Monday, May 21, 2007

Arena Report: TLCW "Mayhem" 5.19.07

----When TLCW puts on a “big show” they go all out to please the workers and the marks. The show was moved to the National Guard Armory so they could accommodate more fans and the cage. The set up looked very professional with guardrails all around the ring. They had built a small entrance way, which was much better than just walking out of a dressing room door. When the lights went down, all lights were on the match. Very well done setup.

----Alec Fontez beat Shawn Williams. A good opener as the crowd was hot!! This is my first time to see Fontez. He is small, but a good solid worker. Shawn still needs work, but didn’t hurt the match. Fontez with a flying body press from top rope for the win. [**]

----Shannon Lee/Erik Hayes with “Sweet Cheeks” beat Tim Alfonso/Dell Tucker. Another real good solid bout. Crowd was just crazy popping for every move. They didn’t do much with the gay gimmick as they were just all four working their asses off. Good psychology. Heat on Tucker, hot tag on Alfonso with Lee pinning Alfonso. [**]

----Tatt2 beat Alan Steele by ref reversal. Crowd popped big for Tatt2. The best singles bout I have ever seen Tatt2 in. Steele was there to slow him down and worked good together. Steele looked huge up to Tatt2. Tatt2 did a dive over the ropes to the floor onto Steele. He went to do a hunacarana from the ring apron to the floor, but Steele caught him smashing his head against a chair to get the heat. Tatt2 come out of the heat with trying to finish Steele off with a 169, but Steele caught him and rolled him up holding his tights for the pin after a ref bump. 2cnd ref didn’t see him pulling tights, but 1st ref did – so reversal. Didn’t like the finish, but match was good. [**3/4]

----Assassins beat “The Posse] [Simon Reed/Lil Chris] in another solid bout. These two teams worked good together. They did a double heat spot, which is becoming the norm for the Posse. Hot tag to Chris didn’t look very well, because Chris did not look believable hitting those guys. Assassin II [the bigger one] did a Flair bump from the top turnbuckle. It looked great. Assassin I used a loaded hood on Simon when Reed had his back turned arguing with Chris. Simon just walked away from the bout. [**1/2]

----Loser Leave TLCW – Special ref Pokerface – Chris Lexx beats Rude with Rashard/Nikki Lace. Lexx came out to a huge pop. Crowd loves him. A very good match. Rude and PKO are both in great shape. Almost flawless with a few mistakes from Lexx. The whole story of it was that PKO was not going to count Rude down for the pin. Ricky Hayes, the commish, came out once and tried to get Rashard to go to the back. Nikki Lace finally turned getting the crowd chanting for Lexx. Lexx would have Rude pinned using his finisher, but then PKO would not count. The finish seen Lexx set up to give Rude a big boot, but he ducked and hit PKO. Seth Knight ran out and put PKO in the STF making him tap out with Lexx having Rude pinned. As PKO was tapping, the counted Rude out for the pin. Great finish!! Who thought of that?? [***]

----TLC Match –“Rockin” Randy beat Seth Knight and Tommy Redneck to win the Hardcore and Cruiserweight Titles. Match started with mostly Redneck/Knight teaming to beat up Randy. Finally they all three went at it and it started to get good. Slow build up with your typical crazy spots. Thumbtacks came into play with Randy taking a Canadian Destroyer on them and Redneck was full from head to toe. Crowd was crazy for it. Both belts were hanging from the ceiling, so they had to climb the ladder to get them. Knight climbed up and grabbed them and got the ladder pushed out from under him. It seem like he was hanging up there FOREVER!! Redneck first tried a spear from the ladder to Knight and couldn’t get him to drop. Randy did the same thing. Finally Knight just dropped with a perfect bump to the ring. Randy pushed both Redneck/Knight as they were on the ladder, which ended up with them breaking the ladder. Redneck powerbombed Knight into a table as Randy went up the smaller ladder [which would have not held him if Miles the ref was not holding it] to grab the belts and win. [***1/2]

----“Rhythm & Blues” [Brian Steele/Ike Tucker] with Richard Marx beat “Cruzin 4 Pain” [Motley Cruz/187] with Tasha Simone to win the TLCW Tag Team Titles. I love the R&B gimmick. Marx is a real good manager and Steele/Tucker have the gimmick down. BUT, the bout was bad. It was probably the worst C4P bout I have ever seen. Steele has never claimed to be a great worker and I have not seen enough of Tucker to decide on him, but both guys were like 3 steps behind and real sloppy. Tons of babyface shine here. Heat on 187 with finish having Steele hit with the guitar and 187 having him pinned. The ref was out the ring with Tucker/Cruz. “East Coast Bad Boys” [Spyro/C-Money] jumped out of the crowd and did a double team move on 187 and helped Steele pin him. ECBB beat up C4P after the bout, which got lots of heat. [*1/2]

