The Showcase Wrestling League

[KaySeeDubya]

I started this diary in May on a different board. Unfortuantly, nobody seems to be reading it and I just felt like I was showcasing my work to a brick wall. I feel a little awkward doing this, but since I'm having such a blast doing this diary, I'm going to repost up to where I am now and just continue from there. I will update it with the "first" post when I get to where I am so it can have accurate information. Just a little bit of back info, SWL started in May 2006 as a Pure promotion based in New York. It was of regional size and had about $400,000. It promoted a full block showcasing wrestling at it's best. It's owned by a former WWE writer, KC Wolf, who started the company up with some of his own budge aswell with help from some friends in the business. It started out with no workers, just me as the owner, so I had to go out and sign a starting roster. I feel really awkward doing it like this, but I hope it works.

[KaySeeDubya]

After about a month of signing and scounting talent, SWL have released a full list of their current contracted superstars. It is unknown if more will be added to this or not. Ace Steel Arik Cannon B-Boy Billy Batts (Formerly Billy Kidman) Brian Hebner (Referee) Brain Sommers (Announcer) CM Punk Daniel Puder Dixie Doug Basham Frankie Kazarian Insane Dragon Jim Molineaux (Referee) Jimmy Yang Johnny Jeter Ken Shamrock Lance Storm Matt Striker Mike Tenay (Announcer) Mikey Batts PJ Polaco (Formerly Justin Credible) Puma Rick Steiner Rocky Romero Teddy Hart

[KaySeeDubya]

SWL have released the following information on flyers and their website: Showcase Wrestling League: Welcome to Wrestling! That's right folks, 3 hours of WRESTLING entertainment will embark us this June! June 9th, 2006 will be the debut of the Showcase Wrestling League coming to Queens, NY! Get your tickets now while they're out! The full card of the show is sure to bring out the WRESTLING: -Openers- Mikey Batts vs. Puma Dixie vs. Johnny Jeter -Start of the Sweet 16 Tournament to crown the first SWL Champion- Lance Storm vs. PJ Polaco CM Punk vs. Ace Steel Billy Batts vs. B-Boy Arik Cannon vs. Rocky Romero Insane Dragon vs. Jimmy Yang Teddy Hart vs. Frankie Kazarian Doug Basham vs. Rick Steiner Ken Shamrock vs. Daniel Puder

[KaySeeDubya]

