Break It Down: JAPW Jersey City Rumble

Jersey City Rumble on February 28th, 2009.

Opening Match: Corvis Fear and Myke Quest vs. Amasis and Ophidian
Amasis makes Quest dance but Quest is in no mood to have fun. The Osirian Portal fake dives and further frustrate the Garden State Gods. Amasis uses Ophidian’s back as a launch pad to hit a hurricanrana on Fear. Ophidian gets caught with knees and the Garden State Gods isolate him. They try to charge at Ophidian but he matrixes and they run into each other. Amasis tags in and cleans house until he gets caught with a dropkick. Ophidian springboards in and hits a facebuster on Quest. The Osirian Portal hit a superplex on Fear. Ophidian catches Quest with flying knees while Amasis hits the Twist of Funk on Fear. They follow with stereo dives onto Fear. Quest back drops Ophidian to the floor and the Garden State Gods hit an assisted ace crusher on Amasis for the win at 11:31. This felt much shorter than eleven minutes. They packed a lot of action into the match and worked a fairly good opener. There definitely were some moments of miscommunication that hurt the match by taking the crowd out of it. That aside, this was a pretty harmless opener. **¼

Kenny Omega cuts an awesome promo about his title defense later tonight. He brings up double negatives (my #1 pet peeve) and predicts Dan Maff to win the Jersey City Rumble.

Match #2: Flip Kendrick vs. Louis Lyndon vs. Bryan Skyline vs. Jack Verville
Skyline cuts a promo in the back before this match. He starts by saying “allow myself to introduce…myself”. We have a winner here folks. This is a #1 contender match for the JAPW Light Heavyweight Title. Kendrick drops down and Verville fails to jump over him. Skyline lands a spin kick on Lyndon but gets headscissored out of the ring. Verville’s ass is exposed and obvious hilarity follows…kind of. Skyline hits a rope-assisted European uppercut on Lyndon but falls victim to a standing corkscrew press from Kendrick. Verville monkey flips Kendrick who then spikes Lyndon with a hurricanrana. Lyndon hurricanranas Skyline over the top and lands a moonsault to the outside on Verville. Skyline and Kendrick follow with dives. Back in, Verville hits an implant DDT on Kendrick but is German suplexed by Lyndon. Verville randomly applies a triangle choke on Skyline. Skyline lifts Verville in position for Kendrick to land a spiraling dive for the victory at 8:41. A pretty big downgrade from the light heavyweight match on the last show. A huge reason why has to do with Skyline and Verville being involved in the match. Skyline was bad but Verville was just outright horrible. I’m glad that Kendrick picked up the win and his match with Ali should be a quality title match. Well…it has to be better than this. *

Match #3: Ax and Smash vs. Monsta Mac and Havok
Both teams trade control early. Smash misses a charge and connects with the ringpost. Havok throws him into the crowd and rams him into the wall. The Heavy Hitters work over Smash back in the ring. Mac misses a top rope splash, allowing Smash to make the tag. Demolition whips the Heavy Hitters into each other. Ax lays out the referee with a chair, drawing the disqualification at 7:20. Pretty much what I expected. Demolition really aren’t in much condition to wrestle anymore and I pray that this was a one-time deal. Demolition’s job was to draw more of a crowd; not to put on a classic match. This was what it was. ½*

Match #4: JAPW Tag Team Titles: Dixie and Azriel © vs. Bruce Maxwell and TJ Cannon
Azriel wins an exchange against Maxwell but the Best Around recover and start to work over Dixie. Azriel catches Maxwell with a double stomp and DNA isolate him. Azriel hits a hesitation dropkick in the corner on Maxwell along with some more dropkicks. He follows with a brainbuster but misses a frog splash, allowing Maxwell to make the tag. Cannon lands a dive to the outside onto Azriel while Maxwell hits a stunner on Dixie in the ring. The Best Around both go up top. Dixie pushes Cannon off and hits a superplex on Maxwell followed by a frog splash from Azriel for a two count. Azriel snaps off a top rope hurricanrana on Cannon and Dixie throws him to the outside. Azriel chops Cannon into the front row. Maxwell hits a facebuster on Dixie and Cannon uses Maxwell’s shoulders to land a 450 splash. Maxwell follows with a double stomp but falls victim to an ace crusher from Azriel, allowing DNA to retain their titles at 13:44. Much like their showing last month, these two teams provided an action packed match that was never dull. They worked well together but I feel like this ended before it had the chance to take off. They were throwing a lot of moves out there towards the end and the finish came off as abrupt. Planting someone with an ace crusher is by all means a believable finisher but it was lost in the shuffle due to the amount of big moves on display down the stretch. This was enjoyable but had the potential to get really good. **¾

Match #5: JAPW NJ State Title: Bandido Jr. © vs. Eddie Kingston
Bandido charges the ring and attacks Kingston around ringside. Back in, Bandido snaps off a headscissors and a hurricanrana. He follows with a missile dropkick but Kingston blocks a dive. Kingston connects with some chops and hits an overhead suplex. Kingston controls until Bandido blocks a backfist and hits a tornado DDT followed by a spike hurricanrana. Kingston gets kicked to the outside and Bandido follows out with a dive. Back in, Kingston hits a suplex and sends Bandido into the turnbuckles. He follows with a corner yakuza kick and a lariat. Bandido comes back with a backcracker but falls victim to a saito suplex. Bandido comes off the top but JUMPS INTO A BACKFIST TO THE FUTURE!!! Kingston becomes the new JAPW NJ State Champion at 10:44. This was more or less an abridged version of what I was expecting. That is perfectly fine considering that the feud is going to continue and they put on a quality match. Watching these two trade moves was very entertaining as Kingston is…well…Kingston and Bandido is extremely crisp with his move set. The finish was just brutal and plays into the fact that Kingston may have lucked into the title (he connected full force with the backfist by chance). Definitely looking forward to see where this goes. ***

Bandido announces in a promo outside that he’s using his rematch clause at next month’s show.

