WSU Payback's a Bitch - DVD Review

This edition of The Two Sheds Review sees another US indy promotion make it’s debut here - Women Superstars Uncensored. For our first gander at this promotion we’re going to take a look back at the DVD release of their recent Payback’s a Bitch show.
The show begins with Miss April facing Malia Hosaka. This wasn’t actually meant to be the first match of the show, but this was an impromptu challenge made by April to the veteran in an opening promo. What followed was a very good, old fashioned wrestling contest, with April more than keeping up with the more experienced Hosaka, and you knew it was an old school kind of match when Hosaka executed the airplane spin on April. The only poor part of this one was the ending, a slightly botched small package which saw Hosaka pin April. Apart from that, a good match.

Then it’s onto the WSU battle royal, with the winner getting a shot at WSU Champion Angel Orsini. Long time readers of my work will know that although I like battle royals, I don’t like reporting on them. The rules for this one were different from normal battle royals, with a wrestler being eliminated if they go under the top rope and their feet touch the floor. A mixed bag of action in this one, some good, some bad, with Bobcat getting the win and the title shot.

The title match follows immediately, with Bobcat, accompanied by her tag-team partner Gorgeous George, challenging Angel Orsini for the WSU title, with the sorely missed Molly Holly as the special referee. Before the match began Bobcat grabbed the microphone, suggesting that this should be an anything goes match, which Orsini readily agrees to. This one starts out as a normal wrestling match, and it takes a few minutes before the anything goes part of the match comes into play, and all this involved was a bit of brawling outside the ring with a table involved a couple of times, and after the action returned to the ring, Orsini got the ring with her finisher, which looked like a variation of the DDT. But that wasn’t the end of things, as Mercedes Martinez came down to the ring and beat the hell out Orsini, first with the title belt, and then with a DDT onto a chair, and a suplex onto the table at ringside. If I’m to be totally honest, the match had it’s good points, but it didn’t exactly set my pulse racing, and the action after the match was a lot better than the match itself.

The DVD is completed with two bonus matches. The first sees Roxxie Cotton taking on “Soul Sister” Jana. Now this one confused me a little. While watching it I kept trying to work out what it was trying to achieve. Cotton spent a great deal of time out of the ring during the early stages, and for some reason The Birdie Song, which I absolutely hate with a passion, was played, which incensed her even more. Eventually, we got some good wrestling action, with Jana putting in some very good work, although Cotton’s work did seem a little off at times. Cotton one this very short match with a roll-up, after her manager (whose name, sadly, I can’t remember), distracted Jana.

WSU Champion Angel Orsini was up next, facing Kara “Cherri” Slice, whom many of you will remember as Deuce and Domino’s valet in the WWE. This was by far the best match on this DVD, with Cherri putting in some good work against Orsini, who showed just why she was the champion with some great work of her own. The referee took a hit here, which saved Orsini’s title as she tapped to Cherri’s crossface, before clobbering her challenger with the belt. Needless to say the referee came to afterwards, and gave the three count to Orsini. Cherri then grabbed the microphone, demanding an immediate rematch, which never happened.

In conclusion - time to be honest again. While there was some good action here, most notably from the April/Hosaka and Orsini/Cherri matches, the other matches here didn’t exactly do it for me. They each had some good action in them, but they also had moments that left me scratching my head a little. It was also pretty obvious that WSU is aimed at the more mature audience, given some of the language used by the commentators and the wrestlers during some of their promos, although if you’re looking for any nudity, you won’t find it here.

Production wise it’s your usual indy fare here, good but not outstanding production values. I was a little disappointed that this one only lasted slightly more than an hour.

So although I can’t give Payback’s a Bitch an outstanding mark, I can say that there is potential there, and I’m more than willing to give more of their DVD releases a look, which I’ll hopefully be doing in the next few weeks.

With thanks to WSU for supplying a copy of this release. For more information on Women Superstars Uncensored, visit www.wsuwrestling.com. WSU DVDs are available to buy online at www.doivideo.com.