JHawk
by Jared “JHawk” Hawkins
It’s Sunday, and that means it’s time for me to try to continue bringing the content. Before I do begin though, this is set to go up on the morning of June 30, and for those you who have never listened to my podcast, Pro Wrestling Weekend on smartmarkradio.com, today would be a great day to check the show out, as we will be interviewing Stephanie Bellars, who is probably best known to wrestling fans as Randy Savage’s valet Gorgeous George. Live airing at 6pm Eastern/3pm Pacific, with a permanent archive available.
In the interest of doing some reviews that don’t always get done on these sites, I went through my DVD collection and found my copy of the J.T. Lightning Memorial Show. Now for those of you don’t know who J.T. Lightning was, he trained a lot of people who are currently wrestling in northeast Ohio, some of whom have become fairly well known. He’s the guy who took Matt Cross and Josh Prohibition out of the backyards and trained them to be legitimate pro wrestlers and helped train Johnny Gargano, who by the time this goes live will have held the Dragon Gate USA Open the Freedom Gate Title for 595 consecutive days (and counting). He was also the promoter for Cleveland All Pro Wrestling for over 15 years. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and passed away August 4, 2011 still promoting up to about six weeks before his death.
In his memory, several promotions in the Cleveland area teamed up to present a memorial show in his honor at one of CAPW’s home bases, the Phantasy Night Club, in Lakewood, OH just outside of Cleveland. Pretty much if you ever wrestled for one of J.T.’s shows you were invited to be part of this one. While the big names were missing due to other commitments, the sheer number of people on this show (and in the crowd) on hand to pay homage to a man who personified Cleveland wrestling was astounding. I was in attendance for this show, and I consider it one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen live.
Counting the bonus disc of people who knew J.T. Lightning telling stories (which I likely will not review), this thing runs FOUR discs and the live event took about six hours to complete counting the two intermissions, so I am splitting this up into three parts.
The DVD is available at aiwrestling.com as well as at smartmarkvideo.com and, in my opinion, is one of the rare DVDs that I feel everybody who appreciates independent wrestling should have a copy of.
Many of the matches on this set are CAPW Throwback Matches, meaning they were rematches from classic matches that took place in Cleveland All Pro Wrestling. That’s all the background you’re going to get on a lot of these matches unless I find it really interesting due to time constraints.
Photo by Wayne Palmer
The show begins with everybody on the card, and I mean everybody, surrounding the ring so they do a ten bell salute. Very well done, and a nice loud “J.T. Lightning” chant is given at the end of it when his son Mike goes to collect his boots from the center of the ring.
Next up is a music video, featuring a number of pictures through J.T.’s life and career. Very nicely done and a great look at the men he wrestled and trained in the Cleveland area. Among the more recognizable names in the video: Tracey Smothers, Sterling James Keenan (now Corey Graves in NXT), Gypsy Joe, Zach Gowen, and Chris Hamrick. And this didn’t touch the tip of the iceberg.
Hank Hudson is your ring announcer, and his intro is so well known in the area that people are singing along with it.
CAPW Throwback Match: “8Pac” Dave DeMarco vs. Lars Rockne
Photo by Wayne Palmer
8Pac cuts a pre-match promo that’s half thanking J.T. Lightning for getting him into wrestling and half complaining about having a rematch with Rockne. Rockne takes offense to some of his remarks and charges in… with a headlock. You can’t make this up.
Bobby Potter is your referee and your broadcast team is Pedro DiLuca, Matt Wadsworth, and Aaron Bauer.
I’ll tell the basic story of the match and go over some key spots, in the interest of brevity. After working headlocks for a while, Rockne begins to work 8Pac’s legs, including busting out a ringpost figure-four leglock. DeMarco actually counters a power bomb into a tarantula, which I hadn’t seen before and don’t think I’ve seen since. Pretty back-and-forth match overall. The traditional double ten count spot comes when 8Pac uses a legsweep with a clothesline to take Rockne down. There are plenty of false finishes following. Rockne with an airplane spin, then he tries for a GTS, but DeMarco blocks it and goes right into an inside cradle for 2. Ace crusher for 2. Rockne with a beautiful belly-to-belly suplex, then up top for a diving headbutt for 2. DeMarco hits a superkick followed by a Lionsault for 2. Rockne locks in a gogoplata, but 8Pac counters into a Texas cloverleaf for the submission victory in 10:34.
And here’s the issue that will come up with a lot of these matches. Granted, I’m not really explaining the transitions from key spot to key spot with you, so these matches will seem more disjointed than they really are. But there were several spots in this one that would have been a believable finish, and when you’re looking at 13 matches, you really need to cut some of the early matches short so that the later matches don’t feel short changed and the card doesn’t go way too long. That said, the match itself was a solid opener, and I’d open with that exact match on just about any show I’d run if I were promoting.
