The Furious Flashbacks – 3CW v FWA Academy

The Furious Flashbacks – 3CW v FWA Academy

The last time I was at a 3CW show it was the day before Universal Uproar when we did a road trip with Low Ki and hung out with Amazing Red. Yeah, we’re pretty cool. Unfortunately I had way too much drinking time on my hands and got completely twatted thus rendering the review, well, weak. That was Kode Red in November 2005. Amazingly it’s taken until March for me to have the chance to go back. It’s probably the distance involved and the traffic on this trip was just awful with a 3 hour journey getting stretched out to something like 5 ½ hours. As a result we missed the opening tag team match pitting The Kraze (including El Ligero) against the FWA’s Chav Army. We also missed Waller getting bashed in the head with a brick courtesy of one of the chav kids. What, no bladejob sir? So I settle down 3 rows back with Duggi & Parker. The Rage was there too but got to sit up in the nosebleed seats with the workers. Sat behind The Avery’s by the way. Probably for the best they didn’t read my IWF Ring of Faith review…

We’re in Billingham, near Middlesbrough for 3CW v FWA:A. With the Chavs having won 3CW are 1-0 down on the series already.

Justin Richards v Conscience

This is the 2nd match in thanks to our late arrival. Richards runs the crowd and 3CW down in order to provoke some reaction as most people didn’t know who he was. He’s a bit handy. Con wants pure title rules for some reason. That’s a bit out of left field. He immediately goes for the Guilt Trip blocked into a chickenwing and Con uses up his first rope break getting out of it. Con is troubled right off the bat with an arm injury. They switch on arm submission attempts. Con gets a front choke but Richards gets out of it without using the ropes so Con forearms him. Con misses with a legdrop so Richards works his leg over. Con grabs the arm again to get out of it though and Richards uses his first rope break. Richards with a lovely step in legsweep to go right back on offence. Con counters that into a bodyscissors using his sheer size. Richards counters out back onto the leg. Half crab is hooked up and Con uses his second rope break. Richards clips the knee and works it over on the ropes. Con double legs into a standing leglock before moving on to an armlock. On the wrong arm. He does the leglock again this time onto a move on the left arm. Then Fujiwara’s the right arm. That probably now counts as working both arms but it looked weird. Richards uses up his second rope break to get out of it. Richards kicks at Con’s leg and goes for a slam blocked into a lovely Cutter on the arm from Con. Crippler Crossface is on and Richards uses his 3rd rope break to get out only for Con to drag him back out into the middle of the ring where he taps. Huh? Matt Wilkinson, the ref, doesn’t seem to notice it to start with or ask Con to break the hold seeing as the ropes broke it up. Anyway, the match is over and I’m left a bit bemused by the finish. **3/4. Mostly an interesting body part focused submissions match. Certainly different to any Con match I’ve seen before as he went out of his way to have a wrestling match rather than hit his big power moves. Certainly that was Richards kind of match and he helped raise the bar as a result but the finish kind of scuppered the rating for me.

