Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
RPW is a company with a lot of momentum right now. They’re consistently drawing larger, hotter crowds, as they build toward a March appearance by Colt Cabana and a bonus card at the April 2 Dragon Gate USA event during Wrestlemania weekend, adding depth to the talent roster as they go.
Attendance was 160, a few less than two weeks ago.
The centerpiece last night was the Mega Rumble, which took up the entire first hour of television. The highlight of the second hour was the promised laying of hands on Jimmy Rave by Kyle Matthews. I would rate that February 5 taping slightly higher than the one last night, only because the rest of the second hour lacked for variety.
Commissioner Sal Rinauro explained the rules for the upcoming 30 man MegaRumble – wrestlers enter at 90 second intervals, over the top rope eliminations until there were only two men remaining, then pinfalls and submissions would be in play as well.
Ben Masters introduced ring announcer Allie. There’s something about the way she enters the ring that never fails to stir up the males in the crowd. Gee, I can’t imagine what that might be. Referee Dustin Robinson was greeted with the “Meatloaf†chant.
(1) Chip Day (with Jimmy Rave) beat Ace Haven in 6:07. Haven is a cute kid but small but too small and slightly built for the crowd to take him a serious threat to a member of Rave Approved. Day capitalized on an aerial screw up to give Goldilocks a beating, aided by a stiff chop from Rave. His chops were stiff all night. Dragon Gate here we come. Haven kicked out of the flying double knees, so Day kicked his head in for the pin.
(2) Hate Junkies (Dany Only & Stryknyn with Charlie Cash) beat Drew Adler & Marvelous Michael Stevens in 4:13. Stevens took heat after a missed moonsault. Adler cleaned house until getting hung up on a high kick. Strykyn put him away with the Superbomb.
Usual Suspects hit the ring and Junkies beat a hasty retreat. AJ Steele said there were two things you don’t do – play chicken with a freight train and piss off Usual Suspects. Murder One had his head bandaged from the fireball Only threw at him last time. He can thank his lucky stars that his vision was spared. Murder said Junkies had upped the ante. They were now the hunted and they had a dirt nap coming there way. Good promo.
Hour #1
(3) Bull Buchanan won a 30 man Mega Rumble to gain a RPW heavyweight title shot in 42:36. “Master of the Mega Rumble†Bill Behrens fingerprints were all over this match. I’m of the opinion he handles this form better than anyone in pro wrestling, and when superb booking hooks up with terrific execution, well, it’s a beautiful thing. The story telling was focused, compelling and uncluttered. It’s tough for realism to hold up in a match like this. It did in this one. The jobbers were used to enhance the major players, who all got chances to shine, although none nearly as bright as rising star Kyle Mathews. He started the match and went the whole way, and with his talent, heart and conditioning, Matthews was more than up to the task.
