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Lucky 7
Jim Kettner’s ECWA ran the seventh annual Super 8 Tournament this past Saturday, and the results, both in and out of the ring, proved that nothing in the professional wrestling business is predictable.
Saturday was a long day. VERY long. After a two hour drive to beautiful downtown Wilmington, Delaware, it got significantly worse as the location of the Wyndham hotel was found in the middle of the worst part of the “city.” The Wyndham chain is synonymous with class, prestige, and nobility. None of that was found at the Wyndham of Wilmington. The “fitness center” required a walk two blocks down to the local YMCA, the “bar” closed at 10:00, “room service” was non-existent, and the channel selection on the TV was the worst in cable history. Who goes to a hotel to watch the Speed Channel?
Very depressing. Memories of staying at a Wyndham should not include, “Going to the car to get something- COVER ME.” A helpful hint to anyone looking to stay over after watching an indy show: LISTEN TO THE PROMOTER when he tells you where to stay. On the bright side, though, the room was cheap, and it was less than 10 minutes from the St. Matthew’s Parish Center.
Dinner was the early bird “special” at the Season’s Pizza located within walking distance from the Parish Center. Actually the only “special” thing about Season’s is that it serves alcohol. The food is the blandest it can be, but when you’re just looking to fill up and mark out at a show, it’s perfect. Apparently the concept of adding spices or flavor to foods hasn’t hit the area, and after sampling the “Boneless Bites,” doesn’t look like it ever will. Highlights of dinner (at 4:00) included the waitress marking out for a Striker pic, helpfully reminding us that mugs were cheaper than a pitcher because of “Happy” Hour, and Nick not showing up.
Jim Kettner always goes out of his way to make the Super 8 as special of an experience as possible, especially to people coming from out of town. Too bad that attitude wasn’t passed down to his own staff. The Clothesline Crew has been invited every year since 1998 to come in before the doors open at 6:00 for a Meet and Greet with the Super 8 workers, and this generosity has been passed on to include the aptly named One of a Kind bus tours, which shuttle “fans” from New York City and Boston to the show.
Since it was early, the Crew camped out at the side door after Nick finally decided to show up 45 minutes later despite having the least amount to commute out of anyone to get to the show. The door then opened and everyone was treated to the “greeting” of an ECWA staffer who immediately brushed off our intros by telling us that if we weren’t part of the elite class acts on the bus tours, then we should leave and sit on line with everyone else. True professionalism, even if he was, as Brett so succinctly pointed out to him, “just a guy who stands there and holds a door open.”
The Crew tried, giving the runt individual names to check on the dreaded List. Each name was dismissed with a wave of his little hand and a “Goodbye.” Nick thankfully redeemed himself by patiently explaining the situation to him, and eventually the Crew was let in. Even after realizing his mistake and the possibility that he offended seven of the promotion’s most ardent and loyal followers, he found it necessary to only offer a half-assed apology to one person- Brett, who had rightfully insulted him to his face. Makes one wonder what the rest of the Crew had to do to get a decent apology out of the guy- public stonings, perhaps?
After finally getting indoors, the setup for the Meet and Greet was nicely done, even if it felt like being online in a movie theater. Sean unfortunately went first and shamelessly gave every Super 8 worker a copy of his newsletter, a gesture similar to porno shops hiring guys in the city to pass out leaflets to passersby on the streets. And everyone had to follow that on line. Wonderful way to make a first impression.
The place then began filling up when the doors officially opened at 6:00, and it became, as is the case with most people involved with the wrestling business, a list of Who’s Nots, Who Never Will Bes, and Who Cares. The Who’s Who people actually worked on the show. Ooh La La did his usual shtick of walking around ringside insulting everyone and getting insulted back in the process as the rest of the ECWA workers filed out to meet the fans. Ooh La La’s act never gets tired, and it’s only when you’re up close and hearing him trade barbs with people that you realize how quick witted and naturally funny he is.
The show began with the usual Super 8 tradition of introducing the participants. This honor was given to Charlie Haas, currently one of the tag team champions in the WWE with Shelton Benjamin. Haas was a great choice as he has deep roots within the ECWA (including an unforgettable angle- for those lucky ones who saw it- with the Briscoe Brothers that had the Haas Brothers hit their finisher on the Briscoe’s PARENTS) and was received with a standing ovation by the 600 or so in attendance. Haas immediately put over Jim Kettner, the ECWA, and the Super 8, a tourney he was supposed to be in last year but had to withdraw from due to a serious knee injury. Thankfully things turned out for the best for Charlie, as he entered the WWE recently and has been praised for his great ring work and rewarded with a lengthy title reign as part of Team Angle.
