BANKIE'S HOT TAKE #119: The SCW Lord of the Dance Championship - A Revolutionary Vision for 1999
- 15 hours ago
- 7 min read
Last week, I wrote a Hot Take about ACE’s Aerial Assault from A New Era Has Begun on December 10, 2011. Many believe that the intensity of that match inspired ACE management to create the Fight For Flight Title, dedicated to multi-man matches.
However, what if I told you that there was a precursor to that? What if I told you that there was a short-lived championship in 1999 that was for Three Way Dances?
Because there was.
Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the history of the Steel City Wrestling Lord of the Dance Championship.
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I, like many hardcore wrestling fans, used to read Pro Wrestling Illustrated, especially in the pre-internet days. My old man would come home from work from the city and every month, in his bag, would have the latest issue.
After he would read it, I would take that PWI and read it cover-to-cover, over and over, until the next issue would inevitably be brought home. There were many magazines that would be falling apart as time went on, thanks to my insistence on reading them all the time.
My favorite yearly issue was the PWI 500, a list of the top 500 wrestlers in the world, whether from Japan, Mexico, Europe, or the United States of America. There were so many talents that I learned about just from reading that yearly magazine.
One of those talents was “Lightning” Mike Quackenbush.
I was probably a fan of Quack before I even watched any of his matches. He was heavily mentioned over the late 1990s and early 2000s in PWI as a top-level independent wrestling talent. I used to read his monthly column From Bell To Bell in The Wrestler. (It’s where I learned about how he stole the patented Alligator Clutch from Mae Young.) Also, he had a match against Mark Muniz, a childhood friend of mine, in 2001 and from what he told me, Quack was fun to wrestle. Therefore, I was a fan of the early days of “Lightning” Mike.
So when I went through the 1999 PWI 500 and saw that Quack was listed in the magazine, I had to see his placement, which was #128. The first sentence on his yearly achievements piqued my interest:
“Lightning” Mike turned heads at the “Break the Barrier” card en route to capturing the first Steel City Wrestling “Lord of the Dance” title (a belt defended in three-way dances)...
There was a lot for me to unpack in that one sentence. I’m not sure if it was because of my fandom of the ECW Three Way Dances or the fact that it was named after Michael Flatley’s famous Irish dance show, but I wanted to see what it was all about.
At the age of 14, I began trying to look for the Break The Barrier event at Suncoast and the early days of FYE, but as my teenage-dumb brain came to realize, the majority of independent wrestling shows were not sold in stores. Plus, I was nowhere near Pittsburgh to witness a Steel City Wrestling show, founded and run by independent wrestling promoter Norm Connors, to possibly buy a VHS tape, so that option was out.
Full disclosure, the closest I ever came to the Lord of the Dance Title was creating it in WWF WrestleMania 2000 for Nintendo 64, which I still believe might be in Matt “Palasma” Palaski’s game.
Over time, other sporadic thoughts began to pop in my head, and although the SCW Lord of the Dance Championship left the front of my brain, it was filed away in the “One Day I’ll Uncover It” drawer in the back.
Twenty-six and a half years later, I decided to go through my old pro wrestling memorabilia and came across the 1999 PWI 500 again. Not looking at it for at least a decade, I opened the magazine, still hanging together by a thread, and in one fell swoop, allowed all the memories to flood back in again to the forefront of my brain.
I read the rankings and wanted to see who was listed where. Similar to 1999, I came across the #128 ranking of Mike Quackenbush and, yet again, popped over the SCW Lord of the Dance Championship.
THIS TIME, after a quick Google search and the blessings on YouTube, I quickly found the Break The Barrier card. The match was the opener. Nearly twenty-seven years after reading about it in a wrestling magazine, I was about to watch the SCW Lord of the Dance Championship match.
It did not disappoint.
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Break The Barrier was a vision brought to the forefront by Al Isaacs, the founder of Scoops Wrestling, a premier wrestling website that had credibility and respect. With connections made throughout his time in the business, Isaacs and his staff put together an independent wrestling supercard, not seen since the days of Joel Goodhart and his Tri-State Wrestling Alliance. With thirteen companies represented, Break The Barrier sold out the ECW Arena in South Philadelphia, PA. Some have said that this was the first real event put together by the Internet Wrestling Community, and I have to agree with the best intentions possible.
