Epic Professional Wrestling 6/16/02 - THE REMIX part 2

DJC: We return to Titania bringing out Trent Acid, who tells us to "sheddep" and makes the match a Falls Count Anywhere affair.

Trent Acid vs. Ruckus (CZW/BJPW Jr. Title Match)

DJC: I will say two negative things and one positive thing about this match and move along. - Much like hardcore matches, these long spotfests tend to not be my cup of tea, and this was no exception. The FCA stipulation only derailed it even more; whereas Spanky/Daniels filled the time between spots with wrestling, this filled it with a whole bunch of clutch-and-grab. But even beyond that, it didn't hold up to Spanky/Daniels; the spots didn't really escalate at all - these guys started in fifth gear instead of working their way up from first. And to me, that's cool for like the first few minutes, but after a while it just gets old.

CL: The thing for me is that there isn't anything to grab a hold of in a match like this. I commend them for doing stuff, I guess, but at the end of the day it's just stuff, and it didn't really interest me at all. And you can get the same response out of me by sitting in a lawn chair in the middle of the ring and smoking a cigarette. Which I imagine is easier on your body, if not your lungs.

DJC: (And to echo Alen, there's absolutely no reason for fans sitting in the first row to be standing up to get a better view of the action. YOU'RE TWO FUCKING FEET AWAY, why block everyone else's view?)

CL: All hail the words of the man they call Frosty. Sit the fuck down. Please Believe It.

DJC: - While Trent Acid didn't live up to my worst fears (after all, he's half of the team that I actually saw blow a motherfucking *H-BOMB*), he sure did live up to the reputation he's gotten as a staller. The opening few minutes of the match were really, really irritating; he bailed and backed off repeatedly and after the first few times AAAAAAGH, that's all I can stands, I can't stands no more.

CL: It seemed odd to stall in a spotfest. I mean, I guess I can understand stalling if it makes sense in the context of the match, but when it's leading to you performing various feats of leaping and death, it's about as enjoyable as watching him whack off in the ring. Which, in a manner of speaking, he was.

DJC: + Ruckus is really, really impressive live. His moveset - well, obviously you can (and I will) bitch and moan all you want about him being spotty and such, but hey, you can't argue with the Ruckus Live Experience. Hell, he was almost impressive enough to make the match watchable by himself (although Acid kicked in his share of nice spots once he got over the stalling shite); the SSP and the 450 legdrop and the bajillion other spots that I'm forgetting at the moment all really do look cool live. And CHRIST, did he tap a vein. Apparently it was hardway, and I can certainly believe it, because I'm not sure if I've ever seen a grislier intentional bladejob. Lord a'mighty.

CL: I believe I used the phrase "A Tubby Mitch Gaylord".

DJC: I am filled with shame at the thought of not stealing this line point-blank.

CL: I suppose I always enjoy a good handspring combination, but then again I suppose usually it was being performed by some lithe 16 year old blonde girl. They usually didn't bleed, as it would have smeared all that glitter. I'm rambling.

DJC: Thus, we add up to a *-ish match. But hey, matches like these were made to be seen live.

CL: Pretty much. This was a perfectly fine example of the type of match that works live, but not on tape. Or it might work for you if this is your thing. I'm not gonna sit here and say they didn't try or anything, because I saw a piece of Ruckus's forehead dangling off near the end, but it's not the sort of the thing that I came to see. I kinda feel like Ebert reviewing Scooby Doo. This is not the match for me.

DJC: Post-match, I see Bob Barnett sneaking away and verbally bask in the reflected glory of The Check. He actually lets me and Chris *hold* The Check (well, the copy of The Check, anyway), thus making my night EVEN BETTER.

CL: I noticed him first, Mr. Taking all the Credit.

DJC: And there you sat, silent as a stone. And besides, I was the one who called him over, so let's here it for D*points to self*J...aw, fuck, there's no way in hell I'm finishing that.

CL: This was incredibly fabulous, and made me feel like the World's Giantest Dork. I think we bragged about getting to hold the check to nearly everyone we met after the show. Seriously, I was just about ready to start saying "Hey, you had a Really Good Match out there tonight. Did you see the New Jack thing? Well, I HELD THE CHECK." Fortunately I managed to control myself from hitting Smark Bottom.

