APW King of the Indies 2001 Review

[Guest pete]

Apw King of the Indies was held in Vallejo California on October 26,27 of 2001. This show was a 2 day tournament to crown the KOTI. Most of the wrestlers worked a japaneese style. The work was based on good athetic contest with mostly clean finishes or submission. For me this was the first time I saw any of these workers. This tournament was a precursor to the ROH. This is just an opinion but I believe the way Meltzer put over this show in the Observer caused a lot of subscribers to call RF Video to see if they had a copy of the tape. I know I did. The RF crew probaly realized they could promote a show like this with the same workers and cut the middle man out and get all the money along with great exposure. At the KOTI the workers shaked hands at the end of the matches(code of honor at ROH). Now onto the review.

The show opened with all of the wrestlers introduced one by one and then walked to the ring. Most of the workers cut promos on tape. The one that really stood out was Christopher Daniels. Spanky also cut an entertaing promo.After this happened we went to the matches.

 

1. The opening match was between Doug Williams and Adam Pearce. Williams was awesome on the mat. He had all these cool escapes and reversals. He really controlled the match. Pearce tried every cheap heel trick in the book. For example, he claimed Williams pulled his hair when the man was completely shaved. They opened up the match with Pearce puting on moves and Williams either reversed or countered them.Williams threw these stiff European forearms. He busted out a jumping DDT.Williams he did a flying knee drop from the top. Pearce mostly threw power moves. Pearce showed good mobility for his size. The finish came with Williams go for a roll -up and then do a wheel barrel suplex for the 3 count. That was really cool. I give it around 3*.

 

2. The second match was Tony Jones Versus Bison Smith. Jones looks like he has put on a lot more muscle since Beyond the Mat. He's the wrestler who faced Modest in his tryout match with the WWF. In the movie Jim Ross mentioned to get a little more muscle in his chest and find an outfit more flattering for his frame. It was obvious he did. They were going for a hard Japaneese style. Jones was throwing suplexes on Smith and Smith was throwing lariats. Something was missing here. Jones went to the top rope which he shouldn't have. They should have kept it on the mat. They brawled a little outside and that didn't work. Jones is portraying a shooter gimmick and when he yelled at the crowd he sounded like a real wuss. If Goldberg sounded like that he wouldn't have gotten over with the crowd.Perception is everything in wrestling.Smith wins with a stiff lariat . 2*

 

3. Next match up is Samaoa Joe and Frankie Kazarian. This was a really good match. They worked a shoot style with a lot of stiff work. The crowd seemed to really dig this match. They opened up by exchanging holds. Joe really hooked on a really neat ankle lock which got a rope break. Kazarian was going for a lot of pinning combinations.Joe was working Kazarians neck most of the way with kneck brkrs, an inverted cross face, Forearms to the kneck, clotheslines. Joe kept on putting on submissions and Kazarian kept getting rope breaks until he finally tapped out. 3 1/2*

 

4. The fourth match was Donovan Morgan and Scoot Andrews. The work was o.k they just didn't seem to click.Morgans work is usually stellar; his matches in this tournament were the worst matches of everyones. They exchanged holds early and that was good. It just didn't build to anything exciting. The match wasn't horrible but by comparison of all the other matches it sucked. 2 1/4*

 

5. Next up was American Dragon and Spanky. This match was awesome. They were mat wrestling fiends. They were countering each other on the mat. They were really stiff. The counters were cool. A lot of the stuff reminded you of Flair/Steamboat in the sense of every aspect of a hold made sense. It had a really hot finishing sequense.They had great false finishes. This is the 2nd time I have seen these guys work and they were great. They got over with a crowd that they were foreign to. The only complaint I have is that American Dragons Dragon suplex is not believable as hurting you. He trys too much to protect his opponent that the move loses its impact. Especialyy since he used it to close out the match. FYI the selling here is great. The crowd gives it a standing ovation. 4 1/2 *

 

