Text: Daniel Johnson
Photos: Daniel Johnson
Now, unless you are either a) one Hell of a hardcore wrestling fan or b) live in one of the towns in Southern California where the company runs shows, I am sure you are wondering exactly what EWF is and why you should care. To answer your first question EWF stands for Empire Wrestling Federation and is one of the older, if not more famous current independent promotions in Southern California. To answer your second question...well actually I'm not sure if I have an answer for your second question, but keep reading along and we'll see if we can find an answer together.
Taking place at the Knights of Columbus building in Covina, California the evening's event differed considerably from the last independent show I had attended, which was run by Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. With half the audience under twelve there was a lack of mature content and a more family friendly atmosphere present. Don't get me wrong that didn't stop an audience member or two from getting shitfaced and swearing at the wrestlers, but I digress.
Anyway, getting back to the wrestling the first match of the night featured Ray Kejimura taking on Joey Harder. Having never heard of either of the combatants I was interested to see what they could bring to the table. Fortunately, I was in luck as the two put on a fairly enjoyable opener. Here, Kejimura puts Harder in a headlock.
While Harder did a good job of playing the babyface of the match, I was somewhat unsure as to whether Kejimura was a heel or simply a tweener. When he was announced as making his residency in Boston, Massachusetts he got a few boos from the crowd, but other than that Kejimura didn't really make it a point to do anything particularly heelish except one thing, he grabbed his crotch...a lot. Of course he did do a few of the small, yet pivotal trademarks of a heel such as going over the top in arguing with the referee about an alleged three count.
However, these quirks were few and far between. After a few more minutes and a few more crotch grabs Kejimura managed to role Harder up from the position seen here.
Following Kejimura's pinfall victory over Harder it was announced that this would be the last time that Harder would be wrestling in Covina as he was leaving EWF for college. It's a shame to, because I had an idea that was sure to make Harder's popularity rival that of WWE Champion John Cena. Simply have Harder introduce a number of moves that would not look out of place in the "Kama Sutra" into his repertoire such as the Camel Clutch, the Reverse Bearhug, and of course the Rear Naked Choke. After these moves were locked in, Harder, perhaps with a gyration of his pelvis or two would then encourage the fans to yell (or moan) "Harder! Harder!" and there you go instant success. Actually, now that I think of it, with an audience heavily made up of preteens and a few drunks thrown in here and there, that may not be the best idea. Anyway onto the next contest: "Tough" Tony Raze vs. Dave the Bruiser.
These two guys were enormous so it was not that surprising that their respective movesets were limited. Here, the Bruiser attempts to put the larger Raze down with a submission hold.
After only a few minutes of action between the big men, Raze scores the pinfall victory over the Bruiser. However, not to be outdone the Bruiser attempted to get revenge on Raze with his own cowbell, but was thwarted by an alert Raze. Here, Raze picks up his cowbell after he knocked it out of the Bruiser's hands in an attempt to get some revenge on his would-be attacker.
Up next is the first title match of the night, which pits the challenging team of La Ola Del Mal against the reigning tag team champions, Aggravated Assault. I should probably mention that this is the first of three championship matches taking place at the event titled, "Gold Standard." Why I waited until now to mention that I'm not sure, but hey I don't think the announcer of the show mentioned it once. Just look at him, that smug bastard.
In all honesty the announcer did a standard job and appeared no smugger than any other announcer you'd find on the independent scene. With one startling exception: he refused to answer the fans wishes and enter the ring by going over the top rope. Yes, as odd as it may seem, if an announcer or referee refuses this request and does not go over the top rope once the entire night they just about are subject to the death penalty at some indy locales.
Anyway, onto the match involving the masked La Ola Del Mal taking on Aggravated Assault., here's one of the members of La Ola Del Mal on his way to the ring.
And here's that same member of La Ola Del Mal getting double teamed in the corner as La Ola Del Mal's manager watches on, doing absolutely nothing.
Yep, some pretty basic stuff here as Aggravated Assault cheats there way into retaining the titles.
Although no title was on the line in the next match, this confrontation had the most back story of any of the contests of the night. The match in question pitted Bino Gambino, one of the top babyfaces of EWF against Sonny Samson, one of the top heels. While the announcer mentioned something or other about Samson costing Gambino a title shot a while back, the more intriguing part of the storyline stems from Samson's "Sexy" moniker as can be seen on his t-shirt.
Now I know what you're thinking, 'what does Samson claiming himself to be "sexy" have to do with anything?' But perhaps an even better question is what does a 300 lbs monster like Sonny Samson want to do in an audience filled with children? That's right, get naked! Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, the furthest he ever got that night was taking his shirt off as seen here.
On another note, Gambino and Samson worked well in the ring with both Samson and his manager going after Gambino's leg and Gambino selling the injury to perfection.
With constant outside interference and little offense from Gambino, Samson was able to emerge victorious from the bout. This in turn brought out the company's top heel, Dan "The Man" Kobrick. Although the pair had bad intentions to put a hurting on Gambino, their attempt was quickly thwarted when another one of EWF's top babyfaces, Human Tornado ran down to the ring, decked out in his finest blue suit.
