Into the Indies 05.19.10: King of Europe Cup (Part 1)

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Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that is going to have a hell of a time bailing out Greece.

As part of I2I’s mission to cover all the greatest in international independent wrestling, we’ve made several stops across the globe. Obviously we’ve frequented Japan, but we’ve also been to Mexico and New Zealand, and we’ve vowed to examine pro graps from any foreign country in order to spread the word to the American audience that there is worthwhile mat action outside of the Western Hemisphere.

One place that we’ve never made it to before is Europe. Though it’s not quite as chock-full of indy wrestling as North America, there are numerous promotions spread out between Portugal and the Ural Mountains, whether it’s IPW: UK in Sussex, Irish Whip Wrestling in Dublin, Westside Xtreme Wrestling in Oberhausen, Fight Club Finland in Helsinki, or one of several other companies based in countries where a Euro can buy you a gyro.

For our first foray into European wrestling, though, I decided that it would be worthwhile to not just focus on one promotion but rather to take a look at a supercard that combined talent from numerous different companies . . . a survey of the finest wrestlers who periodically appear across the continent, if you will. That’s why I popped my copy of the King of Europe Cup DVD in to the player and fired up the television.

The King of Europe Cup was a tournament held in 2007 and was the result of a collaboration between Alex Shane and Doug Williams. Williams, who the majority of this column’s readers will be familiar with, is a long time British independent wrestler who was a frequent guest star in both Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling NOAH before becoming a regular part of the TNA roster in 2009. Shane, perhaps the less familiar name to American fans, has hung around in the United Kingdom for the better part of fifteen years now, both wrestling and later promoting the UK tours of both ROH and TNA. Williams and Shane’s concept for the KOE Cup was simple and yet at the same time innovative. They would gather sixteen different professional wrestlers, each one representing a different promotion, and have them face one another in a single elimination tournament to become the first King of Europe.

Unfortunately, the original version of the tournament didn’t go well as many anticipated. Thought it drew a respectable crowd for an independent professional wrestling show, it wasn’t quite as big as originally projected, which many people blame on wrestling fans in the area being burned out and/or financially tapped out as a result of Ring of Honor running a series of major cards in the United Kingdom around the same time that the KOE Cup took place. There were also plans to run a second version of the tournament in 2008, but they fell apart for reasons that have since been lost to the ages.

This means that the 2007 King of Europe Cup stands alone as an oddity in professional wrestling history, a one-time event that has never been and probably never will be replicated. However, it has still been preserved for all of us on DVD, and it remains a a very good survey of the professional wrestling talent that was active in Europe at the time, the majority of whom remain active on the continent today. So let’s take a trip back to April 28, 2007, the first night of the King of Europe Cup tournament. In next week’s edition of the column, we’ll return to the event and cover the second night.

Match Numero Uno: Chris Hero (Combat Zone Wrestling) vs. Claudio Castagnoli (CHIKARA) in a first round match of the King of Europe Cup

Introductions of the wrestlers are probably not necessary here. We have some lockups and basic counters to start as our announcers put over the fact that this is a battle of former tag team partners in the Kings of Wrestling. Claudio takes his opponent down into a bow and arrow style submission, which the cagey Hero quickly turns in to a double-arm beal only to be caught in an armbar seconds later. The American wrestler ultimately escapes that with a drop toe hold and transitions into an attempt at an STF, but Castagnoli is quick to make the ropes. Eventually the mat wrestling gives way to playing to the crowd, as Hero challenges Claudio to a dance-off. The Swissman busts out Alex Wright’s old moves to the delight of the crowd, and then he catches his tag partner in a front chancre. He takes Hero down with a toe hold, which I would call Funk-esque if not for the fact that Claudio isn’t spinning. The two do a highspot off the ropes when that hold is broken, culminating in a lucha-esque exchange of armdrags, the last of which sends Claudio to the floor. Hero fakes a dive by doing a backflip off the top rope and takes Castagnoli out with a baseball slide dropkick. He gets a two count when he rolls Claudio back into the ring, and now it’s time for Hero’s version of the front chancre. He turns that into another armdrag and connects with a senton for two, next dropping the leg for another nearfall. Castagnoli responds with a European uppercut that knocks Hero down to the floor, and Claudio follows it up with a HUGE TOP SUICIDA~! A slingshot elbow drop connects with Hero’s chest when the wrestlers get back to the ring, and then the man from Swiss Money Holding applies Jinsei Shinzaki’s Heavenly Lock. Hero powers out of that and into a sunset flip, but he runs into Claudio’s boot before he can mount any more offense. A series of fists from Claudio connects in the corner, followed by a big spear-like shoulderblock. Hero bridges out of the subsequent pin attempt like he’s a joshi wrestler, but he quickly finds his midsection crushed by Claudio’s senton.

