The first Saturday of June marks several milestones; in many places, children are enjoying the beginning of their Summer vacation, many women are getting married this month so they can be brides forever, & the year being almost halfway over & those resolutions we swore we would keep but are long gone to name a few. But June 1, 2013 also marks Pro Wrestling Freedom’s 9th event, Hour of Sin. Don’t worry, it lasted longer than an hour.
With people coming into the venue 2 hours earlier to enjoy the 2nd Fanfest, smiles & high expectations were about. From Sean “Virus” Harddrive offering face painting, to Miguel “Dirty” Sanchez putting up a lemonade stand & selling his famous lemonade, Kerry Awful & Nick Iggy opening a kissing booth, & Father Fear telling people their fortune. Face painting was a hit with children (because I don’t think too many adults want to have big green streaks on their faces), the lemonade stand was popular because everyone wanted to know what made it so famous (if you had 1 dollar or 12 pesos, you would know what made it famous–I so wanted to pay him in pesos but couldn’t find a place that could exchange currency), kids hung around Kerry & Iggy but no one bought kisses I don’t believe (seriously, would you buy a kiss from 2 guys where 1 is a twentysomething 10 year old & the other is his dog?), the fortune telling was also a hit (what he told me–I need to reevaluate my life). We were also treated to Mickie Knuckles cooking hamburgers from Dairy Queen with the skills she picked up working at Burger King (she didn’t cook all night because she had a match but got concessions started because there was a mishap with the propane tank).
Three other attractions were wrestling trivia which was supposed to be hosted by Brian Sizemore who was suspiciously absent, what hosted by Bobby Blade who was assisted by Russell Ryan. The other activity was Ryan guessing the age & weight of fans. First Blade asked his questions to his contestants which even a cynical old man such as himself had to be impressed at the knowledge of some of the PWF faithful (no, I did not participate). After that competition, the president/treasurer/sergeant at arms/chief cook & bottle washer of the Bobby Blade Fan Club Russell Ryan proceeded to guess the age & weight of participants. This one was disappointing because the one person I was hoping would participate, a woman who has been christened Wrasslegranny, wasn’t a part of this activity or at least I didn’t see her (I say this because I was certain she’d slap him for what he would say). By far the most popular activity was the return of the video game challenge (which debuted on Dream Night–that DVD review’s coming) hosted by “Picture Perfect” Jordan Kage. The game? WCW vs. NWO Revenge on N64. His average game lasted approximately 30 seconds. Fanfest wasn’t just fun & games, there were a couple of matches.
Justin Storm vs. Shane Smalls. Here’s Storm’s return to PWF after his victory at Annihilation over Bob Murdoch, & you could hear people boo him. Not because people think he’s a terrible wrestler, but because he came out to some LMFAO song. Shane Smalls comes out & he reminds you of Chuck Taylor with his swagger and that he’s worked for some of the biggest independent promotions in the U.S. When the bell rings, you can see why Smalls has wrestled for several major companies: he’s a really good worker. With a mixture of groundwork as well as aerial maneuvers both men showed what they can offer the fans at the Civic Center if they return for future dates. The match wrapped up with what appeared to be an inverted Omega driver. Winner: Shane Smalls.
Alex Zayne vs. Brad Rush. Best way to describe this one: hard hitting. It seemed like every time that Zayne tried to fly, Rush was there to ground him, then pound on him. And you could feel every strike as well as hear a headbutt (if you’ve never heard one, it’s pretty sickening). Finally, an aerial assault beat out a ground attack. Winner: Alex Zayne.
Each show begins in its usual way: Volbeat playing over the PA, John Bullard leading the way out to the ring with commentators Aaron Rose & Russell Ryan bringing up the rear. As the trio were hyping up the show to a pumped crowd, Cash Flo & Bobby Blade come out which makes Ryan grin like a nerd in high school who asked the homecoming queen to the prom, & she said yes. Blade snatches the mic from Bullard & proceeds to explain to the crowd why Brian Sizemore was absent during the trivia challenge & not in the arena because Bobby filed a restraining order against the bowtied announcer which meant he not only wasn’t going to introduce anyone tonight, but he also wasn’t going to get involved in the main event where they were to be handcuffed together. Shortly afterward, Kyle Matthews made his presence known since he’s been the target of many attacks by Cash Flo & Co. since January. After Cash has a few words to say to Matthews, they get into an altercation which led to Blade assisting in a double team. This led to Shane Mercer coming out for assistance. While Flawless was outside the ring in an attempt to regroup, Mercer blindsided Matthews & continued the assault. Then comes out Matthews’s challenger, Shawn Shultz, to at first break up the scuffle, only to get his shots in on the champ & steal his belt. As they left ringside, Blade announced Mercer as the newest member of Flawless, replacing Scotty Vicious who had to be replaced for undisclosed reasons.
Miguel “Dirty” Sanchez vs. Shinigami. A contrast of styles where out comes the luchador, fun loving with a hand gesture & name that the children who love him now will laugh years later when they look up what a Dirty Sanchez is and the dark, angst filled Shinigami; who’s a man that looks very familiar to many but no one can quite put their finger on. As the bell rang, and Rose & Ryan beginning their appointed duties, the 2 began their game of one-upmanship. With moments where the fun loving masked man mounted some admirable offense in an attempt achieve the win, his opponent was more interested in making Sanchez suffer & left in pain. The match ended with the Dirty one finding out that if a chair is involved, there’s a reason to fear the Reaper. Winner (by disqualification): Miguel “Dirty” Sanchez. Post match Father Fear comes out spewing more of his venom while he introduced the crowd to his new addition to add to the previously introduced Muldoon while Dustin Rayz finished up his tour with ICP.
