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| SHOW REPORTS |
| Copyright © Georgia Wrestling History, Inc.
All rights reserved. |
| November 1, 2008
Bert Prentice opened hyping the Lawler 35 show featuring Lawler vs. Sid Vicious with Jimmy Hart in his corner. ”You all know what happened to our business. We’re just fighting to keep some sanity, and keep it alive.” Prentice introed the Memphis Memories video. It included clips of all the greats of Memphis wrestling. That was followed by a phone interview with Lawler. All tolled, the plug lasted over 15 minutes. On to NWA Main Event with promoter Mike Porter joining Jason James on commentary this week. 1 – LARRY COOTER & CHRIS CAIN vs. AIDEN SCOTT & WHITE TIGER Shown in edited form. Babyface domination led to argument between Cooter and Cain. Back from commercial, Scott was making the hot tag. Tiger’s punches looked horrible. Some of the footage was rewound and replayed as a result of an editing gaffe. Scott cut off a Cain’s attack on Tiger with a Thesz Press. They rolled out to the floor and continued to fight. Cooter then pinned Tiger with a pumphandle front powerslam. WINNERS: Cooter & Cain in 4:30 of TV time. It’s slim pickings for new talent when Tiger is named as a rookie of the year candidate. The heat on Scott was edited out, so he looked like a world beater. Cain and Scott both cut promos for the first NWA Main Event Sunday television taping in LaVergne at the HWA Arena. All tickets $5. *Tennessee Homecoming 2008 on Thanksgiving Night at the Fairgrounds headlined by "Too Sexy" Brian Christopher vs. "Dangerous" Doug Gilbert with no time limit and no DQ match. NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Championship: Jeff Daniels (c) (with Dominique) vs. Scott Hayes, NWA Mid-America Television Championship: Steve-O (c) vs. Shane Smalls, Aiden Scott vs. Chris Cain with the winner crowned as the new NWA Mid-America X Division Champion, "Mean" Mike Woods vs. Larry Cooter, Shawn Shultz vs. Matt Boyce, Ali Stevens vs. Seven, and a Two Ring Battle Royal for the Nick Gulas Memorial Cup. 2 – NWA Mid-America Television Champion STEVE-O vs. SHANE SMALLS I have no idea why this match got a JIP graphic when most NWA ME matches are joined in progress. Smalls worked over O’s knee with a series of leg DDTs, a single leg crab and an ankle lock. O used a catapult to start the comeback and hit a back suplex for a near fall. Smalls used a Punk-like climbing knee strike to set up the moonsault. It missed and Steve-O rolled him up to make it three straight wins over Smalls. WINNER: Steve-O in 4:45 of TV time. Not as good as their previous matches. With LT Falk no longer around, Smalls is the best workrate guy they have. He’s about as successful with that moonsault as Flair was going to the top rope. Smalls promo. ”Steve-O, you must have guardian angels in your dentures, because your always making out by the skin of your teeth.” Steve O promo for LaVergne. Everything’s coming up roses in Steve-O land. They replayed Bert’s Lawler 35 stuff. 3 – NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Champion JEFF DANIELS (with Dominique) vs. SCOTT HAYES in a non-title match JIP with Daniels giving Hayes a beating. James said that per Commissioner George Gulas, a victory by Hayes would earn him a title shot tomorrow in LaVergne. Porter said anytime Daniels faced a serious challenger, he tried to put him out of wrestling, just as he had tried to do to Hayes. James claimed referee Jamie Ferrari was not on speaking terms with his mother, Dominique. Porter said they should put James on the kayfabe list. Daniels took a flying crotch bump. Hayes rained down “the 10 Punches of Doom.” He tried it again, but Ferrari stopped him. Dominique tossed knucks to Daniels. Ferrari confiscated the knucks. Hayes pinned Daniels with a sloppy rolling reverse. WINNER: Hayes in 5 minutes of TV time. Hayes promo for his title match tomorrow in LaVergne. Daniels promo (with “The First Lady of NWA Main Event” Dominique). ”Hoodwinked, flim-flammed, bamboozled - No, I was screwed.” Daniels said he lost because of biased ref that had Mike Porter in his ear all day. Daniels said nobody in NWA ME wanted him as the champion, because nobody can take the title away from him. Closing Thoughts: This was mostly an advertisement with a little wrestling thrown in. The top priority was plugging Lawler 35, and secondarily, Main Event’s first television taping in LaVernge, The Memphis Memories video is a sweet piece of nostalgia. It got me yearning for the heyday of the territories. It will be interesting to see how the product changes with the move to tape apart from the Tuesday night Fairgrounds events. The venue in LaVergne would almost have to be an improvement over the dead crowds and drab appearance of the Fairgrounds. The crowds since they returned to the Fairgrounds in October have been 50-60, which looks especially bad in a building of that size. There was no mention of J.P. Lightning, and his stuff with Cain has easily been the most compelling thing about the recent TV shows. They’re really playing up Smalls obsession with the TV Title. He’s become the best promo guy among the younger wrestlers. Consistently good promos from Daniels are a given. They did a complete180 on Ferrari, as they had previously dropped hints that he was cahoots with momma and Jeff. There was nothing about Hayes, either in the ring or on the mic, that made him look the least bit like championship material. They're doing Cane vs.Scott to create a new X Division champion on the Thanksgiving show, so they're serious about having three singles belts with a roster that is stretched thin to support two singles titles. |