CAPW Throwback Match to determine the #30 entrant in the Reunion Rumble Royale later in the evening: K.C. Blood vs. The Canadian Bad Boy
Photo by Wayne Palmer
These two men had a three match series in the first part of 2006. Now, looking at these guys, you wouldn’t expect much. Canadian Bad Boy is extremely overweight and does, at least based on this match, what can be best described as a cowboy stripper gimmick. Remember that SNL skit where Chris Farley tried out for Chippendales? Yeah, that’s the look. K.C. Blood at this point hadn’t wrestled in some time and looked it, as he also appears overweight. Well, let’s just say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” as this was actually better than the opener. Instead of the slow, lumbering match you’d expect from two guys this size, they are leaving their feet for seated dropkicks and high cross bodies. There is one funny moment on commentary when the announcers talk about how Bad Boy was essentially a road agent for CAPW and made sure the boys had their spots, and Aaron Bauer asks, “What’s a road agent? Or a spot?” I assume that’s that kayfabe thing I’ve heard so much about. Late in the match, Blood gets a back suplex in, and that gets a “holy shit” chant simply because of the impact hitting the mat. That might be the only time you ever see that one. Blood goes to the middle rope and goes for a Vader bomb. Bad Boy attempts to roll away, and Blood winds up landing on Bad Boy’s side on the way down, and both guys sell it. Nice touch. Finish comes when Bad Boy locks in a sleeperhold… and it WORKS for the submission at 10:18. I seriously questioned the decision to give them 10 minutes at the time and part of me still does, but this wound up being one of the better matches of the night.
Triple Threat Match: Christian Vaughn (w/Minka Murder) vs. Chris Kole vs. Robby Starr (w/Matt Mason)
Photo by Wayne Palmer
Hank Hudson stops the intros to warn people that they are being towed if they’re parked on the wrong side of the building. I remember parking being a bitch too so not sure how many of those people had a choice. Now, most triple threats have the same basic story, and this is really no different. It’s a case of two people working each other while the third is either on the floor or down on the mat taking a breather. Plus there are several interference spots with Minka Murder, including one early where Starr drop toeholds Vaughn into her ass against the ropes and Kole rubs Vaughn’s face in her ass. The biggest pop of the night comes late in the match where Murder tries to interfere, gets chased into the ring by Matt Mason, slaps Mason in the face, and eats the most vicious superkick I’ve ever seen. Ever. I was hoping to find a picture of said superkick because I thought she was out cold, and words will not do it justice. The finish comes almost immediately after, when Kole takes Vaughn down with a backdrop driver, but Starr takes Kole down with a moonsault bodyblock then covers Vaughn for the pin at 8:11. Standard three way fare but that superkick spot was awesome!
CAPW Throwback Match: John McChesney vs. Aero
Photo by Wayne Palmer
These two men opened the CAPW 10th Anniversary Show in 2003, and by most accounts this was the best match of that show and is still considered one of the top 5 in CAPW history. That’s an awful lot to live up to.
Match is slow to start and they do some mat wrestling in the early going. Nice spot about three minutes in as Aero attempts to enter the ring and McChesney hits a swinging neckbreaker while Aero is still in between the ropes. From here on the pace of the match picks up and is to this point the best thing on the show. Biggest pop of the match comes at around the 6:40 mark when Aero takes McChesney off the top rope with the Spanish Fly. Once both men are to their feet, they begin exchanging chops. McChesney with a Northern Lights Suplex for 2. Series of blocks and counters leads to McChesney getting a near fall off a Canadian backbreaker into a faceslam. Up to the top, and McChesney brings Aero down with a fireman’s carry into an Ace Crusher from the middle rope to gain the pin at 9:31.
Michael Cash comes to the ring, and he’s out to interview J.T. Lightning’s family, and in particular his daughter Hannah who gives an emotional speech about her dad. I won’t try to transcribe it because she is very emotional and the PA mic is tough to understand, but it’s an easy pop and a nice break in the action.
CAPW Throwback Match: N8 Mattson vs. Jason Bane
Photo by Wayne Palmer
Jason Bane was the last CAPW Heavyweight Champion and had a lot of matches with Mattson for that title. Mattson is from Detroit, which automatically makes him a heel in Cleveland, but I love the irony of a crowd chanting “Fuck Detroit” on a show taking place in a building on Detroit Avenue. Bane uses his power to keep Mattson at bay early on in the contest. Bane goes for his finish early, the Bane Line, but a dropkick to the knee lets Mattson take control. Mattson focuses on the leg to try to keep the bigger man down. Simple, but it’s perfect psychology when you’re looking at a 40-50 pound weight difference. Mattson uses the figure-four and grabs the ropes for leverage, and you don’t see nearly enough heels utilizing that anymore. Bane then reverses the figure-four, which you probably see even less. Bane makes a comeback and hits a spinebuster, but he favors his knee before the cover and Mattson kicks out at 2. Subtle but awesome. Bane struggles for a Samoan drop because he’s, repeat after me, favoring the knee, and again only gets 2. The finish has Mattson going for a clothesline of his own, but Bane counters it into a crossface submission (J.T. Lightning’s finisher) and gets the submission victory at 11:14. The announcers make it a point to talk about how Bane might not have had the power for the Bane Line due to having his knee worked on and therefore needing to find another way to win. Michael Cole should take notes. Mattson and Bane shake hands after the match.
And so ends disc 1. Not a bad match at this point of the show and the best is yet to come. Join me back here next week as we go over disc 2 of the J.T. Lightning Memorial Show.
