Commentaries
On-Site Report: Main Event Promotions (4/12/2003)
By Jared "JHawk" Hawkins
Apr 13, 2003, 16:47

On-Site Report: Main Event Promotions (4/12/2003)
by Jared "JHawk" Hawkins

Another indy show, another on-site report. But hell, when you watch Raw every week you need to do something to get your wrestling fix. One thing I've learned from my most recent Today in Wrestling History is that some fans apparently are willing to tolerate a lack of wrestling on a wrestling show as long as they're entertained. Which is fine when you're actually being entertained, and I don't remember being entertained by much of Russo's stuff after 1998, mostly because when he didn't concentrate on wrestling the shows weren't entertaining me, and half the time when he did focus on the wrestling I wasn't entertained either. Thank God for independent shows and Ring of Honor.

But anyway, last night Main Event Promotions held one of their biannual shows at the Memorial Civic Center in Canton, Ohio. For whatever reason, the company calls itself Main Event Championship Wrestling during the shows itself, but uses Main Event as one word and shortens it to "MCW". So any references to MCW in the rant are not in reference to the more widely known Maryland Championship Wrestling.

Prior to the show, they held a meet and greet session for Golden Circle ticketholders, and that included me, so I went in to meet and greet. Disco Inferno, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, D'Lo Brown, B.J. Payne, and former WCW ring announcer David Penzer all signed autographs and posed for pictures, and all of them were very cordial, particularly Duggan, who held short conversations with everybody who wanted autographs until just before showtime.

The show was scheduled to start at 8pm, but actually started 10 minutes early. Of course, they apparently never told David Penzer that, as there were no introductions for our opening match.

Wilbur Witlock vs. Drew Denison

Thankfully a guy behind me knew who Witlock was so I could piece this together. Witlock had a hillbilly type gimmick, while Denison used your typical good-looking guy gimmick, coming out to Rod Stewart's "If You Think I'm Sexy". The problem being that Denison makes me look like an average size guy, and I'm not exactly that big. Some comedy early, as Denison did some posing while Witlock mocked it in the background. Once the wrestling started, it was actually a decent opener, with Denison getting the pin off of a superkick at 7:17.

Finally David Penzer comes out for his ring announcing duties. After the national antehm, he introduces his co-host, Nick Andrews, a DJ for Rock 107 in...some Ohio city. I don't listen to it, so I don't really care, quite honestly.

Then out comes the "MCW Commissioner", G.Q. Status. And his gimmick is pretty much what the name implies. Anyway, it turns out that Main Event Promotions was going bankrupt until Status bought 53% of the company to become majority owner. And as majority owner, he has control over everything we see tonight. He then brings out Nigel McGuinness, who does the typical British heel gimmick. Nigel claims that he agreed to wrestle anybody tonight, but nobody's stepped forward. To nobody's surprise, Hacksaw Jim Duggan comes out to accept the challenge, basically ignoring the fact that Britain is our ally in the war with Iraq. Duggan wants Nigel, but Status makes it a handicap match.

Handicap Match: G.Q. Status and Nigel McGuinness vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

Duggan refuses to drop the 2x4, which leads to McGuinness to tell the referee, "Tell if him he uses his wood, he's disqualified." Insert your typical homoerotic joke here. Your usual handicap match. Duggan has control early (getting a lot of "USA" chants from the crowd), and the heels take over with some double teaming. Duggan finally gets the comeback, but Status grabs Duggan from behind. This of course leads to the heel miscommunication spot, and Duggan gets the Three Point Clothesline in to pin McGuinness in 6:45. OK match, but good to wake the crowd up. Postmatch, Duggan gives his 2x4 to a little girl at ringside. Very cool.

One fall with a 15 minute time limit: "Big Guns" Jeff Cannon vs. Cody Hawk

I'd never seen Cannon before, but you might recognize Hawk from Les Thatcher's Heartland Wrestling Association and/or MTV's special on becoming a professional wrestler. Not really a whole lot memorable here. Cannon did some decent power moves but kept doing lax covers. Hawk made the comeback, but Cannon caught him coming into the turnbuckle with a big boot, then covered using the ropes for leverage to get the pin at 7:35. Not really bad, but it didn't really click.

