Larry Goodman sent this in:
Showtime All-Star Wrestling ? Episode 97
Airing July 11, 2009
Taped at the SAW Mill in Millersville, Tn
This episode is now available for viewing at ProWrestlingWorldwide.TV.
Opening with clips of the finishes from all five matches last week plus highlights of the hair vs. career challenge between Chase Stevens and Andy Douglas.
Michael Graham (again without Reno Riggins) said the SAW Mill was buzzing about tonight’s main event – Kid Kash defending the SAW International Title against Jesse Emerson. Other matches were waiting in the wings if it didn’t go the TV time limit.
1 ? RICK SANTEL (with Paul Adams) vs. AIDEN SCOTT
Graham referenced the heated issues between Santel and Flash Flanagan. Santel wasted no time unloading on Scott, who caused Santel to eat the turnbuckle and rolled him up for two. A POed Santel intensified his attack. Santel used a series of short arm shoulder blocks to Scott’s shoulder to gain a near fall. Back from commercial with Santel in full control. Adams ?massaged? Scott’s neck with his towel. Santel had fire in his eyes when Scott kicked out of his running lariat. On the comeback, Scott connected with a spinning heel kick. Santel brought the fun and games to an end with the Santel Slam.
WINNER: Santel in 4:11. Fine for a squash. Nice slow burn by Santel. Scott took the finisher as well as anyone has.
Graham joined A-Team at ringside. Santel advised Chase Stevens to take a page out of ?Fluke? Flanagan’s book and buy a one way ticket to Puerto Rico. Adams said he offered to put up $30,000 of his money against Stevens’ career last week, but Andy Douglas was such a stand up guy, he offered to put his hair up instead. Douglas advised Stevens to bring all his merchandise next week, because after losing his career, he wasn’t going to have any place to sell that junk. Douglas revealed an added stipulation ? if any member of A-Team interfered in the match, he still had to cut his hair. Douglas concluded that Stevens already had the SAW office in his back pocket, but it was OK that the odds were stacked against him, because the lights were going out on Stevens? career next week. Adams informed Graham about A-Team’s new party central.
I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but they have closed the Sizzler and we’ve replaced it with the Ponderosa, but we’re not going this week. We’re saving the big celebration, boys, for next week when we get rid of Chase Stevens once and for all. Let’s go, boys. We’re hitting the Carvel’s.
Instead of the title match, we got Derrick King Enterprises. King called Vordell Walker out for a match. As Walker came down the ramp, a mystery man whacked him across the shin with a cane and made a beeline for the lobby. Walker was then mowed down by Big Dollar. DKE beat him down. King and Dollar took turns driving the edge of chair into Walker’s back. Commissioner Freddie Morton finally showed up to meekly order DKE to the locker room.
Back from commercial, Walker was still down on the concrete floor being tended to by SAW personnel. They cut to a different angle of the mugging. Graham said they were their main concern was Walker’s rib area.
They put up a graphic of the official top 10 contenders for Kash’s SAW International Title. 1) Arrick Andrews 2) Emerson 3) Douglas 4) Hammerjack 5) David Young 6) Stevens 7) Santel 8) Flanagan 9) Chrisjen Hayme 10) Shane Smalls.
EARLIER TODAY…a brief Q & A with Emerson, who said he had been training hard for Kash and called it the most important match of his career. Emerson credited the great series of matches with Sigmon, a man that would do anything to take him out, as being the thing that most prepared him for Kash. Emerson said he might decline Jon Michael Worthington’s challenge again this week. He admitted there might be a wee bit of gamesmanship involved, but tonight, he had to focus solely on Kash.
They ran tale of the tape graphics for the title match.
Adams joined Graham on commentary and immediately pointed out that all three of his A-Team guys were among the top 10 contenders, but Arrick Andrews was the fair haired boy of the SAW office.
