From Stephen Platinum:
In a show more than a year in the making (their debut show was
to happen last year in March before COVID shut the indy wrestling world down)
Pro Wrestling Action owned by Daniel Max Shaw, beloved ring announcer in
Florida went down in front of approximately 350 rabid fans in what can only be
described as a total triumph.
I recognized many of the fans as regulars that I have seen at
various Florida shows. The show started
late (instead of 6:30 is started soon after 7) for the best of reasons – people
were still coming up. I gave up my seat
and just sat at the bar, enjoyed some top notch eats.
Daniel had to be thrilled. It was a Roman Triumph. The matches were designed to work the rather
easy crowd they had into a frenzy, and did just that. It was also built for a return, with the
appropriate amount of heels going over, even the “send em home happy” match has
an element where the heel could cry foul.
And return they will in two months, same locale, August 22nd. I would imagine they did a very good pre-sale
for the show. For me, it was a chance to
see a bunch of Florida-based wrestlers I had never seen before, and see some of
the people who had put up very interesting promos for this event in the
ring. The wrestling ranged from pretty
good to exceptionally good in a couple of cases. The booking decisions ranged from the
brilliant to an opportunity or two lost.
The set-up was super pro – photo shoot area for the boys, a nice
entranceway, good ring, efficient set up crew.
Morale was high in the back and amongst the crowd. I ran into someone who knew me from my
writing days as Inside Clyde – so you know I was already in a state of
amazement. More than a few of the
wrestlers knew me either from meeting me before or by reputation. There were women on the show (yay) and in the
crowd (yay) and everyone played their roles big. Sponsors and their booths abounded. This was a success.
Shalonce’ Royal sang the National Anthem. The sound system was not great (it would improve throughout the show, thank Omega) but the singing of Royal WAS. Marina Tucker came out mocking Royal, setting up their match for later. A nice way to open. I must say I think there were two opportunities missed in this show. The first was not having Daniel open the show with a definitive, loud, welcome to the show to really get things going and soak it in.
“Motherlover” Jake Tucker defeated Kekoa with a
famouser after a low mule kick
I’ve finally seen him in person, and safe to say I am a Jake
Tucker fan. Would not be hard to imagine
him as a member of Exotic Youth. Kekoa
is from Hawaii, so I was biased towards him, as was the crowd. They did a simple match, simple story
designed to get everyone into the groove of the kind of wrestling they were
going to see with Pro Wrestling Action.
Stories that make sense, babyfaces and heels that were as obvious as what
body part the state of Florida resembles.
(Uncircumcised.)
I would have guessed that they would have started with a
babyface win, to keep the crowd excitement for the start of the show going and
building…but I was wrong. Jake grabbed
the ref, mule kicked Kekoa in the macadamia nuts, and leveled him with the
Famouser. After he scored the fall, the
crowd let him have it. And I realized
that this was perhaps going to be more than just a crowd-pleasing spot show. Both Tucker and Kekoa were absolutely good
enough that I would be happy to their names on any card I would attend in the
future. Both were good-looking, put
together guys who made strong choices with their look and what they did in the
ring.
Agony and Pain (Agony and Jeremiah with Dr. Eric
Christopher) defeated The Klassic Tag Team (Kody Castle and Kiko Harris) after
a right hand punch from Jeremiah
I was happy to see Dr. Eric Christopher, who I have seen manage
Chico Adams many times. He hits his
spots, cuts a decent promo, and knows how to get heat. Having him be the manager for the wrecking
balls of Agony and Pain made sense. Klassic
Tag Team was super throwback – all 80’s style with the colorful spandex, upbeat
attitude, and a small man (Kody) and bigger man (Kiko) dynamic.
This was a meat-and-potatoes tag match – babyfaces shine for a
bit, the heels put heat on the smaller guy, the bigger face gets in there and
runs wild a bit, we go to the finish.
