Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 16, 2014 13:36:55 GMT -6
www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/103-indies/40361-report-from-booker-ts-reality-of-wrestling-show
By Brody C. Williams and Scott E. Williams
While many other independent wrestling groups kick up more fuss, former WWE/WCW champ Booker T and wife Sharmell have been putting on consistently good shows, just about 15 miles south of Houston. They run Reality of Wrestling, and hold monthly shows, mostly featuring Booker’s students, but also with occasional guests.
The key is that R.O.W. events spotlight the action in the ring; this is not one of those groups that open live events with 20 minute promo segments, as if they were some local version of “Raw.” The focus is on the athleticism of the talent, whose matches get a decent amount of time to showcase their talents.
On Saturday, Dec. 13, the theme of the night was R.O.W. vs. Pro Wrestling Syndicate, as the New Jersey group invaded southeast Texas (and they ended up not being the only ones).
Alex Reigns beat Christiano (managed by Reyna). Good, fast paced opener.
Fallah Bahh pinned Jasper “The Hammer” Davis. Bahh, who borrows Yokozuna’s gimmick and entrance music, won fairly cleanly. Doing so against Davis, a former R.O.W. champ, sent the message that the Syndicate would not be formidable invaders.
Kenzie Sykes beat Cinema to become the new R.O.W. Diamond (Women’s) Division champion. The two actually had an athletic wrestling match, not a display that aimed to titillate.
TV Champion “Ruthless” Ryan Davidson (managed by Stevie Ray) pinned Bryan Keith.
Davidson is impressive, a stocky “built like a wrestler” heel with great timing and a high impact style that shows off a lot of power and mobility.
R.O.W. Tag team titles: Champions The Heavenly Bodies beat Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin by DQ, when former tag champs The Brothers Lockhart attacked the Bodies, just as it appeared that Benjamin and Haas had the match won.
The Lockharts teased a breakup last month, but both came out to do guest commentary for this match. However, they ended up in another shoving match after the run in, and R.O.W. boss Booker T also came to the ring, enraged at the brothers for interfering in such a big match.
Charlie Haas called Booker’s attention to a growing crowd chant of “triple threat,” which could foreshadow a tag title match to come …
Rob Barnes defeated Rock Star Robbie, who then attacked Barnes, after the match. The Australian Barnes had a nice "Oy! Oy! Oy!" chant going, among the crowd.
Title versus title: R.O.W. champ Mysterious Q beat Pro Wrestling Syndicate champ Mario Bokara by DQ, when Dan Maff, Fallah Bahh and the Heavenly Bodies (Desirable Dustin & Gigolo Justin) interfered. This brought out a group of R.O.W. regulars for the save, and it was clear we were in full “invasion angle” mode, because the attack by the Jersey crew brought out both R.O.W. heroes and villains, who fought side by side against their New Jersey counterparts.
Brendan Sky beat the (masked) Infernal Tiger, with a 450 splash. Sky first showed up a couple of months ago as part of a run in by The Legion, a cultlike group run by Shawn Hendrix, himself a young wrestler who’s quickly developed into a pretty menacing villain, a wrestler/manager with a creepy air.
But until 12/13, run ins were all he had done. This was Sky’s first match ever, and this young man has worlds of potential. He performed flips, high flying moves and a couple of maneuvers I’ve never seen in more than 30 years of watching wrestling, and he impressed me by being smart about the psychology of executing that stuff; it’s hard to stay a heel when your arsenal is so spectacular, but Sky capped off each aerial onslaught with a knee to the midsection on the landing, or another such violent flourish. He got across that he was not flying to impress, but to hurt his opponent.
He showed confidence and poise, to the extent that I was really surprised to learn he’d never worked a full match before.
Jared Steele (managed by Stevie Ray) pinned The Pride. Steele does some cool power stuff, and Pride is a good sized wrestler who takes some crazy chances and bumps for his height and mass. Stevie Ray is also really good as an old school style ringside agitator.
Parviz pinned Alex Villareal. No disrespect to these guys, but I had a phone call I had to take, and missed this match.
Main event: 10 Man elimination tag match: Mysterious Q, “Ruthless” Ryan Davidson, Alex Reigns, Rex Andrews, Abel Andrew Jackson (Team R.O.W.) beat Dan Maff, Mario Bokara, Fallah Bahh and the Heavenly Bodies (Desirable Dustin & Gigolo Justin).
The two champions, Q and Bokara, were eliminated by countout, as they brawled up the aisle. Interestingly, the job of saving the day for the hometown promotion fell to two of R.O.W.’s leading villains (the aforementioned Ryan Davidson and the highly entertaining Abel Andrew Jackson, who typically portrays a disingenuous politician trying to manipulate things to his benefit), as they and The Bodies were the last ones left. R.O.W.’s bad guys started to unload on The Bodies until a third promotion’s crew, Luke Hawx and fellow wrestlers of the Louisiana group Wildkats, ran in and attacked Jackson and Davidson.
We might actually have a three way promotional feud brewing here.
The monthly shows are held in a community athletic center, just south of Houston, and they generally draw in the neighborhood of 200 fans, but they added some rows to the seating arrangement, and had somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 fans for Saturday's show, not counting dozens of fans who came only for a preshow meet and greet with Haas and Benjamin.
