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The show drew 210 at the Civic Center with Jerry “The King†Lawler as the main attraction. That was coming off of a house of 250 for a Christmas weekend show with BG James.
Like the December event, it was an enjoyable show with a decidedly old school flavor. My sense is that GCW is on the right track. They’re bringing in names to spice things up, but the focus is the GCW wrestlers and storylines. The wrestling is good enough. They have a rising star in Bishop. It would help if they upgraded the talent that they're trying to advance into higher positions, and they need a babyface tag team. The mic work was strong, and there was just enough of it. Careful attention was paid to setting up the main event for next month in a way to make people care. It ran long (3 hours). That's hard to get around with the autograph lines for a star of that magnitude.
GCW Tag Team Champions The Moneymakers (Teddy Tutwiler & JP Magnum) opened the show with an inring promo. Tutwiler said hard luck times had come to Alabama. He rubbed it in about the Armstrongs losing “our†titles at the Christmas show. Tutwiler showed off a souvenir in the form of Bullet’s mask.
(1) Orion Bishop defeated Skirra Corvus in 9:51. An unusual technical match up between a skinny gothic scarecrow and a much larger powerhouse babyface in Bishop, who is strongly over in Pell City. It worked. After opening with back and forth chain wrestling, Corvus leapt to the top rope for a flip neck snap for a one count. Corvus applied the bat pose submission. Bishop came back with a Texas Cloverleaf, and Corvus scrambled for the ropes. Corvus took control. Bishop answered with a wind up uranage but Corvus made him miss with the Vader Bomb. Corvus tired to cut off Bishop’s air supply. Bishop countered with a back suplex for a near fall. Corvus showcased his freaky double joint flexibility with a matrix move, causing Bishop to spill through the ropes. Corvus hit a crushing DDT on the apron. Back and forth near falls built to a Bishop superplex that left both men down. Corvus caught Bishop with an RKO. Corvus then hit a frogsplash, where he  sold the impact before covering, and Bishop kicked out at 2 and 7/8. When Corvus went aerial once too often, Bishop ducked out of the way and speared him for the three count. An impressive debut for Corvus. Bishop sold a ton for him which was fine. The key thing was Bishop hitting his finisher solidly for a decisive win. Bishop is looking better than ever, both physically and wrestling wise. He’s had two excellent matches in a row in Pell City, doing two vastly different styles.
(2) Chief Thunderhorse beat Muddbone via DQ at 8:42 when Moneymakers interfered. Klunky match. Muddbone is a mystical character with skull face paint ala Papa Shango, except a lot smaller than Charles Wriight. It was enough to spook some of the kids. Chief’s high impact offense had Muddbone reeling. Chief chugged across the ring and ate a boot. Chief can run but it takes him a few steps to build up steam. Muddbone hit a stiff lariat that must have sucked for Chief. Chief’ rallied and got in a tomahawk chop before being cut off. Muddbone hit a spinebuster slam for a big near fall. He tried to choke the Chief out. Chief made the chopping comeback and hit a front power slam. Moneymakers attacked him for the DQ. Nasty Kritter made the save.
Kritter challenged Moneymakers to a hair vs. titles match for the return date of February 27. The champions accepted on the spot.
Long intermission for autographs with Lawler.
(3) Human Dynamo beat “Wildthing†Will Owens in 12:18. This was an unadvertised bonus match. Owens did some great prematch mic work. Owens said he was on fire and undefeated in 2010 – “Me no get beat†– and he intended to keep it that way against anybody in the back including Jerry Lawler. It led to a hilariously heated argument with a feisty old geezer at ringside. The guy was giving Owens hell and refused to shut up. “If you’re high blood pressure don’t get you, I will…will you please get me an opponent before I jump out and kick the mess out of this man?†Dynamo was raring to go and jumped out on top. After the usual false claims of hair pulling and the like, Owens locked in a textbook side headlock (cheating as needed). Dynamo eventually reversed it, and you had the unfortunate situation where the heel’s headlock looked considerably better that the babyface’s. Dynamo is a cruiserweight with a great physique, but his offense looks stiff and mechanical. Owens used the mask to dump Dynamo on the back of his head and started to wear the GCW superhero down. Dynamo fought back with a spinning neckbreaker for a near fall, then a missile shoulder block. Owens regained control and appeared to have the match well in hand, when Tornado caught him with an inside cradle and referee David West made a lightning fast three count. The finish got a big pop. Crowd was razzing Owens bigtime. An entertaining match owing to the presence of Owens.
(4) Brad Armstrong beat Johnny Swinger in 10:34. Nice pop for Armstrong, and the people didn’t like Swinger at all. So far so good. As expected, both men were in great shape. Swinger got the upper hand in the test of strength. Armstrong regained his vertical base and began working on Swinger’s shoulder. Swinger went to the sneaky shortcuts. Armstrong got fed up and threw Swinger down by the hair. Swinger clocked Armstrong on the break. Swinger gave Armstrong’s head repeat bashings into the turnbuckles, clamped on a nerve hold and choked using his wrist tape. Crowd chanted for Armstrong. He jacked Swinger’s jaw and got two with a standing dropkick. Armstrong ate a boot on a telegraphed backdrop. Swinger covered for a long two count. Swinger got in the face of referee Rob Russo. Russo shoved Swinger and Armstrong rolled him up. Good story. Justice was done.