All capably done. Ultimately this
was about putting over Agony and Pain, and after a bit of a muddled sequence at
the end, Jeremiah lays out the legal Klassic member with a great looking punch
and scores the win. I have to admit that
I wanted to see more from Agony, but that was part of the point. When Agony exited the ring by deftly vaulting
and flipping over the top rope and landing on his feet, that got as big of a
reaction (and did more for him) than any single spot in the match itself.
I realized we opened the show by putting a heel over and a heel
tag team over. I am very happy. The crowd is ready for a babyface to go over. In the best way.
D3 pinned David Mercury after a handstand flipping
elbow
David Mercury cut a promo setting himself up as a scientist
looking to experiment on his opponent.
His look was tremendous, lab coat and crazy pseudo-gas mask. I was with it. His promo did the job, got a good reaction,
set the dynamic up nicely. To the ring
was D3 of AEW Dark fame. He got a hero’s
welcome. He also brought out a kid who
resembled Wormser from Revenge of the Nerds, who I was told has a podcast about
wrestling that he does. Good for you,
kid! The kid was eating it up, playing
to the crowd. Then it was down to
business.
Mercury can work. Really,
really work. Instead of the rather
simple dynamic that I thought would be the norm the whole night, he told a different
story. Perhaps he could outwrestle
D3. After some very clever sequences, I
could see the crowd leaning forward in that right way…where they really, really
want the babyface to do his thing, but were being denied repeatedly. It was expert level work from Mercury and D3
held up his end.
When D3 started to do his thing, the crowd was with it. But Mercury always found a way to gain
control back. D3 sold like a big-leaguer
for sure. Finally we rallied to the end
and when D3 set up the finish it was the right time. He did a handstand in the corner, which got a
great reaction from the crowd. Then he
deftly flipped, twisted, and landed and elbow drop. I’ve never seen that before, and when it got
the win, the crowd got it’s release of joy at last.
In a six-person mixed tag, Sophia Castillo and The
Rapture (Jay Sky and Richard King) defeated Leila Grey, “Outlaw” Luke Curtis
and the “Space Cowboy” Stacee Alexander with Trent Black after a crazy triple
team involving a suplex, a superkick and a dive off of the top by Sophia
This felt like one of the featured matches, and the crowd
treated it thusly. Out came “Outlaw”
Luke Curtis, Trent Black, Stacy Alexander, and Leila Grey all decked out on
cowboy hats. Grey looks like new money,
no doubt about it, part of a newer crop of women wrestlers doing AEW Dark gigs
that have improved ringwork and covergirl looks.
Sophia Castillo and The Rapture came out next and were over like
ROVER. They love some Rapture in
particular. I had seen Sophia Castillo
at a WXW show and was eager to see if she had improved. She had.
The sequences between the two women worked for sure. The clever way the babyfaces worked Sophia in
constantly worked. I was surprised at
how much Leila did, often working the men on the other team in limited
bursts. It all worked very well. Jay Sky did a phenomenal job as the Ricky
Morton (babyface in peril) for quite a long time. They were controlling the crowd, not the
other way around, a precedent that Mercury has clearly established in his
match. At one point, Trent Black got
into it with an older fan that I see at many a Florida show. It was likely a work, but an effective one
for sure.
I normally don’t point out individual moves, but the ripcord
clothesline by Richard King was fantastic.
Sofia and Leila had their best sequence.
The ref got hit in the face at one point (doing two ref bumps/ref gets
hit spots in one show seems a bit much for my curmudgeony self) which
eventually led to a finish that probably looked better on paper than it did in
the ring, but the crowd paid it no mind and cheered wildly at the result.
“The Brazillian Destroyer” Vinicious demolished
“Pretty” Rich Wise in record time
If you’ve listened to me talk about booking at any point, you
likely have heard me talk about one of my theories about booking a show – the
palate cleanser. A match that goes much
shorter than expected at the right part of the card. It energizes the crowd and makes sure that
they are there for you whole hog for the main matches. This was that palate cleanser.
