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ROH World Champion Davey Richards was defeated by Dany Only at the EMPIRE (formerly Platinum Championship Wrestling) in the semifinal round of the Platinum Classic ournament Friday night in Avondale Estates, GA. Only went on to lose to Jagged Edge in the finals.
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Things did not go as planned. Richards and company were held up in traffic. Their arrival time wasn’t nearly as imminent as thought by all involved, resulting in much backstage angst and a major case of booking on the fly by Stephen Platinum. It was not his shining hour. Platinum’s shows never suffer from a shortage of ideas, but the pre-Richards portion was a mess. Suffice to say, the situation improved dramatically once Richards and his crew made it in from St. Louis.
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It was a night that put the talent roster to the test, and for the most part, they came through with flying colors. Unlike most Platinum’s shows, the wrestling was better than the booking. The PCW talent more than held their own with Richards’ bunch.
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EMPIRE’s home base at the Academy Theater was full but not packed. It’s a tiny space so less than 50 people. The same weird phenomenon occurred at their last big Academy show on 11/11/11 – they build up a big show and end up drawing fewer people than they do for their regular weekly show
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Plan B started with a bonus match -- Valek vs. Supernatural – that never happened. Curry Kid immediately ran down to distract Supernatural. The demonic Valek drilled Supernatural into the floor with an off-the- shoulder piledriver. Valek departed with much growling. Curry Kid tried to unmask Supernatural, but PCW Champion Mason ran him off. Supernatural was in less than super shape. Doc Melei took a look at him and Supernatural was carried out on a stretcher.
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EMPIRE’s second in command, Miss Rachael said EMPIRE had agreed to move Richards’ match (scheduled to go on first) due to travel issues, but Platinum broke the deal (Platinum and “Overlord of the EMPIRE” Jeff G. Bailey now comprise the championship committee). As a consequence, she was replacing Richards with Mr. Eric. This was like replacing the best player in the league with the guy on the end of the bench that never plays.
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Platinum Classic – Opening Round
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(1) Dany Only defeated Zach Daniels (with Marty Freeman) in 7:21. Only is the lead member of a babyface faction known as Damnation, while Zach represented the EMPIRE, the evil force that seized control of Stephen Platinum’s company. Zach ducked Only’s first attempt at his signature lariat and worked the low back. Zach caught Only in the sleeper. Only sent him face first into the buckle to break the hold. Only put Zach in the Mutalock. That brought Freeman up on the apron. Only fell for the distraction, but was able to escape Zach’s Air Raid Crash. Only killed Zach dead with the lariat from nowhere, and the tournament was off to a solid start.
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(2) Jagged Edge (with Marty Freeman) defeated Hayden Young in 7:36. Jagged Edge came into the match with a 12-0 record in EMPIRE. He went the psych job route, acting like nothing Young did could faze him. However, a couple of well place kicks set him straight. Young used punch after punch to bring Edge to one knee. However, Edge repeatedly neutralized Young’s vaunted aerial game with power moves. In the end, Young tried for his spinning enzuirgiri, and Edge countered with a running powerslam for the three count. The action was fine and they told a story.
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Platinum started sending stuff out to kill time because Richards and company still hadn’t made it to the building. Though small in number, the fans were a resilient group, and they were amazingly good sports about all this.
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Jon Williams called out EMPIRE Champion (an traitor extraordinaire) Shane Marx concerning his title challenge next week. Williams pointed out that he had come on top over Marx twice before. Marx gave Jon prop for his luck and said it was about to run out next week. It was all good until Jon said he hated Marx, and he would have knocked his block off right then and there except it would cost him his title shot. The hate felt entirely fabricated.
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Quasi Mandisco and Oscar Worthy of Crown Jewel Records came out next. Worthy did this white boy, hip hop, stream of consciousness deal. He told the people that we make you and you consume, and some of you consume a lot. He had some sort of message for De La Vega, but Worthy just gave me a headache.
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Stephen Platinum came to the ring and talked about PCW running two Saturdays a month in Porterdale, GA starting April 7. Rachael came out with her EMPIRE crew and said she was replacing Richards and Platinum neeed to leave or else. Platinum asked for 10 more minutes. The or else was a double arm DDT by Matt Sells. A bunch of PCW guys ran EMPIRE off. Platinum hadn’t moved a muscle. EMPIRE ran back out and absconded with Platinum.
