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As Usual, the Cream Rises to the Top
The East Coast Wrestling Association ran its ninth annual Super 8 tournament this past Saturday at the Greater Newark Boys and Girls Club in Newark, Delaware, and as usual, Jim Kettner and the ECWA showed everyone else just how it’s done.
Everything that Saturday pointed towards a great show and a great time, as the weather was picture perfect, the ride down to the “new” venue (new in terms of most of the Crew never going there before) was fast and uneventful, and Steely Dan was playing the whole ride down. Things got quickly settled as everyone met at the new venue- eventually, in Nick’s case, as Nick continues his strange tradition of being one of the last people to show up despite having the shortest commute to any ECWA show. Seeing Joe Velez was a pleasant surprise, and it was even nice to see what’s left of Nick, as he’s done a great job (as has Brett) of dropping a lot of weight and keeping it off.
Nick quickly erased most of his goodwill by leading the Crew on a merry ride through the outskirts of most of Delaware on the way to Chili’s, bypassing at least five other decent alternatives, one weird one (Bob Evans, guys? Was someone in the mood for a sausage sandwich and orange juice?) and having most of the Crew in one car questioning Nick’s sanity, especially when he decided to blow through the red light arrow on the turn into Chili’s. And it was a bit weird to realize that this was the same Chili’s the Crew ate at five years ago before the big ECWA Carpenter Center show.
Dante the waiter came over to introduce himself and immediately question what the hell he had gotten himself into as the Crew ended up ordering half the menu and nearly fell out of the booth in hysterics listening to stories of Sin City, autographs, conventions, and Brett’s classic should-be-written-about-in-detail-on-the-boards story about the Ice Princess. Poor Nick had to wait as his Salad Explosion entrée lived up to its name all over poor Dante, but the food was all worth the drive, especially the Southwestern Eggrolls.
Now sated, the Crew drove back to the Club to find somewhat of a short line waiting to get in, even if it was filled with many of the Usual Suspects and the Magee Brothers’ great greeting of “There goes the neighborhood” as the Crew walked up. Looks were deceiving though, as the place did gradually fill up to around 450-500 people, even if it wasn’t Crew verified by the usual head counting before the show and after the second match. We must be slipping in our old age…the official ECWA count was 461, by the way.
The Crew got their assigned seats and time cruised by quickly as everyone waited for the start of the show. After almost 10 years of attending shows at the St. Matthew’s Parish Center, the Greater Newark Boys and Girls Club took some getting used to, and the acoustics weren’t all that friendly, but it offered plenty of room and not a bad seat in the place. The Crew were very happy to see their ad displayed on the ECWATron several times during the show, and got a mean-spirited chuckle from PWI’s ad that followed which advertised their “wrstling” magazine.
The show started right around 7:00, continuing that great ECWA standard of always starting on time, and the Corpse of Commissioner Richard Naegle arose from beyond the grave and entered the ring with Ace Darling to introduce the eight participants in the tournament. All eight came out, and this time, unlike previous Super 8 cards, there were some established heels and faces, as they came out of the separate locker rooms and some took time to jaw-jack with the crowd.
After the National Anthem, the tourney started as PUMA faced off against Eric Matlock. The Crew had seen PUMA before at Ring of Honor’s Final Battle 2003 on their afternoon show, but none of Matlock, who came off here as flat as a pancake. Very nondescript match that really only established PUMA as a solid worker and introduced his injury to his kidney area that was played out further into the tournament.
JJ Perez then took on Tyson Dux, who came out establishing himself as a face but nearly turned the building on him with his goofy dance moves. Dux had to bow out of last year’s Super 8 because of a knee injury, so it was nice to see him invited back. Because of that, many people, present company included, had Dux picked as the winner of this year’s. Perez at 5’6” came in as the smallest participant in the tournament, something he was reminded of at every occasion by half the crowd, including one inventive kid who brought a small dry erase board to remind Perez that he was a “Midget” and a “Dwarf.”
(By the way, it was great to see that while Rolo the APW Carny found time in his “busy” schedule in 1999 to accompany Mike Modest and Tony Jones to Pennsylvania to work PCW for one weekend, but couldn't be bothered to fly out to see his head trainer JJ Perez compete in the biggest matches of his life on the biggest card of the year in the best, longest lasting, most established indy fed in the country. Have fun at the trial, Rolo.)
