Slamfest report from Larry Goodman
NWA Chattanooga presented their first major event, “NWA Slamfest”, in Soddy Daisy,
Tn. Friday night.
NWA Chattanooga has been running monthly in Soddy Daisy since November of last
year. It was a natural place to start a promotion given the area’s strong pro wrestling
heritage. It was Terry Gordy’s hometown, and it later spawned a number of members
of the NWA Wildside/Anarchy roster. The promotion is a joint project of those same
individuals. There’s plenty of talent on the roster, and the booking has done a good
job of building long term stories, while also rotating fresh faces into the mix.
Attendance at the Soddy Daisy Middle School Gym was a disappointing 150. The
promotion had done better than that for many of their regular shows and had hopes
for double that number on the high end. They use a fairly basic set up. Wrestlers enter
from the behind the stage curtain and come down a ramp. The sound system is more
than adequate. The lighting is the typical metal halide gym lamps – like the house
lights are on at all times.
Slamfest was a good show although somewhat lacking for the heat it deserved. The
gym is too large to really get it rocking with that size crowd. The focus was two violent
stipulation matches that had been built over a period of months. The mayhem made
sense in the context of the back stories. Taken out of context, two heavy violence
matches felt like overkill, especially for an audience with a high percentage of young
kids.
Ring announcer Scott Hensley with a rundown on the card. He provided some helpful
background on the I Quit Match for the uninitiated.
NWA Southeastern Champion Tank called his daughter, Kirsten, into the ring to wish
her a happy 13th birthday. Tank is way over. It’s wild to see the biggest, baddest guy
on the roster in the top babyface position, but it works.
(1) Adam Roberts pinned Micah Hughes in 4:53. Not a good first impression. Match
order was changed due to extenuating circumstances. Hughes is a local kid. He has
potential but little experience so there were a slew of shaky spots, the worst being
when Roberts shoved the ref into the ropes to crotch Hughes on the top and he didn’t
sell it. Roberts rolled through on a high crossbody and pinned Hughes with a
bridging suplex. I’m guessing Roberts improvised on what was supposed to be a
feet on the ropes finish.
(2) Shaun Tempers (with Dru Delight) defeated Adam Jacobs in 15:53. Delight (a
member of Team Temptation) gave Tempers a little pep talk then went to the back.
Jacobs outwrestled and generally outclassed Tempers until a sneaky hotshot turned
the tide. When Tempers slowed things down by grounding Jacobs, we got our first
chant of the night from the kids lining the rail. Jacobs came back with a series of big
moves for near falls. Ref James Rhodes got squashed in the corner. Jacobs
superkicked Tempers and went up top. Delight ran down and sacrificed his body to
protect Tempers. Jacobs considered his options before nailing Delight with the
Georgia Jam leg drop. Tempers then used his Temptation spray on Jacobs and hit
the hangman’s neckbreaker for the pin.
(3) Kyle Matthews defeated Corey Hollis and Patrick Bentley and Chrisjen Hayme
to earn a shot at the NWA World Cruiserweight Championship in 6:23. All action
and everybody was on their game. Plus, they got the story across of the private war
between Hayme and Bentley. Hayme was the lone heel, and he’s gotten so much
better in the role. They did a tower of doom spot with Hayme taking the superplex.
Matthews ducked a lariat and hit a tope on Hollis. Bentley and Hayme went at it,
spilling to the outside. Matthews kicked out of Hollis’ suplex backcracker and beat
him with the Slurpee Kick. Easily the best match of the night for technical execution. It
would have suited me just fine to see more of this and less of some of the others.
(4) Jessco Blue & Principal Tobin Davidson defeated Hate Junkies (Dany Only &
Stryknyn with Jeff G. Bailey) in Tennessee Street Fight at 15:40. Blue came out
alone and said he didn’t know where his partner was (legit). Bailey said tough luck,
ring the bell. This was a hellish match. Blue held his own against Junkies for a very
long time. They brawled into the ringside seats. Only gave Blue a Russian legsweep
on a pile of chairs. Blue used knucks on the Junkies. Both Junkies bled. The
numbers game finally got to Blue. Stryknyn whipped Blue with his belt. Blue is not
much as a wrestler, but he’s definitely one tough SOB. Bailey brought out a roll of
barbed wire. Junkies beat Blue with the barbed wire and whipped him into it, and he
bled like a stuck pig. Blue kicked out of an Alabama Slam onto a steel coffin of chairs.
