of it's kind, it wasn't very sloppy. The two at least stayed to brawling, and didn't try to incorporate many wrestling moves into the match, which is actually a good thing. Jack is obviously not a wrestler, and while I didn't like that Kaos was paired up with him as opponents, I'm happy that they stuck to Jack's strengths, which is brawling and weapon attacks. I didn't enjoy the match much, as I like actual wrestling far more than a brawl in the crowd, but the two kept to the purpose of the match and didn't try to do stuff that wouldn't fit in (meaning wrestling). This was a fine brawl. I found the post-match chaos considerably more entertaining, as Jack beat G.Q. Money to a disgustingly bloody pulp before flying off of a balcony and putting him through a table. G.Q. was VERY bloody.
RATING: 5/8*

- A graphic hypes the next match, which is a world heavyweight title match: WHITE TRASH JOHNNY WEBB vs. ? MYSTERY OPPONENT.

- The Black Army enter, as World Champion "White Trash" Johnny Webb walks down the entrance aisleway (w/ a singapore cane in his right hand and his title belt around his waist), followed by Rob Black, and Lizzy Borden (still wearing her Trish Stratus-like attire. Black and Lizzy cheer him on as Webb climbs into the ring. Black now follows him in, climbing in himself. Black grabs Ron Head's mic and pushes him dock [to Webb]: "Are you ready? [some inaudible words] 'Member (Remember) - the mystery - [Head cliwn to the mat. Blambs out of the ring] here it is. Ya' ready? [Webb starts to hand Black the title belt] Nah! I don't need [some inaudible words]. Don't worry about it. Alright, here we go. [does a wierd dance] Alright, are you ready for a mystery opponent? Here it comes. Give me...the mystery opponent! [looks out toward entrance stage area]" We see the entrance stage area, and out walks...

RCG! That's right - it's Leroy The Ring Crew Guy (a member of XPW security). The brown-haired Leroy carries a mop in his left hand, and is wearing a long, black tank top, which reaches down to his upper leg area, that reads, "RCG" in bold, red letters. Leroy is supposed to be in a Rob Van Dam ripoff. In the ring, Black cracks up and mocks Leroy, and he and the champ hug before we cut back out to ringside, where Leroy has arrived. Leroy does the RVD thumb point three times before laying his mop up against the ring, climbing up onto the apron, and entering the ring. A camera (which is in the ring) zooms in on the XPW title belt, which the referee holds steady for the fans watching the tape I'm reviewing to see. The ref holds the belt up higher, allowing the fans in attendance and match participants to see it. Leroy, meanwhile, poses for the crowd, as he does some more thumb points and encourages the fan's "R-C-G!" chant to grow louder, which it does.

The ref says some stuff to Leroy, and then Webb. Black, at ringside, says some quick words (into the mic) before the match [to Webb]: "Alright. Here's your - uh - your - uh - your challenger: RCG - Hey! Alright...Alright. Kick his ass. Go. It's time to go home."

MATCH 8: XPW World Heavyweight Championship Match: "White Trash" JOHNNY WEBB (c) (w/ Rob Black & Lizzy Borden) vs. RCG (Leroy) (referee: ?)

I didn't hear an introduction for either man or a bell ring, but since the two square off and quickly lock up, I'll assume that this is a match. As I said, they tieup. Webb locks on a side headlock. RCG backs up into the ropes and pushes Webb off, sending him into the opposite ones. Webb bounces off and, as he comes back, RCG jumps up and tries to send his opponent down with an incredibly (and I think purposefully) sloppy shoulderblock, only for them both to collide into eachother. Neither men falls off of their feet, though, and Webb uses a knee smash to RCG's gut and whips him into the ropes. RCG bounces off and takes down Webb, who has bent down (most likely for a back body drop), with a sunset flip. Webb is now in a sitdown (powerbomb) pin, and the ref counts: 1-2-Webb rolls out of the pin and, after fiddling around with RCG's legs for a few seconds, applies a single-leg (Webb uses only one leg, I mean) Indian Deathlock, and then rolls over onto his back, causing RCG, who still has his legs hooked, to end up on his back, with his shoulders down. Very cool pinning combo. The ref counts: 1-2-3. Webb retains his title! The ref signals for the bell to ring, which it does.

WINNER and STILL XPW World Heavyweight Champion: "White Trash" JOHNNY WEBB

- Webb gets back up, and so does RCG.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: While most would probably give this a "DUD" rating (meaning that it had no value), I am going to give it a very small amount of points due to the awesome pinning combo that Webb used for the win. I've never seen anything like it before. Sure, Webb obviously hasn't perfected the hold like Bret Hart has The Sharpshooter (Webb, of what I know of, has never used that pinning combo before), but the move was very cool-looking.
RATING: 1/8*

- Someone at ringside leans through the ropes and gives Webb a mic. Webb speaks to RCG: "Hold on. Hold on. Alright. Ya' know - I've been there before, too, you know. I feel sorry for you. I'll tell you what - I'll give ya' one more chance. What'da' ya' think? One more? One more - for Leroy? [RCG acts excited at another oppurtunity, signaling that his answer is "yes."] [Webb says some inaudible words. I heard him ask, "One more?" two more times, but the other words were inaudible. Webb tells the ref something (most likely that he wants a rematch).

MATCH 9: XPW World Heavyweight Championship Match: "White Trash" JOHNNY WEBB (c) (w/ Rob Black & Lizzy Borden) vs. RCG (Leroy) (referee: ?)

The ref signals for the bell to ring, which it does, and the two competitors face off. They close in on eachother, and Webb kicks RCG in the gut, sending him down to the mat. Webb picks him right back up and spikes him with a stiff DDT. Webb now climbs out to rignside and grabs a steel chair from under the ring. As he walks around a corner of the ring, he says, in an incredibly clear voice (which was even clearer than words when they are said into XPW microphones) I may add, to a nearby camera, "Johnny Webb is a fair man," (he was being sarcastic). He now slides back into the ring and, with the chair still in hand, signals and tells RCG to get back up. The challenger soon does, but stumbles back a few feet, afraid of what Webb will use the chair to do. Webb surprises him and the fans by extending the chair to him and saying, "Here. I'll give you one more chance. [RCG takes the chair] [points to his two eyes with his fingers] Right here. Right here. Right here." Could it be - will we see a Leroynator?

