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| SHOW REPORTS |
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| June 7, 2008
For an always entertaining review of Nashville’s weekly wrestling TV shows, SAW and NWA Main Event, check out Jerkin’ the Curtain radio with Trent Van Drisse and Tommy Stewart at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TVD. The show opened with the owner of NWA Main Event, Mike Porter, in the office with Jason James, who could feel something major was going to happen tonight. Jack Johnson poked his head in the door to ask where the bathroom was. “The place I just came from, little, bitty bathroom, you could squeeze your way into it, but you had pretty much had to SAW your way out of it.” James was joined by Tyler Clemens on commentary. (1) Ali Stevens beat Se7en (with K-9 Kohl). Two very large black men squaring off in this one. Early on, Steven hit a beautiful slingshot crossbody onto both Se7en and Kohl. Helluva move for a guy that size. Coming out of the commercial break, Se7en was in control. Stevens used a jawbreaker to start his comeback. They traded punches. “Atomic Dogg” had the harder head. Kohl grabbed Stevens by the leg, but Se7en blindside attack never came close, as he tumbled over the top. Back inside, Stevens finished Se7en with his senton splash to remain undefeated in NWA Main Event. (2) Steven Green beat Damien Payne (with K-9 Kohl & nameless large-breasted stripper type). Clemens questioned Green’s readiness to come off the disabled list. Payne and Kohl took advantage of what Jason James called Green’s “rookieness.” Green rolled out from under Payne’s leisurely senton bomb attempt. Green on fire. Desperation face rake by Payne but to no avail. Green pinned Payne with the worst looking O’Connor roll in wrestling history. The Green fan club went wild. Payne chop blocked Green’s bad knee and put him in the figure four. All the refs (Ferrari, Jerry Ryman and Mark Owens) were still trying to pry Payne off Green as they went to commercial. (3) Greg King Jr. presumably beat Marc Anthony (with Charmin’ Charles) via DQ. As Anthony decimated King, the commentators said Charles was all about the title, even if Anthony was too insane to care. It took three King dropkicks to finally take Anthony off his feet. Anthony turned right around and kicked King’s head in. “You just can’t keep a good maniac down,” said Clemens. Anthony had King beat after the first Maniac Melee (top rope elbow). Charles ordered a second one. Anthony not only delivered, he knocked ref Mark Owens the fuck out AND hit a third Melee. Stevens hit the ring and went nose-to-nose with Anthony. They exchanged right hands. The entire dressing room emptied out to pull them apart. They each broke loose and it ended up as a massive scrum as they went to commercial. June 10 at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds: From ROH: Davey Richards vs. Dingo, Anthony vs. Stevens, and LT Falk & Andy Douglas (hmm) vs. Damien Payne & Shane Smalls. June Slam Jam 2008 on June 21 at the Nashville Fairgrounds: a Nick Gulas Memorial Battle Royal, an undetermined match from Wrestle Birmingham, and a television champion will be crowned. Two weeks away and that’s it. During the break, matchmaker Jeff Daniels added a Stevens/Anthony streetfight to today’s program, TV time permitting. (4) Steve-O vs. Christian Jacobs ended in a double pin and was ruled a no contest at 6:32. Clemens said the fans were excited about the return of O after a week off. The announce team did the hard sell for the live shows. Jacobs hit three big moves- a fallaway slam, a hanging vertical suplex and a hotshot. O kicked out of all three. O hit the dreaded enzuigiri for the double down. James said we wouldn’t want see a double count out ending. O made a comeback where it looked like they were moving in slow-motion. O escaped from a catapult into the corner and hit a twisting crossbody off the ropes. Did that sequence ever look lame. Jacobs did a half-assed Northern lights suplex. O hit a German suplex and referee Jamie Ferrari counted both men’s shoulders down. Ferrari was put over for making a heads up call. Anthony and Charles were in the exhibition area outside the Fairgrounds Arena. This was surreal. Anthony was wearing an army helmet and holding a plunger in his hand. Anthony said his (deceased) Uncle Ronny P. had to come to him with a warning that somebody was coming to take Uncle Charles’s belt. Channeling General Patton, Anthony said Roddy told him to don the helmet and send Lt. Killsworth, aka his pet dachshund, Killer, off to all corners of the globe to gather the allies. “If that’s the way, you (Stevens) want to play. Come on down to the Price Is Right. And find out just how bad my bite really is.” Anthony began barking into the plunger. “He’s crazier than an outhouse rat,” said Charles. Steve-O cut a backstage promo for his rematch against