Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
On Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 5:05 AM EST

Larry Goodman sent in the following report:

Deep South Wrestling TV
Airing April 22, 2007 on CSS
Taped on April 12, 2007 in McDonough, Ga at the DSW Arena

The final episode of Deep South Wrestling opened with highlight clips of last week’s results by Nigel Sherrod. In the main event, Perez beat Siaki despite Afa’s interference. Tonight’s main event was scheduled to be the Samoans vs. Perez and Ryan O’Reilly.

Next up was Brooke Adam conducting an inring interview with Kofi Kingston and Luscious.

Shawn Osborne cut a solo backstage promo.

(1) Shawn Osborne beat Koji Nahaje Kingston. Bradley Jay was back on commentary with Sherrod again this week. After an exchange of hiptosses, Kingston grabbed a side headlock. Osborne countered with a back suplex to take control. Osborne used a snap suplex and a back elbow for near falls. Kingston reversed a suplex attempt with a small package. Osborne kicked out and cut Kingston off with a lariat. A series of right hands sparked a trademark Kingston comeback. Kingston dropkicked Osborne and hit a back suplex of his own. Kingston used a high back body drop for a near fall. Kingston went up top for a missile dropkick, but Osborne evaded it and swooped in with a swinging neckbreaker to score the upset victory.

Ryan O’Reilly was approaching the door of the DSW office when Afa Jr. dazed him with a superkick. The Samoans laid O’Reilly out with a double headbutt. Krissy Vaine ran out and started shrieking. She called co-GM Angel Williams out and they got hysterical together.

Heath Miller horned in on somebody else’s interview time again. And not a moment too soon, since it was Adams and Robert Anthony. “It’s a good time for Miller time," said Miller. Adams said not so much. Miller said he wasn’t getting the respect he demanded, so he would make his statement in the ring. Anthony wondered what Miller’s problem was. Yo, Robert, it’s pretty damn obvious that the fluke pin on Siaki has gone to the poor boy’s head.

(2) Robert Anthony defeated Heath Miller in 5:41. Jay was laughing his ass off about O’Reilly’s misfortune. Sherrod speculated that O’Reilly and Perez were no longer the Samoans’ opponents in the main event. The opening minutes of the match saw Miller’s frustration mount as he was outwrestled by Anthony. Miller teased a closed fist and backed Anthony into the ropes Blam! Miller decked him with a haymaker. Miller put the boots to him. Jay said it was a wise man that takes advantage of the five count. They struggled for position and Anthony regained the side headlock. Miller blasted Anthony with a forearm. Anthony tried a shoulder block from the apron, but Miller met him with a kneelift and then a swinging neckbreaker for a near fall. Miller stayed on the neck with a cool variation of a cravate. Anthony fired back and leveled Miller with a spinkick. Anthony hit a slingblade lariat for a near fall. Anthony did a sunset flip off the top, but Miller kicked out. They went back and forth with pin attempts until Anthony got the three count with a backslide.

Nattie Neidhart and Shantelle entered the ring with Bag Lady. Adams brought up their heat with Krissy Vaine and Angel Williams. Neidhart said that “as an upstanding citizen for DSW," she was defending the Bag Lady’s honor. Shantelle said the fact that Vaine and Williams were running things didn’t give them a license to hit Neidhart with a shoe or victimize an innocent civilian. She said they looked cute in pink and black. Neidhart chimed in. “You know what I think? The pink and black attack is back. Yeah, baby."

Krissy and Angel made their way out onto the ramp. Angel disrespected the babyface Divas right off. Krissy noted that the co-GMs were wearing their own (frou-frou) version of the pink and black. Krissy said garbage the likes of which was in the ring didn’t belong on their show, so it was time to take out the trash.

(3) Nattie Neidhart & Shantelle (with Bag Lady) beat Krissy Vaine & Angel Williams in 5:45. Jay said Nigel had to pay to be in presence of women of this caliber. Sherrod denied it, but Jay wouldn’t let it go. Meanwhile, Neidhart and Vaine werg going at. Vaine tried to scramble for a tag, but Neidhart pulled her back to midring and gave her a bodyslam. Neidhart gave Shantelle an assist on a wheelbarrow splash. Shantelle followed with a spinning headscissors. The heat started with Vaine laying Shantelle’s body across the top ropes, so Williams could strangle her with her pink boa. The GMs isolated Shantelle in their half of the ring. Williams used a basement dropkick and a wicked kneelift for near falls. A double flying hair pull face plant left both Divas down. Double tags. Neidhart clubbed Vaine with a discus lariat, but Williams made the last split second save. Shantelle passed Bag Lady’s high heel to Neidhart. This was not smooth at all, but referee Wes Adams stayed busy chastising Williams. Neidhart jabbed Vaine with the heel and pinned her.

Majors Brothers were backstage with Adams. Brett said winning the DSW tag titles was the epitome, and losing them was the pits. He said that after a month long sabbatical to hit the gym and study tapes, they were back to claim the titles for the third time. Brian said their “just-happy-to-be-here-tassel-wearing" days were over, because they were entering a new era.

Cut to the Samoans. Siaki said when they step through the curtain, the fans should be on their feet applauding and giving them the respect they deserve.

We were born bad, raised bad, and now we are winners.

Afa found it sad that they got booed, while the fans cheered “the pretty, white cliché of a tag team that the Majors Brothers are."

