We're almost 6 months into regular monthly shows at the Battle Palace and a year+ since our inaugural match with one another way back in February of 2014 and we have finally reached the climax of the program between The Raincity Coalition of myself and Drew Sarian and Fur & Loathing, consisting of "Big Cat" Scott Henson and Kaden Talbain. Up until this point, matches featuring some combination of these wrestlers (2 Singles & 2 Tags) had been the primary focus of my work in 3-2-1 Battle, save for the one match in January against Zeus McFly which as I've mentioned previously was by design as we didn't know what kind of legs the promotion would have and we initially saw it as a vehicle to continue having matches amongst our friend group. With that being said, this was a feature match on the first ever "Battlemania" show at Evolv Fitness, an event that would go on to become bigger and bigger each subsequent year and would feature some of my best matches ever in the promotion over the years; from the next two incarnations of the event that also took place within the confines of these four walls getting more and more packed to the brim to the final two renditions that would end up being the two largest events the promotion ever ran, at a legendary Seattle concert venue. We're not remotely ready to sell that many tickets or tell those stories quite yet though.
This match was a "Seattle Streetfight" which was essentially a Tornado Tag Team Match with various weapons, boards/tables, chairs, etc. I know we struggled to come up with a more creative name or gimmick but finally settled on this somewhat generic one after coming to the conclusion that using "No Dicks Barred", a reference to our previous backyard promotion ISUXDIX (International Society Uv Xtreme Dudes In Xtremeness; No, seriously) would likely cause more raised eyebrows and confusion than it was worth. This match was technically for the tag titles that we had established under that brand that also carried a moniker with a silly acronym that I'm way too embarrassed to type out here although if you look up the results on a particular German Pro Wrestling results database they're included in the match description, which I find very silly and downright hilarious. I like the added touch of the coordinated street fight gear from all involved parties with our own little bits of added flare; everyone's wearing denim or in my case, cammo with our colourful matching t-shirts, The RCC in Pink while the Furries are adorned in Purple.
This one starts off hot and never really lets up for the entire 14 minute and change runtime, a vast improvement over the bloat and excess of our most recent tag match, 2 months prior. Things get going with the traditional "3! 2! 1! Battle!" cry from what had to be a then record crowd in that building with Drew catching Scott with a Pescado dive as Kaden and I are exchanging blows, bringing the action to the first few rows as a street fight fittingly should do so. As a shocking amount of my matches from this era did (ie basically all of them), we almost immediately build to me hitting a tandem version of the Diving Apron Dropkick with Drew's assist preventing a similar outcome to our previous tag encounter where Kaden's interference allowed Scott to take me out of the action for a good portion of the match with his Kablammo 2K6 onto an Open Chair. However, here I was successful in taking out both in a moment that was captured amazingly by the photographers in house that night, complete with someone (likely someones) throwing multiple balls as the dangerous sequence unfolded, one of which hitting me in the face mid-air. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was this match that finally lead to the ultimate banning of the bane of all of our collective existences as someone finally came to the logical conclusion that the safety of the performers, who were already putting themselves into dangerous scenarios weighed out over a handful of drunk patrons getting to feel like they were more apart of the show in the weirdest of ways. 3-2-1 Battle always referred to itself as "Weird Wrestling" but trust me, it didn't need to be *that* weird.
One thing I've always loved about this match is how we still incorporated your standard structure within a traditional tag team formula but modified the various segments within the context of the street fight setting. Immediately after gaining the upper hand with the aforementioned dual dropkick, Drew and I go to work on Kaden with an old school bump & feed shine, including multiple tandem atomic drops and our now excellently executed combination of two forearms in the corner, my release German Suplex which Talbain sells through and feeds up to his feet to be met by a huge top rope crossbody for a nearfall. It's when I go to take back over on Scott on the floor that he cuts me off with a reckless looking Brunk-esque chair thrown in my direction that sends me crashing to the hard floor. I don't know if in all my years of wrestling I ever found myself taking a hard chair shot directly to the head, having deduced at a pretty young age that there was no real way to execute or take them in a safe manner without running risk of concussions, neck trauma, etc. With that being said, I did have a knack for taking a chair tossed at me with a hand up and an expertly timed quick snap bump to make it look extra vicious all the while minimizing any potential for real damage.