Now it’s time for a variant on the octopus hold from Claudio, and some forearms are driven into Hero’s midsection for good measure. Eventually Hero escapes the hold and lands a swinging neck breaker, setting up a double KO spot. Hero takes control when both men return to their feet, hitting another satellite armdrag and a roaring elbow. Shawn Michaels’ old teardrop suplex gets a two count for Hero, and it’s not just a nearfall – the impact is so hard that one of the boards under the ring mat is broken. The crowd is aware of the break and reacts to that, which almost takes away from the second rope back elbow that Castagnoli uses for a two count. A torture rack drop also connects for Claudio, which he follows with a deadlift German suplex for another two. Hero now finds himself placed on the top rope by his opponent, setting up for a superplex. Hero cuts him off, giving Claudio a DOUBLE STOMP that forces the European fellow down into the Tree of Joey Lawrence. It gets two, and then Hero hits a weird variation of a missile dropkick. I say it’s a weird variation because Hero didn’t come anywhere near close to fully extending his body and, as a result, Claudio very much took the bump in the corner as opposed to in the center of the ring as somebody normally would for that move. It almost came off as a version of the axe kick off of the ropes. Whatever it was or was meant to be, it is enough to keep Castagnoli down for the three count.

Match Thoughts: It’s hard to provide any analysis regarding a match like this one just because the ring breaking apparently caused the last few minutes or so to depart from whatever the planned finish of the bout may have been. To the wrestlers’ credit, it looked like they attempted to work through the issue but, after a few spots, became aware that they could not and improvised the somewhat out of nowhere finish. Up until that point, everything was going fine and dandy, as these two are obviously very familiar with one another and gelled to produce an entertaining opener, albeit one that might have contained a little bit too much action unless this is going to be one of the biggest, most spot-laden matches in history. No rating due to the screwy finish, but it was good, clean fun.

Match Numero Dos: Martin Stone (Real Quality Wrestling) vs. Go Shiozaki (Pro Wrestling NOAH) in a first round match of the King of Europe Cup

For those of you who may not be familiar with Stone, he’s a seven year veteran of the British independent scene whose biggest exposure outside of Europe came when he made appearances in CHIKARA’s 2008 versions of the King of Trios and Tag World Grand Prix tournaments. Here he’s representing “Real Quality Wrestling,” which at the time was a garden variety independent promotion which later fizzled before the folks behind it decided to turn it into a self-described umbrella company that could provide rings, cameras, and other equipment to promotions across the country. Stone’s opponent here is NOAH’s Go Shiozaki, who at this time was in the middle of his learning excursion to Ring of Honor and Full Impact Pro.

The wrestlers take it to the mat to start, with standard headlock/headscissors reversals being the order of the day until they both regain a vertical base to trade forearms and armdrags. Now we head in to the Greco-Roman knuckle lock, which, after a series of reversals, feeds into a Stone chinlock. Go is out with some strikes but gets taken down by a back elbow and a snap suplex for two. Stone’s next trick is the trapezes nerve pinch, which doesn’t work because he’s not a Samoan heel from the 1980’s or a Japanese heel from the 1960’s. The match spills out to the floor at this point, with Stone shooting Go into the railing so hard that it knocks the thing over and into the laps of two fans. The announcers are more concerned by the status of the fans’ beers than their knees, which are really what took the force of the blow. Stone is also whipped into a railing, though it’s not quite with the same level of force. Shiozaki heads back to the ring and dropkicks Stone off the apron when he attempts to reenter, then landing a tope suicida that was not quite as impressive as Claudio’s from the first match. A dropkick back on the inside gets two for the future GHC Champion, but Stone responds with an overhead belly-to-belly and a Ric Flair kneedrop for two. Martin runs into Shiozaki’s version of the Side Effect, which also gets a two count. Stone responds with an axe bomber and a short arm clothesline, followed immediately with a Samoan drop. What is it with this British guy knicking moves from the Headshrinkers?

