Photos Courtesy of Amy Payne From Larry Goodman: Global Championship Wrestling ran their annual Southern Legends Fanfest event a...
Photos Courtesy of Amy Payne |
From Larry Goodman:
Global Championship Wrestling ran their annual Southern Legends Fanfest event at the Pell City Civic Center with three generations of Armstrongs, “Wildcat” Wendell Cooley and Dr. Tom Prichard as the featured guests.
The fact that Bullet Bob wasn’t there didn’t put a damper on the evening. The legends match between Cooley and Prichard was great fun, and the show had a terrific main event (Mike Cruz vs. Spi-Ral). Promoter/booker “Maddog” Dan Sawyer takes an old school approach that is in synch with the GCW fan base. The wrestling on the undercard wasn’t all that great, but it didn’t need to be. Interaction with the fans, mic work, and clear, uncomplicated storytelling were what mattered. The order of the matches was just right, and the main event was what a main event should be – a match contested on a distinctly higher plane than the rest of the show.
Attendance was 300+. I love the atmosphere at the Pell City venue. The fans are along the lines of the Peachstate crowd in Carrollton only more vociferous and with more kids in the mix. Heels get massive heat at GCW.
Global is a professional quality production. The sound system is first rate. Loads of gimmick tables are in play and they seem to move a fair amount of merch. Fans were wearing t-shirts of the local stars. Ring Announcer/Commissioner Eddie Layne keeps the show moving at a fast pace.
(1) Mr. O’Hagan won a 12 man rumble royal to become the #1 contender for the Southeast Regional Championship in 29 minutes. The story here was the smallest guy in the match going the distance to become the number one contender. O’Hagan and Stiles started with a wrestler being added every 60 seconds or so as follows: Clyde Braddock, Leon “The Bull” Stresser (with Lady Justice – wears a badge and definitely has a chest to pin it on), Equalizer, Tommy Penirelli, Dylan Cook, KC Adams, Zander Stone, Wicked Nemesis, Psycho Circus and Theodore Tutwiler III. Sevenfold Saints (Stiles, Braddock and Wicked) functioned as a unit whenever possible. Wicked took forever to get into the ring. The first elimination didn’t occur until 17 minutes into the match. The spot to remember was Stone being eliminated via an insane crash and burn dive over the top. Thank god they have mats on the floor at GCW. It came down to Sevenfold Saints and Stresser, Cook and O’Hagan on the babyface side. Stiles eliminated Stresser with the Best Dropkick Ever. Cook dumped Wicked and eliminated Stiles with a dropkick. It barely made contact but Stiles went out anyway. Braddock took care of Cook, and O’Hagan clotheslined Braddock over the top with authority for the win. This was OK as rumbles go, longer than necessary if you ask me, but the crowd stayed into it and pulled hard for O’Hagan all the way so it worked. It was an appropriate vehicle to keep the greener and less talented members of the GCW roster from being overexposed. Equalizer and Psycho Circus are masked fat guys. Cook is a decent sized kid and the fans respond to him. He could be a force as a babyface once he gets some experience under his belt. Equalizer and Psycho Circus are masked fat guys. Stresser and Adams are also well-liked by the GCW fans, but they didn’t appear to have much except size going for them.
Postmatch, Sevenfold Saints gave O’Hagan the beatdown. Wicked got on the mic proclaiming Saints to be the greatest tag team in wrestling. He put every tag team in the Southeast on notice and specifically called out Washington Bullets, Wild Stallyns and The Foundation among others.
(2) Stevie Armstrong defeated The Nightcrawler in 5:34. This was Stevie’s first match. It was painful to see a member of the Armstrong family in a wrestling ring with scarcely a clue of how to properly execute the basics. Nightcrawler dominated until missing big in the corner and Stevie rolled him up.
(3) Michael Steele defeated Scottie Blaze in 8:08. Solid match. Blaze has a lower center of gravity than he did in his Deep South days, but the beer gut hasn’t hampered his flying ability. He’s still an impressive athlete. Steele is a journeyman type heel who meshed well with Blaze to effectively tell a simple story. Blaze took a great bump on a high speed whip. Steele seized the opportunity to work on Blaze’s back. A double clothesline left both men down. Blaze tried to cap off his comeback with a top rope leg drop. Steele got out from under it and finished Blaze with an RKO.
(4) Legends Challenge Match – Wendell Cooley defeated Dr. Tom Prichard to win the Texas Heavyweight Championship in 12 minutes. This was all walking and talking and a delight to behold. Prichard was hilarious. Prichard said while Cooley was sitting in his recliner eating potato chips and drinking Lone Star for the last 20 years, he was still wrestling and winning championships and Cooley would thank him for retiring him. Cooley got a huge pop. There was a period of time in the 1980s when Cooley was THE GUY in Gulf Coast territory. Cooley is balding now, but he looked in great shape for his age. They brought the infamous GCW fan Peanut in the act. This little old guy berates the heels all night long and never lets up. He was giving Prichard holy hell. Cooley buddied up with Peanut and said Prichard would have to go through him first. They did the hammerlock reversals that few wrestlers these days seem to know how to do. Prichard had a foreign object in his tights and used it on Cooley’s gut. When Prichard tried for a suplex, Cooley countered with an inside cradle for the 1-2-3.
