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UWF RUTHLESS REVENGE REVIEW: STEVE MACK FINALLY GETS HIS HANDS ON JEEZ, SLYMM AND RICH ORTIZ DESTROY EACH OTHER IN A WAR FOR THE UWF TITLE, AND MUCH MORE

Before the Urban Wrestling Federation returns to PPV this month with their latest offering, Turf War, let's take a look back at their last event, Ruthless Revenge, which once again took place at Club Amnesia in New York City. A lot of major storyline twists took place on the show, as Steve Mack finally got his hands on Jeez to try and get revenge for (to put it in PG terms) Jeez interjected himself into Mack's love life, Slymm defended the UWF Title against a man every bit as big and tough as himself in "The Best" Rich Ortiz, and we even saw a fight break out at the commentary desk. The UWF has consistently impressed me with their product and excellent storytelling, so I'm looking forward to digging right into...

UWF Ruthless Revenge

We start the show off with Steve The Hustler, the owner of the UWF, talking about how they started the UWF to make money and it ain't about personal stuff like who's with someone else's bitch. If street work has to be done (and hopefully it don't) it has to be about business and who's getting what, and asks that the extracurriculars be kept out of the UWF. I would imagine that Steve felt it necessary to have this meeting after the former UWF Champion was GUNNED DOWN, but that's just conjecture on my part.

We hit the opening video and then it's time for our first storyline segment, as DJ Self and Joker confront Grimm Reefer backstage to let him know that the paper was short and Reefer better go talk to his boss. Reefer takes offense to the suggestion that he might have skimmed a bit of cash, and says that he's not a talker, he's a fighter, and goes face to face with Joker. They have a tense back-and-forth before DJ Self convinces Joker to let it go and they leave. We then check in with Triple Cs as they enjoy the life while Self and Joker plan to get their money and Kage tries unsuccessfully to get past the Phat Pack to tell LEP Bogus Boys that he promises to take care of business tonight.

It's time to go to Club Amnesia as we kick off the show with a four way encounter featuring Facade (Triple Cs), Joker (DJ Self), Grimm Reefer (Big Block), and Kage (LEP Bogus Boys). The UWF has had a few of these multi-way car crash matches, but I think this one may have had some of the craziest spots so far, including a huge Tower of Doom type move out of the corner as well as Reefer suplexing Kage out to the apron in such a way that Kage's neck came down on the top rope and he just sort of crumpled out to the floor. Joker took Reefer outside the building and pinned him after ramming him into the barricade outside, but the referee wasn't aware of this and counted a fall in the ring as Facade pinned Kage. This led to a situation in the ring as one of the Triple Cs went for a gun in his jacket, but the referee calmed the situation down by restarting the match with just Facade and Joker in a sort of sudden death period. Joker nearly broke Facade's neck with a three quarter nelson/cradle suplex, but Facade came back by dropkicking a chair into Joker's face and then went for a triple jump moonsault a la Sabu, but Joker moved out of the way and drilled Facade with a Shining Wizard knee. Joker took a table out from under the ring and tried sending Facade through it from the ring apron, but Facade countered by giving Joker a tornado DDT through the table and pinned him on the floor to get the win.

I really enjoyed the match, I thought it told a good story with the controversy of the double finish and one of Triple Cs going for his gun before being calmed down because of what Steve The Hustler said in his speech earlier. Everyone worked really hard, and I thought Joker and Facade had a hell of a fight once the match was restarted. I believe this was the first time I've seen Joker wrestle, and I really liked how he came off as a total badass, he looked imposing and backed it up in the ring.

Speaking of Joker, we catch up with him in a segment taped earlier today on the street as Steve Mack is telling him about how he needs a change of scenery and wants to come home, to which Joker responds that he can get Mack some work, and I quote, "f***ing people up." Hey, great work if you can get it, I guess. We then go to Jeez as he tries to pick up on Billy Blue's girl backstage, and you'd think he'd learn his lesson since that's what got him into hot water with Mack in the first place.

On that subject, our next match is Jeez taking on Steve Mack in a pretty big physical mismatch. Jeez attempted to offset Mack's size advantage early on by trying to fluster Mack and use his speed to avoid Mack's offense, but Mack nearly launched him into the audience with a backdrop and then, in one of the greatest visuals I've ever seen in wrestling, grabs Jeez by the throat and lifts him into the air with one hand and held him up for several seconds before dumping him. Jeez got the advantage after nailing Mack with a chair, but made the ill-advised decision to keep trying to trade blows with Mack and wound up on the short end every time. He put Mack back down with a tornado DDT and then kicked him low, doing whatever he needs to do to win the fight in true street fashion. Jeez pummelled Mack with a chair, but it had no effect and Mack began making a comeback until Jeez busted him open and hit Mack with a Canadian Destroyer in another eye-popping visual. Joker got onto the ring apron and started yelling at Jeez before spitting square in his face. Jeez was understandably pissed and went after Joker with a chair, but Joker stepped out of the way and Mack was able to come in and scoop Jeez up for the sitout Tombstone and get the win.

