Showtime Allstar Wrestling – Episode 44
Airing May 10, 2008 on ION Network affiliate WNPX 28 in Nashville
Michael St. John and Reno Riggins were at ringside to open the show. Riggins said the close of last week’s show was like nothing he had seen in his 22 years in the business. St. John said they kept the cameras rolling and that footage was coming up. This week’s main event: a match for the SAW Television Title between Damian Adams and Chrisjen Hayme. Riggins said that as matchmaker, his job was to give fans the matches they wanted to see, and Hayme had earned the number one contender spot. They hyped the debut of the 295 pound monster Chris Carnage.
They aired a replay of the backstage melee between Boogie Nation and A-Team, and most of the wild postmatch brawl.
St. John said they were going to the never-before-seen footage. It revealed that there was an immediate power outage when the show went off the air. The building stayed dark for over a minute. When power was restored, Boogie Woogie Boy and Arrick Andrews were both out cold in the middle of the ring. A posse of SAW officials came to their aid. Andrews was carried out. Boogie went out on a stretcher.
Putting two and two together, St. John noted that Miss Boogie chased Paul Adams to the back just before the lights went out, and he suspected Adams was behind the power outage. St. John said Boogie suffered a concussion and Andrews had bruised larynx. Both are out of action for an indefinite period of time.
(1) Drew Haskins beat C. M. Sigmon in 3:46. MSJ said Sigmon was from Las Vegas and had wrestled all over the world. (or at least the world of East Tennessee and Kentucky). Reno said when Haskins approached him about becoming a pro wrestler a year ago, the first thing he did was try to run him off. “That’s all we need is another kid running around town saying he’s going to be a professional wrestler. But he stuck with it.” Riggins agreed that Adams was the prime suspect in the power outage. Sigmon completely controlled the match. He hit a diving headbutt and wowed Reno and MSJ with his dropkick. Haskins surprised Sigmon with a slingshot sunset flip for the pin.
MSJ came to ringside to interview Haskins. A Team ran Haskins off. St. John said that was not nice. Paul Adams was hot about the accusations by MSJ and Riggins. Paul said they probably thought he was responsible for the crop circles, global warming and world hunger as well. MSJ questioned the other members of A Team regarding there activities when the lights were out. They all had alibis. Hammerjack said they beat up Boogie Nation for twenty minutes, so he got a little bored and left. MSJ turned to Hammerjack.
I was outta there, baby. I’m afraid of the dark…and clowns.
Santel said he and Hammerjack had a double date with the (Olsen) twins.
Kate is an alley cat…I’m gonna have her screaming “Ricky, kill me and save yourself! Kill me and save yourself!”
Paul said the important thing was they took care of the Indian and Boogie and Andrews were laid out and done for good. The fans could chant for Boogie Woogie Boy all they wanted. “These people in the front row talk about being part of Boogie Nation. When I look at this people, they’re so dirty and filthy; all I can think of is urination.” With that, Paul said James was going to pull the limo up because it was time to jet.
The bumper was a close up of Frank Malone and his icy blue-eyed expressionless stare as he walked down a dark, crowded street in downtown Nashville.
(2) Johnny Roacks beat Frank Malone (with Cody Malone) via DQ in 1:30. St. John joked about Malone being a serial killer. Riggins noted his ice blue eyes. Malone dwarfed Roacks, and the little guy could do nothing him with. Malone manhandled Roacks. Malone’s manager, his brother we were told, grabbed Roacks’ leg. Roacks made a move for Cody. Frank locked in his unnamed cobra clutch finisher. The ref ruled it a choke and DQed Frank. Frank then choked out the ref in about 2 seconds and tossed his limp body to the canvas. On his way out, Frank wrapped the ref’s hand around a pair of dice.
Assistant Commissioner Mike Sircy joined MSJ in the interview area. Sircy said that due what had just occurred between the A Team and Haskins, he was booking Haskins vs. a member of A Team in a singles match for next week. Sircy said the main reason he was there to address was Rob Roy McCoy. They showed the footage from last week in which McCoy refused to break the crossface chickenwing after Jamison tapped, and then the heinous chair usage into Jamison’s deformed hand. Sircy said that as a result, the SAW BOD was suspending McCoy indefinitely.