Leroy tosses the chair to Webb, who catches it, and then tries to bash it into the champ's face with an incredibly (and I again believe purposefully) sloppy big boot. Webb, though, ducks the attack, and then delivers a chairshot to his opponent's back. This causes RCG to bounce off of the ropes, and after that happens, Webb, who has just dropped the chair down onto the mat, turns him around, and delivers a second DDT (again stiff), but this time onto the chair. Webb picks up the chair and rolls RCG (who was down on his chest) over onto his back. Webb drops down into a sitdown position (causing RCG's head to end up by his groin area; in an Inverted X-Factor position, just like what was used in the Juvi/Psychosis match), and as he does so, drives the chair down into the gut of RCG. That was actually a slightly cool move, if it could be called one. Webb sits down on RCG's left leg and yanks it back, turning it into a leg grapevine pin. The ref counts: 1-2-3. Webb again retains. The bell rings.

WINNER and STILL XPW World Heavyweight Champion: "White Trash" JOHNNY WEBB

- RCG rolls out to ringside and stumbles his way back up the entrance aisleway as, back in the ring, the ref gives Webb his title belt.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: I guess it deserves a rating, as there were a few actual moves (the two DDT's, the sitout chairshot, and possibly [if it counts as one] the sunset flip).
RATING: 1/4*

The champ hold sit up in triumph drops the chair back out to ringside as Black, with a mic in hand, enters the ring and, with Webb, looks out at the entrance area in confusion. He suddenly starts freaking out, and we see why. A shot of the entrance area shows Vampiro walking down the aisleway with a purpose. He looks and points out at the fans before sliding into the ring (he passes Leroy's mop, which is still layed up against the apron; I guess he forgot it...). Black urges him to wait a moment before launching any sort of attack: "No! No! No! No! We are y' - no. No! Ah. No. Come on...[stutters]" Webb, carrying his title belt, grabs the mic from Black and speaks [Patrick Hernandez (the referee) meanwhile, tries to convince Vamp to stay a few feet away from Webb so as to avoid a brawl]: "Hey. Hey. I know what you people [referring to the crowd] think about me. I know what you people think. I [inaudible word(s)] ...know about Internet and all that stuff. You [inaudible words] ...I can get the job done.

"Well, I'll tell you what - I'll tell you [inaudible word] - I ain't afraid u'you. You want this belt? Come on - let's go. I'll put it onna' (on the) line. [Black tries to argue him into changing his mind] No! No. This is mine [referring to the title belt]. I wanna' defend it. I wanna' defend it in honnu' (honor). Yeah, that's right. That's right...and the last thing I'm gonna' do is let some Canadian have our belt. This is the U.S.A. U.S.A.! Now, I'm gonna' take oo' (you) on right now." Webb tries to convince Black to support his decision as a "U-S-A!" chant begins. The XPW Owner gets in between the two and pleads for them not to go at it, but the moment is spoiled by Major Gunns coming out to the ring, decked out in a long, black dress. She walks down the entrance ramp and partly around the ring.

She signals for Ron Head's mic, and he gives it to her. Major Gunns: "Hey, Webb! I got a little somethin' for you. You wanted a challenge? Do you want a challenge, Webb? [the fans pop, thinking that she means something about sex; Major Gunns, sensing what they thought, laughs.] You f*ckin' [unbleeped] loser! Like I'd actually [either "like" or "let"] you [inaudible word(s)] your hands on me! [laughs] No, I'm sorry to say - but, you will be challenging - him. [refers everyone's attention out to the entrance stage]" The attention of everyone (including those in the ring) turns to the entrance stage. We get a shot of it (no one comes out and no music hits), and then of Vamp stretching in the ring. With his foe's head turned away, Webb charges Vamp and hammers his title belt across his back. Vamp grabs at his back, but recovers almost immediately. Webb begs him to have mercy.

MATCH 10: XPW World Heavyweight Championship Match: "White Trash" JOHNNY WEBB (c) (w/ Rob Black & Lizzy Borden) vs. VAMPIRO vs. The SANDMAN (w/ Major Gunns) (referee: Patrick Hernandez)

Hernandez signals for the bell to ring, and although I didn't hear it ring, I'll assume that it did. You'll discover why I listed The Sandman as a participant just a few lines below. Webb suddenly drops back, landing on his back, and uses his left leg to kick Vamp in the groin. Vamp sells the pain as Webb gets back up and gut punches him twice. We now get a shot of The Sandman, holding his singapore cane, drinking beer in the crowd. In the ring, Webb elbow smashes the back of Vamp's neck, and then gut punches him, only to be knocked down with Vamp's punch. Rob Black, who had been in the ring arguing with Hernandez most of the time, starts checking on Webb, but once he sees that Vamp is glaring down at him (Black has bent down), he, along with Webb (who climbs out instead of sliding out), slides out of the ring. We see Sandman in the crowd, and the fans continue to mob over to him. Meanwhile, Webb has escaped out of the ring and Vamp is in it, waiting for him to re-enter. Webb soon climbs back in, and Vamp lifts him up and punches him. Webb fires back with a gut punch, but Vamp stays in control with two of his own punches, and then a sidekick that sends the champ down.

Webb gets back up, and Vamp lays him up against the ropes and grips his hand around his neck, choking the champ. Vamp releases rather quickly, and then grabs Webb's right leg, holds it up, and kicks him square in the groin! Webb sells the pain, as he tumbles down onto the mat, and we get a shot of Sandman still enjoying beers in the crowd. He's up on a balcony, and he bours the contents of a beer can down into the throat of a fan that's on below the balcony (about 15 feet below Sandman). Back in the ring, Vamp tosses Webb out of the ring. Vamp yells out toward a fan (I believe) while Lizzy and Black tend to Webb, who's back on his feet and walking at ringside. Black gives Webb a water bottle, which he uses to pour down his throat and sprinkle down on his hair. Sandman, in the crowd, is still practicing the art of his seemingly unending passion: beer drinking. Webb is now back in the ring, and when he tries a kick, Vamp catches the leg and executes a single leg takedown, and then a jumping knee drop, driving his knee hard into Webb's groin. Webb sells the pain, and Vamp starts lifting him up.

Sandman finally arrives at ringside and climbs over the guardrail. He sees Rob Black only a few yards away from him. Black scurries away from "The Hardcore Icon," who glares at him for a few moments before taking another Budweiser out of his jeans pocket and celebrating with it. I can see a fan with a "WTK" sign, obviously shilling (it's indy wrestling Internet lingo) the former XPWLive.com columnist. Sandman carrying his cane in one hand and a beer in the other. He circles around the ring and meets up with Major Gunns, who he tosses the cane to. She catches it fine, and Sandman goes over and continues to interact with ringside fans. Sandman drinks a Budweiser and bashes it against his forehead several times before spitting it ou towards the fans. Back in the ring, Webb has Vamp in the corner, and he delivers a chest slap, four gutkicks, and a gut punch. Black is having a hilarious baby-like fit out on the ringside dirt.

