From Larry Goodman: The Peachstate Wrestling Alliance returned to action with their first show of 2014 at the VFW Fairgrounds in Carro...
The Peachstate Wrestling Alliance returned to action with their first show of 2014 at the VFW Fairgrounds in Carrollton, GA.
This was a transitional show designed to set up bigger things down the road, and it served that purpose just fine. The quality of the wrestling at PWA has been elevated in recent months. That said, PWA will prosper or flounder based on the success of their stories. That’s true just about everywhere, but even more so at Peachstate than most places.
Attendance was down to PWA’s hardcore based of 130-140. There was glitch with the production of the posters for this show, so their usual mode of advertising was almost non-existent. PWA doesn’t draw flies off the internet stuff. PWA has been running monthly, but they stepped it up to twice a month starting with this show. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.
(1) Romeo pinned “The Bulldog” James Dylan at around the 8 minute mark with a snap mare driver. Romeo is legitimately from France and spent 5 years of wrestling in Europe before coming to the States. His suggested resolutions for the fans in Carrollton - lose weight and learn to speak French. Romeo then sang his heart out on the French anthem. Dylan is a beefy, widebody guy in football gear, but this bulldog was wearing an Auburn color jersey. The match was OK with some painful moments for Romeo, who entertains with his bumping and selling.
Yours truly was called upon to present plaques to the winners of Georgia Wrestling History awards for 2013. For the fan poll awards, Tristan Michael was recognized as Best Referee. New PWA Heritage Champion Geter won Most Improved but did not come out to accept the award. Rick Michaels won for Best Male Performer and got a huge pop. Since Exotic Ones won for Best Tag Team, Sermon was called out to accept with Michaels. The response to Sermon's entrance signaled that fans were ready to embrace him as a babyface. A tense moment of mutual respect ensued between the former partners, as their feud is over but never to be forgotten.
Sermon accepted the award for Best Male Performer as voted by his peers. Washington Bullets won for Best Tag Team, making them a two time winners. Shane Marx was announced as the Best Overall Wrestler. Fellow Empire members Casey Kincaid and Geter accompanied Marx to the ring. Marx did a wonderfully obnoxious acceptance speech, topped off by a victory lap around the ring. Geter demonstrated what he thought of the fans by throwing his plaque down on the mat.
(2) Rick Michaels defeated Jacob Ashworth in 5:15. The match was marred by an unfortunate distraction, as a fan had a major seizure and was stretchered out by paramedics. Nothing wrong with the match. Michaels is way over and the action was solid. Michaels reversed Ashworth’s roll of the dice finisher with the Double Shot.
Postmatch – Romeo came to ringside and said he should have won the performer award not Michaels. Michaels said he was a 3 time PWA Heritage Champion and multiple time PWA Tag Team Champion and challenged Romeo to match on January 25 to prove who was the better performer. Romeo said he thought that’s what Michaels would say and accepted. Michaels said let’s do it now and Romeo bailed.
(3) Adam Jacobs defeated Zach Daniels to retain the PWA Junior Title in 11:15. Daniels said that since he missed the last show due to illness, Jacobs didn’t beat him for the title, and it was going to be the fans’ pleasure to see him best Jacobs and win it back. It’s generally not a good thing for the babyface to promise something they don’t deliver. Jacobs is the perfect heel for PWA. He knows exactly what to do to make those people crazy, and it’s really fun to watch. A german suplex by Daniels left both men down. They slugged it out midring leading to a Daniels inverted DDT for a near fall. The finish was odd. Jacobs went up top for his finisher and got upended by Daniels, then went to the opposite corner and hit his finisher to score a clean pin on the former champion.
During the intermission, two older women in the crowd almost came to blows. I have no idea why. There doesn't need to be a reason for weird crowd incidents at Peachstate.
