411 Video Review: CZW Extreme 8

CZW EXTREME 8
June 28, 2003

After IWA Midsouth invaded at the last show, Truth Or Consequences, what was originally supposed to be a chance for some unknown guys to get a shot at being in the Tournament Of Death 2 became a show to begin and further the IWA feud.

MATCH RESULTS

We start with a promo where Zandig introduces some new guys that he’s brought in and Ian Rotten brings his IWA guys in and they trade insults. Ian also introduces us to Axl Rotten! Anyway, Necro Butcher, an IWA MS regular is sided with Zandig here because he had worked CZW in late 2002. I smell a turn.

CZW Tag Titles: The Backseat Boyz vs. Sonjay Dutt & Ruckus – No real backstory to this, but on paper it seems like it’ll be the best match on the card. The Backseats deny their opposition a handshake. So, Sonjay and Ruckus attack them from behind, leading to a sequence that proves both teams can dance. Cute. Backseats get trapped in the corner and fall prey to the Razzle Dazzle. Another charge in the corner and Acid ends up on top of Kashmere. I hate those gay jokes. The Backseats bail and try to get on the mic, but it won’t work so they walk out. But the REF! Brian Logan gets on the mic and says if they leave they forfeit the belts. They come back out and the match is back on. Kashmere and Ruckus go at it and Kashmere locks on a figure four. Sonjay drops a big elbow to break that up. Acid nails a roaring elbow on Ruckus and chokes him in the corner. The backseats double team Ruckus before Acid works him over some more. Acid blows a moonsault and falls victim to a handspring spin kick. Sonjay gets the hot tag and takes out both Backseats with dropkicks and a reverse rana to Acid. Kashmere falls onto Acid in a 69 pose, so Sonjay and Ruckus hit stereo standing shooting star presses. Dutt goes up and murders Kashmere with a Pheonix Splash while Ruckus hits Acid with a twisting press, but their pinfalls are broken up when The Dew, Backseats’s manager, pulls the ref. Acid knocks Ruckus down outside and Sonjay gets crotched up top for the Backseats to hit a super T-Gimmick for the win at 8:57. This was more comedy than anything. Nothing spectacular by any stretch of the imagination. Little trivia: This match went on first so the Backseats could travel from Delaware to Philly to wrestle at ROH, where Acid put in one of his best performances ever against Homicide. As for this match, *1/2

Jon Dahmer vs. GQ vs. Z-Barr vs. Chris Cash – Cash chases GQ around the ring. Barr and Dahmer start it off with some sunset flips and stuff. Tag GQ and Dahmer slams Barr into a backbreaker. GQ works over Barr before Z pops off a belly to belly and a slam for two. Cash tags in and so does Dahmer. Cash escapes a german by landing on his feet and tags in Barr instead. Barr nails some clotheslines and the Donkey Punch for two. Dahmer lays Z-Barr out with a face-first suplex for two. Spinebuster gets two. Cash chases GQ again and falls prey to Barr’s version of the Pain Thriller. Dahmer nails the Move of 1000 Maniacs on Barr, but GQ suplexes Dahmer. He celebrates on the top but Cash joins him and gives him the cutthroat suplex off the top for the win at 6:41. Why didn’t they just do Cash vs. GQ? DUD.

Adam Flash & Ian Knoxx vs. Jude & Niles Young – Knoxx and Flash come to the ring drunk, as per their gimmick. Knoxx and Young start off with some counters and reversals. Knoxx gets off some chops and a fallaway slam. Jude and Flash tag in and trade arm wringers. Jude gets a sideslam for two but cops a clothesline for his troubles. Knoxx tags in and they blow a double chokeslam. Knoxx suplexes Jude and drops a knee to his face. Tag Flash in again and they continue to work over Jude. Eventually Knoxx falls into a trap and gets belly to bellied and Young gets the hot tag and shitty facebuster. Young nails a terrible quebrada and Jude blows one walking up the ropes. End this NOW! They set Knoxx up on top but irony interjects and he chokeslams both of them. Flash tags in and they hit double piledrivers for the win at 7:52. The less said about this the better, but I guess it gets over Flash and Knoxx as a tag team. DUD.