Anyway, Vamp gains control back by knocking Webb down to the mat. Vamp lifts the champ back up and delivers a gut punch and two punches to the face, sending the champ back down again. Sandman is standing on a barrel on the entrance stage area, drinking a beer, and he now hops back down to the dirt pathway and...suddenly Vamp comes into camera range and hammers the former-ECW World Champ with a gutkick and three punches. Vamp rams Sandman's face down onto the top surface of a barrel, causing him to stumble around a bit. Vamp picks up a pumpkin off of a barrel, but changes his mind about using it and tosses it down onto the dirt. After a whip reversal, Sandman ends up being sent into a barrel, knocking it down. Vamp delivers a double axehandle smash to his foe's back, and then lifts him up, leads him a few yards away, and whips him toward a tower of barrels. There are two barrels on the bottom, and a third one is placed on top of those two. Sandman sells the bump into them by doing a front somersault into the barrels, taking all three out.

Webb runs into camera range and, from behind, bashes Vamp over the back twice with a metal dust pan. Webb gut punches and delivers a knee smash to Vamp, but the former-WCW star an attempted whip, sending Webb into a guardrail. Vamp lifts Webb back up, leads him a ways, and rams his face down onto something hard, which knocks him out. The camera only picked up Webb bouncing back up; not the object that his head was rammed into. Webb goes back down to the dirt and Vamp runs over to Sandman (who's back up), delivers a gut punch, and follows with a fist smash to the back. Sandman tries to retreat toward the ring, and he gets within a few feet, only to be grabbed by Vamp, lead several yards away, and whipped into a guardrail. Sandman front somersaults over the rail and lands hard on the dirt behind it. Webb now gets back up and drops a leg onto the side of Sandman's head (Sandman [who ended up right near Webb] was lying on his side).

Vamp starts to lift Webb back up, only for him to drop down and kick him in the groin, just like he did earlier in the match. Vamp sells the pain as Sandman gets up and tosses him into the guardrail. Vamp stays on his feet, though, and Sandman lifts Webb up and hurls him toward Vamp. Webb collides with him, and both fall down. Sandman now walks back to the ringside area, picks up a table that's set up at ringside, and tosses it up and over the top rope into the ring; It lands on it's side. Vamp is now up, and once Webb climbs back to his feet, he leads him several yards away and rams his face down onto the top surface of a barrel. Webb bounces off of the barrel and lands in a pile of...something. Vamp lifts Webb back up, leads him another few yards away, and rams his face into the right side of the "W" in an "XPW" logo on the entrance stage. Sandman is shown carrying a red ladder, (he passes a "www.XPWLIVE.com" sign) and, as we see Major Gunns watch on a few feet away from him, he slides it into the ring.

Vamp, at ringside now, hurls a pumpkin toward someone (I think it was a ring crew member or someone like that), but is surprised and sent down to the dirt when Sandman charges him from behind and nails him with an enzui (back) lariat. Vamp gets back up, only to be lariat'd back down. Sandman walks away, tosses two steel chairs into the ring, and comes back to Vamp, who he lifts up and rolls into the ring. Sandman crawls in himself, gets up, and punches Vamp before going over and punching Webb, who was re-entering the ring, twice. He tosses Webb out to ringside, and then lays the ladder up against the top ring rope. Lizzy helps Webb back up to his feet at ringside as Sandman goes over to Vamp and punches him twice. Vamp blocks a third blow and punches Sandman once, gutkicks him, and slams him onto the ladder (which is laying up against the ropes) with a suplex. Sandman bounces off of the ladder and ends up on the mat, and Webb, on the top buckle, pushes a table that was laying up in the corner down, causing it to land on Sandman's left hand. Webb now climbs down off of the buckle and onto the apron, where he leans into the ring and lays the ladder once again up against the ropes.

Vamp now lifts Sandman back up, only to be surprised with a front low blow. Sandman stumbles around and eventually lands against the ring ropes. This is supposed to shake the top turnbuckle, causing Webb (who's on it) to sloppily plummet down to ringside. As he comes down, though, he grabs a hold of the ladder and brings it down with him, causing it to shoot up and bash Sandman in the head. Sandman drops down onto the mat, and Vamp covers. 2. Lizzy attends to Webb, who's still down on the dirt, at ringside as Vamp and Sandman get back up. Sandman goes over and lies the ladder up agains the top ring rope once again, and does the same thing with a table in the corner. Sandman goes over to the corner, grabs Vamp, and leads him over to the table, lays him up against it, and punches him three times. Sandman picks up a chair, sets it up in the middle of the ring, backs into the opposite corner, and tries to put Vamp through the table with a chairvault corner back elbow smash. Vamp, though, move away, causing Sandman to crash into the table, barely breaking it. With Sandman down, Vamp grabs the chair, folds it up, and rams it down into his foe's gut.

Vamp now climbs out to ringside and stomps on the back of Webb, who was starting to get back up. As Lizzy checks on Webb, Vamp now drops the chair and tries to whip Sandman, who's climbed out to ringside, into a guardrail, only to have it be reversed and be sent into it himself. Black is now joining Lizzy in tending to Webb, while Sandman drags Vamp into the crowd. Sandman tries to ram his head into a wall, only to have Vamp back elbow him in the gut. Sandman seems unfazed, as he rakes the eyes of Vamp. Vamp starts climbing up the wall (I guess it has steps or something) that leads up to the next floor (about 10 steps up), and Sandman follows him up. The two meet on a platform that's about five feet up. Sandman punches Vamp, who fights back with a punch of his own. Sandman dangles as if he's about to fall, and one more punch from Vamp sends him dropping back down to the dirt below. Vamp poses for the crowd before leaping off of the platform and attacking Sandman's back with a flying double axehandle smash.

Vamp waits for Sandman to get back up before leading him over to the guardrail. Vamp tosses a few steel chairs over the rails so that they're in the ringside area, and then leads Vamp through an open gap in the guardrail. Vamp leads Sandman to the ring, slides him in, and then climbs in himself. Webb is down in the ring, and Lizzy is tending to him. When she sees the two challengers re-enter, she scurries out to ringside. Sandman gets back up and surprises Vamp with two back elbow smashes to the gut and a punch. A ringside Major Gunns now holds the singapore cane up, and Sandman grabs it. Sandman goes over to Webb, who's sitting down in the corner, lifts him up, sets him in the corner, and canes him right across the forehead! Sandman goes over to Vamp, in the opposite corner, and swings the cane, only for Vamp to duck and plant him with The Nail In the Coffin. When Vamp lifted him up, Sandman dropped the cane.

