Southern Fried Calm Before The Storm Video Review -- October 3

Photos by Tami Robledo From Larry Goodman: When you come to Crossroads, may God have mercy on your soul.                                    ...

Photos by Tami Robledo

From Larry Goodman:

When you come to Crossroads, may God have mercy on your soul.

                                                                                              - Judas

Calm Before The Storm was the go home show for Crossroads, Southern Fried's signature event for the fall season on October 17. 

Matches were added for Crossroads and there was a title switch -- Forever Faithful (Alexander Lev & Ashton Martin) defeated The Approved (Adrian Hawkins & Bobby Moore) for the tag team championship. 

Attendance at 405 Community Court continues to be a sore spot.  The crowd number appeared to be lower than the 130 at the September 18 show. Aside from the well-documented seasonal factor, creative has been trying to find new magic after concluding three long arc stories at Decade of Decadence: the end of Sexton Alliance, Nick Halen's title quest and the Hunter James/Jamey Dean saga.

Southern Fried has a youth problem on the babyface side. GWH Wrestler of the Year Hunter James is unquestionably a made man but there's nobody moving up the card...at least not yet. 

Crossroads has three compelling matches: 

-- Avery Styles makes his Southern Fried debut versus Corey Hollis, who will become the first wrestler to have faced AJ and Avery in singles matches.

-- Judas vs. Jeremy Vain: Who's The Man? -- The best built match on the show. Judas and Vain have been incredible on the mic. 

-- Nick Halen vs. Disturbed for the Southern Fried Championship in a Mayhem Match with no ropes, no rules and all the toys they can bring. If this match is half the brawl they had at Last Stand of Summer, it's going to be vicious and violeint.

Two matches were bolted on to Crossroads at this show. Jacob Ashworth and Hunter James will mix it up on tag match with Seabolt and newcomer Von Milla as their respective partners.

The Approved invoked their rematch clause and added two other teams to make it a four-way for the tag team championship.

Dom Stuckey will defend the Classics Championship in a match that has been on the back burner.

The quality of the raw video was excellent with top drawer ringside camera work by Tripp Fisher and Hayden Weakley. The audio mix was spot on and  authentically reproduced the sound of the room. 

Hawkins paid tribute to PAC and dedicated the show to him followed by a 10 bell in his honor. Beautifully done. Hawkins worked with PAC behind the scenes at AEW.

(1) Sal Rinauro (with Michael Stevens & Mother Frost) defeated Tayo in 11:22.  Sal was getting his ass kicked and pulled referee Dee Byers into the middle of the fray to help him out of a jam. Heat. Spinning fisherman for a close near fall. Frost ran distraction. Rinauro won with Jacob Time (sliding flatliner). 

Good match but kinda cooked Tayo's goose as a babyface. Yeah, the numbers were against him but he was pinned clean in the middle with just a whiff of distraction.

(2) Seth Delay (with Matt Hankins) defeated AJ Black in 7:11. Also a good match. Hankins ran AJ into the ground on the mic. Delay pinned AJ with a cradle DDT.  

(3) Billy Buck defeated Seth Stephens in 5:12. Buck looked a bit perturbed after losing to Stephens a month earlier and had some extra mustard on his chops. Stephens had answers for everything until Buck threw at him until Buck planted him with the spinebuster and  and tuned up the band for the Buckshot. Stephens countered but Buck reversed the reversal for the three count.

Buck reluctantly accepted Stephens offer to shake hands. Out came Lev and Martin. Lev said sportsmanship is lame which summed up Billy Buck and Stephens was wasting his career making Buck his best friend.