DJC: Messiah comes out in here and cuts another I H8 XPW promo, but really, how can you top New Jack? How can ANYONE top New Jack? Even owning up to the ding-dong layin' doesn't make a whole lot of headway after New Jack. Jebus.

CL: I fail to see why having sex with Lizzy Borden is such a big deal. XPW's all full of porn girls, who can be seen nailing various ex-cons and Viagra addicts on film you can purchase. Not me, though: all about class.

DJC: Dude, didn't you read the Salon article? Lizzy Borden's the one who eats feces and vomit on film to induce the Pulling Upon the Pud. If I hit that, I don't think I'd ever tell ANYONE.

Messiah vs. Some Mystery Guy

DJC: SMG turns out to be Joey Ryan, and I can only assume that the Massive Selljob pre-match was only supposed to be a red herring, because CRIPES is this a squash. I seriously doubt it went over six minutes, and I don't remember Ryan getting a lick of offense in.

CL: I recall Joey getting in a few semi-big moves two or three minutes before the pin-As per the rules of Jakked matches. This was one of them, by the way. I wonder if the Announcers on the EPIC show will spend the whole match talking about Mr. McMahon. Just to make everyone feel more at home.

DJC: But you know what? It's seriously not that bad. Ryan played the role perfectly; he's very much okay at being The Guy Who Takes Beatings - not spectacular or anything, mind you, but hey, this match was obviously the Messiah Show from the moment Ryan came out. And for Messiah's part, he really squashed the bejesus out of him; it all looked convincing and all the usual platitudes. From what I've seen of Messiah, he's really good in short, intense wrestling matches like these;

CL: The only time I actually watched a Messiah match before this was the 6-man at the last MPW, where he was pretty much outclassed once Tech IX got pinned a minute in.

DJC: To be fair, when you're in there with Super Dragon, Samoa Joe, and B-Boy, it's hard not to look like you ride the Special Bus of Wrestling. GOD BLESS THE SOCAL WRESTLING SCENE.

CL: This seemed closer to what he's comfortable with. He's still really boring.

DJC: it's a damn shame that he apparently wrestles an awful lot of those I Have Traveled Far And Near falls-count-anywhere walk-a-thons or Overbooking 101 clusterfucks. There's really not much you can say about a squash like this, I guess. 1/2*

Post-match, Messiah beats up on Ryan's valet (and again I make the Austin remark),

CL: This was the second section of this show that legitimately disturbed me. He just headbutted her a bunch of times, and it just didn't make me feel comfortable. And oddly, enough, just like New Jack fighting turned into New Jack posing with little white kids and NFS checks, the disturbing moment gave way to the best part of the night. Well, after the run-in.

DJC: and out of nowhere Nick Mondo shows up, and they brawl through the crowd. At one point they were just punching each other straight in the mush. GOD BLESS NICK MONDO; I will gladly watch their match next month and hope and pray that they do more of that and less of the prop-wrestling stuff.

Super Dragon vs. American Dragon (APW Internet Title)

CL: Now we're talking.

DJC: And on the fifth day, God created Super Dragon.
And on the sixth day, God created American Dragon
And on the seventh day, God said "Go forth, ye, and wrestle", and they did.

And it was good.

I have seen a lot of dream matches in my day go down, but by and large they were pretty underwhelming, usually because the guys involved abandon their respective strengths and try to find a middle ground. Well, this one didn't - this was two wrestlers figuring out what their strengths were and how they could best go together, and right up until the finish, it was fucking AMAZING.

What's particularly impressive is that if you look at the big picture, Super Dragon was the one who'd made the most significant modifications in his game, although to be fair this match was more the culmination of those modifications than the first time they'd shown up. Last year around this time, I was screaming about how great his matches worked on a meta-level, and how they were amazing, transcendent storytelling mechanisms and all sorts of other fifty-cent words. But ever since around the Jardi match from MPW last year, he's been slowly shifting his style into one where the story isn't anything really above and beyond the wrestling; it's more ABOUT the wrestling than anything else. Well, this match right here was probably the most compelling one in that vein that I've seen him pull off. This was a match about wrestling, and mother of god, did I love it.