The following report was sent in by Logan Brooks: Hi guys! I just got back from the Showcase Wrestling League show in Queens. The show opened up with Mike Tenay coming down to the ring and welcoming us to the show. The first line he said was "Ladies and gentleman...welcome to wrestling!" That actually got a big pop. He notified us that we would be seeing a full show of wrestling and wrestling only. Before he left, he made the last announcement of saying that the main event, Ken Shamrock vs. Daniel Puder, will be shoot fight rules which means it can only end by submission or referee stoppage. Mike Tenay headed to the announcing booth and Brian Sommers came down to join him on commentary. A ring announcer came on, which was actually on over the PA rather than a man in the ring, and announced the opening match - Mikey Batts vs. Puma. Puma got little to no reaction. Mikey Batts didn't get much of a reaction either, but the man he came out with got a small pop - Billy Kidman. However Kidman was announced as Billy Batts. I guess this is the avoid trademark problems. It makes sense since in real life, Billy and Mikey are cousins. The two had a high flying match, basically a spotfest. The fans didn't seem to get into it too much - hey, we aren't in Orlando! (OHHHH!) Billy Batts AKA Kidman didn't get involved too much, I guess they only had him come out with Mikey so he would get some sort of reaction. The match was very bland to the fans, they even started a chant for referee Brian Hebner. The match ended when Mikey threw Puma over his shoulder near the ropes. Puma landed on the ring apron and then hit a beautiful springboard dropkick for the pin. Nobody really expected the match to end with that, but it did. Not much of a reaction for Puma winning. Dixie vs. Johnny Jeter was next. Dixie came out with his brother, Insane Dragon. Johnny Jeter got a big pop from the crowd. They had an 8 minute match that was back and forth. Insane Dragon got involved a few times which helped Dixie stay on offense. Jeter eventually took him out with a baseball slide, sending Dragon into the steel barricade. Dixie was then kicked in the gut and Jeter hit a VISCIOUS DDT on him that looked like his neck broke in two. The fans went "OHHH!" as the ref counted the three. Decent match and the fans got into it. Next was PJ Polaco vs. Lance Storm. This match was one of the most hyped up matches and for a good reason, these two had one of, if not, THE most succesfful tag team in ECW. Seeing them face off was a real treat. This match was also very back and forth. A small group of fans tried starting an ECW chant, but it didn't catch on at all. The match lasted around 15 minutes and the fans loved it. Storm even kicked out of a "That's Incredible" Tombstone Piledriver which got a huge pop. The match ended when Polaco went for a super kick, but Storm caught it and locked in the Canadian Maple Leaf. After about 1 minute, Polaco tapped and Storm get a big reaction. Ace Steel vs. CM Punk was up next. Both men got big reactions from the crowd. This is another match that's hyped a lot since both have a lot of history with ROH and the SCS. CM Punk actually dominated most of the match, but Ace Steel got some small bursts of offense. Ace Steel started getting the ball rolling when CM Punk failed on a Pepsi Plunge attempt with Steel pushing him off. Steel got about 3 minutes of offense from there until Punk rolled him up wtih the feet on the ropes. Very decent match. Billy Batts vs. B-Boy is up now. Billy came out with Mikey this time. B-Boy got a good reaction. B-Boy actually dominated the the match for nearly the full 8-minutes. The former Kidman got about 3 minutes of offense when Mikey Batts tripped up B-Boy on a shining