Wrestling is a virtual hot bed in the world of sports, politics and social scenes. Heading up that charge to the tip of everyone's mouths are the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). These two super powered giants in the world of sports entertainment have tag-teamed to take wrestling to the forefront of mainstream culture. But the smaller groups, the ones not heard of, contain the stars of tomorrow, the stars of the past and the future of this sport. Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) has shown that these independent leagues can rise above their own status and into the big time. Right now, New York may be bearing witness to another organization, slowly building a fan base that may one-day rival those known as the "big three." USA Pro Wrestling is the place where tradition and hardcore collide, and the big federations may get caught in the backlash.
USA Pro Wrestling was established in December 1996. Since that time the organization has organized over 500 shows in New York and New Jersey. Based in Atlantic Beach, NY, USA, Pro has had successful shows with wrestling legends that have made the sport what it is today. USA Pro Wrestling is also a breeding ground for the stars of tomorrow. Legends of the sport like Sgt. Slaughter, Bob Orton, Tito Santana, Mr. Italy, Brutus Beefcake, Tommy Cairo, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, and King Kong Bundy have made their presence felt in this vastly growing, independent promotion. Stars of the future include Xavier, Loki, the Natural Born Killers, The Boogie Knights (a team with their own fan club), and The Mat Squad. Even current stars like Justin Credible, Big Vito and Big Dick Dudley are currently gracing the USA mat. But what makes this federation so popular are its fans, the kind that made ECW huge. They show up to many of the shows, get to know the wrestlers and take a personal interest in what goes on in the match. From being there, it is as if the fans have adopted these stars as their own. Titles aren't important, the wrestlers just showing up, makes them champions.
But there are titles in this federation. The first USA heavyweight champion was decided in 1996 when Tito Santana defeated Cowboy Bob Orton. Sgt. Slaughter has held the title and so has Big Dick Dudley. Currently, Tommy Cairo, an ECW legend, is the champion. The day he won the title, he retired his North American belt, a title that has at this time not been reinstated. The same goes for their Hardcore Title, last held by Pit Bull Dick Snyder. In a wonderful tag-team war, the Natural Born Killers, the first tag-team champions and the Boogie Knights, the current tag-team champs, have exchanged the belts several times. The future of tag-team wrestling is right here. Recently, Chris Michaels beat the Masked Maniac to win the US Title. And the recently turned bad guy; Jimmy Snuka, beat Ken Sweeney for the New York championship. These titles are defended in front of capacity packed crowds in high school gyms, halls and other small locations.
USA Pro Wrestling put on a show at the Knights of Columbus, in Mineola, New York, on Sunday, November 5. The Long Island show was titled, Mayhem in Mineola, and contained 12 exciting matches that left fans happy, mimicking moves as they left the show. What follows is a re-cap of the events that transpired that day, including one match that ripped the ceiling down, causing a light fixture to crash toward the mat!
The show opened up with the most popular USA wrestling team, The Boogie Knights, addressing a packed house. Most fans come to the independent shows for the older stars, but the Boogie Knights bring a large number of fans to the building in the form of The Mat Squad, their own fan club. Both members of the Boogie Knights, Mike Tobin and Danny Drake thanked the fans for their support.
"You made us who we are," Drake said. "You made us popular enough to get us ripped off." Then came the top 10 reasons why WCW stole their name, which included:
Earlier in the show, Danny Drake discussed their situation with WCW and what the future holds for the name Boogie Knights.
"It's not worth a legal fight," he said. "Their Boogie Knights gimmick is going to tank. We don't have to worry in the long run." Jokingly, he looks across the room at Tobin and says, "There's going to be a time and place where I am going to have to kick hi ass and there's going to be no more Boogie Knights anyway."