Barbed Wire Boards & Barbed Wire Tables: Corporal Robinson vs. Deranged – Deranged is NOT the one from ROH who works CZW, but he is a Nailz look-a-like. Robinson is form IWA MS. Right off the bat Deranged misses a charge and goes through a barbed wire board. They both go out and Robinson is backdropped over the railing. Deranged hits a kick off the apron, proving he is a big idiot. He follows with a Cactus elbow with a chair. Originality? Robinson nails him with a chair and more uninspired brawling continues. Deranged suplexes Robinson on the asphalt. OUCH. That kind of bump would be topped at the “Respect” show in August, but we’ll get to that when I review it. Both guys are busted open as Robinson legdrops a chair off the apron onto Deranged. Back in, Deranged suplexes Robinson through a barbed wire board in the corner. He goes up but Robinson powerbombs him off in a terrible bump. Robinson gives Deranged a cobra clutch Russian legsweep off the apron through a barbed wire table for the win at 8:04. This was fairly uninspired standard deathmatch stuff. ј*

Fans Bring the Weapons Gauntlet match: Participants are Bishop Slade, Van Hughes, Necro Butcher, Axl Rotten and ‘Spyder’ Nate Webb – Bishop Slade is similar to Abdullah The Butcher, only with an afro. There are weapons littering the ring and I’ll explain the good ones when we get to them. Hughes and Slade start off and Hughes takes a huge clothesline. Slade elbow drops some light tubes and breaks the rest over Hughes’ head. Hughes makes a comeback with a HUGE light tube shot on Slade that takes him down. Some stop sign shots send Slade down again, but he kicks out at two. Hughes smacks him with a thumbtack bat, but Slade gets off a fireball and an elbow to win at 2:56. Necro Butcher is the next in, and he too cops some clotheslines from Slade. The Bishop tries to elbow more tubes, but they don’t break. Instead, he goes for a splash with the tubes, which is a very simple yet very painful looking spot. Butcher takes Slade out and they brawl around ringside. Back in, Bishop gets his elbow of light tubes for two. I’m sensing a trend in Slade’s moveset. Necro is busted open (what’s new?) and gets some chairshots. He fights back with chairshots of his own to eliminate Slade at 8:45. Axl Rotten makes his way out and abuses Necro on the outside with some barbed wire. Necro is covered in blood. Rotten grabs a pair of scissors and slices Necro’s forehead open, shouting to the camera, “we don’t need blades!”. That was so totally unnecessary and I would be totally repulsed had I not already seen that kind of thing in these matches before. Butcher takes some light tubes to the back and Rotten grabs his tongue, and cuts it with the scissors! Okay, THAT is fucking stupid. End it now, please. Rotten leads some charges with a barbed wire chair in the ring before missing one and suffering the LEGDROP to eliminate him at 14:15. Now its Necro vs. Nate Webb in the final. I like Webb, he’s a good guy. Webb nails a neckbreakre that Butcher has trouble taking. He goes up with a chair covered in tubes and does a moonsault while holding it. Webb smacks him around with the thumbtack bat, then grabs a computer monitor… and drops it on Necro’s head with full force. God that must’ve hurt. Webb beats him with a rubber chicken but Necro makes a comeback and dumps the Spyder. Necro throws the monitor out onto Webb’s back in a spot that must’ve hurt just as much. The ring crew bring a coffee table covered in glass and rubbing alcohol, so Necro powerbombs Webb through it for the win at 19:13. Axl Rotten destroyed this match, and so did Necro by his willingness to take that crap. Necro was in a **** death match at CZW’s September 2002 show, where his willingness to take a good bump helped the match get over, but this was the exact opposite. There are some death matches I’ve LOVED (one day I’ll do a review of CZW Un-F’n-Believable with the best US death match ever on it) and none of them had to resort to that type of shit to get over. And the ironic thing is, it didn’t get this match over. If it wasn’t for Webb, this would be wading in negative stars. DUD.

Unlucky 13 Staple Gun Match: JC Bailey vs. “Mr. Insanity” Toby Klein – To win here you have to staple 13 dollar bills to your opponent. Both guys rush for the staple gun in the ring but Klein pulls out one of his own. Bailey tries a sunset flip but gets a staple to the head. No dollar bill though, so it doesn’t count. Klein gets a springboard back elbow and gets the first dollar bill stapled. They trade forearms and Bailey clotheslines Klein out. Outside, Bailey lowblows Klein with a light tube and sets up some chairs and light tubes. Klein strangles Bailey with his shirt and then gets his dollar bill tally up to four. Back in, Bailey gets his tally up to four. Its hard to keep track of these cause some of them fall off. Bailey gets shoved onto the apron and then takes a chairshot and the most delayed bump I’ve ever seen, flipping through the stack of chairs and tubes. Bailey gets a bill stapled to his cheek, and then one to the other. JC fights back with a whip to the guardrail. Back in, Bailey gets a dollar bill stapled to his tongue. JC gets a lowblow and some staples of his own, getting almost to 13 before Klein makes a comeback. Klein gets caught with some tubes climbing the ropes and gets the 12th bill stapled to him. Bailey hops up and staples the 13th bill on Klein’s head, then hurricanranas him off the top, winning at 9:56. This was definitely an improvement but still not very good. *

