Indy News #2: April 18

Larry Goodman sent this in:

Showtime All-Star Wrestling
Airing on April 11, 2009 on Comcast 74 in Nashville & WKRP in Lebanon, Tn
Taped on February 27, 2009 at the SAW Mill in Millersville, Tn

Episode 84 is now online at www.sawonline.tv.

EALIER TODAY?Reno Riggins was in the locker room with ?Boogie Woogie Boy? Gary Valiant. Riggins asked Valiant to shed light on the identity of his partner in the tag team tournament. Valiant said his former partner, Arrick Andrews was busy dealing with A-Team, and he might have a special partner. Valiant introduced ?Barbie? ? his barbed wire baseball bat.

Ringside open with Riggins and Michael Graham. Riggins was holding the tag team title belts. They put the brackets for the tag team tournament up on the screen. Valiant’s partner was a question mark.

1 ? SAW Tag Team Title Tournament First Round Match: ANDY DOUGLAS & RICK SANTEL (with Paul Adams) vs. CHASE STEVENS & FLASH FLANAGAN

It looks awfully dark in the SAW Mill tonight. Possibly an issue with internet broadcast quality. Graham said it Stevens first match since suffering a concussion at the hands of A-Team a few weeks back. Adams is wearing a neck brace courtesy of Arrick Andrews’ finisher and trust me, it’s hilarious. Graham explained that the tournament was taking place because High Society was unable to defend in 30 days due to Chris Michaels’ injuries. Douglas ran from Stevens, while the babyfaces did sick stuff to Santel’s arm. Flanagan hit a nice springboard crossbody. At 6:30, Stevens? bad knee buckled, and Douglas was chomping at the bit. While Douglas played to the crowd, Stevens nipped up. Stevens went to town on Douglas. Santel broke up Stevens’ fisherman suplex and switched in without tagging. Ref Kurt Herron acted like nothing happened. Graham called it a blind tag. Stevens and Douglas fought up the ramp and out. Santel kicked out of Flanagan’s springboard leg drop. Crowd on fire for Flanagan, who got Santel up for the DVD. Adams distracted. David Young hit the ring with a spinebuster on Flanagan, rendering him easy pickings for Santel.

WINNERS: Douglas & Santel in 8:47 when Santel pinned Flanagan. Hot crowd. Good story.

Cut to Dan Masters with Drew Haskins and LT Falk. Haskins was jumping up and down and shadow boxing in a ridiculous state of excitement. Way too caffeinated.

2 ? SAW Tag Team Title Tournament First Round Match: VOID EFFECT (AM Vision & Brice Benjamin) vs. LT FALK & DREW HASKINS

The announce team poked fun at Haskins? highly aroused mental state. Reno said he must have drunk a case of Red Bull. Void Effect attacked with the action barely visible through a thick haze of fog. Falk dove through a double lariat attempt and the heels collided. The babyfaces targeted the arm of Benjamin. Riggins said Falk and Haskins once had the tag team champions beaten, but the inexperience of Haskins cost them the match. Vision hung Haskins out to dry on a dropkick and jackknifed him for a one count. Back from commercial, Haskins caught Benjamin’s leg, spun him around and ate an enzuigiri. Falk had to make a save. Void Effect kept Haskins in their half of the ring and made liberal use of tags. Sweet standing dropkick by Vision for a two count. Vision with a Perfect Plex for another near fall. Haskins caught Vision with a spinning heel kick. Both down. Reno said Haskins needed to tag. Haskins made no move to do so. Vision whipped Haskins towards the heel corner, and Haskins sprung off the ropes with a well-executed, and totally unnecessary crossbody before making the tag. Void Effect fed nicely for Falk. Haskins broke up a Void Effect double team attempt, and Falk hit his finisher, a variation of the Unprettier. Reno called it an upset.

WINNERS: LT Falk & Drew Haskins in 5:54 when Falk pinned Vision with the Falkin? Flatout. Good match when Vision was in. Benjamin looked quite green. The most important thing was the finishing sequence, and that looked fine.

EARLIER TODAY?Riggins approached Andrews in the locker room to ask him if Valiant had asked him to be his partner. Andrews said not yet.

3 ? SAW Tag Team Title Tournament First Round Match: DERRICK KING & J.T. STAHR (with Sister O?Feelya) vs. T.J. HARLEY & CHRISJEN HAYME

No sign of Harley & Hayme. Derrick King Enterprises was getting restless. Finally, Michael Worthington dragged a limp TJ Harley down the ramp and threw him into the ring. Graham said there were welts on Harley’s back. Stahr covered but Harley managed to kick out. They went to a split screen showing Hayme laid out on the locker room floor. Meanwhile, DKE was giving Harley a beating ? all punches and double teams. A sunset flip had Stahr teetering on the brink, but he countered with a punch in the face. Stahr pinned Harley after a neckbreaker/powerbomb combo.

WINNERS: King & Stahr in 2:37. Handicap squash. DKE were real jerks about it, too.

