Post by Ross Report on Apr 3, 2019 10:16:19 GMT
Civil War has always been one of my favorite shows of the year, and boy, did this year's event deliver from top to bottom!
Starting off with the grudge match we've all been waiting weeks to see, it was Jerry Lynn trying to get revenge against the "Honky Tonk Man!" Despite coming into this one with a litany of injuries to his name, "The New F'N Show" was clearly all fired up, getting the jump on his nemesis and not allowing "Honky" to get a shot in edge-ways during the early goings. However, his bad health eventually caught up with him, a factor which "Mr Shake, Rattle And Roll" was able to take advantage of in a big way. Some may not take too kindly to the way in which "Honky" stole the victory thanks to Jimmy Hart's megaphone, but frankly I'm more concerned with the aftermath, as the man from Memphis laid Jerry Lynn out once again in dramatic fashion. From what I understand, it looks likely that Lynn will be on the shelf for quite some time, if he ever manages to get the all clear to return to the ring again. And if this is the last we see of him inside the squared circle, what a sad ending to a great career.
Our second match of the evening was a wild and chaotic fatal fourway for the Women's Championship which had plenty of different facets to consider! From the somewhat frayed relationship between Daffney and Becky Lynch, to the longstanding rivalry between "The Queenslayer" and Charlotte Flair, to the hot newcomer Scarlett Bordeaux taking the women's division by storm, this one was nearly impossible to predict! Just as they did the week prior, the two ladies from "Revelation" seemingly put their differences aside to get on the same page, yet Charlotte and Scarlett were able to isolate them long enough to render that advantage obsolete. Eventually though, Becky's desire to be champion saw her turn on the "Zombie Goddess," nearly pinning her after a Straight Fireball! In the end though, it came down to a dramatic conclusion where Scarlett Bordeaux had been knocked out of the ring while Charlotte Flair had Daffney pressed to the canvas while trapping Becky Lynch in the Figure Eight, forcing her long-time rival to tap out and giving us a new champion! This has been a long time coming for "The Nature Girl," who carried the Flair legacy with pride this week. Yet at the same time, one has to wonder what the other competitors are feeling after this result? Will Scarlett feel aggrieved that she wasn't involved in the final decision? Will Daffney feel robbed by the fact she didn't get pinned or submitted to lose her title? And how will Becky Lynch react to suffering yet another loss at Flair's hands? Something tells me that there's plenty of issues still yet to be settled here!
Moving onto the big one, and wow, what a slobberknocker of a Civil War Match it was! There's so much to touch upon here, I'll try to break down some of the standout moments as best I can, starting off with the incredible showing from Fit Finlay. At 61 years of age, it still boggles belief that "The Fighting Irishman" is competing at this high a level, but he shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon! To start the match at number one and go so agonizingly close to winning the whole thing is something I'm sure the National Champion will be proud of, and rightly so! This was one of the all-time great Civil War performances, make no mistake about it.
For the past several weeks, we've been wondering about the identity of this mysterious "O.D.B." character who'd been hinting at a return, and to the shock of just about everyone, it turned out to be the "Ol' Disco Bastard" himself, Disco Inferno! Alas, his comeback would ultimately prove short-lived when all of the other superstars in the ring turned on him, making Disco the first elimination of the match!
I'm not entirely sure what was running through the minds of the EWA officials when they allowed "King" WALTER's posse of insane clowns to assault Colt Cabana and steal his spot like they did! I suppose in a situation like that, the clowns could hardly be told no, but it certainly swung things heavily in the "Clown With A Crown's" favor when he arrived shortly thereafter. Thankfully though, Colt was able to re-enter the match a little later on at Joe Gomez's expense, although Cabana is still yet to add to his single solitary career elimination in 9 Civil War appearances. And it's worth noting that that back-up helped facilitate a hell of a run for "King" WALTER, even though there are question marks over whether he should have even been in the match as well considering how he quit the EWA several weeks ago.
I was thoroughly impressed by the debut of "Necro Butcher," who took this opportunity with open arms. Not to show any bias here, but I especially enjoyed seeing him give "Honky Tonk Man" a taste of his own medicine after what "Honky" did to Jerry Lynn earlier in the night too. Speaking of debuts, what about "Prince Puma?" Regardless of who might be under that mask, the luchador came in like a house on fire, being involved in several eliminations, including that giant redwood Great Khali and a seasoned Civil War veteran in Buh Buh Ray Dudley! Alas, Puma's night would eventually get cut short when his own momentum saw him, Braun Strowman and Bryan Danielson all tumble over the top rope together, but it was still a hell of a debut performance.