Vamp gets back up, and when he sees Rob Black climb in and run toward him, he delivers a thrust kick, downing the XPW owner. As Vamp concentrates on working on Black, Webb picks up the cheap win by stumbling over and landing on Sandman for the 1-2-3. Vamp pulls him off, but a second too late. Hernandez gets up and signals for the bell to ring. It does.

WINNER and STILL XPW World Heavyweight Champion: "White Trash" JOHNNY WEBB

- Vamp acts shocked at Webb's cheap win and stands over both of his opponents in disbelief. Vamp walks back and forth before climbing out of the ring. Some ring security are helping Webb out, and Vamp goes over and kicks one of the guys helping him in the ass, sending him down to the dirt. Vamp now hammers down Hernandez, who's also at ringside, and then lifts him up and leads him several yards away, punches him, and tosses him over the guardrail into the fans. Vamp now grabs Lizzy, who was a few feet away from him, and slaps her across the face, sending her down to the dirt. As some more security helps Webb to the back, Vamp grabs a barrel and hurls it toward the entrance stage. Vamp angrily walks back toward the ring and stomps on the back of a ring crew member who's down on the dirt, and then pushed his body a few feet away. Vamp walks back Lizzy, who's down on the dirt, and punches down another ring crew member.

Vamp goes over to where he threw Hernandez over the guardrail. He leans over the rail, grabs him, and pulls him over and onto the dirt. Vamp lifts him back up, leads him a ways, and rams him down face-first into a barrel. Vamp kicks down a barrel with a pumpkin on it, causing the pumpkin to drop down to the concrete (along w/ the barrel). We see a ring crew member sitting up on the sand next to Lizzy, who's also sitting up. Vamp looks over at Lizzy threateningly, but then turns away from her. She and the ring crew member get up, and her pants are down a bit, allowing us to see the tattoo right above her ass. Vamp walks up the top of the entrance ramp and looks back at the damage he's caused. The ring crew guy helps Lizzy stay on her feet, and we get a shot of Rob Black down on the dirt floor.

The fans have began a large, "Welcome Back!" chant for The Sandman, who is standing up in the ring alongside Major Gunns. Gunns holds Sandman's cane (which she raises up in triumph) as he plays to the fan's chants. He speaks into a mic in his hand: "Kevin [referring to Kevin Kleinrock], [inaudible words]. There happens to be a tombstone over there [points toward the entrance stage] with The Sandman's name on it. [crowd boos] I didn't know I left, [referring to the fan's "Welcome Back!" chant that was being shouted a few seconds before] [pause] but I do know this [I think he said, "I tell you this," but it was hard to hear.] - [we see two ring crew members helping Black back to the lockerrooms] that I've worked for twenty people and about ten different countries and about thirty states in the U.S., and God d*mnit [unbleeped], this crowd is the best crowd I have ever performed in [the rest of the sentence was inaudible due to the crowd's cheers]."

The fans now begin an "X-P-Dub!" chant. Cut out.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: I thought the pre-match happenings that led up to the match was well done. Vamp surprised everyone by coming out and confronting Webb. Webb, widely considered to be (at the time) a cheap fluke of a champion, showed his tough side and granted a title shot to Vamp. As the two were brawling, Major Gunns came out and added to the stacked odds already against Webb, bringing out The Sandman. Sandman, of course, didn't even enter into the match for about five minutes. This match, of course, wasn't meant to he very scientifically-sound, and it of course wasn't. The brawling was rather boring. I would've liked to actually have seen some wrestling moves mixed in with the brawling (i.e. a DDT onto a chair, a back body drop onto a barrel, a bulldog onto a barrel, etc.), but we obviously didn't get much of that. This match, as far as brawls go, was pretty poor. The finish hurt Webb's credibility a bit, too, as he had, before the match, said, in essence, that he was a true champion, but he ended up having to resort to getting a cheap pin behind one of his opponent's back. Sure, he was a heel and that was to get him some crowd heat, but he could've gotten the same amount of heat by using other heel tactics. The cheap win slightly hurt the credibility of his championship status. I wasn't really impressed with this match. While I rate this and the Kaos/New Jack bout the same, I enjoyed the Kaos/Jack match due to the quality of the brawling. I usually enjoy Vamp and Webb, (I don't usually enjoy Sandman) but that wasn't so in this bout.
RATING: 3/4*

- A graphic hypes the next match: SUPREME vs. VIC GRIMES. Cut out.

PRE-MATCH NOTES: The feud between these two began at a few months after Grimes debuted in XPW. He joined the heel Black Army (who Supreme was arch-enemies with) upon first appearing in the promotion at Payback's A Bitch in February 2001, and the two fought eachother on more than a few occasions, including in the classic tag team brawl at The Night XPW Stood Still. Both of these men, while mainly garbage wrestlers, can wrestle if needed (Supreme not nearly as well as Grimes, though; Grimes can wrestle pretty well, as he was at one point a WWF developmental talent). When The Messiah, at the time the XPW King of the Deathmatch and World Heavyweight Champion, left The Black Army at the beginning of the previous show (the one right before this one [the show that I'm reviewing]), Rob Black was left without a partner in his tag team main event match against Josh Lazie and Sabu.

The bout began with Black getting beaten up by his two opponents, but Johnny Webb, dressed as Black, emerged from the lockerrooms brawling with New Jack. Jack would eventually leave, and the distraction of the returning Damien Steele (who would join the army) distracted Sabu long enough for Webb to drag Lazie into the ring and pin him. Pre-match stipulations made Webb the XPW World Champ, and forced Lazie and Sabu to leave XPW forever, which they did. Messiah was announced as having left the company the night after that show (I won't go into why), leaving his K.OT.D.M. title vacant. An Exploding Ring Deathmatch was announced for this show, and it was determined that rivals Supreme and Grimes would compete in it to win the vacant championship.

The match was hyped on XPW TV and even earlier in the show (read above, during Kris Kloss' introduction to the show) as the very first Exploding Ring Deathmatch to ever occur in the United States, but it actually wasn't. In ECW, Balls Mahoney and none other than Vic Grimes in what was actually the first Exploding Ring Deathmatch ever in the U.S. Nonetheless, this would be the second Exploding Ring Deathmatch in the country (all of the others had occurred in Japan).

