NWA Virginia Action Zone Workrate Report
Downloadable at http://wrestlingnetwork.net/NWA_VA.html
What Worked
I have been talking about how great the handicap match between Preston Quinn/Damien Wayne and Scotty Blaze was for weeks. The match itself pretty much lived up to memory, although the violence of it was more evident live then on tape. Especially the punch Dean has as an avatar now, it looks great on tape, but live it was the sickest strike I have seen, and I have seen both Shinya Hashimoto and Necro Butcher live. When I was at the show the brutality washed over you and it was hard to concentrate on anything else, on tape the match was a little more flawed. For one OSE beat on Blaze for a long time, with nasty stuff, and I think taking 25+ minutes of two on one beating and still being competitive made the OSE look kind of weak. Two top guys in the promotion can't put Blaze down, how can you buy either guy in a singles against him. The Hulk Hogan thing really didn't work either, as it was way late in the match to do what was basically a comedy spot. Would have worked fine earlier, but Blaze had been pounded for a long time before doing it. I did like Dramin coming in for the Ricky Morton save, and the finish was great, just think it needed to be done sooner. The post match promo by Sharkey and the OSE was awesome, Quinn may be as good on the mike as he is the ring. If he was 15 years older, he would have owned Mid-Atlantic. Despite the flaws, I loved this match, their stuff looks so great and all three guys give off such a legitimate ass kicker vibe. Still I think the blowaway match that this combo has in them, hasn't happened yet.
Goddam was that Kiley McClain NWA Woman's champion varsity jacket bad ass. I dug the shit out of that whole segment, and I am excited about where that leads. OSE v. EOD could be fun stuff. Especially if you stick Brandon Day in the EOD.
The first ten minutes of the main event, best job of commentary O'Brian has ever done.
What Didn't Work
I assume the beat down on Jon Jon at the beginning of the show is his excuse to leave the promotion. Not even close to the level of a beating you need to send a guy out. A couple of punches and slamming a guy into a car, shouldn't send a guy out of a promotion, especially considering the back stage jumping of Dramin was way nastier.
This was probably the most egregious example of Rick O'Brian wrestling starring Rick O'Brian. The long nonsensical set up of the match, where the authority of the promotion would switch back and forth every 30 seconds. Then you have O'Brian snatching the mike from Damien Wayne and taunting him. His tough guy act is just awful, you bought when Bill Watts did it, but Rick O'Brian is not Bill Watts. The pair of referee's are really great at acting feckless and incompetent, and then you have O'Brian doing a really shitty Vince McMahon bad ass act. It is an ego fuck, and it makes the promotion look like shit.
Then the commentary for the main event, was excruciating, just 15 minutes of non stop shrieking in long island sorority girl fake orgasim voice. You have this realistic brutal wrestling match, and then on the commentary it sounds like a guy doing a MST32K parody of a wrestling announcer. Rick does a great job of setting up shows, and the fact that NWA-VA is still around after all the shit he has gotten from the commission is a credit to his hard work. He needs to realize that his strengths are not as a on-screen figure, his presence doesn't fit with the style of the promotion at all and he needs to step behind the scenes for good.