Royal Wrestling Alliance debuted in Jonesboro, AR, Saturday night at The King's Sportatorium on Hwy. 1 South. Approximately 200 fans turned out to see this group's first show, and they were not disappointed!
The King's Sportatorium, which will be home to RWA, is a great venue for wrestling. It will seat approx. 450 people, and it is a very nice building.
The opening match was Cameron Cage w/Rott'n Randy vs. Mercury McCloud. The match was won by Cameron Cage, with help from Rott'n Randy. This was a good, solid opener. I had not seen McCloud in a couple of years, and had not seen Cage work before. Both individuals did a good job.
After the opening match, Jerry Lawler was introduced, but it was not Lawler who came through the curtain, it was Hollywood Jimmy Blaylock dressed as Lawler (crown and all), accompanied by Reno Diamond and Tony "The Weasel" Watts. Blaylock bad mouthed Lawler. Blaylock said that he is the real king of wrestling, not Lawler, and that The King's Sportatorium is named in honor of Hollywood Jimmy Blaylock. Lawler came out of the back and cleared the ring. He gave a history lesson on the history of wrestling in Jonesboro, and told Reno Diamond that he was going to teach him a lesson later on.
Next was Treat Connection (Loose Cannon & San Francisco Treat) w/Rott'n Randy vs. Deadly Dale & Jamie Jay. Dale had to start by himself, as Jamie Jay had not yet arrived at the arena, so the first five minutes or so was a handicap match. About five minutes into the match, Jay did arrive and hit the ring to even things up. The match was won by Treat Connection when Treat pinned Jamie Jay. Treat's feet were on the rope but the referee did not see it.
Next was a ladies match, Jazz vs. Passion. This was a very good match that ended in a double count out.
Ali Stevens defeated Chazz Wesson w/Hollywood Jimmy Blaylockby DQ. Blaylock threw the cane to Wesson while the referee was distracted, but Wesson got caught with it, resulting in the win by DQ for Stevens.
Rodney Mac defeated Jonesboro's own Gary Diamond. Rodney Mac always does a good job, and I was impressed with young Gary Diamond.
Former WWE star Heidenreich defeated Medieval. I have not seen Heidenreich work since he and WWE had a parting of the ways. He has improved a lot. He is a big, big man and was impressive. I had never seen Medieval before, and was very impressed. This guy has a great gimmick and did a good job as well. After the match Heidenreich continued the assault on Medieval. Brian Christopher out to make the save, which set up the next match.
Brian Christopher vs. Heidenreich was a wild match... no, it was more of a brawl, which was eventually won by Brian Christopher. Good match. Heidenreich got a tremendous amount of heat from the crowd.
The main event was Jerry "The King" Lawler vs. Reno Diamond. Reno was accompanied to the ring by Hollywood Jimmy Blaylock and Tony "The Weasel" Watts. Now, when I first heard about this match, I had my doubts about it. Now, I am not taking anything away from Jerry Lawler or Reno Diamond. Both are great wrestlers. I just considered it to be an unlikely match-up with Lawler's size advantage, and the two completely different wrestling styles of these two men. BOY WAS I IN ERROR FOR HAVING DOUBTS! These two guys put on a tremendous match! You could not have asked for a better match. Lawler was eventual winner by DQ due to interference by Blaylock. Lawler then gave Reno Diamond a lesson, and made Blaylock pay for his interference. Blaylock took several major bumps at the hands of Lawler after the match.
This was a very good show. If RWA keeps going in this direction, they will be very successful. I congratulate everyone at RWA on a successful debut. Keep up the good work. To those nay sayers who said Jonesboro would not turn out, you were wrong. They turned out, and they a good time.
Credit: Randall Lewis
BT NOTE: 200 in the building it would be a gate close to $2,000... I am happy to see a good turnout for their debut show. I am one of the “nay sayers” I guess and it will be interesting to see if they can draw on a weekly basis. I hope the best for the promotion. I was told by one of the workers that they were happy with the building and the crew seems to want it to work…The crew was also given waivers to sign to not release any results due to them taping local access TV. In this day, that is totally ridiculous, especially when you got a site like this trying to give them all the free publicity I can give them…I laughed when I read that Blaylock was taking bumps. I really don’t remember ever seeing Jimmy taking a lot of bumps, but I was reminded by a worker – “yes, he takes bumps…but mainly BT-type bumps.” LOL