Following this brief skirmish, intermission was announced. During the intermission the company's top babyfaces signed autographs and posed for fans. Additionally, Bino Gambino got on the mic to announce the winners to a raffle that audience members could participate in.
Despite having gotten a chance to see Gambino wrestle in-person prior to this event, I never got to hear him much on the mic. So when I did I was surprised that he sounded eerily reminiscent of Keanu Reeves circa his Bill & Ted years. Now if only EWF teamed him up with a blonde haired stoner, Gambino could be on fire.
The first match back from intermission featured the heel team of Hook Bomberry and Rocky "Azucar" Romero. While I was taking this picture, Bomberry made sure to single me out as he said, "What are you looking at punk?" in a tired voice with an undertone of anger.
It actually seemed like a pretty effective tone to use. I mean look at it this way: a heel is a character that typically uses sinister logic to get what he or she wants and what is a better motivator for that than a heel to want to go back to sleep. Really, who hasn't said something to the effect of, 'I'd do anything for five more minutes of sleep?' Yes, another million dollar idea for the EWF, Hook Bomberry=evil insomniac.
Anyway, aside from Bomberry's tired tone this match also featured the EWF debut of independent wrestling star Jack Evans, who teamed with TJ Perkins.
Bomberry quickly shook off his sleepiness revealing that he was playing possum all along and it was not long before the heels had Evans reeling on the ropes, literally.
Indeed, Evans took a pounding throughout much of the match as the heels double teamed him in the same manner that the first tag match had been worked earlier in the night.
However, Evans eventually was able to make the hot tag to Perkins and the faces rebounded. After a little more action and a few more tags, Evans got the pin over Romero, making Evans first outing in EWF a successful one.
Next up was Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson defending the EWF American Championship against Mikey Nicholls and EWF Cruiserweight Champion Ryan Taylor in a 30 minute triple threat iron man match. As tends to be the case in ironman matches, the three had to pace themselves in order to make sure that the final minutes of the match kept the audience on the edge of their seat.
The match went through the motions with Nicholls and Taylor tying up here and there and Anderson playing the cowardly, but intelligent heel, ducking the action and taking a seat in the audience. However, when Anderson did step in the ring he got his ass handed to him causing him to take a breather on the outside where he rested on a chair.
Do you see where this is going?
As you can see Anderson laid waste to Nicholls leaving the underweight and under experienced Taylor to take on Anderson alone.
While underdog stories typically sell well in wrestling this was not the case for Taylor. Although Anderson had lost some falls as a result of being disqualified for his chair shots, Taylor allowed Anderson to score two straight falls, putting him one step closer to retaining his title.
However, despite Taylor's lack of offense, his showing allowed time for Nicholls to recuperate. As such the Australian Nicholls scored a fall over Anderson in the last few minutes of the match making the Aussie the new EWF American Champion.
At last the main event had arrived featuring Dan "The Man" Kobrick going against Human Tornado for the EWF World Championship. Kobrick utilizing a dog and pony show, ever popular amongst heels came out with his posse consisting of Sonny Sampson and his manager the massive Terex.
However, Kobrick's gloating did not last long as after mocking the crowd he put on his game face to take on his opponent.
Still, Kobrick had no way to fully prepare for Human Tornado's onslaught as Tornado was fighting out of the corner from the start of the match. Don't believe me? Here, have a look.
Funny how all the little girls and boys cheered for the Tornado throughout the match. In the more adult oriented PWG, Tornado would have grown men wishing death on him. Oddly enough he also didn't come out to "Pussy Got Ya Hooked" for this show either.
Getting back to the match while Tornado put in a valiant effort, it was not long before he was pounded down to the mat due in no small part to Kobrick's rule-breaking ways.
Although Tornado appeared to be down and out for a while he morphed into a red-eyed demon and swiftly switched places with Kobrick.
And because I know you wanted it, here's another pic featuring the back of Dan Kobrick's head.
Okay, okay, maybe it doesn't entertain you the way it entertains me, but it excites Human Tornado enough for him to dance while he's kicking in Kobrick's face.
Tornado followed this up with multiple attempts at landing an aerial maneuver, but was rejected!
After a few more minutes during which Tornado and Kobrick engaged in some more mat-based wrestling, Terex interfered and landed a gigantic standing moonsault on the babyface.
With the odds stacked against him and being squashed on the mat like a piece of road kill, Human Tornado had no more fight left in him as Kobrick covered him to retain the EWF World Championship.
Still, the night did not end on a complete down note as Bino Gambino came out to make the save rather than let the heels triple team Tornado returning the favor from earlier in the night.
As Tornado gradually rose to his feet, he and Gambino exchanged glances as Tornado asked for the mic.
With the heels forced out of the ring, Tornado proceeded to convince Gambino to dance the night away for the audience as the show came to a close.
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