Hopefully that doesn't happen anytime soon. The fans go nuts for these guys and were cheering wildly for their attack on WCW. At this point, the Brotherhood then hit the ring and attacked the Boogie Knights to set up their match for later in the show. Mike Tobin took a totally nice looking bat shot. Sting should take a lesson on how to do it right, instead of in slow motion. Really nice shot, but Tobin and Drake got up, told the DJ to hit their porn music and walked to the back to the cheers of the fans. Then it was time for the matches:
Xavier and Loki, two future stars in the business, battled in a thrilling match. The match went back and forth with enough reversals and counter reversals to make an ECW fan go nuts. Xavier took an early advantage. One spot was just phenomenal. Xavier had Loki in one corner and went for a Chyna-like back flip into an elbow, but missed. Loki went for the same back flip, but instead of an elbow, hit an awesome spin karate kick that sent Xavier over the top ropes. Then Loki went for a dive over the ropes and missed. Xavier followed it up with a dive through the ropes that was met with a kick to the end. After that, Xavier was hit with Tajiri-like kicks that sounded painful. Damn. The match ended just as spectacular when Xavier hit a German Suplex into a pin attempt. Loki reversed this attempt into some whacked out type of dragon sleeper, forcing Xavier to submit. I've never seen anything like this before. These guys will be stars. Mark my words! The Xavier vs. Loki match totally kicked ass, and they set the pace for an exciting day.
"People like to do the big promo stuff," Loki says with a shrug, "I'd rather just wrestle."
The next match brought back the Bushwackers as they fought Prince Nanna and Biggie Brooklyn. The Bushwackers fought the same style match they used to fight in the WWF and got a pin due to miscommunication from the heel team. After the Bushwackers celebrated with the fans, Biggie Brooklyn turned face when he attacked the militant like group's leader, Prince Nanna, and went to the locker room with the fans behind him. Great to see the Bushwackers back again!
Devastation Inc. came to the ring and out of nowhere, the leader; the Masked Maniac, ousted King Kong Bundy from the group. The Masked Maniac didn't enjoy the fact that the WWF legend signed autographs and catered to fans. He was about to start a new Devastation Inc. The Metal Maniac came out and the two maniacs stomped a mud hole in Bundy. That was until Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka made the save, running the heels out of the ring. But in a shocking turn of events, Snuka attacked Bundy and joined Devastation Inc. in pounding Bundy. Bundy suffered a severe beating and fans' hearts were broken, but others realized they had a new hero to cheer. This was the first time I have ever seen Bundy as a good guy. Wow!! I don't think Jimmy Snuka has been bad since the early days of his career. It is cool to see him back to his bad old self. Can't wait to see where that goes!
"I like to be the bad guy," Snuka said of his turn. Snuka has stayed big in the industry especially with the recent stint he did on WCW where he jumped from the top of the cage onto Jeff Jarret. "That was lovely," he said. Jarret soon became a world champ, and that moment may have put Jarret in the memories of every wrestling fan. His world title reign may be due to Snuka's dive, but Snuka enjoys helping the younger talent. "They are all rookies," he said looking around the room "They are all learning."
When asked who would be the next big superstar there, Jimmy Snuka and King Kong Bundy agreed it would be everyone in the room, including themselves. "Me, Jimmy and Mr. Italy are the kings of the independents," King Kong Bundy said.
Speaking of future stars, The Natural Born Killers will be two Super Novas. This team works very well with one another and have been pains in the ass to the Boogie Knights. On this night, they found another team to screw with in the Dudley Boys. No, this team doesn't go Wazzzzzuuuuuuuppppp, nor do they wear camouflage. They are like the Dudley's of old with tie de shirts. Big Dick Dudley(an original Dudley Boy) found another brother named Psycho Sam Dudley. The Natural Born Killers worked better together, but the experience of Big Dick Dudley paid off, as Sam put one of the Killers on his shoulders and Dick clotheslined him off onto a table to get the victory. Suddenly, Tommy Cairo came down and attacked Big Dick Dudley, and together with the Natural Born Killers, triple teamed the giant. This of course set up for the main event of the evening between the Dudley and Cairo for the USA World Title in a Dog Collar Match.