CL: I'd seen some of Super Dragon's stuff from APW, thanks to the magic of the internet, and this really was a whole different thing. I mean, some stuff was retained, especially the parts where he was dicking it up (If Am Drag's name had lent itself better to chanting, indeed it would have been chanted aplenty). But there he was just sort of playing around, almost like practice for this match. There's roots in the dicking it up, some roots in working in most of the moves he used, and especially in making the Psycho Driver look all fearsome, something it kind of lost in SoCal when Rising Son kicked out and B-Boy kicked out and the Supernatural Driver was brought into the Neck Death equation. Am Drag did a Fantastic Job of making it seem like he wanted to be ANYWHERE but in the Torture Rack position.

DJC: I'm pretty sure that the match revolved around the concept that "they've never faced each other before" (a Damned Lie, considering the APW tag match found on Evolution Vol. 2, yet another thing that I was too poor to afford), but were aware of each others' reputations. Ergo, the feeling-out process was deep as a motherfucker; Super tried early to see if he could get something over on American on the ground to no avail, while American tried to knock Super the FUCK OUT with his Roaring Elbow - in other words, both guys were trying to show off by beating the other at what he's best.

CL: It should also be noted that they had a portion in the beginning of this match with all the fast running and matwork that ALWAYS leads up to the Pose of Mutual Respect, something that always leads to me filling the room with my psychic vibes of hate. Friends don't let friends Pose with Mutual Respect. Anyhow, they did all that, and they didn't even try that posing shit. It gave me the impression that it wasn't About Exhibiting all their big fancy moves-it was about all kinds of intensity and wanting to beat the shit out of the other guy and being better than him. The pose of mutual respect is worthless. Teasing the pose and then leading into them hitting each other a whole lot is FABULOUS.

DJC: This opening, then, gave substance to the whole rest of the match; it set up that both guys were essentially equal in terms of skill and smarts. Thus, when both guys took the exact same avenue of attack by targeting each others' arm, it simultaneously reinforced the parity and put over how goddamn smart both of these guys were at wrestling.

CL: This was the thing that struck me. I got the sense they could have gone in an entirely other direction if they wanted to, because they knew EXACTLY what they were doing at all points, even when the crowd didn't (more on that later).

DJC: Consider this: Super Dragon catches an awful lot of shit for his selling, but that's because most wrestlers tend to work over his leg, playing off of his knee injuries. And that's fine and dandy, and can make for a great story, but it tends to hamper him; at heart, he's still a junior wrestler, and thus needs to be able to stay mobile. By working the arm instead of the leg, American Dragon avoids the problem altogether; hell, if anything he makes Super use his legs *more* since both his lariat and his lifting power are devalued. And at the very worst, it's something new - and given the rumblings among the nonbelievers that Super Dragon's spent as a SoCal wrestler since his matches are all dead, any novelty is good novelty.

CL: One of the fun things about two guys with all kinds of offense is that you can work a body part and there will be some things that can't work, and some things that can, and this was the case with both guys. As Am Drag did a pretty dandy job of selling his own arm damage; the only thing was he had fewer opportunities to do stuff to show off the damage, as he didn't have the chance to do anything as fantastic as…

DJC: But, of course, it's not enough for Super Dragon to just get hit in the arm; he'd really have to sell it. Which he did. In style. There was, of course, the UFO (his name for his MURDEROUS springboard leg lariat) spot, where he didn't have the arm strength to pull himself into the air (prompting a loathsome "You fucked up" from the smart mark jackasses in the audience - so what's it feel like to be worked like a nine-year-old?)

CL: This was so great. First, it was done so well it just suckered in everybody for at least a half-second, until most of us saw Super Dragon clutching his arm on the ground. As for the rest of them, working over people's heads is just fine by me.

DJC: Not that it's hard with THAT crowd. They seemed very much to be of the ideal demographic for that guy who wore a Giants helmet and shaved Ric Flair's head - i.e. loud, easily amused, and totally without two brain cells to rub together.

