1/15 USA Wrestling Results From Nashville Fairgrounds
Courtesy of Larry Goodman:
USA Wrestling ran Nashville Thursday night. It was week three of Bert Prentice’s dubious attempt to revive the skeletal remains of the Tennessee State Fairgrounds arena, aka the Nick Gulas Sports Arena, into a viable wrestling venue.
It boggles the mind to see the venue now, and visualize it as the Asylum that TNA called home from 2002-2004.
Prentice entered into an arrangement with NWA Main Event promoter Mike Porter, who had been running weekly Tuesday night shows until the first of the year. The shows were moved to Thursdays under the USA banner with Porter retaining a portion of the show to tape matches for his TV. NWA Main Event still has an hour of television on Nashville’s ION affiliate every Saturdays at noon.
60 braved the elements on a night with temperatures in the single digits. Prentice said Fairgrounds management begged them to cancel. But the show must go on.
Prentice introduced the NWA Main Event TV taping…
(1) Shawn Shultz beat “The Internet’s Favorite Wrestler” White Tiger in 4:33. Everybody knows a Shawn Shultz match is bound to be entertaining. Tiger once again escaped his cage at the Nashville Zoo to take the booking. Shultz hit his triple whammy neckbreaker. Tiger had the audacity to start a comeback, and Shultz really went to town on him. Finish saw Shultz roll out of harms way on Tiger’s moonsault and pin him with the DDT.
The TV taping was interrupted by a USA match for reasons that will become obvious.
(2) Chase Stevens beat Travis Sawyer (with Tony Lucassio) in 6:50. Not much to it. Stevens cracked Sawyer a good one across the face. Sawyer used the tights to dump Stevens. He chased after Lucassio. Sawyer took over while Lucassio was arguing with Main Event wrestler Bryan Casey, who was pressed into service as a referee. Crowd chanted for Stevens. He rallied. Sawyer hit a power slam for a near fall. Stevens won it with a roll up.
Prentice said Stevens volunteered to help out as a favor and was on his way to a booking in Alabama. Stevens reminisced about the packed (by comparison at least) houses when he first came into Nashville.
(3) Shane Smalls & Larry Cooter beat The Leprechauns (Chris Cain & Dyron Flynn) in 8:02. Cooter has turned into bad ass babyface of sorts. It’s a way better gimmick than being a doofus heel. The crowd started tuning out because of Flynn’s awfulness. He was lost at sea trying to do fast-paced exchanges with Smalls. Cain can work, so it was a much better match any time he was in. Smalls took the heat. The Leprechauns did this stupid looking double knee drop jig. It broke down four-way off the hot tag with Smalls hitting a hesitation dropkick on Flynn. The finish might make for an entertaining visual on TV: Smalls pinned Flynn with the Last Rites, while the big guy (Cooter) was chasing the midget guy (Cain) around on the outside.
(4) Jeff Daniels (with Dominique & Steve-O) beat White Tiger in 9:10. Just my lucky night –TWO White Tiger matches in the same night. Daddy Long Legs came out selling a neck injury from the DDT. This was the Dominique show. Tiger went to the top rope. Dominique was up on the apron arguing and waving her arms at the ref (her son) Jamie Ferrari. Tiger got upended in the process. Daniels capitalized with a Russian legsweep for the three count. I have no clue why this was given more than 5 minutes.
Intermission. It wouldn’t be a Bert Prentice show without a raffle of some sort.
(5) In a match for the NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Title, Steve-O (with Dominique) beat Champion “Playboy” Scott Hayes via DQ, so Hayes retained on the technicality (10:20). By far the most intense match of the show. Both men worked hard. A burst of babyface offense sent Hayes barreling into the ringside seats looking bug-eyed “What just happened?” Very entertaining. I like Steve-O way, way better as a heel. Hayes hit a slingshot elbow drop, but missed with the springboard back elbow. They started trading pin attempts. There was a screwed up bridge spot where Hayes never got his shoulders up. O worked over the back, until Hayes connected with a second attempt at the springboard back elbow. Hayes hit a spinwheel kick and Dominque was up to distract…and distract…and distract. She tossed knucks into to O, but before he could use them, Hayes hit a back suplex. The knucks went flying. Hayes put them on. Ref Jamie turned around in time to see Hayes use the knucks on O.
(6) Mike Rapada Jr. beat “The Mass without the Gas” Jason James via DQ in 11:20 when Lani Kealoha interfered. The match played towards James’ strength - his formidable verbal skills. He got a ton of heat via a lively connection with the crew in the bleachers. Fun stuff. Rapada is a skinny, green kid. It’s anybody’s guess how good a wrestler he can be. Nothing complicated here. James heeled. A nobody-home top rope elbow set up Rapada’s comeback. Rapada did this ridiculous looking spear and Kealoha hit the ring for the DQ.
Rapada was beaten down. Kealoha gave Rapada a top rope headbutt while James held his legs.
Prentice made a match for the return date of 1/29 – the returning Mike Rapada and Mike Jr. vs. Kealoha & “fat boy” James.
(7) Teddy Tender (with Miss Precious) beat Matt Boyce in 12:30. Lame comedy. Tender did the horrible singing. He blamed it on the sound guy for starting on the wrong beat and demanded a second chance. No better. Then, the sound guy swerved Tender by playing Boyce’s intro music. Boyce hit a dropkick and Tender’s wig flew off. Boyce rammed his knee into the turnbuckle on a missed high knee. Douglas worked the body part. Precious interfered. Precious came across like somebody’s mother that got picked out of the crowd, especially after seeing a pro like Dominique. Once again, the business exposes itself. Boyce got a near fall with a flying body press. Boyce had Tender pinned with a reverse roll up, but Tender rolled through with a handful of tights.
(8) Doug Gilbert (with Tommy Gilbert) beat “The King” Shane Williams (with Lani Kealoha) in 11:15. Williams came out with his crown. Doug said when he heard he was wrestling a King, he guessed it was Jerry Lawler, so he brought his dad. Prentice gave Tommy his props but the crowd didn’t pick up on it all that much. Williams is an entertaining little heel. Pretty good crowd support for Doug. Kealoha interfered, but took a seat and folded his hands when Tommy came to the rescue. Funny stuff. Williams staggered out of the corner after taking the 10 punches of doom and went down on a Gilbert haymaker. Tommy foiled Williams’ attempt to use a chain and Doug scored the pin with a small package. An OK match.
NOTES: In addition to the return date at the Fairgrounds on 1/29 (no show on 1/22 due to Flea Market. Some things never change), USA Wrestling has shows in Gordonsville on 1/16, 1/30 in Carthage with Jerry Lawler, Brian Christopher and Bill Dundee and in Jackson on 1/31…The Portland show on 1/24 with Lawler vs. Daniels is an NWA Main Event show…Seven vs. Alan Shepard was listed on the advertised card.