Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment Report from Atlanta on August 30

Photos Courtesy of Corey Tatum Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment was in the zone at “Follow the White Rabbit”. For the first time...

Photos Courtesy of Corey Tatum

Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment was in the zone at “Follow the White Rabbit”. For the first time in the company’s existence, AWE fully lived up to the W and the E in the name. 

The promotion in search of an audience for their product has found one. 

The crowds at Legacy ATL are growing (100 SRO on Sunday) and they get what AWE is doing. They don’t mind the R-rated mindset. Four letter words fly freely. Cruel and heartless violence abounds, and the AWE fans wouldn’t have it any other way. They had passion for this show in a way that no AWE crowd has ever had. 

I’m starting to enjoy the funky feeling of the venue. I only wish the ceiling was higher. Guys having to watch their heads on top rope moves is so rinky dink.

AWE continues to present the talent and the unique match ups that cannot be seen anywhere else in Georgia. This show featured top independent talent from Tennessee, North Carolina, and New Jersey.

Throughout the event, the message was to expect the unexpected. I guess Chip Day’s heel turn was somewhat predictable, but little else about the show was.  

And we’re even seeing some follow through on the stories. There’s a strong flavor of Memphis heat in the the booking. The heels are running roughshod. The balance of power is heavily in their favor. It’s not clear who is going to fill the Jerry Lawler role and dish out the comeuppance..The babyfaces receiving the biggest responses (Cedric Alexander and Shane Strickland) are not part of the regular roster. That could become problematic over the long haul.   

Make no mistake, this show had great wrestling. Jimmy Rave and Cedric Alexander had a match of the year candidate in the main event. Good thing, because otherwise the opening match (Day vs. Strickland) would have been as good as it got. 

The interview segments hosted by promoter Josh Wheeler were more in natural flow of the show than they were a month ago. Wheeler is getting more comfortable with the interviewer/ring announcer role. 

Wheeler’s Heineken toast was interrupted by Murder One and The Priscilla Kelly.  Wheeler said he understood that Murder had ordered a twerk contest for September 13. 

Murder set the tone with a promo straight out of the Dark City. The 13^th might be his last day on earth as a free man before going to jail for killing Sabu and he wanted a memory. Murder said Sabu was the talk of the Internet after leaving dog feces, needles and blood in hotel rooms. Sabu wanted to go to heaven and they didn’t even want him in hell. Murder was on a roll. While he was at it, he threatened to take the life of a “pussy ass” fan. Wheeler asked Murder if he knew why Adrian Armour wasn’t there. Murder said he did but he wasn’t a snitch. 

(1) Chip Day defeated Shane Strickland (aka Killshot on Lucha Underground) in 14:26. What a way to start the show. Strickland’s insane athleticism was something to behold. Day’s vaunted arsenal of strikes was giving Stickland all he could handle, but Strickland was strong in that department as well. Way to much great stuff to describe in detail. Down the stretch, Day hit a flying knee to base of Strickland’s neck for a close near fall and called for the Northern Lights Bomb, but Strickland was able to block it. Strickland got a near fall with an amazing move that I can’t even begin to describe.

Good for a“that was awesome” chant and in this case, it truly was. For the finish, Day evaded the Swerve Stomp (top rope double stomp) and rolled Strickland up. A very tough act to follow. 

Postmatch – Standing ovation for Strickland and a “rematch” chant. Strickland said he would give the fans what they wanted when he returned to AWE on October 4. 

The debuting Team IOU (Kerry Awful & Nick Iggy) introduced themselves to the AWE fans with a foul-mouthed, antagonistic promo by Awful running down their scheduled opponents Joe Black and William Huckaby. Fans were hating on them bigtime.  Iggy is now known as the “Down South Dandy”. Iggy wears a suitcoat over his trunks and nonchalantly files his nails. 

 (2) “The Hype” Chris Henry defeated Harlan Hayes in 5:45.  Wheeler announced this as an AWE tryout match. Henry has been training with Robert Gibson and working for promotions in the West Georgia area. Hayes attended Lance Storm’s wrestling school in Calgary.  Henry was clearly the more athletic and more obnoxious of the two, winning the match with a jumping flatliner. I would hazard a guess that the jury is still out on Henry getting a spot with AWE.

