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Post by Stab Sword on Apr 2, 2010 10:40:25 GMT -5
I bought the first season of XPW and watched some that night. I was constipated the next few days and suffered acid reflex for the next 3 weeks so thank you XPW
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Sephiroth
Wade Wilson
Surviving
Posts: 28,885
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Post by Sephiroth on Apr 2, 2010 12:30:27 GMT -5
I am willing to concede two things to XPW. First off, they gave Shark Boy some of his best exposure. In those days of the late 90's and early new millenium, Shark Boy had kind of a craze going on for him. He had a lot of exposure from WCW Saturday Night, a bunch of articles in PWI, and praise from some industry tops like Mick Foley. Shark Boy had a short run with XPW right before TNA got formed, and it helped to get him even further known to a national audience. And second, XPW created what I thought could have been a great tag team, Youthanazia-and yes I know I probably got the spelling wrong, its been a while after all. I had seen these two in a couple of indy shows and heard they held XPW's tag titles. They were a cool team and I thought they had a lot of potential. But that is the last I ever saw of them, oh well.
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Dragonfly
Samurai Cop
...is no Barry Windham.
Posts: 2,482
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Post by Dragonfly on Apr 2, 2010 13:48:31 GMT -5
And second, XPW created what I thought could have been a great tag team, Youthanazia-and yes I know I probably got the spelling wrong, its been a while after all. I had seen these two in a couple of indy shows and heard they held XPW's tag titles. They were a cool team and I thought they had a lot of potential. But that is the last I ever saw of them, oh well. Matt Cross and Josh Prohibition (Youthanazia, aka "M-Dogg and J-Pro" and "The Burning River Brigade") were working as a team way before their runs in XPW. They joined the company only after Rob Black and Shane Douglas "moved" it to Philly. See, XPW can be split into three distinct eras. From the top: So-Cal Era - This is the XPW that people know and revile. Almost everything that made XPW infamous - Rob Black's sleaze, Kevin Kleinrock's set of oddball characters and situations, New Jack, the Messiah incident - came from their days in LA. According to several interviews, the only really reason why XPW was able to survive that period was due to the knowledge and experience of Sabu. If it weren't for him, they would have went out of business fairly quickly. Hostile Takeover - Rob Black, with the help of Shane Douglas, moved the company to Philly. It was Douglas' desire to turn XPW into "ECW Part Two." It even reached the point where the ECW/XPW names were "ignored" in favor of "old company" and "new company." Aside from the infamous "Juice Bar" segment that I posted earlier and the rise of Shark Boy, not many people remember this era. This is for one reason and one reason only: It was bad. Really, really bad. Most of the so-Cal guys weren't used, and the story lines were derivative at best. (Case in point: Sandman/Pogo was Sandman/Raven, only using his daughter instead of his son.) Pittsburgh - After getting kicked out of the ECW Arena for filming porn, Black and Douglas moved XPW to Monaca, Pennsylvania. By that point in time, their roster was pretty thin. If I remember correctly, the only So-Cal talents that were still involved were Angel, Supreme, Luke Hawx, and Vic Grimes. The shows, which were to be run out the CCBC Golden Dome, were supposed to be a continuation of the Hostile Invasion, only using more local talent. (I remember hearing that a handful of Pittsburgh-based wrestlers - Shirley Doe, JT Rogers, Eric Xtasy - had XPW tryout matches.) Unfortunately, this lasted all of one show. If it were to continue, I think we would have ended up seeing an inter-promotional feud between Douglas' XPW and Norm Connors' IWC. (Hunt down the IWC show "November Pain." You'll see what I mean.)
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Brain Of F'n J
Hank Scorpio
Not that cool enough to have one of these....wait.
We Discodians must stick apart.
