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As far as the show itself goes, it's easily one of the best shows I've been to live this year & I would go as far as to say it was one of the best JAPW shows since well before they went on a hiatus following their New Japan Pro Wrestling tour several years back.
The opening match saw two young guys who have worked against a lot around the loop on the east coast independent circuit, 2 Hot Steve Scott & Joey Janela attempt to steal the show as within the first minute of the match, Janela knocked Scott into the front row & then dove onto him, breaking a chair or two in the process. Now I'm sure there are plenty of people, including veteran wrestlers, who will argue that they shouldn't do so much in the opening match of a show, but as a long time wrestling fan I appreciate the effort that these two youngsters put on. I realized that with all the other talents on the show that they weren't likely to steal the show, but the fact that they tried was quite ballsy of them & I respected them for it.
There were a number of great highspots in this match but one of the biggest highlights saw Scott hit a Jig-n-Tonic on Janela on the ring apron. The finish saw Scott hit a Boma Ye sliding knee strike to get the win at 7:57. After the match, they were both visibly overwhelmed with emotion from the positive fan reaction & shoot hands & hugged each other. If there's one criticism of the match that I have it's that the babyface-heel roles were not well defined as they both came off as heels to me.
The second match saw Chris Dickinson come out to cut a heel promo in the crowd, saying that he started in JAPW but that the fans didn't appreciate him & forgot about him. He also mentioned he's accomplished in CZW since then. Inexplicably, he made a open challenge to anyone in the locker room, even though his opponent had already been announced weeks ago as Monsta Mac. In any event, his open challenge brought out Monsta Mac. This was very stiff match in which they both dropped each other on their heads. Monsta Mac even went so far as to practically no-sell a Burning Hammer that Dickinson had hit him with, kicking out at the count of just one. This was after Dickinson had press slammed Mac out of one corner of the ring & attempted to heave him into the a set of turnbuckles. Instead hitting the turnbuckles, Mac fell short & landed right on his head. They put quite a beating on each other & Mac ended picking up Dickinson up from the ring apron in a half-nelson suplex drop him into the ring to catch the winning pinfall at 9:04. I was surprised to see Monsta Mac go over in this match, but I was probably more thankful (and surprised) that neither one was permanently injured from this strong style type match that they had here.
The Playaz Club of Danny Demanto & Damien Darling came out to the ring to make an open challenge to any tag team in the locker room. Before that though, Demanto cut one of his usual scathing heel promos on the fans, insulting the New York Giants & putting over the Dallas Cowboys. Crime Time came out to accept their challenge as well cut a promo on them. This was mainly a comedy match, but certainly one the fans were into. Darling flubbed two basic spots near the end of the match before Crime Time hit their Samoan Drop-swinging neck breaker combination finisher. Shad Gaspard got the pin on Darling to take this one in 9:30.
The match that would take us into intermission was a brawl that went through the entire crowd with the Viking War Party (“American Viking†Alexander Rudolph/“The Biggest Viking†Frank Wyatt/“The Littlest Viking†Jake Parnell) against JAPW crowd favorite Necro Butcher & The Hooligans (Devin & Mason Cutter). The Viking War Party initially came out tossing chairs into the ring. When Necro & The Hooligans came out after them, Necro just scoffed at what the Vikings did & started bashing a chair over his own head, busting open his own forehead in the process. All three Vikings were tossed down the bleachers of the Rahway Rec Center one by one. I honestly wasn't very familiar with any of the the wrestlers in this match with the exception of Necro Butcher. All I can say is that it was a crazy brawl that the live crowd loved. Jake Parnell got pinned by one of The Hooligans at 8:05 after being placed in a wheelbarrow suplex position by one of The Hooligans while Necro & the other Hooligan took turns jabbing Parnell in the face.
When the show came back from intermission, JAPW promoter Fat Frank came out to speak with the live crowd & announce that JAPW was going to be returning to “the house†that they “builtâ€. He took indirect shots at other area promotions before announcing that the next JAPW show in the building would be on 3/21/15.
The first match after intermission was the Best of the Light Heavyweights 17 elimination match for the vacant JAPW Light Heavyweight Title. This is traditionally a six-way elimination match. Yet it was down to five this year instead. Marq Quen hit a few good highspots, which got a good crowd reaction . Lucky tHURTeen has improved a lot, but I was glad when it came down to BLK Jeez & Bandido, Jr. (who was the heavy favorite). This was a decent spotfest that saw BLK Jeez take the vacant title.
The last three matches were all very strong. Chris Hero worked heel against Samoa Joe, but both of them got very strong reactions. It was a solid match but they didn't really pick up the speed much. Joe ended up tapping out Hero with the Coquina Clutch at 13:20. Hero seems to have gotten out of shape a bit as he was sporting a gut, but can still very much go in the ring.
AJ Styles vs. Matt Sydal had to be the match of the night. There were many fans in the audience wearing Bullet Club T-shirts (myself included). AJ Styles sold plenty of them himself at his merchandise table. Styles & Sydal have great chemistry together and it showed. Styles got the win with the Styles Clash at 13:07.
The crowd erupted for the entrances in the main event, especially for the reunion of Team Angle. To everyone's surprise Chris Hero accompanied Teddy Hart & Chris Sabin to the ring, wearing Teddy's ring jacket. Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin were noticeably physically smaller than they've been in years. Sabin was great in his role as the conniving, cowardly heel & Teddy has such an aura about him with the fans that is palpable even over a decade after debuting in JAPW. Late in the match, Hero attempted to interfere in the match only to end up getting release German suplexed by Kurt Angle. Haas pinned Sabin to send the fans home happy.
After the match, Charlie got on the mic & was emotionally when he spoke about how Fat Frank & JAPW have him & his late brother Russ a chance to wrestle when no one else would. He spoke about how difficult it was after Russ passed away but that God sent him an angel in his place in Shelton Benjamin. Charlie how they've become best friends, that Shelton was the best man at his wedding & is the god father to his children. He then spoke about how Kurt Angle mentored both of them throughout their WWE tenure & especially when they first started there. To close, he thanked both of them & the fans for their years of support.
Teddy Hart ended up staying in the ring after Team Angle left ringside. He too thanked the fans for their years of support & asked them to keep supporting JAPW & independent wrestling as a whole.
Overall, a great show from top to bottom as there was enough variety on the card to hold up any wrestling fan's interest.
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