Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment Report from Atanta on September 13

Photos courtesy of Corey Tatum From Larry Goodman: At “Follow the White Rabbit”, Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment finally put all...

Photos courtesy of Corey Tatum

From Larry Goodman:

At “Follow the White Rabbit”, Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment finally put all the pieces together for a fantastic show. With “Tales of an Arabian Facebuster”, AWE proved that weren't no flash in the pan. 

The headline match was Sabu, wrestling in Atlanta for first time in 14 years, vs. Murder One, who claimed he was ready to go to jail for killing Sabu. The match was short and would likely be looked upon as disappointment, except that Sabu’s appearance is not planned as a one off. AWE is building to bigger and better things...

The crowd was already ODed on action, sex and violence before the main event hit the ring, so people seemed satisfied with seeing Sabu in the flesh. The Lucky 7 Scramble was shockingly great. What could have been a clusterish mess, turned out to be superb blend on action, comedy and story. Jimmy Rave had another outstanding match (with JT Dunn). Nothing new there. AWE has a compelling tag team feud brewing between Sound & Fury and Team IOU, with both teams turning in hellacious performances. 

AWE  found their niche with the rabid SRO crowd of 125 at the Quad. Smart like an ROH crowd except edgier.  They appreciate the opportunity to see talent they can't see anywhere else - guys like JT Dunn, Shane Strickland, Cedric Alexander and PJ Black -- and will pay for the privilege.

 

A company whose prospects for survival, much less success, were viewed with much skepticism a few short months ago, AWE has gone from the brink of disaster to a force to be reckoned with on the Georgia wrestling scene.

AWE now boasts the most talented and varied roster of any promotion in Georgia. Talent was never the problem though. For the first year of this company’s existence, the storytelling was haphazard at best. Some way, somehow, AWE found their creative mojo in Season 2 and come out of “Arabian Facebuster” with an abundance of interesting story possibilities.

Murder One was accompanied to the ring by Trina Michaels for the twerk contest he ordered for his last day as a free man. Trina said she didn’t know why she should care about another bitches’ ass because the only golden ass in the building was hers. Kiera Hogan came out as contestant number one, except she was having none of it. Hogan said this was wrestling not porn and ordered Trina out of her ring. Catfight! Catfight! Murder was ecstatic, zooming in for a close look. Owen Knight hit the ring to break it up. Murder got Knight to admit that he liked what he saw. They high fived. Kiera got pissed at Knight and said she was outta there. 

(1 James Dylan pinned Luscious Leron in 4:56. Dylan was introduced as a student of Jake Roberts representing DDP Yoga. Leron cheated on the break. Dylan’s offense looked solid here. Leron humped Dylan doggy style for a disgusting near fall. Shortly thereafter, Dylan used a bridging northern lights suplex to score the pinfall. 

Postmatch, Leron responded to a heckler with “I’ll fuck you till you love me.” What a  sweetheart. 

(2) The Sound and the Fury (William Huckaby & Joe Black) defeated Eli Daniels & Chris Krunk in 8:34. Huckaby is a 288 pound beast, and an agile beast at that. Huckaby and Black gave Daniels a hellacious beating. Huckaby took him to suplex city, and he literally had one of his teeth kicked down his throat. AWE attracts fans with a cruel streak. One guy called Daniels a putz. Another told him to tag in the “emo guy" which got a laugh.  Kronk was cleaning house with said tag until Huckaby annihilated him with a double powerbomb followed by a Death Valley Driver. Daniels then tapped out to Huckaby’s Mutalock (with added kick to the face from Black). 

Wheeler wanted to know why Sound and Fury was so pissed. Answer: because of what those punk ass homos Team IOU did to them the last time. Black said he didn’t blame them for doing what it takes to win, but they were going to have to pay what they owed. 

(3) In the ROAR for 4 anything goes match, Dementia D’Rose defeated Kiera Hogan and Priscilla Kelly and Ashton Starr in 12:04. This was the best Hogan and Kelly have looked in an AWE ring. Putting the ultra gay Starr in the women’s division was a stroke of genius. 

At the opening bell, the three women gave Starr a beating. Kelly and Hogan then gave D’Rose a double dropkick and put the boots to her. Kiera slugged Kelly. “I don’t like her.” Kiera got a moment to shine on offense. Her wheelbarrow stunner got a pop. Starr used a tilt-a-whirl gutbuster on Kelly for a near fall. Kelly got the octopus hold on Starr for a big pop. This match figured to some trainwreck spots and there really only one - Hogan’s flying bodypress onto Starr and D’Rose. Hogan got a pop for a great looking satellite DDT on Starr. 

The most memorable spot was D’Rose’s double Samoan drop with Kelly and Hogan as her victims. As Hogan and Kelly battled toward the dressing room, Starr hit D’Rose with a flying ass. But it was no match for D’Rose’s flying ass that just about crushed Starr’s face. This was action in this match was insane and a whole lot stiffer than I expected. D’Rose pinning Starr was the perfect way to go on the finish.

(4) Grudge match: Marko (with Miss Merica) defeated Glen Matthews (with jumbo bag of Lay’s potato chips) in 5:37. Matthew crammed the chips into Marko’s mouth. Marko reacted like he had been poisoned as the crowd chanted “Chips! Chips! Chips!” Marko took over, working his exercise system into his offense. Matthews  fired up, so Merica rolled his protein shake into the ring. As referee Stan Robinson removed the contraband, Marko resorted to a low blow and cradled Matthews for the three. Proof positive that stupid comedy can be entertaining.

Dylan hit the ring to confront Polo, who slapped him and ran away. Dylan challenged Marko to a push up contest. Marko begged off and left to a “Marko sucks” chant. 