(4) Siaki & Afa Jr. beat Majors Brothers (Brett & Brian) in 11:45. Jay dismissed Sherrod’s charge that the Samoans didn’t want to face Perez and O’Reilly, after Perez had beaten each of them in singles matches. Jay pointed out that it was Perez that ended up with the Samoans’ lavalava draped over his carcass last week. Siaki stalled to build heat. Some crisp combo work by the Majors here. Siaki planted Brett on the top turnbuckle and smacked him across the face, but Brian distracted Siaki and Brett nailed him from behind with a missile dropkick. Majors controlled the Samoans with the side headlock. The match did a 180 when Siaki’s chicanery caused Scrappy McGowan to get distracted. The Samoans dropped Brett’s throat across the top rope with a hotshot stunner, and turnbuckle pad flew off. Brett was gagging like he had taken his last breath. Siaki added to his misery with a throat drop across the steel barricade. Afa then whipped Brett into the exposed metal turnbuckle, and the Samoans beat the living hell out of him in the corner. Afa catapulted Brett’s throat into the bottom rope. Siaki cut off a comeback attempt with a standing dropkick for a near fall. Afa hit a diving headbutt of the middle rope. Afa applied the dreaded nerve hold. Afa used a headbutt for a near fall. The crowd got behind the Brett, who hoisted a charging Afa so his head made contact with the ringpost. Great bump by Afa. Brian ran wild with the hot tag. Stout stuff. He hit a swinging neckbreaker on Siaki for a near fall. But Siaki foiled an up and over move by dropping him on his head. Brian kicked out of that. Siaki charged and got caught with a spinebuster. Afa pulled Brian off the pin attempt. Brett sent Afa sailing through the ropes with a shoulder block. While McGowan was getting Brett out, Afa delivered a swift kick to Brian’s back, making him a sitting duck for Siaki’s high impact powerslam.

Closing Thoughts: I’m going to miss Deep South. It would have been very successful promotion back in the days of regional territories. The primary differences being that the athletic ability, and, as time went on, the wrestling ability was better in Deep South. And the promos were no doubt far inferior. Just like back in the day, angles were few and far between, so they packed a bigger wallop. In 18 months of weekly television, they did one blood angle and broke one table. So it came as no surprise that most of the people I know that got into DSW were, like myself, fans of that era of wrestling. (It didn’t dawn on me until last week that I was at the first show run by the original Deep South promotion in the mid 80s). By the same token, indie wrestling fans seemed to find little about DSW to their liking.

Apparently, there were a lot of things that weren’t to WWE’s liking either, chief among them “Assassin" Joe Hamilton’s fiercely independent nature. It was Hamilton’s company and mostly Hamilton’s money, and he was going to do things his way, from not seeing eye-to-eye with Bill Behrens, such that Behrens was gone within months, to making television deals without WWE approval, to choosing when and where to run house shows (or not), to posting a response critical of WWE’s firing of DSW’s head trainer, Bill DeMott.

It’s been said that Hamilton’s old school style of training wasn’t the right fit for today’s WWE. In some ways, I think that’s true, in other ways not. While one can argue with the drill sergeant aspects of DeMott’s training techniques (too many overuse injuries), DSW’s trademark was a credible, consistent inring style with solid execution of the basics. High risk stunts and hardcore violence were kept to a minimum. Matches were mostly in the 5-8 minute range. It was very much like the typical WWE television style. I’ve spoken with a number of wrestlers that spent time at DSW on a non-contract basis and to a man, they expressed profiting greatly from the experience.

However, there appeared to be major divergence from WWE’s philosophy when it came to character development. Hamilton believes in organic character development, building on what is already inside the individual versus “creative" coming up with ideas from the outside. Whether or not Hamilton’s method leads to greater success in the long run, it clearly did not produce quick results. Some of the promos and vignettes that aired were beyond horrible. At times, it was difficult to fathom why somebody in authority didn’t insist on another take. It’s interesting to note that the wrestlers whose characters showed the most advancement were non-contract talent like Heath Miller, Luscious and “Bag Lady" Melissa Coates. The contract talent that had unique characters and promo styles (Freakin Deacon, MVP, Siaki, Mike Knox, Palmer Canon, Angel Williams) were well along the way before they arrived at DSW. Ryan O’Reilly and Krissy Vaine were notable exceptions. O’Reilly’s promo style was developing well until he caught caught Gymini’s disease where all his promos started to sound the same. Vaine had gotten over as a heel once she was transformed into the conniving southern belle GM.

This show was taped 6 days before WWE pulled the plug. Hamilton had no advance warning, so everything about the television show was left as unfinished business. At least they went out on a high note with a hot match. The Samoans/Majors match was one of the more intense, crisply executed main events in the history of the company. Samoans turned it up several notches on offense. Afa appears to smoothing off some of the rough edges in his game. Majors Brothers looked as good as they’ve ever looked. And they’re always at their best with Brett taking the heat and Brian taking the hot tag. The women’s match was OK until the finish. If WWE has any interest in women that can wrestle, Neidhart is going to make it, but not without rethinking the presentation of her character. Either she needs to go heel or get a complete makeover as a babyface. No comedic overtones from Osborne this time. I took Osborne winning clean as a sign that they figured or knew Kingston was moving up soon, and they wanted to establish Osborne as a legit singles contender, now that his team with Jon Bolen was down the drain. The surprising thing was how dead the crowd was for Kingston. Miller vs. Anthony was a fine little match. Miller seemed scarily at home with his new persona. It worked for me. Jay was way better on commentary the second time around. He got the snide quality of his character across better than ever, and he blended well with Sherrod. Speaking of Sherrod, he really picked up the ball and ran with it once DeMott was fired. He was being paired with a different color commentator every week, most of them with very limited experience behind the mic, and the results were better than anyone could have realistically expected. In the dark matches, Johnny Curtis beat Frankie Coverdale, Ray Gordy beat Cru Jones, T. J. Wilson beat Brian Cage, and Jay beat Harry Smith.