XWF Friday Night Fights 12/13/96

[Pigman]

Friday Night Fights 12/13/1996 NYCB Theatre , Westbury, NY


The show opens with Prince Nana making his way down to the ring. He tells the crowd that they are all worthless and will never amount to anything in their sad pathetic lives. He Explains that they should all get out of their seats and kneel before the greatness that is going to enter their presence. He then goes on to introduce the new XWF Champion Christian York!

    York comes out to the sounds of Royal Trumpets. York tells everyone that they should be honored that he would even show up in a dump like this place. He states that already at nineteen years old he is already on another level than everyone else and that he deserves to be treated that way. After going on for a few moments about how great he is, he is interrupted by Rhino.

Rhino limps down to the ring as he is still noticeably hurt from his brutal War Games match two weeks ago in ECW. Rhino says that he stole that title from him and doesn’t deserve it. He Says he’s been waiting to get his hands on York and that title ever since.
 
Sandman and Balls Mahoney then make their way out to the ring. They said they didn’t like the fact that Rhino stuck his nose where it didn’t belong when he saved little Mike Quackenbush from their attack. They claim that if it wasn’t for him, one of them would be champ and that if he wants to get his title shot tonight he will have to go through them first. York then states that it won’t matter who wins the challenge because he will still leave here as champion. York and Nana exit the ring and sit ringside to watch the match.
vs  vs 
Match: Rhino vs Sandman vs Balls Mahoney

Balls and Sandman quickly jump on top of the War Beast. They work together for a while just picking apart Rhino until Sandman jumps on top for a pin which is broken up by Balls. The two men argue for a bit over who is going to get the title shot before they start fighting each other. Balls manages to hit the Nutcracker Suite on Sandman and goes for the pin attempt but Rhino forces himself over to stop it just in time. Mahoney then goes on the offensive against Rhino as Sandman slowly gets up. Sandman jumps in and attacks Balls while Rhino is down on a hurt leg.
The fight spills outside and Sandman beats down Mahoney right in front of the champ. York doesn’t like this and gets in Sandman’s face. Sandman punches York in his face, knocking the champ on his ass. Prince Nana gets between them distracting Sandman and Balls enough where both men failed to realize the match was still going on allowing the ref to call for the bell and give Rhino the win by countout. Ball’s and Sandman both infuriated with this decision charge back into the ring and take out their anger on Rhino. Balls grabs a steel chair and starts smashing the injured legs of Rhino. He then nails Sandman over the head and leaves the ring.

Commercial Break


 
Paul Heyman is backstage with Hector Garza. He tells him that even though he didn’t win the title last week he was still impressed by his performance and said he has the potential to go places in this company. Paul tells him that he has a special opportunity for him later tonight.

vs 
Match: Heavy Metal vs Big Guido

Big Guido lands some powerful shots in on Heavy Metal taking control early in the match. Guido goes for a powerbomb but Heavy Metal reverses it with a hurricanrana which rolls into a pin to get the victory.

    Backstage Doink the Clown is joking around with the Goon. The Pitbulls walk by and don’t find it too amusing. They tell them that this isn’t a comedy show and they better leave before they get hurt. Doink then starts mocking them before he is quickly cut off with a shove. He’s then told that he’s gonna regret that as him and the Goon are going to meet the Pitbulls in the ring.

Commercial break
vs &
Match: The Pittbulls vs Doink the Clown and The Goon

Doink starts the match off by frolicking around the ring but is stopped quickly by Pittbull I. Doink is completely dominated and stuck in the corner as The Pittbulls make quick tags back and forth while punishing him. The Goon tries to jump in and save Doink but only manages to anger the Pittbulls even more. Pittbull II takes The Goon to the oppisite corner and both Pittbulls take their opponents up to the top and hit a Superbomb at the same time and pin both of their opponents.

Commercial Break

The Pittbulls are backstage looking for Paul Heyman. After they find him ask if he saw their dominance out there and asked him for a real challenge. Paul agreed and told them that next week they have a match for the new XWF Tag Team Titles!

Hector Garza is in the ring waiting as Michael Buffer announces that the following match is for the Triple X championship and will be contested in a hardcore match. This announcement takes Garza by surprise as his opponents music hits
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Match: Hector Garza vs Mike Awesome for the XXX title

Garza and Awesome both push each other to the limits as they realize what is at stake. Garza keeps going for quick pin attempts but doesn’t manage to get anywhere. Awesome frustrated by this beats Hector back. Mike locks in a Sleeper hold but Garza manages to power out, but Awesome tosses Garza outside the ring and continues the attack.
Awesome tosses him into the barricade and charges at him but Garza quickly grabs the announcers chair and tosses it at him. Mike catches it and smacks Hector over the head. Awesome then begins to tear up the announcing table, as he’s doing this Garza manages to get up and attack him from behind with the chair. Garza then lays Mike Awesome on the announce table and goes in the ring and up to the top turnbuckle.
Garza attempts a moonsault but Awesome rolls out the way sending him crashing through the table. Mike then rolls Garza into the ring and hits the Awesome Bomb. Mike goes for the pin but Garza just kicks out before the three. Awesome can't believe it and pissed he goes under the ring and finds a ladder. Awesome tosses the ladder into the ring and sandwiches Garza in the middle of it. He then climbs the turnbuckle and hits Hector with the Awesome Splash crushing him in between the ladder. Awesome throws the ladder out of the way and covers Garza to get the 3 count.

