Pro Wrestling Circuit Report from Thomaston on July 27

From Larry Goodman: Pro Wrestling Circuit made its debut at the Upson County Civic Center in Thomaston, drawing a crowd of 275. ...

From Larry Goodman:

Pro Wrestling Circuit made its debut at the Upson County Civic Center in Thomaston, drawing a crowd of 275.

No wrestling had come to Thomaston for about 15 years except Old School Wrestling under the leadership of Joey Roberts aka Big Steele. OSW runs there about once a year, the last time being May. Some years ago, Roberts ran a show advertising Batista (Jay) and a fake Ultimate Warrior. WWE was not pleased. 

I don’t have any knowledge of how well Roberts draws in Thomaston. I wouldn't go to an OSW show if my life depended on it, and while I'm confident last night's show was an improvement over OSW, PWC didn't exactly distinguish themselves.

It was old style Southern wrasslin’ to a fault – with an overreliance on comedy, a cavalcade of low blows and a lack of good wrestling. In 2019, even in Thomaston, which is about as far off the beaten track as it gets, I have to believe fans want and expect more substance than what they got last night. The crowd was hot in spurts but never really caught fire. One fast-paced, athletic match would have gone a long way to making it a better show. 

AJ Steele made his return to the ring after a two year absence and will be a featured player in PWC.

South Side Trash became the inaugural PWC Tag Team Champions in an unadvertised title match. In hindsight, this was not a good idea. The match was bad and I’m hard pressed to see any positive direction PWC can go with SST as champions, given their advanced ages.

This was not a one shot deal. A second show in Thomaston was announced for September 28. They did an angle with Steele and Simon Sermon to set up a match for the return date but there was nary a hint of any other storyline directions.

The show started 15 minutes late with Iceberg, a Thomaston resident, being introduced by ring announcer Ben Masters. Berg presented a wrestling belt to Ricky, the son of promoter Rick Chagnon, as a birthday present.

(1) Ben Buchanan defeated Cody Windham in 8:33. PWC got off on the right foot with this visual first impression -- big, in-shape guys that looked like traditional pro wrestlers. Windham is out of Alabama. Ben clearly inherited his father, Bull Buchanan’s genes for size and build. Wyndham blew off Ben’s handshake to establish character. Ben didn’t fall for the heel test of strength, instead sweeping the leg and going with groundwork. In the end, Windham’s chicanery didn’t get the job done and Ben pinned him with a deadlift gutwrench suplex. This was an effective opener. Ben is green but his fundamentals are solid, and Windham did a good job of getting him over.

Prematch -- Masters almost took a header off the shaky ringsteps.

(2) Siomara Lozano defeated “The Unicorn Princess” Taylor Rae in 5:45. Merica Strong was the special referee. Lozano knocked Rae’s precious stuffed animal out of her hand and grabbed a hold. Lozano is a talented F2F trainee. She wrestled rings around Rae, the current holder of the Pro South Championship (men's title). They went back and forth with near falls leading into the finish – best of the lot being Lozano’s butterfly faceplant and Rae’s Oklahoma roll. Lozano won it with sitout cradle hammerlock. Crowd was 100% dead. It’s problematic when the heel is clearly the better wrestler. I’m not sure it would have mattered. Match just didn’t connect.

Tommy Too Much came to the ring with the NWA Georgia title. Tommy claimed to be the only resident of Thomaston that had accomplished anything and buried the town and its people. AJ Steele entered to a big pop. Tommy said he got rid of Steele two years ago and he hadn’t been seen since. Tommy told Steele to get back in his 18 wheeler and drive to California before he beat his ass again. Steele started pounding on Tommy. He pulled off Tommy’s cowboy boot and stuck the point of the boot up his butthole. As Tommy gingerly made his way to the dressing room, Steele said the fans in this area had supported him for 20 years and he would be damned if Too Much was going to bad mouth them. Steele told Tommy to put his gear on. “I didn’t say anything about wrestling. I came here to fight!” This segment was well played.

(3) Shane Noles defeated Ace Haven (with Amy) in 5:14. Ace was very unlikeable. The sunglasses helped. Amy raked Noles’ back with her fingernails before he got into the ring and interfered constantly throughout the match. Ace busted his ass on a missed leg drop off the top. That brought Amy onto the apron to distract. Ace went to superkick Noles and got Amy instead. It looked great and got a big pop. Noles then pinned Ace with a spinebuster. This match worked -- good heat and no longer than necessary.

