Riot City Wrestling – Powertrip 2011 [Nov 5]

Houseshows, Reviews, Shows, Top Story

 Smallish crowd, around 250-275. New commentator tonight, JT Anderson, who starts us with cliché heel announcing. Oh well, sometimes clichés work. Oh, and apparently Jack isn’t commissioner anymore. Well, that came out of nowhere…

 

Match 1: Del Taurino (with Marvel) v Steve Miller
Nice pop for Miller. Taurino jump starts the match but Miller quickly reverses. Miller with a nice slingshot pescado onto both masked men. Miller dominates early until a Taurino suplex turns the tide again. Back and forth match. Finally, with Marvel’s help, a long beat-down on Miller ensues. Come back. Back and forth attempts at finishers until Del Taurino hit a low blow, then a roll up with a handful of trunks for the 3. While Miller is doing well for a rookie, this made former champ Del Taurino not look like a champ. He needed help and cheating to defeat a rookie? Didn’t really make sense. Not a bad match, and Del Taurino is surely the most improved wrestler of 2010/2011.

 

Could hardly hear Anderson’s commentary, but what I heard made him seem like he wanted to be Jesse Ventura, only meaner. Odd. And it’s turned Josh Armour, our regular announcer, into Tony Schiavone. Also odd. I think they could work well together, but need to establish better dynamics. Okay, it’s early days, I’m being negative, let’s see how they go in 2, 3 shows.

 

Match 2: Brad Smyth (with Hammer) v Shannon Jarvis
Haven’t seen Jarvis in a while. Hammer hits Jarvis from behind before the bell, then stomps 2 shades of shite out of him while Brad grabs a microphone. He doesn’t want to waste his time with rookies. Hammer kills Jarvis with a powerbomb (I mean, he planted him), and Brad demands a fight with anyone out the back who is real competition…
            And out comes former champion Jacko Lantern. Haven’t seen him in a while, either.

 

Match 2 (revised): Brad Smyth (with Hammer) v Jacko Lantern
Jacko kills Brad to start. Jacko even does Air Jacko over the top, but does not knock Hammer down! Brad back in the ring, Hammer hammers Jacko outside, then throws him in. So Brad takes over. Crowd is right behind Jacko. Jacko comes back until more Hammer interference… right in front of the ref? And the ref just scolds him? What the? So Brad takes over again. But Jacko doesn’t give up. Top rope double stomp from Brad even only gets 2. A sit-out chokeslam from Jacko also only gets 2. Jacko hits a nice musclebuster suplex. Hammer comes in and hammers Jacko from behind, and now the ref throws it out. Jacko the winner by DQ. Hammer then kills the ref for good measure before working Jacko over, finishing with a black hole slam.
            Now that’s how you book a monster heel’s introduction.

 

Rocky Menero, Matt Silva, Jonah Rock and Elliot Sexton come out and talk. They call out Adam Brooks, but as he comes out, Chris Basso, Matt Basso and Voodoo attack from behind and clear the ring of the unwanted, so we now have:

 

Match 3: Jonah Rock v Adam Brooks (Key to the City, best of 3, match 2)
Brooks takes over to start, and then hits an awesome somersault plancha to the outside. Back in and he still takes it to Rock. Some awkward looking moves. Crowd not really into it. Rock takes over and a long beat-down ensues. Comeback, another awkward spot. Rock takes over again. Crowd getting restless. Commentary not helping. Some half-hearted ‘Brooksy’ chants die out. 2 Stinger splashes from Rock, a third right into a short superkick from Brooks. Both men down. Some people clap; yay-boo punches get better response. Ugly springboard tornado DDT gets 2 for Brooks. Moonsault press gets 2. Rock back, gets v2 off a superkick to the jaw. Crowd still not into it. Rock hits a Samoan drop driver for 2. Into the corner on the turnbuckles for Brooks to hit a top rope Frankensteiner. Finally crowd pops. Nice move, by the way. Sexton runs in, gets thrown out, Brooks hits the senton for 2. Sexton runs distraction, Brooks lowblowed by Rock who hits a pile driver for the 3 and the win. So Jonah Rock wins the Key To The City in 2 straight matches. But Sexton running in makes Rock look weak when he looked strong up till then. This is how to not book a monster heel. Harley Race never, ever did that for Vader.