CL: As it is, the gigantic ball of hate directed from those who understood to those who didn't seemed to be the climax of the building war between people who liked getting themselves over and those who wanted those people to Shut the Fuck Up.

DJC: but even beyond that, the arm was almost always being sold. Granted, there were a few spots where he'd have to use his arm, but for the most part they were few and far between, and almost every single time, he'd be favoring his arm immediately after. Watching this match, I really got the feeling that Super Dragon's becoming an even smarter worker; he really did wring every bit of juice out of every move in this match, given that he couldn't just pop the crowd with a lariat spot or something. He'd do a lot of lower-core moves in his arsenal, most of which were kicks and chops (although less than usual, and again favoring the arm afterwards)

CL: Yet another consequence of working the arms of both guys, although possibly just a really nice coincidence, was that none of their strikes seemed to work as much as we've seen before. Either live or on tape, I've seen the both of them Beat the Holy Fuck out of people with their chops and lariats; but they toned it down, because it just wasn't about beating the Holy Fuck out of each other. Of course, it eventually became about that in a few Fighting Spirit sequences where they just gradually began to just mangle each other with strikes. The only ones that truly brought the late-match murderlizing, though, were based off of a running charge, because their legs still worked and all. There was just so much intensity in these sequences, as they were all about each guy trying gain the advantage on the duel-maybe I'm just trying to praise this match as much as I can, but it felt more like they were trying to show they were better than the other man, instead of just hitting each other to hit each other. Maybe even if they had tried these sequences in another match, they would have seemed showy, but here it just continued working the vibe of the match. I dunno. I was having a Fucking Coronary during all the Fighting Spirit stuff, and Lord knows I've seen an assload of Fighting Spirit stuff in my day. It's all in how you use it.

DJC: and wait to hit the big moves until the crowd was absolutely SCREAMING for them. Thus, when he finally hit the UFO, it was ENORMOUS, a damn good setup to a nearfall rather than a signpost indicating that the end sequence of the match was near.

CL: I also liked that SD didn't just Dragon up or anything to hit the UFO; when they began to build into the charge for the finish, AD left the arm alone just long enough, and SD went on just enough offense to where you can argue the pain has subsided somewhat. Not enough to get a firm lock on the Psycho Driver, though…

DJC: The overall effect of this attentiveness was, of course, to play up the parity aspect. This was the match that plenty of people over here (notably MEEEEEEE) have been SCREAMING for; it was, then, important that it not come off as a one-sided affair. This was a match that really had to feel like a heavyweight showdown, like a huge event, like two guys at the top of their game going at it, and thanks to details like those, it succeeded.

CL: Someone was going to win this thing, but there was so much parity that they could have run a rematch the very next show (which I suppose is RevPro on the 19th, although AD isn't gonna show), and the victor wouldn't have been a foregone conclusion.

DJC: Of course, this is hardly a new approach for this particular region - or for Super Dragon, to be fair. Last year saw him have epic showdowns with B-Boy and Rising Son, and arguably Excalibur as well (although I'd argue that they've still got a match to go). What set this one apart and made it into - for me, anyway - the benchmark for matches like these is that American Dragon didn't have the benefit of a preexisting history with the fans. Hell, outside of the WAR Special, I couldn't tell you one of his signature moves. American Dragon just up and ignored all that, plain and simple. He said "Fuck pre-existing context - I'll make my own", and oh baby did it ever work. His gameplan was organized around the Roaring Elbow. It was the first big move that he went for (hell, it might have been the first move he went for in the match), and he kept trying to hit it throughout the course of the match, with varying degrees of success (first Dragon's ducking it like crazy, then less quickly, then he starts blocking it, then finally it hits). Thus, once it connects, it's like white-hot death...which is unfortunate.