To kick off the event, “the Franchise” Shane Douglas entered the ring and announced, in the middle of the ECW Arena, the same place where he threw down the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and proclaimed it EXTREME, that he was leaving ECW due to issues with money and ECW Executive Producer Paul Heyman. Ironically, this shoot promo was done the day before the ECW Hardcore Heaven 1999 pay-per-view event.
After Stevie Richards made his way to the ring and got “the Franchise” to help make his match with Jimmy Cicero and Tom Brandi a Three Way Dance for the APWF Heavyweight Championship, Douglas stayed around the ring and made the introductions for the Steel City Wrestling Lord of the Dance Championship.
Mike Quackenbush, Don Montoya, and Lou Marconi were no strangers to each other in Steel City Wrestling, as well as the independents. Quack and Montoya were a part of the infamous Black T-Shirt Squad in the Pennsylvania independent scene, along with independent wrestling legend Reckless Youth. Meanwhile, “Beef Stew” Marconi, alongside his manager Hot Shot Drew Lazario, was both allies and enemies with Quackenbush at any given time.
Ironically enough, as all three men made their way into the ring, there was no Lord of the Dance Championship belt to present the winner. As the commentators stated, this title was specifically created due to this important event.
Speaking of commentators, providing color analysis was the Reverend Bob Levy, a cult-legend stand-up comedian from the Garden State. He actually surprised me and knew the name of the holds. Although I know him from his roasts on the Howard Stern Show on Sirius and his work in the vaunted Dabbleverse on the Uncle Rico Show, he was very entertaining in the booth. Makes me want to see how far his wrestling fandom really went. Thankfully, they didn’t ask Bob to do anything with bleu cheese.
This match was made with triangle match rules. It began with a coin flip. The odd man out on the flip would be a wild card of sorts on the outside of the ring, interjecting himself when he saw fit. However, if that person entered the ring at any time and was pinned, he would be eliminated. That man would be Marconi.
“Lightning” Mike and Montoya started the match and quickly demonstrated their styles. Montoya, who was heavy set, utilized both his power and explosive agility, while the plucky underdog Quack used his unique moveset, combining Lucha with strikes.
Of course, “Beef Stew” found a way to get involved early on. What surprised me was that the crowd, which I had expected to be more bloodthirsty due to the venue, was loud and really into the wrestling aspect. The crowd lost their mind, however, when Quack did an absolutely awesome Springboard Corkscrew Plancha to the floor. From that moment on, the electricity was through the roof.
Hot Shot Lazario kept sticking his nose into the match, trying to help “Beef Stew”, until “the Franchise” made his way back down to ringside and blasted him with a right hand. Not too long after, Montoya flattened Marconi with a big splash and picked up the first elimination.
The big man kept taking out Quack with high-level offense, but the heart of “Lightning” Mike wouldn’t keep him down, repeatedly kicking out. Finally, after Montoya missed the big splash off the ropes. Quackenbush delivered a springboard hurricanrana, stunning Montoya, getting the pinfall and winning the match.
Mike Quackenbush was the Steel City Wrestling Lord of the Dance Champion!
Douglas made his way back to the ring again and demanded the fans give all three men a standing ovation, which they did. Quack announced his happiness over the win, but then said he “had to get in line for Star Wars tickets”, which would not be in theaters for another month. Low-key, I actually half-believed that he would be doing that.
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This match, especially for 1999, really was the benchmark for what modern-day Three Way Dances would become. There’s a small sliver in my heart that this match might have been the launching point for what CHIKARA PRO would ultimately be, headed by Quackenbush.
According to Cagematch and my research in Pro Wrestling Illustrated, there was only one other Lord of the Dance Title match, and it was held in White Oak, PA on July 17, 1999, where Quackenbush successfully defended against Montoya and Julio Sanchez, who would later become Julio Dinero in ECW. As of this date, I have not been able to find footage of this match.
Also, to this day, I have never seen a photo of what the Steel City Wrestling Lord of the Dance Championship looked like, nor do I know if the title was actually ever created. If anyone reads this article and actually has an answer for me, I’d love to know.
Regardless, this match with those three men really changed the game. It was hard-hitting, death-defying, and, dare I say, a “lightning in a bottle” concept. It was way ahead of its time.
I really believe that this idea for a multi-man championship was definitely ten years too early. Thankfully, we have the footage to see what was and what ultimately could have been.
Also, HOLD ONTO YOUR PWI MAGAZINES. You’ll never know what you’ll discover, even decades later. History rules.
Bankie Bruce
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