Since I don’t watch Smackdown!, I didn’t know when Vengeance was… I was checking out the PPV channels for this evening to discover this. I figured why not, it couldn’t be any worse than WWA: Revolution.
That’s actually not a build up to me saying “boy was I wrong” or anything “Hilarious” like that. It honestly could not be any worse than WWA: Revolution.
So with that, I bring you XWF: 110% Heart.
Opening package – quickly goes through about everyone on the roster.
Apparent immediately is the fact this is not new footage. Curt Hennig is prominently displayed in the opening.
MEAN GENE welcomes us to the show! We’re live from the Universal Arena – but don’t fret, because they’re coming to our arenas real soon. We’ll be electrified and entertained like never before. We’ll also hear from music and show business stars.
Let’s meet some of the XWF stars!
ROWDY RODDY PIPER “Just when you think you know the answer, I change the question.” Height: 6’1” Weight: 245 lbs. Home: Glasgow, Scotland Move: The Sleeper Position: Commissioner of XWF
GREG “THE HAMMER” VALENTINE Height: 6’0” Weight: 255 lbs. Home: Seattle, Washington Move: Figure Four Leg Lock
JIMMY “MOUTH FROM THE SOUTH” HART World Famous Manager Previous clients: Hulk Hogan, Hart Foundation, Andy Kaufman Current client: Hail
HAIL Most promising new talent Height: 6’8” Weight: 340 lbs.
THE BRITISH STORM Height: 6’2” Weight: 305 lbs. Home: England
THE NASTY BOYS Home: Allenstown, Pennsylvania Move: Pitty City
KNOBS Height: 6’2” Weight: 295 lbs.
SAGGS Height: 6’3” Weight: 285 lbs.
THE ROAD WARRIORS Home: Chicago Illinois Move: Tope Rope Clothesline
HAWK Height: 6’4” Weight: 270 lbs.
ANIMAL Height: 6’2” Weight: 280 lbs.
HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN Height: 6’4” Weight: 265 lbs. Home: Glen Falls, New York Move: Three Point Stance
Let’s check out some action…
AJ STYLES vs. KID KASH (for the XWF cruiserweight title)
Our hosts for this evening are TONY SCHIAVONE and JERRY LAWLER – a combo I never thought I’d hear together. The whole show has a very Thunderish feel to it – with the crowd heat high, and the visual fan excitement…less than high. Styles takes down Kash with a hammerlock slam – and they trade holds on the mat. We move to the hiptosses and legsweeps, seeing about 15 of them in a minute. Kash uses a thumb to the eye – but that doesn’t do much and we go back to the hiptosses. Tony mentions that Kash won the title in a battle royal – which would mark the first time in history a Cruiserweight battle royal was actually finished. Styles works a rear chinlock which Kash fights out of. He heads up – hits a top rope clothesline, tries a pin, and only gets 2. Kash runs the top rope – bounces off the turnbuckle, and hits a crossbody! Very nice! Into a cover, gets only 2. Ahhh – the real Tony is back! “A dream matchup we’re having here.” I’ve missed that. Double underhook brainbuster from the champ, cover, 1, 2, 3. That was out of nowhere. (4:16) *
PAUL STANLEY from KISS wants us to rock and roll all night and party every day.
JIM DUGGAN looks old. He said he’s been sitting in his rocking chair at home, watching the other “wrasslin’” on TV, which resembles Baywatch without the ocean. Well – he heard about the XWF, escaped the asylum he was living in, and called ‘em up to announce he was coming aboard.
FIDEL SIERRA vs. JIM DUGGAN
Yes, Duggan still uses Stars And Stripes Forever. This is match #10853 in the never ending series between these two, which Duggan leads 10852-0. I think Fidel is definitely due. Duggan leads the crowd in a USA chant – and waves his flag. Fidel waves his flag too – Duggan turns his back, and gets waffled. Greetings – from Cuba! Fidel slams Duggan’s head in the turnbuckle, but Duggan’s all “HOOOOOOOOO!” and feels nothing. So Sierra punches him more, and that shuts him up. To the outside we go – and it’s a brawl on the floor. Duggan wins the slugfest. Take that you evil foreigner – how dare you wave your flag! My god, even SLICK JOHNSON is refereeing – I’d almost swear this was WCW Saturday Night if not for the logo on the ring apron. Back in, Duggan tries a cover, and gets 2. Front face lock, double axehandle – Sierra sent to the corner, Duggan uses shoulder blocks. Sierra hits an evil foreigner punch, and the fans boo. Duggan hits a real American clothesline, and they cheer. A cover gets 2. Rear chinlock applied in the middle of the ring. They stand – Sierra gets sent into the ropes, they meet in the middle, and these two immovable objects both collapse. They crawl to the side – Sierra grabs his flag, and Duggan grabs his board. The referee yanks the flag away from Sierra – and while he gives it to the timekeeper, Duggan hits Sierra. YOU CHEATING AMERICAN BASTARD! Cover, 1, 2, 3. (3:30) DUD
THE SOUTH PHILLY POSSE with JASMINE cut a promo about what a big huge fed the XWF is.
