Connor McGrath
ECPW On Fire
August 2nd, 2014 (Taped July 18th, 2014)
From The Elks Lodge in Paramus, New Jersey
Announcers: Gino Caruso and Joey G
Bandido Jr Vs Johnny Buff
Ken Reedy is nowhere to be seen this week, having been replaced by ECPW Owner Gino Caruso for this week’s edition. Bandido Jr is making his return after a couple months out of action. I’ve never seen Johnny Buff before but he looks like a pretty decent arrogant heel. The announcers do a good job of selling the notion that Bandido Jr’s ring rust might lead to a big upset. With Reedy out, the usually babyface Joey G is acting heelish for some reason, complaining about how the front office never e-mails him and making fun of the fans for not being able to count. Anyway, Bandido Jr eventually scores the win with an Octopus submission in a solid opener. B-
Joey G interviews Bandido Jr and asks him about his thoughts on his former tag team partner Frankie Flow reuniting with his enemy Junior Flow. Bandido Jr talks about how Frankie Flow hasn’t called him since they lost the tag team titles but they’ll always be friends and if he forgives Junior Flow for his stupid behavior then he’s fine with that. If this is the end of the Frankie Flow/Junior Flow/Bandido Jr then man, I can’t think of it ending in a more lackluster/ho-hum way…
An ad for Wrestling On Fire’s tour of Maine (co-produced with local promotion Independent Wrestling Entertainment) in August. They’re actually coming to a bar in South Portland that’s a ten minute drive from me on August 15th. I wonder if they’re bringing the TV cameras. If they are and I’m around for that show, we could have Connor is Watching Connor Watching ECPW On Fire this Fall…
Team Shazam Vs Fenris & Aaron Bradley
Team Shazam enters to “Dan De Bum” chants directed at Dan De Man (who jobbed to former Yankees reliever Joe Ausanio at the indy supershow headlined by Kevin Steen/Jerry Lawler and Hardy Boyz/Young Bucks), Kenny Bengal tells some fans to “Shaddup”. Fenris & Bradley have been seen once before on this show. Fenris is a dude doing a power & paint gimmick and Bradley is a recent graduate of the ECPW Training School. Bradley’s got some impressive agility for a guy his size. With some more training, he could be a nice asset to a little promotion. Team Shazam get a win by the skin of their teeth over the rookies after De Man hits Bradley with the Dominator after Bradley gets distracted by Fenris and Kenny Bengal brawling on the floor. Another decent little “Veteran Vs Rookie” undercard match. B-
I’ve got to note that production on this week’s show has vastly improved. It’s still very basic but it looks good for what it is and very, very few production errors. Although there was an awkward as hell two second “Wrestling On Fire” bumper during the middle of the last match for no reason.
Title Vs Title: ECPW Light Heavyweight Champion Matt MacIntosh Vs ECPW Television Champion Crazy Ivan (with Doug DeVito)
This is a rematch of last week’s main event. At the beginning of this match, it’s announced that a match has been signed between WOF Champion Josef Von Schmidt and ECPW World Champion Andrew Anderson for later this year but only Von Schmidt’s title will be on the line. Announcers put over Doug DeVito’s managerial prowess. Joey G also says in addition to being a great manager, Doug DeVito is a great dancer. WHUT!? Another weird aspect of the match is the announcers putting over Crazy Ivan as a great mat technician which is weird since every other match they’ve portrayed him as an insane brawler. Well, in this instance, it makes sense since the match’s story is Ivan methodically working McIntosh’s knee with MacIntosh getting in spurts of offense here and there. We get a dumb Dusty Finish where MacIntosh hits a flukish rollup but Doug DeVito charges into the ring and shows the referee that this match is actually only for the ECPW Light Heavyweight Championship and grabs the TV Title back from MacIntosh. Ken Reedy and Gino Caruso shrug this off and saying that ECPW President will figure this out once he returns from his scouting trip in Texas. WHUT? Match was slightly better than their match last week but still, kind of blah! C+
Overall, wrestling-wise, it was a decent show. Yeah, long-term storytelling and match finishes have a LOT of room for improvement but this show was a marginal improvement over a lot of the shows we’ve seen this summer. Slight thumbs up on this show.
Well, it’s getting busy and we’re starting to think about summer vacations. During these times, it’s easy to forget about some of the everyday basics in life but even if your mind is in Lake Skaneateles, you must remember to never feed your dogs chocolate. Thanks and have a great week, everyone!