3CW 1 FWA 1

Kid Richie/Chris Whitton/Eden v Pac/Max Voltage/Gallagher

Scramble rules. Someone’s been watching too much Ring of Honor. Max Voltage has stupendously gay ring attire. Whitton has been turned babyface since the last time I saw him, which doesn’t particularly please me as he stood out as a jerk heel where as a face he’s always been a bit bland. Pac-Whitton to start things and Pac connects with a dropsault. “Nice” – Parker. Well, Pac is mint. Eden-Gallagher and Eden is caught with an Ace Crusher. Voltage-Richie and we get some more balanced competition with armdrags, nip up’s and armbars. Eden sneaks in to stomp Voltage and Richie adds a 619. Whitton is in with the chop, kick and Eden adds in a hilo. This is some decent triple teaming from the babyfaces. Richie gets a boost on a backflip senton. Voltage comes back with a swinging headscissors. Eden finds himself isolated and Pac breaks out the double moonsault kick. He is mint, I’m telling ya. Richie comes in with a diving rana for 2. He breaks out the Richards family boxing moves in the corner. I love that, you need to know about his family background to understand why he’s working the way he is. He adds in a kick to the face and a sunset flip gets 2. Pac is in to be mint again though with the flip up Ace Crusher for 2. Gallagher tags in with a suplex for 2. Dropkick gets 2. Voltage tags in and hits a shit dropkick for 2. Richie gets himself worked over but manages a diving victory roll on Pac for 2. That leads to a load of near falls off cheeky roll up’s and Richie looks to pin Pac and make himself the #1 contender for Pac’s Young Lions title. Voltage does the comedy blind arm work over the ropes and Pac gets caught in it. Heh. It worked better than usual because Voltage had spent the previous minute arguing with the fans at ringside. That’s actually excellent psychology to lead into the spot so it makes sense. Gallagher tags in and hits a spinebuster slam for 2. Legdrop gets 2. Pac in but Richie breaks out the DIVING REVERSE RANA. Holy smokes! Pac is out but Voltage runs in with a vertical suplex for 2. Pac is back! 450 SPLASH…misses. Pac went for Richie’s finisher, on Richie. Just to be a complete bastard but Richie knew what was coming and was able to move. Hot tag and Whitton cleans house. Running capture superplex! I tell you, that’s not easy to do. Kurt Angle just makes it look easy. Poor Pac took that as well. Pac-Richie again but Richie runs into a better dropkick from Max Voltage. He then sentons to the floor to wipe out everyone. Richie hits a dive too and Pac goes nuts with a corkscrew hilo to the floor. Everyone down! Back inside Pac blocks the Hellevator twice into the Blue Thunder for 2 and he finishes with the 630 SPLASH! Hello! ***. Slick spotfest with tiny bits of psychology to flesh it out.

FWA 2 3CW 1

The Dragon Aisu v Jonny Storm

Ice XVII has had a name change. Storm is working uber-heel calling the fans “Northern twats” in a pre-match promo. Storm wants a popularity contest, which he loses quite easily so he jumps Ice from behind and starts his irritating habit of shouting “woo hoo”, which continues throughout the match. Probably for the best I wasn’t wearing my Storm #1 t-shirt. Ice rolling neck snaps him and chucks Storm into the rail. Ouch. Whirl from Storm into a slap. HAHAHA. Ice knees him into a flipping neckbreaker. Russian legsweep but the stomp misses and Storm hits a great superkick. Falcon Arrow and a running senton. Springboard moonsault gets 2. Fantastic Four and a great Enzuigiri from Storm. He’s caught on a dive though and Ice hits a fallaway slam. Ice goes for a move off the ropes but gets Japanese armdragged off the top. I’ve never liked the Japanese armdrag. It looks fake. Ice bails and Storm hits a tope. Back inside Storm runs right into the STO. That’s twice Storm has blazed in head first and gotten caught. CHOPS~! Storm dodges the Lungblower and hooks up the Sharpshooter. Ice gets into the ropes to save. Storm dives off the top and gets caught, again, with a capture suplex. That gets 2. Ice goes for the Kobashiplex but that’s blocked into a roll up for 2. DDT gets 2. Ice blocks the Wonderwhirl into the KOBASHIPLEX! Ice goes for ultimate destruction with the Canadian Destroyer but Storm blocks it. Storm pulls out a load of powder but the ref takes it in the eyes. WONDERWHIRL! No referee thanks to Storm’s powder trick backfiring. Storm goes up top but the staggered referee falls into the ropes knocking him off. Storm is less than impressed and matters only get worse for him as Ice rolls him up for the win. Ho, ho. **1/2. It’s not that this was a bad match, I just had very high expectations for it and I don’t think it delivered everything it could have. It was a bit spot heavy but fun because of it.

3CW 2 FWA 2

FWA:A title – Dan Head (c) v Darkside

“Dan Head, you’re so dreamy” – Duggi. HAHAHA. Dan Head, revelling in his new status as a dreamboat in the eyes of the only Brummie in the building, starts off looking confident. Darkside is easily his equal in wrestling terms though and they chain like crazy to start. Darkside breaks out the whirl armbreaker and Head bails. Darkside doesn’t give him any time though and hits a senton off the apron. Darkside goes for a diving press off the rail but gets caught and his back is posted. My notes crack me up at this point as I note Head connecting with a “FLYING KNEE MUTHAFUCKA”, which I think is a good thing. Running face wash and a neckbreaker. Vertical suplex gets 2. Darkside recovers from the beating and hits a diving DDT. Powerbomb as well and the German suplex gets 2. Head, being a cheating bastard, belt shots Darkside courtesy of distractions for the pin. **. This had it’s moments but Head looked a little out of his depth against a far superior athlete in Darkside. The interference seemed a little predictable and a cop out.

