[UNA] Kick Ass Wrestling - Live at the Plush Club!

[Grape Ape]

Kick Ass Wrestling
5/26/1992
Live at the Plush Club
Memphis, Tennessee



A hopping evening at the downtown nightclub with David Jett opening the festivities in the ring by wecoming everyone to an evening of music and some Kick Ass Wrestling. The crowd is ready for some wrestling action when Jett is interrupted by two men in University of Tennessee colors. The taller of the two prompts Jett to introduce the pair. Jett introduces the smaller of the two, Reno Riggins before the taller one pushes him out of the way and takes over the mic.

"That's Reno Riggins and I'm Steve Doll and in case you didn't know it, we're the Tennessee Volunteers ... YOUR Tag Team Champions. Now, we want to get back to the best city in Tennessee ... KNOXVILLE! Now bring us our opponents!"

Jett takes the mic back from Doll, shaking his head.

"You're in the BEST CITY IN TENNESSEE and you don't wrestle until later!

The fans are behind Jett 100% as the Vols leave the ring, waving off the booing crowd.

Ken Timbs and young Ben Jordan started the evening off with a wrestling exhibition. Jordan used his speed to gain the upper hand but the ring vet kept up and matched Jordan hold for hold. In this one, ring experience won out over youthful exhuberance, as he took the match with a hold he learned in Mexico, La magistral.

What followed between Memphis fixture Reggie B. Fine and Rainbow Brown was a total contrast to the previous match. A punchfest and Reggie's underhanded tactics were par for the course but Rainbow was up to the task sending Reggie running for the outside of the ring calling for a timeout. His antics had the fans jeering but none of that mattered when Reggie picked up the win when he used had his feet up on the ropes for added leverage. Reggie B. Fine hightailed it to the back as the fans alerted the referee to the cheating.

Eddie Gilbert's younger brother Doug drew Mike Samples as an opponent and didn't wait for the introductions to finish before he attacked. A rough and tumble Memphis style brawl, both inside and outside of the ring. Samples was busted open first after being run into the ringpost. The referee gave both men lots of leeway on the outside and allowed them to do their thing. Samples returned the favor and made a bloody mess of Gilbert. The two continued to battle back and forth before they fought their way into the back. This ref had no choice but to count out both men.

The intermission was an interesting affair when ladies from the audience were brought in for a wet t-shirt contest! Fun for the audience to say the least until a redheaded woman made her way into the ring and stripped off her t-shirt ...



and said to the let the pouring begin ... that is until it was broken up by Doug Gilbert and Mike Samples battling their way out to the ring. They fought their way out then again into the back, ending the intermission.

Lucha libre came to Memphis, Tennessee when Alfonso Dantes led his son, Apolo Dantes to the ring for his match against Jamie Dundee. Before the start of the match, Alfonso made his son parade around the ring with a sign held high overhead.



American style rules with one fall that started with a handshake between the two. Decent match with the young lucha star breaking out the arm tosses and several high risk moves. A laughing Dundee shook hands with the young wrestler before breaking out a little bit of mat wrestling which led to another handshake which sent the elder Dantes into a tizzy as he argued with his son, the referee and anyone within shouting distance. Several time Alfonso jumped up onto the ring apron to complain about Dundee. While Apolo tried to calm his father down, Dundee did the job for him with a knuckle sandwich that sent the elder Dantes to the floor. The match continued with Dundee rolling out of a backslide pinning predicament before he drove a shoulder to Dantes' midsection. A DDT and the ... BOMB'S AWAY, just like dad and this one was over.

The Main Event was tag action with the Tennessee Vols versus the Professor Tony Falk and his #1 student, Scott Taylor. Taylor, sent out by his teacher, used his amateur style to ground both members of the Vols, even getting a pin attempt. Cheered on by Falk, the advantage was short lived as the Vols fought back and isolated Taylor. With double teaming and some questionable tactics the Vols heeled it up as they worked over Taylor. No hot tag here as the Vols took it home when Doll lifted Taylor in the air and Riggins top rope drop kick was all she wrote.

Tony Falk ended the evening when he assured the fans that he and Scott Taylor would get them next time before starting up a chant of FALK U!

[cdw]

this was a great first show. The format was good, I loved the outlaw feel to it. The Vols tag team gimmick is gold.