Visit www.realityofwrestling.com for info on their next live events, television listings and links to full episodes. Seriously, it's good stuff.
By Brody C. Williams and Scott E. Williams
While many other independent wrestling groups kick up more fuss, former WWE/WCW champ Booker T and wife Sharmell have been putting on consistently good shows, just about 15 miles south of Houston. They run Reality of Wrestling, and hold monthly shows, mostly featuring Booker’s students, but also with occasional guests.
The key is that R.O.W. events spotlight the action in the ring; this is not one of those groups that open live events with 20 minute promo segments, as if they were some local version of “Raw.” The focus is on the athleticism of the talent, whose matches get a decent amount of time to showcase their talents.
On Saturday, Dec. 13, the theme of the night was R.O.W. vs. Pro Wrestling Syndicate, as the New Jersey group invaded southeast Texas (and they ended up not being the only ones).
Alex Reigns beat Christiano (managed by Reyna). Good, fast paced opener.
Fallah Bahh pinned Jasper “The Hammer” Davis. Bahh, who borrows Yokozuna’s gimmick and entrance music, won fairly cleanly. Doing so against Davis, a former R.O.W. champ, sent the message that the Syndicate would not be formidable invaders.
Kenzie Sykes beat Cinema to become the new R.O.W. Diamond (Women’s) Division champion. The two actually had an athletic wrestling match, not a display that aimed to titillate.
TV Champion “Ruthless” Ryan Davidson (managed by Stevie Ray) pinned Bryan Keith.
Davidson is impressive, a stocky “built like a wrestler” heel with great timing and a high impact style that shows off a lot of power and mobility.
R.O.W. Tag team titles: Champions The Heavenly Bodies beat Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin by DQ, when former tag champs The Brothers Lockhart attacked the Bodies, just as it appeared that Benjamin and Haas had the match won.
The Lockharts teased a breakup last month, but both came out to do guest commentary for this match. However, they ended up in another shoving match after the run in, and R.O.W. boss Booker T also came to the ring, enraged at the brothers for interfering in such a big match.
Charlie Haas called Booker’s attention to a growing crowd chant of “triple threat,” which could foreshadow a tag title match to come …
Rob Barnes defeated Rock Star Robbie, who then attacked Barnes, after the match. The Australian Barnes had a nice "Oy! Oy! Oy!" chant going, among the crowd.
Title versus title: R.O.W. champ Mysterious Q beat Pro Wrestling Syndicate champ Mario Bokara by DQ, when Dan Maff, Fallah Bahh and the Heavenly Bodies (Desirable Dustin & Gigolo Justin) interfered. This brought out a group of R.O.W. regulars for the save, and it was clear we were in full “invasion angle” mode, because the attack by the Jersey crew brought out both R.O.W. heroes and villains, who fought side by side against their New Jersey counterparts.
Brendan Sky beat the (masked) Infernal Tiger, with a 450 splash. Sky first showed up a couple of months ago as part of a run in by The Legion, a cultlike group run by Shawn Hendrix, himself a young wrestler who’s quickly developed into a pretty menacing villain, a wrestler/manager with a creepy air.
But until 12/13, run ins were all he had done. This was Sky’s first match ever, and this young man has worlds of potential. He performed flips, high flying moves and a couple of maneuvers I’ve never seen in more than 30 years of watching wrestling, and he impressed me by being smart about the psychology of executing that stuff; it’s hard to stay a heel when your arsenal is so spectacular, but Sky capped off each aerial onslaught with a knee to the midsection on the landing, or another such violent flourish. He got across that he was not flying to impress, but to hurt his opponent.
He showed confidence and poise, to the extent that I was really surprised to learn he’d never worked a full match before.
Jared Steele (managed by Stevie Ray) pinned The Pride. Steele does some cool power stuff, and Pride is a good sized wrestler who takes some crazy chances and bumps for his height and mass. Stevie Ray is also really good as an old school style ringside agitator.
Parviz pinned Alex Villareal. No disrespect to these guys, but I had a phone call I had to take, and missed this match.
Main event: 10 Man elimination tag match: Mysterious Q, “Ruthless” Ryan Davidson, Alex Reigns, Rex Andrews, Abel Andrew Jackson (Team R.O.W.) beat Dan Maff, Mario Bokara, Fallah Bahh and the Heavenly Bodies (Desirable Dustin & Gigolo Justin).
The two champions, Q and Bokara, were eliminated by countout, as they brawled up the aisle. Interestingly, the job of saving the day for the hometown promotion fell to two of R.O.W.’s leading villains (the aforementioned Ryan Davidson and the highly entertaining Abel Andrew Jackson, who typically portrays a disingenuous politician trying to manipulate things to his benefit), as they and The Bodies were the last ones left. R.O.W.’s bad guys started to unload on The Bodies until a third promotion’s crew, Luke Hawx and fellow wrestlers of the Louisiana group Wildkats, ran in and attacked Jackson and Davidson.
We might actually have a three way promotional feud brewing here.
The monthly shows are held in a community athletic center, just south of Houston, and they generally draw in the neighborhood of 200 fans, but they added some rows to the seating arrangement, and had somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 fans for Saturday's show, not counting dozens of fans who came only for a preshow meet and greet with Haas and Benjamin.
Visit www.realityofwrestling.com for info on their next live events, television listings and links to full episodes. Seriously, it's good stuff.