Shiozaki fires off a flying shoulderblock after a brief chop battle, but he misses a clothesline and gets hit with a release German by Stone. A lariat attempt by Stone is blocked by Go’s knee, but a second attempt at the same move solidly connects for two. The RQW rep attempts a suplex but it doesn’t land and Stone is superkicked and lariated. Stone responds with a lariat of his own, and then the two men clothesline each other simultaneously to lead in to another double KO spot. Forearms are exchanged, with Shiozaki getting the advantage and hitting a fisherman’s buster for two. Go’s attempt at a moonsault press is cut off, giving Stone an opportunity to attempt a backdrop driver off the ropes. Shiozaki slips out of that and reverses into a powerbomb on the turnbuckles, followed up by another superkick and a German suplex. Believe it or not, that sequence only gets a two count. The Go Flasher connects immediately after the kickout, though, and we’ve got ourselves a win for Go Shiozaki.

Match Thoughts: Eh. This one wasn’t bad per se, but it didn’t really get past “average” and approach “good.” Party of the problem for me personally was that I’m used to seeing Stone as a heel, where he has EXCELLENT schtick and charisma. Here he was presumably a babyface or at the very least eschewing a traditional heel/face role to just go out there and wrestle match. In whatever role he was playing, his personality wound up being a little bit on the bland side. His inability to cheat and otherwise be a prick also meant that everything he was doing in the ring was a bit on the blah side, technically well-executed but lacking anything that drew me in to the match. It looked particularly milquetoast next to Shiozaki, who was busting out all kinds of high end offense and trying to do a modern NOAH match against a guy who just wasn’t adept at that style. **1/2

Match Numero Tres: PAC (International Pro Wrestling – United Kingdom) vs. Trent Acid (Pro Wrestling Unplugged) in a first round match of the King of Europe Cup

These two are US indy journeymen. Acid known to most people from his work in CZW from roughly 2000 through 2002, where he teamed with Johnny Kashmere as the Backseat Boyz, who eventually spilled over in to early Ring of Honor and held that company’s Tag Team Titles. Since then, he’s not been able to remain in any major indies, working largely for Kashmere’s group Pro Wrestling Unplugged (the company he is representing here) and the Juggalo Championship Wrestling shows promoted by the Insane Clown Posse. PAC, who is out of England himself, has also been around the horn with ROH, CHIKARA, and PWG in addition to periodically touring with the Japanese version of Dragon Gate.

Acid doesn’t even get an entrance. Ouch. It’s a handshake to start the match, but then Trent blindsides PAC with a double sledge to the back and a choke in the corner. Acid slaps on a headlock and hits a shoulderblock when PAC escapes, though the Brit responds with a rana and a standing corkscrew moonsault for two. Acid rolls to the outside to slow the pace of the match and has a seat in the front row. PAC fakes a dive once the Backseat Boy comes back over the rail, and then there’s a footrace around the ring, culminating in Acid dropkicking PAC as he attempts to reenter the ring. The two fight on the apron for a bit, with Acid eventually kicking PAC low and giving his opponent a HARD DDT down on to the corner of the apron. Acid gives PAC a running powerslam into the guardrail after that, then looking for an Asai moonsault. PAC sees it coming, though, jumping up on to the apron and shoving the American off of the ropes and into the guardrails. PAC ascends to the top rope and comes off with a CORKSCREW PLANCHA down on to Acid, as I begin to wonder whether either of these men even wants to come out of this match alive. PAC drops a knee back on the inside, because, you know, that will do a hell of a lot of damage after everything else we’ve seen in this bout. Acid responds with a springboard tornado DDT and pulls several chairs out from underneath the ring. He creates a bridge with three of the weapons and leaves a fourth sitting next to the bridge. He grabs PAC and tries to give him a reverse suplex of some sort off of the apron. Presumably PAC was going to land on the chair bridge there, but the guardrails were so close to the ring that the poor guy landed on them. Not to be deterred, Acid places his opponent on to the chair bridge. He comes off of the ring apron with an Asai moonsault and actually overshoots it, missing PAC entirely and landing on a set of stairs that form part of the entrance to the ring as the announcers desperately try to sell it like PAC moved out of the way.

