RADICAN’S URBAN WRESTLING FEDERATION “FIRST BLOOD” DVD REVIEW
MANHATTAN, N.Y.
HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM
PREMIERED JUNE 26, 2011 ON PPV


The show started with Gina Torres from allhiphop.com with a breaking news report. She said Uncle Murda had been arrested today in a confrontation.

-We went to an intro package with some highlights. Steve the Hustler was shown talking to some men on the street. He told them to get everyone to NYC to get the money back into their pockets.

-Larry Legend introduced the show from the ring.

1 - - LOWLIFE LOUIE RAMOS vs. MURDER ONE – First Blood match

I’ll be damned if they indicated anywhere at all that this was a first blood match, but that’s what it says on the back of the DVD, so I’ll roll with it. Louie Ramos came down to the ring and took six unprotected chairshots from Murder One, who snuck in from behind. Ramos represents Brooklyn and his crew is headed by Uncle Murda. I guess the idea is that different wrestlers represent different crews that are formed under a rapper. Murder 1 took out what looked to be a shank and cut up Ramos to win the match.

Winner: Murder 1

They showed a graphic for Murder One, who represents Atlanta. Ruckus & Grim Reefer came out with a rapper. They also represent Atlanta.

Uncle Murda apparently freed from prison came out with EC Negro & KC Blade. They represent Brooklyn and if I couldn’t pause the DVD I’d have no idea where anyone is from. Murda said this is his town. Julius Smokes is on commentary, but I wouldn’t know that unless I knew who he was. They’ve also got Atlas Security working the event. Brisco the rapper came out with Dope & Creed. They represent Florida.

1 - - DOPE & CREED vs. K.C. BLADE and E.C. NEGRO vs. RUCKUS & GRIM REEFER – Tag Team Three Way War

Dope & Creed won the match after Negro & Blade hit a double piledriver on Reefer and posed for the fans. Creed ran in and stole the pin. Smokes said Uncle Murda needs to teach Blade & Negro a lesson. Brisco danced after the match.

Winners: Dope & Creed

-They showed a lot of different people talking about money. I think the SAT’s were in one of the segments. Another segment featured one guy giving another guy some money, so I guess they’re happy.

Billie Blu, who is a rapper, wanted some money from Bestia, so he could give his girl his shopping money. They showed Rasche Brown. He said he holds down Kirkwood. They showed Murda backstage with Negro & Blade. Homicide was there as well. Murda said he’s down on Ramos after he got beat down. Murda told Homicide he has to beat Kingston. Brown walked up to Buck, who is a member of Blu’s crew and knocked him down in the hall. Façade then walked in and Bestia trying to steal his money.

-Larry Legend was in the ring telling the fans to watch out. Bestia and Facade brawled down to ringside and the announcers said this was a match to qualify for the UWF Title tournament.

3 - - BESTIA vs. FACADE – Street King World Title Qualifying match

How the heck a qualifying match is the end result of that segment is a mystery to me. This match was actually pretty darn good with both guys hitting some nice moves, especially Facade. Bestia ended up winning after powerbombing Facade through a table. After the match, Bestia got beat down by Blu and his crew because he didn’t have Blu’s money.

Winner: Bestia to advance to the Street King World Title Tournament Finals

-Mellie Mel was shown with Steve the Hustler, who runs UWF. They were meeting at a house somewhere. Someone called them and told them that Eddie Kingston was going to join Mel’s crew after some negotiations. I guess Kingston was with Red’s crew. I have no idea who Red is.

-Homicide cut a promo putting down Kingston. He said he had everything and Kingston had nothing. Mellie Mel gave Kingston a pep talk before their match, which is apparently part of the UWF Title tournament. Larry Legend did the formal ring intros. Homicide is representing Uncle Murda and Kingston is representing Mellie Mel. One of the announcers said that the winner advances to the finals of the title tournament.

-The way this show has been presented is confusing because the characters haven’t been properly introduced. The concept of the show hasn’t been explained well either throughout the show. This would be much better if more of the foundation was in place so that people could better understand what’s going on.

-The referee’s wear a black t-shirt that say “REFEREE” on the back. The announcers have mentioned that a pinfall can take place anywhere including the ring, outside the ring, and even on the streets.

-The production is fine in terms of lighting and how the ring looks. There isn’t much of a crowd in attendance, so they blacked out most of the Hammerstein Ballroom.

