411 Video Review: CZW Uprising

CZW UPRISING
October 11, 2003

After Best Of The Best 3, thanks to many factors including talent loss and the whole XPW arena fiasco, CZW experienced a drop in attendance. Redefined was well promoted and increased attendance, as well as got lots of people talking thanks to the Zandig suspension angle.

Uprising is another solid show and featured some surprises on the road to Cage Of Death 5.

Oh, and in here lies the CZW MATCH OF THE YEAR BABY!!!!!!!!!

MATCH RESULTS:

Dark Matches:

Like Aftermath and Redefined, this show begins with some dark matches, which I’ll give quickie reviews of.

Summer vs. Mercedes Martinez – Solid women’s action with less blown spots than I’ve come to expect from females on the indy’s. Martinez wins with a nasty belly to back suplex at 3:48. *

Chris Cash vs. Cory Kastle vs. Shun The Kabuki Kid – This is Shun’s CZW debut, and he looks very much like NOSAWA. Three-way with some good and not so good brawling on the outside. Cash MURDERS Shun with the Cash Flow and then MURDERS Kastle with the Cutthroat Driver and pins both guys for the win at 5:14. Solid but underwhelming action. *1/4

Adam Flash & Ian Knoxx vs. Niles Young & Jude vs. Z-Barr & Nick Berk – To my knowledge this is the first time Barr and Berk have teamed since breaking up the Softcore Connection in 2002. This is the usual tag action we’ve come to expect from these teams. The Dirty Rotten Scoundrelz, another tag team making their first appearance in CZW, come down and take Berk and Barr away from the ring. Jude MURDERS (a bit of that going on tonight) Knoxx with a Snow Plow and Young hits a frog splash for the win at 7:17. Nothing much. *

Jon Dahmer vs. DJ Hyde – Lumbering big man match starts out fast but quickly slows down. Hyde gets a Sky High Powerbomb for the win at 7:03. I’m not a big fan of Dahmer at all, and this was way too long. Ѕ*

Onto the real show:

B-Boy comes out to thank the fans for their support during a hard time for him (he had had some family problems). He gets Zandig out (we think) to thank him, but he flips him off and the entire Hi-V comes to the ring with signs protesting Zandig. This whole Hi-V vs. CZW (Zandig) was obviously sent into overdrive at the previous show where they stuck hooks in his back. Zandig cuts an emotional promo about how the Hi-V can’t take him out, and Messiah takes the mic and cuts a promo decrying the former stars of the promotion (Wifebeater, Lobo, etc). Zandig promises that the group is in for a lot of trouble, and Messiah has the AUDACITY to tell Zandig to get out of HIS ring. Outnumbered, Zandig has no choice but to walk away, giving the Hi-V free reign for the night.

Deranged vs. Azrael – This was set up at the previous arena show when Azrael (known in ROH as Angel Dust from Special K) cost Deranged his match against Derek Frazier. Azrael attacks Deranged as he enters the ring but Deranged snaps off a hurricanrana and he bails. Deranged follows but Azrael continues to bail. They lock it up in the ring and trade arm counters and hammerlocks. Deranged mocks Azrael, outmanoeuvring him at every turn. Azrael snaps off an enziguri to change the pace. He gets a reverse DVD into facebuster for two. Deranged fights back with some arm drags but Azrael manoeuvres him into a Gory Special, then into a DDT. Azrael miscues in the corner leaving Deranged to drop an elbow off the top. Azrael struggles to catch Deranged as he moonsaults, but it gets turned into a DDT. Azrael goes out and Deranged sends him into the guardrail. Back in, Deranged nails the Code Red for the victory at 8:33. There was a few blown spots and the end came out of nowhere, but apart from that it was solid. **

Trent Acid comes out and says that because the Hi-V is running the show, he doesn’t feel like defending his Iron Man title. Jimmy Rave comes out and reminds him of the finals of the tournament for the Iron Man title at Redefined the month prior. Acid says Rave sucks and isn’t worthy, which brings out TONY MAMALUKE. Mamaluke cuts an emotional promo about how this is about wrestling and competition, and Acid is nothing but a fool. Mamaluke tells Rave not to get in the way of him and the Iron Man Title. Acid says that if they both want the title so much they should fight each other in a 20 minute Iron Man match for a shot at it. And it’s ON baby!!

