----In a spare of the moment kind of thing, I ended up in Jonesboro, AR at RWA arena being told there might be some breaking news. Not much news came out of the show, but in attendance was Ken Wayne and his wife Debbie. RWA owner Frank Martin treated us to a show. Martin seems to want this group in Jonesboro to succeed and he puts in a lot of hard work. The building was actually built for Bert Prentice in 1995 for wrestling, but Martin told me it was a big garage when he got it and they have slowly turned it into a wrestling arena. He has added some theater chairs that are comfortable as hell. I wish all the arenas had them. It has a good wrestling feel. They have an excellent sound and light system. Some good talent also. But…does this all add up to a good show?? Well…
----Frank Martin started the show introducing Brian Tramel [who is that?? Thanks bro] and Ken Wayne to the crowd. He went over who was going to be there for the night and crowd seems to be “warm” to him.
----Lucky beat Lethal in the “Battle of the Leprechauns” using the ropes. PP3 was special ref and meant nothing to the match. Crowd was real hot. Match wasn’t much. Both guys have worked forever, but seem to be green?? [No pun intended – get it – Leprechauns..LOL]. [*] for the crowd.
----Zane Richards with Classy Meltin Massy beat Soultrain Jones. Jones got a huge pop. Nothing much and a quick match. Zane started heat by raking Jones in the eye. Jones makes a comeback. Zane uses Massy’s golf club on Jones for the win. [1/2*]
----Rik Burton comes out dressed nice. He puts over the fact that he will be working Rodney Mack tonight for the belt. He gets over his catch phrase “Better Than You”. Good mic work.
----“Playa’z” [Pimptacular/Southside Brawler] beat “Asylum” [Psycho/Arnez] with Rottn Randy. The storyline is that Randy has become their manager – he has removed the hat and wearing a scrub top. Nothing much of a match. Pimp is still green, but tries very hard. Brawler is a bumping machine – taking a sweet bump over the top rope after a closeline and bumping on the ring apron. [old Lawler bump] Heat started with boot to Arnez. Arnez got a FLAT hot tag to Psycho. Brawler used a chain to pin Psycho for the win. [*1/2]
---- Blazing Star with Blazing Star Jr won by DQ over Tejano Kid. Star has a good suit and mask. Star is his son and looks to be about 3 or 4 years old – cute gimmick. My kids loved it. Kid worked his leg the whole match and then used a Mexico flag for the DQ. After the match Star challenged Tejano to a Hair vs Mask bout next week?? Didn’t they just start the feud?? This was one of the worse bouts I have seen this year. [DUD]
----Pokerface beat Mike Anthony. Not as good as I expected. The match was really built around the storyline of Anthony being “helped” by his partners “Playa’z”. Anthony has lots of potential. He still green, but looks like a wrestler. Anthony worked on Poker’s knee for the heat, but the crowd was so dead from the match before it – and they worked the knee the whole match also. Anthony kept going over getting advice from Brawler during the heat. When Anthony went for a figure four, Poker rolled him up for a pin. After the match Anthony turned and got jumped by Brawler/Pimp. Poker made the save. Crowd liked it. [**]
----Rodney Mack beat Rik Burton to retain the RWA Title. Burton is in better shape now than ever. Good solid match, but not as much following psychology as you would think. Mack didn’t give Burton enough heat. Mack hit Burton with some really nasty chops that busted his chest open. Mack hit Burton with a spear out of nowhere for the pin & win. [**]
NOTES
----There was probably about 70+ in the building. Martin mentioned there was something in town with horses. I got a bigger pop for Martin’s intro than I did the last time I was a manager. LOL It had NOTHING to do with me – it was that damn hot ass crowd…Massy did nothing special ringside. A much better look than “Loose Cannon” though…ST Jones has got a lot of raw talent. I believe he is a Mack trainee and comes off as a pure athlete…Guys were given scripts at the front of the show with some of the matches being fully scripted. Fire the script writer. LOL…Randy was not as bad as I remember – he did a decent job as a babyface manager. Babyface managing is not easy…Rodney Mack is not near the size he was when he was in the WWE, but still has decent size…Intermission after 3rd match and all the babies came out to sign autographs…I was told by more than one person that Star is a pretty good worker, but he hurt his knee before the matches. Apparently he will not be back until he is fully healed…Anthony did a mic spill before his match. Not bad on the mic…Crowd was chanting “pizza boy” and “pizza man” at Burton. Burton in his shoot job delivers pizza. This total kills his “Better than You” gimmick. It hurts when a promotion has to use local guys. [See Dusty Wolfe book]…Show started just a bit after 7:00 o’clock and was over right at 9:00 PM. I love that. As I always preach, I think a perfect time for weekly shows is the 2.5 hour mark…Not a real good show, but RWA has some good talent in Mack, Asylum [I have seen them have much better bouts], Burton [not sure as the top heel], Anthony, Jones [work in progress], Pokerface and Brawler – they could build around these and have a good show. The crowd was real hot until the Star bout killed it and they don’t have to have announcers putting over the product on a house mic…This group has talked about TV – they are not ready for that.
