411 Video Review: CZW Shockwave

CZW SHOCKWAVE
October 25, 2003

This is CZW’s first show from ITALY, as the promotion arranged with a local promoter to bring the company over their for a show. They drew 2000, which is very impressive, and the Italians made for a great and enthusiastic audience.

This video was produced by an Italian company, so it features many video packages to introduce the audience to the CZW wrestlers and the company in general. There is a little intro video for EVERY wrestler as they appear in the show, and its something CZW ought to do on the American shows like Best of the Best and Cage of Death, the tapes that sell a lot.

Anyway, this show is more interesting as an experiment and for historical purposes than for actually being a good show.

MATCH RESULTS

Adam Flash vs. Axel Fury – Axel Fury is local talent. Fury gets the best of Flash at the start and Flash bails. Back in, rolling suplexes get two for Fury. Fans are behind Fury and Flash is playing the heel. T-bone suplex from Fury gets two. Flash suckers Fury to the outside and hits him with a plancha. Back in Flash gets his facebuster off the top hits an axe-handle for the win at 7:21. Bad finish, but this was an okay opener, as Fury has a good look and a good understanding of the fundamentals. **

Ladder Match: B-Boy vs. Sonjay Dutt – This is a rematch from the finals of the Best of The Best 2003 tournament. The video packages for each of these guys makes both of them look like a million bucks. The ladders Sonjay brings out are not your typical US ladders, and that actually hurts the match a lot. For the record, this ends by pinfall. Sonjay looks RIPPED. B-Boy tries to avoid locking up, so Sonjay gets on the mic and dances, actually getting the lighting and music to go with it. He invites B-Boy to dance and B-Boy does, but falls over. Boy goes to work on Sonjay quickly and they trade arm drags. More criss-cross and B-Boy gets an enziguri. Sonjay comes back with a pescado. Back in Sonjay puts the ladder on B-Boy and gets a split-legged moonsault for two. Sonjay slams B-Boy on a ladder and drops the SPRINKLER ELBOW for two. Sonjay props the ladder in the corner but irony interjects and he takes a slingshot into it. B-Boy goes on offense and whips Sonjay into a ladder on the ropes for two. B-Boy nails a nasty t-bone suplex into a ladder in the corner for two. Ladder is wedged between the ropes and Sonjay sends B-Boy into it with a hurricanrana. B-Boy counters the Ace Crusher with a backbreaker. He gives Sonjay a NICE piledriver and goes up. Sonjay gets a hurricanrana off the top for two. Standing shooting star press gets two for Sonjay. He goes up but misses a corkscrew and takes a Shining Wizard to give B-Boy the win at 15:53. Nowhere near what these guys are capable of, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it, which made it easy to watch. **1/2

CZW Iron Man Title: 20 Minute Iron Man Match: Trent Acid vs. Ruckus – Acid is the champ here, having won it at ‘Redefined’ in September. Most pins or submissions in 20 minutes wins. Both guys come out with Italian girls, and Acid’s is HOT. Trent ends up stealing Ruckus’ girl anyway. Acid stalls a lot to start, jawing with the fans. They work a nice sequence to start which ends with Acid reverse suplexing Ruckus over the top to the outside. They brawl on the outside and Ruckus gets a hurricanrana. Ruckus hits his cartwheel moonsault on the floor. Acid comes back with a nice asai moonsault. They brawl more on the outside and Ruckus hits a running spinning flipping tope. Back in Ruckus gets a small package for a quick fall. Acid nails a superkick and gets into a fight with the referee, who FIGHTS BACK! Ruckus gets a near fall but misses a 450. Both guys go up and Acid gives Ruckus a reverse rana off the top. Yakuza kick evens up the falls. Wheelbarrow suplex gets two for Acid, as does a tornado DDT. Ruckus gets off the handspring spin kick and a tilt-a-whirl slam. He goes up and hits the moonsault legdrop for two. The ref gets bumped and B-Boy interferes on Acid’s behalf for Trent to get a fall. B-Boy holds Ruckus as Acid nails him with a yakuza kick. Acid takes a breather outside as the time limit expires at 20:00. He wins 2-1. This was pretty solid for these two but there was a lot of stalling at the start and a few blown spots in the middle. That said, the brawl was really nice. Sonjay comes and saves Ruckus to set up a tag match later in the show. **3/4

