Wrestlerock 9: Australia Day Massacre - DVD Review

We’re taking another trip down under for this edition of The Two Sheds Review, with a return to Australia’s Wrestlerock promotion, as Carnish and Chris Knight battle it out over the big prize in Wrestlerock 9: Australia Day Massacre. Our announcers for the evening are Julian James and the returning Chris Fresh.

First up, former champion Lazer takes on Cletus. Cletus basically looks like an Australian farm boy, decked out in jeans and a sleeveless checked shirt. Apart from that I know nothing about him. The match begins with a press-ups showdown. Lazer challenged Cletus to stand on his back while he did his set, but the farm boy double-crossed him by launching himself off Lazer’s back and into a standing shooting star press. From there we get an extremely good opening contest between two men who were very well matched. As always, Lazer is impressive, but Cletus is just as good as his opponent in this one, especially with his high-flying moves, including a hurricanrana off the second rope, jumping onto his opponent’s shoulders while he was in the middle of the ring. Mention must also be made of Lazer press-slamming Cletus over the top rope and into the front row. But no matter what they did to each other, neither man could get the pin, moves off the top rope, high impact stuff like a TKO, a TKO off the top rope, sleeper hold, none of it worked. It was only after Cletus missed a frog splash from the top that Lazer finally got some joy, finishing off the farm boy with his leg drop finisher. A hell of a contest to open the show, and if this doesn’t make it onto any Best of Wrestlerock compilations, I’ll send Chris Fresh a sternly-worded letter.

Tag-team action follows, with Temo, Brian and Dowey, taking on the Bastard Brothers, Krackerjack and Logan. Well, that was the original plan, until Logan came out on crutches. After they gave a story that involved drugs, drinking and fighting, Krackerjack announced Logan’s replacement, the “Queen of Hardcore”, Vixen. So now it’s a mixed tag-team match. As for Temo, Julian James described them best, they’re a team, and they’re emos. If you don’t know what an emo is look it up on Wikipedia. Anyway, back to the match. The early exchanges showed that Krackerjack can put on a good wrestling contest, as well as putting on good hardcore bouts. His exchanges with Dowey were good, and when Vixen was tagged in, she more than held her own against the Temo boys, who showed some good teamwork themselves, looking very impressive. The hardcore king and queen had their moments as well, but as they were setting up a table in the ring, Dowey got the roll-up on Krackerjack to get the pin. This led to the after match altercation between Jack and Vixen, who, while Jack was acknowledging the fans on the middle rope, was grabbed by Vixen and power bombed onto the table. It was when manager Benny English turned up that Vixen finally put Jack through the table, and as English went through his spiel, Vixen clobbered Jack with a chair, before cutting off his long beard, as English announced that the Krackerjack Kontinental was now closed, and that Vixen’s House of Pain was now open. It was only when a limping Logan returned to the ring did this little scenario stop. A good tag-team match here, and a good storyline afterwards.

With that match over, Corey Heartthrob came to the ring and began throwing out CD’s to the crowd. As Corey took in the “cheers” of the crowd, he seemed reluctant to leave the ring, when Julian James reminded him that there was another match coming up. It was then that Mad Dog, complete with barbed wire steel chair, came to ring and cleaned house. Quite what this segment is leading to remains to be seen. Maybe all will be answered when I review Wrestlerock 10. 

Back to the action, and it’s Jag against Carlo Cannon. Jag is one of those no-nonsense kind of wrestlers, who’s only gimmick is that he’s a tough bastard who doesn’t take any shit, especially when he’s clobbering a fan on the way to the ring. In short, he’s the kind of wrestler I mark out for. It’s a distinct clash of styles in this one, with Cannon’s high-flying style up against Jag’s hard hitting approach, and it makes for a really good match, another one of those encounters where both guys try everything they have, and they still can’t put the other guy away. In the end, Jag came out on top, catching Cannon as he came off the top rope, putting him on his shoulders, and taking him out with his version of the death valley driver, the jagged edge. Another good match, and I’m fast becoming a big fan of this Australia tough guy.

Main event time, with Carnish defending the Wrestlerock title against Chris Knight. This one starts while the national anthems are being played. While Knight showed respect for the Lebanese anthem, Carnish didn’t respond likewise when the Australian anthem was played. His initial attack on Knight didn’t come off, but his second did, as he threw powder into Knight’s eyes. From there we get a rather interesting match, and another with two distinct styles, with the sly and cunning supplied by Carnish and the power supplied by Knight, and if I’m to be totally honest, it’s good, but not as good as the other matches on the show, mainly because the execution of some of the moves looked a little off at times. But despite that it was still quite good, and Knight looked like he was about to get the pin when Carnish’s manager Sebastian Walker, who had been absent from ringside, pulled the referee out of the ring and threw powder into his eyes. Knight then dealt with Walker before taking out Carnish with a spine buster off the ropes. It was then that Julian James left the commentary table, complete with stripe shirt, and made the count as Knight made the cover, giving him the title winning pin. A good match, let down a little in some places, but a good storyline to end the show with.

A few extras on this one for you to enjoy, including a segment from the rock of Wrestlerock, X-Halen. And yes, they are a Van Halen tribute band, but it’s a twenty minute segment, so you get a good chance to hear some decent music.

In conclusion - these Aussies are really putting on some great shows, and having followed Wrestlerock from the beginning, this may be the best one I’ve seen. Three great matches and one good one make for a very good DVD, and if you haven’t seen any of these shows yet, don’t waste any more time reading this review, get your credit card out and go and order their DVDs now!

Once again with thanks to Rohan Herbstreit for supplying a copy of this DVD. The all important website address, www.wrestlerock.com, is where you can get those DVDs. Go there now!