Here’s the rundown on the Deep South Wrestling television taping at the DSW Arena in McDonough, Georgia Thursday night.
Crowd was no more than 200 this week, down from the typical packed house of 250-300.
Nigel Sherrod and former DSW Heavyweight Champion Derrick Niekirk handled the commentary for the dark matches.
A hearty “Chuck Norris” chant for referee Rob Russo got the show underway.
(A) Bradley Jay beat Tommy Suede at 4:19 with the Kamikaze Roll. Minimal crowd response for Suede. Not so much for Jay either, but I sure liked his work in this match. Jay lit up Suede’s chest with a chop. Jay hit an impressive press slam gutbuster and broke out the Gori Especial. Suede was stiff on comeback. Jay used his version of the Finlay Roll for the pin.
(B) Francisco Ciatso pinned Shamus McCarthy at 5:16 with the Fugedaboudit. Ciatso’s trash talk and facial expressions generated heat as usual. Nobody cared about McCarthy, who is way green. Ciatso guided him through as best he could. McCarthy got his babyface flurry. Ciatso heeled and applied a surfboard. McCarthy rolled away from Ciatso’s double ax off the ropes. McCarthy was on the comeback trail when he went for one Stinger splash too many and tasted the turnbuckle. McCarthy managed to screw up Ciatso’s finisher.
(C) Oleg Prudius beat Kenny Omega at 2:42 with a shoulder breaker. Prudius murdered the Russian anthem again. Nikolai Volkoff sounded like Pavarotti compared to this guy. It was the case of size and power trumping speed and agility. Not a pretty picture either. Prudius used a Canadian backbreaker. Prudius turned Omega’s high crossbody into a shoulderbreaker. Striker signaled that Omega had dislocated his shoulder.
(D) Danny Gimundo beat Antonio Mestre in 4:55 with a bulldog. Mestre had his own personal cheering section. Gimundo did an arm drag and acted like he was God’s gift to pro wrestling. Mestre fired up and went for a discus forearm. Gimundo turned that into a hotshot. Gimundo cut off a comeback with short arm knee to the gut. Gimundo went to use his wrist tape. Striker took it away, so Gimundo unraveled another piece and choked Mestre with it. Comeback time. Mestre did a forward rolling cradle that was a mess. Gimundo went to the finish. The crowd got ticked at Gimundo for stomping on poor Antonio in the postmatch.
Former WCW official Scrappy McGowan was introduced as the newest addition to DSW referee corp.
(E) Montel Vontavious Porter pinned Damien Steele at 6:51 with the Playmaker. Strong workrate here. MVP was very stiff and very sharp in dominating the match. MVP made ring announcer Ted Guinness cart away all his bling. MVP scored quick two counts and acted like this was going to be a piece of cake. Steele proved otherwise. MVP gave Steele a ferocious beatdown in the corner. MVP hit a head and arm suplex for a near fall and applied a bearhug. Steele clapped the ears to break it. MVP hit back-to-back german suplexes. Steele fought mightily to block the third one, but MVP got it with a bridge for a near fall. MVP complained to Scrappy and Steele rolled him up. MVP delivered a wicked soccer kick to the ribs. MVP reapplied the bearhug. Flying forearm smash by Steele and both men down. Not much zip on Steele’s dropkick for a near fall. In a blast from the past, Steele used a bolo punch. Steele crashed and burned on a twisting springboard crossbody, and MVP put him away.
MVP/Steele was the by far the best of the darks. Hopefully, it will show up as a bonus match on one of the upcoming TV episodes.
Queen Diva Angel Williams and Luscious handled the merchandise drawing during the intermission.
Bill DeMott joined Sherrod on commentary for the television taping.
The show opened with a backstage promo by the Major Brothers. The joke here was that the L.T. that Jones had recruited as his partner was the same guy that starred at Wrestlemania XI (who, at this point, would be a little old for this sort of thing).
(1) Majors Brothers (Brett & Brian) beat Cru Jones & Lawrence Tyler at 4:56 with the Big Finish. Fans are into Majors in a major way. Tyler gets heat for constantly telling fans to shut up. Majors use quick tags to keep the pressure on Jones. Brett ducked a sneaky lariat from Tyler, but didn’t fare as well on the one from Jones. Tyler and Jones worked on Brett’s back. Nice house cleaning segment by Brian. The heels were really bumping for him. Brian pinned Jones after Majors hit their finisher, a Samoan Drop (Brian)/middle rope corkscrew neckbreaker (Brett).
