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As expected, O’Reilly’s match versus rising star Fred Yehi produced the best match of the night. Richards had an OK match with Tommy Daniels. This was a make good, as they were scheduled for the first round of the Platinum Classic tournament on March 23 but the match was canceled due to Richards’ being held up in traffic.
As per usual, there was a whole lot going on. The major theme was the struggle for control between the evil EMPIRE and the PCW forces led by ousted owner Stephen Platinum. It was good show until the end, which was a wacky, overbooked mess. The idea seems to be that EMPIRE is subject to attack when they least expect it, and chinks are developing in their armor. But the scattershot tendencies in the storytelling are disturbing.
Attendance was a full house of 60 for the first show back at the regular 8pm starting time. The live commentary team was Shane Mackey and Chuck Porterfield.
Crown Jewel Records (minus Quasi Mandisco) entered the ring to open the show. O-Dub shot off his mouth leading to…
(1) Pandora defeated Nina Monet (with Marko Polo & O-Dub) in 3:25. Monet is improving by leaps and bounds to where it’s no problem for a pro like Pandora to get a decent match out of her. Worthy nailed Pandora with a cheap shot before the bell. Monet hit a nice X Factor for a quick near fall. But the advantage was short lived. Pandora got the pin with hanging DDT.
O-Dub pawned off the loss as their way of giving back to the community. He said Crown Jewel still winners and it’s still our night. This led to…
(2) Dany Only (with Casey Kincaid & Joseph Kidman) defeated Marko Polo (with O Dub) in 9:55. Only broke out the arm drags and they weren’t bad at all for a guy that never uses them. Only, who was doing a number on Polo’s arm until O-Dub tripped him up. Polo capitalized with a divorce court and returned the favor on Only’s arm. Only had Polo pinned so O-Dub jumped on the apron to distract. Kidman grabbed O-Dub. Only ordered Kidman to leave O-Dub alone. Time stood still while Polo turned his back on Only to admonish Kidman. How dumb can you be? Only proceed to take Polo’s head off with the lariat. This was a decent match. Only doesn’t have bad matches these days. Polo is improving but it’s slow going because he’s not a natural wrestler.
O Dub said he was taking matters into his own hands and issued an open challenge. Jagged Edge came out. O-Dub said they were the best of friends, like Fred and Barnie or Cagney and Lacey. Jagged Edge said they were more like Rihanna and Chris Brown, Ike and Tina Turner or Travon and Zimmerman.
(3) Jagged Edge defeated O-Dub in 29 seconds with a piledriver. Polo carried O-Dub out on his shoulders. Up til now, I haven’t been a big O-Dub fan, but he was pretty entertaining during this entire escapade.
“Overlord of the EMPIRE” Jeff G. Bailey joined Jagged Edge in the ring. Bailey said EMPIRE provided transport for the ROH stars to ensure there would be no problems like last time. He said Marty Freeman was still laid up from the attack two weeks ago. Bailey laid the blame on Platinum, Pandora and PCW Champion Mason and said they were conspiring to get their hands on the other members of the EMPIRE management team. Bailey said Mason was not in the building because he wasn’t welcome. He concluded by putting Jagged Edge over as everybody’s conquering hero.
(4) Najasism vs. Supernatural was ruled as a double count at 10:12. Booking the two smallest guys in EMPIRE/PCW against each in a competitive match other was a great idea on paper. The problem is that the charisma, athletic ability, physique and conditioning of the heel far surpassed the babyface. That’s not intended as a knock on Supernatural. Naja is in the zone. Pound-for-pound, he is the best wrestler in the company at the moment. Naja got a rare chance to play power guy, then it was back and forth. Supernatural did a ropes walk huracanrana, but Naja kicked out of his delayed one armed cover. The action spilled to ringside where Supernatural used the ringpost to execute Sliced Bread #2. Supernatural crashed and burned on a frogsplash off the apron. The battle continued until referee Chevere was forced to count them out.
Afterward, Naja gave Supernatural a version of Eat Da Feet after the bell, then lost his damn mind, demanding that his music be played and ordering me to type about him. Supernatural recovered and they battled to the back.
(5) Team EMPIRE (Jacob Ashworth & Masta Jae & Sylar Cross with Jonathan Malik & Mr. Eric & Eric Walker) defeated Washington Bullets (Trey & Jon Williams) & De La Vega in 11 minutes. Malik introduced Ashworth as “The Nihilist”. The babys did ring clearing deal capped off by a triple dropkick that knocked Jae into the front row. The technicos isolated Jae. EMPIRE beat Trey up on the outside to turn the momentum. I like Walker more as a manager type than a wrestler. Jae mocked Trey with a low rent version of the Captain Morgan kick. Ashworth was killing Trey with elbow drops but went for one too many. The match broke down big time after the hot tag. When the smoke cleared, Ashworth (not the legal man) had pinned De La Vega with Ashes to Ashes. Seems like every show lately, there’s a tag match with a wrong guy in the ring at the end.
