411 Video Review: CZW Respect

CZW RESPECT
August 23, 2003

Sorry for the delay in getting this to you, faithful (or unfaithful) reader.

This is the blow off to the feud between CZW and rival promotion IWA Midsouth, which lasted all of summer 2003. It seemed like a good card on paper, with two big matches, 200 light tubes and the first ever exploding cage match in the US. But is this show any good? From my first viewing back in August 2003, I would say no. Let’s see if that is the case.

BTW, this is another outdoors show like Tournament Of Death 2 and Extreme 8.

MATCH RESULTS:

Exploding Barbed & Light Tube Cage Match: Zandig vs. Ian Rotten – This is obviously the blow off to the CZW/IWA storyline, with the heads of each company battling it out… for RESPECT. That “respect” part was set up in Rotten’s promo at Tournament Of Death 2. The cage is your usual mesh cage, but its full of weapons and has a scaffold on top of it. They lock up and tease going into the sides rigged to explode, but no dice so far. Rotten is slammed on the mat… wait, there is no mat, just the wood boards stripped with barbed wire. Zandig picks Rotten up and powerbombs him into one of the sides which explodes. Admittedly not as big as any of those FMW explosions, but still it’s impressive. I seem to remember the Cage Of Death in 2000 being an exploding one, so I don’t know about the “first in the US” thing. Zandig takes a trash can to the head but fights back and busts Rotten open. Zandig attempts to light a towel on fire and hit Rotten with it, but it doesn’t really work. Rotten is dragged across the barbed wire on the canvas. Rotten spears Zandig into the cage. Man this match is DYING. They light up some mops and have a FLAMING MOP FIGHT. I can’t make that stuff up. A table is set up, and Rotten scales the cage. Zandig joins him and press slams off the scaffold through the table, in a bump almost exactly the same as Lobo’s at Cage Of Death 4 (review available at www.rollinggermans.8m.com). It’s a nice bump but unoriginal. Zandig gets the three, like that was ever in question, at 14:47. This match just died because of the technical flaws in the pyro and the fire. Rotten gets on the mic and says that he respects Zandig now, so all is fine. Whatever. Fans were actually expecting this feud to go all the way until Cage Of Death 5, but I’m glad it ended here. *

Z-Barr vs. Jon Dahmer – Barr goes for a rollup straight away but gets nothing. Dahmer fires back with a huge german suplex and a dropkick for two. Dahmer goes up, but his student Cory Kastle joins him on the apron and accidentally gets him crotched on the top. Barr gets a quick pin at 3:05. Dahmer immediately gives Barr the Move of 1000 Maniacs to get his heat back. TOTALLY unnecessary. Not all is right between Dahmer and Kastle. DUD.

CZW Jr Heavyweight Title: Ruckus vs. Derek Frazier – Frazier actually debuted in CZW at the High Stakes show in May 2002, in a *** match with Ruckus. Lets see if they can re-do it. They lock up and go through the junior gymnastics routine. To the corner where Frazier gets some BACKRAKES!!!! And Ruckus gets a flip kick. Ruckus takes him down with a hurricanrana and a handspring spin kick. Frazier tries to wear Ruckus down with a sleeper, but Ruckus escapes and locks on a dragon sleeper. Frazier escapes THAT with a twisting bulldog. Frazier comes back from some backrakes by hitting a piledriver. They go outside where Ruckus teases a vertebreaker on the concrete in a nice nod to Frazier’s debut match when he actually took that move. Frazier DDT’s Ruckus on a chair. Back in, Frazier misses a frog splash and cops a facebuster on a chair for Ruckus to retain at 8:50. Nowhere near as good as these guys are capable of, seemed like they were really mailing it in. *

CZW Tag Titles: The Backseat Boyz vs. Rockin Rebel & Greg Matthews vs. Adam Flash & Ian Knoxx – Flash and Knoxx get dumped really quick as Rebel and Matthews go to work on them. The Backseats sit out for a minute because they’re champs and they’re too good. Which, of course, is true. All six guys brawl around, and Flash hits a big plancha. Simply Luscious even gets in her shots on Kashmere. Flash and Knoxx start gaining momentum which is cut short when the Backseats hit the Dream Sequence. Knoxx nails Acid with a fallaway slam and Kashmere with a pumphandle slam. The Backseats try to beat up Simply Luscious but put their focus back on the others as Rebel almost gets a pin. The Backseats hit the T Gimmick on Matthews but Flash breaks it up with a legdrop off the top rope and gets the pin and the titles at 5:21. But wait, another (crooked) ref comes in and informs him that because the Backseats weren’t pinned they don’t lose the belts. WHAT a cop out. They should’ve given Flash and Knoxx the titles here. *

