2/3/01: Saturday Night Explosion - Chicago, IL

Steve Boz pinned Mike Sharpe after the Sweet Chin Music in 0:07:23.
Rating: DUD

Rhino pinned Barry Horowitz with the Rhino Gore in 0:14:36.
Rating: DUD

Sebastian P. Sterling pinned Rob Carlin with the Sterling Suplex in 0:07:46.
Rating: **

The New Powers of Pain defeated The Grungers when Pain pinned Gutterboy
after hitting him with a foreign object in 0:07:25.
Rating: -3/4*

Interview:
Doc Dean is "injured" and can't participate in his match tonight.
Click here to see highlights.

Brian Adias pinned Mark Schrader with the Oriental Spike in 0:07:02.
Rating: * 1/4

[Winner gets Television Title shot at Slam Masters]:
Colorado Kid and Juventud Guerrera battled to a double pin in 0:10:26.
Rating: ** 3/4
Click here to see highlights.

The Movement defeated The Extremists (Ace Darling and Devon Storm) when Burton
 defeated Darling by countout in 0:07:55.
Rating: 3/4*

Interview:
The Headhunters issue an open challenge.
Click here to see highlights.

[Winner gets World Title shot at Slam Masters]: No-Countout-No-DQ-10-Man Battle Royal:
The Perfect Creation won a 10-man Battle Royal:
         x B. Armstrong threw out L. Storm in 0:00:36
         x B. Armstrong threw out McCulloch in 0:00:41
         x B. Armstrong threw out I. Kidd Jr. after an atomic drop in 0:01:03
         x Hamada threw out B. Armstrong after a backbreaker in 0:01:20
         x P. Creation threw out P. Oulette in 0:03:15
         x Shamrock threw out Hamada in 0:11:49
         x P. Creation threw out Shamrock in 0:12:11
         x P. Creation threw out Titan after a flying clothesline in 0:16:01
         x P. Creation threw out E. Watts after a slap in 0:23:51
Rating: * 3/4



Match observations: 

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Night Explosion!  A lot of action to get to tonight, and the first set of matches for Slam Masters: Crunch Time, will be announced!  Let's get right to it.

The opening contest was nothing special as Steve Boz took on "Iron" Mike Sharpe.  Pure domination by Boz as he picks up the victory with the Sweet Chin Music superkick.  During the match, Gutterboy was watching from a monitor in the back,
and to be honest, he didn't look that happy!

The massive Rhino has a lot of potential for his GLW career, and after a few runins with Ken Shamrock he probably wants to forget, he's starting to get on track.  Tonight he had a match with Barry Horowitz, which is no easy task (ask
Sebastian P. Sterling).  Horowitz used his technical wrestling skills to throw the monster Rhino off, but once Rhino got to use his power asvantage, that's all she wrote.  Rhino picks up an impressive victory with the Rhino Gore.

The newcomer Rob Carlin in his short time here as shown some signs of brilliance, pulling off moves a lot of guys don't even know exist.  He may be small, but he can do a lot.  The only problem is, these flashes of excellence are just
that: flashes.  Carlin had some fantastic offense against Sebastian P. Sterling tonight, but he went to the well one too many times and thus, Sterling was able to capitalize and pick up the victory with the Sterling Suplex.

Gutterboy is steaming mad, and understandably so.  Tonight, he and Skank, collectively the Grungers, took on the New Powers of Pain, Mark & Bull Pain.  Near the end of the match, Steve Boz came down to the ring, sunglasses and all, to
"cheer them on" as he would later say.  However, Gutterboy took exception to this and immediately started yelling at in Boz's direction!  Mark Pain took advantage of this and grabbed the big chain he comes down to the ring with and popped
Gutterboy in the back of the head while the ref was trying to get Boz out of the area.  The NPOP pick up what could be called an upset.  After the match, Skank once again had to try to keep Gutterboy and Boz separated, but this time he
would have no luck as those two started beating the tar out of each other!  Skank eventually just said "Screw it!" and let those two pummel each other.  It took a whole slew of officials to get these guys apart.  We later learned that GLW
President Ryan Niemiller said that he was going to settle this issue once and for all and that at Slam Masters: Crunch Time on February 23rd, Gutterboy and Steve Boz will lock up, but this won't be just a regular match, but instead a Steel
Cage match!  This one is going to be huge!

Doc Dean was scheduled to defend his Midwestern Title in our next contest against Mark "the Shark" Schrader, who earned the shot by winning a Four-Corners Match last week.  However, when Dean's music started, he came limping out on a pair
of crutches and for some reason, Brian Adias.  Dean got on the mic and said he had injured his leg and couldn't wrestle tonight, but said Brian Adias would take his place.

