411 Video Review: CZW Aftermath

CZW AFTERMATH
August 9, 2003

After a great death match tournament on July 26, CZW returns home to their regular locale – Viking Hall – for “Aftermath”, promising another one on one encounter between Nick Gage and Nate Hatred, this time in a tables match.

Also, the Hurricane Kid wrestles his last match after deciding to leave the business.

MATCH RESULTS

The tape starts off with two “dark matches”, which aren’t dark matches in the traditional sense, but were recorded as a way of giving the students of the CZW school a way to practice as the crowds were coming in. These matches were never shown on TV to the best of my knowledge. Because they aren’t really intended to be seen, I’m going to do some quicky reviews of them before the main show.

Dark Match: Jon Dahmer vs. Jude – Basic student vs. teacher match that these two have worked before. Some okay spots but Dahmer always seems intent on killing these kids, rather than getting them over. Dahmer murders Jude with the Move of 1000 Maniacs for the win at 5:17. *

Dark Match: Cory Kastle vs. GQ vs. Niles Young – Standard three-way action with the students delivering some surprisingly solid spotty action. Kastle gets the win with a superkick at 4:51. *1/4

Now, onto the real show:

Simply Luscious comes out, and a masked assailant attacks her, allowing Johnny Kashmere to make the save and thus look like a hero. Turns out it was a plan by the Backseat Boyz to try and get Kashmere some action. He ends up trying to beat the crap out of her, so Adam Flash and Ian Knoxx make the save.

CZW Junior Heavyweight Title: Ruckus vs. Hurricane Kid – The Hurricane Kid was always a little bit player for CZW, putting his body on the line in the lower card. I disliked him until he developed a cartoonish comedic character to go with his bumping. Well, he had decided prior to this that he need to get out of the business, so he chose Ruckus as his last opponent. They lock up and run into a junior gymnastics sequence, which is actually very crisp. Hurricane gets a neckbreaker for two. The Kid escapes a DVD with a hurricanrana and sends Ruckus out. Hurricane follows with a tumbleweed quebrada, smacking his leg on the guardrail. Kid springs back in with a body press but Ruckus rolls through it for two. Hurricane blocks the razzle dazzle and nails a tornado DDT for two. The Kid tries to mock the razzle dazzle but Ruckus catches him and rolls through with a series of moves called the “Purple Haze” for two. Ruckus hits the real razzle dazzle, including the original version which has a complete handsfree backflip. I mark for that. They go out where some chairs have been set up by Rick Feinberg, Hurricane’s sidekick. Ruckus beats on Rick and goes to the apron looking for a shooting star, but the Kid gets a hold of him and jumps off the top, hitting a fucking Tomikaze (Unprettier) down onto the chairs. They roll Ruckus back into the ring and get a two count. Hurricane goes up but misses a headbutt. Ruckus goes up and hits a moonsault backrake. Pumphandle sit out tombstone piledriver MURDERS the Hurricane Kid as you see his head bounce off the mat. That ended like an Owen Driver. Ruckus hangs the Kid in the tree of woe and puts chairs over his face. The Kid pushes them off, so Ruckus takes to throwing them at him. The Kid dodges the first bullet but takes a chairshot to the head. He pushes the chairs off AGAIN and ends up taking ANOTHER chairshot, this time harder, SPLITTING a cut in his eyebrow, and blood starts legitimately SHOOTING out of the wound. Ruckus hits a flipping van terminator for the win at 9:39. The Kid must be dead. For his last match, he went all out, and actually put on his best encounter. Ruckus assisted that by pulling out some old moves and bumping for ten. A great little brawl. **3/4

Greg Matthews vs. Z-Barr – Matthews and the Rockin Rebel double team Z-Barr to start but he fights back with a belly to belly and a jawbreaker for two. Matthews headscissors Barr to the outside and nails a slideslam for two. Barr comes back with a missile dropkick for two. Reverse DDT and Barr goes up, hitting a moonsault. Donkey Punch is blocked by Rebel, allowing Matthews to brainbuster Barr for two. Barr drops Matthews on his head, but Rebel throws powder in Barr’s eyes. Matthews hits the Snowplow for the win at 4:27. This was nothing offensive but nothing good. DUD.

