The Furious Flashbacks – 3PW This One’s For You

The Furious Flashbacks – 3PW This One’s For You

Gary Wolfe defends his title…against a nobody, Sabu battles X-Pac and it doesn’t suck, CM Punk and Colt Cabana steal the show!

The first 3PW show got posted just before I wrote this on 17th October. Here’s the feedback:

Wasn’t Rockin’ Rebel the guy who got gigs mostly because he had his own ring?

Posted By: Guest#6050 (Guest) on October 17, 2010 at 03:10 PM

Rebel is a notorious douche. There are people out there who won’t work for companies that book him. He had enormous heat with Trent Acid & Johnny Kashmere for example. I’m fairly certain he got booked in several places because he has a promoter’s licence, which you need to promote in Pennsylvania. Or so I’m lead to believe. If that’s incorrect can someone comment.

Trent Acid had heat with a lot of people though stemming from personality clashes. There was definitely something going on with 3PW as there are so many stories about backstage issues there. I would imagine it’d stem from Jasmine St. Claire and Rockin’ Rebel.

September 21st 2002.

Sidenote: This is the night that Ted Petty died. He was originally scheduled for a title shot against Gary Wolfe but died en-route of a heart attack.

We’re in Viking Hall, the former ECW Arena, Philadelphia. There is now commentary! They’re never shown onscreen so I don’t know who they are though.

Hack Myers v Ace Steel

Now this is an interesting cross of what ECW was and what it might have been. Steel was very prominent on the Indies around the time ECW closed down. You’d have to think the likes of Punk, Cabana and company would have been the next generation of ECW talent. This is a preview of an ECW that might have been. If it wasn’t listed as Hack Myers I would not have recognised him. He’s got a small goatee and looks more like Steve Austin than the Shah! He’s a lot thinner than his old ECW days. Steel finds himself up against it. Overpowered in the early going he starts throwing in all manner of lucha moves including a springboard clothesline. He’s trying to use high risk offence to get himself over with the Philly fans. And it works but he makes a point of being a jerk too to enforce his heel status. Which is frustrating because what’s he trying to do here? Its Myers who makes the match happen. Timing his comebacks well and doing very little in the process to ensure that Ace remains the showy one. He also targets Steel’s leg in order to slow down Ace’s high flying, which is handy because Steel had run out of big moves. Steel’s biggest issue here is overreaching. After he’s looked good on some simple flying moves he tries to get in a power move too (the Gory neckbreaker called Spinal Shock) in order to finish. Myers is just too big for the move and counters out into a piledriver for the win. **1/2. Steel looked good with his flying, which I didn’t really expect and Myers looked in good shape too. Which I definitely didn’t expect. Although, like Meanie, losing his weight makes him considering less charismatic.

CM Punk v Colt Cabana

This is another occasion where 3PW bought a match in, which also explains why Steel is on the card because he probably rode in with them. These guys can have a good match in their sleep. Punk is able to work in a lot more lucha too. Maybe they were watching some AAA the night before or something. They run a series of AWESOME counters that look like fuck up’s to the untrained eye. Blocking headlock takeovers and such. Cabana is a little loose at times but otherwise this is gold. They get an Indy stand-off and that brings polite applause. That’s the cue to take it up a notch by smacking each other around but they blow a leapfrog spot and the crowd is all over them for that. But then I’m remembering the earlier stuff where they worked smart counters in and I wonder if that was planned? Nah, it didn’t look right. Its noticeable that Punk attempts less showy stuff in the following minutes wary of making another mistake. Its Colt who pops the crowd with the Asai moonsault but then he is working face. Which is weird because last time he was here he worked very heel. When Punk tries to reply with high risk Cabana meets him with a rib-breaker and shoots the half for the duke. ***1/4. That was a strong showing for both guys. They were eager to impress and the early hold and counter-hold wrestling was superb. They recovered from a big mistake in the middle to get a hot finish. No complaints here.

