(1) Trever Aeon defeated Orion Bishop and Brian Blaze (with Matthew Hankins) to retain the PWA No Limits Championship in 10 minutes on the nose. Aeon beat Blaze for the title in March and went to draw with Bishop at the May show. Triple threats are not my cup of tea for title matches. That said, this was a well laid out three way. This was a good match hampered by slippery condition caused by all the sweating in the heat. Early on, it was the Orion Bishop show and he put on a good one. After big moves by all three, they did a tower of doom that left all three down. Blaze gave Bishop a low blow as went for a powerbomb. Aeon hit the Gothplex on Blaze and pinned him with the Scarmaker.
(2) Marko's $1000 Stimulus Money Challenge: Marko Wicker and Romeo Vezerian went to a 10 minute draw. The crowd was really into the match and Romeo as a babyface. It probably helped that Romeo teased using the money to make concessions free if he won. Gotta say I miss him singing the French national anthem as a heel. Romeo told the fans this was his first match in 15 months (a shoot as he has been out of the country). As they neared the end of the 10 minute time limit, Romeo got a succession of closer near falls building to the headlock driver. The bell rang before referee Santiago's count reached three. Marko gleefully escaped with his money.
(3) Violent Gentlemen (Charles Zanders & Scott Morgan with Shane Mako & Katie Gannon) defeated Southern Strong Styles (Proc Johnston & Jay 2Strong) and All Star Special (Huckaby & Hold My Beer Hanson) and Shane Noles & Dawon Kimbrell and Trey Shaw & Brother Azriel in a gauntlet match to win the ProSouth tag titles (27:55). SSS and All-Star Special started. All-Star Special came out to "Friends in Low Places" and brought their own streamers. Hanson and SSS know each other well The punishment Hanson took from them looked realistic. 2Strong used a dizzying airplane spin. Huck took the hot tag and pinned Croc with an assisted sunset flip at 3:58. Shaw & Azriel were next. Hanson's beer nuts failed to connect as did Huck's cannonball. Huck and Hanson were counted out at 9:20. Noles & Kimbrell were next. Kimbrell is a gem from Alabama who is relatively unknown in Georgia. He had his newly won New Era Open title with him. Nice. His abs are unreal. Kimbrell whipped Shaw into a Noles clothesline at 16:43. Violent Gentlemen was the final team in the gauntlet. Noles had Zanders beaten with a piledriver when Mako blinded referee Lewis Santiago. Morgan took a chair to Noles. Kimbrell rescued Noles for a big pop...then turned on him by Pillmanizing his arm. Noles was in agony as Zanders pinned him.
Postmatch - Ringleader Mako said this was all Noles' fault for not giving him the recognition he deserved. Mako offered Noles a chance to answer on the mic. Noles was covered in a mass of sweaty streamers as he crawled to reach the mic. He never got there. Violent Gentlemen locked him in double submission while Kimbrell drove a chair into him.
Kimbrell's turn and the subsequent attack on Noles was wonderfully sick stuff. Noles sold the beating as if he had been crippled and cried out in pain as he was helped out of the ring. On the whole, a little less of this match would have been more given the conditions and the length of the show.
(4) Jason Boyd defeated Matthew Hankins in 2:15. The stipulation was Boyd was out as ring announcer if he lost the match. Announcer Eddie Layne explained that the animosity between Hankins led to Hankins attacking Boyd two months ago and Boyd challenging Hankins to a match. Hankins belittled Boyd and received the crowd hate he deserved. The crowd clearly going to be rooting for Boyd with everything they had. Hankins threw powder in Boyd's eyes before the bell. The match was just what it should have been. Boyd scored two single leg takedowns (wrestled amateur in his youth), knocked Hankins down with a punch in the face and pinned him with a stunner.
Bagwell was helped into the ring for photo ops with the fans during the intermission. His right knee was heavily braced and was limited to hobbling movement. I thought no way he's doing a match. Kimbrell and Mako jumped him. Romeo hit the ring with a chair to drive Mako and Kimbrell off.
