Xtreme Pro Wrestling
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| Details | |
|---|---|
| Acronym | XPW |
| Established | 1999 |
| Style | Hardcore wrestling, Sports entertainment |
| Location | Southern California, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh |
| Founder(s) | Rob Zicari, Big Dick Dudley, Kevin Kleinrock |
| Owner(s) | Rob Zicari, Tom Byron |
| Parent | Extreme Associates |
Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) was an independent professional wrestling promotion owned by Rob Zicari, who along side his wife, Janet Romano, appeared on shows as the owner of the company under the name of Rob Black. The promotion focused on hardcore wrestling and had connections to the Los Angeles porn industry.
XPW was founded in the summer of 1999. It attempted to carve a local niche on the West Coast, particularly Los Angeles, California and its roots can be traced back to Verne Langdon's Slammers Wrestling Federation, which ran shows in Southern California from 1990-1996 and trained many of XPW's future wrestlers.
Many consider the existence of XPW to consist of two different versions: the original West Coast edition and the All-New XPW East Coast Invasion. The original West Coast edition was mainly based in California where controversy and X-rated content were of huge importance. The East Coast Invasion featured XPW garnering some success in cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh thanks to promotional efforts on the part of Shane Douglas.
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[edit] The original XPW: West Coast Edition: 1999-2002
XPW was known for being a hardcore wrestling promotion that featured many violent matches, reminiscent of the Japanese death matches popularized overseas. XPW also kept a huge focus on the soap opera aspect of wrestling, as the storylines involved porn stars, alternative lifestyles, profanity, and sadistic violence. The announcing duo for XPW consisted of Kris Kloss and Larry Rivera, Rivera taking on the role as a heel color commentator. Kris Kloss' trademark was an inhuman high pitched scream when something shocking occurred in a match. Larry Rivera would often side with Rob Black, and his trademark announcing consisted of referring to Kloss as "chico", and the occasional breakdown of Spanish announcing.
In this period, the promotion's main stars were homegrown wrestlers. Eventually, many former ECW stars passed through XPW at one point or another. From 2000 to 2002, XPW held an annual deathmatch tournament called Baptized in Blood, which was XPW's version of the legendary IWA-Japan King of the Deathmatch.
The main storyline for most of 2001 concerned heel stable called the Black Army. The Black Army was run by Rob Black, assisted by his wife (porn star Lizzy Borden), and feuded with Sabu. XPW was in large part responsible for catapulting Sabu back into the national spotlight after he left ECW. Before coming to XPW, Sabu had wrestled in Mexico once over the course of his 20 year career. After joining XPW in March 2000, he started getting booked by Xtreme Latin American Wrestling every month. He had only made sporadic appearances in Canada during his 20 year career, but after joining XPW, he started wrestling for Stampede Wrestling and Border City Wrestling multiple times per month. Very shortly after joining XPW, he also started wrestling on a monthly basis in Japan's FMW.
Towards the end of 2001, another heel stable called the "Enterprise" emerged to feud with the Black Army. Originally consisting of former Black Army henchmen Steve Rizzono, porn star Veronica Caine and GQ Money, the stable was completed at the Damage Inc. show when Kid Kaos won the XPW television title, turned his back on his uncle, Supreme, and aligned himself with the Enterprise. After this surprise heel turn, Kid Kaos dropped the "Kid" from his name and nicknamed himself "The Rock Superstar" Kaos. Soon, the "Enterprise" would be joined by The Sandman, who aligned himself with the faction after defeating Supreme for the XPW King of the Deathmatch Championship.
At Baptized in Blood III in 2002, Shane Douglas made his return to XPW as the mystery opponent of Johnny Webb, and won the XPW title. Following the match, the shocking revelation that Shane Douglas and Lizzy Borden were allies emerged, which would crush Rob Black to the point that Lizzy inherited the power of XPW. From this point on, the face of XPW would change and usher in the "All-New XPW", which would now base its operations in Philadelphia at the ECW Arena.
[edit] Incident at ECW Pay-Per-View
In 2000, Rob Black purchased six front row tickets for ECW's annual summer pay-per-view, HeatWave. The tickets for the show were given to a cadre of XPW talent, as their mission was to make it clear that ECW was on enemy's turf. At the beginning of the main event, the XPW contingent donned shirts emblazoned with the logo of their home company, gaining the attention of security and Tommy Dreamer. Security ejected the XPW group. A brawl in the parking lot then broke out between the XPW ring crew and the ECW locker room, but the XPW wrestlers were not involved. In the parking lot, several of the ECW wrestlers brutalized the XPW ring crew in a street fight until - according to Balls Mahoney - several of the ring crew members were left in pools of their own blood.[1]. Initial reports claimed that Kristi Myst somehow touched Francine and that prompted the incident, but Francine herself has since gone on record as saying that she was never grabbed or in any other way touched by any of the XPW crew, and other eye witnesses support the story that Francine never had a hand laid on her. XPW was not acknowledged on the telecast, and the XPW contingent consisted of The Messiah, Kid Kaos, Supreme, Kristi Myst, Kris Kloss and Homeless Jimmy.
[edit] The All-New XPW: East Coast Invasion + The End of XPW
XPW debuted at the bingo hall known as the ECW Arena in June 2002 at the Hostile Takeover event, and for the rest of the year, Shane Douglas was the promotion's focal point. The risque storylines found in the previous version of XPW became less and less as XPW began running on the West coast. Most of XPW's west coast employees were not a part of the "All-New XPW." The relocation to the East Coast resulted in many former ECW stars passing through XPW, whether it be on a regular basis or one-night appearances. XPW also established new stars. At one point, Kris Kloss was dropped from the announcing booth and replaced with Joey Styles. This would only last for one event, as Styles only commentated on XPW's Exit Sandman event.
In April 2003, Rob Black and Lizzy Borden were indicted on obscenity charges due to pornographic material produced by XPW's parent company, Extreme Associates. Federal agents in Pittsburgh had ordered the offending material, which depicted scenes of rape, urination, and murder. The stress of the trial took its toll on the owners of the company, and XPW could no longer be subsidized financially. In January 2005, the charges were dropped but on December 8, 2005 an appeals court revived the charges (See United States v. Extreme Associates).
[edit] Championships
- XPW World Heavyweight Championship
- XPW King of the Deathmatch Championship
- XPW Television Championship
- XPW World Tag Team Championship
[edit] The Memory Remains
Although XPW shows no signs of ever returning again, XPW DVDs exist and are distributed by Xtreme Entertainment Group, who purchased the rights to XPW's video library from Rob Black in 2004. XPW matches have been extras on several different independent wrestling DVDs, including Forever Hardcore and the Hardcore Homecoming series. XPW has also been mentioned on various wrestling events such as the first Hardcore Homecoming in June 2005 (by Shane Douglas), by Tommy Dreamer and Paul Heyman on a June 2005 edition of "Byte This," and in a veiled reference by Heyman in a promo on a Viking Hall show on June 24, 2006 ("I don't care what losers and wannabes and porno rejects have run here").
On November 14, 2006 Big Vision Entertainment will release a 2-Disc XPW documentary, After the Fall. Fye.com lists the release as having a run time of 6 hours, which can only mean that the second disc will be comprised of a sufficient amount of bonus matches.
[edit] External links
- "Bleeding Was Only Half the Job" editions 1-10 at DOI.net - A history of XPW written by a fan and featuring interviews with the wrestlers and management of XPW, including Shane Douglas, Jerry Lynn, and others.
