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Old School Championship Wrestling “Tag Team Wars 6”
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Hanahan Recreation Gymnasium
Hanahan, SC
There were probably about 100-150 in attendance. Really good showing for the venue. I got there around 4:30 PM. The guest of the night was Raven. He had a table set up with his autographs. Despite what I have heard about people’s encounters with him, he was really cool to me. I didn’t have any cash on hand to any of his photos or autographs (forgot to stop by the ATM), but he did talk to him for about 5 minutes. He said that he was glad to be there and genuinely looked so. He was really nice to everyone who walked up to the table.
Mike Mooneyham of the Charleston Post and Courier (newspaper) was in attendance. He had the front row reserved for his guest. He took a lot of photos during the show, with the workers specifically looking at him and posing/pointing at his camera.
OSCW Commissioner Bob Keller welcomed the crowd and ran down the card.
“The Voice of OSCW” Brett Wolverton opened with the announcing of the Stars Spangled Banner which then played over the audio.
There was a #1 Contenders Tag Team Tournament for a shot at the Tag Team Champs “L.E.G.I.T.” in the same night. Eight teams would face each other with the winners of the four matches going on to a 4-way elimination tag to get the #1 contendership.
Match 1 – Tag Team Wars Qualifying Match: Cali Casanova & Pete Kassa vs. Mikal Mosely & Kevin Phoenix
These guys worked really hard. Mosely/Phoenix were awesome heels. They did a great job getting the crowd to boo them. Standard tag team match formula. Kassa took a beating until the hot tag to Casanova. From there Casanova cleared the ring and got the pin on Mosely.
Result: Casanova pinned Mosely at 5:39
Match 2 - Tag Team Wars Qualifying Match: Mr. A-List Michael Frehley & The Obsession Caleb Konley vs. Billy Brash & Jesse Windham
The highlight of this match was Caleb Konley, which from talking to some regulars in the crowd, is a big deal in the Carolinas. He kinda looks like Heath Slater but has a lot more charisma. Decent match. All these guys worked hard. Finish came when Brash got a hot tag, it looked like Windham was going to get the win, but Konley/Frehley got a cheap win.
Result: Konley pinned Windham at 7:24
Match 3 – Tag Team Wars Qualifying Match: Affirmative Action (The Ladies Man DeAndre Jackson & Nick Kismet) vs. Smooth Excellence (R-Live & J-Live)
Not a great match, but I will say that DeAndre Jackson has the gimmick and charisma to make it somewhere. Hard to describe it. Kinda like a cooler Koko B. Ware meets Brodus Clay meets The Godfather. Jackson worked the crowd a lot in the match and kept it interesting. Smooth Excellence were fine for taking bumps but they looked like two high school seniors to me.
Result: Jackson pinned R-Live in 6:59
Match 4 – Tag Team Wars Qualifying Match: Armed Forces (Sgt. Solitude & Tank Lewis) vs. Shane Hexxon & OSCW Intercontinental Champion Juggernaut Jon Malus
This wasn’t a great match either. Sgt. Solitude is popular with the local crowd. He was doing the Jim Duggan/Sgt. Slaughter gimmick. Malus was probably the best worker in the match. There was a funny moment when Solitude got the crowd chanting “USA” and Malus and Hexxon were like “but we are Americans!” Lewis got the pin to end the match. Malus and Solitude had a staredown post match.
Result: Lewis pinned Hexxon in 5:56
Match 5 – Special Attraction Match: Miss Harden vs. Reginald Vanderhoff
This was a manager vs. manager match. Lots of shenanigans. Vanderhoff stalled for a while with heel mic work. He got heat by talking about women’s rights and women’s roles in the world. Harden got two slaps in and a roll up for the win. It was what it was.
Result: Harden pinned Vanderhoff in 3:39
Match 6 – Pete Kassa & Cali Casanova vs. Mr. A-List Michael Frehley & The Obession Caleb Konley vs. Armed Forces (Tank Lewis & Sgt. Solitude) vs. Affirmative Action in the Tag Team Wars Elimination match to earn a shot at the OSCW Tag Team Titles later in the night.
Decent match. These guys worked hard. Highlights were Jackson and Konley. They were the two the crowd were behind.
Results:
-Armed Forces were eliminated when Konley pinned Lewis after Jon Malus interfered at 4:13.
-Affirmative Action were eliminated when Konley/Frehley (double pin) pinned Jackson at 6:24.
-Konley & Frehley were eliminated when Kassa pinned Frehley at 12:31.
Backstory to the next match: Raven was at the last OSCW show and apparently was attacked by Lodi, thus setting up the next match.
Lodi came out with his old WCW gimmick with the signs. He was cheered at first (even with Lodi chants) and then he heeled the crowd. Raven made his entrance and did some babyface mic work.
