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OVERLOAD
Results
by
Mike Machnik
Fading music gave way to the sound of crashing bodies in
a UPW highlight video up on the giant screens that flanked the ring
signaling wrestling fans to their seats in the packed house.
John Ian, the mellifluous in-ring voice of UPW, came down the
runway to the ring to announce the first match.
The
Outlaws (Mike Knox, Marshall Knox, Derek Niekirk) vs. The Pitbulls
(Ricky Reyes, Rocky Romero, Puma)
The Outlaws had a significant size advantage, which
they made good use of early in the match successfully isolating
Rocky Romero from his teammates.
But the Pitbulls lived up to their name holding on and
fighting back until Mike Knox threw Rocky into the ropes and the
Pitbull took an unexpected high bounce that caught Mike high in the
chest and bowled him over. Rocky
finally made the all-important tag to Puma and moments later all six
men were in the ring and then out of it and fighting on the floor.
Puma, the smallest and newest of the Pitbulls was the first
to scramble back into the ring and up a ring post followed by Mike
Knox. The two of them
slugged and punched each other on their perch until they came down,
in the ring, on Mike’s head.
Then while Ricky and Rocky held Mike and Derek in the pit
Puma rolled up the dazed Mike Knox for the pin.
WINNERS: The Pitbulls
John Ian introduced WWE’s Justin Roberts, who always
gets a reaction from Southern California wrestling fans, who
introduced the next match.
UPW
WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Ivory vs. Erica Porter (Champion) with Big Schwag and Babi Slymm
The early part of the
match was solid mat-wrestling with both women trying but failing to
establish control until Schwag standing on the ring apron saw a
chance to drive a knee into Ivory’s back, and did.
The Champion scored a series of high impact moves on Ivory,
and got a series of two counts from referee Marty but seemed unable
to find a finishing combination.
Then a wriggling Ivory managed to unbalance Erica’s
attempted slam sending the Champion over backwards with the
challenger landing on top of her.
Ivory seemed about to upset the Champion when Schwag pulled
the referee out of the ring and while he argued with Marty in the
pit Babi Slymm took Ivory down with a running lariat.
When Schwag shoved the referee back into the ring he found
Erica on top of Ivory and made the three count.
WINNER: Erica Porter
TWELVE
MAN TAG TEAM
Team UNIVERSITY
(Shawn Riddick, Tommy Wilson, Lil’ Nate, Andrew Hellman, Tony
Stradlin, The Miz)
vs.
Team SAVAGE
(Navajo Warrior, Solo Snuka, Skulu, Sabbath, Ma’koa, King Dabada)
Considering that
there were twelve men around the ring wanting to get into action and
show what they could do the opening minutes of the match were
remarkably orderly, with the University guys repeatedly
demonstrating that you don’t have to be the biggest guy in the
ring to come out on top. But
the University’s ability to evade, counter and upset their bigger
opponents eventually frustrated Savage into multi-teaming Andrew
Hellman, which brought all the University Students into the ring,
which brought all of Savage into the ring.
Wrestling rings aren’t that big and the action rapidly went
to the floor with bodies and fist and boots flying anywhere you
looked. Amid the
general chaos Lil’ Nate managed to scramble back into the empty
ring where he headed for a ring post.
But he was caught by Skulu who tossed the littlest guy in the
brawl up in the air, and caught him in his “Polynesian Powerslam”,
resulting in the win for team Savage.
After the victorious Savage had left the ring the other five
members of the University team scarped Nate off the mat and carried
him to the back. WINNERS:
Team Savage
After a brief but rousing in ring performance by the POWERBOMB
dancers, during which they pulled off their RAW
DAWG T-shirts and tossed them to eager fans, John Ian came out
to introduce Miss D. D. who introduced the Big Schwag who brought
out Adam Pearce.
Adam Pearce vs.
“Superfly” Jimmy Snuka
After Schwag threw powder in Snuka’s face Adam Pearce
and pounded the superstar into the mat with a piledriver and then
covered him for the pin. But,
unseen by referee Marty, Snuka managed to get a boot over the bottom
rope well before the count was finished.