6. The next match has Chritopher Daniels up against Super Dragon. The match was solid. Just at some points of the match Daniels treats Dragon like a jobber, especially at the finish. Dragon hit 2 dives to the outside. The second was awesome. He did a Tope through the ropes with a flip dive at the end of it. This got an APW and Super Dragon chant going. The one aspect of the finish I liked was that Christopher applied his finisher after Dragon was stunned. 2 3/4*

 

7. A.j Styles was paired with Jardi Frantz. Thsi was my second favorite match of the 1st round. The story they were telling was that Styles was the established worker and Frantz was capable of an upset. They started on the mat counteringf each other. then they went to the high flying of the match. Frantz did a flip over the ring cornerspost into senton block. Styles hit all of these innovative moves for example an inverted brain buster, german suplex into a face buster. Moves that worked the head and kneck. The closing segments saw Frantz go for pin attempts until Styles counterd a rana into a Styles clash. The Styles Clash is one of my favorite finishers. Like the American Dragon match this match got a standing ovation. 4*

 

8. The final match of the first round was Lo Ki' and Vinny Massaro. It was a cool little match with stiff work. They went to the ground,air and brutal kicks and chops. Massaro took his beating like a man. The finish came with a phoenix splash. Lo Ki' advances. 3 1/4*

 

 

Day 2 opens with Roland Alexander sucking up to the legends in attendance.

 

9. First match has Bison Smith who either blew his knee legit or just worked an injury versus Donovan Morgan lasts about a minute. Morgan with the duke via the small pkg. DUD

 

10. Second match was American Dragon and Doug Williams. Wow. The mat wrestling was awesome. The selling by Dragon was great. They told a great story. They had kickin submission used. They needed double the time. Dragon was able to counter Williams finisher for a awesome near fall. Dragon busted out the snap braibuster is the only way to describe the move. Again Williams had great escapes. This guy is freaky magician like. They threw Vicious chops and forearms. Dragon was bleeding from the mouth. My gums felt sore watching.Dragon won with a combination Dragon Suplex then went for the Cattle Mutilation for the submission. 4 1/4* ROH should have these guys go 20 minutes.

 

11. Next up is Samoa Joe and Lo Ki' good god was that stiif. They went for the shoot style. Did I say it was stiff. They worked submissions and just plain ol kicked the crap out of each other. Finish saw Lo Ki' drop Joe on his head and apply the Dragon clutch for the submission. Intense match. 3 3/4*

 

12. Daniels/ Styles is next. First time I watched this match I thought it was great. Later viewings it's not as great because its a spotfest. Like The TLC the first time you see it you are blown away upon more viewings its still a great match, but not as enjoyable as the first time. The pace of the match is incredible. They reverse each others moves, sorta mirroring each other but not quite. Both of these guys have such innovative offenses. Styles blew a dive to the outside but it didn't bury the match because the fans were understanding. Styles did a Styles Clash from the top rope. Holy shit errupted. Daniels was a able to get his hand on the rope. Some more near falls nad Daniels comes back with the Angels Wings. The competitors sell there exaustion afterwards. Standing ovation from the crowd. This match was different than anything else that was presented in the tournament. True it was a sot fest but a really good one with some psychology. 4*

 

13. Next up battle royal time. It was what is was.

 

14. American Dragon and Donoavn Morgan are up next. They spit on each other to start the match. This match lasted about 6 minutes. The first 2 or 3 minutes were great. The rest fell apart. The finish came with both shoulders of the guys down. Dragon advances. Politics must have gotten involved because they usually have great matches. 2*

 

15. Lo Ki' and Daniels have a good match. Both guys do well here with Daniels on offense most of the way. He just destroys Lo Ki's left arm. The Finish comes with a Ki Krusher into a dragon clutch for the tap out. Winner Lo Ki'. 3 1/2*

 

