2009 Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup, Night One In Brooksville, November 20th, 2009

As always, these opinions only belong to me and no one else.

I sat next to Santa Claus at this show. That’s right, Kris Kringle. Don’t Stop Believin’ me now.

As always, the weekend of the Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup is an exciting time in the Florida indy scene and it’s something that I look forward to each and every year. I’ve attended all of them except for the first one in 2003 (and I saw the tournament matches and some of the other bouts on DVD in 2004) and it’s fun times for a great cause; I never got to see Jeff Peterson wrestle in person before but it’s easy to see from these events just how many people cared about him and are happy to do this in his memory.

As for this recap, I’ll try to do my best but the thing is, you have to note that the wrestling started a little after 7 PM and it didn’t end until around 11:45 PM! There was about a 12 minute break from the end of the pre-show to the start of the tournament, and then a break that lasted 22 minutes that made up the intermission, but otherwise it was filled with wrestling, and it didn’t help that I was tired when I got to the building, but by the end of the last match, I felt drained and having to review a 14 (!) match show won’t be too easy for me, even with me and my freak of nature memory. I’ll try to do my best here. As I stated already, the event started a little after 7. I was under the impression that the pre-show would start at 6:30, but it wasn’t to be. Note that this was a pre-show that was put on by Pro Wrestling Riot, the first thing they’ve put on in months.

a. Tony Kozina defeated QT Marshall. This is a pretty good opener. I wish I’d remember more about it, but… one thing that sticks out-besides Kozina now having a bald head-was that QT came out first, then… music was supposed to play but it didn’t. QT stalled, and then finally Tony figuratively said, “F this” and just walked out. It was your typical bout, and Tony flew around to start off, but then QT slowed it down, and eventually the crowd-which was small at the start of the pre-show before becoming like between 150 and 170 by the start of the tournament-got into it a little bit. I believe Kozina won the contest with a sunset flip out of nowhere.

By the way, amongst the people there were… a few toadies! Besides referee Josh Rich, I saw none other than Yapo in the house, down from New York. He’s taller than I remember him being… then, a little later, MikeWG showed up! I hadn’t seen him in ages. I ignored them and they ignored me. At least this year some toadies were there, unlike last year when you saw zero of them in the crowd. I’ll assume that the rest of them were too busy watching New Moon to attend. Hey, I say that as a few months ago, I saw on their toady board that they were fans of that Ugly Truth romantic comedy that came out this summer. I said they weren’t real men as hey, it’s a romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl. As attractive as she is, no way would I see it, let alone enjoy it. I mentioned it on Twitter and they found out and got butt-hurt about it, as always. I stand by what I say, though.

b. Kahagas defeated Leon Scott. This was another pretty good contest. Believe it or not, Leon was the good guy here! That’s pretty rare, as to be honest here I doubt he’s the type in real life that’s the “rah-rah” person who shakes hands and kisses babies, to say the very least. What I remember here was that there was hard hitting from both guys, and there was a point where referee Josh Rich (one of the many refs at this event… besides him, there was Chuck Aurin, Star Stevens, Richie Rich, Frankie Gastineau, and Rich Ambrosino) was counting both guys out as they were brawling at ringside. Josh reached nine… then stopped counting! That’s right, he didn’t count them out. Good one, Mr. Rich. Also, Kahagas was going to be a cheater cheater pumpkin eater and use his cane as a weapon, but at least Josh knew to stop that. Leon quipped that “he had a bigger stick, but he wasn’t going to use it on any guy” Enough said there! He ended up winning the bout with the Kahagas Driver, I believe it’s called.

c. Craig Classic defeated Jaison Moore. This was a quite good contest. It was wrestled at a fast pace and Jaison kept up. This is where my memory is starting to fail me, sad to say. I remember that Craig missed a diving headbutt and Moore did some of his trademark stuff, like the double-knees to his opponent’s face and the cannonball somersault to the opponent in the corner, but that’s about it until the finish, which was after some stiff shots, Craig ending the bout with a running forearm to the side of Moore’s head while Jaison was on one knee. It was a pretty cool ending.

