----The show started around 6:00 PM with the Jonesboro, AR band “Further Down”. These guys have a great sound. They remind me of a wrestler you see and you just know he should be “big time”, but he is still working indys. Great sound and deserve to be heard on other radio stations – not only the ones around here.
----Wrestling started with Aaron Polston thanking everyone and they did a short angle to set up Bill Dundee vs Dirty Little Dave . They had one guy [Blake Davis] who liked DLD and one guy [Keith Mathene] that liked Dundee. DLD jumped the guy that liked Dundee and then Dundee made the save. They then set up the match with both guys being in the respective corners.
----Marcus O’Neal beat X-Cailbur and Morgan Lane in a triple threat. O’Neal may not have the look of a wrestler like say Juice, but it was far ahead of these guys in psychology and ability. O’Neal going to the ring went into to the crowd establishing himself as a babyface within 30 seconds of going out. [**]
----Chris O’Neal beat Jamie Jay. Jay was a little sloppy, but the match was ok. This first match is an indication that the fans here are mostly not wrestling fans. Good pop for O’Neal’s patent kick. Good psychology. [**1/2]
----Bill Dundee with Mathene beat DLD with Davis. Not much of a match, but really nothing wrong from two old pros. The crowd seem to be excited to see Dundee. Even though the crowd may not know the young guys, they did recognize Dundee. Dundee gave the whole match to DLD with DLD getting heat with just simple heel moves. Good pop for the finish. [*1/2]
----Anton Leveigh/The Giant Hillbilly beat Brandon Barbwire/Justin “The Juice” Smart. Smart has a great look emulating AJ Styles. There was actually psychology in this bout with Leveigh taking the heat. Hot tag to Hillbilly and he just chunked everyone around shitcanning Barbwire to set up for Leveigh doing the Canadian Destroyer on Smart. Hillbilly is bad, but didn’t embarrass himself in this bout. All three of the other guys have tons of potential and actually showed me they can work a match, instead of trying to be a bunch of spot monkeys. [**]
----Chris Rocker beat Reno Diamond with a frog splash. An almost perfect bout. These guys work well together. Rocker is able to slow Reno down to actually working and they throw all the spots in where they are needed. Rocker did an Asai Moonsault to the floor on Diamond. Diamond pretty much “hot-shot’ed” Rocker on the ring railing to start the heat. The only thing about the bout was the crowd didn’t know either guy and could have cared less. [***] - If this bout would have been in the right building with the right drama, it could have easily been [****].
----Brandon Baxter beat Austin lane in a Paragould Street Fight. Take the level of heat for the other matches and multiply it by 10 for this one. Just a great old fashion brawl all over the building. Fans loved it. Baxter took Lane to the very top of the bleachers and tried to toss him over. Lane ended up blocking it, but Baxter thru him down almost the whole set of them as Lane tumbled as the fans cleared. They went into the crowd and to the stage. Baxter piledrove Lane on the concrete stage and then pushed him off of it. Lane took a hard bump. Baxter then did a splash from off the stage to the floor. The crowd on the floor was standing up in their chairs [including me] to get a complete view. The finish had two ref bumps and two false finishes, which popped the crowd. Lane went to finish Baxter off with the chair, but BB ducked and Lane hit the ropes with the chair bounced hitting Lane in the face. As he was selling, BB hit him with a stunner and pinned him for the win. Crowd popped like crazy!! [****]
---- “The Posse” [Lil Chris/Simon] beat “Da Blackout Squad” [Oz/Bishop] in a “Graffiti On A Pole” Match. Two cans of spray paint are put in opposite corners with the object of getting the paint and spraying your opponent. Oz sprayed Bishop on mistake and Simon rolled up Bishop for the win. How do you follow the BB/Lane bout?? The show is running late and these people are not wrestling fans? Well, these four guys went out and did a crazy brawl and it got over with the fans. There is really too much to report as they paired off and were doing spots all over the place. The crowd liked it. They made the focus of the spray cans being on the pole, but did not make it so it was the TOTAL focus. Bishop took Lil Chris from the top rope and did a chokeslam lifting Chris full extension to the mat. Good God this guy is strong!! Chris also took a nasty bump to the stage running full force when Oz threw him into it. [***1/2]
---- Crowd was 786 paid with a gate of $6,150. There were tons of cheerleaders in the building doing stunts and stuff between matches, so adding all of those people into the mix, there was probably close to 1,000 people in the building at one time. This was easily the largest crowd to see wrestling in this area this year. It also become ASWF’s biggest gate of their history…Aaron Polston started the show by saying that ACW promotes next door at the Armory and he would like to thank them for canceling their show. He also plugged that they would be going weekly in April…Speaking of, I was told that ACW was asked to do a joint show with this group, since ACW runs this town regularly, but they refused to do it. Also they were ask to do the benefit and it was said that Buster Johnson doesn’t do benefit shows. So, that group missed the opportunity to be seen by 10 times as many fans as they do on a regular basis…Apparently Loose Cannon was seen the parking lot talking with Bill Dundee…Michael Ward was on hand doing the ring announcing and play by play. I was not able to hear the play by play, but he did an excellent job ring announcing. He is my favorite announcer by only hearing him once do play by play and once just ring announcing…It’s strange, since I am stickler for pure wrestling, that the two best bouts I have seen live this year have both been brawls – “Picture Perfect” vs BOS and BB vs Lane…”Da Blackout Squad” [Oz/Bishop] came out in full gimmick with Oz gearing a plastic skull in full face paint. The crowd did not know what to think of these guys…Thanks to ASWF cast and crew for a great show. Even Bill Dundee was nice to me. LOL Speaking of Dundee, I did have a nice conversation with him about a couple of projects that we might work on together. I am not going to spill the beans completely, because nothing is etched in stone, but for all the long time fans of Memphis Wrestling and Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling, this will have you guys salivating.
