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Peachstate Wrestling Alliance celebrated their fourth anniversary with a high stakes War Games match – the winners got the titles and control of the company. The loser are gone for 6 months, but not without some shocking developments at the end.
That's not to mention 62 year old "Action" Mike Jackson wrestling over 30 minutes in the War Games and diving off the top of the cage to boot.
It was standing room only at the famed VFW Fairgrounds Arena in Carrollton, GA – 350 to 400 paid which is significantly better than any other Georgia promotion is doing this year. And you won’t find an easier crowd than this one.
The show boiled down to the one extremely well built match, Team PWA vs. Team MOD with all the chips on the table. The advertised undercard featuring women, midgets and giants didn’t pan out, but that made little difference in the overall scheme of things, as the War Games gave fans well more than they bargained for.
(1) Stupid (with Tweety) defeated John Skyler in 9 minutes. Stupid and Tweety got big time heat. They’re the ultimate white trash heels. Skyler showed how adept he is as a babyface, although I feel him more as a heel (his work at NWA Anarchy being a prime example). Skyler had Stupid pinned with Sliced Bread #2, but Tweety put Stupid’s foot on the ropes. Stupid then used an X Factor to pin Skyler. Finish was ehh. Otherwise a good opener.
(2) Pandora (with Wicked Nemesis) defeated Aisha Sunshine in 10:42. As the mastermind behind Merchants of Death, Nemesis entered the evening at the most hated man in PWA, so he and Pandora got molten heat. The crowd popped for Sunshine’s Bronco Buster and chanted her name. The wicked one kept jumping on the apron to distract. Sunshine speared Pandora through the ropes onto the floor. Pandora wasn’t going to beat Stan Robinson's 10 count and Wicked had to throw her back in the ring. Pandora blocked the Lollipop Drop and used a bulldog with an extra boost off the turnbuckle to score the pin. They’ve had many better matches at PCW. Sunshine looked rusty. It mattered not. Match quality is a non-issue with the way this crowd reacts.
Dusty McWilliams called out PWA Owner (and War Games participant) Shane Noles. McWilliams is a fake Texan from Alabama, and he took exception to being left off of PWA's big show of the year. Noles said he had a 1000 things on his mind and McWilliams wasn't one of them. Line of the night for sure. Since McWilliams was insisting on competition, Noles obliged. Out came Little Fabio (aka Too Tall Shortts/Chris Blanton).This was a nice piece of booking to cover for no-show Little Poppa Pump. Too bad they had to do the match.
(3) Little Fabio defeated Dusty McWilliams in 9:15. Fabio was giving McWilliams fits with the usual midget schtick. The comedy worked. Fabio did a second rope walk into a huracanrana. The crowd faded once McWilliams took over. It went on too long. Watching a big guy beat up a midget isn't my idea of entertainment. Antonio Garza came to ringside. McWilliams became highly agitated by Garza’s presence, allowing Fabio to surprise him with a flying bodypress. The crowd went wild for the finish.
Long intermission to facilitate gimmick sales.
(4) Mike Reid defeated Bad Company in 5:15. Reid is a dollar store version of Hillbilly Jim. The other giant, Bill the Butcher did not materialize, so they improvised with a little masked guy as Reid’s opponent. The crowd was fairly dead. There wasn’t much to like. Reid bumped too easily and sold too much for BC. The end came after BC missed a top rope splash, and Reid capitalized with a jumping splash.
(5) Antonio Garza defeated Stitch Sypher to win the PWA Junior Championship in 10:40. Sypher is a Mr. Hughes trainee out of WWA4. This match did not speak well of his training. Garza is a full-blooded Mexican. He’s a solid veteran and was one many Alabama-based wrestlers on the card. He has an interesting hip hop look and connects will with the crowd. A few really good things and lot of bad stuff in the match. They didn’t make good dance partners. The timing was way off when they tried to do the fast-paced acrobatic exchanges. Sypher’s striking sucks and some of his kicks were in slow-motion. Sypher’s senton from a kneeling position on the top rope looked stellar. Ditto Garza’s tope. The crowd got into it down the stretch. Garza missed a cannonball senton. Sypher tried for a swanton bomb and Garza got his knees up. Garza won it with a moonsault block.
Afterward, McWilliams attacked Garza and left him laying with an impressive moonsault using the belt for added impact. Call me crazy, but it’s tough to take a guy that just lost to a midget seriously.
Intermission to set up the cage. Jimmy Oxendine has the sturdiest cage around. He uses clamps to hold it together and he’s able to get it set up quickly.
