Larry Goodman sent this in:
Showtime All-Star Wrestling
Taped November 21, 2009 at the Nashville Fairgrounds Sports Arena
It matters not to us whether your naughty or nice, just that if your naughty, call 1-877-GRUMPYS. When you ring, we spring!
?Bond girl? Leah opened the holiday edition of Showtime All-Star Wrestling in surreal fashion, filling out a Santa suit as only she can do. She had daughter Laila in tow along with two not so beautiful bail bonding professionals from the office. 30 seconds in and this show is gold.
Cut to Michael Graham and Reno Riggins, coming to us in extreme close up from the hallowed ground that is the Nashville Fairgrounds Arena, on behalf of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Text TNWish at 90999 to donate five bucks.
1? ?Teen Excitement? DREW HASKINS (with Derrick King & JT Stahr & Sista O?Feelyah) vs. ?Boogie Woogie Boy? GARY VALIANT (with Miss Boogie)
Haskins was so excited and oh so conceited as he entered the ring. Boogie’s personal cheering section went wild at the sight of him. They cut to a graphic for next week’s SAW title match between Kid Kash and Vordell Walker. Haskins jumped Valiant as he was taking off his t-shirt. Boogie fired back. Haskin backed off in frustration, then charged in furious anger. Boogie effortlessly took command with a suplex slam, a hiptoss and an arm drag. While Stahr distracted the ref, King jerked the ropes to dump Boogie to the floor. King decked Boogie with a right and rolled him back inside. Haskins covered but Boogie was in the ropes. Haskins dished out an old-fashioned mauling. O?Feelyah helped out, showing a new found streak of nastiness. Haskins snapped Boogie’s head back with a beautiful dropkick. He celebrated bigtime before making the cover and Boogie kicked out. Boogie caught Haskins with an ugly swinging neckbreaker. Both men were slow to rise. Boogie on the comeback. One by one, DKE got up on the apron to cause trouble. Boogie punched Stahr and sent King flying into the barricade. Miss Boogie yanked Sista down. Haskins, however, capitalized with a jumping DDT, and got the pin with King holding his feet over the rope.
WINNER: Haskins in 4:41. It worked out fine – a perfectly cheap win for Haskins, and a face saving loss for Boogie. DKE’s bumps at the finish (O?Feelyah excepted) looked better live than they did under the scrutiny of the ringside cameras.
Hammerjack was walking along the railroad tracks at night. I think this was shot where the He trucked up to the camera and said, ?You know Marc Anthony, I would a thought just walkin? away would have kept my family safe, but apparently not. So next week on SAW, don?t turn your back on Hammerjack.?
Cut to that claustrophobic close up of our announce team. Reno said he had received a phone call from Hammerjack confirming that he was returning to SAW to get Anthony in the ring, because that was the best way to protect his family. Reno said the match was signed for next week.
Grumpy’s Bail Bonds Bail Jumper of the Week was a returns engagement by confused individual Billie Jo Weaks. Leah said Billie Joe was so befuddled that during a recent arrest, she was thought be a man, until a body cavity search revealed otherwise. Leah said she didn?t give a rip about Billie Jo’s identity crisis, she just needed her to show up in court.
Graham and Riggins introduced a video package on the event that lead up to today’s main event.
Great use of slow motion and black & white to heighten the impact. The footage of Adams laying a towel over Stevens? body was gold. It had three different angles of Stevens falling off the Fairgrounds balcony and crashing through the table below.