wizard attmept. That got a lot of heat. B-Boy was thrown on the outside and Billy went to plancha on him, but he moved out of the way and Billy landed right on Mikey. That took him out of the equation and it got a good pop. The action got back in the ring and B-Boy was able to hit the Shining Wizard for the win. Arik Cannon vs. Rocky Romero was announced next. Nobody was really sure who Cannon was and we haven't seen much of Romero outside of the tag division. This was said to be the "bathroom break" match, but these two TOTALLY blowed us away. This was easily the show stealer. It was 15 minutes of very showcased wrestling between the two. It had both great brawling and even some mat wrestling involved as well. Arik Cannon looked really good, I can't believe I never really seen this kid before. But he can work. He came up short however when Romero got the Lady of the Lake locked on. Cannon tapped out after about 10 seconds. Both men got a standing ovation after the match. Insane Dragon vs. Jimmy Yang was announced next. A few guys next to me groaned as they expected another Mikey Batts-Puma. That wasn't the case though, this was a decent match. It wasn't a total spot fest. The two did some wrestling, granted Yang was dominating. Dixie was nowhere to be seen either, so no corny outside interference (I think we had enough at that point anyway). After nearly 10 minutes, Yang hit his Yang Time off the top rope for the pin. Frankie Kazarian vs. Teddy Hart was announced next. This match wasn't exactly what we were expected. I expected this to be a match of the night, but the fans didn't like it too much. The two decided to rely more on spots rather than wrestling which backfired severely to these fans. This was probably the second worst match of the night, the worst being Puma vs. Batts. Ted Hart won with a Hart Attack at around 12-13 minutes. Rick Steiner vs. Doug Basham was next. This actually wasn't all that bad. EVERYONE expected this to be a terrible match, but Doug Basham went back to his old mat wrestling techniques and Rick Steiner suprisngly looked like he was trying to as well. He wasn't really brawling all that match which made for a pretty decent match. The match went on for around 11 or 12 minutes. Steiner went for a three point stance tackle, but Basham dived under him and locked on a single leg boston crab. Basham kept the hold locked on and then grabbed the rope. Referee Brian Hebner did not see it and Steiner eventually tapped. A lot of people were suprised to see Basham go over Steiner like that. The main event was up next. Ken Shamrock got a nice reaction and even Daniel Puder did. They were both dressed in MMA gear. The match was a mix of both MMA and pro wrestling. They did a lot of mat wrestling. Puder was locked in the ankle lock, but he was able to get the ropes. They continued to go back and forth. Shamrock was getting very sloppy towards the end, he was visably tired. And rightfully so, the match was nearly 20 minutes. The match ended when Shamrock went for the Ankle Lock again, but this time he grapevined it. After about a minute, Puder tapped. Here is a recap of the results and a letter grade I will give them based both on my emphasis and the crowd's reaction to it: Puma over Mikey Batts - C- Johnny Jeter over Dixie - C+ Lance Storm over PJ Polaco - B+ CM Punk over Ace Steel - C+ B-Boy over Billy Batts - B- Rocky Romero over Arik Cannon - B+ Teddy Hart over Frankie Kazarain - C Doug Basham over Rick Steiner - C+ Ken Shamrock over Daniel Puder - B- Overall it was a pretty damn good show, I'm glad I participated in it and I'm sure nobody left that event unhappy. I would rate it a B-, good show overall. I can't wait to see where this company goes in the future.

