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It featured solid performances up and down the card, which was impressive considering that several of SAW’s top stars - Champion Chase Stevens, Kid Kash and Wolfie D - were not present.
The booking was of the bold variety it takes to build stars. None of that luke warm, namby bamby even steven BS. Vordell Walker, Tommy Mercer, Phil Shatter and Arrick Andrews all emerged from this show with their standing significantly elevated.
Attendance at the Algood Middle School was around 350. They stayed pretty hot except for the main event. Ringside was set up to be full with 150 and there were another 200 filling out the bleachers facing the hard camera side. SAW brought in the set they used at the Fairgrounds. It should look good on TV if the handheld cameras didn’t pick up too many shots of the empty bleachers.
Kyla Slaven sang National Anthem a cappella – an added touch of class to any pro wrestling event.
Reno Riggins and Dan Masters did a live in ring opening. Crowd was red hot, so it should make for fine TV.
(1) Arrick Andrews beat Shane Williams in 10:09. They set the tone and established credibility with the crowd by putting on a good, solid wrestling match. Crowd was into it. Andrews won it with the Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am.
Williams had the audacity to call Andrews a coward after being beaten clean in the middle of the ring. Williams anointed himself as King of Cookeville and said he was going to show Andrews what a real man was.
(2) “No Mercy†Tommy Mercer beat J-Rod in 4:04. Crowd was split on Mercer. Dude is too cool for some people to hate, plus he has the chisled physique and height of a budding superstar. Mercer imposed his will right from the get go. His stalling sitout suplex was sweet. After a missed flying knee, J-Rod some offense The first Mercy Kill was a mess, but Mercer made up for it by hitting it perfectly on the redo and drilling J-Rod with another one after the match.
Mercer was fixing to dish out even more brutality when he was confronted by Vordell Walker. Mercer backed off without any physical contact. Nice.
(3) Christian Jacobs (with Jon Michael Worthington) beat Vordell Walker in 8:42. Walker opened with a dropkick on the button, a full speed clothesline over the top and a tope. From that point, the crowd was totally behind him for the rest of the night. Walker was confronted by a cane wielding Worthington doing a fake gimpy knee. Walker chased and got cut down by Jacobs laying in wait. The heat was applied. Jacobs has massive trapezius development and a big league body in general. Walker mounted a series of comebacks. He about dropped Jacobs on his head with a power slam. Jacobs went for a spear and ran smack into Walker’s knee. Walker had Jacobs set up for the STO, but Worthington grabbed his leg to distract and Jacobs got him with his finisher. This was also good.
(4) Phil Shatter beat Cory Melton in 2:56. Shatter was without the NWA National Title. Melton’s dropkicks connected. Shatter was rocked but didn’t go down. He unleashed a relentless brawling attack with a lot of wicked back elbows. Shatter used the PTSD powerbomb as his finisher.
(5) Arrick Andrews beat Shane Williams via submission in 14:33.Thiis match stood out because of all the submission work and not one sleeper hold in the bunch. After losing using a more straightforward approach, Williams did a lot of underhanded stuff. Williams applied a Boston crab. Andrews used a grapevined ankle lock. Williams got an Indian Deathlock. Andrews reversed into the ankle lock. Williams used a variation of the bow and arrow. Williams hit a picture perfect leg lariat for a near fall. Andrews hit the spinning bulldog but was slow to cover and Williams got the ropes. Andrews charged in and got knocked loopy with high boot. Nicely sold. Finish saw Williams go for a piledriver that Andrews was able to reverse into a dragon sleeper.
Intermission.
(6) Tommy Mercer beat Cody Melton. Another squash for Mercer, again scoring the pin with the Mercy Kill. Crowd gave Melton an E for effort pop on his way out. The kid has moxie.
(7) Vordell Walker beat Christian Jacobs (with Jon Michael Worthington) in 8:47. Bigger pop for Walker and more heat for Picture Perfect this time around as further evidence that the earlier match worked. They had another good match built on a steady progression to bigger moves. Jacobs used a sharpshooter. Walker did a backflip into a boston crab. Walker was having fun (it was his birthday) and the crowd could feel it. Walker used a Fujiwara armbar. Submissions reign supreme at SAW! Walker used the cane on Jacobs to get the pin.
The postmatch was amazing. Action galore. Derrick King Enterprises attacked Walker, who emerged from the phone booth as Superman. At one point, Walker was holding his own against five guys and they were able to make it look believable. Picture Perfect hit the road. DKE continued to beat on Walker, but he made another super hero comeback and they brawled to the back.
(8) Phil Shatter beat J-Rod in 4:55. J-Rod came out quick and aggressive. It was worth a try, but Shatter’s power game was, well, overpowering. J-Rod blocked a superplex with Shatter taking the big bump. J-Rod tried to seize on the opening. As he went for a leapfrog, Shatter caught him and turned it into a powerbomb. Sweet finish.
