STEVE ROCKAMANIAC REVIEWS...

Whether you loved or despised Xtreme Professional Wrestling, If youre an fan of  the extreme wrestling style, then there is no doubting that when XPW would hold its King Of The Death Match tournament, brutality was guaranteed to follow. Now thanks to XPWs Class X Collection and Big Vision Entertainment you can relive the two blood filled death match tournaments as Baptized in Blood 1 and 2 are digitialy remastered and released in a new 2 disc DVD set.

Let me start off by saying that death match tournaments arent for everyone. If your squeamish youd probably lose your lunch watching one. Going beyond that, if youre more of a traditional wrestling fan you may call it extreme garbage, but if youre a hardcore wrestling fan, then a deathmatch tournament is wrestlemania. I happen to be part of the latter, and remember when I first saw Baptized in Blood 2 a couple of years ago and how hard I marked out while watching it. Meanwhile I had not gotten the chance to see the first tournament, as XPW was mainly a west coast promotion that did not receive much coverage here in the east when it was alive, but when a friend of mine brought Baptized in Blood 2 to my attention it made me want more and when I heard that the two tournaments were being released in a dvd package a few months ago, I knew that it would eventually end up in my wrestling collection and heres what you can expect from both tournaments, and no worries there is no spoilers contained in the following listing.

Baptized in Blood 1 features the following 8 stars as competitors in the tournament : Axl Rotten, Supreme, Homeless Jimmy, Kid Kaos, White Trash Johnny Webb, Kronus, The Messiah and Carlito Montana. First round matches include Beds of Barbwire and Nails, Barbed Wire Ladder and Thumbtack,  Beds of Barbwire and Lightbulbs, and a Barbed Wire Bat, Bed of Nails and Glass match.

Also on Baptized in Blood 1 An appearance by the late great Chris Candido and Tammy Lynn Sytch as Candido took on the XPW world champion The Real Deal Damien Steele in a Falls Count Anywhere matchup. After which The Franchise  Shane Douglas makes a special appearance, and goes off on a classic Shane Douglas shoot on WCW, Kevin Sullivan, and old men like Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. He then declares he is now in XPW reuniting with his former partner Chris Candido. Douglas proceeds to supposedly call Bill Bush of WCW to tell him he would see him in court soon as he was jumping ship.

Baptized in Blood 2 features Pogo The Clown, Supreme, Vic Grimes, Kraq, White Trash Johnny Webb, Nozawa, The Juggalo Steve Rizzano, Kronus, and Homeless Jimmy as entrants to the tourney. First round matches include Ladders Wrapped in Barbwire/Beds of Thumbtacks, Beds of Barbed Wire and Nails, and Beds of Light Bulbs and Thumbtacks. Other matches on Baptized in Blood 2 are New Jack vs the late great Mr. 80S Dynamite D, Juventund Guerrera vs Kaos and The Messiah vs Tool.

The Main Events for both tournaments are No Rope Barbed Wire Beds of Every weapon imaginable matches that are really so crazy that it would be hard for me to justifiably explain them without taking away from the awesomeness that it is. There is also a bonus match included that sees the winner of the first tournament take on the winner of the second.

This DVD set does offer something new as well in the form of never before seen fan cam footage from the events as well as alternative commentary tracks from wrestlers involved are included, which is welcomed, as that Larry Rivera is one annoying colour man, always interrupting Kris Kloss to put down extreme wrestling and putting over stuff from the 80s. I realize it was his gimmick, but damn was his voice annoying on tape!

The only annoying thing with this release is a problem that any nationally released wrestling DVD has, and that is the need to edit and omit entrances due to unlicensed music, so if your watching this DVD and it seems that random crowd shots and dead spots in the commentary take place when wrestlers are coming out its because of that reason.

XPWs Class X Collection Presents XPW Baptized in Blood 1 and 2 is now available on DVD from Big Vision Entertainment for $19.98. You can find out more details on this and other XPW DVDs by visiting the companys official website at www.thexpw.com  or Big Visions website at www.bvdvd.com