20 Minute Iron Man Match: Jimmy Rave vs. Tony Mamaluke – Obviously, the most falls in 20 minutes wins. They lock it up and trade amateur holds and facelocks. Mamaluke goes for an armbar but Rave escapes. If Mamaluke can take out Rave’s arm, Rave can’t lock on his favourite submission, the Crossface. Rave tries for his own armbar but Mamaluke won’t budge. Criss-cross and Mamaluke locks on a triangle choke. Rave picks him up but Mamaluke rolls out and Rave tries his own triangle choke. Rave gets a clothesline and locks on a facelock. Mamaluke escapes and gets a side suplex. Rave rolls to the apron and Mamaluke follows him out, wrapping his arm behind his back and sending him into the guardrail. Mamaluke smashes the arm into the ringpost and then into the guardrail again, in a sick spot. Back inside Rave tries a rollup but Mamaluke escapes and knocks him down for two. Mamaluke wraps the arm around Rave’s back again and hits a Northern Lights Suplex. The psychology here is terrific. Tony gets a tornado armbreaker into a hammerlock bridge and Rave taps to give Tony a fall at 8:43. Like I said, terrific psychology. Mamaluke stays on the arm, suspending it over the ropes and sitting on it, ala Bret Hart. Mamaluke sets Rave up on the top and hits a superplex, but as Mamaluke tries to roll from that into a bridge, Rave locks his legs and gets a quick pin on Tony to even it up at 10:57. Rave hits some good short dropkicks on Mamaluke’s knee. Mamaluke climbs the turnbuckles and Rave gives him a dragon screw leg whip off the top, tearing that knee. Rave wraps Tony in a leg lock, continually working on the knee. Rave tries a belly to back but he only gets two so he goes back to the knee with another dragon screw leg whip. Mamaluke tries a tornado DDT but holds on to a front choke. The ref drops the arm twice but Rave holds it the third time, fighting back and almost murdering Mamaluke with a northern lights into the turnbuckles. Tony escapes a half-crab so Rave locks him into a reverse legvine. Mamaluke’s selling of the knee is just STELLAR. Criss-cross and Mamaluke tries a tilt-a-whirl but Rave falls out of it and locks on the legvine again, and Mamaluke taps at 16:06 to put make it 2-1. Rave gets another dragon screw into the legvine, but Tony makes the ropes. Both guys get to their feet and go at it, with Rave getting a brainbuster for two. Rave hits the RUNNING KNEE on Tony for TWO! Mamaluke snaps off two belly to back suplexes and then DDT’s Rave for TWO! Tony gets a German suplex for two! SIXTY SECONDS LEFT!! TONY into a facechoke. NO TONY!! THE ARM!!! Rave’s gonna tap, Rave’s gonna tap! THIRTY SECONDS!! Another suplex from Mamaluke into a DRAGON SLEEPER. RAVE HOLDS ON. RAVE WINS!!!! 20:00. Afterwards Acid and B-Boy attack the two competitors, and set up Rave vs. B-Boy for next month, with Mamaluke as ref, because Acid still thinks Rave isn’t good enough. WHAT A MATCH. Oh My God what a match. This is the best match of Rave’s that I’ve seen, the best match of Mamaluke’s that I’ve seen, and the CZW MATCH OF THE YEAR 2003!!!!! It also set up the Acid vs. Rave feud that was feud of 2003 and got Jimmy Rave over grand. This was just fantastic. Not only the CZW MOTY, but also one of the best matches in the company’s history. ****3/4

Mixed Tag Match: Joker & Mercedes Martinez vs. Sabian & Bianca – Joker and Sabian go at it to start before Bianca tags in and takes Joker to school. Bianca and Sabian double team Joker. J and Bianca trade forearms and kicks as the fans turn on the match. Sabian and Joker go at it and Sabian gets a split-legged moonsault for two. Sabian’s moveset is so standard it hurts. He goes for a plancha but Joker clocks him with a chair. The girls go at it and Bianca gets a missile dropkick. Bianca press slams Sabian over the top onto Joker and Martinez. Back in the ring, Martinez gets a big spinebuster on Bianca for two. Sabian and Bianca hit stereo 450 splashes on their opponents for the win at 7:56. Terrible. Ѕ*