- We cut back into Vic Grimes, with his signature pizza cutter strapped around his neck (like a necklace) and a steel chair in his right hand, walking down the aisleway to the ring, with his music playing in the background. The ring ropes have been replaced with barbed-wire, but there are two sides (both opposite eachother) of the ring with no ropes or wire. Grimes slides his chair into the ring on this side, and then climbs up onto the apron and enters the ring. Referee Patrick Hernandez, wearing a long-sleeved referee shirt (so as to avoid being cut by all of the dangerous weapons that will surely be used), and Ron Head are already in the ring. Grimes goes into the corner and raises both of his arms in triumph as Head makes the introduction: "This is an Exploding Ring Deathmatch with no time limit for the vacant XPW King of the Deathmatch Championship. [We get a shot of one of the sides of the ring at ringside, and see that, on that side, there is some wooden boards with barbed-wire mounted to them.] Introducing first - from The Southside Sanitarium in Oakland, California - here is 'Vicious' Vic Grimes! (Grimes)" It sounds like Head actually makes it a point to make the "s" in "Grimes" sound like a "z." Cut out.

- We cut back into where Grimes and Supreme are both in the ring, along with Hernandez and Head. Head introduces Supreme: "His (Grimes') opponent - from Hollywood, California - he is 'The Human Horror Film' - this is SUPREME!" Supreme shouts out his signature phrase, "Who am I?" to the fans, and they respond with a hearty, "Supreme!" yell. He asks one more time, and the same reply comes. Head has exited the ring, leaving only the two participants and Hernandez. A "Welcome Back!" chant begins for Supreme, who hasn't competed for about two months, as he was put through a burning table by The Enterprise at Rapture, and suffered legitimately serious burns. That kept him out of the ring, and this is his first match back. The two men play to the fans for a few moments before staring down eachother and gradually beginning to tape steps into the middle of the ring, which is where they eventually meet. They stare down eachother.

MATCH 11: No-Rope, Barbed-Wire, Beds of Everything (Barbed-Wire, Lightbulbs, Lighttubes, and Thumbtacks) Exploding Ring Deathmatch for the vacant XPW King of the Deathmatch Championship: (referee: Patrick Hernandez)

While I was watching his every movement, I never saw the ref signal for the bell, even after the two start going at it. The first blow is thrown by Supreme, who tries to surprise Grimes. Grimes fires back with a punch. Supreme fires back with a punch. Grimes punches. Supreme punches. Grimes punches. Supreme fires back with two punches, but Grimes ducks under a third attempt. Supreme ducks under Grimes' lariat. Grimes ducks under Supreme's lariat. Supreme grabs Grimes by the neck and tries to throw him down to the mat. Grimes escapes and tries a hiptoss, but Supreme stays on the mat downs Grimes with a hit to the face (not even really a lariat). Grimes points toward one of the beds of barbed-wire outside of the ring, and then rolls Grimes over onto his stomach and moves him over so that part of his body drapes off of the apron of an empty side of the ring (w/ no barbed-wire ring ropes). Supreme teases pushing him off and into the bed, but Grimes is barely dangling off of the apron. Supreme forearm punches the back of Grimes' neck before standing back up and lifting Grimes up, too. Supreme leads him over toward the barbed-wire ring ropes, but Grimes gut punches him and elbows him in the gut.

Grimes is out of Supreme's grip, and he delivers one more elbow to the gut before whipping Supreme toward an empty side of the ring. Supreme, though, stops his run a few feet short of the apron, realizing that if he goes much farther, he'd fall of of the apron and not only land in a ringside weapons bed, but be engulfed in an explosion, as a mini-explosion is to go off if one of the two men touches the ringside area. Anyway, Supreme turns around, only to be sent down with Grimes running lariat. Supreme backs up and bodyslams him. Grimes, facing away from Supreme, jumps up, spins 180º in midair, and drops a sloppy leg drop across his foe's chest. Grimes lifts Supreme partially up (onto his knees), leads him over to one of the ring sides with barbed-wire ropes, and rakes the barbed-wire into his face. He does, and releases after about 12 seconds. Grimes stands over Supreme's back, jumps up, and delivers a double axehandle smash to his foe's back before walking over into one of the ring corners and grabbing his pizza cutter.

He goes back over to Supreme, lifts him up onto one knee, plays to the fans, and then starts just digging the pizza cutter unmercifulesly into the top of Supreme's bare head, which is already slightly (considering how bloody Supreme usually gets) busted open. Grimes pulls the weapon out after about three seconds of repeatedly moving it back and forth, and we see that Supreme's head is pretty bloody now, and we're barely a few minutes in. Grimes goes over to a corner, drops the pizza cutter down to the mat, and picks up a steel chair (which is in the ring). Once Supreme gets up, Grimes bashes the chair across his bloody head. Supreme stumbles around, eventually ending up near one of the empty sides of the ring, but doesn't go down. He smiles back at Grimes as if to say, "You're not gonna' get me that easily." Supreme begs for more, but Grimes just looks at him and does nothing. Supreme goes over to a corner and picks up another steel chair. It looks like there may be a sword fight with steel chairs - I guess that'd be a "chairfight."

Anyway, they circle around eachother before Supreme bashes his chair over Grimes' head. Grimes, who's standing right near one of the ropeless sides of the ring, stumbles a bit, but doesn't go down. Grimes fires back with his own chairshot to Supreme's head. Supreme stumbles, but stays up. Supreme delivers another one of his own chairshots, and Grimes drops his chair down to the mat and continues stumbling around. Supreme delivers one more chairshot, and Grimes drops off of the mat and down to the ringside area. BOOM! The whole side of the ringside area that Grimes fell down onto explodes! Both Supreme and the referee are knocked down onto the ring mat due to the force of the explosion. Hernandez checks on Supreme as we get a shot of Grimes, laying at ringside on top of a barbed-wire board and surrounded by smoke. The fans try to begin a small, "Holy Sh*t!" chant, but it dies down quickly. Hernandez slowly rolls out of the ring and checks on Grimes to make sure that he's OK.

As the fans chant, "X-P-Dubba," Hernandez helps pull Grimes off of the board, and it takes some force for him to pull Grimes upper attire out from the barbed-wire that has attached itself to it. Hernandez climbs back into the ring on one of the two ropeless sides, and Supreme, who's now up and standing on one of the ropeless mat aprons, bends down and grabs Grimes (at ringside) and pulls him up into the ring. Supreme drags Grimes over to one of the barbed-wire covered sides of the ring and cuts into his forehead with the sharp wire for about three seconds before getting back up and dropping an elbow across Grimes' back. Grimes is bleeding as Supreme lifts him back up and punches him four times. Grimes is now fluttering back and forth on one of the two ropeless sides of the ring, trying not to lose his balance. If he does, he'll again drop down to ringside, which would cause another explosion. Supreme attempts a lariat, but Grimes ducks it and gutkicks him.

