 Up against the last football match of the year for the more popular local team, the Royal Adelaide Show and Father’s Day tomorrow, still a good crowd, maybe 80% full.
Commentators are Del Taurino and Josh Armour, which makes for an interesting dynamic. Not too bad. Sound was quiet this month as well.
Match 1: Marvel v Voodoo v Brad Smyth v Adam Brooks
4 way match, too confusing to call. Sort of starts like a tag match, with some wicked double team moves. Fast paced match. Brooks’ taped shoulder is an open target, worked well by Marvel and sold well by Brooks. Heels take over and destroy the other two, working well as a team despite Smyth trying to take over as captain. Some vicious moves. Crowd surprisingly dead until face comeback sparks them. Slight botch at one point lifts the crowd as well. Some inside-out work from the faces. Smyth goes for the pin, Marvel breaks it up. Pins left right and centre broken. While Marvel has Voodoo in a dragon sleeper, Brooks hits Smyth with a senton bomb for the 3-count, Voodoo only just holding out. Winner: Brooks. A little confusing, but a good match to start the show. Brooks is definitely improving, and the rest can really bring it. Post-match the referee caries Smyth on his shoulder to the back!
Rocky Menero comes out to address the crowd. Some very definite cheers, especially when he welcomes us to ‘Rocky City Wrestling.’ Says he’s in charge, and that Mimic cannot wrestle in his rematch this month. So he has the night off. But… GD Grimm comes out to cheers. Last month he was hated… that was one effective double turn last month! So because his brother Mimic is injured, he’s stepping up. But the refs won’t ref it, so if they can find an official, apparently the match is on. While it set up the match, the logic was odd.
Match 2: Jonah Rock (with Elliot Sexton) v Steve Miller
It’s gonna take some ‘Abracadabra’ magic for Miller to have a chance here (lame Steve Miller Band joke – sorry!). Miller starts well (apparently it’s ‘Miller time’) and even gets a two-count. But Sexton interferes to turn the tide. Jonah then has his way for a while. That was the wrong thing to happen. He outweighs and outmuscles Miller, but by having Sexton interfere, while heelish and dickish, makes Jonah look less effective as a monster, which is what I think they’re going for. Harley Race did not interfere when Vader fought rookies. Just saying. Some odd miscommunication leads to a double clothesline. But surely Jonah should get the better of that. And Miller recovers first. He hits a loose killswitch for 2. Sexton distraction leads to release German suplex, kick to the head and submission hold for the Jonah Rock win. Again, Sexton helped make him look less effective than he should. Post match the heels beat on him. The crowd boos a little, but it is all rather lacklustre. With Rock they should be sending him out there to kill these guys in less than 5 minutes. In my opinion.
Match 3: Melody Summers v Miami
Savannah Summers is not here because she is fighting in the big, cross-promotional women’s card interstate tonight. That could have been fun to see, with many Shimmer wrestlers there as well. Melody wants a test of strength and is outpowered. By a lot. Some good, innovative chain wrestling to start. Some mistimings, then they’re both outside and it gets nasty with Melody finally taking over. Miami fights back, but then Melody goes after Miami’s injured knee. Melody works Miami’s knee effectively. Miami’s selling is superb. A ring-post hand-held figure-four looked nasty. Miami comes back on one leg. Literally. Great selling! Miami goes up, but is hair-bealed down for 2. Miami makes another comeback, and the knee seems temporarily forgotten with some more mistimings. A kick between the legs slows Miami – does that hurt women? Spinebuster into bridged Samoan drop gets the three-count for Miami. I would have liked to have seen the knee play more of a role on the finish. Not bad.
And I’ll say it again. Miami and Savannah Summers are the two women’s wrestlers who are worth watching. I’ve seen some Shimmer and the women there (a few Australians as well), I watch WWE and TNA PPVs… these two are streets ahead of nearly all those women. Then you have Eliza Sway and the other interstaters, as well as the rookie Melody Summers who is coming along in leaps and bounds, and our women’s wrestling here in RCW is amongst the best anywhere. And I don’t care what anyone else thinks.
Match 4: Matt Silva v Jimmy Scarlett
Back and forth, fast and intense to start. Back and forth and hard-hitting. The crowd is into this one! Silva takes over eventually with a full weight back senton. He works Scarlett over. Some really stiff kicks leave welts. Scarelett comes back with a leg screw, then suicide dive. Both men back in slowly at eight. Gutwrench suplex by Scarlett for two. Back and forth again until Scarlett goes up, but Silva knocks the ref into the ropes, knocking Scarlett down and a cheap pin with the ropes by Silva gets the three. Not a bad match, playing to Silva’s strengths. And Scarlett certainly had the girls around me intrigued…
Match 5: Key To The City Rumble
Final 2 go on to a best of 3 series for the Key to the City, which can be cashed in at any time. Rumble rules, new entrant every 90 seconds. There’s also a countdown clock for audience participation.