The vacant US Title was up for grabs as Chris Michaels, a favorite amongst the crowd, battled the former champ, the Masked Maniac (The Masked Maniac has appeared in Pro Wrestling Illustrated's PWI 500 countdown of the top 500 wrestlers in the world!) Still, he became overzealous in this match and was disqualified for attacking officials on the outside. Chris Michaels won the title, but the Masked Maniac didn't mind and decided that if he was going to get DQed, he would have fun doing it. What transpired next was brutal, a total embarrassment and such a wicked event, you may only be able to check it out on video. I don't even want to talk about it. Let's just say one announcer was left sitting in a bra and panties. Whoa!!
Earlier before his match, I got the chance to talk with Thunderbolt, who would be fighting the WWF legend Brutus the Barber Beefcake. Thunderbolt, a 5-year veteran, has not been defeated in two years. He looked forward to a match with a true legend. "It's pretty cool," he said. "That's what we look forward to. That's who we wanted to be when we were growing up." Still, the legend is in the way of any possible title shot Thunderbolt has. The wrestler believes his day for a title shot may not be now. "I have never won a title," he said. "They know I'm going to beat whoever has the belt."
Brutus the Barber Beefcake made a return and brought his big clippers and his strutting and cutting gimmick. He looks very different from his days in WCW, and it was totally cool to see him again. He was one of my favorite wrestlers in the WWF and he was never the same after that boating accident. They never gave him a cool gimmick to work with, but he has decided to stick with the one that works, and the fans loved it. His opponent, Thunderbolt could be a big timer one day if given the right opportunity, but his two year undefeated streak came to an end when the Barber hit the stunner out of nowhere to get the pin. No haircut though, but Thunderbolt needed to keep some dignity after claiming he deserved a title shot cause no one could beat him. His turn on the fans before the match only made it worse for him, and maybe he should look into signing autographs and doing charities again.
Snuka's match as a heel was brutal. He took the New York State Champion Ken Sweeney to the cleaners. I haven't seen the high flyer so cutthroat before! Sweeney never got the license plate of the freight train known as the Superfly. A bloodied and battered mess, Sweeney lost his title after Snuka hit a piledriver on the chair. He even pinned the ex-champ with one foot. How is that for embarrassment? Snuka makes a heel turn and now he is a champ again. Go Snuka!
Tommy Cairo is a legend in the industry. A former ECW star, Cairo enjoys life in USA a lot more. "Frank Goodman (owner) treats us well. I can pretty much do what I want," he said. "I enjoy it here. I have been wrestling for 14 years. I had options to make it big, but I had a lot of other interests. This business could destroy you. I have a lot of fun and have worked with guys on their way out. I even fought Ivan Koloff. That was one of my first big wins." Cairo has since gotten involved with several hardcore wrestling groups as well as an Ultimate Fighting type group. USA is still a place he calls home and he represents the federation as their champ.
In the main event, Big Dick Dudley and Tommy Cairo battled for the World Title in a Hardcore Match that went all over the place and included everything. As always with a Dog Collar Match, the chain was used quite often as both Big Dick Dudley and Cairo hung the other over the ropes with it. It was used for legdrops, clotheslines and vicious blows. But the chain was not the only other weapon as Cairo beat on Dudley with a ring bell and a chair. Dudley got his revenge and pounded on Cairo rather close to the fans. He was right on top of us (I was happy!). Still, the action went back to the ring where we witnessed the first ref bump of the night. With the ref down, Dudley had a pin that was uncounted and this means he didn't get the title. Suddenly, The Natural Born Killers hit the ring and a triple team was on. Another wrestler came down in ref gear and as The Natural Born Killers beat on Dudley, as Cairo beat on Dudely and as Sam Dudley accidentally hit his brother, he did nothing to stop the madness. Then the Natural Born Killers hit total elimination on the ex-world champion, causing Cairo to win the match and keep his title when the ref delivered a fast count and said that the Dudley Boy would never hold the world title again. This led to a challenge by Big Dick Dudley for the next show.
