SHW 54 was the bridge between Southern Honor's two biggest shows of the year, Rumblejack 2023 and the anniversary show, Still Here 5.
Booker Dylan Frymyer and the entire SHW roster went all out to set up an anniversary show to remember, employing numerous elements from the Rumblejack.
Southern Honor has their work cut out for them to top the show they gave their fans last night. I enjoyed each and every segment of this show. No exceptions. Krule vs. Adam Priest was an incredible match with more twists and turns than LeMans. No match could effectively follow it, which was unfortunate for the competitors in the last two matches.
SHW 54 also tested the stamina of its audience -- two hours and 45 minutes of virtually non-stop intensity without an intermission.
When the smoke cleared, the Still Here 5 card shaped as follows:
Krule vs. Cyrus for the "Real" IWTV Championship.
Judais (c) vs. David Ali for the SHW Championship.
Chip Day (c) vs. Owen Knight vs. Najasism vs. Kenway vs. Kyle Matthews vs. Shoot Taylor for the Jake the Snake Legacy Championship.
The Hierarchy (c) vs. All-Star Special vs. Exotic Youth for the SHW Tag Team Championship.
Nathan Mowery vs. Sunny Daze in a no rules match.
Corey Hollis vs. Nick Halen
Todd Sexton vs. Gunner Miller
Ashton Starr vs. Movie Myk
The official paid attendance at the ACTION building was 257. SHW packed the place for the Rumbejack and I won't be surprised if Still Here 5 does the same.
On a side note, I watched Rumblejack on IWTV and agree with Duke that it has be a show of the year contender. I was also reminded of a couple of things. 1) The video version of SHW doesn't do justice to the live experience. 2) SHW's in ring quality is absolutely on par with ACTION Wrestling. The time when that was not the case has long since passed.
Read on for the details.
Ring announcer Diana Michel introduced a brief video tribute to Bray Wyatt and Terry Funk.
Action immediately spilled down the ramp with David Ali being annihilated by End Game (Judais, Nick Halen and Todd Sexton). Ali was bleeding. Sexton was yakking on the mic as the destruction carried into the ring. Sexton said they knew Gunner Miller and Corey Hollis weren't in the building yet and this was receipt for last month. Sexton drove a barbed wire baseball bat into Ali's gut a couple of time. Judais capped it off with Judais giving Ali El Crucifijo (crucifix powerbomb) onto the entrance ramp (from the floor, thank God). "The only thing that can stop End Game is End Game."
Off to a violent start with a jarring wake up call that put the number one contender's participation in the main event in jeopardy.
(1) Ashton Starr defeated Najasism in 10:31. Handshake before the bell. A see saw battle ensued with both men putting points on the scoreboard with cool moves. Movie Myk's music played to distract Starr, giving Naja an opening. Naja's attention was diverted by Owen Knight's music and Starr used a nifty pinning combination for the win.
Naja shook Starr's hand after the match but not without some reluctance.
A quality opener. They worked a deliberate pace and let things register. Crowd was on the quiet side, as Gary Lamb noted in the next segment, which was surprising with two well-loved fan favorites going at it. Crowd favored Starr and Naja was subtly more restrained than usual. Match was building block number one for the Legacy title match at Still Here 5.
A Movie Myk production was shown on the big screens. Myk burned a photo of Starr and said like it or not, Starr was going to have a part in his movie. Starr said he was used to men being obsessed with him but this was a whole new level of obsession.
GM Gary Lamb addressed the SHW faithful. Lamb hyped Still Here said the promotion started by the redneck who knew nothing about wrestling and brought in a yankee booker (Dylan Frymyer) was one month away from being five years old. Every promotion in the state waited for him to get bored and move on but he was still here. Dylan just asked him if he had five more years in him, so he guessed he was here to stay.
Lamb also got in plugs for his feud with IWTV, appearances by "The Real World Champion" Krule, Rumblejack (as one of the top two wrestling shows in the state) and tonight's Hardcore Hell 25 at the Action Building.
