7 Dec Deep South Wrestling TV Taping
Deep South Wrestling ran their weekly television taping at the DSW Arena in McDonough, Georgia Thursday night. It should make for a solid hour of TV. Attendance was 150. The fans had there favorites but by no means a rabid crowd on the whole.
(A) Jake Hager pinned Dan Rodimer (with Brooke Adams) in 6:36. Note to Stefanie: Rodimer has superstar potential and has far more natural charisma than Chris Masters (faint praise for sure but for the sake of comparison to a former hot prospect with an impressive physique). But with such a limited amount of ring time under his belt, he’s not ready for national television. Adams has the most delicious derrière in Divaland, a fact that her outfit made abundantly clear. Props to the designer of her gear. There was something about her presence that brought Stacy “Kat” Carter to mind. The match pitted Hager’s wrestling skills against Rodimer’s brute force. Hager kept taking Rodimer down to show that he had the big guy’s number. Hager countered a vertical suplex with a Russian legsweep for a near fall. Rodimer took over with a sidewalk slam. Rodimer did a number on Hager’s back. Hager suddenly put Rodimer on his back but he grabbed the ropes at one. Rodimer got near falls with a vertical suplex and a pair of elbow drops. His basic offense looks decent enough. Hager maneuvered out of harms way, and Rodimer went shoulder-first into the post. Not very convincingly I’m afraid. Hager sold the back as he started a fiery comeback. He even pulled the straps down. But Rodimer leveled Hager with a high boot in the face. It looked like the beginning of the end for Hager, but he cradled Rodimer out of nowhere for the 1-2-3. Good pop for the finish.
(B) Freakin Deacon beat Bob “The Rebel” Hoskins in 1:10 with a tree slam. Prior to the opening bell, The Bag Lady wheeled her shopping cart into the building and took a seat in the bleachers. Deacon was momentarily love struck. Hoskins jumped Deacon from behind and dumped him out in front of his lady. The Bag Lady gave Deacon a whack of encouragement to wake him up. Deacon decked Hoskins and climbed to the top, presumably for a finisher, but he slipped of the ropes and went to plan B with the choke bomb. Bag Lady took the worst bump of the match when Deacon dropped her in the shopping cart for the ride home. He about busted his lady’s tailbone.
(C) Oleg Prudius pinned Kofe Nahaje Kingston in 3:34. Kingston tried to capitalize on his advantage in speed and agility. Prudius hit a back suplex and worked on the Jamaican’s lower back with headbutts. Prudius shook off a pair of dropkicks, but Kingston scored a near fall with a high crossbody. Kingston missed with a jumping spinning roundhouse. Prudius laid out his happy-go-lucky-ganja-riddled ass with a kneeling variant of Shock Treatment. Prudius put a foot on Kingston’s chest for a two count and then covered for the pin.
(D) Heath Miller beat Big Bully Douglas in 4:19 with Miller’s Crossing. DSW is training guys to do matches that come across as a realistic, athletic struggle. Done well, the style produces some intense and interesting matches. But when the chemistry is off, as it was in this case, the results are ragged and not all that entertaining. Miller got a strong pop as usual. Douglas caught a charging Miller with a double boot and tried to pin him with his feet on the ropes. Scrappy McGowan was wise to it. Douglas went to the eyes to shut down Miller’s momentum. Douglas dropped an elbow to the back for a near fall, but Miller got his feet up on a Bully’s reverse splash attempt. Miller launched the comeback. Miller’s finisher is a duck under into a hangman’s neckbreaker.
(E) Ray Gordy beat Adam West in 4:51 with a top rope splash. Ray Geezy, the sordid wigger character from the ATL is history. Gordy teamed up with Henry Godwin at the last taping and was transformed into a bib overall-wearing country boy from Soddy Daisy (his real hometown). I can’t decide which is worse. West is a good looking kid out of Chicago. Insert dated Batman reference here. There was an inexplicable chant for West early in the match. Gordy seized control and scored a series of near falls. West rallied for a pair of his own. Gordy hit a reverse DDT and went up for the finisher. Not a bad match, just kind of bland.
(F) Tony Santarelli beat Johnny Curtis 5:10. Santarelli got one of the best babyface pops of the night. Crowd was chanting “Tony” and then “break it off” as he applied armbars and wristlocks. Curtis started working on Santarelli’s back. They each blocked suplex attempts. It turned into a slugfest of stiff forearms. Santarelli checked his mouth for blood. Santarelli ducked a forearm and hit the snap suplex. Curtis came up empty on a mad charge into the corner, and Santarelli caught him with the ropes-assisted enzuigiri for the three count.
Intermission. Bill DeMott joined Nigel Sherrod on commentary for the television taping.
The Deep South Diva merchandise drawing was emceed by Rebecca DePietro with the able-bodies assistance of Tracy Taylor, Shantelle and Luscious.
The taping opened with a Majors Brothers interview conducted by DiPietro. All of the promos were taped and shown on the big screen. The former tag team champions said they lost the titles to UA due to the presence of G-Rilla. Brian committed the cardinal sin of referring to the titles as “straps.” Majors said they were bringing their equalizer next week. DiPietro said she couldn’t wait to see who it was.
