More to Life Than WWE

Written by Shawn Stinson
June 25, 2003

To borrow MTV's catchphrase from the earlier 80's, I want my ECW.

Just a few years ago, I remember Friday night was ECW night on TNN. No matter what I was doing, I made sure I didn't miss the latest episode from the boys from Philadelphia.

Of course, ECW and WCW have been dead from a few years now, so it's only WWE for everyone now. Well, unless you decide to buy NWA-TNA or watch some other promotions attempt at a pay-per-view.

So, I was very pleased to hear about some kind of upstart promotion which was going to run a show in Concord, North Carolina last Friday night. They were even going to spend the money to bring in a few "name" wrestlers. Rick Steiner, Buff Bagwell, Konnan and the Barbarian to mention a couple of the big-time guys scheduled to appear.

I was a bit skeptical of all of these wrestlers showing up because of horror stories where name guys never show up. But this new wrestling group, Live Action Wrestling, appears to have the backing of one of my favorite heel managers of all time, Jimmy Hart, so it's pretty legit.

Now, I have to be honest, if it wasn't for the local sports radio station giving away tickets, I'm not going. But it pays to listen at the right time and have quick little dialing fingers and off to the event I went.

The first thing which shocked me was the attendance. I expected to see a typical independent wrestling crowd, about 50 people in a tiny room. Granted this was a "television" taping, I would have to say at least 750 people were there to witness this event.

The matches were decent, nothing really stood out from a fan view point. The wrestlers worked hard and there were a few matches were it was apparent they were put together just to have those wrestlers compete with each other.

I am going to assume something here, which I know is a bad thing, but I guess this is a promotion on the new side, because they had a tournament to crown their "world" champion. From a fan who enjoys the quicker styles of a Rob Van Dam, Chris Jericho, etc., the four contestants in the tourney were needless to say, old farts. Bagwell wrestled Mike Money (or close to it), while Steiner and Konnan faced off.

To be honest, the only thing which kept me around so long at the matches was the fact the ring ropes kept breaking. And I was fascinated as the wrestlers were able to adjust their styles to compensate for the lack of bounce off the ropes. Eventually, the ring crew was able to get the ropes working properly. But I missed the tournament finals between Bagwell and Steiner, I had enough for the evening.

Even though the ropes were the highlight of the night, I watched a lesser known wrestler make an impression on me. The wrestler formerly known as K-Kwick, now going be Ron Killings, battled the Barbarian. Granted, I knew this match wasn't going to be pretty, in fact, I knew there was no way the Barbarian was going to have a good match at all. Even with that handicap, I enjoyed watching Killings wrestle.

I think WWE missed the boat on this guy. He was saddled with Road Dogg when he first broke in and had the unfortunate luck of attempting a rap gimmick. Since he was released, Killings had some success in NWA-TNA and I think should be considered to rejoin the ranks of WWE. I think he would be a good fit to join Teddy Long's group.

So, if you happen to see a channel promoting LAW, please let me know and remember I was there in person. Suffering!

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