From Larry Goodman: Alan Angels left Eye of the Storm a bloody and beaten man but still the Southern Honor Wrestling Champion. AC...
From Larry Goodman:
Alan Angels left Eye of the Storm a bloody and beaten man but still the Southern Honor Wrestling Champion. AC Mack defeated Angels to earn a future title shot but paid a heavy price. Mack was beaten to a pulp by the New Era after the match and carried out of the ring on a stretcher.
The overarching story at Southern Honor continues to be New Era (Angels, David Ali, Dani Jordyn, O’Shay Edwards, Owen Knight and Lee Johnson) versus anyone that dares to get in their way. New Era members were featured in four segments of the show.
A subplot emerged with the arrival of Corey Hollis that will surely lead to a cataclysmic confrontation with Logan Creed. This turn of events was foreshadowed at the February SHW show by a creepy video depicting some unknown person spying on proud new parents, Logan and Brooklyn Creed at their home. Hollis disrupted Logan’s match by appearing onstage with Brooklyn watching in horror as Hollis ran a baby carriage off the stage.
Joe Black got perhaps the biggest win of his career, scoring a clean pin on EVOLVE Champion Austin Theory.
Lynch Mob won the blow off match of their feud with Jungle Kings in an extreme rules match that contained some psychotic spots.
This was my second trip to Southern Honor. I have totally enjoyed both of my experiences -- top tier talent, a hot crowd and the most professional presentation in Georgia wrestling -- what’s not to like?
Paid attendance was 553. No problems there. Security has clearly been beefed up since the trash throwing incident.
SHW is a once-a-month habit for their loyal fanbase and I don’t see that changing. Long run, I think SHW would be better served by a two and a half hour show rather than the three hour show they ran last night.
(1) Joe Black defeated EVOLVE Champion Austin Theory in 13:20. No heel in this match -- dueling chants and split crowd. Perhaps more Theory fans but the Black supporters were louder. Black has gotten over with the SHW fans on the strength of being a bad ass, great wrestler. Everything about this match was crisp and solid. For technical excellence, no other match on the show could follow it. Great near fall leading to the finish. Theory got a close near fall with that sweet torture rack bomb of his. Black escaped Ataxia and speared Theory for the win.
Theory extended his hand. Black thought about it before accepting.
New Era came to the ring and surrounded Black. Ali did the talking. Said he had just spent an agonizing 15 minutes with Rich Ward, who was a little bitch that never watches wrestling. Ali offered Black a spot in New Era. Black bailed on the situation.
Angels said they didn’t need Black He made fools the fans when he came out at the 7th member of New Era. Promoter Lamb was a tyrant that needed to be put down. New Era were the real leaders, better than the rest of the roster including Mack.
Lamb came onstage to a huge “Gary” chant. Lamb said seven was a powerful biblical number, the number of completion, and the savior of SHW was standing in our ring. Give me a freaking break. He was going to make Angel’s life hell every month if he got through Mack and if any member of New Era physically interfered in the title match tonight, Mack would automatically be champion.
The heat for the entire segment was off the charts. Just one thing – New Era has only six members.
(2) Cody Vance defeated ‘The Green Machine” Mike Orlando in 9:03. Orlando is a muscular 275 pounder out of New Jersey. Former GPW Champion Vance has been getting a strong push as a heel. Match pitted the power of Orlando against the wiles of Vance. Match was OK but the crowd had little investment in it. Orlando is very New Jersey and not the type of babyface that appeals to people of Canton. Vance has added some dastardly tactics to his game but there’s still a missing ingredient to his character. Vance caught Orlando with a cutter as he came off the top and a slingshot spear and was highly upset when neither move put Orlando away, so Vance got a chair. As referee Jeremie Prater was getting rid of the chair, Vance gave Orlando a low blow, then pinned him after an elevated spinning flatliner.
(3) Corey Hollis defeated Chris Crunkk in 11:40. Both competitors were making their SHW debuts. Hollis did what Hollis does and, once he started belittling Crunkk on the mic, the fans really started to hate on him. Crowd wasn’t entirely sure what to make of Crunkk but they got behind him with a “let’s go fishnet” chant. Crunkk showed good fire on his comeback. Some cool moves but strikes looked light compared to the stellar opening match. Crunkk got a near fall with a variant of the GTS. Hollis tossed Crunkk out of the ring and hit a brainbuster DDT just as Crunkk reentered.
Dani Jordyn cut a promo before her match as she was showered with chants of “dumpster diva” and such. She wasn’t going to repeat what Jake Roberts called her on last time because this was a family show and he wasn’t here tonight because she got a restraining order against him.
Roberts appeared on screen. Roberts assured Jordyn that he wasn’t sending Allie Recks out their alone and that he would be back to put the squeeze on her (hint, hint).
Recks came out with Ashton Starr. This was an inspired pairing. They had chemistry. The crowd now loves Starr and Allie got the rub. She was instantly over.
