Post by nwawildside on Feb 28, 2010 7:25:02 GMT -5
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Feb 26 APW "Merciless Carnage" Live Report
By Larry Goodman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alternative Pro Wrestling’s “Merciless Carnage” provided a highly enjoyable evening of pro wrestling entertainment.
The event drew close to 200 to the Royston Gym and they were hot, much hotter than the Anarchy crowds have been lately. The people are into the stories and characters. It was APW’s second largest crowd ever behind the 250 at the 2009 edition of Freedom Fight.
There wasn’t anything fancy about the way the matches had been set up for this show. Fans had been give simple but compelling reasons why all of the top matches were taking place.
The booking and pacing of this show were top notch. Everything made sense. None of the matches overstayed their welcome. All of them delivered what was promised.
The talent stepped up. The roster is dominated by very young guys, and it was a good night for almost all of them. It helps that APW has enough solid veterans to keep things on track. It also helps greatly that the booking plays to their strengths and works around their weaknesses
Now if they would only fix the minor league lighting. The light stand is a real downer for the fans sitting on the opposite side. Replacing it with stronger lighting directly over the ring would greatly improve the presentation.
(1) Anthony Henry beat Seth Delay to retain the APW North Georgia Championship in 7:49. A great opener. My favorite match of the night. These guys work really smooth together, It wasn’t one those “can you top this?” deals where they do so much nobody could follow it. The thing that made it hard to follow was the quality of the work. At one point, Delay was a regular with FIP. Why he’s not getting booked on higher level shows is beyond me. For his part, Henry had improved greatly. Delay duped Henry into a handshake and gave him a dropkick. Henry roared back with European uppercuts and a dropkick that had Delay bailing out. Henry was in firm control, until Delay nailed in an enzuigiri that sent him flying off the apron into the rail. Henry spiked Delay’s head into the mat with a variation of the Stroke. Delay got a near fall with the Kool Krusher. Henry ducked an enzuigiri and hit a DVD for a close near fall. Henry went up top, but Delay upended him and hit a piledriver for a big near fall. Delay missed with a top rope elbow. Henry hit a beautiful frogsplash for the pin. Crowd loved it.
(2) Casey James beat Josh Oglesby in 3:20. Just there to set up the postmatch. James was the heel. Oglesby was the face. Neither one made much of an impression. Casey used the ref as a shield to get the advantage. Oglesby hit a nice sunset flip out of the corner. James pinned Oglesby with his feet on the ropes.
Atomic Chaos (accompanied by Kevin Duncan) made his debut by laying them both out with heart punches. Chaos is a huge, geeky looking guy billed as nearly 7-0, meaning he’s closer to 6-6. Duncan said with the addition of Chaos, he now had his troops in order.
“Alabama Ambassador” Jacoby Boykins entered the ring. The pop was impressive. Boykins said he could not compete due to injury and introduced a muscular white guy named Lane Vasser as his replacement.
(3) Stryknyn beat Lane Vasser in 5:09. Vasser is green model of Truitt Fields. Stryknyn went all gothic psycho on Vasser with punch and kick offense that was on point. Stryknyn was preparing to deliver the death blow when his injured partner, Dany Only came to ringside. They argued. Stryknyn has no use for him since he’s injured. Vasser capitalized on the distraction. Stryknyn raked they eyes to escape Vasser’s finisher and speared him for the pin.
Postmatch, Only went to scrape Vasser off the mat. Stryknyn speared Vasser again and stormed to the back, leaving his former partner behind.
(4) Officially Unstoppable (Shadow Jackson & Jacob Ashworth) beat the NWA Anarchy Tag Team Champions Talent & Money (JT Talent & Drew Pendleton III) to retain the APW Tag Titles in 14:12. Talent & Money did mic work talking about how they were the real champions, who had built APW. It was striking how comfortable they were, particularly Talent, who had a great run here with his Talent Show segments. Action was just OK, but it had strong heat because the champs are really over. They did a teacher-student subplot playing off Talent and Ashworth being former partners. The champions opened strong with Pendleton taking most of the punishment. After false heat on Ashworth, Jackson made the tag and dropped a knee to the groin that was straight out of the Dusty Rhodes playbook. Jackson was the true babyface-in-peril. House cleaning by Ashworth and it broke down four ways. Talent & Money hit one half of the Bail Out, but Jackson countered with the 1031 on Pendleton. The finish was really well done, and a decisive win for the champions, and that’s what fans will remember.
Michael Gentry (who has become a first rate ring announcer by the way), announced all fans with Merciless Carnage ticket stubs would be admitted for half price ($5) next week. Stryknyn vs. Chris King to determine the number one contender for the North Georgia Title. Officially Unstoppable vs. Chaos & Brandon Parker for the tag titles.
