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| Photo by Rockstar Sports Photogrphy |
A Southern Showcase indeed. KLT delivered the good last night in Rome. A long-time observer of the promotion whose opinion I trust said it was the best show KLT has ever put on.
There were only five matches on a card stacked with talent. Success or failure was riding on two huge gimmick matches: a War Games and a triple threat ladder match for the KLT Championship. Those two matches excelled.
The KLT Arena was packed with 450+. KLT went all out with the presentation. A stage/elevated entrance ramp had been constructed for the occasion along with cages for the competitors waiting to enter the War Games match.
Chris Kamikaze emerged as the new KLT Champion. Kyle Matthews became the inaugural Heritage Champion. Villains are in possession of all the championship as The Approved (Bobby Moore & Rob Adonis) are still the tag team champions.
It will be interesting to see how much momentum KLT can maintain in the aftermath of this show. What directions do booker Chris Lightning's stories take? One thing is certain. The quality of talent on KLT roster now versus a year ago is day and night.
(1) Kyle Matthews defeated Todd Sexton and Dominic Stuckey and Ryan Marx and Tim Possible and Kody McKale (with Mike Golden and his Golden Boys) in an elimination match to become the inaugural KLT Heritage Champion in 9:07. Possible's intro got more of a babyface reaction than the others McKale got on the mic and he was an arrogant prick. The dean of wrestling was summarily tossed over the top onto his Golden Boys. At this point, only five of the advertised six competitors had been introduced. Marx came onstage and said since Jay Lucas wasn't there, he wanted the sixth spot. Commissioner Brad Barnes gave Marx the green light.
Sexton had a one man superkick party before falling victim to a McKale roll up at 1:12. Possible immediately caught an excessively celebrating McKale with a blue thunder bomb. Possible suffered an injury and had to be helped to the back by officials. Three minutes in and the match was already down to three wrestlers. Stuckey got on a roll and eliminated Marx with a senton block off the top rope at the six minute mark. Matthews pinned Stuckey with an O'Connor roll and a handful of tights at 6:20. Possible returned to the ring with his ribs taped up. He almost had Matthews pinned several times. In the end, Matthews connected with his signature corner dropkick to become the inaugural champion.
Barnes presented Matthews with the belt. The crowd didn't like Matthews. He cheated to win his first time at KLT and he left with heat.
Hard to go wrong by putting the title on Georgia's eight-time best technical wrestler of the year. It made sense that the match boiled down to Matthews and two potential challengers, local hero Possible, who recently returned to the ring after a 10 year absence and Stuckey, who looked sharp in the match and Matthews had to cheat to eliminate. The match was laid out so everyone got their moments to shine. This was my second time seeing Marx. He's got something.
(2) DSW Champion Skrilla The Great defeated ProSouth Unified Champion Aaron Dallas in a non-title match (9:12). Skrilla's open challenge was answered by Dallas, who came out to new music. Babyface/babyface, fans split 50/50. Handahke to start. They wrestled. Skrilla attacked Dallas' back with suplexes. Dallas answered with one of his own. Dallas caught Skrilla with a great looking high knee as he came off the top and rallied into a spinning TKO for a near fall. But Skrilla dodged the Steel Toe and countered with a ripcord slinggblade. Dallas foiled Skrilla's first attempt at the Skrillride but Skrilla hit his move the second time around to pick up the win.
The fans showed appreciation for the postmatch show of respect between the competitors.
I liked the match a lot. The crowd was just kind of there. They liked these guys but never really got pulled into the match or reacted strongly to the big moves by either one of them.
(3) War Games: The Approved (Nick Halen & Adryan Hawkins & Bobby Moore & Rob Adonis) defeated Chris Lightning & Chris Gainz & Southern Express (Josh Hate & Waylon Rhodes) when Lightning surrendered at 25:01. Southern Express received the loudest entrance pop of the night. The competitors waiting to enter were locked in two cages that had been erected on the stage. A randomly selected competitor was to enter the match every three minutes.
Rhodes and Moore started. Rhodes was beating on Moore with his cowbell. He also drank whiskey from a flask and spit it in Moore's face. Moore was slung into the cage with the cowbell rope around his neck and busted open by the time Hawkins entered next. The Approved had their way with Rhodes, two against one. Hate entered next. The match did 180 as Southern Expressed put a beating on Hawkins and Moore. Hate was mounting them like this was a rodeo bull riding contest. The crowd ate that up.
Lightning was announced as the next entrant. But Adonis and Halen knocked out referee Gavin Pell and stole his keys to the cages. They unlocked their cage and headed to the ring, while Lighting and Gainz remained helplessly locked inside their cage. It was four against two carnage. Adonis had a chain. Halen had a chair. Rhodes was busted open. Approved hoisted Rhodes onto the top turnbuckle. Rhodes is a mountain of a man. Hawkins and Moore tried for tandem superplex Rhodes but couldn't get the job done. Adonis superplexed Rhodes on his own. Wow.
Commissioner Barnes was able to open the cage containing Lightning and Gainz. Approved had locked the War Games cage so Lightning and Gainz scaled the fence and entered with double moonsaults off the top of the cage and ran wild on Adonis. The babyfaces took command. They put Approved in four way submission holds. four-way submissions. Adonis used the cowbell to break up the submissions. Approved zip tied Rhodes, Hate and Lightning to the ropes and mercilessly destroyed Gainz. Halen was taunting the other babyfaces, asking them if they wanted to surrender but they refused. Hawkins said they were done playing games and he was holding the fans responsible. Approved positioned Gainz for a triple team assisted piledriver onto a chair. At that point, Lightning surrendered. Of course, Approved gave Gainz the piledriver anyway.
