BRM Reviews 3PW A New Era

[Big Red Machine]

3PW A New Era-(6/21/2003)- Philadelphia, PA

OPENING HIGHLIGHT PACKAGE- nice, new, nifty little feature.

JOSH DANIELS vs. MIKE KRUEL- 6/10
Good opener.

ROADKILL & THE BLUE MEANIE vs. DA HIT SQUAD- 5.5/10
No Mini Meanie! Hooray! Da Hit Squad get into a shoving match after the match

DAMIAN ADAMS vs. RICKY VEGA- 4.5/10
Very good for such a short match. Vega is a very good heel.

MISS 3PW BEAUTY PAGEANT, ROUND 2- Tod Gordon brings out some letters supposedly written to him. And he and Jasmin St. Claire read them. They took shots at Missy Hyatt (worked) Bob Ortiz (work), Francine (probably shoot), and Shane Douglas (shoot- see what happens when you run your mouth about putting everyone else out of business, Shane?). They then take a shot at Blue Meanie and the Mini Meanie shows up to defend his honor. Mini Meanie starts to yell at Tod, but Jasmin sneaks up behind him and hits him with a low blow, which he sells atrociously. Tod then picks him up and hits him with an equally bad looking clothesline.
They then brought out two skanky women who stripped for the crowd. When one was declared the winner the other got upset and we got a sort of catfight. I say “sort of” because there was no slapping and some mat wrestling that was actually better than we have seen in some 3PW main events so far. This didn’t last long, though, as they first wound up doing some softcore stuff (including whatever the female version of tea bagging is).

Bob Ortiz announces that there is an afterparty at a local bar being hosted by Jasmin and the Meanie. They were feuding in the last segment, of course, so hooray for shooting kayfabe in the foot! Dumbasses.

NICK BERK vs. ROCKIN’ REBEL- 3.25/10

AJ STYLES vs. KID KASH- 7.5/10
Great match, but what else did you expect from these two?

CHRISTIAN YORK & JOSH MATTHEWS vs. MATT STRIKER & ROB ECKOS- 6/10
Matthews is angry at his minions for not being there for him last show so he has gotten them booked in a match against himself and Christian York. The match was going great, with a beautiful balance of action and storytelling and some hilarious comedy from Striker… which all gets derailed by Matthews’ entirely random turn on York. Then, after taking a two famous double team finishers and getting pinned, York gets back up and has to be beaten down some more.

MATT STRIKER GOES NUTS- awesome! And must be seen to be believed. If you loved wrestling in the 80’s, you will love this!

JUSTIN CREDIBLE vs. HOMICIDE- 4/10
Justin cuts a heel promo, then some mediocre brawling action commences. Cide kicks out of TWO That’s Incredibles, so Justin wins with a roll-up and some illegal leverage. Extremely disappointing.

THREE WAY DANCE FOR THE 3PW HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: “The Pitbull” Gary Wolfe(c) vs. Terry Funk vs. The Sandman- 4.5/10
The Sandman is in this match because Sabu had flight trouble and couldn’t make it to the show. To set up Sandman’s surprise entrance, they had Pitbull randomly act like a heel. When Sandman gets to the ring, Pitbull goes to the outside and yells about Sandman’s involvement in the match is BS. Sandman then makes disrespectful gesture towards Funk, but then offers him a beer. After drinking some of the beer, Funk attacks Sandman from behind… so I guess all three guys are heels?
Nowhere near good enough for a main event. Sandman was the only one who seemed to have brought it tonight. Gary’s attempts to be intense were almost laughable and some of Fuink’s offense looked extremely weak, especially on the finish. Even though this was an elimination match, they still broke each other’s pins up, which made no sense. Just a slow, mostly dull match (aside from when Sandman was controlling things) that didn’t get anywhere near enough time, and a title change with no build-up at all.

Overall, not a very good show from 3PW, although it certainly has some good points (well… really just AJ vs. Kash) and was easy to sit though. They do seem to have some stuff going with Matthews’ Minions, Justin Credible, the Rebel’s lack of talking (which the announcers awkwardly tried to put over) and some solid undercard action.