Posts: 6,890
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Post by Brain Of F'n J on Apr 2, 2010 22:22:58 GMT -5
Jed, ECW was an indy too, technically. I believe Black tried to make XPW national and since he did manage to have XPW videos out there on shelves across the country he succeeded. None of them might have sold, but they were available for purchase. ECW had national PPV, a national TV show (unless it's syndicated in the major markets, that's not national; TNN is national), toured internationally, had two video games on the top-selling console of the time, and had working agreements with Japanese promotions AND the WWE. XPW had NONE of this. DVD's being sold in a Best Buy do not a national promotion make; that's just a DVD distribution deal. Yeah, compared to WWE or WCW at the time, they were an indie, but really, they were more than an indie. They weren't a global promotion by a long shot, but they were long since graduated from running in bars and VFW halls. And as for it being "the second biggest fed in the country after WCW and ECW" ... CZW would beg to differ. And so would IWA-MS. Both of them were just as big, if not bigger, and drawing similar sized crowds without lame publicity stunts like feeding a puppy to a snake on a live webcast, or a "buck naked" match. [/color][/quote] I think XPW did a fine job of that during its lifetime. There's no need to give XPW even the slightest bit of attention, even if it is bad. Jed Shaffer ~And again I say to all this: it's RD's call, and he was reluctant to even do an ROH induction. So, the likelihood of XPW is nil.
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alexk
Mike the Goon
Posts: 48
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Post by alexk on Apr 2, 2010 23:22:56 GMT -5
The only thing I remember about XPW was watching 10 minutes of it, the very end of the SoCal age, when Shane made the announcement they were moving to Philly. I remember being rather pissed that the move also meant no more XPW on the LA channel I was watching that night, lol
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Triple Kelly
Vegeta
Not once, twice, but three times a Kelly
Posts: 9,470
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Post by Triple Kelly on Apr 3, 2010 0:20:55 GMT -5
It shouldn't be a Wrestlecrap website induction. It should be a friggin' BOOK.
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Dragonfly
Samurai Cop
...is no Barry Windham.
Posts: 2,482
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Post by Dragonfly on Apr 3, 2010 0:55:55 GMT -5
It shouldn't be a Wrestlecrap website induction. It should be a friggin' BOOK. Totally agreed. As one of the few XPW fans out there - it's a guilty pleasure of mine - I'd like to read about wrestling's most bizarre train wreck. Oh... And no matter how bad it could be, I will always be grateful to XPW for giving the world the following. I do mean that in a totally non-ironic, deadly serious fashion. www.dailymotion.com/video/x48r5b_atsushi-onita-takes-over-xpw_sport
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Post by Kris Kobain on Apr 3, 2010 1:40:40 GMT -5
Judging by the resonse in my (w)rest of wrestling thread I would say this is long over due. I don't think I've seen so much hate that wasn't Cena related.
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Jay Peas 42
El Dandy
Totally flips out ALL the time.
Is looking forward to a Nation of Domination Kwannza Special.
Posts: 8,329
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Post by Jay Peas 42 on Apr 3, 2010 17:19:04 GMT -5
Early NWA-TNA was inducted, and that was pretty much Jeff Jarrett and a few of his closest friends in an arena. I mean, if you can induct that, then surely XPW is induction worthy.
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Raging_Demons
Don Corleone
I Can Ride My Bike With No Handlebars, No Handlebars, No Handlebars!
Posts: 1,620
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Post by Raging_Demons on Apr 3, 2010 19:11:25 GMT -5
XPW still has a bigger legacy that no one mentioned. XPW had their own wrestling school that trained people into wrestlers. And since most of XPW was nothing more than Garbage Wrestling. For those that ACTUALLY trained in XPW, I have a bridge that you might be interested in.
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Sephiroth
Wade Wilson
Surviving
Posts: 28,885
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Post by Sephiroth on Apr 4, 2010 7:33:36 GMT -5
I never considered XPW to be "the second biggest fed." Right after the demise of WCW and ECW, there were a whole bunch of wannabees that popped up. XPW was one, the WWA was another, I think there was two or three others but their names slip my memory right now.
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Brain Of F'n J
Hank Scorpio
Not that cool enough to have one of these....wait.
We Discodians must stick apart.