We would learn during the course of this Adias/Schrader match that it was all just a big scam.  The Shark appeared to be on the verge of a win when Dean out of nowhere took one of his crutches and jabbed Schrader in the ribs!  Adias then
hit the Oriental Spike and got the 1-2-3.  Dean began laughing like crazy and jumping around, showing that he didn't have an injury at all!  Adias pointed that out to the Midwestern champion, who then began acting like he was hurt again!
Schrader was royally screwed tonight.

The next match was to determine a #1 contender for the Television Title, but that didn't quite work out as planned.  Colorado Kid and "The Juice" Juventud Guerrera knew how important this match was as getting a shot at Indiana Kidd Jr's
TV Title is very important.  These two went at it tooth and nail, and it looked like Colorado Kid had picked up the victory when he put Juvy down with a German suplex, but the ref said that C-Kid's shoulders were down as well and declared
the match a draw as a result of the double pin!  This left the question of who would be challenging Indiana Kidd Jr. at Slam Masters.  It was later decided by the GLW Championship Committee that both Colorado Kid and Juventud Guerrera
would get the shot at the title in a triangle match!  This one is going to be terrific!

The Extremists are fuming, but after what they did to the Armstrongs the past 8 days, they deserved it!  Ace Darling & Devon Storm cost Steve & Scott Armstrong a match last week, so this week, they returned the favor.  The Extremists were
going up against The Movement, who have looked quite impressive thus far in the GLW.  While Darling thought he was pulling out a nice bit of strategy.  However, after Scott Armstrong nailed him with a flying cross body block off the guard
rail, he thought differently.  The Movement pick up the win via countout, and the Armstrongs pick up a small measure of revenge.

The Headhunters came out next unexpected and issued an open challenge for anyone who wanted a shot at their World Tag Team Titles, claiming that everyone was too scared to challenge them.  Well, Mike Burton & Johnny Ace showed no fear when
they immediately came out and answered the challenge, and will get the World Tag Team Title shot at Slam Masters!  If you'll remember, last week, The Movement nearly took the titles, and now they will get a second chance.

Our final match of the evening was a 10-man battle royal, but with a special perk as the winner would get the World Title shot against Masato Tanaka at Slam Masters.  Brad Armstrong would have loved to get that shot, and that's why he came
out on fire in this one!  Within a minute of action, Armstrong had already eliminated his nemesis Lance Storm (much to Storm's chagrin), K.C. McCulloch, and the Television champion Indiana Kidd Jr.  However, Gran Hamada was able to nail
him with a backbreaker when he spun around and was dumped to the floor himself.  Armstrong was upset, but started to go to the back, but what he didn't realize is that Lance Storm had waited at ringside and attacked Brad Armstrong from
behind!  Storm was certainly putting the boots to Armstrong, but Ken Shamrock who was still in the ring, saw this and being a friend of Armstrong's, jumped out and got Storm off of Armstrong.  While this was happening, The Perfect Creation
dumped Pierre Oulette.  Storm was still extremely pissed about what Shamrock had done, so when Shamrock tried to get back into the ring, Storm nailed him in the back with a steel chair!  Shamrock still managed to stay in the match for a
little while longer, but after that chair shot, he just wasn't the same.  He did officially eliminate Gran Hamada after Big Titan had nailed Hamada from behind and Shamrock backdropped him over, but seconds after that, The Perfect Creation
took care of the wounded animal.  With that, we were down to just 3: The Perfect Creation, Erik Watts, and Big Titan.  At first glance, one would think that Big Titan had the advantage here with his size and strength, but TPC used that to
his advantage.  TPC is a power-based wrester, but he does only weigh about 220 pounds and he used that to keep Titan off his game and eventually eliminated him from the match, leaving just he and Watts.  The next few minutes of this match
were filled with tremendous action with Watts and TPC going at it.  It would have been quite a story if Erik Watts could pull out the victory here and get a World Title shot in only his second week here, but it just wasn't meant to be.
TPC eventually tossed Watts out of the match after a vicious slap (I'm not kidding) and will now face Masato Tanaka for the World Title at Slam Masters!  What a match that will be!

After the night of action was over, the first matches for Slam Masters: Crunch Time live from Chicago, Illinois on February 23rd were announced, and we look to have a great night of action on our hands!  Without further adieu...

World Title - Masato Tanaka (c) vs. "Greatness Himself" The Perfect Creation
World Tag Team Title Match - The Headhunters (c) vs. The Movement
Television Title - Indiana Kidd Jr. (c) vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Colorado Kid
Brad Armstrong vs. Jonny Storm
Ace Darling/Devon Storm vs. Scott Armstrong/Steve Armstrong
Winner gets World Title shot at Super Cade I - Big Titan vs. Gran Hamada
Steel Cage Match - Gutterboy vs. Steve Boz