From Larry Goodman: I can say much the same about "Road to Ha te " as I did of the June 11 show. The wrestling ...
I can say much the same about "Road to Hate" as I did of the June 11 show.
The wrestling on top was outstanding. Slim J vs. Anthony Henry would have been great wrestling match in any era. How can it be that for the second year in a row Slim J is not in the Scenic City Invitational? I wonder if SCI would consider one of the best technical wrestlers in the state as an alternate. Henry just keeps getting better and better and the presence of Amber Young spices the act up. How Anarchy could have paired Henry with Miss Rachael while Amber was there sitting in the stands is something I will never understand.
Bruiserweights vs. Black Baron & Prince Apollo was a classic old style tag match. The undercard was stronger (see Ethan Case vs. Chris Henry and Buck & Drake vs. Lynch Mob).
The stories are cooking. They announced future matches that gave their fans compelling reasons to come back. But can WWW attract new fans or the fans that have fallen by the wayside?
There were 65 in the building, down slightly from the previous show. This was not a comfortable night to watch wrestling at the Church. It never is on a day when temperatures are in the 90s. The crowd was into it but not as consistently hot as last time. At 2 hours and 30 minutes, the run time was the right fit for the conditions.
Emcee Seth Delay opened the show with a 10 bell salute to Gypsy Joe.
Jonathan Feltner was back as ring announcer. He didn’t have his usual zest though. Maybe it was the heat.
(1) In a $2000 bounty match, Stryknyn defeated Bobby Moore (with Wade Adams) via DQ at 4:43. Not much to it. Started as a slugfest won by Stryk. Adams interfered to provide Moore with the opening he needed. Stryk made the comeback and had Moore up for the FFD when Adams clipped his knee for the DQ.
The appearance of the “Reverend” Dan Wilson accompanied by Se7en halted the postmatch beatdown. Moore sacrificed Adams to Se7en and the monster laid Adams out with a chokebomb.
(2) Tag Team Tournament Match: Billy Buck & James Drake defeated Lynch Mob (Joey & Matt Lynch) in 6:50 to advance to the finals. Good stuff for babyfaces vs. babyfaces. Drake looked more svelte than in his previous Cornelia appearance. He and Joey and wrestled to a stand off. Buck took exception to a shot in the mouth from Matt, exploding out of the corner with stiff clothesline. Buck and Drake broke out the combo moves on Matt. Joey got the tag and cleaned house. He ate a superkick from Buck but Matt had made a blind tag. Two can play at that game as Drake then made a blind tag. Buck superkicked Matt and Drake scored the pin with a moonsault that overshot the mark...or maybe Matt was too close the corner. Either way it didn't look quite right.
Handshakes all around after the match.
(3) Trevor Aeon defeated Elijah Evans in 8:08. They didn’t exactly light the crowd on fire but the reactions did pick up towards the finish. There’s something missing in Aeon’s current babyface character. The crowd took to him better last time. Evans went out his way to establish himself as the heel. The work was fine except for a flying kneedrop by Aeon that was a complete miss. They traded near falls down the stretch. Aeon got a close near fall with a short flatliner. Evans hit a sweet spinning blue thunder bomb. Aeon kicked out and Evans pounded on his neck in frustration. The finish saw Aeon catch Evans with a DDT when he telegraphed a backdrop.
(4) Gunner Miller (with Jeff G. Bailey) defeated Kyle Matthews in 16:54. Crowd was behind Miller despite Bailey cheating to help him win last time. Early on, Matthews tried to soften Miller up with leg kicks. Miller shrugged off Kyle’s shoulder blocks and caught him in a bearhug. Matthews used another leg kick to escape. Miller went into brute force mode. Matthews ducked a clothesline and sent Miller out of the ring with a flying headscissors. The crowd chanted for Miller. He pressed Matthews over his head and dropped him on his gut. They traded chops. Miller’s chops were not good and paled in comparison to Matthews’. Matthews applied a leglock. Miller used a stalling suplex showing no ill-effects from the leglock. Miller used the tights to dump Matthews out of the ring. Matthews escaped a second press slam attempt. Matthews pulled the ropes down to spill Miller out and followed with a heat seeking missile dive. Back inside, Matthews got a near fall with a backstabber. Miller ducked an aerial move and planted Matthews with a spinebuster slam for two. Matthews back with a slingshot roll though to an Avada Kedavra. Miller caught Matthews coming off the ropes and went to powerslam him. Matthews slipped away and cradled Miller for a two count. Matthew with a tornado DDT for another near fall. Both men were sapped of energy. They had one more heated exchange before Miller ended it with the CTE. A good match but not one of Miller’s best. I have to think the oppressive temperature was a factor.
Afterward, the crowd showed their appreciation for Matthews’ effort. Delay went hyberbolic calling it a five star match.
The second half started with a tribute video to Gypsy Joe with lots of clips of his Japanese matches.