Grimes tries to powerbomb Supreme out to ringside, but can't get him up high enough. He instead collapses forward, dropping Supreme face-first on the ring apron. He keeps his feet above the concrete, so no explosion occurs. Either Supreme gained weight or Grimes lost strength over the last two or so months before that, because in their May 26, 2002 match at Redemption, Grimes powerbombed Supreme and looked to have little problem doing so. A "You F*cked Up!" chant begins as Grimes forearms Supreme's back, steps back and knocks Supreme down onto the ringside board of barbed-wire with a simple lariat. BOOM! That side of the ringside area explodes upon Supreme's impact, causing both Grimes and Hernandez to be knocked down to the mat due to the explosion's force. We get a shot of a fairly (for him, it's fairly) bloody Supreme lying on a ringside board of barbed-wire, looking up to the sky. Grimes slides out of the ring on one of the ropeless sides and picks up a light tube in each of his two hands.

As Supreme, still on the wire board, starts sitting up, Grimes puts one of the tubes in the ring, and once Supreme stands up and turns toward him, bashes it over his foe's head, breaking most of it into mere pieces. Supreme stumbles around for a few moments before dropping down to the ringside dirt. Grimes tosses the small part that survives (which was in his hand) aside, climbs back into the ring on a ropeless side, and grabs the other tube. He points toward Supreme (who's lying on his back on the ringside dirt), and then charges, leaps off of one of the ropeless sides of the ring, and bashes the tube over Supreme's chest. It was a cool spot, but the ironic thing is that the tube didn't break. So, Grimes gets up and bashes the tube over the side of the Supreme's shoulder (Supreme had turned onto his side after Grimes had leaped out of the ring toward him). This time, most of it shatters into pieces. Grimes throws the part that doesn't (which he was holding in his hands) down to the dirt, and it shatters, too. Supreme starts getting up, and Grimes throws him into the guardrail. Supreme stays up.

Grimes punches Supreme twice, and then starts leading him a few yards away. Forearm to the back by Grimes. Kloss gives us some insight to what it's like in Pico Rivera at the time that this is occurring: "The temperature is dropping drastically, as, once again, we're fighting into a new day. It's not Saturday night anymore. It's early Sunday morning." Anyway, Supreme is now standing right in front of a bed of light tubes. Grimes punches him twice, and each time, Supreme sways back and forth, trying to stay steady. He does stay on his feet, and Grimes plays up a third blow before swinging. Supreme, though, ducks, and ends up behind Grimes. He applies a back waistlock, hesitates for a few seconds, and then sloppily German Suplexes Grimes into the bed of light tubes, shattering them into mere pieces! The reason why I say, "sloppily," is because Supreme tried to take a shortcut due to Grimes' large weight and try to slam him onto his side. This causes Grimes to land right onto his right arm. An "X-P-Dub!" chant begins as Hernandez checks on Grimes' arm.

Supreme, covered in dirt having landed in it on this move and on previous ones, gets up, walks up the entrance aisleway, and after hesitating about which one to pick, grabs an uncarved pumpkin off of a barrel and lugs it on top of his head as he walks back down to Grimes. Grimes is back up, walking around the ring, and Supreme charges toward him. Grimes turns around just in time to have the pumpkin bashed against his head, sending him down in the dirt. Supreme now grabs a barrel from the entranceway, brings it back down to Grimes, and places it down on the dirt. Grimes gets up and Supreme sloppily floatover suplexes him onto it. The barrel doesn't give one bit. I can see the "www.XPWLIVE.com" sign that I saw earlier in the night, and Supreme goes over right near it and plays to the crowd. He goes back over to Grimes (who's back on his feet) and whips him several feet, sending him slamming into the guardrail and knocking both the sign and guardrail down upon impact.

Supreme grabs a guardrail (I'm not sure if it was the one Grimes rammed into) and lays it up against another guardrail like Sandman did with the ladder and ring ropes during his match. He leads Grimes, who's face and right arm is very bloody now (Grimes has gotten back up to his feet), and very sloppily hiptosses him onto the guardrail, bending it a bit. Supreme lifts up Grimes, and drags him over near a board of barbed-wire, punching him once while he was leading him over to it. Supreme punches Grimes twice, and the big guy rocks back and forth, teasing that he'll fall onto the board. Supreme backs up, charges, and tries a lariat, only to have Grimes catch him and slam him down onto the board with a pretty nicely executed 180º Rotating (Swinging) Uranage (Rock Bottom). The move itself meant little, though, as not only was Supreme slammed onto the barbed-wire, but upon him making impact with the board, two black boxes right near them explode! BOOM! An "X-P-Dub!" chant begins as Grimes tries to stay up on his feet, only to drop down onto the dirt.

Hernandez checks on Supreme as Grimes gets back up, grabs an uncarved pumpkin, and, once Supreme is up on one knee, bashes it over the head of his foe. Supreme sells the pain to his head, but gets back up pretty quickly. We get a closeup of Grimes' very bloody right arm as he and Hernandez slide back into the ring. Supreme is trying to climb up onto another one of the aprons, using the barbed-wire ropes to pull himself up! Grimes goes over, leans over the wire ropes, and punches Supreme. Supreme continues trying to climb up, but when he sees Grimes charge him and try to deliver a stomp on him through the wire, he pulls back and avoids it. He that, if the stomp connected, he'd fall back and down onto the ringside, which would cause an explosion. Grimes now has his left foot caught in the wire and is quickly able to wiggle out of it and backs up into the middle of the squared circle.

Seeing that Supreme is at ringside, Grimes charges, hurls himself out over the barbed-wire ropes, and crash down onto a ringside barbed-wire board with a f*ckin' non-catapult Diving Cannonball (Folding Somersault) Topè! Supreme ducks away and...BOOM! Upon Grimes making impact with the board, two nearby black boxes explode. What a spot! A "Holy Sh*t!" chant begins as Supreme goes over to a ringpost, grabs some wire-cutting pliers that's there, and starts cutting away at the bottom part of the barbed-wire ropes! We get a shot of Grimes starting to get back up off of the board, and his right arm is now incredibly bloody. There's even a large blood stain on the board. Kloss says the line of the night: "For anybody in the wrestling industry that doesn't give us respect by this point in time, you can go f*ck yourself - if ya' know what I mean. A little cheap heat there, as well, to promote one of our home videos [referring to Go Funk Yourself]."

