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| Photo by Bob McAteer |
AWE made the best of a difficult situation at Homegrown 25.
Their regular venue (Meta Multimedia) shut down days before the original April 6 date. Promoter Josh Wheeler had to scramble to come up with a replacement. The headline match, Carlie Bravo defending the Georgia Wrestling Crown against AJ Francis went down the tubes. The other heavily promoted match, Chip Day vs. Ethan Case didn't happen either due to the injury Case suffered in training.
The crowd at Fowling Warehouse was an intimate gathering of friends. AWE did not livestream this show. It was taped for later release with Blake Blackwell and Case on commentary.
Jabari McIntyre (aka King T. Chaka Jones) will have a full report on the show featuring Bob McAteer's photos.
Case came to the ring. He had a brace on his arm and doctor's excuse for Wheeler stating he had a partially torn triceps. Case said he brought a carload from Palmetto Wrestling Academy and wanted to make deal. He promised not to interfere in Day's match if his guys could be inserted into title matches. Wheeler accepted and informed Case that Murder One was also injured so Day & Joe Black would represent Hierarchy in the GWH tag team title match against Wild Boys and Case's Vanguard team.
(1) DeSilva (with Taliaferro) defeated DBJ (Palmetto Wrestling Academy) in 6:20. Taliaferro touted DeSilva as six-time All American and two-time state championship ship wrestler. Taliaferro wheeled a whiteboard to ringside and drew up some kind of strategy. DBJ was more competitive that I expected he would be. DeSilva beat him with a pumphandle suplex.
Alexander Lev & Austin Thorne made their way to the ring. Xander Seabolt begged Lev for a spot in Lost Family. Said he was a loser in need of Lev's guidance. Seabolt was pathetic. Lev said if Seabolt and Thorne could beat the next team through the curtain he was in.
(2) Austin Thorne & Xander Seabolt defeated Luscious Laron & Vougan in 7:54. Wheeler introduced Vougan as Laron's personal hairdresser. Vougan tried to do a cartwheel or a handspring, something vaguely athletic and landed on his cute ass. Seabolt pinned Laron to earn a spot in Faithful.
(3) The Kenway defeated Warden in 9:44. Warden is a brutal man. They had good match. The worked hard and worked stiff, the way they both like it. Warden got the lion's share of the offense. Kenway came on strong toward the end. He powered the big man off his feet for a release german and looked to finish with a piledriver. Warden countered with a backdrop attempt. Kenway maintained his grip and rolled through with a sunset flip. Cool finish except referee New Bryan (Waites) stopped his count at two. Kenway improvised with a top rope elbow for the three count.
(4) Katalina Perez defeated Lexi Gomez in 6:35. ROAR rules in effect, which means there are no God damn rules except no babies can be involved. Bigo Smith threatened to bring a baby next time. These women were vocal. They had a spirited brawl and beat each up pretty good. Perez raked they eyes and rolled Gomez up with a handful of tights.
Afterward, they came back through the curtain and had a good old-fashioned cat fight that the refs had to break up.
GWC Champion Carlie Bravo pulled up a seat and talked to the fans. Bravo said AWE had the rug pulled out from under them. He put AWE over as that good shit and mentioned AWE was where he had his first real match (I guess ProSouth didn't count). Bravo talked about the title belt being the Anarchy/GCW belt. Bravo ran through the list of potential challengers and said to expect disrespect.
Wheeler hyped AWE's annual shows at the Southern Fried Gaming Expo, June 20 and 21 and said AWE would run an 11th anniversary event on June 22.
(5) Alexander Lev defeated Sal Rinauro and Tristan Moody to retain the GWC Junior Heavyweight Championship in 13:17. A nicely laid out match. Lev and Rinauro gave Moody no respect in the early going but he earned their respect before it was over. Moody and Rinauro gave Lev a double 619. Lev tried for the Clash on Moody. Rinauro changed it into a tombstone piledriver. Lev gave Sal a Clash. Sal gave Lev the Clash and all three were down. Rinauro executed a double handspring stunner. Moody and Lev got Rinauro in an ankle lock/crossface double submission. After Moody hit a springboard cutter on Rinauro, Lev dumped Moody out of the ring and tried to steal the pin for a false finish. For the real finish, Lev gave Moody the Clash on top of Rinauro and pinned Moody.
Afterward, Rinauro said the loss was on him. He was getting chances and blowing them. Rinauro said May 1 would mark 27 years for him as a pro wrestler and hinted at retirement.
(6) The Hierarchy (Joe Black & Chip Day) defeated Vanguard (Raylen Albey & Jake Parker) and Wild Boys (Chris Delray & Matthew Mercer with 3MP) to retain the Unified GWC Tag Team Championship in 8:02. 3MP berated Wheeler for caving in to Case's demands. He owed them. Wheeler agreed to 3MP's request for an elimination match. 3MP also alluded to a secret promise Wheeler had made to him....hmm.
Four against Hierarchy at the start. Black pinned Delray with a backbreaker at 3:40 to eliminate Wild Boys. The Palmetto Academy boys proved to be tough SOBs. Case broke his promise and tried to interfere. Day gave Case a bloody nose. After a train of finishing moves, Day nailed Parker with a roundhouse kick and Black pinned him with a spear.
The postmatch was chaos. Vanguard pounced on Hierarchy. Lost Family entered the fray. Kenway hit the ring to help Hierarchy. Wild Boys got involved and Lost Family took a powder.
Day cut a great promo thanking the AWE fans who love pro wrestling more than Sunday barbecues.
Wheeler reminisced about all the venues AWE had run over the last 10 years. I think he hit on every one of them. "We murder buildings."
NOTES: The referees were Mad Man Mason, Bryan Waites and Grandson (as opposed to "Grandpa Booker T" Darry Hall who was not at the show)...Shawn Dean joined Bravo in sampling the Fowling Warehouse cuisine...Case expects to be out of action 6-8 weeks...Wheeler made the point that The Hierarchy has been involved in the main event of every Homegrown event in some form or fashion.
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