Happy Daylight Savings Time Day! I hope everyone got their hour of less sleep because… I really don’t know why we have Daylight Savings now. My work week was eventful. I cut a good chunk of skin off my finger while slicing onions. My cook cut his finger bad too but we had some calcium hydroxide for that one. I had a regular who had a coughing fit and seizured, then recovered and had me refill his coffee! We had a baby choke and spit all over the floor. Who needs reality TV when you see that during the week? Well, I don’t need reality TV but I do need my wrestling so let’s get to it!
Pro Wrestling Battleground Episode 89
Rock Solid Ross vs. Kody Rice
Rock Solid instantly strikes me as a young college Adrian Adonis. Ross yells at the crowd that North Dakota State University is a respected institution.
Kody tells that he is from St. Paul but hails from Las Vegas. He then treats us to oiling up his body… Ross doesn’t let him baby oil his body… Ross then picks up the baby oil and oils himself up.
Now that we are all oily and half naked let’s wrestle. Kody is able to gain advantage then attempts to climb the ropes. He goes on the bottom rope then climbs to the middle… then climbs back down to the bottom rope to drop an elbow.
Ross rolls to the outside and yells at the crowd. Kody Rice shows that size doesn’t matter when it comes to suicide dives!
I really wish the announcer would tell us what his name is.
Ross shows the referee that he has 22 inch biceps. He stomps and attacks Kody while taunting to the crowd. After a suplex Ross showboats some more.. I can’t get over how much he looks like Adonis from the early 80’s.
Ross shows a bit of inexperience, you can see that he knows what to do but not sure when to do it at the right moment. Wrestling to me is like a piano. The piano is string and percussion. You need to be good at timing and structure to play a good song usually. It’s like Ross is playing the notes but his timing is off.. He does re-baby oil himself while getting chastisyd by the referee for using another mans oil.
They do some back and forth stuff until Kody gets put in a Full Nelson. Rice is able to escape by using his rear end to push Rock Solid off of him. There is a double clothesline spot and both men are down as the referee counts.
Kody hits the Butterroll and pins Ross. Rock Solid is able to get his foot on the ropes. Kody begins to hype the crowd up, he hits the Butter Cutter and dispatches Rock Solid Ross.
And I’m Like… That was a fun match to watch. I always enjoy Kody’s work, this was the first time I saw Rock Solid Ross though. I don’t know if my love of Adrian Adonis traveled to Ross or what, but I dug Rock Solid and the way he presented himself. Let’s hope he sticks to it and becomes a big player in the state.
Steel Domain Wrestling
Steel Domain Northern States Championship
Big Mitch Paradise vs. Ryan Slade (c)
Mitch and Ryan start off very quickly. Our announcers are Mick Karch and Golden Idol.
If Rock Solid Ross is reminding me of Adrian Adonis, then Mitch Paradise is Jesse Ventura.
The commentators put over Ryan Slade and how he is fighting with an injury. I guess Ryan hurt his shoulder and is still not fully healthy. Mitch Paradise is having his way with Ryan Slade. Mitch might as well put a bandaid on Slade’s cheek and make Ryan Mitch’s Nelly
Mitch was attempting a powerbomb but Slade was able to fight out of it. Slade is not able to keep his momentum. The match is basically, Mitch dominates until a small flurry from Slade, then Slade will make a pin attempt and there will be a kick out then, Slade gets his ass kicked.
Slade was able to throw Paradise off the top rope, Ryan was gonna jump onto Paradise but then climbed off the top rope. Ryan looks lost, The Golden Idol says Slade is thrown off by not being cheered by everyone in the crowd. The cheering is split 50/50.
Mick and Idol keep talking about how great and big Paradise is, they really don’t say much about Slade, other than he looks lost. Slade can really take an ass whoppin though. Problem is, when Ryan comes back with his offense, the crowd is not feeling it.
Slade reverses the powerbomb again, he goes for a pinfall, it’s a nearfall, and the referee is doing his dramatic- rolling on the floor and holding up two hands with two fingers protruding out of each hand.
SDW seems to be growing in popularity because their crowd is growing. They know their audience and provide what the audience wants. That’s what an indy needs to do. Don’t do everything like your WWE, find out what your fanbase is into and give more of that. If someone comes into my restaurant and asks for biscuits and gravy, I am not going to suggest a salad. SDW doesn’t suggest the salad either.
Slade starts to fire up and is mounting a comeback, the crowd is pretty quiet about it. Slade hits his five moves of doom and ends it with a splash from the top rope. Paradise kicked out easily.
AJ Smooth walks out to the ring and Golden Idol sounds like he knows what is going on. AJ steals the girl and Paradise hits Ryan with a low blow and powerbomb to the delight of the crowd.
The story was Mitch was dominate and Slade was submissive. Slade would not give up though and was frustrating Paradise. When AJ of the Temple of Terror comes out he steals Slade’s valet and Paradise hits Ryan with a low blow. Paradise then hits a powerbomb for the win. Not only did Paradise steal the victory and championship from Slade he also stole his valey/girlfriend.
Mitch and Tatsiana are a couple now. Mitch says “now I got all the gold, I got the hottest manager in professional wrestling.” Paradise says “now that I am living high on the hog, I don’t need the fans because I don’t need you anymore.” He told us not to take it personal he just doesn’t need us. Alright bud, good luck with that.
And I’m Like… This was good, Mick was overacting a little bit but this was a cool moment. The crowd cheers huge for when Paradise wins, he was able to become a heel and get the crowd upset in a matter of minutes. I am excited for the titles future and what happens with Paradise and Tatiana.
