Pro Wrestling Chronicle

4.7.07 Chris Hero vs Eddie Kingston (CZW – Loser Leaves Town match)

I cannot believe that I of all people am telling you to steal a match from CZW. First off, I’ve gone through my hardcore period with the original ECW and burned out on it. Second, I became more of a purist a few years back and only in the last two years have come back to the wrestling style center. I had always seen CZW as a garbage pretender to the throne, even if I loved the ROH/CZW feud.
What changed was the talent growing on me and growing elsewhere. It’s no mistake that IWA-MS helped grow this great generation of wrestlers I love even with their hardcore leanings. CZW should get the same benefit for what little I feel they do. Here is a great example: Kingston and Hero.

I could write a book about this feud and the promotions it’s crossed, but it would take this review in another direction. Just know the simple facts. They have feuded forever. They have both been heel and face. They have feuded the most in CZW. CZW is a hardcore promotion that also has some wrestling minds passing through. There. Let’s get to the match.

If nothing about the first ten minutes but the few moves they do was written, this would not look like much of a match. That would be missing the point. Essentially this is the final epic battle between the two (in the CZW mythos). They do the John Wayne stand-off tough guy stuff for close to ten minutes, which Hero eventually wins (for that part of the story), but it means so much more. They chop, kick, elbow, headbutt, and punch in such a dramatic fashion that you feel every solid shot the snuggly thrown. They space them out at times. They sell them as accumulated damage they have to push through. Hero is good, but Kingston is great here. The man just gets it! In this isolated match I’d argue those spots were worth more than what Kobashi and Sasaki did in their initial chop battle that they still play off to this day. It was cool once, bt now goes on forever, nothing sold, and doesn’t help the story any longer. This battle WAS the story and Did have an effect, so it furthered it.

There isn’t a pin attempt until ten minutes in, and it’s an urgent realization by Hero that he could finally win. It means something. It’s 12 minutes until we get anyone hitting a top rope move. It’s the only one I remember, a drop kick, and both men sell a ten count to get the crowd up after it. The second pin in after this, a one count, so that Kingston can start to begin a big comeback. Hero does the matches only dive at 15 minutes to show how far he’ll go to kill Kingston. Everything means something. The violence is played as serious with consequences. That hate is palpable.

The match is based around Eddie’s suplexes and Hero’s cravat, but it’s not who can wear down the neck so much as who can outlast the other man in the match and therefore in the promotion. The moves are there to tease the finishers. For Hero, he wants the Hero’s Welcome. For Kingston, the Spinning Backfist.

The last five minutes of the match are an all dead tired blitz of momentum and desperation as each man tries to finish the other. About 25 minutes in Hero hits the Hero’s Welcome, but Kingston kicks out. At about 28 minutes Kingston hits a progression of signature moves, shows the crowd the fist, and we all know its coming. He hits the Backfist to the Future so solid you think Hero was KOed. 1-2-3 Kingston wins. He and Hero lay on the mat for minutes soaking in the standing ovation.

This match IS wrestling psychology 101 much of the time. It’s got creativity too. About the only negative was a crowd that seemed uncaring and unappreciative at times, but that’s why I avoid the CZW crowds. Even they gave the men there due at the right times. And I am too. I recommend you go find this at Smartmarkvideo or from a friend. A true recommendation to Steal This Match!