Photos Courtesy of Harold Jay Taylor From Larry Goodman: Southern Fried Championship Wrestling presented “Christmas Carnage”, the...
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| Photos Courtesy of Harold Jay Taylor |
From Larry Goodman:
Southern Fried Championship Wrestling presented “Christmas Carnage”, the first of two shows for the holiday season.
Georgia Wrestler of the Year nominee AJ Steel defeated Nigel Sherrod to win the heavyweight title. Silent Kill Syndicate (Azrael & Supernatural) won the tag titles from Trinity. Both of those title switches are positives positive moves for SFCW towards upgrading the credibility of their titles and match quality on top of the card.
The quality of matches matters far less than compelling stories when it comes to drawing a house, especially in places like Monroe. Along those lines, I haven’t seen a better job of kicking off a feud than the work by Jagged Edge and Steel last night. Talented performers given free reign can lead to good things. Jagged Edge appeared four times, which would be ridiculous on most shows, but there was a method to this madness.
Attendance at the Nowell Rec Center was 180. Most Georgia indy promotions would be thrilled with that crowd. It was nothing special for SFCW. The Rec Center is serviceable venue for wrestling. It looks like the type of building that would amplify crowd noise but that didn’t seem to be the case. SFCW is pretty much a no frills production. They do have a functional security team. It was one of the few small town shows I’ve attended that didn’t start with the Star Spangled Banner.
Much like Shane Noles at Peach State and Jerry Palmer in his heyday at Anarchy, promoter Charles Anschutz is tuned in to the local community. SFCW started running Monroe in the summer of 2013 at the American Legion Hall before moving to the larger Rec Center. In addition to copious Facebook postings, Anschutz posters the town and advertises on the local radio station where he had ties from his days announcing for football games.
SFCW is work in progress that is moving in the right direction. Their talent roster is an extremely mixed bag. Anschutz has brought in a lot of name people from a lot of place and will continue to do so. Some of their wrestlers can and do work on top all over the state. Some of their regulars couldn’t get booked at an Anarchy or an Empire if their lives depended on it. SFCW is using some interesting up and coming prospects, although they didn’t make the best use of them last night. I suspect the uneven quality the show bothered me a lot more than the SFCW fans.
(1) Kody Jack defeated Damien Silva (with Billy Jack) to win the Monroe City Championship in 8:32. The City Championship is a throwback reminiscent of the Cordele City Championship once held by Rob Van Dam. They went at it hot and heavy right from the opening bell, evidently based on past issues. Billy was managing against his son Kody, who is cocky little jerk. Silva was in his element, the polar opposite of his AWE appearance vs. Francisco Ciatso. This was high work rate with more aerial stuff than the other matches. It wasn’t bad but it’s safe to say neither will be mistaken for RVD. Silva’s spear was the best spot of the match and looked like a finisher. Billy interfered on behalf of babyface Silva. That was weird but not as weird as the confusing mess of a finish. Ace Heffner came out and argued with Billy. Kody killed Silva dead with a superkick, but referee Wolfman's gaze was glued to the extracurricular activity so they had to redo the spot. Why would the ref be preoccupied with two guys that weren’t interfering?
Postmatch – a scrawny older wrestler called Lobo hit the ring, laid out both competitors and tried to abscond with the belt only to get clocked by Billy. Silva got mad at Billy. Not sure why since all he did was try to help. Billy walked out on Silva. It was hard to make sense of any of this without knowing the back story.
Jagged Edge (with Joseph Brock III) cut a promo stating all he needed to become the SFCW Heavyweight Champion was opportunity. He was out to destroy everything that was good and “what Jagged Edge wants, Jagged Edge gets.”
(2) Beautiful Bald Besties (Michael Stevens & Zac Edwards) defeated The Dream Team (Pandora & Josh Storm) in 10 minutes. Stevens patronized Pandora bigtime and got slapped in the face. That set up heat on Pandora and the first chant of the night. Hot tag. House cleaning by Storm with a standing sliced bread on Stevens and a side effect on Edwards. The finish saw Edwards trip up Pandora from the outside. Steven then hit Pandora with a loaded bag for the 1-2-3. This match worked for me. Stevens was the focal point. He’s so damn entertaining. And he can wrestle. Pandora is way over and the scenario was a surefire for sympathy.
(3) Kameron Kade defeated Trevor Aeon to retain the Cruiser Cup Championship in 10:26. Kade was much better than I remember him being at Anarchy. His use of facial expressions and body language to connect with the crowd is much improved. This match would have made a good opener because they worked wrestling holds. I cling to the idea that establishing the credibility of the wrestling matters but a fair number of indy shows don’t think that way it seems. Kade’s arm drags were super crisp. Aeon’s frustration led to shortcuts being taken. Aeon planted Kade’s face on the top turnbuckle with a flapjack to take over. Kade’s chops only fired Aeon up. Aeon countered Kade’s suplex with a bigtime DDT but Kade kicked out at two. An exasperated Aeon waded in full bore and Kade caught him with a backslide. This was as good as it was going to get for technical wrestling for the night.
