Connor McGrath
I hope everybody had a great Memorial Day Weekend and is enjoying these wonderful last few weeks of Spring. Let’s cut to the chase since the show was off last weekend. This week’s show is a big one as we finally get to see who the new WOF Champion is. Title’s been held up since September…and this match was taped way back on WrestleMania Weekend. Heck, this show’s been so focused on other various storylines (Flow Family Feud, Punisher Martinez Vs Vincent Valentine’s parade of freaks) that I’ve barely remembered the circumstances of the title being held up.
Anyway, the process of declaring the new champion’s sort of reached WCW levels of frustration. The WOF Title Tournament Finals between Josef Von Schmidt and Giant Pharaoh ended in a Double DQ. OK, you think logical step is some sort of gimmick rematch? Well, ECPW On Fire sort of did that. The WOF Title match will be decided in a steel cage match, pitting Von Schmidt against the two guys who were involved in the match where the title was held up (and then disappeared for six months), the last champion Brian Fury and El Leon Apolo. Giant Pharaoh was nowhere to be found and only somewhat recently returned to the company with no mention of him making the WOF Title Tournament Finals. *shakes head* So the tournament really didn’t mean anything in the long run!
I digress. We’re almost halfway through 2014 and I’m just looking forward to this story being done!
The show opens with a kind of funny in an unintentional way, UPCOMING EVENTS! ECPW On Fire On Tour ad where it lists two events, both taking place at the Paramus, NJ Elks Lodge…
Hey! Speaking of ECPW On Fire. I wonder what happened to the return to Maine that they were hyping as happening May 2014. I guess we can officially say that’s not gonna happen. Just as well, somebody would have probably tried to throw me against a locker if that happened…
Mikey 3D Vs Mr. Thursday Night
Clash of guys with terrible names. Announcers even comment on how no one’s sure why Mikey 3D calls himself that. This is Mikey 3D’s second match. His first match, he appeared out of the crowd and jobbed to Kenny Bengal. Which is the only time I’ve ever seen them do a fan gets in the ring and wrestles angle where the fan just ended up jobbing. I’m sure it’s happened before (and it’s the realistic way to present that storyline) but only time I’ve seen it. Mr. Thursday Night has a cheering section, for some reason, tonight. This match is just presented poorly and they don’t really give us any reason to care. It’s a guy having his second match after a lackluster debut Vs a heel who I don’t recall ever winning a match on this show. Ken Reedy calls this match with all of the excitement of someone paying their electric bill. Heck, even the finish of this match is lackluster as Mr. Thursday Night just wanders out of the ring and heads to the back to give Mikey 3D a countout victory. Ken Reedy just shrugs and said MTN was probably just tired of wrestling that night. I’ve seen worse matches on this show but maybe none that felt more unnecessary. D
It’s time for our Triple Threat Main Event to declare the NEW WOF Heavyweight Champion. I find the fact that one of the WOF Superfans at the Parsippany High School is wearing a “SCHMIDT HAPPENS” t-shirt more amusing than it really is. Our special guest referee is Two Time WWE Cruiserweight Champion and Two Time ECW Tag Team Champion Nunzio. Of course, he’s hyped here as an ICW Original. Nunzio was hired by the Savoldi Family to call this match right down the middle. Hmm. HMMM!
But before we get started, another former Wrestling On Fire Champion Julian Starr makes a surprise return appearance. We haven’t seen him in over a year! He had one of the biggest feuds in WOF history against Brian Fury and he thinks he deserves a shot at the title. Nunzio shrugs and lets him in the cage.
Steel Cage Four Corners Match for the Wrestling On Fire Heavyweight Championship (Special Guest Referee: Nunzio) : Brian Fury Vs El Leon Apolo Vs Josef Von Schmidt Vs Julian Starr
Brian Fury is rockin’ a new look that makes him look like a member of DOA. You know I really didn’t give Fury his just due when he was champion. He really was probably the best champion in this company’s history. Not the most exciting wrestler in company history but he was definitely a solid, veteran heel and the kind of guy you can build a small company around. Show’s definitely missed him because the top heels since he left have been either green (Junior Flow) or non-wrestlers (Mario Savoldi Jr and Ken Reedy).
For some reason, Charlie Savoldi is calling this match solo instead of the usual team of Ken Reedy and Joey G. Charlie sounds like he’s using a microphone from 1946 and the match looks like it’s filmed a first generation iPhone’s camera. Production values for this match make ROH’s TV show look like WrestleMania…Charlie REALLY overuses his Uncle Tommy’s “HOLY SCHAMOLIE” “catchphrase” during this one. Once would have been fine. Three or four times? Not so much.
Surprisingly, this is not the worst steel cage that I’ve seen. That honor would go to a steel cage that they used for a Sheamus-Kane WWE house show main event I saw in Augusta, Maine, almost exactly two years ago. Tony Chimel seemed freak over the possibility of it becoming loose and falling onto John Cena’s Dad and the rest of the people in the front row…
What was I talking about?
Oh yeah. This cage isn’t quite as terrible as I expected but they seem to be gingerly doing spots with it. In fact, this whole match seems like it’s being done in second gear, which is really too bad because I had decent expectations for it. Fury and Starr are pretty good workers and while Von Schmidt and Apolo aren’t great (or even good), they are charismatic and can really get the crowd going. This match should have at least been entertaining but everybody except for Starr and for some reason, Nunzio (who seems really into being the special guest referee), everyone seems to bring their C game for this one. Hell, Apolo just spends a lot of the time, just standing there, watching other guys wrestle. It’s too bad because this is the rare case of this show dedicating a good 15 minute or so chunk of time to a match. There’s one or two decent spots, most notably a spot where all four guys are locked in a submission, but they’re few and far between
Anyway, the finish comes when Apolo hits the fireman’s carry cutter on Von Schmidt and Nunzio can’t make the three count because of a phony arm injury. Apolo confronts Nunzio and then Von Schmidt gets back up and hits Apolo with a terrible German Suplex for the win. And the NEW WOF CHAMPION is… “The German Hammer” Josef Von Schmidt! Von Schmidt celebrates with the fan in the “Schmidt Happens” t-shirt.
Anyway, that’s the end of that. We finally have a new Champion and (I assume) the payoff to the angle where Ken Reedy was trying to bribe Nunzio. This angle with the title being held up, kind of sucked from beginning to end. It was consistent but not the kind of consistency I was hoping for. D+ Hopefully, it’s onward and upward for the WOF Title scene with Von Schmidt as the champ and we can forget the last seven months ever happened…
Also if I didn’t know better, I’d think they were building up to a Nunzio Vs Apollo match…which I guess is possible the next time that Apollo makes his yearly WOF comeback.
Anyway, this might have been one of the worst episodes of the year so far which is too bad because I came in with fairly high expectations after the one week break. Well, hopefully, things will heat up as ECPW on Fire heads into the Summer. Thanks for reading and I know you’ll be attending a lot of summer barbecues this summer where you’ll be tempted to feed your pooches some tasty treats but remember to never feed your dogs chocolate. Thanks for reading. The Conn Man has left the building!