It's at this point that Fur & Loathing briefly took control of the outnumbered Drew with Scott clawing him in the back in order to break up a Boston Crab that he referred to as the "Tiger Tamer." They begin their assault with a double Clothesline, assisted with a length of galvanized steel chain, that I had purchased at my then employer - a BC based industrial supply distributor, with my company discount. A wild looking Double Biel into a board set up on a 45 degree angle in the corner that loudly breaks in two leaves Drew battered in a heap. An attempted comeback by myself via an Abdominal Stretch on Scott is broken up and now we've already established that both babyfaces have a penchant for big submissions that they're not able to use within the confines of the rule set successfully; not quite yet at least. F&L attempt another double chain assisted clothesline that I countered by ducking once and then jumping straight up into the air, bringing my bodyweight down onto the middle of the chain, as physics worked in my favour and the two of them are sent crashing into one another; a spot that we absolutely lifted and modified from the awesome Rockers/Orient Express match that famously opens the 1991 Royal Rumble PPV.
We begin our comeback together with each of us brandishing a chain and weight lifting belt respectively which lead to the hilarious (to me at least) moment of Drew backing both Talbain & Henson into the far corner, hitting a series of Undertaker inspired strikes with the belt with both guys taking turns attempting to escape his grasp but being thrown back into said corner, otherwise known as the "Soup Bones." I followed up with my patented running dropkick in the corner, except I found myself landing on a leftover piece of particle board that was remaining in the ring after Drew had been put through it; something that still to this day I have the memory of how much it sucked to land awkwardly on that board and immediately clear it out of the way in a minor fit of rage, burned into my brain. Our attempt at capitalizing with a Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald on the Big Cat is broken up by Kaden and after an exchange of teased moves on the apron, I find myself taking my signature backbody drop bump on the "hardest part of the ring", crashing down face first into the concrete aisle way; where I'm met with even more colourful plastic balls pelting me in the face. Great.
Things continue to escalate as all participants are taking big moves through various plunder, selling off momentarily before re-entering the fray at opportune times to help set up the next big moment. The one thing I will say is that this match never feels slow or like there's a lot of down time to set up various contraptions and there's a ton of wild bumps throughout it. Drew and Scott have one of their prototypical 2010s NJPW inspired sequences ending with a Superkick that sends the Big Cat backwards into the ropes, with his arms tied up firmly between the top and second; something he later told us was the most uncomfortable situation he ever found himself in within the context of a wrestling match. His method acting pays off though as a verbal altercation between him and his partner leads to what I have to imagine was real anguish as he screamed "TURN AROUND!" just in time for Talbain to find himself on the receiving end of maybe the lowest impact piledriver in human history, executed by Drew into a seated position on a chair that was setup mid ring that Kaden sold in a classic 80s stooging heel manner nonetheless.
The next sequence is one that we decidedly did not think clearly through the logistics of as Scott and Drew found themselves in the center of the ring throwing chairs at one another. The idea was for Kaden and I to be situated on the floor, feeding additional chairs into them to throw at one another, as they collided in a series of load clangs, littering the ring in steal seats. However as I attempted to execute this plan, I found that there were no chairs to be found underneath the ring and thus had to ask fans in the front row for some, finding myself met by pushback from multiple fans who didn't want to give them up to me. Which; to be fair - I can't say I blame them but definitely put me in an awkward situation as my tag team partner patiently waited in the ring for me to provide him with an arsenal of folding projectiles. Alas, after promising to promptly return their chairs to them, I found a handful of volunteers, the canvas found itself covered in them and Drew hit a wild looking Powerbomb on Scott onto the entire pile. Upon re-watch for this project I could distinctly see myself in the background, reaching into the pile afterwards and grabbing some out to immediately give back to the fans who initially were hesitant, but eventually gracious enough to loan me their seats.
The hits keep on coming as Scott, previously battered from being driven down onto a plethora of chairs, now found himself rolling out of the ring with the hopes of some reprieve, instead being buried under said plethora of chairs. I followed suit by diving out onto him with a slingshot Senton Atomico, a spot that I lifted from Japanese Indie Scum Legend, Asian Cooger, having seen him perform it and other similarly insane highspots in numerous small towns here in BC in front of tens of fans during my impressionable teenage years as a burgeoning fan of all sorts of under the radar pro wrestling care of resources like the DVDVR big green board. Perhaps my favourite sequence in the entire match comes next with Drew & Kaden essentially recreating the finish to the WrestleMania 14 Main Event with Talbain falling victim to a Sarian Stunner, finding himself prone on another table set up in the corner, driven through it in an absolutely vicious manner by a diving dropkick from Drew. I don't recall ever seeing anything quite like it before or since and the sound and look of that moment is one that I will forever associate with this match.