(4) Forever Faithful (Alexander Lev & Ashton Martin) defeated Approved (Adrian Hawkins & Bobby Moore) to become the new Southern Fried Tag Team Champions in 13 minutes. Approved dismantled the challengers for the first five minutes of the match. Martin's sneaky tag turned the tide. Loved the imagery used by the commentary team  of Adam Vance and Blake Blackwell in describing the heels dastardly methods -- vultures, hyenas, tearing their prey apart.  Hawkins ran wild with the hot tag. Moore was set to deliver the discus elbow to Martin but got distracted by Lev pulling Hawkins off the apron. As the match was breaking down, Mother Frost sid in from one side the ring and slid out the opposite side.  Hawkins did a suicide dive onto Frost. Faithful then hit a standing slice bread/frog splash combo on Moore to take the title.

Solid teamwork from both units. Frost is evidently living rent free in Hawkins' head and that cost Approved the tag team championship.  

(5) Jaden Vain squashed Argo in 1:50. Argo a PCW trainee with basketball player height and build. Vain all business, pulled Argo up after his first DDT, pinned him with the second.

Vain wore poor Argo out with a chair after the bell. 

Judas approached the ring with a mic in his hand.  Last show, he said Vain was soft, weak and had no heart.   Now he saw a man only worried about hurting someone and he was a little impressed. But we have a problem. "You're trying to act like a monster and you're not one." Judas said caused what happened to Argo because he embarrassed and humiliated Vain last time. "You cowered at my feet and begged me not to hurt you." 

Vain went off, insisting he was the man and a monster. Judas was a just a man trying to be who he once was. He was not afraid of Judas or getting his teeth knocked down his throat. Judas was smiling and golf clapping -- "I accept". Vain had written a check with his mouth and he knew it. "My game, my time, the only way we're doing this? Crossroads, man-to-man, Who's The Man?"

Best segment of the show hands down. This is the Crossroads match I do not want to miss. 

(6) Jacob Ashworth defeated Von Milla via DQ in 7:33. Milla proved to be a tough customer, escaped Ashes to Ashes and dove over the top onto Ashworth  Ashworth leered at ring announcer Chianne Michaels. Hunter James sprinted to ringside to defend his woman and Bryan Waites called for the bell.

Milla has skills and cosmetics. He's a work in progress in so far as finding a distinctive personality.

Xander Seabolt ran in to attacked James. The babyfaces threw the heels into the ring leading to...

(7) Hunter James & Von Milla vs. Jacob Ashworth & Xander Seabolt was a no decision. Ashworth & Seabolt took a powder a minute in. Ashworth called the match unsanctioned because John Johnson was not there to sign a contract or some such nonsense. Ashworth said we ain't backin' down. We'll do it at Crossroads:  Winners picks the stipulation for Thanksgiving Night. 

The people in Monroe were giving Ashworth grief. Two "we'll do this on my time" set ups on the same show was not ideal. The bell rang to start the match. The heels bailed but did not get counted out, nor were James & Milla announced as the winners, just another reminder that this is fake pro wrestling.

(8) Nick Halen defeated Michael Stevens to retain the Southern Fried Championship in 10:14. They worked a vigorous pace and kept the crowd engaged. Blackwell delighted in pointing out how Stevens' punchable face and bald head were perfect targets. Halen applied sharpshooter. Stevens scrambled to the floor, pulled Halen out and posted him. The other members of Consanity (Rinauro & Frost) appeared in the ring.  Approved ran down to help Halen and laid Frost out with a Shatter Machine. Forever Faithful got into the mix with Martin's springboard european uppercut on Hawkins. Buck and Stephens teamed up for Buckshot/Zig Zag combo on Lev.  Buck inadvertently DDTed Hawkins so those teams had an instant problem. Frost took Buck out. Consanity stood tall for about two seconds before Halen took care of them and bowled a strike with a dive over the top rope.

After all that, Halen pinned Stevens with an top rope elbow drop.

Hawkins invoked the Approved's rematch clause and said if you want to play, let's play by making it a four-way title match at Crossroads: Approved vs. Forever Faithful vs. Consanity vs. Buck & Stephens.

Halen challenged Disturbed to a Mayhem Match at Crossroads - no ropes, no rules, all the toys you can bring -- and said the dragon slayer is here and Disturbed was dead.