Photos Courtesy of Amy Payne-Sims From Larry Goodman: Peachstate Wrestling Alliance presented “Thanksgiving Turmoil” at the Cent...
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| Photos Courtesy of Amy Payne-Sims |
From Larry Goodman:
Peachstate Wrestling Alliance presented “Thanksgiving Turmoil” at the Central Elementary Gym in Carrollton Saturday night.
Turmoil was an apt name. There was plenty of it on this show. It had the circus thing going with a variety of acts and no two acts being alike. The misery former PWA Heritage Champion Tyson Dean suffered under the tyrannical Al Getz was brought to an end., as the ladder match between Sal Rinauro and Dean provided a great conclusion to the story. Iceberg and Dusty MacWiliams supplied the gore and violence in their dog collar match. Kevin Blue and P Dog wrestled. The main event ended in utter chaos with a heel turn out of nowhere.
As a whole, the in ring on this show wasn’t anything special. It worked more on the strength of the characters and stories. The booking at PWA is filled with delightful surprises. The obvious and the ordinary are avoided like the plague. While the ladder match provided a satisfying payoff, the rest of the show was all about setting up the Christmas show.
Attendance was 200, about 25 shy of what they drew two weeks earlier with Jim Cornette. For whatever reasons, the crowds of 300+ that PWA used to draw for their big shows no longer seem to be in the cards. That said, this was a hot crowd that was into every match without exception.
A contrite Nigel Sherrod said he deserved the boos. Sherrod said he had a lot of personal issue over the last year and he took it out on the wrong people, but the experience made him a better person. He said his contract with Peachstate ended tonight and was not being renewed.
With a tear in his eye, Sherrod returned the stolen Chamber of Commerce plaque to PWA owner (turned wrestler) Shane Noles and gave him a hug. For the rest of the show, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. It never did.
Wicked Nemesis wanted to know what stipulation Sermon had in mind for his match with his man Noles. Wicked had agreed to whatever Sermon wanted at the last show.
Sermon said even though he and Tommy Too Much hadn’t been seeing eye to eye, T2M was still an Exotic One. Sermon said he trusted no one, so the stipulation was the winner would be the special referee for the main event match between T2M and Jimmy Rave.
(1)Shane Noles (with Wicked Nemesis) defeated Simon Sermon in 6:15. Noles was all over Simon right from the opening bell. Sermon resorted to a pin attempt with his feet on the ropes but Wicked broke it up. Sermon sicked referee Mason on Wicked so he could choke Noles with the straps on his singlet. Nice. A Stinger splash sent Noles face-first to the canvas. Sermon tossed Noles out. More choking ensued. As Sermon was attempting to suplex Noles back into the ring, Wicked tripped him up and Noles landed on top for the 1-2-3. The heat was tremendous. They didn’t need to do much. The heel/babyface dynamic was all that mattered. I expected Sermon to win to further stack the odds against Rave in the main.
Postmatch – the fans taunted Sermon with a “you got beat” chant.
(2) Ace Haven & Charles Zanders (with Amy Haven) defeated Donnie Primetime III & Brit Jackson in 5:55 to earn a shot at the PWA Tag Titles on December 26. DPIII and Jackson attacked before the bell. That did not work out so well for them. It was all Ace and Zanders when they were distracted by the presence of the Aries Brothers at ringside. The heels capitalized. Ace took a great bump to the floor, and Zanders starting taking heat. Ace cleaned house with the hot tag. Both babys hit dives and Zanders pinned DPIII. Just what it needed to be. The babyfaces went over strong and they didn’t overly complicate things.
The PWA fans had no clue about who the Aries Brothers were and nothing was said to enlighten them.
(3) Tyson Dean defeated Sal Rinauro in a ladder match in 18:59 to free himself from his contract with All Getz. The opening minutes were tit for tat. Dean was getting all the better of it and the crowd was behind him huge. Dean went to bring the ladder in. Rinauro kicked Dean in the knee and worked it over with Dean desperately trying to fend him off. Dean clotheslined Rinauro out, posted him and blistered him with chops. A bit of possum was being played by Sal as he got back on the knee, stomping it on the ringsteps and wrapping around the barricade. Rinauro used the ladder on Dean’s knee. Rinauro took a spill off the top rope giving Dean a chance to climb the ladder, but Sal kicked the knee to stop him. Dean brought Rinauro’s climb to a crashing halt with a back suplex. Dean reversed a whip sending Rinauro flying into the ladder. Dean catapulted Rinauro’s face into the ladder. Dean backdropped Rinauro onto the ladder. Dean caught Sal’s superkick and locked in a Boston crab. Rinauro grabbed onto the ladder rungs to break the hold. Rinauro connected with the superkick. Rinauro tried to suplex Dean onto the ladder bridged in the corner but Dean reversed out of it. Dean stood on the bridged ladder looking to do something devastating to Sal. The ladder broke sending Sal to the floor. A scary moment as it looked Sal’s face hit the ladder on the way down. Dean climbed a second ladder to get the contract. Sal came back into the ring with a tennis racket and started to climb to other side. Dean clubbed Sal with the racket. Sal fell off onto the bridged ladder. Sal was toast. Dean grabbed the contract to win. Wow, a ladder match with psychology. Can you imagine that? Both guys stuck to the objective of incapacitating their opponent to make it feasible to climb the ladder rather than doing crazy stunts. There wasn’t one time where it was obvious that somebody could get the contract and did something else instead.