[KaySeeDubya]

- SWL sent out good news right now that they are indeed a profit company. They started with around $450000 and currently have around $470000. This is great news considering SWL were a little worried about their budget after hiring the likes of Ken Shamrock, Rick Steiner, and Doug Basham while still being a rather small company. - The last SWL event in Queens, NY had around 2,000 fans which sold out the arena they were in. The general feeling is that it was a very good show and most of the crowd went home happy. - Johnny Jeter is currently going under the name "Spirit" Johnny Jeter. This is obviously a play at his old WWE gimmick before getting cut. - Showcase Wrestling League are returning July 7th to the city of Breotherly Love, Philadelphia Pennsylvania in theNew Alahambra arena. This was formerly an ECW arena and is often used by other independant companies such as CZW and IWA:MS. This is the current card they are advertising: Special K (Insane Dragon and Dixie) vs. Up to Batt (Mikey Batts and Billy Batts) "The Dog Faced Gremlin" Rick Steiner vs. "Incredible" PJ Polaco Arik Cannon vs. Ace Steel "Fists of Fury" Daniel Puder vs. Matt Striker "The Future" Frankie Kazarian vs. "Spirit" Johnny Jeter SWEET 16 TOURNAMENT DIVISIONALS Lance Storm vs. CM Punk B-Boy vs. "The Havana Pitbull" Rocky Romero "Flying" Jimmy Yang vs. Teddy Hart Doug "The Machine" Basham vs. "The World's Most Dangerous Man" Ken Shamrock

[KaySeeDubya]

