RIPW I Got 5 On It -- East Point on September 7

Photos by Matt Watkins From Larry Goodman: It was a beautiful ( maybe a little hot in certain places)  Sunday afternoon for pro wrestling at...

Photos by Matt Watkins

From Larry Goodman:

It was a beautiful (maybe a little hot in certain places) Sunday afternoon for pro wrestling at the Atlanta Utility Works and Renegade Independent Pro Wrestling's second live event at their new home. 

Unlike their August show, I Got 5 On It was the full scale RIPW presentation -- eight matches with the all of the  company's champions in action and some interesting outside talent on the card. 

The show was headlined by two outstanding title matches. Jay Alpha Miller upset Terry Yaki to win the Southeastern Openweight Championship, ending Yaki's epic inaugural reign at 567 days. 

RIPW Champion Jay Lucas and Brayden Toon had a hell of a sprint in the main event. Toon's ugly behavior after the match spoiled what to that point had been an exemplary show of sportsmanship by the challenger.

The Battle of Atlanta tournament got underway with Tyson Maddux and Bryce Cannon advancing to the second round. The tournament winner earns and RIPW title match. 

This is a quality product that deserves to be seen by a larger audience than the 50 or so that were in attendance. For in-ring creativity, RIPW is tough to beat.

(1) "The Feral Prince" Andreus defeated Nathaniel Vanderbilt and Spectre and DJ Bruner to retain the Gulf State Wrestling 24/7 Hardcore Championship in 7:50. This party match was fun way to open the show. Spectre joined forces with the always villainous Vanderbilt and were in control until they squabbled over the honor of going to the top rope. Everybody was pulling out big moves right and left with many more hits than misses. Bruner did tornado butterfly suplex and a double jump split leg senton.  Move needs a name if it doesn't already have one. Spectre brought a beer barrel into play for a little Donkey Kong action. He also went coast to coast as seen in the photo above.

Andreus submitted Vanderbilt but that was not the end of it. The 24/7 title  was like a hot potato. Vandy, Bruner and Spectre each had a 10 second reign before it cycled back to Andreus with a submission on Spectre.

(2) Battle of Atlanta Tournament First Round Match:  "The Brolic" Tyson Maddux defeated "Secret Agent 003" Chad Sky Walker in 6:52. A match thick with trash talk and high impact action. I was surprised Sky Walker didn't get more offense since since Maddux was going over. The beastly Maddux manhandled him. Sky Walker did get in a barrage of offense near the finish, capped off with a sweet moonsault elbow drop and swanton bomb to  Maddux's back. Maddux speared Sky Walker  out of his boots to advance in the tournament. 

(3) "The Crash Out Cutie" Alexandra Quinn defeated Kimber Fox to retain the Queen of RIPW Championship in 6:35. Quinn might have been the most over wrestler on the show. She has undeniable, irresistible appeal and she's putting in the work. Fox is based in the Gulf Coast area. She's long on character. She heeled and got heat. She used the Devil's Kiss and a running hip attack. Quinn hit Oblivion and got a near fall with a spinebuster. Quinn went wild on Fox. That got a "Crash Out' chant. Fox went for something that kinda fell apart and Quinn pinned with with La Magistral Cradle.

(4) Battle of Atlanta Tournament First Round Match: Bryce Cannon defeated Keelin Cole in 8:33. Cole got a "one of one" chant. Cannon enlightened the uninformed --- his frat paddle was not a charcuterie board. He told Cole this was his funeral and stalled to stoke heat. Cole got the upper hand. He took Cannon down by "The Tip". Cannon used the ringpost to do a number on Cole's shoulder. Cannon of course, gave Cole a cannonball. Cole was heavily favoring his shoulder during his comeback -- nice slingblade, followed by a one-armed spear and a DVD. Cannon cut Cole off but couldn't put him away with Twisted Tea. Cannon grabbed his paddle but the ref took it away from him and Cole hit a jumping flatliner for a false finish. Cannon deflated the crowd with the Keg Stand for the pin.

An uncomplicated, effective match. It was a strong outing for Cole against one of the best in the state. 

As Cole headed up the aisle, Sky Walker offered him some unsolicited veteran advice. Cole said, "shut yo ass up, you lost too." I liked this a lot. It felt spontaneously real and should lead to an interesting match next month. 

(5) Jacob Johnson defeated Herculon Rage to retain the RIPW Shout Out Social Media Championship in 6:10.  Strong heel/babyface dynamic as the RIPW fans were in Rage's corner all the way. I enjoyed seeing Johnson expand his range and experiment with the polar opposite of the babyface character he portrayed as the DSW Champion. Nothing pretty about the match. Johnson retained with te New Jersey Throwdown (front slam).

(6) Dark Passion Assassins (Neji Ichiban & Dante Darko with Stella Randy) defeated High Stakes ("The Hitmaker" Dominic Stuckey & "The Gambler" Black Jak Mak) via DQ to retain the RIPW Tag Team Championship in 14:30. DPA is another very popular act with the RIPW fans. Darko took a lot of abuse early on but the story that emerged was Stuckey and Mak couldn't get along. Stuckey almost didn't get there in time to save BJM on Darko's slingshot blue thunder bomb (He actually didn't but referee Daryl Hall smoothed it over). BJM bailed and left Stuckey to eat superkicks from DPA. High Stakes had their chance after DPA collided. BJM wanted Stuckey to use a chair. Stuckey said that was stupid because they would get DQed. Hall made sure to get distracted. Stuckey picked up the chair but couldn't make up his mind about using it. Ichiban went down like he'd been shot and Hall caught Stuckey red handed. 

The finish popped the crowd. Darryl Hall showed why he is the 6X GHW referee of the year. Stuckey succeeded in taking zero bumps. Wouldn't have hurt my feeling if they had cut a few minutes here. 

(7) Jay Alpha Miller defeated Terry Yaki to win the RIPW Southeastern Openweight Championship in 11 minutes.  At the bell, Yaki ducked a belt shot from Miller. Teflon chickened out but caught Yaki flatfooted on the reentry. Eyes bulging out of his skull, Miller shouted something about "Manifest Destiny". Teflon liked to cry from the impact of Yaki's chops. Miller hotshotted Yaki and his offense built to full nelson facebuster. Yaki used Miller like a tacking dummy for  a trio of suicide dives. Miller's high knee into a rockbottom was beautiful. Yaki called for the Yaki Krusher. Miller tried to go low but Yaki caught his arm. Yaki did a ripcord Russian legsweep transitioned to a Border City Stretch. Miller almost gave it up. Miller went for the belt after Yaki kicked out of a fireman's carry released to facebuster. Couldn't blame him because if that move didn't win the match, I don't know what would. The belt shot missed and Yaki said "my turn". Now they both had access to belts. As referee Dana Goodman was getting one belt out of there, Miler clunked Yaki with other belt to become the second Southeastern Openweight Champion in RIPW history.

This was one of those matches where the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.

(8) Jay Lucas defeated Brayden Toon to retain the RIPW Heavyweight Championshp in 6:25. Mad love for Lucas was a given. The appreciation for Toon was a bit of surprise and they leaned into it the sportsmanship.  They locked up  nice and stiff and then they were  off the races, determined to fit as much as they could in a six minute match. Running SSP by Toon, Lucas with a tope, then round the world spots, sending each other sprawling out of a chair. Tiger feint to the outside by Toon,  back inside they swapped big near falls -- Lucas brainbuster, Toon sitout powerbomb. Lucas pulled out a cool transition out of lariat into a pinning position.

They got a "both these guys" chant after the match. It was all sweetness and light until the last fleeting moment. Toon clubbed Lucas out of nowhere and left him laying with a package piledriver. 

Great stuff. They sucked the crowd in and pulled the rug out perfectly. I wish they had added the couple of minutes I wanted subtracted the tag match. 

NOTES: RIPW returns to Atlanta Utility Works on October 5. Renegade Enforcer's plan is to run the first Sunday of every month...Don Miguel and Tyreke Robinson were the commentary team for the video...The referees were Darryl Hall and Dana Goodman...Video production by Dee Munny with Chayn Male running sound...Jeff Jobs was the ring announcer...Among those in the house and visiting backstage: Ehren Black, Jay Tyler, Travis 3000, KJ Valentine, Ron LaFlore, Lamar Diggs, Jose Manuel and Shoota Gabe...Now That's Wrestling/Monday Night Riot is on hiatus while Now That's TV streaming renovates their new building in East Point.