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RAMPAGE PRO WRESTLING IN WARNER ROBBINS, GA RESULTS: CAGE MATCHES, CONSEQUENCES CREED VS. BULL BUCHANAN AND MORE

Rampage Pro Wrestling ran the first ever “Gene Gayton Memorial Mayhem” show to honor the father of RPW owner Doctor Johnny Gayton at the RPW Arena (aka Johnny G’s Fun Center) in Warner Robins, Georgia, drawing an enthusiastic full house of over 250.

The Memorial was RPW’s first attempt at a super card sincelast September’s “Vengeance in the Valley”, an event at Fort Valley College that drew poorly and led to changes being made. Nick Patrick took over the General Manager duties from the future-endeavored Nigel Sherrod. Micah Taylor resigned as head booker. Joe Hamilton returned to assist Patrick with the booking and the formatting of the television show.   

For overall quality, the Memorial was the best RPW show I’ve attended. Every match on the card worked. A couple of them (Buchanan/Creed and Rave/Rinauro) were outstanding. The concept was to do a regular one hour television taping followed by a series of big blowoff matches deemed “too hot for TV”. They managed to produce what should be a strong hour of  television, despite all of the top talent being concentrated in the second half. For comparison, the Memorial didn’t have as many spectacular moments as NWA Anarchy’s Hardcore Hell, nor anything close to that level of violence, but the quality of the wrestling was a bit better overall.  Both events were built on solid storyline foundations.

RPW had to be happy about the crowd response. They were totally alive and into everything all night long. I think the pacing had a positive effect, as they were able to get the show done in 2:45 even with having to set up the cage. 

RPW also had to be pleased with doing so well without bringing in outside talent like they had for previous super cards. They’ve been doing about 175 for their regular TV tapings with a lower admission price.  

(1) “Marvelous” Michael Stevens beat Master Tee in a 5 minute dark match. Fans didn’t take this seriously, and
understandably so with Tee involved. 100% Stevens until a belly flop moonsault gave Tee his chance, which he totally botched – truly a “what was that?” moment. Stevens won it with a fireman’s carry gutbuster.

Ben Masters called Gayton out to the ring and announced that he was just voted as one of the top 250 eye surgeons in the world. Gayton thanked the fans for coming out to honor his father, who died in October 2009. Fans chanted “Thank you, Johnny.”

The TV Taping got underway with Masters and Big Bank Barfield on commentary.

(2) Mike Kross and Chip Day went to 10 minute draw. Babyface vs. babyface with the  two men receiving strong and relatively equal pops. There was a fake dueling chant (same fans chanting for both men). They came out flying all over
the place. Not the smoothest and it felt too choreographed, but they were working their asses off. When Kross decked Day with a moonsault block, it was both men down drawing legit dueling chants. Kross used a Yoshitonic. Day busted
out Shadows over Hell. They went back and forth pin attempts, and time expired after a midair collision of high crossbodys. Crowd showed mucho appreciation for the effort level.  

(3) Caleb Konley beat Marvelous Michael Stevens in 7:08.
After getting his ass handed to him trying to wrestle Konley, Stevens went to the mauling tactics. Konley fought fire with fire, but missed a high crossbody, and Stevens seized on the opening with a ground attack. Crowd chanted “Caleb”.  On the comeback, Konley hit a scissors kicks for a near fall. Konley escaped from Stevens’ finisher and hit the Homewrecker for the pin. Crowd reacted to the devastation of the finisher – a cutthroat skullcracker. 

(4) Slaughter Pit (Sam Slaughter & Pit Bull) beat Rampage Wrecking Crew (Kyle Matthews & Frankie Valentine) and Exotic Ones (Simon Sermon & Tommy Too Much with Charlie Cash) and Jeremy Vain & Adrian Hawkins in a fatal four way at 12:47. Strong pops for both babyface teams with RWC getting more broad based support than Slaughter
Pit. Fans chanted “Pepto Bismol” at Cash’s suit. The babyface teams worked together to dominate early. Vain’s bumping for Pit Bull was the highlight. No surprise there. Vain cut off a Matthews dive attempt with a rude kick to the face. Matthews was taking heat from three sides. All four teams were doing the logical thing by breaking up pin attempts. Matthews hot-tagged Matthews. It broke down with RWC battling Hawkins and Vain on the floor. In the confusion, Cash accidentally gave Tommy Too Much a face full of hair spray. Slaughter Pit smoked Sermon with the battering ram and pinned Too Much with Pitty City.    
The non-television (taped for DVD release) portion of the show got underway.

