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| July 15, 2006 It was a beleaguered Pro Wrestling Evolution that made its return to Canton, Georgia. Kory Chavis defeated Low Ki with the help of Ricky Reyes to retain the company’s heavyweight prize. That was one of several good matches on a show that was unfortunately reminiscent of the disorganized, amateurish dark age of PWE. The breeze from the adjacent wastewater treatment facility was blowing in the wrong direction Saturday night, causing a faint, foul odor to permeate the Canton National Guard Armory. The parting of the ways between partners Josh Wheeler and Roger Cantrell (Georgia Wrestling Promotions) appeared to take a toll on PWE, at least in the short run. Attendance was down to 50, which PWE attributed, at least in part, to the lack of promotion by Cantrell. The overall organization and professionalism of the show was several notches below the norm. As if PWE management didn’t have enough on their plate already, they almost lost their main event when Kory Chavis ended up stranded in Macon due to car problems. Initially, the split between PWE and Cantrell appeared to be amicable, but things turned ugly in a hurry. PWE intended to keep the whole thing on the down low, at least for the time being. However, once rumors surfaced that the promotion was cancelling all their shows, rumors allegedly started by Cantrell, PWE management confirmed the split in a post on their website, and denied that the company was in financial trouble. Cantrell then chose to air out the dirty laundry about his departure in the NWA Wildside Forum on the day of the show. PWE plans to move forward, but at this point, it has the look of a wrestling company that is no more that a couple of bad business decisions away from going out of existence. Their June show in Blue Ridge was canceled on the night of the show. The 7/22 show in Waleska was dropped last week, so they’re back to one venue where crowd have been on a steep decline for the last three months. On a personal level, I feel for the people at PWE. They care about the product, and they put a lot of time and energy into making these shows happen. I hope they can turn it around. The negative vibe made it difficult to fairly critique the performances on this show. Like the fans, the wrestlers deserved better. It didn’t help that save one notable exception, the sparse crowd was DOA. Ring announcer K. C. Class opened the show (30 minutes late) by introducing Phil Heffner at the new commissioner of PWE. Heffner said it was 2006, not 1986, and PWE was moving into a new realm in which the company would no longer rely on stars from the past (Cantrell had been responsible for booking older stars like Bob and Brad Armstrong, Ranger Ross, and Glacier). Executive Consultant Nigel Sherrod came out and insulted Heffner and the fans. Sherrod said he had come back to this cesspool to make an impact. Sherrod said he had been wronged, and Heffner was going to pay the price for Sherrod’s success. (1) Hooligans (Devin & Mason Cutter) beat Lamar Phillips & Carl Wilson in 8:30 No bell to start or end the match. Hooligans are the AA league version of McAllisters. Wilson came out swigging on a bottle of Malibu liquor. This match had some seriously weak striking. It wasn’t a squash. Nevertheless, the net effect was that Hooligans made the babyface team look like jobbers instead of players. Hooligans got heat on Wilson. Phillips got very little offense after making the hot tag. Hooligans dumped Phillips and pinned Wilson with a legdrop/sideslam combo. Phillips revived Wilson with a splash of Malibu. The new PWE tag team champions, Hollywood Brunettes, came out in their church clothes. Referee Clint Stephens presented Brunettes with some spiffy tag belts. Brunettes then cut a dreary promo that went on way too long. Andrew Alexander said Brunettes had formed a cohesive unit with Murder One. He ran down their opponents for the evening, Jacob Ladder and Darin Childs with Rachael Putski. Alexander said Putski was a filthy whore. Alexander wondered how the fans could support a Satan worshipper like Ladder. (2) Amien Rios beat Bobby Hill in 10:02 Brad Armstrong was originally scheduled as the opponent for Rios, but that booking was a casualty of the problems with Cantrell. Rios has developed into an entertaining heel character in PWE. Hill has improved steadily and he looked really motivated here. He might want to rethink the indietastic ring gear though. Senior official Ken Wallace was at ringside evaluating the quality of the officiating. That was the least of PWE’s problems on this night. Hill blasted Rios right in the chops with a super stiff flying forearm for a near fall. Rios brawled. Hill made a spunky comeback. Rios nicely recovered from a botched spot with a donkey kick to the nuts. Hill hit a Spinesplitta, an odd choice since the originator of that move was wrestling in the main event. Rios won it with a sunset powerbomb using the ropes for extra leverage. (3) Maul (with Logan Chase) beat Jason Hampton & Scott Christian in 2 minutes Apparently, Maul is PWE’s new designated monster. Maul also used the Spinesplitta. What’s up with that? Hampton took an awesome bump when Maul spiked him with a piledriver. He looked like a human pogo stick. Maul pinned Christian with the dreaded claw slam. (4) Jacob Ladder & Darin Childs (with Rachael Putski) beat Hollywood Brunettes (Andrew Alexander & Kyle Matthews) via DQ in 17:01 when Murder One interfered and Brunettes retained the Evolution Southern tag team titles Ladder and Childs got about the best pop this crowd could muster up. Childs gear advertised him as being straight edge. Ladder kissed Rachael on the boob for good luck. Brunettes did a lot of stalling. Ladder challenged Alexander to go amateur style and offered to take the bottom position. Ladder hiked his tights up to expose his ass, as if wrestling fans haven’t seen enough male ass lately. The whole thing was beyond gay. Alexander cheated and took a wicked bump over the top for his troubles. Ladder then tossed Matthews over the top onto Alexander. In the