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October 1, 2007 It's time I wrote about WWW. Lance and I, usually with Jeff (his schedule permitting) have been to every WWW show since May 2006. Originally, it was a lark. "Hey, girl wrestling! Let's check that shit out." That "shit" turned out to be the best regular live wrestling experience $20 for a front row ringside seat at Good Times Emporium in Somerville, MA could buy us. Surrounded by an audience of diehard regulars (many of them "special") we get to watch some truly talented young female wrestlers perform, entertain, and interact with us. The top stars of the promotion, Nikki Roxx, Ariel, Alicia, etc. have performed for larger wrestling companies like Shimmer. Nikki herself is a bona fide TNA knockout as voodoo chile Roxxie Leveaux and likely TNA's first Women's Champion in a couple of weeks. Over the last year, WWW and her wrestlers have earned a loyalty from us that frankly WWE should envy. The August show saw Lexxus rise from the midcard and become the new babyface centerpiece of the promotion, ending Tanya Lee's year long title reign as WWW Champion. Since I love heels and heel champions, I enjoyed every bit of Tanya's reign as she managed to defy the odds and hold onto that title for an improbable year, defeating Nikki Roxx and Ariel to cement her reign. Lexxus taking out Tanya and then defeating her cleanly in a rematch a week later was a big deal. The August show itself was the best constructed WWW show so far. The Tanya vs. Lexxus rivalry was front and center -- the show opened with a pull apart brawl between the two, continued during intermission with a Pearl Harbor attack by Tanya on Lexxus, and culminated with a wildly entertaining fatal four way match with favorites Natalia and Jana inserted which Lexxus eventually won by pinning Tanya in decisive fashion. What Lexxus achieved was eye-opening, at least for me. Usually mired in the midcard, the entire summer's storylines was constructed around her becoming Tanya's arch enemy and a genuine threat to the champion. As much as I loved Tanya as a heel champion and was awed by her work, I welcomed the change. It was time. In that fatal four way Lexxus showed me a lot in terms of her heart and willingness to deliver the kind of main event matches the WWW Champion is expected to deliver. I can't speak for anyone else but she convinced me. Lexxus showed she could meet the high standard set by Nikki Roxx, Ariel, and Tanya Lee. But could she do it consistently and be a convincing babyface champion, the kind WWW hasn't seen in since Tanya upset Nikki Roxx? Last night's WWW show turned out to be perhaps the most groundbreaking in the promotion's short history. It didn't seem that way at first but when the dust settled, the fundamental shifts within the promotion are fascinating to contemplate: * Della Morte is now a babyface. Longtime heel Della faced Jana and Luscious Latasha in a handicap match; her partner Mistress Belmont was mysteriously absent. Della and Belmont, though heels and usually curtain jerkers, were always favorites with the crowd for their goth/sado-mascochistic antics. They usually got face reactions even as heels and most people in the crowd liked them. Della worked solo against the Soul Sistahs in, if one is being honest, one of the biggest debacles I've ever had to watch. A "special referee" who had no experience and no business being in the ring couldn't handle the difficult job of officiating an unruly handicap match. Hell, I'll be more frank: he sucked and the match sucked. It wasn't the fault of the wrestlers, who were trying, but it was just a conceptual and badly executed fiasco that the crowd hated and turned on. Still, Della won and was saved from post-match double team by Natalia, newly minting Della Morte (and Mistress Belmont by association) as a babyface. It's a pretty interesting turn of events that we're now encouraged to cheer the Daughters of Darkness (most of us usually did anyway but now it's approrpiate). WWW is apparently preparing a tag team division and now we have clearly delineated heel and babyface teams who are WWW regulars competing for those tag team titles whenever they materialize. It will also be pretty neat to see Della and Belmont interact with the other babyfaces instead of trying to beat them up. * Violet Flame is gone. Violet was a tried and true hand in WWW. She's wrestled just about everyone in the promotion. Violet in real life is moving out of state and she'll be missed. Sheldon Goldberg and the WWW wrestlers gave Violet a classy send off, although Alicia was typically incredible at ringside by not breaking kayfabe and maintaining her obnoxious heel persona as Violet was given a standing ovation and shown respect by the crowd. With Violet gone, and with Amber on hiatus, it does leave the WWW midcard a bit lean. Who's Alere Little Feather going to wrestle now? * Lexxus beat Ariel. What does the babyface champion of the company do if half the crowd is vehemently for her opponent, who is also a babyface and in most eyes, the uncrowned champion? To Lexxus' credit, she kept her focus, remained unfazed, and did her job, taking Ariel's best shots, bumping like mad, giving as good as she got, and squeaking through with the win. The finishing sequence didn't come off smoothly, which seemed to indicate a possible rematch, but in withstanding the onslaught of the number one asskicker in WWW, Lexxus held fast to her title belt. It sure didn't seem like Ariel took it easy on Lexxus either; she tossed Lexxus around good and hard as expected. But Lexxus kept fighting back, even throwing Ariel around the ringside seats. Both Lexxus and Ariel are tough as nails. With the pro-Ariel crowd, Lexxus didn't have as much vocal support as she could have. Both ladies fought a damn good match. Ariel looked dominant, Lexxus again showed she has heart and resilience. And she keeps the belt, which is important for what came next. * Nikki Roxx is a heel and Tanya Lee is a face. We're through the looking glass here, people. White is black, black is white. With the handicap match fiasco overshadowing the show, WWW needed something special to salvage the event, and it turned out they had a big, ballsy hand to play that really changes just about everything. The angle played throughout the night: Lexxus had an open challenge for the WWW Title match that Ariel answered. Tanya Lee demanded another rematch and blamed her manager Sean Gorman for not signing the contract before Ariel did. Nikki Roxx appeared (with dark hair) and gave an uncharacterisically whiny promo about wanting a shot that the crowd picked up on. Nikki vs. Tanya was on again, and as they always do, they delivered a hell of a match. Something about Nikki and Tanya together in the ring is magic. Another curious moment came when Gorman feigned "sportsmanship" in avoiding to take a typical cheap shot on Nikki. They battled to a double count out, settling nothing. After Lexxus defeated Ariel, Tanya attacked her. Then Gorman and Nikki suddenly appeared and played their coup de grace: Gorman turned on Tanya, Nikki finished her off, and the rest of Gorman's stable materialized in the ring to reward her with a faction T-shirt, welcoming Nikki Roxx into the Dynasty of Champions. Fucking dynamite show-ending angle. Just like that, everything that matters at the top of the card changed. In the WWE Attitude analogy, as WWW Champion Lexxus has beaten the Triple H of WWW (Tanya Lee). Lexxus overcame a pro-Ariel crowd to beat the biggest asskicker, the Stone Cold Steve Austin of WWW. Now Lexxus has The Rock of WWW, Nikki Roxx. Who's now a heel for the first time in WWW, with Sean Gorman watching her back. And Tanya Lee is still in the picture, as a default babyface no less. (I cheered for her no matter what, but now, will she accept the applause and not look at us with disdain? Although, I'll miss the disdain.) As I told Sheldon at the end of the show, Nikki's heel turn was excellent. The booking of WWW's main event big picture is very well done. And the next show is really going to be interesting. Oh, and how can I neglect to mention how fucking awesome Natalia and Alicia are? They deserve some WWW Title love as well. |
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