Posts: 6,890
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Post by Brain Of F'n J on Apr 4, 2010 8:35:06 GMT -5
I never considered XPW to be "the second biggest fed." Right after the demise of WCW and ECW, there were a whole bunch of wannabees that popped up. XPW was one, the WWA was another, I think there was two or three others but their names slip my memory right now. MECW was another one. It ran all of maybe one show, two at most, before it imploded. And then there was the XWF. Oy vey, what garbage. Jed Shaffer ~I tried watching the XWF match on Hogan's DVD set. I woke up from my coma three days later.
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Raging_Demons
Don Corleone
I Can Ride My Bike With No Handlebars, No Handlebars, No Handlebars!
Posts: 1,620
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Post by Raging_Demons on Apr 4, 2010 11:12:45 GMT -5
I never considered XPW to be "the second biggest fed." Right after the demise of WCW and ECW, there were a whole bunch of wannabees that popped up. XPW was one, the WWA was another, I think there was two or three others but their names slip my memory right now. MECW was another one. It ran all of maybe one show, two at most, before it imploded. And then there was the XWF. Oy vey, what garbage. Jed Shaffer ~I tried watching the XWF match on Hogan's DVD set. I woke up from my coma three days later. Isn't CZW currently trying to be the wannabe ECW at the moment? I watched a few of their matches and stopped right there because they were horrible.
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Post by angryauthor on Apr 4, 2010 12:38:05 GMT -5
Isn't CZW currently trying to be the wannabe ECW at the moment? I watched a few of their matches and stopped right there because they were horrible. CZW goes through patches of being very good, and patches of being very bad. There was a time when they had the red hot Hero/Kingston feud, some real heat for their stables, and a solid Junior Heavyweight division. Then there was the time immediately afterwards. I stopped following a while ago, because they went back to sucking, but there was a period where CZW was a pretty damn good promotion.
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Post by Tea & Crumpets on Apr 4, 2010 18:05:34 GMT -5
And as for it being "the second biggest fed in the country after WCW and ECW" ... CZW would beg to differ. And so would IWA-MS. Both of them were just as big, if not bigger, and drawing similar sized crowds without lame publicity stunts like feeding a puppy to a snake on a live webcast, or a "buck naked" match. I know the buck naked story but, feeding a puppy to a snake? Please don't tell me Rob Black actually did that. It had to be faked right?
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Post by BorneAgain on Apr 5, 2010 1:18:49 GMT -5
Why would you induct XPW when they ran such classy angles like this? (warning: tasteless angle to follow) Not quite safe for work or for maintaining any semblance of good taste.
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Chainsaw
T
A very BAD man.
It is what it is
Posts: 90,480
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Post by Chainsaw on Apr 5, 2010 2:03:00 GMT -5
I'm still amazed, I know for a fact that FYE still carries some leftover XPW discs...at full price even.
They deserved to go out of business. It was terrible, although I did have an appreciation for Supreme, but that was about it.
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Post by slickster on Apr 5, 2010 2:32:06 GMT -5
And as for it being "the second biggest fed in the country after WCW and ECW" ... CZW would beg to differ. And so would IWA-MS. Both of them were just as big, if not bigger, and drawing similar sized crowds without lame publicity stunts like feeding a puppy to a snake on a live webcast, or a "buck naked" match. I know the buck naked story but, feeding a puppy to a snake? Please don't tell me Rob Black actually did that. It had to be faked right? Well, after the LAPD busted him Black said it was an elaborate work and that no animals were actually harmed.
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Post by slickster on Apr 5, 2010 2:33:31 GMT -5
I do think for a very brief period of time (December 2001-June 2002) XPW was the de facto #2 or #3 company in North America (next to WWA or CZW).
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Raging_Demons
Don Corleone
I Can Ride My Bike With No Handlebars, No Handlebars, No Handlebars!
Posts: 1,620
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Post by Raging_Demons on Apr 5, 2010 3:51:37 GMT -5
I know the buck naked story but, feeding a puppy to a snake? Please don't tell me Rob Black actually did that. It had to be faked right? Well, after the LAPD busted him Black said it was an elaborate work and that no animals were actually harmed. Well the police was in Black's future when he & Lizzie were arrested for distributing mock snuff films.
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