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UWA: Hardcore Firestorm
The UWA is a fast-rising promotion up in Canada that use a lot of young, local Canadian talent, and put them against the top indy wrestling stars out there. It is run by Joey Slick, Osiris and US indy star Josh Prohibition. This is a promotion to watch out for in the future which are, in my opinion, better than the IWS in every way.
The production values for this DVD are top notch, the lighting and ring setup are up there with the top indy groups out there. Your commentator for this event is Joey Slick (the Joey Styles of Canada basically, he even admits stealing Joey's gimmick during the M-Dogg/Asylum match).
Match 1: 6 Man Scramble- Cloudy vs Brad Martin vs Colin Olsen vs Jamie Olsen vs Phil Atlas vs Cheech
A mix of local talent and US Indy stars here (the Olsen Twins aren't local, they are from California). A spotfest as you would expect in these sort of matches, but it was a good, fun way to open the show. So in this we saw fast paced, high impact wrestling action and some occasional comedy, and everything was very crisp and well executed. However, there was little to no selling of moves, and it just felt like one spot after another at times. The match ended quite abruptly with Martin pinning Cheech with a pinning combination.
Winner- Brad Martin
Larry Sweeney came out straight after the match, and cut his usual promo. The crowd didn't like Larry Sweeney at all. Joey Slick acted like he didn't know who Sweeney was, which confused me.
Match 2: Larry Sweeney vs Brad Martin
Perhaps the quickest match in history as Sweeney hat Martin with the ICW-ICWA Tex Arcana TV Title Belt and pinned him in roughly 10 seconds. What was the point of that?
Winner- Larry Sweeney
Match 3: Dan Paysan vs Amazing Darkstone
Both of these men are Canadian, and have stupid gimmicks (Dan Paysan has an FBI Style Italian gimmick, while Darkstone is a magician with very questionable ring attire). Despite this, these two had a very good match that surpassed my expectations, which had high flying, high impact style offense from both men. The spot of the match saw Darkstone hit the Magic Destroyer (Canadian Destroyer) to Paysan on the ring apron. A few minutes later, Darkstone hat the move again in the ring to get win. Good but short match.
Winner- Amazing Darkstone
Having promised to deliver the Magic Destroyer to Paysan three times before the match (according to Joey Slick), he did the move one more time after the match to fulfill his promise.
Match 4: Rip Impact and Matt Bison vs Jeff Flury and Nick Watts (representing the PWA)
Four top young Canadian talents here, and there was a storyline here of the UWA vs the PWA (Prohibition Wrestling Alliance). This was a solid enough match with good technical wrestling, and some nice double team moves and high impact spots by both teams. However, there were quite a few botched spots as well, and Rip Impact looked very sloppy. Jeff Flury was extremely impressive, he's someone to look out for in the future. Watts won this for his team by pinning Impact with the 1.20 Gigawatts (Sitout Piledriver).
Winners- Jeff Flury and Nick Watts
Match 5: Heishiro Hazuki vs Lionel Knight (representing the PWA)
Another UWA vs PWA match here. I've never seen Hazuki before, and he was decent enough here. However, Knight looked really good, he's someone I've been really impressed with him who deserves a proper shot in the United States. Quite slow and methodical to start with, but this turned into a fast, high impact style match that I found entertaining. Knight pinned Hazuki with the Angels Wings off the top rope.
Winner- Lionel Knight
Match 6: The Flying Hurricanes (Takao and Kenny The B*****d) vs 2.0 (Shane Matthews and Jagged)
A really good tag team match between two teams that I'm a fan of. A real clash of styles in this match, with 2.0 trying to keep the Flying Hurricanes on the mat with submissions and high impact moves, while the Flying Hurricanes followed their namesake and flew around the ring with high flying, high impact moves. The double team work in this was also really good, especially from 2.0 who are a really well oiled tag team unit. Despite hitting their Unpredictable Motions double team finisher, The Flying Hurricanes lost this match when 2.0 hit their double team finisher on Kenny, the Wheelbarrow/Lungblower combo.
