Wednesday, December 12, 2007

"Back 2 TLCW" with the Masked Reporter

----MR takes another trip to TLCW and as you will read, he enjoyed the show a lot more this time. This will be the last “Masked Reporter” appearance on this site. When I first started the site my main policy was that if you did not use your real name and face, then you could not write for the site. I have on a few occasions let my guard down for this policy. I believe if you are going to be critical of anything as much as this column is, then you need to stick your own neck and head out for it. More BT comments after the piece…

"Back 2 TLCW" with the Masked Reporter

I took the trip up to Ripley Saturday evening. Eugene was on the card. Oh, excuse me, U-Gene, as were a group of the regular Memphis stars, so I figured it’s be worth a look. Was it ever? I say this card was among the best I’d seen from top to bottom when it comes to the Mid-South wrestling scene. There were a few bumps in the road, but it had a great mix of national names, Memphis names and local workers. We’ll get into the results of the card and my thoughts on what went down, but right now, I have a couple points to rise.

First off, the TLCW Arena was hot and I’m not talking about crowd reactions. I sweated buckets from my corner seat and I can only imagine what that building is like in the summer.

Second, I am appalled by one thing at TLCW. The children at TLCW (again, can anybody tell me what it stands for?) are downright rude. I spied a child, who could not have been over six years of age wearing what appeared to be a Spongebob shirt, flipping off wrestlers. I don’t know if this boy’s parents were there, but man, if they were, he should’ve been taken to the woodshed, so to speak.

That being said, let’s go to the card and happenings and my observations on what went down.

Eugene (sorry, but I refuse to spell it the way he is for copyright purposes) came out early, at least an hour or so before bell time, according to my sources. He walked around the ring, shook hands with fans, took pictures with fans and sold gimmicks/signed autograph. The kids just ate the guy up and I’ve been told that he did not break gimmick at all. Eugene’s wife/girlfriend was there and she’s a nice-looking gal. Not too bad for an idiot savant. Proves, there might be hope for BT.

Flash comes out to open the show. He talks about how Tim Grind was hated the last time he was in Ripley, but now he is loved. He tells the crowd that tonight he will team with Too Kool 2 to take on The Golden Boy, Dustin Starr and Dell Tucker, but if Tim and Flex turn on him, he’s not taking it out on them; he’s taking it out on the fans.

The opening bout was Shannon Lee against The Baron. Good, solid match between a pair of up-and-comers. I have nothing bad to say about the match.Shannon Lee (is he related to Stan) could change his ring attire from the bright orange, though. If he walks outside with that getup on, some people might mistake him for a road work sign. For those wondering, Baron won with a double-underhook facebuster.

Next up was Precious against Idol Bane. I don’t really remember the finish here. A couple guys from the IWA (one named Sniper) ran out and attacked Precious after the match. They rant and rave about how much better the IWA is than the TLCW. Next thing you know, Koko B. Ware comes out with a stick and starts laying into Precious and another TLCW talent (whose name I didn’t catch). Derrick King, Seth Knight, Tatt2 and Tommy Redneck make the save and run them out of the ring.

Koko takes the mic and lays down his Corey Maclin promo. For those of you who haven’t heard it, he basically tells DK that he’s just a “black boy trying to be white” and it makes him sick. Koko also says that there’s one thing that he hates and its faggots, pointing at Precious. He said that DK couldn’t be the king of Memphis, or Union City, so now he’s the king of Ripley. Ware says he used to be the mayor of Ripley. He also talks about building the town in terms of wrestling. DK responds by telling Ware that what he is saying he used to do, they are still doing. A challenged is laid down for next week with IWA vs. TLCW in what I believe is going to be an eight-man tag match. TLCW accepts and IWA leaves the building. Koko did make one good point, he said he didn’t know what TLCW stood for. The fans just chanted TLC when he was out there. Somebody help me please.

