 |
|
Home
Wrestling
WWE
TNA
Tape Reviews
Other
Sports
Basketball
Football
Baseball
Hockey
International
Entertainment
Movies / TV
Music
Gaming
Technology
Books / Comics
" The Gravel Pit "
|
|
|
|
Wrestling
2 More Playas Who Need Mad Props
Posted by The Paradise City Ninjas on Jun 30, 2004, 02:37
|
|
Well, after months of delays and general HTML ineptitude, the Paradise City Ninjas finally have their own online home. The PCNVR (yes, we know we're rip-off artists) now has the complete archives of all of the members of our merry conglomerate- myself, Thomas Green, Patrick McGovern and JC Deranged, and will also feature site-exclusive reviews and commentaries. So whenever you're bored, feel free to peruse the sucker, I wouldn't want to think that 4 hours of uploading (and an excellent design by Kellen Neal of Digital Vicious ) were all for naught. '
The previous "Playas" article I wrote received such positive feedback that another one had to be done. However, instead of a brief profile on 6 independent wrestlers who need more exposure, this time only two will be highlighted, albeit much more indepth. Two wrestlers from opposite ends of North America, with vastly different styles, but each with an incredible future ahead of them, are spotlighted in this edition of "Playas."
Jeremy V-The Future of Old School
by Jay Doring
You take an initial look at Jeremy V, the next big breakout star from NWA Wildside, and you might be caught offguard. To the casual observer, he's a decently built cruiser with long hair, one of hundreds on the independents. He's a solid high-flyer with some good highspots, but nothing that blows you away like an Amazing Red or a Sonjay Dutt. He can brawl and go to the mat, but he's not "strong style" like Homicide or "Jesus" like Chris Hero. However, Jeremy has a quality that cannot be taught, an x factor that separates those who "make it" from the rest who are doomed to the backwoods. Each and every time out, Jeremy V knows what it takes to draw you into his match, make you fear for his life and scream your lungs out rooting him on. Through scarily realistic selling and old-school, good-hearted babyface charisma, Jeremy V has produced some of the best feuds and most memorable matches in NWA Wildside history.
In wrestling, all it takes is one lucky break to make your career - a cool catchphrase, a killer finisher, a five-star match. In Jeremy V's case, his lucky break was...his neck. Wildside Hardcore Hell 2003 featured a double-elimination Junior Heavyweight title match between Slim J, "Playas" honorary "Kid Kool" Seth DeLay, new cult favorite Sal Rinuaro, and the unheralded Jeremy V. During the match, Rinauro spiked V straight on his head with a Phoenix Fury Legdrop, badly "injuring" his neck, aweak point which Rinauro made a point to "accidentally" attack during the match, which further got Rinauro over as a smarmy cheap-shot artist. However, it was not until Night 2 of Hardcore Hell that V cemented himself as a major player in Wildside.
Tony Mamaluke had been scheduled to dethrone the World Teleivsion champion Rainman, however, Mamaluke no-showed the event due to other long-term wrestling commitments. Enter V, and he and Rainman put on one of the best body part-oriented matches I've seen in recent memory, as Rainman DESTROYED V's neck with a relentless attack of strikes and submission holds. V managed to get a surprise flash pin on the champion, but Jeff G. Bailey ordered the match restarted, since it was scheduled to be under submission rules, Mamaluke or not. Rainmain quickly won the match by cranking on the Hillside Strangler, and the best feud of 2003 began.
There are a lot of factors that made this feud one my favorites ever on the indys- Rainman, for being such a vicious heel with an excellent understanding of ring pyschology, Dan Wilson (hands down the best announcer on the indies) putting over V's dream of being a champion, from watching Mid-Atlantic tapes as a child, and Jeff Bailey and Andrew Thomas for being ratfuck heels who constantly screwed the V over. But the most credit goes to Jeremy V, whose selling, body language and excellent comeback timing gave the fans the ultimate sympathetic babyface.
Key points in this feud are two TV taping matches- V vs. Rainman and Jeremy teaming with Jimmy Rave to take on Rainman and Jason Cross. In the first match, Rainman coldly destroys V's weak point once again and locks on the Strangler, however V refuses to die and holds out until the time limit expires. This establishes that a) Rainman has no qualms about ending V's career to retain his title and b) Jeremy is a gutsy babyface that Rainman can't kill. The second match stacks the deck against V in spectacular fashion. Isolated from his tag team partner due to brilliant heel ref chicanery by Andrew Thomas, Jeremy is DESTROYED by the Best Damn Brainbuster in North America, and his neck injury, which had been healing, is weakened anew. This gives Rick Michaels' WarGames team, which V was a part of, little hope for his health, especially with such high stakes- if Michaels' team loses, the evil Jeff G. Bailey regains control of WIldside.