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(3) Tommy Daniels defeated Mr. Eric via forfeit in 20 minutes. Tommy (a babyface known as the “Record Breaker” due to his early success in PCW) was scheduled to face Richards in the defining match of his wrestling career. Eric is wannabe westler and everybody’s in on the joke. This was 20 long minutes of my life that I can never get back. After 20 minutes and a zillion moves, Tommy couldn’t find a way to beat the jabroni, and he had to be subjected to Eric’s lame offense. Eric applied the most pathetic ankle lock in wrestling history. Richards should have broken his leg for that alone. By all rights, he should be back at the bottom rung of the PCW ladder. It was so perverse that fans started chanting for Eric. I hope Tommy didn’t go home and commit Harikari. Richards saved the day by running down to the ring right out his car and putting Eric in the ankle lock, and Eric tapped.
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Richards said he travels the world and gets there when he damn well pleases, and anybody that had a problem with that could step in the ring. Freeman said Richards was back in the tournament in the wild card match. Referee Duke Korey somehow ruled that Eric had lost the match via forfeit.
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(4) Davey Richards defeated Zach Daniels (with Marty Freeman) and Hayden Young in a wild card elimination match (4:40). Young used a spinning enzuigiri to dispatch with Zach in less than a minute. To nobody’s surprise, the rest of the match was the most compelling wrestling action so far. Richards was destroying Young’s knee with submission holds, but Young kept making the ropes. The finish saw Richards catch Young’s spinning enzuigiri kick and turn it into an ankle lock. Great stuff.
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Platinum Classic Semifinal Round
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(5) Jagged Edge defeated Tommy Daniels in 28 seconds. When I look at Jagged Edge, I think pro wrestler. Bad ass black pro wrestler. He’s also with EMPIRE. Tommy limped out to the ring in a sorry state from the damage he had sustained against Eric. Edge chokeslammed Tommy and pinned him with his running powerslam. I hope Tommy didn’t go home and commit Harikari.
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Only did prematch mic work. He was exhausted from putting in 70 hours this week with no overtime pay. Being exempt from wage and hour laws can be pure hell. He admitted his fear of the ROH World Champion. Only said it doesn’t matter if you’re scared, it’s what you do with that fear, and he was going to give it everything he had. Now THAT is a babyface. Platinum came out looking fresh as a daisy. Huh? Didn’t EMPIRE just carry him off to their lair? Platinum said EMPIRE’s agreement with Richards was null and void. Platinum explained that Bailey wasn’t there, so he was the championship committee tonight. This made no sense at all, but it did give Platinum a chance to introduce Richards, who was immediately attacked by a slew of EMPIRE wrestlers. Only and Richards managed to fight them off.
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(6) Dany Only defeated ROH World Champion Davey Richards in 15:20. Richard stood Only on his head with a leglock, and acted like he had it in the bag no problem. But after Only got surprise reversal, Richards looked at him with new found respect. Richards stretched Only bigtime, then tried to disable his lariat arm. Only answered with a wicked stomp on Richards’ knees. They traded huge forearms. Richards started to dissect Only’s knee. Only tried for a sunset flip, but Richards blocked it and gave him a vicious double stomp to the upper chest. It sucked to be Only at that moment. Only mounted a comeback. He got Richards in the sharpshooter. Richards was on the verge of tapping before making the ropes. With Only on the floor, Richards ran the apron to deliver a brutal kick to the chest. They slapped the crap out of each other. Richards showed desperation by going to the eyes. Richard missed the diving headbutt. Only scored with the lariat but Richards kicked out. Only tried for it again, and Richards countered with a cross armbreaker and maneuvered into an ankle lock, but Only made the ropes. Richard got a near fall with a crushing kick to the chest. Richards went back to the ankle lock, but Only rolled through. Richards kicked out of a second lariat, but the third one did the trick. A very good match. The one notable flaw was Only’s lariats didn’t look as good as they usually do. The crowd was into it all the way through and popped huge for Only’s shocking win.
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After putting Only over in the match, Richards did first class job of putting him over on the mic. Richards said their match was the essence of pro wrestling – two gladiators accepting pain and using it to entertain. Richard said it was his pleasure to drive 10 hours to wrestle Only.
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Only said he was pissed off because EMPIRE kept Richards below 100%, and now he might never know if he could beat him at full strength. Only said the EMPIRE pussies didn’t want to be in the ring with Richards, and they were going to regret having Only in the finals.
