Southern Championship Wrestling
Haines City Showdown II
June 26, 2004
Haines City, FL

-- The show opens up with Commissioner Michael Cade coming to the ring with Samantha. He introduces ring announcer Ox who will sing the national anthem. I'm glad that some promotion has finally decided to start singing the national anthem at their shows. It adds a nice touch to the shows. Also, I'm big on wrestling being portrayed as a sport rather than entertainment, so it gives it more of that athletic feel to it. You go to sporting events and you hear the national anthem. I think wrestling should be the same way.

-- Cade now introduces Leon Scott. I like how they are doing in-ring promos before the matches now. Pretty much the synopsis of this promo was insulting Haines City and questioning who the hell the Samantha chick really is. At the time, I really wanted an answer because I thought she was one of the Ker's Winghouse girls from their sponsors in Altamonte Springs. Those girls only appear at the Altamonte Springs shows.

Match 1 - David Mercury defeated Tony Denucci (7:34)
Denucci comes out and cuts a promo about all the guys wanting to be him and all the girls wanting to be with him. That's right, you tell 'em, Sable. Mercury comes out and does something that I think will be overshadowed, but it may well have been the most important thing to happen the entire night. He came out to absolutely no reaction from the crowd. I don't know if it was the prior promo that killed the crowd, or if it was the segment before. Who knows, it was just a dead crowd at the time. Anyway, Mercury takes a few steps forward and realizes the crowd sucks, so he points his finger up telling everybody to "hold on". He goes back through the curtain and comes out one more time. The crowd instantly knew that his point was for them to wake up, and they certainly did. The crowd ended up being hot the entire night, and I honestly think that moment was the turning point. The match itself was ok. There was nothing special, but there was nothing horrible, at the same time. The finish came when Denucci went for a roll up and grabbed onto the ropes. The ref spotted it and kicked his hand off. Mercury then rolled up Denucci for the win.

Match 2 - Ryze defeated Barney Rumble (5:58)
Rumble comes out and is announced as "well under 8 ft tall," but he probably is closer to "just over 5 ft tall." He wrestled Ryze who is listed at 6'10" tall. Yeah, it was that big of a difference. In this match, Rumble did what he does best, and that was the comedy. He challenged Ryze to a test of strength, but Ryze backed him into one of the corners. Rumble climbs the turnbuckles to the top rope, so Ryze lets go of Rumble's hands leading him to fall on his face. We get another test of strength, but this time Ryze is backed into the corner. He climbs the ropes and Rumble lets go. Only problem is that Ryze is still standing on the ropes. He gives him a clothesline for his troubles. At this point is probably where Ryze should have just squashed Rumble. He's being billed as the "6'10" Korean Monster. Well if that's the case, then there is no way that Rumble should have gotten in as much as he did. He was drop kicking Ryze's knees and working on the leg. This went on way too long. It should have been a total squash match making Ryze look unstoppable. That wasn't accomplished in this match. Ryze eventually recovers from the leg work and gives Rumble a big boot and pins him.

Match 3 - Manny "The Man" Montana w/ So Cal Val & Mister Saint Laurent defeated Sam Stash (8:36)
I've heard a lot of good things about Stash, so I'm glad that I finally get to see him work. They start this match out by doing a little mat wrestling, just trying to feel each other out. During the match, we get a nice sequence where Montana leapfrogs Stash but only to have Stash hit a 'rana on Montana. This leads Stash to hit a cross body block off of the top rope after Montana had powdered from the 'rana. Once they get back into the ring, we get a nice German suplex from Montana for a near fall. The finish of the match was when Stash climbed the top rope and was looking to hit a big splash. Montana moved out of the way and capitalized by putting on the STF for the victory. Aside from an awkward sequence where Stash jumped from the top rope, landed on his feet and nothing came of it, this was definitely my match of the night. Manny's strikes were strong as always. Stash looked decent in the ring. It was over with the crowd. Montana generates a lot of heel heat because of his staring gimmick with the crowd.