2 ? SAW International Title Match: Champion KID KASH vs. JESSE EMERSON
Kash dictated the pace of the match with his usual mind games and dirty tactics, disrespecting his opponent and the crowd alike. Kash went for a ropes break to get out of Emerson’s grounded hammerlock. (Commercial break #1) As Kash jawed with the crowd, Emerson surprised him with a roll up. Kash thumbed Emerson in the eye and started working over his shoulder. Emerson reversed into an armbar. Kash got a waistlock takedown and fired forearms shots to the kidneys. Emerson tried for Boston crab, but Kash reversed it into an ankle lock, and Emerson was forced to go to the ropes. Just as Graham said Kash was an underrated striker, he fired off a couple of beauties. Emerson responded with a burst of babyface offense. Kash threw a tantrum at ringside. (Commercial break #2) Kash was still standing around outside the ring. A girl in the front row took a swing at him with her purse. ?Look at the size of her. There’s no way to take her lightly,? said Adams. Kash got a single leg takedown and grapevined the leg, then switched to a side headlock. Kash scored with a knockdown shoulder block. Emerson answered with a hiptoss and grounded Kash with a cranking armbar. Kash used inside leg kicks to break the armbar. Emerson started favoring the knee. Kash was all over it. Graham said he smelled blood in the water. Kash humiliated Emerson with a bitch slap, a series of crossface blows and a snot rocket. Adams said Kash was a licensed chiropractor, so he knew how to damage a body part. Emerson fired back with punches and chops. Kash cut him off with a thumb to the eye and applied a figure four. (Commercial break #3) Emerson was still locked in the figure four. Kash released the hold and dropped a knee to the groin. Kash went for the Dead Level (brainbuster). Emerson blocked it and reversed into a sleeper. Adams said it was smart strategy given Emerson’s leg damage. Kash looked to be out cold. Kash’s arm dropped twice, and?you know the drill. Marcus Pastorious caught Kash trying to pin Emerson with his feet on the ropes. Kash walked off the frustration at ringside. Emerson couldn?t wait to get his hands on Kash. His impatience cost him bigtime. Kash shoulder blocked Emerson on the way in, rocked him with a jawbreaker and hit the Dead Level for the clean pin.
WINNER: Kash retained the SAW Title in 18:45. Match was slow as molasses to begin with, and with three commercial breaks, it was excruciating. It was the same stuff we?ve seen before from Kash. His act works well with a hot packed crowd. This crowd was small and not all that into it. Still, there was something cool about Kash’s sadistic dissection of Emerson. I liked the MMA flourishes, but it’s not like SAW fans react to them. Emerson showed only brief flashes of the aggressiveness that made him a contender, and looked like a chump going down so easy at the end.
Graham conducted the postmatch interviewed with Kash via a split screen. Graham wanted to know Kash’s thoughts on the idea that Andrews should have gotten the match. Kash said none of the top contenders were in his league. Kash said that piece of trash little prick Andrews had three previous shot at the title, and just like all the other times in his life when it really counted, he could never step up to the plate.
So what does that tell you? You’re always going to be a local hero, never a traveling world champion like myself. And if SAW wants to put your life on the line. Again. Alright, whatever? Andrews you’re getting one more chance just out of the kindness of my heart…This ain’t TNA. This ain’t WWE. This is the real ****ing deal. Bleep me out if you want, because I’m Kid Kash and that’s just the way it is…So you people want a shoot? Well you got it: A 16-1-1 former MMA champion right here. I’m sick and tired of Sports Entertainment. I’m sick and tired of all these little pussy ass moves. I’m going to start cross facing, head dropping, ankle locking everybody that I put my hands on, and I?m about to do it with you if you don’t hold that microphone up. So I’m calling anybody out in any organization, anybody in the crowd, any building, any MMA group. You want some of this? Come get some of this, because I’m the realest bleeping deal you’ll ever see, boys.
CLOSING THOUGHTS: Weak show this week. It was built around Emerson challenging Kash for the SAW Title, a long match with sparse action or excitement. The title match was taped on a different night from the rest of the show, and with a smaller, less lively crowd in attendance, the championship atmosphere wasn?t there. Kash is capable of getting the crowd to a fever pitch of hate, but it wasn?t happening. The people not believing Emerson had a snowball’s chance was surely partly responsible for that. I will say this for the title match: Kash does give SAW a champion that wrestles a different style from what is presented on WWE, TNA or ROH. The question is how many viewers of modern wrestling have the patience to appreciate it? With that said, the match worked beautifully to set Andrews up as the great white trash hope. The hour did finish on a high note. Kash cut one hell of a promo for what figures to be Andrews? final rematch, coming across as the arrogant, potty mouthed, badass little brat supreme. Fans had just watched Kash pick Emerson apart, torment the poor guy for almost twenty minutes, the number two contender no less, and then he cuts a promo showing zero respect for Andrews or anybody else. The Q & A did put Emerson’s speaking ability in a better light than his ringside interviews. The DKE beatdown on Walker was a decent segment. It did create some intrigue about the identity of the mystery attacker. They certainly gave the angle time to sink in with the lengthy shot of Walker down on the concrete floor. Seemed to me the attack needed to look more vicious that it did to justify all that, though. A-Team’s mic work did an OK job of building to the hair vs. career match. Given the gravity of the circumstances, I expected more intensity. Overall, this was a fairly missable episode.
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