Even after all this time, I'm at a loss for words when it comes to the antics of Santino Marella. I know he's spent several weeks trying to join any group that would have him, but little did I think that would extend to during the Civil War Match itself. Here he tried to hook up with the "nWo," "The Kingdom," "The Flamingo Family," and would have seemingly attempted to do the same with a lot of other groups too if not for "Show E." and Buh Buh Ray Dudley's combined undressing skills! And after all that, "The Italian Stallion" is still without any allies to call his own!
Speaking of groups though, the "New World Order" shockingly grew during the course of the match with newcomers Wade Barrett and Jay Lethal aligning with John Cena! Were these just a couple of ringers Cena had hired to help out or could they be permanent new members? One thing's for sure, "The Doctor of Thuganomics" has definitely drafted in independent sensation Joey Janela, as reported on EWA.com earlier this week, meaning the "nWo" ranks are positively swelling right now!
Pete Dunne spent most of his time in the match trying to get at arch rival Samoa Joe, but the sheer sea of humanity seemed to prevent that from happening, with the ring being jam-packed with superstars for long stretches. When he finally did get his hands on Joe though, it was to dump "The Destroyer" while he was distracted with Prince Puma, in an act I'm sure will only add more fuel to the fire of this developing rivalry! Indeed, if Joe's attempts to get some payback on "The Bruiserweight" after he was later thrown out by Bryan Danielson is anything to go by, things are only heating up between these two!
When it comes to Civil War, we often talk of the luck of the draw, and no more was that evident than in "The Horde" having four of the last eight entrants in the match, while most other groups involved had been whittled down to size already. It certainly seemed as if the combined might of Bryan Danielson, Jake Roberts and "The Reaper" were a force to be reckoned with, with the latter especially impressing. I kept hoping that maybe this was all a ruse, and that Gabriel would use the Civil War Match to turn on "The Horde" and go back to his old self, much like we saw Mr. Anderson do to the "Vegas Connection" on his way to winning the 2014 Civil War. Alas, it wasn't to be, as "The Reaper" looks like he's here to stay.
It's fair to say that Jay White has been "MIA" these last few weeks, ever since his heinous attack on David Finlay Jr. Whether this was to get under "The Fighting Irishman's" skin or because he was afraid of the consequences, I wouldn't like to speculate. Still, he finally returned at Civil War and tried to "Pearl Harbor" Fit Finlay just after he'd eliminated Al Snow to clear the ring! Despite "Switchblade's" best efforts though, the National Champion scored a measure of revenge by putting Jay down and tossing him with such force, I think Fit may have sent White flying back to New Zealand.
While Finlay may have thought he'd won the match though, that's when Marty Scurll came out as the last entrant. And he wasn't alone either, with his "Horde" brethren ganging up on "The Belfast Bruiser" until security finally managed to drag them off. The damage was done however and with Finlay having competed for over an hour at this point while "The Villain" was obviously the fresh man, it seemed like things could only end one way. Still, you've got to admire the National Champion's heart, refusing to go down without a fight and even almost managing to up-end Scurll's plans as well. Ultimately though, it was asking just a little bit too much of Finlay, as Scurll finally sent him packing to pick up the biggest win of his EWA career and a shot at the World Heavyweight Title that he can cash in at any place or time of his choosing! For someone as devious and "Machiavellian" as Scurll, that's a dangerous prospect for whoever's holding the gold, which we'll discuss shortly. First though, here's a few random Civil War stats I've thrown together:
- There have now been a total of 234 superstars that have competed across the 14 Civil War Matches since its inception in 2004!
- 18 superstars made their Civil War debut this year. They were: Fit Finlay, the Briscoe Brothers, Necro Butcher, Matt Taven, Murder Clown, Monster Clown, Psycho Clown, Pagano, "King" WALTER Hahn, Johnny Flamingo, Jay Lethal, "Honky Tonk Man," Prince Puma, Angelico, Pete Dunne, "The Reaper" and Jay White!
- This was Al Snow's 11th Civil War Match in a row, more than any other superstar! And with his eliminations of Jake Roberts and "The Reaper," he's reclaimed the record for most overall eliminations with a total of 25, yet STILL never eliminated the same superstar twice!