Match 7 – Raven vs. Lodi in a Raven’s Rules Match
Not a great match by any means. They brawled a bit around the ring and then into the crowd. They brawled behind the curtain where the wrestlers were for a few seconds then Raven dragged Lodi back into the crowd with two bags of soccer/dodge balls. In a “I hope no one gets hurt”/”the promoter is problem panicing” moment, Raven opened the bags of the balls and tossed them into the crowd, got on the mic and told the crowd to get Lodi as hard as they could. For the next 3-4 minutes, there was an onslaught of Lodi getting pelted with dodge balls and soccer balls. There were a few scary moments where the balls were flying into the back of the rec center and almost hitting small child, a pregnant woman, and a mother having to shield her newborn. The staff noticed this and tried to get the balls back from the crowd. Raven was legitimately laughing at Lodi getting pelted. Lodi was great with his selling, taking ridiculous bumps from the soccer balls hitting him. Raven didn’t take hardly any bumps with the exception of a low blow from Lodi and a few stomps. Lodi attempted the drop toe hold onto the chair spot, but Raven reversed it and hit Lodi with it. From there it was Evenflow DDT and that was all.
Result: Raven pinned Lodi in 8:56 after the Evenflow DDT.
Post Match, Raven did a promo and put over OSCW, thanked the crowd and the promoter, said this was the best he has been treated in a while, and that he has had a great time. He asked everyone to support OSCW and support independents. He thanked the crowd again and then he left.
Match 8 – Cali Casanova & Pete Kassa vs. OSCW Tag Team Champions L.E.G.I.T. (Big League Eric Bradford & Brandon Paradise) w/Roughhouse Matthews
These guys all worked really hard. End came with Kassa getting the hot tag to Casanova, Casanova cleaning house, Matthews attempting to interfere but it backfired, and Casanova got the pin. Good pop from the crowd for the title change.
Result: Casanova pinned Paradise to win the tag team titles at 12:14
Match 9 – Undisputed OSCW Heavyweight Champion “The Southern Savior” John Skyler defeated “The Carolina Chugger” Josh Magnum in a Championship vs. Career Ladder Match
Awesome match. I was blown away at the work these two put on. It was built up slow, with some good spots, but they were all slowly built up. I knew nothing about these two guys at the start of the match, but after 10 minutes, I found myself invested into it. They told a great story of Skyler being this arrogant heel that can back up his attitude with his ability (and he’s the champ) and Magnum being this “blue collar” babyface that put his career on the line just to get one more shot at Skyler, not only for the belt but mainly just to prove he could beat him. They had a lot of psychology building up to the last sequences. They had great chemistry. Lots of false finishes in the end. The crowd was on their feet. Couple of notable bumps. Magnum did a swanton off the top rope onto a ladder (Skyler moved at the last minute), Magnum hit Skyler with a sunset flip into a power bomb off the top of the ladder, Skyler hit Magnum with a superplex off the top of the ladder.. all of these were insane considering the size of the ring. Big pops for those. The finish came with Magnum ducking a ladder ram from Skyler and the referee taking the hit, falling to the outside. Magnum took out Skyler and then climbed the ladder and got the belt. Magnum celebrated but the bell never rang. Magnum realized the ref was taking a nap on the outside. Magnum dropped the belt to get the ref, Skyler recovered. Skyler belted Magnum and then acted like he had just got the belt. Ref motioned for the belt and the crowd booed Skyler heavily.
Result: Skyler defeated Magnum to retain the title and end the career of Magnum at 26:15
Skyler patted Magnum on the shoulder (looked like he thanked him for the great match), then went into full heel mode taunting Magnum and the crowd as he walked off. Magnum got a great applause and a few “Thank You” chants. I am assuming that the career gimmick was legit. Magnum took the time to thank every fan around ringside before he left.
For my first indy show, this was a great one. They announced the next show to be on November 11, 2012 with Gangrel being the “guest” of the night. OSCW definitely was worth the $10 I paid. It was “family friendly” and had that old early 90’s NWA/WCW/ECW type feel to it. Much different from the standard WWE stuff we see every week or the house shows that come to Charleston. I think I saw more wrestling on his show that I have seen since I was at Wrestlemania in Miami. I am now an OSCW fan and will be going to their shows from now on.
On a side note, Mike Mooneyham is super friendly. I talked to him after the show. That man loves the business. I saw a few of the guys in the lobby post show, Mikal Mosely, Kevin Phoenix, DeAndre Jackson, Caleb Konley… all great guys. They were all down to earth and looked like they wanted to be there.
Anyway, “thumbs up” show. I’ll be sending future reports.
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