Perez won the match, which had many people ripping up their tourney sheets and wondering if Dux left the car running in the parking lot. Give credit to the ECWA for not giving us the obvious, even if it was a bit disappointing.
Alex Shelley and Andrew Ryker was next, which had a lot of buzz as the intros were being made, since no one knew the brackets, and with Ryker an ECWA mainstay had many concerned that Shelley wouldn’t go very far in the tournament. Shelley was last seen by the Crew at the 2003 JCW J-Cup getting his ass handed to him by Homicide after baffling the place with a win over the (at the time) far more entertaining Ruckus.
It’s not even two years later and boy, has Alex Shelley stepped up his game. Shelley added some character to his previously bland look and added a TON of charisma as he knew exactly how to play to, and most importantly when to play to, the crowd. Ryker is the tallest looking six footer in the country given mostly to his thin frame and poor choice of ringwear, and while most of the kudos on this great match fall on Shelley’s shoulders, Andrew Ryker really did impress as he was able to keep up with Shelley throughout the match. The crowd was completely into this match, and the number of false finishes were exhausting. Shelley won after nearly 15 minutes of on the edge of your seat action and near falls. Based on his work, if Shelley lost that one it’s conceivable that the crowd would have rioted.
Petey Williams squared off in the next match with Rory “That Was Five Years Ago” Fox, who looked to have aged about 10 years since he was featured on the MTV Real Life special. Fox had a lot of fun here, declaring that “Les (Thatcher) is dead to me” as he helped get Williams over and progressed Williams’ ongoing storyline of getting the crap beaten out of him. The highlight of this match was Williams appearing to banjax his knee and crawl to the outside, so Fox and the ref start the 10 count. As the count passes five, Fox turns away- but Williams bounces back in, unhurt, and has the crowd keep up the count. Everyone reaches 10, Fox thinks he won, the Crew chips in by “congratulating” him- and Williams just turns him around and levels him, pinning him soon after with the Canadian Destroyer, a move that has to be seen to be believed. Fun stuff!
With the first round out of the way, the Cheetah Master entered the ring for the Hall of Fame ceremony, inducting a clearly surprised Chuck Ristano, the ring announcer for the past eight years, and recipient of many of the Crew’s good natured taunts and one-liners. The entire locker room came out in appreciation, and a visibly moved Ristano thanked everyone in his impromptu speech- but not before acknowledging the Crew, a move he later admitted he regretted as soon as he said it. No kidding!
This brought on Intermission and the usual enjoyable talk with the Bodyguard for Hire, who even after so many years in the business was surprised to hear about some of the antics going on recently. JJ Perez wrestled PUMA to start the second round. Nothing spectacular, nothing offensive, nothing special. PUMA continued to sell the injured kidney area and won the match.
What followed Perez vs. PUMA was one of the best matches in the history of the Super 8 and the ECWA. Petey Williams beat Alex Shelley that showcased Shelley as the flat out MVP of the tournament and gave Williams the rub he needed for the final round. Petey tried on several occasions to hit his finisher, while Shelley did such a great job of getting a near fall on Williams in the ropes that it had most of us convinced it was supposed to be the finish and Williams couldn’t get his feet out. Williams continued to play off his underdog role, and Shelley’s facial expressions, especially after the loss, were fantastic. When people look back at the Super 8, this is one match they will always be talking about.
The match even managed to distract from the spectacle of one of the ring crew and his dalliance with a broken ring light. Apparently the news of the invention of brooms and vacuums hasn’t yet made it down to Newark, Delaware, as the guy analyzed the situation (broken glass on the floor…look up, see that the light is out, look back to the floor…) and decided that the best route to a successful cleanup would be a paper plate and gloves taken out of a garbage can. Piece after piece was placed on the precarious paper plate as the Crew began making bets on if and when the plate would spill the glass back onto the floor. Somehow the area got cleaned and cleared, and the Crew saw the staffer get to the back with the remains- only to hear the sad, expected sound of glass hitting the floor.
After the Williams-Shelley classic, it was time for the ECWA Summit- a Royal Rumble rules battle royal. They showed a segment on the ECWATron with the long running tag champs the Valedictorians with manager Carlton P. Hightower and a sadly crying baby that unfortunately distracted from the whole thing. There are many reasons WC Fields never wanted to work with children, and that’s one of them. Hightower did promise that if his Chick Magnets won he would exercise some clause so the Valedictorians wouldn’t have to wrestle. Meanwhile, the poor kid is just bawling and bawling.
