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Michael St. John and Reno Riggins were at ringside to open the show. St. John announced that they were going to follow up on last week’s TV time limit draw between the SAW TV Champion, Damian Adams, and Kid Kash with a 20 minute time limit match in today’s main event. They talked about the $10,000 bounty that had been placed on the head of TJ Harley.
(1) TJ Harley beat Alex Sheppard in 3:12. There were Harley WANTED posters plastered on the ringposts. Harley hit his slingshot elbow for an early near fall. Sheppard ducked Harley’s Yakuza kick and caught him with a double thrust to the throat. Harley blocked a vertical suplex and came from left field with a forearm shot. Sheppard appeared to be knocked silly but was able to roll a shoulder. Finish saw Sheppard block a vertical suplex and go for a German suplex. Harley reversed with a standing switch and got the pin with a messed up rolling prawn.
Harley was interviewed by MSJ. He said 10K was a lot of money so he couldn’t blame any one for trying to collect the bounty. MSJ suggested Harley would have to be on the look out everywhere he went. “You’re not going to attack me, are you?” Harley asked MSJ. Wouldn’t you know it? Harley got jumped by a burly blonde guy in street clothes as he headed up the ramp. St. John recognized Harley’s attacker as wrestler Jay Phoenix. MSJ and Riggins got all excited about the fact that Phoenix was not part of the company. SAW BOD member Mike Sircy and the security force ushered Phoenix out of the building.
(2) Chase Stevens beat Sean Casey (with the Freak Squad) in 5:03. No Lexi Pillman in Casey’s corner this week. Very disappointing. Reno said Casey had the edge in a singles match, but St. John said his Achilles heel was too much focus on the freaks. Stevens blitzed Casey right out of the box. Casey took a time out with the freaks. Stevens pulled Casey onto the apron by his hair. Back inside, Stevens got a two count with a dropkick. Casey turned the tide with a swinging neckbreaker. They cut to numerous close ups of nameless brunette freak. Casey hit his middle rope diamond cutter for a near fall. But Stevens escaped from a middle rope elbow and launched a major rally. HUGE Stevens lariat for a near fall. Casey hit his superkick finisher, but took his time and then made a lazy back cover. Weird. Casey stopped to admonished nameless brunett freak for venturing too close to Stevens. Stevens hit a fisherman suplex for the win.
Stevens, a three-time NWA World Tag Team Champion, said he was in SAW for singles competition and the gold held by Damian Adams.
Miss Boogie was with Sircy in the SAW office. Sircy said the BOD and the SAW legal team had decided to deny her appeal of Dream Team’s firing. Sircy offered her an opportunity to bring in a new tag team to fulfill her commitments. Miss Boogie was evasive about her plans. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”
A buoyant Paul Adams and his A-Team were in the interview area with St. John. Adams tooted his own horn about SAW being a Boogie free zone. He ripped Miss Boogie’s looks. “She’s so ugly, she could look up a camel’s butt and scare the hump off his back.” Paul said Miss B was not going to kill his buzz because Dream Team were still stuck snaking toilets or working at the Jiffy Lube.
(3) The A-Team (Hammerjack & Matt Dillinger & Ric Santel with Paul Adams) beat Stomp (Shane Eden & Josh Crow) & Jeff Jamison in 4:40. Eden got the upper hand on his former partner, Hammerjack. “To say they parted amicably would be sugar coating it,” said Riggins. Eden did a cartwheel back elbow, but Santel was in to break up the pin at one. So much for the shine. Dillinger turned Crow inside out with a lariat. A-Team isolated Crow and beat him down. Hammerjack and Crow went down on a collision of lariats. Jamison took the hot tag. He shocked Santel with three near falls. Santel bailed. Jamison was building steam for a big dive when Dillinger cut him down with a clothesline. While TVA was taking care of Stomp, Santel pinned Jamison with the Santel Slam.
MSJ conducted a quick prematch interview asking Drew Haskins about the stress associated with being a rookie facing such tough competition. Haskins called it a baptism by fire.