Backstage promo by Krissy Vaine, who was admiring herself in her pink fringe mirror. Vaine said she was best of the DSW Divas, the best charisma, the most beautiful and the best figure. “It is all about me.”
(2) Krissy Vaine pinned Shantelle with a roll through and a handful of tights at 4:19. Hot little match here. Strong heel/face dynamic and they can both work. Vaine finally got an opportunity to show what she can do. Shantelle is a fiery blonde babyface from Toronto and a good little athlete. Vaine whined that her hair was being pulled and used the distraction to take Shantelle down by the hair. Shantelle did a cartwheel to set up a pair of armdrags, but Vaine slammed the back of her head into the mat with a hair pull. They traded shots that popped the crowd with their stiffness. Vaine applied a camel clutch. Shantelle roared back with some wicked forearms, a pair of lariats and then a tilt-a-whirl headscissors for a near fall. Shantelle gave Vaine a monkey flip. She tried for another and Vaine deposited her on the top turnbuckle. They slugged each other. Shantelle went for a flying bodypress and Vaine used the momentum to roll through.
Urban Assault promo. Sonny Siaki said they were tired of being disrespected and it was time to shut the people up. Siaki said they were going to take it out on High Impact and take their belts. Perez did his in Spanish and then translated. Assault was wearing black because it was High Impact’s funeral. Perez promised a mugging.
High Impact promo. The three of them took turns hogging the camera and shoving each other out of the way. It was a fresh approach, and the crowd got a kick out of it. Tracy said her guys didn’t have to wear bandanas or sunglasses to look tough or thin, because they were crazy, which lead to domination, which lead to people getting laid.
(3) High Impact (Mike Taylor & Tony Santarelli with Tracy Taylor) beat Urban Assault (Sonny Siaki & Eric Perez) to retain the DSW tag team titles in 9:45. Anything involving Impact has heat. Assault jumped Impact as they came down the ramp. Impact cleared the ring, but not before Santarelli sustained a shoulder injury. Striker barred Tracy from ringside. But Nick Patrick came out and banned Striker. That got a huge pop. Patrick said McGowan would ref and that Tracy could come back to ringside. Assault beat on Santarelli’s injured shoulder for better than 6 minutes. Santarelli hit a spinning heel kick and hot-tagged Taylor, who cleaned house with bionic elbows. Taylor had Perez pinned with a reverse roll up when Siaki saved with a neckbreaker. Perez covered Taylor for a very near fall. Taylor hit the Wipeout on Perez and Siaki saved again. Siaki superkicked Taylor into oblivion, and Santarelli hit the Satellite Enzuigiri on Perez. Perez fell on top of Taylor. At the count of two, Taylor rolled Perez over with a crucifix for the three count. Nice finish.
We saw prematch promos on the big screen to set up the main event. Mike Knox was tired of others holding his prize. He said Ryan O’Reilly had a bullseye in the middle of his forehead. Knox came out to a pretty strong “ECW” chant. O’Reilly said he was facing the craziest, most sadistic man in DSW, a man that would smother another human being to get what he wants. The crowd started chanting for Knox. O’Reilly said he was a fighting champ that didn’t back down from anyone. Not one of O’Reilly best promos.
(4) Ryan O’Reilly beat Mike Knox to retain the DSW heavyweight title in 6:03. Not only was the crowd clearly behind Knox as their home-grown TV star, O’Reilly was even booed to some degree. It was surreal stuff seeing the DSW Arena crowd turn their backs on their babyface champion. For two big dudes, both of these guys can really move. O’Reilly controlled with side headlock, until Knox caught the champ with a hotshot. The crowd chanted “Knox” and “ECW” as Knox scored a series of near falls, including an impressive long distance middle rope legdrop. Knox threw in a cobra clutch. When Knox went for a Mafia kick, O’Reilly avoided it and got the roll up pin out of nowhere. Knox leveled O’Reilly with a high boot in the postmatch. Knox beat up O’Reilly at ringside until the refs pulled him off.
NOTES: The main event for the Park Slam at Six Flags over Georgia on August 11 was announced as Big Show vs. Rob Van Dam for the ECW title. Also on the card are O’Reilly vs. MVP, High Impact vs. Urban Assault and Vaine vs. Taylor.
