Photos Courtesy of Rob Brodhecker From Larry Goodman: Things got crazy in Carrollton Saturday night, both inside the ring and out. ...
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| Photos Courtesy of Rob Brodhecker |
Things got crazy in Carrollton Saturday night, both inside the ring and out.
By Peachstate standards, it had been a fairly ho-hum evening until the madness in the main event -- heels fighting heels, babyfaces fighting babyfaces, fans wanting to fight with wrestlers on the heels of fan claiming injury by wrestlers.
Booker Rick Michaels has his work cut out for him if he’s going to pull a coherent story out of the chaos as Peachstate hurtles towards PWA's 9th anniversary event on June 17 featuring Survivor Games 3.
Paid attendance at the VFW Fairgrounds was 211.
Bill Behrens entered with flunky-in-chief Triston Michaels. Behrens said Triston had done a fabulous job standing in his stead bringing in the “Irish Assassin” Mr. O’Hagan. His Kingsmen now had it all. Addig No Limits Champion O’Hagan to Heritage Champion Tommy Too Much and tag champions Nightmare and Creed. Behrens got all emotional about Triston. No way he would tolerate an old fart of a referee and a spiky-haired geek (Wicked Nemesis) putting their hands on Triston. BB called “Walking Dead” Terry Hudgins out to lower the boom -- Hudgins was contractually obligated to wrestle Triston and the contract included a disclaimer of liability if Hudgins died during the match.
‘Twas an entertaining way to start the show. Any promo that diverts a “weasel” chant into a reference to World Wildlife Federation is alright by me. Behrens has been gold as the head of the forces of evil. The fans in Carrollton can be a hateful group when so moved and nobody moves them like Behrens and Triston.
(1) Shane Noles (with Wicked Nemesis) defeated Zanders in 7:48. Zanders is coming into his own as a heel. The guy is a real dick. His selling is exaggerated but not over the top and he’s getting heat. The crowd got behind Noles, who used a sunset flip hope spot, only to be cut off by a kick in the face and a punch in the mouth. Noles debuted a nifty spinning side slam and before missing a somersault leg drop. Zander went up top for a high crossbody. Noles kicked out and picked up the win with a double A spinebuster. This was a nice match. They established a clear contrast in characters and allowed the story to unfold without rushing.
Ashton Starr came out to Simon Sermon’s “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” theme music for some instant heat. Starr said things change and he was the one and only Exotic One. Starr revealed the launch of Peachstate women’s division on May 6 with an eight woman battle royal to crown the company's first female champion and his self as the first entrant.
(2) Ashton Starr defeated Alan Angels in 6:28. Angels got off to a fast start. Starr threw up a stop sign to adjust his hair, hung Angels up in the ropes and hit a draping corkscrew faceplant. Starr hit crisp quebradora for a near fall. Angel's comeback included a Pele kick, an RKO AND a frogsplash. Starr countered Angels’ rolling cutter and pinned him with an axe kick. Match didn’t get over particularly well. Starr’s work was fine but his act wasn’t the uproarious success he's had in AWE. Angels has athletic ability but was doing too much, too fast and didn’t connect as a babyface.
(3) The Reckoning (Zanders & Chris Spectra) defeated Beautiful Bald Besties (Michael Stevens & Zac Edwards) in 10 minutes. Zanders subbed for Jacob Ashworth. Kevin Blue initially appeared with Reckoning but didn’t come to ringside. Besties dominated early on. Reckoning isolated Stevens, who eventually fought his way out of their corner to make a diving tag. Edwards ducked a Zanders clothesline and nailed Spectra with a tope, following with a springboard clothesline on Zanders. The crowd had been fairly quiet but they heated up as Edwards ran wild. Stevens kicked out of a double team blockbuster by Reckoning. Spectra kicked out of the Besties’ finisher. Spectra pinned Edwards with his feet on the ropes and Zanders holding them for extra leverage. Good match. I didn’t get the sense fans were ready to fully embrace the Besties as babyfaces, but that’s also my bias since I like them way better as heels.
