By Chad Murphy

PWTorch.com Video Review
3PW: October 19, 2002
Originally Taped at Viking Hall
South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

This was the Rocco Rock tribute show, and fittingly opened up with Johnny Grunge in the ring followed by the remainder of the locker room to unveil a banner with "Rocco Rock. Ted Petty. 1953-2002" on the wall of Viking Hall. A ten bell salute closed off a very touching moment with several of the wrestlers visibly emotional from the moment.

Match One: Joey Matthews defeated Josh Daniels.

Joey Matthews is of course from the tag team of York and Matthews, and Josh Daniels is a young wrestler out of Kevin Knight's IWF in New Jersey. It's amazing how much heat Matthews gets from the Philly crowds. They absolutely hate him, and he plays to it well. Daniels is a green worker with some obvious talent but needs some more experience under his belt. No better place to get battle conditioning than in front of 500+ fans at the former ECW Arena, it's good to see him getting this chance. By default Daniels was the face here, although he seemed to be more comfortable as a heel. It would be interesting to see him against a good face wrestler and see if he's more in his comfort zone.

Finish came on a spinning reverse DDT by Matthews.

Match Two: Rob Eckos defeated White Lotus

Rob Eckos is another wrestler from Knight's school out in New Jersey, and was another worker who looks to have a great deal of potential. If I'm at Camp IWF, I'm working hard to keep these guys booked at 3PW on a regular basis and to find some work in front of large crowds for my other students. You can practice all day, but it's a totally different experience performing in front of over five hundred ECW Arena fans.

I've seen White Lotus with 3PW before, and I'll probably repeat what I said on my last review. He has a great moveset and a world of potential. With some experience with guys who have been in the business for a while he could really be a breakout star. He just needs to learn to string his moves together in a more pleasing order and he could be ready to be a star.

Finish came on a roll-up by Eckos with his feet on the ropes.

Match Three: Jason Knight defeated Del Tsunami.

Jason Knight's probably best known for his time with ECW, but he's currently running a promotion called Assault Championship Wrestling out of Connecticut. He has a great look to him. Del Tsunami I'm not familiar with, and the match was booked as a squash so he didn't get a great deal of offense in, but you could tell that he has some definite athletic ability, and bumped like a pro out there. I was impressed with what I got to see from him.

The first two matches were a bit slow on the workrate charts, but this one definitely picked it up several notches. Both men worked very hard and put on a cardio clinic in this one. The crowd definitely took notice, as the heat for it was up a couple notches from the previous matches. A real solid effort by both men, and I'll be intrigued to see how they use Knight in the future.

Finish came on a really cool Texas Cloverleaf variation by Knight. Looked incredibly painful. Good hold.

Match Four: Roadkill defeated Christian York.

Funny start to the match, York cut a promo and Roadkill took the mike out of his hands and got ready to cut a promo on York but instead just started beating him with the microphone. Funny stuff. Roadkill looks good, and doesn't seem to need Danny Doring to work with. I like Roadkill, I'm not really sure why but I like watching him wrestle. York as usual got a good amount of heat from the crowd. I've talked ad nauseum about that and don't need to beat that dead horse anymore. Both men looked pretty good in this match. Nothing flashy, but good old fashioned sports entertainment.

Another funny moment came when the bell rang after a kickout by Roadkill and the crowd came back with the "You f---ed up" chant.

Finish came on a big splash by Roadkill.

Match Five: Syxx-Pac defeated Ron Killings.

I'm amazed at how much Syxx-Pac is over as a face in Philly. For years he's been booed out of every arena he's gone to in the WWE, but the Philly indy crowds cheer him. Go figure. Ron Killings started off with his strength and played to the crowd on the mike for a while. I don't see a whole lot in him as a worker, but on the mike he's as good as anyone on the indies right now. Stick with the one that brought you. He has a great look too, but I just don't get the feeling that he's found his niche yet in wrestling. He just hasn't really found that style that will complete him as a top tier wrestler. If and when he does, he could be huge. But until then I think he's where he belongs.

