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Title - ECCW Pacific Cup 2002.
Date - 25th January 2002.
Video Quality – Very Good / Excellent.
Running Time - 3 hrs 15 minutes.
Where to buy - www.bluethundervideo.com .
For the uninitiated, ECCW is to my view; Canada's finest wrestling promotion. The Pacific Cup tournament is a highlight of the calender, and is held once every year. ECCW is shortened for Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling, and their official website is www.eccw.com for those who either wish to learn more before purchasing this video or those who view this video and want to keep up with the promotion on a more regular basis.
I know it's hard to come into a show, maybe not knowing who a lot of the workers are; but this is one of those video's that even if you've barely heard of any of the wrestlers previously - once finished you will be wanting to see and to find out more about those on here. And luckily, Scott of www.bluethundervideo.com who is selling this video tape has other year's Pacific Cup's available to buy. And if you look carefully on this tape, in the front row is the man himself. An added bonus, for those like me; who love to see their friends on video tape!
Now, I'm a little bit allergic to camcorder footage as a rule; but this is done very well and I must say I'm impressed. It sounds a little strange, but sometimes a camcordered event makes you feel closer to the action when it's taped well and can make you feel like you were almost there in person. For some reason, I had the urge to get myself a burger and a cup of beer whilst watching this, but that's a positive thing!
What you have on this tape for your viewing pleasure is the tournament itself, and some non tournament matches also. Highlights from the other matches on the card involve a good match in which Moondog Manson defends his ECCW Hardcore Championship against Wrathchild, and a women's match involving the downright delicious Cheerleader Melissa against Buffy.
Defending his NWA/ECCW World Championship on the card, Chance Beckett faces Johnny Canuck in a match that I personally really enjoyed. I feel Beckett especially could go onto bigger things, and become quite a star. And speaking of stars, the name that will have everyone talking on this tape is the independent legend 'Fallen Angel' Christopher Daniels. Daniels has wrestled in Japan, WWE dark matches, RoH (Ring of Honor), NWA-TNA, and any indpendent promotion worth it's salt. Anyone who's ever witnessed Daniels's work on video or live and in person knows that any match with him involves his 100 percent effort and some wonderful technical wrestling. A major coup to have him in this tournament, and as ever he delivers.
Other names on the tape that will appeal to the person who takes his independent wrestling seriously, include Shane and Shannon Ballard - The Ballard Brothers; who are a fine tag team and have the opportunity to shine in singles competition on this video tape. Scotty Mac is familiar to me through having viewed Portland Wrestling's sadly short lived television comeback, and he is surely going to become a big star given the right breaks. And of course, the extremely talented and always very enjoyable to watch Adam Firestorm has what for me is the match of the first round by far with the aforementioned Christopher Daniels. Adam is one of the most talented wrestlers that you most likely, and sadly; haven't heard of and this shows you just what you've missed so far.
And what can you say of eventual winner of the ECCW Pacific Cup 2002 tournament, Black Dragon? To my personal viewpoint I find this guy very, very impressive; and he is a worthy holder of the title. The final match of Dragon and Daniels is something that I will certainly be watching over and again, and wont tire of. I think the main point to be made here, is that it's not just American independent wrestling that deserves the attention and press coverage that it gets. People all too often think of the obvious big names of Canadian wrestling legend, and overlook the younger talent that's around like Adam Firestorm and Scotty Mac; and that's something that surely needs to be rectified. Video tapes such as these will show you that the Canadian scene is thriving, and has some great action that I personally recommend highly.
Tape Rating - 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. Recommended.
Peter Staniforth.
Peter is an English based professional wrestling journalist, currently
writing for the following websites : - www.prowrestlingdaily.com, www.wrestlingclothesline.com,
and www.ukevents.net .
Peter has written press releases for http://wwweeuroshop.com/?tid=ps101 , the official WWE merchandise outlet for the UK & Europe.
Peter reviews video tapes for the following wrestling tape traders, who come strongly recommended by him - www.simania.co.uk, www.violentjtapes.com, www.bluethundervideo.com, www.modtrom.com (the official video production team behind Jersey All Pro Wrestling), www.a1wrestlingvideos.com, www.ruffneckwrestlingvideos.co.uk, www.goldenboytapes.com, and www.mayfieldmayhem.com.
Peter is also a booking agent to such names as CZW's Nick Berk (and others), and runs a independent wrestling bookings website for wrestlers - http://www.pstaniforth.vze.com/ . Peter was also mentioned on the credits of the cult PC wrestling simulation game EWR 4.0, by Adam Ryland.