(4) Former SFCW Champion Logan Creed & SFCW Wrestler of the Year TA Stanton (with Santa Claus) defeated Jagged Edge & Tetchi Makuji (with Joseph Brock III) in 15 minutes. Makuji is an African American doing a Puroresu gimmick. Brock cut a prematch promo. He’s a wimpy, pouty-faced runt that gets frequent “nerd” chants. Creed said Santa (ring announcer Rick Richards) would be their special guest manager. Referee Patrick called for the bell with all four man in the ring brawling. The match was as good as Jagged Edge and Creed could make it. The heels got lengthy heat on Stanton who sells like a lump of coal. Makuji is an African American. He does a Great Muta gimmick but looks more like Kamala. Makuji unleashed the martial arts attack on Stanton complete with the Muta powerdrive elbow and the red mist. Jagged brought a taped stick into play. They did the no tag switches. The match broke down after Creed got the hot tag. Brock interfered to thwart Creed’s ascent to the top rope. Creed shoved Brock down and put on his glasses. Makuji fogged Creed with the green mist, but his eyes were protected by Brock’s glasses. Creed then chokebombed Makuji for the pin. The ref was out of position so the timing of the count was off. The officiating at SFCW really needs work.
Postmatch, Santa choked Makuji (payback from a previous incident). Creed opened a Christmas package filled while switches and spanked Brock while Stanton held him down. The ever so crafty Jagged Edge was long gone so as not to be tainted by the humiliation.
(5) Silent Kill Syndicate (Azrael & Supernatural) defeated Trinity (Big Andy & Chris Nelms with Tim Rice) to win the SFCW Tag Team Championship in 11:45. In my wildest dreams, I never imagined Azrael being involved in a worst match of the year candidate. Sadly, the greatest tag team wrestler on the planet couldn’t have salvaged this abomination. It started out OK with Azrael chopping the hell out of Nelms. When Supernatural wrestles huge guys like Trinity, it they don’t know how to sell for him his offense looks silly. This looked silly. Andy rammed Supernatural’s back into the post to start the heat. After the tag was made, SKS double-teamed Nelms and that didn’t look right either. Referee Wolfman lost track of the legal men and made an illegal pin count. Trinity screwed up an intentional screw up. Trinity gave Azrael a double-team drop or some such. They had him up there forever trying to figure out what to do. The finish was botch-o-mania. Nelms tried to use the powder on Supernatural. He was supposed to miss Supernatural and accidentally blind his partner, but the powder didn’t hit anyone as far as I could tell. Rice’s attempt disruption was cut off by Supernatural. Azrael powerbombed Supernatural onto Andy and both SKS members rolled him up.
Postmatch, Wolfman found the powder but did the right thing and raised SKS’s hands. In a masterpiece of understatement, Anshulz said the finish was a little shaky and ordered a rematch on January 3. SKS didn’t look happy about accepting the titles under the prevailing circumstance.
(6) Jagged Edge won a 14 man Royal Rumble to become the number one contender for the SFCW Heavyweight Championship in 19:45. Colt Calloway and Odinson started with a new competitor entering every 60 seconds as follows: Drew Adler, Rice, Roscoe Ray, Jamie Holmes, Stitch Sypher, Twisted, Lobo (with the Monroe City belt and Heffner), Dark Mon, Cody Mcculley, Silva, Maverick and Jagged. There were some interesting talents in this match. Some not so much. Dark Mon is a specimen, a black monster along the lines of Se7en except taller. I had previously seen Stitch exclusively as a babyface and thoroughly enjoyed him as a heel here. Odinson is a powerhouse and he has skills. Adler is always fun to watch, but didn’t really get a chance to show what he can do in this type of match. Cowboy Way (Ray & Holmes) doubled up on Rice and gave him the heave ho. Rice had to sit at ringside wearing toy reindeer antlers as a consequence of being the first one eliminated. Silva made a beeline for Lobo and they both went out together. McCollum went out over the middle rope but the ref counted it anyway. It came down to Dark Mon, Adler, Stitch and Jagged. Stitch was hanging on by thread on several occasions. Jagged dumped Dark Mon and forced the pesky Stitch to lose his grip on the ropes by biting his hand. The final struggle between Jagged and Adler had real intensity to it. Jagged maneuvered Adler to the apron and snapped his neck off the ropes.
(7) AJ Steel defeated Nigel Sherrod (with Maverick) to win the SFCW Heavyweight Championship in 15 minutes. Sherrod ran. Steel finally got his hand on Sherrod and beat his ass but good. Steel brought the Beell throw out of mothballs. It’s an impressive move when properly executed by a power guy like Steel. Steel lit Sherrod up with chops. The tide turned when Sherrod ducked and Steel injured his shoulder running into the post. Sherrod wisely kept Steel on the mat and tried to submit him with a Fujiwara armbar and a hammerlock. The crowd got behind Steel. He hit the Steel City Bomb on Sherrod but Maverick pulled Wolfman out of the ring. Wolfman DQed Sherrod, but Anschutz said the fans didn’t pay for a BS finish like that and restarted the match. Maverick tried to give Sherrod a chair. Creed ran down to snatch the chair out of Sherrod’s hands and Steel hit a second Steel City Bomb to win the title. An OK match for what it was. I wasn’t expecting a mat classic. Sherrod respects his limitations as a wrestler.
The postmatch mic work between Jagged Edge and Steel was absolutely fabulous. This was character development the old school way. They revealed a lot about their characters in this unscripted exchange. Jagged congratulated Steel on winning the title and said old Jagged was going to him the night off because he just had a match. Steel said you don’t have to give me a damn thing and we can do this right now. They went back and forth with all this this great, spontaneous, outlandish stuff that made you want to see the match. Steel kept baiting Jagged. Jagged was on the brink of losing it, but concluded with another time, another place because he didn’t want any excuses.
Anshutz said he knew both of them were booked up for a while so he was looking at February or so for the title match. Steel gave Jagged one last chance to get in the ring and so he could get a little bit of that ass. Jagged backed away with a smile. The night ended with the fans chanting for Steel.
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