Henry kicked Hayes in the kidneys on his way out for good measure.  

(3) Luscious Leron defeated Glenn Matthews in 2:47. Matthews dropped Leron right on his head with an overhead suplex. Marko ran out and blasted Matthews with his protein shake when the ref wasn’t looking. Leron then pinned Matthews with a sitout what a maneuver. 

Postmatch - Polo (with Miss Merica) came out to shake hands with Leron. 

Wheeler called Dementia D’Rose out and announced that going forward, the AWE women’s division (ROAR) would be contested under no God damn rules. That meant the very gay male Ashton Starr could now compete in the ROAR division. D’Rose said she had daddy issues and had no problem with Starr being allowed in. Kiera Hogan disagreed. She said they needed rules and structure. Hogan wanted D’Rose in the ring and didn’t see Kelly, who clubbed Hogan from behind and stomped her ass. D’Rose joined the fray and a crazy free for all ensued. Starr waffled Hogan and Kelly with chairshots. D’Rose no sold her chairshot and started beating on Starr. D’Rose was winding up for the flying ass, so Starr fled the ring.  The stupidly wild nature of this segment was weirdly compelling.

(4) Sylar Cross defeated Iceberg via DQ in 4:45. Wheeler announced this as the final confrontation of The Big Man Challenge. They brawled outside the ring. Cross reversed whip and sent Berg through a section of chairs. This was tight quarters with a packed seating area so people had to time to spare.. Berg reversed a whip sending Cross into the post, then blasted his back with a chairshot that could have been heard clear down at the Varsity. A freight train corner splash by Cross put Iceberg on down, and Cross followed up with a mammoth flying ass. After Cross leveled Iceberg with a clothesline from hell by Cross, Murder One attacked him for the DQ.

Chip Day hit the ring to save Cross. Or so it appeared. Day superkicked Cross, bringing him to his knees. A second superkick and a tornado kick put his lights out. Iceberg gave Cross a Ground Zero splash when he was out cold. This was some kind of sadistic shit and Cross sold the hell out of it. It’s a tough task to for a monster like Cross to get sympathy, but this segment got the job done. Jimmy Rave came out and Day’s membership in The Hierarchy was made official. 

Wheeler asked Day what happened to Armour. Day laughed in diabolical fashion and rolled out of the ring. 

Wheeler called out Owen Knight, announcing him as the 3^rd entrant in Lucky 7 Scramble to determine number one contender. Wheeler told Knight he didn’t have a match because Armour wasn’t there. Knight said fuck Armour not being there, he would fight anyone. Out came Andrew Akins to tell Knight to be careful what he wished for. 

(5) Dark Mon (with Andrew Akins) defeated Owen Knight via count out in 4:14. Dark Mon was accompanied by two goth women wearing sunglasses and toting firearms. The taller of the two had to 6 feet tall and she had blood dripping from her lips. It was quite the bizarre entrance. Dark Mon overwhelmed Knight at opening bell. Knight was in desperation mode. He had no answers. Dark Mon got Knight up for his finisher (a tombstone piledriver from an electric chair position). As his life was passing before his eyes, Knight raked Dark Mon’s eyes and said he was outta there.  

The crowd continued to applaud Dark Mon after the match. This monster is over. 

Wheeler said that Day, Cross, Berg, Dark Mon and Knight were in the Lucky 7 Scramble on October 13 and he would announce Armour’s replacement before the end of the show.

(6) Murder One annihilated Paul Coldheart & C-Dawg in 1:34. C-Dawg never made it into the ring after Murder posted him. Murder crushed Coldheart with a pair of senton backsplashes, and took his head off with a vicious Blazing Lariat.  Now THAT was a squash. 

Postmatch- Murder said evidently some of the fans were pissed at Day judging from what they had already posted on Facebook. Murder said the Hierarchy didn’t have to answer to any of their bitch asses especially Wheeler’s.