Kole Layton King & “Silverback” Chris Hall vs. Team IOU (Kerry Awful & Nick Iggy) w/Kyd Mac. In a return match of sorts, KLK & Silverback faced a popular team from Tennessee after being reunited at the last show. You knew the match was going to be entertaining when Nick Iggy pulled out of his backpack his Woody & Buzz Lightyear figures & got the crowd involved when Team IOU yelled out “To infinity….”, if you don’t know the rest, go watch Toy Story. The main things that stood out were: Chris Hall is a mega powerhouse by manhandling everyone & when Kyd Mac got involved, he was thrown out onto Iggy & Kerry. The other thing that really stood out was Team IOU’s teamwork. Once PWF’s tag team division picks up, the man-boy & his man-dog will definitely be top contenders; especially with their finisher called The Receipt which is a version of the old Acid Drop with a stomp to the back off the top rope. Winner: Team IOU. Post match had KLK verbally berate a man who looked about double his size & 3 times he strength. And that man had an extremely short fuse because when he exploded, he went through KLK & anyone else who came out to ringside.
Alex Angel vs. Nate Cross (w/ The Dahlia). The next event started out with a raven haired young lady coming out to the ring where she’s met with Steven Tyler’s microphone. Next came out Nate Cross, who looked like a rock & roll guy from a bygone era when his music video would be introduced by Martha Quinn. Once in the ring, he starts to caterwaul posing in his hair swinging & prancing in his Britannias. Next guy came out looking like a guy who could be on the active roster for Ring of Honor. As soon as the bell rings, those guys gave the crowd what I like to call an entertaining match. Everything with those 2 seemed to work well, even Cross’s valet The Dahlia had her place & didn’t just stand in the corner looking pretty. Turns out, Cross’s most effective move was The Dahlia & the Aqua Net in her pocketbook. Winner: Nate Cross.
Menace vs. Nasty Russ vs. “Picture Perfect” Jordan Kage. In what has become PWF’s staple, you have their workhorse in Menace, their sudden rising star in Nasty Russ, & the most popular guy in the promotion in Jordan Kage. The match changed pace multiple times, each guy had their spot, & each guy worked as good as they have been in previous events. One guy you can’t be impressed with enough is Menace; for a guy his height he a helluva aerialist. And Russ’s moonsault is as entertaining as he is. Despite outside interference from both Flawless & Virus, Nasty Russ became another Fuzzy 8×10. Winner: “Picture Perfect” Jordan Kage.
Kyle Matthews (C) vs. Shawn Shultz- PWF Heavyweight Championship match. If you just watched the ring entrances, you wouldn’t know that Matthews was champion because Shultz walked out with the belt he acquired earlier that evening. Once both men were in the ring, a rather methodical match occurred. There were some points where there was some excitement and some rather impressive wrestling took place, & honestly it wasn’t necessarily dull, & it wasn’t a bad match, it’s just that I’ve seen better & more exciting matches in that ring (looking at it from a fan’s perspective & not as some overly opinionated reviewer). There was a point that it looked like the referee was going to declare Shultz the champion by pinfall, only to see that the champ had his foot on the rope during a pinning situation. After the match was promptly restarted, Matthews quickly worked Shultz into a Texas Cloverleaf for the submission. Winner: Kyle Matthews. Post match Matthews said that the next challenger at the July 6th show would be Jordan Kage who promptly came out, & said even though he respected Matthews, he (Kage) is a prick & will do everything he could to win. The 2 shook hands & the match was set.
Flawless (Cash Flo & Shane Mercer) w/Bobby Blade vs. Team BFF (Mickie Knuckles & Ryan Dookie) (C)- PWF Tag Team Title match. As usual Flawless comes out & the man on the mic is Cash Flo who can generate heat like an old territory worker. The big surprise is that even though Mercer didn’t get on the mic, but he was definitely taunting the crowd; those of you who are Mercer fans, he looked so natural doing it: I think he found his niche. PWF owner John Bullard then comes to the ring with a member of the local sheriff’s department & informed everyone that the restraining order was worthless which prompted Brian Sizemore to make his presence known for the first time that evening. As stipulated at Annihilation, Blade & Sizemore were handcuffed to each other, & the match began. The match had portions where Flawless showed their strength & Team BFF showed their resolve and went back & forth. One memorable image has to be Mercer holding Knuckles in his standing vertical suplex & while she is up, he slowly turned around in the ring while giving all the fans in attendance The Finger. During the match, Father Fear made his presence known by walking around the ring & simply returned from whence he came. Later in the match, Bobby blinded Brian with powder, uncuffed his handcuffs thus ending Fifty Shades of Blade or if you want, Fifty Shades of Sizemore depending on how you look at the image of two men handcuffed to each other, & I don’t think either of them wore leather. This separation prompted Blade to interfere which got his guys the win. Winners & new PWF Tag Team Champions: Flawless.
All in all, a good show. Not PWF’s best show, but definitely one of their more entertaining ones. I think fanfest is a good concept, & they should use it maybe 2-3 times a year. It also seemed to me like the fanbase has started to come closer together to where they are definitely becoming like a family. A ragtag, dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless.
With that being said, I have a few things to say: if you are one of these people who absolutely have to sit in the front row, I suggest you come to the show sooner. Because if you bully small children out of their seats so you & your brood can have a prime piece of real estate, you probably shouldn’t be going & maybe you should take up needlepoint. And, even though I do support fans being able to express themselves at shows & oppose censorship in any form, yelling out the same heckle over & over just makes you sound like you have limited mental capacity. So remember: we’re all watching the same show; don’t ruin it for anyone.
Now, go check out a local show.
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