The Wrestling home of Moondog Manson

Covering the story of Supreme's near-supreme sacrifice at the XPW card last week resulted in a backlog of other notes and news.

* Imagine my surprise when I walked into the hotel room on Saturday and saw New Jack in conversation with "call me Hak", ECW legend Sandman. He has dropped weight from 295 lbs at his WCW debut to about 225 now and he looks great. I was surprised to when he told me that he broke into wrestling in 1979, a year before I did. He told some great stories about the dying days of ECW, and echoed the common complaints about how WCW was a mess to work in - "there was 40 of us Indians, but like 15 chiefs". Like myself, he's an old-style politics and news junkie, and besides the business we talked about missing interns and other affairs.

* I was even more surprised when XPW's #2 guy, Kevin Kleinrock, called for me, asking if I could sneak their surprise guest into the Grand Olympic Auditorium through a side door. Since I don't drive a rental car and am not identified by the fans as a wrestler, the office figured the marks that gather outside of the building (3 hours before the show, might I add) wouldn't hassle us. I was glad to help, but when Sandman donned a hood a few blocks before we got to the building, I did have a bit of a flashback to my cab-driving days.

* The reaction to Sandman's music coming up was bizarre, many fans were murmering that it was a swerve. The angle he came out on was an assault on Major Gunns. When Sandman emerged through the curtain while heel promoter Rob Black retreated, the pop was deafening, I really had no idea how over he was with today's audience. If WWF continues with the ECW angle, his re-emergence could really help get it over huge, as to many fans Sandman was ECW. Black immediately decided to marry the 2 former WCW stars in a program against Black and wife Lizzie Borden.

* Kronus has also dropped weight to about 270 lbs. and is very impressive. His career stalled after Saturn left him to go as a singles wrestler, but he has a ton of ability and is a top talent. He nailed a 450 off the top with plenty of room to spare, what a feat for such a big man. John is also a very funny guy.

* If it wasn't for the mishap with the burning table spot, the big news of the night probably would have been the retreat of the Insane Clown Posse after the opening angle. Black's army was attacking ICP and Vampiro in the opening segment when out came Pogo the Clown (Joe Applebaum), a character based on serial killer John Wayne Gacy's alter ego.

Instead of saving ICP, Pogo turned on them. Shaggy 2 Dope took a great spin bump off a shortarm clothesline and landed on his head a little. However, according to locker room reports, Violent Jay was knocked into the middle of next week by Pogo's next clothesline, and was more than a little pissed off at being spudded. Off went ICP, but their friend Vampiro was more than co-operative in helping rebook the angle and will be working Pogo on the next card.

* Someone who has wrestled both told me that Pogo has a harder clothesline than Bradshaw, and I believe it. The 419 lb. Pogo was unapologetic after the show about ICP's walkout. "Tell your friends in Canada that I'm not a rapper pretending to wrestle, I'm the real deal!"
I guess he meant all the shoot comments on the mic after the angle.

* Sabu missed the last shot in May but was at this show and after some prodding did the job for XPW's champion, Messiah, in a 3 way match that included Vampiro. It was tough for them to follow the 30 minute panic break after the burning of supreme but they tried hard and the finish was, I think, a surprise to their fans. Sabu was polite and approachable, and told me he was looking forward to his ECCW trip to Vancouver later this month. The scarring on his body is hard to believe, wait till you see it.

* And finally, in answer to the caption, yes, Steve Rizzono has 2 names. By the way, he's dropped the Gigolo prefix, but when he went to apply black marker to his trunks to cover it up, I convinced him to leave the first 3 letters- "Gig". I thought Manson would appreciate it.