From Scott Hensley: The wife and I did a professional wrestling weekend across the Southeast where we saw Ring of Honor in Nashvil...
From Scott Hensley:
The wife and I did a professional wrestling weekend across the Southeast where we saw Ring of Honor in Nashville on Friday night, New South Wrestling in Hartselle, AL on Saturday night and WWE Survivor Series in Atlanta, GA on Sunday night. Ring of Honor was good, as usual, with the highlights being The Briscoes vs Young Bucks and RPG Vice vs Sydal/ACH. I did get to see and talk to Chris Sabin for the first time in probably 10 years so that was cool. Survivor Series was fine, though it was painfully obvious how bad WWE's recent booking has been by the lack of reaction the live crowd had for almost anything that wasn't the Undertaker, New Day, or the 4 guys left in the tournament. I will be on the Fans of Wrestling podcast on the Georgia Wrestling History podcast this week sharing my thoughts on Survivor Series.
New South Wrestling has found an audience and a good venue for their hybrid of old school rasslin meets hardcore wrestling and a little bit of everything in between. The brainchild of promoters Brandon Williams and Chris Bradley, they're relying on a mixture of local favorites and big name attractions to get the fans in. It's working so far. Their second show was Saturday night in Hartselle, AL, which is located to the Southwest of Huntsville, AL at the Sparkman Civic Center. They had a nice set up with approximately 200 seats around the ring and a wall of bleachers facing the ring and a stage that featured two large and one small video screen. There were a couple of very minor technological difficulties, a bad referee, and some of the entertainment stuff was a little drawn out for my personal taste but the old school crowd of approximately 400 fans that appeared to be mostly local families ate it up and were emotionally invested until the very end in what was overall a really entertaining(AND family friendly) show capped off by two really good wrestling matches. Ring announcer Coty Coons was nicely dressed, well spoken, and presented the event professionally.
I was already exhausted Saturday night and didn't take any notes other than results and times so I apologize for the lack of match details but I'll try to hit the general ideas.
Some music played and no one came out. Attempt #2 brought us the hilarious custom theme song of Mike “P-Dawg” Posey, who made his way to the ring with his makeshift “Get Along Gang” consisting of Smooth Plezing and Joseph Schwartz. P-Dawg rapped and the crowd quickly tired of it and wanted him to shut up. His opponents came out to a nice ovation and we got our first match at 7:44 PM.
1) P-Dawg & Joseph Schwartz w/ Smooth Plezing d. Chris Ganz & Dustin Hanson by pinfall in about 13 minutes.
Ganz & Hanson or “Ganzon” as I'd like to call them were sporting matching tights. They used their speed and agility against the technical prowess and cunningness of P-Dawg and Schwartz. I don't believe I've ever seen Schwartz before. He's a regular at IWA Mid South and is really entertaining with his facial expressions and ability to get heat from the crowd. He's around 6ft tall and was the biggest guy in this match, which he used to his advantage. The numbers and experience were too much for “Ganzon”. As P-Dawg picked up the victory after a top rope leg drop.
The painted face of The Reverend came through the crowd near the entrance ramp with the “Strong Style Psycho” Tank following behind. Tank took out “Ganzon” and cannon-balled both of them, after throwing them in the corner together in a seated position. He showed that he plays no favorites as he also took out P-Dawg and Schwartz. He gave Schwartz a chokebreaker and Schwartz did this epic contorting twitching. The Reverend said that Tank was there to destroy and that he required a sacrifice. He issued an open challenge that was answered by Jeremy Foster.
2) Tank d. Jeremy Foster by pinfall in about 13 minutes.
It looked like Foster was coming to the ring with a manager of his own but it ended up being the referee for the match, who wore a solid black shirt. Turns out it was the referee's first match and it definitely showed. If you give a brutal, crafty veteran like Tank an inch then he's going to take a mile and the referee here was giving him miles. Foster was outmatched by size and experience but he put up a fight as long as he could in a tough fought battle. They brawled around the ring with the referee randomly choosing to count or not count and to start over at times. I've done some bad refereeing in my time and I'm sure he felt as ill-prepared as I did just being thrown out there. Tank wore the much smaller Foster down and put him away with a chokebreaker. Tank got a nice reaction after the match and Foster received a mixed reaction, as much of the crowd chose to show their love to Tank, who left through the crowd.
