Rob Black's XPW [Xtreme Professional Wrestling] wrestling league officially advanced to the next level as a result of its King of the Death Match Tournament held at Hollywood Palace Saturday afternoon. Black said prior to the show that they've been considering a venue change due to the fact that fans are being turned away for lack of hall capacity. If Saturday's show was any indication, Black's probably going to need the Rose Bowl. It wasn't so much its intensity and entertainment value which rates this show as one of the great wrestling blood baths of all time, it was the surprise appearance of "The Franchise" Shane Douglas. Remember, Black had been advertising the appearance of a mystery star for Saturday. Douglas was it.
After Chris Candido pinned the real deal Damien Steel to take the XPW heavyweight belt in a literal barroom brawl, bar and all, Douglas emerged from the shadows of the backstage to screaming crowd acclaim. Candido and Douglas know each other from their ECW days and hugged like long lost lovers. But it was Douglas' time on the mike that invested credibility in the infant league. Douglas, evidently personna non grata at WCW due to contract haggling, was tentative at first about going on the mike. But once he did, all hell broke loose with Douglas saying that both Hulk Hogan and WCW's booker Kevin Sullivan could go "suck his dick". It was then that Douglas called WCW VP Bill Busch live and essentially said the same thing. On the gentler side, Douglas couldn't be more gracious and congratulatory about XPW, its fans and its format, officially proclaiming it the west coast equivalent and better of ECW. Black earlier admitted that while the legal complications were probably extreme, he's trying to land Douglas for his value as a leader, a teacher and obvious crowd magnet. Douglas' surprise appearance only validated that last point.
As for the show itself, it was a question of would you call - the Red Cross, The English Patient or Count Dracula. XPW ran out of stretchers and bandages as wrestlers whose faces became these grim masks of grotesque crimson, got smacked into tables wrapped in barbed wire, hurled through real plate glass, eviscerated with barbed wire brass knuckles, tossed into beds of light bulbs and nails, and pin cushioned with thumb tacks. Because it was a tournament among eight men, two wrestlers stood to make four appearances each that night, with Supreme, a Bam Bam Bigalow-type from LA, taking on Philadelphia's Kronus for the title. Supreme emerged the winner, as did XPW with this incredible display of squared circle barbarism.