[Deleted]

This show was a whole lotta fun. Reminded me a lot of the ECW "Bar Wars" days. Nothing wrong with that man, as those were pretty damn fun too! The Dantes factory gimmick is real interesting, sticks out like a soar thumb but I think that's the point. I LOVED the fact that you carried over the Tony Falk "Falk U" gimmick here, as it's simply golden.

We're off and running here in Memphis, well the other Memphis and I'm already a fan (as per usual man) Great stuff!

[somethingsavage]

Yeah. I'm loving this experiment already, man. The way you kicked things off was great. Bonus points right away for the visuals of the venue & stuff. But introducing things immediately with the Tennessee Volunteers coming out to garner some Memphis heat would have had the building hot for some action. Nice freaking touch. Perfect way to introduce the whole idea of southern fried 'rasslin in a nightclub.

Cool to see you carry over the Falk U gimmick. It's a fun act that should serve Taylor well in placing a bit of a spotlight on him & his overall development over time here. Equally enjoyable to see Reggie B. Fine put to work. He certainly blends into the atmosphere well enough, and his character was always just plain fun for me. Hope to see him do some more outlandish things to really play up his personality at some point.

Loved the intermission. Wet T-shirt contests?! Heck yes. Now this is entirely realistic & true to life. As Drew said, you've infused things with the Bar Wars feel all over again. It's also got bits of the early Shotgun Saturday Night days rolled into it. Hope you don't take that as an insult. ;D

Fun way to end intermission, too. Doug's brawl with Samples was wild & unruly. It's just the sort of thing you needed to find a spot for on your debut show, and you did just that. Thumbs up. Good stuff.

The interaction between father & son gives a neat story to Alfonso & Apolo instantly. Alfonso could quickly grow into a fun character in this capacity. He's that guy. You know? He's that one father up in the bleachers of every baseball game, cheering but also ridiculing his kid throughout the whole thing. He's the win at all costs dad, who takes even the meaningless games WAY too seriously. Loving the potential in that story, man. Jamie winning via his dad's routine was also pretty cool.

Major thumbs up. I can already tell I'm going to enjoy the heck out of this stuff.

[appstorm]

Love The Vols. I remember them from Music City Wrestling in the late 90's. Dundee as a singles star is going to be fun here. Nice win by Timbs. Good to see Samples back in the area and Doug Gilbert has to rise quickly. I am wondering how the lady pictured will figure in KAW.

Nice, neat, well written event.

[Chief]

I never got to see your Bar Wars stuff so this is a real treat for me. You are somewhat of a creative genius.

I'm really digging the Tennessee Volunteers. I don't know a lot about some of your guys but you've already infused them with character and personality. I like the use of David Jett and the opening segment was fun.

The two matches were simple opening wrestling matches which were very good to set up the tone for the evening. I think a lot of Indy promotions today are missing these types of "warm-up" matches.

Good old fashioned Memphis bloodbath with Gilbert and Samples. Referencing him as Eddie's brother was great and it was just a really fun brawl.

The intermission was hilarious. I can see you are going to be like the ECW of the South.

I LOVE the Dantes Lucha Factory gimmick. Absolutely love it. The graphic put it over the top for me. SomethingSavage was correct that Alfonso feels like that dad that just takes youth sports too far. I'm liking how KAW has a few ties to USWA and you are building off of them. Great victory for Dundee and I'm begging to see more talent added to the Lucha Factory.

The main event was fantastic. I wasn't sure about the Professor Tony Falk gimmick but you made it work so well. Taylor will thrive very well here. The Vols winning cleanly (for the most part) put them over as legit champs and I dig their finisher. The "Falk U" gimmick will keep the Professor over and I like it cause it's "edgy" for the time period.

Do you have any plans to include match times? I love those sort of details.

[Grape Ape]

May 29, 2012 16:42:23 GMT -5 Chief said:

I never got to see your Bar Wars stuff so this is a real treat for me. You are somewhat of a creative genius.

The intermission was hilarious. I can see you are going to be like the ECW of the South.

I LOVE the Dantes Lucha Factory gimmick. Absolutely love it. The graphic put it over the top for me. SomethingSavage was correct that Alfonso feels like that dad that just takes youth sports too far. I'm liking how KAW has a few ties to USWA and you are building off of them. Great victory for Dundee and I'm begging to see more talent added to the Lucha Factory.

