When I started following the independent wrestling while in high school, my team was The Spanish Announce Team: The Amazing Red and Los Maximos (Jose and Joel). This trio didn’t have the charisma of some of the other guys on the indies at the time but they didn’t lack athleticism and fearlessness. The RF Video release of Best of the SAT (Spanish Announce Team) featured some of their best from 2001.
On this The Indy Tape, let’s look at the three best matches from this compilation. It’s a hard one because there are a lot of matches that live up to the promo of “You’ll hit your rewind button over and over!” Get ready to see a piece of independent wrestling history.
Red vs. Joel Maximo vs. Jose Maximo (CZW The Boss Is Back 4/7/01)
First off, CZW ran a lot of shows in 2001. Like more than once a month—a lot for an indy promotion at that time. This match saw the SAT forced to face each other. After a standoff to start, we get into basic 00s indy chain wrestling which looked overly choreographed.
As the match goes on, the three of them start vibing and it’s more natural as they face off. The contest ends with a draw after all three are pinned following the Spanish Fly.
What was bad from this match is that there were some sloppy moments and the finish wasn’t…that great. The move itself? Awesome. We see it every week at most and every month at the minimum. What really worked for this match was how over the trio was with the CZW crowd. They were into this match.
The SAT vs. The Briscoe Brothers & Ric Blade (CZW Stretched In Smyrna 5/12/01)
If I had to pick one match on this tape that was just lit, it was this one. They’re in the firehouse CZW used to do a ton of their matches in so it made for a pretty cool atmosphere. Ric Blade was spotty as hell but that’s expected. Red was the same, Jose and Joel weren’t as spotty nor were the Briscoes. Still spotty but you know.
Lots of tandem moves here, tons of dives, you get the spot where everyone hits their move, of course. The crowd is eating this up to the point we get a “F*** the Hardys” chant. These six let it all hang out I this match and Blade gets the win for his team. Again, we had some sloppiness—it’s to be expected.
The SAT vs. Devine Storm & Brian XL (CZW Take One 6/8/01)
What we have here is a clash of Mikey Whipwreck’s students. Red, Joel, and Jose squaring off against Chris Devine, Quiet Storm, and Brian XL. I always felt that Brian XL was the perfect Psicosis to The Amazing Red’s Rey Rey. Oddly, only CZW and a few indies in the northeast followed up on that. Looking at it, only three of the people involved are still active.
Actually, looking at the other two it’s the same thing. As for this match, you know what to expect. It’s fun, it’s spotty, there’s some sloppiness on the big impact moves, but these six work together extremely well. I mean, they should since they all were trained by the same person and graduated around the same time!
Red picked up the win for his team and they got the pin with a Kaientai DX/Crazy Max-type pin. I mark for those team-humiliates-the loser pins.
A Time Capsule of Independent Wrestling
This tape showed me a few talents who could’ve gone beyond CZW. Obviously, there’s Trent Acid. You also had Brian XL who should’ve joined the SATs in TNA early on. The Amazing Red and Jose are retired. Quiet Storm made a career for himself in Japan with Kaientai Dojo then NOAH. Prince Nana became a great manager with ROH. I don’t know what the hell happened to Sledge. Da Hit Squad is still around, the Briscoes had the greatest success in ROH.
This is really a time capsule of that period and featured the tip of a who’s who of independent wrestling.
The Rest of the Tape
Here’s the match listing, some of these can be found on YouTube but you’ll want to find some of the UCW matches as well.
Red & Joel Maximo vs. The Briscoe Brothers- CZW 2/10/01
SATs vs. The BackseatBoyz– PWF 3/15/01
Red vs. Chris Divine- UCW 1/26/01
Joel Maximo vs. Prince Nana- UCW 1/25/01
Red vs. Joel Maximo- UCW 1/26/01
Joel Maximo vs. Sledge- UCW 1/26/01
Red vs. Joel Maximo vs. Jose Maximo- CZW 4/7/01
Red vs. Gino Giavonni– PWF 5/10/01
SATs vs. The Damned vs. Backseat Boyz– PWF 5/10/01
Red vs. Abunai– UCW 2/23/01
Joel Maximo vs. Angel- UCW 2/23/01
SATs vs. Briscoe Brothers & Ric Blade- CZW 5/12/01
Red & Joel Maximo vs. Hit Squad- JAPW 6/16/01
Red vs. Joel Maximo- UCW 4/28/01
Red vs. Winger- CZW 5/19/01
SATs vs. Divine Storm & Brian XL- CZW 6/8/01
Red vs. Minoru Fujita- UCW 6/30/01
Maximos vs. FBI- UCW 6/30/01
Maximos vs. Divine Storm- CZW 6/9/01
Red vs. Brian XL- CZW 6/9/01
Red & Jose Maximo vs. Brian XL & Chris Divine- CZW 7/7/01