The following report was sent in by Logan Brooks again: Hello once again guys, I just got back a few minutes ago from the Showcase Wrestling League show in Philly. I am from Queens, but I have to say...it was well worth the trip The show started up similar to last month, "Iron" Mike Tenay came out to a good reaction and told the Philly fans about how SWL rocked Queens last week. He ran through the card for tonight and reminded us a few things that happened last week. Tenay goes back to the announce booth with Brian Sommers. The PA ring announcer welcomes us and we're on our way. The first match announced was "Up to Batt" vs. "Special K". The Batts looked good out there together, especially teaming for the first time. Special K did their normal moves together. The match didn't tend to be too much of a spot fest which made it a decent match. The fans were much more receptive to Mikey Batts than the New Yorkers. The match ended when Billy hit the Kid Crusher on Insane Dragon while Mikey was fighting Dixie on the outside. The Batts got a decent pop for the win they briefly celebrated before leaving. Rick Steiner vs. PJ Polaco was announced next. This was a traditional wrestling match. It was mostly brawling, but decent brawling at that. PJ Polaco dominated the entire match. Steiner got some short bursts of offense. Polaco actually attempted to use a Kendo Stick he brought out with him, but Steiner gave him a Steinerline before he could for the pinfall. Arik Cannon vs. Ace Steel was announced next. This was a great match that went back and forth. Arik Cannon looked really good. The fans started chanting for him even though he's still relatively unknown. Ace Steel had a good showing, but Arik hit him with the Total Anarchy at around 15 minutes for the pin. Daniel Puder vs. Matt Striker was announced next. This was more of a comedy match than anything. Matt Striker was doing Colt Cabana-like antics in here. Daniel Puder was cheating a lot in the match and even stole the Ankle Lock. i guess they're teasing at Puder having a rematch wtih Shamrock down the line, or Puder costing Shamrock the tournament. I would like to see the latter since I really want B-Boy to win the title. Anyway, the fans didn't like the match that much, but it was okay. There were a few laughs at Matt Striker and Puder got some heat. Puder won the match with the Ankle Lock while holding onto the ropes for leverage out of ref's view. Frankie and Johnny time! That was a good movie, but this ia a match, folks. Frankie Kazarian vs. "Spirit" Johnny Jeter. Johnny got a big pop from the crowd since they all recongized him from WWE. Kazarian got a decent reaction as well. During the coarse of the match, Frankie acted very heelish and ****y which got some good heat for him. It was basically back and forth. Kazarian went for the Wave of the Future, but Johnny slipped out and gave him a nice Johnny Go Round kick. Johnny picked him back up and hit his viscious DDT for the pinfall. CM Punk vs. Lance Storm was annonced next. The first minute of the match was just the two staring down at each other. The match started and immediatly CM Punk got the advantage. From there, it was back and forth technical wrestling. There was a lot of good chain wrestling as well. A great moment in the match was when the fans were chanting back and forth. That's right, fans chanting for Lance Storm without saying "boring". Stupid WWE fans. Near the end, there was a nice spot that got a big reaction. CM Punk was setting up for the Pepsi Plunge and Storm threw him over his shoulder. CM Punk fell 15 feet to the floor. Damn! The crowd went holy Shi* as Storm dragged him back to the ring and locked on the Canadian Maple Leaf for the submission win. Rocky Romero vs. B-Boy should come as no suprise - awesome match! These two wrestled like it was in Japan, it was very intense. The fans were just "OOOO"ing from beginning to end with the stiff moves being thrown between the two warriors. A back and forth chant started with "LETS GO ROCKY! LETS GO B-BOY!" The match lasted nearly 20 minutes and ended when B-Boy was going for his Shining Wizard. Rocky blocked it and locked on the Lady of the Lake for the submission victory. Both men got a standing ovation and a big "Rocky" chant started. I seriously have thought that this guy is going to win the tournament. Jimmy Yang vs. Teddy Hart - Match of the night. Without a doubt, these two produced one of the best high flying matches I've seen in years. The fans didnt' seem to mind the high spots as they were well placed. There was also quite a bit of mat wrestling as well. The crowd got behind both men. They just had excellent chemistry in there, it really showed in their performances. Teddy Hart won the match at around 12 minutes with the Triple Bypass. Doug Basham vs. Ken Shamrock was announced next. This was probably the second-best match of the night. Most of the fans were stunned at Doug Basham's effort. He was just really working it with the technical skills, something we never seen him do in WWE. Much like the last match, Basham and Shamrock had excellent chemistry. Shamrock won near 15 minutes when he locked on the Ankle Lock for the submission. This event topped their last show without a doubt. The fans loved the show. Here is a small recap of the results with my letter grades: Up To Batt over Special K - C+ Rick Steiner over PJ Polaco - C+ Arik Cannon over Ace Steel - B- Daniel Puder over Matt Striker - C Johnny Jeter over Frankie Kazarian - C+ Lance Storm over CM Punk - B Rocky Romero over B-Boy - B+ Teddy Hart over Jimmy Yang - A Ken Shamrock over Doug Basham - A Overall, I would rate the show a B+. It was an awesome show and much like the show in Queens, the fans went home happy.

