The Furious Flashbacks – 1PW First Anniversary Show

The Furious Flashbacks – 1PW First Anniversary Show

1PW’s birthday party has a little something for everyone

14th October 2006.

1PW had survived for one year. It had been a chaotic time for the new promotion. Beset by criticism, no-shows and communication issues, they’d struggled with but overcome problems. Against all the odds they’d pulled off remarkable coups. Bringing in top level stars from all over the world to compete in a UK ring. Something that had only happened before on Supershows like the ones organised by Alex Shane. 1PW had spent a chunk of their first year bringing in talent to put on shows but they’d also kept one eye on Britain’s better talent and was nurturing them into positions within the organisation. This is a good show to see that in practice. Yes, the main event is Abyss v Steve Corino, both American imports, but the undercard features top matches for Jonny Storm, Jody Fleisch, Pac, Iceman, Darkside, Martin Stone and El Ligero. All talented and hitting highs in UK Indy promotions. Now given the chance to showcase their skills in front of a wider audience.

Stevie Aaron & Dean Ayass open the show. Both good guys. Ayass is playing heel but still acts as cheerleader for 1PW. Aaron referencing Hulk Hogan’s interview from Wrestlemania VI makes me chuckle. The commentators opening it up in the ring was a tip of the hat to ECW with Stevie playing Joey Styles and Dean playing Joel Gertner. The lesson they’d learnt here? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Or rather; if it works, steal it. They’ve also borrowed the ROH set up of spotlights on the ring and house lights down (a set up used by the WWF in years gone by). I’m not overly keen on that one. I like to see the audience.

El Generico v El Ligero

The battle of the masked luchadores who aren’t luchadores but wrestle like luchadores. Generico is from Canada. Ligero is from Leeds. The crowd is molten hot and starts an impromptu sing-a-long of Generico’s music during the lucha spots. Normally I don’t like lucha unless its good. But this is good. Both guys are crisp and clean. The more experienced Generico is head and shoulders above Ligero, and not just in height, but Ligero tries really hard to match him. Generico has been blessed with consistently great opponents over the years. It’s a typical back and forth lucha match with a lot of spots and at least one insane dive. In this case a wicked twisting Fosbury Flop from Generico. As he has the bigger spots Generico rather dominates proceedings once the match settles down. But Ligero is able to counter his Yakuza kick and sneak in a Code Red for 2. Ligero misses off the top and the Yakuza kick scores only for them to work in a nice roll up out of the brainbuster. Generico has eyes on the top buckle brainbuster, or BRAINBUSTAAAAAAAAH as its known, only for Ligero to counter into a SUPER REVERSE RANA. Generico, hazy eyed, pops back up only to get planted with a flying DDT. ***. All action and a fine example of 1PW’s desire to get the local lads over. Ligero is talented but he’s never gotten a shot before and Generico made him look even better.

POST MATCH both guys get a standing ovation for a strong opener and shake hands to show there’s no hard feelings.

Bonus match: Jamie Brum v Mad Man Manson

Brum, being a generic heel, gets a load of heat. The “you’re not very good” chant as funny as it is harsh. I’ve seen the old straightjacket wearing insane person gimmick a few times but Manson is one of the finest exponents of it. Mainly because he realises how silly his gimmick is and plays up to that as well as being batshit insane. He only wears one boot and has the other one drawn on and has to wrestle out of his straightjacket before we get going. Manson also has an interesting habit of wrestling, and losing to, invisible opponents. The actual wrestling between these two isn’t up to much but its more a showcase of Manson’s character than his wrestling skill. He looks like a nutjob. His hair looks crazy. His beard looks crazy. He finishes Brum off in short order and then rolls him out of the ring with his head. Like a dog. *1/2. Great character and he’d fit in well in certain promotions that only feature silly gimmicks and matches. His act is oddly compelling.

POST MATCH the commentators return to the ring to confirm the show is a 1,785 sell out. Ayass stops off to make fun of the locals. Aaron presents a video of 1PW’s first year. It’s a fun video and closes with Corino saying “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. Aaron brings out Kingdom James to join the festivities. He’s happy to be back, he brought cake and says nothing can ruin this evening. Which brings out Jay Phoenix with a present for the King. It’s a pillow. “That got a bigger pop than your entrance” – Phoenix. Kingdom James thinks Phoenix wants a fight so Phoenix calls him a fat, old cripple and slaps him. Match on!