Jacobs on Tuesday, June 10. I can hardly wait. (5) L.T. Falk pinned Shane Smalls to win the NWA Mid-American X Division Title in 11:46. Similar to their first match, Falk dominated the fast-paced flippy exchanges, with story being it was too early to put Smalls away. The momentum did a complete 180 when Smalls hit a single arm DDT across his knee. Smalls was all over Falk’s arm for a very long time. The match turned again when Smalls missed a BME and Falk nailed him with a 360 kick. Falk was very slow to cover. Smalls kicked out at two. Smalls connected with an enzuigiri. He covered using the ropes for extra leverage, but Ferrari caught him. Falk hit a spinning neckbreaker for a near fall, and looked up to find Payne at ringside. Falk fell for the distraction, but not for long, as he soon had Smalls set up for the Falkin’ Over. Smalls blocked and sent Falk into the ropes where Payne gave him a hotshot. Small caught Falk on the rebound with the Last Rites. Falk kicked out. Payne gave Falk a snap suplex on the concrete and tossed him back inside. Falk kicked out again. Payne distracted Ferrari and tossed brass knucks to Smalls. Falk ducked, and Smalls had to put on the brakes to avoid clocking Payne. Falk dropkicked Smalls into Payne and it was time to be Falkin’ Over. Smalls and Payne beat Falk down. Andy Douglas strolled out ringside with a smile on his face and a chair in his hand. He instructed the heels to hold Falk steady. Swerve. Douglas laid Smalls and Payne to waste with chairshots. Douglas said the Naturals had parted ways because he was tired of following Stevens. Smalls and Payne were backstage with Jason James. Payne had a splitting headache from the chairshot and Small was holding his aching back. They issued a challenge to Falk and Douglas. Falk was on the phone backstage. It was Douglas confirming that he would be Falk’s partner at the Fairgrounds on Tuesday night. They aired a replay of the pull apart between Anthony and Stevens and segued into clips from the Street Fight. They fought all over the building, up into the balcony and out into the parking lot. One clip showed Anthony close to falling off the balcony. Another showed the building emptying out to follow the action into the parking lot. It ended with Charles and Anthony locking the door of the dressing room to keep Stevens at bay. THE GOOD: The best thing about this show was Anthony/Stevens program played out – from the pull apart to Antony’s vignette to the streetfight clips. The initial confrontation had the necessary intensity. As pull aparts go, this one was pretty decent. The vignettes with Anthony and Charles was both creative and freaking hilarious. Anthony is a unique talent and that’s gold in wrestling. Showing only brief clips of their streetfight was a very smart idea. It looked terrific in that form and got me interested in seeing the rematch. Some great camerawork in the balcony, too. One of the better things in general about NWA Main Event is the announcing. James and Clemens put everything over - the product, the talent, the stories – but not to a ridiculous degree where it detracts from the enjoyment of the show. Smalls and Falk had another good match. Smalls REALLY made a point of working on that arm this time around. You could see Douglas’ turn coming but that’s not a bad thing at all. Jamie Ferrari was a model of competent refereeing. It was funny the way Ferrari was put over as the greatest thing since sliced bread after Owens brainless reffing the week before. Those were some priceless expressions on the faces of James and Porter at the end of the segment with Johnson. THE BAD: As far as upgrades go, I hope the audio is priority number one. Having the announcers interpret some of the stuff said on house mic is semi-acceptable, but not being able to hear Douglas’s big promo explaining his turn was really annoying. The lack of crowd noise deadens the show all the way around. They gave away Douglas’ turn by showing the ad for the next show beforehand. I can understand needing to push the card throughout the show, so cut two different versions of the ad. I can’t see Slam Jam doing any business based on a battle royal and a random Wrestle Birmingham match. Too much damage has been done to the standard Battle Royal format to get people to care about it. Using rumble rules works when properly put together, as Bill Behrens at NWA Wildside/NWA Anarchy demonstrates on a regular basis. Jacobs and O started OK, but the last couple of minutes were brutally bad. They were doing a lot of stuff and looked too blown up to execute. It left me never wanting to see that match again. The two newcomers, Se7en and King, didn’t get a chance to show what they could do, but that wasn’t so much bad, as a necessary sacrifice to do the right thing for the top guys. Green/Payne was OK for two kids, but th finish was horrible, not that it mattered to Green's fan club. |