Friday, November 24, 2006

Arena Report Thanksgiving Night Rector, AR 11.23.06

----Kevin White beat Chris O’Neal in a face vs face match. Just pretty much hold for hold with very little psychology. One point White started throwing some punches, but the fans really didn’t know who to cheer for. Nothing wrong—nothing special [*1/2]

----Jeff O’Neal announced at the front of the show that the promotion had not had tag team champions since May, 2005, so it was time to crown new ones. “Too Cool 2” [Tim Grind/Flex] were scheduled to wrestle “The Posse” [Simon Reed/’Lil Chris] [photo above with fan] with the winning team being the champs. Flex was not there, so the “Filthy Freaks” [Tim Grind/Matt Foley] from Ripley’s TLCW came out. Grind is real good on the mic and comes off as a total prick heel as opposed to the goofy role he does on TV. Foley is pretty good on the mic and has a good body. Grind does his spill and then “The Posse” come out and gets a huge pop. They are tons over and the match is set up for later that night.

----Chris O’Neal beat Seth Knight in probably the best bout of the show. Perfect psychology with Knight [to the left with fan] coming out to challenge anyone that would fight him as a heel. O’Neal got a good reaction, even though he had just got beat. They work real good versus each other. O’Neal won with a tornado DDT. [**1/2]

----Derrick King came out with Tony Gunn to do a build up for the main event. DK was talking to Gunn as Flash Flanagan jumped him from behind. They beat up Gunn until Bill Dundee made the save to set up Gunn/Dundee vs DK/Flash for the main event. As DK was leaving the ring, he punched some kid at the announcer’s desk as part of an angle. The kid has some kind of loose tooth gimmick and he was suppose to spit out his tooth to put over DK being a bad ass heel. DK, instead stiffed the kid in the nose, busting it and almost breaking it. Not cool. If you are going to set up an angle with someone, even though they might not be trained, then it is your responsibility to take care of that person. I was told DK told the kid he was going to punch him, [you know since wrestling is real] but no one thought that would be the case. If LAW was working with a coach or police chief of a town [as a lot of small promotions use as special refs or whatever], I don’t think DK would have stiffed them.

----“The Posse” beat “Filthy Freaks” to become the new LAW Tag Team Champions. Good psychology here as the heat was on Chris. Fans love these guys and were into the match. Well, they were into it until around the finish and it turned into a total clusterfuck. Chris finally ended up pining Foley with a top rope sunset flip as Foley was checking on Grind. Crowd popped like crazy for the win. [**]

----Psycho [pic to right with fan] beat Dustin Starr and Tatt2 in a 3-way Dance. Psycho got the biggest pop of the night with his entrance. And, that is probably the best thing I can say about this bout. LOL It was the a total clash of styles and was a total clusterfuck. None of the moves in the match looked bad, but it was more like what are they doing?? I think I could have seen a good match here if it was have been just a singles combo of any of three guys [Starr vs Psycho, Psycho vs Tatt2, Starr vs Tatt2], but due to a Big Steve no show and a few workers arriving after bell time, this is the match we got. Finish was good also as Starr had a chair going to hit Psycho with it after a ref bump and Tatt2 shitcanned, LAW’s Kelly Warner grabbed the chair to keep him from hitting Psycho. Starr turned around and Psycho got the roll up for the win as Warner counted Starr for the pin. Last two shows in a row that Warner has counted Starr out, so they are leading to something. [*]

----Derrick King/Flash Flanagan beat Tony Gunn/Bill Dundee[pulling DK's ear in pic below], when Flash pinned Dundee. Match was good with psychology with Flash/King getting heat on Gunn with false tags and just beating the hell out of Gunn. Crowd was into it and DK/Flash are flawless in the ring. Flawless is the key here as the finish was totally screwed and shows just how far behind Gunn is than the other 3 guys. Gunn had been shitcanned. Dundee is being pinned with his foot on the rope. [I am not 100% sure of how the finish was suppose to go, but this is how I THINK it was going.] Gunn was supposed to grab DK off the apron as he "accidentally" knocked Dundee’s foot off the ropes. Dundee gets pinned and mad, then turns on Gunn. BUT, here is what happened – Gunn did not make it to the apron on time, so Dundee just moved his leg and got pinned. Dundee just walked off after the loss with Gunn leaving with no heat whatsoever. [**]

ArenaNotes: I counted around 91 in the crowd with a gate of around $750…Tavian Hart came out and got tons of heel heat – I guess from his shitty job last time. I usually hate refs doing manager gimmicks or such, but Hart would be the perfect one to use doing something here…Good to see Aaron Polston and Del McKie at the show…A few people in this crowd really scared me. A few times during the show, I was sure they were going after Tim Grind and Dustin Starr, who both got great heel heat…’Lil Chris looked better than last time I seen him and will probably turn out to be a good worker. Foley needs lots of help. I have no idea how old he is, but does look older than me in the face. But, he has the body of 25 year old…Tatt2 looked as fast and solid as I have seen him. His talent is catching up with his speed now or maybe he is slowing down a bit….Psycho was set up for a run in for the main, so it looks as if he was making the save for Gunn…As you can tell, nothing great on the show, but there was nothing just real horrible. A good crew of guys – from decent to excellent – but just something did not click for everyone…I had a good time and thanks to LAW crew and cast – even you Bill Dundee. LOL