(7) Ken Lee defeated Marko (with Miss Merica) and Eli Daniels and Kris Kronk in a fatal four way to earn a spot in the Lucky 7 Scramble at 9:50. Marko again professed that he had given up sex to dedicate his life to protein shakes and lifting weights. He threatened to make Wheeler do burpees if they played his “Marvelous” music again.  Marko tried to use Merica as a shield, but Lee just superkicked her in the face.  It was constant big moves and saves. I don’t know what has gotten into Daniels but he looked great in this match.  All four ended up being out on their feet and went down simultaneously. The crowd was on fire. Marko was about to clock somebody with the protein shake when Matthews ran down to snatch it out of his hand. Lee rolled the stunned Marko up for the 1-2-3. This match was way, way better than I expected it to be. 

Wheeler said Marko had a lot of enthusiasm going into Season 2 but was now 0-3. He wanted to know if the Marko plan was working. Marko left in a huff. It's not like the exercise guru is anything original, but it is working because of the way Marko is embracing the character.

Black and Huckaby cut a promo. Huckaby said he heard they had been degraded by Team IOU. He had that right. Huckaby said Black was built like a black Greek God and he could dead lift a car. Black did an imitation of Awful’s Tennessee marble mouth that had the crowd hooting with laughter.  

(8) Team IOU (Kerry Awful & Nicky Iggy) defeated The Sound & The Fury (William Huckaby & Joe Black) in 13:17. After getting their asses handed to them for the first 5 minutes, Team IOU was able to isolate Black.  Iggy spit in Huckaby’s face and used the distraction to switch without tagging. Huckaby took the hot tag and cleaned house like a black Superman. Iggy saved Awful from being pinned by a double team. Black did the same for Huckaby. Iggy appeared to suffer a knee injury. The crowd bought it and so did Huckaby. Iggy sprayed something in Huckaby’s face, and gave him an elevated stomp to the head (with his injured leg no less) and he was pinned by Awful.  Good stuff. Ripe for a rematch.

(9) Jimmy Rave defeated Cedric Alexander via submission to retain the Georgia Wrestling Crown in 23:25. Alexander matched Rave hold for hold in the chain wrestling department, and used on of Rave’s favorite tricks – stomping his opponent’s elbow. Alexander was in full control until the eight minute mark when a stiff clothesline took the starch out of him. Rave grounded Alexander for bit, but it’s tough to keep a good man down, and Alexander roared back with a vengeance, hitting a pair of suplexes and a Michinoku Driver for a near fall. Rave escaped the Lumbar Check and evaded Alexander’s corner dropkick. Alexander took a major bump and appeared to injure his neck. Rave hit a shadow STO for a near fall. Rave spit in Alexander’s mouth and paid for it absorbing a plethora of Kobashi chops. Rave back with a beautiful superplex that the crowd applauded in spite of themselves. 

They tore each other up with chops. Rave took his signature bump over the top and Alexander wiped him out with a wicked tope. Rave brought the house down with the apron STO for a “that was awesome” chant. Cedric beat the 10 count but looked to have nothing left in the tank. Alexander blocked a second superplex attempt, but Rave got out from under Alexander’s frogsplash. Rave reversed out of the Lumbar Check and went for the Shining Wizard, but Alexander had it scouted and hit the Lumbar Check. Rave rolled out of the ring. Alexander tossed Rave back inside. I got the distinct feeling that I had seen this movie before, as Rave surprised Alexander with an inside cradle and got the Dusk Til Dawn crossface for the tap out victory. What more can I say about the year Rave is having in 2015? I would likely be calling this the singles match of the year if I had not seen his match with Anthony Henry at the Scenic City Tournament. The finishes were similar and although Alexander was a superior opponent, the Scenic City match had more drama since Rave was legitimately knocked out.

The Hierarchy (Murder, Iceberg, Day and Priscilla) came out to congratulate Rave. Despite their presence, Rave shook Alexander’s hand. 

Wheeler announced that he was selecting Alexander to replace Armour in the Lucky 7 Scramble on September 13, and the crowd chanted “Cedric” to close the show.