Post by EWAPublicity on Sept 8, 2003 21:53:05 GMT -5
PROMO) JOHNNY HEARTBREAKER
RT: They aired a taped promo of Commissioner Johnny Heartbreaker, sitting in his EWA administrative office. The set looked really convincing, and Heartbreaker had a pencil tucked behind his ear, which was a nice added touch. He recruited Antonio Thomas to turn and go heel, and he appointed Larry Huntley to act as guest commissioner for the evening.
CT: Heartbreaker takes a few moments out of his busy schedule to insult the fans and to put some issues behind the upcoming matches. Basically, at the last show, John Walters pinned EWA Champ Dr. Heresy and Heresy challenged him to a rematch. But Commissioner Heartbreaker wants Heresy to face HIS chosen opponent, the "Zany" Maverick Wild, winner of the New England Invitational Tournament. He also introduces his Commissioner Pro Tempore, "the greatest conditioned athlete in the EWA and my personal trainer, Larry Huntley." This never ceases to be funny, as Huntley is a big Jim Duggan-type, and Heartbreaker has an incredible physique. He also takes some time to invite Antonio Thomas to join Team Heartbreaker. Oooh! Setting up for future angles!! I like it.
Heartbreaker’s just golden on the mic, and was great in this promo. I like that he tied Wild’s NEI tournament win into EWA storylines by giving him the title shot. It makes everything seem that much tighter, booking-wise, when things are consistent and logical. He’s injured right now, so the Commissioner role is perfect for him until he can get back in the ring. And it seems like he’s walking into ready-made stuff with Heresy and Thomas. Cool.
Match 2) Sonny Roselli—oh, wait. Here comes Interim Commissioner Larry Huntley.
PROMO) LARRY HUNTLEY
RT: Huntley looked sharp wearing a bowtie and cumberbund with his wrestling gear. Unfortunately, this segment ran too long. Part of the problem was that Huntley, his partner, Sonny Roselli, and the crowd, were all yelling at each other at the same time. It was chaos. Huntley spelled out the matches for the night, insulted Jim Nastic, then set up a 6-man as the next match.
CT: Huntley was the most intimidating Prom Date ever with the bowtie look. Basically, he announces the teams for the upcoming EWA Tag Team Tournament, but manages to bury just about everyone in the tourney. Then he intros Legion Cage as the newest member of his crew. Cage refuses a handshake, instead choosing to kiss Huntley on the cheeks Mafia-style. Nice touch.
THEN (yes this segment is still going), Fantastic Jim Nastic comes out and asks Huntley why he wasn’t booked on the card. The Commish sorta evades the question, but offers Nastic a job working security. Meanie jellybeany. His first talent relations challenge thusly solved, Huntley calls out Dan Bullis of EWA Security and Ref Paul Hudson. He yells at ‘em about standing up to him at the last show (remember?) and offers them another chance to get beat up 3-on-2. BUT Jim Nastic has an idea of his own: Huntley, Roselli, and Cage vs. Bullis, Hudson, and…Nastic! Sounds like we have a match.
This segment went WAY long, and they tried to cover too much in it. Huntley’s good on the mic in small doses, but isn’t a 20-minute promo guy. And this was a 20 minute promo. The crowd, having seen a great opener followed up with 2 long promos, could have died. For some reason, they didn’t. They yelled at Huntley and Roselli the whole time (okay, some of that was "get outta here" heat, but still), and were ready for the next match.
MATCH 2) Paul Hudson, Dan Bullis, and Jim Nastic v. Legion Cage, Sonny Roselli, and Larry Huntley
RT: Roselli and Nastic started out. Nastic used his superior quickness to gain an early advantage on Roselli. They both tagged out, and Cage faced off against Bullis. Bullis is an EWA trainee who has paid long dues working both the ring crew and security while recovering from a neck injury. Cage cut off any his offense, and Roselli interfered liberally from the outside. Huntley flattened Bullis with 3 elbowdrops. He could have scored an easy pin, but he picked Bullis up after a one-count. Roselli showed surprising athleticism by hitting Bullis with a spinning heel kick. Bullis was bumping big here.