Match 4 - "Sexy" Lexie Fyfe defeated "Gorgeous" Gary Garvin w/ the Heartbreak Xpress in an Inter-gender hardcore match (4:58)
This match was originally supposed to be an extreme hardcore women's match, so I'm not sure what happened. Fyfe comes out with kendo stick in hand. The Heartbreak Xpress are at ringside. The kendo stick comes into play early in the match with Fyfe hitting Garvin. While outside, Garvin trips Fyfe in the ring. This leads to Sean Davis throwing a trash can into the ring, and Garvin grabbing the kendo stick. I'm not sure why the trash can was thrown in to begin with because it was never used in the match. Garvin began hitting Fyfe with some weak looking kendo shots to the back. We then get a botched side Russian leg sweep. I'm not sure what happened here. It was just really awkward. Finally Fyfe gains possession of the kendo stick and starts beating Garvin with it. Because this is a hardcore match, you normally think that the finish would involve something really hardcore. I thought the trash can that was still in the ring was going to be used for the finish. I was dead wrong, as the finish of the match was a sleeper by Fyfe on Garvin. I'm not a big fan of inter-gender matches, and this match increased my displeasure for them.

-- Immediately following this match, the Heartbreak Xpress attacked Fyfe and proceeded to put her through a table. Ok, that was definitely hardcore. After she goes through the table we have "Classy" Chris Nelson, along with his one man security team member Fish, come out and challenge the Heartbreak Xpress to a match. They state that he doesn't have a partner, so he picks Fish as his partner. For those of you who have no clue who Fish is, then let me explain. The CCN one man security team is a joke because Fish really is a scrawny looking guy with glasses. Much to Fish's dismay, the Heartbreak Xpress accept the challenge thus leading us to an impromptu match.

Match 5 - Heartbreak Xpress w/ "Gorgeous" Gary Garvin defeated "Classy" Chris Nelson & Fish (10:48)
Anything involving Nelson and the Heartbreak Xpress has comedy written all over it. We actually start off with some comedy when Nelson and Sean Davis (he's the big one of the two) begin running the ropes, criss cross. Nelson eventually stops, but Sean keeps going. Phil Davis gets into the ring to try to stop his partner from running but ends up getting flattened by him instead. The crowd was hot for Fish to get into the ring. I was under the impression that Fish would be getting into the ring because he came in without his glasses on. Well, during the match Nelson finally tags Fish in. The crowd pops, but they immediately turn to boos when Fish tags Nelson back in 4.5 seconds later. They get the best of Nelson when Phil distracts the ref so that Sean could run Nelson into the ring post. He followed that up with a chair shot and a kendo stick shot from Garvin. If that wasn't enough, he took Nelson and ran him into the cement wall. If you know Nelson, then you know what the next sight would be. If you guessed blood, then you are absolutely correct. They get Nelson back into the ring, and that is when it hits me. Fish is going to be getting the hot tag. Nope, I'm wrong. Phil distracts the ref and Sean hits Nelson with the kendo stick. Nelson then doesn't answer the 10 count. That's the end of the match, and we never see Fish. I would have liked to have seen at least one bump from Fish. Nelson eventually grabs the mic and says, "I've haven't taken an ass whooping like that since my 4th divorce." The guy is just too good on the mic. He then challenges them to another match next month, so he can find "a partner who ain't a little pussy."

Intermission

Match 6 - Dagon Briggs w/ Se7en defeated "Untouchable" Leon Scott w/ Tiziana
If there was one feud in this state that I've seen the most of, then it would probably have to be this one. I've seen this match numerous times in different promotions. At first, I thought it was cool that this feud carried over into other promotions. Now I'm not so sure because they pretty much wrestle each other everywhere that they go. As far as the match, it wasn't their best match that I've seen from them, and it wasn't their worst either. They have just worked each other enough that it's almost repetitive for them. Scott hit a decent clothesline/leg sweep combo and Briggs hit the Cabbage Roll (I'm not sure what he calls it, but it is one of his signature moves). Towards the end of the match, Scott and Briggs are on the top turnbuckle when Scott knocks Briggs to the mat. Scott goes for a Senton but misses. Scott is propped in the corner, so Briggs goes for a running splash. Scott pulls the ref in and he takes a bump. While all three men are down, the two valets get into the ring. We are teased a cat fight, but Scott gets up and has Tiziana hold Se7en so that he can clothesline her. Se7en moves out of the way and Scott clotheslines Tiziana. It was a decent bump by Tiziana. I have a new found respect for the girl. I don't think anyone expected that to happen. Briggs regroups and hits Scott with a running Ace Crusher for the win.