Jay Phoenix v Kingdom James

James works like Dusty Rhodes circa last year. He mounts the buckles for some punches and Phoenix powerbombs him for the pin. N/R.

POST MATCH James gets his heat back by hitting an Avalanche and whacking Phoenix with his own pillow, which Phoenix sells. For those who don’t know the back story; this was because Phoenix was dared by Steve Corino to hit Samoa Joe with a pillow (not for an angle, it was in a hotel), which he did and promptly got his ass handed to him. So now he has the pillow gimmick. James finishes with the Curb Stomp into the 1PW first year anniversary cake. 1PW’s tribute to Sportz Entertainment.

BACKSTAGE Team Supreme complains they weren’t booked so they’re here to make an impact. They volunteer their services to SJK for the dream tag team partner match by supposedly taking out Samoa Joe. I say supposedly because he just turns up like nothing happened for the match later.

Tag Team Gauntlet match/#1 Contender’s match

Maximum Head (Dan Head/Max Voltage) v Mark Sloan/Ollie Burns

So we kick things off with a little cruiserweight action. Sloan used to run FWA’s academy and I’m pretty sure he trained all these other guys. Sloan has a more interesting approach than the others who just chain spots. All of which look inoffensive and low impact. Crowd is less than thrilled at being presented with this but clap along anyway. They win the crowd over via constant effort but disappoint me by being so obvious about everything. At one point Sloan stands there talking to Voltage. He’s the opponent. At least put him in a hold first. After they get bored with one on one stuff a bunch of double teams follow. But it is literally one spot after another. Sloan finishes Head by kicking him square in the face while Burns holds him there. ½*. Just a bunch of spots. They didn’t fuck anything up but it didn’t feel like a match.

Mark Sloan/Ollie Burns v The Chavs

The Chavs are cheap heat at its best. Personification of something everybody hates. Anyone could get over wrestling against a couple of chavs. Sadly both teams just run through a bunch of spots as an extension of the first fall. Even worse is Ollie Burns insistence in making each spot even more ridiculous and pre-planned than the one before it. Not in terms of danger but in terms of how much his opponents have to jump around and cooperate with them. I hate that shit. He also works sickeningly soft. At least Sloan is there to kick people in the face. Face kicking is fine by me. If the aim of wrestlers is suspend disbelief then this is the worst match I’ve seen in many, many years. Sloan’s face kicking antics should finish as he lifts Homicide’s corner double stomp but the victim Chav kicks out. A third Chav nails Burns with an International Object for the pin. DUD.

The Chavs v Pain Inc

Joey Hayes appears to have joined Pain Inc to partner Roughneck. It gives the team a different dynamic to the usual. Pain Inc normally being two big guys who kill everything. Now Hayes gives the team potential. It feels more like the Hart Foundation. Only nowhere near as good, obviously. The Chav’s have the weight of numbers on their side and double team their way through to the final match. ¼*. Odd to see a new team get squashed right out of the gate. Especially by a team that’s just two guys with a cheap heat gimmick.

The Chavs v Damned Nation

The Nation are Northern strongstyle exponent Dragon Aisu and veteran trainer/former semi-professional towel boy Majik. Both good wrestlers with different styles. They’re managed by Gabriel Grey. DN slow the pace and make the spots mean something. The crowd are still indifferent as they have been throughout. The Chavs don’t know how to handle it so just take the abuse. I love Aisu enjoying a chop contest. He loves that shit. If he can survive one of those with Low Ki a chav isn’t going to effect him. The professionalism the Nation bring sets this apart from the other matches in the gauntlet. Majik knows where he is at all times and is aware of how much time he has and what he needs to fill it with. Damned Nation double team their way into a number one contendership situation. **. Not sure this whole thing deserved this much time. It was just a bunch of spots until the Nation got out there. Maybe a 4-way tag or something instead? The Nation would claim their title shot at the forthcoming Fight Club IV event.

POST MATCH Gabriel Grey gets on the stick to tell everyone they’re coming for the belts and whoever wins the ladder match tonight has got hell coming.