Of course, this is hardly a new approach for this particular region - or for Super Dragon, to be fair. Last year saw him have epic showdowns with B-Boy and Rising Son, and arguably Excalibur as well (although I'd argue that they've still got a match to go). What set this one apart and made it into - for me, anyway - the benchmark for matches like these is that American Dragon didn't have the benefit of a preexisting history with the fans. Hell, outside of the WAR Special, I couldn't tell you one of his signature moves. American Dragon just up and ignored all that, plain and simple. He said "Fuck pre-existing context - I'll make my own", and oh baby did it ever work. His gameplan was organized around the Roaring Elbow. It was the first big move that he went for (hell, it might have been the first move he went for in the match), and he kept trying to hit it throughout the course of the match, with varying degrees of success (first Dragon's ducking it like crazy, then less quickly, then he starts blocking it, then finally it hits). Thus, once it connects, it's like white-hot death...which is unfortunate.

CL: That was quite possibly the nastiest looking suplex that didn't involve the victim landing squarely on top of their head. I think Super Dragon said afterwards it wasn't really intended to look like that, but JESUS was it effective at signaling the end was nigh.

DJC: and locked on the WAR Special. Cool-looking? Yes. Effective in getting AD over? Yes. Contextual? Not really. I mean, they'd teased American's Dragon Suplex (the setup for the WAR Special) a few times late in the match, so I guess it makes sense...but jeez, you get all that other work towards the elbow - why not have that be the finish?

CL: It just sort of ended abruptly, moreover; it just felt like they were going and then KABLAM! The Cattle are Mutilated and the Match is Over. It had an echo of B-Boy/Kozina: they just kept building and building and then it was over really quick. As it happens, I saw the referee wave his hands as if to say "That's the end of this", but not in a way which was absolutely definite (he just sort of shook his hands back and forth, instead of making a pointing to the bell motion or something like that). The timekeeper took about ten seconds to ring the damn thing,

DJC: Methinks the ref's calls for the bell got trapped in the echo chamber that was her cleavage.

CL: by which time everyone was confused. I knew full well the Cattle Mutilation could have ended it, but I wasn't Absolutely Positive it would, so I was among the confused. And you never really want to end a match with the audience not really sure of what the hell is happening.

DJC: The only excuse I can make for it is that really, it came as part of American Dragon's most significant offensive segment. Seriously - Super Dragon spent a LOT of time on offense in this match, plus he got all the spots where he got to show off the body-part psych (i.e. the UFO spot and the Psycho Driver spot), and if you wanna get down to brass tacks, the biggest sequence in the whole match (and my favorite to boot) was when they squared off mid-match and just started belting each other RIGHT in the goddamn face, which has to be the most awesome way to get parity over ever. American would, of course, go on offense every now and then, and lord knows the man's good enough at making stuff look convincing that he really didn't need to do a whole lot of hell of a lot. Him hitting his finisher reinforces that yes, you are watching American Dragon, and yes, he really is good enough to hang with Super Dragon (in the context of this match, anyway).

CL: The thing is I didn't really need to see him hit a ton of flashy stuff; I rather preferred him continuing to pound the hell out of Super Dragon's arm. I honestly can't even recall more than a few moves from his 7/21/01 match with Low Ki, but it's STILL possibly the best American Indy Match I've ever seen, just because he never loses the focus, or the intensity, or any of it. American Dragon is one of those guys you can sit and watch and only pay attention to his thought process, and he still rules. As I said to James midway through this, Smart Wrestlers are the best Wrestlers of them all.

DJC: But that's just it - you don't really need to be reminded that you're watching American Dragon. From the moment I saw the tape of the Super 8 2001, I knew that I wanted to see him wrestle Super Dragon because of how complementary their strengths are. If you put the American Dragon match up against, say, Super Dragon's match against Low-Ki, five'll get you ten that the American Dragon match will look more well-rounded, even if it isn't as psychologically deep, simply because AD's got this seemingly innate knack for using every available tool. Unlike most wrestlers, for instance, he saved the spot where he escapes a pinfall by putting his foot on the ropes for Super Dragon's most credible pinfall attempt (if memory serves me, it was the UFO spot).

CL: I believe that was it. And that was also the part where I said The Smart Wrestlers yadda yadda comment.

