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On Sunday October 3 at the IWF Centre in West Patterson, NJ the 2nd G.L.O.R.Y.
Wrestling Convention was held. After not having attended a live wrestling
event in more than three months, I decided I would make the trek to the
GLORY Con (and suffer the torture of the longer than long ride home in
bumper to bumper traffic on a Sunday evening). I was going to GLORY con
for one word... HOLLYWOOD!!
Come on! It's Hollywood!! I used to watch GLOW every week and laugh my ass off. Of all the GLOW girls Hollywood was by far the hottest, had some actual ability, and was put in the best skits. (Plus, I have been holding this damn Playboy since Dec 1989 and wanted her to sign it).
The doors opened at 12:15 (15 minutes late but what else is new at a wrestling show). There seemed to be around 50 or so fans filling the room and walking around tables where numerous wrestlers were signing autographs, posing for pictures, etc.
Luminaries in attendance included: Joseph Velez Jr., Dani the Suicidal Photographer, Eric Shaffer, Robert "Pleather" Payes, Tommy Hunter (who is as bad as me when it comes to verbally abusing talent but put us near each other during a show and we are in rare form), AJ Sparxx, and an incredibly hot blonde who no one seemed to be able to identify.
Fans were asked to leave so tables could be taken down and chairs set up for the matches. We were told doors would re open at 2:05. Surprise, at 2:15 or so, the promoter/webmaster of GLORY came out to tell us it would be a few more minutes because "when you have to deal with 36 women you are bound to have some problems." Blame the women? Ugh. Just say you're not ready and move on.
Onto the matches. Not too detailed today because I wanted to actually try and enjoy some wrestling (since time is approaching for the Wrestling Clothesline's Top 50 Independent Women in Independent Wrestling" list, this was a great opportunity to see some talent I had never seen live before).
In the "Battle of the West Coast Bombshells", Hurricane Havana defeated Hollywood by DQ. About five minutes into the match, Hollywood refused to let Havana free from the corner by the 5 count so she was disqualified. After the DQ, Hollywood kicked the referee in the balls. This was one of Hollywood's first matches in 5 years after suffering several fractures in her leg and requiring some screws and plates to repair it. The booking of the match and the ending sucked but the two girls tried the best with the time they were given.
In an IWF Showcase Match, Jordyn James and Jana defeated Shayla and Carrie when Jana X Factored Shayla. Jordyn, and age 15, already shows some promise. The crowd was 100% behind her and she actually had some good moves.
Ariel defeated Synndy after a stunner in a short but good match.
In the PWE Top Contender Match, with special Ring Announcer Tiffani Monroe, Venus rolled up and pinned Lady Vendetta. Vendetta was the replacement for the injured Lexie Fyfe who was at ringside but accidentally tripped Vendetta allowing Venus to get the win.
In a "Tony Soprano Nothing Is Illegal Match", Sonya Blackhawk rolled up Camron Star for the win. Why this was a gimmick match when neither girl even left the ring or cheated is beyond me. Camron was accompanied to the ring by JT Branum whos incredible resemblance to Kenny Rogers had the entire building singing the entire "Gambler" song.
Next up the legendary Ida Mae Martinez was introduced. She graced the crowd with some of her yodeling ability. She even had fans at ringside square dancing. As she began her second song she was interrupted by Stacy Hunter. As Stacy Hunter tried to get rough with Ida Mae, Super J came to the ring. Ida hit Stacy and as Stacy went to retaliate, Super J stopped her. Stacy was then told she would have to get in the ring and face Super J.
Super J defeated Stacy Hunter with a running Tomikazee. Super J has one of my new favorite gimmicks on the indy scene. She is a super hero, complete with cape and Long Ranger style mask. It is hilarious. Plus, she can actually wrestle! After the match, Ida encouraged Super J to do a little yodeling before she sang her second and final song.
Kayla defeated Miss Deville with a second rope sunset flip. This is my first time seeing either of these two in action and the match was very good. Kayla has the potential to be one of the top women out there. Miss Deville also showed some good ring ability although the spelling of "Lova" on her shirt really should have been "Luva".