Masters was in the locker room area with a pleased as punch A-Team. Adams thanked Young for preventing any shenanigans from Stevens and Flanagan. Young claimed he was just out there for moral support. Adams said Young had been cracking them up all day long, especially with the shadow pupptes. ?I love it when he does the shadow puppets,? said Santel. Adams said Young was killing him, but the pain was worth it. Adams said two more matches and tag team gold would be theirs, It was time to celebrate. Santel suggested Chinese. ?No guys. That goes right through me,? said Young. Adams settled on Ponderosa.

Valiant came out for the tag team tournament match alone ? all except for ?Barbie?. Hammerjack came down the sledgehammer on his shoulder. Graham said the crowd was going crazy. Hammerjack offered to team with Valiant. Reno said he didn?t know if Valiant should trust him. They entered the ring together.

4 ? SAW Tag Team Title First Round Match: RAVEN & MARC ANTHONY vs. GARY VALIANT & HAMMERJACK

Reno was shocked, and I mean SHOCKED that Boogie and Hammer would ever team up. Graham said it was a gamble. The mind games from Raven and Anthony continued. They made three tags before the first lock up. Boogie foiled their attempt to trap him in the corner. Anthony bumped for Boogie and bailed. They cut to Raven positioning the kendo stick for action. Hammerjack made a blind tag and beat on Anthony with vigor. No more slacking off for Hammer. Anthony thumbed him in the eye. Anthony showed maniacal tendencies. Hammerjack gave Anthony a big boot and tagged Boogie, who covered for two pronto. Raven used the kendo stick on Boogie. Raven capitalized on Hammerjack’s short fuse by cracking Boogie across the forehead with the kendo stick. Boogie kicked out of multiple pin attempts. Raven then dropped a headbutt to the goods. Boogie sold the heat like there was no tomorrow. Raven tried to submit Boogie with a nerve hold. Boogie caught his own arm going down for the third time. Hokey but different. Anthony missed with a diving headbutt off the middle rope. Tags both ways. Hammerjack cleaned house starting with his killer high boots (according to Les Thatcher, the maximum effect comes when the biggest move is last in the series). Raven punched Anthony when Hammerjack ducked. Graham wondered about the damage that did to Anthony’s delicate psyche. Boogie put Anthony down with a bionic elbow. A forearm sent Anthony down face first, and did it ever look great. Raven tripped Boogie to break up the Boogie Blaster. Cut to a shot of Hammerjack posting Raven, then a wide shot of Anthony brandishing the sledgehammer, while Raven held the ref’s attention. Anthony was about to brain Boogie with the sledgehammer when Hammerjack got it from behind. Hammerjack reared back over Anthony with the sledge. Time stood still. Pastorius finally motioned for Hammerjack to stop and he did. Graham said the match had been ruled as a double DQ. Problem was Pastorious left the ring and raised the hands of Raven and Anthony. Graham used the chaos of the moment as his exit strategy. He said they would sort it out later.

WINNERS: Both teams eliminated from the tournament via a dubious double DQ at 12 minutes. The heat being completely off the chain for great TV and eased the pain of the shortcomings. Anthony sold a ton and did it well, but not the position he should have been in. Yet another clueless SAW ref mucking up the finish.

THE GOOD: The stories. First and foremost, who was Boogie’s partner? The clues were acts of omission. The name Hammjerack never crossed the announcer’s lips, and no clip aired showing his turn last week. A-Team screwing Stevens & Flanagan was the right thing to do. Coming off the previous episode, A-Team badly needed to get their heat back, and Young needed to kill somebody with his spinebuster. I love Falk and Haskins as the upstart underdogs in the tournament, although Reno calling their win an upset was stretch. I liked DKE freeloading their way into the next round. I?m OK with a continuation of the Harley/Worthington program on one condition: Rachel has to be at ringside. Boogie vs. Raven & Anthony isn?t about titles. They just want to destroy each other, so a double DQ was fine. And what are we to make of Hammerjack’s failure to act? Has he found compassion for his fellow man? Has he suddenly become rule bound? Stay tuned…Did I mention that Adams was hilarious wearing that neck brace? It looked like he was shoe-horned into it.

THE BAD: The refereeing stunk. What else is new? Maybe I?m spoiled. If there’s one area Georgia wrestling has it all over SAW, it’s in the officiating. I just don?t see the stupid stuff in NWA Anarchy or RPW or GCW the likes of which occur in SAW on a routine basis. All too often, it looks like the refs don?t have clue one about the planned finish or are simply unable execute it. And forget about consistent enforcement of the rules. It’s not unusual for the ref to signal for the bell at the wrong time, if he signals at all. There I go beating that dead horse again?The main event was booked too much like a standard tag match. There was something just so wrong about Anthony selling like he was just another guy. I?m assuming that Anthony is in SAW for a longer haul than Raven, and therefore, his mystique needs to be protected at all costs. The story was problematic here. Anthony has been cast as Raven’s lackey, blinded by his idealization of the puppet master, so it made sense for him to take the heat in a typical tag match scenario.

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