"Sexy" Jay Pumper (w/"Sex Symbol" Keith Young) vs. Justin Diaz

At the March 15 UWC event, Diaz was basically flirting with Pumper the entire show, and his distraction led to Pumper losing the UWC Heavyweight Title to Even Colder. Prior to this match, Pumper receives flowers from an anonymous source. Diaz eventually comes out to admit that he sent the flowers, and the match is on. Basically, Pumper toys with Diaz early, Diaz begins to make a comeback, but before long Pumper gets serious and pins Diaz with a Pump Slam in 5:08. Typical squash, but fun.

David Penzer goes to make an announcement, but gets cut off by some music and the appearance of a limo. Out of the limo emerge UWC Tag Team Champions The Untouchables (w/Bounce). They make their way to the ring to cut a promo, and they're upset that they weren't asked to compete on the show. They issue a challenge and some music plays, when I.M. Krazy and D.Ranged come out through the crowd (nearly knocking my ass over). The Untouchables leave the ring, so Ranged throws Krazy over the top rope onto them.

Then disaster strikes. D.Ranged tries to jump off of a chair onto Animal (not the Road Warrior), but either he slipped or he hit the top rope going over or something, but he missed Animal altogether and landed head-first onto the marble floor. The Untouchables ad-lib a beatdown on Krazy to buy some time, but eventually they call it off so they can call an ambulance. After a few minutes, Penzer announces that he appears to be OK but will be taken out on a stretcher as a precaution. A few minutes later, D.Ranged is able to walk out on his own power, and he's clearly bleeding badly from the head. He gets a standing ovation as he leaves the ringside area.

Penzer goes into a speech about "Don't try this at home" and how guys do get legitimately hurt. Then he asks if we're ready to see the ladies.

One fall: Helena Heavenly vs. AJ

Heavenly is a very attractive redhead. Some of you wouldn't like AJ because she's a bit on the skinny side, but they say good things come in small packages. This was actually a pretty good match, better than a lot of the women's stuff Raw puts out. Some nice and crisp counter sequences with some nice moves by both ladies. AJ gets the pin with a knee drive off the top rope in 8:39. This surprised me, as I've heard of Heavenly and figured she was a shoo-in to go over.

Tag Team Contest scheduled for one fall with a 30 minute time limit: Scotty Sabre and David Flair vs. B.J. Payne and D'Lo Brown

Payne and Sabre have both been in WWE developmental territories, and I think Payne is still in Ohio Valley Wrestling, but I'm not 100% sure about that. You should all know David Flair and D'Lo. Before the match, Sabre cuts a promo talking about he grew up in the area and got the hell out as soon as he possibly could. Flair then talks about how he beat The Rock and The Undertaker in WWE (I want some of the shit he's smoking), then talks about the name he's made for himself. When D'Lo and Payne come out, they cut their own promo. D'Lo says they had their own name for Flair...asshole. And since Sabre is always around an asshole, they're going to call him dick. Payne then tells Sabre that he's also from the area (and, in a JR sidenote, he played football at Mount Union College in nearby Alliance) and won't stand for someone making fun of the area.

The match itself was pretty solid, with Sabre and Flair using some old school heel tactics to work over face-in-peril Payne. David even worked in most of his father's trademarks, including the strut and the face-first flop. No Flair Flip though. As soon as the hot tag hits, all hell breaks loose. Sabre makes the save after a spinebuster, but soon gets sent to the floor. Double team from D'Lo and Payne, and D'Lo takes Flair down with the Sky High for the pin at 11:54. Good match. D'Lo was insanely over (with only Duggan's pop coming close to his all night), and Flair has actually improved quite a bit since his WCW stint.

Intermission time, and this time David Flair and Jeff Jarrett are selling Polaroids in addition to everybody from the Meet and Greet session doing their thing. Helena Heavenly is even cute from up close too. I also nearly got my head taken off by Shasta and Brain Damage, as one of them was getting impatient waiting for his match and started swinging a chair while walking through the crowd.