Back on the inside, Acid gives his man another tornado DDT, completely no-selling the hellacious spill that he just took. The move gets two, and Trent puts a chair in the ring. PAC gives Acid a basement dropkick that sends his face into the seat of the furniture and then dropkicks the back of the chair into Trent’s head. A NORTHERN LIGHTS BOMB ON THE CHAIR CONNECTS. One . . . two . . . kickout? You’re kidding me. You’re fucking kidding me. You kick out of that? PAC sandwiches Acid in between a couple of chairs and goes for a flippy-do off the top, but Acid avoids it and recklessly throws a chair in to his opponent’s face. He follows that with the Acid Bomb, essentially an inverted Razor’s Edge which he gives PAC ON TO AN UPRIGHT CHAIR. The chair folds in half and PAC is bleeding from his head as the chair bridge is reconstructed in the middle of the ring. Acid goes up top again, but PAC dropkicks the ropes to crotch the American. Some reversals on the ropes lead to a REVERSE HURICANRANA by Acid, which drives PAC through the chair bridge . . . but he still kicks out. “This is awesome,” chant the fans. I disagree. PAC then hits a handspring into a huricanrana and a tiger suplex, also for two. A corkscrew version of the shooting star press – I think that’s what it was, anyway – FINALLY gives PAC the win.

Match Thoughts: I. Hated. This. Match. This took every negative stereotype of independent professional wrestling and crammed them all in to one detestable little fifteen minute spotfest. I do have to show some respect to the men – especially PAC – because they were obviously working through some significant pain to continue the match. However, there’s more to professional wrestling than continuing to work no matter how much pain you’re in and no matter how brutal the match begins to look. Sometimes, when something unexpected happens during the course of the match and it looks as though the thing should be over, you’re just got to call an audible and put an end to the madness. The botched spills that both of these men took to the outside of the ring during the match were absolutely sickening, and there’s a point of brutality at which fans lose their ability to suspend disbelief and a match begins to look incredibly fake when something so horrendous happens but the wrestlers just keep on going. For the love of god, if you’re an independent professional wrestler and you ever wind up in a situation in which your head wacks a chair and gets split open like an overripe melon, END IT WITHIN THIRTY SECONDS. Otherwise, things get really grating, really quickly. DUD.

Match Numero Cuatro: El Generico (International Wrestling Syndicate) vs. Matt Sydal (Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South)

Again, I don’t think that any introductions are necessary here. There’s some comedy to start, with the wrestlers both putting over the fact that they have no desire to wrestle in the center of the ring given that it broke during the course of the first match. They attempt to whip and hiptoss each other to center ring, with each blocking the other’s attempts. Sydal tries to knock Generico down in to the dangerous portion of the squared circle with a cross body block, but Generico catches young Matthew and gives him a backbreaker. The two men fight over various suplexes, with Sydal eventually winning and giving Generico a backdrop suplex into the center of the mat, which he sells like death. Eventually the two wrestlers realize that there’s nothing wrong with the canvas anymore, setting up a Generico lariat, a series of slams, and a sick Michinoku Driver for two. Sydal recovers and hits a double stomp, followed by a back elbow/knee drop/leaping axe bomber combination to Generico as he’s slumped in the corner. A right hand finally takes the generic luchadore off of his feet and gets the future Evan Bourne a two count. Generico eats a cross body block that takes both men over the top rope and down to the floor, where Bourne gets sent into the rails and Generico hits Samoa Joe’s ole kick and his insane tornado DDT in which he dives in between the turnbuckles and spikes his opponent down on to the arena floor. When the wrestlers go back to the inside, Generico heads up to the top rope and connects with a Superfly Splash for a nearfall. A running Yakuza kick in the corner misses, however, giving Sydal an opportunity to hit a standing moonsault for two. Generico responds with a swank variation on the blue thunder driver, but Sydal is out of the subsequent pin attempt at two. Now it’s time for this match’s superplex tease, which turns into Generico dropkicking Sydal as he sits on the top rope. Superplex attempt number two is blocked by Sydal, though, which leads into his shooting star press to end the bout.