(5) Dawson Kimbrell & Shane Mako (with Katie Gannon) defeated Buff Bagwell & Romeo Vezerian in 9:18. I feared this would be a sad spectacle. That is not at all what occurred. For a guy struggling to walk, Bagwell was in longer and did a lot more than he had any right to. It became clear Bagwell was going gut this thing out, fight through the pain and perform to the best of his abilities no matter what. Everyone in the match worked together to make that happen and the fans were totally supportive. Buff took the hot tag. He was immobile. The crowd popped as Kimbrell and Mako were literally running into his clotheslines. Buff was distracted by the presence of the amazingly well endowed Katie Gannon standing on the apron as Mako slowly crept in to schoolboy Bagwell for the three count.
The crowd applauded Bagwell after the match. Romeo broke out the Buff is the stuff moves and the double biceps. Bagwell was totally entertained.
(6) Geter pinned Austin Towers in a no DQ-no time limit match at 10:10. The back story was Towers showed up at Peachstate as Ace's partner and immediately turned on him to help Undeniable but has not been back to deal with Geter. The the crowd was hot for it, not quite as insanely heated as their stuff at Anarchy has been. It was the stiff brawl you would expect. They beat the hell out of each other with chops. The move of the match was Geter's overhead belly to belly suplex on the 7 foot giant. On the outside, Towers crumbled Geter with a pair of low blows and did a number on him with a steel chair. Back inside, Towers missed with the Kobeya kick, and Geter leveled Towers with a lariat to beat him clean in the middle of the ring.
I guess this feud is over here for now and will continue on elsewhere. Geter and Towers have wrestled each other eight times with two clean wins apiece, the rest have been inconclusive finishes.
Layne reintroduced Boyd as Peachstate's ring announcer for the main event. The crowd greeted him with welcome befitting a conquering hero.
(7) Ace Haven (with Amy Haven) defeated Shane Marx (with Matt Hankins) to win the Peachstate Heritage Championship in 20:09. Both managers were ejected in the opening minutes. Referee Darryl Hall ejected Amy for throwing her shoe at Hankins. Hall caught Hankins trying to use said shoe on Ace. Hall's wind up and pitch when he ejected Hankins was tremendous and got one of the biggest pops of the night. Ace hit a pescado and took it to the champion outside the ring. Hall could have counted them out. Hall instead said they had to finish this match in the ring. Back inside, Marx immediately planted Ace with a Rockbottom to turn the match around. Marx kept cutting Ace off. Ace's punches had nothing behind them. Ace tried for the Endgame (pedigree). Marx countered with a backdrop that sent Ace careening over the top rope to the floor. A push up dropick was the spark for Ace's comeback. Marx rolled through on Ace's high crossbody and hit the death valley driver but Ace kicked out. Marx set for the brainbuster DDT. Ace countered with an Ace cutter, then hit a springboard cutter to win the title. They had the crowd and built to a satisfying and dramatic finish.
Ace called for family, friends and fans to join him in the ring. The babyface wrestlers emerged from the dressing room to join in the celebration. It was quite a scene.
Ace cut an impromptu promo that was stuff great babyfaces are made of. He referenced his long journey gain the title (as one of Peachstate's longest tenured wrestlers, Ace had held the No Limits title and one half of the tag titles but never the big prize) and said Amy had been beside him through all of it. To the fans: "you did as much as I did and kept Peachstate wrestling alive." Noles was moved to tears. The fans responded with a "thank you Ace" chant.
As the celebration was winding down, Joe Black appeared in the aisle to take a long hard look at Ace.
NOTES: Peachstate return to Church Without Walls on August 21...During his tribute to Orndorff, Noles said he used the piledriver as his finisher because of Orndorff's influence on him....Gannon came in from Knoxville where she is training under Tom Prichard and is getting ready for her inring debut.