(6) Team PWA (Mike Jackson & Shane Noles & Simon Sermon & Tommy Too Much & Ultimate Dragon defeated Team MOD (J-Rod & CJ Awesome & Cru Jones & Chris Knox & Wicked Nemesis) in the War Games match at 34:18 when Nemesis surrendered to Noles. Jackson, age 62, went the distance and bled heavily. The one-on-one segment with J-Rod lasted three minutes and it was good stuff. J-Rod started working on Jackson’s arm. Jackson answered with a divorce court off the ropes and went after J-Rod’s arm. Jackson did Undertaker’s old school by walking along the top of the cage. Awesome entered next. There was no coin flip and it wasn’t clear how the man advantage had been determined. The PWA tag champs gave Jackson a beating. Noles entered to a monster pop. He’s not usually a wrestler, but has been drawn into the ring due to the intensity of this feud. Awesome was on the receiving end of the purple nurples. The first PWA chant came as the good guys took over. Knox was next. He’s a muscled up dude from Alabama. J-Rod landed devastating kicks to the knees. Jackson’s face was covered in blood. Too Much evened the odds. Awesome bled a trickle. Noles bled a good bit. Jackson started hitting MOD with his belt. Jones gave MOD the advantage again. The presence of Jones and J-Rod provided starpower that had been missing for most of the show. Sermon was next. It was getting chaotic with 8 guys in the ring. A quadruple clothesline put MOD down. Team PCW was licking their chops waiting for Wicked Nemesis, who wanted no part of this. Security finally threw Nemesis into the cage. Sermon used brass knucks on MOD. J-Rod was busted open big time. Ultimate Dragon was the last man in. He doesn’t look like much, but he got a huge reaction. In a nutshell, Dragon was a dastardly heel that wound up being banished from the promotion. Noles brought him back for one night only to help PWA. PWA cleaned house. A key moment was Noles shaking hands with Dragon. Jackson dove off the cage onto MOD. They went down like bowling pins. It was about as safe as something like that can be, but damn, the guy is 62 years old. Sermon and Noles ran Nemesis’ head into the cage. Nemesis bled. Dragon gave Nemesis a Death Valley Driver. Noles put Nemesis in the sharpshooter. That got broken up. Noles then put Nemesis in the figure four. Nemesis was screaming in agony with blood streaming down his face as he tapped out. The crowd had been standing throughout the match, and they exploded when Nemesis surrendered. Team MOD is gone for 6 months and had to give up all their titles. This was a very good War Games because the booking had instilled compelling justifications for the violence.
In the middle of the War Games, there was a hullabaloo in the parking lot. A black man had allegedly touched a young white woman inappropriately and run off into the darkness. A PWA event PWA would be incomplete without some form of redneck drama. At a recent PWA show, a guy had a heart attack after the first match and the main event was overshadowed by a fan fight in the bathroom.
Noles installed the Exotic Ones (Sermon & Too Much) as his new tag team champions. He then named Jackson as the new PWA Heritage Champion.
Just when it looked like everyone was going home happy, Dragon laid Jackson out with a DVD.
Dragon grabbed a tire iron and threatened to bash Jackson’s skull in unless Noles met his demands: 1) permanent reinstatement 2) Noles wasn’t allowed to touch him and 3) Noles made him the PWA Champion. Under the pressure of Jackson’ head being split open down to the white meat, Noles agreed to everything. Dragon left with the title. Get ready for chapter 87 of Dragon vs. Jackson.
The big surprise was yet to come. A masked man and his little buddy came out of the crowd to lay out the Exotic Ones. The masked man revealed himself to be Rick Michaels, fresh out of the slammer. Michaels stood over his former partner, Sermon, and went off. Michaels said he spent 10 months in the county jail without a letter or a visit and Sermon refused to accept his calls. Michaels said he was the Exotic One and he was back to make Sermon’s life a living hell. Fans were already pissed and this was gasoline on the fire. The reality of Michaels’ incarceration made a dark ending to the evening that much more disturbing.
NOTES: Notables in attendance included Robert Gibson, former AWA World Tag Team Champion Doug Somers and former NWA Wildside/Anarchy star Iceberg, SECW promoter Scott East (whose return as an active promoter drew over 250 in Villa Rica) and UIW promoter/wrestler Billy Knight…The ring announcer was Tony Calhoun except for the main event, which was handled by Eddie Layne, the host of the “Beyond Ringside” podcast out of Birmingham. Layne did a great job of putting over the inherent dangers associated with a cage match.
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