I love the small touch of showing Homicide dropping Mack with the Cop Killa at The New Beginning just to remind everyone that these two have issues. Homicide is the defending heavyweight champion and the crowd is split on him. He of course responds with profanity. Mack is defending one of the tag tiles because sometimes stipulations just happen.
The crowd is pro-Mack and pro-Hit Squad. Homicide immediately tries taking them out of the match by putting on a headlock, but Mack is too big. He hits a couple shoulder tackles, so Homicide tries using his speed and hits an armdrag. Mack responds by monkey flipping Homicide then kicking him and sending him to the floor.
A very cool sequence sees Homicide dazing Mack with an elbow in the corner, sending him across the ring chest first into the opposite turnbuckle, and then connecting with a shot to the back of the head and a kick to send Mack to the outside. It would show up again in a lot of his matches with Samoa Joe, but Homicide has an ability to fight like a big guy even when he’s the much smaller competitor. He has an intensity that lets him almost be bigger than he physically is. At the same time, he’s still quick to show vulnerability as he goes flying off when Mack tosses off a tornado DDT and goes back to technique using a dragon screw and an STF on the bigger man. He pulls Mack out of the ropes and keeps working the STF before transitioning into a crossface.
Homicide breaks off the crossface with a shot to the forehead and rakes the face to try to slow Mack down. Mack manages to catch a leapfrog with a powerslam and Homicide goes down hard. Mack hits a press slam and a second powerslam but he has a hard time getting back up. Homicide takes advantage and goes to the eyes again. He tries to out-quick Mack again but gets backdropped to the floor. Mack follows but gets sent into the post as Homicide takes back over.
Homicide sets Mack in a chair and keeps him there with a slap. Homicide goes for the dive but stops as Mack just falls out of the chair. Homicide of course responds by hitting Mack with the chair and tossing him back into the ring, bringing the chair with him.
Homicide tries sending Mack into the ropes, but Mack reverses and hits the powerbomb. Homicide goes low but hits a chair that was sent in the corner on a charge which lets Mack hit the sit out piledriver. Homicide kicks out at two and manages to block the sleeper suplex. He hits a fame-asser off the second rope and gets Mack back on the outside and back in a chair. Mack moves and Homicide clears the chair, splatting on the floor and colliding with the guardrail. Homicide barely kicks out and Mack waits for him to get up. He blasts Homicide with a clothesline but misses a second. Homicide hits a pair of kicks but Mack blocks a third and hits a powerbomb off of one shoulder.
Skinhead Ivan (eventually Crazy Ivan, but the 2000s indies were still a hotbed of bad ideas) hits the ring with a chair and hits both guys and the referee to surprisingly little effect. Homicide takes another shot to no effect, brains Ivan and then bounces the chair off the ceiling. He goes outside and starts throwing chairs and slamming the guardrail. The ref calls for a no contest and the announcers yell about Homicide attacking fans as the replays show, but there’s a hard cut to end the segment.
Final Thoughts: This felt like a classic example of booking yourself into a corner. The double title stipulation left no option JAPW wanted to take and so we got the lousy no contest finish to make sure no titles would change hands. Up until the finish, this was developing into a fun title match. Homicide was smaller but more vicious than Mack and dominated large sections of the match. When Mack fought back and showed his power, he looked good without having to overextend in a single setting. Homicide was a fountain of charisma in the match and kept things simple and intense. I liked the tease of the dive early being paid off later by Mack still being able to get out of the way but late enough that Homicide couldn’t stop himself from falling. It never really felt like Mack had a chance of winning but he showed enough fire that the crowd started buying in by the end. The no contest felt out of nowhere and the fact that neither guy was really hurt by Ivan’s attack didn’t help. ***- A good world title match where both guys played their roles well. The finish was bad and hurt the overall package, but everything building up to it is worth taking a look at to see some early Homicide and Mack.
This match can be found at https://independentwrestling.tv/promotion/japw
Untitled Wrestling Reviews 