Match Thoughts: This was absolutely what this show needed to slow things down a bit after the insanity that was the Acid-PAC match. Rather than going out there and hitting five billion moves in a row which would no doubt burn out the crowd after what they had witnessed in the prior contents, Generico and Sydal were smart enough to go out there and work some very basic, very simply comedy which still kept the crowd with them and was also funny for those of us watching at home. Then, because they knew that they weren’t going to get away without hitting some of their signature highspots, so they kicked things up in to high gear for the last three or four minutes and did just enough so that the crowd wouldn’t be disappointed but not so much that they would wind up tired prior to the main event. Sometimes its best for matches to not be as good as they possibly could, and this was the perfect example of two guys being bright enough to both realize and act on that theory. ***

Match Numero Cinco: Ares (Westside Extreme Wrestling) vs. Doug Williams (Premier Promotions) in a first round match of the King of Europe Cup

Ares may not be quite as recognizable to American fans as some. He’s the long-time friend and tag team partner of Claudio Castagnoli, with both men being Swiss and both men coming up in the European indies in the early part of the twenty-first century before Claudio decided that he was going to begin training in the United States. Though he occasionally crossed the Atlantic to team with Castagnoli in the Americas, Ares largely remained in Europe until 2008, when he moved to the United States after marrying US indy wrestler Allison Danger (which also makes him the brother-in-law of Steve Corino). In late 2009, Ares became a regular in CHIKARA, where he currently reigns alongside Claudio as half of their tag team champions. Williams, of course, is one of the two men promoting this tournament.

Williams is wearing a tie over his bare chest to mock Ares’ normal ring attire, which gives us some comedy spots early on. Doug gets serious when he hits a deep arm drag and nonchalantly tosses Ares out of the ring before removing the tie. The Permanently Profit Producing Partner jaws with the fans for a while, which the announcers explain is because somebody stole the briefcase that Ares brought out to the ring with him. Eventually Williams pops out of the ring and pulls his opponent back in, eventually applying a a swank submission maneuver, which is very similar to the Rings of Saturn except that Williams has applied it using his legs and not his arms. He eventually turns it into a pinning combination for a nearfall and decides that he’s just going to choke Ares with his tie. A back elbow also connects before Williams teases the Chaos Theory, though Ares is able to block it and hit a low blow while the referee is distracted. The Swissman connects with an inverted atomic drop and a clothesline for a two count, then removing the necktie to choke Williams in a bit of a revenge spot. Ares’ next trick is a swinging brainbuster for two, followed by a good, old fashioned chinlock. Doug makes the stereotypical babyface comeback and turns the move into a back suplex, continuing the comeback with a high cross off of the middle rope. Ares responds with a kneelift to the gut and a front chancre. Williams’ response is a DDT of sorts before he tries for a powerbomb, which Ares reverses into a backdrop. Claudio’s right hand hits a tiger driver at this point, though he collapses as well. A second DDT from Williams also can’t put Ares away, and he misses another attempt at a piledriver before Ares hits another Tiger Bomb, this time for two. Weird. A Blue Thunder Driver and the Three Handled Moss Covered Family Credenza are executed by Ares, but Williams blocks a third tiger driver and hits a back elbow and a gut wrench suplex. A non-Chaos Theory German suplex gets two for the Brit, but he’s cut off when he attempts to get up to the top rope. Ares can’t get off any offense, though, and Williams’ back elbow off the top gives us yet another nearfall. The Chaos Theory is blocked once more and Ares makes the match’s 5,000th tiger driver attempt . . . but Doug Williams reverses things into a small package to get a three count and advance to the second round.

