The Wrestling Society Xperience - Introduction and WSX Episode One (1/30/07)
...and boom goes the dynamite.
With the mammoth undertaking that was Ryan’s Dive into ‘95 finally in the rear view, I felt like taking on a much smaller project before I went full-bore into another full year of wrestling analysis. As such, I’m going to tackle the short-lived cultural non-juggernaut that was Wrestling Society X.
Ryan, What The Heck is Wrestling Society X?
Good question!
Wrestling Society X was the brainchild of Kevin Kleinrock and Houston Curtis of Big Vision Entertainment. I don’t know much about Big Vision other than that they released a lot of wrestling DVDs, notably some of the non-WWE ECW reunion shows, old XPW shows, Ultimate Insiders, and several deathmatch wrestling compilations. They’ve released other non-wrestling content, but Big Vision didn’t exactly leave an indelible mark on the cultural landscape. Seriously, look at one of the first Google search results:
Kleinrock in particular had some history in wrestling since he was a teenager, for better or worse. He co-founded Rob Black’s Xtreme Pro Wrestling and served as its producer and on-screen toady to Black's antagonist owner character. After XPW bit the dust, Kleinrock began to work for Big Vision. The company had connections with MTV, which were used to secure an interview to pitch a new wrestling show that fused live music and pro wrestling, kind of like a 21st century Rock N’ Wrestling. The original idea was the “Rancid Wrestling Federation” and would involve, shockingly, the band Rancid, who were big wrestling fans. However, the band passed on the idea, so what would eventually become Wrestling Society X was developed.
Looking to appeal to the all-important 18-24 male demographic, a pilot for this new show was filmed on February 10th, 2006. MTV picked it up for a season.
Aside from the musical performances, Wrestling Society X separated itself from other wrestling shows in many ways. The matches were contested in a set designed to look like a warehouse (dubbed the “WSX Bunker”). An “anything goes” philosophy applied to the action, with no disqualifications and falls counting anywhere. The production was outrageous, with pyrotechnics, explosions, and sound effects among other embellishments. The audience was not composed of ticket-buying fans. There were a few fans that got to see the shows for free, but the crowd was mostly paid extras who auditioned to be there, had to be somewhat attractive, and were coached to be overly energetic and responsive. Some of these production ideas would be greatly refined by Lucha Underground years later.
The roster is a fairly eclectic bunch, but features a lot of wrestlers from the Southern California area. Much of the line-up is composed of several XPW alumni, veterans who needed a payday, independent workers who would go on to varying degrees of fame, and even wrestlers from Japanese promotions Dragon Gate and Big Japan Pro Wrestling.
A full season of half-hour episodes was taped between November 11th and 16th, 2006, and most of them were broadcast from January 30th until March 14th, 2007 at 10:30pm EST. I say “most” because the series was swiftly canceled by MTV, with the announcement being made on February 28th. Only the first nine episodes were broadcast on television; the unaired tenth episode became available on the awesome DVD set.
So why did Wrestling Society X get the Wrestling Society Axe?
In short, somebody threw a fireball.
At least, that's what popular legend dictates. There was a sequence where Ricky Banderas hurled a rather large fireball at Vampiro, and the MTV executives lost their everloving minds. They opted to yank the episode off the air and announced the series’ cancelation the very next day. I'll dig more into the whole situation when we get to Episode 4.
Depending on who you believe, the promotion’s demise stemmed either from that, or a much more banal answer: low ratings. It started off decently enough with a 1.0 rating for the pilot, but the show dropped to 0.5 by week three, and bottomed out at 0.3 by the end.
The fact that the show ran in direct competition with the latter half of WWE’s ECW TV show didn’t help. Even though WWECW set new standards of awful, they still had a loyal audience that likely wasn’t willing to give the new guys a chance.
For these reviews, I will be covering all ten episodes of the MTV show, as well as every episode of WSXtra, a 15-minute internet show that was made available on MTV’s website and their cable on-demand service. WSXtra was basically their version of AEW Dark, with matches being shown that didn’t make the main TV broadcast.