Cage got in there to work against Hudson. He hit a sequence of suplexes ending with a scorpion deathdrop. Hudson took a flip bump off the clothesline. Hudson got in some offense by taking it to the mat and scoring some quick pinning attempts. Cage ended that with a clasped uranage. Huntley scared everyone by carrying Hudson to the 2nd rope and dropping him with a sideslam. Nastic came in to momentarily clean house on the heels.
Hudson attempted a sunset flip, but Roselli reversed it into a seated choke powerbomb. Ouch. Roselli continued to show surpirising hops by nailing Bullis with a dropkick. Roselli climbed the turnbuckles for a big dive, but Bullis managed to move out of the way. Nastic took the hot tag and killed everyone dead with some crazy stiff clotheslines. As chaos was breaking out, Huntley snagged Hudson in an inverted torture rack driver, and Hudson bumped like a super ball. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this match. Really well put together, really well executed. Roselli seemed to hold this thing together, and Bullis and Hudson show promise as sympathetic bumping babyfaces.
CT: Much like last time out (Huntley, Roselli, and Rick Daniels vs. Hudson, Bullis, and Adam Hastey—don’t you remember ANYTHING?), this match was WAY, WAY better than you’d think it should be. Bullis and Hudson just sold, sold, sold to make the enormous Huntley and Roselli look like monsters. Cage and Hudson had a grrreat 2-count series that was actually completely different from the usual one. I HATE that spot, and they did a good job of impressing me. For a Big Man, Roselli is not afraid to fly around with dropkicks and leg lariats. He nearly decaptitated Bullis with a HUGE Treetrunk Leg Lariat. Bullis’ and Hudson’s selling had the crowd BEGGING Jim Nastic to tag in and "even the score" on the heels. After some great cutoffs, Nastic finally got the hot tag and just started whaling on them with nice, stiff lariats. Finish was incredible as Hudson gets caught in Huntley’s finisher (Huntley drops to his knees while the opponent is in the Torture Rack), and FLIES like 4 feet in the air on the bump. This was amazing. The crowd just went silent with awe at how high Hudson got. This led to what certainly could be considered a Sign of the Apocalypse—the crowd started chanting "Larry! Larry!" The pin was ac-o-demic at that point. Man, what a finish. Hudson made Huntley look like the second coming of Goldberg.
This match was the epitome of the "other side" of knowing how to work a match. Sure, you can have great moves that nobody’s ever seen, but did you connect with the crowd? The crowd connected with Bullis and Hudson, since they were just getting beaten on. They hated the heels, and wanted Jim Nastic to get in there and get revenge. And when he did, the crowd went nutso. Hudson’s bump for the finish was just spectacular without even being all that dangerous. You don’t need to go through a table to have a credible destruction. So, yeah, not only did 20 minutes of Larry Huntley and Sonny Roselli not kill the crowd, it got them HOTTER. 5 stars on the Sliding Scale.
MATCH 3) Kid Mikazi and ZR Extreme v. Mighty Mini and Brian Black
RT: This was the first semi-final for the vacated EWA tag titles. On a subjective note, I would have to say that we have some of the industry’s goofier work names in this match. End of subjective note. Extreme started out by hiding behind the commentary team, playing the chickensh*t heel role. When he finally climbed up to the apron, he worked the crowd as a heel by trading insults with everyone in shouting distance. Mikazi and Mini started off, and Mikazi hit some unforgiving chops on the face. Mini managed to fire up on offense, turning the tide for his team. Black came in, but Mikazi cut him off with an eyerake and tagged out to Extreme.
Extreme threw a couple of futile shoulderblocks at Black, but the big man eventually planted him with a huge belly to belly overhead release suplex. Mikazi made a blind tag and hit a nice unassisted enzuigiri. Mikazi deposited Mini to the outside and Extreme whipped him into the ringpost. Mikazi chained together a Russian legsweep floatover into an abdominal stretch on Mini. They draped Mini over the 2nd rope, and Mikazi dropkicked him. Mini pulled out a superkick and made the hot tag to Black. When Extreme saw the big man coming in, he tagged out to a reluctant Mikazi.
The finish was wild as Black picked up Extreme for a bodyslam and refused to go down as Mikazi tried to rana him. Instead he drove them both into the mat at the same time. I’ve watched a ton of wrestling, and I’ve never seen that finish before. Yowza.