3) Randi West d. Thunderkitty & Auctavia Plezing by submission in about 13 minutes
West had a cool entrance video on New South's big screens that they have on the stage. The text didn't quite fit on their display though and the video played for Thunderkitty first before playing for West, which was a little weird. Auctavia is a petite and athletic young lady who was really likable here as the underdog to the much more experienced Thunderkitty and Randi West. Thunderkitty has a classic look that is a throwback to the glory days of the Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young. She brought an uppity attitude to the match, while Auctavia and West were both fan favorites here. West and Auctavia took turns disposing of Thunderkitty. West slammed Auctavia hard and applied a submission around the head and neck that made her tap as Thunderkitty struggled to make her way back into the ring in time to make the save. Auctavia showed good heart here and I'd like to see her continue to compete against experienced women, which aren't always easy to find. They kept the action going and the crowd enjoyed the dynamic and the majority of what they did.
Gene Jackson made his way to the ring with Will Owens, Joey Venom, and the recently “retired” Jeremy Flynt. They taunted the crowd and had a youth football team ready to kill them. Their match was announced as an Iron Bowl match with no rules. This got a deafening response from the excited kids in front of us who probably dream of not having rules... like cleaning your plate before getting dessert.
One of their opponents, Dump Sanders, came through the crowd and asked for a microphone, which didn't seem to want to work but he and Coons got it figured out and he said he was going to pick his partners from the crowd, which got a nice reaction from people wanting to shut the big mouths of Jackson's group. Jackson's team was distracted by the crowd, which allowed Sanders' team to get the jump on them to a giant pop as hometown guy Nick Traimer and a smaller athletic guy named Spade came out and brought the fight to the loudmouths. They brawled all over the place for about 5 minutes and then Gene Jackson finally reeled everyone and everything back in by stating that his guys weren't there for a fight but they were there to WRESTLE. This prompted some order to be restored as we ended up with a standard 3 on 3 match.
4) Nick Traimer, Spade, and Dump Sanders d. Will Owens, Joey Venom, and Jeremy Flynt by pinfall in about 14 minutes
We got our inexperienced referee again here to try to keep order with 6 wrestlers and a manager. It wasn't as bad as the previous match but it definitely took away from the action. Spade impressed here and Traimer had the crowd loving everything he did, as well. When you have entertaining guys like Owens and Flynt in there, it's not hard for a crowd to know who to root for. Venom didn't give them any reason to like him either. Sanders did his signature “Pull my finger” spot and the crowd of Larry the Cable Guy fans enjoyed them some fart humor. The referee got knocked down(which got a pretty good ovation). Dump was able to help Spade set up a coast to coast dropkick into a chair into the face of Jeremy Flynt. The referee recovered in time to make the three count for the fan favorites. The crowd had the same level of excitement as they'll have when someone announces Obama isn't president anymore.
The Reverend and Tank once again made their way to the ring. Tank made a finger gun and placed it to the head of the big man Sanders, potentially leading to something between them at a later date. Tank and the Reverend left, having delivered their message.
We had a 20 minute intermission and Rhyno came out to sign autographs and take pictures with fans.
5) Adam Jacobs d. Sugar D by pinfall in about 16 minutes
Jacobs must be drinking the same water as Caprice Coleman because he still looks great as he comes up on his 20th year in professional wrestling. Jacobs has however had a change of personality at New South Wrestling, much like that of the demeanor he took to Peachstate Wrestling within the last couple of years. The new Adam Jacobs has a mean streak, is cocky, and sometimes overconfident. His opponent here instantly won the crowd over with his dancing and energy. Sugar D gets over as fast or faster than anyone in the Southeast, and maybe beyond. They had a great blend of sports and entertainment here with their clashing personalities creating entertainment to accompany their impressive athleticism. The smooth Sugar D had things going his way as he made Jacobs look silly several times. Jacobs fought back and finished D off with his jumping flatliner out of the corner.
6) Rhyno d. Chrisjen Hayme by pinfall in about 18 minutes
They started slow and built to a match that had everyone on their feet. Hayme bailed and obnoxiously ran around the ring as Rhyno tried to get his hands on him or mount offense to keep Hayme down. They ended up brawling on the outside and coming into the stands where Hayme knocked Rhyno down about 5 levels of bleachers. They pounded on each other and threw each other around, eventually working their way back to the ring. Hayme set up a chair in the corner between the ropes and Rhyno missed with a spear and smashed right into it. Hayme speared Rhyno for a 2 count. He went to the top to possibly set up for his 450 splash but Rhyno got to his feet and avoided Hayme as he jumped over Rhyno and down to his feet. Rhyno gored Hayme for the pin at 10:04 PM in a real crowd pleaser of a match.
Rhyno got on the mic after the match and thanked the fans and also thanked Chrisjen Hayme. He said Hayme almost put him away and on any given night, he knew that it could go the other way and that he respected Hayme. It sounded very genuine and was cool to see and hear. Hayme shook hands with him and Rhyno left. Hayme took the mic and thanked the fans as well. Adam Jacobs ran in from behind to attack Hayme and left him laying to end the show.
New South returns February 20th. Their facebook page is at Facebook.con/NewSouthProWrestling