Time to set up tonight's main event as Cuban Link approaches Daemon Slugga on the street and offers him the opportunity to do some business, and then Triple Cs are chilling with UWF Champion Slymm when Rich Ortiz walks in and gets in Slymm's face, leading to a tense staredown as Ortiz lets Slymm know he's coming for the UWF Title. Before we get to the main event, we head over to the commentary desk where Robbie Mireno gets up in Julius Smokes' face to say that he's sick of J-Train using his "spreading a little cheese on that cracka" line. J-Train tells him not to take it personal, but Mireno seems to anyway and he jumps across the table and starts pounding on Smokes. Mireno is ejected from the building and Julius irately asks UWF officials if they're really going to let this (stuff) go down like that.

The situation is finally calmed down and we go to our main event, as Rich Ortiz (Brisco) challenges Slymm (Triple Cs) for the UWF Title. This was just a straight up fight between two really big, scary monsters that opened up with Slymm smacking Ortiz in the face. Ortiz responded in kind and we're off as they start throwing fists and trying to bulldoze each other into the corner. Ortiz hit Slymm with a big flying shoulderblock as the champion came off the ropes, and Slymm tried taking a breather on the outside, but Ortiz went after him and they started clawing at one another's faces before Slymm grabbed a broom from under the ring and nailed Ortiz in the face with it. Slymm went back under the ring and pulled out a table that he set up against the ringpost, then followed Ortiz back into the ring and worked him over with the broom before taking his belt off and choking Ortiz out with it. Ortiz gets free and goes out to the floor to set up the table between the ring apron and the barricade, but turns around right into a big clothesline from Slymm. Ortiz tried to get Slymm in a triangle choke, but Slymm just smacked Ortiz in the face and pummeled him with punches until he got free. A double clothesline puts both of them down as Smokes takes the opening to complain about what happened earlier and how pissed he is at security for standing there and watching the whole thing with Mireno go down. We go back to the ring as Ortiz goes out to the apron and tries to suplex Slymm through the table, but Slymm blocks and dumps Ortiz back into the ring. They continue slugging it out until Slymm catches Ortiz with a back elbow and then blows my mind by easily hitting a moonsault I had no idea he could do. Ortiz chokes Slymm with his own shirt, but Slymm grabs the referee and rams him into Ortiz, making him lose his balance on the top rope, and then Slymm slams Ortiz off the top rope and through the table at ringside before going to the floor and covering Ortiz for the win. This was an unbelievable brawl between two big, ass kicking monsters who pounded the bejeezus out of each other until one of them dropped.

We wrap up the show with a couple of segments that concern some suspicious activity. First, Grimm Reefer is in a Cadillac and filming himself getting close with Billy Blue's girl, but then Joker comes along and carjacks them, pulling Grimm Reefer out through the car window and then driving off until the girl opens the door and runs off. Finally, we close the show with a couple of hooded figures throwing what appeared to be a gun into the river before running off.

* * *

This was a great show, I felt like they did a much better job correlating the matches with what was happening outside the ring as everybody conducted their personal business. The way they laid out the outside the ring segments made it much easier to follow what was going on and it helped the show flow much better than previous installments of the UWF. The matches themselves were great, they all offered something completely different and told their own stories: Facade and Joker both thought they won the four way and had to dig down deeper to find what it would take to go the extra step and win after the match was restarted, Mack was fighting for his honor while Jeez continued to do everything he could think of to get in Mack's head, and Slymm and Ortiz are just two big, bad dudes who don't like each other and wanted to fight. Everything on this show mattered in terms of the overall storylines, I thought the presentation was great, the production with the creative camera setups like the cell phone camera in the car at the end were innovative as usual, and they impressed me at least three or four times with some of the visually impressive spots they pulled off. The UWF once again stands out by giving us one of the best put together products in wrestling today, and it's really a shame that we don't get more of it because it's a hell of an enjoyable company to watch.

For more information on the Urban Wrestling Federation and the upcoming Turf War PPV, check out their website here.

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