So while Schwag and Adam Pearce celebrated Pearce’s victory
Referee Rick Knox conferred with referee Marty who, realizing his
error, restarted the match. A surprised Adam Pearce was slammed to the mat, hit by a
Snuka splash off the top turnbuckle and rolled up for the pin in the
center of the ring. WINNER: “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka
John Ian
introduced Looney Lane, The First Lady of UPW, who remember many of
the famous and infamous women wrestlers of UPW over the last five
years and thanked the fans for their loyal support if in a rather
immodest way.
Up on the Giant Screens on either side of the ring video
highlights of the recent rocky relationship between UPW owner Rick
Bassman and Commissioner Pete Doyle played out, then shifted to
scenes of Rick training for their match and then to the locker room
where someone shouted the two minute warning to the UPW owner.
Then a clipboard smacked over Rick’s head and he toppled
over on the floor. The
scene shifted to Pete Doyle parading to the ring where he announced
that he’d taken care of the last little bit of red tape in the way
of his taking over UPW and then, as his first official act, he fired
color announcer Todd Keneley. At
that point Doyle was interrupted by another image on the Big
Screens, a bloody faced Rick Bassman who warned Doyle that they were
going back to the Jungle!
FOR
CONTROL OF UPW
Commissioner Pete Doyle vs. Owner Rick Bassman
It wasn’t an elegant match.
The clipboard banged off Rick Bassman’s head multiple
times. When the brawl
rolled out of the ring to the stage the recently fired Todd Keneley
punched Doyle in the nose knocking him into Rick and the two of them
fell off the stage and through a table waiting for the TLC match
later in the show. In
the end Pete Doyle swung his clipboard one too many times and Rick,
having learned from experience, ducked and then kicked the metal
paper holder back in Doyle’s face, rode the staggered
commissioner’s head into the mat and covered him for pin.
WINNER: Rick Bassman
Once again the big
screens shifted images, this time to Vince
McMahon congratulating Rick on his win and UPW’s five
successful years and the positive relationship they had established
with the WWE. Then in
his own inimitable style Vince told Pete Doyle, “You’re
Fired!” and led the crowd in singing, “Na Na Na Na, Goodbye,”
to Doyle.
Tom Howard &
Chris Daniels
vs.
The Outsiders (Scott Hall & Kevin Nash)
with special guest referee Evan Marriott
The match frequently spilled onto the floor around the
ring, which early on seemed to be where Hall and Nash preferred to
fight. Later Scott and
Kevin managed to isolate Chris Daniels in the ring, wearing him down
and keeping him from Tom Howard.
Scott’s sleeper on Daniel’s had Chris down on the mat,
but with the crowd chanting their support Chris shot elbows into
Scott’s ribs until the hold was broken.
A quick flurry of moves and counters and Daniels was on
Scott’s back with his own sleeper around the big man’s neck and
a hand over his eyes. Scott
stumbled around trying to find his partner or the ropes and finally
went over backward landing on Chris to break the hold.
Both men struggled to make tags, which wound up bringing
everybody into the ring. Special
referee Evan Marriott tried to restore order but wound up in a
shoving match with Scott Hall while Kevin Nash chased Chris Daniels
up a ring post. Evan
shoved Scott into Tom Howard who flipped the big man into the ropes
and then slammed him to the mat and rolled him up while Chris
Daniels shoved Kevin Nash off the turnbuckles to the mat then came
down on him with a shooting star off the ring post and rolled him up
for the double pin. WINNERS:
Tom Howard and Chris Daniels
TABELS,
LADDERS AND CHAIRS MATCH FOR THE UPW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
The Ballard Brothers
(Shannon & Shane)
vs.
Hardkore Inc. (Hardkore Kid & Al Katraz) with El Jefe
The champions, Hardkore Inc., refused
to come out to their music until they’d run a commercial on the
Big Screens for El Jefe’s Quesidilla maker.
When the action did get under way it was essential chaos.
The Ballards were the first to use a ladder, but then seemed
to be on the wrong end of it. Shannon
became the meat in a ladder sandwich made by Al Katraz into which
Hardkore Kid threw Shane. A
frying pan, not usually included in TLC match, got bent all out of
shape on the Ballard’s heads.
And otherwise chairs were swung and bent, ladders were
toppled and tossed and tables were smashed.
El Jefe himself got in the ring to knock the ladder out from
under Shane when both his men were struggling to get out from
smashed table debris outside the ring.
That brought Looney Lane out from the back to smash one of El
Jefe’s Quesidilla makers over the chief’s head.
El Jefe went after Looney backstage which allowed Shane to
set up the ladder to go after the belts again.
But by that time Al Katraz was in the ring with his own
ladder leading to a fight between the two in the rafters while
Shannon and Hardkore Kid beat each with table scraps on the floor.
Al Katraz’s ladder proved to be the more unstable and he
was toppled over the ropes to the floor and through yet another
table while Shane grabbed the belts and the Championship.
WINNERS: The Ballard Brothers
Another show stopping dance routine by POWERBOMB, with
the girls throwing their baseball caps to their frenzied fans this
time. This was followed
by John Ian who introduced UFC’s Bruce Buffer who brought out the
next match. A surprise guest in the audience, the legendary Tank Abbott,
nearly came to blows with Shamrock, with security needed to keep
Abbott away from the ring.
WORLD’S
MOST DANGEROUS MAN
Ken Shamrock vs. Predator
Ken Shamrock had problems finding a weak spot to go
after on his much bigger opponent.
Shamrock’s leg attacks looked promising for a while, but
Ken kept getting smashed to the mat every time he went down low.
It looked like an even bet whether Predator’s legs would
give out before Shamrock’s body.
Ken had more luck using his greater agility to reverse
Predator’s own moves into submission holds.
It took Predator almost two minutes to break out of a
submission armbar by finally powering his way to his feet and then
powerbombing Shamrock to the mat which finaly broke the armbar.
But the long suffering angered the big man and he went for
his chain, only to have it wrapped around his own neck in another
reversal by Shamrock. Predator
shook and swiveled trying to get Shamrock and the chain off his neck
without success. When
he went to his knees the referee tried to intervene only to have the
wildly flailing Predator grab hold of the official and take him to
the mat in the tangle of bodies and linked metal.
With the referee tapping out on the mat the bell sounded and
referees and security came charging from the back to salvage one of
their own by prying Shamrock off the Predator so they could get the
big man off the referee. But
as soon as Predator was free he sent bodies hurtling in all
direction and his swinging chain finished clearing the ring.
RESULT: Double
Disqualification
Up on the Big Screens highlights of Evan Karagias
attack on Frankie Kazarian at Matt Wars two weeks ago were followed
by Evan’s interview with Dave Marquez in which he promised to add
the UPW Lightweight Championship to his collection of trophies.
UPW
LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Three Way Elimination
Evan Karagais vs. Jerry Lynn vs. Frankie “The Future” Kazarian
(Champion)
Evan Karagais initially tried to lie back letting the
other two men go at each other only to wind up being the focus of
both his opponents. Evan
got the worst of an exchange of punches with Frankie in the middle
of the ring. Then when
all three high flyers tumbled off a ring post Karagais was the one
on the bottom. Jerry Lynn took advantage Evan’s stunned condition by
piledrivering Karagais’s head into the mat.
Frankie knocked Jerry off the pin attempt only to pin Evan
himself. Evan Karagais
was the first man out of the match.
Bodies continued to fly however as Jerry Lynn hit a shooting
star off the top turnbuckle on Frankie who was down on the floor.
Fighting up on the ring apron Frankie out maneuvered Lynn and
came over the top rope holding onto his challenger's head and riding
his face into the mat. Frankie’s
head scissors on Jerry off a ring post got the champion only a two
count. But Frankie
immediately followed up with a reverse face buster to finally get
the three count. WINNER:
Frankie “The Future” Kazarian
Finally John Ian came back to the ring to bring out the
Ballard Brothers, Tom Howard and Rick Bassman who then brought
Frankie Kazarian into the group and thanked all the people backstage
who made the show a success. Rick
then thanked the fans for five years of great support; told them to
be on the lookout for UPW’s upcoming TV series and said good night
to the exhausted but totally satisfied crowd.
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