Syxx-Pac hit a nice Northern Lights Suplex in mid-match, which of course always gets a mention in one of my video reviews. A good match between the two, Syxx-Pac looks strong as usual.

Finish came after botched interference by Sabu who accidentally hit the Arabian Face Buster on Killings instead of X-Pac, which led to the pin.

Match Six: The Blue Meanie & Jasmin St. Claire defeated The Rockin' Rebel & Missy Hyatt.

This was built from the strip-off at last month's show which I did not review very closely but will do in a special edition of my video reviews sometime in the VERY near future. It opened with the men and women tagging back and forth before the match started, but eventually the men locked up against each other. Some solid work, but the real interesting part of the match came toward the end.

The Meanie and Jasmin were doing a spot where they whipped Rebel in to the corner, then Missy so they'd both be in the corner. Well Missy for some reason hit the corner, stood for a second, and then bumped out of the corner. Jasmin just started laying the kicks in as hard as she could, which for some reason I found entertaining as anything on the tape. It was like she was kicking field goals in Hyatt's ribs. I marked big for this, although I'm not sure why. Missy really contributed nothing to the match, but Jasmin moves like an athlete. I haven't seen her in a wrestling match in a while, and she moves like a natural athlete. I didn't get to see much offense from her, but she looked solid from the little she had.

Finish came on a low blow and a roll-up by Jasmin on the Rebel.

Match Seven: Jerry Lawler defeated Curt Hennig.

Mr. Perfect against Jerry "The King" Lawler. A great old school style match. I read descriptions of this match that called it a "Good 80s style brawl" but I think they're missing the boat. This was maybe early 80s, but it was real old school stuff. Like with all the "legends" matches at 3PW, if you're a workrate fanatic this isn't the match for you. But if you can appreciate good old fashioned rasslin' then this is something you need to see. Two of the best at this style going at it, hitting their signature spots, and putting on an effort that anybody who's been a fan of wrestling for a while would love. And how can you not mark out for the Mr. Perfect flipping neckbreaker? Good stuff from wrestling's quintessential cocky heel.

Finish came on a roll-up by Lawler after a re-start.

Match Eight: Sabu defeated Gary Wolfe to win the 3PW Heavyweight Championship.

An odd start to the match, as Tod Gordon hit Wolfe from behind and Wolfe fell like he was shot. For all Wolfe's been allowed to no-sell, a Tod Gordon sneak attack shouldn't be a big deal. He did get up relatively quickly and was unscathed though. Sabu has certainly lost a step or two from his prime, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but without all the crazy spots he used to do he still has a sound wrestling base left. He can throw a couple highspots here and there, including the old triple jump from the chair to the top rope to the crowd, but there's more to Sabu than the crazy spots and I don't think he gets enough credit for that.

Gary Wolfe brought his usual tough brawling style to the match, and proved again that he is an underrated talent. Nothing fancy, nothing overly innovative, but it's just good solid brawling. Nothing wrong with that at all. Two ECW alumni going at it for the heavyweight championship in Viking Hall, life is good.

Finish came on an Arabian Facebuster with a chair through a table by Sabu. Good job in "making" Wolfe in the loss.

Final Thoughts: Probably the best of the three shows that I reviewed. All were solid, strong wrestling, and while I fully recommend the tapes I certainly recommend anyone in the area check out the 3PW show at Viking Hall this Saturday, November 23. The main event is a Sabu/Syxx-Pac rematch, and Dusty Rhodes is taking on Kevin Sullivan in a Bullrope match. While this may not be the workrate card of the year, there are two matches right there that I wouldn't want to miss live if I was in the area.

To purchase this, or any other 3PW tape, go to www.smartmarkvideo.com

To get more information on 3PW, go to www.3pwrestling.com.

To read any of my previous video reviews or any of my interviews, including one with the Blue Meanie regarding 3PW, go to Murphy's Archives.

And send all feedback to me at indynews@pwtorch.com

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