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Now I have been to 5 or 6 Powerslam shows at the Pike County Little Theater,but each time I rode with someone. My Aunt Midget was up visiting. So I borrowed her GPS. I had a few things to do in town before the show. 2 hours before the doors were suppose to open I started on my trip to McComb. Stopped at the truck stop to grab drinks. Go to plug the GPS into the cigarette lighter outlet. I head off on the interstate and see that every time I hit a bump the GPS shuts off. The way the molding is around the outlet was too small for the plug. So I said screw this and figured I would find my way. Worst case I get lost and call someone to come find me.
I get to McComb early. And find the place. I park about a block over and walk up. See Christina and her 2 kids parked right in front of the theater. They get out and we talk for awhile.I really enjoy how we have a group of fans that are at every show.
The doors open and we all head in. I had reserved my seat weeks earlier. I go to get my seat and I am at the end of the front row. Real near where everyone walks in. I notice Koby,Philip and Stephen and his boys coming in. So I walked over to talk to them.
Koby and I had asked permission to film matches.Reggie was nice and told us to film as much as we wanted too. I was talking to Koby and this other guy I see at every show,when Koby whips out a tripod. Which isn't going to work cause he is sitting third row. Plus it would have ended up blocking the view of the kids sitting behind him. So Philip and I talk Koby into just going handheld. I also noticed that the last seat in that row was empty. So I decided to sit there.
It is 15 minutes to bell time. And they are testing out the speakers. Which sound bad. Then I get settled in my seat. Get out my trusty notebook.And made sure my camera had fresh batteries in it. Then Eddie Money hit the speakers.I of course mark out cause this means Shane Champagne is on his way to the ring. Shane comes out and is great. Seems Shane has a new wrestler in his stable.
Yep Mr Sockittoome is now managed by Shane. The announcer tells us that Princess Kristen isn't at the show. So I am wondering who Sock will face. As you can see if you watch the video Kristen comes out as Ultimate Warrior and we get a recreation of the Warrior vs Honky Tonk Man IC title match.Not sure if the pre-match stuff was an official Champagne Lounge. But is was very entertaining. With the crowd really letting Shane have it. What is funny is while recording the Sock vs Kristen match I didn't realize they were parodying the Warrior/HTM match. Later on that night as I was watching the footage while uploading it I realized what they were doing. This was the second best Kristen vs Sock match I have seen. With the one from the Picayune show being slightly better.
Match 02-Nate Moss vs James Veal.
I forgot to mention earlier that Powerslam has a new ref. Who looks like a young Bob Ross. Wait am I showing my age by mentioning Bob Ross? Anyway,I had never seen either guy wrestle before. I knew both of them are being trained in the Powerslam Powershack training school. Moss is the heel and plays it up. During intermission I learned that this was James 3rd or so match. And Moss has maybe 5 matches so far. I enjoyed this match.Moss is good at verbally interacting with the crowd. Where as Veal does more with his body language. The crowd was quickly behind Veal and got into giving Moss lots of hell. Moss works a more mat based style,and Veal is more high energy and high impact. We were getting a nice back and forth match when Lukas Frost ran in. He attacked Veal. Which causes Reggie Matthews to come out to help. The match is ruled a no contest. And Reggie,who is part of the Powerslam tag team titles asks James to be his new partner. And they challenge Frost and Moss to a title match later on in the show. Overall it was a good showing from two younger talent.
Match 3-The Punisher vs Blade Beaudreux
Blade I knew his name from various PWI 500s. The Punisher I saw at Powerslam'sWinter Warfare show earlier this year.Blade has a good look,with how popular shows like Duck Dynasty and all the cajun based reality shows,it helped the crowd connect with Blade. The Punisher reminds me of all the masked guys from my childhood. People like The Medics,The Galaxians and from the great Gulf Coast Championship Wrestlng The Wrestling Pro. The lady who was sitting behind me had me laughing so much with her various comments. That is one of the major reasons why when I record matches I don't do commentary. I want to capture the crowd noise. And the local crowds are great. Blade gets the win and we got intermission.
By this time my throat is sore from all the yelling. So after grabbing my bookbag I head to get a soda. After taking a sip of my cool refreshing beverage I go to see what they got for sale at the gimmick table. Reggie had told me there might be a new Powerslam dvd ready. There wasn't but I did see lots of kids grabbing Powerslam and WWE dvds.That is another thing I enjoy about Powerslam,they always have lots of stuff for sale at the gimmick table. And their prices are decent. I ended up getting two issues of Sports Review Wrestling from 1980 and one issue of The Wrestler from 1982.