Commercial Break


vs 
Match: Mike Quackenbush vs Jerry Lynn

Mike manages to hold his own for awhile against the veteran Lynn. He goes for a submission attempt but Lynn quickly escapes. Lynn continues to put the pressure on Quackenbush as he works him around the ring. Quackenbush manages to counter a slam attempt into a flying armbar but Lynn pushes himself to grab the ropes. Mike fights back for a bit longer before he is hit with the Cradle Tombstone Piledriver by Lynn who took the victory.
vs  w/ 
Match: Rhino vs Christian York w/ Prince Nana for the XWF Heavyweight Championship

Rhino is barely able to walk to the ring after his attack from Balls Mahoney earlier in the match. When the bell rings York immediately hits Rhino in the legs with a dropkick to take him down. He then begins beating down on his legs with a flurry of stomps. York doesn’t give Rhino a chance to move by just constantly working off of his injury. York goes for a flying crossbody, but Rhino catches him and slams him to the mat.
He makes the cover getting a two and dominates York for a bit. The champ escapes the beating raking Rhino's eyes and attacking his injued legs takes him down. York then goes to the top rope and goes for a diving knee drop but Rhino manages to move out the way. Rhino crawls to the corner and uses the ropes to pull himself up. Rhino is waiting to hit York with the Gore when he gets up.
As soon as York gets to his feet Rhino charges at him but Christian moves out of the way at the last second and Rhino slams into the steel ring post before staggering across the ring and he collapses in the center of the ring. York takes advantage of this and quickly jumps up to the top rope and hits a corkscrew knee drop and covers to retain his title. Prince Nana brings his title to him and York rubs it mocking Rhino as the lights fade

[Chitohausen]

All in all, this was a good show. I really like that you're giving Mike Awesome a push. I think you handled the Quack - Lynn match very well, Quack is extremely underrated, IMO, but I think he's only two years or so into his career, so I think Lynn going over was the right choice.

The Pitbulls vs Doink/Goon match was a lot of fun.

My only real criticism is I'm not sure I buy York as the top guy in the promotion. I've been a fan of his for years, but he's only about 19 years old at this point, and IIRC, his pro debut was mid-96, so he's not even a year into his career. I like the idea of giving him a bit of a push, but I think if it were me, I'd use him more like how you're using Quack, put him in competitive matches, but put over the more established guys.

But all in all, I think you've put together a really good group of talent, and I like the direction that you're going with the XWF.

[Kimmel]

If this were a 2002 ROH show, well with the exception of the tag match cause neither of the four would be in an 02 ROH show, I would be giving you mad props. But for a 1996 soon to be 1997 show, I am left luke warm. I have no problem with people having their favorites and pushing them, I have been more guilty of it than I care to admit, but if you are going to make York your guy, then you need to have York in a promotion with guys around the same talent level and such. Mike Awesome or Jerry Lynn or Sandman is a better pick for your top guy in 97. Like Sean said, what you did with Quack was perfect for him at this time, if you were doing the same with York then you'd be set.

If York is going to be your top guy, you can run with it, but I would consider letting go of guys who's talent would over shadow him and grab guys who would work better with him. Grabbing some smaller guys or higher flying younger guys, other East Coast Indy guys who would one day become top stars would also be perfect. If you are more familiar with guys from 02 and later, than grab those guys and build them up on your shows, don't force yourself to use guys you are unfamiliar with, because it'll just make it harder for you to do shows.

Now in saying that, you have set up a program with Balls and Sandman that would be pretty good. Balls wasn't all out chair swinging freak yet and was doing great work in SMW as Boo Bradley, and would have been a great opponent for Sandman in this period. You have Awesome and I saw you got Taz as well in trade who was a total bad ass at this point and one of the top guys in the world, paring Taz and Awesome up would be a bunch of fun, or really any of those four guys together.

I really like that you have Lynn here, Jerry Lynn was very underrated before his series with RVD, having him wrestle Quack was a great idea because he could have helped the youngster to a really good performance.

You have a good format down, and you seem to understand how to pace a show and tell a story in it, I would just look at who you have and think about what you want to do with it.

[Captain Charisma]

Yea I think Chito and Kimmel nailed it. It feels like the XXX Title is the top title here, Awesome vs. Garza is a different, fresh match up that would be a really good main event. If the roster you've put together is the roster you really want to promote, then trying to make York a main eventer would turn fans off, IMO. I know it would me. Pushing Christian York, even as a 19 year old with less than a year experience isn't wrong or even bad, pushing him in a promotion that has legitimate stars is what is bad. If you want to have an ECW style promotion, you have all the makings for it, and there are several good free agents remaining as well. You have some Luchadores, and your actual writing is well done. Easy to follow and well-structured. You have the little things in place, it is just hard for me to get past York being on top in this promotion.

And if you just really want to be able to book Christian York and Mike Quackenbush and Jerry Lynn, and run a precursor to Chikara or something, there is A LOT of talent still available for the that. I have some talent I'd be willing to give you, cause I WOULD LOVE TO SEE THAT. Nobody is trying to say, "hey don't push Christian York," we are just saying not to do it in a promotion with Paul E., Sandman, or Mike Awesome. Jerry Lynn, Hector Garza, and even Rhino to a certain extent are guys that could be in a Chikara/Hardcore hybrid. I think Hakushi would be a dream addition to this promotion, I honestly do.

Bad Breed is still available as well, they would be a great choice to take on the Pit Bulls. I did enjoy the cameos by my guy Bill Irwin and Doink. Fun enhancement pairing.