RETRO POST: GPW Review 06/25/2000 -- Maritime Pro Wrestling Forum

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Date Posted: 21:35:27 06/21/01 Thu
Author: BMN
Subject: RETRO POST: GPW Review 06/25/2000

GPW at the North Sydney Forum
June 25, 2000

After BMN's wonderful B-day show, the stage was set for Grand Prix to really kickstart the summer this Sunday. They seemed to have set the table for some heat-filled, action-packed affairs. To the group's credit, the attendance was not down as much as I had anticipated it would be in light of the WWF PPV. However, with the next GPW show now two weeks away (BMN and brec7 will unfortunately be unable to attend), the crew was probably wanting to leave a lasting impression.

1. Todd Douglas vs Hans Schultz (*** 1/2)

My estimation of Schultz last week was that he was a very capable wrestler but he needed to show more interest. This week, he and Douglas put on a great match; it never really slowed down for a second. The heat was mixed: the Glace Bay crowd was down on Douglas for an incident with a young fan, while the rest were more inclined to side with him.

For the second straight week, they book an opening match winner, if only by countout this time around. Douglas seems to get in better shape each week. My only complaint is that Schultz needs to lose the "evil German" gimmick. It's not 1944 anymore�

2. Bobby Rude v Cuban Assassin (** 1/4)

Cuban again looked sloppy (he sold a hiptoss TERRIBLY early on) but seems to have revived his efforts in light of a heightened crowd response. Rude looked to have slimmed down a bit this week; he duplicated Rene's efforts last week in making the Cuban look good. The brawling segment really brought the crowd up, particularly when Rude broke the pane on the boards.

Good heat for the match, but two things could be done to improve the Cuban's matches. Firstly, he should drop the foreign object bit. It is a tired old routine and why doesn't Frank Parker, referee extraordinare, never check the pockets? It doesn't make sense. Secondly, Cuban often grabs for a chinlock at the worst points of the match. The 1:00 mark would better than a minute before the finish.

3. Chi Chi Cruz vs Rene E Dupre (* 3/4)

These two could have blown the roof off of the place but they made two crucial errors. First of all, neither cut a promo to keep the previous week's events fresh in the audience's minds. Second of all, they worked a scientific match almost the entire way through, even though Chi Chi's turn on Dupre had him steaming only a week ago. The match should have started as a brawl and then simmered down.

Judged on its own merits the match was actually very good until, like Chi Chi's second match with Austin, it took too long to get where it was going. It then ended with an unsatisfactory double countout. This combined with the previous paragraph meant that I couldn't give it **.

4. Kurrgan vs Wildman Austin (* 1/2)

Another miscue: Austin defends the title against neither Dupre, Douglas nor Rude (all of who sided against Austin in the big angle last week). Kurrgan only joined the territory last week and is already thrown against Austin. The audience was interested but not nearly as much as I believe they would have been for one of the three suggestions above.

Austin was especially funny tonight; I'll allow the other recappers to quote him. Austin has quickly caught on to the "smart mark" mentality of the audience and plays off of it.
The match itself, though, was pretty inconsequential. The finish (ref bump, Kurrgan scoring the pin, ref seeing the belt, reversing the decision) was sloppily executed, and highly telegraphed. Kurrgan looked more like the immobile giant who failed to impress in the WWF than a more revitalized wrestler than he appeared to be the last few times I'd seen him.

5. $10,000 (wink, wink) Battle Royal (** 1/4)

End of the night battle royals are often pretty so-so affairs and this was no exception. The match does score points though for Wildman's pre-match antics and for the large pop Kurrgan attained in winning the event (probably the loudest pop in the Forum so far this year). A Kurrgan-Wildman series now at least makes more sense and would probably elicit a larger response.

Highest match ranking: *** 1/2 (Douglas v Schultz)
Lowest match rankings: * 1/2 (Austin v Kurrgan)
Avg. match ranking: ** 1/4
Event ranking: **

The card was not booked at all properly in my opinion. I'm firmly convinced that had GPW not run such a great show last week, the crowd would have been too sparse for words. With that in mind, they did not follow up as well as they could have. The story of week ago was practically forgotten by the night's end. The match quality only dropped about 1/4 *. Yet if you consider that Big Al didn't wrestle a singles match and the Dupre-Chi Chi match should have been a heated affair, the show could have been much better (Stan Neilson's absence hurt though).

The night did end with a furious face pop for Kurrgan, Austin was in charismatic form, and a Douglas-Schultz feud has great potential. So I'm not entirely unimpressed. Perhaps Emile & co. will build upon that. Still, tonight could have been an especially good show if the cards had been played right.

BMN

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Re: RETRO POST: GPW Review 06/25/2000 -- brec7, 00:26:34 06/25/01 Mon