CSWF
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The CSWF returned to the PAL in Wayne, NJ on Saturday, October 30th for "Halloween Horror". Considering it was Halloween weekend, Jersey All Pro was having a show thirty minutes away and Chiller Theatre (the country's biggest horror convention) was thirty minutes away CSWF still managed to draw between 200 and 250 people.
The CSWF website had been promoting a huge surprise for weeks. For some reason, CSWF has a problem keeping their surprises a surprise. Word of the big surprise had spread weeks ago. If that wasn't enough, as approximately 150 fans waited to get into the PAL building, the surprise LEX LUGER walked right past us all. So much for keeping that surprise a surprise. Why CSWF would want to keep Lex Luger a surprise and not promote the hell out of it in hopes of drawing a few people away from all the other events taking place is beyond me. It seems everyone running CSWF didn't have an answer as both the promoter and the booker stated it wasn't their idea to keep it a secret. I can only wonder who actually makes the decisions in this promotion.
Pre show dinner was at SportSexy. Ricky O not only recommended this place but promised he'd meet us there for dinner. Not only did he blow us off but his recommendation was not reliable. The food was average. The prices were ridiculous. The waitress was at least cute. For some reason, there were only two girls working in the entire place. Next time, it's back to Fuddruckers or the Boonton Ave. Grill.
We headed over to CSWF and got on line to go in. After the 150 of us waiting on line pulled ourselves off the floor from laughing when Luger walked by (hell even Abyss had the common sense to wear a towel over his head) Billy Firehawk came out to share his comedic inability.
Doors opened at 6:25. Luminaries in attendance included Dan Barry (who for some reason was not booked to actually wrestle this evening), The Kruel Family, Kathy Fitzpatrick, Sure Shot Scott, Shannon Levey on the sound system (and boy was Lily missed as the entrance music was a mess tonight), Karen Belcher, and Thomas Rivera.
The crew tonight was comprised of myself, Frank, Brams, and Joseph. Now before you go screaming at me about my "retirement" I want to remind you that I said I was done until a show came around that I felt was worth me going to. Like them or hate them, CSWF is the only place around here that I (or anyone for that matter) get the chance to see people like AMW (not that I want to see them as they are overrated), Abyss, Jimmy Rave, Tracy Brooks, Michael Shane, Ron Killings, and on and on. Granted the storylines have more holes than swiss cheese and the booking seems to be done by a third grader but the talent they bring in is a big draw for me. Add to that the people like April, Slyck, Striker, Mana, Sonjay, Kruel, Josh Daniels, and Crowbar all of whom I hadn't seen in a while and I had to go. (Plus I was already in NJ for Chiller Theatre so why not make the 30 minute drive).
The show opened with Firehawk having a 10 bell salute for his mother who recently passed away. Mrs. Levy then sang the National Anthem only to be interrupted by Sonjay Dutt.
This led right into the Sonjay Dutt v Grim Reefer match. This is match 1 in a Best of 3 series for the Cruiser-X title. The match was on first since both men had to go work JAP. I won't ask questions about why JAP allow certain people to work double shots and not others... that's beside the point. Grim Reefer had Nick Maddox in his corner (keep that in mind for later). Good match which saw Sonjay use brass knuckles to score the pinfall.
The Internet Championship was up next as M Tizzle Mike Tobin with Sure Thing John Shane defended his title against Ken Scampi with Tara Charisma. Another good match which saw Tobin hit a Hot Shot on Scampi for the pinfall. Throughout the entire match you could hear Scampi call nearly every spot. I can't figure that one out at all.
Time to kill the crowd! Enter Julio Coppafeel. Get it? This is family entertainment folks! In a PAL building we have Julio Coppafeel! Julio (Dinero) is with Miss Michelle. They do some ridiculous (and 10 minute long) card trick routine. Then Julio pulls Michelle's g string from his hat and makes a comment about a beaver. Family entertainment folks!! The big finale is Julio sawing Michelle in half. At ringside throughout this whole ridiculous skit was a coffin shaped box. We were supposed to assume it was empty even if the guy who walked in with Lex Luger earlier kept opening the lid and talking into it. Luger eventually got bored of waiting for this ridiculous skit to end and broke out of the box. The 50 people who had not seen him enter the building popped. No one popped as much as Firehawk who marked out more than Marcia Brady did when she met Davy Jones.