(3) Chris Carnage pinned Tatsu at 1:52 with the Carnage . Carnage was introed at 6-8 and 320 pounds, so that must have been quite the prematch meal. Whatever, the real numbers, he’s huge and stacked. Carnage overwhelmed Tatsu with power moves. His finisher is a torture rack into a falling neckbreaker.
They aired a video highlight preview package for the main event featuring SAW’s two high fliers, Television Champion Damian Adams and his challenger, “Best of the Best” Chrisjen Hayme.
(4) Damian Adams defeated Chisjen Hayme in 5:10 to retain the SAW Television Title. Damian is over as champ and they were vocal for him right from the opening bell. Hayme used a brawling style to take command, but nobody home on his elbow drop. Damian worked the arm, then used a drop toehold to set up an Oklahoma roll for a near fall. Hayme punished Damian for a telegraphed backdrop with a southpaw lariat for a two count. Hayme throttled Damian on the mat. Hayme with a big double underhook suplex, but no hook of the leg. When Damian elbowed out of a chinlock, Hayme slammed him down on the back of head. He hooked the leg on that one. Go figure. They traded strikes- some wicked stiff chops in there. Damian reversed a European uppercut with a backslide. Hayme countered a spinning headscissors into a facebuster and dropkicked Damian. No hook-kick out. Hook-kick out. Hayme did the “what do I need to do?” expression. He suplexed Damian and went for springboard moonsault. Nobody home. Damian agonizingly pulled himself up by the ropes for a great comeback that had Hayme reeling. Damian went for the kill with the bicycle kick, but Hayme had it scouted and hit the Blue Thunder Bomb. Hayme climbed up top for the 450. Damian avoided it. Bicycle kick. Bullseye. 1-2-3.
Closing Thoughts: It appeared they were stretching to have enough content for this episode, but I thought they made effective use of what they had. Bell-to-bell action was down to a TNA-like 13 minutes and they used a lot of footage from the previous week. Unlike TNA, the main event was the only one that would have benefited from more time. Based on Reno’s opening comments, the “luck of the draw” gimmick to determine title challengers has been quietly dropped. On the footage we didn’t see last week, I liked the lights out mystery as yet one more way for Boogie and Andrews to be left laying, but good lord, I’ve never seen a top babyface carried out as many times as Boogie. Sigmon is a talented addition to the SAW roster. No idea why the “C.M.” was added to his name this week. I think that one is taken. Sigmon is out of the Knoxville and the current champion for EWP. Haskins is OK as the green but scrappy babyface working his way up from the very bottom. He doesn’t have a wrestlers build, but I like him better than Colin Delaney. Haskins shows no natural star qualities at this stage, but it’s way too early to tell. So much has to come from burning desire. The A Team has a bizarre chemistry that works. The ringside interrogation was funny stuff. A clarification on the blood in the angle with Jamison last week: there was blood and somehow the cameras missed it. The clip of Malone on the dark street was great. Brief as it was, it really got across the strange, chilling nature of the character. The slow unfolding of the Malone story has been really well done. The viewers learned two new pieces of info - the identity of Malone’s manager and what it is that he sticks in his victim’s hand – left unexplained in his debut. If SAW looking for a monster to replace Raige, Carnage has the credentials. He’s not ripped like he was in HWA but a huge guy for sure. No telling heel or face leanings. Carnage was all business. The few moves he did looked impressive. Nice work by the SAW production department on the Hayme vs. Damian preview video. I should mention that the video quality of the entire show is beautiful these days, and I didn’t notice any of obvious gaffes with the graphics and such this week. Anyway, they did this fancy preview and gave the match only five minutes. True, they had no personal issue but in a perfect world, 7or 8 would have been nice because those guys can go. It was a totally solid back and forth match that told a good story -Hayme was unable to connect with his big aerial moves, and Adams was able to take everything else Hayme had. Damian’s first true test produced his best title match thus far. But the big one with McCoy is waiting in the wings. Damian hits that bicycle kick right on the button every single time.
