Southern Championship Wrestling
Ryze vs. Sequel
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Match 1 – Aaron Epic defeated Phil Davis w/Gorgeous Gary Garvin and Sean Davis (10:32).
This match is a result of Epic and David Mercury having to defeat the Heartbreak Xpress in singles matches in order to earn a shot at their SCW Southern Tag Team Titles. The match saw tons of cheating from the Heartbreak Xpress, which led to Mercury making his way out to brawl with Sean Davis. Epic won the match with a Shiranui Driver. The outcome of this match was obvious as Epic had to win in order to make the David Mercury/Sean Davis match mean anything, but it was still a fun opener. I was a bit worried with Phil Davis having to work a singles match, seeing how he probably hasn’t worked a singles match in years, but it was a fine match. I still don’t want to see the Heartbreak Xpress work singles that often. Their act as a team is so good that they should only work tag matches. After the match, Michael Cade interviewed Aaron Epic in the ring. Epic said that he did his part, and that Mercury will do his, and they will go on to wrestle the HBX for the tag titles.
Match 2 – Jerrelle Clark defeated Scott Commodity (11:27).
This is Clark’s return to SCW in quite some time. I’m not sure how long it has been, but it may be a few years since the last time he worked for SCW. This is Commodity’s second SCW appearance, and I hope he comes back for more. This match was excellent from the second the bell was rung. They began working each other’s arms with some arm wringers and reversals. It was definitely some good stuff here. Commodity appears to be double jointed, so whenever Clark would twist his arm, then it would contort in all different ways. Commodity was selling the arm like it was death, which made it all the better. It really looked like Clark was breaking his arm. The finish of the match saw Clark take it with his Canadian Backbreaker/Piledriver combo. I believe he now calls it the Jerrelle Driver. This was so good, and it was definitely my match of the night. Everybody knows about how good Clark is, so that goes without saying, but this Commodity impresses me more and more each time that I see him. I’ve talked to different Florida promoters in the past that didn’t seem too high on him, but I’m telling you that this guy is definitely not what they are still expecting. I don’t know, perhaps he was still green when they saw him, but he has since improved drastically.
Match 3 – Sean Davis w/Gorgeous Gary Garvin and Phil Davis defeated David Mercury (4:26).
Like I said earlier about Phil Davis having to work a singles match, I was even more concerned for Sean Davis as he is quite the big man. That combined with hardly ever working singles matches could have made for a disaster, but they kept this short and entertaining, and there were no signs from Sean Davis of this being out of the ordinary. Again, we saw interference, this time Phil and Garvin interfering for Sean, but there was no Epic to make the save. I liked where this was going. Sean rolled up Mercury following a punch by Phil that the ref didn’t see. After the match, Epic makes his way into the ring where Cade is about to interview Mercury. Epic says that he’s disappointed that Mercury let him down. Mercury said that he had Epic’s back, but Epic wasn’t there for him. They went back and forth with Epic playing a really good egotistical heel. It ended with Mercury challenging Epic to a match next month. I like this because within the last few months they each have one victory over each other, so this will settle it. I don’t think this established Epic as a full-fledged heel, but I believe that this is where it’s going.
Match 4 – Team Vision (Chasyn Rance & Mister Saint Laurent & So Cal Val) defeated Leon Scott & Josh Rich & Tiziana (12:03).
I’m not a big fan of these inter-gender matches because often the untrained women are left in the ring to do too much. The last inter-gender match that SCW did was good because they limited what the women did in the match, and they did the same thing with this match. The women only worked a couple of spots. For example, Team Vision had a funny spot where Mister Saint Laurent did his judo chops to Scott, and then tagged in Val to do the judo chops. As if that wasn’t enough, she then tagged in Rance and he hesitantly performed the chops. Tiziana did the copy spot too when Scott had a figure four applied, and she came into the ring and did one herself. The women had their moments in the match, but it didn’t expose the business, so that’s always good. Now in the surprise of the night, Rich actually snapmared Val from the second rope (she was sitting on the top turnbuckle). You may not think that is anything big, but this was the first time that I had ever seen Val take a bump. She is one of the best valets on the indy scene, so for her to be taking bumps now only adds to her overall package. Toward the end of the match we saw all of the guys brawling, which led to the mandatory catfight. This left us with Scott in the ring with MSL. MSL hit his Mister Saint Laurent Driver on Scott, but he kicked out at two. The fans seemed really shocked by this because the Mister Saint Laurent Driver would normally equate to death in SCW. MSL hit another though, so that was the end of the match. This was definitely fine, and the crowd was really into it. The show has been really good thus far.
Intermission
Match 5- Vordell Walker defeated Scott Davis (8:40).
