LOOKING AT THE GOOD AND BAD OF THE AWE LEGENDS PPV
By Thomas Hewitt on 10/20/2011 9:45 AM
AWE Night Of Legends: Old stars burned out, new starts shining bright.
As a sports columnist, I've seen a lot of professional sport events in my time. Naturally, when the title "AWE - Night Of Legends" flashed across my screen with the subtext "professional wrestling", I was intrigued. Especially considering I wasn't really aware that other pro-wrestling companies existed other than the WWE and a few other minor leagues. Upon further inspection, I learned that some of the wrestlers I grew up watching were part of the show, such as "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Fit Finlay, Kevin Nash, and Ricky Morton (of The Rock And Roll Express). Needless to say, I was extremely interested.
However, my passion was soon derailed, as I learned that my former favorites have lost a couple of steps. Finlay could still swing like a champ, but Jim Duggan seemed as though he only attended the event due to having the day off from his day job. It was almost embarrassing.
What really shocked me, though, was the amount of passion I saw the younger talent. You could tell they knew the world was watching, as they did not disappoint.
One of the young participants, a guy named Jamen Olivencia, was extremely impressive. Not only did his pre-match interview really make me hate him (which was likely the intention), but his match really opened my eyes. Like previously mentioned, I haven't seen much outside the WWE, but Jamen and his opponent, Sonjay Dutt, really went at it like a pair of gladiators. I had no idea that wrestling moved this quickly. Jamen and Sonjay stole the show, period.
Other than those two, there was a guy who went against Finlay named Alex Silva that really caught my eye. Finlay doesn't seem like he'd be a fun guy to wrestle, because he seems like he makes you earn a win, but Silva really earned his spot in the ring. I wasn't too fond of seeing Sunny out there, but whatever. I was shocked, happily, to see Silva win. Jim Duggan's opponent also showed a lot of heart, a guy named Mohammed Akbar. He was the perfect opponent for a guy like Duggan, as it was a very big USA vs. the world-type atmosphere. Akbar came across as a seriously evil guy, and seemed a little too comfortable being the bad guy.
There was very little otherwise worth mentioning, other than a surprise appearance by DDP and a midget match. Other than the young guys, I was a little disappointed. AWE has a solid roster with their younger wrestlers, so maybe they should stick to having them around.