16. The final match has American Dragon and Lo Ki'. They wrestle for close to a 1/2 an hr. Something that I forgot to mention is that Dragon has been selling a bad leg throughout the tournament. Lo Ki' has his arm taped up and doing the sell job. I liked this match a lot. Cool mat wrestling. Great stiff strikes from both guys. They had cool high impact moves. There was one cool sequense when Lo Ki' had him in the dargon clutch reversed to cattle mutilation back to dragon clutch. It took Dragon 3 times with the cattle mutilation before Lo Ki' tapped. Lo Ki' didn't make the ropes each time Dragon released the hold selling the exaustion of the match and the tournament. I see a lot of people complain that Lo Ki' shouldn't have done his cart whell into a roundhouse kick because of his injury. I disagree. He did the move 3 times and sold the injury with it. I personally would have done it clean the first time. Second time I would have done it the same as they did with Dragon slide kicking the arm ad Lo Ki' selling like he was shot in the arm. The 3rd time he did it he should have failed and landed on his head allowing Dragon to hook on the Cattle Mutilation for the submission. Hindsight is 20/20 though.4*

This is a great wrestling card. I believe it was the best pure wrestling show in the U.S from top to bottom in 2001. There are only a handful of guys who could work this type of style. I recommend that anyone that likes ROH would love this show. It gets a big thumbs up.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

Good review, though I do disagree with some of the ratings (Scoot/Donovan was bad, AJ/Daniels was *** at best).

[Guest pete]

Thanks for the feedback. Thats the thing about rating matches, there is no right or wrong answers just opinion. I too hated Morgan and Andrews at first couple of viewings but it kinda grew on me. I think it looks worse than it really is because of some of the phenomenal stuff on the card. Hey Styles clash how do you think KOTI stands up to the ROH shows.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

I thought KOTI was better than "Era Of Honor Begins", and around the same level as "Night Of Appreciation". Of course, it was a two-night event, not a regular show where storylines were being built, so they had more opportunities to throw together random great matches.

 

A couple more comments....

 

Spanky wasn't actually "foreign" to that audience, as he worked at least one APW show that I remember of before, carrying Jardi Frantz to a pretty damn good match. (also, I thought that Spanky should have been booked stronger, possibly a first-round win over Jardi, and then you could have either done Dragon vs. Spanky or saved it for the semis, since he was one of the only guys who was coming back in regularly.)

 

The reason Donovan wasn't "clicking" with the guys he was working with was because he was in some sort of personal feud with Roland Alexander, leading to him half-assing the KOTI tournament.

[Guest pete]

I agree with you on Spanky needing to look stronger by going over someone different in the first round and saving his match with Dragon for the second day. Now with Williams I would have booked him into the final 4 in hindsight. I don't think anyone knew he was that strong of a worker. Heck, I hadn't even heard about him until this tournament. The final 4 should have been Dragon, Williams,Lo Ki' , and Daniels. With Spanky,Styles, Samoa Joe, and Morgan rounding out the second day. If Rolo knew he was going to have this many problems with Morgan he could have replaced him with someone else because his matches were the low point of the whole tournament. I should be getting my Night of apreciation tape this week. I here it is an excellent tape.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

Rolo had some problems getting someone in for Reckless Youth, so the whole Donovan Morgan thing was 99.9% irreplacable.

 

The "Night Of Appreciation" tape is tremendous. Daniels-Morgan is a nice view of a full-on Donovan Morgan.

 

Also, if you would be able to, could you do some sort of review for that one? I'd like one to compare my review's match ratings.

[Guest pete]

That would be cool. When I get my tape I will do one. How did you rate the matches at KOTI. I know you haven't seen it in a while , I was curious because I like to get different perspectives and perceptions of the matches. Also did Styles and Daniels work the same basic match at the NWA 53rd show that you reviewed in your Best Of Styles vol 2 because it sounded like the match that I saw at KOTI .I think the original dive that Styles blew was going to be the shooting star to the outside. On your recommendation I am going to get the Fright Night Tape in a few weeks. That ladder match sounds awesome. Is it shown in its entirety.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

Yeah, the ladder match from Fright Night is in its entirety on the tape.