Match Thoughts: This one was . . . weird. I’m a fan of both wrestlers individually, and the first three quarters of the match was perfectly acceptable wrestling that laid the foundation for what could have been a fun little match if the finish came together. Unfortunately, the finish didn’t really come together. Every now and again, I’ve seen wrestlers botch a move and immediately repeat the same move because they felt that it was a planned spot that the match would not be complete without. However, I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a couple of wrestlers largely hit a three or four move sequence, decide that they weren’t satisfied with how the sequence came out, and then repeat the entire thing. That’s exactly what happened at one point here with the DDT-piledriver-tiger driver series o’ moves, and it came off almost as though the wrestlers were expecting the match to be edited heavily in post-production only for the post-production to never come. The other thing that I didn’t necessarily like about the match was that it felt as though that damn tiger driver was teased an unbearably high number of times, and the repeated sequence just added a tiger driver to the mix. **

Match Numero Seis: Davey Richards (Pro Wrestling Guerrilla vs. Zebra Kid (World Association of Wrestling) in a first round match of the King of Europe Cup

The Zebra Kid is probably the most obscure wrestler in the entire tournament. Roy Bevis is is actually name, and he’s also wrestled under the names Roy Knight and Brian Knight, which come from the fact that he is the son of long-time British wrestler Ricky Knight. This makes him a part of a wrestling family which also includes Ricky’s wife, female indy grappler Sweet Saraya and Ricky and Saraya’s daughter Britney Knight, who has been wrestling since 2005, when she was in her teenage years. The Kid is a bit of an interesting character, as he also played soccer for a time in addition to wrestling, though his soccer career largely came to an end when he was arrested several times on charges related to bar fights.

His opponent, of course, is everybody’s favorite independent professional wrestler (this week).

The two men immediately begin forearming one another in the face, and then we go to shoulderblocks and hard slaps. The announcers try to tell a story about how there was a “backstage incident” between the two in order to explain the intensity that they are portraying here. Richards double legs his man and looks for a Boston crab before heading into a leglock. That move is eventually transitioned into a version of the Boston crab, though Zebra slips out and gives his man a kick to the head. The match spills out to the floor at this point, with Richards getting slammed on the wood and placed across a chair so that the Kid can give him a MASSIVE running, diving elbow drop off of the stage. Richards does not sell it in the least and whips Zebra into the guardrail before giving him a Yakuza kick that sends him into the crowd. The wrestlers brawl amongst the fans for a bit, with Zebra eating a suplex. He responds by nailing Davey with a chair, and the two head in to a portion of the crowd where the cameras cannot find them. The Zebra Kid jumps off of something at his opponent, though we can’t tell what he jumped off of or what he landed on. Zebra climbs into a balcony at this point, dropping out of it with an elbow . . . though we still can’t see the impact because of where the cameras are positioned. A piledriver through a merchandise table is captured on a small handled camera, though the lighting still isn’t that great. Eventually things come back to the squared circle, where Davey begs off before getting thrown out of the ring again. ZK tries to follow him with a baseball slide, though Richards catches him and hits him with a DDT from the ring apron to the floor. At this point, Richards stands up and exclaims, “I’m winning!”

Back on the inside, the Kid hits an implant DDT off of the second rope. It gets a two count. Ugh, we’re having another one of THESE matches, aren’t we? Zeb goes up to the top in the opposite corner and misses an elbowdrop, giving Davey an opportunity to lock in a kimura. The Kid maneuvers himself towards the ropes and comes back with some punches before running straight into a Richards kick to the head, followed by a lariat for two. Richards goes to the cross arm breaker at this point, but the ropes are made again. Now we had back to the top rope, where to two men do battle for a bit before Zebra hits his elbow. It gets two. Richards connects with a low blow off of a German suplex again and goes back to the kimura, this time getting the Zebra Kid to submit.

