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“Showdown†from Rampage Pro Wrestling was the promotion’s most ambitious show to date. Emanating from the Macon City Auditorium, it was RPW’s first event outside of their home base in Warner Robins and their first attempt at doing a major show.
The Auditorium is an awesome venue. It’s an old domed building located in downtown Macon. This was the place they used to pack for wrestling back in the day. A full house in this building must have been an incredible atmosphere. The crowd of 330 didn’t look like much in a building that seats well over 2000. Most fans opting for the more expensive ($14-20) floor seats. RPW has local TV and they ran ads on the network wrestling shows, so it had to be a disappointing turn out. I’m thinking Good Friday is a bad night to run.
The crowd had good energy. These were not casual fans. They were rabid supporters of the product familiar with all the wrestlers and storylines, so the heat was fine.
It was a solid show that delivered what the fans came to see, as the babyfaces won all of the key matches. The only major negative was the grueling second intermission to set up the cage for the main event.
There was a legends autograph session prior to the show. Tommy Rich, Glacier and Chick Donovan were at a table to the right of the stage. Assassin, Nick Patrick and Doug Somers were on the other side. At the conclusion, Nigel Sherrod introduced Rich, Donovan, Glacier and Doug Somers. They all said a few words. Somers said he was still active and warned the faces to stay on their side, if they wanted to stay healthy.
(1) RPW Intercontinental Champion A. J. Steele won a 14 man battle royal that lasted all of 4 minutes. The other participants were Mr. Jones, Romeo, JT Smooth, Slaughter Pit (Pitt Bull & Sam Slaughter) Cash Vault (Frankie Valentine & Kyle Matthews), Adryan Hawkins, Chris Jacobs, Chip Day, J-Rod, Ace Rockwell, Johnny Slaughter. Big pops for the introductions of J-Rod and Steele, who was really over as the hometown boy. They all worked together to immediately dump Jones, a downsized bargain basement version of Nelson Frazier. Guys were flying out fast and furious. Exotic Ones came out and distracted Slaughter Pit, who got dumped by Cash Vault. J-Rod skinned the cat and headscissored Rockwell (a heel here) over the top. Matthews eliminated Day. It came down to Steele, Valentine and Slaughter. Steele used a gorilla press to get rid of Valentine. Steele speared Slaughter and tossed him.
(2) Exotic Ones (Rick Michaels & Simon Sermon with Destro Xavier) beat Slaughter Pit (Pit Bull & Sam Slaughter) in 5:06. Exotics are billed from Midtown Atlanta to drive home the point (sorry) about their gayness. Xavier joined the club with his sparkly ruby red lips. Slaughter Pit are basic big guys with limited skills. Sermon did his Flair tribute bumps. Michaels took a flying crotch bump on the middle turnbuckle. Comedy stuff. Finish was bad. Sermon poked one of the Slaughter’s in the eye with a black glove. This wasn’t sold well at all. Xavier tried to pull the ropes down on the vision-impaired guy. That was botched. Sermon pinned the other guy using the tights.
(3) Kyle Matthews (with Charlie Cash) & Chip Day beat RPW Cruiserweight Champion J-Rod & Ace Rockwell in 9:13. A parejas increÃbles match based on the order of elimination in the battle royal. Cool. The story, and they got it across well, was the hatred between J-Rod and Rockwell. Day went all lucha on Rockwell. He tagged J-Rod. Rockwell shook the ropes to f*** up Day’s high risk manuever. Rockwell made a blind tag and beat the tar out of Day, paying particular attention to Day’s injured ribs. Crowd got behind Day, who is getting over well in RPW. Rockwell cut him with off with GTS style gutbuster for a near fall. Rockwell tagged J-Rod in. J-Rod was reluctant to do any damage to his injured buddy. Rockwell kneed J-Rod in the back and he was pinned by Matthews.
(4) Frankie Valentine (with Charlie Cash) beat Adryan Hawkins in 6:50. Valentine has a strong heel presence for such a small guy. Hawkins was not much over as a babyface. Crowd did like his Ricky Steamboat deep arm drags. Valentine was being dominated until he shamelessly raked the eyes. Valentine slowed things down. On the comeback, Hawkins hit his springboard back elbow, nipped up and played to the crowd, but they weren’t feeling him. He hit an X Factor for a near fall. Hawkins went for a flying bodypress, and Valentine rolled through with a handful of tights for a good false finish. Valentine won it with the face cracker type deal. Decent but not a lot of heat.
(5) RPW Intercontinental Champion A. J. Steele pinned Johnny Slaughter with the Steel City Bomb in a non-title match (6:04). Slaughter chopped block Steele’s knee and worked it over for most of the match. Slaughter used a single leg crab but Steele made the ropes. Steele hit a wind up side slam for a double down, got a couple of near falls on the comeback, and then hit his finisher. It’s a hell of a thing – Steele spirals his victim from a body slam position into a Black Hole Slam.
