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Review of East Coast Pro-Wrestling May-Hem, Saturday, May 31, 2003
by Lawrence Kleber
Saturday night, May 31, 2003, Gino Caruso presented "May-Hem 2003"
at the
William G. Mennen Sports Arena in Morristown, New Jersey. During the
day, a wrestling convention was held which this reporter was unable to
attend. The Mennen Arena is set up for hockey and is a fairly large
area, much larger than the typical indy venue. The close to 4 hour show
was a benefit for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and began 15
minutes late at 8:15 pm.
Before the matches, Beetlejuice, of the Howard Stern show, came out in
Kamala's make up. He was attacked by Fred the Elephant Boy, also of
Stern fame, and Amanda Storm. The spot really went nowhere.
Match 1 Executioner and Rocky Jones, with Nick Curry, wrestled to a
draw in a match which was ten minutes too long.
Match 2 For the TV championship, champion Andrew Anderson, with agent
Doug DeVito and Big Sal Anderson, took on Devon "Crowbar" Storm.
Even
though Storm did a face turn, the match had to go outside, with Devon
going crazy as usual and using the guard rail, the bell, and Anderson's
manager as weapons. Later, Anderson spiked himself as he was trying to
spike Devon. After interference from his entourage, Anderson finally
pinned Storm, and Storm almost hit the ref. I guess he stopped because
he realized he was playing a face!
Match 3 Kodiak Bear, with Bobby Rydell, faced Johnny Thundar in a
humorous match. Although you could not understand one word from Rydell
and Bear on the stick, Thundar did speak clearly. Before the match, Bear
said something like, "You call me Baldy, I'm going home." Of
course, a
bunch of kids started taunting the Bear as Thundar stomped on his hands.
The Bear even went into the audience to sit down! After many Thundar
armdrags, the ref pinned Bear as Thundar counted! After the Bear was hit
accidently with an umbrella by Rydell, Thundar finally connected with
"sweet chin music" for the pin.
Match 4 In another humorous match, the legendary Tito Santana
connected with the "flying jalapeno" to defeat the Metal Maniac,
with
manager Joey G. Although the match was much too long, I am a sucker for
the antics of the Maniac. He went to the ring announcer and had it
announced that "If you fans don't shut up, I'm leaving the building".
He
also chased a bunch of kids around the rink. His new gimmick is pulling
out his own hair! Even though it was nice to see Santana, the Maniac
dominated what little there was of the match.
Match 5 In a three way dance for the Light Heavyweight Championship
featuring three faces, Scotty Charisma defeated Dennis Abunai and Dave
Delicious. This was a long match, but contained a lot of action. Watch
for this Dave Delicious. This guy is hysterical!
Match 6 In a women's match, hometown favorite Miss Kara pinned
Serena, managed by L. Spencer, Esquire, with a missed moonsault. The
match was not as stiff as I expected. The highlight of the match was
Spencer's antics with a bunch of kids at ringside. He acted like a
fruity school principal. Very funny!
Match 7 For the Tag Championship, Ax, of the old Demolition, and the
Blaster challenged the champion Nelson Brothers in what should have been
a squash match. However, Ax and Blaster were DQ'ed when Dan the Man and
Sean Martin interfered in the match.
Match 8 In a Royal Rumble style battle royal featuring approximately
30 workers, rookie Joe Hardway finally took the match, but the real
winner was Dave Delicious, a small wrestler who entered and was thrown
out of the ring 16 times! One time, he was even thrown out by the
referee! A real casualty during the battle was Body Count, who had to
be
taken out on a stretcher.
Match 9 In a disappointing schmazz DQ match, "Mr. USA" Tony
Atlas
faced Kamala, with Fred the Elephant Boy and Amanda Storm. Kamala was
disqualified after interference by Fred and Amanda.
Match 10 Tony Atlas did some "thank you's" to fire department,
the
police, and the military as a cage was being set up for a match between
former partners Red Hot Russ and Mo Sexy. Even though Atlas did some
good stretching, the cage still required 25 minutes for proper set up!
With his usual work ethic, Chris Callahan, who was merely an audience
member during the show, lent a helping hand in getting the cage
constructed. Thank you, Chris! The match itself was worth the wait,
with lots of good spots including a superplex and a neck breaker off of
the top rope. In this writer's opinion, the most spectacular hold was
a
frog splash by Mo Sexy onto Russ from the top of the cage which allowed
him to win the match. There was also a good spot with a fire
extinguisher, which is Russ's trademark gimmick.
The matches were too long and the workers were not able to deliver the
broad antics required by the size of the arena. However, the
highlights, such as the cage match and Dave Delicious's routines during
the battle royal, helped smooth over the rough edges of the card.
For more info check out www.ecpw1.com