DJC: Or you can point to how he actually went back to chopping Super Dragon, even after it proved to be less impressive, simply to reinforce how committed he was to his moveset. Or - CHRIST - you can point out how he used the Roaring Elbow specifically to play up the Misawa/Kobashi allegories throughout the match, as well as in reference to the fact that he "knew" that lariats hadn't done Excalibur any favors in his series of matches with Super Dragon. I mean shit, the Roaring Elbow is - if the FPD CAW of American that I downloaded is any indication - one of his regular moves - but he didn't have to specifically play IT up. Little details like that...they might not be able to make a match on their own, but they can take a really good match and make it great.

CL: It's an odd thing that American Dragon looks the way he does: essentially, he gives you the vibe of "If I weren't wrestling, I'd be majoring in electrical engineering!" This may be part of his appeal to Indy fans, too:

DJC: And again I lament for not thinking of this line.

CL Come on, people, it's not like we attend wrestling shows the day after being named Prom King or anything. This was also reinforced after the match and its following shenanigans, when one of the EPIC girls (or possibly the ring announce girl) came by and was all about sticking her big fake breasts in AD's face. And Dragon gives the look of "I've discovered Girls!" and it's all so appropriate. Anyhow, yeah, his look basically feeds into his style of wrestling, which is alllllll about sweet sweet thinking and details and stuff.

DJC: I have no problem admitting that this review is, in part, sponsored by the enormous high that I got from my own excitement leading up to this match; after all, I'd only been screaming for it for over a year. But I cannot stress enough that I got every penny's worth of my money out of this one match, and were it not for the finish, you'd never hear the end of it from me.

CL: This, oddly enough, was the first match between any two of the only three indy guys I will go out of my way to watch (the other being Samoa Joe, and I'm starting to wonder why all three of them were at KOTI 2001 and yet still there was nothing up until this).

DJC: I got two words for ya - Roland Alexander.

CL: Unless someone decided to half-ass it, it was impossible for this not to be great; there was simply too much talent in the ring and too much importance surrounding it.

DJC: As it stands, it's not the "best indy match of all time" that I was hoping for - hell, the damage done by the finish might well discount it from being the best indy match of this year, especially if they have a rematch, or if the match they might be building to for next show goes down (more on that in a second). But you know what? I expected the world and more from this match, and I *still* got more than I bargained for, and then some. ****1/4

CL: Again I cannot rate with the stars at all. But I will say that, despite the fact that I have a dozen good candidates to see, this is currently locked in struggle with the Shocker/Dr. Wagner Jr. match from early April for the second best thing I've seen from WON/RSPW Year 2002, behind only Satanico/Mephisto/Averno vs. Mr. Niebla/Olimpico/Safari from Sin Piedad in December. Great work, great build, great drama, and more fun than all hell to see live. I was so into it that my Abdomen was tingling at the end. I don't even know how. I can say this as I am more than willing to forego a bothersome finish.

DJC: Post-match, Samoa Joe (!) runs in (along with Spanky, who runs in to protect AD),

CL: I enjoy this sentence mostly because my two favorite indy guys not advertised to be on this show ended up on this show in the same angle, next to my three favorite indy guys who Were advertised to be here (as Excalibur was at ringside the whole time). Yep. Confusing and full of joy, that sentence of mine. Anyhow, at this point I was yelling really loud because it was FREAKING JOE. I would have made all manner of "Oh no! Excalibur is getting a one-way ticket to the center of JOETOWN!" and "That running bootscrape is just part of life down on the mean streets of JOETOWN!" as Joetown comments are both in-jokey and fun.

DJC: cleans house, then turns to side with Dragon and cleans house again. It looked like they were building to a Super/Excalibur/Disco Machine vs. American/Joe/Spanky match for next show, but Joe's turn kind of negated that - but at any rate, I think he might be on the Zero-One tour longer than Spanky (whose stint over there ends July 7th), so we might have to "settle" for a tag of Super/Excalibur or Disco vs. American/Spanky. Woe is us.

CL: I don't recall Joe even being on the next Z1 Tour. He damn well better be on the Z1 PPV that supposedly coming to L.A. in September, though.