(4) Allie Recks (with Ashton Starr) defeated Dani Jordyn (with David Ali) in 7:50. Tremendous heat. Crowd was chanting “Allie before the bell rang. Recks’high impact offense looked good and she wasn’t shy about laying in her strikes. .Ali interfered to give Jordyn the advantage. When Recks hit a Yoshi Tonic off the middle rope, the “Allie” chant was huge. They traded hard shots and near falls. Jordyn called for her finisher but Recks countered with Eat Defeat. Ali got on the apron. Starr pulled him down but Jordyn capitalized with a DDT. Starr jumped on the apron to distract Jordyn and Recks rolled her up. The pop was huge. Match couldn’t have worked better.
Crowd was ragging on Jordyn something fierce after the match.
(5) Lynch Mob (Joey & Matt Lynch) defeated Jungle Kings (Lex Lee & Kevin Coffman) in an extreme rules match at 24:37. The feud had been raging since day one of SHW. This was a wild and dangerous match with more action outside the ring than inside the ring and yes, they got a “this is awesome” chant. One technical improvement Lamb wants to make is the ability to show live action on the big screens. This match really needed it. Matt gave Lee a stunner off the apron through chairs. Lee gave Matt a package piledriver off the stage through a table. Coffman speared Joey through a table that was propped up in the corner. Coffman stacked up a ridiculous amount of chairs in the middle of the ring. It took him a long time to hunt down enough chairs. End result- Joey gave Coffman a Canadian Destroyer off the top rope onto the chairs. It was a direct hit and should have been the finish since nothing they could do after that would look more devastating. But Coffman kicked out and shot Joey the double birds. The finish was a moonsault onto Coffman covered with chairs. At the time, I thought Coffman should have stayed down and been carried out, but given the ending the show, I get why that didn’t happen.
Postmatch – “Respect” chant for Jungle Kings.
(6) The New Era (O’Shay Edwards & David Ali & Lee Johnson & Owen Knight) defeated Logan Creed & Sunny Daze & Kevin Ryan & Ashton Starr (with Ravenna Vein) in 16:20. Match had great heat and loads of action but was kind of a cluster. Babyface domination early. Ryan made a blind tag that Creed didn’t seem overly thrilled about and New Era got heat on him. Ryan had an obvious chance to tag and started what turned into a sequence of crazy ass dives and big moves instead. SHW attracts a smart crowd. Lapses in logic are not lost on them. The match was breaking down all around referee Todd Fox. Three New Era members tried to attack Creed received a double choke slam and powerbomb for their efforts. Awesome spot. The lights went out. Hollis appeared onstage with a distraught Brooklyn and did the deal with the baby carriage. Creed made a beeline for the carriage. Daze called after Creed and was a sitting duck for New Era.
Daze lost what’s left of his mind after the match and laid out Starr and Ryan. This was the second show in a row Creed had left Daze in the lurch due to extracurricular issues.
A Chris Jericho video was shown on the big screen promoting his appearance at the Artimus Pyle benefit concert at the Action building on March 9.
(7) AC Mack defeated SHW Champion Alan Angels in a non-title match to earn a championship match (18:12). This was right up there with the opener for best match honors. Angels was runner up for Georgia’s best technical wrestler of the year and won the award for most improved. Mack won for performer of the year and his in ring skills have advanced to where they are more impressive than his mic skills. The story of the match was Angels working on Mack’s arm while Mack was focusing on Angel’s leg. Mack was unleashing wicked kicks to Angel’s leg. Angels was bleeding from the nose. That’s been a fairly frequent occurrence for him. Mack did the spinaroonie that inevitably leads to a climbing enzuigiri but Angels had it scouted. Angels then hit a pair of frogsplashes but Mack kicked out. Mack connected with the enzuigiri, then a superplex, then a flatliner variation I had never seen him use before. New Era members Knight and Johnson came to ringside. Mack knocked Knight off the apron with a superkick. Meanwhile, Johnson was handing the title to Angels, who blasted Mack with the belt. That looked like it, Crowd went nuts when Mack kicked out. Mack tried for the Mack 10. Angels reversed and tried to beat the cocky little bastard with his own finisher. Mack countered with a jackknife pin for a 1-2-3. The Action building erupted.
Mack was immediately subjected to a massive beatdown from the New Era. They took turns hitting finishers on him. Mack must be a real SOB because nobody came to help. The show ended with the crowd in silence as Mack was stretchered out.
NOTES: The next SHW event will be The Summit on March 22. They’re taking April off and will return on May 4…Lamb posted about meeting with a heathen (surely a reference to Logan Creed) about starting a Southern Honor Dungeon training school…Georgia notable in attendance (and I’m sure there were more) included Fry Daddy, Jeffrey Taylor, Shane Mackey, David Weakley, Myron Fancher, and Nick McDaniel (Tapped Out Wrestling Podcast), Tim Holman (Disruptor Pro)…Corey Tatum was at ringside so be on the lookout for some awesome photos of the show.
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