Lex Luger made his way to the ring and this led to a match between him and Danny Jaxx. Now no offense to Jaxx but this is Lex Luger. You would think they would try to make him out to be a monster. Jaxx nearly dominated the whole match. WTF? Luger was winded before he even got in the ring. Luger hit a clothesline and a few shots before struggling to get Jaxx in the Torture Rack. Luger is your winner. The crowd loses as even the 50 people who popped when he came out of the coffin were now asleep.
Now for the highlight of the evening... Luger gets on the microphone.... he takes a deep breath so that he can spit out the next, and most important sentence of the evening.... "Here I am.... in the CSWA".. WHAT!!!?? ROTFLMAO!! OMG. He just announced his being in the CSWA?? Isn't this the CSWF?? You could almost see Firehawk's heart break in his facial expression. Luger left the ring. The crowd was still laughing.
America's Most Wanted defeated Mana and the Hungarian Barbarian. AMW get a huge pop from this crowd and always do. Why? I don't know. Personally, I think they are overrated. The only real wrestler in the ring, Mana, was wasted in this match. Luckily, it was fairly short and sweet.
Post match: Mana attacks the ref. Mason Raige (head of security) comes out to break it up.
All of the NWA TNA wrestlers (sans AJ and Abyss) come to the ring at Crowbar's request. Vince Russo is then introduced. To be honest (like I'm ever anything but brutally honest) I have NO use for Vince Russo. He has killed more companies that Lex Luger has people. He ruined the wrestling business by taking the actual wrestling away from it. I was more than prepared to leave the building during his skit. However, Tracy Brooks is hot and I had film left in my camera so I can ignore him and shoot some pics. Russo babbles and pretty much says (in 30 minutes) that if any of the TNA boys lose tonight they're fired. How he has any say in this when he announced his leaving TNA a few weeks ago is beyond me. He also sets up Crowbar in a Hardcore Match.
At the end of intermission, Sure Thing John Shane and Bill Apter get into an altercation. As Apter tries to go after Shane, Mike Tobin runs in and holds Apter for Shane to get some shots in. Mason Raige clears the ring and saves Apter.
The Hardcore challenge saw Abyss defeat Mr Crowbar. In Abyss' corner is Nick Maddox. WHY is Nick Maddox, a CSWF manager in the corner of Abyss when they are trying to convince us that this is a CSWF v TNA feud? It's called storylines. It's called booking. It's called CSWF can not learn a damn thing from their past mistakes. The match goes all over the building. Lots of false finishes. Abyss hits the Black Hole for the pinfall. Abyss continues to attack Crowbar until 4 security guys hit the ring. Where the hell is Mason Raige now? Why are you using these 4 little guys when you have the huge Mason in the back? Ugh.
In a three way elimination match, Josh Daniels faced Mike Kruel and Nick Berk. Great match!! Nick Berk has come into his own and can not only wrestle but he is hilarious. The match saw Nick Berk eliminated first when he tapped out to a Josh Daniels Abdominal Stretch (with help from Kruel). Kruel and Daniels then beat the hell out of each other until the time limit expired. Striker and Berk then attacked Kruel and Daniels. Until the lame finish, this was the best match up to this point.
AJ Styles defeated Jimmy Rave with the Styles Clash. This was also a good match. Both men are great workers but Rave just seemed to be outclassed here tonight. Styles dominated most of the match. The finish saw Vince Russo trip Rave off the top rope and Styles hit the Clash. Styles never saw Russo interfere. Rave kept telling Styles after the match that Russo interfered. Styles looked pissed and went into the back while arguing with Russo. Instead of having the angle work its way out IN THE RING, in front of the PAYING FANS, the CSWF powers that be probably ignored the whole angle OR decided to film it for the DVD OR didn't even realize there was a good angle brewing here.