BACKSTAGE a roving reporter tells us that Dustin Rhodes and Chris Daniels are both in hospital with food poisoning. Crowd chants “bullshit”…until 1PW reveals their swerve.

Curry Man v Goldustin

1PW narrowly avoiding a lawsuit with the addition of “in”. Curry Man brings the pop n lock with the ref to escape an early arm ringer. That’ll tell you how seriously these two are taking this match. Goldust turns the next lock up into a tango provoking a “this is awesome” chant. I love how Daniels basically wrestles like a cartoon character when he’s got the mask on. They trade on foot stomps and mockery of foot injuries before stomping on the ref’s feet. You know everyone’s having fun when the ref has difficulty keeping a straight face. Goldust ups the ante by bringing the man-love. If there’s two things that shouldn’t happen in a wrestling match its kissing and ass slapping. And a lot of Goldust’s offence is groin based. We get more comedy kicking to prevent an illegal Shattered Dreams from taking place. Goldust kicks out of the Currysault and hits the Curtain Call for the win. **1/2. The stop-start approach never really hit the high gear of comedy or action that could have made this match a classic. The crowd marked more for the entrances than anything else.

POST MATCH Stevie cracks me up by mispronouncing “hyperbole”. Hyper bowl indeed.

DISC TWO!

European Death Match: Iceman v Martin Stone v Ulf Herman

Iceman spent significant energy trying to make himself into the UK’s prominent hardcore icon. His style involves a lot of violence; both with weaponry and strikes but he is a big fat bloke, which puts people off. Ulf was in ECW so you know he’s hardcore. If anything his reputation has grown since then and he’s certainly at the top end of the European talent for being over. His love of fire probably helps. He starts this match with a shopping trolley full of crap, calls his opponents “faggots” and demands violence. Sadly they immediately go to a couple of convoluted tree of woe spots. No set up. Just right into the tree of woe and both Stone and Iceman sit there like idiots and take spots to the face. Why would you do that? It makes no sense. Iceman’s most famous spot is the ‘flying upside down into things’ spot and he does that into the rail. I hope 1PW didn’t loan those guardrails because they’re getting fucked up in this match. They brawl out into the crowd, who respond by chanting “can’t see shit”. Which about sums up the stupidity of the crowd brawl, which was popularised by ECW. I remember many, many awful matches during the Attitude era where they’d head into the crowd and do absolutely nothing. The idiocy continues as Iceman helps Ulf to set up a groin shot by holding a tray over his nuts. Ulf knows how to bring the sickness and uses pliers on Iceman’s nose, groin and tongue. Ulf blades after taking a keyboard to the forehead; the typing kind, not the musical kind. In a pleasing increase in violence Iceman takes a piledriver on a car bonnet. He then flies upside into it, as is his habit. Stone pins him for the win. *. Mostly junk with some stupid cooperative spots.

POST MATCH Stone & Herman bury the hatchet with a handshake but both still hate Iceman.

BACKSTAGE Spud bemoans losing Samoa Joe so Darkside pops up out of nowhere to volunteer his services.

Sterling James Keenan/Jack Storm/Dave Moralez v Spud/Darkside/Samoa Joe

Team Supreme has been brought in to British up the SJK/Abyss faction. They’re two thick set little guys ala Tazz. Spud doesn’t wait for his buddies and goes right after SJK but gets outnumbered. Joe was supposedly taken out by Team Supreme so he’s late arriving. Joe’s arrival somewhat takes the suspense out of the match as he could beat the three heels solo. If Joe chose to, that is. He just meanders through this one dominating with ease. He tries to get his partners involved though and the heels run a bit of heat on Spud before SJK levels Darkside with an epic spear. This leads almost directly to SJK finishing with the MK Ultra. You gotta love a guy who names his finisher after a CIA experiment. The MK Ultra is the same as Takao Omori’s innovative finish; the Axe Guillotine Driver or kneeling belly to back piledriver. *1/2. Nothing match but a fun throwaway. It doesn’t finish the SJK-Spud rivalry nor does it hurt anyone’s heat.

PROMO VIDEO for Great Muta coming to 1PW. That turned out to be a complete disaster and nearly ruined relations between the UK and Japanese wrestling.

