Titus Talks
by Dan Titus on 2001-09-12

And so we begin this edition of Titus Talks with a video review. I really do not know if it is proper to do a review of a tape you borrowed and do not own. But then again, most wrestling fans shake hands with the same digits they were just using to explore new nasal life forms, so it matters not.

What follows is a review of "Best of Juggernaut Vol 1, Chicks dig scars".

The show (about 90 mins in length) kicks off with a music video. Not bad, some great footage of Jugg's putting Manson thru tables, and even the "Nanaimo bbq" where Johnny Canuck caught fire. I would kill to see that whole match on tape.

From here, we get a clip of Juggernaut showing off some battle scars from some documentary. Wish I knew the name.

The first of seven matches is Jugg's vs IWA Japans Hiroki Araiwa. For those who have not seen Araiwa, he does the painted face/mist spewing gimmick like Muta. Within the first 6 minutes, Juggs has been "Misted" twice, and crowned with a barbwire bat. Awesome bleeding.

Match 2 is a Dog collar chain match from the Centennial Building in Nanaimo. I came to the realization that Jug and Luther (his opponent here) are right,uh, NANAIMO CROWDS SUCK! YOU'D THINK IT WAS A FUCKING FUNERAL BEING HELD IN THAT GODDAMN BUILDING.Next Nanaimo show, we should start a "Nanaimo sucks"chant. And we see Sam Halsall in the crowd, dammit, Pet Shop Boys fans should have limits on appearing in public!
Jug uses about 3 different forks to maul Luther in this one, and its pretty good as far as chain matches go. At the end Jug is attacked by a guy in a Freddy Kruger mask(Its an IWA gimmick) fans not familiar with IWA are just going to see it as cheesy.

Now we see a barbwire match with Michelle Starr. Longest match on the tape. Good brawl, in the crowd at times. Manson refs this one, because he's too cheap to buy a ticket.

So we got Freddy earlier, now we see Leatherface. Its billed as a best 2/3 tables match. They toss so much stuff in the ring, they pretty much have no room to move. I only saw two tables being broken (one "fall" each) but after Juggernaut puts Leatherface thru one to even things up, the locker room empties as wrestlers seem to be concerned with something to do with Jug, it looked as if even Republic broke character. Not sure what the decision was, but Leatherface goes nuts with the 'saw after.

Chance Beckett is next for a beating. I think this one is also on Northern Hell pt one if I am correct. One of Becketts first ECCW matches, pretty much a squash.

Juggernaut disrupts a Player/Havoc match, turning it into a table match. For me, it just didn't work at all. Jugg goes over here.

Match 7 is a tournament final pitting Jug against Mr Gillis. Not bad, Jug bleeds heavy, gets the belt in the end.

And to end the show we see Jug, Starr, Rockford and Ladies Choice get killed by Kronik in a WCW Thunder match.

Would I recommend this tape? For sure. I just wish it featured some early stuff. Such as the Johnny Canuck fire match in Nanaimo, and the Toxic Insanity days, that team was over pretty big. And given Jug and Manson had some great bloodfests, I was surprised we only saw mini clips. Ah well, I'm sure there will be Volume two to look forward to. So, yeah, buy this tape.

***

You know whats missing from the ECW part of this whole invasion? They really have not given fans who were never really turned on to ECW any idea of why ECW was considered revolutionary, and held in such high regard. There's never any anticipation that something awesome could happen at any moment. Why have they cast ECW guys in the roles of followers? ECW was about starting trends. Christ, I am not a Tommy Dreamer fan, but he should be front and centre in this thing, I've seen him wrestle once since it began. His only role is to shout "Yeah" during Austin speeches. Not good for one of the men most closely associated with the ECW image. ECW guys used to be thought of as badasses. Now their idea of anarchy is returning videos without rewinding. Does Vince not have access to the ECW video library? Uh...use it. At least RVD is getting over just by being RVD. I'm glad the announcers are acknowledging his popularity. There is one man I would love to see in the WWF, even for a short stint in the hardcore div.---New Jack! I would mark if in the middle of one of the crummy hardcore matches, they start playing his music and he comes out with a trashcan of plunder. It would at least be a spark that may lead to something. And how about some ECW women come out to raise hell? But none of that stuff will happen. This ECW is a hissy fit, not hardcore action.

***

I saw that commercial again the other night where the man goes head to head with the Ram to save his Mountain Dew? Well, you know that somewhere, some dumbass wrestling fan is going to put this into practice. Probably some backyard guy. Think about it : If these guys are dumb enough to hit each other with barbwire bats because they saw it on a shitty Japanese bootleg, the Ram thing ain't much of a stretch.