Match 7 - Johnny Schumacher defeated Josh Rich (5:55)
Schumacher comes out to almost no reaction from the crowd. Rich comes out and gets some of his normal heel heat going, but it's nowhere near what it usually is. They open the match with a bunch of reversals and a couple of near pin falls. Rich almost got the win with La Magistral Cradle and Schumacher got a near fall with a school boy. They begin to mat wrestle with Schumacher then throwing some clubbing forearms to the side of Rich's face. They looked really stiff to me. Rich must have thought so too because he began to give Schumacher a ton of forearms to the back. He followed it up with a clothesline so hard that it echoed in the building. he hit him square in the chest. Poor Schumacher, he always gets his ass kicked. Anyway, they are both on the ring apron when Rich gives him a nice looking inverted DDT onto the ring apron. Rich tries to post Schumacher, but he reverses it and sends Rich into the post. In the sickest spot of the night, Schumacher jumped off of the second rope and dropped an elbow onto Rich who was still lying on the ringside floor! The crowd begins to chant "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny." I guess they know who he is now. The finish came when both guys were on the top turnbuckle, and Schumacher forearmed Rich off of the ropes. Schumacher hits a sunset flip from the second rope for the win. This match was pretty good, but the only problem was that it only went under six minutes long. There is no way that the Ryze/Barney Rumble match should have gone longer than this match, and there is no way that the Lexie Fyfe/Gary Garvin match should have gone nearly as long as this match. They did impress in the short time that they were in the ring.

-- Following the match, Rich attacks Schumacher, sending him to the floor. Michael Cade comes into the ring to interview Rich. They pretty much hype up Rich's "Hair vs. Title" match that he has next month with Aaron Epic. I'm not sure how I want this to go. I'd like to see the cruiserweight strap on a heel (Rich) rather than the baby face (Epic), but at the same time I think that Rich needs to tweak his gimmick a bit. Maybe him having a baldy is the way to go.

Match 8 - Mister Saint Laurent w/ So Cal Val defeated SCW Florida Heavyweight champion "The Shooter" Vordell Walker to become the new SCW Florida Heavyweight champion (6:48)
Vordell Walker came out to new music. I'm not sure if that's a good thing because it's always good to have your entrance song associated with you. I thought he did have that with "Game Over". MSL comes out and has his streamers back this time. Only problem is that Walker received streamers too. We start the match with MSL looking hesitant from the start. He hasn't been wrestling that long, so I know he had to be nervous. MSL stomps Walker in the stomach, and he responds with a spinning heel kick to the face. We then have Walker with a take down and he attempts to mat wrestle MSL. There was an awkward sequence where MSL sent Walker into the corner. MSL was charging Walker, apparently to splash him or something of that nature, but Walker had taken a bump over the top rope and falling to the floor. Once they make it back into the ring, Walker sends MSL across the ropes and misses a clothesline. MSL follows the missed clothesline with spinning heel kick. It looked nice, and you appreciate it more when you realize how big of a guy MSL is. They have him listed at 6'3", 333 lbs. About a minute later in the match, MSL is outside of the ring, and Walker hits a tope onto him. Walker then posts MSL which leads to him doing the blade job. Pretty much the rest of the match was just Walker beating the hell out of MSL. Now we're at the end of the match. For some odd reason, we get a cat fight from So Cal Val and the random girl Samantha, who has been at a ringside table the entire night. Apparently at the last Haines City show there was an angle where Val hit Samantha, and that led to Val being arrested. Anyway, they start to fight, and almost the entire crowd runs over to see these two chicks fighting on the floor. While watching the cat fight, everybody missed out on Manny Montana running in and hitting Walker with his Dragon Suplex. Montana flips over Walker and puts MSL on top. The ref gets back into the ring and makes the 3 count. We have a new SCW Florida Heavyweight champion. There were a couple of things that I didn't like about this match. First of all, with the push that Walker had been getting from SCW, it seemed like him being beat with the Dragon Suplex was pretty weak. It's one thing for it to happen in a match. You hit the Dragon and you pin him, but here it was he hit the Dragon, flipped him over, put MSL on top of him and then needed the referee to get back into the ring to make the count. I just thought that it would have made more sense had Montana used a chair instead. Also, I'm confused as to why they gave Walker the belt in the first place if it was coming off of him a month later. I'm sure they have their reasons for doing it, so I guess we'll have to see how it pans out. I just hope it doesn't set Walker back because he looked to be the stud of the future in SCW.