(5) Jimmy Rave beat Sal Rinauro in a taped fist match in 18:21. This was Rave’s first match back after the broken nose he suffered in a match with Rinauro in Charlotte. RPW nicely worked the legit injury into the storyline. Huge pop for Rave. Both were dressed in bunkhouse gear.  They started with boxing stances. Rinauro decided he wanted to wrestle. That didn’t work out for him at all. Rinauro did the crafty thing and tried to incapacitate Rave’s right hand. Rinauro was great with the heelish facial expressions. Sal ate a haymaker coming off the ropes, but quickly recovered with a stunner on Rave. Rinauro started to twist Rave’s wrist in nasty ways. Rave was in a world of hurt. Rave made a huge comeback. The end appeared near, but Rinauro blocked the knockout blow. Rave scored near falls with a shadow STO and the running knee. Rinauro again escaped the knockout and landed a big shot of his own. Rinauro grabbed his Cruiserweight belt. Referee Dustin Robinson
took it away, but Rinauro had a chain. Pow. Rave kicked out just before the three and the place went nuts. Fan knew Rinauro was doomed. Rave nailed Rinauro with the taped fist and hit Move That Rocks the World. Monster pop for the finish. Excellent match. Rave showed no signs of ring rust. It didn’t hurt that he and Rinauro have worked each other a zillion times. I liked the logic of Rinauro trying to take away Rave’s punching power, and limiting the taped fist element to crucial moments late in the match. 

(6) Pit Bull defeated Murder One in a hardcore match.at 9:13. Fans chanted “you suck” in rhythm with Murder’s intro
music. Murder brought a baseball bat. Pit Bull had a large plastic trash barrel. They whacked each other with a street sign. Pit Bull put the trash barrel over Murder’s head and hit it with the baseball bat. Pit Bull was grinding his Rubik’s cube (a replacement bought by the fans. The basis of the feud was that Murder broke the original). Murder used a low blow to take over, then smashed the Rubik’s cube against the wall.  It wasn’t billed as such, but ref started making 10 counts like it was Last Man Standing rules. Murder put the bat to good use. Pit Bull knocked Murder off the apron and through a ringside table. Murder used wrestling moves – a flapjack and a senton backsplash to regain the upper hand. Murder was waving a pair of baking pans, not those flimsy cooking sheets, these were full size industrial type pans. The finish was a double knockout with  the baking pans. Pit Bull barely beat the 10 count to win. I wasn’t expecting a lot from this match, but it turned out to be quite entertaining. The heat helped.

Postmatch, AJ Steele attacked Pit Bull. Slaughter made the save and they had a good pull apart. 