(5) Jason Blackman beat Slim J in 9:41. A grudge match stemming from Blackman’s rail jumping beatdowns on Slimmy. J got the cross armbreaker right away and owned Blackman for the first 3 minutes. Blackman crotched J on the top and hit a nasty vertical suplex neckbreaker. Blackman’s power game was impressive here, as he destroyed J’s neck and back. A flying double clothesline left both men down. A buzzsaw kick sent Blackman out of the ring. J went for a pescado, but Blackman deposited him on the rail. J came right back with a flying reverse DDT for a near fall. J missed with a moonsault, and Blackman leveled him with a bicycle kick. Blackman’s lazy cover made little sense. J escaped from Blackman’s finisher and hit this wild piggyback cutthroat deal. J got Blackman’s night stick, but Byers took it away and didn’t see Blackman clock J with the bell ringer. To be continued. A close second to the opener for best match.
(6) Abdul Jamar & Dustin Knight & Billy Buck (with Bo Miller) beat Aaron Lee & Brandon Parker & Jeremy Vain in 12:33. The angle was this: Jamar defeated Lee in an election for the commissioner spot, and Jamar had been targeted for retaliation ever since. Jamar was putting his commissionership on the line, but if Lee lost, he would have to kiss Jamar’s feet. Lee said he had assembled the best army money could buy, and Jamar would have to kiss his foot. Only the team captains were announced in advance. That lead to several nice surprises during the intros. Vain had been away most Fridays working the RPW tapings. Jamar brought hardcore fan Miller out of the crowd to be ringside coach. Knight’s return got a good pop. He had been out since May with a career threatening injury. And they adore Buck in Royston. The match was built around Jamar getting his moment with Lee. The match was set to start with a jump ball by referee Dee Byers. His perplexed facial expression was hilarious. Instead, Parker went for a clothesline, but Jamar was ready and came right back with a missile dropkick. Vain ate shots from all three babyfaces. Buck cleaned up on Lee, who bolted for the corner when Jamar tagged in. Jamar was about to lay one on Vain, but Lee gave him a cheap shot to start the heat. Lee gleefully beat up on Jamar. Jamar hit a jumping something or other and hot-tagged to set up a terrific straps down house cleaning by Buck. A round of big moves saw Knight and Buck smoke Vain and Parker. Miller then cut off Lee’s escape route. Jamar hit an X factor on Lee for the pin. Not a great wrestling match but a very entertaining story.
Jamar decided rather than having Lee kiss his custom made patent leather Adidas, an even better idea was for Lee to kiss his own foot. The faces pulled off Lee’s boot. They left the sock on for extra flavor, and forced Lee to get a real mouthful. Great payoff- satisfying and disgusting at the same time.
Gentry announced Slim vs. Blackman next week in the Royston special - a Ty Cobb Streetfight - no DQ, no count out, falls count anywhere in the building.
(7) Don Matthews defeated Carnage (with Kevin Duncan) to win the Southern States Heavyweight Championship in 15:25. Story was Matthews’ passionate quest to win the title from the supremely confident Carnage – The Lariat vs. the Choke Bomb. The two big guys beat the hell out of each other. Some wicked stiff shots. The inside of Carnage’s mouth got busted up. Pretty it was not intended to be. Matthews let loose with a barrage of leg kicks, then a trio of elbow drops, then a pounding form the mount. Carnage took over with a spinning back fist, then broke out the power moves. When Carnage slowed things down with a grounded full nelson, the crowd got behind Matthews huge. Matthews hit a top rope BFK that looked brutal. Matthews tried for the lariat, but Carnage blasted him with a body block. Carnage zeroed in with hellish running forearms. A big miss set up Matthews hitting The Lariat, but Duncan jumped up to distract Byers. Matthews scored a visual fall here, but the timing was off and it really didn’t get across. Matthews went after Duncan. Carnage capitalized with the choke bomb and Matthews kicked out. Matthews hulked up but couldn’t get the lariat. Matthews fought off a second choke bomb and hit an Attitude Adjustment for a near fall. Carnage ducked yet another lariat before Matthews hit pay dirt for the 1-2-3. Good match, although shorter would have been better with two huge guys like this.
NOTES: Bill Behrens was helping out backstage…Boykins is going to be out action for several months. Bad timing in that he not only has he gotten over big in APW, but he had caught on with GCW in Phenix City and was coming off of a successful debut with NWA Anarchy…Only’s physical woes aren’t getting any better. He just had hernia surgery to go along with his mangled shoulder…Jamar headed for Philadelphia right after the show to work tonight’s CHIKARA event as Sugar Dunkerton.