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The Surrealist comedy group (De La Vega, Johnny Danger and Prima Donna in a Pokey outfit) were confronted by We Are 3 members Brian Blaze and Aesha Sunshine, who apparently have no sense of humor whatsoever. The gimmick here was that De La Vega (a tiny guy) was going to introduce his little brother. Blaze and Aesha started beat up De La Vega and Danger and turned their attention to Pokey. Just as she put up her dukes out came “little brother” (King Fale of New Japan at 6-4, 290 pounds). Fale took care of Blaze and Aesha in impressive fashion. Out came Geter, the third member of We Are 3, who is larger than Fale. The two giants went at it. Geter gave Fale a belly to belly suplex. Fale clotheslined Geter over the top rope. It was the spot of the night, and scared the bejeezus out of the Team All You Can Eat members occupying the front row. They battled to the back. Fale and Geter made this segment a winner.
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Pandora took the opportunity to continue her war with Aesha. They also fought to the back.
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(7) Special Attraction Four Way - Najasism defeated Fred Yehi and Kyle O’Reilly and Tony Kozina in 17:20. The cool thing about this match was Yehi’s ability to match wrestling skill with the ROH guys. With his college wrestling background, Yehi was the slicker, and quicker on the mat. The early part of the match saw the other three guys work on Najasism’s legs to take away his flying ability. Yehi was tenacious on O’Reilly’s arm, until O’Reilly shook him off with a dropkick and put the boots to him. The other three started working on Yehi. At one point, Yehi sent Najasism flying with a release suplex. The match built to a wild exchange of big moves that left all four down and destroyed. Kozina clipped Yehi’s legs and O’Reilly got him with the brainbuster, but Najasism broke up the pin. Kozina and O’Reilly ended up arguing on the outside due Najasism’s subterfuge. Naja pinned Yehi using the ropes for extra leverage. This match clicked on all cylinders. The stars blended seamlessly with the PCW talent. The mach elevated Najasism and Yehi, not that Yehi needs any help. Fred Yehi is hot prospect for an organization like ROH, where size is less of an issue.
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(8) Jagged Edge (with Marty Freeman) defeated Dany Only to win the Platinum Classic in 11:49.
There was a glitch with the intros. DamNation was supposed to attack Freeman during his introduction of Jagged Edge, but Only’s music played, so he weirdly appeared from his hiding place before Freeman came out. They rolled with it. Only decked Freeman, and DamNation did a number on him. EMPIRE tried to save Freeman, but Phantom held them at bay with his sickle. Team PCW then blocked the doors to keep EMPIRE from interfering. Jagged Edge picked up where Zach left off working on Only’s back. Only got hope spot near falls with a rabbit lariat and a cutter. Jagged Edge used old school holds like the bear hug and the body scissors. Edge blocked Only’s lariat. Edge measured him and really made it count with a lariat of his own. Only turned the tables with a powerslam on Edge. When the battle moved outside the ring, EMPIRE member Eric Walker came out of nowhere to nail Only with a great kendo stick shot. Only tried to fight on, but the tank was empty. Jagged Edge ended it with a decisive powerslam, so he wins the tournament and remains undefeated.
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EMPIRE came out with smug looks on their faces. Freeman said this proved that EMPIRE could not be stopped, and they would take Mason’s belt (it’s winner takes all at Sacred Ground III in September).
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Just one more thing…Richards led a massive force of PCW wrestlers back out to clear the ring. Richards put Walker in the ankle lock, and Pandora decked his ass. The show ended with PCW standing triumphant as the crowd chanted “PCW”.
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NOTES: Platinum announced an April 26 date for the company’s return to the Masquerade in Atlanta…PCW hit a home run with their St. Patrick Day’s shows in Porterdale, GA. They drew a packed house for a pair of mini-shows. The Porterdale authorities responsible for the venue were sufficiently impressed such that PCW is booked for 1st and 3rd Saturdays every month starting on April 7…Freeman was knocked loopy from a fall to the floor during the fracas with DamNation…”The Booker”,Mike Perkins’ documentary on Platinum and PCW make its official debut at the Atlanta Film Festival on March 28, with a party to follow afterwards at The Masquerade to celebrate the first anniversary of Jonathan William’s “Wrestling with Pop Culture” website featuring wrestling matches provided by Monstrosity Championship Wrestling….Richards and Kozina did a workshop for aspiring pro wrestlers at the Academy Theater on Saturday…Jay Fury is producing 5 minute video recaps of the weekly Friday night shows at the Academy. The links can be found in the News & Notes section at georgiawrestlinghistory.com…King Fale accompanied Richards back to the US at the conclusion of Richards’ recent stint in Japan...EMPIRE will be bringing in former NWA Anarchy Heavyweight Champion Shadow Jackson and there will be a return appearance by Cru Jones, winner of the 2011 Best Performer honor in the annual voting held by GeorgiaWrestlingHistory.com.
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