Southern Fried presented Ultimate Battleground III, featuring a 25 man rumble royal to determine the number one contender for the Southern Fried Championship held by Mikal Judas.
It was essentially a one match show and oh, what a match it was. Todd Sexton’s booking acumen was in full effect. He laid out a beauty. Multiple storylines were advanced in clear, compelling fashion with fun surprises along the way. For a little inside baseball, Anarchy and Southern Honor storylines were brought into the mix. Despite running an hour long, the match had few dead spots and never got clustery because rarely were more than six guys in the ring at any given time. The rest of the show fed into the Battleground match.
The announced card for October 3 flows organically from the all the Battleground fallout.
Attendance at the outdoor space adjoining Cross Church was approximately 300. I was struck by how badly the sound evaporated into nothing compared to the open air pavilion for the LPWG show in Dublin last week.
Southern Fried owner David Manders welcomed the Southern Fried Nation. Ring announcer Rick Richards followed with a 10 bell honoring “Bullet” Bob Armstrong.
(1) David Ali (with CT Keys & Ryan Rembrandt) defeated Ben Buchanan in 7:25. Ali offered to save Buchanan. Ben wasn’t having it. Said he had known Ali for 5 years and didn’t drive 2 hours to be saved, pinned or screwed by Ali’s punks. Well done by Ben -- clear, direct and delivered with fire.
Ali immediately established that he was a chickenshit cheater as his goons hovered at ringside. Buchanan manhandled Ali -- snake eyes, big boot and a stalling gutwrench. Ali seized on an opening to damage Ben’s knee. With the knee giving him problems, Buchanan managed to plant Ali with an Oklahoma Stampede. Keys put Ali’s foot on the ropes. Massive distraction and interference by Rembrandt and Keys ensued. Ali pinned Buchanan with feet on the ropes and got the hell out of there. Good action and a great job by all in visually getting across the insurmountable odds facing Ben.
Postmatch -- Buchanan complained to no avail. Fans were not happy with referee KT.
(2) The Good Sisters (Lizzy & Payton Blair) defeated Crystal Rose & Trixie in 8:58. Southern Fried fans had been requesting a women’s match. This was not the woman’s match they had been clamoring for, at least not the fans at ringside who broke out a “boring” chant, rarely heard at Southern Fried. Crystal was better than the rest but unable to elevate the match beyond mud show quality. It was painfully apparent how little experience the other three have. Payton took the heat. Rather than tagging when she had the chance, she wandered to the opposite corner so Trixie could get in this cartwheel move that did her no favors. Lizzy cleaned up on Crystal and pinned her after causing a her to collide with Trixie. The current state of affairs for women’s wrestling in Georgia is fairly abysmal.
The Great Debate: JBE’s Dr. Brock III vs. leader of the Approved, Adrian Hawkins with special moderator John Johnson was next up. Brock continues to do a tremendous job of babyfacing himself with the fans after being the eternal heel manager. The debate disintegrated when Brock suggested that since he was OK with being called nerd, Hawkins should be OK with being called Adriana. Hawkins threatened Brock with bodily harm. Jagged Edge hit the ring to defend Brock. Jagged said this was Southern Fried family and invoked the name of Charles Anschutz. Said Hawkins chose not to step over the line last time, so he was going to step over the line for him.
Approved member Bobby Moore clocked Jagged from behind. Adonis joined the party and they beat Jagged down while Hawkins looked on approvingly. JBE’s Brian Kane hit the ring with a steel chair and was joined by Tetchi Makuji. Approved took a powder. Brock called Hawkins a loser and coward. This was a hot segment.
(3) Special Challenge: Mikal Judas & Sal Rinauro defeated The Besties (Marv Stevens & Zac Edwards) in 15:28. A 10 minute story watered down by going 15 minutes. Double clothesline by Judas before the bell and we were off and running. Marv looked absolutely jacked. Judas abused The Besties in the early going. Zac interfered and Besties took over on Rinauro. Cool hot tag tease wherein Sal escaped a double team, decked both Besties and had his agonizing crawl to Judas cut off at the last split second. Corey Hollis came out and lured Judas into chasing after him, leaving Sal with nobody to tag. Sal made an awesome one against two comeback. A little too awesome for the sake of credibility and Besties’ future prospects here. Judas never returned. Something to think about. Besties finally put Sal away with their signature double team finisher.
Crowd applauded Sal for his efforts.
(4) Sal Rinauro won the Ultimate Battleground 25 man Battle Royal in 1:00:10. A new combatant entered every 90 seconds, elimination could occur only by being tossed over the top rope and both feet touching the floor. John Johnson was the special referee.