Next up is Lil Tim Alfonzo/Seth Knight vs. Tommy Redneck/The Albino Rhino. Rhino comes out wearing a black military style helmet. I guess if you lose your tag partner, you start dressing different. Knight and Alfonzo get the win. Not a bad match, not a great match. Solid though. Alfonzo played the injured babyface, coming into the match with taped ribs. Rhino and Redneck worked the injury over and he finally made a tag to Knight. Despite my previous musings about Seth’s shortcomings, I saw nothing of fault with his work on this night.

Dustin Starr comes out with Dell “I’ve Got Love Handles” Tucker. I joke about Tucker’s appearance, but the boy is pretty solid in the ring. I give him that. Anyways, he and Starr are out for the “Five-Starr Showcase” and the guest is someone you might recognize from WWE T.V. No, not Eugene, it’s “All That” Allen Steele. Steele goes into a promo about how great he is before Eugene comes out looking for the restroom. (Didn’t he go during the Seth Knight match?) Just kidding, Seth. Don’t send me anymore hate mail. You’re the Masked Reporter’s Al Snow. Feel privileged.

Eugene climbs back in the ring and says, “Hey, you’re Tucker and you’re Dustin Starr.” Then, he asks Allen Steele who is he is, and before Steele can tell him, he takes the mic and says “It doesn’t matter what your name is!” in a Rock-like way. Steele attacks Eugene and rips his teddy bear, Freddy in half, leaving him pouting in the squared circle.

Intermission is next and Eugene is taking Polaroid photos with fans in the ring.

After the break, Neil Taylor makes his way to the ring. His opponent turns out to be Chris Rocker, who is the south’s answer to Marty Jannety. Rocker and Taylor put on a good bout. Finish sees Rocker hit the Superkick for the pin. Rocker bumps for most of the match as the beaten babyface (see a pattern here folks?). Then, he gets the momentum on his side and wins with the boot.

Next is what I thought was the main event. The Golden Boy, Dell Tucker and Dustin Starr come out together. Flash comes out next with all three belts of his new Unified Championship. TK2 makes their entrance together. Flex plays the part of the beaten-down babyface in this match. Finish sees Tim get the pin (I think). After the match, TK2 gets Flash to dance with them. Would that make it a Flash-dance? Haha. Very funny, eh.

I thought they were going to turn on Flash, but they didn’t. Fair enough. Very good match with six solid workers. I’m seeing Flash turning heel on Tim instead in the coming weeks, but that’s only my purported crystal ball.

IMPORTANT OBSERVATIONS: I haven’t commented on Flash being the Unified Champion and I will now.

I know that he is currently the TLCW, MAW and LAW and being recognized as the Unified Champion. I think this is a great idea. With all the small indies in the Mid-South region, a traveling champion (a la the NWA) could make the strap special. On the other hand, somebody has to fork over some money for a new belt if this is going to work in my opinion. None of the three belts are very impressive cosmetically with two of them looking like they belong in backyard federation instead of a pro’s ring. Someone quick, call Reggie Parks or Dave Millican and have a real title belt made to make the champion look like a real pro.

And now, back to the regularly scheduled program.

TLCW Tag Team Titles are at stake next. One-half of the TLCW Tag Team Champions Rude/Pokerface vs. the other half of the TLCW Tag Team Champions A.J. Bradley/Robbie Douglas. Naughty By Nature (Rude/Poker) gets the win and takes both tag straps with a double sunset flip. Another good stand alone match - Poker played the part of the beaten down baby.

Allen Steele is next out and his opponent is Eugene. Steele rolls Eugene up and pulls his tights for the win. Really, good match. Eugene throws in a bit of comedy with a mix of solid wrestling and high spots. Eugene hits the Rock Bottom, People’s Elbow, Five-Knuckle Shuffle and he does the JYD head butt spot. The crowd tells referee Bill Rush after the match that Steele had the tights. Eugene shakes his hand and tells him its okay because he didn’t see it. Then, he boots Rush in the gut and hits a Stone Cold Stunner.
Rush sells the bump like a referee should. He stays down for a good couple of minutes, before he is helped up by the “Human Guardrail” security guards.