The smartest promoter in any room. Reads his audience like a book. Dude doesn't miss a trick.
Before Lamb could escape, Alexander Lev entered the ring and claimed "I am faithful". Lev brought up being beaten up by 35 addicts in the Rumblejack and wanted Lamb to give him a shot. Lamb was already extremely annoyed that he had to deal with this idiot two shows in a row. Now he was pissed. He had worked for 12 years helping addicts recover and the largest AA meeting in the county was taking place next door. The crowd exploded when Cyrus appeared on the ramp...
(2) Cyrus the Destroyer destroyed Alexander Lev in 1:39. A powerbomb followed by the deadly Vader Bomb and Lev was toast.
The crowd energy ramped up as soon as Cyrus appeared and went to whole nother level when they saw Cyrus go up for the Vader Bomb.
The aroma of triple threat was in the air as soon as All-Star Special appeared. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Their fans are down with the concept. The finish was nicely done. The cold stare Black gave Hanson after the match was one my favorite small moment of the night. Murder One still has one of the best worked punches around.
(4) Kyle Matthews defeated Kenway in 8:23. Before the bell, Kenway apologized to Matthews for his dirty tactics (hitting Matthews in the ding ding) in the Rumblejack. Matthews accepted Kenway's handshake. Crowd was all Kyle's as Kenway controlled the action. Kenway tried for the pedigree but Matthews escaped and rallied back. Kenway cut Matthews off. His tactics were getting noticeably ruder. Kenway applied a Liontamer. Matthews got a ropes break. Moments later, Matthews connected with his patented corner dropick and pinned Kenway with a frog splash.
The crowd applauded as Kenway shook Matthews' hand. Soon as Matthews turned around, Kenway delivered the low blow to leave Kyle laying and the crowd hating on him.
Nothing less than stellar on a technical level. I loved Kenway's gradual build of frustration during the match to foreshadow to the inevitable.
"Killbilly" Nathan Mowery promo. Brandon Benefield referenced a video that appeared on social media this week and called Mowery to the ring. The video depicted Sunny Daze attacked Mowery during his solo training session and viciously whipping him with barbed wire until Mowery was crumpled bloody heap on the floor.
Mowery said for the last year and a half, he'd been training to be a pro wrestling and living the "killbilly life". SHW knew him as the cameraman who occasionally did crazy stunts. He'd been at SHW since its inception and helped Dylan get the company off the ground. They been like brothers but Dylan scoffed at him when he wanted to get trained to wrestle and hadn't been the same guy since. Perhaps it was because his (Mowery's career) was taking off and Sunny Daze's career was fizzling out (that line got a reaction). If Dylan/Daze wanted a match, all he had to do was ask but it was going to be no rules, no DQ, no hope, no mercy. "You will be my bitch not my brother."
In his first in ring promo, Mowery knocked it out of the park and made his match with Daze a must see.
(5) Dani Jordyn defeated Heather Monroe via submission in 10:07. Monroe was being quite the diva, fanning herself, talking trash, so easy to hate. Canton's love affair with Dani continues. Monroe took the shortcuts. Dani showed babyface fire. Both women down after an exchange of thrust kicks. Really nice back and forth struggle for a german suplex won by Dani. Monroe, who had been going after Dani's bandaged wrist, hit an elevated hammerlock drop and applied a wristlock submission. Dani made the ropes and submitted Monroe with an armbar.
Solid match. They had no story going into it but were able to engage the crowd with the clearly drawn contrast in their characters and the submission work at the end. Jordyn is the best woman wrestler in the state. It's only a matter of how active she wants to be.
Afterward, Jordyn said the SHW women's division wasn't enough. Someting was missing so she was going somewhere else to find it.
SHW has a lot of company. Dani could have said the same about every women's division in the state.