The best part of the whole ceremony came next with the playing of the Star Spangled Banner as all eight participants stood in the ring, and people actually remembered to take off their baseball caps for the playing of the song. The troops fighting overseas were also recognized in one of the many nice touches of the night.
In the first match of the Super 8, Frankie “the Future” Kazarian pinned Chris “the Future” Sabin with his version of the Flatliner. Kazarian’s a great talent, and Sabin hung right in there with him. Sabin gave the crowd an early indication of the overall style worked in the tournament as he hit an F5 onto his own knee to Kazarian. Brutal, stiff, realistic shots were the theme of the evening, as shown in this battle of “the Futures,” even though Kazarian was a late replacement for Johnny Jeter.
Brian “Spanky” Kendrick pinned Chris Cage in the second Super 8 match with Sliced Bread #2, a mix of the Dudley Dog and a Diamond Cutter. Having Spanky use his finisher in the opening round should have been a big indicator of how far he was going in the tournament, but most people thankfully didn’t catch on. Cage really outshined Kendrick in this one, although Kendrick’s overall performance in the Super 8 wasn’t as “bad” as it’s been made out to be. Cage just turned it up a notch higher, even though he knew he was doing the job. That’s always a plus when people are looking to book new talent.
Simon Diamond then came out and did a quick tribute to Jeff Peterson, showing highlights of his matches in prior Super 8s, featuring his breakout performance against Christopher Daniels in 1999. Simon trained Jeff for the business, and was truly moving as he spoke from the heart on how much Jeff taught him even as he was teaching Jeff. To see Simon’s quick exit after his emotional speech was one of the most beautiful and touching moments I have ever witnessed.
Emotions continued to ride a wild roller coaster as Chance Beckett pinned Sedrick Strong in the third match of the Super 8. Beckett made an immediate and powerful impact on the crowd as he refused Strong’s offer of a handshake before the match with a HARD open handed shot to Strong’s face. After Simon’s outstanding and sentimental speech, this woke the crowd right up and set Beckett apart from the rest of the field. Outstanding booking and inventiveness on the part of the ECWA and Chance Beckett.
Beckett’s match with Strong was probably the best match of the tournament, as he continued the super stiff theme of the night, wrestling with impressive aggressiveness and intensity. Highlights included two rolling underhook suplexes by Beckett followed by a Kobashi DDT- and this after Beckett got kicked right in the face by Strong as he was between the ropes entering the ring early on in the match. Strong potatoed him right in the chin and opened up a gash at least an inch long and deep. Blood’s not often featured in the ECWA, even hardway as was the case here, but this was a great example of how minimal use of it can actually add to a match. Beckett performed way above and beyond the call of duty the entire night, and him getting busted open just further defined his character (the only true heel of the tourney, similar to Daniels in 1999 or Donovan Morgan in 2002) as an aggressive punk who would go through anything to win the Super 8. When the first person you’re being compared to when it comes to in ring style and character is Chris Benoit, things can only go up from there. Beckett won with an Asai moonsault into a Slop Drop, a move the late and missed Ted Petty was using in ECW seven years ago and is missed almost as much as Ted Petty. Beautiful, graceful, and a believable finisher.
Paul London pinned Alex Arion in the final first round match of the Super
8. London had just returned from surgery due to a nasal infection (!!),
yet managed to rise up to the rest of the field and work a solid match.
Forget any wannabe critics and naysayers who griped about his “performance”
in the Super 8- London did anything but look “off” during the
tournament, and these out of shape, done nothing and never will dorks
would confine themselves to bedrest for a year if they got probed by an
oral thermometer, let alone sinus surgery. Some people would complain
about the taxes if they hit the lottery, so they must think it’s
vogue or rebellious to knock the work of a top indy wrestler who’s
less than a month removed from major surgery. Fucking ingrates.
The Maximos and Striker won by disqualification over Ace Darling, Prince
Nana and “Bring Me Your Children” Mega after Striker turned
on his teammates after teasing the tag the entire match (and dutifully
remembering to keep his hand on the tag rope the entire time). Striker
is best used as a heel, as he’s been doing everywhere else except
the ECWA until now. While his mannerisms waiting for the tag as a face
will be missed, Striker’s got a great audience now to show off his
heel gimmick. And for once, the heel turn was done RIGHT- Striker didn’t
get in one shot on the guys he would eventually be joining, a bad trait
that’s polluted too many other matches with heel turns. Nana is just
pure platinum on the mic, promising the cannot be missed spectacle of
Ace Darling being bathed in the finest soaps from Ghana next month in
the middle of the ring. How anyone kept a straight face after that is
another of life’s mysteries.