Barbed Wire Bat Thumbtack Bat Death Match: Ian Rotten vs. Lowlife Louie Ramos – Rotten cheapshots Ramos and starts smacking him with the thumbtack bat. He then gets the barbed wire bat and rakes it over Louie’s face. Ramos makes a comeback after some hardcore headbutts but it all ends with Rotten hitting a lowblow. The comebacks in all of these deathmatches have been poorly timed. This goes on and on before Rotten DDT’s Ramos on the thumbtack bat for the win at 5:28. Rotten cuts a promo on CZW afterwards that is actually pretty good, but nowhere near as good as his promo at the end of Tournament Of Death 2. DUD.

Barbed Wire Ropes and Barbed Wire Boards Match: Zandig & Nick Gage vs. Messiah and Nate Hatred – The winning team here gets both single guys a spot in the Tournament of Death 2. Hatred and Messiah wait at the entranceway with tubes and the brawl starts right away. Zandig takes some light tubes shots in the entranceway as Messiah and Gage brawl on the other side of the ring. Gage whips Messiah into some chairs as Zandig gets whipped into the railing. Zandig chairshots Hatred and they brawl some more before the match finally gets into the ring. Gage and Messiah go at it and tease going through the boards. Messiah gets a leg lariat and a suplex. He tries to rub Gage’s face in the wire but Nick resists. Messiah hits a neckbreaker but it only gets two. Hatred tags in and drops Gage on the wire. He hits a belly to belly and a northern lights for two. Gage escapes a german suplex attempt and snaps off a neckbreaker. Hatred gets another belly to belly for two. Messiah comes in and gets a t-bone suplex and backbreaker for two. He slams Gage and Hatred comes in. Gage fights them both off, escaping the Godsmack by locking on a dragon sleeper. Hatred breaks that up and hoists Nick above his head. Gage escapes with a DDT and makes the tag to Zandig who comes in and nails clotheslines for everyone. Hatred belly to belly suplexes Zandig through a barbed wire board in the corner. Gage dumps Hatred and whips him with some barbed wire. Messiah whips Zandig into the wire in the ring. Hatred and Gage brawl on the outside as Zandig gets a powerbomb on Messiah. The IWA guys run in and interfere, and Necro Butcher runs in to save Zandig… then turns on him. The IWA guys beat on Zandig and take him backstage. Back in the ring, Gage nails the chokebreaker on Messiah and a brainbuster on Hatred. We cut backstage to Zandig wondering what the fuck is going on before he gets blindsided again by the IWA guys. They leave him for dead. Messiah nails an Ace Crusher in the ring on Gage for two. Gage reverses a whip and sends Messiah through a barbed wire board. Gage suplexes him and hits the frog splash for the win at 15:54 to get Zandig and himself into the Tournament Of Death 2. This was the right booking and the match and angle were the best thing on the whole show. **1/4

The Verdict: – This is their worst show in 2003, as the deathmatch stuff was terrible. Thankfully it improved for the Second annual Tournament of Death in August. Sure, it advanced the IWA feud… but the show just plain sucks and I can’t recommend it whatsoever.

I’m expecting to post my review of the show following this, DЙJА VU 2, within the next day or so. It’s a show that DOESN’T SUCK.

-You can get CZW tapes, (get something other than this) from www.smartmarkvideo.com

-CZW Cage Of Death 5, their biggest show of the year is scheduled to happen in December, and the card is fucking stunning, with a huge main event featuring two rings, two cages, and ONE MILLION THUMBTACKS! Not only that, but you get Chris Hero, Tony Mamaluke, Sonjay Dutt, Ruckus and other great guys putting on what will be their best performances this year. This is CZW’s Wrestlemania, so get your tickets fast because they WILL sell out. Go to www.czwwrestling.com for more info.

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

-Hit me with feedback at the link below.

Thanks for reading.