Mick interviews Paradise and Tatsiana. She is much like Lana, she is from Russia and is looking for a wrestler to bring on a European tour. She was welcomed to the country by Ryan Slade but she said “like all new toys, they get old.” Mitch can provide the right lifestyle and Tatsiana is happy with him.
Mitch is laughing hard about the situation. He looks so much like Ventura to me, he doesn’t talk like him though. He reiterates that he is cutting ties with the fans. He is articulate and gets his message across, I just don’t like how he sounds like if Sgt. Slaughter smoked.
American Wrestling Federation Sunday Shockwave
The show starts with the match from a month ago when Ariya Daivari beat Sepio Saunders to retain his AWF Championship. The opening credits roll. I think there is gonna be a reason we are told Ariya is the champion.. Usually that means re-run or maybe they are laying groundwork for the match.
After the intro we get another Daivari promo about being in Granite Falls and one of AWF’s biggest shows. Daivari is pissed off because AWF said they have a challenge for him, a big one. He finds out it is Ken Anderson and he is pretty pissed that they think it would be a challenge. Daivari finishes his strong promo by stealing Anderson’s catchphrase and said he will still me MMIIIISSSTTTEEERRR Champion.
And I’m Like… This is cool, we get a match set-up and a reason to have the match, on top of that Daivari cut a good promo that furthered the show. Things are looking good as we begin.
We come back from commercial with Daivari speaking Farsi. I wonder if Daivari is ok with anti-Middle Eastern responses from the crowd. As a person I wouldn’t bet that it is too pleasing, but as a heel performer you got to love how easy it is.
Daivari calls out any American in the back and Mister Anderson comes out. Anderson doesn’t get in the ring though, he sits next to who I assume is his girlfriend. Daivari said for weeks he was hearing Ken Anderson would be here, he told everyone to get excited. A good reaction from the crowd. Daivari says he could beat Anderson twice in a night, hell no, twice in a match. Anderson accepted the challenge and we will be having a title match.
2 out of 3 falls for the AWF Heavyweight Championship
Ariya Daivari (c) vs. Ken Anderson
Anderson starts the match off by doing his mic thing… Before the mic drops Daivari hits Anderson with the belt. He tells the ref to ring the bell and pins Anderson for three. That match was a legit 3 seconds. Draper just got to the announce table. That was brilliant by Daivari.
Ariya is taunting and goes for a version of the people’s elbow, he starts playing around too much. He pins Anderson with one finger and Anderson kicks out. Daivari continually tries to pin Ken who habitually kicks out.
As Daivari is yelling at the ref for being stupid, Anderson gets the surprise roll-up and ties it at 1-1. The men get a 10 second rest period. Right when the bell rings for the third fall Daivari charges Anderson who is able to reverse it a bit. Anderson is knocked loopy from the belt though, he still can’t gain control.
It goes to commercial and the commercials advertise a AWF Title match… sooo.. the match we are breaking from just got spoiled…. Sarcastically I say “fun”.
We come back after the break with Daivari holding Anderson in a headlock and then jumping and hitting Ken in the head with a knee. Daivari starts getting ready for a superkick. I also ‘tune up the band’ before missing my superkicks on my employee’s by a mile.
Daivari got another two count. Ariya has had control almost the entire match, do you think that Anderson has lost some of his skills or is he on drugs during this match. Daivari grapvines Anderson’s leg, Anderson gets his arm checked and he fights out of it. The crowd is sure yelling, not cohesively but they are yelling.
Anderson puts the sleeper on and Daivari fights out quickly. The crowd doesn’t seem to cheer much at all for when Anderson makes his comeback attempts. On the other hand, Daivari looks like he is having so much fun he would cheer himself.
Ariya takes too long on the top rope and Kennedy gets his leg up, Daivari blocks the kick to his own face but misses his elbow drop. There is a Jimmy Valiant reference so that gets so many cool points!!
Anderson and Ariya do a yay/boo spot and Anderson hits his signature moves of doom. Daivari fights out of what the commentators call “will he go for it? He might do it!” So Daivari fought out of IT. He goes up top again. Anderson meets him at the turnbuckle with a low blow and makes fun of Daivari’s reaction.
Then Anderson does to Daivari, what I do to my screaming baby daughter. Scream right back at the face. They do it in unison and add some comedy to a match that isn’t as serious as I imagined a title match would be. Like Daniel Bryan said “there is a time and place for everything and title matches are no place to do comedy.”
Daivari fought out of a mic check attempt and superkicks Anderson in the mouth for a very close nearfall. Daivari brings out the big bombs and brings out his magic carpet. Tony DeNucci starts talking and all of a sudden we have three commentators. Daivari missed the splash and Anderson then grabbed the carpet. I guess for Anderson this is a “whole new world.”
As Anderson was on the top rope Daivari threw the referee into the ropes that knocked Anderson on his groin. Daivari doesn’t yell back in Andersons’ face or mock the man. He just goes up to attack. Anderson fights out of it and Daivari hits the ref and knocks him down. This Benson referee likes to get in the thick of things.
Anderson pins Daivari and the crowd counts three but the ref is not on his feet. Daivari ends up doing a greatest hits of this match and replays the song where he hits Anderson in the back of the head with the title. He got the duke.
And I’m Like… Daivari looked like a star in that match. The ending didn’t hurt him much in my opinion. This was the right way to use a bigger wrestling name. Not doing a promo and showing highlights, not getting a wrestler that can barely move. Someone with name recognition that can still go and let’s the hometown boy shine. Really proud of this episode.
Thanks for reading, now do your part to support local wrestling by sharing or buying tickets to a local show.
Thank you so much , and have a good one! Until next time
-Jake