After about 45 minutes or so, it's time to get started again, but instead of a match, we get Tim Shady out to cut a promo. Shady is a manager who looks a little like Eminem but thankfully doesn't have the gimmick. Shady used to manage Shasta, but at the last MCW show in September, he turned on Shasta after he lost to Grand Master Sexay because he only associates himself with winners. He brings out his tag team, Shane Sensation and Chris Kole, the MCW Tag Team Champions. Sensation puts over their TLC title defense against Shasta and Brain Damage, then hands the mic to Kole, who can't figure out where his belt disappeared to, even though it's already hanging above the ring.

One fall with a 30 minute time limit for the MCW Heavyweight Championship: The Disco Inferno vs. Jebediah Yoder (champion)

Interesting that Glen Gilberti still does the Disco Inferno gimmick at indy shows. Yoder, you might recall, lost the Gimmick Gone Forever match at the March 15 UWC show, but is still using it here. Before the match, Disco tells us we might be smart for rooting for the Ohio State Buckeyes, but he's always felt too stupid doing it to cheer for them long enough to be proven right or wrong. Slow start, with Yoder mocking Disco early. This leads to Disco grabbing the mic and promising the debut of the Village People's Elbow. Sure enough, Disco controls most of the match, and does the Village People's Elbow (he does the "YMCA" thing, runs off the ropes, then dances a bit before the corkscrew elbow). It only gets two. He then calls for the Chart Buster, but Yoder counters into one of his own, then hits his own People's Elbow to retain at 8:39. Not bad.

Penzer tells us that co-host Andrews has taken a radio job in Louisville, Kentucky and will no longer be with us following tonight's show.

TLC Match for the MCW Tag Team Titles: Shane Sensation and Chris Kole (champions--w/Tim Shady) vs. Brain Damage (w/some chick--Shai or something like that) and Shasta

This stems from Shady turning on Shasta in September. This starts off as a normal tag team match complete with tags just to annoy me. But it gets worse, as not only do guys go for covers, but the referee actually counts them, and Penzer actually has to remind the referee over the house mic what the rules for a TLC match are. I couldn't make that up if I tried. But once that's clear, the match becomes a typical spotfest with a number of table spots and some crowd brawling. There were two holy shit chants during the match. The first came when Sensation did a sweet looking dive onto Shasta on the floor. The second one came very late in the match. Two tables set up on the floor. After Brain Damage jumped onto Kole in the crowd, Shasta and Sensation were brawling on top of the ladder in the ring, and Shasta took him off the ladder with a Tombstone through both tables. Damage returned to the ring, prevented Kole from making the final save of the match, grabbed both belts (once he got them unstuck) to win the titles at 24:24. The crowd gave a standing ovation. Clearly the match of the night, and I hope a video of this one becomes available because I want to see it again. It won't be five stars with the tagging and the covers, but it was damn good.

Andrews' last act as an Ohio DJ is to draw the winners of the 50/50 raffle. I needed that 200 bucks, too...

Main event for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship scheduled for one fall with a one hour time limit: Mr. Insanity (w/Tim Shady) vs. Jeff Jarrett (champion)

I think you can tell from Insanity's name what his gimmick is, and he plays it very well. Shady cuts a promo where he says he refuses to go 0-2 tonight, so expect to see him and his man on pay-per-view this Wednesday. The show was running very long at this point, and it showed with a ref bump barely two minutes in. Insanity got the title belt shot in, but only got 2 off of it. Shady then held Jarrett, heel miscommunication spot, and Jarrett hits the Stroke for the pin at 4:31. Way too short for a main event, but it was 11:53pm Eastern at this point, making the whole over four hours long bell-to-bell.

Interesting note: They had scheduled an afterparty for the local Buffalo Wild Wings for after the show, and according to the program it was supposed to last from 10:30 to midnight. And the show didn't end until almost midnight. They still hyped it as we were leaving, but I didn't go to check on it.

Overall, a really good show. Intermissions at a show like this are always too long with the Polaroids, and obviously we had a scare with D.Ranged's fall, but the show itself didn't drag, and even with the long breaks it felt like the card was the usual two-and-a-half to three hours. And how many times do you get to see the NWA World Champion perform live at a non-NWA event?

Another on-site in two weeks, as Ring of Honor invades West Mifflin, Pennsylvania.

Until then, drop me a line

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