- This was only the second time the Civil War Match has featured 40 participants, after the surprise inclusions of "King" WALTER's menagerie of clown followers bumped up the entry count! The previous time we saw that many occurred back at the 2015 Civil War!
- With Marty Scurll's victory, that now makes six out of the fifteen winners who've done so from either the last or second-to-last spot in the match, clearly proving that the luck of the draw counts!
- Marty Scurll also joins Edge as someone whose only elimination across every Civil War they've participated in was the one that won them the whole shebang!
- In terms of the much-lauded faction warfare heading into Civil War, by my count, it was "The Horde" who dominated the match, being involved in 8 eliminations in all! "King" WALTER and his clowns were involved in 4, both the "nWo" and "Flamingo Family" were involved in 3 each, while the "bWo," "Kings of Wrestling," and "Kingdom" each managed 2 a piece.
- Fit Finlay became the first man since Shawn Michaels in 2011 to start a Civil War Match and make it right to the end. However, what makes "The Fighting Irishman's" accomplishment all the more impressive is the fact that there were 40 superstars in his "marathon man" showing compared to 30 for "The Heartbreak Kid!"
In many ways, I think you can say that the Cell proved to be the great equalizer for "The World's Most Dangerous Man." There's been times where he's struggled to make PCO feel any pain over these last three months, no matter how much he's brought the fight to the big man, but this environment certainly helped out on that front! That's a testament to the monster "Father" James Mitchell has helped cultivate ever since he took control of PCO from Ariel Martinez. While I'm no expert on the occult or any of the supernatural shenanigans that seem to follow Mitchell and his "French-Canadian Frankenstein" around, there's no denying that they've tapped into something to become a deadly combination. Still, Shamrock wasn't just fighting for his title here but his family too after poor Tonya had been held hostage by "The Sinister Minister" for weeks on end. I don't think I've ever seen the former MMA star quite as vicious or as intense as he was this past Sunday, which is saying something considering he's always lived life on the edge. As such, it's no surprise that these two bitter rivals were beating the holy hell out of one another with whatever wasn't nailed down, both quickly spilling blood and sweat all over the Cell. In a way though, it wasn't PCO who Shamrock wanted to decimate as much as it was "Father" James Mitchell himself, the puppet master of all the trials and tribulations "The World's Most Dangerous Man" had been forced to experience. Indeed, Mitchell would attempt to involve himself in proceedings once again, looking to send a fireball into Shamrock's face. Yet, some miscommunication with his monster would see Mitchell inadvertently set his own face ablaze in a shocking moment! That wasn't the only shock though, as with both Shamrock and PCO down, BROCK LESNAR made his first appearance since Super Brawl! It seems "The Beast" has recovered from his broken ankle at Shamrock's hands and has a thirst for vengeance, taking out both champion and challenger with repeated F-5's, before dragging PCO's mangled corpse on top of Shamrock's to hand "The French-Canadian Frankenstein" the tainted victory along with the World Championship! What does this mean for the future of the EWA? I haven't got a damn clue, but I do know that with Brock Lesnar back and as dominant as ever, the entire roster has just been put on notice!
With all that said and done, let's take a look at my picks for this week's top three movers and shakers:
1. Marty Scurll
2. PCO
3. Fit Finlay
While he may have spent about as short a time in Civil War as any other competitor this year, it's the results which truly matter. And the fact is, Marty Scurll was able to take advantage of the field which "The Horde" had helped clear to walk out with the victory, securing himself a future title opportunity! Speaking of the World Championship, we've got a brand new champion in PCO, albeit courtesy of Brock Lesnar's interference rather than him defeating Ken Shamrock by his own accord. And last, but by no means least, arguably the "MVP" of this year's Civil War was the National Champion, who went coast to coast in the match and put up a valiant fight right up until the end.
So there you have it, folks! What a night and what a show! And I can't wait to see what the fallout looks like this coming Sunday when SLAM! returns to its spiritual home in the world famous E-Arena in sunny San Diego! Will Brock Lesnar be on hand to explain his actions? Will "Revelation" survive losing the Women's Championship? Will we see Marty Scurll look to cash in his golden opportunity? There's only one way to find out all this and more, and that's by tuning in next Sunday! Until then,
BOOMER SOONER!