Approved were getting nuclear heat as they left the cage. They were jawing at Barnes who was absolutely furious. The crowd cheered their bent but not broken heroes. Gainz was pretty much broken but was able to leave the cage under his own power.
As raw and crude of a War Games as one could ask for. Blood was spilled but nothing too gruesome for a family show. The superplex spot was a some kind of spectacle and made me thankful the ring held up. The genius of it was in the locking of the babyface cage to make it four against two instead of the typical see saw War Games match until all the competitors are in the ring. Since Lighting surrendered to save Gainz from the piledriver and Approved gave it to him anyway, I thought Gainz would have been carried. Then I saw I the main event and I understood why that did not happen. It was fun seeing Approved in another setting with Adonis doing the heavy lifting. I Iwant to see how the KLT fans respond to Approved the next time they show their faces in Rome.
(4) Washington Bullets (Trey & Jon Williams) defeated Wrestling Buddies (Sal Rinauro & Michael Stevens) in 10:48. Buddies were the heels. They started to get heat on Jon. Trey objected and ate a double superkick for his troubles. A nice hot tag spot led to Trey's leaping leg drop that always gets a pop. Rinauro made a blind tag and Buddies isolated Trey. He was dead weight but able to tag his brother. Bullets hit Bang For the Buck and their tried and true finisher, the backcracker/cutter combo, with Jon pinning Rinauro.
This was a quality, crisply worked match that received a middling crowd reaction, like it was a palate cleanser match, which was kind of weird coming out of an intermission. Then again, it was sandwiched between the two matches the KLT fans really came to see.
(5) Chris Kamikaze defeated KLT Champion Lamar Philips (with James Hardy) and former KLT Champion Zach Mosley to win the KLT Championship in 13:05. Mosley was greeted by a big pop. The crowd hated Kamikaze and Phillips, who reached over the rail to pie-face sound guy Zach Riley on his way to the ring. Phillips has been abusing Riley for months, including hitting him with a steel chair. Mosley attacked Phillips and tried to scamper up the 8 foot ladder under the belt. Mosley pulled Kamikaze down then backdropped him over the top rope onto Phillips. Mosley popped the crowd with a tope. Mosley did a turnbuckle moonsault to the floor. Looked he slipped on the take off but Kamikaze and Phillips were able to adequately break his fall. Hardy tried to stop Mosley from climbing for the belt and got punched in the mouth but that gave Phillips time to get to Mosley for a snake eyes. Phillips started to scale the ladder and got knocked off by Kamikaze dropkick. Phillips took a double hiptoss on a propped up ladder. Sounded great and probably hurt like hell. Kamikaze and Mosley also took hellacious bumps onto the propped up ladder. Kamikaze tried to use his pet steel chair but Mosley dropkicked the chair into his face. Kamikaze and Mosley tried to climb ladders set up side-by-side under the belt. Phillips simultaneously knocked both of them off the ladders. Phillips slammed Mosley on one of the ladders. Kamikaze snap suplexed Phillips onto the other ladder. Kamikaze took time to pat himself on the back and Mosley teeter-tottered a ladder into his face.
With Phillips laying underneath a ladder, Kamikaze did the Maverick Sault onto the ladder. Phillips then suplexed Kamikaze onto the ladder. Phillips was momentarily toast.
Kamikaze and Mosley teased doing something insanely dangerous involving a ladder bridge. What they ended up doing was almost as crazy, Mosley's Wheel of Fortune (standing sliced bread) from the apron to the floor and they were both momentarily toast.
Hardy helped Philips set up an 8 foot ladder directly under the belt. Phillips climbed while Hardy guarded the ladder Riley stormed the ring, slugged Hardy and tipped the ladder over. Phillips was almost at the top of the ladder and spilled over the top rope and crashed completely through a section of the plywood entrance ramp. The crowd exploded.
Kamikaze climbed unobstructed to unhook the belt. Golden party poppers shot off. Some people cheered. Most did not. KLT officials ordered the building to be cleared, while Phillips was under the rubble, yet to be seen. Phillips was carried to the back on a stretcher.
Brutal, brilliantly executed, paying off a long term story, one of the most exciting ladders matches I've had the pleasure of seeing live. The match was not one second longer than it needed to be. All three of these guys are must be feeling the effects of those ladder spots today but they are all basically OK. The match was put together such that the ladder setups flowed without obvious cooperation. Phillips going off the ladder through the stage was both stunning and spectacular. The had the crowd all the way. People were oohing and ahhing and groaning for all the big ladder spots.
NOTES: The next KLT show is October 14...Todd Sexton did a pre-show seminar, ably assisted by The Approved. It was money well spent for the dozen wrestlers in attendance...The show opened with promoter Ricky Wiggins in the ring for the national anthem sung by Phyllis Gibbs and a prayer by Alfred Little ...Condolences to Brad Barnes on the loss of his father the day before the show. Barnes spoke in the opening segment and thanked his KLT family for their support. Ricky Stone, Kevin Stine, Marty Duncan and Gavin Pell were the referees...Jeremy Leight split the ring announcing duties with guest ring announcer Scott Hensley...Rocky Shaw captured the show on video.
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