From Larry Goodman: The Southern Honor juggernaut showed no signs of slowing down at Summer Heat. On the contrary, the company is pi...
From Larry Goodman:
The Southern Honor juggernaut showed no signs of slowing down at Summer Heat. On the contrary, the company is picking up steam with promises of bigger things to come in the back half of the year.
It was an excellent show overall. The character and stories are connecting and the ringwork is there to back it up. If ACTION has the best bell-to-bell wrestling product in the state, SHW was neck and neck with them last night.
AC Mack defeated Alan Angels in the SWAT’s streetfight to become the third SHW Champion in the promotion’s history. It was a great match,
The moment of babyface triumph turned out anything but that, as New Era turned on Angels and Mack was revealed as the true heel mastermind.
A split between Angels and New Era was foreshadowed in the aftermath of the deal with Omega where everyone under the sun hit their finisher on Angels. The turn by Mack came out of the blue and when all was said and done, a lot of SHW fans were clearly still behind him.
One of the company’s mottos is you never know who may show up at Southern Honor. This month’s surprise was Big Cass, who made big statements both physical and verbally.
In addition, Blacklist Uno and Josh Wheeler made a special trip to Canton after after AWE’s show at the Southern Fried Gaming Expo. The social media drama ended up with Uno and Lamb having a friendly chat
In addition, Blacklist Uno and Josh Wheeler made a special trip to Canton after after AWE’s show at the Southern Fried Gaming Expo. The social media drama ended up with Uno and Lamb having a friendly chat
Jake Roberts returned as advertised with his sights set on Dani Jordyn.
The official paid attendance was 461. At this point, it is undeniable that SHW has the largest core audience of any promotion in Georgia. Crowd reactions were strong all night long. Some fans left during the show and that was not due to the length (a briskly paced, action-packed 2 hours and 30 minutes). More on that below.
Postmatch – Joey accepted Matt’s handshake and they hugged it out.
Gary Lamb, cut a killer promo that had the crowd eating out of his hand and hanging on every word. He was introduced as the GM of Southern Honor and came to the ring to the usual rousing ovation.
Lamb was in his Sunday best preacher mode. Said he wasn’t going to rah-rah them. No need to tell people you’re taking over when it’s obvious. Lamb told the story of going to granny’s house every Sunday in Dacula where she put on quite a spread. Lamb described the spread in scrumptious detail and said SHW had been putting out a spread for nine months. Something always happened at the end of granny’s meals – she said hold your fork. The best was yet to come, like the seven layer chocolate cake. Lamb said hold your fork because the best was yet to come from SHW – the Rumblejack next month, the anniversary show in October and SHW was about to take their show on the road.
(2) Sound & Fury (Joe Black & William Huckaby) defeated New Era (David Ali & Owen Knight) in 10:17. A very good match. Joe is over like crazy with the Southern Honor fans. The question was how would the fans react to Huckaby? Answer: he got over like rover. He had their attention with the loudest, fiercest chops of the night, and stunned them with his agility on a moonsault that was way too good looking for a guy with his build. Ali interfered from the outside and New Era worked over Joe’s vulnerable knee. Joe’s falcon arrow led to the hot tag and house cleaning by Huck. The finish was a Huckaby buckle bomb followed by Black’s spear on the hapless Ali. Does that guy ever win a match in SHW?
Postmatch- Joe took a bow with encouragement from Huck.
(3) Ashton Starr defeated Lee Johnson (with Dani Jordyn) via submission in 10:09. Like Black, Starr is ridiculously over with the SHW fans. Ashton got off to a fast start, but Jordyn superkicked him to hand Johnson the advantage. Johnson’s ringwork has been fine all along. The difference tonight was he was more expressive with his facials. Starr busted out Melina’s Primal Scream for a near fall and Dani got on the apron to distract. Johnson hit a Spiral Tap for a near fall that looked too damn good not to be a finisher. Starr caught Johnson flush in the face with a running knee. Looked like no fun at all. They got into a long struggle jockeying for position. The match lost steam here but they got it back with the crowd chanting for Starr, who came off the ropes with a stunner. Jordyn saved Johnson by putting his foot on the ropes. Starr applied the sharpshooter. Johnson fought it for a while before tapping. This was also good, although not quite the crowd energy of the first two.
Jordyn and Johnson started to beat on Starr and Jake Roberts hustled to the ring as fast as his 64 year old legs could carry him. Dani bailed. Jake went to town on Johson. Crowd was chanting for the DDT and Jake was about to give it to them when Jordyn pulled Johnson out of the ring.
Roberts said he had been gone for a while due to “paperwork” (a storyline suspension). Said Jordyn needed to learn a lesson and be broken of a bad habit. “Hell is a truth learned too late.” Robert reminisced about giving Dark Journey a DDT (a memorable moment from Mid-South Wrestling) and how good it felt. “Maybe at the age of 64 that would be good for me.” I was glad it didn’t happen tonight and when it does, the pop will blow the roof off the Action Building.
Sean Legacy appeared on the video screen stating he was planning on winning the Rumblejack.
Corey Hollis cut a promo that got nuclear heat. Said he was the man in SHW and Logan Creed was a fraud, who got pinned by a guy (Hollis) with one hand. Hollis claime to be the realest thing in the company and vowed to expose every piece of fraud in SHW next month.
