Friday, November 05, 2010

SAW TV Review - 10.23.10 by Larry Goodman

----Larry Goodman with a look at a new episode of SAW.


Showtime All-Star Wrestling
Airing on October 23, 2010 on America One
Taped August 22, 2010 in Nashville at the Stadium Inn

Last Week on SAW…Phil Shatter and Tommy Mercer recorded squash wins. Both men issued challenges to SAW International Champion Chase Stevens…Ryan Genesis warned Picture Perfect he was on his way back …The show went off the air with Derrick King Enterprises on the verge of losing the tag team titles to Vordell Walker & J-Rod, thanks to a screwed up Picture Perfect’s Jon Michael Worthington.

Commissioner Freddie Morton appeared on screen. They concluded the footage from Algood, showing Walker pinning King due to Worthington’s screw up. Morton said the TV time limit ran out before the referee counted three. Thus, the match was a draw and the title did not change hands. He compared it to the Calvin Johnson non-touchdown situation. Morton apologized to the good people of Algood and said SAW hoped to schedule a rematch there.

Reno Riggins and Michael Graham were in the ring with a sickeningly smug DKE (Derrick King, Drew Haskins and Sista O’Feelyah). Walker and J-Rod entered and asked for a rematch. Picture Perfect attacked them from behind. A wild 4 against 2 schmozz ensued. A bunch of refs and SAW personnel including backstage interviewer Hot Rod Biggs were all out there trying to break it up.

“Affiliated, related and always associated with the absolute greatest” Biggs was with Walker & J-Rod. Cut to a clip of Picture Perfect back jumping them. Walker said it didn’t matter if it was Bozo the Clown, Ronald McDonald or Reverend Ike Turner (never thought I would write those names in the same sentence), they were getting retribution.

Cut to DKE in the locker room. King said there was a system and there would be no handouts for Walker & J-Rod. “You’re just like everybody else in this town. You want something free,” King decided to give them the match. “Why not?” he said. “We’ve been giving everything else away for free.” Haskins said they should get the CFO on the phone to see they could use it as a tax write off. In his spectacularly manipulative way, King lectured Picture Perfect about watching DKE’s backs. Cut to the ring where Genesis was calling Picture Perfect out, then back to the locker room via a split screen window. “How about you stop running your yapper, and do us a favor and have our backs this time, OK?” Worthington said.

1 – CHRISTIAN JACOBS (with John Michael Worthington) vs. RYAN GENESIS

Genesis took Jacobs apart for the first three minutes. He lit him up with strikes and blasted him with a plethora of high impact moves. Jacobs had no answers until he got an assist from Worthington, who shoved Jacobs away from a Genesis spear attempt. Genesis hit the post with his shoulder. He started to sell it, but Jacobs never went after the shoulder. Genesis kept firing up and Jacobs would ground him to slow things down. At one point, Jacobs grazed Genesis with a lariat and Genesis did a delayed reaction bump, like he decided to go down after all, and looked all glassy eyed. Nice recovery. Genesis fired up a stout comeback. After Genesis scored a near fall with a spinebuster, Worthington grabbed his leg to distract, and Jacobs rolled him up with a handful of trunks.      

WINNER: Jacobs at 7:42 after interference by Worthington.

Grumpy’s Bail Jumper of the Week – Agent Kendra Anderson did the honors with a camera angle providing a clear view of the tattoo on her left booby. This week’s wonder child was Corey Carlos Garrett.

“The boss is back!” Paul Adams and “Nature’s Greatest Miracle” Rick Santel joined the broadcast team at ringside after a long absence from television. Adams said Reno had been throwing his considerable weight around, but that wasn’t going to fly with him. Adams said Reno wasn’t going to believe it when he found out who he had retained as legal counsel. Adams announced that he was suing SAW for wrongful termination, and Santel was suing for unsafe work conditions related to the injury he suffered in that very ring. Furthermore, since Santel needed to earn a living, he was going to replace Riggins as color commentator. “It’s going to be mind over fatter, and we’ve got a few words to discuss in the back. Let’s go Riggins.”  

Agent Anderson was back with an update on bail jumper Daniel Stewart. Turns out he wasn’t a bail jumper after all. Unbeknown to Grumpy’s, Stewart had turned himself in and learned he was still on their list by seeing it on SAW. Kendra apologized to Stewart and his family.

2 – SAW Tag Team Title Match: Champions DERRICK KING ENTERPRISES (Derrick King & Drew Haskins with Sista O’Feelyah) vs.  VORDELL WALKER & J-ROD

Match opened with the champions bumping like pinballs. Santel complained about all the cheating whilst DKE licked their wounds. King took advantage of Walker’s overly trusting nature. Walker fired back bigtime. Haskins tried to interfere, and DKE wound up in the dreaded north/south position. Haskins tried to show who was boss. The challengers beat his ass to where Santel said he must have owed them money, King kneed J-Rod in the kidneys (off camera) setting Haskins up to  superkick his ass. O’Feelyah interfered, and for a hot moment, J-Rod had her by the arm. DKE did the abdominal stretch shenanigans, the orchestrated distraction so the ref missed a legal tag.  J-Rod hit an up & over backcracker that left both men down in agony. Double tags. Walker on fire. Belly to belly suplex magic on King, forcing Haskin to make a save. All four in with the heels taking punishment. Haskins dumped Haskins and clubbed Walker from behind. King superkicked Walker for a clean 1-2-3.  

WINNERS: DKE retain the SAW tag titles in 10:22.

Riggins announced a new feature – “The Next Star of SAW”. Riggins said SAW was looking for four individuals to compete for a spot on the roster. He invited viewers to go to sawonline.tv and click on the “Next Star of SAW” link. Riggins said SAW had grown from a cable access show to being available in 45 million homes.

Wouldn’t you rather stand next to me than just watch on TV? Walk down that aisle. Be a jet flying, limousine riding son of gun like all the rest of these guys here at SAW? Well, we’re looking for you.

Graham and Santel were at ringside preparing to close out the hour, when Flash Flanagan ran out and cracked Santel a good one with his kendo stick. Santel went down and out. Flanagan picked up Santel’s mic and said, “Guess who else is back?”   

Afterthoughts: The heels reigned supreme this week with the exception of the last 15 seconds of the hour, which was quite the surprise conclusion. The timing was right for the return of A-Team. Adams and Santell have been away long enough to come back with a level of freshness. The lawsuit was a perfect fit for the shoot circumstances on several levels. Introducing Santel as a color commentator and having Flanagan wipe him out in the same hour was pretty great…The start of the three way tag team program came off well. The opening brawl was cool. Too bad the mic failed, but it wasn’t a segment they could redo…The backstage stuff with DKE was fun. When is Derrick King not entertaining? Worthington’s comeback had just the right “cut the crap” tone. Genesis has the look and fire that connects with fans in a live situation. However, he’s not polished enough to be pushed much higher yet. His offense looks fine, but his inexperience betrayed him at crucial moments. Jacobs takes good bumps for a big guy. There were only two matches. Both were decent enough, except for the weak finishes. I was surprised to see Genesis get duped after the way Picture Perfect beat him down the last time. The babyface challengers went down awfully clean and easy in the main event. If I didn’t know differently, I would have thought that was it for them…The company has nothing to lose with the ”Next Star of SAW” gimmick. An indy version of NXT filtered through the warped mind of Paul Adams intrigues me. The segment was proof positive that Reno would make an awesome used car salesman, then again, I guess that could be said of many in pro wrestling. Maybe through some miracle, they will actually luck into a hot talent. At worst, they end up with an underdog job guy with a ready made story. Then there’s always to possibility that it will be total work.