Feb 26 APW "Merciless Carnage" Live Report
By Larry Goodman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alternative Pro Wrestling’s “Merciless Carnage” provided a highly enjoyable evening of pro wrestling entertainment.
The event drew close to 200 to the Royston Gym and they were hot, much hotter than the Anarchy crowds have been lately. The people are into the stories and characters. It was APW’s second largest crowd ever behind the 250 at the 2009 edition of Freedom Fight.
There wasn’t anything fancy about the way the matches had been set up for this show. Fans had been give simple but compelling reasons why all of the top matches were taking place.
The booking and pacing of this show were top notch. Everything made sense. None of the matches overstayed their welcome. All of them delivered what was promised.
The talent stepped up. The roster is dominated by very young guys, and it was a good night for almost all of them. It helps that APW has enough solid veterans to keep things on track. It also helps greatly that the booking plays to their strengths and works around their weaknesses
Now if they would only fix the minor league lighting. The light stand is a real downer for the fans sitting on the opposite side. Replacing it with stronger lighting directly over the ring would greatly improve the presentation.
(1) Anthony Henry beat Seth Delay to retain the APW North Georgia Championship in 7:49. A great opener. My favorite match of the night. These guys work really smooth together, It wasn’t one those “can you top this?” deals where they do so much nobody could follow it. The thing that made it hard to follow was the quality of the work. At one point, Delay was a regular with FIP. Why he’s not getting booked on higher level shows is beyond me. For his part, Henry had improved greatly. Delay duped Henry into a handshake and gave him a dropkick. Henry roared back with European uppercuts and a dropkick that had Delay bailing out. Henry was in firm control, until Delay nailed in an enzuigiri that sent him flying off the apron into the rail. Henry spiked Delay’s head into the mat with a variation of the Stroke. Delay got a near fall with the Kool Krusher. Henry ducked an enzuigiri and hit a DVD for a close near fall. Henry went up top, but Delay upended him and hit a piledriver for a big near fall. Delay missed with a top rope elbow. Henry hit a beautiful frogsplash for the pin. Crowd loved it.
(2) Casey James beat Josh Oglesby in 3:20. Just there to set up the postmatch. James was the heel. Oglesby was the face. Neither one made much of an impression. Casey used the ref as a shield to get the advantage. Oglesby hit a nice sunset flip out of the corner. James pinned Oglesby with his feet on the ropes.
Atomic Chaos (accompanied by Kevin Duncan) made his debut by laying them both out with heart punches. Chaos is a huge, geeky looking guy billed as nearly 7-0, meaning he’s closer to 6-6. Duncan said with the addition of Chaos, he now had his troops in order.
“Alabama Ambassador” Jacoby Boykins entered the ring. The pop was impressive. Boykins said he could not compete due to injury and introduced a muscular white guy named Lane Vasser as his replacement.
(3) Stryknyn beat Lane Vasser in 5:09. Vasser is green model of Truitt Fields. Stryknyn went all gothic psycho on Vasser with punch and kick offense that was on point. Stryknyn was preparing to deliver the death blow when his injured partner, Dany Only came to ringside. They argued. Stryknyn has no use for him since he’s injured. Vasser capitalized on the distraction. Stryknyn raked they eyes to escape Vasser’s finisher and speared him for the pin.
Postmatch, Only went to scrape Vasser off the mat. Stryknyn speared Vasser again and stormed to the back, leaving his former partner behind.
(4) Officially Unstoppable (Shadow Jackson & Jacob Ashworth) beat the NWA Anarchy Tag Team Champions Talent & Money (JT Talent & Drew Pendleton III) to retain the APW Tag Titles in 14:12. Talent & Money did mic work talking about how they were the real champions, who had built APW. It was striking how comfortable they were, particularly Talent, who had a great run here with his Talent Show segments. Action was just OK, but it had strong heat because the champs are really over. They did a teacher-student subplot playing off Talent and Ashworth being former partners. The champions opened strong with Pendleton taking most of the punishment. After false heat on Ashworth, Jackson made the tag and dropped a knee to the groin that was straight out of the Dusty Rhodes playbook. Jackson was the true babyface-in-peril. House cleaning by Ashworth and it broke down four ways. Talent & Money hit one half of the Bail Out, but Jackson countered with the 1031 on Pendleton. The finish was really well done, and a decisive win for the champions, and that’s what fans will remember.
Michael Gentry (who has become a first rate ring announcer by the way), announced all fans with Merciless Carnage ticket stubs would be admitted for half price ($5) next week. Stryknyn vs. Chris King to determine the number one contender for the North Georgia Title. Officially Unstoppable vs. Chaos & Brandon Parker for the tag titles.
