From Larry Goodman: Dragon Con Wrestling extended their run at Atlanta’s annual SciFi/Fantasy convention to 15 consecutive years...
From Larry Goodman:
Dragon Con Wrestling extended their run at Atlanta’s annual SciFi/Fantasy convention to 15 consecutive years and what a pleasant surprise this year’s event turned out to be.
Action-packed as always, it was the most consistently entertaining DCW show of any I’ve attended. The Dragon Con shows are notoriously uneven. They never fail to produce an abundance of exhilarating peak moments and explosive pops. The usual problem of dead spots where they lose the crowd both literally and figuratively didn’t happen this year. Credit is due to Slim J on the construction of this year’s show.
Attendance was much better than generally expected considering that the show was moved to Thursday night for the first time. The Hyatt Regency Ballroom was about ¾ full which translates to a crowd of over 1000.
Virtually all of characters DCW fans have come to love and hate were on hand with the exception of Jeff G. Bailey. Nemesis was there but unable to perform due to injury.
It wasn’t the most violent of DCW events although there was plenty enough to satisfy the sometimes peculiar tastes of the Dragon Con conventions goers. Comedy abounded as per usual.
The show opened with all of the wrestlers coming to ringside as AJ, one the originators of the Dragon Con Wrestling led the crowd in a “DCW” chant. AJ acknowledged his partner Gerald “Tiny” Dockery, who passed away suddenly last year and thanking Gerald’s wife Kim who has taken over as the show’s director.
Xavier Woods (decked out as Birdie from Street Fighter) announced this year’s Hall of Fame inductions – Crystal, Chip Day and Michael Mosley. AJ then inducted Woods, who seems unaffected by stardom in the most wonderful way.
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| Hannah, Woods and Iceberg |
(1) Supernatural defeated Ethan Case and Gil Quest and CB Suave in a fatal four way at 8:20. Suave always impersonates a legendary pro wrestler. This year it was the Rock. After a zillion big moves and saves, Supernatural pinned Case with a roll up. The DCW crowd needs immediate gratification with intense action and this match gave it to them in spades.
The first of several Peter vs. The Chicken fight sequences ala Family Guy took place. This was hilarious and the crowd loved it complete with dueling chants. Peter was played by Jake Hughes. I don’t know who was in the chicken suit.
(2) Joe Black (with Papa Marko) defeated Adrian Armour via submission in 12:37. Your prototypical AWE Southern Strong Style match and it held the crowd’s attention way better than most of the attempts to do a “wrestling” match in front of this crowd.
(3) Tank & Iceberg (with The Reverend Dan Wilson & Hannah Chastain) beat Logan Creed & Bobby Moore in 12:20. Creed cut a promo that got heat. He was disgusted with the pretenders. He was a true superhuman and they were just posers. A fan got in Creed’s face at ringside then followed him into the ring to continue. Security was really slack about getting the guy out and just ushered him back to his seat. The finish saw the masked Hannah give Creed a low blow and he was pinned after cannonball from Tank.
Tank said he goodbyes to DCW as he plans to have his final match at the 2017 Scenic City Invitational.
(4) Billy Buck defeated Stryk Nyn in 10:15. Stryk did a quick promo for Why We Wrestle before the match. Buck was the heel here and was quite effective in the role. When Stryk went for the spear, Buck caught him with an inside cradle. The fans were PISSED.
Postmatch, Stryk speared Buck and laid him out again with the FFD (F5).
Peter and the Chicken reappeared to do battle.
(5) Washington Bullets (Trey & Jon Williams) defeated Troy Hunt & Brian Blaze in 15:25 to win the DCW Tag Team Cup. The Bullets were total dicks. A spot where the Bullets kept the ref from seeing a legit tag got a surprising amount of heat. Hunt’s deadlift superplex got a big pop. Bullets pinned Hunt with the Marion Barry (backcracker/cutter).
(6) Manchild defeated James Drake in 9:24. Manchild is a darling of the Dragon Con crowd and they reacted accordingly. Drake hit a sweet Kevin Owens like frogsplash but Manchild kicked out. Drake’s moonsault missed to set up one of the most highly anticipated moments on every Dragon Con show – the Manchild moonsault. He hit it perfectly and got a standing O.
(7) Michael Mosley (with Star Wars entourage) defeated Amazing Darkstone and Jacoby Boykins to win the DCW Singles Cup in 10:15. Mosley is the most over character in DCW lore. He pulled of the spot of the night – nailing Darkstone with a cutter in midflight attempting to splash Boykins off the top. Mosley’s Jedi Master chokeslammed Darkstone. The finish blew the roof off as Darkstone gave himself a “Force” choke slam administered via Mosley’s metaphysical powers.
(8) The Kraken (Murder One & Chip Day) defeated Owen Knight & Kiera Hogan to retain the AWE Tag Team Championship in 10 minutes. The AWE crew aqucitted themselves admirably in a tough slot on the show. They worked a fast pace that held the crowd’s attention. The DCW fans really got into Knight and Hogan as babyfaces with heart. Finish was Murder’s Blue Thunder Bomb followed by Day of the Dead on Knight.
(9) Azrael won the ubiquitous DCW battle royal to become the number one contender for the DCW Singles Cup (20 minutes). Match started with four wrestlers with other entering at random intervals. Participants in no particular order included Geter, Stryk, Creed, Papa Marko, Hunt, Beautiful Bald Besties, Drew Adler, Wade Adams, Quasi Mandisco, Brodie Chase, Adryan Hawkins, Merica Strong, Scotty Beach, Brad Cash, Darkstone, Azrael and Team Rocket #1 and # 2 from Pokemon. Team Rocket were way over. Mandisco paired off with Strong and hilarity ensued. Strong slamming Creed got a huge reaction. She proceeded to slam several other guys and fans were not happy when she was eliminated. Merica dragged Mandisco all the way to the back by his foot. It came down to Azrael, Creed, Geter, Cash and Hunt. The other four beat the living shit out of Hunt before eliminating him. Creed eliminated Cash. Geter hit a dragon suplex on Creed and eliminated him. Peter and the Chicken battled their way into the ring and decided to square off against Geter and Azrael. They were quickly gone. In the process, Azrael used Geter’s momentum to dump him over the top.
NOTES: Pro wrestling costumes seen in the crowd: Shinske Nakamura, Incredible Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, a WCW referee, Brie Bella, Kevin Owens. The best one was an Asian girl dressed as Aska…The referees were Andrew Akin, Darryl Hall, Drew Byers and DL Norris…the announcers were El Phantasma and "Lord" Michael Gentry...Sylar Cross, Shane Mackey, Priscilla Kelly, Nina Monet, Mason, Dark Mon and Jonathan Williams were in the house.