Striker turned heel and joined in the beatdown of the Maximos and then the Cheetah Master (sporting a new, shorter hairdo), who were then saved by the J Team. No, not the guys from Jiffy Lube- although Cheetah and the Maximos might have had a smoother ride home in their cars. No, this was the other J Team of JJ Johnston and JR Ryder, followed by the worst choice of a face manager in the history of the business in Sebastian Knight. Nice that the J Team turned face, but this albatross? Who’s going to get behind that character? “Yay, let’s cheer for the guy who looks like a cross between washed up comic Gallagher and Marilyn Manson! That’s some fine looking makeup! Look at that great HAT!” Doubtful.
Intermission, which featured Charlie Haas doing Polaroids for ten bucks and the cheapest concessions in the indys at a buck apiece.
Paul London pinned Frankie Kazarian and his Karate Kid music with the Shooting Star Press. Well worked match that left one hoping for a rematch. Understandably, and this was probably especially true with Brian Kendrick, any Super 8 participant working more than one match couldn’t go balls out for fear of getting the Mike Sullivan Super 8 Syndrome of blowing up- even if Sullivan did it in the first five minutes of his only Super 8 match. The new stiff style, which naturally was seen on a national scale for the first time in the 2001 Super 8 with Low Ki and the American Dragon, was very appropriate here, as the matches gradually became more mat based and worked around submissions and quick, wicked shots. London and Kazarian pulled off a few highspots, but London’s shooting star finisher did not have him going across three quarters of the ring to hit it. Again, more unpredictability- London wins, but hits his finisher…so what’s he going to use in the last match, assuming he goes over? More intelligent booking.
The surprise of the tournament had Chance Beckett pin Brian Kendrick to advance to the finals of the Super 8. Beckett was bandaged up but that didn’t last long. Kendrick did the right thing and unselfishly put Beckett over, showing that things are not so simple when it comes to the Super 8. Kendrick might not have pulled out all the stops, but when he’s banking on a full time career in the WWE, yet he still works a solid match, who can really complain or fault him? Well, a few bozos- unmasked this time around, which made one wish they brought the masks, who actually booed when Kendrick didn’t deliver an Irwin kick to their high standards of satisfaction, assuming any of them know how to deliver a decent kick, which would then assume any of them have ever left their feet other than to sit in a Lazy Boy or fall into a Cheeto littered bed. Just one of the sorry sample of “fans” who populated the Parish Center for this show, but at least they were there to watch the matches rather than put themselves “over” with asinine, repetitive, unoriginal chants like the gaggle of goofballs who came down in the buses. Then again, one unmasked doof was really concerned with getting the “group picture” after the show.
The Japanese Pool Boy won the ECWA Summit (a Royal Rumble hybrid), outlasting several before finally eliminating Mike Kruel and going on to face Christopher Daniels in a title match. Unfortunately, the subsequent match was where the jackoffs from the buses decided to show their shortcomings and true appreciation for the business and the hospitality of Jim Kettner and the ECWA by sarcastically chanting “Match of the Year” 35 seconds into the match.
The Super 8 brings out the best and worst of wrestlers, and in this case fans, like the mask marks or the bus bobos who don’t go to ECWA shows outside of the Super 8, and therefore haven’t Clue One about the Japanese Pool Boy, his gimmick, or more importantly that he’s a decent worker with, as Daniels even pointed out after their match, one of the weirdest gimmicks in the business. True fans of the business can get beyond the gimmick, enjoy it- hell, even dance along to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” with Pool Boy before the match (and complete with a mini disco ball), and see that behind the gimmick is a good worker who was given the right, appropriate time to shine, and did just that. Pool Boy was due a shakeup in his character, to show that he’s not just a goof to be laughed at (he is after all the ECWA Mid Atlantic champion), and to show a different side of the gimmick. Let Ooh La La be the goof- Pool Boy can go real far if he’s used right, and this is a good indication that he will be.
The story was the thing in the title match, as Daniels refused to take Pool Boy seriously in the match, and it almost cost him the title on several occasions. It didn’t help that Pool Boy tried to kiss his hand instead of shake it before the match started. Daniels did end up pinning the Pool Boy, but showed why he is considered a world class worker by putting Pool Boy over on the mic after the match. They finally did shake hands, which progressed into a hug from Pool Boy onto a surprised Daniels, who reciprocated and went on to grab a handful of booty from the Pool Boy. The smile from Daniels and the reaction from the crowd and the Pool Boy were priceless. Daniels is just a truckload of personality and charisma, and both have never been shown better in the ECWA than in the minutes after his match with the Japanese Pool Boy.
