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Showtime All-Star Wrestling
Taped February 13, 2010 in Nashville at Buffalo Billiards
Airing February 20, 2010 in Nashville on CW58
Reno Riggins and Dutch Mantell opened the show from a
strangely lit interview area at the Nashville Fairgrounds Sports Arena.
Mantell
previewed the show, touting three title matches, and mainly hyping the
one that
wasn’t on this episode, Kid Kash defending the SAW International
Title vs.
Arrick “The Dragon” Andrews. Reno asked Dutch to put on his
Jimmy the Greek glasses (how about a leisure suit?) and
play Vegas oddsmaker. Mantell said he smelled an upset and made 5-4 in
favor of
Andrews.
Reno brought Andrews out to a great pop. Before Andrew could get a word
out, Kash
interrupted and confronted Reno.
All I want to do is come out here and talk to the
boy, just for a second, so why don’t you take that ugly ass jacket
of yours and
step back.
Kash told Andrews he already had plenty of chances and he
just wasn’t man enough to get the job done. Kash said he had taken
the belt
around the world and beaten everyone SAW put in front of him. Kash made
it
crystal clear to Reno,
Dutch, and all the people that this was the last time for Andrews. Kash
said as
a true champion, he had a little word of advice….POW! Kash started
beating the
holy hell out of Andrews. Arrick started to fire back. They brawled on
the
concrete floor near the ring. It took five refs and other assorted SAW
personnel to separate them. Riggins admonished Kash, who punched Reno
right in the face, a
wicked looking shot. Kash kept punching and kicking at Reno when he was
down, and the refs had to
pull him off. They cut to a shot of Commissioner Freddie Morton helping
Reno to the back. Hot
stuff.
Mantell joined Michael Graham on commentary. Their audio got
weird. Very thin and tinny sounding, like a bad land line.
1 – “Grand
Master Sexay” BRIAN CHRISTOPHER vs. SIGMON
Christopher teased tossing his do-rag out as a souvenir.
Crowd was going nuts for it until Sigmon jumped him. Dutch generously
estimated
the crowd at 1500. It was a see saw battle. Christopher hit a middle rope
missile dropkick. Sigmon got a near fall with a standing dropkick. Christopher
roared back with classic Lawler style punches and had Sigmon in big trouble
after a running bulldog. Sigmon went to the trusty eye rake. He planted
Christopher on the top for a superplex. Not happening. Christopher KOed
Sigmon
with a haymaker, then donned the goggles for the Hip Hop Drop.
WINNER: Christopher in 4:15. All action. Although not in his best shape,
Christopher
worked hard and his offense mostly looked good.
2 – CHASE STEVENS vs. DAVID YOUNG (with Paul
Adams)
Superstar reaction for Stevens. Mantell hyped the backstage
problems between Riggins and Kash. Stevens delivered a shadow lariat that
drove
Young out of the ring to gather his wits. Adams lured Stevens out of the
ring, where Young was laying in wait with a lariat of
his own. Young started in on Stevens’ neck. A “go, Chase, go”
chant soon
followed. Stevens fed off the crowd. Stevens ducked a spinkick, but Young
nailed him with a flying roundhouse on the follow through. Sweet. Stevens
kicked out of it and busted out a Canadian Destroyer for the pin.
WINNER: Stevens in
3:30. Fine while it lasted. The reaction for Stevens and the finish were
all
that really mattered, and those elements worked great.
Natalie Van Eron attempted to interview Andrews. He got
about four words out before Kash interrupted again. Kash told “Miss
Natalie”
that she was a credit to her occupation, but like the NFL, he couldn’t
stand
women in a man’s sport. Andrews got off first this time. They had
another
intense pull apart brawl with refs and wrestlers out to break it. Crowd
wasn’t red
hot at the start, but the response built, and they got a “let them
fight” chant
before it was over. Graham said one them would be the man to hold the
championship of THE up and coming wrestling company in the country.
Grumpy’s Bail Bonds Most Wanted Bail Jumpers – “Bond Girl”
Leah introduced the tale of the tape for this week’s featured bail
jumper,
Terry Satterfield. “I’m so disappointed in you, and to think
I thought we were
friends…”
3 – SAW Tag Team Title Match: Champions DERRICK
KING ENTERPRISES (Derrick King & JT Stahr with Drew Haskins and Sista
O’Feelyah) vs. PG-13 (Wolfie D & JC Ice)
Graham on solo commentary. Mantell was in the back due to
all the chaos. Wolfie stayed a step ahead of JT to the point DKE took
a time
out to regroup. Back from commercial break with Wolfie in full control
of King.
Ice cut off Stahr’s interference, but King clubbed him from behind
to spill him
through the ropes. Stahr then did a number on Ice outside the ring. Ice
took a
beating from DKE – a classic example of cutting the ring in half.