Derek Frazier vs. Nick Berk vs. Chris Cash – We get some contrived three-way action to start, and Berk nails a huge facebuster on Cash. Berk bridges into a submission that looks like it fucking hurts, but Frazier splashes him. Cash nails a nasty dragon suplex on Berk for two. Berk holds Frazier in a stretch while Cash kicks him. They get some near falls on Frazier before a slugfest erupts. Berk suplexes Cash into the corner. Frazier attacks Berk with an enziguri and a hurricanrana off the top. Cash hangs Frazier on the ropes then goes up top but misses a moonsault. Poor cutthroat suplex gets two. Sunset flip by Berk gets two, as Frazier breaks it up. Referee gets bumped and Berk locks on a submission to Frazier, but Rebel interferes and smacks Berk with a chair. Berk hits a flipping tope onto Rebel. Cash follows with a tope of his own. Frazier nails a kick to the back of Cash’s head and drops him with a Snowplow for the win at 7:51. This was pretty spotty action but was inoffensive and fun. **

BJPW Death Match Title: Tables Match: Nick Gage vs. Nate Hatred – These two were once a tag team, but after the events of Best Of The Best 3 and Then And Now, they split up. I recapped their feud in my review of “Truth Or Consequences” and “Dйjа vu 2”. After their encounter at the latter show, and Hatred’s interference in the Tournament of Death, this tables match was set up. This match isn’t a traditional tables match, it ends in pinfall (falls count anywhere) but there are many tables available for use around the ring. Pushing and shoving starts them off, and Hatred gets a shoulder block. Gage starts throwing fists and they tumble to the outside, where Gage uses a chair. Gage runs Hatred into the railing and sets up some chairs, which he quickly suplexes Hatred through for two. Gage goes up and hits a nice flipping plancha, taking Hatred down. Nick props a table in the ring against the turnbuckle, but Hatred blocks a whip through it. Gage misses a punch and Hatred german suplexes him through the table in a nice spot. He beats on Gage in the corner and sends him through the remains of the table for two. Hatred smacks him with bits of the table but only gets two. Powerslam only gets two, as Hatred gets frustrated. He goes out and begins setting up a contraption of chairs, similar to the one that was used at Dйjа Vu 2. A plethora of chairs are quickly assembled, as Hatred uses one to smack Gage. Hatred takes Gage to the apron and goes to suplex him through, but Gage escapes it and instead slams Hatred off the top through the chairs. GREAT spot, and great storytelling as Gage escapes the suplex he was victim to last time. Back in, Gage nails a suplex onto an open chair. Snap suplex and Gage goes up. Hatred pops up and shoves him off the top, so Gage goes SAILING back through the timekeepers table in a great bump. Hatred crawls his way over to the wreckage and gets a near fall. Back inside, a table is set up across the top rope. Both guys go up, in a dangerous spot, and Hatred tosses Gage off the top for two. They go outside and brawl down to the entranceway. Hatred sets up two stacked tables below the eagle’s nest/stage. The guys make their way up there and tease going off. Eventually, Hatred picks Gage up and hits a fucking SIT OUT TOMBSTONE PILEDRIVER OFF THE STAGE THROUGH THE TABLES!! He gets the pin and the title at 14:13. That is, without a doubt, one of the best finishes to a match I have ever seen. Pure insanity that piledriver, a good fucking eight foot drop. Similar to the spot at Best Of The Best 3 with Gage and Messiah, though this was much more crisp and dangerous. My God, this reminded me of some of the great brawls CZW had in 2002. This was another tremendous brawl between these two and it bettered their Dйjа Vu 2 encounter, as well as building on it. If you love brawls, this is great, and the finish adds an extra half-star. ****