Match Thoughts: This match started to move towards something in the vein of the Acid/PAC match from earlier on in the evening, i.e. a bout that peaks in terms of the intensity and then just keeps going for no real reason. I was very much afraid that we would be getting ten or fifteen more minutes worth of action after the stage and balcony dives by the Zebra Kid, which would have caused me to roll my eyes and shake my head. Yes, the wrestlers did keep going after their wild, outside of the ring brawl, but it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought that it might have been. This is in part because they kept the post-brawl action short and in part because all of the high impact offense that Knight did throughout the match played in to the finish, as he kept dropping elbows on to Richards from all sorts of insane places, which conceivably would have softened up the joint a good deal and made him all the more susceptible to Davey’s kimura finisher. Not a bad little brawl at all right here. ***

Match Numero Siete: Ryo Siato (Dragon Gate) vs. Jody Fleisch (One Pro Wrestling) in a first round match of the King of Europe Cup

Okay, before we start with this one, I have to own up to some pretty strong personal bias here. Even before seeing this match, Jody Fleisch has established himself as one of my least favorite wrestlers of all time. I first saw him wrestle in Michinoku Pro in the late 1990’s, and I couldn’t stand him. I saw him again during the early days of Ring of Honor, and it appeared that he had improved very little. Based on what I’ve seen, he’s the very definition of a “spot monkey,” i.e. a guy who tries to do a bunch of athletic maneuvers but doesn’t do anything to string them together into a cohesive match. The thing that puts him at the bottom of my list of spot monkeys is that, though he occasionally hits some innovative offense and hits it beautifully, I have also seen numerous occasions on which he’s even failed to land his signature spots well, at which point the guy is completely worthless. I say all of this not because I have anything against Jody Fleisch the person and not because I want to bury him ten feet under but rather because I want to explain myself up front if my review of this match makes it sound like I have some sort of intense, irrational dislike from the man.

It’s standard mat wrestling to start before the two men trade ranas and face off. Saito connects with a back elbow and works the chinlock, then hitting a bulldog and a basement dropkick to the face in rapid succession. Fleisch eats an elbow to the chest for two and places the Brit in the Tree of Joey Lawrence. Saito hits another dropkick to the maw and slaps on a half Boston crab. Jody makes the ropes and starts a comeback when he slips out of a dragon suplex attempt and hits a big dropkick and a wacky slam of some kind. Fleisch makes a blind charge, but he’s caught with a Saito and throw into the turnbuckles with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Jody runs to the floor for a breather, but he’s not going to get it as Saito follows. Fleisch takes a ridiculously cartoonish bump over the guardrail after a single chop before coming back and giving the Dragon Gate rep a moonsault body block off of another piece of railing. Jody makes his way back into the ring and kicks Saito off of the apron as he attempts to come in between the ropes. Then, in the sickest spot that I have seen in a long while, Fleisch goes for a shooting star press off of the top rope and down to the floor, but he overshoots Saito and lands FACE FIRST ON THE RING STEPS. Believe it or not, he gets up and kicks Saito HARD in the back. Yeah, blame him because you did something ridiculously dangerous. Anyway, Fleisch goes to the top rope in the ring, and Saito pulls him off with a German SUPERPLEX. The men work the double KO spot for a bit and exchange chops before Jody hits a pop-up rana for two. Fleisch looks for a shooting star press but misses, though he has the presence of mind to land on his feet. Jody goes for his next flippy-do off the ropes, but Saito catches him with a dropkick and goes to the top. Fleisch pulls him off with another pop-up rana and goes up top again but gets cut off. Saito looks for a superplex but slips, and both men go tumbling out of the ring and down on to the arena floor. Somebody please stop this. Ryo puts Fleisch back into the ring and this time hits his avalanche-style suplex . . . for two. Christ. Jody hits an enzuguiri and a standing shooting star press for two. Now it’s up to the top rope, where another shooting star connects and again only gets a two count. Seconds later, Saito hits a lariat and a dragon suplex to put this match out of its misery.

Match Thoughts: Pretty much every comment that I made about the Acid/PAC match from earlier in the card applies here as well. Fleisch’s jaw was swollen to a ridiculous degree after he smacked his head on the ring steps, and the move looked absolutely disgusting . . . but the guys just wouldn’t take the match home. Again, I respect the guy for wanting to work through the end of the pain, but, at the end of the day, matches are usually better under these circumstances if you take the sickening unplanned spot and use it to go into some kind of finish, even if it means that things get wrapped up five to eight minutes than it otherwise would have. I will give these guys a little bit of credit, though, as they at least put it away more quickly than PAC and Acid did. *