This, of course, led to my 2003 Match of the Year- the WarGames. Patrick McGovern sums it up perfectly in the PCN Freedom Fight Review:
No doubt about it, this is Jeremy V's match. Everyone plays an important role, sure, but the focus is almost constantly on Jeremy's strugle. He's the first one in the cage; his battle with Rainman provides the major ongoing story of the match; his struggle is the primary focus and establishes Team Wildside as the underdogs, especially in the sequence when he endures splashes from Iceberg, Rainman AND Justice. V gives the viewer someone to root for, someone to sympathize with. He's not a powerhouse like Onyx or Hernandez or a technical master like Rave, he's the wrestler as Everyman- fighting against seemingly impossible odds to settle a score. By the time that Jeremy DOES settle that score, putting his hated rival in his own submission hold right in the center of the ring, it's beyond satisfying. This was a grand-scale, brilliant performance from Jeremy.
Of course, Jeremy V isn't defined by his kayfabe injury, like "Cowboy" Bob Orton. He's a rock-solid wrestler who can put on some excellent cruiserweight sprints, and can adapt to any scenario. V got put in a thrown-together tag team with Brandon P, and were dubbed the Carolina Connection. The Connection immediately seemed as if they had been tagging forever, putting on two incredible, **** matches with the Texas Death Club of Masada and Todd Sexton. As a single, Jeremy has recently had some excellent high-flying contests with Jason Cross, and put in a solid performance at CZW's Trifecta Elimination 2, losing to fellow Georgia superstar Jay Fury.
Jeremy V is a throwback, a fiery 80's style blue chip babyface who has the one intangible that all the head drops and T2P-ish submissions can't match: the guy, each and every time, CAN DRAW HEAT, and make everybody involved in the match look like a million bucks. And one day, hopefuly, a promoter will catch on to Jeremy V and make some serious money with him.
-Jay Doring
Now, we move from the old-school Southern-style babyface to possibly the most new-age, spectacular highflyer I've ever seen. Jack Evans is rapidly becomiing one of my favorite wrestlers to watch, but you know what, I've written enough. I'm gonna defer now to the one guy who knows Jack Evans better than anyone else in the 'Net wrestling community, a true Stampede wrestling mark, an encyclopedia of obscure graps, and the Dick Vitale of the indies, Rob Naylor.
Spotlight on Jack Evans- Blitz 2 K�.�And you KNOW THIS�..MAN�
By Rob Naylor
Highflyers have always been my favorite wrestlers.
As a kid circa 1986, I watched Tiger Mask (Misawa) work for Verne Gagne in the AWA and wrestle guys like Steve Regal (Mr. Electricity) and Buck Zumhoffe�.and while those matches weren�t notable years later�that first through-the-ropes tope unleashed by Tiger Mask II was always embedded in my mental.
That same year, I watched Lanny Poffo perform very mundane versions of what would later be dubbed �moonsaults� and �Somersault Sentons� to win his matches. I was a big fan of the highrisk moves from the start. Add in Hector Guerrero and the New Breed in the World Championship area of the NWA and a wrestler known as Super Black Ninja on ESPN afterschool World Class broadcasts and I was certainly given a fair share of early highflyers to just be blown away by.
Then I saw Owen Hart as Blue Blazer and Ninja (as Muta) in NWA totally raise the bar of flying.
Later, Liger and Pillman�.Scorpio and Eddy�Rey Jr. and Psicosis�Sasuke and Hayabusa all would come along and just flip (no pun intended) the script for highflying excellence.
Later, Jody Fleisch, Dragon Kid and a wrestler who in my opinion still may never be topped VENUM Black came along and just upped the ante again.
Along that same time period and young teenage kid named Jack was a huge wrestling fan as well�but he had different idols. Those idols being, in particular, Blitzkrieg and Curt Hennig.
Living in the Pacific Northwest, the mean streets of P-Town in particular, Jack Evans viewed a live match that to this day really influenced him�Blitzkrieg vs. Juventud Guerrera in April of 1999 at the Spring Stampede PPV. Anyone who was a fan back then certainly remembers it�as it was nearly flawless and Blitz redefined cool flying and hot moves while DYING on bigtime bumps from the great veteran Juvy in a match that Dave Meltzer that year called a strong match of the year candidate and went a long way to give Blitz the 1999 Rookie of the Year honors over a certain other wrestler named Kurt Angle.