perverse entertainment moment of the evening, Ladder invited a fan called Green Machine into the ring to dance. He’s like a retarded version of Blue Meanie. Rachael wanted to square off with Alexander. Rachael smacked him in he face and rolled the camera at him ala Hollywood Blondes. Now that was funny. Childs popped the crowd with a spear on Matthews. There were some innovative double team moves by both teams once they got rolling. Ladder and Childs hit a sweet double team cutthroat Russian legsweep. Brunettes started the heat on Ladder with a chestcracker/backcracker sequence. Ladder hit a nice flying lariat and hot-tagged Childs. Ladder and Childs gave Matthews a with Childs catching him in a neckbreaker on the way down. Murder One attacked Ladder with a taped stick for the DQ. M-1 really did a number on Ladder in the postmatch. Ladder’s blood was flowing like water. Rachael got tossed aside in a manner that came perilously close to causing a wardrobe malfunction. Ladder collapsed in the ring. The babyface dressing room emptied to make the save. The wrestlers hoisted Ladder onto their shoulders and carried him out crucifix-style, but the crowd didn’t react to it. Clueless Class, the substitute ring announcer, blew it by announcing Brunettes as the winners. The second half of the show was much better. It was a case of good matches in front of an unresponsive crowd. (5) Kid Ego pinned Simon Sermon with an inside cradle to retain the PWE Junior Title in around 8 minutes Spotfest style match here. Fun times. Sermon hit a tilt-a-whirl facebuster for a near fall. Ego sent Sermon on a wild ride through a whole section of ringside chairs. Ego was off the mark on a slingshot senton. Sermon moved and Ego’s shoulder slammed into the post. Sermon went after the injured body part with a swank shoulder breaker from a crucifix powerbomb position. Sermon got frustrated when he couldn’t keep Ego’s shoulder down for the three count. Ego hit a springboard plancha. Ego crashed and burned on a corkscrew moonsault. Sermon moved in for the kill and Ego caught him by surprise. (6) Adam Jacobs defeated Ricky Reyes to become the number one seed in the Heritage Invitational Tournament (11:15) A fine technical match that the people just didn’t care about. Lots of good near falls. Reyes was really impressive, and this was the best stuff I’ve seen from Jacobs in quite a while. It was supposed to be a four-way including Erick Stephens and M-1. Stephens cancelled due to transportation problems. They shot angle prior to the match where M-1 got his head bashed into the tank outside the armory. No mention was made of either one of them. Jacobs got off to a fast start scoring two counts with a slingshot legdrop and a superkick. Reyes crushed Jacobs with a back suplex and tried to cave in his chest and back with stiff kicks. Reyes ducked a high crossbody and pointed at his brain, while Jacobs suffered on the outside. Reyes used a flying knee for a near fall. Jacobs tried for a tornado DDT, but Reyes reversed it into a bridging Northern lights suplex. Reyes snuffed out a rally with a bigtime knee to the face. Reyes planted Jacobs with a DDT for a near fall. Jacobs hit a swinging neckbreaker to spark a comeback that built to a tornado DDT for a near fall. Reyes responded with a bridging Saito suplex and Jacobs kicked out. Reyes hit a Tazzplex for a great near fall. Reyes went for La Magistral cradle, but Jacobs blocked it to score the pinfall. (7) Kory Chavis beat Low Ki to retain the Evolution Wrestling Championship in 13:50 Solid match all the way. My wish is that it could have taken place under better circumstances. Chavis and Ki both got the streamer treatment as they entered the ring. Chavis pie-faced Ki and it was on. Ki absolutely tore up Chavis’ chest with chops. The momentum of one chop sent Chavis flying over the top. Ki was on him in heartbeat. Ki blasted away on Chavis at ringside. Chavis begged. Ki pulled Chavis up by the goatee. Lariat for a one count. Chavis on the comeback with a clubbing lariat, but too looped to capitalize. Ki kicked out at one. Ki fired back with lefts and rights to the gut. Ki dropped Chavis with a chop to the head. Ki hit an elbow drop and Chavis kicked out at one. Chavis launched an assault on Ki, but he was still selling those chops. Chavis hit the Dark City Bomb for a near fall. Chavis maneuvered into a camel clutch. Twice, Ki dropped Chavis with stiff chops. Chavis raked the eyes. Chavis started to climb, but decided he wasn’t going to the top for this punk. Ki rolled out from under a middle rope legdrop. Ki’s fired back with vicious strikes. Chavis ended up on his back grabbing the ropes to save himself. Chavis initiated a ref bump. Knockdown chop and visual fall for Ki. Chavis resorted to a low blow. Chavis went for the Dark Street Street Cutter. Ki escaped. Ki drove Chavis into the buckles with a power dropkick. Ki signaled for the top rope double stomp. But Reyes ran in and dumped Ki off the top. Reyes gave Ki a spinning powerbomb. Ki took a sick bump on his neck. Chavis covered for the three count. Scary moment here. Ki stayed down for a long time. Ki asked the fans if they were happy with seeing him get screwed out of the title. Ki said PWE should listen to their fans and grant him another title shot, because Chavis was no damn champion. Wheeler said Ki would have to win the Southern Heritage Invitational tournament to get another shot at Chavis. Commissioner Heffner offered Ki the choice of facing either Claudio Castagnoli or Reyes in the first round. Ki said he wanted Reyes and was coming for revenge on 8/18. NOTES: The 2nd annual Southern Heritage Invitational tournament is set for Canton on August 18 and 19. In addition to Low Ki vs. Reyes, first round matches include Ace Rockwell vs. Claudio Castagnoli and Alexander vs. Matthews. Elix Skipper challenges Chavis for the title on the 19th. Also on the card: Childs & Ladder vs. M-1 & TBA in a cage match…PWE’s regular ring announcer Jen Holbrook was working an MMA show in Gainesville. Did they ever miss her. |
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