TWE Hensley's Last Hurrah -- Red Bank TN on October 30

Photos by Suplex Photography From Larry Goodman: Scott Hensley called it a career last Friday night at the Bud Higdon Arena. Hensley was rop...

Photos by Suplex Photography

From Larry Goodman:

Scott Hensley called it a career last Friday night at the Bud Higdon Arena. Hensley was roped into refereeing a match involving Abdullah the Butcher in 2006, pressed into duty as ring announcer for an Ultimate NWA show in 2008. He went on to promote the Scenic City Invitational and raise thousands of dollars for schools in the process. He was the ACTION Wrestling ring announcer from day one. TWE Chattanooga was his home. 

It was a lovely night. Hensley was honored in a variety of ways throughout the evening.

There was also some news coming out of the show. JT Paradox was named as the first entrant for the 2027 ACTION Wrestling Futures Showcase (during the SCI weekend). Paradox and Derek Neal had a standout match. 

Darian Bengston retained the ACTION World Championship by defeating Kasey Owens in an excellent main event. An argument could be made that Owens is owed a rematch due to the way the finish went down.

TWE was SRO, 200 range the week before for Nightmare on Dayton Blvd.  A thing I love about this building is the way it sounds. The heat can be really strong with 100 as there were last Friday night.

Hensley informed the crowd that the four participants in the opening match had a combined age of 58 years. 

(1) Jacob Whitaker defeated Carmen Mack with guest referee Cullen Carlisle and guest ring announcer Sabastian Guest in 4:47. 

Whitaker had "and 14 gallons Fairlee Chocolate Milk" as part of his intro. These kids put on an amazingly polished match for 14 year olds, playing to the crowd with facial expressions to burn.  Carlisle (the former Student Cullen)  was the veteran at 16. Guest got the spot because of how well he did at Hensley's ring announcer seminar and overcame the lack of working mic. Whitaker applied the dreaded Baron Von Raschke claw. They traded LaMagistral cradles and Whitaker pinned Mack second time around.

Postmatch -- the performers toasted success with bottles of Fairlee chocolate milk.

(2) Coven of the Goat Rules: Tank (with Reverend Dan Wilson) defeated Erron Wade in 7:05.  Rev said he didn't feel like being there after what went down with the "Pepto Bismol puke" Jameson Shook the week before. But he had been friends with Hensley for a long time despite their obvious differences.

Rev's announcement that the match would be conducted under Coven of the Goat rules got a gleeful "Tank is gonna kill you" chant at the TWE Arena. No worries for Wade. Tank was as playful as a pussy cat on this night. A few minutes in, Tank disappeared backstage and reemerged as Poondawg, and made his way through the crowd as only Poondawg can do. Carllsle was also wearing a Poondawg mask. The fix was in. Wade got in Carlisle's face for willfully neglecting his pin attempt. Tank got on all fours behind Wade and you know the rest.  

Tank and Carlisle duped Wade into dancing with them...and Tank unceremoniously dumped Wade out of the ring. 

(3) Aaron Roberts defeated Cousin Condrey in 4:55. 

If nothing else, this match was hard-hitting. Roberts is a mountain of a man. Condrey is a TWE fan favorite and never one to shy away from severe punishment. Translation: they beat the fuck out of each other. Roberts won with an Earthquake sitdown splash.

(4) JT Paradox defeated Derek Neal in 8:37. Making this match was somebody's great idea. Wrestling a renowned 23-year veteran like Neal was a test for Paradox and he passed with flying colors.  The  was high impact done with technique. I cannot say enough good things about Neal.

They opened with high speed waistlock reversals. Paradox scored the first major move with a tope. Neal's northern lights suplex was picture perfect. They went strong style until Paradox dropped Neal with a headbutt. Neal kicked out at one. Paradox splashed Neal for two. He was wrestling with fervor and landing heavy shots. Neal suplexed Neal's suplex into the turnbuckles left both men down. Neal struck back with a flying dropkick and a sensational flying elbow.

Now it was JTP fighting up from the bottom. Dueling clotheslines until Paradox went down. Paradox hit a pop up powerbomb for two. Neal back in with a slurpee kick into the corner and butterfly suplex floated over into a pin attempt. Neal had Paradox softened up for the Dude Buster but Paradox got him with an inside cradle.

They shook hands after the match.

Hensley announced Paradox as the first entrant in the 2027 ACTION Futures Showcase. Paradox is just 20 years old with 2 years in.

(5) Damon Stryker defeated Landon Hale and Shean Christopher and Grayson Pierce and Kody Manhorn and Anakin Murphy in a six man scramble match (8:26). This was a very different Manhorn from the last time I saw him wrestle. He honored Hensley by placing his towel around his neck.

A comprehensive recap of this match is a fool's errand. Stryker got heat. The returning Murphe was over with the TWE crowd. Stryker and Christopher sent Manhorn straight into the wall side of the ring. Murphy made a plastic Jack-O-Lantern his weapon of choice. Pierce did a flip dive to the outside Stryker. Hale's dive to outside on Stryker connect but Stryker escaped his 450. Stryker's crotch got a workout on the top rope. In the end, Stryker pinned Hale after a low blow.