The main event was fantastic. I wasn't sure about the Professor Tony Falk gimmick but you made it work so well. Taylor will thrive very well here. The Vols winning cleanly (for the most part) put them over as legit champs and I dig their finisher. The "Falk U" gimmick will keep the Professor over and I like it cause it's "edgy" for the time period.

Do you have any plans to include match times? I love those sort of details.

I don't know about the creative genius part but I do try to entertain. By giving these wrestlers some personality and storyline, it does tend to make things a little entertaining, even if you don't really know who they are. It is sometimes easier working with largely unknowns because it allows a little more freedom.

Yes, the ECW of the South is where I am going. The real life Kick Ass Wrestling billed themselves that way. I have a little more freedom here with what I can do, so the "more adult" nature of the business is where I am heading.

When I found the Lucha Factory logo, I knew I had to do something with it ... you are getting to see some of the crazy stuff I cooked up. More Lucha Factory guys? Okay. I have no problem with that.

Tony Falk's "Falk U" was just one of those things that I wanted to do to push the envelope a bit. Also with Drew's use of Al Snow's t-shirts, I was going to make a few graphics for them, hoping that maybe, they'd make it onto someone else's shows.

Yeah sure, I can post match times, I have no problem with that.

[wrestlingsickness]

Of all the NWA World promotions out there, KAW has been the one I’ve been most looking forward to reading...for the simple reason that, unlike the other territories, I had no idea what to expect going in! Heck, I didn’t even know that there actually was a real life KAW until I finished reading this show! And what did I think of it? Glad you asked!

As I mentioned once already during the Draft Discussion, the Tennessee Volunteers are one of my all time favorite tag teams, and boy were they true to form here! Riling up the crowd at the very start of the show with their pro-Knoxville rhetoric was classic Vols, and served as a great way to create heat for your Main Event. And that was a pretty gutsy Main Event, I must say! Having the Vols win clean without even giving the fans a hot tag to cheer for, while Tony Falk never entered the ring even once and essentially left his protégé Scott Taylor to die? That takes some pretty big cajones, sir! I’d also say it’s indicative of the rebel image you’re trying to give your company; i.e. bucking the tradition tag match formula and portraying Falk with Russo “shades of gray.” Or maybe you’re trying to stress that this is an indy fed, and what better way to do that than to have a Main Event where the wrestlers fail to properly work the crowd. Po-tayto, po-tato.

Good wins for Ken Timbs and Reggie B. Fine! Neither man is a stranger to Memphis wrestling, and are both solid hands to have if you want to draw some of the USWA crowd over to your product. Both Timbs and Fine are classic heels who know how to incite a crowd, and I can easily see these two becoming veritable heat magnets in KAW!

Doug Gilbert vs. Mike Samples was a more brutal encounter than I ever would have expected! These two started fighting before the intros, busted each other open, fought all the way to the dressing room, and continued fighting all the way through intermission and into a wet T-shirt contest! And neither one of these guys even had an issue with each other before now! Again, is this a statement of your promotion’s rebel image, or a method of hammering home that this is an indy fed by throwing in a literal mindless brawl? A little from column A, and little from column B, I guess.

Oh, and I have to ask. With Mike Samples on your roster, will the debut of “the Real Deal” RD Reynolds and Trash Loseagain be far behind?

What more can I say about the Dantes Lucha Factory? It’s an ingenious twist on the wrestling father/son duo, with Alfonso putting more pressure on his son to succeed than Apollo can handle. What made this match great was that Apollo was facing a fellow second generation wrestler in Jamie Dundee, and I can see THAT becoming part of the Dantes’ gimmick. For example, Alfonso only calls out/books Apollo against other second generation wrestlers in an effort to prove that his son is the best, which could be a boatload of fun if you can get the other fathers involved as well. I think the only way this match could have been better would have been if Bill Dundee were in Jamie’s corner as well, and that’s something I could easily see happening down the road! This match was most definitely the show stealer!

So far, KAW is a very fun science project of a promotion. You’re catering to the traditional Memphis wrestling fans by booking a bunch of familiar faces (Timbs, Reggie B. Fine, Jamie Dundee, etc.), while at the same time displaying a deliberate lack of polish to illustrate that they are not the big time promotion that USWA is. You’ve already stated that you want KAW to be the ECW of the South, and at the very least the ECW spirit was present and accounted for during this show. It felt like a giant middle finger flipping off the establishment, and that in itself makes me want to come back for more! Good stuff!