 

Match 4: Savannah Summers, Marvel & Del Taurino (with Melody Summers and El Presidente) v Miami, Jett Armstrong & Nick Armstrong
Fast to start, lots of tags, back and forth until heels take over. I will say from the outset that Savannah’s heel persona here is perfect. Her facials, her motives, everything about her is spot on. And Marvel’s moveset is as clean as ever. Miami hits as hard as any female wrestler. And I’ve already mentioned Del Taurino. The Armstrongs, though, seem a little loose. They will improve, but they stood out here. Only when they smacked Savannah’s bum did they look like they hit with authority. A double suplex spot went awry. Badly. Del Taurino levels Miami with a right hand and Savannah takes over on her. Crowd is into this one. Melody and Savannah attack Miami outside, but in the ring the Armstrongs pin Del Taurino for the win. Awkward match. Not enough Marvel.

 

Match 5: Tim Burgundy v Jimmy Scarlett
Fast, hard-hitting start. Crowd not into it… why? Maybe they don’t know either guy well enough yet. Scarlett hurts his neck from a superplex. Burgundy works the back. Crowd is dead, but this match is good. Scarlett forgets the neck. Some more back and forth and Scarlett hits an impaler DDT for the 3 count. That was quick. I wanted more from these two, but the crowd didn’t. Odd again.

 

Match 6: Rocky Menero, Elliot Sexton & Matt Silva v Matt ‘Grimm’ Basso, Chris ‘Mimic’ Basso & Voodoo – 6 man elimination tag
Literally 5 minutes of stalling to start before Sexton kissed Grimm! Best psychological weapon ever! Grimm chops Sexton’s chest into redness and then Grimm and Voodoo get Sexton and Silva into that ol’ 69 position. This is awesome. Crowd is into this as well. Faces take over briefly. Everyone, inside the ring and out are going for it. Big boot by Grimm and gets a 3 on Sexton. Sexton eliminated. Sexton punches Grimm in the groin and Rocky steals the pin, to eliminate Grimm. Wow! And the pace does not stop! Even the heel beatdown on Voodoo is not a real slow down. Finally hot tag to Mimic, but a superkick from Rocky on Voodoo makes Silva’s pin academic. It’s Chris Basso 1-on-2. Mimic takes out Silva on the outside with a superkick. After a bit though Silva comes back and the beatdown on Mimic continues. Crowd goes dead for this portion. Odd crowd tonight. A Rocky superkick hits Silva instead, but as Mimic goes in for the kill Rocky hits him with a chair. Rocky is out, disqualified. Now its Silva v Mimic. Both men are down. Loud boo-yay punches. Mimic hits the Sega Mega Driver for the 3 count and the win! Mimic gets the title shot next month! Match, by the way, was 28 minutes of in-ring action. That’s a main event!

 

Faces come out to celebrate. Ex-Commissioner Jack comes out to introduce the new commissioner. Damon Matthews. Wow! He was probably the best heel ever in RCW history. He never cheated to win, but he was vicious. Moreso than GD Grimm, than anyone else in Australian wrestling. Now he has come out and abuses Rocky and acts like a face Commissioner. But I can feel a heel commissioner versus plucky face storyline arc happening. Cliché number 4 in the wrestling handbook.

 

Still, not a bad show, and the main event was off the charts. December 10 can’t come soon enough.

 

Australian. Father. Perpetual student. Started watching wrestling before Wrestlemania 1. Has delusions of grandeur and was known to regularly get the snot beaten out of him in a wrestling ring. Also writes occasionally in other Pulse sections.Thinks Iron Mike Sharpe is underrated. http://stevengepp.wordpress.com