Jerry Lynn vs. Sabu

DJC: Sabu *wrestled*.
Wait, scratch that. *2002* Sabu *wrestled*.
Wait, scratch that too. *2002* Sabu *wrestled*...*well.*

I was SHOCKED at this match. I fully expected to have absolutely no use for it whatsoever - hell, I didn't *want* to like it one bit - but Sabu went out there to wrestle, and I just got into it.

Obviously, it wasn't even in the same galaxy as the match which preceded it; the transitions between offensive segments were all but nil (essentially boiling down to "You missed your move"), and the selling only lasted as long as that particular guy wasn't on offense. But I'll be damned if they didn't build to their spots and keep the clutch-and-grab to a minimum, and in retrospect, that's all I could have really wanted from this match. Granted, it did have something in common with the CZW match in that the "level" of the spots didn't really change at any point; it felt like they started at six instead of going one-two-three-four-five-six. But hell, who cares? They hit just about everything clean, and of the two spots that didn't work, one was Lynn's fault, and the other was due to a pre-cracked table. That's a ratio that I can live with. If the Spanky/Daniels match was the best Nitro match of 2001, then this match was the best ECW match from 2000. **1/4

And for those of you who think I'm shortchanging the Sabu match, believe me, I'm not :)

CL: I just didn't feel like watching this. What I saw was perfectly acceptable and all, and indeed there might have been something for me to grab a hold of, but I just chose not to. Everyone in front of me was standing, so I suppose they liked it, and good for them. I was just tired: it was a four hour show, with a few unbelievable highs and a few horrific lows, and sometimes all you want to do is stare at the Foxy Camera Girl with giant Camel Toe.

DJC: Camel toe, hell. It was more like a camel friggin' foot.

CL: Er, I mean, um, I'm all about class. She was really hot, though. A million stars. Sorry about the rest of it; if someone would have let me know beforehand, I would have napped during the Tag Match and the Messiah thing.

DJC: It should be noted in here somewhere that after the show, there was some kid outside handing out flyers for his show with the name OF HIS FED misspelled.

DJC: Anyway. I'm hard-pressed to think of a better show; the 4/13/01 RevPro show was incredibly solid all around and featured the best match I've ever been to live - although it might have to share that title after the AmDrag match - but so much of it was surprising, like "HOLY SHIT! Why is this Matt Sinister match any good at all?". This show, however, had an awful lot of promise, and unlike most dream shows, it delivered - and not just in the guaranteed money match of Dragon vs. Dragon. The Spanky vs. Daniels match was very much Of The Fun, Sabu and Lynn exceeded every expectation I've ever had for either one, the opening match was a perfectly fine way to fill some time, Ruckus/Acid was a fine match, and of course, New Jack's promo was not to be missed. All that plus a (right now, anyway) Match of the Year contender? Was this show any good? Are you kidding me?

CL: It has been a fairly weak year for matches, especially outside of Mexico, but yeah, I'll agree with all this. But, to be fair, EPIC was the best show I've ever been to almost by Default: Dragon/Dragon was the best match I've ever seen live, as I missed out on the RevPro glory due to my immense stupidity. I think the best assessment of this show I can give is that they could have split it up into your Sleazy Indy Show (New Jack, Messiah, CZW, ECW, all the breasts) and your Wrestling-Focused Indy (Dragons, the Opener, B-Boy/Kozina, Spanky/Daniels) and both would have been really fun 90-120 minute shows. I probably wouldn't have paid to see the Sleazy Indy one, but I would have had fun watching it. When most Indies can't put on one good show regardless of direction, EPIC put on two and mixed them up into four hours.I'm interested to see so many of these guys again, and you can't ask for anything better than repeat business.

DJC: I'm so sold on Epic right now that you have no idea. It's going to take an AWFUL lot of fucking up the fed before I skip a show. I would advise anyone with any prayer of making it out to the next show or, if this one is any indication, any other Epic show to run, walk, hop, fly, steal a car, steal a boat, steal a hot-air-balloon, WHATEVER - just See. This. Fed.

Chris Lening
Digable James Cobo

Discuss this on the Message Board!