Arena Report: LAW Rector, AR 10.28.06

----Before the show began, I was fortunate enough to be in the dressing room when Del McKie came in. He ask the full dressing room to be quite and thanked everyone for the coming out to do the show. As he spoke, you could tell that it was all he could do to keep the tears back. Del McKie has been thru hell and back – you tell that his thank you was sincere and heartfelt. I was happy to be there.

----“Picture Perfect” VI [Christian Jacobs/Jon Michael][photo to right]/Gypsy Joe beat Scotty McKeever/Alex Krisis/Shane Matthews. The crowd almost turned on Joe, because he is so old. He got in there and did a few chops and they loved him. Everything was real good in this match with nothing looking bad. Why?? Because all 6 guys are professional wrestlers that know psychology on when and where to do everything. Krisis has improved since I last seen him and all his stuff has a good flow to it. Hot tag went to Joe who was cleaning house with chops. PP ended it with their finisher on Matthews which is a sit down powerbomb neckbreaker. [**1/2]

----Jason Reed came out to do an interview with his manager “Handsome” Jimmy Woods. He promised to bring out a WWE superstar for his bout vs the “Posse”. Reed is good on the mic, but this went too long.

----Kevin White/Mr. America beat The Kidd/Chris Vega. This match was bad. The Kidd has a funny gimmick in that he is a kid, but the size of a midget. He is probably 18 years old, but he is the size of a 10 year old. It is funny for like 3 minutes and then it gets bad. He can not work and had no idea about psychology. America/White actually gave him too much and it seem like America was tired of messing with him and finish him off with a brainbuster. [*]

----Derrick King/Tony Gunn interview to build for the main event. The crowd was hot for it, but I thought it also went too long.

----James Arnez [photo below]vs Captain Madman was declared No Contest in like 2 minutes. Ref Tavian Hart stopped the bout because he seen one of the guys use a kendo stick. I am not sure what the real finish was going to be, but Hart took it upon himself to stop the bout because he seen the kendo stick in the ring. This is very old school as referees are taught to treat the bouts as shoots. Guess what?? The year is 2006!! As a ref, you don’t just go out there and do your job; you must also know what is going on around you. Probably about a fifth of the people in that crowd came out to see James Arnez wrestle. They will not be back next time, because some ref is trying to prove something. Madman did hit Arnez hard a couple of times with the kendo stick and then went back to the dressing room. Arnez followed him and then whacked him in the middle of the head. Crowd loved it, but they wanted more of Arnez. [DUD]

----“The Posse” [Simon Reed/’Lil Chris] beat Jason Reed/Dustin Starr [as did jobs for WWE]with “Handsome” Jimmy Woods. Good match. ‘Lil Chris is a rookie and needs lots of work, but the other three guys did good protecting him. Hell, they are three of the best in this area, so Chris could not screw up much. This was a battle of “Posse” vs “Posse” as they had built on the interview. Reed/Starr/Simon were all original “Posse” members. Heat was on Chris with hot tag to Simon. There was a ref bump somewhere as Chris jumped with a flying press but hit the ref. It looked like he took the ref’s head off. Starr took a backdrop bump from Chris over the top rope. Ouch!! Chris went to the floor with Starr. Reed had cut off Simon and went up for a frogsplash but missed it, Simon used the Redemption [chokeslam sit down powerbomb] to pin him. [**3/4]

----LAW Title vs Memphis Wrestling JR Title: Tony Gunn vs Derrick King ended with both guys keeping their belts. This match went over 30 minutes with interviews and post match antics. King is good on the mic, but the fans were ready for him to wrestle. He plugged the site in stating that everyone was wanting to see King vs Gunn, even the internet was wanting to know about it. Jeff O’Dell finally got the mic and told Gunn, “Whip his black ass!!! And the crowd went crazy!! The bout was good. Some of it was very good, but then other parts of it was just ok. The crowd loves Gunn, because this is his hometown. Gunn actually looks better when he wrestles someone that is as good as him, instead of someone like King who is better. Does that make sense?? If you are in the ring with a better worker, then you usually look better, but you can see all of Gunn’s flaws in the ring with a guy like King. King took Gunn outside the ring all over the building. The crowd was hot during the whole bout. King tired to use the steps on Gunn, but Gunn did a step toe hold, which ended with King taking a face bump onto the steps. Gunn/King both used a cane from a guy in the crowd. This was all in front of ref Tavian Hart, but guess what?? He didn’t DQ either one of them?? WTF?? King also used a chair on Gunn outside the ring. First finish came with Gunn making comeback and getting King in the YTO [You Tapped Out – Texas Cloverleaf] – ref bump – King pinned Gunn using the ropes. The crowd went crazy and was shocked. After the ref restarts the bout, Gunn pins King using the ropes. Crowd goes crazy again. King gets the mic and they try to make sense out of the finish and say that since Hart had restarted the bout, then although Gunn did win the second fall, the Memphis JR Title was not on the line. Yea, I know!! I hated the finish!! As King took his title back, Gunn grabbed him and put him in the YTO again and the crowd went crazy again!! Gunn let go and jumped out of the ring leaving King alone. What followed next was something I had never seen at a live event. The crowd started chanting “You Tapped Out” and surrounded the ring and actually had their hands on the apron hitting it. Crowd was loud and I feared they were going to jump King. Good match, bad finish and then the crowd reaction – [***3/4]

RassleNotes: Crowd was right at 100 with a gate close to $1000…Joe gave Matthews some real hard chops after the match and the crowd loved it!! McKeever, Matthews, Joe, and were all traveling together from West Virginia…It was good to see some old friends like Brian Thompson in attendance…Kevin White looks like a professional wrestler and carries himself as pro. You can say what you want about the guy, but he is a good worker…America was doing good on gimmicks and even worked my kids out of $5 for a Polaroid…Captain Madman is JD Rage. Rage is doing a crazy half masked wrestler gimmick. Sort of like Eugene with toys and a mask. I liked it and it probably would get over given time. Rage use to do jobs for WWE; didn’t he??...Crowd was real hot for “Posse” – they were tons over!!...Jason Reed is one of the best in this area. He was joking about being hairy and fat now, but he can out work almost anyone around…Dustin Starr has IT. If you have never seen IT, then you don’t know what IT is. No offense to anyone else on this show, as there are some good workers, but if I had to put my money on anyone to make it to WWE, it would be Starr…”Handsome” Jimmy Woods was a horrible manager…For those that keep track of these sort of things – the Seth Knight vs Rude bout in NBW was technically better than the King vs Gunn bout, but along with the heat and crowd pops, it got the same rating…Thanks to all for a good time and special thanks to LAW management who always treat me respect, even though they know I do not always have kind words for them.