Larry Goodman sent this report in:
Showtime All-Star Wrestling
Airing October 31, 2009 in Nashville on CW58
Taped October 10, 2009 at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds Sports Arena in Nashville, Tn
Leah ?The Bond Girl? Hulan and her ?bail baby? Laila were in proper Halloween attire to do the SAW starts NOW!
Cut to a shot of the packed house at the Fairgrounds and then backstage to Reno Riggins and Michael Graham. If you thought Reno was jacked up for the opens at the SAW Mill, you ain?t seen nothing yet. ?Nashville has turned for big time wrestling, and SAW will deliver.? Both were decked out in swank suits and ties for the occasion, but what were they thinking with those Grumpy’s baseball caps? The main event: A Tables Match between Chase Stevens and Andy Douglas.
Sean Casey entered the ring with the Freak Squad. They danced. That did not look big time. Reno said the Fairgrounds was the place he learned to be a pro wrestler.
They cut to a promo by Wolfie D. He said after TNA, Slash, and Disciples of the New Church, the people thought Wolfie D was done, but after 5 years, he was having a rebirth, returning to the place that made him.
From pillar to pillar and coast to coast, I?m going to burn your ass like a piece of toast. It’s Wolfie D, baby, I?ve got a cap for your dome.
Enter Wolfie to a very warm welcome.
Returning from commercial, we saw clips of SAW at the Middle Tennessee State University Homecoming celebration. Chase Stevens was there. Leah Hulan was all over it. She lead a ?SAW starts now!? chant with some of the fraternity brothers.
1 ? SEAN CASEY (with the Freak Squad) vs. WOLFIE D
Graham was blown away by the crowd. Wolfie hit a pescado/lariat early. Lead freak Tatyana (formerly Tiana), looking quite stunning and far more poised than she ever did at the SAW Mill, grabbed Wolfie’s leg to set up the heat. Casey used a a slingshot suplex and his middle rope diamond cutter for near falls. Wolfie hit this killer DDT to spark his comeback. He then delivered a windmill punch channeling Jerry Lawler. Tiana tried to interfere and Wolfie spanked her. Casey connected with his superkick finisher, but made a lazy back cover and Wolfie got a foot on the ropes. Wolfie won it with a flying elbow drop from a reverse DDT position.
WINNER: Wolfie D in 7:14. Fun match. Wolfie brought the panache. Lots of love from the crowd and he knew just how and when to play to them. Casey needs to stick with Tatyana and lose the other Freaks. They just cheapen the act. Casey made a great opponent. I know it’s part of his gimmick, but the one thing that detracted was Casey never making a serious pin attempt, even after the superkick. At least Reno called him out on it.
SAW Presents ?Free For All Bar Room Brawl” on Saturday, November 7 at Buffalo Billiards, 154 2nd Ave South in downtown Nashville. This is a 21 and over event with a 10:30pm bell time. The main event will be Wolfie D vs. Rick Santel; Derrick King Enterprises defend the SAW Tag Team Titles against the Scarboni Brothers; Among those scheduled to appear are ?Maniac? Marc Anthony, Hammerjack, Mr. Jacko, and ?Teen Excitement? Drew Haskins.
Leah with a Grumpy’s Most Wanted Bail Jumpers update. Josh Crowe was back under lock and key, thanks to the viewers of SAW and the fabulous fugitive recovery team.
?Maniac? Marc Anthony was in yet another weird location. Anthony was sitting in some type of wooden enclosure on a sunny afternoon. He had the army helmet pulled down in such a way that his eyes were never visible.
Father, you told me when you left me here, I had one more chance to redeem myself, and that I will. I found a dagger, a real sharp knife. I shall pierce Hammerjerk. I shall end this fight. But I shall play the games, walk in his mind, twist him up, and make him mine. Like a small child, all innocent in his hands, he holds her so close. It’s his greatest love my friends. But my childhood was taken. I was alone in that dark place. No one held me. So now I take back and I?begin?to play.
Anthony peered over the top of the enclosure. It was a park. The camera panned over to where Hammerjack was playing with a young girl.
Reno said this went beyond competition. He referenced a previous vignette in which Anthony threw a dart into a photo of Hammerjack. Reno gave Hammerjack credit for staying focused on the SAW International Title. He said Anthony’s behavior was an act of perversion, and Commissioner Freddie Morton would take exception to it. Graham said he didn?t know if Morton was the proper authority. ?You talked about taking it to the next level tonight, I and I think they?ve done just that.? Reno introduced a review of the events leading up to the tables match.
They showed clips of various atrocities Douglas had committed against Stevens, starting with the night Douglas came up through the ring under a mask to attack Stevens and become a member of A-Team.
Right then and there, we could have avoided every bit of this. You could have reached out your hand and said thank you. Thank you for all the money. Thank you for all the titles. Thank you for all the girls. But once again, you?re too stupid to get the point. So what do you do? You keep coming back for more. Chase, it’s real simple. I don?t want you in SAW.
Cut to Stevens in downtown Nashville looking out at the Tennessee River. Stevens said he was looking back on old times, when Andy would pick fights and Chase would have to finish them. Stevens said he always had Andy’s back, as a tag team partner, a friend and a brother, but he was blind to everything that was going on.