KONNAN says the XWF has secured great wrestling talent. He’s been all over the world, and taken a bit of the style from every country, but his forte is Lucha Libre.
DREZDEN!!!! Is this supposed to be like “Gabbo Is Coming”?
HORACE HOGAN vs. “THE BRITISH STORM” IAN HARRISON
Harrison uses The British Bulldog’s music, and appears to have picked up with the roids where Davey Boy left off…and then some! Horace attacks from behind, while the fans chant “USA” again. Harrison hits a powerslam and throws Horace over the top. Harrison shows us how strong he is by flexing and sticking out his tongue. Angry Alan Funk lives on…through this thing. Horace gets back in and takes a knee to the face. Horace stands – and gets in a chop, before being launched with a belly to belly. Scoop slam – followed up by a figure four sleeper hold. HORACE TAPS? (1:43) DUD Tony doesn’t know what to call that, and neither do I.
JOHNNY B BADD is back! He’s a bad man.
CURT HENNIG (with Bobby Heenan) vs. JOHNNY B BADD
I’m hoping they give me something here. Badd still has his Badd Blaster. Heenan isn’t a manager – he’s a “sports agent”. Whatever the difference is. A “weasel” chant starts nice and early. Hennig with a go-behind – but Badd elbows him away. Mero’s in good shape here. Hennig takes him down to the mat, and applies a rear chinlock. Badd stands, and runs him back to the corner. Hennig with a NASTY chop. Badd runs him head first into the buckle, and drops him with an elbow. Hennig rolls to the floor to talk things over with Heenan. Heenan towels him off – and Tony speculates he’s wrapped a brick in the towel. Badd starts to spar with Hennig – so Hennig takes him down and puts on the spinning toe hold. I love that no-nonsense attitude. “Enough of that boxing shit, now we’re going to school!” Hennig works over the leg with holds and kicks. Badd fires back with some punches, so Hennig takes him right back down and puts on a figure four. He uses the rope for leverage – and as an added effect, Heenan tugs on it too. When the referee checks, Heenan sits, chin in hand, looking bored on the apron. Priceless stuff. The referee catches them eventually and orders a break. Heeeeeere’s Johnny – making his comeback! Punches are fired. Hennig lies in the corner, and Heenan slips him an object from the towel. Tony’s a genius! Hennig nails Badd, covers, and gets the win. (5:42) **1/4 Hey, I liked it, sue me.
THE HARRIS BROTHERS tell us to tune in for some in your face action. Heavy D with long hair looks like Brian Lee.
JIMMY HART explains “X” does not stand for “Extreme”, it stands for whatever you want it to. It means excitement, fun, it means you want to come back and see it again. MARTIN GOLDSMITH (head of promotions / UK) is convinced that this will be the next big thing. LITTLE GENIE is the first female referee ever (Jackie started a few weeks after this was taped if memory serves) and says she’s an icon. For those of you who don’t know who the hell she is – she feuded with Mona in WCW at one point for a couple weeks. SONNY ONOO and VAPOR speak our language! And Sonny goes off in Japanese. Martin Goldsmith says they keep it in the ring here in the XWF, not a lot of outside garbage. HAIL feels if you’re a hardcore fan, then you’ll watch XWF. GENE SIMMONS and THE DEMON are coming to get ya. JIM DUGGAN likes the fact there’s no primadonnas here. ALICE COOPER says the XWF is his nightmare. Jimmy Hart tells us not to trust a midget.
Various stars show up for the first show – and here’s some shots of the exciting work to putting on a show.
MARTY JANNETTY vs. GABBO
Drezden is some huge guy from Germany. Another foreigner – shoot – kill – destroy! Jannetty isn’t looking too bad here. Better than he did during his WCW run, that’s for sure. Drezden powerslams Jannetty, and backdrops him. He’s a veteran though, and knows there’s one thing that always works. Sweet Chin Music! He hits two of them – Drezden does not fall through a barber shop window, and kicks Jannetty in the teeth, who’s probably wondering where it all went wrong. Scoop slam – and an elbowdrop misses! Jannetty to the top – he leaps…right into the awaiting arms of Drezdan who launches him with an overhead belly to belly. Powerbomb, cover, 1, 2, 3. (1:31) 1/4* Poor Marty.