 

KOTI ratings:

Pearce-Williams: **1/4

Jones-Bison: *

Morgan-Scoot: 1/4*

Dragon-Spanky: ****

Daniels-S. Dragon: **

Styles-Frantz: **1/2

Ki-Massaro: *3/4

 

Smith-Morgan: DUD

Dragon-Williams: ***3/4

Joe-Ki: **1/2

Styles-Daniels: *** (Styles did botch the SSP. He does that everywhere but Wildside)

Morgan-Dragon: *1/4

Ki-Daniels: ***1/4

Dragon-Ki: ****1/2

[Guest pete]

Yeah we do disagree on the match ratings. Though I will say that on first viewing I had the same opinion that you had on a lot of the matches. For example, I originally had The opening Williams match at 2 1/2* . Upon further viewing I saw a lot of stuff that Williams did that really made the match better in my eyes. Then again I might have been influenced by reading what Meltzer had to say in the Observer when the matches first took place. I didn' t get this tape until a few weeks ago. I don't like to hear feedback about the matches before I view them. When I saw the tape the 1st time I was wondering what the hoopla was all about. Upon more viewings I really have dug it after seeing some of the things I missed on first couple of viewings. I was reaaly suprised that you didn't grade the Styles/Frantz higher. I thought that was an excellent match. The beginning was great. The way Styles worked the head and neck areas of Frantz to set up the Styles clash was great. Also how many of the ROH shows have you seen. I have only seen one of them, but as I stated earlier I have a few of the shows on the way hopefully this week.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

I've seen the February and April shows, and have done reviews for both (just check back about a month, I think that's where the April review is). Styles-Frantz may have been better, but I haven't seen the tape in months, so I'm going by my memories.

[Guest pete]

Yeah I saw the February review, and the April review and liked both of them. Keep up the reviews they are really interesting. Especially for people who are interested in getting the tapes. If you didn't do a Fright Night review I probaly wouldn't have given it a second thought about purcasing that tape in a few weeks. Plus I like to have someone else to bounce opinions off of who I can get first hand un biased feedback from.

[Guest Jubuki]

Here's some feedback: KotI was shit outside of AD/Spanky and AD/Doug.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

Just to let you know, I'll try to get the Christmas Chaos review up this weekend. I'm waiting on my Hardcore Hell 2002 & Freedom Fight 2002 tapes to arrive, and if they don't come before I do the next review, I'll do one of the Super 8's.

[Guest pete]

I would really like to see your take on the Super 8. I am just started getting into the indies stuff. I have of course seen plenty of WWE, I have seen some Puroresu, but after seeing that X-Division match in week 2 I really wanted to see some of those workers in other areas of the country. So far of what I have seen I have liked.

[Guest NICKO]

I always thought Bison Smith looked like he hurt his leg when he tried to do his flip entrence into the ring....kinda funny.

I thought the one thing the tape lacked, was commentary. I feel that a couple of good announcers really add to a event, and up the production values (the few ECWA tapes I have seen are like this as well).

I think this is one of the things that ROH got right, got a knowledable announcer, and a good play by play man.

Overall I thought the show was okay, but with the participants, it could of been a lot better

[Guest pete]

True, if there was good commentary it would have added to the tape. Though it is tough to find commentators who could have explained the different styles of submissions and the like over. The thing with Smith was I wasn't sure if it was legit are not. I know a lot of the old APW guys were haveing a lot of problems with Rolo at the time. I mean Modest dropped out of the tournament, Morgan didn't show what he was capable of, and Smith was a Noah guy who just might not have wanted to do the job. I mean he was limping his way toward the ring before the match started. Back to the annoncers, if they would have gotten good annoncers for the show they defenitly could have helped explain some of the little subtle things that were going on in the ring. They definately would have put over the rope breaks as being important and really punctuated the psychology of the matches.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

Pete, I totally agree with your points. But, I got some news to break. I'm unofficially writing for the SmarkTalk website (I got one review up on the site, and I think Josh said I could do some more), so my Wildside & ROH stuff won't be on the Board anymore. However, since I promised you that I'd put the Christmas Chaos 2001 review up here, it'll be my last one here before moving on to the SmarkTalk site (I'm definately still posting here, though). Thanks.