d. Erick Stevens defeated Kyle O’Reilly. This was another quite good contest. Despite some cheers, Erick was still the clear heel, based off of him turning on Roderick Strong at the last FIP event. Kyle (who wrestled on an FIP show earlier in the year) started off with armdrags and armbars and all that, maintaining the advantage. But, Erick responded by slapping him in the face at opportune times, but making sure to remind the ref and everyone in the crowd that it was an open-handed strike, thus it was legal. Then, it was Stevens laying quite the hellacious beating on Kyle. Erick managed to clothesline O’Reilly while Kyle was sitting on the apron… and Stevens was on the floor. He got chopped HARD, clotheslined in the corner HARD, and like I said he took a beating. But, Kyle came back and actually got some near-falls and the audience was happy to see that. But, Stevens won after a brutal lariat that just about turned Kyle inside out and then the Doctor Bomb for the win.

e. Bruce Santee defeated Francisco Ciatso (w/ Ron Niemi) to retain the Pro Wrestling Riot Heavyweight Title. Yet again, another quite good contest. It seems like these two have faced off in the ring like 10,000 times in the past, so the chemistry between the two was tremendous. There was a lot of comedy involved, from Bruce making Frankie look bad at mat wrestling (w/ his tremendous facial expressions, as always) to Bruce throwing Frankie around to Ciatso claiming that his hair got pulled. He was the one who cheated, though, to get the advantage and Niemi also got involved. Frankie wore down Bruce for a few minutes but made a major mistake when he tried a move from the middle rope and missed (“That always happens every time, said Ron) and soon after that was the Big Dump and in a match that was a lot of fun, Bruce got the win and kept his belt.

After this moment, a pair of old guy fans appeared at ringside area, and one of them had a big belly and a long white beard, and I immediately thought, “Santa Claus!” I didn’t know he had his fall residence in Hernando County, but now I know. He and his pal ended up sitting right next to me in the front row. You see, I got the 50 dollar VIP ticket for this show and the Saturday night one, as hey it’s for a good cause.

The 12 minute break happened here and then the official show started. The wrestler known now as Mr. Milo Beasley came out and spoke out of character about his best friend in pro wrestling, the late Jeff Peterson. He stated how he couldn’t believe that Jeff passed away around this time 7 years ago. He then talked about the past and how they used to steal moves from each other. Then, all sixteen men in the tournament came out. All but Jon Moxley posed for a picture. He was a dick and wanted no part of that, for whatever reason.

If you want a much more detailed recap of what happened during the tournament matches (at least when it comes to move for move stuff) you can go read Mr. Alan J. Wojcik’s Livejournal page here as besides that, he has interviews with Sean Davis and many of the guys in the tournament, so that’s a nice source for info.

1. Louis Lyndon defeated Marion Fontaine. This was a quite good contest between these Hybrid Pro wrestlers. There are two of the many men in this tournament who I was unfamiliar with. Also, the two men have teamed with each other before. Fontaine was the bad guy here, though. He wore tights and… I swear this is true… they had a CARE BEAR on back, but there was a giant mustache, so it’s not a Care Bear, according to Marion. I thought you could only come up with stuff like that after taking peyote or mescaline, but I don’t want to say anything about Fontaine here… Lyndon had a martial arts character and with the wig he came out and looked like Taimak in The Last Dragon, which is something I need to see again as it’s been many years… You had comedy to start off from both men, and it was Even Steven for a bit. Then, Fontaine took over and at one point, he used his butt as an offensive weapon. From there they went back and forth and Louis used some martial arts while Marion tried to slow it down and used some kicks of his own. He got 2 off of a frog splash. Later, Louis did an impressive tope right by the ringpost where he was horizontal but then somersaulted onto the Care Bear. Lyndon won the bout with a palm strike to the face that just about turned Fontaine inside out. Oh, and Louis’s music was rather interesting, like something from the 80’s. I found his MySpace page and from there, it looks as if the song was from Dragonball Z! No kidding. The only thing I know about that is from a few minutes I saw in a pal’s room on my dorm floor way back when.