Sick stuff. Only inadvertently decked Stryknyn. Bailey jumped in and they were putting
to Blue when Davidson showed up. Davidson is a huge, well-built guy, who was
invited to train at the Power Plant back in the day and has been used in angles here
before. Davidson speared Stryknyn and put Blue on top of him for the 1-2-3. They had
to book on the fly because of the no show, and I hope they have no big plans for
Junkies going forward, because Blue lasting 15 minutes made them look awfully
weak.
During the intermission, Ace Rockwell dedicated the show to Jeffrey Abbott, a young
boy who has been waging a life long battle with an undiagnosed autoimmune
disorder.
“The Deadly Sin” Seven accompanied by Reverend Dan Wilson came out for the $500
Body Slam Challenge. Wilson said no mortal man had been able to do the
impossible. “Wild Thing” Will Owens stepped up to the plate. No dice. Bryan Casey
was next. He tried a couple of moves that Seven no sold before making a futile
attempt for the body slam. Seven left his laying with a chokeslam. Jason Hampton
tried his luck. Seven put him in the head squeeze until security intervened. A huge
security guy (wrestler-in-training Dalton Travis) challenged Seven and slammed him.
It got a colossal pop. This was totally believable because Travis has the major league
size and physique. However, Rev refused to pay up because Travis wasn’t an official
entrant.
(5) Ace Rockwell defeated Andrew Alexander in an I Quit Match at 28:24. NWA
Chattanooga’s inaugural blood feud boiled over when Alexander gave Rockwell’s
father a piledriver, while Rockwell was handcuffed to the ropes. They opened with the
hockey fight spot. Rockwell gave Alexander a fierce beating at ringside. Alexander
capitalized when Rockwell moved a security guy out of harm’s way. Alexander spotted
Rockwell’s dad in the crowd and said, “This one’s for you, pops.” A sharpshooter didn’
t get the job done, so Alexander brought a pliers into the ring and jabbed inside
Rockwell’s mouth. Rockwell’s mouth became a veritable blood fountain. Rockwell
sold it huge. This was a truly gruesome spot, and the kids in the crowd got really quiet
for a while. Out of nowhere, Rockwell caught fire, hitting Alexander with just about
everything in his arsenal. A lariat saw both men take a dangerous spill over the top.
Back inside, Alexander was back in control. He gave Rockwell a piledriver, looked at
Rockwell’s dad, and handcuffed Rockwell to the ropes. Alexander taunted dad – “Is
this worse than you thought it would be?” Rockwell refused to quit. Alexander
attempted to water board Rockwell by emptying waters bottles onto him. Kind of lame
in actuality. Alexander threatened to put Rockwell’s eye out with the key to the
handcuffs. Big mistake. Rockwell lowblowed Alexander and got the key to unlock the
cuffs. Rockwell hit Aces High (RKO) off the apron onto some chairs. That looked
vaguely psychotic. Rockwell handcuffed Alexander to the ropes and made him bleed.
Rockwell put duct tape over Alexander’s mouth so he couldn’t say “I quit”, and
continued to beat on him until his dad jumped in the ring and told him enough was
enough. Rockwell removed the tape allowing Alexander to utter the magic words.
Clearly, they were going for a dramatic, sadistic, show stealing blow off match. It felt
like preceding it with the street fight took some of the edge off it.
(6) Tank beat Jimmy Rave to retain the NWA Southeastern Heavyweight
Championship in 9:25. Tank got the biggest babyface pop of the night. I figured the
crowd would be spent after carnage of the I Quit Match, but this got a surprisingly
strong response. Rave knows all the tricks to get heat and he put them to good use
here. Despite his finest effort to avoid taking punishment, Tank handed Rave his ass.
He hit the Chokebreaker, but Rave got a foot on the ropes. Rave strangled Tank with a
shoelace until he was out cold. Referee Rhodes called for the bell. Rave was
announced as the new champion. The crowd was in an uproar. Rhodes found the
shoelace and called for a restart. Tank kicked out of all of Rave’s killer moves,
including The Move That Rocked the World. Knowing there were no more bullets in
his gun, Rave was in a state of panic. Tank choked Rave with his wrist tape, and used
the GTS followed by a Chokebreaker for the pin. Well done. The champion was kept
super strong.
Tank said he was left out of the NWA North American Title Tournament and
challenged the winner of the tournament (Rockwell vs. Tempers at NWA Anarchy
tonight) to a title match on July 15
Report courtesy of Larry Goodman
www.georgiawrestlinghistory.com
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