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| Photos by Demariae Roberson-Nettles |
The place was about as packed as last month. 350 as the main event went into the ring, in the neighborhood of 500 watched some portion of the show. New Realm Brewing was happy no doubt.
James Storm this month, Lexis King last month, Zilla Fatu the next.
The depth of quality talent at DSW has moved to a higher level.
The booking is solid old school stuff with a lot of attention given to developing the next show.
Weather concerns may have shortened the match times during the second half which may been just as weel for a crowd that is mostly casual fans.
Drewski and McKenzie Mitchell opened and introduced Michael Longino as The Voice of Deep South. Nathan Hamilton and Drewski did live commentary over the sound system.
(1) Najasism defeated Hunter James via submission in 16:30. James' intro got the people's attention. Naja's got a pop deserving of one DSW's top babyfaces. They wrestled. Naja broke out what the announce team called an arm drag sample pack and a tiger feint kick. James went to the AJ Styles Cliffhanger inverted DDT for a near fall. James did a trifecta of deadlift germans, the third one preceded by a standing moonsault. That was sweet. Naja with a running shoot press for a near falls. Finisher blocked both ways. Naja hit the ropes walk springboard elbow drop but James got a foot on the ropes. Naja crashed and burned on the 450. James countered a flying body press with the brainbuster. Naja rolled to ropes to escape being pinned. Naja got a near fall with the spinning spear James had thwarted earlier in the match and locked in the Sharpest Shooter.
Great way to open the show. They set a high bar with their wrestling and told the story of knowing each other inside and out after six previous singles matches . Naja went up 4-3 in their series. Smart decision to have what was likely to be the best and longest wrestling match go on first.
(2) CT Entertainment defeated Ryan Rembrandt in 9:35. Rembrandt had his mirror. CT was feeling it and in Rembrandt's head. CT took WAY too much time going to the top and Rembrandt took his head off with lariat. Huge comeback by CT. Rembrandt hit a Codebreaker. Professor Pain and C Dub came out to mess with Rembrandt. CT plays possum with the Eddie Geurerro spot and pinned Rembrandt with the Jalapeno Roll.
In an entirely different vein than the opener, worked just as well because of that fact. Personality and story over wrestling but nothing wrong on that end either. Entertainment has hit on something with this character. Strong with crowd interaction. He's effectively taken aspects of natural personality and amped them up 110%.
Rembrandt ran away. Pain called him a scumbag, a degenerate and a dunce. What C Dub was talking about I have no idea but his beard was still cockeyed for the trimming Rembrandt gave him at the last show.
Bottom line - Pain has Rembrandt in a Detention Hall Brawl on December 15.
Former WCW announcer Scott Hudson interviewed Skrilla The Great. Hudson brought up Skrilla's match with Lexis King last month and how Georgia's Wrestling of the Year had King's shoulders pinned to the mat for a three count but the ref didn't see it happen and his thing with King wasn't over. Moving onto Zilla Fatu, Skrilla said Zilla was mad because he went to Texas and showed up Booker T's (Reality of Wrestling) guys. Zilla then came into his kingdom in Atlanta and acted like he didn't know Skrilla was there. Skrilla challenged Zilla to a match on December 15 if Zilla had the jewels to face him.
An A+ promo for name dropping. Skrilla blew DSW and himself up as large as possible. How great it was to see Hudson back inside a wrestling ring.
(3) Stunt Marshall defeated FIP World Heavyweight Championship August Artois in 9:48. Babyface flurry by Stunt. They brawled into the seating area. Back inside, Artois did an Angle Slam and a cartwheel dropkick. Artois got overconfident and Marshall abruptly put him away with a southpaw lariat.
Good match. Just didn't connect with the crowd like the first two matches.
INTERMISSION.
(4) Gemma Jewel defeated Carolina Cruz in 5:35. This match was set up by the confrontation Jewel and Cruz had at the last show. Longino introduced it as the Grudge Match of the Century. Cruz is the former WWE development talent Emma Diaz (more on her in the notes below). Jewel said she was undefeated in 2024. At the bell, Cruz started beating Jewel's ass. Jewel used her size and power advantage to take control. Cruz fired up with a shotgun dropkick and a handspring back elbow. Cruz tied Jewel's legs around the ringpost with her wrist tape and stomped the crap out of her. Moments later, Jewel pinned Cruz with feet on the ropes.
The women were presented like stars. Match was fine. They showed fired. I dunno about grudge match of the century though. I assume time was cut due to the weather concerns.
(5) Bosnian No Regrets Match: Spi-ral defeated the debuting Duncan MA in around 5 minutes. Ring announcer Michael Longino announced the match could be won by submission or knockout only. DMA sent Spi-ral over the top with a lariat. This happened.
I was psyched for this match. Spi-ral has been one of most skilled pound-for-pound wrestlers in the state of Georgia for years now. He was able to protect DMA on a slingshot powerbomb to the concrete. Just when they were starting to cook, it was over.
Spi-ral snapped. He brutalized DMA and knocked out the ref and the crowd cheered him for doing it. Eric Adamz and Nick Patrick came to the ring to restore order.
Until the match, the crowd had been 100% behind the babyfaces so the cheering for Spi-ral was really interesting. An authentic bad ass with superior skills made a different kind of impression on them.
Adamz said DSW was fighting for a TV deal and juiced up the crowd to react on cue like they were shooting the intro for a television pilot.
(6) James Storm defeated Prince Apollo in 8:20. Crowd was at peak size for the main event. Big reaction for Storm who came ring with a New Realm beer in his hand. Apollo was coming off a loss to DSW Champion Jacob Johnson at the last show after earning the number one contender spot by winning a two out of three match series over DJ Smoke.
Apollo tried to jump Storm from behind. Storm gave Apollo a rude hiptoss. Apollo took a powder. Storm engaged the crowd by using the a kid's shoe (with the kid's foot still in it) as a weapon. Back inside, Apollo heeled but also hit an exploder suplex. Apollo poured beer on Storm. Storm gave Apollo a codebreaker. The beer flying out of Apollo's mouth was a nice visual against the night sky. Rembrandt came to ringside to distract Storm. DSW Champion Johnson took care of Rembrandt, tossed Apollo back into the ring where Storm was waiting with a superkick.
Storm raised Johnson's hand and they celebrated with a New Realm beer toast.
This match could not have worked much better for this setting. Storm came across like a legit major league star. The DSW champion got the rub. The fans were entertained and went away happy.
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