2. Johnny Gargano defeated Chris Jones. Yep, I also rated this as being quite good. The crowd didn’t like the heel Gargano (representing Chicago’s AAW, which I actually saw a show of in the very beginning when it was very different, although Johnny is from Ohio), and they really didn’t care for the Scrunchy he had in his hair. That’s right, a Scrunchy. Three guesses as to what the crowd loved to chant at him. Things went back and forth. Chris did stuff like flip around, but also worked on Johnny’s left arm. Gargano worked over Jones’s chest and ribs. On the outside, Chris’s face ended up getting hurled into the apron. Back inside, it was back and forth again but Jones missed a twisting splash from the top rope and Johnny got the win after being a cheater and grabbing the tights.

3. Silas Young defeated Dave Cole (pretty good). Young (who I’ve seen wrestle in person before) represents AAW while Cole represented CZW, and I hadn’t seen him wrestle before. The main thing I remember here is Silas’s entrance. Now, at least once a year you get some tremendous(ly goofy?) entrance music for at least one guy per year. There was Z-Barr using the 50’s doo-wop song Earth Angel, then Sonjay Dutt using a Hollaback Girl remix, Jimmy Rave using Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again, to Sal Rinauro-Trik Davis using Billy Ocean’s Caribbean Queen to Icarus using I Have The Time Of My Life. This year, it’s Silas Young coming out to one of the greatest karaoke songs of all time (or maybe greatest songs of all time, period), it being Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’! This was tremendous. Besides the greatness of the song, you had some people waving their hands back and forth, and one guy by me even brought out his lighter to wave it around. I didn’t hear anyone sing, but it was still marvelous. The match itself… it wasn’t as wild as the first two but it was fine by me. They were even the first few minutes but then Silas got dropped stomach-first on the top rope (ouchie!) and Cole worked over that for awhile. The ending minutes were also back and forth and Dave almost won with what was a version of the Crossface, but Young escaped and soon after that he got the win.

4. Jon Moxley defeated Brad Attitude. This was another pretty good contest. Moxley was acting like how I imagine all CZW people act (sorry, but while the fed has some nice wrestlers, it overall is totally not for me and I am flabbergasted that it’s still around in 2009) by attacking security guard Tom and appearing to bite his ear! Attitude came out and mocked Moxley’s wild entrance (but thankfully didn’t try to bite anyone). Jon didn’t wrestle like a Wildman or anything but anyway… Brad had the early advantage (and also did a dive out of the ring) but the tide turned when he accidentally rammed his shoulder into the ringpost, and he spent some time working over that body part. Brad tried to come back but the shoulder was bothering him. Finally he did his trademark stuff, but he wasn’t able to put away Moxley. The ending was Jon locking in the Crossface Chicken Wing for the submission victory.


5. Bumz R Us won the Pro Wrestling Riot Tag Team Titles in a Royal Rumble-style bout. Two teams started out and then every two minutes or so another team comes in. The teams listed in Alan’s review were accurate, although Kahagas and Blackheart weren’t in the contest. Things were up and down but it was pretty entertaining. The most important things were that the Dark City Fight Club came in and ran roughshod over everyone (and threw Bumz R Us out, but not over the top rope; Bumz then vanished… until the end), until the Shane Twins came out. They eliminated each other and brawled to the back. The last two in the ring were the British Lions and Heartbreak Express. Sean and Phil wanted the Lions to eliminate themselves and Chris was fine with it, but Tommy wasn’t. I believe Tommy was tossed out against his will and Heartbreak thought they had won. But then, the Bumz returned to the ring and tossed out Phil for the win; Sean was very upset, needless to say.

