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AWE Show of the Year Report from Atlanta on December 29
From Larry Goodman:
Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment’s Show of the Year 6 was precisely as advertised. It was their best show of 2019, one of the best shows in the company’s history, presented at the best venue they’ve ever had and in front of the second largest crowd they’ve ever drawn.
Paid attendance at The District was 175 with many more in the building as the balcony was thick with wrestling people comped in to the show. The crowd was the perfect blend, old and new AWE fans, black and white, everybody having a good time devoid of fools making asses out of themselves.
ACH defeated Chip Day to become the second two-time Georgia Wrestling Crown Champion. Young Dumb N Broke (Charlie Tiger & Ellis Taylor) became AWE’s first tag team champions in eons by winning a one night mini-tournament. Murder One’s booking of the entire YDNB squad has been damn near perfect.
My gripe about Squad Goals was the lack of substantial singles matches. AWE more than made up for itat Show of the Year: ACH vs. Day, Alex Shelley vs. Suge D, AJ Gray vs. Jordan Oliver and Joe Black vs. Matt Kenway were all terrific.
With thirteen matches, it was a very long show (4 and ½ hours including the pre-show) and worth every minute of it. The crowd appeared to be running out of gas during the middle portion of the show but caught their second wind for last three matches.
The match descriptions in this report will be sparse. I sat back and soaked it in.
(1) Thomas Becker & Dave Segan defeated DeAndre Jackson & Ruthless Lala (with Taliaferro) in 7:05 to qualify for the AWE tag team tournament. Taliaferro’s team appeared to have this match in the bag before going down to defeat due a screw up at crunch time. Becker pinned LaLa with a running knee strike.
(2) Stunna Scramble: Griff McCoy defeated “The Natty Daddy” Bradley Prescott IV and Fearless Musa and Randy McGuire in 8:54. “Chug” chant to open the match as Musa declined to take a swig of Prescott’s Natural Light. BPIV got over well because he paused to let his stuff register. A convoluted tower of doom spot did not go according to plan. McCoy pinned McGuire with a Gotch piledriver.
Ring announcer/promoter Josh Wheeler outlined some new rules from the Supreme Leader: If a wrestler says something that offends you, take it up with management vs. bitching on social media. If a fan offends you, punch him in the face.
(3) Suge D defeated Alex Shelley in 14:53. A great match with equally great mic work afterward. They wrestled with a lot of European flourishes. Suge hung with Shelley all the way. He’s figured out how to integrate the British influence into his game and keep it entertaining. The crowd’s attention was riveted. I had to move to the balcony to see due to the throng of fans were crowding around the ring. The balcony railing was sold out with workers watching the match. Both men ended up selling damage to their respective arms. After two great close near falls down the stretch, Suge reversed the Border City Stretch and caught Shelley with a roll up.
Suge talked about spending eight months in exile…how the art of wrestling is being forgotten…said he and Shelley painted a hell of a picture on this canvas…that the AWE fans saved his life and didn’t even know it. Shelley said there was an AWE show at the District on March 15 and he wanted his win back.
(4) Troy Hollywood defeated Hunter Law in 11:27. Wheeler said if Law won, Murder would put him in The Hierarchy. Good 50/50 match. Hollywood looked a lot more comfortable than he did against ACH. Hollywood picked up the win with tornado kick followed but a double knee gutbuster.
Postmatch, Law wanted to do the Hierarchy finger touch. Hollywood wasn’t down with that.
Wheeler revealed the new tag team titles. AWE had been without physical belts for 2 and ½ years.
(5) Young Dumb N Broke defeated the Metro Brothers (JC & Chris) and Gymnasty Boys (White Mike & Timmy Lou Retton) and The Hierarchy (Murder One & Adrian Armour) in 8:48 to advance to the tag team tournament finals. Metros are one of the few acts at that get legit heel heat. Early focus was renewal of their war with Gymnastys. Give me more where that came from please. Mike pinned Chris after Retton foiled a Metros double team. Mike broke out the giant swing on Taylor. Gymnastys were ready to put Taylor away when Chris returned and sent Retton flying off the top turnbuckle onto a counter some distance away. It was a psychotic, masochistic bump to take. Murder then gave Mike the Ether (RKO) and he was pinned by Armour. YDNB hit a sliced bread/german suplex combo on Armour to win the match.
(6) AJ Gray defeated Jordan Oliver (with Grff McCoy) in 14:10. Crowd was insanely hot with dueling chants at the start. Crowd had McCoy surrounded and was givng him hell but it was all in good fun. This was a take no prisoners, beat the living shit out of each other kind of match. They went all out. Gray’s chops were taking my breath away. Can’t even imagine what they were doing to Oliver. Gray hit an awesome superplex for a near fall. The only thing I didn’t love about this match was out-of-the blue finish. Oliver sprung to the apron, then sprung back inside where Gray caught him with a variation of a powerslam.
