AAW 5/1 RESULTS

"Chandler McClure hit the ring in a business suit and showed the crowd a Power Point presentation on the big screen (yes an actual Power Point presentation) "

WIN.

It'd be even more win if AAW put said .ppt for download.

You mean IT, right Jim?

Ha! Yeah...although I was very good, I meant "it".

My unoriginal thoughts on “Point Of No Return 2009,” which sounds like a recent cover of a Kansas song:

I drove over to Cicero right after work and ate at Xni-Pec. The Pec was empty. I had to go to the kitchen and see if there was anybody there. The Chinese place next door had more business. In Cicero. I ate lime soup and got to the show.

Web ad said doors were to open at 6:45 PM. By my Nextel cell phone, the door opened at 7:09 PM. 24 whole minutes later. This happens every single time I go to an AAW show. With no doubt in my mind, this is the worst part of any AAW show. And that says a lot, because the drinking gets to me at times. I said I would believe it when I see it, and I have yet to see it. Jim Lynam actually came out to see the line and said it was “BS” that the fans were waiting so long. Well, whose fault is that, Jim? You’re the boss, so you say. I don’t know who gives the call to open the door, but that person should be replaced. Until then, AAW should just advertise like this: “We’ll start the show at 7:30 and open the doors whenever we feel like it.” That’s much more accurate than AAW’s way of doing things. At least it’s not bad on the level of ROH getting boos in Chicago Ridge by moving back the start time 15 minutes.

PRESHOW: Dewey Dawson & Greg Irons d. Juice Robinson & Trevor Gibson: The fans on the front row love Dewey a lot. He’s not over like Havok was. Juice’s fro is crazy. Decent action, but I was talking with Midlo Jeff during this match, so it shows you how much I cared. I recalled nothing that was awful. Who trains these preshow guys, anyway?

Lynam came out to welcome the fans with some swear words. Jay Bradley promo aired. Man, he’s gotten so much better on the mic since the old days. He has Prazak as a manager, but I’m not sure he needs him. Traditionally, a heel manager does the talking to get his charge over with the audience. That’s not the case here at all. But it ain’t broke, so it’s fine for now.

1) Knight Wagner & Jordan McEntyre (w/ Chandler McClure) d. Krotch & Nick Brubaker (w/ Nikki). Chandler came out with his suit and had the lights dimmed for a PowerPoint presentation. He then detailed the “unfair treatment” that AAW has put him through in a very peeved (and detailed) manner. He then stated via slides that he was going on strike and stormed off to the crowd’s pop. Funny as funny can be and a perfect way to cover his injury. Whoever booked this deserves a medal.

Brubaker and Wagner started things off. The faces worked Wagner over for a good while. That was a dead giveaway, in hindsight. When Krotch got Wagner in some armbar, I was yelling for him to break it. Nikki looked at me and told me how sick I was. Nikki looked good, BTW. Nikki got up on the apron and somebody got hit or crotched, I don’t know. First Tiger Bomb finish I’ve seen in ages.

Danny Daniels promo on big screen was OK. I didn’t recognize Kevin Harvey with the shaved head. Marek actually came out with the short hair cut after one of the first matches and I was stunned with the look. I can’t say I liked it much at first.

2) Irish Airborne d. North Star Express: OK reaction for IA. Corbin got into it with some kid in the crowd with a mohawk. He said the kid was so ugly and he should be deported back to Iraq. That got a pop. Not a lot of high-flying by IA, and I can’t say it was much of a showcase match for them. I really miss Joey Eastman here. The NSE is still hated, but Eastman’s premature “three” gimmick with the crowd always got heat.

3) Shane Hollister d. Johnny Gargano: Pretty fair. Gargano posed on a chair to start. He played the heel, but he didn’t really do anything over the top in terms of getting crowd heat. AAW is so full of charismatic heels that backtalk the audience. So Gargano’s act didn’t really fit a typical AAW heel role. He hit what I can best describe as a corkscrewy spinning neck breaker off the ropes for two. Lots of two counts, actually. Hollister’s modified GTS off the ropes came out of nowhere.

4) Phoenix Twins d. Zero Gravity: Very fast paced with a bit of lucha influence. One of the Zero crew hit a nice shooting star off the top. Sweet Twin Music? Well, if you have to rip off somebody’s gimmick, you could do worse than Shawn Michaels. They could have ripped off the Johnsons in the early days of TNA.

Krotch and Nikki argued on the big screen. Crowd popped pretty well for Dewey and popped harder when he got slapped.

