The event took place at the Corbin Civic Center on December 1, 2012. After 2 events at the same venue to enthusiastic & responsive crowds, the Little Indie Promotion that Could had their final event of the year. This event was performed in front of its largest crowd to date. As with every PWF show, new faces are introduced & familiar faces rise to stardom.
“Picture Perfect” Jordan Kage vs. Sean “Virus” Harddrive. In the first shows of PWF, this was one of the most intense rivalries which produced really good matches & got both guys over with the fans. It definitely showed that both individuals were familiar with not only professional wrestling, but with each other. Each move appeared to be a calculated strike met with an equally effective counterstrike with each act of offense playing to each man’s strength. In the end, it was a Picture Perfect counter to a hurricanrana into a sunset flip. Winner: Jordan Kage. Post match featured Virus demanding Kage shake his hand which Kage complied with spitting in Virus’s face.
“Real Deal” Derek Neal vs. Corey Statik. For those of you old enough to remember watching World Championship Wrestling (not WCW) on TBS at 9:05am & 6:05pm on Saturdays, you may remember what is called in the industry as the squash. This match definitely reminded me of one of those with Neal simply dominating Statik who managed to hit a decent cutter. The match ended 3 seconds after Neal hit his inverted tiger driver like maneuver. Winner: Derek Neal.
Mad Man Pondo vs. Jordan Christopher- Hardcore Match. Remember what I said earlier about squash matches? Its Pondo against some local guy who looks like he hit a growth spurt 6 weeks earlier. Imagine this: take a lawnmower, turn it on, lay it on its side. Then take a kitten & throw it into the moving blades. That’s what this match looked like it would be (before you start getting outraged, I don’t condone animal cruelty because I consider it barbaric & I love my pets). But, I have to say, this match was pretty ugly. It had a lot of stops & starts & really lacked any sense of excitement except for Christopher diving off the top onto Pondo on the ringside floor. In the end, the sledgehammer/cinder block vasectonomy & the stop sign were too much for the local. Winner: Mad Man Pondo.
Ryan Dookie vs. BJ Whitmer. Whitmer comes out wearing a ROH shirt while Dookie comes out wearing a PWF shirt. So it looks not only like an international star vs. a local guy but it was like watching Ring of Honor vs. Pro Wrestling Freedom. These 2 couldn’t look any more different: Whitmer being a hardened veteran who maintains fighting shape while Dookie looks like Wolverine after spending 4 hours at a buffet & hibernating in the vaults of Fort Knox. Match went very well with both wrestlers carrying their own weight & moving from one move to another like watching the passing of the tides. In the end, PWF- 1, ROH- 0. Winner: Ryan Dookie. Derek Neal attacked Dookie post match & placed a plastic bag over his head with Virus making the save.
In the Wolf Den the legendary Dutch Mantell is the guest. When you get a regional legend & an international legend, there’s always going to be conflict. Well, with Bobby Blade, there’s always going to be conflict (I would say it’s his middle name but it’s probably Cornelius or something). So as the Original Prankster exchanges barbs with The Man Soon to be Known as Zeb Colter, Sweet & Juicy come to ringside & want to have a few words with the Hairy Dutchman. After hearing all he was going to hear, Mantell called for the beginning of the next match with the beginning of Zodiak’s music.
Sweet & Juicy vs. Zodiak & JR Roc- Double Strap Match (Dutch Mantell special guest referee). Zodiak’s previous partner had to withdraw for unknown reasons, so he brought in his partner who makes up Nightmare, Inc which is their team in other promotions. If you’ve never seen him, J.R. Roc looks like a lanky version of a bass guitarist in a Celtic metal band. This match can best be described as a beatdown. The sound that resonated across the arena was familiar to those who misbehaved as children before social workers became highly annoying. Both teams left there with welts, but only 1 was the victor. Winner: Zodiak & JR Roc.