The crowd was pissed off about the cheating after the match. Finishes like that work a lot better in Carrollton than they do in most places in 2017.
Ring announcer Jason Boyd called for intermission with AJ Steele available for photos and autographs in the ring.
Tommy’s Story Time with PWA Heritage Champion Tommy Too Much was next with Kevin Blue as his guest. T2M wanted to know why Blue came out uninvited and attacked him at the last show. T2M said Blue almost caused a riot and a little foods stamps child could have gotten hurt. That throwaway comment turned out to be unplanned foreshadowing. Blue said he should have been in the match and he should be the champion. T2M said he could understand Blue wanting to be champion after spending the last two years at the bottom of the poster with the little picture. Tommy said Blue had no testosterone and was full of estrogen so he should join the women’s division. Fighting words for sure. Blue started kicking Tommy’s ass. The refs tried to break it up. Good luck with that. Blue chased T2M into the crowd and re-accomodated him outside the garage door at the back of the building.
(4) Pandora defeated Ventress (with Brooklyn Page) in 8:54. Ventress was Akbar dressed as a woman. I’m not sure most of the crowd picked up it despite the lack of breasts. Brooklyn was calling the shots for Ventress and interfered liberally. Ventress had Pandora pinned with a jumping splash but Page wanted more devastation. Pandora rolled out from under Ventress’ Vader Bomb and scored the pinfall with a short DDT. It was an ugly match that did not put Pandora, presumably a featured star of the women’s division, in the best light. The extracurricular activity below is what people will remember.
Midway through the match, security rushed to the front door where T2M and Blue were fighting their way back into the building. Their shirts were torn to shreds (nice attention to detail). They barreled through the merchandise tables, up onto the stage and all the way to the back.A woman started demanding justice because she and/or her two-week old baby got hurt by a chair shoved in their direction during the melee. Why she brought a young baby to the show and why she didn’t run the other way when the wrestlers came in her direction are logical questions for which there are no logical answers. Blue and T2M were intense but there wasn’t any reckless endangerment of the crowd. In any case, the woman and child seemed to be fine.
(5) The Kingsmen (“The Technical Wrestling Nightmare” Kyle Matthews & Creed & O’Hagan with Bill Behrens & Triston Michaels) vs. AJ Steele & Drew Adler & Ace Haven (with Amy Haven) was a no decision at 16:02. Poor Matthews. The babyfaces beat the hell out him, overexposing his ass in the process. Steele’s ass slap got the spontaneous pops of the night. Matthews finally managed to tag and the Kingsmen went to work, first on Adler and then on Ace. Behrens and Michaels got their two cents in as well. The crescendo saw Creed go for a Razor’s Edge off the ropes that Ace reversed with a huracanrana at the last split second. Steele made quick work of O’Hagan and Matthews then turned his attention to Creed. The crowd was going bananas as the alpha males teased squaring off for the first time. It broke down every which way. Creed took out four guys with a suicide dive that was off the charts. A guy his size should not be doing that. Adler busted out a corkscrew flip dive. A fast and furious train of big moves led to the for-real showdown between Steele and Creed. Steele laid Creed out with the Steele City Bomb but the other Kingsmen broke up the pin. Utter chaos ensued. Besties, Noles, Zanders, Blue and Too Much all joined the fray. Wicked Nemesis chased Behrens to the back. Everyone was fighting everyone and nobody was stopping. I’ve seen all kinds of wild stuff at Peachstate. This was lunacy.
When the smoke cleared, there were four factions – The Kingsmen, the team lead by Steele, Noles and the Besties and Blue’s squad.
Commissioner Eddy Layne was summoned to ringside. Layne announced Too Much vs. Blue for the Heritage Title on April 29 with everyone else barred from ringside.
Last thing- Reckoning got in a heated confrontation with a group of ringside fans. One dude in Pittsburgh Pirates gear was about to lose his mind when Zanders insulted the Pirates. A diehard Pirates fan in Carrollton, who knew? Security had to make sure the guy didn't come over the rail which surely would not have ended well for him.
