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Alternative Pro Wrestling ran their quarterly supercard, “Spring Break Bash†in Royston, Georgia at the Cherry Street Gym Friday night.
90 in attendance – less than APW has done for their supercards over the past year. All of those shows featured defenses of the main singles title, the Southern States Championship. This show had a triple main event of tag matches with the tag titles on top, but no individual match that seemed as compelling. Crowd heat was not a problem because by its nature, the Cherry Street Gym is a very loud building.
It was pleasure to attend a show of this type that didn’t fall into the trap of over reaching. The pacing was just right with matches properly placed on the card. It was built on solid booking rather than hot shot gimmickry. They got the whole thing done in two hours.
The APW roster has about a half dozen NWA Anarchy regulars and a lot of guys that are trying to get to that level. The temptation is to allow guys that aren’t sufficiently seasoned to be overexposed in matches that go too long. That didn’t happen here.
(1) Kevin Duncan Enterprises (Saint Anthony & Brandon Parker with Kevin Duncan) won the Kevin Duncan Invitational Tag Team Gauntlet. (a) Dreadlock & Kelly Casanova beat Chase Richards & Brandon Paradise in 2:30 when Casanova pinned Richards. (b) Friday Night Franchise (Ryan Michaels & Matt Sells) eliminated Dreadlock & Kelly Casanova in 2:10 when Michaels pinned Casanova. As for the first two matches, it’s like Baron Von Raschke used to say. That is all you need to know. (c) FNF beat Fabulous Superstars (Matt Mercer & Aaron Lee) in 4:20. Things got interesting. Heel subterfuge set up Superstars doing a number on Michaels’ knee. Mercer has a touch of the old school flamboyant personality. Crowd got hot for Michaels. He caught Lee with an inside cradle for the three. Superstars gave Michaels a postmatch beating. (d) Duncan Enterprises saved the choice spot for themselves. They DESTROYED the knee of Michaels, then beat on Sells. Michaels took the hot tag and cleaned house with the leg as good as new. Duncan distracted Byers. Henry chop blocked the knee and Parker pinned Michaels in 3:45. Michaels was back to selling like a cripple. Nothing remarkable about the in-ring. Match worked on the strength of solid, logical booking.
(2) Jacob Ashworth beat Mike Posey in 6 minutes. A grudge match of sorts between two former referees. Posey is back as a wrestlers after falling victim of the numbers game among WWE refs. At a chiseled 160 pounds, Posey as a heel is a tough sell. No doubt the guy is athlete with ability. I see him as a high flying lucha type - more along the lines of Evan Borne. Ashworth was too big to ref. Of late, he’s been serving as the commissioner of APW. Ashworth knocked Posey on his ass for an early pop. Posey tried to show how bad he was by outwrestling Ashworth. Didn’t work out quite the way he hoped, so he snapped Ashworth’s neck off the top rope and hit a springboard missile dropkick to take over. Nice mean face by Ashworth as he worked up to reversing Posey’s abdominal stretch. Not the hold for a small guy to use on a big guy in any case, but this looked ridiculous because Ashworth forgot to sell it. Posey decked Ashworth with an enzuigiri and introduced a chair. The chair shot missed Ashworth and smacked Posey in the head as it rebounded off the ropes. It’s tough to make that finish look believable and it didn’t. I can’t think of too many places where Ashworth as the baby and Posey as the heel would work, but it did in Royston.
(3) Jeremy Vain (with Taco Delgado) beat Donovan Sweet (with Lollipop) in a Loser Leaves Town Match (12 minutes). Vain made an unsuccessful attempt to rid APW of Sweet by stuffing him in the trunk of Taco’s car and ordering his flunky to drive him to Mexico. Sweet and Lollipop owe a ton to Adrian Street and Miss Linda. Sweet lead an early goodbye chant for Vain. Taco got involved and ended up doggie styling Vain. It’s a spot I can usually live without, but this was funny. Sweet gave Vain the purple nurple treatment. The heat was mostly strikes to the head of Sweet. There was a bizarre “USA chant†here. Vain teased evil doings on Lollipop. Sweet was bleeding from the nose after getting potatoed. Vain hit the VKO for a near fall. Sweet hulked up or something like it. He splashed Vain for a close near fall and appealed to ref Dee Byers and Vain capitalized with a jawbreaker. Vain climbed the ropes but Sweet brought him off with a power slam. Sweet hit the Candy Drop (splits stunner) for a visual fall, as Delgado distracted Byers. Lollipop pulled Taco off the apron for a big pop. Byers finally started the count and Vain kicked out. Sweet checked in with Lollipop, and was that ever a dumb thing to do. Vain DDTed him for the pin. Fans gave Sweet a decent send off. Something tells me he will be back. Sweet’s gimmick is gold. If he can just add more polish to his ringwork.