Dennis Condrey ran down the aisle but hit the breaks, because Armstrong was ready for him (Condrey had interfered in Armstrong’s match the night before in Graysville). Condrey claimed he wasn’t intending to attack Armstrong. Condrey said he had beaten the entire Armstrong family. He had beaten up Brad, but had never beaten him in match, so he wanted him the next time in Pell City. Armstrong said Condrey had been running from him for years. He accepted the match on the condition that there would be lumberjacks at ringside. Condrey asked how many. Armstrong said ten. Condrey said no problem.
(5) Moneymakers (Theodore Tutwiler & JP Magnum with Howard Cross) beat Chrisjen Hayme & Inhuman Fly to retain the GCW Tag Team Championship when Tutwiler pin Fly at 11:47. Tutwiler is an flabby, pasty looking guy, who looks more like a lawyer than a wrestler, but it fits his gimmick as an upper crust snob from Charleston. Match opened with four way action. The heels collided and bailed out to set the tone for the babyface shine. The highlight was a tight exchange between Magnum and Hayme. Magnum turned the match around with a spinebuster. Moneymakers got heat on Hayme for several minutes. After connecting with a missile dropkick, Hayme made the tag. Fly is a bundle of energy and very popular with the fans, but this was weak. Fly’s dropkicks were completely missing. A four way round robin of big moves got things back on track. All four down. Hayme did a plancha to the floor that took out Magnum and Cross. Fly went for a flying bodypress and  Tutwiler rolled through for the pin. May have used tights but I couldn’t tell from my vantage point. Match was OK. More than anything, it left me wanting to see Magnum and Hayme in a singles match.
Second intermission with Lawler back out for autographs and Armstrong, Yung and Hayme at the gimmick tables.
(6) Jerry Lawler (with Veronica Fairchild) beat Dennis Condrey (with Su Yung) in 15:04. They had set up rematch between Fairchild and Yung rematch at the December Pell City show. They wrestled in Graysville on Friday night and instead had them as opposing valets here. Good decision. They immediately got into a whopper of a catfight. Crowd went nuts for it. Lawler warned Yung that if she interfered, he would stick a fist so far down her throat they would need a crane to pull it out. Lawler said he had a long history of problems caused by Condrey and his partners, Bobby Eaton and Phil Hickerson, and he was going to return the favor. Condrey went to the fisticuffs. Lawler ducked and put Condrey on his ass with a right hand. Condrey cheated on the break, and Lawler went down under a barrage of blows. While Condrey was celebrating, Lawler gathered himself and decked Condrey with a haymaker. Condrey sold his aching jaw and stalled. Yung tried to  interfere. Fairchild grabbed her and they went at it again. Yung is a wildcat. Fairchild then slapped the crap out of Condrey when the ref wasn’t looking. But Condrey had a plan. - a taped stick concealed inside of Yung’s dress. She passed it to Condrey. Fairchild jumped on Yung and the crowd was going nuts. Condrey capitalized on the distraction by pummeling Lawler with the stick and fishhooking his mouth. Condrey took target practice on Lawler’s face with left jabs. Condrey jabbed the stick into Lawler’s throat and passed it back to Yung. Fairchild took the stick away from Yung, but Condrey chased her down and Yung got it back. Lawler made his comeback. He landed a dropkick and jackhammered Condrey with punches. Condrey initiated a ref bump with Lawler. Yung gave Condrey one of her high heel shoes. Fairchild got the stick away from Yung and gave it to Lawler, who did a number on Condrey with it. Pretty wild stuff. Condrey somehow ended up  clocking Lawler with Yung’s shoe to get a three count. Armstrong ran down and stooged it off to referee Birney Kawanawitz. He called for a restart. Condrey collared Birney and got rolled up by Lawler. Fun match. It worked out well having the legends share the spotlight with the women. The catfights got the best heat of anything all night long.
Condrey said it was highway robbery. Armstrong would have to pay, so on February 27, it was on. Armstrong said he had a place for Yung’s shoe. Fairchild said she wanted “Skank†Yung in Pell City again. Crowd was eating all of this up. Fairchild is not much of a wrestler yet, but she is a woman of the people.
NOTES: GCW returns on February 27 with Condrey vs. Armstrong in a lumberjack match and Hair vs. Title: Moneymakers vs. Thunderhorse & Nasty Kritter and Yung vs. Fairchild…GCW drew well at the Graysville show on Friday night and hope to make it regular monthly town. The return date there is February 19…Ultimate NWA is bringing Nikita Koloff in for a show in Tuscaloosa, Al on February 6. Ultimate NWA returns to Scottsboro, Al on February 13…The show was taped by David Pierce.