FWA 3 3CW 2

3CW tag titles – Vegas Connection (c) v Mark Sloan/Ollie Burns

“Ollie Burns is a pre-op” – Duggi. Heh. Burns suffered more at our hands than anyone else on the night. There was a constant flow of insinuation about how he looked like a teenage girl with an A cup. The addition of an M to start of his name caused much hilarity. Now, that would be a terrific gender bending gimmick. Catchy starts out with Mark Sloan, the FWA’s main trainer. Burns comes in quickly before Vince gets worked over in a heat segment. Vince gets out of that by clotheslining Burns. VC work Burns over. Back suplex/clothesline spot gets 2. Evans takes his turn to get isolated while revelling the “50-50” chants. Evans hits an Exploder but the ref misses the hot tag. The contrived refereeing in 3CW drives me nuts sometimes. Wheelbarrow/bulldog on Burns. The ref manages to miss another hot tag. Oh, come on! He lets that go though thus losing his credibility for the second time tonight. Vince hits a bulldog for 2. Shenanigans ensue with everyone piling in, Sloan takes a belt shot and Burns takes the VC for the pin. So the Vegas Connection retain. **. Hit and miss. There was a great heat segment on Evans where the crowd were hot as hell but the hot tagging kind of messed it up a bit. I blame the referee personally.

3CW 3 FWA 3. So we’re even going into the main event. I’m shocked.

3CW title – Stevie Lynn (c) v Doug Williams

Big stand off to start and standing counters look awesome. Lynn gets the slight better of it, which is a nice rub for Doug to give him right from the off. Doug is calm though, uses the ropes and takes it to the mat where he dominates. Doug armdrags Lynn around but nearly gets caught in the brainbuster. Perhaps he’d underestimated his opponent. Stevie is a little cheeky going for it that early in the contest and even cheekier going for a roll up right afterwards for 2. Lynn has an early advantage now and sets up Doug for the standing moonsault, which gets 2. Doug has clearly had enough of this business, Lynn outside and Doug gets a good run up for a FUCKING TOPE. The guardrail gets wiped out in the process and it’s clear that Doug is now taking this very seriously. Doug with European uppercuts but Lynn is still able enough to stop those and hit a few knee drops for 2. Elbows into a dropkick from Lynn and it’s clear that he has a high flying advantage if he can just catch Doug with the moves quickly enough. Lynn breaks out Blue Thunder for 2. Doug is clearly getting pissed off and goes after the Chaos Theory but like Lynn earlier with the brainbuster it’s too soon and Lynn is able to block into a roll up for 2. That leads to a near falls. Doug is mentally one step ahead and hits a jawbreaker to set up an awesome LARIATOOOOO. Doug starts with the knees and hits a back elbow off the top. That sets up the BOMB SCARE for 2. Another one misses as Doug telegraphs it and Lynn hits a DVD over his knee for 2. Now he feels the time is right for the brainbuster but Doug blocks it again. Perhaps that’s poor judgement from Stevie. Doug nearly gets a pin out of reversing it. Now Doug utilises a gutwrench suplex to keep Lynn unbalanced as it’s not traditionally one of his trademarks. Doug is still taking Lynn too lightly though and BRAINBUSTAAAAAAAAAA scores…for 2. Lynn feels victory is just one more away but Doug is wise to the set up and blocks a second one…into the Chaos Theory but the ref is bumped in the middle of it. Doug gets the belt and bashes Stevie with it…for 2. Doug gets taught a lesson for cheating and gets nailed with a second BRAINBUSTAAAAAA. But Dan Head runs out here to distract the referee. Poor Lynn can’t cope with everything that’s going on AND keep on top of Doug and gets PLANTED with a reserve brainbuster for Doug to win the match and take home the 3CW title in a shocking swerve. ***3/4. Another great main event from the 3CW boys loaded with psychology and big moves. I loved it. Doug being champion creates a ‘chasing the belt’ approach for not only Stevie Lynn but the whole 3CW roster as it’s now on an outsider.

The 411: A solid card featuring an abundance of quality. Could well be a DVD to watch out for. The main event swerved me, as you’d expect, as it was all set up for the good guy to win and take the series for 3CW. Doug-Stevie was a terrific main event and should come off well on DVD as well as in person. Nothing was bad on the show so it’s a thumbs up from me.
Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]