This review was commissioned by Sam Glasper over on my Ko-fi account.
Messy, bloody, crazed, it’s CZW, baby. In the home of hardcore, the famed ECW Arena, four of the top deathmatch wrestlers of the time take “tear the house down” as a literal instruction. Just the month prior, they had attempted about the same in a wild bout that remains one of the most spectacular displays of CZW’s brand of violence ever, a match made doubly impressive for happening after Necro Butcher’s vaunted classic with Samoa Joe earlier in the day.
Let’s cut to the chase and say they don’t quite live up to the standard they set here. It’s certainly not for want of trying though. The match begins out in the stands with the babyface challengers daring The H8 Club to follow them into the crowd. The initial brawl is as nasty as one could hope for. It’s a sprawling series of bumps, punches, and crashes that take us all around the famous arena. Eddie Kingston and Eric Gargiulo on commentary struggle to call, or even see, any of the action as it spills all around the area. At one point, Gage and Necro brawl out the arena’s front doors and Necro whips Gage right through one of the glass pane doors. One must imagine the post-show sitdown with Zandig or whoever else handled the payouts for the night and who took from whose cut to cover those damages (if they were ever covered at all).
It’s action that basks in the tradition of something like the Memphis Tupelo concession stand brawl, only with an added bit of 2000s super indie recklessness that separates it from its predecessor and keeps it grittier than successors in the likes of AEW’s Anarchy in the Arena. When actual venue property starts getting fucked up and damaged, it can’t help but feel like the real deal, that these are dangerous, unwell men seeking to do some true harm to each other.
It’s also a Fans Bring the Weapons match, in the grand tradition of 2000s American deathmatch. Nothing’s quite as grand and wacky as the very best that we see in this stipulation, but there’s a lot of simple plunder that the wrestlers put to great use. A series of keyboards get whacked at heads full force, sending QWERTYs raining down on the canvas, there’s a used Easy-Bake Oven that produces such a satisfying clunk on skulls that Eddie Kingston starts counting concussions delivered, and there’s even a shopping cart that Gage and Necro both take some ill-advised spills onto.
Perhaps the most visually captivating of the weapons here doesn’t come from the fans at all. Dewey Donovan and Justice Pain pull down a piece of chain link fence from the entranceway and lay it out between the apron and the guardrail. There’s an almost gleeful enthusiasm from everyone in the bout to bump on that thing, like kids crashing into a too shallow blow up pool.
The match also succeeds in smaller moments of violence, these almost petty and casual bouts of nastiness that burst through. Gage casually tossing the Easy-Bake onto Necro on the floor for example, the way Necro luxuriates in clawing open Gage’s wounds, or the wonderful punches those two throw at each other. At one point, Necro hits such a meaty running punch to a seated Nick Gage that commentary goes on to brag about how there’s nothing “worked” or “fake” about pro wrestling as done by CZW and the Necro Butcher. Much as I hate fourth wall breaking stuff like that, I can’t help but agree with them. That’s the absolute freak shit that holds this match together.
And the match threatens–often–to come apart. After the initial crowd brawling, the spots in the ring take a turn for the repetitive. Grab item, smash, grab item, smash. Stretched out as this is, diminishing returns becomes a real problem for the workers here, especially given that these aren’t the most creative items the fans have brought in for this kind of thing. No Santas tied up in barbed wire and tubes? Do better, Philly.
The stunted momentum comes through even more in the finishing stretch. A series of botched light cues leads into a return of Nate Hatred who runs through the heel champions and basically sets up the big victory from our heroes. Not especially clear why Nate timed his return as he did, Dewey wasn’t enough of a force to need evening up the numbers, and it just made it look like Necro and Klein needed some bailing out in the end.
But whatever, Necro looks good bloody and holding gold. You take the great with the bleh with this kind of thing.
Rating: ****