Stahr almost
put Ice out with a sleeper. Ice hit a jumping DDT on King and went through
the
legs to make the hot tag. Wolfie cleaned house. DKE cut off a meeting
of the
minds, but Wolfie caught them with a double clothesline. Wolfie crashed
and
burned on a Swanton bomb. King missed a guillotine legdrop. Ice and Stahr
both
missed top rope elbows, and it was four way carnage. PG-13 nailed Stahr
with
the sunset flip/haymaker combo that earned them the title shot, but King
kicked
out. PG-13 stacked up DKE with double bulldogs, but Haskins pulled the
ref out.
While PG-13 was busy with Haskins and O’Feelyah, DKE grabbed the
hubcaps. PG-13
saw them coming and capped their domes for the three count.
WINNER: PG-13 with a double pin at 11:31 to become the new
SAW Tag Team Champions. Fun match that got over great with the crowd.
Smart to
have Wolfie carrying the action for his side.
4 – SAW Women’s Title Match: Champion TRACY TAYLOR
vs. SUE YUNG
Mantell returned saying it was a very tense situation in the
back. A back and forth chain wrestling sequence ended in a standoff. Crowd
wasn’t feeling it much. As Taylor was busy working an armbar, Dutch
busied himself putting over women’s
wrestling. Yung got pissed and slapped Taylor across the face. With fire
in her eyes, Taylor issued a bigtime receipt. Yung used tights to send
Taylor crashing into the turnbuckles. Yung
resorted to a variety of chokes and hair pulls. Mantell promised to have
Hammerjack and Marc Anthony as future guests on “Down and Dirty with
Dutch”.
Yung was about to slug Taylor in the face when she
hit Hawaii 5-0 (aka Chuck Taylor’s Sole Food) out of nowhere.
WINNER: Taylor retained at
3:57 with Hawaii 5-0. Not enough time to develop into anything more than
an average match.
5 – HAMMERJACK vs. “Maniac” MARC ANTHONY
Hammer met Anthony in the aisle and they wailed away on each
other. Graham questioned if it was an actual match, as very little action
took
place in the ring. They traded shots into the security rail. Inside the
ring,
Anthony went down face first after a barrage of punches. Back at ringside,
Anthony
flung the ringsteps at Hammer, who moved out of the way, and the steps
came
apart on impact. Anthony punched ref Jess Fields. Hammer decked a second
ref.
The bell rang. Security ran out. They had a brief pull apart (edited version)
that got another “let them fight” chant.
WINNER: Ruled a no contest. For a balls to the wall brawl
there was nothing wrong with it. Problem was it couldn’t live up
to the lofty standard
of their previous donnybrook. The bookers did them no favor by making
it the third
heavy duty brawling sequence of the hour.
Graham and Mantell were at the announcer’s desk with Graham talking
about what a chaotic night it had been. He got word that they needed to
throw
it to the back where…
Riggins was knocking on the door of Kash’s private dressing
room. He told Kash they needed a come to Jesus meeting. “Really?
Come to Jesus.
The only Jesus you’re going to come to isn’t in this room,”
Kash shut the door
in Reno’s face. Reno barged in.
“Wait a minute, honcho, there’s something that needed to be
taken care of around
here for a long time.” Reno took off his sport coat and closed the
door behind them.
CLOSING THOUGHTS: There were some great things about this episode and
some
aspects that were severely disappointing.
POSITIVES: The setup for the SAW Title match was highly
effective. The camera angles and close ups of the Kash/Andrews pull apart
captured the intensity. Reno took a hell of shot from Kash. After referencing
the backstage volatility
throughout the hour, they paid it off with a closing scene that created
intrigue,
the kind that brings viewers back for more. The crowd reaction for Stevens
intro
was a key moment that could not have come off better. The heat was strong
throughout this episode. It was the best job SAW has done of capturing
the live
feel of the Fairgrounds on the audio. The tag title switch was the only
match
of any real substance, and it was a major success. Wolfie and King were
particularly entertaining. The opener worked as a showcase for
Christopher.
NEGATIVES: The production problems. It was their first
attempt at shooting a live opening at the Fairgrounds, and the lighting
was
just horrible. Ring announcer Dan Masters’ mic was too hot. The commentary
on
the first match sounded weird. The audio was out of synch during the tag
title
match. Stuff like that makes SAW look like anything but the next big thing.
SAW
was portrayed as a promotion where the stakes were high, and the intensity
was
at a fever pitch. I got that. But three pull aparts in one hour was way
too
much of a good thing. The net effect was too badly flattened out Hammerjack
vs.
Anthony. Their previous encounter was memorable. This was just another
brawl. Hopefully,
it doesn’t take the edge of what has been a great program so far.
For a title
match, the women’s match sure wasn’t much. It came across like
an excuse to
have attractive women on the show, not that there’s anything wrong
with that. As
much as I enjoyed Dutch’s crusty presence, I expected he would add
more flavor
to the commentary than he actually did. His lack of product knowledge
was all
too apparent. How can a SAW commentator not know that Stevens was the
guy that
got knocked off the balcony? There was no mention of the return to the
Fairgrounds on March 13, just three weeks from the date this show was
broadcast.
