----I got the chance to watch some XOW the other night. It was a 60 minute DVD recorded for their TV show that was taped on 12.16.06. Let me first say, and if you read this site, you should know it by now, I love Southern indy wrestling. It is my favorite style surpassing the Japanese stuff, ROH and any other brand. XOW runs every Saturday night in New Albany, MS with booker/owner Brody Hawk and his cast of characters. I want to first take a quick look at the matches I watched, then a few final notes.
***Pappy/Colton Anderson beat “Pure Destruction” [Brody & Cody Hawk]. This was my first look at both Pappy and Colton Anderson. Neither one of them are horrible, but Anderson is the better of the two. Brody/Cody were the usual big ass strong men types putting the heat on Anderson. Cody cracked me up when he did a legdrop and bumped almost on his back. Hot tag went to Pappy who set Brody up for a double team pin with a Samoan drop as Anderson did a neckbreaker. Both teams were babyfaces.
***Izzy Rotten beat Jay Webster. My first look at Webster and is a rookie. Not horrible, but he seems to be missing something?? Rotten has always been a decent worker and knows what to do. He had a hard time trying to get a good match out of Webster, but he tried. Rotten has gained about 50 lbs since I last seen him, but that didn’t stop him from working.
***”Extreme” Brett Michaels beat Psycho with Kayte by DQ when “Freakshow” jumped in. This was a pretty good match. Michaels is a lot skinnier since the last time I seen him?? Wonder what that is about?? LOL He is a good worker and Psycho worked good with him. Psycho is on the same diet as Rotten, but still can move, just a bit slower than usual. Michaels did a few hot moves coming out of the heat including an enxuguiri and a superkick. At one point when he should have had babyface fire, he falls over the top rope, when Psycho moved. I cracked up. “Freakshow” jumped in and Tony Dabbs made the save.
***Reverse Battle Royal: 6 wrestlers were trying to jump into the ring to qualify for a tournament. I am being nice here, but it was a total clusterfuck. A lot of times you seen Brody Hawk just walking around the ring. LOL It ended up with Michaels, Psycho, Pappy, Anderson, Webster and Rotten getting in the ring. Funny thing was that they were all in ring together, but were not touching each other. Psycho was playing his gimmick though chasing them around.
***Announcing crew of Michael Thomas known as T-Byrd and Nathan Lee. Byrd had a lot of nominations, so I was looking forward to listening to him. He has a good voice. Smooth and you can understand him very well. The main problem I had with him was that he spent most of the time putting over himself. He even interrupted Tony Dabbs, during an interview. At one point he told Webster that he was stinking and Webster check under his arm. PD even put him over after their match. Major problems when the heel announcer is your focal point. Announcer should get over the show and not step overboard on getting himself over. Nathan Lee was his usual self, but a babyface??
----Final thoughts are that I did like the show. The crowd was small and didn’t pop for the usual things. It has a good feel to it, almost like it could be a fun show, but hard to judge when there is no crowd reaction. For all you guys that worked Malden, MO when I booked, this show reminded me a lot of it. I know Brody puts a lot of hard work into it to have a show every week – I just hope it pays off for him some day.
