PWInsiderXTRA - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

WORLD-1 SOUTH THIRD ANNUAL 'OLD SCHOOL' TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT LIVE REPORT

World-1 South ran their 3rd annual Old School Tag Team Tournament at Buck’s Place in Ellaville, Georgia Saturday night.

The Rock & Roll Express won the tournament in a shockingly sudden and premature ending to what started out as fun night of wrestling. It was weird to say the least. Promoter Jody Peterman is no stranger to strange twists of fate on his wrestling shows. At this point, a superstitious person might think the man was cursed as a promoter.

Buck’s has the makings of a great place for wrestling. The wrestling takes place in a room adjacent to the bar. It has bleacher seating only, but it’s an extremely intimate setup. The bleachers are just afew feet from the ring on two sides and there are no ring barricades. The ceiling is plenty high enough. They need to paint the walls black, and the lighting could be improved upon.

The crowd of 200 was really into it. None of the World-1 shows in Valdosta ever had this kind of heat. The crowd never let up for more than a couple of minutes all night. They crammed 385 into this place a while back, and boy, would I have loved to have been at that show. Place must have been crazy.

(1) New Heavenly Bodies (Vito DeNucci & Chris Nelson) beat Lifeguards (Wade Koverly & Darron Smythe) in 7:05 to advance to the semifinals . Some hilarious interaction between the Bodies and the fans here. DeNucci put them over as former three time NWA World Tag Team Champions. Match was pure comedy. Nelson took funny bumps and DeNucci avoided taking his tag. Nelson then “accidentally” gave DeNucci three consecutive elbow drops prompting DeNucci to ask him which team he was on. Smythe took the heat. Bodies did a great job feeding and bumping for Koverly. It broke down to an awkward four-way. Nelson pinned Koverly after a superkick by DeNucci.

(2) Scott Davis & Nick Fame beat Dark City Fist Club (Kory Chavis & Jon Davis) via DQ in 13:50 to advance to the semifinals. DCFC make a hell of a team. They came out looking all badass. Crowd responded well to Fame in the role of the fiery but undersized young babyface. The face team mostly worked over the arm of Chavis early. DCFC exploded on Fame with a powerslam/frogsplash elbow combo and Davis had to make the save. The segment of the match with DCFC getting heat on Fame provided the best wrestling action of the night. Chavis busted out the Dark City Bomb for a near fall. A Fame enzuigiri connected. Both men down. Both men tagging. Scott with fists of fire before it broke down to another awkward four-way. A Hart Attack style bulldog was a complete disaster. Fame covered Chavis, but Jon clobbered both of the faces with chairshots. Fans loved the chairshots and quickly forgot about the screwed up finisher.

DCFC left the babyfaces laying with major league combo moves. Fame was selling his neck huge after taking an elevated neckbreaker/powerbomb combo.

(3) Heartbreak Express (Sean & Phil Davis) beat The Loggers (Dagon Briggs & Jack Manley) in 8:54 to advance to the semifinals. Sean was getting mega heat from the kids in the crowd. The Loggers gimmick is just what you would figure – scruffy looking guys in ratty work vests with a cooler and a chainsaw, and it worked great with these fans, This was a solid match. Loggers are one smooth working team. Heartbreak were their usual entertaining selves. They did a spot where Loggers rocked Sean with a series of double teams and yelled “Timber!” to cue up the bump. Manley played face in peril. Sean nailed him with a whale-like elbow drop. Briggs cleaned house with a flying butt attack and hit a Butt Bomb on Phil. Manley hit a plancha on Sean. Phil and Briggs collided midring, and as Phil was about to collapse, Sean shoved him on top of Briggs for the pin.

(4) Rock ‘n Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) beat Double Deuce (Francisco Ciatso & Pete Cannon with “The Hardcore Giant” Ron Niemi) in 5:27. The memorable thing about this match was Ciatso with his selling and facial expressions. Ciatso sold the R ‘n R’s signature rolling hamstring snap bouncing around the ring like his ass was on fire. Cannon is a huge guy and not all that mobile. He ate a stiff kneelift from Gibson, then ate an elbow drop from his partner. When Deuce went to the ropes to confer with Niemi, Morton and Gibson pinned them with stereo roll ups. Deuce did a group hug after the match.

Throughout the opening round matches, ring announcer Dan Masters mentioned that there would be a battle royal involving all the losing teams later in the show. It never happened.

(5) J-Rod defeated World-1 South Heavyweight Champion Jake Slater via DQ in 11:23 with Slater retaining the title. J-Rod is way over in Ellaville. Great choice for top babyface. Slater is another story. There’s something that’s just wrong about fans chanting “greaseball” at your heavyweight champion. Hate would be great, but this felt like total lack of respect. At one point, Slater high-tailed it out of the building, and J-Rod kicked his ass the way back to the ring. Less than a minute into the heat, Slater gave J-Rod a piledriver and pulled him up at the count of two. Huh? J-Rod posted his own shoulder on a spear attempt, and Slater went to work on it. Ref bump. Slater pulled out a chain. Swing and a miss. J-Rod gave Slater an atomic drop, pounded his head into the turnbuckle 10 times, and went for a back suplex. In midair, Slater clocked J-Rod with the chain. The ref revived to make the three count. Fans were livid. As Slater was attempting to exit the ring, the ref caught him with the chain for the DQ. J-Rod popped the crowd with a postmatch TKO on Slater. J-Rod asked for a no DQ rematch.

(6) New Heavenly Bodies beat Scott Davis & Nick Fame in 6:59 to advance to the tournament final. The babyface team took control. Nick was selling his neck but telling Scott he had it. That was the kiss of death. Vito dropped Fame on his neck. They carried over the story from the opening round by working over Fame’s neck. Fame was pinned after another Vito superkick. This finish looked a lot better. Fame sold it like a serious injury, and there were a lot of believers in this crowd.

(7) Rock ‘n Roll Express beat Heartbreak Express in 11:29 to advance to the tournament final. This was the entertainment highlight of the evening. This was the second show I’ve attended lately where kids that couldn’t have a clue about the R ‘n R Express were chanting for them like crazy. Ricky said the one thing Sean couldn’t do was wait for supper. Sean took an awesome bump for a right hand from Ricky. Heartbreak teased a break up but decided to hug it out. Then Robert knocked their heads together. Ricky broke out his Adrian Street imitation on Sean. “I’m too much man for him,” said Sean. The finish played off the Heartbreak’s dissension and the thread of misplaced heel elbow drops. Phil elbowed Sean and got pinned by Robert. The Bodies immediately attacked Morton and Gibson leading to…

(8) The Rock ‘n Roll Express beat New Heavenly Bodies in around 30 seconds to win the tournament. I don’t think the bell ever rang to start the match. Express hit the double dropkick on Nelson and pinned him. Fans cheered but were clearly caught by surprise. Hardly the climactic victory pop one would hope for.

Everyone was expecting the battle royal and then the main, and in a blink of an eye, the show was over. Morton thanked the fans and that was it. The second half of the show lasted no more than 25 minutes. I’m not a fan of battle royals, much less meaningless second chance types, but the way this show was moving along, (done by 10:15) it wouldn’t have been a problem.

The show was rumored to end the way it did, because the Rock ‘n Roll Express were unhappy with their payoff for working three matches and/or thought the show was running late.

NOTES: Southside Trash canceled day of show without explanation…Jody Peterman dropped the American Wrestling Association designation after WWE was successful in suing Dale Gagne for trademark infringement…Gagne has since changed the name of his organization to Wrestling Superstars Live. However, the WSL website still states “sanctioned by the AWA.”