The Chick Magnets were first out (Mike Tobin, Brian Soscia, and Mozart Fontaine) to start things as they yelled at the crowd. Nice gimmick, especially for Mozart who just needs the feather boas and sequined pants to be the reincarnation of Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin. This is not a bad thing. The matching tuxedo shorts are a great touch for the trio, who also follow the Freebird mold of interchanging who’s going to represent the team. If/when they get the tag titles, and it looks like a slow burn of a build for them to do it, that will go way over with an old school crowd like ECWA draws. Next out were Mega (w/out bucket of KFC) and the Japanese Pool Boy, who came out this time to the Batman TV theme and dressed as Robin, the Boy Wonder. While the tag team battle royal concept isn’t a real favorite, as it is really frustrating to see one guy eliminated and then just watch the other guy on the team have to just stop what he’s doing and walk out of the ring, the participants all got things over here.
Participants included the ECWA champion Scotty Charisma, the OC Boyz (who NEVER said hello to Brett! For shame! ), Mike Kruel, Xavier, Striker, and Mr. Ooh La La, who after 10 years of the Crew watching him work has NEVER disappointed and NEVER failed to entertain. Unfortunately, it once again wasn’t his night, as he got eliminated after falling on the floor to get to the ring, stumbling down each and every one of the three ring steps, getting squashed in the corner by Mega, and then eliminated by his own partner the Kodiak Bear. The Logan Brothers, a new team to the ECWA out of Massachusetts and seconded by Ace Darling, won the Summit and the right to immediately face the Valedictorians for a title shot.
Hightower came out minus half of the back of his robe that Rob Eckos and Billy Bax used to diaper the poor screaming little toddler, followed by Eckos and Bax, who looked to have bulked up at least 10-15 pounds. Now, it’s one thing to just have an individual or a tag team hold a title for an extended period of time. The worst case nightmare is to have the suck heat of the Honky Tonk Man, who frustrated the shit out of everyone and never added much to his role as he just took the coward’s way out for well over a year. The ideal situation is to have the holder(s) evolve into the role, like JBL as the WWE Champion and here, as the Valedictorians have really grown into a solid tag team that cashes in on every aspect of the gimmick and the talents of the performers. The Valedictorians have held the ECWA tag team titles for over a year and a half, and at this point you don’t want to see them lose, just because you want to see what they’ll do next.
Bax and Eckos have made the most out of what could have been a one-note gimmick and gel very well as a team. Carlton has also taken his role and run with it, as he has developed into the role of Frustrated Leader. If this does develop into an eventual face turn, it’ll have been done beautifully. The Valedictorians did end up retaining their belts against the Logans after interference from Darling, who got knocked hard out of the ring by Eckos- showing a bit of edge that was discussed in the Year End Awards as a component that might be missing from the team. Last year, Eckos would have been begging off.
Petey Williams pinned PUMA after hitting his Canadian Destroyer finisher to become the eighth winner of the Super 8 in a match that unfortunately didn’t live up to the promise of the previous matches in the tournament. Most likely it was because Williams and PUMA gave everything they had to their first two matches. After the match, everyone came out to congratulate Williams who in a nice touch put over everyone who got him there, including Shelley, his trainer Scott D’Amore, and Jim Kettner, who darted to the back once the chants of “Thank You Jim” started.
After over a year of not seeing any ECWA show, it was very nice to come down to the Super 8 and still feel that “ECWA vibe” as one of the wrestlers mentioned to us after the show. The usual people delivered the usual great product, and did so without any of the sleaze that seems to be prevalent in every corner of the business these days. The ECWA returns on May 14th with its Night of Unusual Matches, and looks to continue its usual tradition of its usual great matches and usual great promotion.
Congratulations to Petey Williams and everyone involved in this year’s Super 8!
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The comments and statements
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Brett Schwan and the Wrestling
Clothesline (although many times, he comes damn close!) Please feel free
to e-mail HIM with any comments, questions, complaints, etc.
Jim has been watching wrestling for over 20 years and has followed and reported on indy wrestling for over 6 years. He's also a fan of the New York Giants, New York Yankees, St. John's Red Storm basketball, Alabama Crimson Tide football, and the New Jersey Devils, but please don't hold that against him.
Contact Jim at BilJim2@hotmail.com