2 ? Last Man Standing Match: ANDY DOUGLAS (with Paul Adams & Rick Santel) vs. CHASE STEVENS
Graham said Stevens had spent last six weeks in a wheelchair after falling of the balcony. He explained the rules: no count outs, no DQ and the ref would start a 10 count after each pinfall. Douglas jumped Stevens before the bell and was set on crippling him with a ruthless attack on his back. At two minutes in, out of nowhere, Stevens stunned Douglas with a suplex. Stevens managed to cover for a two count, and now Douglas was clutching at his back. Stevens tossed Douglas out, pulled up the pads and gave him a snap suplex on the concrete. Back inside the ring, Stevens back was killing him as he reeled off a series of near falls, one of them coming off a beautiful dropkick. But Douglas was kicking out of everything, to the point Stevens was visibly frustrated. Douglas reversed the momentum with a hangman neckbreaker. Stevens kicked out. Adams got up on the apron to gripe at referee Marcus Pastorious, and Santel tossed a chain to Douglas, who clocked Stevens with it. Pastorious saw the chain being tossed back to Santel and banished him to the dressing room. Douglas scored the first pinfall of the match on a botched count at 6:45. Stevens was about to beat the 10 count when Douglas attacked him. Stevens was bleeding from the forehead. Douglas jackhammered the cut. Douglas dumped Stevens out and slammed him on the exposed floor. Douglas bounced the head of Stevens off the guard rail, pounded away, and showed off his bloody fist to the crowd. Douglas continued his assault with gutter level brutality. On his knees, Stevens ate a running kick and went down face first. As Stevens was staggering around the ring taking more punishment, he tagged Douglas with a wild right hand. Douglas went down like he had been hit with a brick. Blood was streaming down Douglas? face. Stevens was landing punch after punch at Douglas? forehead. The ropes couldn?t hold Douglas up. Stevens gave Douglas a backbreaker for a near fall. Douglas came out of nowhere with a high knee. Stevens went down but Douglas was in a daze himself. Both men struggled to their feet. Douglas landed three right hands. The ropes kept Stevens up after the first two, but he spilled through to the floor on the third. Douglas rolled Stevens under the ropes and covered. Still no three count. Back and forth they went. Douglas hit a bulldog and pinned Stevens with a one arm cover at 18 minutes. Douglas was a mess. He crawled into the corner so Adams could towel the blood out of his eyes. Stevens barely beat the 10 count, and Douglas immediately leveled him with a lariat. Stevens made repeated kick out. Back standing, Douglas was landing but couldn?t put Stevens down. Stevens fired up and beat Douglas down in the corner. Pastorious took an accidental shot. Stevens went to check him. Douglas charged. Stevens ducked and Douglas clotheslined Pastorious. Stevens hit the fisherman suplex. No ref. Adams stomped Stevens to break up the pin. Stevens collared Adams, and after getting the crowd’s seal of approval, he sent Adams flying with a right hand. Santel reentered the fray with a steel chair. Stevens ducked a chairshot and speared Santel, but Douglas capitalized with the Natural Selection on Stevens for a three count. The camera cut away from Stevens. Graham said he barely beat the 10 count. They traded rubber-legged punches. Camera cut away. Trading punches. Douglas gave Stevens a DDT onto a chair for his fourth pin of the match. Graham said Stevens was up at 9, but Pastorious was counting 13. Douglas blasted Stevens with a chair shot to the head for pin number five. The crowd went silent. Reno said Stevens? head looked like roast beef. Graham said the count was seven when Pastorious was signaling 11. Stevens was under his own power at 13. Douglas wedged a chair in between the turnbuckles. Stevens reversed a whip and Douglas went in head first. Douglas was out on his feet. Stevens hit the TKO to score his one and only pinfall of the match. Stevens barely beat the 10 count. Douglas tried using the ropes to pull himself up and fell back to the mat. Stevens collapsed as Pastorious was raising his hand. Carnage everywhere with Adams, Santel, Douglas and Stevens all down.
WINNER: Stevens in 27:49. A brutal war of attrition. Some serious blood loss by Douglas. Great selling by both guys, a quality that has been one of the hallmarks of this epic feud. They really got across the feeling that it was kind of match that only comes along a few times in a career, the type where neither guy would ever be the same.
Santel attacked Stevens to cut off a wobbly postmatch celebration, and left him laying with a back suplex.
CLOSING THOUGHTS: The Last Man Standing was everything it was cracked up to be. Stevens and Douglas were terrific. It had the same theme as the tables match, and the entire feud, really, was Stevens showing great heart, and having to overcome massive interference by A-Team. I liked the idea of Stevens withstanding five pinfalls (Graham said four but who’s counting) before getting his singular pinfall to win. I thought this would surely be the end, but Stevens being laid out and deprived of a full blown moment of glory, signaled the war still wasn?t over. The only thing left is to take it back to where it started, inside a steel cage. For some reason, a 15 count was used instead of the standard 10 count. There was trickery in the editing and commentary to make the 10 count work, but there were two times where it was evident that Pastorious exceeded the 10 count. I?m not sure how noticeable that was to the average viewer. After seeing it play out live, I was watching for it…Boogie and SAW have had issues, and I have no idea if they will use him again, but he was certainly kept strong in a losing effort?The lame explanation for Hammerjack’s return made the whole ?retirement? thing seem unnecessary. What’s worse is now SAW has invalidated the retirement angle for future use. Kudo on the video package for the Last Man Standing match. That was top quality stuff. One thing for sure about the tables match and the last man standing – they got the monkey off of SAW’s back regarding their history of building up big matches that didn?t produce in the ring. As an aside, Rampage Pro Wrestling won the GWH award for best Georgia wrestling TV product of 2009, and while that’s an enjoyable show, SAW completely blows RPW away. Thumbs way up for this episode.
Follow WrestleView.com on Twitter: twitter.com/wrestleview
Send us news/results: click here