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SHOW REPORTS

2008 SHOW REPORTS

September 20, 2008

As clips of inring action played, the voice of RPW Owner Dr. Johnny Gayton introduced the new hostess, Katie Mayer. She said her co-host would be Baxter Massingale.

Mayer interviewed Rob Adonis. Adonis said he was a better wrestler, more agile, more powerful and smarter than anyone in Rampage (modesty is not his strong suit). Adonis guaranteed victory over Frankie Valentine in their championship tournament match tonight.

Mayer interviewed Ace Diamond and the Diamond Mine. Ace Diamond, who bears a striking resemblance to Jason Cross, said he had scoured the globe and used his unlimited funds to bring in the best cruiserweight talent in Frankie Valentine and the best heavyweight talent in Kodiak. Valentine tried to hit on Katie.

To the ring for some generic managerial mic work by Diamond, He had the cojones to use the “Diamonds are forever” line. Diamond issued a challenge to anybody in the back. That brought Adonis out carrying a giant nerf ball. “Why don’t you get another one of these, and then you’ll have a set.”

1 – ROB ADONIS vs. FRANKIE VALENTINE (with Ace Diamond)

Diamond joined Massingale on commentary. Adonis outwrestled and outmuscled Valentine until the four minute mark, when Valentine slipped out of a press slam and hit a back cracker. Valentine worked the neck bigtime, with two neckbreaker variants and then a blockbuster. Valentine threw a tantrum when Adonis kicked out. More near falls with a moonsault block and a spinwheel kick. Adonis hit a spinebuster out of nowhere. That brought Diamond to ringside to distract. Valentine capitalized with a dropkick. One-armed cover by Valentine, and Adonis rolled a shoulder at 2 and ½. Valentine ate this great shoulder-mounted facebuster for the double down. Valentine bumped big for the comeback. Valentine went for another moonsault and Adonis turned it into a powerslam.

WINNER: Rob Adonis in 10:45. This was role reversal of their matches for Prime Time Pro and every bit as good. They had the crowd all the way. The one thing I didn’t like was the facebuster Adonis used looked more devastating than the finish. It felt a match that could have just as easily happened one step down the line. If Diamond’s stable is supposed to be a force here, the least they could do is give Valentine a win in his debut.

Ad for September 21: J-Rod put his hair on the line vs. Sal Rinauro and his spot in the Championship Tournament, Hot Like Lava (Jones & Micah Taylor) vs. Ron Stalker & Dustin Powers with Dr. Gayton as the special referee, two Championship Tournament Qualifying Matches: Kodiak (with Diamond) vs. Adonis and A.J. Steele vs. Kurosukaji and Vordell Walker (with Diamond) vs. Matthews.

Mayer interviewed Sal Rinauro. She noted how acrobatic Rinauro was and asked what he did before he got into wrestling. Rinauro said he always wrestled. “It’s a lifestyle. It’s not something I stumbled across.” Rinauro said J-Rod was a converted MMA fighter, who though pro wrestling would be easy. Rinauro said he kicked J-Rod’s teeth down his throat last time.

2 -- SAL RINAURO vs. KYLE MATTHEWS

J-Rod joined Massingale on commentary. He said it was on with Sal after what happened the last time. When Massingale noted Matthews’ Karate Kid entrance music, J-Rod said the problem was half the fans didn’t know who Karate Kid was. Zillions of arm drags in the opening minutes with Rinauro’s shenanigans drawing a lot of heat. They did the criss-cross comedy spot. Rinauro gave Matthews’ groinular region a rope burn to take over. Rinauro used a cocked hanging vertical suplex, and J-Rod put the effects of the move over huge. Rinauro used a lot of smother holds. Matthews stood up under Rinauro’s camel clutch and turned it into an Electric Chair Drop. Rinauro bit Matthews. J-Rod said that was sometimes called the Mike Tyson headlock. On the comeback, Matthews did a tope suicida. Back inside, Rinauro kicked out. Matthews popped the crowd with his patented dropkick. Rinauro answered with a flying knee for a near fall. Rinauro applied an inverted Boston crab. Rinauro kicked out after taking a slingshot double stomp. Rinauro raked Matthews’ eyes along the top rope to set up his springboard spinkick for the pin.

WINNER: Rinauro at 13:42 with Pass the Courvoisier. Too long for TV. The comedy was too stupid to be funny. Otherwise, it was a good match. A fair amount of lucha influence. The crowd seemed to like it.