IWA Light Heavyweight Title: Sonjay Dutt vs. Jonny Storm – They do a gymnastics sequence with a bit of uneasiness, a few funny landings in there. Both these guys are good when they want to be, and Sonjay is often GREAT, but it didn’t show there. Storm hits a spinebuster and a falcon arrow for two. Moonsault gets two. He takes Sonjay out and follows with an INSANE plancha. Back in, Dutt hits a bunch of moves that always sets up the Calcutt Cut (neckbreaker). Dutt nails a hurricanrana, sending Storm out, and he follows with a nice 360 plancha. Back in, more back and forth stuff leads to a double KO. Dutt kicks out of a hurricanrana as well as a DDT. Storm just doesn’t know what to do. Storm hits a hurricanrana off the top for two. Sit out Fisherman’s Buster gets two. Dutt hits some flying forearms but misses the Phoenix Splash. Dutt rolls through a hurricanrana and holds on to retain the title at 10:03. Best match of the show so far, but it was just flips. *1/2

Fans Bring The Weapons Match: JC Bailey vs. Necro Butcher – Bailey attacks Necro and tries to headbutt him, which is a big mistake. They brawl at ringside, trading some vicious chops and light tube shots. Back in, Bailey tries to bowl a ten pin ball into Butcher, but he catches it and ends up throwing it onto JC’s STOMACH!!! OUCH. Outside again and JC takes a light tube shot while hanging over the railing. They trade more vicious shots as they head back inside. Bailey whips Necro face first into some light tubes in the corner. Bailey props some tubes on Necro’s back and hits a senton off the top onto them. Both guys fight on the turnbuckle as Butcher tries a press slam. Bailey ends up suplexing Necro OFF THE TOP ROPE ONTO THE CONCRETE!!!! Both guys land SMACK on the concrete. Jesus that is VIOLENT, one of the most hardcore bumps I’ve ever seen. Back inside it gets TWO. Necro locks on a choke and its all over at 12:11. That bump was crazy. This was much better than the usual FBTW matches as both guys took some hard shots and vicious bumps. **

A big brawl erupts between the IWA guys and the CZW guys, and Corporal Robinson emerges, starting an impromptu match with the Messiah.

CZW World Title: Messiah vs. Corporal Robinson – Both guys brawl around the ring, smashing the crap out of each other with weapons. Corp gets a brainbuster for two. Messiah uses ladders, tubes, signs, anything he can get his hands on to try and subdue Corp, but it doesn’t work. Messiah nails the Godsmack for two. They brawl into the crowd where Corp suplexes Messiah on the concrete. A contraption of chairs and tubes is set up underneath the announce desk (a drop of about five feet). Messiah slams Corp off the ledge onto the chairs, and gets the win at 9:43. This was just brawling and not as good as the match previous. *

BJPW Death Match Title: 200 Light Tube Death Match: Nate Hatred vs. Nick Gage – I’ve recapped the history between these two guys before, including at the last show I reviewed, CZW Aftermath, where they had a **** tables match. Knowing the 200 Light Tubes matches of the past, I was really counting on Hatred and Gage to deliver something different, rather than just smashing each other with the tubes. I wanted them to do something more innovative with it and work a better match, as they have shown they are capable of doing. Well, here goes. As such with 200 Light Tube matches, Tubes are stacked all across the ring ropes and are stacked on the ground outside. They try to shove each other into the tubes on the ropes, but neither will give. Gage takes out Hatred’s knee and smashes a tube into his face with a roaring elbow. DAMN IT!! Not one single 200 tube match has had any sort of build to the tubes being broken. Hatred takes a few trips into the corner, eating light tubes when he gets there. Gage smashes more tubes over Hatred’s back and then hits a senton off the top to smash more tubes. Matches like these are hard to recap because they are basically just tube shots, so sorry if this is disjointed. Gage hits a snap suplex and rakes a tube across Hatred’s forehead. Hatred grabs a pile of tubes and blocks Gage’s bootscrapes by breaking all of the tubes over Gage’s head. Hatred’s back is soaked red with blood. Hatred maintains dominance with more tube shots. Belly to belly gets two for him. Hatred hits a huge spinebuster onto a bunch of tubes, and Gage begins gushing blood from the back of his head. Hatred breaks tubes over Gage’s back with a chair. He sets up some chairs and suspends tubes across them. Irony interjects (as it tends to do) and Hatred takes a suplex onto the chairs. Gage puts more tubes across the chairs and gives Hatred a belly to back suplex through them. It’s not enough. An elbow drop breaks more tubes. This may be the first 200 tube match that is going to break every single one. Gage hits a frog splash and goes for more tubes. Trent Acid runs in and yakuza kicks some tubes into Gage’s face, allowing Hatred to get the win at 11:29. TERRIBLE ending. Match was all smash smash smash, and the guys can do better than this. Though, for context, this is one of the best 200 light tube matches, probably second behind the first one between Gage and Wifebeater. **

-Gage takes a beating from the Hi-V until the CZW & IWA guys team up to come and save the day and end the show.

The Verdict – Absolutely terrible show that is not worth buying unless you want to see LOTS of light tubes being smashed. Not recommended.

-You can get CZW tapes from www.smartmarkvideo.com

-Check out www.czwfans.com for the best CZW discussion on the net.

-Look out for my next review, Redefined, a show that turned around the company in 2003 and started the road to Cage Of Death 5 (which resulted in increased attendance and some surprise returns).

-I appreciate any feedback you have, just click the link below.

Thanks for reading.