As far as the Summit, the predominant storyline was Mega refusing to hit Trinity, thus teasing a breakup of the Royal Decision (and whose decision was it to saddle that group with such a weak name?) of Mega, Ace “Bathe Me” Darling, and now Striker. ECWA fans are going to need a scorecard to keep up with all these face and heel turns. Trinity was then tossed by Nana, only to be saved from hitting the floor by Mega and returned to the ring. Trinity returned the favor by eliminating Prince Nana, who responded on the floor with a barrage of outrage and profanity (heard only by a select few in the front row) that would have made a sailor blush. Nana’s just one hell of a fun heel to watch and he has some incredible facial expressions and reactions.
Paul London won the Super 8 Tournament with a submission on Chance Beckett in one of the best booked final matches of any Super 8. Due to injuries to London and most notably Beckett, it was a shorter match, but a well thought out one. Every move from Beckett centered on London’s leg, and every move from London centered on Beckett’s chin. Spectacularly improvisational booking on their parts, as it made for a ground based offense and centered the match on stiff-LOOKING shots and creative submissions. London got the tap out with a move best described as a reverse Crossface, with London holding Beckett’s face in a reverse neckbreaker with London in the same position as someone applying an STF. Of course, the Pay Attention To Us Please marks ignored most of this in favor of chants directed at fans across the ring or two rows in front of them, which resulted in a chant from the Crew of “No More Bus Tours” followed by “You’re Missing a Good Match” which finally, mercifully, shut those idiots up.
London put on a clinic of moves in all of his matches, showing his respect for the tournament by holding up a finger and mouthing “One More” after his match with Kazarian and before locking up with Beckett. Beckett, of course, was the man to watch for the whole tournament, and has a hell of a lot of explaining to do to whatever doctor in Canada stitches him up this week. London didn’t come out unscathed either, as his face was swollen around his eyes from either the stiff shots he received all night, or the side effects of his recent sinus problems, or both. London sold the leg injury to the nth degree, needing help just walking around the ring with the Super 8 trophy (the one and only) and even limping around the diner after the show at 1:00 in the morning.
Kettner promised everyone something different with this year’s Super 8 tournament, and once again he did not disappoint. The 2003 Super 8 easily ranks among the top three Super 8s, and made a star out of all people the runner up, Chance Beckett, who truly deserves any and all future accolades he receives and any future bookings he’s guaranteed to get from indy feds left and right. Of course, now he’ll get to contend with all those “promoters” whose ideas of looking for talent and storylines are to read the Clothesline results or surf the ECWA Web site and crib their ideas and bookings.
Post Super 8 highlights and lowlights included seeing Ace Darling again, and hearing his love for the business even as he was trashing his work in his own match for some unexplainable reason. It was a kick reading to him the part of that chop shop newsletter where he’s featured as being 6’ 4” and 275 pounds, an asinine mistake no amount of “Kayfabe” excuses could ever erase.
Simon Diamond is sorely missed in the ECWA, but his overall demeanor and personality show that he’s ready for the big time. Having Kevin Kelly of all people grab your hand to say hello totally out of the blue just because of this column was also a pleasant surprise.
Some not so great surprises included the lousiest service EVER from the Diamond State/Mine/Whatever Diner, where Brian Kendrick may still be waiting for his iced tea, and trying to sleep back at the Wyndham through Sean’s impersonation of a Bengal tiger with his relentless buzzsaw of snores for six straight hours- through glasses of water doused on his head and pillow shots right to the dome. Six straight.
Kudos to Jim Kettner, the ECWA, Chance Beckett, Paul London, Christopher Daniels, the Japanese Pool Boy, Simon Diamond, Prince Nana, Ace Darling, Striker, Mega, and the rest of the Clothesline Crew for making it a memorable night at the Super 8.
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The comments and statements
in these columns do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Brett Schwan
and the Wrestling Clothesline (although many times, he comes damn close!).
Please feel free to email HIM with any comments, 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
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Previous Columns:
Watching Tazz is Tough Enough
Seven in Two
Getting Your Moneys Worth
How Not to Run and Indy
If That's What it Takes, They Don't Have It!
Customer Service in the Wrestling Business
Consider the Source
How Much Would You Pay?
Living Off The Past
Enough
Already
What
A Cop Out
Climbing
the Psychic Hotline
Subtleties
Pure Carny Scum
Will Bleed For Food
Review...of a Review
Some People Just Don't Get It.
The Third One's The Charm
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