(7) Fabulous Fitness (Kiki Roberts & Kahuna Khan) defeated Jaxon Stone & Andy Dalton (with 3MP) and Talon Oxyn & Ethan Price (with the Young Professor) and Becker & Segan in 7:55 to advance to the tag team tournament finals. Stone pinned Becker with an inverted Styles Clash. Oxyn barely kicked out of Dalton’s brainbuster. That brought 3MP onto the apron to complain. Price then pinned Dalton with a german suplex and received a joyous “pizza boy” chant. Stone blamed 3MP. Fab Fitness hit a high/low deal on Oxyn to win the match.
In the most wonderfully ridiculous moment of the night, Fab Fitness had referee Max Recon, Young Professor and EVERYBODY in the audience joining them to do five Hindu squats.
(8) Zombie Dragon defeated Nick Iggy via submission in 14:35 to retain the MKW Championship. The crowd couldn’t keep up the torrid pace and died down a bit during this match. Iggy (dubbed “Mr. Show of the Year” by Wheeler) did some very cool and unique offensive maneuvers. Dragon brought his sword into play, spewed red mist in Iggy’s face and choked him out with the sword.
Intermission.
(9) “The Cornbelt Cowboy” 1 Called Manders (with 3MP) defeated “The Big Bat” Trever Aeon in 6:50. Wheeler said Aeon was returning to AWE after 5 and ½ years. Another good match with the crowd not fully engaged in the proceedings. Aeon ate a stiff clothesline as he went for the Scarmaker and Manders pinned him with the Doctor Bomb.
3MP said AWE needed gold around Manders’ waist as much as America and the world needed cowboys.
(10) ROAR match: Angelus Layne defeated Aria Blake by forfeit in 8 minutes. LaLa got involved. Blake ran away. Lala then decided f*** this. Wheeler said it was up senior official Max Recon to make a ruling. The result was the first forfeit in ROAR history.
(11) Joe Black defeated The Kenway (with Canvas) via DQ in 13:10. Great match. The crowd energy was back with a vengeance. Black yelled “Jimmy” as he hit Rave’s apron STO. Kenway ran Black into the post and gave him a piledriver on the floor. Black started his comeback with trapped arm suplex. Back and forth near falls – Kenway with an electric chair drop. Black with a falcon arrow. Kenway with a fishermanbuster. Black with a backstabber. Black got Kenway’s back and was about to knock his ass out when Canvas appeared on the apron to distract Black. Distracted he was. Meanwhile, BP4 came from other side to clock Black with a beer can.
The postmatch was chaos. Hierarchy made the save. Black said something about Canvas’ panties being wet. The burning question for Murder One: Who had his motherf’n Hennessy?
(12) Young Dumb N Broke (Charlie Tiger & Ellis Taylor) defeated Fabulous Fitness (Kiki Roberts & Kahuna Khan) to win the AWE Tag Team Championship in 10:35. YNDB got heat on Khan. Roberts house cleaning was pleasure to watch. His work is so crisp and technically sound. Ref bump. Fabs hit their finisher on Taylor for a visual six count. Stan Robinson slid in to count but Tiger broke up the pin. McCoy supplied one of the title to Tiger for a belt shot on Roberts and Taylor pinned him with swanton bomb.
Fabs looked dejected. Crowd insisted on more Hindu squats and gave Khan a twinkie and a “you deserve it” chant.
(13) ACH defeated Chip Day to win the Georgia Wrestling Crown Championship via submission in approximately 29 minutes. A world class wrestler vs. one of the best wrestlers in the Southeast. What more could you ask? Keeping every minute of such a long match interesting is a tough task. These guys made it look easy. Ain't nobody in Georgia that delivers kicks with Day’s pinpoint precision and hanging with ACH for 30 minutes was no problem. Day is cursed with a body build that even when he’s in shape, he doesn’t look like he’s in shape. Day kicked out of a pedigree at one, a second pedigree and a frogsplash. ACH then kicked out of Day’s finisher and locked in a sharpshooter. Crowd was in shock when Day tapped. Day’s title reign ended at 175 days.
Postmatch – jubilation amongst the Hierarchy. ACH got on his knees to thank the most important person in his life “Me!”
People have doubted me forever. I have felt like the wicked stepchild that nobody apprecites in pro wrestling. But today, I appreciate me, my homies appreciate me, and you all can kiss my ass.
Murder said somebody contact Kayla Braxton at WWE to let her know ACH is a champion.
NOTES: Armour posted after the show that it was his last night as professional wrestler...Show of the Year will be uploaded to Independentwrestling.tv with Mika Villas and Danny Danger on commentary…Squad Goals will also soon be available through independentwrestling.tv…The referees were Max Recon, Aaron Noyes, Stan Robinson and “the new guy” David Weakley…Wrestling people in the house included AC Mack, Alan Angels, Dani Jordyn, Ashton Starr, Matt Griffin, Eric Silva, Austin Towers, Liam Gray, Rob Brodhecker, James Caleb Kitchens, Ravenna Vein, Darryl Hall, Sean Sims, Lamar Diggs, Chance Rizer, Ryan Rembrandt, Jeffrey Taylor and wrestling photographer extraordinaire Corey Tatum…AWE has a ROAR show scheduled at the District on February 16 to crown the company’s first woman champion with Blake, Lala, Layne and Marti Belle booked.