CZW Jr. Heavyweight Title: Ruckus vs. Derek Frazier – Ruckus takes out the Rockin Rebel (who is aligned with Frazier) before getting the match underway. These two have had many encounters but have failed to top their first encounter at CZW High Stakes in May 2002. Standard counters and crap like that to start. Both guys trade submissions on the mat, with neither getting anything from it. They do a small package around the world spot and Frazier bails. He comes back in and they do a sequence with their hands locked. Ruckus locks on a dragon sleeper but Frazier gets some knee strikes. Frazier gets a backrake and a suplex for a two count. Ruckus catches Frazier up in the ropes and unloads a nice sequence of moves, but his trademark handspring spin kick is blocked. Frazier locks on a dragon sleeper but Ruckus escapes. The razzle dazzle gets nothing. Ruckus rolls through a hurricanrana for two. Ruckus hits a moonsault legdrop but Rockin Rebel makes his presence known. Ruckus and Frazier brawl on the outside, with some chairs on the concrete, teasing a repeat of the famous vertebreaker spot from their first match. Ruckus hits a Snow Plow onto the chairs. He brings the chairs back inside and hangs Frazier in the tree of woe. Ruckus goes for a van terminator with a chair but Rebel smacks him on the way down with a chair of his own, allowing Frazier to get two. Two chairs are set up in the ring, and Ruckus hits a falcon arrow through them for the win at 20:24. This was just INSANELY long for these guys and exposed a lot of their weaknesses, but they did a good job of building Frazier as a threat for the title, especially with Rebel’s involvement. They didn’t top the High Stakes match, but it’s the closest they’ve come. **1/4

Homicide vs. B-Boy – They trade some hammerlocks and arm drags to start, proving both guys are equally as good as each other. Cat and mouse game leads to B-Boy getting a pescado. Back in the ring B-Boy gets a dropkick on Homicide in the corner for two. B-Boy gets him in the Orange County stretch but Homicide makes the ropes. He gets B-Boy down into the corner and hits a big bootscrape. Homicide puts him on the top and gets a double underhook suplex off the top for two. Homicide locks on the STF but B-Boy makes the ropes. B-Boy goes for the Shining Wizard but Homicide counters. B-Boy counters the counter and hits a powerbomb for two. Suplex gets two. Homicide comes back with an Ace Crusher off the second rope for two. They’re selling like they’ve gone 15 minutes but they’ve only gone 8. Homicide no-sells a german suplex and dropkicks B-Boy out, following with his patented crazy flipping dive. Back in, B-Boy gets a superplex for two. They being trading forearms and t-bone suplexes. B-Boy gets a backdrop driver and Homicide comes back with a clothesline. B-Boy nails a NASTY dragon suplex on Homicide, dropping him on his head, for two. Piledriver from Homicide gets two. Brainbuster from Homicide gets two. Homicide gets B-Boy up for the Vertebreaker, but Trent Acid runs into the ring and gives Homicide a big yakuza kick. Homicide KICKS OUT!! Trent assaults the ref, drawing Homicide into a game of chase outside, and as he makes it back inside B-Boy nails him with the Shining Wizard for the win at 14:03. This had the ingredients of a great 20-25 minute encounter. To be precise, it had the beginning and the ending, but nothing in the middle. They went from the feeling out process and the early stages of establishing submissions straight to hitting all the big moves without any transition period. As soon as Homicide hit the double-underhook, it became back and forth moves for TWO, and there wasn’t enough build to make the nearfalls mean as much as they could have. On top of that, the yakuza kick should have been the finish because the idea was Acid screwing Homicide, and the yakuza kick got that over perfectly, no need for the extra stuff. Still, I’d like to see a rematch. ***