Blue Meanie v Chris Chetti

The former announcer is now the ref, which means he has safety goggles on. And following up from Punk-Cabana awesomeness is this pile of shit. There are huge timing and communication issues in the early going. So much so Chetti opts for an alternative strategy of doing NOTHING AT ALL. He spends so long on the floor I have to fast-forward. I don’t object to stalling. If you suck, stalling is your friend. Its great for cheap heat. Jerry Lawler is the absolute King of Stalling for heat. But it sure is boring to watch. The bored crowd go for a “BWO” chant. The commentary team makes a point of putting Meanie over repeatedly. Chetti finally gets going and works the arm. Unfortunately nothing they do looks good. Chetti can’t get any crank on the move. He just holds the arm. That’s not a submission manoeuvre. He’s better off kicking at the arm. Everything else is fucking ugly. Ugly punches, ugly reversals and ugly spots. At one point Meanie blocks a suplex with his bad arm and then hits the DDT with his bad arm. That’s the finish. Urgh. Uuuuurrrrgggghhh. DUD.

Josh Daniels v White Lotus

Daniels is a Benoit clone. Lotus is an Indy guy who’s never really gotten a big break. I don’t care for his name. Daniels got to come back because he looked good in a try-out. He chops the shit out of Lotus. The response is an assortment of heel cheating into an array of suplexes. Daniels comes back with his own array of suplexes. Daniels has more snap in his but I like that they’re duelling on suplexes. Showing off their range and whatnot. Daniels has to duck into a superkick, which is a rather unfortunate spot. The kick would have been about stomach height. Daniels then gets a roll up for the win, which feels a bit deflating after all those suplexes. **. Match was decent. They didn’t have much time so they went for throwing a lot out there at pace.

Joey Matthews/Christian York v Danny Doring/Road Kill

Doring is magically back babyface because he’s teaming with Roadkill. Doring even gets cute and joins the crowd for a “you fuck sheep” chant. He’s definitely better as a face. Roadkill was actually in the WWE (&OVW) for 3 years after this (2005-2008). Loads of stalling to start with just so the fans know who to cheer for. Doring opts for comedy, exposing Joey’s ass and then going for the NIPPLE CRIPPLE. Doring actually works the nipples over. That counts as psychology! Joey is really exposing himself to ridicule in order to get this match over. When Doring & Roadkill team up they’re not only funny and goofy but also effective. They finally get into the serious wrestling with Joey countering the Buggy Bang into a DDT. The heels run heat on Doring and this is tag formula 101. Its frustrating that they run formula with such complete predictability and don’t even isolate a body part to make it look like Doring is in actual trouble. Everyone sits patiently and waits for the hot tag. Joey gets in a fight with John Finnegan, which allows Doring to hit the BAREBACK. Hot tag follows. DIRT ROAD SLAM! BARN BURNER! Its equally frustrating that the commentators don’t know the names of these moves. LANCASTER LARIAT OF LUST! (Called as a Hart Attack, I miss Joey Styles) Roadkill goes up top to finish but Joey pushes him off through the table at ringside and York reverse DDT’s Doring on a chair for the win. **3/4. Formula aside I really enjoyed that.

Rockin’ Rebel v Angel

Rebel gets the mic to say he keeps getting screwed over in this company before segueing into cheap heat. Rebel wants ANYONE out the back to face him in a South Philly streetfight. Angel, the girl rather than Tha Baldie, answers the challenge. She was heel on the last show too but is turned babyface by working with this tool. This match is horrible. Its possibly here as a rib on Rebel who makes the most of it by commenting on her poor personal hygiene. The wrestling is sloppy at best until Rebel unloads with a chair shot, which should finish and get everyone over but Angel kicks out. Who the fuck had that bright idea? Seeing as nothing else works Angel goes to the groin, like an attack dog, and Rebel submits. ¼*. I can’t get my head around this show. They go from something that could easily have been in ECW to this?