AJ Styles v Pac

From a pure wrestling point of view this is match of the night. They start out on the mat with Pac proving himself to be AJ’s equal there. It is noticeably less smooth than AJ against his preferred opponents (Daniels, Joe, etc) but not to the detriment of the action. Pac also selects some weird looking bumps that look to endanger his neck. It hits a higher gear when AJ NAILS a sweet Dropsault. Absolutely perfect execution and Pac flip bumps it for shits and giggles. Pac is agile enough to take several extra rotation bumps off AJ’s moves. In particular a satellite backbreaker with extra rotations. He’s also flexible so AJ can put him in stretches that wouldn’t be possible on normal opponents. Pac is also a lot faster than most AJ opponents so he’s able to duck out of a discus lariat. Naturally what really sets Pac apart is his INSANE rope moves. He breaks out a mid-rope corkscrew moonsault to the floor. Just because he can. He’s learning though and uses a quick kick to set it up so it makes sense. The big story of the match becomes not about Pac having to up his game to face AJ but about AJ needing to adjust to Pac’s unique skills. The difference between Pac and a lot of spottier wrestlers is that he doesn’t just go from one spot to another. He throws in strikes to set moves up and his approach is more logical. AJ must love this because he can hit all his most ridiculous moves, like the reverse powerslam, and Pac can still bump them and make them look brilliant. He even takes the quebrada inverted DDT on his neck and folds his legs over. That’s the best bump I’ve ever seen taken off that move. They get to standing counters with AJ escaping a German suplex only for Pac to switch to the Tiger variety with a lovely subtle counter. Pac manages to springboard into the RACK but AJ upgrades into the Whirlybird slam. Fantastic stuff. “This is awesome” chants the crowd. AJ can’t get the Styles Clash do opts for a top rope version and Pac backdrops him off into a second rope moonsault. He heads right back up; 360 CORKSCREW SHOOTING STAR PRESS! That’s SO hard to execute and AJ goes ahead and kicks out. Hell, the normal SSP is one of the hardest flying moves to get right and it gets botched probably more than anything else off the top. AJ realises how dangerous Pac is and knees his way into the Styles Clash for the victory. ****1/2. They called it “Pac’s proving match” and it was certainly that. He proved he could hang with one of the best wrestlers in the world. The big question is this; how on Earth has Pac never wrestled for TNA? I can understand WWE because they don’t like wrestlers who do insane spots but TNA do.

POST MATCH AJ gets on the mic to put Pac over as the crowd loudly chants “that was awesome”. “If this was a video game, you just levelled up” – AJ.

1PW tag titles/Ladder match: Jody Fleisch/Jonny Storm (c) v Southern Comfort v Team Shag

Cabana & Burridge arrive riding a ladder. Poor Stevie Aaron gets Night at the Roxburied. Team Shag are here for the comedy and Burridge tries to jump up to the belts from the mat. Tracey tries off the buckle. This may not be the most serious of ladder matches. This being Southern Comfort the dancing starts before the wrestling, which isn’t helped by the crowd loudly chanting “dance off”. Hey, if something is over, keep doing it. Smothers decides to take it in a whole different direction by grabbing the mic and saying his first ladder match was with Chris Candido. He calls for the music and we have ourselves a dance off with Chris Hamrick dancing too. Tracey offers his tag partner $5 to dance and then leads everyone in a dance number. SIX MAN DONNY DANCE PARTY. Hamrick draws the line at the swim. As if that wasn’t enough entertainment from Smothers he breaks out the 619. Dives follow and Hamrick doesn’t do that either. He’s a meat and potatoes kinda guy. He gets the ladder instead and the Damned Nation run out here to stop him. Majik drags an injured Hamrick into the back (he looked to be nursing a rib problem) and Southern Comfort are gone it seems.