In an Intergender Tag Team Match, EC Negro and Alicia defeated Tara Charisma and Ken Scampi. I didn't like the idea of this match from the day it was announced. If you are having a show and are trying to showcase the female talent of the indy scene, why do you need to have an intergender match? Alica and Tara have wrestled each other dozens of times and both can hold their own. Personal or political, I (and several others who I spoke to after the match) agreed this was a bad move. What are you trying to say by booking them in a match with two guys? (Nothing against EC Negro or Ken Scampi as they are both fine workers)
During the bout, Ken Scampi did a version of the Shining Wizard to Alicia. When he did it he kicked her HARD straight in the face. The sound was sickening as his boot struck Alicia. Alicia almost looked as if she was out cold. EC quickly threw Ken out of the ring and hit a Rikishi Driver on Tara for the pin. Alicia was a bloody mess as they helped her back to the dressing room. There was a huge puddle of blood in the ring as well. Luckily, Alicia seemed to be OK as she was outside with several other wrestlers and fans after the show. Just another example of why women should not be in the ring wrestling against men (with a few exceptions but I'm not going to get into a diatribe about how it pretty much destroys credibility when a 90 pound woman is knocking down 200 pound men, etc.)
After intermission (that had the longest two minutes ever, Luxurious Lynne arm wrestled NYX. In a nutshell, Lynne had no chance, hit NYX with a chair, NYX nearly killed her, Lynne ran away.
Little Jeanne defeated Bobcat in a "No Holds Barred Grudge Match". Once again, no holds barred and no one even attempted an illegal move. In fact, Jeanne and Bobcat were laughing the entire match and didn't even try to sell anything. It's a shame because both of these women have been around the business for a long time, have proven to be great performers, and should have a little more respect for the business, the fans, and themselves.
In the "JWA United #1 Contender Match", Cindy Rogers accompanied by someone who was not introduced defeated Crazy Daisy who was accompanied by Penny Dreadful with a modified Crossface submission. Very good match. Cindy is one of the best women on the indy scene today and this only helped show why. Crazy Daisy was bigger than Cindy but the force behind Cindy's forearms and chops could take down King Kong Bundy.
Alere Little Feather was able to defeat Luscious Lily for the WXW #1 Contender slot. Lily, who was still suffering from the effects of a fireball 2 weeks ago, had to wrestle with one side of her face taped up and an eye patch. Lily hit a few beautiful moves including her patented rock bottom slam onto her own knee. Lily, if you are reading this, what the hell do you call that??
Lady Victoria defeated Louise Lockwood to win the Ladies Wrestling United Kingdom Title. In my opinion, this was the match of the night (even though the show was in the afternoon). STIFF is an understatement. The two women beat the hell out of each other with kicks and chops before doing some very nice chain wrestling. Lockwood had Victoria tapping out but Little Jeanne (who was at ringside watching) had the ref distracted. When Louise came over, Jeanne poked her in the eye. Victoria hit Louise with the title belt and covered her for the pin. The ref saw the pin and made the three count.
All the winners of the previous bouts were entered into a "Queen of the Ring" match to determine the new GLORY Wrestling Champion. The previous champion had to be stripped as she is now in OVW and could not defend the title. Hold on one second. A website has a champion? The champion was stripped because she didn't defend? There hasn't been a show in two years to defend it on! LOL
The final three women in the ring were Ariel, Jeanne, and Victoria. For some reason Ref Hanson was trying to break holds and make 3 counts in a battle royal. Ugh. Jeanne and Victoria were toying with Ariel. Jeanne was yelling at a fan at ringside when Victoria went for a clothesline on Ariel. Ariel ducked and Victoria ran into Jeanne. Jeanne and Victoria fell over the top rope and Ariel pushed them out to win the trophy.
The show ended at 5pm. Considering there were 14 matches, 3 hours isn't that bad. To be honest, it didn't really seem like 3 hours. While there was some bad booking and a few matches that weren't all that pretty (remember, the promoter is a web designer not a booker) the overall show was enjoyable and the fans all seemed to enjoy themselves. I'm glad that I decided to come out of my semi retirement to get the chance to talk to people like Cindy Rogers and Luscious Lily who I haven't seen in 3 months. I was also thrilled to get the chance to meet and speak with Hollywood. She is a class act and you can look forward to an interview on the site with her in the weeks to come. It was also great to see so many wrestlers that I have heard so much about but never had the chance to see live, like Super J, Lady Victoria, Kayla, Miss Deville, Hurricane Havana, and Ida Mae Martinez. Let's hope that the 3rd GLORY con will be next year and we won't have to wait another two.
Am I now officially out of "retirement"? Nope. Like I said, I am done with live events until one that peaks my interest comes around. This one peaked my interest. I have two more shows in October and after that another retreat.
Next show on the "return from retirement tour" will be WCiCW on October 9th in Hamburg, PA. It's for a great cause and has a lot of great talent and friends on the show. That's why I'm going. It's well worth pulling a Terry Funk if it's to help support someone! For more info on that show click here! After that, one more show on October 30th then back into retirement for the foreseeable future. (Hey, I went 3 months and no one believed I would. See what happens after October 30th)