(4) Fred Yehi defeated Ace Haven (with Amy) by DQ in 7:02. Ace ripped off Mike Jackson’s “Sweet Home Alabama” entrance music and mocked Jackson’s old school ropes walk with Amy. Tremendous. The PWA fans hate those two with a passion. Ace said he made an impression by running Jackson out of Peachstate and would make it again by beating Yehi. It was domination by Yehi. Amy grabbed Yehi’s leg to give Ace half a chance, but Yehi still had Ace beaten with the Koji Clutch when Jacobs hit the ring for the DQ.
Postmatch beatdown on Yehi until Daniels cleared the ring. Jacobs pouted and blamed Daniels for interfering. Daniels said they were all about 2 on 1. Shane Noles said evidently Jacobs didn’t get it all out of his system earlier and ordered a tag match. The heels tried to bolt and got dragged back to the ring. This may have been the high point of the night for crowd excitement.
(5) Zach Daniels & Fred Yehi defeated Adam Jacobs & Ace Haven (with Amy Haven) in 12:55. This match had super heat. The crowd was more into Daniels here than in his singles match. Yehi throws some of the heaviest chops around. They land with a sick thud instead of a slap. More fun stuff from Jacobs here as well. Yehi took the hot tag and was setting up the Koji Clutch. Ace cut him off with a superkick. Daniels smoked Ace with a backcracker. Jacobs nailed Daniels with a missile dropkick and went to finish Yehi, but Fred rolled through and locked in the Koji Clutch. Nice finish. I don’t get where they’re going with Daniels. He was beaten clean by Jacobs, and then his partner pins Jacobs in the tag.
JB Lementary announced a dream match for January 25 featuring the top two technical wrestlers in the state - Kyle Matthews vs. Yehi. Decent pop for the announcement. Nothing overwhelming.
(6) Simon Sermon & Washington Bullets (Trey & Jon Williams) beat The Empire (PWA Tag Team Champions Shane Marx & Casey Kincaid & PWA Heritage Champion Geter) in 17:45. Sermon came from tweener entrance, picked up a chair and went right at Geter. Empire beat him down until Bullets evened the odds. They dispatched with Marx and Kincaid but it took all three of them to get Geter out of the ring. Sermon and Bullets modeled the title belts. That drove Empire up the wall. The opening 5 minutes was comedy gold of the gay “get him from behind” variety. The fans wanted Sermon in the ring. Marx wanted anything but that. When Geter leveled Jon with an apron clothesline, the tone of the match got deadly serious. Kincaid did a handspring back rake. Geter decimated Jon with high impact and I do mean HIGH IMPACT moves. Hot tag time. Sermon almost killed Kincaid with the Manchester Driver. Geter pulled Sermon out and destroyed him. Bullets caught Marx in midair with their tandem high kick, but Geter saved again and mowed them down. Sermon (still the legal man) returned to the ring and kicked Geter in the nuts. Ahh, the great equalizer. Geter fell to the floor where Sermon proceeded to stomp the crap out of him. Meanwhile, Bullets hit the Marion Barry on Kincaid to score the illegal pin. This was a really fun match. The crowd popped huge for the finish, and couldn’t have cared less about the legal man stuff or referee Jeremy Black looking like a douche.
Postmatch – Sermon cut a promo worthy of the performer of the year. Sermon admitted that his arrogance got the better of him two weeks ago and it cost him the title when he accepted Geter’s challenge right after his grueling match with Michaels. Sermon declared war on Geter and the Empire. Sermon said how about a rematch on January 25?
Marx said nope. But since he was in a giving mood, he would grant a tag title match to Sermon and a partner of his choosing.
Sermon couldn’t believe that Geter was afraid of guy wearing makeup and glitter and dressed in pink for crying out loud. Sermon said he came out the middle door and had no friend in either locker room (umm, what about the Bullets?), but would accept the tag match even if he had to go it alone. It was damn impressive to see Sermon seamlessly move from top heel to top babyface in the space of two shows.
