AS I SEE IT - 12/23/2002:
News on 12/28 Philly Indy Wrestling Tripleheader,
XPW Talent Raiding, New CZW/3PW Venues
by: Bob Magee The Philadelphia independent wars continue bigtime...with a independent tripleheader this Saturday, talent raids by XPW (and attempted ones that have failed), and news on likely new venues for CZW and 3PW.
Tickets for December 28th may be reserved by calling (856) 468-9147, by emailing beaners_13@yahoo.com or by using the CZW Online Ticket Reservations System at http://www.czwwrestling.com/Tickets/tickets.html.
NOTE: ALL reserved tickets must be paid for in advance to retain your reservation.
General admission tickets are also available prior to the show at these remote ticket locations:
This matinee show will also allow fans to attend the Ring of Honor show, which takes place at the Murphy Recreation Center at 7:30 pm, and includes CZW's Backseat
Boyz.
Ring Of Honor will do a mini-TV taping at 6:30 pm prior to the 7:30 pm show, with Jay Briscoe vs. Ace Steele as the featured match.
Ring Of Honor's 7:30 pm lineup has:
Tickets are ringside $30/2nd-3rd row $20/General Admission $15 and can be ordered online at http://rohwrestling.com/rohtickets.html, can be ordered in person at Rock'n'Roll Plus on 613 South Street (diagonally across the street from Tower Records), or by calling (215) 891-9404.
For New York fans wishing to attend the Ring of Honor show, there will be a bus leaving the New York area at 1:30 pm from Modell's (behind the Queens Center Mall). To reserve spaces for the bus, email AgentCLPT@aol.com or ECWLegacy@aol.com.
At 8:00 pm, 3PW runs their show at the ECW Arena. These matches are already scheduled:
Tickets are available at:
A bus will run for New York City fans to the 3PW show, with 2 pick up points:
For general 3PW information, call (866) 228-0326 and leave your questions and contact information after the tone.
XPW talent raiding continues - The inter-promotional atmosphere was heated up when XPW brought in MDogg20 and John Prohibition from CZW over the weekend, and put them over Mexico's Most Wanted, XPW's Tag Team Champions on their December 21 show. Given that this occurred prior to the December 28th tripleheader, MDogg20 and Josh Prohibition will no longer be used by CZW, and those matches will be re-booked (with MDogg 20 originally scheduled in a 3-way with Chris Cash and Ruckus, and Prohibition scheduled to work Ian
Knoxx).
As for 3PW talent, Devon Storm appeared for XPW on December 21 (had been booked for 12/28 by 3PW), and Joey Matthews and Alexis Laree of ROH are also to join XPW. It's a curious step of
Laree, who has been known to complain about the state of women's wrestling, and the inability to get bookings where she's treated seriously.
XPW had also attempted to steal Dusty Rhodes, as well as contacting Sean Waltman with a similar proposal. In a previous attempt to secure Rhodes's services, Rhodes was offered 10 dates with XPW in return for no-showing an upcoming 3PW show. Rhodes refused to return the telephone call given him by his secretary with the proposal.
Rhodes offered comment on the situation last Wednesday on an interview with
betweentheropes.com. Rhodes said that Black was a money mark, and "they are just taking the money while they can". Rhodes stated that he didn't see it being a viable promotion, and "so he wasn't gonna waste his time on it".
At various times over the last six months, XPW has tried to raid talent from the Ring of Honor roster including Homicide, Jodie Fleisch, both members of Da Hit Squad, Jay and Mark Briscoe, AJ Styles. Doug Williams, CM Punk, Jose
Maximo, and The Amazing Red, as well as CZW talent including former CZW Heavyweight Champion Justice Pain and Tag Team Champions, The Backseat
Boyz.
None of these attempts has been successful...making the only talent XPW has obtained from the Philadelphia-based indies being booked mid-card at best.
Also this past week, in an online interview that hardly put the best light on XPW's reputation, XPW valet (and wife of XPW/Extreme Associates owner Rob Black) Lizzy Borden did an online interview, available at http://easylink.playstream.com/onair/belt/belt1218.wax
[EDITOR'S NOTE: be aware that this interview contains HEAVY use of profanity, involved sexual content, and adult language, and is not suitable for minors]
Ms. Borden's comments are about 21 minutes into the interview. Some of her most interesting references by Borden include, with substitutes used for certain language:
New venues for CZW and 3PW - As for where CZW and 3PW will go after December 28th, there have been numerous reports over the last two weeks that the CZW has a new venue in South Philadelphia, a fact more or less confirmed by CZW management in a recent Philadelphia Daily News wrestling column. It's assumed
that Zandig will announce this new location on December 28th.
It's likely that the December 28th event, scheduled with short notice, would give CZW a post-Cage Of Death 4 show to allow them to retain momentum, and to tape footage for Fake You TV to tide CZW over for a month or so until they can get the new facility ready.
3PW has also indicated that they have already checked out three possibilities for new venues. 3PW was previously not scheduled to run again until February 15th. Given the willingness for the two promotions to cooperate, it is possible that CZW and 3PW may be able to work together at CZW's new venue, when and if this new venue is needed.
One small wrinkle in all this is the fact that XPW must pay the remainder of the $120,000 lease in order to complete the 2003 lease of the ECW Arena, which they have not yet done as of this writing; although CZW and 3PW are obviously planning under the assumption that this is a done deal.
Ted Petty banner controversy In one other controversy, during a Philadelphia Daily News interview, XPW's Kevin Kleinrock refused to confirm that XPW would retain the banner dedicated to the late Ted Petty that hangs on the wall of the ECW Arena.
This controversy began with an interview by the Philadelphia Daily News's Michael
Tearson, in which Kleinrock responded to Tearson's question regarding the banner. Kleinrock's non-response was printed in Tearson's December 19th Daily News column:
"[I] asked XPW spokesman Kevin Klinerock what XPW would do with the banner recently hung on a wall honoring the late Ted 'Rocco Rock' Petty of Public Enemy, an ECW stalwart and a genuinely wonderful man. Klinerock said XPW plans to acquire a genuine Rocco Rock jersey to mount framed on the wall."
Michael Tearson further noted in the column that he felt his question hadn't been answered:
"[I] hope XPW leaves the banner on display, too. It honors not only Petty but all the ECW workers who put that old, South Philadelphia bingo hall on the map as a wrestling mecca."
It's not impossible to believe that given the way XPW and its supporters feel about 3PW in this wrestling war that they would consider taking the banner down, not out of any direct disrespect to Ted Petty (who worked several shows for XPW), but simply because it is 3PW that put the banner up in the first place.
Even if this is just a verbal misstep by Kleinrock, it's further proof that XPW seems to have little knowledge of the market that they are operating in, and that they are attempting to "take over" by virtue of the leasing of the ECW Arena and by stealing talent from other locally-based promotions.
XPW would do well to say publicly that they'll leave the banner up... and to have Kevin Kleinrock or Rob Black
by name say so.
If XPW were to ever take this memorial banner down...and to disrespect Ted Petty as the result of an inter-promotional pissing match, anyone who ever claimed to be a ECW fan (or any kind of wrestling fan) would owe it themselves and to Ted Petty to react accordingly.
But judging by the lack of crowds, reported as less than 400 (including comps) at the December 21 show, they may already have.
Happy holidays to all.
Until next time...
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(If you have comments or questions, I can be reached by e-mail at bobmagee1@hotmail.com)