Connor McGrath
Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of my weekly recap of ECPW/Wrestling On Fire here on Culture Crossfire. Since this is the last edition of this column before Valentine’s Day, I wrote this week’s article with extra love. Just for you. Yeah, you. You know who you are. Enough about candy hearts and “I Choo-Choo-Choose You” cards (it’s funny cause the card has a cartoon train on it), let’s get to the real rasslin.
This show starts with a video package hyping Cousin Nunzio’s appearance on ECPW On Fire’s card on Valentine’s Day Night at Parsippany High School in New Jersey. I know if I were in the area, I’d know the best way to treat my lady right would be to take her to see a former WWE Cruiserweight Champion wrestle in a high school gym.
Next, AJ Savoldi is freaking out and making vaguely racist comments while ordering Chinese food. Ken Reedy comes in and they hash it out about the ECPW/WOF War. Reedy says he has another ace in the hole to give WOF the advantage. Savoldi assures Reedy that he’ll have the GM position in the new company if he can pull it off. Reedy says he’s going out for a beer and AJ freaks out again. This segment is mostly notable for AJ’s hammy overacting and the fact that he says “God damn” a bunch of times unbleeped, which is a word I thought you couldn’t say on TV (especially at 10:30 A.M. on a Saturday morning). But I guess FCC censors probably aren’t exactly watching MyNetworkTV affiliates in Southern Maine too closely on Saturday mornings.
WOF Title Tournament Match: Josef Von Schmidt Vs Joey Simone
Josef Von Schmidt is a guy who’s been wrestling off and on for this company since I started recapping it off and on four or five years ago. I’m used to seeing him as a foreign heel but right now, I think he’s working as a stoic, dominant babyface. The crowd chants “Joey” which makes me confused to who they’re cheering for. They then chant “Von Schmidt” as if to answer my question! I’m not sure if I’ve seen Simone before. If I have, his second appearance isn’t much more memorable than the first as he basically gets squashed by Von Schmidt before tapping to an armbreaker. Von Schmidt definitely seems like a guy who needs an impact move for a finisher. This match kind of served its purpose of reestablishing Von Schmidt as one of the guys to beat in ECPW On Fire. It didn’t do it in very exciting fashion though. C-
WOF Title Tournament Match: Ricky Reyes Vs Crazy Ivan (with Doug DeVito)
Reyes is a babyface this week. This should be an entertaining matchup since Reyes is one of the promotion’s more solid workers and Ivan is one of the more entertaining ones. They don’t let me down. Solid no-frills match with an easy to follow story with Reyes outsmarting Ivan with his wrestling skills but Ivan being able to hold his own with his unorthodox style. I nod approvingly when Ken Reedy asks Joey G what Ivan’s been locked up for and Joey answers “Everything” You know it’s a good show for the commentary team when I only mention them once and it’s in a positive sense. The crowd’s really into this match and they make a superplex feel like an important, potential match ending spot for the first time since 1989. The match has kind of a bunk ending with a time limit draw ending the match after Reyes hits a jumping DDT on Ivan. I liked the match despite the ending. Just a solid match between two veterans, who showed that you don’t really have anything too crazy—spots wise to get a crowd into the match. B
The show ends with a segment where Cousin Nunzio is seen betting on horse races at a sports bar with a buddy and getting made fun of by a little kid. Nunzio loses but consoles himself by talking about how he wrestled at WrestleMania XX. Ken Reedy bursts in and reminds Nuznio he lost at WrestleMania XX. Reedy then remembers he’s being a jackass and sucks up to the former Full Blooded Italian and asks him to join the WOF side. Nunzio mentions he got his start working for the Savoldis back in 1992 and he couldn’t turn against them. Reedy counters by saying that the Savoldis didn’t put Nunzio in the WOF Title Tournament and Nunzio sulks. Reedy buys Nunzio and his buddy another round of Coors Lights and asks him to think about joining Team WOF. Nunzio wonders if he should join Reedy as the show closes.
You know how I said I’d write about this show with extra love? Well, it’s true! I can’t really complain too much. The show mostly contained a pretty solid match between two decent workers and a sensible amount of hype for a guest appearance on an upcoming show from a “big name” ex WWE star. And they managed to integrate Nunzio into the WOF-ECPW storyline seamlessly by playing up the fact that he got his start in a Savoldi promotion twenty years ago. Really not much to complain about except for AJ Savoldi’s potty mouth.
I hope everybody has a great week and remembers that even though it’s a big candy holiday this weekend, DON’T FEED YOUR DOGS CHOCOLATE. Oh. And Happy Valentine’s Day to one and all.