Matthews started with Anthony Andrews. He chopped Andrews so hard that a kid in front of me asked his dad “was that real?†#3 Shane Curtis and #4 Leon McMichael delivered a high-low double team while Andrews directed traffic. #5 Epic Grant Mitchell made it four against Matthews. He went on a rampage eliminating the whole lot of them. A stellar moment. #6 Corey Hollis took advantage of being the fresh man. Hollis tossed #7 Haven right away and got back on Matthews. #8 J Stakka was also done in a hurry. The war between Hollis and Rave continued. #9 Jeremy Vain and Hollis worked like hell to get rid of Matthews. Vain greeted #10 Ryan North with a DDT dumped him. #11 Bobby Moore (with Charlie Cash) made it three on one. Still Matthews hung on. #12 Frankie Valentine fought his ass off to help Matthews but the numbers were against them. #13 Day joined forces with Hollis, and the Rave Approved guys tried to further dismantle Matthews. #14 Adrian Hawkins was a house of fire. Valentine ejected Vain. Hollis, Day and Moore were also history. Matthews got a chance to recover a bit here. #15 was the huge masked man, the Judge. He press slammed Valentine over the top, dumped Hawkins like he was nothing and put the claw on Matthews. Judge halted his attack long enough to rid the ring of #16 Shawn Hunter and #17 Ox Madison. #18 Brandon Collum’s dive bounced off of the Judge. Uranage. Goodbye. #19 Doc Gayton hit the ring slinging polish hammers at Judge. Some impact but not enough to prevent Judge from clamping on the claw. Judge took Gayton to the floor, eliminating both of them. Somehow, Gayton managed to hit Judge with a chair before collapsing to the floor. #20 Mike Posey attacked Matthews, who was still selling the cumulative effects of the match. #21 Cru Jones took his sweet time entering. They got Matthews as far as the apron but couldn’t finish the job. #22 Only made it three on one again. #23 Stevens showed fire before getting his ass beaten down when #24 Strykyn joined the party. #25 Adler ran wild. Tried to anyway. His stuff wasn’t connecting well. Junkies beat him down. #26 Murder One cleaned house with Dark City lariats and tossed Posey. Only got rid of Stevens. Jones took care of Adler. #27 Shaun Banks joined his partner in another attempt to eject the gritty Mathews. Hate Junkies doubled up on Murder. Fans were calling for #28 Steele to get out there. He hit the Steel City Bomb on Only. Suspects dumped Junkies and didn’t see Hot Like Lava coming from behind. #29 Rave joined Lava for one last 3 on 1 against Matthews. #30 Bull Buchanan singlehandedly took care of Lava. He got Rave as far as the apron and Matthews finished the job with a dropkick for the big pop of the match. It was down the Matthews and Buchanan. With the crowd 1000% behind him, Matthews got the octopus, but Buchanan was too big, too fresh and too powerful. He started throwing Mathews around. A missed high kick left Buchanan straddling the top rope. A running dropkick came close to getting it done. Matthews charged again. Bull blasted him and tossed him. But Matthews skinned the cat, or would have, had Rave not showed up to foil it. The immediate crowd reaction was more disappointment with being deprived of the story book ending than heat on Rave. That’s only temporary. They chanted “you didn’t earn it†at Bull. Not that he was happy about it either.
Hour #2
(4) Bobby Moore (with Charlie Cash & JT Smooth) beat Adrian Hawkins in 11:34. Hawkins controlled the first half of the match with a punishing side headlock. Moore was fretting and fuming and getting a lot of heat in the process. Getting so much mileage out of simple stuff like that is great burnout prevention, and the RPW crowd is on board with it. Smooth grabbed Hawkins’ leg to turn the tide. They traded near falls. When Hawkins hit his signature springboard back elbow, Moore bailed. Hawkins chased. Back inside, Moore met Hawkins with a running kick to the face, and that was it. Good match. Too bad Hawkins looked so foolish the way the finish played out.
(5) Jeremy Vain beat Frankie Valentine to retain the RPW TV Title in 8:03. Crowd pops for Valentine well beyond the level of his push. Valentine outwrestled Vain every which way. He introduced Vain to all four turnbuckles. Vain bounced to the outside, and Valentine used a baseball slide to send him into the rail. Moments later, Vain dodged Valentine’s dive and cashed in on the crash and burn. Not a good night for the aerialists. They did the tried and true sunset flip/clothesline cut off spot, except way better than usual, with Valentine taking an inside out bump. Valentine’s comeback was atomic drop city. Valentine hit a textbook Russian legsweep, but in a flash. Vain had him pinned with one of his slick cheat to win deals. The ref plead cluelessness. Putting these guys in a program could yield greatness.