We won’t be seeing the musical performances because they were cut out of the DVD releases, likely because the rights would have been horrendously expensive. However, the musical guests would join former XPW play-by-play man Kris Kloss and comedian/future Cobra Kai guy Bret Ernst on commentary.
Kleinrock, ex-wrestler and XPW producer Chris Michaels, and Vampiro all served as bookers for the promotion. The extremely campy ring announcing is provided by Fabian Kaelin (an overt reference to “kayfabe”), who was the former GQ Money in XPW and future WWE producer Ryan Katz.
Now, let's talk about how I'm going to critique the matches. Keep in mind that each episode is only 20ish minutes when you take out the ad breaks and musical performances. That's not much time for a wrestling show. The matches as a result aren't fleshed out, often being edited to fit the time constraints. On TV, the product ends up looking like “spot, spot, spot, explosion, spot, spot, spot, piranhas”. Also, MTV wanted to limit the violence to the kind of stuff not easily emulated by children (who really shouldn't be up at 10:30pm on a school night, but I digress). Stuff like punches, kicks, chokes, and chairshots were taboo, and basic holds were often spliced out of the final broadcast.
Taking these factors into account, using a normal five-star rating scale to judge the match quality would be completely pointless. As such, the matches will simply be evaluated on vibes, man. I'll basically let you know if the match was a fun time or not.
Alright, enough preamble. Let’s get into EPISODE ONE!
Wrestling Society X - Episode One
The musical guest for the pilot episode was Black Label Society, and band leader/former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde joins the commentation station. Kloss is rocking a Scorpions shirt, so he’s already on my good side.
Matt Sydal vs. Jack Evans
You want a hot opener? Well, throwing two insanely talented high-flyers out there is a surefire way to do it. Aside from their similar styles, Sydal and Evans were former members of ROH’s Generation Next stable, toured with Dragon Gate around this time, and actually had enough longevity to work in AEW for a few years. Hell, Sydal is still All Elite as of May 2024. He is accompanied by on-screen flame Lizzy Valentine here, who had been in the Northeast and California indie scenes for years.
Sydal plays a douchebag heel while Evans is the douchebag babyface.
This goes about how you'd expect, with Evans getting tossed in a huge bump right out of the gate, and Sydal following with a beautiful moonsault dive. Evans comes back with a handspring elbow, but Sydal catches him mid-dive with a spin kick. Sydal tests the elasticity of Jack's spine for a bit. I’m convinced that Jack doesn’t have bones, but a system of air-filled bladders that support him.
Evans fires back with a twisting kick and lands a Space Flying Tiger Drop with extra rotations, because why the hell not? Back in, Sydal hits the Here It Is Driver (a half-nelson pumphandle driver, kinda like Made in Japan but with a much worse name) for two. Standing moonsault nets another near-fall, then Valentine gets involved, leading to a spot where Evans leaps off her back and into a tornado DDT on Sydal. Evans lands the 630 for the pin!
The Take: As expected, we got a blistering opener. These guys only had a few minutes and were tasked with giving the universe the very first taste of WSX action, so they just unloaded crazy spots galore. Sydal’s flying is typically graceful and precise. Evans’ high-flying usually isn’t, but it’s done with copious amounts of bombast and creativity. Watch any match of his from the early to mid-2000’s, and you’ll see at least one spot that you’ve never seen before or since.
Not much in the way of meaningful psychology or selling here, but that’s a given with the limited runtime and editing. An incredibly fun sprint.
The Vibes: Very much present.
We run down some of the tag teams, such as Keepin’ It Gangsta, D.I.F.H., Trailer Park Boyz (not Ricky, Julian, or Bubbles, sadly), and Team Dragon Gate. We’ll go more in-depth on each of those tandems in the coming weeks.
Justin Credible is READY for the WSX Rumble, as are Chris Hamrick, New Jack, Teddy Hart, and Kaos, who is annoyed by Aaron Aguilera being on his phone.