CZW Tag Titles: The Backseat Boyz (Johnny Kashmere & Trent Acid) vs. Adam Flash & Ian Knoxx – Obviously, this was set up earlier in the night. Simply Luscious accompanies Flash & Knoxx to the ring, mocking the Backseat Boyz’ prematch ritual of taking money from the female fans by letting the male fans stuff money in her cleavage. Funny. The Backseats tease walking out but eventually decide to come back and fight. Kashmere and Knoxx go at it and Kashmere gets a rollup for two. Acid and Flash tag in and Acid plays mind games before copping a clothesline. Flash escapes the Acid Bomb and nails a facebuster off the top for two. Knoxx and Kashmere come in, with Knoxx getting a fallaway slam. We go into a sequence where both teams try to do tandem moves to each other. The Backseats get their opponents in abdominal stretches and then hold each other’s hands for leverage in a cute spot. Dewey, the Backseats’ manager, beats up the ref but gets powerbombed by another ref. YEAH! Kashmere DDT’s THAT ref and gets out some soccer boots, with spikes on the bottom. He then proceeds to baseball slide into Flash’s face. Knoxx nails a tope out onto everyone, but eats some guardrail with it. Acid goes up and nails a moonsault plancha, a move he doesn’t pull out very often, but which he used to do quite regularly a few years ago. Flash goes up and hits a plancha, then Simply Luscious goes up and hits a cross body onto everyone. Then the ref Brian Logan hits a flipping plancha onto everyone. Okay, there you go, a lot of planchas there. Back inside, Kashmere gets an enziguri with his crooked shoes, while on the outside Acid throws chairs at Flash. Acid sets up some chairs outside, but irony interjects (as it often does), and he ends up going through it alongside Knoxx and Flash in a nice spot. Back in, Knoxx tries to pin Kashmere but no dice. Flash climbs the ropes and Acid smacks him with a chair, sending him back through the timekeeper’s table. Poor timekeepers. Nice bump. Acid nails the yakuza kick on Knoxx and the Backseats hit a super T Gimmick through some chairs for the win at 15:27. This was mostly comedy, but was fun as a change of pace. **

Jonny Storm vs. Nick Berk – Jonny Storm made his CZW debut at Best Of The Best 2, in 2002, and hadn’t returned to the company until this show. Of course at that BOTB show he had his classic with Jody Fleisch, so lets see if he can make another good impression. Both guys try to assert dominance early on, trading amateur holds and arm wringers. Berk gets a stretch and a leg lariat and Storm bails. Storm blocks a Berk plancha by superkicking him. Back in, Storm gets a low blow and a leg lariat off the top. Michinoku Driver gets two for Storm and Berk changes the tide with a backdrop and some lariats. Berk takes him out and follows with a flipping tope. They brawl down the aisle, where Storm uses the entranceway as leverage for a hurricanrana. Back in the ring, it gets two, and we go into a round the world pin sequence, then a bunch of sunset flips. Cross body by Storm gets two. Hurricanrana by Storm gets two. Berk gets a small package for two but takes a DDT. The fans start to turn on the match. Come on, it’s not that bad. Storm misses a moonsault but manages to get off a weird Driver type move for two. Sorry, I don’t know the name for that move. Berk nails the Berkocette, and it’s a GOOD one, for the win at 14:20. This was way too long and seemed like a mesh of spots that have already been in other (better) matches. They just never seemed to click, and both guys are capable of better stuff than this. *3/4

-Zandig comes out and announces that the Iron Man Title is now forfeit because Nick Mondo was injured at the Tournament Of Death 2 show and thus can’t defend it. He schedules a tournament for their next arena show.

CZW World Title: Messiah vs. Brad Bradley – Bradley is from IWA MS and is answering an open challenge here, much like former CZW champ Justice Pain used to issue in 2002. Bradley dominates the champ early on with chops and punches. He manages to hit a fucking tope, which is impressive for a guy his size. Bradley misses a charge on the outside and eats rail, allowing Messiah to get the advantage. He uses a chair on Bradley and nails a flip off the apron. Back in he gets a missile dropkick but can’t get a pin. Bradley slaps Messiah but the champ takes his leg out. He goes to work on the leg with a chair, and then decides to bring a table out. Bradley makes a comeback with some vicious forearms, and throws Messiah off the top onto the table on the outside, which doesn’t break. Bradley goes out and powerbombs Messiah onto the table, and it doesn’t break AGAIN! Bradley is still selling the leg, which is quite nice. Back in, Messiah cops a clothesline, but the pin is stopped for some reason. The Champ roles out of the ring and leaves. He meets Zandig in the aisleway, who tries to force him to go back into the ring. The Hi-5 attack Zandig as Messiah gets a cheap pin on Bradley for the win at 10:53. Hmm, this match was ok, helped by Bradley’s selling, but Messiah is used to working guys smaller than him, and I felt they had trouble telling the big guy/little guy story. Once the table came into play the match died. *3/4

