Connor McGrath
ECPW On Fire
September 6th, 2014 (Taped August 22nd, 2014)
From The Elks Lodge in Paramus, New Jersey
Announcers: Joey G and Ken Reedy
After a two week absence, ECPW on Fire is BACK and gearing up for a big September. They’re going to be undertaking their first tour of Maine in almost two years next weekend. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able attend any of their shows in my home-state but maybe just maybe, I’ll recap an indy show in a bar parking lot that the promotion they’re co-promoting this tour with is doing in two weeks. Let’s go down to ringside at the Paramus Elks Lodge for our first bout!
Kraig Stagg Vs Grapplin’ Greg
Grapplin Greg has got to be one of the worst ring names I’ve ever heard. He’s a guy with an amateur wrestling gimmick. Honestly, he looks like a member of the ring crew that they threw a singlet and some boots on. Very awkward. Anyway, presence of Kraig Stagg is deeply baffling. He’s doing an evil German gimmick, their champion Josef Von Schmidt is doing an evil German gimmick but the two have no interaction whatsoever. I don’t get it. What’s the point? Did they want an evil German that people actually boo since JVS seems to be the most over face in the Paramus Elks Lodge. Joey G hypes up a major announcement from Head of the ECPW Board of Directors, Mr. Allen Kay later tonight. Anyway, this was a deeply unimpressive squash. Stagg hasn’t been very good in his appearances so far but this might have been passable if he squashed someone who could bump around a bit like Ricky Palmer instead of this goof. Instead we got a match where no one really looks good. Stagg wins with a lariat. D
Team Shazam Vs Sol De Oro & Jay Santana
Jay Santana looks really familiar. Not sure if I’ve seen him do job duty/extra work in one of the big leagues or I’ve seen him wrestle somewhere before. I don’t *think* he’s been on this show before. I get a big laugh out of some middle aged dad in a Mark Sanchez jersey going crazy over Dan De Man while Dan De Man drolly saunters down the aisle. Not the most impressive match for Team Shazam. Something seemed off in this one. Lot of botched moves. They showed off a cool 619/enziguri move which would have been cool if either of them had been able to really execute it. Another disappointment is we didn’t see much of the promising Sol De Oro as 80% of the match is the heels working over Santana. One of the only highlights is Dan De Man gloating by doing some Jimmy Del Ray-esque gyrations. Shazam gets the win after Kenny Bengal pulls De Man out of the way of a Sol De Oro frogsplash and De Man pinning Sol with a fistful of tights. C-
ECPW Television Title Match: Crazy Ivan (c) (with Doug DeVito) Vs Matt MacIntosh
Matt MacIntosh starts off the match, acting like a dick and attacking Crazy Ivan while he still has his handcuffs on. Interestingly, both the announcers call him out for the poor sportsmanship. Usually when a babyface acts like a heel, someone defends him but I’m glad Joey G and Ken Reedy call things down the line for the most part these days. Ken and Joey this week are dressed up like they’re about to go drink some Bud Lights on a boat at the lake with their apparel tonight (Joey G rocking a pink polo shirt and Reedy wearing a Hawaiian shirt with black wifebeater underneath and a trucker hat). Anyway after the first two matches between these two kind of stunk even though these are guys are two of my favorites in the promotions so I was bracing for more disappointment from this pairing. However, this match was a lot better than the previous efforts. These guys brought 100x more energy to this than their earlier matches and seemed to find a pace that worked for the both of them. MacIntosh had a high speed aerial attack while Ivan grounded him with his unorthodox methods. It won’t win Match of the Year Awards (not even ECPW Match of the Year) but I was generally pleasantly surprised by this and wouldn’t mind seeing these guys hook ’em up again, which I wouldn’t have said before watching this. Only major complaint is the finish to this match seemed a bit similar to the tag match we just saw with Ivan getting the pin. B
ECPW on Fire is back! And just about the same as it always was! Some good stuff, some bad, a lot of stuff that made no sense. I’m looking forward to see them head to some new venues and see some new faces on this show. Football season has started and you’ll probably want to have some snacks at the game. Some of those snacks you might be able to share with your furry best friend but remember one thing. Never, ever feed your dogs chocolate! I’ll see you everyone next Monday (hopefully)!