Supreme has by now cut down one full side of the barbed-wire ropes. What I mean by that is that he's cut it away from one turnbuckle, but it's still attached to the one next to it. He puts the pliers down in the corner, climbs into the ring, picks up the pliers again, and drags the huge pile of wire into the ring as Hernandez checks on Grimes (who's still down) at ringside. Supreme now cuts the barbed-wire off of the other turnbuckle, and once he finishes, there's a huge pile of wire that's completely loose from anything. Grimes is up, and he smiles out to the fans before sliding into the ring through an wireless side. Supreme picks up a steel chair from the corner, and once Grimes gets up, bashes it over his head. Grimes slowly goes down (first to one knee, then to two, and finally onto his back), and Supreme tosses the chair down to the mat before placing the pile of barbed-wire on top of Grimes body.

Hernandez climbs out of the ring, and Supreme asks him something. Hernandez grabs a pane of light tubes that are attached to eachother from ringside and hands it in to Supreme, who plants it on top of Grimes and the pile of wire covering him. The fans chant, "Holy Sh*t!" as Supreme circles around Grimes, and then leaps up and lands on him with what was supposed to be his Mekka Toad Splash (Frog Splash), but ended up being just a regular splash, with no double-pump and not even off of the top turnbuckle. The tubes shatters and Supreme stays on top of the big pile planted on Grimes. Hernandez (who's re-entered the ring) counts: 1...2...3! We have a winner to the second-ever Exploding Ring Deathmatch in U.S. history!

WINNER and NEW XPW King of the Deathmatch Champion: "The Human Horror Film" SUPREME

- Supreme gets up as Hernandez (who I didn't see signal for the bell, but I'll assume that it's the end of the match) grabs the K.O.T.D.M. title belt (which is wrapped around one of the ringposts) and gives it to Supreme. As Hernandez hands him it, a siren (like that on a firetruck or police car) starts ringing, and Hernandez immediately hightails it out of the ring. If you're unaware of what that siren means, it signals that the ring is going to explode! Supreme just stands there, not knowing what to do. He throws the belt down onto the pile that Grimes is in, and then gets down on one knee and punches Grimes three times. Supreme (still down on knee) now raises his arms above his head and making an "X" sign (like [Kid] Kaos or New Jack), looking out at the crowd. With that, about 18 seconds after the siren first started sounding, each turnbuckle of the ring shoots up a pyro, engulfing both men.

The smoke disappears quickly and we see that Grimes is still down, but Supreme is actually sitting up and raising his new title belt. Way to sell an explosion, dude...Kloss: "Are we on? We are on. We're on? OK, in that case - Holy f*ckin' sh*t !" Hernandez, who has put on protective goggles over his eyes, re-enters the ring and raises Supreme's hand as the champ gets back up to his feet. Hernandez now checks on Grimes as Supreme continues to hold up his title belt. Rivera, in his strong Latino accent, informs us of the following: "Ladies and gentleman, this explosion has been heard for miles all o' - I'm just getting a report right now that the fire department is on the way. Neighbors are complaining about an explosion. They think it's more terrorist attacks (referring to the 9/11 terrorist attacks that had happened barely one month before this show occured), chic' (chico), when in reality is - XPW Explosion Deathmatch."

Anyway, Supreme now holds his title belt around his waist, and Hernandez (standing behind him) fastens it around his waist. Supreme makes an "X" sign above his head. Grimes is still lying under the pile of stuff as Supreme poses for the crowd, and the shot that we get of his pose makes it look like he's standing in a concentration camp. He climbs out of the ring, raises his arms in triumph, and lets some ringside fans pat him on the back. Compared to Grimes, Supreme is barely bleeding, but that's not to say that he's pretty cut up. He hugs and interacts with some fans as he makes his way back to the lockerrooms. Ringside security enter the ring to check on Grimes. They use the pliers to cut the barbed-wire, and a blood-covered Grimes finally starts to move a bit (he had been on his back since Supreme's chairshot which had sent him down to the mat), and security is quick in finishing cutting the wire off of Grimes. Grimes slowly gets up, turning down any offer to help him stand back up. He evenutally makes it back to his feet, and he stands in a pile of broken glass, raising his arms in triumph as the fans chant, "X-P-Dub!"

Grimes limps around as we see Supreme walking back up the aisleway, heading backstage. He raises his arms and title belt in triumph and shouts, "Who am I?" as he disappears, but the fans are busy with a "Vic!" chant, and a blood-covered Grimes plays to it before dropping off of the apron and back down to ringside. Ron Head praises Grimes over the mic: "And fans, give it up for 'Vicious' Vic Grimes!" He slowly walks around the ring, slapping the hands of some lucky ringside fans on the way. Here are the praises that I could actually make out:

- "F*ck, yeah!"
- "Good job!"
- "That was f*ckin' awesome!"<
- Good sh*t, Vic!"

Grimes passes the "www.XPWLIVE.com" sign before starting to look back. A fan shouts, "It ain't over!" as he turns around and shouts, "It's only the f*ckin' beginning!" He riles both the fans and himself up, and he shouts more things, such as, "You can't hurt me!" and "No one can hurt me!" The fans begin a "Vic!" chant as he heads back up the entrance aisleway, slapping the hands of some fans. He hasn't even gotten one quarter of the way up the aisle when we cut out.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: While this match was very historic, it was not very good. The selling was pitiful, as each man would absorb chairshot after chairshot and not sell it. They'd wait for the other guy to recover before throwing the chairshot, and then wait for the other guy to recover again before doing another spot. I hated seeing Grimes drop down to ringside and take the first explosion of the match after a simple chairshot. I wish Supreme had delivered another, more creative move. There was one particular spot that I thought was very badly done. It came when Grimes tried to powerbomb Supreme out to ringside, but when he couldn't get him completely up, he settled for a simple lariat that sent his opponent out to ringside. Just because he couldn't powerbomb Supreme doesn't mean that he should settle for a darn lariat. Grimes couldn've easily sent Supreme down into the bed of barbed-wire that was at ringside with any move ranging from a back body drop (it'd probably turn out to be more of a release northern lights suplex), a bodyslam, a chokeslam, a spinebuster, or - hell - even a big boot or a thrust kick. Any of those would've been more exciting than a simple lariat. The second spot I disliked was when Grimes dove out of the ring and bashed Supreme with the light tube. After that, everything was mediocre or a bit below. Grimes' Swinging Uranage onto the barbed-wire board, followed up immediately with an explosion, was nicely done, and Grimes' Diving Cannonball Topè onto the barbed-wire board was abolutely sick, and it really helped them to earn some points in this match. That was definitely the Spot of the Night, and outdid New Jack's balcony dive onto G.Q. Money considerably. The finish was rather cheap, with Supreme delivering a simple splash onto Grimes, who was covered with barbed-wire and glass. I wish Supreme had jumped off of something, whether it be the top turnbuckle, a platform - just something besides the ring mat. The sequence at the end where both were engulfed in the explosion as a cool sight, but I thought that the explosion should've been a bit bigger, or at least not have smoke that cleared so quickly. Supreme acted stupid by getting up and acting all fine, selling the fact that he was engulfed in the explosion greatly (I'm being sarcastic). Supreme was actually far less bloody than he usually gets in deathmatches. By the end of the match, Grimes was a human bloodbath, and was about as bloody as G.Q. Money. I'm really not sure who was bloodier, but the sickest sight of night was definitely Grimes' right arm. It was incredibly bloody.
RATING: **1/4