(6) Tracy Taylor beat Isis to retain The Hotties Title in 5:20. Isis is billed as 6-10. Whatever her true height, we’re talking legit freak show material. Problem is she’s built like Giant Gonzalez and works like Khali. Taylor struggled to cope with the huge size disadvantage. Taylor reversed a choke slam attempt with an armbar. Taylor snapped Isis’ throat off the top rope. Isis gave Taylor a big boot. A lariat landed on Taylor’s shoulder blade. Taylor used a high cross body to get Isis on the mat. Taylor then hit a running kick to the face and jackknifed her for the pin.
(7) S & S Express (Shawn Shultz & Sigmon) beat Evil Inc. (Colt Derringer & Rob Adonis) to win the held up RPW Tag Team Titles in 13:01. Given the way top of the card was structured, this match needed to come through with the best wrestling, and it did. S & S are over bigtime. S & S worked on the arm of Adonis using quick tags and the occasional double team. Adonis speared Shultz off the apron to start the heat. Evil Inc. dominated with pure power. Shultz hit a tornado DDT and made the tag. S & S briefly took over with double teams, but Derringer thwarted a double team with his 350 pound mass (one of stories in RPW is Derringer being pissed about not being allowed to compete as a cruiserweight) and laid Sigmon out with a spinning neckbreaker. Evil Inc. isolated Sigmon and destroyed him. They did the distraction deal with referee Koonce where he missed the babyface tag and then the heels switched without tagging, and the timing was spot on to make it believable. Derringer missed his ropes walk leg drop, and what an impact that was. Hot tag to Shultz with Derringer and Adonis taking flatback bumps for his offense. S & S knocked Derringer through the ropes with a double shoulder block. Sigmon leapfrogged Adonis, and S & S hit the double dropkick for the win. S & S celebrated like winning the title properly – like they meant something really important. Best match of the night. I really liked the way S & S used double teams to overcome the size difference, and Evil Inc. sold just right for them.
(8) Dr. Johnny Gayton beat Cru Jones in a Hair vs. Hair Match. The back story was Jones tried to get out of the match by claiming Gayton (an renowned eye surgeon) blinded him with Jones’ Hot Like Lava hot sauce. Commissioner Nick Patrick was the special ref. Evil Inc. came out with Jones. The man in the red mask came down the aisle. Jones said that was proof the masked man and Gayton were one and the same. As the masked man revealed himself to be Sigmon, Gayton sneak attacked Jones from the other side. bailed to safe haven with Evil Inc. Gayton waded in to all three of them. Gayton was getting his ass kicked until S & S Express ran out to even the odds. Ringside brawling ensued. Patrick never called for the bell. Derringer clocked Gayton with the razor. Jones shaved a couple of strips of Gayton’s hair while Patrick was busy on the outside. Kimberly threw something into the ring to Gayton –an ether rag apparently. Gayton sent Jones to la la land and covered him for the three.
The head shaving turned into quite a production. A barber’s chair was brought into the ring. Gayton wasn’t getting much done with the battery powered razor. A female barber came out. They ran an extension cord from the stage down the ring, and she sheared Jones like a sheep.
The intermission to set up the cage ran 50 minutes. For a show that was otherwise presented on a highly professional level, this was just pitiful.
(9) Micah Taylor beat Murder-One in a Steel Cage Match to win the RPW Heavyweight Title in 7:33. Rules were escape, pinfall or submission. I’m sure the cage fit the story, but for me there was something unsatisfying about seeing the best wrestler on the show (Taylor) booked in a match where he wasn’t going to do much wrestling. There were several loud chants for Micah. It was impressive how well the crowd hung there given the eternity it took to set up the cage. Taylor went for an early escape and suffered a Dark City style beating from M-1. They traded head shots into the cage with no blood being drawn. Taylor caught M-1 trying to climb out and hit a superplex. M[-1 kicked out his delayed over. They went back and forth blocking each other from crawling through the cage door. Taylor capped off a rally with a picture perfect moonsault for a near fall. M-1 hit The Ether (RKO) but Taylor kicked out. M-1 pulled out a belt. Taylor got control of it and delivered three wicked looking shots with the buckle, then climbed over the top. Unable to head Taylor off, M-1 tried for the door, but Taylor slammed it on his head and dropped to the floor. It needed to be something special after all that time and it wasn’t. The fans went home happy. Still, it felt anticlimactic compared to the two previous matches.
NOTES: “Showdown†was a videotaped by the RPW production crew as a three camera shoot with Sherrod and Patrick on commentary…Former RPW and GCW wrestler Kodiak, former RPW TV announcer Katie Mayo and the one and only Scrappy McGowan were all in attendance.
