World Series Wrestling - International Assault
October 5, 2005
Melbourne, Australia - Vodafone Arena
Report by debaser, PW Torch subscriber

This is the first show in a three card tour covering the east coast of Australia. Tickets were being offered on-line prior to the show at two for the price of one, so it didn't bode well for a big crowd. I'd estimate the crowd at around 1,000, although that's a wild guess. The Arena holds a little over 10,000, so it appeared a little sparse, and definitely affected the amount of heat for some of the matches.

Show got off to a disappointing start with the announcement that Mick Foley would not appear due to "politics beyond the control of any of the promoters". Phhhft.

(1) Frankie "the Future" Kazarian defeated TNT. Frankie was definitely the face here, with Sydney boy TNT a natural heel in Melbourne. Good action, with Frankie looking really sharp. Frankie won with the Future Shock.

(2) Test defeated Samoa Joe. Really disappointed that this was Joe's match, as he was originally billed as taking on Super Dragon. Test did the old faking the injury, and then suckering Joe to establish himself as the heel. Don't worry Test, the crowd had that worked out when you walked through the curtain. Joe tried hard, but had little to work with, as Test has not added to his repertoire of rest holds since leaving WWE. Crowd got into Joe when he delivered the facewash and teased a muscle buster, but there was no way Test was taking that with his bad neck. Finish came when Test pulled the ref in front of him to avoid a Joe attack, then low blowed Joe while the ref was getting out the way. Big boot, three count, and Test wins. Lame.

(3) Nathan Jones won a squash. They kept it short, and nobody got hurt. That's about all we could have asked for. Finish came when Jones hit a 450 splash. Or it might have been a chokeslam.

(4) A.J. Styles defeated Christopher Daniels in a 30 minute iron-man match. It only took half an hour for me to get my money's worth. Great match between two absolute pros. Pace was a little slower that their recent TNA match with Joe, but it built really nicely. Great high spot early when Styles jumped from the ramp over the turnbuckle onto Daniels on the floor on the other side of the ring. Daniels spent the middle portion working over Styles and jawing with the fans. Daniels is a great heel. Last five minutes were PPV worthy. Both men traded over a dozen two counts in a minute, before Daniels hit the best moonsault ever for a convincing near fall. Styles attempted a suplex over the ropes to the floor, but Daniels reversed it into the Angels Wings. Styles reversed out of that into the Styles Clash with 6 seconds left, to win it 1-0.

(5) Nidia beat Gail Kim. Gail challenged Nidia to a 'dance-off' prior to the match, but in a dastardly move suckered Nidia when she took her turn. Not much to it, Gail worked over Nidia pretty much the whole match until Nidia won it with a roll-up. Nidia did well not to fall out of her singlet top.

(6) Team 3D defeated Jesus Aguilera & LoboJesus and Lobo were merely guest stars in the Dudley show. Crowd popped big, and were into everything TTFKA the Dudleys did. BRD went for the cheese grater early, the though of which must have been too much for Lobo, as he came us bleeding before BRD had actually used it. Real ECW style match, which a ladder, chair, barbed wire two by four, and table, but little in the way of transition or selling. Match was a lot like the ECW ONS main event. Lots of plunder (if you will) and big spots, without too much sense. Great fun though, and the crowd ate it up.

At one stage an ECdub chant broke out, which BRD successfully converted to a TNA chant. Funny, given no one in Australia can watch TNA (legally). Lobo bumped like a madman, Jesus did a nifty leap to the top turnbuckle which he turned into a cross-body, and the finish came when BRD powerbombed Lobo though a thumbtack covered table.

Following the match BRB did an old school Buh Buh Ray promo (i.e. he swore a lot). He put over Australia, and then got the crowd to chant TNA again. I'm sure some must have been thinking "wasn't that the last match?".

(7) Rhyno defeated Jeff Jarrett to become the first World Series Wrestling Champion. Foley was scheduled to ref this, as well as be interviewed by local celebrity Rove McManus. To give Rove something to do in the absence of Foley, he came out with the belt (based on Hogan's old WM2 era WWF belt) and cut a promo on Jarrett. Jarrett then cut a promo on Rove, and got some cheap heat with some local comments. I never picked Jarrett as a cricket fan. Match started with Jarrett playing to the crowd, before they took off around the arena for some bump fee stand-up brawling. Good to see Jarrett doesn't just save the good stuff for TNA. Not much to the match, but the crowd liked it. Ref got bumped (obviously), and Jarrett went for the guitar, but Rove interfered to stop him. While they fought over the guitar Rhyno hit the Gore and ref #2 counted the pin. Rhyno is YOUR new WSW champion.

Overall thoughts: Not a bad show. Styles-Daniels and Team 3D delivered, while everything else was just kind of there. They did benefit from the crowd not being used to seeing much wrestling, and they did a lot of easy spots that were eaten up by the wrestling starved Aussie fans. Foley's no-show, even though he was still advertised on the web site today, wasn't well received, and with other previously advertised drop-outs Matt Hardy, James Gibson and Super Dragon, it may eat into the fans good will if they do a return. Time will tell.

QUICK TIPS FOR SENDING RESULTS

If you attend an arena event in future, either house shows or TV tapings, we encourage you to send us a report for publication. You can direct your reports to "matchresults" (@pwtorch. com) .

We accept reports in any format, but if it's not much trouble, please format your report like you see above, with the matches numbered like this (1) , (2) , (3) , with the opening line of each match paragraph stating who beat whom (don't just say Wrestler A vs. Wrestler beat with the result listed later; instead, state up front who won so those readers who don't have time to read the entire report (i. e. their boss walks past their cubicle all the time looking beat their shoulder) can at least quickly assess the results.

Also, please list tag teams using the "&" symbol as opposed to stating "and. " Reserve use of "and" when listing results in a threevway or fourvway match where there are no teams (i. e. "Wrestler A beat Wrestler B and Wrestler C in a threevway match") so it is easy to differentiate a handicap match from a threevway match.

If you know HTML coding for bolding, you can also bold out the first line of each match description. If you don't know HTML symbols, then we can add those ourselves.

Special thanks to everyone who helps us with reports on live events!

We suggest these recent related articles...

SHOW RESULTS - 10/9 AAW in Berwyn, Ill.: Gargano challenges for AAW Hvt. Title, more title matches, big women's tag match, more

SHOW RESULTS - 10/3 NWA Smoky Mountain in Kingsport, Tenn.: NWA Hvt. Title match, Rob Conway, Kid Kash, Ricky Morton, more

LIVE REPORT - 10/4 TNA BFG PPV in North Carolina: Live notes on technical glitches, pre-Angle match announcement, Captain America Fan, more