(4) Logan Creed defeated Brady Pierce (with Corey Hollis) in 10:15. The match had the largest men on the roster working a hard pace, going at it hammer and tong, pretty much 50/50. Crowd was 1000% behind Creed. Hollis kept his distance like the coward he is. Creed was letting Pierce have it. Pierce escaped the choke slam and gave Creed a brutal suplex on the floor. Hollis entered the frame to revive Pierce. Referee Todd Fox could have counted them out if he had so chosen. Back inside, Pierce missed a middle rope moonsault and got speared by Creed. Pierce rolled out and ate a 6-9 tope suicida. Creed set up for Scorched Earth. Hollis distracted him and Pierce capitalized for two near falls and was wearing the “what do I have to do? expression. Hollis said stick him with a piledriver. Creed reversed out of it and grabbed Hollis. Pierce saved Corey’s ass but Creed planted him with Scorched Earth.
(5) NGW Champion Shawn Hoodrich vs. Shane Andrews was a no contest at 7:10 when Big Cass decimated both of them.
Cass entered the ring wearing a hoodie to hide his identity. Cass laid Andrews and Hoodrich to waste before removing the hoodie to a “holy shit!” chant.
Cass pulled the ringside photographer into the ring. A corps of jobbers hit the ring to save the guy. Cass destroyed them one by one. Clyde Braddock was one of the jobbers. Sean Dean ran in and actually got some offense on Cass before being put out of his misery by a swinging side slam.
Cass started to address the crowd when Tyler Rivera hit the ring. Cass beat on Rivera with the mic and liked to have powerbombed him through the ring.
Cass said he had some things to get off his chest and boy, did he ever.
To everyone that buried me at my lowest point, called me fat and said you’ll never get back into wrestling, I say this: I ain’t fuckin' dead yet. I had a seizure in front of 1500 people at the ECW Arena and some people said they wished I would have died that night. To the WWE colleagues that laughed at me and said he’ll never be back, we’re writing him off and kicked me when I was down, I say this: I’m coming for your spot and I’m going to take food off your motherfucking table…I don’t care if you’re Sports Entertainment, if you’re Elite or if you wrestle with honor, I’m going to go where I want and do whatever the fuck I want, and you are going to have to kill me in order stop me. End of discussion.
SHW is known as a family friendly show and some of those families left after Cass’ speech.
(6) Not Yet Rated (Kevin Ryan & Jordan Kingsley) defeated The Jungle Kings (Lex Lee & Kevin Caufman) in 9:33. When it comes to doing daredevil, high risk moves, there isn’t much of anything these team won’t do. This was Jungle Kings first time back since losing their feud to Lynch Mob and they did a stellar job of elevating NYR. If Jungle Kings worked more places in-state they would be tag team of the year contenders for sure. NYR’s opening aerial salvo forced Jungle Kings to regroup. They got heat on Ryan as the crowd chanting “Kevin”. At one point Jungle Kings had Kingsley pinned but referee Jeremie Prater said Kingsley was not the legal man. As Kings argued with Prater, Ryan nailed them with a double missile dropkick and the NYR aerial assault was in full effect, including Kingsley’s Space Flying Tiger Drop. The finish saw both members of NYR on the top rope. Kingsley hit a shooting star press and pinned Lee. Ryan was left high and dry. Looked like cross signals rather than a tease of dissension.
(7) AC Mack defeated Alan Angels in a SWATS Streetfight to win the Southern Honor Championship in 22:19. It was a vastly different match and a much better match than the one they had last month. Mack was a ball of fire early. He used a trash can lid, a kendo stick, and a cookie sheet, then put a toilet seat around Angels’ neck and bonked him with the lid. Mack went for a Mack 10 on the ramp but Angels reversed into a DDT. Angels’ turn with the weapons. He gave Mack a side Russian legsweep with the kendo stick ala Sandman. Mack speared Angels through a door (hollow core) set up in the corner. A battle of kendo sticks ended up with Mack wailing on Angels. Strong Mack chant here. Angels blocked Mack’s enzugiri with a chair and applied an ankle lock, then a single leg crab using the kendo stick. Angels was bleeding from his hand. Angels tried for his Wingsnapper finisher but couldn’t get it. Mack hit the wingsnapper but Angels kicked out. Ali and Knight ran to ringside. Black and Huckaby showed up and the two teams battled to the back. Mack got distracted for way too long for such a smart guy and Angels got him with the Mack 10. The insane spot of the match saw both men in peril of falling before Mack drove Angels through a door off a ladder.
Jordyn and Johnson hit the ring. Jordyn gave Angels the title so he could hit Mack with it. Before he could do so, Jordyn gave him a low blow. Mack laughed his evil laugh. Johnson blasted Angels with a running knee. Fans chanted “this is awesome”. Mack gave Angels a Mack 10 on the title to win the match.
New Era celebrated with Mack. A healthy percentage of the fans were chanting “AC Mack” It will be interesting to see how booker Dylan Frymyer handles this issue.
NOTES:Tim Holman (Disruptor Pro), Nick McDaniel (Tapped Out Wrestling Podcast), Rob Brodhecker (GWH) and Jeffrey Taylor (he’s everywhere) were among the notables in the house..Thank you to the svelte, tall and handsome Darryl Collins for his assistance.
