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| Photos by Bob McAteer |
From Larry Goodman:
The spectacle that is Dragon Con Wrestling was at its most spectacular.
The setup up bigger and grander than ever before. room, 2000 people in the room, streamed live for the first time.
This year's show concluded a three year story arc -- the war between the evil Scott E. Cramton and promoter AJ Dockery. In the end, the angle mirrored real life.
Cramton's side won the competition for ownership of DCW, 4-3.
After 22 years, Dockery announced this was his finale as the head of operations for the event.
The in-ring wrestling on this year's show was the best of any of the Dragon Con shows I've attended. I thought last year's abbreviated show due to a late arriving ring was more fun.
Cosplay of pro wrestlers is a bonus feature at Dragon Con. Savage, Hogan and Flair are perennial favorites. This year's crop included Pentagon Jr, Timeless Toni Storm, Umaga, a female Golddust, Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley, Nakamura, Kevin Owens, Mankind, LA Knight and Stone Cold.
Xavier Woods was there. Daphanie LaShuann (the former Aja Perrera) was also in the house, along with Zicky Dice and the most underappreciated man in Georgia wrestling, Stunt Marshall.
AJ and Kim (the wife of AJ's original partner Tiny) opened with the annual DCW Hall of Fame inductions. Chicken Man (Aaron Nemeth), AJ's only trainee was inducted along with Matt Griffin, who supplied the ring this year. Cramton and his Fooligans pretended to fall asleep on the stage.
Cramton said he would move DCW to a convention where he could sell seats through Ticketmaster for $100-150 and dissed the crowd for being likely Appleby's employees and got an Appleby's chant in response. Somewhere along the line, it was announced that a tie went to Cramton.
Cramton tried to induct Rikishi into his DCW Hall of Fame. Rikishi was not having it and told Cramton his left testicle was bigger than Scott's head.
(1) Cb Suave defeated Slim J via submission in 14:53. This was one of if not the best singles match I've seen in my years of attending DCW. Crowd was eating it up. Gil Quest was suspect as the special ref but he played it straight. Suave was channeling Bryan Danielson and getting massive "Yes!" chants. Slim used some of his signature moves: the Screwdriver on the Rocks and the 3-6 Mafia Kick. Suave fended out of Anger Management and applied the Labelle for a huge pop when Slim tapped. Team DCW went up 1-0.
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(2) CT Keys (with Scott Cramton) defeated Caleb Konley and Matt Griffin (as Stone Cold Steve Austin) and Leon Ruff and Amazing Darkstone and Cody Fluffman in the six-pack scramble to retain the DCW US Championship in 10:02. Another huge hit with the crowd and an outstanding scramble match. The tower of doom was psychotic perfection. Seeing Ruff in Dragon Con show put a smile on my face. He was doing topes all over the place. Fluffman steamrolled four victims lined up corner to corner. Stone Cold Griffin stunned everyone in sight. Keys dumped Griffin out of the ring and pinned Ruff to even up the competition at 1-1.
(3) Crystal Rose defeated Tete (Tracy Taylor) (with Tsunami) in 14:11. This was a non tournament match if you will. It's incomprehensible to me that Rose and Tete had never wrestled each other in a singles match. Tete was surfing Rose's back when Tsunami (Taylor's daughter) interfered and laid her out with a spinning neckbreaker. Rose pinned Tete with a curbstomp. Daughter pummeled mom after the match.
(4) "The Wall" Tyler Stevens & Rob Adonis defeated Rob Killjoy & Cam Quackson (Jackson) in 17:25. Adonis and Wall were over as a team. Adonis worked his ass off. The ducks flew. Adonis and Wall supplied the power. The finish was double choke slams and stereo pins by the Twin Towers. Cramton up 2-1.
(5) ADHD Dead Wolverine (Wade Adams) defeated Wolverine (Sean Legacy) in 10:42. Second year in a row Legacy and Adams stole the show. Adam was pummeling Legacy with DVDs. They brought a skeleton into play. Fluffman came out as Peter, complete with a ridiculous mustache. Said it was time for them to hug it out but Adams stabbed Legacy in the dick and pinned him. I don't have the words to describe how great this was. Tied up 2-2.
(6) Billy Buck (as Randy Savage) & Nick Halen & Adrian Hawkins (as the Hardy Boys) & Bobby Moore (as Michael Hayes) with Lita (Harley Kae) defeated Scotty Beach & Azrael & Simon Sermon & David Young (with Douglas Sanders & Leo) in 12:45. Hayes partied like it was 1999, moonwalking with a drink in his hand. Sermon won a vulcan test of strength with Buck. A six way suplex got a holy shit chant. They got a twist my dick chant. Young obliged with not one but two dick twists. Leo went Orange Cassidy style..of a sort. Twist of Fate by Hardy Boys and Halen pinned Beach.3-2 Cramton.
(7) Mosley (as Buggy the Clown) defeated Scott Cramton (with CT Keys) to win the Cash In Hand title in a no DQ match at 5:27. Mosley's character is always one of the highlights. He outdid himself with Bugsy and came out with an entourage. Mosley RKOed Keys and had Cramton passed out with an ankle lock but no bell. The ref revealed a Fooligan shirt and got laid out by Mosley with his hand used for the three count. Knotted up 3-3 with one match to go.
NOTES: Darryl Hall, Dee Byers and David Weakley were the referees. I didn't catch the name of the guy that reffed Cramton's match...Lord Michael Gentry and Sammy Kiss provided live commentary...Dan Wenzel was the ring announcer.