Match 04-Powerslam Heavyweight Champion Wes Adams with Princess Kristen vs Calvin Rose
This is a feud that has been going on all year. Back in January Wes won a battle royal which gave him a match against Calvin for the title. The next show,Spring Bash 2014,Wes won the title. Their feud has a nice teacher vs student feel. I am not sure but I think Calvin is one of the many deep south wrestlers that helped train Wes, Back in July Powerslam was suppose to have a show that was gonna be Wes;'s retirement show. So going into this match I had a feeling Wes might lose.Which he did. Turns out Koby and I both recorded this match,
That is my version. It isn't the best looking. First off I have hand tremors. So that causes it to be shaky sometimes. Secondly to have enough room to record more than one match I film in SD. Thirdly while the Pike County Little theater is a great place to watch wrestling,because of how dark it is it isn't the best place to film.
That is Koby's version. If you enjoy southern wrestling check out his youtube channel. Most Mondays he is uploading a new match.
Koby Rutland's youtube Channel BMPBLUE
After Calvin won both of us shut off our cameras. Which was a huge mistake. Calvin is celebrating in the ring,when a guy wearing jeans,boots a Hank III wifebeater and with a cheap Halloween mask taped to his head crawled out from under the ring. Gets in the ring takes his boot off and attacks all the heels. I was standing there wondering who it was. The Hank III shirt should have been a big clue. The masked man takes off the mask and it is THE PRINCE OF PAIN JOE KANE!! As far as I know the last time Joe worked for Powerslam was the 2013 Heritage Days show.From what all us fans had heard we thought that Joe would never be back in Powerslam. So him appearing was a total surprise to everyone. The crowd went nuts. With lots of Welcome back and Thank you Joe chants going on.After chasing all the heels out of the ring Joe turned to Wes and since people say a picture is worth 1000 words here is a picture.
This is the first time I ever saw Joe work as a good guy. And I hope this means we are going to get a nice long feud between Joe and Calvin Rose over the title.
Match 06-Powerslam Productions Tag Team Champions Reggie Krimsynn Matthews/James Veal vs Lukas Frost/Nate Moss
I love the story behind this match. You get two long time Mississippi independent wrestling vets,Reggie and Lukas,teaming up with some rookies.Reggie is part of Big Ramp Enterprises.Big Ramp is a New Orleans DJ. Who also works for lots of wrestling feds in MS and LA as a manager. As you can see in the above video Ramp is awesome. The part where he is conducting the crowd in their chants is in my top 10 favorite things I have seen at a wrestling show.Reggie and James win. It was obvious to me that the crowd,who I doubt most of them had ever seen James Veal before,really like him.As you can hear on the videos of both his matches the crowd was solidly behind him. Reggie as always brings it. Reggie has this natural charisma about him. And it isn't just something he turns on for the shows. Reggie is just a naturally nice and great guy. I do wonder if Moss is Luka's new tag team partner or if by the next show Frostie will be back teaming with his long time companion Kool Jay Steele. Also I want to quickly congratulate Jay on his,as of this writing,upcoming marriage.
After the show was over as always at Powerslam shows at the Little Theater,the faces came out and interacted with the crowd. Saw lots of kids getting their pictures with the various guys. And again Reggie borrowed my sharpie. A few of us were invited to go eat after the show with the guys. So Koby,Philip,Big Ramp and I sat out in the lobby talking. And being very entertained by this one young man. I can't remember his name,but his mother was working the concession stand.Lots of jokes were told,and since there was a kid present they were all clean. And once again,like what seems to happen anytime a group of us is around,the cockupine story got told. If you want to know the full story catch one of us at a show.
Once the ring was torn down and the theater had been cleaned we all headed off to Waffle House.Got to sit and bullshit with Reggie and the guys for awhile.Had an encounter with a very drunk guy while I was waiting in line to pay my ticket.Then I got back in the Newt-mobile and made the short drive back home.
Honestly when the show started and I saw that the speakers were not working right. The mic wasn't working and we had a new announcer and ref I was thinking this might end up being the first bad Powerslam show I have been too. But thankfully I was wrong. Shane Champagne was ultra entertaining. The first match was a cute comedy match and the crowd seemed to love it.The second match I really enjoyed. It was neat to see two guys who are so early in their careers. Getting to see how they react to a crowd was enlightening. Calvin vs Wes was great and the main event tag team match was a great way to end the show and send the people home happy. But the return of Joe Kane was the highlight of the show for me.As you can see between Koby and I all the matches were recorded.Hell the entire show,besides Joe returning was recorded.But once Powerslam releases a dvd of this show I am buying one. First off to help support a great company. Secondly because I like to own copies of every wrestling show I have been too. Speaking of that,and I know this is a longshot,but if anyone reading this has or knows where to get vhs or dvd of any of Tiny Fraizer's short lived revival of GCCW or the Last Rites Championship Wrestling show from Brookhaven in August of 2012 let me know. Once again I want to thank all the wrestlers,ref and other talent from Powerslam for a fun show. Thank you to the Pike County Little Theater for letting Powerslam bring us another fun evening of deep south wrestling. And final huge thank you to Christina and her two kids,Stephen and his two sons,Koby,Philip and Tony for being the best group of fans I have met.