(1) Afa pinned Suede at 4:42. Previously known as “Afa Jr. The Samoan Storm,” he is the son of the Wild Samoan. Afa is at the stage where his stuff looks good in flashes but a lot of aspects of his game are still pretty green. For some reason, I like Suede tons better with the mask. Afa got the upper hand by dropping Suede on his face on an up and over move. Afa used a Canadian backbreaker. Seude slipped away and caught Afa with a DDT. Suede roared back with a barrage of kicks. Suede connected with a climbing knee in the corner. Suede did a spectacular crash and burn on a skytwister press. Afa hit a Blue Thunder Bomb for a strong finish.
Micah Taylor (with Tracy) was interviewed by Adams. Micah called Heath a crazy man that was oblivious to the rules. Micah said he was going to give Heath a chill pill and bring him back to reality.
David Heath cut an awesome promo on Micah. Heath portrayed himself as the crusty veteran breaking in the whiny, young punk. Heath said nobody was nice to him when he broke into the business 20 years ago. Heath said he was doing Micah a favor, and Micah should be thanking him for doing his job.
(2) Micah Taylor (with Tracy) beat David Heath in 7:21. It was between Micah and Santarelli for best babyface pop of the night. The first 5 minutes was all Micah, as he frustrated Heath with a variety of leglocks. Micah used a stepover toehold. Micah kicked it into high gear and hit a leg lariat for a near fall. Heath finally gave Micah a hotshot to seize the advantage. Heath used elbow drops for a pair of two counts. Taylor ducked away from Heath’s charge into the corner and rolled him up. The crowd heaped heat on Heath, chanting “David’s ugly.” Good match because it was different than the rest.
Promo by Gymini (with Angel Williams) Gymini gave a sarcastic congratulations to Urban Assault for winning the tag titles. Said there was no way they could have done it without their 400 pound monster, G-Rilla. Williams said GM Krissy Vaine had lost control of DSW and she was taking matters into her own hands.
DiPietro was with Vaine. She denied the rumors were the product of bored workers with nothing better to do. She said Williams was just jealous. Vaine claimed Jody Hamilton was perfectly content with the job she was doing as GM.
UA was with Luscious. Siaki said the “scary brown people” had brought honor and dignity to the tag titles.
(3) Urban Assault (Siaki & Perez with G-Rilla) defeated Gymini (with Angel Williams) in 8:53. UA are now working without shirts, which does no favors for Perez. Gymini worked over Perez in the early going. At 3 minutes in, Perez hit a Kory Chavis Spinesplitta and Jake took heat from UA. Jake caught Perez with a swinging neckbreaker that left both men down. Hot tag. Jesse laid out both member of UA with full nelson Russian legsweeps. Jesse hit fireman’s carry cutter on Siaki but Perez broke up the pin. It broke down to four way action. Afa walked out and shoved Williams down on her face. Jake went after Afa. With the ref distracted, G-Rilla entered the ring and crushed Jesse with the ICU. Siaki pinned Jesse. Good match. Crowd was split during the match but the finish solidified them behind Gymini.
Derrick Neikirk was interviewed by DiPietro. Neikirk reminded Bradley Jay that he was champion for 8 months. Neikirk said that if it wasn’t for Mike Knox (and the brass knucks), Ryan O’Reilly would have beaten Jay. Neikirk said he was going to pick Jay apart and hold the belt twice as long this time.
Jay was with Luscious. He brought up the old saying “everything comes to he that waits.” He said Neikirk had plenty of time to strategize and he expected nothing less than Neikirk’s best.
(4) Bradley Jay retained the DSW Heavyweight Title vs. Derrick Neikirk in a TV time limit draw (10:05). They did the uber lock up spot that spilled out onto the floor. Back inside the ring, Neikirk dropped Jay’s neck across his knee from a top wristlock. Sweet. Neikirk attacked the neck. Neikirk jumped over Jay’s Kamikaze Roll and speared him. Jay came back working on Neikirk’s leg. Neikirk bailed out selling the leg. They traded heavy blows. Jay took out Neikirk’s knee for a two count. Neikirk hit a back suplex and followed with a long distance elbow drop off the middle rope. Jay kicked out. Jay hit the Kamikaze Roll. Jay got an ankle lock, but Neikirk made the ropes. Neikirk hit a belly to belly suplex, but didn’t get all of it becaue of the damage to his leg. Jay got the ankle lock again with 30 seconds to go. Neikirk hung on until the time limit expired. Neikirk was furious after the match and took his frustrations out on the ringsteps. An excellent TV main. The offensive execution, the selling and the psychology were all solid, and the count down on the time limit added an extra element of drama.
NOTES: Afa Anoia Sr. and Bert Prentice were backstage…Former DSW ring announcer Dan Masters was in the house…Rob Russo, who usually works as a referee, subbed for Ted Guinness as ring announcer. He was referring to the DSW titles as world titles. Yikes. Guinness returns next week…DSW was advertising an autograph signing for this afternoon at the Subway at the McDonough West shopping center with the Majors, Deacon, “Bag Lady” Melissa Coates, Vaine, UA and Ryan O’Reilly…O’Reilly and Knox were both there but not used.