You said I should have walked away. Why is that Andy? Because that’s what you would have done? Because that’s what you?ve always done, left me to finish it? Oh no, Andy, I?m not going to walk away?.I?m going to stand my ground, and I?m going to finish what you started one year ago. I?m going to put you through a table, and it’s going to be a violent, violent conclusion.
Leah was back with Grumpy’s Most Wanted Bail Jumper of the week, Andy Dang.
Andy, if you?re out there watching tonight, my message to you is that I can?t believe you?re doing this to your poor, sweet mother. You know how she’s struggling already. And yes, all of this is hurting her. Don?t make her suffer anymore because you?re afraid. Turn yourself in tonight, Andy.
2 ? Tables Match: ANDY DOUGLAS (with Paul Adams) vs. CHASE STEVENS
After the obligatory stalling by Douglas, Stevens set a table up at ringside, but it was his head that got slammed into it. Douglas tried to suplex Stevens through the table, but Stevens reversed it with a snap suplex on the floor (padded unlike the SAW Mill). A second table was brought into the ring. Douglas went into it head first. They did a chase sequence where Stevens almost got his hand on Adams, only to get cut off by Douglas. Stevens tried to whip Douglas into a table propped up in the corner, but Douglas did a baseball slide out of the ring and headed up the ramp. Stevens cut off his exit. Back inside, Douglas bonked Stevens in the head with a table, which looked like it really sucked. He came up bleeding from the forehead. Stevens took an awesome face first bump to the mat here. Douglas rubbed Stevens? blood on his chest. With the crowd behind him bigtime, Stevens made the comeback. Stevens went for a missile dropkick and took out ref Mark Owen. Young interfered. Stevens backdropped Young over the top rope to put him through a table. Douglas hit a Harley Race knee and it was both men down. Stevens reversed a shot into the table with a superkick and it was both men down again. Santel interfered. Douglas inadvertently backdropped Santel over the top rope onto a table. A collision of lariats left both men down yet again. Morton and other refs came out to survey the carnage. Owen was still down in the ring. Santel and Young were down on the floor. Meanwhile, Douglas and Stevens were fighting all over the building. Somebody took a shot into the door of the men’s bathroom. Stevens waved the fans out of a ringside section of chairs, but Douglas reversed the whip and Stevens went flying into them. They worked there way up to the balcony. Stevens had the advantage until Adams threw powder in face. Douglas got Stevens over the rail, and he took the off the 12 foot balcony. Total nuts but it was a bullseye with no splinters into his body. Stevens never moved. They showed the table bump from three different angles, six replays in all.
WINNER: Douglas in 23:19. Clearly, this was the match people came to see, and did it ever deliver. Dramatic, violent, intense, bloody and the heat was excellent. Live, it was one of the best tables matches I?ve seen, because the focus was on putting the other guy through the table. The brawling through the crowd broke the suspension of disbelief, especially when Stevens paused to wave the fans out of their seats. Owen manned up on that ref bump. Glad it wasn?t Mark Herron in that spot.
CLOSING THOUGHTS: SAW put their best foot forward, in this, the first of three episodes from the raw material taped at ?SAW: The Next Level?. This episode contained my two favorite matches from the live show. Putting Wolfie in the opening match garnered the maximum impact out of his return. He was the guy that Nashville fans would most connect with the good old days of wrestling at the Fairgrounds. The Anthony vignette was an awesome way to develop the angle with Hammerjack. Not just the vignette itself, but the way it was presented. It was the only one on this episode (polar opposite of TNA ? tons of angles and none of them get over), and the segment with Riggins and Graham underscored that this was serious. The Stevens/Douglas feud is now in the epic category. If all those replays didn?t drive home the lethal potential of that bump off the balcony, I don?t know what would. Again, the presentation was key. The clips of all the heinous stuff Douglas has done to Stevens, coupled with fine promos by both men set the match up beautifully. When Reno called in on [url=www.blogtalkradio.com?TVD]Jerkin? the Curtain (October 12 edition)[/url], he confirmed that Jerry Jarrett didn?t like the idea of doing the tables match. I?m going to give Jarrett the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he hasn?t been following the product closely. Otherwise, it does not bode well for his rumored plans to launch another major promotion. This was no random use of a gimmick match (see TNA). This feud has been building relentlessly throughout 2009. A regular match made no sense in the context of the feud. The talk of this taping being done in HD as a demo for Jarrett’s new promotion did not materialize, and that was a good thing. As impressive as this was by SAW standards, the production values fell well short of a national television show. ROH doesn?t draw near this big a crowd for their tapings, but it looks better on TV. They need to something about the background and the walls for sure. The lighting was fine live but not ideal for TV. What a difference a week made. SAW went from their smallest ever crowd in Millersville (<50) to this (700). This show made a great ad for the Fairgrounds return date. No specific matches were promoted for November 21. They ran a graphic with the return date and let the footage speak for itself (along with Reno's frequent reminders that big league wrestling was back at the Fairgrounds). This is must see for anyone that has the least bit of interest in SAW. Thumbs way up.
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