(4) Slim J & Shadow Jackson & Don Matthews beat Southern States Champion “King†Seth Delay & North Georgia Champion Dustin Knight & John Carnage (14:55). Stipulation was if either champion lost the fall, they had to give the winner a title shot next week. It made for an interesting story. Carnage was there to protect the champions from having to cough up a title shot, while the faces were torn between working together to win the match and going after a title shot as individuals. Jackson edged out the other two top babyfaces in APW for the biggest pop. A section of ringside fans were wearing the Burger King hats to mock Delay. J opened with the best wrestling of the show. No surprise there. Jackson tagged himself in and punished Knight, who is a small guy with no meat on his bones whatsoever. Jackson mixed metaphors with Jimmy Snuka chops and a middle rope tomahawk chop. When Carnage tagged in, fans instantly chanted for Matthews. They’re the two biggest guys in APW and they’ve had a long running feud. Carnage went at it with Jackson. His punches need work. After an ass buster of a missed legdrop by Carnage, Matthews tagged in. They brawled and it was not a pretty sight. Matthews ran wild with Knight taking serious abuse. J made an uninvited tag and continued to pick on Knight. Knight ducked a roundhouse kick and hit a neckbreaker to start the heat. J was great as the babyface-in-peril. Off the hot tag, Jackson superkicked Knight, but Carnage smoked him with a monster choke bomb (just like his daddy Stone Mountain). Delay followed with a knuck shot, but Jackson managed to tag J as he fell. J hit the 360 Ace crusher on Delay. Carnage went to choke bomb J, but Matthew broke it up and hit a BKF off the top on Carnage. That looked pretty great. J pinned Delay with a diving DDT. The finish was messed up but the crowd was fine with it.
As a result, J challenges Delay for the Southern States Title on May 8.
(5) Devil’s Rejects (Azrael & Skirra Corvus) beat Chris King & Mystery Partner Billy Buck in 7:41. Nice pop for Buck, who has been away for about 5 months. There’s something not quite right about seeing Rejects without the Reverend. The reunited Wild Bunch opened hot with double teams. Azael tripped up King and the heat was on. King was screaming during Azrael’s choke hold. I guess it’s a nerve hold. Corvus hit a springboard splash. Crowd really got behind King, who escaped a backdrop for a nice diving hot tag. The advantage was short lived. Corvus pinned Buck after a double team curbstomp. If the idea was to get Rejects over as a formidable heel team, this was the right way to do it.
(6) Kareem Abdul Jamar & Bo Newsome beat Dany Only & Stryknyn) to win the APW Tag Team Titles in 10:55. All four of these guys are showing marked improvement. Only comes out in a skull mask. Stryknyn wears a gas mask into the ring. Kareem wears an orange Harlem Crush jersey. Newsome failed to wear the gear Jamar had chosen for him. Only used a cheap shot on the break. The faces made him pay with a splash combo. Jamar pumphandled Stryknyn and kicked him the ass. Only shrugged off a dropkick to start the heat on Newsome. They worked a series of well-executed spots with Newsome fighting for the tag and being cut off. Only used a Muta power drive elbow. Only locked in a sharpshooter and Newsome got a ropes break. Strkynyn hit a sweet release german suplex. The hot tag lead to a double team on Stryknyn and a save by Only. Only hit a reverse tombstone on Jamar, but Byers ruled he was not the legal man. Stryknyn covered and Jamar kicked out. Jamar went for a tag that inadvertently knocked Newsome off the apron. Jamar leapfrogged Stryknyn and the heels collided. Jamar hit an X factor on Stryknyn and Newsome followed with a frogsplash for the pin. Good match. Strong finish.
NOTES: Jamar was invited to the FIP show tonight in Crystal River, Florida… There’s a flier out for in show in nearby Toccoa at the National Guard Armory on May 16 advertising Sid Vicious AND Steiner Brothers AND Buff Bagwell along with Ricky Morton vs. Bobby Eaton put on by Main Event Championship Wrestling…Michael Gentry has replaced Brett Wolverton as the ring announcer here.
