Watching Jersey All Pro from 2010 has left me wanting to see some more from the formative years. By 2010 JAPW was pretty clearly a mid-level super indie featuring the non-ROH big names alongside some fly-ins and Jersey indie staples. Looking at the cards from 1999-2001 though it’s impossible to overstate the level of early talent being featured. There’s a very cool mix of wrestlers on the shows who would go on to be the foundation of ROH, Chikara, CZW alongside the ECW special attractions.
With Sandman in a street fight, I’m not expecting a lot of technical wrestling to break out. The fact that Sandman has a kendo stick and Da Hit Squad are bouncing a ladder off the apron seem to back up this assumption. Sandman is very popular in Philly and opens things up by just smacking Mafia in the head a couple times with the kendo stick before sending him flying head over heels into the barricade. Mack meanwhile brings the ladder into the ring but ends up getting pinned behind it while Mafia gets sent flying into it twice. Homicide takes him to the floor and sends him onto his head again. Mack on the other side of the ring trades punches with Sandman and gets an advantage with an eye gouge while Homicide continues beating up Mafia
Homicide puts Mafia into a chair and then just crashes into him with a suicide dive. Poor Mafia is taking a beating as Homicide proceeds to just punch him from one side of the ring to the next while Sandman puts Mack through a table against the barricade. Mafia tries trading chops but Homicide knocks him down and starts raking at the face. Sandman takes advantage of the ladder in the ring again by bouncing Mack off it and then suplexing him onto it as well which bends the ladder.
Mafia finally gets and advantage by throwing a ladder into Homicide’s face then dropkicking it. Sandman, having left to get a section of guardrail, gets back and immediately resumes the beating he was laying on Mack by leaning the guardrail against the ropes the suplexing Mack into it. The impact turns the guardrail into an L which Sandman restraightens by giving Mack a bulldog on top of it.
Homicide slams Mafia and Sandman buries him under the ladder before hitting a really nice senton halfway across the ring. Homicide grabs the ladder and ends up having it smashed into his face with a chair by Mack. Sandman tries to help and gets dropped with a sit out piledriver from Mack.
Homicide gets bounced off the ropes with punches. He gets a sunset flip which Sandman assists with a kendo stick shot for 2. Sandman just unloads on the heads of both Hit Squad members and Homicide gets a roll up for another two off this. Beating. While Sandman goes back outside looking for a weapon, Homicide takes a powerslam from Mack. Sandman finds a table and just wings it over the top rope and nearly hits Homicide and Mafia with it. He lays Mafia on the table and hits another nice senton through the table on Mack for 2. Mafia tries punching Sandman but Homicide grabs him and hits the Kudo Driver for the win.
Final Thoughts: There’s an argument that this is one of the best non-ECW Sandman matches I’ve seen. The crowd wanted to see Sandman play the hits and he looked really good in this match. He hit everything cleanly (including both sentons) and the crowd saw him as a big star. Both members of Da Hit Squad took some crazy bumps to make the match stand out. Homicide was solid but definitely wasn’t the star on his team and he didn’t need to be. This was quick, energetic, didn’t drag and made Homicide and Sandman look good moving forward. Hit Squad didn’t get to do much besides get thrown around but on this night, it was exactly what needed to happen. ***- Check this one out, it’s a fun 15 minutes (including entrances, obviously); it was a greatest hits match for Sandman but he looked good and the crowd was happy to see it.
This match can be found at https://independentwrestling.tv/promotion/japw
Untitled Wrestling Reviews 