- We cut back into where a bloody Vic Grimes is cutting a promo for the camera: "You idiots don't know who the hell I am. I am the vicious one - [giggles slightly] the innovator of hardcore - the master of west coast violence - the Alpha and Omega of professional wrestling. For you stupid idiots out there who don't know what that means [camera fades out for a moment to reveal Grimes holding his pizza cutter, and then fades back in], I am the beginning of the end. [giggles slightly] I'm the human Armageddon, and tonight was the first night of the destruction of Supreme. Yeah, you may u' got the best - you may uv' got the one, two, three, but you what? I'm still standin'(!), and you can't hurt me - and you think it's long and over. Don't you think for one moment that I won't go postal on your ass and every idiot in here(!), because if you think the first five minutes of the movie, 'Savin' (Saving) Private Ryan,' was violent, you just try me. [giggles] So I gotta' ask myself, 'Why? Why, Vic Grimes? Why?' 'Cuz I can...[evil giggle] [whispers] Oooh, yeah. I can. [waves to camera] See ya' around...[evil giggle]" The camera zooms in on Vic's right knee before cutting out. A good promo by Grimes.

- We cut back into Supreme, holding his newly-won K.O.T.D.M. title belt, cuts a promo: "I say to f*ckin' Rob Black, 'Ya' lost.' You thought you had one over on me. You fuckin' lost. Who's the King of the Deathmatch now? Supreme is. F*ck you, Rob Black. You ain't sh*ttin' no more. I'm done with you. (pause) I'm done with you. Now, I got what's rightfully mine. F*ckin' Kaos - I'm comin' right for you. F*ckin' Enterprise - you pieces of sh*t - I'm comin' right for ya'. Don't think I forgot you f*ckin' burning my ass! But you know what? You f*ckers don't know what you started. F*ck, no. [evil laugh]" We pan down and away from Supreme, and then cut out. Pretty boring promo by Supreme.

- We cut back into a shot of the gravestone of The Sandman. It says, "RIP Sandman." We pan over to Sandman, who's sitting in a chair next to the grave. He takes a puff of his cigar before speaking: "Ya' know, it's funny sittin' here. How many times does somebody get to sit next to their grave? R.I.P.? [we pan over to the gravestone before panning back over to Sandman] Sandman? Rest in Peace? [takes another puff of his cigar] Do I look dead. Does rigimortous (sp?) looks like it's set it? [takes another puff of his cigar] Well, if I was dead, then I wooden 'uv (wouldn'tve) been able to kick Vampiro's butt tonight and kick Rob Black's butt tonight, would I? An' (And) ya' know what? [takes another puff of his cigar] You might've thought I was done, Rob Black, but now it's time for you to be extinguished. [uses his cigar to push down his gravestone]" Cut out. Pretty boring promo by Sandman.

- Graphic:

"XPW
HOME VIDEO

COPYRIGHT 2001"

Fade out.

END OF VIDEO

VIDEO TAPE THOUGHTS: I enjoyed this show. XPW has had about two or three better shows, but this was definitely one of their all-time best. This was definitely one of XPW's best pure wrestling shows ever. D/Snot had an acceptable match, and the Angel/G.Q. Money feud began on a great note. MMW/Kronus & Kraq had some nice spots, and the same went for Juvi/Psychosis. Steele/Konnan had some obvious miscommunication, but Konnan's usual creative submissions and manuevers saved it. Kaos/Jack was an alright brawl, and while the match itself wasn't that special, the aftermath was exciting. The two Webb/RCG matches were pretty bad, but they were meant to be. Webb/Vampiro/Sandman was not a favorite of mine, but for fans of brawling, it was alright. The Explosion Ring Match, of course, was just plain out sick, and while it some bad selling and some botched spots, it was a gore fan's dream, and Grimes' Diving Cannonball Topè was very impressive. There are a select view other shows of XPW's that were better than this, but this is definitely one of their elite events.
RECOMMENDATION: Recommended. It had a strong overall card and entertaining matches.

PHAT STATS:

• AVERAGE MATCH RATING: *1/4 (I counted Webb's first two title defenses against Leroy each as 1/3 of a match due to the fact that neither was meant to be good, and both were purposefully short)
• EXTREME MATCH of the NIGHT (Hardcore-wise): "Vicious" VIC GRIMES vs. SUPREME (XPW K.O.T.D.M. Title Exploding Ring Deathmatch) (**1/4)
• BEST MATCH of the Night: (Hardcore-wise): TIE: ANGEL vs. G.Q. MONEY (**1/4)/"Vicious" VIC GRIMES vs. SUPREME (XPW K.O.T.D.M. Title Exploding Ring Deathmatch) (**1/4)

I'll give the tiebreaker to Angel/G.Q. due to how little experience each had and the innovative manuever used. Grimes/Supreme was very hardcore, but at the same time very sloppy.

• BEST MATCH of the Night: "The Rock Superstar" KAOS (c) (w/ G.Q. Money, T.J. Rush, & Veronica Caine) vs. NEW JACK (XPW World Television Championship Match) (5/8*)
• BUMP/SPOT of the Night: VIC GRIMES performs a Running Diving Cannonball Topè out of the ring, but Supreme moves away and Grimes lands on a ringside board of barbed-wire (HONORABLE MENTIONS go to G.Q. Money taking out both Angel and Kraq with a Springboard Crossbody Suicida and New Jack diving off of a balcony and putting G.Q. Money through a table)

I hope you enjoyed this video review. Until next time...I'm Jonathan Barber.

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