4 - - HOMICIDE vs. EDDIE KINGSTON – Street King World Title Qualifying match

Homicide and Kingston brawled on the outside. They ended up back inside the ring where Homicide nailed Kingston with a pair of running kicks in the corner. Mel and Murda took in the action at ringside. Both men had a lady with them. Kingston fired back and drove Homicide face-first into the canvas. Homicide locked in a submission, but Kingston countered and went back to work on Homicide. Homicide fired back and slammed Kingston’s leg into the ring apron. They brawled on the outside again and Homicide nailed Kingston with the guardrail. They had a chop battle in the corner. Homicide no-sold Kingston’s chops and nailed him with a headbutt.

Kingston fired back with a yokuza kick, but Homicide countered a charge in the corner and hit a suplex. Homicide hit a neck breaker, but Kingston kicked out. Kingston fired back with a suplex and a spinning back fist, but Homicide kicked out. Kingston hit a sliding forearm, but Homicide kicked out again. Homicide cut off Kingston up top and hit an ace crusher. He followed up with the cop killa for the win. This was a solid match and the best thing on the show so far.
Winner: Homicide to advance to the Street King World Title Tournament Finals

-Uncle Murda got into the ring and swore in celebration of Homicide’s win.

-The SAT’s (I think) encountered someone on the street. The man told them Uncle Murda has a problem. I guess his name is Slick and he’s with Uncle Murda. The SAT’s are with Red Café apparently. They told him to take care of his problems with Miami.

-Eddie Kingston was shown backstage. He said it was far from over between him and Homicide.

-Three men were shown outside in the dark. They talked about making some money with Uncle Murda. I think they are KC Blade & EC Negro with another man. They told the third man to handle some business for them.

-Bestia was shown outside. He said he had f----- up.

-They showed Dope & Creed (I think) outside the venue on the street. Another man came up to them and offered them money for drugs. A bunch of people ran in and beat up Dope. Creed went to a car and he got jumped as well. Someone took something out of the car. They then threw Creed into the car and ran down the street.

-Homicide was shown backstage. Homicide talked to some men from the Atlanta crew. Big Block showed Homicide he had a gun. Homicide ran out of the building with another man. Big Block shot at Homicide’s car to end the show.

Overall thoughts: What I got out of this is that there are a bunch of “crews” that are captained by rappers with several wrestlers in each crew. Each crew represents a different city or territory. It seems that all of these crews are interested in money. I had to pause the show several times to figure all of these things out.

At first, I thought UWF had added graphics for the DVD release of “First Blood,” but I was wrong. They were graphics that I missed watching the show the first couple of times on PPV when I was trying to figure everything out.

One of the main problems with this show is that the creative team needed to explain things much better. It was confusing to figure what was going on here and why the wrestlers were fighting. They never set up the Street King Title Tournament properly on this show, although it did turn out to be a Four Way Elimination match at UWF’s “Street King” PPV that aired in November.

A lot of people talked about money during the show. Money seems to make everyone happy, but it really wasn’t explained why money was exchanged and what that had to do with the actual wrestling stories.

One big cause for concern was the unprotected chairshots on Ramos at the beginning of the show. That has to go due to what we know about chairshots and the ramifications they have on people that take them. UWF doesn’t need matches like this given the dangers of concussions and the damage chairshots can do to wrestlers. At this point, the majority of fans don’t want to see hardcore matches and unprotected chairshots.

Despite all of the confusion, if UWF can clean up the execution of their concept, I think they could have something down the line. UWF has made some improvements in explaining everything that’s happening since “First Blood” aired in June on their recent “Hood Justice” and “Street King” PPVs, but the company would do better slowing down and not trying to cram so many storylines and personalities into one hour.

The DVD features a ton of extra footage and promos. It’s a nice addition to the show and flushes out some of the angles involving Billie Blue’s Atlanta crew. There are also a couple of backstage scenes from the PPV that are extended in the extras section. I actually found an Easter egg in the bonus menu, so look out for that as well to see more footage.

The menu and DVD art look really good and fit in with the UWF DVD and the company that put together this release did a nice job on that end. I was just left wondering why there was no behind-the-scenes extras with the models on the show!

UWF can only be described as “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” meets pro wrestling if you are wondering what this is all about. It’s a concept that’s different than anything I’ve seen with the potential to cater to the hip-hop market, but it won’t survive if they don’t make some changes going forward. If you like wrestling and hip-hop, you’ll likely enjoy a lot of what’s on this release, but the “Hood Justice” and Street King” PPVs were both better than “First Blood.”

You can pick up the UWF “First Blood” DVD on Amazon.com.

Contact Sean at PWTorchSean@gmail.com

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