5) Bradley d. Colt “BOOM BOOM” Cabana: Pretty freaking fun. Colt got a huge reception coming out, arguably the biggest of the night. Jay was jaw jacking with almost everybody in the front row who cared to get in his face. He called a dude wearing pink sitting near me a metrosexual and called me a retard just for giving him thumbs down. “Where’s your helmet?” he asked. You can’t compare Jay to Jay circa 2001-02. His look and personality are on a much higher level.

Colt kept doing his boogie-woogie, throwing Jay off his game. Jay actually threw Prazak in front of Colt. Colt got some good near falls via rollup. That punk Prazak got on the ring apron and distracted Colt, who knocked Dave off. Colt turned around and got a lariat from Jay to end the match.

At intermission, Truth Martini did some video promo. Those are fun.

6) Jimmy Jacobs d. Ayra Davari: Jacobs was interviewed by Kevin Harvey noting that this day was his 10th anniversary of his first wrestling match. Amazing that he’s been around this long. The fact he’s alive after killing himself for that long is miraculous. Ayra jumped over the rail, causing one fan to pop for Prince Ali. Close. Ayra said he had enough cash to buy AAW. Should invest in foreclosures and oil instead. Jimmy claimed Ayra was just trying to copy Ayra’s older brother (Shawn of WWE and TNA fame). Jimmy slugged Ayra and the fight was on.

Jimmy worked Ayra over the floor for a while. Ayra came back and missed the Last Carpet Ride top-rope splash. Jimmy wiped the carpet on his butt and nailed a back senton for the three count. Somebody backstage thought this went too long. I can’t really say I agree. The match didn’t suck at all.

After that, Ryan Boz showed with torn bicep and wanted one more match when healed up. Jimmy gave it to him. Jimmy then got a pile driver on the floor from Daniels. Brave jumped Danny and they went into the crowd and fought for a good long while. They went into the crowd and up the entryway. Daniels gave Marek a piledriver on the ring steps and both went tumbling backwards. That was scarier than the actual driver. Marek got the upper hand in the ring. Some kid reached out to Marek and Marek slapped his hand, all while supposedly holding his neck and selling the pile driver. Yeah, that made no sense. Good pop for the barbed wire chair and pull apart. Brave promised to end Danny’s career next month. Great set up for next month. Let’s hope they don’t have to kill each other to top it.

7) House of Truth (Josh Raymond & Christian Able) d. Dan Lawrence & Silas Young: Both Lawrence and Young hit the ring hard and the fight was on. Lawrence dived onto all three men into the crowd off the top, which got a “holy s” chant. Young and Malone got into it and he and Raymond ended up in the first row. I was distracted by Val’s cleavage, so didn’t see what lead to the finish. Able power bombed Lawrence off the ropes through the table for the duke. Good brawl. I don’t know how AAW pulls off all these good brawls in such a small building with no light tubes.

Lynam announced the 8-team tag tourney for next month. So that card will be filled with (I assume) 7 tag matches. This card had 5 tag matches. I can’t see anybody getting excited over that many tag matches on two consecutive shows. You get the idea. Phoenix Twins will defend the titles in every match, so I’m guessing we’re seeing a title change. This is being done since Bradley and Black are booked elsewhere. Hopefully we get a surprise team like the Motor City Machine Guns or, better yet, the Rock N’ Roll Express, unless Morton and Gibson are still at odds. For a real curve ball, how about CHIKARA’s Colony or Necro Butcher & Toby Klein?

8. Tyler Black d. Arik Cannon to become the #1 contender to the AAW Heavyweight Title: Tyler kept going for a kick to the head and kept missing. I guess that was the story of the match, cause there wasn’t much part selling. Black hit this massive forward roll tope onto Cannon and hit his head on the rail, no selling it. That may have been the part where Tyler hurt his neck. He also slapped five with some fan in front of me after some move. Cannon hit a saito and a brain buster, so the neck could have been hurt there, too. Fans chanted “Piggly Wiggly” at Cannon. Harsh. Black hit his kick and the GLG for the clean pin. Pretty good, not on the “unbelievable” level, but a fine main event.

Post-match, Bradley stormed the ring and gave Tyler a lariat, then stood over him with title in hand to end the show. Same exact ending you see on go-home WWE TV before the PPV. Unexciting.

Hard to pick a match of the night, because we had four good matches that were each different from each other and had plenty of stuff to keep you interested in, along with a entertaining brawl and some decent stuff on the under card, with nothing being horrible on the level of Great Khali vs. anybody. They got the show done in less than three hours, plus a brief intermission, which is a big plus. So thumbs up for AAW here.