Larry Goodman sent this report in:
Showtime All-Star Wrestling
Taped February 13, 2010 at the Nashville Fairgrounds Sports Arena
Airing March 6, 2010 in Nashville on CW58
LAST WEEK?Kid Kash beat Arrick Andrews into unconsciousness to take him out of the title match?Reno Riggins had a surprise for Kash in the form of Chase Stevens?With a little help from Reno as special referee, Stevens defeated Kash to become the new SAW International Champion. This was all so much better than it reads.
Michael Graham and Dutch Mantell opened the show from a packed out Nashville Fairgrounds Sports Arena. Mantell was plugging his new book, ?The World According to Dutch? (now available through Amazon).
1 ? MICAH TAYLOR vs. SIGMON
Mantell said this was his first look at Sigmon. I guess his match two weeks ago didn?t register in the old Dutchman’s memory bank. Graham and Mantell hyped the March 13 Fairgrounds card including the announcement of the steel cage title match with Stevens defending against Andy Douglas. Taylor dominated the chain wrestling. In frustration, Sigmon delivered a double chop to the throat on the break. Sigmon followed up by catapulting Taylor’s throat into the middle rope. Mantell was impressed. (Commercial break) Sigmon continued to work on cutting off Taylor’s air supply. After Taylor ate it bigtime charging in, Sigmon went up top but missed with the diving headbutt. Taylor made the comeback. Sigmon appeared to take a backdrop onto his hip. Not good. Mantell said he liked Taylor’s ?half skunk? hairstyle. Taylor did a quick skin the cat, but Sigmon was waiting with a standing dropkick for a near fall. Sigmon’s fatal mistake was a telegraphed backdrop. Taylor won it with a top rope Wipe Out (leg lariat variation).
WINNER: Taylor in 6:37. Wrestling wise, this was pretty good.. The announce team did a nice balancing act – hyping the Fairgrounds but also giving the match its due once it got rolling. Problem was the dead crowd. This was the 10th match of the night and fans were still recovering from nine matches before the intermission.
?Bond Girl? Leah and ?Bail Baby? Laila with a Grumpy’s Update on the capture of one of her most wanted bail jumpers, Terry Satterfield. ?It was a total smack down. I wish you all could have been there.?
The new SAW International Champion Chase Stevens was this week’s guest on the ?Down-n-Dirty? segment. Dutch asked Stevens about winning the title last week. Stevens humbly stated that he was in the right place at the right time, and thanked Reno thinking enough of him to give him the shot. Stevens said Kash was a tough guy, who almost broke his ankle. ?Thank God I?m walking.? Mantell said a lot of big names wanting to come in and asked if there was anybody Stevens was afraid to face. Stevens said he only had the belt for seven days, but already the pressure was on from outside challengers, and he was taking on all comers. Then, the key question ? what did he read into Douglas watching him win the title? Stevens said Douglas had to be pissed. Stevens said they had been feuding for a year and a half, and Douglas was yet to give a real reason why he turned against him. Stevens said in his mind, it was over when he won the Last Man Standing, but if he had to defend the title against Andy, he was happy to do so.
Leah was back with this week’s edition of Grumpy’s Most Wanted Bail Jumper, William Keith Rippy. ?There’s no time like the present to start being a man and living up to your word.?
Next was replay of the great Hammerjack video/promo segment Paul Adams put together to build up the Tennessee Street Fight.
2 ? KEVIN WHITE (with Su Yung) vs. CODY MELTON
Mantell said the smoke was so bad when he wrestled at the Fairgrounds, he almost needed a mask going to the ring. Melton got a far better pop than Taylor because the crowd was still fresh (match #2 that night). Melton had things going his way. White was whining about invisible cheating. ?He will give him something just to find out where he is,? Mantell said. Graham compared it to poker strategy. Yung distracted and interfered and it was awesome. Mantell called her choke over the ropes ?an Asiatic massage?. Said he was in Saigon one time. (commercial break) Mantell was putting over White’s offense and for good reason. Melton blocked a high boot high with a pair of springy standing dropkicks. No water in the pool for his frogsplash, the poor guy. White used a Twist of Fate style cutter for the pin.
WINNER: White in 5 minutes. Yung was a freaking wildcat at ringside. She’s provided the highlights of every match White has had in SAW. His offense looked better this time out. I like this Melton kid. Similar to Corey Hollis of NWA Main Event ? if only he had more size.
Grumpy’s Update on the capture of Steven Martin. Leah’s crack fugitive recovery team scores again.
Reno Riggins addressed the viewers from his new digs at The Sports Arena. He did the last ditch hard sell for March 13.
3 ?RICK SANTEL vs. FLASH FLANAGAN
A clip of Santel smashing a beer bottle over Flanagan’s head four weeks ago at Buffalo Billiards was shown. Just like the Andy Douglas match last week, no Paul Adams at ringside for an A-Team match. As referee Mark Herron was trying to separate Flanagan from his the kendo stick, Santel pulled him out of the ring, but Flanagan started beating on him. Then he beat on him some more. Herron tried to step in and Flanagan elbowed him out of the way. Flanagan used an airplane spin that left both men woozy. Santel took over with a hammerlock divorce court and zeroed in on the weakened shoulder. When Santel hit the move, Graham asked Mantell what he thought of Nature’s Greatest Elbow (calling it World’s Greatest by mistake), and Mantell said that was overhyping it. Back from commercial, Santel was dissecting Flanagan’s shoulder. Flanagan escaped from the Santel Slam. Santel tried climbing to the top rope. Flanagan cut him off with a superplex. Both men down for a seven count. Flanagan made a one armed comeback. Flanagan started to climb, then saw David Young on the apron. Flanagan clocked Young and hit the springboard leg drop on Santel. Young interfered just before the three count.
WINNER: Flanagan via DQ in 5:49. Good action featuring the usual stellar bumping and selling by Santel. I liked the tease of Flanagan getting DQed again for going over the edge. Match could have used more time and better build to the finish, if you can call that a finish.
Afterwards, Young laid Flanagan out with a spinebuster. Young and Santel were giving Flanagan the beatdown as the show went off the air.
CLOSING THOUGHTS: This was basically an hour long advertisement for the March 13 event at the Fairgrounds. In addition to plugging it throughout the body of the show, there were at least a half dozen ads running down the card. The wrestling was an afterthought – two filler matches and a six minute main with an inconclusive finish. There was nothing wrong with any of them. They just didn?t have any bearing on the immediate future. Santel was facing Brian Christopher at the Fairgrounds. As good as the program between Santel and Flanagan has been, and with all the TV time invested in it, certainly they will return to it at a later date. The ?Down-n-Dirty? segment was OK. It wasn?t one of Stevens more articulate interviews – long on humility but not much in the charisma department. It did get the title across as something important. The segment was purportedly taped two weeks before it aired, and with the cage match not announced at that point, Stevens never directly addressed it. The lack of promos was the main weakness of this episode. With so many strong promo guys on the roster now, it was crime not to have fresh promos with the Fairgrounds just seven days away. Reno’s segment was fine, but no substitute for the real thing. In that regard, the Fairgrounds was all built around the one match ? Hammerjack vs. Anthony ? and if even with that one, we only got the replay of the video package. With that said, I would attribute the crowd being slightly down (from 1000 to 800) to the shorter turnaround time between events. Mantell and Graham are getting more comfortable as a broadcast team. Mantell freely references his heelish tendencies, and does so in an entertaining manner, while avoiding silly arguments that detract from the action. He also puts over quality stuff in the ring when he sees it. It wasn?t a bad show, but in the grand scheme of things, there was little about this episode of major consequence.