Sunday, August 19, 2007

EPW/NEW WrestleSTOCK: Night Two

Here we go again! I know I'm late to the game, but hey, better late than never.

Clicky clicky

Beau Michaels and the Cleaning Lady

That was... bizarre. Which only means that it was par for the course for Beau Michaels. I'm wondering how Beau is going to fit into Melton's storyline and future, especially if he keeps the belt past Russian Roulette. It looks like the program after RR is going to be the winner of the contender's match against whomever is Champion, but then again, there's no guarantee Melton walks out of RR as the Champion. Good segment though.

Not So Tactful

Ooh, a mic spot! Larry Tact does the interviewage here with Sammy Baxter... I'm wondering here if Baxter is supposed to be such a dope. Aaaanyway, good spot, the kind of thing that definitely belongs on a PPV/supercard type setting.

The Queen Holds Court

From one mic spot backstage to another one in-ring, this time from Lindsay Troy, Dan Ryan, and later on, Beast. Usually, I don't like these kinds of things on PPV, but I think in this instance, it works seeing that this supercard is also building up towards an EPW PPV, and because if you got swerved out of your panties on night one of a two night event, wouldn't you want to react ASAP, i.e., on night two? Great mic spot as always from Lindz, and I like how they never really dropped the IrishRed/Beast in-charge angle either. Good tension there.

Dahaka/Scott

First match of the evening and it belongs to EPW. Frankie Scott and Nakita Dahaka, but before that match, another mic spot, once again, to explain what happened the night before. Excuse me for gushing, but between NEW and EPW, are you going to find a collective that's better at grasping the concept of a wrestling promo than these guys? You see folks who don't do promos all that often who think of the promo-style as nothing but "trash talk." They look down on it because of that, and then when they try to do it, they fall flat on their face because they only concentrate on insults and in some cases, their insults are worse than the kind you'd hear on the playground in kindergarten. Once again though, Scott delivers with the mic-work.

Onto the match, good, standard fare. The improvement in how the EPW announcers were handled from night one is noticeable and appreciated. Some clever spots in here too, my favorite of which being Scott giving Dahaka a low blow and her shrugging it off and waylaying him. Shocking finish, since I didn't think the Sarge was going to return in that capacity. Good feud setting up between Team PHENOM and James/Sarge, although the issue between Scott and Dakaha clearly isn't over, not especially after the happenings with Delilah. It'll be interesting to see where this all goes.

Payne/File

Wow, a lot of hardcore matches on the slate for NEW over this event. Not a bad thing though. I like how Chaos is the overlord of the whole P­­©X division. It gives it a good, primal feel. One thing I didn't like about this match was Julius' constant gay jokes on Jive. Not sure if I noticed this night one, but they really jumped out to me as being bad in this match. Not bad as in "omg homofobe" but bad as in... they were kinda lame. Solid match regardless though. Really looking forward to Payne and Chaos.

Making His Mark

Tact's planning something big... not sure how what he did here figures in, but I'm sure we'll find out later.

CHRONIC COLLIZION~!

Nice way to gloss over a no-show here. Knee-jerk is to squash the no-show, and yes, that's my preferred method, but this is a good way too, especially if you want the no-show to stick around. Good spot, good for reintroduction.

Truce of the Daymons

Wow, Strawsma was a freaking workhorse for this event, wasn't he? Not as much brawling as night one, but it gets the point across, much like his CC seg before.

Saviors/Jack 'n Hoff

Nice match, although I thought it was too heavy on the "wholesale naming of wrestling moves." Matches aren't called like that in real life, and it kinda trips me up. Still, not a bad match, and I liked the post-match announcement. Should be a bopper.

Tre Day + EPW Tag Titles

First up, it's ICE TRE~! Once again, another stellar mic spot, although having Stevens pull double duty at RR? I'm not totally in tune with the card lineup for the event, but I'm pretty sure he's only in one match. Anyhoo, onto the match...

It was a nice, solid affair. Once again, not a huge fan of the wholesale name-a-move style of calling the action, but the more important thing is they got the spirit of the announce team down. I have to say, the EPW team has been handled much better on night 2. Good set-up with CC~! coming out after the match. Dalekchev has money written all over him though, both with "VJORK" and saying "formerly Crimson Calling" after every time Black says CHRONIC COLLIZION~!

Mr. Entertainment/HAL

I really like how much of a prick Mr. E is. Great old-school heel on camera, although I do think Karl needs to post fewer song lyrics with his RPs :p As for the action, it's solid as usual. NEW seems to have the same problem with spelling out every move, but then again, it's still a minor problem. I really liked the finish, and I'm looking forward to the match at BitUS.

BEAU-tylicious

Once again, Edmunds does the perfect job of both getting the point across and disturbing nearly everyone who reads his Beau interviews. :p Good segment.

Anarky/Beast

This match was pretty short, a quick jaunting read, but I think it works here. Why? The brutality was turned all the way up to 11. The temptation would be to make this match über-brutal and über-long at the same time, but that would have to imply Supernatural Undertaker-like levels of stamina that wouldn't come off as believable. Having Ryan and 'Nark mug the hell out of Beast furthers the storyline AND it makes sense. There were some pretty sweet spots here too, like Beast sending 'Nark through the storefront window. Good match.

Just Checking Up

Serves its point. Good lead-up segment to the main.

Marx vs. GOP vs. Tact vs. Daymon vs. Hart vs. Rabesque

The big one for Night Two. Nice little intro to start things, and we're off. There's some pretty sick action in here. Whoever wrote this match deserves some props. The announce team is well-written, the action and spots make sense, and I love all the cracks at the state of New Jersey :) I liked the attention to detail, which is hard to do in a match with six competitors in it. My favorite spot by far was the ladders tipping over and everyone going KABOOM. The finish was pretty neat too. Good spot of cheating by Marx's camp, and I don't think I've ever seen the co-Champions bit done with the World title before. Great job, and a great way to close the night.

In Conclusion

Fantastic finish to a fantastic concept. Brunk and Edmunds should be lauded for putting this card together and getting it out in quick (for FW) fashion. Everyone who was involved in this card should get a hearty round of applause. So far, THE event of 2007 in eW.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Tom..

As per your comment about Ice Tre's challenge and not seeing Stevens in two matches at Russian Roulette, that was addressed in Ice Tre's post-Wrestlestock RP where he addressed the response he got back from Stevens and the EPW office.

Planned that way as a storyline piece to keep continuity for the main goings on of the event.

thanks for the review!

- Dave

itspaulbriz said...

yeah, tom! get w/ the program!

;)

but, yeah ... what dave said.

good review, btw! a fun read.

take care,
paul