(6) J-Rod beat Mike Posey (with Jimmy Rave) via DQ to retain the RPW Heavyweight Title in 8:34. Another match that opened with the babyface basically outwrestling the heel. The work was fine, but they needed to do something different somewhere in the second hour. Posey lost a kicking contest. He also came up empty on his trademark slingshot corner dropkick. Referee Robinson ejected Rave for interference. However, Posey took advantage of the distraction to gain the upper hand. That picked the crowd up. They got behind J-Rod’s battle to survive Posey’s grounded cobra clutch. He did. As J-Rod zeroed in on Posey, Rave attacked him for the DQ.
Matthews hit the ring and dropkicked Rave, who was then ready to call it a night. Commissioner Rinauro said whoa. Matthews would get his hands on Rave as promised. Always a good sign when the crowd calls for a particular match before the commish announces it. Leading to…
(7) J-Rod & Kyle Matthews beat Jimmy Rave & Mike Posey in 15:30. These people hate Rave, and he was pure chickenshit here. Rave made Posey start against J-Rod. As soon as Posey got the upper hand, Rave tagged in and cut the ring in half Anderson Brothers style. Crowd was itching to see Matthews make a tag. They got their wish when Rave was inadvertently clotheslined by Posey. But Rave immediately interfered with a devastating ring apron STO. Matthews’ body bounced off the ring frame in a sick manner. Only then did Rave tag in. He was more than happy to dish out the punishment and the taunts. J-Rod was losing it, which only made matters worse for Matthews. He brought Posey off the top with a huracanrana and the hot tag was made. Rave interfered with a running knee but J-Rod kicked out, then caused a Rave Approved collision. Matthews interfered with a frogsplash on Posey, but Rave broke up the pin. Day ran in and ate a Slurpee Kick from Matthews. Hollis ran and took a Superman knee from J-Rod. Matthews took Rave out with a tope. Finally! J-Rod made Posey miss with the guillotine legdrop and pinned him with the Superman knee. The closing minutes of this was heated whirlwind of action.
Afterward, Matthews and J-Rod had Rave trapped in the ring when Hot Like Lava jumped them from behind. But Valentine and Buchanan ran in and took care of Hot Like Lava.
Rinauro surveyed the situation and a made a match for March 5 – Hot Like Lava & Rave Approved vs. Matthews & J-Rod & Buchanan & Valentine. True to form, Bull was wary of forming any alliances.
NOTES: Rampage Pro Wrestling has partnered with Dragon Gate USA to present a bonus card prior to the April 2 DGUSA show in Atlanta at the Presidential Ballroom. The RPW show starts at 6:30 PM, featuring Rave, Buchanan, Matthews, and more to be announced…Rave was also announced for the April 1 DGUSA event in Burlington, NC…The company recently joined the NWA as an associate member through Behrens, who owns the NWA rights to Georgia…Cabana, currently the number two contender for the NWA World Title, is coming in for the March 19 TV taping…RPW is back on FOX 24 at 9am Saturdays in addition to their slots on 41.2 and Cox Cable 11. The station wanted RPW back because their show was drawing a better rating (1.0+) than the programming Fox put in its place several month ago…The Mega Rumble will air on February 26. The episode with J-Rod/Matthews vs. Rave/Posey will air on March 3. The current episode is uploaded each Saturday at www.rampageprowrestling.net. Matches 1 and 2 were taped for the 30 minutes RPW Rewind show that has multiple weekly airings on Cox 11…The broadcast team was Masters and Behrens as it has been since the summer…Rave was knocked loopy during the main event when J-Rod caught him right in the temple with the point of elbow. He somehow pulled it together to hit a sweet running knee strike and finish out the match, but was flat on his back in the dressing room for a 5-10 minutes afterward…Moore was sick with the crud, however, it had no detectable effect on his performance…It appears that Konkrete Gorillaz’s (Jay Fury & Nemesis) run in RPW is over before it really got off the ground…Congratulations to Sugar Dunkerton (RPW, Chikara, APW and many others), who is heading to Japan with Yoshihiro Tajiri's SMASH promotion from April 30 to May 3…RPW’s next quarterly major event is set for April 30. Venue TBA.