(5) Ethan Case defeated Chris “The Hype” Henry in 8 minutes. Their styles meshed well. By far the most solid overall performance I’ve seen from Henry. He hit a nice standing headscissors to spark a comeback. Case cut Henry off with a superkick but couldn’t keep his shoulders down. Henry did a drop toehold into Mutalock that had the crowd chanting for Case to tap. Case did the vertical suplex dropped into a neckbreaker that is one of his signatures. Henry did this flipped over rocker dropper thingy called the Gear Shift. Looked great whatever you want to call it. Henry went for his springboard finisher (the Hyperstrike) and ran smack into a wicked forearm shot. Case immediately put Henry away with the jumping piledriver. Hell of a finish.
Nemesis came out to apologize to Jacob Ashworth. Nemesis actually got some cheers but nothing like the pop for Ashworth. Nemesis begged Ashworth to give him a chance. Said he was too old to be going through this. Said he was sorry for the wrong things he had done. Nemesis brought up his participation in the Shadow Jackson benefit show as proof that he had turned over a new leaf. Shadow going to the hospital had changed him. He said Ashworth had been trained by Shadow and they should form a tag team. Ashworth wasn’t buying it. Nemesis got on his knees and extended his hand. Ashworth accepted the handshake. They hugged. As Ashworth turned to leave, Nemesis decked him with a rabbit lariat. Nemesis repeatedly stabbed Ashworth in the head with a pen until Ashworth was bleeding like a stuck pig. Nemesis started whipping Ashworth with his belt. The ref brigade and Delay ran out to get Nemesis out of there. Security escorted Nemesis and his blood soaked wifebeater t-shirt to the front door.
Nemesis was tremendous here. Making it believable that Ashworth would accept his apology without looking like a complete idiot was no easy feat and he pulled it off.
(6) Bruiserweights (Corey Hollis & John Skyler) defeated Black Baron & Prince Apollo in 17:21. They started with wrestling and slowly let it build. Baron and Apollo work a more old school style than most trainees out of WWA4. Bruiserweights worked on the collective arms of Baron and Apollo. Bruiserweights hit a couple of crisp combo moves on Baron. Apollo interfered. Not a good idea as Bruiserweights administered the 10 punches of Doom in stereo. Apollo took a terrific bump on a Hollis monkey flip. Hollis tried it again. This time, Baron was ready and waiting with a hotshot. Baron and Apollo got heat on Hollis. They did the old abdominal stretch cheat. They pulled off an honest to God hot tag because Hollis really had to struggle to get it. Skyler hit a Tiger Driver on Apollo and Baron made the save. Skyler hit a slingshot spear on Apollo just as Hollis hit a dive on Baron. Beautifully timed. Referee Kevin Pierce did a good here of maintaining a semblance of order and tracking the legal men. Bruiserweights foiled a stereo superplex by Baron and Apollo to set up the finish –a diving rolling fireman’s carry slam by Skyler followed by a Hollis diving headbutt on Apollo. The finishing sequence was a bit glitchy because Hollis got his bell rung. Otherwise, this was a terrific tag match.
Ashworth came out with head bandaged. Said he made the mistake of trying to be a nice guy to that POS and nice guys get stepped on like bugs. Ashworth challenged Nemesis to a loser leaves town Georgia Bullrope Match on July 30 at “Summer of Hate”.
(7) Anthony Henry (with Amber Young) defeated Slim J to become the number one contender for the WWW Championship in 19:09. The wrestling in this match was a joy to watch, filled with moves and combos off the beaten track. They did a lightning quick series of spinning armbar reversals. Henry was acting like a dick without needing to break rules. Slim capped off a hot sequence with a springboard roundhouse kick, then followed with a fallaway slam into an STF. The worm turned when Henry turned Slim’s headscissors into a painful crotch on the top rope. With Slim straddling the top rope, Henry clotheslined him ala Nigel McGuinness. Slim took his patented inside out bump on Henry’s clothesline. Henry hit a pumphandle gutbuster and controlled Slim on the mat for several minutes. Henry did the Rita Romero Special. He tweaked something in process but it wasn’t apparent from the way they kept going. Henry dropped the surfboard into a dragon sleeper. J wouldn’t submit and credibly countered out of it. Slim on the comeback trail with a moonsault block for a near fall. Henry escaped a superplex and crotched Slim into the tree of woe. Henry with a torture rack drop. J kicked out told Henry to bring it on. They traded forearms shots. A bigtime tug of war between Henry’s powerbomb and Slim’s huracanrana ensued. Slim won out with both men tumbling over the top rope. Both down after Slim hit Screwdriver on the Rocks. A raging all-out barrage from Slim had Henry in dire straits. Young jumped up on the apron. Slim got in Amber’s face. Henry schoolboyed Slim using the tights but Slim kicked out. Slim hit this amazing flatliner out a wheelbarrow position. Slim went up for the flying reverse DDT and Amber again jumped up to distract referee Dee Byers. Kevin Blue ran in and dumped Slim. Henry then pinned Slim with a vertebreaker. One of my favorite matches of the year.
Stryknyn entered the ring with the WWW Title. Henry snatched the title out of Stryk’s hands only to return it saying “You hold onto it. I’ll get it real soon.”…soon being at “Summer of Hate”.
