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| Photos by Alona Cajuste |
Georgia wrestling's black history month celebration got off to a grand start Sunday night. Changes 2 was a celebration.ory show, an improvement upon the first Changes show in multiple ways -- better wrestling, more compelling stories, a long night but with much better pacing so it didn't feel as long.
The PCW Arena was full up. An area was set aside for the band so seating capacity was under 100.
The pre-show press conference hosted by DJ Tonnek and Shalonce Royal was filled with all kinds of shenanigans and lack of decorum. Intensity in a tiny space. The major players took questions and hyping their match. Hakeem Young and his hoodlum interrupted and were ushered out. H-Town Hittas and Russell Twins got into it. Dominic Stuckey got the most mic time. Carlie Bravo put JTG over like a God, as he later would in the ring.
The show opened with a heavenly rendition of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" sung by Jamar Langley (The Voice). Master of ceremonies Shalonce Royal ran down the card.
All aces. What a concept~! Smart move to fughedabout the actual time limit. They ended the match at its peak.
(2) CT Keys defeated Shoot Taylor in 10:45. Keys used his strength and power to punish the living hell out of Taylor. Shoot withstood the onslaught and gave as good as he got. They did a clever sequence where Keys took his shirt off and invited Taylor to chop him. As Keys went for a chop, Taylor flinched and Keys gave him a body slam trifecta. Keys almost pinned Taylor with a Dominator. Taylor fought back again. Keys cut off Taylor's slingshot springboard maneuver in midair, drilled him with a uranage and pinned him with an F5.
They did a marvelous job of getting a match story across in the ring. Crowd was into this match all the way. Keys lost to Tyson Maddux at the first Changes show right after winning the Southern Fried Championship. Keys is now the uncrowned Southern Fried Champion and was not to going lose this this time around.
(3) Najasism (with the help of Skrilla the Great) defeated Dominic Stuckey (c), Trever Aeon and Chad Skywalker in a triple threat elimination match to regain the PCW Championship in match he was not supposed to be in (19:57). A growling, chair-flinging masked freak annihilated Aeon before he ever got in the ring. Aeon was helped to the back and never seen again. Michel Cajuste came out from production to inform the crowd the match was still a triple threat. Skywalker dominated the action. After he hit a sliced bread for a close near fall, Najasism's music hit. Out came Naja. Skywalker lost focus and Stuckey rolled him up at 9:14.
Skywalker went wild on Naja. Security got involved. Skrilla the Great appeared 100% unadvertised. He took Stuckey out with the Skrillride and threw Naja in the ring. Naja made a crawling cover as the crowd chanted for Dom. The champion kicked out at 2.9. Back and forth big moves ensued. Stuckey hit an avalanche Attitude Adjustment. Naja got a foot on the ropes. Stuckey kicked out of Naja's double jump springboard elbow. Naja barely survived Stuckey's STF and it looked like the end was near. Naja blinded Stuckey with an eye rake and gave him a low blow. Two Lights Out and Stuckey was pinned.
ENT came out to celebrate with Naja and Skrilla left with ENT.
On a night when every match on the card had great action, this match had an epic story to go with it, one that will reverberate in PCW going forward. Out of nowhere Skrilla is back and aligned with ENT. What the hell was that about with Aeon?
(4) Savannah Evans defeated Rose Gold in 9:15. Evans was laying a brutal beating on Gold right from the opening bell.Gold hit an STO and twerked. They swapped a bunch of near falls. Evans had the answer for Gold's Gori Bomb and pinned her with a full nelson slam.
Evans is at the top of her game. Looks like a star. TNA is fortunate to have her under contract. She's dropped weight and increased her ring speed, while retaining all of her strength and power.
(5) Da Russell Twins (Kam & Allen Russell) defeated Nate Mansions and H-Town Hittas JJ in 8:23. Mansion stepped in on the ENT side because was injured in an earlier altercation...or so the story goes...ENT had Kam beaten with a double team. JJ went for the pin but the ref ruled his was not the legal man. As ENT argued with the ref, Mansion got rolled up.
Old style heat. The largely PCW crowd hates ENT and chanted for Russell twins. JJ and Mansion are so much better than they were 18 months ago.
(6) Aerial Van Go defeated Movie Myk in 10:20. Van Go was led to the ring by masked disciples. Myk wanted quiet on the set. The NAAW people tortured Myk with movie puns. Van Go did a standing corkscrew moonsault. Highlight was Van Go's Spiderman dive off the rafters. Van Go won it with a corkscrew cutter. What more can I say?
Catch a Van Go match if you get the chance. He is a uniquely gifted performer.
(7) JTG pinned Carlie Bravo at 12:38. Tyson Maddux came out before the match. He accidentally dismantled the pipe and drape, which cracked the large screen video display. Shit happens. Maddux said recovery from knee surgery was preventing him from facing JTG as originally advertised but he would be good to go for Changes 3.
Wrestling. Bravo kept the crowd entertained with his chatter. Said this match sucked (for him). He hit a rolling flatliner. Back and forth pins to stalemate. They got into a knucklelock. JTG with a spinning slam for two. Bravo was suffering. Out of the double down, JTG kicked out of Gangster's Paradise. Bravo tried to come off the ropes and JTG caught him in a whirling belly-to-belly suplex.
They put on a major league-level match in a packed room of 100. All day long. JTG is in fantastic shape and can really go at the age of 40. I forget the degree to which WWE stars are extraordinary physical specimens. As Georgia's pro wrestling ambassador, Bravo was the perfect man for the job.
Jay Alpha Miller spoiled a lovely show of postmatch respect.
Five masked thugs invaded the ring on JTG. Promoter Demariae Robertson-Nettle tried to restore order and got speared out of his shoes. One-by-one the evildoers unmasked -- Hakeem Young, Jay Tyler, Keelin fucking Cole, Eddie Hindrixx and A-Town Supreme and they each had their say. Young blamed Roberson-Nettles for not getting them booked so now he would have to face the monster he created.
Babyfaces finally came out from the back. The A4 dudes escaped out the front door talking trash on the way out.
Pandemonium. Roberson-Nettles was wide open for the spear from Hakeem. Heels rule. There's your hook for Changes 3.
NOTES: Changes 3 is set for June 16...Darryl Hall, AJ Dwayne and Nathaniel Spivey were the referees....GWH's Jabari McIntyre helped keep the trains running on time...Fry Daddy, Nathaniel Vanderbilt and photographer Dezirae Lawrence were backstage...DJ Tonnek handled the play-by-play. William Huckaby did color commentary for the first five matches. Don Miguel sat in on color for match six. Tyson Maddux was on color for the main event.