“The Human Devastation Device” Dustin Rayz (w/Father Fear) vs. “The Iron Demon” Shane Mercer. Before the match Mercer comes out & says a few words before calling out Rayz. Rayz walks out with his partner in crime like a lion sizing up a zebra before taking it down. As soon as the bell was sounded, Hell was unleashed. Rayz mounted the most offense with strikes & with so much ferocity that if Mercer didn’t have the muscle mass he has, then you’d probably hear his bones explode outside the Civic Center. Mercer did mount high impact offense himself, even hitting his finisher but the pin was stopped by Father Fear climbing up on the apron & interrupting the count. With Mercer distracted, Rayz attacked him & executed him finisher; a double underhook piledriver I learned he calls the Affliction Driver. Considering how hard he spiked him on the mat, you’d think the guy whom in many promotions is called Diablo would have fallen straight to Hell. But a weakened Iron Demon struggled to his feet but couldn’t recover before the Human Devastation Device knocked him out with repeated knees to his head forcing the referee to call for the bell. Winner: Dustin Rayz. After the bell, an enraged Rayz proceeded to demolish an unconscious Mercer with even more knees including the ones from the leg that is partially metal, which collided with Mercer’s skull, which is bone. After more strikes, John Bullard gets involved & warns Rayz to not hit Mercer with another knee; which Rayz ignores in an act of defiance with Father Fear smiling & even showing Bullard that he may have been a hippie in the past, but he broke off the index finger of his peace symbol. These actions left the owner no choice but to suspend both aggressors for the January show & throwing them out of the Civic Center.
Kyle Matthews vs. Jason “The Gift” Kincaid (w/Kole Layton King). This match can be described in one word: classic. The stars aligned that night as the match that many promotions have been trying to book for years comes to pass in a small venue just up the road from the first Kentucky Fried Chicken. The only blemish was the interference of KLK early in the match which caused the referee to promptly eject the Texas bully from ringside. After that magic ensued. Both men showed why accolades are heaped upon them as they threw every move they could at each other with precision. After a series of exciting near falls, it was The Gift who gave Matthews an early Christmas present. Winner: Kyle Matthews.
Hy Zaya vs. Lennox Norris- 2 Out of 3 Falls w/No DQ. The oldest rivalry in PWF is definitely The Hood Ninja vs. The Bronze God. This match started like a violent dance where there were many strikes & counters to the other’s moves. The first fall was scored in a controversial fashion as it appears the referee made a mistake in the count. Fall 1: Hy Zaya. The second fall was scored after a fast flurry of strikes & scored after a neckbreaker. Fall 2: Lennox Norris. Tied 1-1, both men go at each other with wreckless abandon as the crowd reaction starts to pick up in anticipation of the final fall. The victor goes back to The West Side of The Ville with a win in the PWF’s last match of 2012. Fall 3 & Winner of the match: Hy Zaya.
The new faces? The one that stands out is the ring announcer with Digger departing to concentrate on what’s important in his life (good luck & many blessings to you sir), & the debut of Brian Sizemore & his now famous bowtie; the moniker “The Bowtie Bandit” came later. On an side note, the chant of “bowtie” was apparent all through the evening even thought it wasn’t captured on the DVD. This was also the debut of BJ Whitmer who put over Ryan Dookie 2 weeks before being thrown head first through a table by Charlie Haas at Ring of Honor’s Final Battle 2012. Sizemore’s here to stay, as for Whitmer? Time will tell.
All in all, a show with a few good matches & 1 great one. It was a great way to close the year for PWF who had seen their fanbase grow exponentially in those 3 shows of 2012. The only thing that diminishes the experience is the DVD. Not the cover, that was rather well done (despite the fact that “devastation” is misspelled), but the format of the DVD. There is no play all selection on the disk & the main page is the match selection page. The camera work shows some static shots & you can tell the difference in the quality of the cameras used for this event. Of all the DVDs PWF has worked on to date, I’d like to see them so back & reedit this disk with a home page with more options. If possible, I would like to see them remix the audio because the commentary of Aaron Rose & Bobby Blade is hilarious. But like I’ve said before, even good companies have some growing pains.
Now go check out a local show.
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