James Lacerenza sent this report in.
FWE Welcome 2 The Rumble Results – 6-21-13- Corona, Queens, NY
First, the results.
Petey Williams def Brian Kendrick
Young Bucks def Tony Nese and Jigsaw
Angelina Love and Katarina Leigh def Ivelisse Velez and Maria Kanellis
Paul London def Akio Yang
Rob Van Dam def Tommy Dreamer
John Hennigan def Carlito to become the new FWE Heavyweight Champion
Tommy Dreamer won the 30 man rumble.
Now, my observations being there live.
The only thing that completely sucked was the lack of parking outside the venue. Angelina Love and I showed up at the same time, for heaven’s sake.
Stone Cold ET didn’t say a word, and thus, was CHEERED TREMENDOUSLY by about 900 people in the Rumble match.
Hennigan won via Starship Pain, ladies loved him, but after RVD vs. Dreamer and right before the Rumble, the match itself didn’t get the crowd reaction it probably should’ve – oh well.
I’m a big fan of the women, but even I tuned out of the ladies’ tag match (Maria and Ivelisse vs. Winter and Katarina) – no one’s fault, really – “Michael Cole”, “Fruity Pebbles” and “Cena Sucks” chants broke out at one point, that’s how un-interested the crowd was, but again, no woman in particular is to blame for that.
RVD and Dreamer brawled all over the building. Lots of ECW chants, crowd was really into this (as expected.)
Akio (Jimmy Wang) Yang continues to impress me. Fans were taunting him with a lot of stereotyped name calling and the dude played off it well. He even came back at the end of the night in the Rumble dressed up as Elvis and the fans suddenly loved the crap out of him. London wins via Shooting Star Press.
The Young Bucks – this is a heck of a tag team, but Jigsaw and Niese really impressed me, Jigsaw was really over with the fans.
Kendrick vs. Petey was what you would expect. Finish was a Canadian Destroyer for the pin. Best part was when Petey stood on an upside down Kendrick in the turnbuckles and sang “O Canada”.
The Rumble match was full of so many things, too many to keep track of – 30 guys, 2 minute intervals – your “surprise” entrants were The Sandman (with Singapore cane), Matt Striker (who I guess didn’t have a no-compete clause and entered from the announce table) and Jay Lethal, who were previously un-advertised.
The Rumble match was long, it ended the show, but wow, the crowd was into it, especially for Lethal and Dreamer as the final two participants left in the ring after all had entered. Lethal did his Ric Flair impression, while Dreamer mimicked….Hulk Hogan?!?!?! Really, I have to watch this again to believe it.
Look, as much as Clinton Bowman and I HATED the Stone Cold ET bit back in February at No Limits 2013, ET REALLY made up for it tonight. Chris Masters and ET had a great spot jaw jacking with each other. Sandman came from a side door somewhere in the building. It was crazy, in a good way. Other great Rumble performances tonight came from people most of you know (Mike Bennett, Both Young Bucks, Yang in the “Flying Elvis” gimmick, Lethal, Dreamer) and some indy guys you may have not heard of (Alex Reynolds, Jason Gotti).
Everyone worked their butts off, I’m ordering the replay, and for someone who saw it live, it must mean it was pretty darn fun.
Estimated crowd of 650-700. Pretty full. Only the bleachers on the sides of the ring weren’t filled, and a lot of indies have run the ELMCOR Center (this venue) to much smaller crowds.
On demand replay available by the end of the weekend at http://www.wwnlive.com – I hate old school ECW matches, but RVD vs. Dreamer, shockingly, is worth the $10 or so to get the replay alone.
Most cheers / boos – Top 5, no particular order
Akio (Flying Elvis / Jimmy Wang) Yang
The Sandman
Tommy Dreamer
RVD
Stone Cold ET (Shockingly!)
Honorable mentions – Matt Striker (who gave a heartfelt speech to open the show about his WWE release), John Morrison, The Young Bucks, Jay Lethal and Alex Reynolds