Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
Premiere Wrestling Xperience presented Dawn of a New Day at Rockhill Gymnastics in Rock Hill, SC drawing a full house of 350.
Promoter Brian Kanabroski puts on a first class show. I"ve been to PWX event at four different venues and I have greatly enjoyed all of them.Dawn was a really good show and also a really long show (3 and ½ hours). Clearly, the crowd was not as exuberant during the second half. Dawn fell between two major shows - last month's X16 tournament and Rise of Champions next month, so it was mostly table setting and highly effective in that regard.
Over the last decade, PWX has nurtured a loyal, supportive fan base. That fact was fully in evidence n Rock Hill, which became their new home in 2021 as a result of COVID fallout. Their fans are passionate about the product.
PWX ensures that when they bring in name outsiders, the PWX guys are the ones that go over and that was true at Dawn of a New Day. Lucky Ali and Drew Adler scored big wins. X16 winner TJ Boss got another huge win over a long-time PWX star who was on his way out.
Dawn of a New Day was recorded for Highspots VOD release. The announce team was Bret Wolverton, Trevin Adams (WWN) and Dave Foster (Palmetto Championship Wrestling). Kevin Pierce had a long night as he refereed every match.
Pre-show: Landon Hale defeated Austin Bebop in 5 minutes.
(1) Fluffman defeated Mason Myles in 5:35. Fluffman has improved dramatically since I saw him at VPW a couple of years back. His 300 pound tope popped the crowd. There was a strong heel/babyface dynamic here and in most of the matches throughout the night. Fluffman reversed Myles’ tornado DDT attempt to score the pinfall.
(2) Cam Carter (with J.P. Lehman) defeated Savannah Evans to retain the Innovative TV title in 7:33. Crowd was behind Evans bigtime. They hate Carter and his Wall Street backer. Lehman totally looks the part. Carter did a great job of egging on the heat. No credibility problem with this man vs. woman match. Evans is taller than Carter and outweighs him. Evans had Carter pinned with a DDT but Lehman put his foot on the ropes. Carter pinned Evans with an O’Connor roll and a fistful of tights.
(3) Chip Day defeated Ethan Case via submission in 13:45. This was super entertaining. Case said he was stressed because he had three kids and his wife was pregnant (very, she was in the crowd). Boatloads of crowd interaction. Day and Case made it known they did not appreciate all the input into how they worked their match. The broke out a thumb wrestling match that ended with Day scoring a near fall with his thumb. When they decided to wrestle, it was good stuff in the form of friendly competition, playing off the fact that Day and Case have known each other eons. The pace intensified leading into the finish with back and forth near falls. Case connected with the pop up punch but Day locked in the heel hook.
Pierce threw up the X after the match. Day was right there checking on him. Case had an asthma attack scare but he was OK.
(4) Suge D defeated Alexander Moss to retain the Pure Division Championship via submission in 12:43. Wolveton explained the Pure Division rules - no strikes to the head, two ropes breaks apiece and fighting outside the ring prohibited. I loved Suge as the trash talking, cheater of a technical champion. Moss is another guy that has improved drastically over the last two years. Before the bell, Suge hit Moss in the face when Pierce wasn’t looking and tried to bait Moss into slugging him. Fast forward, Pierce caught Suge striking Moss in the face and penalized him his last rope break. Moss applied a Texas Cloverleaf and Suge had to find another way out when the ropes did him no good. Suge got a triangle Moss powerbombed out of it. Suge got a stretch cradle and Moss tapped. Good match.
(5) PWX tag team champions The Revolt! (Caleb Konley & Zane Riley) defeated The Influencers (Patrick Scott & Chance Rizer) in a non-title match (13:17). Comedy abounded and it was genuinely funny. Rizer and Konley pulled out their phone and got into a shoot tweet war during the match (check it out). Riley ended up wearing Konley’s glasses. Riley did the obligatory thumb in the bum suplex. The Heatseekers (Sigmon & Elliott Russell) pulled up chairs to watch. There was a crazy ass Doomsday Device spot where Konley flew through the ropes to clothesline Rizer off Riley’s shoulders onto The Heatseekers. The finish was a top rope double stomp/draping DDT combo on Scott.
Heatseekers brawled with Revolt after the match. Revolt were about to kill Sigmon when Russell pulled him out of the ring.
Booker Patrick Price announced that PWX would partner with Eddie Kingston’s Grindhouse for Rise of the Champions on March 20. Adams explained the concept of Grindhouse. The Grindhouse show will take place the afternoon of the 20th before Rise.
(6) Lucky Ali defeated JD Drake in 15:14. Ali has attitude and uniqueness. He was not going to be intimidated. Drake is so bad ass. He gave him a hellacious beating. The chops were wicked. Ali wasn’t about to quit and never stopped firing back, albeit without a lot of oomph at times. When Ali takes flight, whether it be on a bump or on offense, it’s explosive. Ali kicked out of a black hole slam and Vader bomb to the back. The crowd was shocked when Ali pinned Drake with a spectacular reverse top rope splash. This was my pick for match of the night. It elevated Ali. Drake gave Ali a fist bump of respect after the match.
Ali called Carter out and demanded an ITV title shot at Rise. This turned into a heated situation. Ali said he earned it and Carter couldn’t win without his sugar daddy watching. Lehman said he knew a money match when he saw one. He would recuse himself from the match BUT it would be a ladder match. The crowd popped huge for that.
(7) Drew Adler defeated Davey Boy Smith Jr in 15:37. Adler is over with the PWX crowd. I expected a bigger reaction for Smith. He wasn’t shy about using brawling tactics and worked on Adler’s shoulder. Smith continued to get the lion’s share of the offense. The crowd was pulling hard for Adler but he wasn’t showing much firepower. For the finish, Adler did super sunset flip. Smith reversed and Adler reversed the reversal.
After seeing Adler’s great matches with Dominik Dijakovic, I was looking forward to this match. It was just OK. Adler and Smith didn’t gel. The match never kicked into high gear.
Postmatch - Smith took a slug of Adler’s Top Tier nutrition drink, dropped down for 10 push ups and said “it work!”
(8) In a meeting of X16 winners, 2020 winner TJ Boss defeated 2016 winner Harlem Bravado in 22:46. Two crowd favorites going at it here. This was a grueling match that gradually built to a compelling finish. The crowd was fully engaged before it was over. They used a lot of chops, which would have been fine if the crowd hadn’t seen Drake’s chops. Bravado’s slingshot flip into a stunner looked fabulous. They did the old school sleeper spot where TJ’s arm dropped twice but not the third time. The crowd chanted “this is awesome” chant when Boss kicked out of a draping stunner. Boss superkick, Bravado enzuigiri, Boss lariat and both were down. Bravado went nuts when Boss kicked out his Yoshi Tonic. Three Yakuza kicks by Bravado proved to be one to many. Boss caught Bravado with a leg trap suplex and pinned him with a sky high powerbomb.
Bravado said Boss proved he belonged in the main event.
Boss thanked Bravado for laying the groundwork at PWX.
Bravado thanked the fans and bid farewell to PWX. Bravado has reportedly signed with WWE.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
