The American Dream Dusty Rhodes brought his promotion, dubbed Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling to the Carolinas for the first time on Saturday March 31st with a six-match card featuring the man himself headlining with fellow legend Barry Windham.
In the opening match, Damian Blaze defeated Luther Biggs with a sunset flip. Biggs does an Elvis gimmick under the nickname "Burnin' Love" Luther Biggs, and atttempted some very olllllld time heel tatics. These tatics were effective on some of the crowd, but to the more seasoned fans, came off looking cheap and amateur-ish. Some rather basic spots missed in this one, both guys looked were green.
"The Chairman" Madd Maxx was out next to take on Sean "Shocker" Evans. Maxx is a good hand and these two were easily a step up from the opener, though Evans' inexperienced showed through at various points also. Maxx won this one with a stunner, pretty standard fare in this one.
In ladies action, the "legendary" (as ring announcer Ralph Harkey introduced her) Lelani Kai (very liberal use of the word legendary) took on the "world renowned" (an even more liberal description) Desiree Peterson. Peterson went over in this one, both ladies showed their age though Kai in five minutes took more bumps and did more work than Chyna in five years. Peterson over, very dull match.
The legendary (now that's *not* an exaggeration) "Ragin' Bull" Manny Fernandez was up next to take on pretty boy hearthrob Jorge Estrada. I was hoping Manny would hook the kid. No such luck, though Manny did bump his ass off for him and made the rookie look as good as possible. Fernandez hit a couple of nice spots before finishing Estrada off with a thunderclap brainbuster.
In tag team action, ECW reject Scotty "the Clap" Anton teamed with WCW Saturday Night reject Sonny Siaki to defeat all-around reject Ray "Glacier" Lloyd and Jason Sugarman. Anton was over with the clap, though this one was unspectacular at best. A decent exchange early in the match between Glacier and Anton was probably the highlight, though Siaki hit one or two nice kicks. The end came with Sugarman attempting a suplex on Anton, but Siaki pulled his leg out from under him and Anton landed on top for the pin.
In the main event, a bullrope match, it was the man himself, the Bull of the Woods, the Son of a Plumber, that egg sucking dog Dusty Rhodes taking on the former Western States Heritage Champion Barry Windham. Windham got a moderate pop from the crowd, who then came unglued for the Dream. Before the start of the contest, Anton and Siaki returned to the ring and disrepected Rhodes, claiming either or both of them should have gotten shots against the TCW champion Windham, and not Dusty. Two bionic elbows later, they were both silenced. Rhodes and Barry hooked up in an old school match that spilled out onto the floor quickly and included Windham getting dragged back to the ring on one of those little chair cart gimmicks. Anton and Siaki made their way back out to the ring and attacked Dusty just a few minutes into the match, leading to a DQ finish. Windham made the save and the two legends cleared the ring to a rousing ovation. After the show, Windham and Rhodes signed autographs and posed for pictures with nearly every fan in attendence. Both were very cordial and the opportunity to shake hands with the two legendary competitors ended an otherwise forgettable show on a high note.
Brad Stutts