[KaySeeDubya]

- It's been reported that SWL's last show had an attendance of around 1,900. - SWL is advertising "SWL: The Bash!" as their next event. They're returning to Philidelphia and are advertising the following card: Ace Steel vs. Dixie Johnny Jeter vs. Insane Dragon High Flying & Exciting (Jimmy Yang & Puma) vs. Up To Batt (Billy & Mikey Batts) Matt Striker vs. "Incredible" PJ Polaco CM Punk vs. "Anarchist" Arik Cannon "Dogfaced Gremlin" Rick Steiner vs. "Fists of Fury" Daniel Puder B-Boy vs. Frankie "The Future" Kazarian "Machine" Doug Basham vs. To Be Announced SWEET 16 SEMI-FINALS Lance Storm vs. Rocky Romero Teddy Hart vs. Ken Shamrock

[KaySeeDubya]

Hello guys, Logan Brooks here once again. I was at the NGA Arena in Philly, PA. The arena was rather small...interesting choice for an arena when it was a big night for tonight. Storm vs. Romero, a mystery opponent against Basham, it seemed like a stellar card. You'd think they would pick a bigger arena. Mike Tenay came out and welcomed us again like he has been for the past two weeks. He ran down the card, went back to the booth, and the show is on our way, folks! Dixie vs. Ace Steel was up first. It was a decent, open match that resulted in Ace Steel picking up the win with the Steel Spike. Nothing really spetacular occred in the match, but it was cool to see Ace finally win a match in SWL. "Spirit" Johnny Jeter vs. Insane Dragon was up next. This was a very average match. It was mostly a spot fest and nothing much else more. Jeter picked up the win with that viscious DDT he has been using. Fans never really gave a huge reaction. Up To Batt vs. High Flying and Exciting was up next. Puma and Jimmy Yang weren't bad together. It was a decent match. High Flying and Exciting looked like they were about to win up until Billy Batts tripped up Puma on the outside. Mikey threw Puma over. Then Billy slid in and the two did some sort of X Marks the Spot on Jimmy Yang for the three. Matt Striker vs. PJ Polaco was up next. This was an average match at best. It was basically a comedy match, but the fans didn't seem to care much. PJ Polaco won after using his singapore cane behind the ref's back. CM Punk vs. Arik Cannon was up next. This was a good match...but as much talented as these two are, they just don't click at all. I don't know what it is, but it seemed like the match was lacking something majorly. It was a very open match up until Arik got caught up on the top rope, leaving CM to easily hit the Pepsi Plunge. Daniel Puder vs. Rick Steiner was up next. This was an okay match, but like most of the matches in the night, it was really nothing special. It was mostly brawling. Daniel Puder dominated the whole thing up until Steiner storing getting lots of offense at the end. He hit the Steinerline and that was that. B-Boy vs. Kazarian was up next. It was a pretty good match. Most of it was in the air and on the match, not much brawling though. It looked like B-Boy was about to pick up the win with the Shining Wizard, but Kazarian pulled something out of his tights and blasted B-Boy with them as he was running for it. The ref clearly saw what appeared to be brass knucks and called for the DQ. After the match, Kazarian beat down B-Boy and then left the ring. I guess these two might be having a rivalry. Doug Basham came out and it was time to announce his opponent. After a few moments, music hits and out comes someone announced as....The Damaja! The Damaja is of coarse Danny Basham! This was an interesting bout and the best match of the night. The two were very good together. I guess after teaming for so long, we never really got to see the two wrestle each other. It was a real treat. The fans got really behind it and a back and forth chant even started "LETS GO DOUG! LETS GO DANNY! LETS GO DOUG! LETS GO DANNY!". The match ended when Damaja hit the Brain Damaja and lost all stamina. He collapsed to the floor on his back. He draped an arm over Doug as Doug drapped an arm over Damaja. The ref counted..1...2..3! It seemed like it was ruled a double pin. Ken Shamrock vs. Teddy Hart was up next. The crowd was hot during this match, mainly cause of the last match. It was a pretty good match, but really short. It was only around 7 minutes which isn't very long in a company with no segments or angles. Ken dominated the whole match. Teddy tried to do a few spots, but none of them really worked. He won with the ankle lock. Rocky Romero vs. Lance Storm was your main event. It was a good match and a jawdropper. Not the best match of the night, but defiantly in for second place. Every was expecting Lance Storm to pick up the win, but people were still behind Romero. When Romero was locked in the Canadian Maple Leaf, I saw a few people packing their bags to leave. However, Romero somehow turned it and made it into a quick rollup. 1..2...3! UPSET! The fans couldn't believe it as EVERYONE was expected Shamrock vs. Storm. A big reaction for Romero ended the night as he stood in the middle of the ring on his knees. Ken Shamrock appeared on the stage and stared him down. Here is a small recap of the show: Ace Steel over Dixie - C+ Johnny Jeter over Insane Dragon - C Up to Batt over High Flying and Exciting - C+ PJ Polaco over Matt striker - C CM Punk over Arik Cannon - B Rick Steiner over Daniel Puder - C+ B-Boy over Frankie Kazarian - B Doug Basham draws The Damaja - B+ Ken Shamrock over Teddy Hart - B- Rocky Romero over Lance Storm - B Overall, it was a very solid show. It was not as good as their last one, but still great nonetheless. The only problem is that the arena was so small and there were only around 900-950 people. I would rate the show a B. Although we saw the shocking upset with Rocky Romero and the return of Danny Basham, the show was spoiled with a lot of medicore opener matches.