Order of entrants: 1 & 2) Anarchy Champion Shane Marx and Billy Buck 3) Scott Mayson 4) Jay 2Strong. 5) Matt Sells 6) William Huckaby 7) Shane Noles 8) Hold My Beer Hanson 9) Proc “The Croc” Johnson 10) Geter 11) Tyler Cullprett 12) Moore 13) Rembrandt 14) Kane – still looking like he hasn’t missed any meals during the pandemic 15) Xavier Reyes 16) Keys 17) Griff Garrison 18) Stryknyn 19) Buchanan 20) Makuji 21) AC Mack 22) Rinauro 23) Sunny Daze 24) Ali 25) Hollis
Notable happenings:
n Marx starting gave Hankins a chance to talk and he took full advantage of the opportunity by cutting a hellacious promo. Charles would have loved it. Said Southern Fried traded in a fat man for Barney Fife.
n Sells came to the ring guzzling a beer. Hanson was over due to working the crowd earlier in the evening. It was only natural for them to want have a beer together. Mayson admonished them because this was church grounds. They made him the first elimination and sat down at the ringside table to drink
n Hankins got so irate when Buck eliminated Marx that he got in the ring and took a bionic elbow from Buck for his troubles.
n Geter. The fans popped for his appearance. Everything he did looked great. He got an OHH! reaction when he freight-trained Rembrandt in the corner.
n Huck and Geter rekindling their violent relationship from Anarchy.
- The South Georgia crew – Proc the Croc, 2Strong and Hanson acquitted themselves well in general.
- Garrison’s spears. Guy looks like a star.
- Stryk and Reyes getting into another ridiculously stiff spudfest as their personal war continues.
- JBE vs. Approved woven into the fabric of the match.
- Geter and Makuji squaring off. That’s a match I’d like to see.
- SHW booker Sunny Daze aka Dylan Frymyer squaring off with his former champion AC Mack then laying him out with a BlackHole Slam. Mack having the satisfaction of later eliminating Daze.
- After lasting 50 minutes, Buck eliminated Ali with a superkick only to have Ali deck him with the Classics title before departing.
Order of eliminations thus far:
Mayson by Hanson and Sells
Marx by Buck
Sells by Huck
2 Strong and Hanson by Geter
Noles by Moore
Huckaby by Geter
Kane by Moore
Proc the Croc by Reyes
Cullprett by Garrison
Reyes and STryk together
Rembrandt by Buchanan
Geter by Makuji
Moore by Makuji
Keys and Buchanan by Ali
Ali by Buck
Buck by Hollis
Daze by Mack
It boiled down to Garrison, Mack, Rinauro, Hollis and Makuji.
The Approved continued to hang around ringside. Hawkins sprayed Makuji in the face and he got dumped by Mack and Garrison. The rest of JBE came to ringside and got into a brouhaha with Approved. In the ring, big moves abound until all four are down.
Sexton was introduced as entrant number 26. Manders was PISSED. He got in Todd’s face. As Sexton argued with Manders, Hollis tossed him out as soon as he got in. Manders and Sexton kept jawing with Kelly Sexton out there trying in vain to make peace.
Garrison eliminated Hollis but referee JJ was tied up with the extracurricular maelstrom and didn’t see it happen. JJ turned around just in time to see Hollis eliminate Garrison. Hollis just looks more big league. His character is as despicable as ever. Hollis and Mack teamed up against Rinauro until sly dog Mack tried to pull a fast one on Hollis. Hollis managed to stay in the game and dump Mack out as he was about to eliminate Rinauro. Hollis and Rinauro battled on the apron with both men hanging on by a thread. Rinauro ended up in the ring and knocking Hollis to the floor with a superkick.
Postmatch – Hollis started beating on Rinauro. Judas came to the ring. Hollis bailed out grinning. Sal was sitting in the ring, doing that autistic rocking while clutching the Southern Fried title in his hands. Seeing Judas towering over him, Sal handed the champion his title, but not before momentarily refusing to release his grip.
For October 3 – Judas vs. Rinauro – first ever singles match; Styrk vs. Reyes in a no ropes dogfight – KO or submission to win; Hollis vs. Garrison; Ali vs. Buck for the Classic Championship and JBE vs. Approved for the tag titles.
NOTES: Wrestling notable in the crowd included Stevie Richards, Luke and Perry Hawx, Andrew Alexander and Billy Buck’s girlfriend still looking for that ring and not a 16 X 16…Hawx was there with some of the crew from the TV series “Heels” which Is shooting in Atlanta starring Stephen Amell. Hawx was hired as coordinator for the wrestling scenes and will be based in Atlanta through March. Perry is Luke’s assistant and has a role in the show.
