GLCW - 'Hell Froze Over' Review

Last night was the next event in our local federation's calendar. Actually, they snuck in a card on Friday night as well, in Racine rather than Waukesha. The back-to-back shows seemed to impact the attendance at our show. There were people but the place wasn't as packed as we were used to seeing it.

Our pre-show promo involved local radio personality (apparently, I had never heard of him and I suspect that was the situation for most of the crowd) Mike Richter (spelling?) and 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. The Scot had been on Mike's show and Mike had threatened to beat him up. Roddy got a little excitable and all was made well. Roddy told a story or two to the crowd's delight and the crowd sang Happy Birthday to him.

As was well until Dakota Darsow came out to confront Piper. Dakota was essentially explaining why he attacked his Dad at Blizzard Brawl 5: he was always on the road as a wrestler, out there more for the fans than his own son. Now it was Dakota's time. A young man came out to defend Roddy (I think it was Colt Toombs, Roddy's son, but that was never made clear and we didn't see him again that night) and got beat up a bit on his behalf. Roddy talks about refereeing the main event.

To drag things out a bit, Roddy was brought back to the ring for a formal singing of 'Happy Birthday' and a cake. This was poorly timed after Roddy leaving the ring and considering the crowd already sang to him. The gal who sang the National Anthem also sang to Roddy now, in a Marilyn Monroe to JFK style. It was creepy. This would have fit better right before the Intermission as Roddy spent that in the ring taking pictures. The crowd was getting a bit hot for the wrestling to start at this point.

Match One: Bobby V/El Vato (faces) vs Justin James/Dysfunction (heels)

Hot tag match to open. Local guys getting the crowd worked up. Exciting match, a few double teams, a couple of crazy bumps. Eventually a heel double-team backfired, Bobby V hit a splash from the top, and the faces got a double pin for the win. Good match.

Match Two: Electric Eric Freedom (face) vs Ryan Rogue (heel)

Really? The dirty Froot Loop throwing hippie is a face now? How? We had no issue cheering for the heel on this one. Rogue is a better wrestler all around and gave the hippie a good beating. Eric Freedom busted out a couple of armbreaker and I mockingly expressed my shock as I thought that Freedom knew no moves. A top rope reversal followed by a flying elbow drop from the top rope gave Ryan Rogue a clean win. Which was odd for a heel. Unless I missed something. Good finish but unexpected.

Match Three: Tony Scarpoini (heel wearing Cubs jacket) vs The Skullcrusher (face with taped ribs that were 'broken' last night)

Oddly slow match. Both are big men that I know can move. The 'taped ribs' gave the heel the advantage but some of Tony's punches to the ribs looked so light it made me wonder if Skullcrusher was injured to some degree. Another top rope reversal led to Skullcrusher hitting a massive frog splash from the top rope for the win.

Intermission:

Ring announcer has spent the entire show telling us that Road Warrior Animal and Piper will be in the ring together for pictures during Intermission. Animal gets nowhere near the ring. Did no one tell him? Fail.

We've seen Demolition 3 or 4 times now. Every time Brad gets at least one signed picture from them as they are his favorite. Before the show he bought three. At Intermission, he asked them if he could get a picture taken with them using my camera. 'Sure. You buy enough stuff from us, just come behind the table.' Awesome.

Piper was in the ring getting his picture taken with people and the line faded quickly. The batteries in my camera were running low but we should be okay for four pictures: one with each of us individually and a fourth with us altogether. We explained things, handed over the money, and got in the ring. Love being in the ring. Walked up, shook hands with Piper, got my picture taken, got out of the way for my buddies. I retired to the corner and leaned back on the turnbuckle, my arms stretched over the ropes. It felt so natural. Soon enough, it was time for the group picture and we got together.

Of course the batteries in the camera then went dead.

I had back up batteries and fumbled to load them into the camera. Of course they were dead too. Crap! Thankfully, the lady offered to take the picture with their camera, the one they were printing pictures from, at no additional charge. Nice lady! All ended well.

Match Four: Ladies Championship: Traci Brooks (face, Champ) vs Melanie Cruz (heel)

The radio announcer claimed to have set this match up and was suddenly playing the heel commissioner. Where did that come from? Cruz was playing the 'giant' which was odd as she wasn't all that tall or big. Muscular? Yes. Tall? Certainly. Attractive? Sort of. But no creepy giant gal. Traci stuck and ran to avoid the 'giant' offense. For a GLCW Ladies match, this was actually really good as opposed to the comedy match that they normally are played as. Traci hits a big DDT for the win. Big crowd reaction.

Radio Announcer 'guest host commissioner' guy claims to have been on the phone backstage with the real heel commissioner. He can set up any match he wants, declares himself number 1 contender to the Ladies Championship, and has them start the match now!

A surprise roll-up gets an easy three count on the confused Traci and this guy is now Ladies Champ. Crowd is PISSED. Seriously. I didn't like it because they had just gotten done with the 'skinny male radio guy is Ladies Champ' story and now they jump back into it. This was even weaker considering that the Ladies match had been solid. I'm going with Bad Decision on this booking, more for the repeat of the storyline than anything else.

Match Five: GLCW Heavyweight Championship: Al Snow (face Champ) vs Road Dogg vs Xpac

Crowd relaxes a bit as they can at least cheer for Al Snow. Crowd tries to encourage the beating of ring announcer. I agree. Ring announcer is in sweatpants and sweatshirt. Very tacky. We can tell Road Dogg is heeling it up as he won't go through his normal entrance chatter. Xpac gets a moment of reaction and then nothing. Which is normal. He's a heat vacuum.

Good three way match follows but the crowd is a bit quiet for most of it. The ending sequence I loved! Xpac gets a sleeper on Al Snow but Road Dogg walks up and slaps a sleeper on Xpac. Triple decker. The ref comes by to check on Al and the Snowman grabs the ref and buts him in a sleeper. After some applause and laughter, Al drops the groggy ref, Xpac drops the groggy Snow, and hits Road Dogg with a jawbreaker. All four men in the ring are out on the mat. More applause.

The wrestlers all come to at once, dive out of the ring to collect a chair, and return. (Road Dogg: 'We ALL had the same idea?') The ref starts to wake up. All three wrestlers slam their chairs into the mat and fall down as if hit. The ref wakes up and has NO idea what happened. He collects the chairs and starts pushing them out of the ring, making a mess of it. Road Dogg sneaks over to the timekeepers table, grabs the Championship belt and slugs Xpac with it. Meanwhile, Al Snow collects Head and waffles Road Dogg with the mannequin. Three count. Al Snow retains. Good stuff.

Match Six: Demolition (Ax and Smash)/Road Warrior Animal vs McCoy/Longtime/Blaze/Darsow (Dakota)

The story here is that Dakota is sore at his Dad (Demolition Smash aka Barry Darsow) for not being around enough when he was a kid. Reasonable idea. He spends the match playing the chicken heel, only entering the match when he has a clear advantage, cheating, and running his mouth while avoiding his Dad. Good solid match, Ax has face in peril, crowd was into it. In the end, Smash chases his son to the back (setting up a singles match in the future?) as the ring gets cleared. Ax and Animal hit the Hart Attack style clothesline on Chase McCoy for the victory.

Roddy didn't ref the main, despite it being set up. There were a number of little things that may normally have not meant much but built up during the show to irritate. It was by no means a bad show but it didn't quite click like earlier shows have for us. We walked out a bit disappointed despite having a good time. Something was missing.

Next show is Blizzard Brawl 6 on Dec 4th. There is another show they were advertising in June that is scheduled to have Baron Von Raschke at it. That would be cool.