Match Numero Ocho: Nigel McGuinness (Ring of Honor) vs. Rhyno (Total Nonstop Action) in a first round match of the King of Europe Cup

The match starts with “Fire Russo!” and then “Rhyno’s gonna kill you!” chants, which is quite the interesting combination. The Detroit native immediately opens up on his opponent with some fists, but Nigel manages to catch him in the corner and hit a version of the Virginia Necktie for an early nearfall. Rhyno responds with a belly-to-belly suplex and gets into position for the Gore, though McGuinness sidesteps it and takes a powder. The War Machine follows his man to the arena floor, where the ROH wrestler is tossed out amid the fans. As was the case in the Richards/Zebra Kid match, not much can be seen . . . though we do get a good shot of McGuinness getting a huge running start and flattening his opponent with a European uppercut. The men then brawl up some stairs and into the balcony as a sole fan positioned near a microphone tries to start a “Can’t see shit!” chant. A blow from Nigel sends Rhyno rolling down a flight of stairs, and, believe it or not, a Nigel overhand blow sends Rhyno falling out of the balcony and down through the merchandise table that was set up below it. Nigel then finds a LADDER of all things, which is sitting upright in the middle of the audience for no apparent reason. The Brit climbs the rungs and leaps off on to Rhyno with a splash . . . or at least we assume that he does. It’s not clear from the camera angle. Now the two men are back at the ringside area, and, oddly enough, it’s RHYNO who has the advantage. In an AWESOME spot, Rhyno attempts to roll Nigel back in to the squared circle, but McGuinness blocks it by bouncing his leg off of the ropes and reboundomg with a HUGE lariat on to the former NWA Champion. Nigel follows it up with a dive from the top rope down on to the arena floor, but Rhyno will not be deterred and rams his man into the guardrail before climbing in the ring and landing a pescado.

Now everybody’s back in between the ropes, where McGuinness applies a chinlock variation. That one seems a little bit ot of place given what has come before it in this match. Rhyno does the stereotypical babyface comeback to get out of that, then hitting a lariat and a shoulderblock in the corner. The spinebuster that we often see from Rhyno connects at this point, but McGuinness ducks a lariat attempt and hits one of his own. Both men are down for a nine count and come up chopping and forearming away, with McGuinness eventually winning the sequence thanks to another lariat. Nigel tries to follow it up with a lariat in the corner . . . but Rhyno pops out and GORES~! the opposition. Nigel is OUT AT TWO! Rhyno tries to hit another Gore to put his man away, but Nigel avoids it and hits his jawbreaker lariat in order to bring the contest to a close.

After the match, Nigel gets on the mic and puts Rhyno over for not phoning it in, as he easily could have done given the fact that he’s the “big star” appearing on this indy show.

Match Thoughts: If I were watching this match in isolation from the rest of the show, I probably would have liked it significantly more than I did. I say that because, in a lot of ways, it was very similar to the match that Davey Richards and Zebra Kid had earlier on the show. This is one of the big disadvantages that independent wrestling has over the big leagues. In the big leagues, there is a (usually) cohesive team of agents who will prevent guys from going out there and putting together matches that are too similar, but, in a lot of indies, wrestlers are left to their own devices and don’t bother to come up with new plans on the fly when they become aware of somebody else on the show doing a match that is significantly the same. Regardless of the similarities, though, this was still a very solid little brawl with some competent, token wrestling tacked on to the end of it so that it could have an actual, in the ring finish. It wasn’t a blow-away main event, but it filled its role well as the capper of the first night of a two night tournament, where you wouldn’t necessarily want to deliver an all-time classic but wold certainly want to do well enough to send the fans home happy. ***1/2

Overall

Well, the first night of the King of Europe Cup was certainly a night of peaks and valleys, alternating between pretty damn good matches like Rhyno/Nigel, Richards/Zebra, and Generico/Sydal and matches that quite frankly weren’t that great like PAC/Acid and Fleisch/Saito. I don’t feel that it’s appropriate for me to offer up too much in terms of final thoughts here, though, as it is my understanding that the two nights of the tournament are not available to be purchased separately, meaning that I should really consider nights one and two together as one product, which I fully intend to do next week when I take on part two of the tournament. See you then.

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