Match #6: Jersey City Rumble
Kenny Omega joins commentary as he will face the winner in a title match. Dan Maff and Jack Verville kick things off. I cannot believe I have to watch Verville again. Maff kills him with a cannonball in the corner and eliminates him. That was tolerable. Bryan Skyline is out next but Maff thankfully makes quick work of him and sends him packing. Jay Lethal enters and he might present some competition. They trade punches as Azriel enters next and attacks Lethal. Danny Demanto comes out and goes right after Maff with a corner crossbody. Balls Mahoney is out next and everyone tries to eliminate Maff to no avail. Amasis enters the match followed by Corvis Fear and Bruce Maxwell. Mahoney hits a piledriver on Amasis as Ophidian enters to keep his partner from being eliminated. Roxie Cotton comes out next and unwisely slaps Mahoney. Myke Quest is the next participant as Bruce Maxwell gets eliminated. Demanto clotheslines Amasis over the top rope to eliminate him. Dixie enters the match but is quickly tossed over the top rope by Demanto. Louis Lyndon comes out next and exchanges strikes with Maff. Mahoney delivers a piledriver to Cotton but Demanto is able to catch Mahoney off guard and eliminate him. Flip Kendrick is out next as Azriel literally holds onto the bottom rope with his foot to avoid elimination. Don Juan unfortunately enters the match followed by Annie Social, who wastes no time eliminating Ophidian. Juan tries to dance with Social but just gets eliminated for his troubles. Monsta Mac is the next participant as Social eliminates Cotton. Lethal back drops Azriel over the top rope. Havok enters the match as Lyndon gets eliminated off camera. Maff military presses Social to the outside. The final participant is TJ Cannon. He eliminates Fear as the match starts to wind down. Fear gets his revenge by pulling Cannon over the top and they brawl to the back. Quest is also eliminated during this time. Maff and Demanto clothesline Havok over the top rope. The final four are Maff, Demanto, Lethal, and Mac. Lethal and Mac trade shots and everyone works together to eliminate Mac. Demanto hits Maff with an overhead suplex. Maff catches Demanto up top and military presses him over the top rope. The crowd really comes alive as Maff and Lethal start to square off. They trade chops and take turns trying to eliminate each other. Maff goes for a burning hammer but Omega stops him. Omega tries to toss Maff his title belt but Lethal catches it and eliminates Maff to win the Jersey City Rumble at 29:08. I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of battle royals. It’s incredibly hard not to fall into that stage where nothing of much importance is happening in the ring either because (a) the ring is too crowded or (b) the participants are waiting for certain entrants/eliminations to perform their spots. This battle royal is no different. However, I liked how they set up the Maff/Lethal confrontation with Lethal being Maff’s first real challenger in the match. By the time the two men were the only ones left, the crowd was in an uproar. There are definitely elements of this battle royal that are likeable but I’m not a fan of the match type and found the typical problems of a battle royal present here. **½

Match #7: JAPW Heavyweight Title: Kenny Omega © vs. Jay Lethal
Lethal wastes no time by hitting a slingshot crossbody to the outside. Back in, Omega connects with a nasty spin kick but runs into an STO. They battle on the outside and Omega gets whipped into the guard rail. Omega finds an opening back in the ring and takes over. The announcers start to play up that Omega intentionally overthrew the title belt so Lethal would catch it. Maff is now at ringside watching the match. Lethal makes a comeback with a superkick followed by an enzuigiri. Omega connects with his stop enzuigiri and a leaping facebuster. Lethal flatlines Omega into the turnbuckles for a two count. He misses a diving headbutt and Omega hits an air raid crash. Lethal is able to lock in a sharpshooter but Maff pulls the referee out of the ring. Maff brings a chair into the ring. He fakes hitting Omega and lays out Lethal with a chair shot. Omega covers a lifeless Lethal for a nearfall. Lethal propels Omega into a chair shot from Maff and Lethal hits a tiger suplex to become the new JAPW Heavyweight Champion at 13:50. I was looking forward to see what these two could do together and they meshed pretty well. This was a more storyline driven match and that was okay here, considering that Lethal had just spent a good twenty minutes in the ring before this. I’m fine with Maff turning on Omega as it became clear that Omega purposely overthrew the belt. I disliked Maff hitting Lethal the first time just for the sake of the swerve. In context, Maff should have hit Omega the first time. Complaints aside, this was a solid match given the circumstances. **¾

Lethal names Maff his opponent for next month’s show.

The 411: Jersey City Rumble was a show used to build future happenings and the wrestling quality simply wasn't there. Kingston and Bandido had a good match but the feud dictates that the best is yet to come. The final two matches were used to get the title off of Omega and to setup Lethal/Maff. The rest of the card doesn't deliver anything worth going back and watching again. The good news is that I like what is being built up and I have a feeling the next show will deliver on the wrestling quality. The only match worth seeing here is Kingston/Bandido but I think it's safe to say that they have even better in them. Thus, this show does not earn a recommendation.

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]