The Approved (Nick Halen & Bobby Moore) are the new KLT Tag Team Champions. With the help of Adryan Hawkins they defeated Beauty and The Beast to win the championship. This is radical departure from the Approved story being told at Southern Fried. Or so it appears.
Rising also had a fan participation strap match that delivered in full on the stipulation.
KLT's fleeting alliance with Deep South had come and gone. Chris Lightning is the booker now.
Attendance was 300+, which was promoted as the company's biggest show of the year to this point.
KLT knows what works with their loyal fan base and they give it to them.
The Anthony Rec Center is a huge improvement over the dump on the west side of town, a failed auto place that gave me the heebie-jiebees two years ago.
I waxed nostalgic over the old-school lighting -- a single light source placed over the center of the ring. Production was no frills.
The show opened with a prayer for KLT owner Ricky Wiggins, who is recovering from pneumonia and in need of heart surgery.
(1) Adryan Hawkins defeated Alejandro in 7:33. Halen and Moore accompanied Hawkins to to ring but did not stick around for the match. He didn't need them. Hawkins got on the mic and said Approved were taking over KLT. Halen and Moore were taking the tag title later in the evening and he was going to make statement right now. Alejandro is out of the Nashville by way of the Nightmare Factory. Not much size. Decent physique. Fundamentals looked sound and he didn't try to do to much. Hawkins beat him with a Codebreaker. Perfectly fine as an opening match. Could have done Alejandro nothing but good to work with Hawkins.
(2) Plowboy defeated Joey Idol (with David Vorhees) in a blindfold match in around 5 minutes. Idol and Vorhees are known as The Wolves of War. They came to the ring with two mannequin heads on a chain. Plowboy love abounds at KLT. Typical blindfold match with the fans trying to guide the babyface, except the heel (Idol) didn't cheat by peaking underneath. Idol poked Plowboy in the eyes. That was awesome. Referee Kevin got knocked down. Plowboy lifted the blindfold to enable a powerslam and called his young son into the ring. Plowboy put the blindfold on his son and the son pinned Idol. I don't think I've ever seen a good blindfold match and I'm not sure that's even possible but the finish worked.
Intermission Number One. KLT Commissioner Brad Barnes drew the winning numbers for the fan participation strap match.
(3) Aubrey Gold defeated Miranda Rights (with Skull) in 7:56. In film noir, Miranda would have been referred to as a tough broad. Skull is her husband. Gold is extremely likeable. Crowd was into the match which was by no means a mat classic and did not need to be. Gold got fed up with Skull's interference and whipped him into the post. The spot looked great and got a big reaction. Gold won with a fisherman neckbreaker.
(4) Chris Kamikaze defeated Ryan Marx (with Mike Golden and the Golden Wrestling Academy) in a fan participation strap match (11:25). Kamikaze is as over at KLT as he is hated at ProSouth. Marx is a Golden trainees and a tough SOB. He had a size advantage over Kamikaze.
The setup was this: five fans with straps on three sides of the ring for a total of 15. A half dozen Golden Wrestling Academy dudes were on the fourth side with straps. That's a whole lotta straps.
Marx got tossed out and tasted leather in the opening minute. The GWA pulled the ropes down to spill Kamikaze so they could abuse him with the straps. Marx tossed Kamikaze out to the fan lumberjacks. They refused to strap him.
Kamikaze tossed Marx out on all three sides. This wasn't one of those deals where the fans get a lick or two and the heel runs away. Marx was down on the floor with his shirt off and these people letting him have it, no shots to the head as instructed but they were wailing away. Blood was drawn and there were visible welts on Marx's back.
A GWA trainee cut the pad off one of the turnbuckles. Marx tried to snake eyes Kamikaze into the exposed buckle. Kamikaze turned the tables with a flapjack and fought off interference by GWA to hit the 450.
Rawhead Rex and Stu Valentine plugged the Slaughterhouse Podcast. The Rome Shriners talked about their July 15 event at the Anthony Center.
Intermission Number Two.
(5) The Approved (Nick Halen & Bobby Moore) defeated Beauty and The Beast (Nate Wilde & Ethan Cage) to win the KLT Tag Team Championship. Beast wasn't there so Beauty had to go it alone. Approved show no mercy in kicking Wilde's skinny ass. Beast came to the ring to take the hot tag about 8 minutes into the match. Beast cleaned house. B & B set up a big double team but Moore foiled it by dumping Wilde. Hawkins ran to the ring to distract. Kage. Moore decked Kage with the discus elbow and Halen pinned him with a top rope elbow drop. Another match that worked great with this crowd.
(6) Skrilla The Great defeated Chris Gainz and Gravedigger (Randy Tucker) to retain the KLT Championship in 9:07. These guys did a terrific balancing act with the way they laid out a match that had two babyfaces and one heel (Gainz). They kepit it simple - not too much of two babyface beating up a one heel, not too much babyface vs. babyface, just enough of the heel getting over on two babyfaces and no contrived three way spots. I was entertained by Gainz and the scale gimmick. All three had their chances at the end. Gravedigger blocked the Skrillride and nailed Skrilla with a haymaker. Gainz dumped Gravedigger and tried to steal the pin but Gravedigger broke that up. Gainz tried and failed to hit him with the scale. Skrilla connected with the Skrillride to pin Gainz.
NOTES: It was a bit mind blowing for me to see Mike Golden still active in pro wrestling. Golden worked World Class, Oregon, Florida and Continental during the territory era and I saw him wrestle many times in North Georgia as one of top guys on indy shows...Papa James confirmed he was longer managing the Wolves of War and returned to his former role as emcee... ProSouth's James Hardy was called upon to ring announce as a last minute sub. Papa James put Hardy over for doing a great job, being well dressed and having good smelling cologne. I'm being serious...Kage was doubleshotting Tyler Thomas' benefit show in Dalton and didn't make it to the building until the tag title match was underway...The other referees were Ricky Spears and Mike Wise.
.png)