(4) Michael Stevens defeated Shane Marx (with Hankins) in 9:10. I figured this would be the highlight of the show. It was but not in the way I figured. Stevens was doing his dancing character. Hankins had nothing good to say about Stevens’ white man dancing ability. An old lady with a megaphone was giving Hankins a run for his money, which was hilarious. Hankins wanted her banned and said Marx was wrestling the match under protest. Hankins grabbed Marx’s leg to block a Stevens  suplex. Stevens clutched at his back and Marx was all over it. Dance music started playing out of nowhere. Stevens danced his way up from the bottom and continued to dance as he went on offense. He danced his way out of Marx’s waistlock. Marx clocked Stevens in the jaw. The music stopped. Marx tried to put Stevens away. There was some good wrestling here. After Stevens kicked out a Rockbottom, the music started again. Hankins couldn’t control himself and started dancing. Marx followed suit and Stevens caught him with an RKO for the 1-2-3. Trust me, it was lot funnier than it reads, one of those “you had to be there” things and the crowd popped huge for the finish.

Intermission. 

Simon Sermon said Bull Buchanan had fallen on hard times and wasn’t there because he had to work a regular job, but the real reason was Bull was afraid to face him. Ben hit the ring. Babyfaces came out to hold Ben back as Sermon called him Bull’s illegitimate child. Sermon accepted Ben’s challenge to take Bull’s spot in the main event.

(5) Drew Hendrix defeated Stoney Hooker in 9:30. Hooker was part of the Exotic Ones back in the day. Hendrix is a beefy guy out of Florida. Hooker did an awesome job of stalling and working the crowd to draw heat. Hendrix chased Hooker down and kicked his ass all over the building. Hooker popped the crowd with a bump over the rail onto the floor. Hooker nutted Hendrix on the middle rope to gain control, then did his best move of the match – a snap suplex into a spinning neckbreaker. Double down. Comeback. Swinging side slam by Hendrix for the win. Hendrix was very vanilla. Hooker made it as interesting as it was going to get. 

(6) AJ Steele defeated Tommy Too Much by count out in 13:39. Referee Merica Strong was subjected to some of Steele’s hijinx during the prematch check for foreign objects. Too Much was chicken shit supreme. He got a “Tommy sucks” chant for his efforts. Steele put Tommy in his personal torture chamber for a while. Steele’s shoulder found the post when Tommy stepped aside. Tommy worked the body part before resorting to a low blow, then a sleeper, then a dropkick then another low blow. Tommy crotched himself charging into the corner. Steele spread eagled Tommy in the ropes and kicked a field goal with his nutsack. Steele nutted Tommy on the guard rail. Tommy crawled to the dressing room in agony and was counted out. Match would have been more entertaining if the show wasn’t so heavy on low blows and comedy. Steele looked fine after the two year layoff, albeit in a match that did not test his athletic ability.

(7) South Side Trash (Rowdy & Razor with Raunchy) defeated Anderson Brothers (Andy & Axil) to become the inaugural PWC Tag Team Champions in 9:30. SST concluded a flexing contest by attacking Anderson from behind. Andersons cleared the ring and were in firm control in the early going. SST did the deal where Razor “unknowingly” ended up pumphandling Rowdy’s arm. Razor gave Axil a low blow. Raunchy used his cane on Axel. The match broke down to four way action without Andy ever getting a chance to clean house. Referee Mike Muse got tied up in the extracurricular activity. Raunchy got involved and Rowdy clotheslined Andy with the cane for the three count. Match was what it was and that was pretty awful.  

Raunchy cut a postmach “we told you so” promo.

(8) Ben Buchanan defeated Simon Sermon via DQ in around 5 minutes. Sermon came to the ring waving a gay pride flag. Ben was on fire early. Sermon posted Ben’s shoulder and worked it over. They cut right to the chase. Ben was on the comeback when Sermon caused referee Mason Pike to get knocked down. Ben hit his finisher. No ref to make the count. Merica Strong slid in to make the count but Sermon got a foot on the ropes. Ben hit another gutwrench suplex. Merica halted her count at two. Ben was like WTF? Simon drew Ben’s attention so Strong could give him a low blow. Sermon started beating on Ben with the gay pride flag and Pike called for the DQ.

Postmatch –Steele made the save waving the American flag and said how about picking on somebody that knows you a little better? A flag vs. flag match, the first of its kind, was announced for PWC’s return to Thomaston on September 28.