BIG VITO vs. BUFF BAGWELL
XWF: No More Primadonnas!!! This is the first match in XWF history apparently. As this historical match gets underway, we have to split the screen to hear a very important message from the NASTY BOYS. “We’re back!” Scintillating. Vito and Buff have a posing contest, which leads to Vito slapping the shit out of Bagwell. Bagwell retaliates with an armdrag and dropkick. As Vito lies around, Buff poses. Tony: “I don’t think he’s ever looked better.” Vito comes back with the Mafia Kick, and stomps a mudhole in Bagwell. A sidewalk slam gets 2. Buff finds himself in the ropes, and Vito chokes him out. Bagwell manages a sunset flip for 2, and follows with a backdrop and swinging neckbreaker for another 2. Bagwell heads up for the Blockbuster, but Vito was playing possum and pulls the ropes to knock Buff down. Vito heads up for a superplex – hits it, covers, Bagwell kicks out at 2. Vito whips Bagwell to the corner – he gets a foot up, kicks Vito, leaps up, Blockbuster, and that’s all she wrote. (4:11) *1/4 Lawler: “Write this down in your history books.”
MEAN GENE stands with some fans. They really really really love this federation.
MAXIMUM FORCE and DAWN MARIE make their way out to ringside. Simon Diamond rips Lawler apart for making fun of Dawn Marie last week apparently. Fans start a “SLUT” chant – angering Diamond further. The result – Diamond wants a piece of Lawler.
SIMON DIAMOND (with Johnny Swinger and Dawn Marie) vs. JERRY LAWLER (with Tony Schiavone’s vocal support, and plutonic love)
Diamond and Swinger do a double team beatdown and the referee allows it for some reason. Double suplex – and the boys pose. Diamond covers, but the ref won’t count. Lawler manages to nail Swinger – so to regroup, Diamond holds Lawler hostage. Swinger winds up – swings, and nails Diamond, because Lawler’s escaped. They try again, Swinger holding Lawler. Diamond loads up the boot – kicks, and hits Swinger. He falls out of the ring – leaving Lawler and Diamond alone. Memphis Piledriver, cover, 1, 2, 3. (1:29) 1/4*
SONNY ONOO makes faces and points at VAPOR.
THE SHANE TWINS vs. THE ROAD WARRIORS
Shane Twins were scheduled to face the Nastys, but they didn’t show for whatever reason. Instead, we get LOD. Animal and Todd Shane start out. Tony announces that Animal’s “300 solid pounds” which contracts the flashy graphic at the top of the show. Todd with a neckbreaker, followed by a snapmare and pin attempt for 2. Animal comes back with a punch and tags out to Hawk. Hawk chops at Todd and dropkicks him. Todd comes back with a standing vertical suplex – but it doesn’t last, because Hawk has a neckbreaker waiting. It’s good for 2. Hawk blind charges Todd – and hits the ringpost shoulder first, falling to the floor. He gets back in and the twins double team him. Michael becomes legal, tries a pinfall and gets 2. Neckbreaker connects. Michael throws Hawk from post to post, and tags back in Todd. Hawk manages to crawl over to make a tag on the other end – and Animal’s in to clothesline the two of them. He sets up one of the twins (I’ve lost track of who’s who) on his shoulder. Hawk to the top – Doomsday Device is good! THE NASTY BOYS wander down to ringside and pull the referee out. An in the great tradition of Monday Nitro – we have no winner this week. (4:22) 1/2* Both teams clean house on the Nastys, and show eachother the love.
JIMMY SNUKA and JIMMY SNUKA JR. grunt.
JIM DUGGAN speaks to WILLIE NELSON. He’s a proud American who believes in XWF. “Start at the bottom, go straight to the top – don’t mess with that in between shit.” Duggan is concerned America’s not safe anymore after September 11 – cue the Full House touching music. Then, a Colonel asked Duggan to carry the flag a little longer – and he swore he would. The terrorists don’t understand this is land of the free, and home of the brave – and dammit, Duggan will carry that flag as long as blood pumps through his veins.
Here’s that pesky opening highlight package again.
Credits are up. What a strange ending.