Intermission time. It lasted 22 minutes. They had a lot of merchandise there, from the usual stuff to RF Video shoot interviews, to t-shirts commemorating the event.

6. Shane Hollister defeated Flip Kendrick. This was AAW (Hollister) vs. Hybrid (Flip). I don’t remember too much about the match aside from its spottiness, but there was one thing… Flip’s music was Game Over, because it was a Lil’ Flip song. Well, that was Vordell Walker’s music back in the day, so WG’s face lit up and you could tell he was like a kid in a candy store being reminded of those good old days with Vordell and his hand signal. That did make me laugh. As for the match, it was quite good but yeah, spotty at times. The smart marks there seemed to think highly of Kendrick, and yeah he did some impressive gymnastics, at least. He also did some Lucha early on. Hollister worked over Flip’s torso for a few minutes. Kendrick came back but his high-flying cost him in the end and Shane got the victory.

7. TJ Perkins defeated Arik Cannon. I thought this was a great contest myself. It stood out the most for me, so they obviously did something right. TJ did his usual unique stuff and I enjoyed that. Arik used his size advantage and power to brutally chop TJ’s chest (turning it red) but he chopped the ringpost (!), which was nutty but didn’t compare to some of the stuff I saw in the final two bouts on this card. Perkins worked over the hand for a bit, but then Cannon came back. I remember that the final few minutes were very exciting and Cannon strung together a nice set of high-impact moves but TJ still kicked out. Then, Perkins won the contest with his trademark submission hold which is like a Texas Cloverleaf.

8. Egotistico Fantastico defeated Scotty Vortekz. I’ve seen Scotty once before but Ego, I’ve seen a number of times back in like 2003 and 2004 before I moved down here. This was a bout representing CZW, even though Ego is from Illinois and Scotty from Indiana. Things started fast with a forearm exchange and then they went outside. Vortekz ended up in a chair out in the seats where the fans were sitting. Ego put on a cape and flew over the railing and landed on Scotty; pretty impressive. From there, things were a blur, to be frank. I remembered it being very good, but by the end, it was overkill, and seeing stuff like a one man Spanish Fly kicked out of, that doesn’t really appeal to me. I know that the CZW fans there (who are often at FIP events) enjoyed this and this was their cup of tea and that’s fine, but for me I think I prefer the less is more kind of stuff. For the record, when I see the ridiculous stuff happen in Japan matches, I feel the same way, so no bias there. I’m no otaku or anything!

By this point, I could tell that quite a few in the crowd were burned out, especially those that were there since 7 PM. People had left before the last match, and after the last match, others left also (including Santa Claus and his friend) and even I was feeling pooped.

9. Davey Richards defeated Drake Younger. This was the main event, between the FIP World Champion and the CZW World Champion. This was another very good bout although I thought that once again, by the end there was some overkill involved. I remember that the bout started off with technical wrestling from both guys, so that was at least a change from the norm here. Drake took control for a bit but then Davey worked over Younger’s knee for a few minutes. It wasn’t long before Drake didn’t really sell the knee, but what can you do? Stuff happened and the ending was Younger tapping out to the Cloverleaf. After this long bout was over with, Davey gave his props to Drake and that got applause.

Overall, this 4 hour and almost 45 minutes (!) long show felt like an IWA Mid-South show or two I went to back in the day. It was certainly long and draining but it was quite the show. It was quality stuff, and I was looking forward to the next night.

Note that due to various things that I’ll explain in the review (but you can read the gist of it at http://tinyurl.com/ybvnykl), but some personal things have happened to me as of late and I’ve felt down in the dumps so due to that and me having other things to worry about, it may be a few days before I post the Night 2 review, and that review may be truncated and not be as lengthy as usual, but for the tournament matches at Night 2, I was out of it. It didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy that event as much as the night before-as I did-but I was just in a strange mood, you know.