IWA MS Light Heavyweight Title: Ladder Match: JC Bailey vs. Sonjay Dutt – This is Sonjay’s second ladder match of 2003, after having a rather poor one thanks to Ric Blade in May. Standard junior arm-wringer sequence starts us off here and Sonjay gets a hiptoss. More criss-cross and Bailey nails a wicked stomp. Bailey grabs the ladder but Dutt baseballs slides him. Dutt nails a clothesline and a suplex before clothesling Bailey back out. JC reverses a whip and sends Sonjay into the rail. Dutt fights back by crotching Bailey on the rail and nailing him with the ladder. REALLY bad slingshot into the ladder is followed by a fucking INSANE quebrada by Dutt onto Bailey holding the ladder. Sonjay sets up a ladder in the ring and climbs, but JC dropkicks it out. Sonjay takes a big backdrop into the ladder, allowing Bailey to climb. Sonjay nails him with a chair and sets up a ladder parallel to his, hitting a Russian leg sweep off the ladder. Hurricanrana by Dutt off the top, followed by a DDT off the top through a chair. Both guys climb and Bailey nails a nasty neckbreaker off the ladder. Bailey manages to lock Sonjay in a stretch on the ladder, and then hit a big stomp down onto him. JC props the ladder against the ropes, and whips Dutt into it. Dutt goes OVER the top at tremendous speed, sending the ladder over the ropes and all the way into the crowd. HOLY SHIT, someone could have died there. Back in, Bailey misses a senton onto the ladder, and suffers the SPRINKLER ELBOW!! Dutt props a ladder inbetween two chairs and breaks JC over it with a neckbreaker. He then props JC on the ladder and nails a PHOENIX SPLASH! Dutt goes up and gets the belt to become the new champ at 16:49. This match was WAY long and had plenty of blown spots, but there was enough to keep it marginally entertaining. Certainly not Dutt’s best ladder match, can’t speak for Bailey as I haven’t seen much of his work. *3/4

CZW Jr. Heavyweight Title: Ruckus vs. B-Boy – B-Boy takes Ruckus down and tries to keep it on the mat, but Ruckus matches him move for move. Ruckus hits a handspring spinkick and B-Boy takes a powder. Boy blocks a plancha attempt and hits a knee strike on Ruckus. Ruckus whips B-Boy into the railing and hits the razzle dazzle. B-Boy comes back to throw Ruckus into the rail, as both guys appear to slip on the ground. Ruckus hits a yakuza kick agains the railo and then a shooting star press off the apron. Back in, it gets two. Ruckus nails some kicks and a stretch, but its all for nothing as he gets suplexed into the turnbuckles. B-Boy ties Ruckus up in a version of the STF, but breaks it and decides to choke him instead. B-Boy nails his dropkick in the corner for two. Ruckus fights back with a rolling fameasser for two. He brings a chair in but takes an ace crusher and a criss-cross piledriver for two. B-Boy goes for the shining wizard but Ruckus catches him in a fireman’s carry and packages him for the quick win at 14:07. This never really got going, and it was a total styles clash to begin with. It’s a shame because I’ve seen Ruckus work better than this, and B-Boy may have been able to get something better out of the experience. Anyway, **

Fuck The IWA 4-Way: Ian Rotten vs. Nate Webb vs. Corporal Robinson vs. Necro Butcher – Zandig made this match to force the IWA guys to fight each other, and there are weapons all over the ring to help them out. All four guys go at it and Webb takes a bump over the top onto Robinson and Butcher. Rotten follows onto them with a bad axe handle. Necro takes a chair to the throat and then to the head. Robinson drops a leg on Webb in the ring. There’s a lot of stuff going on so forgive me if this recap sounds spotty. Webb nails the awesome move that is the moonsault van-terminator. Rotten takes a whip onto a board with nail strips, but comes back to suplex Webb through it. We get more and more weapons shots as they try to kill each other. Rotten pours lemon juice into Butcher’s forehead, YYEEOOW! Robinson takes a chair to the head whilst in a garbage can from Rotten. Butcher then fucking powerbombs him on the concrete. Webb gets put in the tree of woe and Rotten somersaults onto him. Robinson suplexes Butcher OFF the apron, but MISSES the intended target, a trash can. OUCH. Webb gets powerbombed onto a bed of toothbrushes for Rotten to win at 9:00. This was actually a fun little match, as having four guys in there kept it from being boring. **

The Verdict: – Nothing really SUCKS here, as we only have one DUD. However, there’s a lot of mediocre stuff hanging in the ** range that just prevents me from recommending this show strongly. Still, if you have some extra cash its not a bad way to go.

-You can get this and all CZW tapes from www.smartmarkvideo.com

-CZW has some shows coming up in January and you can check out check out www.czwwrestling.com for info on it and www.czwfans.com for the best CZW discussion on the net.

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