Winners- 2.0
Match 7
A great, high-flying style of match, exactly what you would expect of these two men and more, and was especially good since Sonjay worked this match with a concussion suffered in TNA a week earlier. The crowd were hot for this, making the match that much better. I also like the fact that there was some build to the high flying spots in this match rather than it just being spot after spot. It wasn't perfect though, as there were a few sloppy spots, selling wasn't great, and it seemed like both men were trying to act like the heel in the match. The last few minutes were great, with lots of hot nearfalls, and Sabian managed to get the upset win with a Top Rope Double Stomp to the chest
Winner- Sabian
Rating- ***1/4
Sonjay cut an after-match promo thanking the fans, and promising he'd be back in the future.
Match 8
WOW, this was really, really good. Seriously, this is among the best matches I've seen all year, and is undoubtedly the hidden gem of 2006. From start to finish, this was a mat wrestling clinic, that was well built, with a really hot home run. The last five minutes were just fantastic, with near fall after near fall and both wrestlers unleashing all their signature moves. I'm not going to spoil this for you, but this is absolutely must see. Shelley won this match to retain his title with a variation of the Shellshock after the Sliced Bread #2 . "By far one of the greatest matches I've ever seen in a UWA ring", said Joey Slick.
Winner- Alex Shelley
Match 9
Asylum looks very like a younger version of Rhino, the fans even chant "Your Not Rhino" and "Stolen Gimmick" at him amongst other things. Despite this, he was very impressive in this match, he's as good a big man as I've seen. These two worked very well together, clicking in the ring and having a good match here that mixed high flying from M-Dogg 20 and power from Asylum. Despite an impressive effort, Asylum lost this match when M-Dogg pinned him after a sloppy Shooting Star Double Stomp. It was a good match, but I felt something was missing
Winner- M-Dogg 20
After the match, Sexxy Eddie ran out and attacked Asylum with a steel chair, then challenged him to a match at the next UWA Hardcore event to get revenge for an incident in November.
Match 10
Think of Osiris as New Jack and The Sandman merged into one, except he can wrestle. There was a big stipulation on this match: if Josh Prohibition wins, he gets full control of the company, but if Osiris wins then Josh Prohibition must leave the UWA forever. Because of everything riding on this match, it became more of a brawl with weapons used and brawling around ringside rather than a technical wrestling match. Both men took sick bumps into a barbed wire board, Prohibition went through the ringside table from the top rope, Osiris took a Death Valley Driver through a pane of glass setup on two steel chairs, and Prohibition went back first into thumbtacks. Lionel Knight interfered, hitting Osiris with a singapore cane, allowing Prohibition to hit the Drunken Driver (Tiger Driver 98) onto the thumbtacks, but Osiris kicked out at 2. Prohibition won the match and control of the company when he pinned Osiris after hitting the Drunken Driver on the ring ramp (the ring ramp broke when he hat the move). A wild, insane brawl that I really enjoyed, even though I'm not a fan of this style.
Winner- Josh Prohibition
Match 11
This was for the number one contendership to the UWA Lightweight belt, and was also made into a CZW Heavyweight title match at the last minute. While the match was just as insane as you would expect considering the stipulation, the match actually had some pretty good wrestling to go alongside the crazy highspots. The ladders around ringside were put to good use as both men came up with some very innovative uses for them. And unlike some ladder matches, most of the spots were crisp and well executed (although there were a few botched spots). I won't spoil this for you though, all I'm going to say it that this was a great and insane main event that saw both men pull off big spot after big spot with no regard for their own safety. When the CZW Title was put on the line, it was kind of obvious who was going to win this, as Ruckus managed to retain his title when he put Bishop through two tables stacked onto a ladder on the outside of the ring from the top of a tall ladder )one of the most insane bumps I've ever seen). Great match just for the innovation and bumps these two men took.
Winner- Ruckus
Christopher Bishop had a temper tantrum after the match, throwing weapons around ringside. Josh Prohibition came out and cut a promo about everything he was going to do now he was the owner of the UWA, announcing himself against Jerry Lynn and Christopher Bishop vs Osiris in a Loser Gets Fired match.
Thoughts- The UWA are criminally underrated on the independent scene, and this show proves it. From top to bottom this was a great show, with solid matches throughout, and three fantastic matches. If this promotion continues to put on shows like this, they will get noticed sooner rather than later on the indy scene.
Top Three Matches- Shelley/Castagnoli, Prohibition/Osiris, Ruckus/Bishop
Magnus D donaldson_magnus@yahoo.co.uk