1. Del Taurino
2. Voodoo
Last year’s final two this year’s first 2! Fast start ends with Del Taurino dominating in the corner.
3. BeBop
In with a fast DDT on Del Taurino. He comes back with a skyhigh spinebuster. Voddoo comes over as well.
4. Jonah Rock
BeBop goes after him but he kills BeBop and press slams him right out of the ring. Ouch! Rock goes after Voodoo. He and Del Taurino double team Voodoo.
(First elimation – BeBop)
5. Shannon Jarvis
He goes after Rock, but to no avail. Rock eliminates him.
(2nd Jarvis)
6. Steve Miller
Rock and Del Taurino team up to kill him. Heels dominate.
7. Marvel
Marvel and Del Taurino work as a unit. Heels continue to dominate.
8. El Presidente
4-on-1. Voodoo throws El Presidentew oiut through the ropes as soon as he is in. But he doesn’t want to go back in. Meanwhile Voodoo eliminates Marvel and Del Taurino!
(3rd El Presidente
4th Del Taurino
5th Marvel)
9. Matt Silva
Steve Miller also went some time during that as the heels beat uyp Voodoo again.
(6th Steve Miller)
10. Adam Brooks
He goes after Silva as Rock throws Voodoo out. Now Brooks is the face in peril.
(7th Voodoo)
11. Jimmy Scarlett
Scarlett goes straight after Rock as Brooks works on Silva.
12. Brad Smyth
He goes after Scarlett but a short power slam stops him. He charges Brad, but he drops down and pulls the ropes, eliminating Scarlett. But Brad is quickly eliminated as well! Now it’s Rock and Silva killing Brooks. They turn on each other. Brooks and Silva push one another to the apron. Brooks gets him off!
(8th Jimmy Scarlett
9th Brad Smyth
10th Matt Silva)
So the final two are Jonah Rock and Adam Brooks, who will now have a best of three match series. Afterwards Rock kills Brooks and locks him into a submission hold. Short, sharp and shiny as far as rumbles go. Maybe a little too fast, but it was fun and the crowd was into it.
Match 6: RCW Title Match – Rocky Menero (c) v GD Grimm
The referee is announced as Elliot Sexton, because he hates both of them. He comes out with his arm in a sling and everything. Chain wrestling to start. Goes outside quickly where Grimm takes over. Back in and Rocky takes over. Grimm as a face is the same as Grimm as a heel – just as vicious and nasty, it’s just that he is cheered now (and doesn’t argue with referees as much). Mind you, he never cheated as a heel, either. This is what a face turn should be – no complete change of personality, just being cheered or not. Rocky takes over and beats on him well. These two could wrestle anywhere and make it work. Back and forth match, first one on top, then the other. Menero reverses a curb stomp into a single leg crab! Smooth. Series of back and forth two counts. Sexton is a complete non-factor through most of the match. And then, after Grimm nails a curb stomp, Sexton counts one, two, then has a pain attack in the shoulder! Grimm’s been screwed out of the title! He threatens Sexton who drops a spanner out of his sling so Menero nails Grimm, then he and Sexton embrace, all the bad blood forgotten. They go for the scissors to cut Grimm’s hair. Lights go out, smoke billows… no one’s there. A few guys in masks and hoods come out, one gets into the ring. It’s Mimic! The crowd explodes as he kills Rocky with punches. Another is revealed as Voodoo. And the show ends with Voodoo, Grimm and Mimic standing tall in the ring. (Result – no result, I guess)
Not a blowaway show, especially after last month, but not a bad one. Story-lines continued, new ones started, and the wrestling, as always (in the main) was top notch. Next month, Mimic v Rocky, first blood – it should be awesome.
But a word on audiences. In Adelaide we saw it at the WWE show (July 4) when some indy guys tried to bignote themselves against CM Punk. At a show I went to a few weeks ago (no I didn’t write about it – if it’s a bad show I am not going to put down local workers) some guys from a rival promotion crapped all over the show. And at RCW a small group of guys from a rival promotion tried to be smart-arses. I have a problem with this. In a place like Australia, we should be trying to get people to wrestling, no matter what. That means not only putting on good shows no matter the promotion, but also not crapping on the opposition. It works like TNA. People who are stopping watching TNA are stopping watching wrestling, not watching WWE instead. And if you put on a bad show or make people think the crowds are all morons, you are driving them away from wrestling, not from the rival promotion. I am a wrestling fan, so if I don’t like a promotion, I give them a miss for a while. I am banned from one local promotion because I wrote bad things in a review. So be it. Nowadays I don’t write bad reviews. If I don’t like it, I don’t review it… and I don’t go back for a while. Don’t be negative, accentuate the positive.
Riot City Wrestling. Still the best in Australia. Bar none. These guys should be seen everywhere. And I’m serious.
