OctoberFIST Review
By Sweet Daddy Siki
10/15/08

When I entered the Coral Springs Gymnasium, I immediately felt a good vibe as the floor was set up in the arena configuration and looked first class. The new pre show MC was a high energy talker, who though dressed a lot better than the last MC, still needs to don a jacket and tie when carousing through the audience. There was a buzz in the crowd and the show began. -Our first match had Irish Jack Hurley against Mr. Irresistible. I have to admit that Mr. I grows on me each week . The outfit he wore for this card was perfect and he surprised the crowd by having a jacked valet accompany him to ringside. Once the bell rang we were treated to excellent arm drags and back flips, a staple of good basic wrestling moves. Our referee was the female wrestler Leva who wore a pretty nice ref outfit. What was funny about Leva was seeing her do a two count. On the next card, notice how she does an "up yours" with her right elbow and left hand when she hits a two count. Both wrestlers put on a great opening match and it ended when an attempt by Mr. I's valet to hold Hurley for a punch backfired and Hurley rolled him up for the pin. -The real bad guy in CCW, The Syrian Slasher is still out with an injury. Kahagas took his place and teamed with the American Taliban to take on Pablo Marquez and JB Cool. A new manager, Rico Casanova appeared with The SnakeMaster to assist the villains. I guess that the old guy from the last card who managed Kahagas in a bath robe was finally Baker Acted and Rico got the job. Kahagas and Taliban did something not often seen today wrestling, they jumped the good guys before the bell rung. That is the attention to detail which makes a match more interesting. This gave both Pablo and JB the chance to recover and do spectacular moves on the villains with back flips and a double armed flip. Both teams had on their wrestling boots tonight and we saw some moves by Pablo which I never saw him do before. He became a real aerial wrestler and did a great back flip over the top rope to squash both Kahagas and the American Taliban. JB pinned Kahagas and we just saw a great tag match. I can't wait for The Syrian Slasher to return as he is the missing heat generator for the crowd. -The next match was a return grudge match between the Ram Man and Alex G. I told Alex G not to trust Mayor Venis as I guess the checks are starting to bounce. Poor Alex wore a torn up jersey and shorts with holes in them. He would look at home as a squeegee guy in Miami with how poor those clothes looked. Before the match started, Alex G had some words with Kellie in the ring. Alex was running his mouth and getting ready to slap Kellie when the Ram Man busted this up. Alex G wrestled the smart way against the Ram Man by working over his knees until Ram Man hit the mat with a big thud. In the middle of pummeling Ram Man, Alex G hit the ref who fell to the side. This allowed Kellie to climb to the ring apron and then jump to the top rope, balance herself, take aim and pounce on Alex G. This was an incredible move and I and the crowd whooped it up for Kellie. It really was a first class move, delivered flawlessly and showed just how good she is. The Ram Man then delivered a big splash on Alex G who almost emptied his colon into his raggedy shorts upon impact. A quick 1,2,3 and Alex G was history. Great move by Kellie. -A three man tag match was next with enough flag waving to last till the rest of the year. Dade County Collision (DDC) came to ringside with their Cuban flags and the German Reiken while the Sons of liberty (SOL) came in with their USA flags and the popular masked wrestler, The Patriot. Each team whooped it up for their homeland with Reken being the funniest since there is not a lot one can do with German nationalism that does not lead to a world war. The smaller SOL member has a face which I was trying to place from TV. He was getting the stuffing beat out of him by the other team when it hit me. The smaller member of SOL looks like a carbon copy of Bud Bundy from the TV show "Married with Children". The whole point of getting the stuffing beat out of you is to make that hot tag to bring in a fresh guy to clean house. The hot tag was made and The Patriot came in and whipped everyone around the ring with ease. Another tag took place and the SOL boys drove the one eyed DDC out of the ring while poor Reiken was pinned. Reiken earlier whipped out his German flag and thank God it was a modern version. I grew up on great German wrestling characters like Waldo von Erich and Hans Schmidt. Reiken is too much like a former WCW wrestler named Alex Wright who was repackaged as a German named "Berlyn" who never quite caught on. Reiken needs some victories and a makeover to get himself over. -CCW has not had a battle royal since a ladies version gave us the incredible "Calypso' a while back. Battle Royals were a staple of local promotions and were once a year spectacles which would allow a new face or villain to move ahead a few spots in the booking. When done right, a Battle Royal can get a crowd charged up. I was surprised at just how many new faces we saw in the Battle Royal. I had Big Daddy Gonzo as the favorite because of his size. There were so many new faces in the ring I thought CCW flagged down some cars on Coral Springs Drive to get participants. The action took off and I was impressed