A perpetual action scramble with everyone getting a chance to shine. Stryker and Hale couldn't get enough of each other. That's a singles match that needs to happen.

(6) KOBK (TWE Champion Big Dave Weaver & Sean Campbell) defeated The Carnies (Nick Iggy & former TWE Champion Hunter Drake) when Dave pinned Drake at 8:35. Drake said Dave had something that belonged to him. Drake, however, did not want to mix it up with the champion. Carnies got heat on Campbell and a "Carnies Suck" chant for their troubles. Iggy did the French Tickler. Hell yeah. Campbell broke out a Panama City Sunrise for the double down. Dave was a whirling dervish with the hot tag. Big double teams for near fall in both directions. Drake was set up to deliver Purple Haze. Dave foiled it. KOBK smoked Drake with a high low and racked up the pinfall. 

Good match. The bad guys lost.

(7) Tim Bosby & Jameson Shook (with Dylan Hales) defeated Matt Griffin & Tyler Stevens in 13:29. They played for comedy and the match had some  uproariously funny moments. Stevens and Bosby's facial expressions were priceless. Hales may be as popular as toenail fungus in TWE but even he had kind thing to say about Hensley. He was the first person Hales worked with in wrestling at SCI and that led to him having a full-time job in pro wrestling. But tonight was his best night in the business because Hensley would be gone. They were going to wipe the floor with Stevens and Griffin and then they were coming for Hensley. 

Shook got his panties in a wad about Griffin mocking his "Hot To Go" gimmick. Shook fretted about his pecs. Bosby's goggles were stupid funny. Hales' goons were eventually able to isolate Griffin, who got chants "CEO" AND "499" as the babyface. The heels screwed up. Hales took a bump Griffin gave Bosby a mighty german suplex and hulked up. He almost pinned Bosby with a Hoganesque leg drop. Hales stripped down to his wrestling gear to confront Griffin. That did not end well for Hales but Bosby capitalized on the goofiness with an F5 to pin Griffin.

(8) Alexandra Quinn defeated Corinne Joy and Ravenna Vein and Davinna Thorne when Quinn submitted Joy at 5:55. Fun match with Quinn going over strong in the end. Thorne subbed for Kinzie Paige. Joy and Thorne had a Divas bonding experience and got a "cut the mic" chant. Quinn took control. Joy put an end to that with her hairspray.

Thorne did a triple crossbody. On commentary, Rob Weather said Thorne's voice was the soundtrack to his nightmare. Vein Gori-bombed Joy.  Quinn cleaned house and submitted Joy as pictured below. 

(9) Jaden Newman defeated Adams Jacobs in 7:21. What a treat this was. Fully recovered from knee surgery, we may be seeing the best version of Jaden Newman. His intensity, physique and heel personality all top notch. Jacobs was making his TWE debut At the of 48, the guy can still go.

Newman was unbearably obnoxious. He strong-armed Hensley into repeating his intro. Jacobs beat his ass. Newman hit a spike DDT and swinging neckbreaker for near falls and continued to talk trash. Jacobs got a big near fall with a slingshot leg drop. Newman beat him with a  powerslam and wanted to do more talking. 

Tank and Rev put and end to that nonsense. Tank gave Jacobs props. Talked about how they rode the roads together after that started out in 1996. Jacobs received a "please come back" chant.

The crowd chanted "Thank you, Scott", as Hensley prepared to introduce a match for the final time.

Bengston and Owens slid out and the entire TWE roster surrounded the ring. Griffin said it was the 2015 SCI that brought him back to pro wrestling, and he'd been working with Hensley ever since. Griffin made mention of the money Hensley raised for charity and how he had been ACTION Wrestling's ring annoucer for eight years. Hensley was visibly moved, fighting back tears as the chanting continued. 

Hensley mistakenly introduced Bengston as the TWE Champion and said, "Old habits die hard."

(10) Darian Bengston defeated Kasey Owens via submission to retain the ACTION World Championship in 13:15. A more mat-based technical match to compliment the high-impact technical stylings of Neal/JTP. Also a babyface match.

They shook hands and got down to some gritty grappling. Owens speared Bengston's knee and attacked the wounded body part.  Bengston dodged Owens' Bullet headbutt to the knee and went to work on Bengston's forearm, tried for the Makabe Lock but too soon to get it fully applied. Bengston hit a draping corkscrew neckbreaker.  Owens almost pinned Bengston with the Knee Trembler. Owens went to his crossface chickenwing and could not lock it in. Bengston got all of this move...............

Owens applied a leglock but Bengston made the ropes. Bengston kicked out of The Bullet at 2.9. Owens took another shot at the crossface chickenwing. Bengston reversed it with a tombstone piledriver and got the Makabe lock applied. Owens got into the ropes just as he was tapping out. 

Loved it. Run this one back is all I can say. 

Bengston thanked Hensley for the advocacy. 

NOTES: Rob Weathers was the lead commentator with The Reverend and Hales splitting the color commentary duties...Refs: Kevin Blicker, Kim Skiles, Adam Hunter and Carlisle. Upcoming TWE events at the Bud Higdon Arena: 11/14 Hate and Jealousy; 11/28 Turkey Bowl; 12/11 Fool's Holiday.