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UWA Hardcore The Faded Line Review
This is the infamous UWA show from April where Chris Hero attacks a fan in the crowd. I'm a big fan of the UWA promotion, it not only showcases lots of young, hungry Canadian talent that you don't see elsewhere, but it also puts out matches that you simply don't see anywhere else on the indy scene, plus the crowd are always hot for every single match on the card. This looks like another excellent event on paper.
Match 1
Niles Young announced himself in this match after the other two arrived, and said he was putting his title on the line (as much as I like to see title defended in other promotions besides it's home, it becomes clearly obvious who's going to win the match). I liked this match, it was a solid enough way to start off the show. The action was solid, with several innovative moves, but there were a few botched spots that hurt the match. Niles Young won the match as expected when he reversed a Reverse Suplex Driver into a Piledriver of sorts for the three count.
Both men were really over with the crowd in this match. A surprisingly good match, Dan Paysan looked great (he's become one of my favourite non-ROH indy wrestlers during 2006), and Beef has improved from the comedy wrestler he was in 2005. While the match was short, both men crammed a lot of wrestling into a short period of time, and made the match feel a lot longer than it really was. Beef won this match with a Reverse Tombstone that got him the three count. An impressive but short match.
Match 3
Very solid tag team action here, with all four men looking great and the action flowing really well from start to finish. I also liked the big man/small man against big man-small man dynamic, that's something you don't see a lot of now. My only gripe here would be that perhaps the working over of Sabian by the heel's lasted just slightly too long, since when Kingston made the hot tag, the match was over roughly two minutes later. Asylum won the match for his team when he hat the Gore on Sabian (as I mentioned in my last UWA review, there are major simalarities between Asylum and Rhino), then followed that up with a Double Underhook into a Neckbreaker for the three count.
After the match, Asylum almost started fighting with a fan in the crowd, and security had to get in-between them to stop him attacking the fan. I'm still curious as to whether this is the same fan that Chris Hero attacks later on in the evening, as if it was then this guy deserved it for trying to put his hands on the wrestlers and look tough.
Match 4
Sweeney has new music, and this was the meeting of the two most flamboyant men in the UWA (both men had very questionable ring gear to say the least). Getting past that, the best way to describe this match would be to say that it was a mixture of comedy and solid, old school style wrestling action. Both men got their trunks pulled down, and all I can say is that the less said about that the better (it was very hard to watch, let's leave it at that). Darkstone won when he pinned Sweeney after a variation of the Tombstone Piledriver.
Your typical tag team scramble style of match, with lots of highspots and high impact moves. I have no real problems with these sort of matches, so long as they're done right, and this one was done about as well as you could expect. The action was a bit sloppy at times, and selling was pretty much non-existent, but besides this there were crazy high flying moves that had the crowd on their feet. Problems between Martin and Atlas were played up in this match, with Atlas trying to steal Martin's thunder. The team that most impressed me were Unknown and Virus who I hadn't seen before, who both did some crazy high flying moves and double teams. Flury won this match by pinning Virus with a Top Rope German Suplex.
I have to say that the atmosphere during this was incredible, and this whole promo was must see stuff.
A great, fun match with a incredible atmosphere that I've only seen matched by the ROH vs CZW feud. The crowd were incredibly into this, 100% behind Petey Williams and completely against Josh Prohibition, giving the match that special old-school feel that isn't easily created in modern times, especially on the indy scene. It was the atmosphere that made this match special, and it got better and better as the match went along. Of course this isn't to discredit the wrestling at all, as it was all good, and done as well as it could have been done. Despite a great showing, Williams lost this match when Prohibition escaped a Canadian Destroyer attempt and pinned him using the ropes for leverage..
Petey went for a Canadian Destroyer on Prohibition after the match, but Prohibition escaped back to the locker room. The fans chanted please come back at Petey.
Christopher Bishop made his way to the ring for his match, but his opponent Osiris attacked him from behind with a Singapore Cane, and the match started quickly.
Match 7
This match was a result of Bishop turning on Osiris at the previous show (which I'll review at some point in the near future). A good, intense match between these two, as Bishop showed me a lot more as a heel than he did as a face and I was really impressed. Bishop wrestled his usual high flying, style but was more aggressive and used a lot more strikes, while Osiris wrestled his usual high impact style. Osiris looked to have the match won with the Vertabreaker, but Bishop kicked referee Bryce Remsburg in the face so that he couldn't make the count. Lionel Knight then ran out and attacked Osiris, hitting him with the Angels Wings, then put Bishop on top of him as Bryce Remsburg made the three count.
NOTE: Osiris is set to make his US debut in Chikara next month. Make sure you keep an eye out for that.
Knight continued to attack Osiris, until Jerry Lynn made the save, and our next match began straight away.
One of the reason I'm such a big fan of the UWA is because they put young, hungry talent in there with the best, and this is the perfect example of this. Another great match, Jerry Lynn proving here that he can still go in the ring with the best. A very even match, going back and forth, and this had some good high flying, high impact style action, although it was pretty much the usual Jerry Lynn style of match. Lynn won this despite Knight having a good showing, pinning him after the Cradle Piledriver.
Josh Prohibition, Jeff Flury and Nick Watts attacked Jerry Lynn after the bell, and looked to hit him with a steel chair, but Osiris made the save (running down to the ring with a big pipe), returning the favour from earlier in the night.
This is the reason I bought this DVD, and it didn't disappoint. These two just click in the ring due to their similar, explosive, high impact technical wrestling style (which is a big reason why they became Zero One Max Lightweight Tag Team Champions). So as you would expect, there was a lot of high flying in this, and lots of innovative technical wrestling and submissions. I'm not going to spoil this match for you, other than say that it was fantastic, although a step below the Shelley/Castagnoli match, and is another must see match from arguably one of the best wrestlers in the world right now in Alex Shelley. Shelley won this by pinfall after two consecutive Shellshocks.
After the match, Josh Prohibition came out and said that because Shelley was taking another booking next month, he was going to strip him of the title. Shelley told him the only way he'd give him the title is if he came and took it so that he could win it back. Prohibition ran in and took the title, then Shelley left back to the locker room.
Chris Hero cut a promo saying that he was here in the UWA for revenge against M-Dogg 20 who took his IWA-MS Heavyweight Title four years earlier, saying he would take his UWA Title in his debut match in the company.
Match 10
A great match, with a mixture of technical wrestling and high flying, and was basically as good as you'd expect. What this match will be remembered for is the 'incident' involving Hero and several fans. Remember the fan from before who tried to look cool by putting his hands on both Asylum and Josh Prohibition. Well, he did the same to Chris Hero, and Hero proceeds to punch him right in the face as the fan was held back by security. Later on in the match,. Hero was on the outside and a fan struck him across the back, then another fan struck Hero and he punched the fan right in the face, as Hero had to be held back by security or he would have probably killed the guy. Insane and totally unprofessional by both Hero and the fans who did this, and thankfully the fans who did this were kicked out. This took away from the match for me, but it was still really good. M-Dogg 20 won when he pinned Hero after the Shooting Star Press.
We got a series of backstage promo's with many of the wrestlers on the show. I won't go into these, you'll need to buy the DVD to see them for yourself.
Thoughts- Another very solid UWA show, although a step down from the previous UWA shows I've seen in terms of overall match quality. That's not taking away from the show, as there were solid to great matches from top to bottom on this show, but the Chris Hero incident and the Josh Prohibition pre-match stuff is what this show will be best remembered for.
Should you buy this show- It's another solid UWA event, with three great matches and some must see angles. The rest of the card is solid, and I am willing to give this show a thumbs up.
Magnus D