at the energy among the combatants. There were a few moments where some of the students seemed to not know what to do next, but overall, it was an exciting match. Rico Casanova came to ring side to interfere and did quite well until Kahagas was eliminated. Anthony Michaels came back after being eliminated which confused me as I doubt anyone in the crowd gave a second of thought to him coming back. Shane McLane was the last man standing which is a big victory for him as he earned a shot against CCW champ Dok Rivers. -Dok Rivers hit the ring and the match with his former tag team partner Shane McLane was on. I thought that this was a big disadvantage for Shane since he just finished the battle royal and would be exhausted. Shane appears to have given up his Canadian roots for good which I think is a big mistake. He generated a lot more heat from the fans as a wise mouth Canadian with his flag than a generic wrestler. I would have him insult the crowd about how he is richer than Americans cause the Canadian stock exchange did not collapse and he has health insurance while a lot of the audience does not. Shane really could not out muscle Dok or counter his moves after a grueling Battle Royal. Dok pinned Shane and we are on our way to one of the featured attractions. -The crowd went wild for the ring debut of the 6 foot 10 Isis. This was her first match and a TV crew was here filming her and the crowd. Her opponent, Calypso came to the ring with her right wrist in a brace, a frown and two white boys. The white boys were Scott Passion and The Phoenix who explained that Calypso was injured in a car accident. I guess her hand hit the drive in sign at McDonalds when she went to pick up her 5,000 calorie takeout meal. Isis was jumped by everyone and she was able to do a choke slam on both of the white boys at the same time. The crowd cheered this exhibition of strength as the ref counted the pin. Calypso tore off her wrist brace and jumped Isis. Isis whipped her into the ropes and thank God the ropes held up. When Calypso returned from the ropes she was met with a big boot to the face from Isis. The crowd cheered and we have a great attraction for future events. -After an intermission, the cage was set up for the return match between Dustin Rhodes and Bruno Sassi. The bad blood between the two has been growing at each card and the former tag partners were now at each other's throats. The crowd was expecting a wild match and so was I. This match had a few problems for me. Cage matches are the means to settle bitter feuds and one of the participants usually is very eager to enter and raise hell while the other is usually afraid of the onslaught. For some reason, both Dustin and Bruno were in slow motion tonight. After a few minutes I figured out that the two were still wrestling a regular match, with the cage just a back drop. It took a while for some action to build as Dustin soon was bleeding. He battled back and instead of sending Bruno face first into the cage, he slapped on a figure 4 leg lock and gave Bruno a bulldog. This made no sense in the same logic that having Leva as the ref made no sense for what is supposed to be a brutal end to a feud. Seth Gregg, though looking much better in his jacket and tie was basically as useful as a pretzel from the concession stand. Dustin, after injuring Bruno's leg was getting ready to leave the ring via the door when he stopped. He could have ended this and won, but instead slowly returned back to the fallen Bruno. That is one of the biggest mistakes to make in a cage match. You leave when you have the chance and the drama begins when most of your body is out of the ring and you opponent is hanging on to your foot in a last gasp . Dustin went back to the cage door and in what surprised me, he motioned for a chair and the ref Leva gave it to him! What kind of ref is that? What kind of manager is Seth Gregg where he stands by and lets a ref who weighs 200 pounds less than him give a chair to Dustin in a cage match? Bruno now had recovered some of his energy and wrestled the chair back from Dustin. In a shocking turn of history for Dustin, Bruno gives him a Bionic elbow and rolled him up for the pin. The victory was short lived as Dok Rivers, Kahagas and The American Taliban entered the cage to deliver a beat down on Bruno with the cage door locked. The dressing room emptied out and soon many wrestlers were trying to climb the cage to save Bruno. The Kendo Stick of Kahagas was then used to stop the climbing wrestlers who could do nothing to interrupt the beat down. Seth Gregg again was useless as he could have tried to climb the cage and used his girth to collapse the chain link sections. Bruno was finally saved and I think we will have another match in December as this feud is still not settled. Over all this card was much better and exciting then the last card. Many things went right and the few duds were forgotten by the time the evening was over. What is very clear to me is that CCW does not seem to have a real SOB villain to get the crowd worked up. Dustin is too liked by the fans who have seen him over the years in many different versions. Last year's December event had intense energy as the Syrian Slasher and The American Taliban had a Xmas tree match with Phi Delta Slam. We need another great Xmas tree match to end the year for CCW as the year comes to a close. Sweet Daddy Siki