LadySports ::: CHICKFIGHT!

* Princess Sugey beat the fill-in for ailing Vancouver star Miss Chevious (Candice LeRae who competes as a Canadian and is currently training/working for Jesse Hernandez EWF in San Berdo, CA). Candice didn't get in much offense, and the masked Sugey was out of this world stretching her, chopping the hell out of her (we'd see that in nearly every match with these female Flairs) and using a lot of innovative holds and submissions in the Sayama Japanolucha style. Sugey also can work the crowd great, pretending not to know English (she is fluent in Spanish primarily) and saying "por que?" each time one of APW's two female refs would disipline her (Christina McGraw, Dina Massaro). It's pretty cool that APW has been so progressive the past 3 years with talented female refs and a female ring announcer ("Betty Beefcake"). Sugey advances.

* CAC's 2004 future legend (holder of the same title belt in APW currently) Melissa Anderson, no longer just a cheerleader at all-had a 4+ star holds/maneuvers match with Nene Kimura who is training for the next few months at APW before returning to JD star promotion in Japan. They continued the feud they had from the last big Gym Wars 3 weeks ago when they tore the house down for that main event. This was an even better match if that's possible which had all the psychology, rationale, moves and escapes so many cry for at WWE and elsewhere---and this was a women's match. Could've easily been part of a Wrestlemarinpiad (sp) joint show in Japan--it was that good and Nene can work the crowd too. Melissa has already put in her 4 months+ in Japan (she'd like to go back one more time besides more trips to Mexico and Germany) and Les Thatcher and so many at WWE are already impressed with her after seeing her work at OVW). Both do the AJW screeching bigtime and were really intense for this, Nene doing the Japan hairtossing of Melissa all over the ring. Melissa got a surprise submission out of nowhere with a move I've never seen before and win, but I'm sure they'll be feuding and giving more state of the art female matches at APW before Nene sadly has to return back to Japan. Perhaps the best technical match on the show, and that's saying something. I can't say enough great things about this ROH/KOI type match but what else would one expect from these two pros?

* Nikki Roxx-trained by Walter Kowalski and who's worked extensively for Sheldon Goldberg's NECW promotion and so many others in the NE as well as Japan! (she can speak it pretty well and was keeping up with me) beat giant monster Hailey Hatred who was doing some awesome power moves ala Pink Cadillac from Florida days who had a nice Japan run herself. The crowd kept chanting "barbi doll"--hey, we're all admittedly sexist at heel Hatred and although she was a bit nervous, she really went into 5th gear as did Nikki. The sexist animal I am, I have to admit besides being a totally credible athlete, Nikki has perhaps the best body on a female wrestler I've ever seen which good or bad is so important in N.A. wrestling. Just a beautiful girl, but once they started with the moves and counters; you mentally put that aside and focus on the ability portion. Nikki is another who should be looked at by WWE bigtime after Melissa and Nene. And she really knows how to work the crowd, and showed a lot of great reason for doing things, psychology--totally refreshing. I should mention all the APW guys in the back, BTW, were watching/studying all the matches bigtime and applauding big moves, flying, etc beginning with one of the top trainer/wrestlers ever in Robert Thompson. That was cool to see, as well as the boys wincing when the girls did legit painful stuff to one another. Nikki got a surprise roll-up and win on her larger opponent who went ballistic. Good stuff

* Christie Ricci (swears she didn't take the name from the actress!) also got a surprise pin/win over APW's own rookie star Tiffany (the Mafia Princess). This was Tiffany's best match I believe I've ever seen, and that's saying something since she's worked on APW supercards with her trainer Melissa and Nene. Lots of new moves and psychology from Tiffany which was cool to see since she's a real sponge for knowledge during training. Sexist pitch (that's going to happen when the lady wrestlers are all so cool looking): Ricci is one of the tallest, well conditioned (not quite like Nikki) blonde athletes I've ever seen--looking to be over 6' tall. Gorgeous babyface who the crowd was in love with, with many chanting her name in a good way.Tiffany did all her heel stuff and they worked well together. Even match up but Ricci advances. She's from Hendersonville, TN and a big fan natch of the one and only Eddie Gilbert who we all love and miss.

* Princess Sugey had a drag-out,kickass match with Nikki Roxx before winning with her unusual leg and arm submission that looks like a chiropractors nightmare. After Nikki was forced to tap out (selling the pain well-that's something else all the women did was show great selling when necessary), Sugey kept reapplying the hold and pointing to herself, demanding all of us photographers to keep taking pics of her. It was something else and again Nikki Roxx is a class athlete, as were all the girls or they wouldn't have been flown in.

* Melissa beat Christie Ricci in a deservedly lengthy, 22+ minute classic that began like the previous semifinal. Both semis were off the hool for the reasons stated above: good displays of mat and chain, great pyschology and selling, good give and take, innovation and creativity. The lack of pushed t and a is refreshing and all I can say is this Japanolucha style was well done by all the int'l athletes APW has and also brought in with Randy Powell's help for videos which is the current way to market matches one could watch over and over. These two top-name wrestlers hadn't met before and began with great mat and chain wrestling and counters to see how far they could push the other. Both had shaken hands before the bell but the local California fans know you never count Melissa out to be as aggressive as possible w/o going full-fledged heel. The crowd was evenly divided with cheers for both, and by this point they were hoarse because all the wrestlers had really stepped it up a notch beyond the typical N.A. "girls match" to closely resemble a King of Indies, Ring Of Honor pure wrestling match of skill.

* In the grande finale Princess Sugey went up against Melissa Anderson. We won't give you a blow by blow account here... buy the tape and you will not be disappointed!

Just $40

Order by mail: Special Events, PO Box 453, Wilkesboro, NC 28697.

or by credit card (you do not need to join PayPal to order through them!)