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The much ballyhooed debut of the Maximos and Evan Karagias’ new promotion FUSION took place on Friday night 12/17 at the Rexplex in Elizabeth, New Jersey. This is the same venue that Ring of Honor regularly uses. The crowd appeared to be in the 200-250 range. It was hard to really gauge the number as there was also a concert going on in another part of the venue and as the night went on, concertgoers seem to wander in and out, but everyone who was there seemed to enjoy themselves for the most part. Complete results of the show saw:
*The Solution defeated Silas Young and Dan Hansen (Cowboy gimmick, billed from Borger, Texas as a takeoff of Stan Hansen) in 7:37. This was just your typical opening style match. Solution seemed to be having fun.
*Jay Lethal pinned Ryan Drago in a good back and forth match in 9:14. Lethal got the biggest reaction of the night by far, since he works here all the time and his family is all from the area. Drago is a Pro Wrestling Iron trainee and looked good here as well.
*Danny Maff fought Xavier to a double countout in 8:07. Maff didn’t seem to have much fire here, as his shoulder has been bothering him of late. This didn’t seem to go anywhere. Maff got in referee Sean Hanson’s face after the match, but nothing happened. This was the only match that took place as originally advertised.
Tommy Dreamer was introduced and said that he was here to address several Internet rumors. He thanked the fans for coming out and supporting independent wrestling. He then said that he wasn’t retired, and he was only on a “hiatus.†He then said he wanted to thank everyone for buying the ECW DVD and “sticking it†to WWE by showing them how much everyone loved ECW. He said that some people didn’t get the credit that they deserved on the DVD and he came with a friend he’d like to introduce to everyone. Chris Hamrick came out and thanked Dreamer, saying that he appreciates the introduction. Dreamer said that Hamrick did a lot of great things in ECW, but he wasn't the person that Tommy came with. Hamrick turned on Dreamer and said that Dreamer was only important in ECW because he kissed Paul Heyman’s ass and as soon as that horse was dead, he ran to WWE to start kissing Vince’s as well. Hamrick said that Dreamer forgot about everyone he worked with in ECW. Dreamer said he was unemployed for eight months and that if Hamrick has a problem, he can end his hiatus right now and took off his jacket. Hamrick superkicked him and New Jack’s music hit. He hit the ring, leading to....
*New Jack pinned Chris Hamrick in 12:18. Jack tossed Hamrick into the crowd, where they decimated the ringside chairs. Hamrick was bleeding after being stuck with a fork and Jack also used the staple gun. Dreamer actually hopped in the crowd and watched from the first row with the fans. That cracked me up. After the match, New Jack cut a promo saying that he thanks all his fans for their support and he’d rather wrestle in front of 300 fans instead of 300,000 for WWE because then he can be New Jack and not “have to bend over.â€ÂÂÂ
*Sean Waltman defeated Justin Idol, Sonjay Dutt and Brian XL in a Four Way match. Waltman came out to the D-Generation X theme music for his first match since April when doing a shot for the New Japan Inoki Dojo in California. He looked to have a small gut but was moving and working hard. The other three all attacked him at the bell. I’d never seen Idol work before and he took a hell of a bump into the guardrail chest first. Brian XL seems to have bulked up quite a bit from the last time I saw him as well. Sonjay pinned Idol in 4:18. Waltman pinned Dutt with the facejam in 5:37, then pinned XL in 6:55.
*Justin Credible pinned Frankie Kazarian in 10:01. This was the first match Credible has done in a few months that I am aware of. Kazarian talked about TNA to get heat from the crowd. The funny thing about that is that the same fans who booed would be the first ones to go to a TNA house show if they could. Kazarian worked over Credible’s leg and he did a great job of selling it the entire time, even limping out after the show when he was among the fans. Kazarian got spit on by a child as he left, and played it off like a champ. He’s got a lot more charisma as a heel than he did when I saw him working as a babyface in the past.
*Scott Hall pinned Marty Janetty with the Razor’s Edge in 5:06. You knew what you were getting with this one, and you got it. Janetty came out to Shawn Michaels’ theme music. Hall was wearing his NWO outfit, as opposed to his TNA “Fat Elvis†jumpsuit. The Crowd popped huge for Hall and chanted for the survey. He thanked everyone for coming and did his trademark lines. The crowd chanted, “Let’s get drunk†and Hall said that he never misses a party, but first he has to earn his paycheck. It looked like Hall hadn’t missed a party in the last year. Well known area fan Paul “Green Lantern Fan†Sosnowski was razzing Hall really bad, so Hall made fun of him for sitting with a bunch of guys. There wasn’t much here once they rang the bell. Janetty jumped on the ropes to play to the crowd and Hall grabbed him and hit the Edge. That was seriously the finish. Janetty was laughing as he was pinned. Waltman came out to the ring to hug Hall as he left the ring, so they went to the back together. Hall walked around ringside as they went, and Green Lantern Fan rubbed Hall’s tummy. Hall seemed to get mad and shoved him towards Hall’s crotch. That was an image I certainly didn’t need to see.