Tables Match: Nick Gage vs. Nate Hatred – These two had a tables match at Aftermath in August 2003, and it was a **** affair, so lets see if they can match it. They start off fast and immediately move to the outside as Hatred takes a big tumble into the guardrail. Hatred returns the favour and Gage takes out two or three sections of railing. These guys have had some really fantastic brawls with each other. Hatred throws a section of guardrail into the ring. He sets it up in the corner and Gage takes a double choke slam into it. Hatred brings in a table and props it in the corner. He suplexes Gage onto the railing. Hatred then German suplexes Gage through the table. Hatred goes up 1-0. Gage sets up a table on the outside, but it’s a trestle table and nothing like the US tables. Anyway, he piledrives Hatred off the apron through it, in a SICKENING spot as the table offers nothing to break the fall. It is now tied 1-1. Both guys go up to the top and tease as superplex, then Gage SUPERPLEXES Hatred off the top to the outside through a table in another SICK spot for the win at 8:59. This was nowhere near as good as their tables match from August but it had some sickening bumps and somebody’s bound to get a lot of enjoyment out of that. **

CZW World Heavyweight Title: Messiah vs. Zandig – The CZW title has been defended in America, Mexico, Japan, Germany, Ireland and now Italy. This quickly turns into a brawl outside, as Messiah takes a trip to the railing and Zandig smashes him with a trashcan. Zandig superplexes Messiah on the floor, but the tables soon turn as Messiah sends Zandig into the railing. Messiah continues to beat the shit out of him and Zandig gigs. Back in, Messiah empties some thumbtacks onto the mat. Zandig slams Messiah off the top and drops an elbow for two. Messiah brings some chairs into the ring and props a ladder in between them. Irony interjects and Zandig powerbombs Messiah off the top through the ladder to crown a NEW CHAMPION!! 9:18. I was, and still am SO pissed off at that finish. Zandig should under no circumstances have put himself over Messiah here. This was a chance for Messiah to look like a real champion, defending and keeping his belt in a foreign country, but instead Zandig put himself over. And for what? He did not defend it until March 2004 when he lost it BACK to Messiah. In the months in between, Zandig effectively killed the title as it was put on the backburner and sometimes not even brought to shows! Terrible. The match was bad too, but thanks to that finish, let’s go negative stars. -*

B-Boy & Trent Acid vs. Ruckus & Sonjay Dutt – Obviously this was set up earlier in the night. The heels, being heels, don’t want to wrestle. In fear of being counted out they return to the ring. Acid and Sonjay go at it with Sonjay getting the best of him. A heel miscommunication lets Ruckus get a near fall on Acid. Trent takes out Ruckus’ knee and B-Boy goes to work on it. The heels work over Ruckus. Acid and B-Boy hit their knee strikes and dropkicks, respectively, to Ruckus in the corner. Ruckus teases the hot tag but Acid takes out Sonjay. B-Boy locks Ruckus in a camel clutch before tagging in Acid who locks on a sleeper. Criss-cross leads to a double knockout and Ruckus gets the hot tag to Sonjay, who cleans house. Everybody gets in trying to hit finishers, but Sonjay counters the Shining Wizard with a fireman’s carry for the quick pin on B-Boy at 16:13. This was not terribly exciting and seemed to go on for very long. *3/4

The Verdict: – Like I said at the start, this is interesting as an experiment and for the historical value of the title change, but the wrestling leaves a lot to be desired and is not a good intro for new fans. While the video packages are cool, they don’t redeem the tape. Not recommended.

-You can get CZW tapes from www.smartmarkvideo.com, the original proprietors with the best service around.

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

-Look out for my next review CZW Night Of Infamy 2, as we head back to the US and see the return of a CZW legend in the lead up to Cage Of Death 5.

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Thanks for reading,
-TIM