Postmatch, Dean tore the contract to shreds for a big pop.
(4) Dusty MacWilliams defeated Iceberg (with Jeff G. Bailey) in a Dog Collar Match at 8:36. Being the sneaky bastard that he is, Dusty waited until referee Stan Robinson attached the chain to Berg’s collar to attack him from behind. Robinson then had his hands full trying to get the chain on Dusty. Nevertheless, Berg quickly took control and used the rope to dish out punishment. Iceberg was busted open after being run into the post. MacWilliams bled and Iceberg bit the laceration to open it up. MacWilliams appeared to land right on his head when Berg yanked the rope to pull him back into the ring. Not good for a guy with a severe neck injury in his past. Robinson went down after being squashed in the corner. After Iceberg planted Dusty with a massive belly to belly, DP III and Jackson hit the ring and detached Dusty’s chain. Berg clocked both of them, but Dusty blasted Berg with a cowbell that he had stashed under the ringsteps. Referee Terry Hudgins hit the ring to make the three count. The match was fine. An astute observer pointed out that Hudgins must have psychic abilities. It would have made more sense if ring announcer Jason Boyd had run to the back to get him.
Bailey said MacWiliams was a dirty, yellow coward who had just made the biggest mistake of his life. The holidays were upon us and there was nothing Iceberg like more than to celebrate by bathing in the blood of his enemies. Bailey challenged MacWilliams to a Cage of Horrors match on December 26 – a cage full of weapons, two men enter and one man leaves. Bailey guaranteed that Dusty was going to bleed to death right in the middle of the ring. ‘Tis the season…
(5) Kevin Blue defeated P Dog (Mike Posey) to retain the PWA No Limits Championship in 9:43. This was a competitive, solid wrestling match with no BS. Blue had P Dog’s number in the early going. P Dog evaded Blue’s Yakuza kick and zeroed in on his shoulder. P Dog did a convincing job of working the body part with a variety of maneuvers and Blue was selling big. On the comeback, Blue attempted to fly off the ropes, but P Dog caught him with double knees to the shoulder and applied a variation of the Fujiwara armbar. Blue countered with a crucifix for two. Blue with a palm strike for another near fall. P Dog answered with a stunner to set up the Alabama Jam. Nobody home. Blue then hit the Air Raid Crash for the win.
(6) NWA Georgia Champion Tommy Too Much (with Merica) defeated PWA Heritage Champion Jimmy Rave in a non-title, no DQ $10,000 Bounty Match with Shane Noles as the special referee in 9:51. Noles immediately ejected Merica from ringside to keep things fair. Match was OK. Not the best mix of style. It really helped that the crowd was so into Rave. Rave torched TWM with chops. T2M was hanging tough though. He knocked Rave for a loop with a corner clothesline and ran him into the wall. Rave got back on track, hitting some of his signature moves. First Sermon and then Rinauro hit the ring. Rave decked them before they could do any damage. Merica returned. Rave grabbed her but Sermon clubbed Rave from behind and started putting the boots to him. Dean entered and was cut off by Sermon and Rinauro. Dean and Rave were being beaten to a pulp when Rick Michaels entered with a chair to halt the mayhem. Michaels gave Noles a gutshot with the chair. Noles crumpled to the mat. T2M clotheslined Rave, and Michaels used Noles’ lifeless hand to make the three count on Rave. The fans were pissed. That 10 grand is going to break Getz’s piggy bank.
As the beatdown continued, T2M went on a rant - “Am I on top now? Do I have your respect? Do I get a title shot now?” Michaels addressed Noles, who was in no condition to respond. “You wanna be a wrestler? December 26th.”
The show ended with Noles, Dean and Rave all laying in the ring, while Michaels, Sermon T2M and Rinauro celebrated with high fives.