(6) "Real World Champion" Krule vs. Adam Priest with Matt Griffin) was a no contest (around 17 minutes). Griffin said he was down from IWTV headquarters. Alec Price was the IWTV Champion. Krule was a false idol and Priest was a real wrestler. Priest was conflicted. He pleaded his case with Krule. Claimed he was forced to break a branding iron over Krule's head in the Rumblejack. All Krule had to do was trust him and lay down so they could go back to loving each other (a call back to their past alliance in IWTV world).
Griffin distracted Krule allowing Priest to hit the DDT and they were off and running. Krule was no selling. Priest was panicking. The early going built to a gigantic superplex by Krule. As Krule set up for the choke slam, Griffin got on the apron to run distraction. Krule took a belt shot from Priest, who hustled to the top rope for a desperation splash but Krule kicked out. Priest gradually wore Krule down with a dogged near naked choke. Priest delivered a series of chops. Krule pulled the straps down and gave Priest the chop of the year like an explosion on Priest's chest. The crowd instantly came to their feet applauding. Krule tossed Priest out of the ring onto Griffin. Priest backdropped Krule over the rail. Two older fans in the front row were not getting out of the way. Ace security guy YJ Thomasson was Johnny on the spot. He shielded the fans and allowed Krule to land on his back. Griffin blasted Krule with a chair shot. Ha. That wasn't slowing him down. Krule decked referee Weakley. Priest clocked Krule with a foreign object. Griffin put on ref shirt and attempted to fast count Krule. Didn't work. Krule sat up. Griffin tried to leave with the belt. Brooklyn appeared on stage in a dress that should be outlawed, her first appearance at SHW in nine months and snatched the belt away from Griffin. Krule laid Priest out with Scorched Earth but Brooklyn pulled the ref out of the ring and clocked him with the belt. What? Brooklyn got in the ring with Krule, her husband, only to give him a low blow and clock him with the belt. Brooklyn took off her wedding ring and stuck it in Priest's pocket.
Cyrus appeared on stage to a huge reaction, then scraped Krule off the mat and laid him out again with a black hole slam. Cyrus threw the belt down and made the motion indicating it would soon be his.
Somebody constructed one hell of a match, weaving the IWTV story into the SHW story. I should have known Griffin had a great heel character in him. He was getting nuclear heat. The chop Krule gave Priest and the way the crowd rose to their feet in response was otherworldly. The way they achieved suspension of disbelief with something to behold and the mark of truly great workers. Brooklyn back and as a babyface, if only for a minute, was a shocker. Crowd popped huge for Cyrus and the idea of the monster match to end all monster matches.
(7) Chip Day defeated Owen Knight to retain the Legacy Championship in 10:58. Opening with counter moves to stand off. Chip unloaded on Owen with strikes. The action spilled outside. Knight with a codebreaker on the re-entry. The crowd chanting "Chip" now. Knight heeled and got a nasty wad of saliva knocked out of his mouth. Day with a shadow spear and Rave tribute offense. Knight grabbed the ropes to prevent a three-count. Day kicked out of Clock Out. Knight hit an RKO forcing Chip to grab the ropes to avoid being pinned. Day blasted Knight with a tornado kick and hit his a flying knee to the neck finisher. Knight kicked out at one~! Day immediately went to a brainbuster to secure the victory.
Knight attacked Day from behind after the match. One after another, Naja, Shoot Taylor, Kenway and Matthews all joined the fun with a succession of big moves and struggle over the Legacy belt. Day said since y'all are hot and fired up and want a title shot, you got it but you're gonna be sorry.
In addition to the previously announced Judais vs. Ali for the title, Hollis vs. Halen and Sexton vs. Miller were announced for Still Here 5.
NOTES: The commentary team was Brandon Benefield and Gerard Bonner...David Weakley, Jeremie Prater and Paul Santa were the referees...Impak Palmer and Mowery were on the mobile cameras...Xander Seabolt was helping with production...Wrestling notable in the house: GWH's Rob Brodhecker, Rick Michaels, Billy Buck, nurse extraordinaire Georgeanne Hardin, Darryl Hall, Akeem Young, Nathaniel Vanderbilt, Rose Gold, Nick McDaniel and Myron Fancher.