Unfortunately for Drew, what came next ended up being way more impactful on him that he would have liked as having set up a larger table on the floor - I found myself teasing multiple big spots with Scott on the apron, with the future Sarian Soft Paws interjecting with his not so soon to be Big Cat brethren in the form of a Superkick, only for Scott to retaliate with his infamous "You! Sunk! My Battleship!" Emerald Frosion through the table to the unforgiving concrete below; exploding Drew's back in the process. I don't recall what the exact diagnosis was but I do recall him being on crutches for multiple weeks afterwards, including during his graduation from film school shortly thereafter.
Back inside and we have a do over from last month's match between Kaden and myself leading to him hitting a great looking sheer drop brainbuster that I kick out of on a 2 count and then proceed to do what had to be the weirdest no-sell of my entire career simply sitting up after the kick out, doing the stereotypical running my thumb across my throat mannerism and getting up in his face to trade again; Truly Bizarre. We repeat a similar UK inspired stepover counter to a single leg takedown finished with a big knee lift that lead to the finish of last month's match but this time around, I deadlifted Talbain from his stomach up into a German Suplex with a Bridge. At this point, Scott was supposed to break up the nearfall by throwing a chair into the ring from the outside... except it got caught up in the ropes (off camera) and barely made contact with my nearest leg as I'm clearly watching and waiting for it whilst in my bridge, in clear view of the ringside camera filming the action.
What comes next is another spot that we lifted from a previous encounter of ours, a TLC match from our backyard days years prior; setting up a bridge of opened steel chairs with Scott attempting a Tiger Driver onto them, some big trading and multiple blocked forearms followed by my awkward rolling backwards over the chairs like a bad extra in an action film. We meet face to face standing slightly higher above the cheering masses who absolutely explode as I hit a really gross (ie dumb) unprotected headbutt and a Package Piledriver otherwise known in our backyard circles as the "Trapper Keeper Bomb" (a name coined by Beyond Wrestling's Drew Cordeiro, circa 2004) for a huge nearfall as we struggled to dig ourselves out from the sea of mangled steel we now found ourselves lodged within.
The only moment that really didn't go to plan and kind of slowed things down was what followed next, as I attempted to wrap the chain around my foot without practicing it beforehand or having much of a strategy on how to properly do so to begin with. There's no real clear logic as to what I was hoping to do with it in the moment either as I head to the top rope only for Scott to cut me off with a single knee gut buster, followed up with an Angle Slam attempt that I countered with a decent looking armdrag, holding onto the chain with my other free hand in a sequence that we directly lifted from a Roderick Strong/Zack Sabre Jr match we had seen on a recent Evolve show. I transitioned form the armdrag to my Jim Breaks Armbar, a submission that I also directly lifted from ZSJ and would use successfully over the next few years as my primary finisher in 3-2-1 Battle (sometimes referred to erroneously as the "Jim Breaker") basically until the time that the man in which it's named for committed murder on his then partner and I decided it was best to retire the move altogether.Alas, as I transitioned to the hold albeit chainless, a struggling Drew who to this day doesn't know how he managed to recover enough to finish the match, managed to intercept a diving Talbain out of midair and turn him over for the previously attempted "Tiger Tamer." Fur & Loathing struggled momentarily but truly had no way out as they previously did earlier on in the match; this time unable to save one another from our various submission attempts, instead finding themselves simultaneously tapping out for the huge submission victory.
But in addition to all of that, I do think the structure and psychology of it holds up really well and may actually be the best match the four of us ever had together in the many years of sharing numerous rings with one another all over the PNW. It may not qualify as "Wrestling Genius," but it certainly was a well thought out gimmick match in front of likely the largest and hottest crowd any of us had worked in front of up until that point in our lives. It ended up being the last time the four of us were ever in the same match all together for 9+ years until my final match in Washington State for SOS Wrestling in Tacoma, the night before Scott passed away. In short it's a fulfilling payoff to this particular series of matches that served as our introduction to regularly working in Seattle and is a fitting conclusion to this early chapter of my career in 3-2-1 Battle!
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