(5) Team IOU (Kerry Awful & Nick Iggy) defeated Lynch Mob (Joey & Matt Lynch) in 12:46. Lynch Mob’s combo moves rule. Awful tossed Matt into the post and planted him on the ring frame with a back suplex, and IOU got bigtime heat on him. Awful crushed Matt with a pair of senton backsplashes and Team IOU busted out their combo offense. Matt went for broke with a frogsplash on Awful, and both men crawled for tags. Lynch Mob had Iggy beaten after a kick ass double team but Awful made the save. Joey kicked out of a massive Team IOU double team and hit a standing sliced bread on Iggy, but referee Ryan “Butterbean” Harmon refused to make the count. Not sure what happened there. In the ensuing confusion, Iggy hit an elevated curbstomp on Joey to score the pinfall. This match had a ridiculous amount of action and most of it was high quality stuff. Both teams operated like well-oiled machines. I marveled at Team IOU’s ability to get old style heat from a crowd of smart fans.

Sound and Fury hit the ring and IOU ran like hell. Huckaby said he didn’t give a f*** about Lynch Mob. This was about Team IOU. 

Wheeler attempted to interview Chip Day, who failed to shed any light on the motives behind his decision to join the Hierarchy.

(6) In the Lucky 7 Scramble to determine the number one contender for the Georgia Wrestling Crown, Cedric Alexander defeated Sugar Dunkerton and Chip Day and Iceberg and Dark Mon (with Andrew Akin) and Owen Knight and Ken Lee at 28:42. will not even attempt to describe the details of what took place in this match. It was pretty fantastic, and hopefully it will be made available on You Tube or on AWE’s new show on the Indie Wrestling Roku Channel. The format was three eliminations followed by a sudden death four-way. The use of lucha style rules (new man enters when one man exits the ring, no tag necessary) worked like a charm. Knight’s confrontation with Dark Mon produced some exquisite comedy. A barrage of big moves from the other six competitors finally put Dark Mon down. A dive sequence ensued. Dives take on an extra degree of risk and intensity in the cramped space of this venue. Dunkerton eliminated Knight with a Boma Ye at 11:50. Day eliminated Lee with a Northern Lights Bomb at 15:49. Eliminations according to form but the next one was not - Hierarchy members Day and Iceberg double teamed Dark Mon and Iceberg eliminated him with the Ground Zero splash at 19:02. 

 It morphed into a tornado tag - Hierarchy vs. Alexander and Dunkerton. With the Hierarchy in control, Sylar Cross announced his presence by pounding his sledge hammer on the ring frame. Cross brained Berg with the hammer and chased Day out of the building. Alexander and Dunkerton traded big near falls, and in the end, Alexander countered Suge’s Sliced Bread with the Lumbar Check. The chemistry in this match was amazing. Everyone brought their A game. 

Postmatch – Dunkerton hugged Alexander and raised his hand. Alexander said Rave helped mold the him, and he was now a grown ass man. Alexander vowed to take the title on his second shot. 

(6) Jimmy Rave defeated “The Juice” JT Dunn via submission to retain the Georgia Wrestling Crown in 17:05. Dunn spent most of the first five minutes controlling Rave on the mat. Rave got untracked with a stiff clothesline and got down to business. Rave concluded a fast and furious exchange with the shadow STO. They lit each other up and the action spilled to the outside, where Dunn kicked a field goal with Rave’s head from the apron. Back inside, Dunn hit a rolling thunder style Ace crusher for a close near fall. Rave nailed Dunn with the STO on the ring frame. Rave was slow to cover after a superplex and Dunn was able to kick out. Rave spit at Dunn as he went for the discus elbow. Rave back with a Shining Wizard for a close near fall. Dunn tried for the discus elbow again, inadvertently taking out referee Ryan “Butterbean” Harmon. Rave applied the crossface and referee Stan Robinson slid in take over. Dunn made the ropes pissing Rave off no end. Chaos ensued. Iceberg tried to interfere and got kicked in the face by Dunn, but Day ran in with from the other side with a tornado kick. Rave then used Move That Rock the World to set up the crossface and Dunn tapped. 

Helluva match. I put it a notch below Rave vs. Alexander at the last AWE show and his work at Scenic City Invitational. That was too much to ask. 

Postmatch – a hearty “please come back” chant for Dunn.

(8) Murder One (with Trina Michaels) defeated Sabu (with “Genie” Melissa Coates) in 6 minutes. Murder wanted to dispatch with Sabu so he and Trina could hit the Holiday Inn. Trina threatened to stuff Sabu’s genie back that bottle where she came from. The crowd weighed in with a chant of “Fuck ‘em up, Sabu, fuck ‘em up”. Coates continually tossed chairs to Sabu, who would then fire them at various parts of Murder One’s anatomy. One of her chair tosses busted out a light fixture. Shards of glass were scattered around the ring. That led to the bizarreness of Jimmy Oxendine reaching his broom in to sweep the ring with the match in progress. Sabu tried for a springboard move off a chair. Murder planted him and brought a table into the ring. Sabu put Murder One’s head through the table with an Arabian facebuster off the ropes. 

The building exploded. It was the spot fans had been waiting for. But Murder One kicked out with authority. As Sabu was lining up with another chair, Trina grabbed his leg. Murder dropkicked it into his head and pinned him just like that. The backstory is that Sabu had derailed Murder via a lethal table in the past, so I really liked the way it played out with Murder overcoming the worst case scenarios to win in shocking fashion. 

Postmatch, Sabu decked referee Stan Robinson and came off the ropes, dropping a chair onto Robinson’s head. The show ended with the crowd chanting “thank you, Sabu”.