This was Walker’s return to SCW after he missed last month’s show due to a booking in Ring of Honor. This was another solid match. Walker seems to be more over than ever before. The fans pop for any thing that he does. Walker got the win when he hit his Windup Uranage on Davis. While the match with Davis was good, the important stuff is what followed after the show. Walker began to cut a promo saying that he wants a shot at the SCW Southern Heavyweight Title, but he has some unfinished business with Erick Stevens. I believe it was three shows ago that these two were on opposite ends of a tag team match, and the end saw them just beat the living daylights out of each other. Walker begins saying that every time he’s here in SCW, then Stevens is somewhere else, and whenever Stevens is here, then he’s somewhere else. He says that they will be both be in SCW next month, so he’s challenging Stevens for next month. Out of nowhere, Stevens hits the ring and attacks Walker. What makes this so great is that Stevens wasn’t even booked to be on the SCW show but was only there due to missing the IWA-MS show because of unfortunate circumstances. From what I understand the match was going to take place next month anyway, but Stevens’ run-in made the match seem that much more special. I’ve been told that only a few people knew about the Stevens run-in, so even the smart marks were thrown off by his run-in. He hit Walker with a big Lariat, and then he hit his Fat Boy Senton. He accepted the challenge, and now we have the highly anticipated match-up between Stevens and Walker. I’m really excited about this match next month, as I have predicted that these two are the future of Florida wrestling.
Match 6 – SCW Southern Cruiserweight Champion Johnny Schumacher & Dagon Briggs w/Seven defeated Jason Hexx & Manny Montana (16:37).
I’m still thrown off as to why Hexx and Montana are even tagging together. I realize that Team Vision is currently baby faces, but they have yet to address the issue of what is going on with Montana as a member of their group. I’m hoping that it comes soon enough. This match saw Montana at both ends of the spectrum. He showed glimpses of his former self while working with Schumacher, but he still has this knack for not selling a single move. I guess it’s believable when Schumacher is working him as Schumacher normally takes a beating and that is what gets him over. However, the no-selling comes across as being awkward when he’s working Briggs. He really shouldn’t be doing that at all with Briggs. I’m surprised that guys even put up with it. It was not that long ago that I believed that Montana was going to be this wrestler to take the Florida scene by storm, but I’ve given up on that it seems like. I’m not sure what can be done to make Montana start selling. Perhaps they should start paying him by commission? Anyway, Schumacher took his usual beating, then made the hot tag to Briggs. The reason this hot tag must be noted is because there wasn’t a hot tag that was made. Schumacher tagged Briggs, and he came into the ring and clotheslined Montana and then Hexx. Montana exited the ring and was on the ring apron, as was Schumacher, when Briggs used a School Boy on Hexx for the win. It came across as extremely awkward. I don’t know the last time that I had seen a tag match where the match ended with each respective tag partner still standing on the ring apron waiting to be tagged in. I’m not sure if it was planned this way, but, even still, it looked really ridiculous.
Match 7 – SCW Southern Heavyweight Champion Ryze defeated Sequel to retain his title (7:03).
This was a face vs. face title defense for Ryze. I really couldn’t tell which guy was more over with the crowd. While the crowd was still a bit into it, they definitely seemed burned out from the night. Lucky for them it really wasn’t that long of a match. I was surprised that the main event Heavyweight Title match only went seven minutes long though. I guess the post match stuff made up for the short match. The finish saw Jason Hexx come out to ringside and interfere in the match after a ref bump. Ryze went for a pin, but Sequel kicked out of it. I believe that there was more interference that led to Ryze picking up the win with a Wind-up Side Salto. After the match, Hexx cut a promo saying that he made Ryze, and that Ryze should join back up with him if he wants to keep the title. Sequel told him not to listen to Hexx, but Ryze just walked out of the ring and past Hexx through the curtain. I don’t really remember too much about the match (I guess that can’t be a good thing then), but I liked the post match build up a lot. I’ve never seen Ryze as a heel before since he’s been a baby face the last 12 months, so I’m intrigued to see if he makes a heel turn or not. I’ve never been a big fan of the monster face wrestler as I’ve always felt that the monsters should be heels, so here’s to hoping that he makes the turn.
Final Thoughts
This show continues the streak of decent SCW shows. What has made SCW become “can’t miss” as of late has been that the overall product hasn’t been insulting to the fans. The storylines make sense, and a lot of promoters don’t realize how important that is to fans. They don’t overbook, and the undercard seems to have some value, whereas a lot of promotions only focus on the main event picture. What’s funny is that SCW’s undercard picture may be a bit stronger than the main event picture, and the main event picture has even been improving as of late.
The Jerrelle Clark/Scott Commodity match was all kinds of goodness. That was definitely my Match of the Night. The Heartbreak Xpress/Mercury & Epic stuff was entertaining. The six person Inter-gender match was what I expected it to be. I’m always cautious of these matches severely exposing the business to paying fans, but this match avoided that. The Vordell Walker/Scott Davis match was good, but the post match stuff made it even better.
The night took a bit of a hit with the Briggs/Schumacher vs. Hexx/Montana match, and it didn’t quite recover through the Ryze/Sequel main event, but the fans really bought into the post match stuff with Ryze possibly turning heel.
Next month’s show looks to be shaping up nicely. We have Walker vs. Stevens and Epic vs. Mercury III. Ryze’s status was left in limbo, so the fans will be excited to see any potential outcome of that. I’d imagine that the Heartbreak Xpress will be returning to tag action, so they will be at their best. If they fill in the blanks properly, then this could be another “can’t miss” show from SCW. I know I’m looking forward to it.
Will Rivera
Wriv25@yahoo.com
AIM – willriv22
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