[KaySeeDubya]

- SWL are promoting the following for their upcoming event, High Concept. CM Punk vs. Puma "Anarchist" Arik Cannon vs. "Flying" Jimmy Yang Lance Storm vs. Ace Steel -Grudge Match- Frankie "The Future" Kazarian vs. B-Boy -Tag Team Action- The Damaja & "Dogfaced Gremlin" Rick Steiner vs. "Machine" Doug Basham & "Fists of Fury" Daniel Puder -SWL Championship- "The World's Most Dangerous Man" Ken Shamrock vs. "The Havana Pitbull" Rocky Romero - There is a strong feeling that SWL are going to incorperate more entertainment into their shows to develop stars a little better. It looks like the move is defiantly happening after seeing the card being much shorter than usual. It'll be interesting to see how the pure wrestling fans will take this.

[KaySeeDubya]

The following report was sent in by Logan Brooks: Hello ladies and gents! I just got back once again from SWL over in Philly once again. The it was a sell out crowd of 2,000 once again. The crowd was pretty hot and ready to for SWL action. I noticed there was a small titantron up. The show started out just like every one. Mike Tenay got on the mic and ran down the card. He heavily put over Rocky Romero vs. Ken Shamrock to finally crown a champ tonight. Mike Tenay had a weird voice today, it sounded soar and some of the crowd didn't really get into this segment because of it. There was some chants for the Rocky/Ken match, but not much else. A video for Ken Shamrock played on the titantron. It wasn't really the clearest view from where I was, but it was pretty good. It was clips of him training and some clips of him talking about how important tonight's match means to him. The crowd seemed to enjoy the segment. Brian Sommers was backstage with Rocky Romero to hype the main event. Rocky Romero cut a good interview, but Brian Sommers was just terrible as an interviewer. I've seen the guy before, he's a great manager. I can't say the same thing about his interviewing. It would be interesting to hear his commentary, but I have not seen a SWL DVD yet. The crowd were chanting "Where's the wrestling?!" and even some "Boring" chants. FINALLY the first match started and it was Puma vs. CM Punk. This was a very solid match-up that was pretty close too. Puma got in some great high flying spots, including a flipping senton to the outside when CM Punk tumbled over. The match came to an end when Puma went up on the top rope and CM Punk pushed Brian Hebner into the ropes. This caused Puma to be crotched so CM could easily hit the Pepsi Plunge. This drew quite a bit of heel heat which is good. Another match was started quickly as Puma was heading to the back. It was Jimmy Yang vs. Arik Cannon. This was a very good match and the fans were into Arik Cannon a lot, which is great. He's one of the more lesser known guys on the roster but he just has buckets of talent. He carried the match and Yang got in quite a bit of offense. Yang even hit a Yang Time, but Arik Cannon got his foot on the rope. The match ended when Arik hit his Glimmbering Warlock. Quickly after the match, Puma ran down to the ring and started to beat down on Cannon. Jimmy Yang joined in on it. The fans were kind of confused about this and could care less. Most of the crowd weren't even aware that Puma and Yang were a team. Lance Storm was shown arriving. Teddy Hart was waiting for him and extended his hand. Lance Storm didn't accept but just confusedly stared at Teddy. Teddy explained that he has a great deal of respect for Lance and how he has been a hero to him. Teddy says it is a real shame both of them lost last month because Teddy Hart vs. Lance Storm should have been the finals and a dream match for sure. Teddy babbles for another few seconds before walking off. Half the crowd were confused, the other half didn't care. Lance Storm vs. Ace Steel was next. It was a decent match. Ace Steel dominted but Storm eventually fought back and finally locked on the Straight Shooter. Poor Ace, they need to team him with CM Punk full on and get a tag team division going soon. Unfortuanly the match dealed with a restless crowd. Up next was the grudge match between B-Boy and Frankie Kazarian. Kazarian was on nothing but a losing streak so it was predictable he would win. It was a dead even match before Kazarian cheated to win at around 17 minutes after using the ropes as leverage. B-Boy was livid in the ring and mouthed "It's not over" to Kazarian. Kazarian got a lot of heel heat during this match. Matt Striker came out with Special K. Striker grabbed a mic and a few people in my section groaned "Oh god, another segment.." Striker started babbling about how he has been held down simply becuase SWL is just about wrestling and not the entertainment. He says that it's boring and bland. The crowd in return chants "boring" at Striker. Striker ignores it and claims he has formed an alliance with Insane Dragon and Dixie, Special K. Insane Dragon got on the mic and basically talked about how he is sick of people judging him because he has more charisma than their posterboy, Ken Shamrock, who has the charisma of a clam. Dixie then got on the mic and said "It doesn't matter what you say or do, we always bring the entertainment to you." The crowd were dead during this segment. TONS of "boring" chants. Striker ended saying that he would have an