Striker was up next to take on Ron Killings. Striker did his best Leaping Lanny Poffo rap/poetry session prior to the match. He ended with " Oh, by the way, I hate you all and I hope you die!". Killings came out and was immediately challenged to a dance off. The two men exchanged some dance moves but Striker soon attacked. Match went back and forth. Striker eventually got a Figure 4 on Killings and used the ropes for leverage. He would not let go and was disqualified. Luger, who was doing commentary, entered the ring and put Striker over as the new Total Package. He gave Striker a robe. Killings ran in to attack Luger but Striker made the save. The two men worked on Killings leg until AMW made the save. Billy Firehawk then came out to help Killings to the back. WHY is the CSWF promoter helping a TNA talent? Hello!! He also announced Killings v Luger for January 8th.
The main event of the evening was next. At this point, half the crowd had left. A good portion of the crowd were parents and their kids and, after over 3 hours of "show" many of them left.
April Hunter and Slyck Wagner Brown faced Tracy Brooks and Michael Shane in a "Till Death do Us Part MiXXXed Tag Team Match". Now, why it is "Death do Us Part" when no one has to die OR why it is "MiXXXed" when no one is going to do porn is another CSWF booking mystery. (Or is the mystery that there is no booking?)
The match had great potential and a lot of great spots. Unfortunately, some of the best (and most hilarious) spots by Tracy and Michael were done on the one side of the ring where there were barely any people left. Due to that a lot was missed and the crowd that was watching were left in the dark. Whenever they were in the ring, the wrestling was good. Tracy and Michael used a sock to strangle Slyck and take the upper hand. April was able to tag in and help take control. Eventually, Vince Russo had to put the lame Russo ending on the match by running out and hitting Slyck with the championship belt. In the ring, April had a sharpshooter (I think.. It was a day ago and I'm old) on Tracy. Shane ran in and superkicked April. Tracy covered her for the pinfall. Even I felt I had to apologize to all involved for being put into a match with a "Russo finish".
Thus concludes the latest CSWF show. The mysteries that surround the booking here boggle the mind more than those surrounding the Bermuda Triangle. How there can seemingly be so many people running the show, yet no one takes the credit (or blame) for booking anything amazes me. How you can bring in a name the size of Lex Luger and not announce it, when you know there are other shows just minutes away, is mind boggling. How there can be a PAL football game going on 100 feet from your show and you are unable to draw anyone from that to come to your show is ridiculous. How this promotion keeps afloat is even a bigger mystery. (You do the match... approximately 250 people in attendance. How many were paid and how many were comp, I do not know. Ticket prices $15. Now add up the fee for the TNA talent like Killings, Abyss, Styles, Russo, Crowbar, Luger, Brooks, AMW and Shane. Now add the "local" talent like April, Slyck, Sonjay, Grim, etc. There is NO WAY the CSWF made a dime).
It was great seeing April and Slyck again. It's been a long time and is always fun talking to the two of them. To all who asked (and those who didn't) I give April full credit for my attempt at losing some weight. Forty pounds thus far and she is the main person behind that because she not only lit a fire under my ass but told me what to eat and not to eat and what to do exercise wise. Hell, I figured if I could look half as good as her (minus the breasts which I already had anyway) I'd be set. It was great seeing Mana again as well! Stay well, my friend. Mike Kruel's dad is still one of the nicest guys in the business and it is always a pleasure talking to him at the shows! It would have been nice to have spoken to Tracy but the only time we saw her was in the ring. Que Sera. Also nice seeing and speaking to Dan Barry and Striker! Whether you like Luger or not, how cool must it be for Striker to be in the ring with him and have him call Striker the new Total Package!
The next CSWF show is January 8th. I'm sure Firehawk and Levy will be happy to know that I will not be in attendance as I will be in Las Vegas for the annual InterNext expo and the AVN AEE show. Hmmm.. Vegas for AVN or NJ for CSWF. That's not even a decision!
Till next year, I am back in retirement.
Feel free to email, complain, say hi, etc at WresClothesline@aol.com