Match 9 - SCW Tag Team champions The Hellraizers defeated Thump Dupree & Jason Hexx to retain their titles
Dupree and Hexx come out to cut a promo. It was the usual heel stuff where they make fun of the city they're in and question their opponents' sexuality. A funny moment came when Hexx asked, "I wonder which one is the pitcher and which one is the catcher?," to which some fan responded with a rather loud, "They like baseball?" It was definitely some funny stuff. The Hellraizers run to the ring to get this match started. We start off with some beautiful chain wrestling from the Hellraizers. Ok, just kidding. We get their usual kick, punch, kick, punch, kick, punch. I feel like I'm playing Street Fighter II again. After all of that was out of their system, Hexx and Dupree begin working over Python's leg. We get several of those tags where the ref doesn't see Python tag in Axis. That Billy Dalton sure is a blind guy. This leads to another funny moment from the crowd. Axis keeps getting sent out of the ring by ref Dalton because he doesn't see the tag. Axis is acting irate. All of a sudden, a fan in the crowd yells for Axis to calm down or he's going to lose the match for them. Axis kind of breaks character by sheepishly asking the fan, "Me?", and lets out a slight chuckle. The end of the match was Python still in the ring with Hexx and Dupree. They went for a double suplex, but instead Python suplexed them because he's that strong. We finally get the hot tag to Axis who pummels Hexx and Dupree. Dupree powders, and in the process pushes ring announcer Ox to the ground. Dupree grabs a chair and hits Ox in the back with it. During all of this, the referee ends up taking a ref bump. Dupree runs in with a chair and hits both Hellraizers with it. Both heels look to revive the ref. This gives the Hellraizers enough time to kick Hexx out of the ring and give Dupree a spike powerslam for the win.

Final Thoughts

-- It was back to typical fashion for an SCW main event. It wasn't a wrestling clinic, but the crowd loved it. I really need to start adapting to the wrestling in Florida. It really is a different style than up north. What the crowds love here is the polar opposite of what is loved in the northeast.

-- The SCW Florida Heavyweight title change was mind boggling as I was sure that Vordell Walker was going to get a decent run with that title. What do I know?

-- I was missing some Rich Criado. I was really hoping that he would be a regular on SCW shows. I want another chance to get a look at him. I thought he was decent.

-- For what it's worth, I thought ring announcer Ox did a good job this week. Hey, if I'm going to comment when I think he's messing up, I should also comment when he does a good job.

-- Can we get a title or role for Samantha if she's going to be put on the show? Personally, I think she should be removed from the show, but I'm not the one paying for everything so I get no say in the situation. Hopefully someone will realize that her being on the show isn't right.

-- Overall, the show was ok. It had its good and bad moments. New story lines are seeming to develop, so this will be an interesting period for SCW. I'm hoping that something good comes up for Josh Rich, and I hope that Vordell Walker doesn't get buried.

-- I'd like to point out that this show outdrew the last Haines City show which had Larry Zbyszko on it. I found that to be very interesting. How about you, Matt?

Will Rivera