So that leaves the more serious business of the titles and the champs defending against Team Shag. Tracey comes back solo and almost immediately loses his trunks, literally showing ass. You have to admire Tracey’s dedication. Team Shag bring the Three Stooges/Terry Funk ladder spinning spot. Jody & Jonny have some interesting double teams to bring to the table using the ladder. Colt then hits a moonsault off the ladder, which is a bit out of character. Jody rather fudges a ladder spot, which is always likely given the difficulty of what he’s attempting. Jonny does the Fantastic Four on top of the ladder leading to Burridge taking a sickening neck bump off the top of it. Storm bizarrely kisses goodbye to the title rather than bring it down and hits a splash on Cabana instead. That isn’t terribly logical and a bit of a defeatist attitude. Jody gets trapped in a ladder and Cabana takes a tornado DDT into a ladder. They’re certainly trying to emulate classic ladder matches and make this look painful and dangerous. Hamrick struggles back out here only to be immediately knocked down. Jody & Jonny get booed, a stark contrast to when they won the titles, as they come close to claiming their gold. Team Shag double powerbomb them and take down the belts to win. ***. Plenty of effort and suitable high spots but a bit disjointed compared to other, better ladder matches.

POST MATCH the crowd chant “they’re our champions”. Jonny gets the mic and wishes the new champions the best of luck citing his preference to drop the belts to an English team. To which Cabana does his Lord Steven Regal impression. Jody however isn’t pleased and resents the fans for booing him for putting his body on the line. Which provokes a ‘we’re sorry’ “thank you, Jody” chant and handshakes.

1PW title/No Rope Barbed Wire match: Steve Corino (c) v Abyss

This got personal when Abyss tried to chokeslam little Colby Corino. If you’ve seen one barbed wire match you’ve seen them all. The psychology largely involves teasing barb spots and avoiding it. Corino does bring the funny by attempting a lariat and realising he can’t run off the ropes to do it. Corino brushes the barbs and busts himself open. One of the downside’s to carrying scar tissue. The crowd is dead btw. Its just so hard get into barbed wire matches unless you enjoy seeing people bleed. Corino is well aware that the crowd need those barbed wire bumps and takes a few right into the wire. Abyss manages to rip his arm open and decides an arm for an arm and tries to saw Corino’s arm off on the wire. Beyond a drop toehold into the wire on Abyss they find it hard to create any thrills inside so pop out to use the barbwire boards available at ringside. Abyss bails for white spirits and a barbwire chair. An interesting yet sickening combination. He pours the spirits on his own busted arm and all over Corino who screams in agony. They do some nice counters before Abyss takes a bump through the barbwire board. Abyss does the no-rope rope run, which slows him up and Corino hits him in the groin with a barbwire chair. That’s an Abyss trademark; the weapon he brings in that backfires on him. As Corino takes another header into barbwire it has to be said there is no safe way to land in barbwire. Corino kicks out of a barbwire chair shot and starts no selling. “Come on, motherfucker!” Corino borrows the announce table for a board spot only for Team Supreme to run out here and give Abyss a light tube, which hits Corino square in the noggin. There’s broken glass everywhere and Abyss compounds this by chokeslamming Corino on the barbwire table to regain the title. **1/4. The effort was certainly there but there’s no escaping how dull the first half of the match was. Once they got into their rhythm matters improved. Its usually the case with barbed wire. Until you get hurt, which is inevitable, its very tentative.

POST MATCH Team Supreme lay a beating on Corino and Ulf tries to save but Abyss chokeslams him. SJK comes out and turns face by laying out Team Supreme. SJK grabs a mic and says he’s done everything possible to make the crowd hate him. He beat up Spud five times, beat up a cripple and while watching the main event he realised that 1PW was something special and didn’t want to go into his match with Muta as a bad guy. Corino apologises for the show going over (its running over 4 hours by this point) and says anyone who missed their train can bunk with Chris Hamrick (Regent Hotel, room 29). Corino stops off to put over Steven Gauntley, his family and 1PW. A load of faces come out to celebrate the achievements of 1PW in the last year and Corino spends a long time praising locker room leader Tracey Smothers. The show is finally done at about 4 hours 15 minutes. Exhausting stuff.

The 411: A show highlighted by an excellent AJ Styles-Pac clash but you get a lot of bang for your buck. The sheer volume and variety on show is amazing. There really is something for everyone. From technical to comedy to hardcore to high spots, in differing styles. Its all here. It’s a somewhat scattershot approach but it makes sure the show is never boring. Which is impressive considering its longer than almost every Wrestlemania.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]