ANOTHER OBSERVATION: The other referee on the night was horrible. Bill Rush is a true pro, but the other ref turned around to quickly when a heel tag team was doing the old fake switch without a tag spot. He caught them, but ignored that he did. Good refs, call the match like a shoot. That guy didn’t.

Back to the card, folks.

Chris Lexx/Playboy with Sue Young come out next for a tag match against Rockin’ Randy and someone else I’d never seen. Randy and his partner get the win. Sue and Playboy shared a lick on the same lollypop and I hope Ms. Young brushed her teeth afterwards. You could get mono or something, Sue. Observations about this match: Playboy doesn’t belong in the wrestling ring. Maybe, he did years ago, but he doesn’t anymore. Young drew the $2 dollar ho chant. Again, she’d cost a lot more Ripley. I’d guess that’s what jealousy can do for you, though. Admittedly, she needs to work on her abs and lose some what I’d term baby fat (She’s very Young folks, no pun intended), but she’s a darn nice-looking lady.

Main Event time. Two more IWA guys come out. One in a do-rag and another in a suit. They belittle TLCW and bring out their guy who is going to wrestle for them, a lanky fellow named Ace. Derrick King comes out. DK tells them, he’d usually whip them himself, but he brought a TLCW wrestler with him tonight. Tatt2 jumps through the curtain and he makes his rounds, slapping hands with the fans prior to the match. During the match, Tatt2 gets the advantage but the IWA guys jump in and force a disqualification. Sniper and the other fellow from earlier in the night run to the ring and make an attack. DK and Tatt2 are laid out. Seth Knight comes out to attempt a save, but he gets a chokeslam from Sniper for his efforts. Show ends with TLCW guys laying in the ring and IWA telling them (the TLCW guys) that they don’t have a fourth man for next week yet and they’d better start looking. This was the worst match of the night and I can’t blame Tatt2. The Ace guy from IWA wasn’t up to standard with anyone on the card from TLCW sans Playboy.

It’s obvious who the superior promotion is in terms of workers. Some of Koko’s said earlier shots on Precious with the cane, looking like he was slapping him with a pillow.

Observations: TLCW has enough talent not to need the IWAs wrestlers in the fold. IWA must be losing business or going out of business and the guys need a place to work. Koko B. Ware is much like Bill Dundee in that he just can’t go in the ring anymore. The quality of wrestling next week, will not be what it was this week in my projections and I blame the IWA’s inclusion for that. On a sidenote, some fan next week will win a free computer. That’s an incentive to buy the $5 ticket if I ever saw one.

Got comments, hate mail, attaboys, email the Masked Reporter at themaskedrroreporter@hotmail.com.

----IWA is a promotion run by Charlie Parks. Derrick King is actually booking that promotion also now and most of their shows are full of TLCW talent with various guys that Parks has always used, including Koko Ware. This is an “invasion” angle and I can see the only problem being that the IWA guys may not even seem like they could beat TLCW guys. I have to disagree on MR’s part about Koko Ware. To the marks in TLCW, Ware is a big name – he being associated with IWA gives it some kind of credibility.

----A quick note on the belts comment. In an ideal world, this promotion would get a Unified Title made as was suggested. But, think about this – they are just a small indy promotion – all three are small indy promotions – and the money that it would take to have a belt professionally done is not funds available to them. For example, TLCW draws at least $3,000 a month at the gate with everyone getting paid and such. They would have to spend $2,000 just to get a good belt made and that would leave $1,000 to pay talent all month. So, instead of doing that, Flash carries around 3belts, which is much more cost efficient. And, even though none of the belts may be appealing alone, I thought he looked cool with all three of them.