3PW title – Gary Wolfe (c) v Dead Man Walking

Sidenote: I wrote this following paragraph before I realised why they’d booked it this way. In retrospect they’d lost their title challenger and needed to find something to replace him ASAP. I assume they didn’t know Ted Petty was dead or they wouldn’t have replaced him with someone called “Dead Man Walking”; whose mask has X’s for eyes. I personally would have switched the card around. Maybe even given Rebel a title shot seeing as he wasn’t doing anything.

Way to put the belt over. First title defence for Wolfe is against a big masked dude. Keep in mind this is the first title defence, ever. Did no one else want a title shot? They even have a back-story, which involves DMW coming from a psyche unit where he beat up orderlies to train for wrestling. Sure he did. Maybe its just making fun of WWE but they sure couldn’t have picked a worse match to do it in. Seeing as he’s huge they run powerhouse brawl stuff. Wolfe wins the DVD in short order. DUD. Your first title defence, ever and its this pile of shit? Unbelievable.

Kevin Sullivan v Abdullah the Butcher

Well, I guess you know what you’re getting when you book Abby. He’s 61 at this point and about as mobile as most fat 61 year olds. Sullivan keeps hitting him in the head until he bleeds. Then Abby takes a fork to Sullivan’s head. At least this isn’t going on last like Sullivan-Dusty-Bigelow did. This totally sucks until Sabu runs in and assaults Abby. I still don’t get heel Sabu. Who the hell boos Sabu? Anyway X-Pac runs in to prevent a 2 on 1 and I really hope they don’t book a tag match. The only surprise about this match was that X-Pac got booked somewhere and actually turned up. DUD.

Three way strip-off: Missy Hyatt v Donna v Jasmine St. Claire

Rockin’ Rebel is out here to judge although I doubt his groin is working order anymore. This is the typical Jasmine segment where they try and do something to get her on the show (they could always finish the angle with Angel from the last show that has been retconned out of existence). Donna is out there for no real reason and is “eliminated” first. Crowd supportively chant “show your tits”. Which is exactly the crowd reaction you’re going to get if you book a “strip-off”. A catfight breaks out as Missy takes exception to Jasmine calling her fat (I’d have gone with “ugly”). Rebel clotheslines Jasmine and Meanie runs in to save but gets beaten up. Which is what happens every time he does that. He’s not exactly a knight in white armour. This leads to a tag match on the next show, natch. At least there’s some run-on booking.

Sabu v Syxx-Pac

Pac is totally aggressive from the bell and showcases his kicking ability. He makes the mistake of going for the Broncobuster, which the crowd hates, but Sabu kicks him in the ballsack to prevent it. Waltman was a hell of a worker before time and injuries took their hold. Crowd cuts him some slack because of that. Sabu borrows the X-Factor and goes after Pac with a pair of scissors. To be fair to Sabu, he’s sure working heel. He took the match the fans wanted to see and threw it away. Waltman is post-WWE and just signed for TNA so perhaps he’s not as desperate to impress as he might have been. If he’d not had a job lined up he could well have put on an amazing match here. There are moments where he looks eager but they’re not as often as you’d like. Sabu was in TNA at the time too but must be carrying injuries. The big spot is Sabu legdropping Waltman through a table on the floor, which gets a big ECW-esque reaction. Sabu brings some of his most fun trademark stuff; the chair throw, the triple jump moonsault. Pac tends to rely on his kicks, which is fine because they look good. He even works in a nice counter into the X-Factor. The big finish involves a table and an X-Factor off the top through it. Which is a nice finishing spot. ***. Honestly both guys look good here. Not amazing or anything but they put together a nice match with good spots and neither guy did anything stupid to ruin it.

The 411: There are three good matches on this show, which perhaps makes it 3PW’s best show to date. Its better to put on some good matches and some bad ones rather than 8 mediocre bouts. There is a lot of crap on this show, which is frustrating and the booking of the title belt is borderline unforgiveable. However given the circumstances you can see why it went wrong. RIP Ted Petty.
Final Score:  4.5   [ Poor ]