(7) Bull Buchanan beat Consequences Creed to retain the RPW Heavyweight Title in 19:35 . One of the most physical encounters I’ve seen in a while. Bull knows physical. When he’s in the ring with someone that can hang with him (and Creed was fully up for it) his matches have a believability factor unlike anybody else on the Georgia scene. Creed, who was
cashing on the title match he earned at the first RPW show of the year, got the star treatment for his entrance. Creed first used his quickness to frustrate Buchanan. Creed then attacked the shoulder and wrist. Crowd was on the quiet side early, but the quality of the work got them going bigtime as the match progressed. At 8 minutes in, Buchanan landed a huge right hand that put Creed down and in a daze. Buchanan unleashed a withering barrage of blows. Creed avoided a charge and returned fire, but Buchanan knocked him off the apron with a lariat. Buchanan’s wrist was bothering him. It didn’t stop him for dishing
out a stiff beating on the outside. Buchanan made Creed pay for trying to get back inside the ring. Back inside, Buchanan gave Creed a high boot to the mush and locked in a bodyscissors. The crowd was revved for Creed here. Buchanan hit a killer of a snap powerslam for a near fall. He dumped Creed and ran him into the cinder block wall. Back inside the ring, Buchanan used a Boston crab. Creed struggled to gain a ropes break. Buchanan made the mistake of going high risk by climbing the ropes.
Creed brought him off the top with an overhead belly to belly suplex. Creed got the better of an exchange that saw Buchanan taking ridiculously stiff shots to the face. Creed made the full-fledged comeback with the rolling thunder lariat and a missile dropkick. Buchanan tried for a fallaway slam, but Creed landed on his feet and hit a superkick. Creed tried for a monkey flip, and Buchanan blocked and got the pin with his feet on the ropes. Timing on the finish wasn’t ideal, as Buchanan’s feet were still on the ropes when Robinson looked up to call for the bell. Great match. One of my favorites for the year thus far.       

(8) Mr. Jones defeated AJ Steele in a steel cage match in 10:23.  Until recently, Jones was part of Usual Suspects, but Murder and Steele turned him for a perceived screw up. As expected, there was nothing pretty about this match. Steele attacked Jones before the bell. Jones shook it off and hit a freight train corner splash followed by a bulldog. Jones hit a swinging neckbeaker and climbed to the second rope. What on earth the 400 pounder was planning to do, I have no idea, but Steele gave him a low blow. Steele sent Jones’ head into the cage. “Get up, Precious,” Steele said. Jones reversed a shot into the cage. With Steele on the apron, Jones delivered a charging splash against the cage for the best move of the match. Steele whipped Jones with his belt. Jones returned the favor with five belt licks of his own. No water in the pool for a standing splash by Jones. Steele charged and bonked his head on the fence post when Jones moved. 1-2-3. Not much of a finish. 

Afterwards, Steele beat the hell out of Jones and left him laying in the cage. Gayton and J-Rod came out to check on him and were attacked by Rob Adonis and Cru Jones. Adonis locked the cage door with Jones still lying
in the ring.  

(9) Doctor Johnny Gayton & J-Rod beat Cru Jones & Rob Adonis in a cage match via submission when Adonis tapped out to Gayton’s crossface at 9:34. Match was based on the long running storyline in which Adonis was revealed as the mysterious and ruthless Mr. Big, who was using Gayton’s money (money he got from Gayton after faking paralysis from an accidental chairshot) to destroy his company from the inside out with the formation of the Apocalypse. Adonis acquired the services of Cru, who returned to his evil ways by backstabbing his tag team partner, J-Rod. Match had terrific heat. Gayton was bleeding in no time flat. The babyfaces were getting destroyed. Doc suddenly went wild biting Adonis and choking him with his t-shirt. He got a near fall after a series of Polish hammers. Adonis ran Gayton’s head into the cage and grated his forehead on the fence. J-Rod backdropped Cru into the cage. Cru ducked and J-Rod did a high crossbody into the cage. Gayton pulled his boot off and used it on Adonis. Cru reversed a top rope Thesz Press by J-Rod into a powerbomb. Move of the match. At this point, Mr. Jones rose from his slumber and speared Adonis (Gayton had performed eye surgery on Jones for real). Gayton put the crossface on Adonis. J-Rod caught Cru with triangle. Adonis tapped. Place was on fire for the finish.       

NOTES: RPW returns for their first Saturday night television taping on May 1 with Jones defending the RPW Intercontinental Title vs. J-Rod. The plan is to tape every other Saturday night, so the other TV taping dates
for May are the 15th and the 29th. Bell time is being moved up to 7pm…Bill Behrens will be doing color commentary starting May 1…Creed with be at the May 1 taping, but will be gone for a while after that due to other bookings. Creed will be making his first trip to Japan for the New Japan Super J Tag Tournament on May 8 teaming with Kota Ibushi…The attendance number being tossed around for the TNA show in Macon two nights earlier was only 400.

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