This fed is not for everyone. In fact – it’s really not for the majority of you out there. Personally, I loved it. The crappy wrestling aside, it was clear the federation was to be built on IN RING, and quite frankly that’s all I ever ask for. I’ll take rest holds for an hour if it means less garbage and more midcard madness!
The production was nice, but some things could have been touched up prior to this airing on TV. The one that REALLY bugged me was the fact they didn’t take the time to take Hennig out as one of the stars that will be coming to your town. The man’s been gone for over 6 months now – and someone out there didn’t have the foresight to believe that he may not in fact make it to the next card? But I suppose that’s a minor complaint, seeing as how the company’s as good as dead in the water anyway.
They didn't give me an airdate, but the Big Vito/Buff match was being advertised as the "First Ever XWF Match" - so I imagine the matches were each plucked from the various stuff they shot in November or December 2001...
Since they never got the TV deal, I don't think there is an original main land TV date. Unless someone kept track while they were on in Puerto Rico?
I know the recap James did seemed to be the episode previous to this one (logically enough!). The previous episode montage there didn't mention a cruiserweight battle royale, so 110% Heart would be at least #4.
This is weird, because there's stuff from both the shows Chris did and James did.
XWF Puerto Rico - Marty Jannetty vs Drezden - Horace Hogan vs Velocity's Josh Mathews - Shane Twins vs South Philly Posse (tPE) - Snukas and Piper talk - AJ Styles vs XWF Cruiserweight Champion Kid Kash - Vapor vs Snuka Jr. - Hennig/Harrison vs Buff/Vamp
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XWF In Your Face - AJ Styles vs Chris Daniels - tPE vs Power Company - Mean Mike vs Big Vito - Mr. Jones vs Johnny B. Badd - Marty vs Greg Valentine - Kevin Northcutt (NWA-TNA security) vs Devon Storm - Knuckles vs Jim Duggan - Drezden vs Billy Fives - Buff vs Vampiro
See, that main event is set up from that tag match, but the rest of the previously don't match up with the Puerto Rician Show at all. And then...
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XWF 110% Heart - AJ Styles vs Kid Kash (either same exact finishing sequence as PR or a repeat) - Fidel Sierra vs Jim Duggan (wonder if they had to edit that out in PR?) - Horace Hogan vs Ian Harrison (I'd go with "figure four sleeper") - Curt Hennig vs Johnny B. Badd - Marty Jannetty vs Drezden - Big Vito vs Buff Bagwell (a rerun off the first show) - Simon Diamond vs Jerry Lawler - the Shane Twins vs the Road Warriors - Jim Duggan talks to Willie Nelson
I guess I could go grab the PWTorch recap but eh.
Either they're trying to milk extra episodes out of the footage by re-editing them to throw in some recycle content (and spread out the new stuff) or the episodes were always wacky this way. I dunno. A lot of the filler from 110% Heart sounded like stuff I saw on that XWF infomerical when they did that tour run around here. I'm pretty sure I saw that Duggan bit, for one.
Hey, did anyone ever say who "Vapor" was? I'm thinking (CMLL's) Masada or Nosawa get the weirdest bookings
They did show the fights in the other ummm 3 other weeks of progamming they featured over here which I didn't get to recap. They have just been cut and pasting different fights in the PPV's. Remember they did like 30 matches in two days down in Orlando, so thats why they can cut and paste so freely without anyone noticing it. The 110% PPV was basically the last program they showed here with a couple of matches thrown in.
Edit: Btw..cubs you were right..they did edit out the Sierra match but becuase he was right in the middle of the XWF invasion to the island where he was the liason between the XWF along with Ricky Santana to the island...that lasted exactly 4 weeks.
Edit2: It was def not Nosawa, have yet to find CMLL Masada pics to verify.
(edited by MedallaGuy on 15.7.03 1818)
(edited by MedallaGuy on 15.7.03 1843) SavioVega4Life
I was just kinda surprised they'd go through the effort of doing two sets of shows - everything else was so on the cheap, I didn't think they'd do the extra effort. But if they took out Fidel, they probably redid other things for Puerto Rico to focus people they actually could get to come down? I guess it shouldn't be that hard to edit things nowadays if you've got a good computer and the right equipment.
Masada is the guy on the left, though preped for MMA instead of his usual lucha gear - - though it now occurs to me that they might have not been over here yet in '01.
Real Name: Gerard Leggett Age: 17 From: Dublin, Ireland Nickname: Leggo Favourite Wrestler (this week): Foley, Foley, Foley, Foley, Foley Y’all gone make me lose my mind: Up in here, up in here Y’all gone make me go all out: