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| Photo by Matt Watkins |
Any time I can see Carlie Bravo, Adam Priest, Krule and Alex Kane on the same show 20 minutes from my house, ain't no way I'm missing it.
Crowd was an intimate gathering of friends, a 50/50 mix of wrestling people and wrestling fans.
This writer was in his element. Talking to people I really like and getting to see tons of promising talent and stars in the making like Corinne Joy. Every performer worked hard. Joy returns to MLW this Saturday night in Chattanooga.
Matches received liberal amounts of time, more title matches than an AEW show, this was an opportunity for the wrestlers to get reps and experiment in an receptive, relaxed environment.
Brimstone is a workable venue for a small crowd. Low boy ring required as the building has only a 12 foot ceiling. Sight lines are not a problem with a crowd of 50. Acoustics such that fans and wrestlers can make themselves heard without a mic.
Pre-show: Father Marquis & Prime Works Off Work (with Steven Calozzi) defeated Rodney Rockett & Szabo Dollas in 7:45. One of these talents was not like the others. This was the Father Marquis showcase. Calozzi volunteered to join the congregation and do dastardly deeds for the Father like a good Catholic boy. Marquis said they were taking Dollas to the Upper Room. Prime Works, proud owner of the most super awkward gimmick in pro wrestling got the pin.
Marquis smashed the collection plate over Calozzi's head for failing to make a donation.
(1) Pro South All-Out Champion KJ Valentine defeated Hakeem Young in 11:50. Hakeem dominated the body of the match with a display of aggressiveness and pure cardio. KJ got going. Hakeem gave Valentine two piledrivers and a Gotch piledriver to top it off. VALENTINE KICKED OUT. It was criminal. Hakeem should be buried six feet under for doing it and knew I would say so. But if you can't do something that outageous on a Sunday night show, where can you do it? Young crushed Valentine with a pair of Vader Bombs and got rolled up on the third try. Served him right.
(2) "Independent Wrestling's Most Wanted Woman" Vivian Cross defeated LGV in 9:21. LGV stepped in because Chayn Male was banged up. Serviceable match, nothing to differentiate itself from the opener. Cross pinned LGV with an innovative neckbreaker variation.
(3) Golden Class (Byron Young & Dallas Kage) defeated Fade Area Militia (Techno 3000 & Jay Tyler) to become the new DWA Tag Team Champions in 12:10. Young can go places. He has the look and the ability and he had the crowd. Bonus points to T3K for using a gator roll. It was Kage's turn to show out with the hot tag. Young pinned T3K after a double team faceplant. Valentine came out to celebrate with the new champions.
(4) Adam Priest defeated Neji Ichiban (with Donnie Darko & Stella Randy) in 12:22. Superb storytelling and technical excellent courtesy of Adam Priest. No funny business is what he said. Signaling that was not what you were going to get. Moment of truth: Priest cheated and destroyed Ichiban's knee. Stella got involved. Ichiban reversed Priest's third dragon screw and Priest reversed a roll up to escape with the win.
(5) Prince Moulay defeated Eddie Hindrixx via submission to retain the LLJ Championship in 15:32. They've got the bodies and the talent to get to the next level. Some good stuff but the match needed to be cleaned up and edited down IMO. Story was Hindrixx and stablemate Jay Tyler getting disturbed by a certain individual's music playing during the match. Nice tiger bomb by Moulay, ditto Hindrixx's clothesline combo. Moulay capitalzed on the music to put Hindrixx to sleep.
Joy was introduced as the bubbly new DWA Women's Champion. Joy was grateful to win her first title at the start of her second year as a pro and issued an open challenge to any diva in the back...Krule
(6) Krule defeated DWA Women's Champion Corinne Joy via DQ in six minutes. The most compelling (and harrowing) match of the show. Joy gave an amazing performance. Scrambling to get away from Krule and courageously fighting for her her life at the same time. Joy simultaneously portrayed terror and true grit. Krule was pitch perfect as the menacing monster.
Grayson Pierce came out to ridicule Krule for wrestling for a women's belt. Krule took the bait. Joy gave Krule a stinkface and came with an eyelash of pinning him with a headlock driver. Krule would have ended Joy had Pierce not nailed him with the Skullpiercer for the DQ.
Pierce and Joy got in a shoving match. Crowd chanted "please break up" regarding their real life relationship. Krule ended up hugging Joy before choke slamming her. Crowd congratulated Joy with a "You Didn't Die" chant.
(7) Alex Kane defeated CB4Three to retain the King of the South Championship in 8:27. How to follow that? Best thing was contrast and this match had it. Crowd was split. CB can do extraordinarily cool stuff for his body type. Kane dissected CB's knee. They were getting dueling chants. CB pounced Kane, forcing him to roll out. Chayn Male tried to convince CB his help was needed. They collided and Kane pinned CB after a low blow.
"The Almost Dapper" Ted Teddy introduced footage of Tyler Stevens defeating DJ Bruner at TWE Chattanooga to win the DWA Championship and successfully defending the title in the UK, making the case it was now a world championship.
Stevens challenged anybody to take him on. Bravo brought the starpower and said he wrestled in front of 30,000 people the night before. Oozing confidence, Stevens was not impressed. Bravo was talking to a Wall. Keelin Cole said he deserved in. Bravo wanted to know who are you? And soon found out.
(8) Tyler Stevens defeated Carlie Bravo and Keelin Cole in a triple threat to retain the DWA World Championship in 12:16. A triple threat where everyone wins. Nobody was taking a backseat to anybody in this match, least of all Keelin Cole.
Bravo tried to ice Cole. Keelin wasn't having it. He hit a double shotgun dropkick and a flip dive on Bravo and Stevens. Bravo sat Cole down and said Atlanta belonged to him. Cole connected with a cutter off the ringpost. Bravo appeared to kill Cole dead with a lariat but Cole kicked out. Bravo said kid's got heart. Cole tried for a lucha arm drag on Bravo and got murder in midair by a Stevens' lariat. Steven was eating Cole alive. Stevens and Bravo beat hell out of each other until Cole took them down with a double blockbuster. All three fought up from their knees. Bravo broke out a zig zag forced DDT on Cole but his scissors kick came up empty. Hakeem ran in and posted Bravo. Cole hit Code Red on Stevens for a very close near fall. Stevens put Cole away with a devastating sitout powerbomb.
Postmatch, Bravo told Cole, "You're a fucking star, kid" and said he would be happy to face him one-on-one.
NOTES: DWA returns to Brimstone Tavern on June 7...Alexandra Quinn, Salem Alexander and Atrix were among those in the audience...Don Miguel was the play-by-play commentator. Chayn Male was on color for the most of the show. Cross and Darko sat in on color for one match apiece...The officials were Anthony Rivera and Paul Santa.