The WSX RUMBLE!
This variation of the time-entry battle royal has ten competitors, 45-second entrant intervals, over-the-top-rope eliminations, and once everyone has entered, it becomes a ladder match with TWO contracts on the line. It's basically AEW’s Casino Ladder match on crank.
Oh, and there’s tables, live electricity, and an explosive cage scattered outside the ring! The two winners will face off next week to crown the inaugural WSX Champion.
Former ECW champion/WWF invertebrate Justin Credible draws #1 and generational fuck-up Teddy Hart draws #2. Ted does a corner flip for no reason at all, so Credible blasts him with a superkick. Hart hits a big floaty quebrada as former XPW-er Kaos enters at #3…only to get beset by Hart and Credible. Kaos hits both with a clothesline, but Hart kinda no-sells it and hits Kaos with a lifting DDT. Hart lands a nice shooting star press on Kaos, then Vampiro enters at #4.
Vamp runs wild, hitting a chokeslam on Teddy as WRESTLING SOCIETY X ROLLS ON…
…and we’re back! During the break, Puma (the future TJP) entered at #5 and was immediately chokeslammed through a ringside table by Vampiro and eliminated. Indie journeyman Alkatrazz (accompanied by Luke Hawx) also checked in during the ad break at #6. Sean Waltman, now known as 6-Pac in another entry in a long line of silly names, enters at #7 (he should have been #6!) and hits X-Factors all over the place. Bronco Buster on Teddy! Chris Hamrick enters at #8, followed immediately by New Jack at #9, who was apparently chasing him all over the building. Hamrick used to wear the Confederate flag on his gear, so I understand. New Jack rids the match of Hamrick WWF No Mercy-style, and Jack eliminates himself by heading out of the ring. He’s not happy about that, taking out his frustrations on a referee by El Kabonging him with a guitar.
New Jack continues to harass Hamrick as Hart hits a moonsault on Kaos. New Jack does his big dive off of some shipping containers onto a table-prone Hamrick while Kaos and Hawx tumble into the box full of live wires, complete with ridiculous pyro and sound effects. Amazing stuff.
Alkatrazz exits by going through a table as the unfortunately-named Youth Suicide completes the field at #10. Teddy Hart is launched out through a table as Suicide dumps some thumbtacks onto the canvas, places the bucket over Justin Credible’s head, and punts him rather low. We’re down to Suicide, Vampiro, Credible, and 6-Pac.
Vampiro catches Suicide climbing the ladder and powerbombs him onto the tacks he laid down earlier! Foist on his own petard. 6-Pac snags a contract among the chaos, then Credible pushes Suicide off the ladder and onto the explosive mesh! Production goes berserk with the sound effects, pyro, and camera shakes. It’s utterly ridiculous.
Credible and Vampiro, the last two left, ascend the ladder. Vampiro snags the contract and the show IMMEDIATELY cuts to the credits. It’s Vampiro and 6-Pac next week for the title.
The Take: This was rushed as all hell, overbooked, and had a bit of awkwardness to it at times thanks to Teddy and other lesser workers, but it certainly wasn’t boring. The explosions, frequent table breaks, and production effects were some of the goofiest, most idiotic bullshit I’ve seen in a good while. That's not a complaint, by the way. An entertaining car wreck of a match.
The Vibes: Definite vibes.
Some of the guys in this match wouldn’t last beyond the pilot. MTV didn’t like Hamrick because they felt he was too old for the demographic, and they felt like New Jack had too much outside baggage to invest in.
So, yeah, WSX is still a literal and figurative blast, and I'm really looking forward to continuing this look back at this odd footnote of wrestling history. Some of the names we'll see down the road will be VERY interesting, especially since 2006-07 is fairly early in some of these careers.
This kind of stuff is certainly NOT going to be everyone's cup of tea. If you're a purist at heart, it may be wise to give it a pass. However, if you're open to turning your analytical wrestling brain down a few notches, you could really have some with this.
NEXT TIME: WSXtra Episode One!