(9) Logan Shane & Draven Lee beat Kayleb Courageous & Vicious Johnny V in 4;43 when Shane pinned V with a top rope elbow. Four guys from the local FTW promotion in a non-TV match. Shane is the son of Mike Promo.
(10) Tommy Mercer squashed Insane D in 2:23. Mercy Kill for the finish and two more after the match. Now that’s the way to get a move over. Mercer wanted more. SAW personnel had to pull the kid out of the ring to prevent a near death experience.
(11) Vordell Walker & J-Rod beat Derrick King Enterprises (Derrick King & Drew Haskins with Johnny Bandana) to win the SAW Tag Team Championship in 16:30. Or so it appeared. Solid tag match all the way. Bandana was great at ringside. Some guy tried to heckle him and Bandana just ripped him to shreds. The guy was left standing there with his mouth open. J-Rod got a chance to shine early. He needed it after being soundly defeated in two matches. King’s sneaky knee to Walker’s back set up an Edge-o-matic by Haskins. Walker was in trouble, but he popped the crowd with a double clothesline. J-Rod ran wild. DKE bumped and sold and Haskins did a swandive headbutt into King’s groin. Moments later, Haskins interfered and rammed J-Rod’s back into the post. DKE worked the body part. Haskins and J-Rod got into a slapfest. Haskins took a sky high backdrop to set up the hot tag. Walker hit the overhead suplex on a screaming King. That brought Bandana up onto the apron to distract, while Picture Perfect ran down to ringside. Worthington had the cane. He locked eyes with King for a lusciously long moment. Worthington then tossed the cane over King’s head to Walker, who crowned King with it for the 1-2-3. Crowd went nuts for the apparent title change.
(12) Hammerjack defeated Marc Anthony in an I Quit Match when Anthony passed out in the Crippler Crossface at 18:48. This was a tough deal because Cookeville is Anthony’s hometown, making it the only place on earth he would get fan support. If this match had taken place at the Nashville Fairgrounds, the scene of Anthony’s heinous crimes, the place would have been going nuts. There was a small pop when Anthony came out. Hammerjack was all over him, beating on him and in his face about messing with his family. First big spot was Hammer suplexing Anthony on the gym floor. After getting his head bashed into the bleacher railing a few times, Anthony fell head first into a trash barrel so his feet were sticking up in the air. This barrel wasn’t one of those lightweight jobs. It was on rollers and filled with garbage. Hammer rolled it spilling Anthony and the garbage all over the floor, then nailed Anthony with the barrel. Anthony jammed a nacho tray into Hammerjack’s face. They brawled to the top of bleachers, where Hammer rammed Anthony’s head into the wall. Anthony rolled down the bleacher steps. Crowd responded to that but were generally quiet. It’s not like they were bored. It was more of stunned silence. The most insane spot was Anthony missing a diving headbutt off the top rung of a 10 foot ladder that he had dragged into the ring. Hammer knocked Anthony in the head with the sledge. Anthony bled but not a lot. Anthony knocked the mic out Kurt Herron’s hand when he asked if he was going to quit. Hammer tried to choke Anthony out, and you could hear Anthony gagging over the mic. Finally, Hammer applied the Crippler Crossface. Anthony refused to quit and eventually passed out.
Hammer wasn’t going to be satisfied with anything less than Anthony giving up. He kept the hold on for another 3-4 minutes after Anthony lapsed into unconsciousness. This was high drama of the darkest kind. It seemed like an eternity but was totally justified by the story. After a couple of minutes, he slugged one security guy that tried to intervene. He took out two others before he was willing to relinquish the hold. The event ended with five security guys carrying Anthony to the back.
NOTES: SAW will return to Cookeville in November. Date TBA. SAW will be back in Nashville at the Stadium Inn for a unique Sunday afternoon taping on August 22. They will also tape in Ripley, Tn on September 11. SAW returns to the Gallatin Civic Center on October 9.…Dutch Mantell and Wolfie D were at the Juggalo Championship Wrestling craziness in…Ryan Genesis was advertised but not present…Reno Riggins and Dan Masters did live commentary. Jack Johnson handled the ring announcing…Anthony’s neck was in rough shape from the extended crossface. No other injuries of consequence…Shatter was thrilled with his matches at the NWA Legends Fanfest with Chase Stevens and Davey Richards. He is booked for the October Gallatin show…NWA Main Event editor Aaron Becker handled one of the hard cameras. Referee Jesse Fields ran the hard camera. SAW’s new TV editor Brian Thompson was assisting with the technical end of things…Being a Cookeville native, Johnson was a fountain of obscure information, like the fact that Wal Marts in Cookeville and Algood are in the closest proximity of any two Wal Marts in the universe. He also noted that the Algood Middle School is one of last educational institutions to refer to its athletic teams as by the politically incorrect term “Redskinsâ€.