IWA MS Light Heavyweight Title: Sonjay Dutt vs. Alex Shelley vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Trent Acid – This was supposed to be for Acid’s Iron Man Title, but the Hi-V change it to Sonjay’s belt. Acid wants more gold than he already has. Even though the IWA MS vs. CZW feud ended, Sonjay is still their Light Heavyweight champ. Sonjay and Alex Shelley start off and Dutt gets a nice butterfly suplex. Sonjay tries to wear Shelley down but Alex gets some quick rollups. Acid steps in with Jimmy Jacobs and they do a fast sequence ending with Jacobs getting an aeroplane headscissors and a forearm to send Acid running. Jacobs and Sonjay go at it and then Shelley comes in as well. Shelley launches Jacobs over the top onto Sonjay and Acid. He then follows himself with a 360 plancha. Shelley gets a nice enziguri on Sonjay back in the ring. He avoids a big boot from Jimmy Jacobs but gets stomped for his efforts. Acid nails Jacobs with a roaring elbow for two. Acid gets a moonsault for two. In a lovely spot, Shelley wheelbarrow suplexes Jacobs into the corner where Acid quickly nails him with a double knee strike. Sonjay comes in like a maniac and quickly drops Acid on his head with a Backdrop Driver. He clears the ring of all but Jacobs and then locks a chinlock on the HUSS. Sonjay gets a slam and a leg drop for two. Sonjay goes to powerbomb Jacobs off the top but it gets reversed to a hurricanrana and Sonjay almost dies. Shelley breaks up the pin. Shelley gets the better of Jacobs but Acid breaks up the pin and almost murders Shelley with an Orange Crush. Trent sends Alex out but showboats and Sonjay gives him an awesome reverse rana. Jacobs nails Sonjay with a big boot. Acid nails Jacobs with the yakuza kick. Shelley nails Acid with a brainbuster. Sonjay hits the Pheonix Splash on Acid, and rolls up Alex Shelley for a controversial nearfall. Dutt goes up and gets the Pheonix Splash on Shelley for the win at 15:20. I’m positive that finish was blown, but other than that this was a very fun spotfest, using four guys well to keep the action constant and flowing nicely. ***

Dog Collar Match: Nick Gage vs. Nate Hatred – I’ve recapped their feud in the past so I won’t do so again. Hatred attacks Gage before the ref can fit Nate’s collar. He wraps his fist in the chain and busts Gage open with it. Hatred delivers some more punishment including a brainbuster. He wants to go for a pin but the ref won’t make the count as Hatred still doesn’t have the collar on. Hatred tries to choke Gage with the chain and Gage is a bloody mess. Hatred sends Gage out and tries to beat on him outside. The ref finally get sto put Hatred’s collar on. Hatred smacks Gage with a chair. Back in the ring he lays into Gage some more with chain fists to the head. Gage reaches down deep and fights back, getting off a slam and a chain assisted elbow drop. Gage gets forearms and a roaring elbow. He goes up but Hatred pulls him off and catches him in a northern lights suplex for two. Belly to belly suplex gets two. Gage uses the chain to crotch Hatred. He gets a bulldog for two. Criss-cross leads right into Hatred’s decapitator. Dewey Donovan, Hatred’s manager sets up a whole bunch of chairs outside the ring, as has been a tradition in matches with these two. Hatred undoes Gage’s chain and powerbombs him over the top through the chairs. The ref reattaches the dog collar but it only gets two back in the ring. Gage gets some bootscrapes in the corner but going for a second Hatred pulls the chain. Gage manages to come back with a brainbuster and a frog splash for two. Gage rolls Hatred up for two, and the Messiah interferes. Hatred nails the Decapitator for the win at 14:21. A solid dog collar match but it doesn’t compare to their tables match. **3/4

All the Hi-V rush the ring and beat the crap out of Gage. But wait, what’s that music? THE WIFEBEATER!!!! THE WIFEBEATER!!!! WIFEBEATER AND ZANDIG CLEAR THE RING!! HE’S BACK, HE’S BACK HE’S BACK!!!! Sorry I was just mimicking the announcer. The crowd does go insane. Zandig makes the main event for the next show, Double Dog Collar, Beater/Gage vs. Messiah/Hatred.

The Verdict: – While there is junk on the tape at the start, the actual show itself is great, featuring a bunch of *** matches and even the CZW MATCH OF THE YEAR!! Get it all. Now.

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-Next review is of CZW’s first show from ITALY, ‘Shockwave’ featuring a huge title change that pissed many people off, myself included. After that we’re back with the next arena show, Night Of Infamy 2, as we continue the road to Cage Of Death 5 with a moment that makes the crowd go even MORE insane, and made me mark out like a mofo just reading about it. Stay tuned….

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