*The SAT defeated Ultimo Dragon & Fuego (Amazing Red in his MLW persona) when Joel Maximo pinned Fuego in 15:33. This was a decent back and forth match and probably the best thing on the show. Dragon hit a plancha and teased the Asai Moonsault, but was taken out by Joel. He also may have suffered a concussion during the match. Red had a real spring in his step including a tip up so it looks like he’s finally getting over his knee problems. The crowd loved seeing Dragon live, so he was absolutely a good replacement for Mitsuharu Misawa. SAT hit the Spanish Fly but Fuego kicked out. Joel Maximo then hit a kryptonite krunch on Fuego for the pin. When the SAT won, they were booed unmercifully by the crowd, as they wanted to see Dragon go over. The SAT turned heel on the crowd and told them to go “F*** themselvesâ€ÂÂÂ, then turned babyface again thanking Dragon and Fuego for the match.
Notes: Sean Waltman, Justin Credible, Sonjay Dutt, Ultimo Dragon, and Tommy Dreamer signed autographs at different points before the show and during intermission....The promotion used a ring owned by the IWA in Pennsylvania....They had several FUSION banners as well as a banner for the SAT....Stephen DeAngelis handled the ring announcements....Low Ki was in attendance, visiting the locker room....Rob Feinstein appeared at the end of the night, as he kept a very low profile at the building. His RF Video didn't have a dealer table at the event....Evan Karagias made several appearances to pump up the crowd during the evening, including getting a “Three Count†chant....Matt Striker was originally booked for the show but pulled out as he is on his first ZERO-ONE tour....Ron Killings performed a rap song to end the festivities, which was a unique way to close out the show....There were fans who flew in from Buffalo and Japan to see Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshinari Ogawa, so I am sure the loss of that talent hurt the crowd. I’ll have more in my thoughts below....For more on FUSION, visit www.MaximoFUSION.com.
FUSION Thoughts: I went into last night’s FUSION debut with very low expectations. Despite the best efforts of the SAT, the pre-show hype was very convoluted with names dropping off the show (Misawa, Ogawa, Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis, and several rappers), so one could only expect a train wreck going in. That said, the show wasn’t bad at all. If you were a fan who is weaned on ROH, you would have hated this show. For a normal fan just looking to go enjoy themselves and see a few “stars†you probably would have had a decent time at the show. While you weren’t going to see a five star classic out of Scott Hall, the fans there seemed to enjoy just hearing his mic work, so they enjoyed themselves. That’s the bottom line – making sure the fans enjoyed themselves.
I think most of those who were there thought it was an OK show, and it was. This wasn’t a blowaway show with a match that you’d likely watch 100 times over and over, but seemed like a throwback to the simpler independent show of old that I remember going to promoted by the likes of Tommy Dee and Dennis Coraluzzo. As I noted with my thoughts during the match reviews, you had some bad, some good, some in between, and some independent goofiness that you would only see at professional wrestling. It certainly wasn’t the trainwreck some, including myself, expected going into the evening. It was a fun wrestling show and a decent debut.
As fun as the show was, going in, FUSION had a lot of issues they need to address before they move forward. The main problem was that since the promotion didn’t do any real hard advertising, so the fans who would have heard Scott Hall’s name and been interested in coming to the event, likely weren’t aware the show was even happening. The promotion had flyers handed out at a few wrestling events and pushed it on the Internet and that was it. If FUSION is serious about making a run at this, their advertising will have to improve or they might as well toss their money into a campfire. You can’t expect fans to show up if they don’t know the show is happening.
Another thing that FUSION must (and I stress ABSOLUTELY MUST) never do again is advertise names they can’t deliver. No matter what the reason was (and several were given), the promotion took a huge hit in credibility when they lost Misawa and Ogawa, since what advertising was done, was built around them and them alone. I can say for sure that I know of 7-9 fans who called off going to the show once they learned of the changes in the lineup, fearing it was going to be another H2Wrestling. Three of the other names advertised on the flyers, Sean O’Haire, Psicosis and Juventud Guerrera, were nowhere to be found and there was no announcement as to why, which didn’t help matters either going into the show. While the fans there had fun and Ultimo Dragon was (in my opinion) a suitable replacement for Misawa (I doubt there are many Ogawa fans who pouted and decided to stay home), the company can’t afford a repeat of that issue or they are dead in the water. If you are going to try to lure the diehard fans to your shows with names they will want to see, you can’t disrespect those same fans by not giving them a reason behind the changes. Since the Maximos are the face of the company, the heat will be on them more than anyone else from those fans, so it’s in their best interest to make sure that before they issue any talent announcements in the future, all the signatures are on the dotted line. Things will always happen to cause changes to independent shows – the key is to treat the fans with respect and build a relationship with them. Wrestling fans will forgive but they won’t forget if they are continuously burnt.