----Derrick King/Chris O’Neal/Stan Lee beat Dustin Starr/Maxx Corbin/Albino Rhino. The crowd was super hot for this bout. O’Neal came out to the biggest pop of the night. He is so over. A little bit of trying to get O’Neal/Starr in the ring together at the start, but it did not hurt the match. They have Corbin/Rhino so over as monsters mainly because they are bigger than 99% of the guys on the roster. They also move very fast for such big guys and remind me of Bam Bam Bigelow. They were doing monster spots and with the babys trying to do things to them. Somehow Rhino got a bit tied up and tagged out and I thought he actually got hurt. He just blew up a bit. Heat was on DK with Starr hitting DK with an Alabama slam as DK was holding on to the top turnbuckle. Hot tag went to O’Neal. It ended with Lee/DK doing dives to the floor hitting Corbin/Rhino. O’Neal finished Starr off with the Pele kick and the pin. Place went nuts!! [***1/2]

----Brian Christopher beat “The Golden Boy” Greg Anthony to win the TLCW Title. This match started good. BC had his working shoes on and they both seem to click. Great punches from both guys. BC took a nasty bump to the floor for TGB to start the heat. TGB ended up with BC’s goggles and went to jump from the top rope with an elbow smash. BC move and then pinned TGB. WTF?? It felt less than 5 minutes and it just came off as a shitty finish for the champion to lose so quick and easily. Why build a guy as “best of the best” and then have him lose the first chance he is in the ring with a major star?? [*]

----Flash Flanagan beat Tim Grind in “Fan Bring Weapons” Steel Cage. These guys beat the hell out of each other. Both guys juiced with Grind juicing real good. A couple of big spots off the cage had Flash getting ready to go over the top and Grind pushed him back off into the ring. Flash had Grind in a “tree of woe” and climbed up to the rope of the cage and jumped down hitting Grind in the face. Grind took a lot of hard shots with the kendo stick. Finish started with TGB trying to interfere. He got the keys to the cage from ref Bill Rush. He unlocked it and was going to get in to help Grind, but Flash sent Grind into the door into TGB with TGB taking the bump to the floor. Flash was going to the top of the cage for the win, when Matt Foley came out climbing he cage. He was about ¾ up the cage and Flash pushed him off with Foley taking a crazy perfect bump onto the announcer’s table. Flex then as a surprise came out jumping in the ring going after Flash. He gave Flash a Liger bomb from the top turnbuckle. They were beating him down until Brian Christopher made the save and helped Flash. Flash ended with a springboard leg drop. [****] – not all just for the match as the 6 man was better, but for just the brutal shots, blood, spots off the cage, Foley bump and finish deserved an extra star.

----There was around 318 in the crowd with a gate close to $3,550. Along with the concession, this show did well over $4000...Show started 45 minutes late and lasted close to 5 hours…Dell Tucker and Erik Hayes are two of my fave undercard guys…There were selling Silly String at the gimmicks table and this was a bad thing. The first two matches all of the guys were just covered in string by the time they got to the ring – heels and babys. It looked kewl from a distance [almost like streamers], but have you ever tried to get Silly String off of your body?? And it left the floor REAL slick…The split up of the Posse looks to be happening. It really surprises me with as much as they are over…They had the ladders line up on the entrance way which made it easy for the guys to go get them…Tommy Redneck is in the best shape I have EVER seen him in…I seen Brian Steele later in the night and he was still bleeding from the guitar shot…I spotted Michael Johns and Precious in the crowd and spoke to both. Rebecca Raze was also in the crowd...Weapons were already placed in the cage at the start of the bout. They just looked like the stuff they had used in the earlier bouts…No blood in any match except the main event. Crowd was chanting “We Want Blood” during the TLC match and cage match…Cage was tied together with rope and was coming apart...Thanks to cast and crew of TLCW. My family and I were treated 1st Class. Miles the ref was the only person to give me any grief saying, "I have no love for you." and I stayed away from people that I knew hate me. LOL