(5) Jason Blackman beat Slim J in 9:41. A grudge match stemming from Blackman’s rail jumping beatdowns on Slimmy. J got the cross armbreaker right away and owned Blackman for the first 3 minutes. Blackman crotched J on the top and hit a nasty vertical suplex neckbreaker. Blackman’s power game was impressive here, as he destroyed J’s neck and back. A flying double clothesline left both men down. A buzzsaw kick sent Blackman out of the ring. J went for a pescado, but Blackman deposited him on the rail. J came right back with a flying reverse DDT for a near fall. J missed with a moonsault, and Blackman leveled him with a bicycle kick. Blackman’s lazy cover made little sense. J escaped from Blackman’s finisher and hit this wild piggyback cutthroat deal. J got Blackman’s night stick, but Byers took it away and didn’t see Blackman clock J with the bell ringer. To be continued. A close second to the opener for best match.
(6) Abdul Jamar & Dustin Knight & Billy Buck (with Bo Miller) beat Aaron Lee & Brandon Parker & Jeremy Vain in 12:33. The angle was this: Jamar defeated Lee in an election for the commissioner spot, and Jamar had been targeted for retaliation ever since. Jamar was putting his commissionership on the line, but if Lee lost, he would have to kiss Jamar’s feet. Lee said he had assembled the best army money could buy, and Jamar would have to kiss his foot. Only the team captains were announced in advance. That lead to several nice surprises during the intros. Vain had been away most Fridays working the RPW tapings. Jamar brought hardcore fan Miller out of the crowd to be ringside coach. Knight’s return got a good pop. He had been out since May with a career threatening injury. And they adore Buck in Royston. The match was built around Jamar getting his moment with Lee. The match was set to start with a jump ball by referee Dee Byers. His perplexed facial expression was hilarious. Instead, Parker went for a clothesline, but Jamar was ready and came right back with a missile dropkick. Vain ate shots from all three babyfaces. Buck cleaned up on Lee, who bolted for the corner when Jamar tagged in. Jamar was about to lay one on Vain, but Lee gave him a cheap shot to start the heat. Lee gleefully beat up on Jamar. Jamar hit a jumping something or other and hot-tagged to set up a terrific straps down house cleaning by Buck. A round of big moves saw Knight and Buck smoke Vain and Parker. Miller then cut off Lee’s escape route. Jamar hit an X factor on Lee for the pin. Not a great wrestling match but a very entertaining story.
Jamar decided rather than having Lee kiss his custom made patent leather Adidas, an even better idea was for Lee to kiss his own foot. The faces pulled off Lee’s boot. They left the sock on for extra flavor, and forced Lee to get a real mouthful. Great payoff- satisfying and disgusting at the same time.
Gentry announced Slim vs. Blackman next week in the Royston special - a Ty Cobb Streetfight - no DQ, no count out, falls count anywhere in the building.
(7) Don Matthews defeated Carnage (with Kevin Duncan) to win the Southern States Heavyweight Championship in 15:25. Story was Matthews’ passionate quest to win the title from the supremely confident Carnage – The Lariat vs. the Choke Bomb. The two big guys beat the hell out of each other. Some wicked stiff shots. The inside of Carnage’s mouth got busted up. Pretty it was not intended to be. Matthews let loose with a barrage of leg kicks, then a trio of elbow drops, then a pounding form the mount. Carnage took over with a spinning back fist, then broke out the power moves. When Carnage slowed things down with a grounded full nelson, the crowd got behind Matthews huge. Matthews hit a top rope BFK that looked brutal. Matthews tried for the lariat, but Carnage blasted him with a body block. Carnage zeroed in with hellish running forearms. A big miss set up Matthews hitting The Lariat, but Duncan jumped up to distract Byers. Matthews scored a visual fall here, but the timing was off and it really didn’t get across. Matthews went after Duncan. Carnage capitalized with the choke bomb and Matthews kicked out. Matthews hulked up but couldn’t get the lariat. Matthews fought off a second choke bomb and hit an Attitude Adjustment for a near fall. Carnage ducked yet another lariat before Matthews hit pay dirt for the 1-2-3. Good match, although shorter would have been better with two huge guys like this.
NOTES: Bill Behrens was helping out backstage…Boykins is going to be out action for several months. Bad timing in that he not only has he gotten over big in APW, but he had caught on with GCW in Phenix City and was coming off of a successful debut with NWA Anarchy…Only’s physical woes aren’t getting any better. He just had hernia surgery to go along with his mangled shoulder…Jamar headed for Philadelphia right after the show to work tonight’s CHIKARA event as Sugar Dunkerton.