“Pretty” Rich Wise came to the ring all flash, “I’m Too Sexy”
blaring and declared that he was having an open challenge. The right tone was set for Vinicious to be
announced as the brutal surprise, and that’s how the crowd treated it. “The Brazilian Destroyer” would have been
made regardless, but the entrance and great work by Rich Wise made sure of
it. Vinicious smashed the hapless Wise
in less than 45 seconds and won. The
crowd could scarcely believe it.
Apparently Ward couldn’t believe it either because he was all hostility
and complaining…until Vinicious dropped him AGAIN. Ward should have left well enough alone…but
he did not. A fight erupted and they
spilled to the outside, where Rich Wise was chokeslammed through a table. It was unexpected, and made the noise you
would want and this crowd apparently needed.
The place went up like an ammo dump, “The Brazilian Destroyer” was made,
and I gained another name in my “respect” column, “Pretty” Rich Ward. I found out that Rich was banged up from a
match he had during the weekend. Made me
respect him and the booking choices even more.
Marina Tucker pinned Shalonce’ Royal via a
schoolgirl rollup with rope assist
Now we rolled into this semi-main match, a story already firmly
in place. I’m already a Shalonce’ fan,
her ring work is always good and tonight it was great. She and Tucker had themselves a barn-burner
of a match, worthy of the spot on the card.
The back and forth worked, and the crowd was with it.
I found Tucker’s strikes to be the biggest surprise, along with
her ability to work heel. I’ve seen The
Singing Siren Royal work heel and face…because she can actually sing she can
make it work either way. But her
ringwork was very crisp. They didn’t do
too much, didn’t take away from the main in any way, but still managed to stand
out. Tucker got the cheap win, and the
crowd had sufficient energy to boo their protest. The stage was now set.
Cha Cha Charlie pinned Chico Adams w. Dr. Eric
Christopher with a top-rope frogsplash
I’m a Chico Adams fan.
I’ll just put that out there. He
can do the walk-and-talk, he doesn’t rush, and when he’s in the main event he
makes sure the match is larger than the other matches. He indulges, he delays gratification, he
always has matches designed to keep you guessing at the end. It’s everything you want from a heel. Dr. Eric Christopher is a great
counterpart. The chemistry the two have
rival other great manager/wrestler combinations in the Southeast or in
wrestling, really. I’d put the chemistry
between Adams and Christopher along with Tank and Reverend Dan, Matt Hankins
and the Undeniable, and Don Callis and Kenny Omega. I said it.
Cha Cha Charlie was the right main event babyface. He milked the crowd through dance, getting
them to chant Cha Cha, sold, got sympathy, had fire and energy. He executed cleanly.
The ref got bumped (wish that didn’t happen in an earlier match)
and this is where the second major opportunity was lost in my humble yet expert
opinion. If at this point Dr. Eric’s
other charges Agony and Pain came out, only to be cut off by the babyface team
that they could face in August, I would have deemed this finish near
perfect. As it was, there was a perfect
spot where Dr. Eric missed Cha Cha and decked Chico with a clipboard. The NOISE.
The VISUAL of plastic and wood blowing up like a Kardashian career after
a sextape. It was GLORIOUS. As someone who did a clipboard spot with Miss
Stiletto dozens of times, it pains me to say this – their hit was better than
any one I ever took.
Before that hit, a bit of cleverness happened. For although Chico encouraged that ref to get
hit, it was he who landed his finisher and had Cha Cha covered for easily a
count of three. Not only was this a nice
bit of poetic justice, it also set the stage that Chico WOULD have won, which
could lead to a nice bit of business. I
see you.
As it was, after the clipboard shot heard ‘round Sanford, Cha
Cha made his way to the top after bludgeoning the good Dr. Eric. All eyes were on Cha Cha as he frogsplashed,
won the match, and brought the whole show home.
What a triumph! From the
gate, to the greatness of the setup, to the vibe of the show, it just
worked. Anyone who came to that show
would most certainly come to another.
Count me in as one of those people.
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