open challenge to anyone on the roster who thinks they can outwrestle the entertainment. Billy Batts came out alone. He slid in the ring and got face to face with Striker. Jim Molineaux slid into the ring and I guess we have a match. Billy Batts dominated the match wrestling-wise, but Special K were constantly interfering. Dixie would distract the ref and then Dragon would distract Batts. People were confused Batts wasn't doing anything about it. Finally came a point when Striker pulled out a pipe while Special K were distracting the ref and smashes Batts over the head with it. That was it for the three. Very predictable, but decent wreslting nonetheless minus the interfering. After the match, Special K started beating down on Batts. The crowd chanted boring once again. They were just eating Striker alive as he celebrated. Finally "Spirit" Johnny Jeter and Mikey Batts ran down and fought off the Entertainment. The crowd gave them no face reaction whatsoever, they were STILL chanting boring as the stable were getting their asses kicked. After that fiasco was cleared, a familier voice to the Tri-State crowd popped in, especially to the fans in Viking Hall, a former ECW arena...."SIMON HAS A PROBLEM!" Simon Diamond came out with Daniel Puder. Diamond babbled about how much potential Puder has, but nobody takes him seriously because he comes from MMA roots. He then babbles about how Puder will be the greatest two sport athlete on God's green Earth. Nobody seemed to care. No heel heat for Diamond at all. We got to ANOTHER segment. Backstage the former Basham Brothers are arguging - Doug Basham and the Damaja. Doug was yelling at Damaja and asking what he was thinking. Damaja remained silent througout the "argument", if you even want to call it that. This segment did have a lot of heat going into it though. Fans liked it a LOT better than Matt Striker or Simon Diamond. Up next with Daniel Puder and Doug Basham vs. Damaja and Rick Steiner. THis was a decent match with most of the match being Doug Basham/Rick Steiner or Daniel Puder/Damaja. Damaja and Doug Basham only got into a confrontation once, but Simon Diamond quickly distracted Damaja so Doug could make the tag. The end came when Damaja was fighting Puder on the outside. Simon took out a baseball bat and hit Rick Steiner in the head while Doug was arguing with the ref. Diamond rolled out and Doug covered for the pinfall. After the match, Steiner rolls out of the ring and Diamond celebrates on the ringside. Basham celebrates in the ring. Damaja throws Puder into Diamond, taking those two out. He gets into the ring and gets face to face with Doug. The two just stay there for awhile and neither give ground. Eventually Doug backs off and leaves. Damaja stays in the ring with a huge smile on his face. A final video popped up hyping Ken Shamrock vs. Rocky Romero. It pretty much highlighted the whole tournament. Rocky Romero vs. Ken Shamrock was up next. This is it ladies and gents. There was a lot of tension going into this match and the first minute was just the two staring down. Finally Romero struck first and we were on our way. Shamrock dominating pratically the whole match and locked on the Ankle Lock about 3 times. Twice Romero was able to kick Shamrock off, once he reached the ropes. The crowd was VERY restless during this match with most of them disapointed with the previous chain of segments. It's hard to enjoy the show when people are acting like that. A few back and forth chants started. At around 13 minutes, Shamrock took out the ref, Jim Molineaux,, when he gave Rocky Romero and belly to belly into him. Shamrock tried to revive him, but he rolled to the outside. Shamrock got back to Romero and locked on the Ankle Lock. That is...until a masked man came out. The masked man climbed into the ring. Shamrock released the lock and looked the masked in the eye. The masked man gave him a stiff punch to the face with a boxing glove on. Ken Shamrock was knocked out. The masked man took off his glove and there was some metal in there. The masked man than spat on Shamrock and took off his mask to reveal...TITO ORTIZ! The crowd gave him MEGA heel heat and he walked off. Most of the crowd were stunned to see Ortiz. Rocky Romero crawled on top of Shamrock. After about 5 second, Brian Hebner slid into the ring and counted. 1...2...3. That was it. Afterwards, Rocky Romero celebrated in the ring for about a minute. I'm glad he won and a lot of other people in the crowd were happy he did aswell. Here is my rundown of the matches and what I grade them: CM Punk over Puma - C+ Arik Cannon over Jimmy Yang - B- Lance Storm over Ace Steel - C+ Frankie Kazarian over B-Boy - B Matt Striker over Billy Batts - C+ Basham/Puder over Steiner/Damaja - B Rocky Romero over Ken Shamrock - B Overall: B Personally, I think this was a real disapointment, ESPECIALLY considering this was the show to crown a new champ. Although the matches were all okay as always, the segments were terrible, atleast most of them. I think SWL should have tried doing small segments for the crowd before doing all these in one, just to test things out. The crowd just hated Matt Striker, and it wasn't heel heat, it was Jeff Jarrett heat. They just couldn't stand the guy being there and wanted him gone from the arena and out of their view.