Prichard went on a tirade after the match. He was still stuck on the peanut thing and asked some kid if he was named Almond. Prichard issued a challenge to Almond’s dad who was a big dude, and ranted and raved his way all the way back to the dressing room. My description didn’t do justice to how entertaining this segment was. I marveled at how much they got out of doing so little.
(5) Micah Taylor defeated Muddbone to become the #1 contender for the GCW Heavyweight Championship in 10:02. This match pitted the voodoo weirdo against GCW’s tried and true top babyface. It had been a couple of years since my last visit to Global and Taylor is as over as ever. Taylor was in full control until Muddbone reversed a whip sending Taylor crashing into the steel ringsteps. It sounded brutal. Back and forth action ensued with Muddbone squelching Taylor’s rallies. Muddbone blocked a german suplex and countered with a spinebuster slam. Muddbone then hit a running frogsplash and went out to jaw with the fans before going for the pin. Taylor kicked out and devastated Muddbone with a package piledriver. Pretty vanilla as a wrestling match, not that there's anything wrong with that in Pell City. Muddbone is not a fancy wrestler and this was not a fancy wrestling type of crowd. They wisely saved the flashy stuff for the main event.
Bullet Bob and Steve Armstrong were scheduled to team up for the next match. Steve said his father didn’t make it because he was down with the flu and went on to talk about how this building was sacred to the Armstrong family because it was the last place Brad ever wrestled. Steve talked about Brad’s generosity and how he used one of his paychecks from Georgia Championship Wrestling to buy Steve his first truck. Steve said it had been two years since Brad died, that losing a son was something a father never gets over and there had been something missing in Bob ever since. Steve said Bob was sick but he may have also been too heart-broken to do the show.
The Armstrongs’ scheduled opponents, Circle of Disrespect (Simon Sez & Francisco Ciatso) joined Steve in the ring. Sez said that although Steve was on loan from the Museum of Natural History, COD had a lot of respect for him, so it would be an honor to shake his hand. It was a setup for Ciatso to jump Steve from behind. Sawyer hit the ring and ran COD off. Sawyer said he wasn’t an Armstrong but they were like family to him. Leading to…
(6) Steve Armstrong & “Maddog” Dan Sawyer pinned The Circle of Disrespect (Simon Sez & Francisco Ciatso) with stereo roll ups in around 6 minutes. COD worked Steve over as Sawyer led the crowd in an Armstrong chant. Steve hit a stunner. Sez took his signature bump – starts as a dazed salute and ends with Sez falling flat on his face. For the finish, COD did the dosey-do to escape a collision only to mess up and get pinned anyway. Ciatso tried to console Sez who was brought to tears. Nothing to the match. The magic was in the mic work.
(7) Mike Cruz (with Theodore Tutwiller III) retained the GCW Middleweight Championship losing to Spi-Ral via DQ in 21:01. This match had the vibe of true athletic competition. The quality of the wrestling and the intensity level were several cuts above anything else on the show. It’s a lock that you’re going to see a quality performance from Cruz every time he’s in the ring. The surprise was how far Spi-Ral has come since I saw him last. He’s technically much better and wrestling with great confidence, but it was the way he connected with the fans that really impressed me the most. He was the most over babyface on the show next to Taylor. Cruz took repeated time out to regroup as he wasn’t getting the better of Spi-Ral in a straight up wrestling match. Spi-Ral ended a rapid fire exchange with a sweet legsweep takedown. Cruz was enraged as he took another TO. Back inside, Cruz opened up on Spi-Ral. Spi-Ral rallied back with a trio of clotheslines and a super high backdrop. Spi-Ral with an up and over spinning headscissors that slid Cruz out of the ring. Spi-Ral punished Cruz on the outside. Cruz got the best of an acrobatic exchange, knocking Spi-Ral off the apron and injuring his neck. Cruz gave Spi-Ral a shot into the metal ring steps. Cruz delivered a series of withering chops. Cruz with a back suplex and nip up. Cruz was feeling it now. But Cruz went for one too many running forearms, and Spi-Ral flipped him over the top rope straight to the floor. Spi-Ral nailed Cruz with a springboard moonsault block to the floor followed by a springboard forearm back to the inside. Spi-Ral fought off a single leg crab, but Cruz planted him with a bridging german suplex. When Spi-Ral kicked out, Cruz called for the belt. Spi-Ral ducked the belt shot and gave Cruz a rolling fireman’s carry slam followed by a corkscrew senton, but Cruz got a foot on the ropes. Cruz got his knees up on Spi-Ral’s top rope splash attempt. A precarious battle on the top rope led to Spi-Ral hitting a variation of Kazarian’s Flux Capacitor. That brought fellow Foundation members Ciatso and Sez sprinting to the ring to interfere on Cruz’s behalf. Spi-Ral cut both of them off and went after Tutwiler who was also up on the apron, and Cruz gave Spi-Ral a low blow. Referee Birney Kawanawitz had seen enough and DQed Cruz.
Spiral managed to fend off a postmatch attack by The Foundation and challenged Cruz to a ladder match on December 27 at Season’s Beatings. A highly pissed off Cruz accepted. The pop was a clear signal that this is a match that GCW fans want to see.