Blitz left wrestling less than a year later and fans of highflyers were left depressed.
At the same time, Jack Evans decided to trade up reckless messing around with friends and seek out schooling locally from Brian �Chico� Alvarez. Surely, Alvarez was able to show Evans the fundamentals of wrestling as from his first matches with other young wrestlers like Tiger Reading, Ken Riley and Alvarez himself�.Evans really stood out as melding basic wrestling fundamentals with the extraordinary flying and bumps that his hero�s Hennig and Blitz provided in their years of action.
Word has it that Evans was REdiscovered by another young upstart in 2000 named Ted Hart, who reportedly viewed Evans �breakin� and receiving a lot of attention doing such at a Washington JACK IN THE BOX and asked him to come up to Calgary and work with the prospective Matrats promotion. Evans joined Hart, Harry Smith, TJ Wilson, Pete Wilson, Vince Hall, Marky Starr, Nattie Neidhart, Nick Nogg, Jake Evans, Apocalypse and others and captured attention of many in Calgary at the same time. His breakneck style and ability to bump and fly like very few others in history garnered him attention on web-broadcasts at the time.
But Matrats eventually closed and most of the talent either worked with Stampede, left the business or wrestled sparingly after.
Evans did a few shots here and there and worked for Stampede on and off�but his big break came in November 2003, when he was selected by Ted Hart to tag in a high-profile US indy match for ROH�.The Scramble Cage.
Prior to that match�I had sought out Evans footage and was blown away. His corkscrew 630 splash was one of the most spectacular moves I�d ever seen, his psychotic balcony tornillos and moonsaults were played and replayed in this fan�s head over and over again upon viewing a video on the Corkscrew630 website.
But all that was forgotten, when on 11/1 Evans hit a move that will likely never be duplicated�the Double-Moonsault off a 15 (some say 30!!!) foot cage.
The move was breathtaking and a highflying star was born in Jack Evans. His performance, through selling and insane moves, won him a slot on ROH�s roster. The aftermath of that infamous match is now wrestling lure�as the �Teddy incident� and subsequent lockerroom�Luscious-Evans-Samoa Joe� verbal confrontation were immediately posted all over the net.
Evans could have just called it a day and left�but he was invited back, made peace with Joe and had one hell of a bout on January 29th for ROH. He has since worked for ROH, MLW, JAPW, CZW, ECCW, NWA Florida, NWA TNA and numerous New Jersey indies and has made a mark for himself.
One of the most refreshing aspects of Evans is his humble attitude�which of course is the antithesis of his in-ring persona. He is always trying to improve his in ring work and seeks advice from veterans. Working, as Evans has, in the same ring with people like Tornado Tony Kozina, Brian Danielson, Alex Shelley, Jimmy Jacobs, Briscoes, Jimmy Rave, Roderick Strong, Homicide, Ted Hart (of course), Hector Garza, Juventud Guerrera and others will do nothing but allow Evans to exponentially improve over time.
His moveset is ever expanding, as he dislikes doing the same dives more than a couple times and constantly thinks of new ways to pop a crowd. And he is doing just that.
Recently he was put in the ROH clique, Generation Next, with Alex Shelley, Roderick Strong and Austin Aries. VERY impressive company indeed, as I�d be hard-pressed to list three more impressive US indy wrestlers this year. The tag matches and angles the group has been involved in thus far have been fantastic.
Seemingly based on tag teams like the Freebirds (yeah, I know there are 4 members of GeNext and only 3 Birds in the original trio), Strong has been known to back up Evans� considerable amount of shit-stirring, which has resulted in amusing scenarios. One in particular was at the May 22nd show when John Walters was victimized by a Roderick stuff piledriver and Evans hovered over a unconscious Walters and screamed��You just got knocked the FUCK out�! Chris Tucker would be proud.
So yeah, Evans is currently doing quite well and with the exception of rehabilitating a nagging hamstring injury, he looks to have a future in wrestling.
Evans is the highflyer for the new millennium, capable of selling WAY better than other wrestlers typecast as �Spotmonkeys� by the �smart?� folk and has upgraded his arrogant in ring �B-Boy� persona to annoy the fans into chanting �You got served�.
But in the end, he is just another young wrestler chasing a dream and a success story of a kid who plotted out his course, followed his dream and caught the eye of peers and fans with his in-ring exploits. The sky is the limit for Jack Evans and one would never believe that this spectacular worker has a fear of heights!!!
Thanks for reading and to TSM and the PCN website for posting this.
Send feedback to [email protected]
| |
|
|
|
|
|