I must talk about the match of the night. While it wasn't the main event, it very well should have been. It brought the roof down, literally. The World Tag Team champions, The Boogie Knights defended their straps against The Brotherhood, a monster team that does the whole white supremacy gimmick.
"This is a true test," Mike Tobin said. "They are twice our size. We're going to have to take some pain. You have to work on the fly. There are no second takes here. You can plan all you want, but if the fans aren't buying it..."
The fans were truly into this one, as a fierce brawl ensued at the outset of this match and this time Danny Drake took a nice bat shot. Then a member of The Brotherhood just flipped Mike Tobin up into the ceiling. The ceilings were low, so while he is strong, this is no supernatural feat. Anyway, a light fixture covering was taken off and smashed over Tobin's head. Mike Tobin took such a severe beating and made it looked like just another day on the job! He was getting a beating, the ceiling was taking a pounding and the fans just loved it. Tobin was pressed up into the light fixture, moving it off of its alignment. These light fixtures are for the long fluorescent light bulbs. I used to carry them at work. They are heavy. Tobin hit it pretty hard, but was able to make a comeback and make the dramatic tag to Danny Drake, who then cleaned house. But he too was a victim of being thrown into the ceiling and this time the light fixture came down and was hanging by a wire. Tiles came down and debris filled the ring. Suddenly, a member of the Brotherhood decided the light fixture could play a part in the match and put out the lights in the fixture before having Drake's head rammed right through it. The covering shattered everywhere. Couldn't tell if the bulbs broke, but it is a possibility. While ring technicians tried to clean it all up; Drake made a miraculous recovery and got the pin. That was crazy. Still, the Brotherhood slammed a tile over Tobin's head and then out both members of Boogie Knights through a table before leaving the ring. I guess it is not over between these guys. Man, I have seen a Thumbtack Match, and I have seen a Barbed Wire Match and even an Inferno Match, but never an Electricity Match! These guys put on an excellent showing and let everyone know who the real Boogie Knights are!
USA Pro Wrestling is on the verge of greatness. Many of their ideas have been allegedly stolen by WCW, including the names Boogie Knights and the Natural Born Killers. Even many of their angles have been seen in WCW. Frank Goodman, owner of USA is the man responsible for getting Tito Santana, George the Animal Steele and Jimmy Snuka on a big WCW Nitro program. A federation is big when you start seeing their ideas taken by other promotions. Look at what happened with many of ECW's stars and ideas. The popularity of USA is growing and the future looks bright. Now it is your turn to check out what USA Pro Wrestling is all about!
On Friday, December 1, 2000, USA Pro Wrestling will present a card at the Elks Lodge 878, at 82-10 Queens Blvd. in Elmhurst, NYC. The show begins at 8 p.m. and will showcase 12 big matches featuring appearances by Big Vito, Balls Mahoney, Jimmy Snuka, The Baldies, WWF legend, Magnificent Muraco, Iron Sheik, Tommy Cairo and Big Dick Dudley. Loki and Xavier will battle it out for the renegade promotion UCW's world title. Tickets cost $20. For more information call the USA Pro Hotline at 1-800-582-5541 or 718-631-1518. Remember, the card is subject to change.
If you are not in the area, you can check out USA Pro Wrestling through their website on www.usaprowrestling.com. You can also purchase videotapes of events at www.harringtontalents.com. These guys do a superb job of videotaping these events and they'll give you all the action, making you feel like you are right there. They also videotape music videos, and other events, so check out their website to see what they can do for you.
The WWF, WCW and ECW are hot now, but promotions like USA Pro Wrestling helped make them what they are today. It may not be long before the big three becomes the big four.