(4) Chrisjen Hayme pinned Drew Haskins in 4:24. MSJ said Haskins was being thrown to the lions. Hayme hit a butterfly suplex for a two count and choked Haskins over the ropes. Hayme hooked the ropes to block an O’Connor Roll, and then converted Haskins’ flying crucifix into a modified Samoan Drop. Hayme lit Haskins up with chops. Haskins took an awesome bump after eating a back elbow. With Haskins’ head resting on the bottom turnbuckle, Hayme creamed him with a baseball slide dropkick for a near fall. Haskins escaped from the Blue Thunder Bomb. Things started to fall apart during Haskins’ comeback, but Hayme got back on track with a wicked German suplex. Hayme pulled Haskins up at two. Hayme wanted to end it with his springboard moonsault, but there was nobody home. Haskins finally got his near fall with an Oklahoma Roll. Hayme nailed the dreaded enzuigiri and put Haskins away for good with the springboard moonsault.
MSJ interviewed Hayme about his search for the Perfect 10. Hayme read an email allegedly from one of his secret admirers, Frisky from Georgia. He held up a photo of this hideously obese woman with gynormous boobs. Hayme ridiculed her. She said other than the hairy mole and the unsightly scar, she was just what Hayme was looking for.
St John informed all the perfect 10s out their in TV land that they could email Hayme at Perfect10@sawonline.tv.
(5) The SAW TV Title match between Damian Adams (c) and Kid Kash ended as a double count out at 14:37. Kash unleashed a vicious attack on the champion capped off with a barrage of leg kicks. They traded kicks. Damian rallied with a sunset flip and a pair of arm drags. Kash jetted to ringside. Damian pulled Kash back inside. Kash offered a handshake from his knees. Damian hesitated. Then hesitated some more. Damian grabbed Kash’s hand and kicked Kash in the stomach. Kash threw a tantrum. He grabbed the bell and got in the face of a ringside fan. A hot ringside brawl ensued. Kash tossed a chair at Damian, and MSJ said it was a judgment call by ref Kurt Herron to allow it to continue. Back inside, Kash was in command.
(Commercial break)
MSJ said it was a see-saw battle during the break. Kash kicked Damian inside the thigh. Kash gave Damian a major rope burn on the ear. Kash applied a surfboard. Reno said he couldn’t stand Kash, but the guy sold tickets. Kash applied a full nelson/body scissors combo. The announce team talked about the full nelson being a trademark hold of the great Dory Funk. Damian escaped the brainbuster and hit the bicycle kick, but Herron got knocked down in the process. Damian had Kash’s shoulder down for 3+ with no ref to count it. By the time Herron recovered enough to count, Kash was able to kick out. Kash resorted to a low blow. The action spilled to the outside with Kash administering the punishment, until both men were counted out.
Kash winged a chair at Damian. He shoved St. John and yelled about making Damian bleed. They cut to a close up of Damian’s bloody head. Kash dragged Damian into the ring and rubbed the blood on his face. Kash knocked down ref Jess Fields. Sircy was livid at ringside. Over and out.
Closing Thoughts: And now for something different - an SAW show where the emphasis was actually on the wrestling. There have been episodes of SAW that didn’t have even half this much in ring action, and few, if any, (with the exception of a couple of glitches that I’ll get to in a minute) had wrestling this good. The title bout, the longest match to air on SAW over the last 6 months, was a top-notch brawl. This was booking 101. Kash was pure evil. He wanted no part of a clean fight and went deep into his bag of dirty tricks. Despite all that, the champion scored the clean visual fall on the challenger. Unfortunately, the spot where the ref went down on the bicycle kick looked badly contrived. The blood, rarely used in SAW, took it to another level. Harley went over in a short but good match. I liked the “he doesn’t even work here” spin on Phoenix, a lot better than the fan out of the crowd. The wanted posters on the ringposts were hilarious. Stevens looked motivated again this week, as Casey’s paranoia progressed to new heights. It looked like Stevens ended up out of position on the superkick. Surely, Stevens was supposed to save himself with a foot over the ropes. It was completely illogical for Casey to make a lazy cover on his finisher. Then again, it’s completely illogical for Casey to be more concerned about his freaks than winning matches. A blind man could see where they’re going with Miss Boogie, not that it’s a bad thing at all. It’s way more satisfying for the fans to get something they want, even if it’s predictable, than to Russo them with an deadening swerve. The A-Team squash was fine. With the way he was protected, it looks like they have something in mind for Jamison. I feared the worst with Hayme vs. Haskins, but it was much better than expected. There was just the one brief segment where it got really shaky. I took it as a sign of Hayme’s improvement. The Hayme interview was some campy and brutally bad comedy - one of those times where I was embarrassed to be a wrestling fan.