(6) Contras (Tempest & Battlezone) vs. We Are 3 (Brian Blaze & Geter) was ruled a no contest. We Are 3 attacked Contras during their promo and Duke Korey threw the match out. Contras were too beaten up to do mic work, which got the point across about their state of mind. Thus, the only undefeated teams in the Tag Team Season remain undefeated.
(7) Fred Yehi defeated Kyle O’Reilly via submission in 16:35. O’Reilly made a big production out of taking his sunglasses off and putting them on referee Duke Korey. Porterfield said he hadn’t seen that much baby oil since Foxy Lady Lounge. Richards came out to watch as did Yehi’s DamNation teammates. O’Reilly really made Yehi shine in the early going, not that Yehi needs any help in that respect. Yehi is lightning quick and his natural instincts are phenomenal. He wasn’t a college wrestler for nothing. O’Reilly finally got untracked with a jumping knee at the 6:30 mark. O’Reilly used a sweet combo finishing with a sweep kick for a near fall. On the comeback, Yehi got big near falls with a Russian leg sweep and an overhead belly to belly suplex. O’Reilly answered with a northern lights variation and a cradle back suplex. O’Reilly taunted Yehi. They traded big shots. Both went down after a trio of simultaneous big boots connected. The crowd started chanting like crazy for Yehi. The finish saw O’Reilly go for the kill with a lariat, but Yehi ducked, and hit a downward spiral right into the Koji Clutch. It was a great finish to a really good match, although not on the level of Yehi’s match vs. Corey Hollis at the Masquerade.
(8) Simon Sermon pinned Darren Dean with a roll up in 4:21. Dean replaced Tony Kozina, who said to be too ill to make the trip. He’s a competent wrestler but very vanilla, so it wasn’t nearly as entertaining as Kozina vs. Sermon promised to be. The big pop was for Sermon laying a lingering kiss on Team All You Can Eat member Corey.
EMPIRE Champion Shane Marx attacked Sermon after the match. Miss Rachael said Marx held the PCW title for over a year and would hold the EMPIRE Championship at least double that long. Dean and Sermon played a little ping pong with the champion. Sermon said he was going to be the reason that the EMPIRE crumbled and issued a challenge to Marx. Sermon said Marx had all the attributes of the worst gay men he had ever known. Marx didn’t see Kincaid sneaking up behind him. Kincaid started stabbing Marx with a fork and they brawled on the floor like animals. The stuff between Marx and Kincaid was super intense for sure, but it marginalized Sermon as a title challenger.
(9) Davey Richards defeated Tommy Daniels in 13:40. Richards put on a clinic at Daniels’ expense. Daniels absorbed a ton of wicked kicks. Daniels couldn’t hang with Richards in the striking exchanges. His stuff looked weak. Richards cut off Daniels’ big spurt of offense with a leaping double stomp. That got a “wolf” chant. Richards got the cross armbreaker but Daniels made the ropes. Daniels hit a german suplex with a bridge but Richards reversed into a Kimura. Richards withstood Daniels’ NYC (high angle crab) and the TD Driver (fisherman suplex) and applied one of the sickest ankle lock ever. He had Daniels contorted so his foot was almost touching the back of his head. spit in face kick in the head. Daniels spit in Richards’ face and Richards put his lights out with a stiff roundhouse kick to the temple.
Richards put Daniels over for taking all that punishment. He said maybe it was a blessing they didn’t wrestle the last time. Richards offered a handshake. Daniels slapped it away and told Richards he had no idea what he had been going through with these moron fans and Stephen Platinum.
Daniels was interrupted by Contras’ entrance music. Suffice to say they cut another uproariously funny promo. Richards sat down on the bottom rope as if he wasn’t sure what to make of it. They Contras exited and out marched Bailey. He said the Contras were trying to make pro wrestling look foolish and apologized to Richards. Damn right. It was no way to treat a world class star. Bailey called Platinum out. He got the Witness instead. Witness was originally limited to seconding Mason, but he’s been wrestling more of late. Witness put Bailey in Mason’s feared submission hold. Bailey collapsed to the mat. EMPIRE member Lee Roy hit the ring. Witness planted Lee Roy with a choke bomb, straightened his tie, and walked out right past five members or the EMPIRE, who were out to rescue Lee Roy. Evidently they were too stunned to stop him.
If the fans weren’t gulping down their EMPIRE/PCW Koolaid, this was potentially disastrous way to end the show. The feared EMPIRE came across like such buffoons that it's tough to take them seriously. How does a low level PCW guy even touch, much less lay out the mastermind of the EMPIRE, and nobody lays a hand on him? And why diminish an appearance by a world class star by having him as background for a comedy segment? That said, the first half was mostly positives, more than enough to outweigh the hugely negative ending.
NOTES: Platinum came out to plug the PCW events in Porterdale, GA on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month. Platinum mentioned that Sergeant Shellshock, a journeyman wrestler from back in the day was in attendance…Najasism made his NWA Anarchy this weekend.