Postmatch: J-Rod snuck into the ring and laid an unsuspecting Rinauro out with a TKO.

Mayer was with Diamond and Kodiak. Kodiak said he was there to dominate. He was too big and powerful for anybody in RPW to mess with him. Kodiak said his 22 inch arms would break any man that walked in front of him. Katie said she would be scared.

3 – KODIAK (with Ace Diamond) vs. RON STALKER

Kodiak did the AJ Styles thing with the hood of his ring jacket shielding his face. He was billed as being from Alaska, but his accent on the promo was pure Middle Georgia. Brute power from Kodiak. Stalker’s stuff had zero impact. Two backbreakers with no release and right into a Batista Bomb for the pin.

WINNER: Kodiak at 1:50 with a powerbomb. Good showcase for Kodiak’s strength.

Cut to Dr. Gayton in the ring talking about how Hot Like Lava (Cru Jones & Shaun Banks) attacked him at the last taping and rendered him unable to compete in the powerlifting championships last weekend. He called out Banks. Gayton said he trained for 6 months and wasn’t happy about Banks injuring his throat with a hotshot. Gayton pointed to his “House of Pain” weightlifting shirt. He said that weights don’t hit back but weightlifters do. Banks poked Gayton in the chest. Gayton shoved Banks. Banks charged. Gayton stepped aside and gave Banks a Samoan Drop and an elbow drop. The good doctor whipped out a tube of lipstick and smeared it on Banks’ face. “That’s what lipstick on a pig looks like right there.”

The camera missed Jones jumping Gayton. Hot Like Lava laid Gayton out with a double cutthroat neckbreaker. Well, that was the idea. Banks was warming up a steel chair when A. J. Steele and Jason Cross (with a buzz cut) hit the ring for the save. Gayton slowly got up selling his aching head. The crowd chanted “Johnny.” Gayton said he didn’t get mad, he got even.

Mayo interviewed “Colt” (Derringer). Derringer said he was a 19 year vet, the biggest badass in pro wrestling, and would be the man in RPW. Mayer said that was wonderful. Derringer said he was going to break J-Rod in half today.

Mayo interviewed J-Rod. He brought up being jumped by Rinauro after he beat Sal last week.

The show closed with another ad for September 21.

COMMENTS: Needless to say, RPW TV is a work in progress. Dr. Gayton is paying for the privilege of doing as he wishes. It's his money - his building and his TV time. I hope his wishes extend beyond feeding his ego to producing a good wrestling show.

THE GOOD: The talent. RPW has a mix of talent that you won’t see anywhere else in the state – GCW, Anarchy and PTPW are all well-represented. They’re strong on the heel side. Hot Like Lava is a good team to build around. Rinauro is an asset on the mic and in the ring. The crowd was large (looked like 200), hot and popped in all the right places. Production-wise, they’re at least in the ballpark. The lighting and sound are decent. With the exception of missing the cheap shot on Gayton (unless it was an intentional jump cut), the camera work was fine. It’s a three camera shoot, although the lighting on one of the angles was so poor it was useless. Running the Rampage graphic at the bottom of the screen periodically was a good idea. It let’s people know what they’re watching in an unobtrusive way. Rinauro and J-Rod were both good on color. I like the feud. I assumes the stips for the following week were added after the fact, because it made zero sense that that neither one mentioned them.

THE BAD: The formatting of this show was haphazard – obvious gliches like Adonis answering an open challenge after just telling us Valentine was his scheduled opponent, and closing the show with interviews for a match than never happened. Having the matches in a game center looks so minor league on TV. Kids playing arcade games in the background just doesn’t cut it. Mayer is painfully clueless as a wrestling announcer. She’s got a likable presence on camera, but then so does Sarah Palin. Massingale was passable. At least he didn’t make me grab for my remote. The champioship tournament was never clearly explained. Admittedly, I'm judging on limited information since I didn't see the first two episodes, but seems like they would be doing more short matches to develop characters at this stage, as opposed to eating up most of the show with two house show type matches. The babyface side didn't look strong on this episode. J-Rod was the lone bright spot in a non-wrestling role. Adonis’ promo was heelish. Matthews lacks personality, and in any case, the cruiserweights are slotted below the heavyweights in this league. Steele and Cross appeared only briefly. That left Gayton as the main babyface presence on this show. Gayton's powerlifting credentials notwithstanding, watching a 50 something, 165 pound opthamologist beat up an experienced wrestler in the main angle was too much to take.